Cynical Cyndi posts her Happy Hat Adjustment

Hello, Happy Campers!

Well, it's election day and I am feeling happy, anxious, relieved, on-edge... My default is really Cynical Cyndi, but I am gonna try to give myself a little Happy Hat Adjustment here...

Happy Hats:



1) I started decorating for Christmas yesterday... October was kind of a month from hell as my little boy had a bad fall and ended up having to have surgery pinning both his legs near the hip bone. He will make a full recovery but it's been stressful to say the least. I could have waited a few more weeks to take on Christmas, but I was ready to make a change, so... I de-Halloween'd, did some cleaning, located all the necessary "infrastructure" (extension cords, etc.) My son was delighted to come home from school and see the lights up on the mantle. Every time I had to reconnect something, he yelled at me for turning off the Christmas lights. : )




Poor Thanksgiving gets no respect in this house. I am a Christmas freak! I have two full-sized trees, two medium trees, and countless miniature trees. Well, not countless - I've counted them and they are finite. But I just can't remember the number right now.



2) I'm meeting my "Happiness Project" partner tomorrow. Are any of you guys doing this? Or has anyone read the book? Our next project was supposed to be to work on a vision board, but we're behind. I've done these before and I think they are awesome.



3) I have a wine-tasting Thursday night downtown!  Spain at the Palmer House Hilton. Kick ass! Looking forward to hanging out with good friends and learning more about wine.

4) Next week I'm heading to Amish Country for the Dear Jane Retreat! wahoooo! finally! I need a little personal retreat anyway so this will be good. Hopefully, I can get a chunk of sewing done while I'm there too. Are you going?

Prepifestivus!

Piles and Piles of Pattern Piece Pages

So... I was at my Dear Jane bee yesterday and what do I find sitting on the table tucked behind the lemonade, leaning against the wall all unobtrusivelike? A humble paper bag stuffed with a big old pile of paper, the word "Free" scrawled across it in black magic sharpie. I hesitantly peek inside and lo and behold?? Can we all join hands, rock back and forth and say... JACKPOT?? piles and packets and parcels of pre-printed Dear Jane pattern piece pages... ppppppppppppppp As if that wasn't great enough, many of them were printed on what appears to be Carol Doak foundation paper. : ) yeee haw! I double checked with the hostess and sure enough, she said they were cast-offs from a previous incarnation of a Dear Janer group and we were free to take and use. Once I culled through it, it turned out there were about 100 patterns - just about half of the 225 needed for this project... about $10 worth of specialty paper, about $10 in ink (I swear, that friggin ink!) and of course HOURS of labor. Boy, was I happy. It was like Christmas for a quilter! : )

the loot!

the pile included three complete sides of triangles for a total of 39 block patterns...
here I am referencing my triangle directory (sorted by side)

I highlighted the triangles I got printed patterns for in this windfall...
Since I had already printed some of the top row, it looks like
I just have about 5 or 6 to print and I'm done with triangles.

This is my view inserting each pattern into a page protector
(see the new, giant box of 200 back there?) After a year of working
on this quilt I am almost done with prep. Oh, ok - I still have to cut out
all of these friggin patterns... : )

...and the final prep stage - the cut pattern pieces ready to go...

Storage and Binderization:

It started with one binder. I was all cocky with my fancy one-touch binder and my page protectors and my tabbed divider pages and binder geek accessories. (binder geek right here). I heard people in.the.know saying you need 2 or 3 binders for this gig. Sure enough, now I'm up to three and contemplating a fourth. I have a generic, general one. And then I have two enclosed/zipper binders - one for triangles/corners and one for the regular blocks. Since the one for regular blocks is basically maxed out with just the pattern pieces, and only about 25 blocks, I am going to have to make another move. The other thing I wanted to do was have a work/portable case. One of the binders would be great for that since they zip up. The work case would have a couple blocks' worth of patterns & fabric, a small cutting board, sandpaper board, and misc. supplies. So yeah, I guess I probably need to buy TWO more binders for a total of 5. This is an undertaking, man, I tell you. But I'm loving every minute of it. The other thing I need to get on top of is keeping track of fabrics used. I have been setting them aside and cutting some swatches, but I have already goofed this up a few times and I need a system.

T06.Christmas in June - aka TR-5, Michigan Dunes

Christmas in Juuu-uuune... doodoo do dooo dooooo. Here's what you get for making Christmas ornaments in June. You get bitten by the Christmas bug. what?! Well, one block and it's out of my system 'til October. Probably be useful to keep it around through the summer and get all the Christmas gifts made now instead of sweating it out late and not making it like usual. Now that's a chilling thought.

I indulged myself with this - with a fun block and two of my all-time favorite fabrics... and for this fabric junkie, that's saying something. Flash robs her of her beauty, but this is really a beautiful print - both of them really. And together, they're very happily matched.

The irony of it all is after making ma-aaaany of these, assembly-line style, and perfecting the method, I screwed up the big one and had a hell of a time getting the points to match. But I beat it into submission eventually. Only issue is it's a little shy on the Dear Jane ruler and a bit wonky to boot. Sometimes I think when the time comes to assemble these triangle rows, by the time I get to the end they will be laying on their side. Talk about cold sweats... But moving on... Onward and upward!

One of my favorite fabrics of all time. L o v e it.

This guy too.

Christmas in June

Vintage rick-rack hanger... quilted body...
and vintage buttons on the bottom...

It's Christmas in June! Here we are again... the final days of the school year and nothing in hand ready to go for end-of-the-year teacher gifts. With a son with special needs, teacher gifts doesn't mean one or two gifts - it means 13. A thank you note or a $10 gift card just doesn't seem to cut it - I always INTEND to do better next time - something hand-made... something quilty maybe? Which brings me to Christmas... These were actually Christmas gifts (in my imagination) that I never got around to making...

Anyone recognize this block? I took the Christmassy "Michigan Dunes" block, lopped off the top, scaled it down, and started piecing... Turned out cute I think - a lot of work though... Only 2.5 down, many more to go. Will she get it done? Or will she pull something else out of her ass? Will she be able to part with a good stash of vintage buttons to people who may not even appreciate them (?) Well, at the very least, I ended up with a couple cute new ornies.

trying to remind myself to "go this way!" amazing how messy
it all looks before it gets trimmed up.