I'm back!

Wow, I can't believe it's been a whole month since my last post.  I was on a quilting hiatus for awhile because I was having trouble assembling the blue and green baby quilt.  I put it aside and haven't it touched it since.  Weeks later I decided to revisit the coal and parsley quilt I started months ago.  I finished the back earlier this week and now I'm on to basting.

I really love the back.  It looks like a bamboo forest at sunset.

mod pod quilt

I'm finally putting my winnings to good use and making a mod pod quilt for my boyfriend's best friend's infant son. I'm deliberately taking my time on this one; I tend to make mistakes when I rush.  In this case the new parents aren't expecting a gift from us so I have the luxury of time.  Although, I would like to finish this quilt before the kid is weaned. 

I'm a little concerned that the solids and print are too matchy-matchy.  What do you think?

Ha!  I just noticed that there's a fly on the Rhino's snout!

it's quilt festival time

I'm really proud to be participating in this year's Blogger's Quilt Festival. I'm going to share a quilt that has been given many names.  In it's infancy I simply called it the Zig Zag Quilt.  After it was finished it was dubbed the Circus Tent Quilt.  Finally it became known as Lila's Quilt when it reached the hands of it's intended recipient.

This quilt was a gift to my boyfriend's mother.  Back in April her eldest son, my boyfriend's brother, announced that he was moving 500 miles away to Denver.  I anticipated that the adjustment would be hard for her and quickly got to work making a quilt especially for her.  Nick told me she liked fall colors so I picked a color palette from The Color Scheme Bible that I thought best represented the season.

She was really pleased with the quilt when she received it.  She told my boyfriend that it's going to be hung in a place of honor in her home: the living room sofa.

tutorial: how to make an 8-bit video game character costume, pt. 2

 Continued from Part 1
 Step 5

Now it's time to put the eyes and mouth on your ghost.  Cut pieces of paper to the appropriate size and shape and glue them on your ghost.  I wanted to create some depth and decided to glue the paper to pieces of cardboard and THEN mount them on the ghost.  You don't have to do this additional step if you don't want to.

Your acrylic ruler truly is your friend.  Use it to align the eyes and mouth pieces on your board.

Step 6
My original Pac-Man ghost costume wasn't wearable.  I created handles by taping toilet paper tubes to the back.  You can certainly do this if you want.  But this Halloween I wanted my costume to be hands-free.

This is where your extra binding will come in handy.

You can use them as straps!  This also means that you will have to create two Pac-Man ghosts.  In this case the front is a regular ghost and the back is the ghost after Pac-Man eats a power pellet.

I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial.  I certainly enjoyed writing it.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

tutorial: how to make an 8-bit video game character costume, pt. 1

My boyfriend and I spent this past weekend finishing up our Pac-Man ghost costumes for Halloween.  I made this tutorial so you can make your own costumes.  I tried my best to be as through as possible without being too detailed. I hope you enjoy it.  Let's get started!

Step One
The first thing you want to do is find your character at The Spriters Resource.  Just right click on the image and select copy.  Open up MS Paint and paste your image.  Now zoom in 800% so you can easily see each individual pixel.  Also select "Show Grid". 

You can choose to print out the blown-up image or draw it on graph paper.  Now you need to decide the size of your finished costume.  I wanted our costumes to be fairly large, between 25-30 in. sq.  So I chose to represent each pixel as two inches.

Step Two
Gather your supplies.  You'll need the following:
- 1 big-ass piece of cardboard
- Spray paint, glossy preferred
- Box cutter
- Clear acrylic ruler (a quilter's best friend)
- Newspaper
- Masking tape
- Twine, string or left over binding to use as straps
- Glue

The big-ass piece of cardboard can be found at Costco or other warehouse club stores.  Don't forget to inspect your cardboard for indentations or other blemishes.  You want one that's in pristine condition.  Another thing, the big-ass piece of cardboard is free.

Step Three
Cut your big-ass piece of cardboard into the desired shape.
Start by tracing your image on the cardboard with a pen.  I recommend starting at the edges because it'll help reduce the amount of cutting you'll need to do. 

 

 Before you start cutting you need to place something underneath your cardboard so you don't scratch up your lovely floor.

Step four

Put down some newspaper and start painting.

My boyfriend's technique involved spraying back and forth across the cardboard starting from the top and working his way to the bottom.

Let it dry for fifteen minutes and apply another coat.  Do three coats total.

Don't forget to do Sunday's Sudoku while you're waiting for the paint to dry.

To be continued...

new project!

 

It looks like I'm going to be busy this week.  ; ) 

Oh, and thanks again for the encouraging comments in my last post.  I'm going to keep on trucking.

time for doubts

"Meh" pretty much sums up how I feel about this quilt right now.  I know this feeling will pass, it always does.  But I essentially gave birth to this quilt and I feel like a bad mother for not loving it unconditionally.

g-g-g-g-g-ghosts!

I promised you guys a video game themed post by Monday and I didn't deliver.  Sorry.  But I hope what I have to show you makes up for it.

Zoinks!  It looks like my garage is invested with Pacman ghosts!

This is going to be the best Halloween ever!

P.S.  I plan to put up a tutorial this week sometime in the future so you can make your own ghosts.

good stuff

I literally did a double take when I saw these at Costco.

Yay!  Nintendo themed gummy candies!  I bought it a box on a whim, not caring about the actual quality of the product, because hey, it's Mario.  The risk was huge.  There was no way I would be able to consume 43 pouches of sub-par gummy candies by myself.

Fortunately, they turned out to be superior in both taste and appearance. 

Look at the detail!  Not only can I count individual fingers on Donkey Kong, I can also make out his collar and the knot in his tie.  They're also shiny and clear instead of dull and opaque like traditional gummy bears.  I also like that they didn't leave a sticky residue on my skin after mashing them between my fingers. 

I could go on and on about how much I love these little things.  I suggest that you try them out for yourself.  Even if you don't like gummy fruit flavored snacks,

it's still fun to decapitate beloved Nintendo characters!

P.S.  Expect another video game themed post on Monday.

parsley and coal

I started a new project last week. I'm going to turn these two stacks of fabric

into a quilt that resembles this crude sketch:

Here's what I've got so far:

That's all, folks!

red and white do not always make pink

Title:  Little Red Hen Quilt
Size:  Approx. 30 inches square
Fabrics:  Snow and Tomato (Kona Cotton)

When I first designed this quilt I was having a love affair with wonky stars.  I even have a row of them cascading down the back of my zig zag quilt.  This design is simple, and the construction was even simpler.

I didn't prewash any of the fabrics so I was really worried when it was time to throw the quilt into the washer.  For good measure I also threw in a Color Catcher sheet to prevent discoloring.  It turns out I had worried for nothing. A half an hour later I opened up the washer to find that the sheet had not picked up any stray dye!  Phooey!  I guess it does attest to the superior quality of Robert Kaufman fabrics, though.

Anyway, I'm really happy about the results.  It feels really good to see a simple sketch on graph paper turn into an actual quilt. 

My favorite part of the quilt is the little touches of red on the binding.  It reminds me of striped calf-high athletic socks.

A big bag of excuses

Reasons why I haven't been posting lately:

• I'm going through a bout of post graduation blues
• I just adopted a new diet and work-out regimen
• I've been playing waaaaay too much Mario Kart Wii
• I'm lazy

Although all of the above has contributed to the sparse updates, I think the primary reason lies with my inability to handle set backs. 

See the puckering between the last two lines in the middle?  It's a huge problem that I've already tried to remedy twice now.  After several sessions of pulling out stitches, I put it aside and declared that I would think about it tomorrow (ala Scarlett O'Hara).  It's been nearly a week and the quilt is still unfinished.

I promise that I will have this quilt quilted, bound and washed by Wednesday.  I often break promises to myself, but I'll be damned if I break a promise to my reader(s).

Food

Today I made pita bread and roasted chickpeas.  I know bread making can seem really intimidating to most people.  But making pita bread is insanely easy.  I followed a recipe I found on thefreshloaf.com which included very detailed instructions. 

The dough after it's first rising

Divided and left under a damp dish towel for a 20 minute nap

Rolled flat and ready for the oven

Puffing

Look at the all the puffage! 

I also decided to whip up a snack for myself since the oven was already hot.  I drained and rinsed two cans of chickpeas and then patted them dry with a clean dish towel.  I then tossed them in a bowl along with some olive oil, curry powder, chili powder and red pepper flakes.

I spread the mixture on a cookie sheet lined with tinfoil and left them in the oven to crisp.

Yum!

Yeah, that's right, I ate the whole batch in a single sitting.  It's healthy snack so it gets the distinction of being one of my few guiltless pleasures.