upcycling 2.3

I really need to stay out of Goodwill.

Aside from buying my whole spring wardrobe there yesterday - which hopefully in 6-8 weeks will be running big instead of fitting :) - I'm in the habit of checking housewares. Because you never know what you're going to find.

Like a very sad, sad twin sized, obviously home made duvet in need of... erm... something. Sad waste of a really nice twin sheet by Nautica. Dunno if the blue baby stuff was sheeting or yardage. I suspect the yellow was a Target RE sheet... similar to the one I made into a duvet, into baby blankets. So I did what any self respecting up-cycler would: I cut it into pieces. Rolled up the blue circus animals for more baby blanket fun times later [and you know they're coming later when three of your friends get married with in 6 months of each other, starting Memorial Day weekend]

bag-a-bag tutorial

This is my first attempt at drafting a tutorial, so bear with me :-) I was out picking up necessaries for an art instalation for Good Friday and I stopped at a discounted overstock store. Usually I never find anything, but aside from scoring some inexpensive and super cool sport sunglasses and athletic socks and an Easter dress and some tee shirts and--- okay, so obviously I found something[s] this time.

I saw, but did not buy, a bag much like this:

Geezum-crow. It may have been $1.99, but I really don't need ANOTHER bag. 

The caption pretty well sums it up. Smaller than my camera and made of nylon, the colors at the store were burnt umber and olive. Meh. Don't want an olive bag, though I should have picked one up, you know, as a stocking stuffer or something. It was only $1.99.

Which brings us to the drive home where I thought about a canvas bag I was recovering, and the usefulness of having it tucked in my purse, or my glove box - because you don't ever stop at farmer's markets and garage sales either, right? - but not floating around kattywampus and getting tangled up in things. So, just make one like the one at the store, Right Brain says. Okay, says left brain.

Materials:
thread
scissors
scrap fabric; two of varrying size, one that's 2" x 3"
a bag (premade, for stuffing into the stuff bag)

I started with this bag [already made], and added the log cabin block. The square is apliqued over a logo for a book store in Nevada or someothersuch. Sorry about the orientation, I can't get it to rotate...

The measurements of the bag aren't so important laid out empty and flat as they are rolled up, since that's how you'll be toting your tote around anyway.

So, roll up the bag. I trifolded this one, then rolled from the bottom up and wrapped the straps around. Bad idea.

Better idea: with the bag flat, fold the straps down so they are laying over the bag, then tri or bifold, what ever you're comfortable with. It will stuff into the baggie far more easily. For the sake of economy, I rolled mine as tightly as I could, and it measures out at just under six inches [6"] long and three inches [3"] wide. Then there's about 2" of height in there to take into consideration. I figured 1/4" seam allowances, so I'm up to 3 1/2" [two sides, remember] wide and 6 1/2" long.

 But the bag baggie in the picture has a flap to keep the bag inside, and this thing isn't flat when rolled up, so the dimensions need to have 2" added - 5 1/2". So that covers width. What about length? I used two left over scraps to make my bag, clearly they are different patterns. The shorter one is for the front, and the longer one is for the back, and will also service as the flap on one end. I said my bag was 6  inches long rolled, so I'll need to add 2 1/2" to cover the height and seams. Since we're making a flap, one piece needs to be longer than the other, but the numbers should add up to 17". The short piece is 6 1/2", the long one is 10 1/2".

Clean up one short end of each scrap by either serging or folding over 1/4" of the end and stitching down, clip your threads so they're flush with the end of the piece. I used an embroidery stitch because I like it, it shows up better, and it covered the raw edge nicely.  From another, small scrap - this one is about 2" by 3", make a loop tab for the bag by folding the long edges into the middle so they meet, then fold it over again so the two raw edges are sandwiched in the middle. Stitch that puppy down along the open end - my embroidery stitch was wide enough to ensure it wouldn't fall apart. Clip your threads.

On a flat surface, lay the longer of the two scraps right side down so you're looking at the pretty side. Lay the short one, pretty side down, on top of it so the two raw opposite ends match. Pin the raw short ends together. Fold back the short scrap and lay the now folded in half loop tab below the pretty edge of the short scrap. Pin it down to the long scrap with the loop laying as shown, facing inside. Fold the top of the long scrap down so that the pretty end hits the top of the loop tab with the raw edge facing you. Finish the fabric sandwich by folding the short scrap into place over the long piece and the loop tab. Pin this together, then pin the opposite side together. 

This is what it will look like after all the folds have been made - my fingers are holding down the loop tab.

This is important : fold the flip top underneath the short end. Otherwise you'll be ripping stitches, because the opening will be wrong. Lamesauce.


 here it is all pinned together. The fourth pin on the bottom of the picture is the loop tab, three pins seemed to hold the sides down pretty well, spaced as they are. Let's sew this together - start at the top of the bag on either the loop tab side or the sans tab side. Stitch in about 1/2", back stitch, then sontinue sewing down the long side. When you get to the end, back stitch one or two stitches until you're looking a a small square in the corner.With the needle piercing the fabric and the presser foot UP, pivot the piece 90 degrees so you will be sewing the bottom next. Back stitch the 1/4 inch to the edge and straight stitch to the other end.
                 


L side - sans tab..............R side with tab over here

Repeat the back stitching process, and when you are on the third leg so to speak of the piece, back stitch after you've completed stitching the fabric together.

This is what it should look like right before you're done - I started on the side opposite the tab, and back stitched a couple of times when I got to the tab for reinforcement purposes.

*I neglected to mention that before stitching the tab down, this would be a fantastic time to add a clip, the sort with the bail on one end and a swivel head on the other. Personally, I'm a big fan of carabiners - if they break, they're easily replaceable, and you can find them relatively inexpensively... or free. I like free. A carabiner clips more easily to a belt loop, bicycle brake lines... you get the idea. And there's room for your key ring.

One last step - two, if you haven't already taken the pins out as you went, now is a good time to do that. For real this time, last step is folding the bag inside out or right side in... which ever. I did something called kimono corners so the corners would be nice and crisp and not awkward bulky as they sometimes are. A huge thank you to Clair, who taught me how to do this wilst I was interning with Porthouse Theatre in the summer of '08. Clair also reminded me repeatedly... and all summer... of the necessity of clipping dangling threads as you go.



Kimono corners

With the stuff baggie sewn together and laying flat, identify the corners. I suggested back stitching for reinforcement, but also for a first time corner maker, the seams are really helpful. This takes some 

practice, mostly for coordination, but it's worth it. 

See my finger? Pointing at the intersection of two seams forming a 90 degree angle? Pick one of the sides to start with, and fold it in towards the project, using the seam as your crease guideline. Now take the perpendicular side - the one still chilling out in space - and fold it toward the project so that it's laying on top of the fold you just made. You should have another 90 degree corner in place of raw edges you started with. Grab hold of that with your thumb and index finger and hold on to that corner. My thumb is covering it up, but this should give you an idea of what it should look like.

Very carefully flip the part of the bag right side out over your pinching fingers - your index will be inside now, keeping the folds in place. Don't flip the whole thing, there's still the opposite corner to fix! Repeat the fold, fold, pinch and flip on the opposite corner for the purposes of this bag.

The bottom of the bag will be turned right side in, and the top flap will still be backwards at this point. Repeat the kimono corners folds on the top flap end.

Voila! You're done! Now stuff the baggie with a bag and put it in a convenient place!

car fixin's, part II, or how epoxy and duct tape fix anything

sad, sad duct tape day

So Rusty McRustbucket came back from the auto body shop today. The broken mirror was dangling limply from it's duct tape sling, and I discerned two things:

1. Epoxy doesn't like wet and cold.

2. Duct tape hates direct sun light. [Well, so do I for that matter]

 The weather being considerably nicer today than it was a week ago, I decided to give this whole epoxy thing another shot. And learned that squirtable epoxy, sitting on the mixing palate, sets up in .3 seconds when left in the sun. This, despite the wasted epoxy, was an excellent sign. My mirror was  broken in what I thought initially was three places. But no!

The fourth broken place is hiding out under the foam insert - which is what aparently held the mirror to the car in the first place. This also explains why the mirror dangled limply off the side of the car even after I glued the mirror back together

At this point, I was chock out of squirt epoxy - since about 75% of it had hardened in the sun before I could apply it to my car. But wait! It's our good friend and close cousin, maleable epoxy! Waterweld! At the auto parts store, I hesitated getting the maleable epoxy, but now, I'm really glad I had it on hand. The fail came in when I didn't duct tape the mirror in place while the maleable epoxy set up. The good news is, now I have a contact point for another round of glue, since it's been dry all day and pretty warm.

I know what you're thinking. Wow, that looks like crap. Yeah, yeah it does. Consider the following; your mechanic and the auto body guy tell you the car won't be worth reinspecting in a year. And a new mirror is about $100 used, and that doesn't count labor. And you are under-employed. I am suddenly not above doing it myself.

habitat

The count down has begun to new living arangements! When people ask why I don't sound more excited about this, it's mostly because I feel like I just bounced off a brick wall, and I'm laying on the ground wondering what just happened. I got a look at the apartment a few days ago, and discovered aqua carpeting. Not slap you silly aqua, but it's aqua, or sea glass, it's just really pale. And there's a brick - thank God it's not fake - wall adding some earthy richness in there. I thought maybe of a red or something, maybe a mustard... ugh, not with the carpet. So I found a picture of some plants in terra cotta pots (Bonus that the pots are pulling faces). I thought maybe of incorporating a grey into the room, maybe in the trim or something but then I remembered... the carpet! Yeah, it's not grey, but it's that silvery lamb's ear color, like the stuff growing in the middle, but the lightest parts. A color palatte generator spit off a very dark, muted teal as the darkest value in the strip. Which, for a basement with low ceiling clearance sounded a little, well, dark. Now, depending on how you look at it on the monitor, it's grey. Flat grey. Move around a little and it develops some personality. I have a friend who's living room is about #718264, but the ceiling in that room is at least 12' - great for him, since he's 6'4". I'm only 5'4", and I think my new celiling tops out at 8', maybe even 7 1/2. Can we say low clearance? So I looked at the value strip and saw my brick wall, #4D4B23 and #A89773, and the carpet (this is why I went for these plants) #A7D6A4... Which left me with a green and a ... is it teal? I would have said this was muted, but then I found the brightness toggle and discovered that no, these are the 'pure' shades'.

#718264 is just going to be too dark. I have a huge window on one side of the room that looks out on... trees. And the world's tiniest, sweetest patio with a stone retaining wall on one side. And #6DB05D? I have a shirt that color. I wear it with orange on St. Patrick's day. In a room that would get more sunlight, I would have picked that green. Like a focus wall in the kitchen or something. But what about the two together? Glidden's Sea Glass Green, GLG25? It's not the rock your socks off je-ne-sai-qua at my friend's place, but I'm considering a space less lofty. It also has some heft color-wise against the lambsear carpet.

I may, in fact, go a shade lighter, because it is pretty dark in there. Celery green, more in the pastel hue range and my first pick, just won't match the carpet. It would be insipid. So let's pull on the big girl shoes and pick a jewel tone. Or something in between. Oh. And then something that's not pure white for the trim and ceiling.

And then there's the bathroom. It's mostly tiled. And painted mustard yellow. Can we fix that? The mustard yellow part?

I think I'm starting to get excited about this.

today

Outside my window...
 Cloudy. Okay, overcast, and the temperature is falling.


I am thinking...
 Can I go to bed now? Is that okay? I don't have to keep being super-woman right now, do I?

I am thankful for...
 Feeling the most together in weeks.

From the kitchen...
Chilaquilles caserole from EatingWell. It was pretty tasty. Now if only the Greek Easter bread wasn't teasing me from the counter...


I am wearing...
A stained, pink long sleeve v neck from Old Navy that's been relegated to PJ status, and a pair of charcoal grey yoga pants with a green paisley looking embroidered detail on one of the pant legs. It's kinda cute.  


I am creating...
Nothing currently. Not physically, anyway. The mental synapses are firing away.

I am going...
to keep going. To not quit. To go back to school. To keep living and breathing and healing.

I'm reading...
"Waking the Dead", John Elderidge


I am hoping...
 in spite of what I've told myself, against hope. It seems to be the only thing I do with out waivering. 


I am hearing...
The siren call of bed, and the dulcet strains of Ingrid Michaelson.
Around the house...
There's evidence of a chapter of life coming to an end. We don't see things in terms of beginnings, just ends. The end of school, the end of life, the end of a career.


One of my favorite things...
that laugh and dopey grin. 

A few plans for the rest of the week...
 work, work, work, babysitting, work, packing, work, babysitting, work, packing, storming the gratuate office at school. I feel vaguely that I should have a Brunhilda hat for this task.

A picture to share...

I took this on a trip to England five years ago. I don't remember what posessed me to photograph doors, but I tried to take one everywhere we went, if there was one that struck my fancy. This is from somewherein Southern England, God knows where. It may not even be blue anymore.

car fixin's

I know nothing about car repair.

So when my mechanic said I had some rust holes in my car, I gamely said, no problem, I'll fix them myself... with the help of a friend. Trouble was, neither one of us could figure out where the problems were listed on the work order, and the real gaping hole that was plainly visible was apparently not a problem [?!]. Well, we put a patch over the obvious hole, scraped off the rust we could find, laid down some rust inhibitor, and I was on my way - except that, backing out of the remarkably narrow driveway, my passenger mirror got caught on a chain link fence and snapped into 3 pieces. Yeah, I have one of those cars - specifically, a 98 Ford Taurus. No hatchback, and no breakaway mirrors :'( . Now what do I do?! The inspection being up... uhm, today... I still haven't found the holes the mechanic was talking about, and my mirror is dangling limply off the side of my car. Christe Eleison...

I don't like pulling the Damsel In Distress card. I can fix this because I can fix [almost] anything. Let's put a plug in for the friendly folk at the chain auto parts store that I frequent, a packet of adhesive Bondo patches, two different kinds of marine grade adhesive and a spackling tool. [I forgot the rust inhibiting primer and a wire brush... oops]. All this for about $16. Thanks guys, you rock. Now to go home and fix this thing!

Oh, did we mention it's barely 40 degrees Fahrenheit outside? I have no garage? Not ideal conditions to try to fix a problem like this, but the weather isn't going to get any warmer any time soon. In fact, they're calling for snow this afternoon. >:(

I do my best to mix the epoxy to it's proper uniform light blue consistence, watching as my hands turn a similar color.  Since I'm in no position to take the door of my car apart at all, and certainly not outdoors in temperatures around 38 degrees, the best approach to this problem seemed to involve gluing the three pieces of the mirror casing back together first, and then see what could be done about adhering it back to the car, if necessary. The biggest challenge in this is that the casing containing the mirror unit separated completely from the two other casing pieces. How then to keep that very heavy object stabilized - still attatched to the car - while the glue sets up on it's fracture, and the fracture between the other casing parts? Our good friend, Duct tape. I ended up ripping off a long piece of tape and adhered it to the passenger window and a less conspicuous place on the windshield, forming a fairly effective sling as it were to cradle the mirror unit in place, as well as adding strips of tape to the other pieces to keep them in place. I don't know how well this is going to work, and I also don't know where to find a junk yard in pittsburgh to buy a second hand mirror, since I'd rather not buy a new one. It's been half an hour since I mixed the glue and applied it to the car. The package said it would set up in an hour at temperatures in the low seventies... yes, thank you for laughing with me, since it's late March in Southwestern Pennsylvania, currently a balmy 38 degrees Fahrenheit. So I've got another hour and a half to go waiting for the glue to set. Hopefully, I'll have regained feeling in my hands by then.

continental drift

The beautiful thing about living in a Queen Anne is that the foyer has a grand staircase, and if you clear off the foyer floor, lay out the work, and climb to the second landing, you can stick a camera over the banister and get a pretty nice full on shot. The image is a little skewed because of the angle, but the top of the duvet really does have a slight dimple. I laid out the duvet, ripped out the stitches, recut the back and the top to fit the comforter, and that's how it turned out. A slight dimple in the side. The top right and bottom right look flared - that's because I put holes at the 'bottom' to aid in fitting the comforter into the cover, and I put facing along the seams.

Just facing, the duvet itself isn't lined. Maybe at some point, I will line it. Or remake it. Or whatever. In any case, a full lining seemed ridiculous where a two inch facing would do well. The end nearest my hand is sewn into the seam for the side, and tucked under. The opposite end of the hole I left the tails free of one another so that they can be tucked to cover the comforter. They should have been wider than two inches to effectively accomplish this, but that was the left over bit. It is a pretty sizable hand hole; I wanted to be sure I could get my arm in with out pulling the seams apart.  

I dealt with the large open end by putting in a button placket. They aren't the nicest looking button holes in the world, but considering they won't be seen, I'm not concerned about appearances. Something to watch out for on the sewing machine in the future though. I tried to center the placket as best as I could with out actually measuring, the button holes were marked out at six inches apart. I'm not looking at it right now, I think I sewed in seven button holes. I won't be adding buttons for a while as my button stash has been packed... like everything else. I'm still not satisfied with how the piece looks over all. It could have been the stripe orientation on the bed, or the giant, void, yellow space. Also unsatisfying is that somehow the three grouped stripes drifted on one end. I have no other word for it, they square evenly on one side and on the other side, the seam comes together at the piecing on an angle. It doesn't happen anywhere else, and it's just along the edge that it is obvious. As duvet covers go, it is serviceable, and the comforter does fit, as long as the stitching of the comforter is parallel with the long stripe pieces. Design flaw that comes with not taking one's time. I also noticed that the Target brand sheet billed as "ultra soft" is only ultra soft on one side. The fabric has retained some of the perfume from the laundry detergent it was washed in yesterday, now every once in a while I get a whiff of fresh scent.

The initial purpose for this project was to cover a comforter to put on a bed for when the house is shown. The comforter, meant for a full size bed, only covers the top of the California King bed, not, obviously the sides. The sheets on the bed are therefore visible, also obviously the wrong size because we kept out the regular king sheets instead of packing them. Also visible is the area under the bed, where most of my things are currently stored. Unacceptable, says the Realtor. So there's a blue and white damask bedspread - also not intended for a bed of this, uhm, stature - that is magically supposed to help take care of the visibility problems. Trouble is, there are about four other different  blue and white color combinations already going on in this room. And they kind of make my head hurt.

insane insanity

Am setting out on an insane quest to creat a duvet cover for a full comforter out of the following materials:

*1 Martha Stewart Everyday yellow pinstripe queen flat sheet (100% cotton) - thrift store, $2
(Matching Martha Stewart pillow cases, $3 at same thriftstore. Go figure, right?)
*1 Room Essentials solid butter yellow queen size ultra soft flat sheet (100% cotton) Target, $13 [about] Came in a doofy little yellow fabric bag.
*1/2 yard Joann Keepsake Calico blue multi-dot
*33" of some grass green polkadot on white fabric I found in the remnant bin (50%)
*1 fat quarter (18"x22" - 1/4 yard cut fat ways instead of selvage to selvage) of pale green plaid
*1 fat quarter of a mostly tomato-y red dense floral.
God I hope I bought enough fabric!!!!! 0_o

I am attempting to do this in a mad wild rush because the house I'm living in is going on the market... and people will be walking through the house... and I can't use one of my plain old quilts because "it will detract from the space". So I'm trying to make a duvet on the cheap, and fast, so that it's also something I can stand living with through this showing process.



Finding the buttery yellow sheets at the thrift store for such a low price is actually a little of a boon. It's still early spring, and the comforter isn't quite enough, even if I'm wearing fleece pajamas. Having put away the rest of the quilts, I left out a twin sized "Rosie Stripe" [it could have been "Rosie's Stripe]quilt made by Arizona Jeans Co. that I bought with Christmas money, way back in early high school (I'm coming up on the 10 year reunion). Now I wish I would have gone for a full, but that's hindsight for you. In any case, the greens and the yellows are the same, so they won't clash terribly. Which is rather what you're going for when selling the house.

I did rip the stitching out of both of the sheets... The MS sheet was sewn with those wonderful seams that pull apart - very satisfying. The RE sheet... hello straight stitching. Ugh. If I hadn't found the MS sheet for $2 at the thrift store-- Okay, yes, you're right, I could have gone with a king size for the back, but I was thinking in terms of useable fabric and not wasting too much. And queens are cheaper than kings. Cheap, cheap, cheap, talk a lot, pick a little more. Ended up having to wash on a full hour cycle all the fabric. Thank you, fancy-schmancy electric display washer. I miss my mother's Maytag, the kind where you could skip the wash and just do rinse and spin... It will all need ironing, especially the sheets, to get the creases out from the fold over seams. Retrospectively, it's probably best that I washed the thrift store sheets. *pause to check the wash, iron all the wrinkles out of the fabric*

night time

daytime

I discovered two things about this project. First of all, when I measured my comforter, I forgot that it was slightly longer than wide, so at 12:45 [this would be AM, when clearly I'm not on my A game] when I finally got the bulk of the duvet sewn together and the comforter stuffed inside, it "didn't fit" But I was tired, so I went to bed and dreamed strange dreams and woke up at the far saner hour of 8:45 to tackle the button placket for the closure and figure out how it went wrong. So it's wider than long, I stuffed it in the wrong way. Thing #2 - the colors are slightly off in the sunlight. I thought it looked a little funny in the incandescent light of my room, but brushed it off as exhaustion. Nope, the yellow is too yellow for the rest of the fabrics. Maybe not the tomato. But the stripes aren't wide enough for the scale of the project or they are too far apart or... Or what I don't know, but it needs something. I need to percolate on that one.



satisfying the nom-nom monster

So the season of Lent is upon us Christians. I didn't give much thought to the practice giving up anything, uhm, fasting, either in a food deprivation sense, limiting my technology intake [ie: going "dark" on Facebook], I don't swear, don't really drink alcohol, so when it came to fasting on something, anything, I found myself at a bit of a loss.

I had been planning on attending the Lenten dinner series that my church hosts every year, until a packet arrived in the mail about a study I was participating in. A study on weight loss. How convenient that the first so-called intervention began on the same evening as the Lenten Dinner series. As I sat there last week, listening to the dietary guidelines I was about to undertake, the thought occured to me that this year, my Lenten fast, admittedly thrust upon me, was more about depriving myself of gluttony than total elimination of one thing or another. This lifestyle change requires diligence - did I mention there's an exercise portion? - and thoughtfulness. Am I thoughtful about baking? You betcha. Just not so thoughtful on how many calories and grams of fat are in that piece of carrot cake. And I love, love, love Mexican food. And CHEESE. Especially on my Mexican food. Parmesean, Jarlsberg, Brie, Muenster, Gorgonzola, extra-sharp Cheddar, Mozzarella... I <3 cheese. And chocolate. The darker the better.

So they want me to count my calories and watch my fat gram intake... this is not something I'm obviously inherently good at, or I wouldn't be in this study. In my family, especially my mom's side, food was love. And you shared abundant amounts of food with the people you loved because [coming from an immigrant Italian background] we'd made it in this country. We could be so deliriously foolish as to offer three main dishes, have upwards of 10 sides, three kinds of bread [plus pasta] and, to cap it off, four kinds of cookies and/or pastries, two pies and three separate cartons of different flavored ice cream, so everyone was happy. We took feasts very seriously... and the standard Sunday brunch as well.

I'm pretty sure there isn't a low calorie, low fat method of making a tirimisu that's worth spending the time to make. But chocolate cookies? I found a recipe that might just be a lifesaver from EatingWell - chewy chocolate cookies. Just chocolate, no whistles and bells. Mmm... And a healthy alternative to getting my Mexican fix while trimming the excess pounds.

Beginning the second week of Lent, I don't know if I've lost any weight... I don't actually own my own scale. But I'm sure willing to take a stab at the deadly sin of Gluttony. Christe Eleison.

new bunkie

I thought this got posted, but it's a figment of my imagination, aparently. A couple of Saturdays ago I spent the better part of the morning driving around the Greater Pittsburgh Area in pursuit of some orange star fabric. No luck. Standing in the Joann's in the South Hills, I thought to self, "You could drive to the North Hills... yeah, right, that's thirty miles away... or you could just call TOD on the first project, shelve it for the next baby, and start over again." I decided, very grumpily, to start over again, and shuffle through the stacks of material that I had just spent fifteen minutes combing for orange star material. Which, aparently, has ceased to exist, according to the Joann website. I found myself standing in front of an end cap with some convenient coordinating fat quarters, bolts of fabric, jelly rolls, and charm squares... which triggered a memory.

I can has interwebz? Plz?

Yes, yes and yes. Thank you iPod, for being charged, and whoever left an unsecured wireless network wandering around the Joann's. I could kiss you. My web surfing in the weeks before this outing brought me to Oh, Fransson!, which I had left open in my iPod's Safari browser, which in turn brought me to this charm squares baby blanket. And what was I standing in front of? An end cap with charm squares, so I reached out and grabbed Fabric Central's Sea Glass charm packet. The instructions said 38 squares, there were only 30 to a packet... Hmm.

 I had a bolt of fabric in my line of sight with humming birds and mod graphic flowers - Legacy Studio Fresh Fusion Large Spring Floral Cream # 2292415 [this picture really doesn't do it justice] with all the Sea Glass colors, plus a red and peachy orange. Red and Orange fat quarters! Done and Done! That'll be nice contrast to all the light blues and greens. Ooh! And a lovely middle range green with a subtle paisley so as not to look quite so stark! Sashing and binding! Done! YAY!

I was out of the store faster than you could say "modern baby blanket", the final cost of the project slashed by at least a third because - unbeknownst to me - some of the fabric was on sale, and the kind ladies in front of me in the check out line had a fist full of excess cupons they were kind enough to share.

...now if only I could get the quilt sandwich to not shift while I sew it together on my very obviously not meant for quilting Singer.