Dear Blog,
How would you feel if someone came up to you and said “How do you fancy testing some savoury snacks?”.
If you’re anything like me you’ll feel your heart explode with joy and the feeling that at last, all that hard work has paid off and finally Fate’s hand is patting your head à la Benny Hill.
Until, that is, you realise that you have been working 10-hour days for weeks, you’ve spent at least one weekend in the office and you haven’t eaten a single crips. Not one. Not a crumb of spud, a speck of black pepper, a grain of sea salt or a whiff of spring onion.
I was hit by the grim reality of life on savoury snacks this week and didn’t have much of head for any big projects, so I started experimenting with quilting blocks.
Since giving up on knitting in favour of sewing I feel there’s a a gap in my ability to give handmade gifts, mostly due to my beginner’s skills.
I am still not a great fan of quilting, although I have grown slightly more fond of certain parts of the process that appeal to the nerd in me. I mean, cut squares to make triangles? Hell yeah! It’s like using the times by button on the calculator to work out percentages.
Confession time: I have never, ever ever worked out how you use the percentages button on the calculator. I am also a very accomplished cook who cannot get porridge right and once famously made gravy so thick the local window man asked to borrow some since his diamond cutter was out of action.
But back to the quilting. The orange fabric is a dress that had been in the refashion pile forever, the black on white print is a duvet cover as old as the hills, charged with enough static to kill a small civilian and with a full-on shroud of fake tan and everything else is scraps from projects I have finished – I do not dare to cut into an unused piece of fabric for a square only to find out in three months’ time that I am a cuff short of a full shirt.
All the blocks are to be found somewhere on quilting.about.com (the website that’s still partying like it’s 1999) apart from the big heart one, which I reverse engineered with the heart in four parts rather than two to be able to use Half Square Triangles and reduce waste.
I would love to be able to trace and sew some clothing, but this is the famous week when my boss and I work the longest days sweating over deadlines until we look like this(*):
So I am pretty sure this week will mostly be quilting again.
Until next time…
(*) Yes, I know 30 Rock ended, but I am still very much in the Denial stage of this loss and I don’t plan to come out of it any time soon. On one hand it’s good to know they won’t be spying on me anymore -did you not know it was based on my life? On the other hand I feel like I have lost my awesome big sister, the one who’s always inspired me. Safe travels and night cheese, LL.
heheheh still stuck in the 90s.. that’s a link I’m not clicking on.. Best of luck with the quilting.. Also I’d suggest aprons for handmade gifts..
Aprons is a good one
My Mum has started using them although she never has before and she is always showing construction details on the ones she buy. I am starting to wonder whether I am bad with hints…