DAGMT Days 1-4: Samoa Sewing

I'm going to come right out and say it: When DAGMT starts on a weekend, I am doomed from the start as far as staying on track. Unlike the normal people who see the weekend as a blank slate of time to do things they want to do, most of my weekends are filled with things like this:

No errand to Old Navy is complete without a visit with the manequins.

 Or this:

I'm the fun mom willing to take groups of preteen girls tubing. I'm thinking of becoming the boring mom who stays home and reads a book now and then.

 Or this:

Sometimes I get to be the dance mom. All the double stick tape nightmares become worth it when your kid is so happy to have won.

 Or this:

If only we could somehow force them to stay there for hours. Oh wait! They do that willingly. Love the water trampoline.

 And this is what my first weekend of DAGMT looked like:

Yes, Annaliese, you are adorable. As is Eva the cookiehead. These two never fail to crack me up, really.

I'll say it now - Best Cookie Mom ever. Giving up my sewing time to hang out with a bunch of girls wearing samoas on their heads. I'm living the life, hotties.

But not to be outdone by weekend crazy, I managed a few things this weekend. Behold.

Accidentally created 3D modern art I decided to call "Lettuce Quilt, Shall We?" while pulling fabrics for the backing of a quilt. Then I destroyed the masterpiece and made the backing. It may well be the ugliest backing of all time. I mean LOOK at those fabrics. And then look away quickly before you hurt your eyes.

Sleeved a quilt that had been needing a sleeve for months. Attempted to hang quilt up on wall in family room, but discovered it was 14" too long for the rod in place on the wall there. Measuring is for wimps.

 Aside: Want to know how I put that sleeve on without threading a needle or handsewing? Check out the Sleeve Tute I posted about a year ago. I might change your life. That is, if I haven't already.

Opened a package of piecing thread and needles purchased from Purple Moose. She turned me on to this thread years ago and I just can't live without it. I was running low and this made me happy.

 

Things went really well with some machine quilting. And then they really didn't. So this has been fun.

 Given the fact that I have pretty much had enough of the pink and green quilt for a few due to having spent over two hours pulling out stitches last night, I decided to tackle another project during today's sewing session. I've been wanting to both give these flying geese papers a try, and make a new block to submit to Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, so you know, two birds and all.

Make that lots of birds. Flying geese are my life lately.

 I've been getting in the group swap blocks, which contain flying geese, and several quilters have had some troubles keeping their geese straight and getting the blocks to come out the right size, so I gave a shout to the hotties at Triangles on a Roll, who had offered months ago to let me try their products if I liked. Not being one to grab freebies just to grab freebies (usually, although I do enjoy stumbling upon the Trader Joe's wine tastings while shopping), I waited until I had a block that might benefit. After using them today to make a different 12 1/2" block, I do have to say that while making separate flying geese with them seems a bit wasteful - as you can see the papers are meant for continuous flying geese borders - my block came out utterly perfectly 12 1/2". I bowed down to myself and treated myself to a celebratory avocado tucked into my sandwich, because doggonit I deserved it!

I like this kind of geese. They don't sing their mating songs at 3am while pooping on my front lawn.

 You know you want to bow down to me too when you see those points. Don't be shy, go right ahead.

 As much as I would love to sing the praises of paper piecing all day long with you, I am not going to. One reason is I don't sing. The other is this:

I made ONE block. ONE. This is my garbage can. It was empty before I started.

So I guess we focus on the fact that the block, which I am not showing you because it is already in an envelope, is perfect, and not on the fact that it may have been responsible for mass deforestation of the USA.

It's like the song goes .... "You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have...four flying geese. And a young George Clooney." Or something like that.

Finally today, you all know how I've been drowning in pink and green scraps lately working on my first Scrap Squad assignment, right? Well, if not, there you go. I have. I can't reveal my version of the quilt yet - that will happen when it is my turn on Quilty Pleasures on Feb 28 - but I am allowed to reveal which quilt the six of us have been assigned to scrap up:

Summer Love by Kimberly Jolly

I've been able to see sneak peeks of the other SS members' versions, and I can tell you that you are going to be astonished and amazed by how different this quilt can look in scrappy versions! Margaret Kennedy will be revealing her version first, this Friday on Quilty Pleasures blog, so make sure you check it out.

I'll be over here picking out my quilting on my version.