"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...

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

In a fall down the rabbit hole, an individual sets off on the path with a goal, gets

sidetracked by various events and changes direction several times along the way ...

 

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.

 

Sunday after church I went down again.  THIS time I pulled various fabrics and made up some groupings

with a plan to cut out some Yellow Brick Road kits and some Tam's Patch kits.

 

Tam's Patch block

Yellow Brick Road Pattern

 

We purchased the Yellow Brick Road pattern because it uses up fat quarters, and I have or can cut a

LOT of fat quarters from both my stash and the church's.

 

After lots of sorting, I was ready to start cutting so I looked for my binder of church quilt patterns.  We

all have copies of the same patterns so I don't have to include the pattern with the kit.  You pick up the kit,

go home and pull the corresponding pattern from your book and you're off.

 

This is kind of how it went:

 

11:00 a.m. Where is that binder?  It's white.  Oh good, so are the other two dozen binders I have.  Well, it has
"Church Quilt Patterns" on the spine.  Doesn't it??  Not on the shelves behind the sewing machine.  
I'll look on the shelf behind the ironing board.  Oh, I should iron these blouses and put them in my
closet.  Ugh, two flights up again!

 

11:30 a.m. What was I looking for?  Oh yeah, quilt pattern binder...two flights down.   OMG -- what
the heck did I do with it?  I made a table of contents for it and everything!  Hey, here's a bin of
Christmas fabric, I should look at that.  I love Christmas fabric.  I should condense these bins.

 

 

 

 

12:00 noon There's that solid gray I was looking for!  What's it doing in this bin?   This would make
a nice addition to my fat quarter pile for YBR with that print with the gray background.  I'll start a
new pile.

 

12:15 p.m. I need to go to the bathroom.  I'll get some more iced tea while I'm up there.  Hey honey,

how is the pot roast coming along?  I'll add a little water to the pan before I go back down.  What's
on TV?  Nothing, oh, here's a cooking show I saw, you'll like this one, it's only a half hour long.

 

1:00 p.m. Back downstairs.  I think I need to clear a path.  I'll just move this bin of doll clothes
into the back room... I need to take this bin of yarn upstairs to the spare bedroom.   Upstairs again.
OOOO, I should pull this pink yarn and cast on one of those baby sweaters with the hood. 
What's in this bag?  More of that sparkly holiday Red Heart, I'll just put all those skeins in one place...

 

1:45 Quilt pattern binder!  I'd better get back downstairs and find it.  I'll take these quilt mags

down with me.  OUCH!  I stubbed my toe on the small file cabinet in the corner as I walked back into

the basement.  I wonder what's in there again, there used to be some graph paper in the bottom drawer. 
Miss E was looking for that yesterday, I can get rid of something if she'll take it.

 

The drawer is sticking a little.  I'll give it one good pull -- Hey!  Quilt pattern binder!!  There it is,

way in the back. Success!

 

Now where's that rotary cutter again??

 

I DID get some kits cut...  so the ladies will have something to sew going forward, as soon as I

take the bag of kits to church.

 

Sew on...