AI- Top 6 Performance

This is going to be a short recap because there were major audio and video glitches throughout the show. We’ve had small problems with this ever since Fox went digital, but tonight’s show was the absolute worst- the transmission froze, pixilated, and broke up constantly, and often when the video worked, the audio disappeared. It was extremely annoying.

Randy left the golf sweater home, in favor of a t-shirt. Kara is in a pink Barbie dress and a sleek extension ponytail. Paula is ready for the Sparkly Ren Faire in brown and purple.

Lil is wearing a skin-tight black jumpsuit that emphasizes her curves (this is not a bad thing- if ya got ‘em, flaunt ‘em). I saw very little of this performance, and heard nothing at all except for the last few notes, which were shrieky. But I don’t need sound to know that Lil needs to shut up. I can read Simon’s lips well enough to agree with him.

Kris is wearing a t-shirt, dog tags, a guitar, and maybe sweat pants. What little I heard of his Ricky Martinized version of She Works Hard For the Money was interesting. I like bongos, and I think I would have liked this performance. The sound kicked in for Paula’s commentary. Evidently, it’s against The Man Rules for a guy to sing a song written by a woman, about a woman. Good to know.

Danny has a black leather jacket and a 5 o’clock shadow. He’s singing Earth, Wind and Fire, and while I can’t hear him, he looks like he’s having fun. Paula is dancing, and the crowd is cheering. Danny’s four sisters are all wearing flowery dresses. The singing? Hell if I know.

Allison is wearing the most confusing and wonderful (literally) outfit I’ve ever seen. I think she has rubber leggings under a sparkly dress with a zippered leather corset, topped by the world’s weirdest ship's steward jacket (it has sparkly piping, strange pointy tails that trail from her shoulder blades to her waist, and seems to be split up the back). Oh yeah, there are also stilettos. On the other hand, her hair is fairly mainstream, and the sound worked for her entire performance of Hot Stuff. I loved it, from the slow beginning to the rocking end. The kid dresses funny but she has pipes.

Adam is back in Kurt Russell mode, if Kurt Russell ever wore a black satin jacket with pointy shoulder pads, combed his hair in a thick mini Mohawk, and wore a heavy pinky ring shaped like a coiled snake. Once again, the sound flips out, so I can see, but not hear, that Adam is singing If I Can’t Have You very slowly. I can tell that the judges love it.

Matt has an inexhaustible supply of stupid hats (or maybe he keeps wearing the same one week after week. All stupid hats look the same to me). The snips I hear of Stayin’ Alive sound more like rap than disco. I don’t think Matt used his freebie very wisely.

Anoop rocks the combo of pink and facial hair. What little I heard was okay, but not inspiring. The judges seem to be split on this performance.

The sound kicked in for the recap, so I was able to confirm that Lil was, indeed, shouty, I do like bongos, Danny sounded just like Danny, Allison was as good as I thought she was, Adam’s arrangement was maybe a tinch too slow, Matt’s hat does not sing well, and Anoop looks good in pink.

Who’s going home? At this stage, it theoretically could be anyone, but I am pretty sure Adam and Danny are in it for the long-haul. The rest could go at any time, but my guess is Matt and Lil are out.

Turtle Creek

I found an old picture of Turtle Creek (taken in Sept '01). Even these water levels are a little higher than normal- but you can compare it with the one taken last night (and posted earlier this morning) to see how high the water is now.

The shape of the oxbow has changed a bit in the last few years, it's wider now, and the creek bank has given way- the grassy edge of the peninsula is dirt now (well, when the water is lower) and cliff swallows nest there. More of the creek bank, on the left side, is falling away now, and will probably wash out when the water recedes.

Bag Accompli, and the Creek Do Rise

I'm a little late getting to my blog post this morning because I spent the last couple of hours assembling the patchwork quilted Moda Portugal bag. As always with these kinds of projects, the details take the most time. I finished the quilting last night, and I put it all together, both before and after exercising this morning (it's interesting to listen to a *new* book on the treadmill- usually I have the TV on, muted with closed captioning, just in case something happens that I need to pay attention to. But with The Man Who Knew Too Much, I had to turn the TV off and really listen to the story, since I don't know what's coming.).

This is a large bag- approx 16" square, without the 4" sides and bottom, and it took almost a yard of fabric for the lining, interior pocket, straps and ties. My husband will cut a thin wooden piece to fit in the bottom of the bag, to hold the shape, but the shape is doing pretty well already because I reinforced the edges with a machine seam, and added ties to the upper sides. I dug through my collection of lampwork buttons (made when I was obsessed with lampwork-I have serial obsessions, if you hadn't noticed), and found 4 that go perfectly with the colors on the bag, which added a bit of interest, and coincidentally covered the application of the straps.

As I mentioned earlier, my patchwork and quilting skills are far from perfect (I like the term *rustic*), but I really love how this bag came out. I have enough fabric from the precut squares and the fat quarters for the outside of another bag (especially since I plan to scale the size down a bit, I think 14" square is plenty big enough). I think I'll try some strip quilt blocks next. And of course, I bought more fabric on eBay, which will be arriving soon. And a leather thimble (I'm tired of using bandaids on my poor, sore finger).

On another subject entirely, Turtle Creek, which runs behind our house, rose well over a foot yesterday. It's already a good 10-15 feet above its usual level. This is nothing compared to the thaw of '97, when the entire peninsula was flooded, but that's still a lot of water running through a usually tranquil channel. We're safe, our house is up and away from the water, but there may be some problems downstream. I stitched 4 photos together for this panorama shot, which was taken last night. When the water goes back down, I'll do another. Ditto, if the water rises.

This 'n That

Nothing cohesive to report today, just bits and pieces.

#1. Registrations for workshops at SAFF are open to non-SAFF members. If you're planning to go, now would be a good time to register for classes. I hear that they fill up quickly (though as always, I'm worried that no one will sign up for my classes). Link to SAFF on the right side of this page.

#2. I finished listening to Queen Lucia, via Librivox podcasts (link on the lower right), and loved it totally. I wish that the other 4 books in the cycle were available. But even more than the book, I loved the reader, Martin Clifton. He did a fantastic job of reading both QL and Miss Mapp- these were technically the best recordings I've listened to from Librivox so far. There were no glitches, no sudden changes in sound level, no weird background noises, no odd changes in readers when I wasn't expecting it. I liked listening to Martin Clifton so much that I did a search of Librivox for more of his readings, and found a good long list (Dickens, Shakespeare, The Bible, and old scientific texts, as well as other fiction and poetry). I'm going to start his reading of G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Knew Too Much this morning. This will be the first time I've listened to a book that I have not previously read. It'll be interesting to see how well I follow a totally new story on the treadmill (or running outside, since the weather is finally getting better).

#3. I printed labels for all of the wines that were started last fall. Something like 87 new bottles in the wine cabinet now.

#4. I'm nearly done with the first Twisted Braider Handspun sock. I did drop down to size 2.5mm needles for the heel and foot, and am happy with the firm texture of the fabric. I didn't have to increase the stitch count- the sock is snug but fits fine. I decided not to continue the waffle texture (K 4 rnds, 2 rnds K2 P2) on the instep because I thought the change in needle size would *show*.

#5. I'm about 3/4 done hand-quilting the Moda Portugal bag. My quilting/patchworking skills can be charitibly called rustic, but I'm happy with the results (especially considering that I'm not using a hoop or quilt stand). I am still wildly in love with these fabrics, and want more more more.

#6. I have to go back to work on the Mystery Crochet Project today. I'm watching Season 2 of Dexter as I crochet, which may be a sort of odd accompaniment to this particular design, but it works for me.

#7. My sister Terri sent this picture of snow rollers (from the Weather Service, taken near her home in Lewiston, ID). It needs the perfect combo of light, wet snow, temp and wind to produce these magic little snow bales. Aren't they amazing?

At least I waited a couple of hours...

I did gaze at the Moda Portugal fabrics (a couple of the Fat Quarters are from another line, but they coordinate very well). And then I got to work.

I had forgotten how wonderful rotary cutters are- I'd been tearing strips, which certainly gives you nice and even edges and uniform widths, but it also stretches and rolls the edges, and leaves lots of loose threads you have to pull or snip. With a rotary cutter, you get crisp, straight edges instantly (if you cut a straight edge, that is- my sense of straight isn't any better than it ever was, but between the grid on the mat and the lines on the transparent ruler, I didn't do too badly).

Anyway, I used 5" precut Moda Charm Pack squares for centers, and then put borders all around each of 9 squares (I ended up with an extra). Then following a stashbuster quilt suggestion I found online, I cut the squares into uneven quarters, scrambled and reassembled them.

After that, I made 2 panels of 4 squares (approx 16" square), and joined them with lines of 5" squares for the bag sides, and another line of 5" squares for the bottom (it's going to be a bag- did I mention that?), and basted it to one layer of cotton quilt batting. One layer is fairly thin, but when I hand quilted the vintage fabric bag with 2 layers, it ended up more bulky than I expected.

I will hand-quilt the piece now, and then assemble it, with the floral fabric for the liner and straps. I think I'll put a couple of pockets on the inside.

I love these fabrics. I still have at least half of the Portugal Charm Pack left, plus some of the Fat Quarters, so I can make something else with those pieces. Unfortunately, I want more Charm Packs in different color /design combos, and a Jelly Roll, and Fat Quarters... I'm in trouble.

Ain't we havin' some fun now?

There I was, minding my own business, knitting, spinning, treadmilling, when Quilting whacked me upside the head. I don't even know when I started thinking about it again, though I suppose it's a natural outgrowth of all the doll clothes I've been making (and the 3 doll-size patchwork quilts I inexpertly assembled), and those vintage fabric scraps that begged to come home with me. But it wasn't something that I wanted. Or planned.

Then on Thursday night, as I was obsessively playing Pyramid Solitaire (and doing miserably, as is my wont), I spotted a Facebook ad for quilt fabrics (http://www.fatquartershop.com/?OVRAW=fat%20quarters&OVKEY=fat%20quarters&OVMTC=standard&OVADID=43597252522&OVKWID=206721048522 ). I clicked on it, and discovered something called Moda (I won't explain- either you know, or you don't) and actually gasped (no problem with wrongly sized prints, or not enough contrast with them, no siree).

And still, I was mostly okay- because Moda was online and I'm trying to limit my online spending. There are no fabric stores left in the area, so I knew I would not be confronted with Moda locally (and by locally, I mean within 100 miles). But yesterday, I had a little time to kill before my knitting group commenced at The Red Rooster, so I wandered up Aberdeen's Main Street. It is true that I knew that the sewing machine repair place also had quilt fabrics, but I firmly believe that the wandering was accidental. I accidentally wandered into the fabric portion of the repair place.

And there, right in front of me, was Moda. Jelly Rolls. Charm Packs. Mini Buns (whatever they're called), triangles, bolts.

And I was lost.

I wanted it all, but settled for an assortment of the Portugal collection- one Charm Pack (40 5" squares- all different prints), several Fat Quarters, and 1 yard of floral. I would have bought a Jelly Roll of coordinating strips as well, but they didn't have one (last night I found one on eBay but am resisting...). I love love love these yellows, corals, blues and greens. I have no idea what I'll make with them- probably more bags (I'm not up to full size quilts, or even baby size). For now, I think I just want to gaze at them.

And then I wandered (this wandering stuff has got to stop) around the shop, and found a basket of Wizard of Oz fabrics (http://www.quiltingtreasures.com/). They had full color versions, and sepia, and I opted for the sepia. I hesitate to show these because the intended recipient will immediately know they're for her, but I can't resist. Aren't they wonderful? Several Fat Quarters, and a panel with assorted larger pictures. I have no idea what to do with them, but whatever it is, it'll be great fun.

But that's it. No more fabrics. I mean it.

In the Bag

Remember those vintage fabrics that forced me to buy them? Well, they ganged up on me and made me sew them into marginally successful patchwork blocks, and then they held a needle to my head and made me quilt and assemble them into a small knitting bag.

I say marginally successful, not because the patches didn't go together well (though you would have been amused to watch me trying to place all those triangles in the proper positions), but because my fabric selection skillz are rusty. And I was unwilling to mix new fabrics with the old ones. And the instigator (the yellow strawberry print) was basically unsuited for small patchwork in the first place.

I really needed a few darker prints among all the light backgrounds, though I didn't realize how badly I needed darker prints until after I put the first Laced Star block together. It's the one on the right in the top pic. Looks like a Color Blindness Test Chart, doesn't it?

So I started again, with a few other colors and a bit better contrast, and the second block (with the strawberries as the center star) came out much better, though it's still too washed out for my taste. I did rather like the touch of blue though, so I cut the first block into quarters and sewed strips of blue between the little blocks (the star pattern is now totally obliterated, but it wasn't very visible anyway), which made that square bigger than the Strawberry Star, so I put a blue border around it as well. It still looks like an eye chart, but maybe a bit artier eye chart.

I had already decided to put the blocks together to cover a small canvas bag (12" x 12") , so I assembled the squares, with the strawberries as the border print, and basted the whole to 2 layers of very light cotton batting (chosen because I didn't want to use a backing fabric, since it was going over canvas).

The quilting went really well, and quickly once I put a bandaid on my finger (over the spot where the back of the quiting needle kept inserting itself)(side note: I wish quilting needles were longer, but I do love the narrow eye- makes sewing through multiple layers so much easier). And the assembly went well too. I had a couple of faux leather handles that just happened to match the colors, and voila! A small , sturdy, canvas lined, hand quilted, vintage fabric knitting bag (which I am going to take to Knitter's Etc today and show off).

As I said, it's still only marginally successful: the colors aren't *quite right*, and the strawberry print is just too large to be effective with this block pattern. But all in all, I like it. And next time (of course there will be a next time), I'll vary my colors better, and maybe not be so squeamish about mixing old and new fabrics. Or I'll choose a pattern that works better with low-contrast prints (like some sort of string quilting, or a log cabin pattern). Or, maybe I'll just buy more vintage fabrics. That sounds like a plan.