Scary Dreams

I just got this email from Ian: I had a dream that I wanted a new pair of shorts to wear to the section I was TAing, so I whipped up a pair out of some of your fabric. And then, when I finally managed to change into my new shorts, I was all, "these are incredibly ugly. I can't teach in these!" And then I was all, "Crystal is going to be PISSED at how much of her Nicey Jane I used on these hideous shorts." And then I woke up.



So, three things:
1) Yes, I would be PISSED if he used my Nicey Jane to make "hideous" shorts.
2) Nicey Jane shorts would be AWESOME, not hideous!
3) Ian wants you to know that the most ridiculous part of his dream was not that he'd sewn Nicey Jane shorts to wear to school. The most ridiculous part was that he was a Teacher's Assistant...because (as he quite pompously states) he has TA's of his own now.

Don't be jealous, ladies!

A Scrappy Trip Along, Of Course!

I don't like to make New Year's resolutions (besides my ongoing resolution to live fabulously!). I'm happy I wasn't tempted to let this new one sneak in this year: to finish one old project before starting a new one. Because if I had, I'd have broken it before 6:00am on January 1st. Because this is what I did ALL day on New Year's Day:



I've been eyeing the scrappy trip quilts on flickr for quite a while now and it seems that I'm not alone. I couldn't resist any longer! I woke up bright and early on New Year's Day, walked straight to the studio and started digging through my scrap bins.

I cut up every red, pink, orange, green and blue print that was large enough to cut 6 2.5" squares. In most cases, I had to cut from several pieces to get 6 squares. I really wanted to use my scraps! I still need to cut up my grey and brown scraps and then I'll move on to yardage.

Each block uses 6 fabrics and I don't want to duplicate those prints in any other block. That means this quilt will have 216 different fabrics! I've cut 156 different prints (936 squares) and have 60 left to go (360 squares).



I realize that cutting and sewing 1,296 squares will take much longer than the clever tutorial most people are using but I have my reasons for doing it the hard way:

1. I wanted to use scraps and most of my scraps are smaller than the required 2.5"x16".
2. I hate using the seam ripper.
3. After much practice, I'm getting really good at piecing squares together and I actually like it (she says before piecing 1,296 squares).
4. I don't mind spending more time with these gorgeous fabrics.

I'm so jealous of all the beautiful quilts and blocks showing up in the flickr group. I'm anxious to start piecing my own blocks but I want to finish cutting all my squares first. I have a four day weekend starting tomorrow and you know I'm going to be up at 6am cutting like mad...stay tuned for actual blocks soon!