love is all you need

I ordered some Amy Butler fabrics from PurlSoho with a new quilt in mind. I'm not 100% sure that the prints mesh together as well as they did online. What do you think? Maybe separate them out with some off-white muslin? I'm still not sure.
I also bought two 90x108" sheets of fabric at Urban Outfitters yesterday. I'm thinking I could just add a backing and quilt them for my bed. But I already have a quilt on my bed- do I really need two more quilts that large? I guess I could cut up the fabric and make smaller, couch-sized quilts. Hmmm... I should really get better at this quilting thing if I'm going to keep buying fabric like this!
I'm off work this week with no particular plans. Joey just found out he can take off Wednesday and Thursday, so we might try to plan a quick adventure. So far the best idea we've had is to rent a canoe and drive down to Austin. I've never canoe-d before and neither has he, so it should make for an interesting trip.

I was a mad woman last night. I decided to go with what I thought was less work for finishing my quilt- folding the backing over to use as the binding. In order to do this, I had to even up all my edges on the quilt top and batting and cut them without cutting the bottom layer. So for about an hour I was on all fours on my kitchen floor, measuring and cutting, measuring and cutting. I successfully dulled down the blades on both of my rotary cutters- but not before slicing into my finger. I think something in the fusible batting was a little harsh on the blades. I accidentally cut into the bottom layer at one point, so I improvised and made a little patch to go over that part. Then when I was folding and ironing, I got bit in the butt by bias. I’ve always just ignored anything that mentions bias when sewing, because I don’t want to have to think that much when I sew. Suffice it to say that my binding efforts didn’t come out as well as I’d hoped. The binding is uneven and by the time I actually got to the sewing it down part, I was half-crazed and just running that thing through the machine as fast as it would go. It kind of folded itself into little wrinkles that I told myself would disappear into the normal wrinkliness of a quilt after a washing. I was determined to finish this damn quilt and snuggle underneath it. The second after that last thread was cut, it was into the washing machine. I melted down onto the couch with Joey and tried to finagle my feet under the afghan he was using. He would rearrange the blanket cause my feet were touching his and making his cold, but that would just uncover my feet so I would rearrange it to cover mine. Really, there just wasn’t enough blanket to cover both of our feet the way we wanted them to be covered. I kept muting the TV to see if I could hear if the washer had stopped yet, and finally it had. I threw the quilt into the dryer and went back to the waiting game. Another episode of Frasier later, I checked on the quilt. It was dry enough for me, so I got back on the couch with Joey who had started to doze off. He was half covered by the afghan, so I covered us both with the quilt, still warm from the dryer and smelling like fabric softener. It was heavenly. He groggily gave the quilt a once over and mimed his approval before falling asleep again. I happily laid my head onto the pillow and finally exhaled because it was done. Now of course, I don’t particularly enjoy falling asleep on the couch. For some reason whenever I do I wake up with an entire arm asleep or a completely sore neck, so I woke Joey up and told him I was going to bed and I was taking my quilt with me. Yes I know it is summer in Texas and I already have one quilt on my bed, but I finished this quilt and I was going to sleep under it. I was hot all night, but I had my quilt. I woke up a few times to turn over or adjust my pillow and each time I did, I would look down and admire my quilt’s wrinkly snuggliness. When I woke up this morning, I admired it again. Sure, the edging is wonky and my sewing was so uneven it folded back over onto itself, but Joey was warm and comfy as he snoozed underneath. Tonight, I’ll iron over the edging and sew it a little closer to the edge to eliminate the folding, but after that I won’t mess with it again. It is finally done and it is exactly what I wanted.

I’ve finally figured out a good reason to have multiple projects on the stove at the same time: when you stall out on one, you can just pick up one of the others for a bit. I’m stalled out on my quilt- I need to figure out what to do with the border. The kit I bought comes with border fabric, but you have to cut it into many thin strips, sew their ends together at 45-degree angles to make one long strip, then attach it to the quilt, doing some weird foldy-thing at the corners. I dunno, sounds like a lot of work to me. Or, I might just see if I can just fold my backing fabric over the edge to the front, and that might be a little easier. But for now, I’ll just sit on my bum and add some ripples to my afghan while I think it over.

I started quilting my quilt last night- boy it is some work to maneuver that thing through the machine!  Especially when your weenie of a basset hound, Henry is trying to hide from the thunderstorm underneath it!  I'm surprised he didn't get a pin in the behind (accidentally, of course.)

Tonight, my husband's wonderful band, The Valentines are going to be playing at the House of Blues opening up for the B-52's.  It should prove to be an eventful evening.  (I got me a Chrysler, it seats about 20 so hurry up and bring your juke box money!)

I should've known that quilting is hard, especially when you've never had a sewing lesson. I've finished sewing the quilt top and have basted both the top and bottom to the batting. The fusible batting didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped, so I'll have to do some pinning before I can start the quilting process. I'm completely worried about the quilting- it was hard enough trying to maneuver the top toward the end- hopefully I'll get up the nerve to do it soon- I'm ready to have a new quilt to snuggle under!
And speaking of things to snuggle under, the ripple afghan is still coming along, row after rippled row.

Picking up a clear quilter's ruler really made the cutting process go faster. (Thanks, Abby!) I also went ahead and picked up some batting as it was 50% off. Now, my pieces are all cut and I have a layout. My poker table is a little too narrow for the laying-out process, but it's better than the dog-hair covered floor. Maybe I'll start the sewing part tomorrow after work.

She convinced me to stop by Joann's after work. She also showed me the cute quilting kits they sell there. What an enabler. She made it out of there with only a pair of knitting needles and a sheep-measuring tape. (Both on sale.) I picked up a quilt kit with shades of beige, red, green, and orange. It's kind of a multi-sized square quilt, and I'm going to use three fabrics I already have for the three main blocks. I only did a little bit of cutting earlier, but I got to try out my rotary cutter and mat that I got for Christmas. The cutter works great, as well as the mat- but I'm confused how you're supposed to be able to cut straight lines, unless you use a ruler or straight edge as well. Plus, when you have your fabric on the mat to cut, you can't see the grid lines underneath to use as a guide. Maybe I'm missing something??