Moondancing

Since I keep stealing fabric from the Moondance quilt, I thought I should take inventory and make some progress on it while it still had some fabric left. Last week's Friday Finish is another applique block from Moondance. There is no picture yet, because I took it to work with me, and left it there to work on, so you'll have to trust me. It's all good though because I managed to make two blocks, so I have this week's finish as well.

The picture is of some fabric my mother gave me recently. Back in the day, around the time when I was in home ec, or just afterwards, I made some clothes. I made a pair of jeans, a fancy dress, a couple of wonderful shirts, and a wrap around skirt. This is the wrap around skirt fabric. There's not enough fabric to make another wrap around skirt. And she didn't give me the pattern, but it looks to me like it would make a wonderful reusable grocery bag. It seems like it may be good for one of those Friday finishes.

Friday Block Party

Yes, I am quite aware that it isn't Friday but I am crashing the block party anyway. Wrong outfit, wrong block, wrong day, but I am crashing it anyway. Quilt Pixie has been hosting her Friday Block Party for several weeks now, and I have been eyeing it longingly. Wouldn't it be fun to join in and make a block a week?

I decided to go ahead and make a block. No big projects that will never be done considering my schedule. Surely I can spare a few minutes a day and come out with a block at the end of the week?

As luck would have it, my mother returned the bag of fabric that she purchased on Super Bowl Sunday. I'm not sure if it was meant for me, she might have told my brother to give me back my bag and forgotten that there were things still in there. I'm not asking any questions. The bag of fabric appears to be a kit for the book that I bought that same day. It is clear that it isn't the entire kit - there are duplicates of some block, and some block are missing entirely, but I figure I can start one. I randomly take out a roll of fabric that is bundled with a sticker that says block 10. Okay, decisions averted - I'm making block 10.

There isn't enough turquoise fabric to make the block - oops. No problem, I'll borrow from another block. Oops again, I manage to get too happy with the rotary cutter and need to remake one part of the block. None of the other blocks use this fabric. The amazing thing is that I was able to find scraps of fabric in my house that match wonderfully. When I ever get to finish Moondance, it won't have any fabric left, because I keep borrowing it for other projects.

It isn't perfect - I didn't think about those points having to match, and I'm not that motivated to make them all nice, but once I took the photo, it looks pretty good to me.

Celebrate!

I decided to wear my sparkly sweater today. Most people would reserve sparkly for parties and celebrations, but I just felt like wearing it today.

Then the first two blogs I read say I have plenty of reason to celebrate.

Tanya tells us that it is Girl's Day. Michele tells us that it is Women's History Month.

I checked my calendar I got from the Oriental Trading Company. Here are some other things you can celebrate:
National Craft Month
National Nutrition Month
National Women's History Month - yep Michele wasn't lying.
Red Cross Month
Umbrella Month
Hoops Month

And just for today, we get to celebrate National Anthem Day.

So Happy National Anthem Day! Shall we have a sing along?

P. S. Friday is Dentist's Day, in case you needed to plan ahead.

Rant Confusion

I waited for my packages forever, it seemed, and then I decided that I would have to continue about my business. A watched pot never boils. I went to get a haircut. There was a long wait. I showed her pictures, both of which were very similar to each other. We discussed it.

I thought she understood.

It doesn't look anything like the picture, but it doesn't look bad. It will just take some getting used to. Like maybe in five years, when it is time to get the next haircut! That's what I get for disobeying an order from Creepy Guy.

The customers who call in at work for the lady with the long brown hair are in for a shock. I keep thinking short and sassy, which hopefully doesn't mean it looks like a style from the 80s or 90s.

I bought a couple of shirts on clearance to celebrate the new me, and came home to get my packages. My jelly roll, which the site had said was on back order, did come in. Rant averted. Wait, one of the charm pack, which wasn't on back order as far as I can remember, apparently was back ordered and that order has been canceled. I could rant - after all I did carefully choose my purchases to maximize my shipping dollar. But now I don't have to pay for the charm pack, but it was an excellent price, and I did take the time to plan the order, so I'm not sure whether I should insist that they send me something else, or be happy that I saved some money.

Unfortunately, Shasta

There is a new Meme going around where you search for your name with unfortunately in front of it to see what kinds of things are being said:

"Unfortunately, Shasta" turns out to be very interesting, since it can be a person's name, a pet's name, and a place name. There were plenty. Here is a sampling.

Unfortunately, Shasta's offense went south after that due to a combination of missed shots and turnovers.

Unfortunately Shasta county's program is Shoo the Homeless, footwear not included.

Unfortunately, Shasta was plagued for many, many years by forest fires that swept by here and destroyed the town many times.

Unfortunately Shasta died Tuesday morning April 1, 2008 around 4am in her sleep.

But, unfortunately Shasta is a long distance away from the Sierras.

Unfortunately Shasta Dam, built in the 1940s, disrupted the winter run's game plan.

Unfortunately Shasta is not feeling well suffering from a migraine.

Unfortunately, Shasta lives way far away right now.

Unfortunately, Shasta remains as much a mystery to the readers as she is to Abby.

Yeah unfortunately Shasta isnt gonna have a whole lot of usable shorline by mid summer.

unfortunately shasta doesnt defend herself at all... Rio takes her house and kicks her out and is just generally a bully... but a cute bully. ...

Unfortunately, Shasta has a money tournament on that date.

Unfortunately Shasta was completly hidden by clouds.

Unfortunately shasta is working & misses the next 2 home games. :-)

Unfortunately, Shasta’s younger brother had been killed.

Unfortunately, Shasta’s brother Dylan is still missing.

Unfortunately, Shasta said the unmotivated fans at UH are more numerous than they should be.

Unfortunately, Shasta Lake is 95+ feet down right now and the inlet where we stay is pretty much dry.

Unfortunately, Shasta. You are a good example of why people shouldn't use japanese is an english story. It was absolutely horrible to read that sentence you ...

Unfortunately, Shasta had left her purse at High Finance, so after breakfasting we headed back there to get it.

Unfortunately, Shasta has aquired a taste for them, and if the kids leave them laying about, she chews on them like candy.

Unfortunately, Shasta didn't realize that the place can be reserved, so we got kicked out a little early.

Unfortunately, Shasta didn’t have a great deal of sense about her and was constantly moving around the tree.

Unfortunately, Shasta was about 2 weeks from having her puppies, most of which did not survive, because of her loyalty to me.

Unfortunately, Shasta doesnt get to go to the theater that often with two little kiddies

But unfortunately, Shasta who has a record of jumping to conclusions, thought we actually opened the fizzing soda cans and fizzed them on her,

Purchase

I haven't had time to do any quilting lately, but I do try to to take some breaks and read some blogs from time to time. So many tempting projects, especially the simple quilts - surely I could whip one of those pretty quickly. Yes, I do know my track record, and I do know that even simple quilts take me a long time to make.

I also read the stash reports, and was gloating that I haven't made any fabric purchases in 2009. Then I read an email that Hancocks of Paducah had a sale on their precut fabrics. For the regular price of one jelly roll, I could get the jelly roll and two or three charm packs as well. So I carefully chose my purchases to maximize my return on my shipping costs, and whipped out my credit card before everyone else took all my goodies. I'm waiting for the Fedex truck now. :)

The order confirmation said something about back ordered stuff being canceled. I hope that is not the case, because the jelly roll was on back order, and it was the thing I wanted in the first place. I'll impatiently wait to see what happens before I start my rant.

Today, I got an email from them that shipping is free if you buy $50 worth of stuff. Sigh. But by now I suppose there would be more stuff on back order.

Reading

I found this tag on Sweet P's blog, and since I wanted to talk about this book anyway, it seemed appropriate.

Here are the rules:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 2 to 5 sentences, along with these rules.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual book. Pick the CLOSEST!
6. Tag five other people to do the same!

Look at me. I've found time to read! I took it in to work one day thinking I might find time to read it during a lunch break that I might get someday. The coworkers thought I was crazy reading a book like this. But my blog readers know that my reading selection is very eclectic.

I got all excited because the fifth sentence is intriguing: "If you think something fishy is going on here, you're right." The next two sentences take away the mystery.

But the reason they [the Inuit - indigenous people of the subarctic] don't need to evolve the lighter skin necessary to ensure sufficient vitamin D production is refreshingly simple. Their diet is full of fatty fish -- which just happens to be one of the only foods in nature that is chock-full of vitamin D.

I'm not done with it, but it is interesting how certain illnesses go hand in hand with certain survival mechanisms.

I've had a sore throat lately, and am hoping that this book isn't one that is frequently picked up by people who are already sick, sharing their germs with me. I think my sore throat started before I started reading the book, and it probably has to do with allergies or talking more than I am used to, so hopefully I'm not the one sharing any germs with the next reader.