LaVieEnRosie

Nip / Tuck

I've had a little work done.

In the immortal words of Dolly Parton - If it sags, bags or drags, I'm going to have it nipped, tucked or sucked. 

So it was time.  Past time.  And since my tech skills fall between Prehistoric and Seriously Outdated, I enlisted the services of Dr. Colleen of the Typepad Clinic.  She's a sweetheart - she has to be!  She patiently tweaked this back and forth while I micro-managed over her shoulder.  Cyber-shoulder.  

I had the idea for the banner but I lacked the skills to actually do it.  (Not yet... maybe someday.)  So I told Colleen that I had this idea and she made it happen.   I sent a hand-drawn picture of what I had in mind, it had some of the same little arrows and notes often found in patterns.  It was her idea to use my handwriting for the title, I just wrote it out a dozen times with different pens and small variations.  She took that scanned page and turned it into the title.  As for the stars, while I sent images I thought would be good for the stars - allover patterns, good contrast, etc. - she did everything else.  

Thank you, Colleen!

So see... I wasn't  completely slacking off while everyone else was at Market.   

Boo!

No ghosts here... though I got the feeling that a few people thought I had become one.  

Happy Halloween!  Happy Thursday!  A Good All Hallows Eve to you!

A couple of friends thought I sounded a bit mopey and sad in the last post - even though they knew that I wasn't.  Not really.  It's like this - when you know you're going to be out of the house the same night that a really good episode of your favorite television show is debuting, you record it on DVR.  You're happy you're doing what you've chosen to do... you'll find out what happened later... but you still wonder what's happening when it actually starts.  

Let me clarify - Quilt Market is a lot of fun.  Really.  Seriously, you've seen the pictures.  Does anybody look like they're really, really working?  Sure, it's exhausting... but it's also like being in the biggest, coolest quilt shop ever, and it's filled with folks who love the same things you do.  

I also enjoy the bustle of people - though it can get a little overwhelming at times.  And truly, you didn't think I was any sort of shy, retiring sort... as if?  I get nervous before presentations and it all starts but to date, to the best of my knowledge, everybody who's ever gone to Market has survived the experience.  

Life here the past week has been very nice - I actually got to sew!  Not nearly as much as I would have liked but that's the case for most of us.  In between sewing some new Little Bite quilts - coming soon - and getting the covers proofed for the last couple new Schnibbles, I dived into a sewalong on Instagram last night.

Round and Round by Thimbleblossoms - Camille.  

Those are my finished half-triangle squares - stitched, pressed and trimmed.  Almost all the prints are from the Freebird collection by MoMo... vintage Moda.  From five years ago, or something like that.  Tomorrow - I'm making blocks!  I'll let you know how it goes... I'm just hoping it isn't some frightening nightmare when it's done.  Rumor has it I'm venturing off the farm with a tiny little variation or two...

So have a good day and a Happy Halloween!

Raggedy Mark and Raggedy Carrie.   

My Mom came up with the idea and made the outfits / costumes - yes, she sewed.  We were living in Venezuela at the time and if memory serves, we were 6 and 7 years old.  My brother really was cute.  

I just realized something... I had a weave!  

Happy Halloween!

A far away place...

Two times a year for the past couple of years, I have a moment where I start wishing I was somewhere else.  Fortunately, the feeling never lasts very long.  If I went to Hawaii, I'd have to put on a swimsuit!  That's a frightening thought.

Market?  No.

Okay.  Maybe just a little bit.  I feel quite out of the loop and a bit left behind... but then I remember that I never really felt like "part of the gang" when I was going to every Market.  Even since I was a kid, I've been one of those odd kids that always felt like the dork in the middle of all the cool kids.  I know - they probably feel the same way.  Or maybe a few of them.  Maybe that's why going to Market can feel so much like high school...

I haven't forgotten about you, I've just been busy binding.  Binding.  Binding.  Binding.  Okay, not really, it just feels that way.  The class / club I do at Olde World Quilt Shoppe started this past week so I needed to finish the binding on this...

Jersey Girl - Midwinter Reds.  A Schnibble - coming soon.  Actually, I've proofed the cover, the pattern is written and I should have printed covers in another week or so.  

I also finished some side-projects for class, some of which you'll see soon too.  And sewing - I've actually been doing some sewing.  And getting caught up with a thousand business / house / life things that have fallen by the wayside in the past couple of years.  

Are you wishing you were going to Market?

The first time I went - Fall 2002 - it rained heavily on move-in day.  If you were in the parking area under the freeway behind the convention center, it was dry.  It was also dry when you were under the overhang of the convention center.  The problem was that to get from one dry area to the next, you had to cross about twenty feet of driveway - uncovered driveway.  Did I mention that the rain - water - was coming off the side of the freeway in sheets?  It was.  Everybody got drenched.

Because it was "move-in" day, the big rolling doors at the back of the convention center were open.  All of them.  Wide open!  The humidity inside the convention center was about 140%.  The temperature was about 95 degrees.  I think the biggest challenge was to see how undressed you could get before getting arrested... though if the security officers were in the building, they were probably stripping down too.  Hot and humid doesn't even begin to describe it.  

Then, on Friday night, they closed the big doors and turned on the AC.  On full power.  The next morning, it was a cold, damp meat locker.  With a slightly moldy smell.  The quilts felt damp for days.

 Still... we had a good time.  Though I won't deny that I still felt a little like the Clampetts on their first day in Beverly Hills.  It all seemed a little surreal.

It sort of still does.  

Chicken Feed - Happy Go Lucky.  A Schnibble - also coming soon.  This one involves one of my "I don't know about that..." ideas.  I made the scrappy-binding from a charm pack.  Each segment wound up being less than 3" long after the diagonal seam... which meant there were a lot of seams.  I wound up with seams in three of the four corners but guess what?  But it worked.  And I love it.  

Though I am putting it on the pattern that if you really want a scrappy binding, you might want to consider a Layer Cake.  You can cut your charm squares from one half, l o n g binding strips from the other half, with long strips left over to piece for the back or save for another project.  

That's it for now... I'm off to bind the PB&J Clover quilt.  Then Morning Joe.  If all goes well, tomorrow I'll get to sew... after the man comes to install the new window screens.

Oh yeah... I'm missing Market.  

Though if I was there, I'd get to visit with my brother and go to Goode Company for some barbeque... 

Rosie and I are off to pack the car.  (Not.)