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.

Big ole mess

Remember those improvised blocks I made from scraps?  Well, I finally decided to make a mini quilt out of them.  My initial idea was to simply sew them together and create a back using additional scraps.  Not content with something simple, I made a few alterations.

I honestly don't know how to feel about it.  Part of me definitely hates it.  But the remaining part is keeping an open mind, hoping that the quilting and binding will improve the whole look of the quilt.

The plans I had for the back of the quilt under went several revisions.  I had a stack of "butt ends" that I cut off from the strips I used in the zig zag quilt. 

I sewed them together in rows and ended up with this:

I took out my rotary cutter.

Yuck.
Guys, I'm like King Midas in reverse.  :(

Remember me?

I'm really, really sorry for my absence.  Why was I so quiet?  Simply put, I had nothing to blog about.  In the last week, I have neither started a new project nor finished a project in progress.  I can chalk it up to laziness and a bit of post graduation blues.  Anyway, I crept out of hibernation to post something awesome. 

I'm proud to announce that after months of participating in blog giveaways, I finally won something!  Emily from Carolina Patchworks was part of a blog tour to promote Cherri House's City Quilts.  Along with a copy of Cherri's book, Emily was kind enough to offer up four of her own patterns as prizes.  I won Emily's Mod Pod pattern and I'm beyond thrilled.  Now I have another quilt to add to my to do list.

Patient reader, I know I haven't been the most consistent blogger, but I'm willing to make you a promise that I'm 99% sure that I can keep.  I promise on my boyfriend's socks and sandals clad feet that I will have a quilt related post up by Friday!

Now I ask you, would I tell a lie on these tootsies?

Story Time

While rummaging through my grandmother's closet (don't ask me what I was doing in there), I found a book I wrote and illustrated in the sixth grade.  Our assignment was to rewrite a story with our own personal spin.  I decided to modernize The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin.  This is the project I sacrificed an entire Spring Break to finish.  I made it with construction paper, glue and some body and clothes templates that helped keep the characters looking uniform from page to page.

I didn't bother to take any pictures of the pages with just text.  The link above has a synopsis of the original story if you want to know what's going on.  It's basically a Cinderella story.  The mistreated heroine gets the guy in the end and lives happily ever after.  

The cover.  Very plain and uninspired.

This is the dedication page.  Pinky was a big pink teddy bear that I used to dress up in baby onesies.

The title page sans title

I want to point out that I used the same hair template for everyone in the book.  I also used the template for some non-hair things too.  See if you can spot them.

The flames are actually pony tails.  I betcha didn't even notice.

See that boa wrapped around the figure on the left?  Yeah, it's made out of a pair of pony tails.

1.  Get money  2.  Buy fabric  3.  ???  4.  Success!

I thought I was being all sneaky when I put my initials on their shirts.

This is the Rough-Faced Girl after she bathes in the enchanted beautifying river.

Yah!  Happy ending!

Thanks for looking.  I hope to have a quilting related post up by Wednesday.