A goal of finishing

I think I'll set a goal for myself for the rest of Spring Break. I shall finish what I have started, mainly the Escaping Bugs quilt top and the table runner. I shall also post pictures of the owl art quilt from this post as it is not only finished, but in the hands of its new owner, Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com. And remember this post? Where you can see an in-progress picture of yet another project? That book, which was a present for Tanya's birthday, has been successfully scanned. But have I posted it? No...

I am holding out a ruler and my hand. Feel free to take the ruler and slap the hand.

In any case, I was thinking for a while of making a book and calling it The Book of Finishing and writing in it all of the things I need to finish. But then I realized that I'd just be starting another project that wouldn't get finished. So I think I'll just make a List of Finishing and put it in my current art journal, because that's so much easier. And really, despite all of my lofty goals, I can be quite lazy. I didn't even clean the apartment until my mom-in-law was expected to visit.

Do beginnings and middles lead to eventual ends?

I started working on my first official art quilt today. This is the one where I sat down with a sketchbook and decided it was going to be completely original, with no input from outside sources. It started from a doodle I did during class, and evolved into a sketch, then a collection of colors, then a bunch of shapes.



I feel rather proud with how it's coming along. I have some great ideas for how I'm going to quilt the lines on the tree and the leaves, and how I'm going to stitch the feathers. This art piece is intended to be a gift.

In addition to this, I started a fabric art book class at Doll Street Dreamers. I'm really excited about this, because I love adding to my arsenal of creative techniques. The first lesson already has some great stuff in it.

Battlegrounds

There was a super awesome sale at my very favorite quilt store today. Fat quarters for a dollar! And it was madness, madness I say! I had to chew a woman's arm off to get the fabric I wanted. I walked over small children with no regard for consequence. I pushed people aside, swinging my basket and purse like dangerous weapons, gouging out eyes with my car keys. Blood splattered the floors, family members cried, I laughed with the sheer joy of the battle, bathing in the carnage that is War of the Fat Quarters.

Possibly some of what I just said didn't actually happen. I won't say what.

So, I have my first two tests of the semester this week, Microbiology tomorrow and Sociology the day after, and in true procrastination fashion, I decided that instead of studying, I would arrange my new fat quarters in lovely formations. If I'm not doing that, I'm admiring my new pencil bag that I made all by myself.

I was feeling pretty nasty last week, thanks to a sick husband that whined and moaned for me to take care of him, then passed on whatever he had because after all, I did say in sickness and in health. He's going to wring everything he can out of those vows. So, I cultured whatever was in my throat in Micro, and after growing it on a blood agar plate (made with sheep's blood, which is awesome and makes me feel a little Pagan) it looked pretty nasty. Saw a doctor on Friday, got on antibiotics, and when the prof took a look at the culture yesterday, she said something along the lines of "I'm thinking I'm really glad you got drugs for this because whatever it is, it looks mean. Could be pneumonia."

I was never more happy to throw away that plate. I was afraid it was going to eat me.



So then, what should I do with all my nifty new fabric? The option of stuffing it in my shelves and forgetting about it is always a viable choice (and the most likely), but I thought I'd allow for some enlightenment from the crowd.

Do You Has An Owl Too?

A few little owls have followed me to school and made themselves known in the strangest places... I'm waiting for one to appear during a Sociology lecture.

I've been rather wrapped up with school stuff, which is really the way it's supposed to be. I'd love to spend all day creating things and cutting up fabric and just making a mess, but sadly, that doesn't get the bills paid in four years when Dane expects to be able to go for his Art and/or History degree. And it's hard to think of artsy things or just write in my art journal when I have to make cultures with my own lip bacteria or look at a slide of a gonococcus smear. (And yes, you guessed right. That is the bacteria responsible for gonorrhea. Isn't microbiology fun?)

But then, I feel fairly certain I'll see more little owls showing up to keep me company while I study. This guy flew in during micro lab tonight.

Frantically scrambling

A little preview into my current state of.... stuff.



This next week is going to be extremely busy, as I only just realized that classes start next Monday. I need to finish a few projects, such as Tanya's birthday present (which, yes, I didn't have finished on her birthday last Wednesday...) and I need to finish my sister's cushion. I'm supposed to go up to Fort Worth at some point and give my presents to the nephews and return a bunch of books to Sheri.

I also need to at least look over my textbooks, so I feel a little prepared. But good among all of this is that we got a new printer last night! Which means I can finally print out all of those online patterns I found, and scan in some photos from Tanya's birthday.

I've also discovered that if I truly put my mind to it, I can take, edit, and upload a picture in a very short amount of time (i.e., before Tanya gets here for our 4pm lunch).

I'm giving this post a procrastination tag since I said I would post several days ago and didn't.



So, this is my Christmas present. A new sewing machine! My old one was a good machine, for what it was. My grandmother bought me a Brother XL-6562 as a high school graduation gift, and it's been a pretty good starter machine. But I've finally reached the point where I needed one with more capabilities. I originally fell in love with the Janome Memory Craft 4800QC, but seeing as it's an $800 machine, I could easily tell myself I didn't need nearly that many fancy features.

After shopping around a bit more and looking wistfully at some great machines that were several hundred dollars over budget, I found the Singer Quantum 9910. It has basic features, and a few little snazzy tricks that I like, such as the Needle Up/Down button, a computerized display, Drop Feed capabilities for free-motion embroidery, and it's very quiet. The old machine had to be repaired for something a few years ago and forever afterward, it made a loud banging-type sound when I sewed with it.

With my new machine I started making a little journal cover for my art journal (or one of my art journals, since I have about five...) I'm using a variety of vintage-y prints, some that I acquired from the quilt shop in town, some that came from my stash (which means I don't know where I got it...) The little bit in the corner that's green with white letters came from the Quilt Haus in New Braunfels.



The backing I'm using is a cute red fabric that I found at IKEA when picking up my table a few weeks ago. I'm handquilting around the edges of the hippos and should be finished with it pretty soon. I've been working on the stitching while watching Season 2 of Bones.



I think my next project after this will be to finally get prints of our wedding photos and get them framed. It's hard picking from over 300 pics! When eliminating all but my favorites, I still have about 80 and that may be a few too many to print...