progress progress progress

the ocean waves quilt is definitely coming along. I'm not entirely sure about the directions though.

for a while I was keeping track of all the patches I had done on a scrap of paper. The case my machine sits in has a cubby off to the side, so I kept a pencil and the list in there, and every time I got something done, I'd make another hash mark. One day I went gang busters and finished an entire group of patches, just so they would be done. I keep trying to make an example using Apple works, but some genius in their programming department decided you shouldn't be able to draw and paint at the same time, so I'll just have to wait till school starts and borrow someone's camera. Grumble grumble…

What I shouldn't have done was start to piece the middle together before I got all the sashing things done. Sashing is certainly not the best word to describe the outside half row of patches, but it's the best I can come up with. There were no yardage specifications in the directions, so I sat down and tried to figure out exactly how much coordinating fabric I'd need for the center squares, and two rows of sashing. I'm pretty sure I'll have to find something else to use for binding, but as long as the colors are close, I really don't care what the calico is. The fabric I bought is a sea foam color - appropriate, eh? - that almost exactly matches the carpet in my parent's living room. I had everything laid out in pieces one day, and accidently left some of the sea foam squares lying on the carpet. It has a light print on it that looks like crackled glaze, so it blended right in like camouflage. Anyway, about the yardage…

The first yard I bought covered all the center squares, but as I was trying to figure out the half squares, a 2 1/2" and 6" floater sashing, I got completely confused, as there is going to be a flying geese sash between the two floaters(yeah… went a little crazy with the foundation triangle patches, so I have tons extra and even more loose triangles floating about) , and I couldn't remember how wide that was going to be, or what the seam allowance was supposed to be if I wanted such and such a size sashing… I even drew myself a diagram, a big rectangle with 45" at the top as a reminder of how wide the fabric would probably be, and hashed out the squares, writing in the pre-sewn size as I went to have an idea of the cutting lay out… and I still got screwed up. So I went to the store and just bought that one yard, said a prayer it would still all be there when I went back for more, and went home to cut out squares. A week later, after I'd gotten that all done, I went back to the shop and bought the rest of the bolt, all 4 1/4 yards. I still have no idea how much I'm going to need for this project, since I couldn't keep the seam allowances straight in my head or on paper, so I just bought the lot of it. The guy- yeah, a guy, working at a quilt shop, he does the free arm quilting, and it's gorgeous...- told me that moda redoes it's line every six months, so if i ran out of fabric, I'd be able to find it on the moda site only if it wasn't popular … gulp. As it turns out, I ended up with a strip of fabric from the first yard that is 2 1/2" wide- don't remember if it goes selvage to selvage or is all selvage on one side, I'd have to look at it. I think it's 2 1/2" wide, it may only be 1/4" but what ever it is, that's going to be my first floater sash. Waste not! So that's all folded in my sewing machine cubby waiting to be attatched.

And what am I doing right now instead of cutting out large triangles, pinning finished squares or sewing more dog eared trianges together? blogging about it! I've been really busy at work- there was a wedding two weeks ago that I worked, and a craft show with my dad last weekend. I work at the college cafeteria, and there's three shifts a day that are about 2-2 1/2 hours long, with about 2 hours in between. Working several shifts in a row is sort of like riding the bavarian swings and and not giving yourself enough time to stop being dizzy. For example, I worked breakfast, lunch and dinner yesterday and today, and I'm doing it again tomorrow. All I've done in the last 72 hours is sleep and work, and during the down time I've been working on the quilt, because I'm really not a napper. Napping just doesn't like me or something. I just finished a 22 hour week, I have another 22 hour week starting tomorrow, and school starts again in less than two weeks. I really hate school. I can't help thinking it is terribly inefficient and that there has to be a better way to prove to the world I know my stuff… maybe it's test anxiety, but I'm pretty sure I amaze people with my retention rate. My fellow students sure are amazed. Most of them memorize for the test and forget it all the next day. I, on the other hand, completely bomb the test because I can't remember half the stuff on it, but by God ask me theday before and the day after day, or two years later, and I could give a dissertation on the subject. Its great, people look at me like I just sprouted turquoise pigtales out my ears. I actually had a teacher tell me in a suprised sort of way that here they thought I wasn't paying attention in class.

Right now, I really just want to go to bed, but I'm pet sitting for a friend, and they live across town. It's dark, and I'm tired and I don't want to ride my bike because it's dark and up hill the whole way to their house and my mom has the only working car at a meeting somewhere. So I think I'll make myself a cup of tea and pin some more things together. Hopefully she'll be home in the next half hour, and I can go feed the cats before I fall asleep sitting up.