triangles upon triangles.

I’ve always sort of admired quilting from afar – in the same way the kid on the outskirts of the playground admires the kids playing inside, wishing they could join. I read a fair few of craft blogs, and I love when amazing quilted or patchwork projects come up on Bloglines so that I can sigh and say “Yeah. Those do look nice.”

I even started collecting little scraps of fabric, here and there – including this utterly amazing cowgirl fabric – just in case, but I never really felt like it was something I was going to get into, it just felt too intimidating. And then Whip Up declared that April was mini-quilt month, and something clicked in my brain. Mini. Quilts. It honestly had never occurred to me until then that it might be possible to do adorable patchwork stuff, but small-scale.

So I did some pondering, and then some sketching, and then some cutting, and now I have roughly 10248140 little triangles sitting to the right of me, and a huge stack of notes to the left, related to my latest exam. I’m handstitching the triangles together, because I’m scared of doing anything on my machine that is not a straight line at a right angle, and it’s way more relaxing than I thought it would be to find a spare ten minutes and be able to sew two little triangles and feel like I’ve accomplished something.

I’m turning the triangles into squares. The squares are going to be a bigger square, and that’s going to be a pillowcase – I’m trying to do it in a way that’ll showcase my cowgirl fabric, if I can.

(This is not to say that I like my knitting any less. Really, the only reason it even occurred to me to start sewing is that I’m currently waiting for yarn to arrive, as I have fallen in love with the Goose Rocks cardigan from the latest Twist Collective and require one of my very own. Still, it’s nice to have variety.)

i know you want (pop) you want (dance) you want (rock and roll)

It’s starting to look like winter!

This is, honestly, my favourite kind of weather – there’s something about getting all dressed up in warm, fuzzy clothing and being able to think to myself, ha ha, weather, I win that’s satisfying in a way I can’t quite articulate.

It’s also a reasonable excuse to take some time inside, to organize my life (my apartment needed cleaning in the worst way), and make things. For instance, I got a chance to play with my new Christmas present, finally. I got a sewing machine, which is something I’ve been thinking about for a long, long while, and I managed to turn this

Into this:

It definitely took me an embarrassing amount of time, and I’m sure in a few months my inability to cut or sew a straight line will seem painfully obvious, but whatever. The thrill of look, guys, I made this! has yet to wear off, so far.

Song of the Entry: DJ Earworm – United State of Pop 2009 (Blame It on the Pop) (Listen)

just pardon my manners all I want to know is

IMG_7858, originally uploaded by pirateygoodness.

I probably could have posted these in my last entry, but I wanted to split this project up into a couple of posts – this is the finished wallet. Sewn by hand, which – okay, took a lot longer than it would have if I owned a machine, but this still went surprisingly quickly. I finished this easily in a day.

All things considered, I’m really, really, really proud of this. I mean, all of the seams are a bit not-in-a-straight-line and the edges aren’t perfect, but it makes me happy and it does what it’s supposed to do (hold stuff and fit in my pocket) and the chicken fabric is still cute, so whatever. Besides, I think the wonky seams add character.

Song of the Entry: Ray J – Sexy Can I (feat. Yung Berg)