Progress

I've made some progress on the cross-stitch I've been working on.  Just need to do the black outlines, and then do the top of the border.

The Rules of Quilting

Um...yeah...I had really good intentions of posting something new sooner. I also had good intentions to work on a new project worthy of posting. I kinda sorta totally failed at both.

I've made some progress on my cross-stitch (though not really enough to make an interesting photo), and every day I walk by my quilt scraps and think, "oh yeah! I should finish that soon!"

I admit, the quilt should have been done by now. My goal was to buy a quilting foot for my sewing machine over spring break (which was two weeks ago) so I could finish it (no, I didn't buy the foot. Which sounds funny when said aloud). Seriously, what's the hold up? The blocks are sewn into rows already! All I have to do is sew the rows together! And yet, in three months, I have not done this!? WHY?!?!?!

To give myself a little credit, the rows are terribly not-at-all-straight, so sewing them together will probably be very difficult. And all the blocks have little diamond and triangle points which are all supposed to line up together, so the rows being crooked is a bit of a problem. Which begs the question: why didn't I measure more carefully to start with? For all who are thinking about quilting, here is an important rule that every quilter will tell you: MEASURE VERY VERY VERY VERY CAREFULLY!!!!!

This is the #1 rule of quilting. Well, it's probably the #1 rule. A good quilt is built on precision. Careful measuring, cutting, piecing, so on and so forth. Really, if something is a little off in the early stages and you're doing a tricky pattern, it's probably better to undo it/re-cut the piece/start that bit over/start everything over/if you just can't get it after 20 tries you may want to consider choosing a different pattern.

This is not a 'measure twice, cut once' rule. This is a 'measure a million times, then cut, then measure it again just to double check that it's right' rule. Yes, it's that important.

Writing Contest

If anyone likes to write, there's a great writing contest over at www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog where you can submit the first 150-200 words of your (completed) middle grade or young adult novel. It's the "Dear Lucky Agent" Contest. If you happen to have a completed manuscript lying around, check it out!

In Progress

This is what I'm currently working on. I got this pattern from an exchange.