28 days left

it's a rock and roll kind of day. i didn't listen to green day or the goo goo dolls in high school, I was the one listening to public radio and james taylor. i still tune in quasi religiously for a prairie home companion, car talk and what do you know.

but today, definitely a day for goo goo dolls and flogging molly.

the stool with the paisley and green paint looks great. there's just a few more places on it that need sanded and scraped. i don't know what comes next.

the ocean waves quilt has been the only top this summer to consume my sewing energies. it's totally scrappy, except for the center squares, which I haven't cut yet. I'd always thought the pattern looked really cool, but the idea of set in seams really turned me off. then I found these directions at quiltville.com and off I went. i thought for sure, naively, that i had enough half triangle squares sewn, but no, half the time spent on this top has been purging odd size and cut pieces of fabric from my stash and cutting them down some more. it's really been a great stash buster, since i get a lot of random pieces from people that came from their sewing projects, mostly clothing. since a lot of the pieces i had didn't exactly finish out into triangles, I've been saving any usable scraps bigger than an inch on either side for ugly quilt. more on that later, it's truly hideous, but I'd rather not ship fabric off to the land fill that I don't have to.

so I'm following the directions from quiltville, and I'm down to sewing together wing triangles and half squares. I also just figured out that I need, if i did the math right, 1.45 yards of fabric from which to cut the triangles larger than 1 1/2" and the squares for the middle. that doesn't count a border. I'd like to do a 1.5" floating border, the pin wheels ( or something) and the 6" border, because with all the movement in the piece, it gives the eyes a break. i really don't do math, but I have to figure out the borders now, since there were no remark es on the website about how much yardage was used. ugh. i don't want to buy something until i know exactly how much a need, because I've gone and bought things before that end up crazy popular, and when i get back tot he store a day or so later to get more, they apologise and say "oh, gee, we don't have anymore" ugh ugh ugh.

and in 28 days, i want my room clean, i want the top finished, i want the stool finished, i'd like the chair finished, but i doubt it, and i want the hutch for my desk done. to the lumber yard. and... go!

ocean waves

I've created a mess on the front porch. It looks like my fabric stash blew up, and while I like it that way, as I can see everything at a glance and know what I've got, my mother is not such a fan. And yes, I can't blame her. Progress is slow on many fronts.

the green stool is no longer green. I got most of the paint off it, there's just clumps here and there that are stubborn. Its coming, I just wish it were done already because I've been working on it all summer.

my cousin sent a photo of the baby quilt I made her son. I thought I had that taken care of, but I wasn't able to find and evidence of it. whoops.

I got binding for the Irish quilt. This weekend will be the perfect time to take care of that. Craft shows are just such fun...

And then there's the ocean waves. I did a quilt last summer in scraps and odd pieces

antiqueaholic

I just bought a chair. Two chairs. why? WHY??

College students don't have money to spend on stripper and paint brushes and chemical resistant gloves, masks, sand paper, finishing wash...

But it was so cute. Little rush bottom chair. Abused. Negelected. $3. In need of a good sanding, a new rush bottom, some stain and finish. It has amazing potential. I know nothing about rush work. Zero. Or refinishing... sort of. I got a Hoosier cabinet a few summers ago that I've been stripping red bunnies off of with citrus stripper. It needs a new bottom, and new hinges for all the doors.

The other chair is a little less sorry. It just needs new uphulstry. I have a lot of homework to do now.

sigh…

if my friends ever want to know why I don't have an iPod, or a music or dvd collection, this is why.

rewind

I was interrupted last time. I already have a blog elsewhere. But it's not specifically for my work, it's more a log of life. I've been trying to update it with my journal from England. I sent post cards home, I wrote of trains and Paris galleries. Now if only there was a special someone to drag over there with me... alas.

I bought a skein of yarn from a shop in Wells, Somerset, England. It's raspberry pink, it's wool, and it matches harmoniously with a scarf I bought the first day I was there. England was experiencing some unseasonably warm weather, but I used that scarf the whole time I was there. The body is raspberry pink and black celtic knots, and the pannels at the ends are cream and tan, zoomorphic birds. The wool is for a hat to match, as one cannot possibly live near Lake Erie and expect to survive the winter with out a hat. Or five. I'd like to try intarsia, but I may get too cold or too impatient and just knit the hat and be done with it. I paid £1.25 for the skein, it was in the bargain bin.

There was a fabric shop in Canterbury, Kent, England. It was just a chain store, not like the yarn shop in Wells, but they had fabric, and they had a remnant table. I couldn't afford anything at £10 a yard. There were two pieces of blue batik that I couldn't leave sitting there. Collectively, that bill came to £5 something. I try not to think in terms of the American dollar, which meant I had paid $10 something American for fabric I probably could have gotten here in the States for a lot cheaper… but how often are you in England??* $2.50 for a skein of high quality wool is a little easier to swallow. I'll make a kitty pi with the left overs.

Just what is kitty pi? http://wendyknits.net/knit/kittybed.htm. That is kitty pi.

looks like this is going to be cut short again…c'est la vie.

*don't answer that question of you have family you see there every summer, or you are swimming in money and can afford to go on a whim.