Thursday, February 11, 2016

"OMG"

Since texting has become a big thing, all kinds of 'words' or 'expressions' have appeared in our vocabularies.  For example LOL, nearly everyone knows that means laughing out loud.  Or LMAO -- laughing my a** off, or ROFLMAO -- rolling on the floor, well you get it. 

One of my acquaintances went off last year about people saying "WTF".  They would say the letters, not the words but you know what WTF stands for, right?

So on to OMG.  It can mean oh my God or oh my gosh or oh my goodness, but one a blog I read a lot, I saw that the blogger used it to stand for One Monthly Goal.  I thought that was an awesome idea!

There's an actual OMG organizer, and you can link up and possibly win a prize if you want to participate...you can go here and read about it: OMG

I'm not sure I'll do it, but I love the concept.  It could be that for this month, I have a goal of whatever it is and I have about 30 days to pull it off.  I could do that. 

Or I have a goal to do 12 somethings a year, and if I bite off one each month it's doable.

This month my goal is to learn to make the New York Beauty block.  Well, I know what it looks like, and I've made paper pieced blocks before, and I've even done blocks with the curved pieces of the arc in NYB.  And since I'm a garment sewer too, and have set in the curviest of seams in attaching sleeves to armscyes, I feel fairly confident that I can get it done.

By learning to make NYB I mean I want to get comfortable with the process enough to make MORE THAN ONE block, and finish a project using them.  That's my OMG this month.

Because the more you practice, the better you get.  Doesn't matter what it is, piano, skating, public speaking, or curved seams.

To that end, I signed up for a class at a LQS that will take place over two Sundays in February.

http://quilt-agious.com/classes/



This is the book we're using, mine came in the mail last week.  There's a page you have to either trace or copy onto tracing paper or some sort of background, and you use that to make the "arc" portion, with the points. 

I tried to get the special paper the shop recommended to go through my home printer but that didn't work.  I does accept and print nicely on regular tracing paper, but the paper I bought specifically for this class was softer and you could leave it in without a problem if you so desire, according to the package.

My friend Suzi is also taking the class.  She had the same issue but got her templates printed at an office supply store on her paper and very inexpensively.  If I get a chance to do that I just might.  Note to self:  put BOOK and PAPER in the car in case you drive by the office supply store!

I'm looking forward to making some lovely arches so I can use up some of those batiks brights that are sitting in the bin.  Doesn't that book make YOU want to stretch your skills to do curved piecing?

Sew on...

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Lost Weekend, or Down the Rabbit Hole Again

Remember that old movie with Ray Miland, The Lost Weekend?  Maybe some of the younger folks don't.  It was made in 1945 so it was an oldie but a goodie when I was young too... but I watched many, many old movies while I was babysitting and waiting for people to come home after bar close back when I was in high school.

Oh yeah, back when people hired babysitters and I made 50 cents an hour doing it!  Huh, that was so long ago I'm lucky I remember that.

There, did you see that journey down the rabbit hole?  I keep doing that...

Just like Googling things -- you start with one thing and if you're lucky, eventually you find what you wanted an hour ago when you started.

What is rabbit hole? - Definition from WhatIs.com

whatis.techtarget.com › ... › Consumer Technology › Personal computing
Remember Alice in Wonderland?  The trouble that girl got into because she wanted to know what
the heck the rabbit was doing??
 
Sometimes I feel like Alice.
 
This weekend the intent was to spend some time in the sewing room doing some kit cutting for the
church group that meets in two weeks.
 
I didn't bring any fabric home from our cabinet, but that's OK because I could cut kits from my own
stash for the balance of the decade and not run out, and probably not miss any of it.  :-(
 
So I went down on Saturday around noon.  Then after a text conversation with Miss E, I got sidetracked
by a trip to the office supply store for school supplies that I didn't have in my resource center.  Followed
closely by a trip to Michaels and Target and Wal-Mart.  (Disclaimer:  I do not shop at Wal-Mart.  I hate
their 800 pound gorilla marketing practices and the cheap crap you can get there.   But I will wait in the
car while Miss E goes in for Free-dent Gum that doesn't ruin her dental appliances.)
 
 
That pretty much used up my afternoon.  I finished up the day with dinner and a good book.