A few from Arkansas

I decided to take off an a little weekend jaunt to Arkansas with my friend Jessa, with the result that I've eaten a lot of good food and seen a lot of bizarre stuff and not gotten a lot of crafting done. But it was a great weekend! Here's a hint of what it was like:

Finally, finally finished

This was a week of ups and downs, that's for sure. Ups: coffee with friends, seeing Julie & Julia (which I loved), Thai food, laughter, and I have a kitty on my lap right now. Downs: STILL not having a job, or even any interest, despite sending out a billion resumes, ennui, a short-lived flu virus, sleeping way too much. BUT! I'm healthy again, and willing to give next week the benefit of the doubt. Come on, world! Something good needs to happen!

In the meantime, continuing adventures in unemployment (or, as my friend Amanda insists, FUNemployment): I finished my quilt!

It's backed in the hot pink/magenta color that I accidentally use for everything. Check out that sweet hand-stitched binding:

I made a label, too, which features a little stitched kitty:

Current Granny Square count: 34.

Also it's hot as hell here. More incentive to stay inside and sew (as if I needed incentive).

Dog Days

It's that time again... the point in the summer where you just want it to be OVER, so you can go back to school and go outside again and buy school supplies. And, okay, so I'm not going back to school this year, but I did buy school supplies!

Plus, my current state of unemployment allows me plenty of time for important things like quilt-making. It's almost done, I just have to sew the binding down by hand and make a label! I think I feel a Battlestar Galactica marathon coming on.

All-Consuming Quilting

For awhile there wasn't much news on the crafting front because I was spending a little too much time snoozing and not enough time, well, making.

I did get a new oilcloth tablecloth for my craft table! I love the aqua/red/yellow combination. I ordered a couple yards of oilcloth and just pinked the edges to finish it and square it off. Hooray tablecloth!

Anyway, I recently got a copy of Patchwork Style, which is an insanely beautiful book. I really wanted to start in on some of the projects immediately, but I couldn't work on something new knowing that I had a quilting project squirreled away that I've been meaning to finish for about a year. So I got it back out....
And forced Jessa and Lissie to come over and hang out with me while I sewed...
(Jessa was working on a collage book for a friend from college. I like this page!)

And... voila! All the squares laid out prior to assembling the top. The top is sewn together now. I just need to buy batting, tie it all together, add a binding and I will have a (sort of) real quilt done!

Caution: do not start a quilting project unless you have copious amounts of time and many episodes of Ugly Betty to see you through, because you WILL NOT be able to stop working on it until you get to see it put together!