June 30th 2005
I’m trying to write an interesting and informative, yet not overly trite description of the world I’m creating for our eventual website.
I desperately want to stick my tongue firmly in my cheek and write things like “a unique, one-of-a-kind virtual world unlike any other!”
But I’m scared they might actually use it.
June 30th 2005
Two more days until I get to show off the quilt to Owldaughter and HRH!
*burbles*
Scott and I took it out last night and gloated over it some more. Tybalt climbed under it and purred. Tonight I will vacuum it off to get rid of excess kitten hairs and bits of fluff, and put it in the gift box for good. Possibly I will get a new gift box, as the one I have is actually a birthday box that’s partially torn, and in hideous colours and design.
…or perhaps I’ll just dress it up with a little ribbon and a card.
I’m just so damn excited!
June 29th 2005
One of the best things about making my own hours is that from time to time I can go out in the morning to early afternoon, and work a little later in the evening.
I took advantage of the fact this morning, and traipsed off to the quilt store with Owldaughter.
There was a moment of hesitation when we first got to the quilt shop — they’re redoing the floor and the fabrics were nowhere to be found! I asked the clerk, and the fabrics were upstairs. Crisis averted.
We found several perfect fabrics to go with the lovely one I picked up yesterday (studiously avoiding looking at batik fabric, which is the most expensive. And probably the loveliest. Mmm…batik…) Unfortunately the one I chose came up a little short in measure, 1/4 metre short of what I wanted. Since I’d estimated more than I’d need, I still took the fabric, and they’re going to call me when more comes in. In the meantime, I’ll just have to be careful when I cut it.
It was nice to have Arin there when picking out the fabric, as she has a different perspective on what looks good, understands a bit about what the whole sewing-process entails, and is a bit of a fabric geek herself.
After the fabric purchasing, we went out to lunch. Since we stopped doing the writing jams (and since Liam was born) we haven’t seen as much of one another, and so it was nice to be able to spend time together again. Today was leisurely (and sometimes serious) conversation, delectable sandwiches and soup. And good company, of course.
And now I’m home and looking at work and thinking it would be nice to just take the day off, but that’s really not an option. So I’ll get myself some cold water and the laptop and begin again in just a few minutes.
Ugh…and headache medication, apparently, as in writing this post I seem to have developed a headache-from-out-of-nowhere. Lovely.
June 28th 2005
So it looks like I need 6 1/4 yards of each colour for the new quilt. Google informs me that this is about 5.7 metres, so I’ll be picking up 6, in case.
That’s actually a lot of fabric, even for a quilt.
Hmm.
*goes back to see if she calculated it all right*
Yep, I did.
*sigh*
June 28th 2005
*checks the long-range weather forecast*
Like this until Friday? FRIDAY?
I’m never gonna last that long.
June 27th 2005
All I want to do is create an 8×9 grid with a border going all the way around. Into this, I want to be able to paste an image I have of a quilt block. I want to be able to rotate the blocks to suit the design (alternately, I have the file saved in its four different possible rotations), and then fill in the empty squares with a complimentary colour.
In short, I want to be able to design a quilt quickly, easily, without screaming, without having to create 72 separate layers and without having to move each individual image piece painstakingly into place, and ideally without having to guess which of the four rotations I need next (this is why I’d like to be able to rotate the piece in place).
What program will do this with a minimum of fuss?
June 27th 2005
The first steps are to:
1. (a) decide on a design
(b) calculate the number of blocks you will need for the quilt
(c) calculate the number of yards of fabric you will need based on (a) and (b).
2. Choose fabrics.
You can actually do (1) and (2) in any order. For the baby quilt I just finished, I knew one of the fabrics I would be using before I even chose the design. For this next quilt, I have the design all picked, and now I have to figure out how much fabric I’ll need.
And then it’s off to the local fabric stores to shop!
June 27th 2005
I just finished chapter 6 of Power Spellcraft for Life last night.
Chapter 6 is the correspondences chapter, arguably one of the most important in any spellcrafting book. And it’s good. Not only good, awesome!
Not only has Arin put in common correspondences for herbs, stones, days of the week, planets, etc., she’s put in the history of each type. So not only do you find out what they are, but why they are. She gives book references for just about everything, so if you’re interested in something she doesn’t cover in detail, you already have a recommendation for a good book or two to look at.
Wow! Great work!
June 25th 2005
I found a page that calculates the size of the quilt that you should make for your bed, given the dimensions of your bed, how long you want it to hang, how high your pillows are and if you want the quilt to cover them, etc. etc.
I think I will find this very useful in the future.
I’m never quite sure how big to make my quilts, and sometimes I think they end up on the smallish side.
Okay, to be fair, I’ve only made one full-size quilt, and it’s Carrie and Mark’s, and I wanted it to be a little bigger, though it’s a good size as it is. I like ‘em with lots of drape. But I’d like to know in the future what size to aim for when I’m planning how many blocks I’m making, and how many pieces I need.
There are some beautiful and inspiring pictures of quilts on the site as well, though I must admit I’m quite offended by the baby quilt with embroidered animals — not because of the animals, but because they’re labelled with things like “bunny” and “birdie”, rather than “rabbit” and “bird”. I mean, if you’re going to go for educational, please use the proper words.