My Brother Hyrum

This video struck close to home and brought tears to my eyes.  I thought I would share it with you:

Let the Hand Sewing Commence

Dragging My Feet

I've had the fabric cut out for several days now, but I just can't seem to motivate myself to start working on the hexies for the the first Skill Builder block of April.  I like hand sewing the hexies, but I don't love all the prep work it takes beforehand.  I'm posting this in hopes that it'll force me to work on the block.  We shall see...

How Do You See Yourself?

Have you seen this commercial?

I have recently seen it traveling around Facebook and then a fellow blogger sent me the link.  I know technically the video is made as an advertisement for a specific product, but there is a lot of truth to it.  I think it struck me particularly hard, because at seven and a half months pregnant sometimes it's hard to think you're anything but BIG and unattractive.  My husband and I just barely had a discussion about this.  He was telling me that I've been making far too many negative remarks about myself lately, because he thinks I'm still beautiful when I'm pregnant, and he doesn't like to hear me be so disparaging to myself.

I've always wondered why as women in particular we cut ourselves down (whether it be about our physical looks, intellect, talents or other capabilities).  We compare our weaknesses with others' strengths.  Sometimes it's necessary to just pause and realize that we are beautiful; we are valued; we are loved, and we are of great worth. 

Skill Builder Quilting

I finally got around to quilting March's Skill Builder blocks.  Since I technically messed up the pattern for the first one, I didn't want the quilting to follow the lines.  I actually chose to make it curved lines in direct contrast to the block.  I used Leah's River Path - it's kind of a double U shape:

The second block is probably my favorite so far.  It's no secret that I love Loopy Lines, so when I saw that Leah added spirals to loopy lines I knew I had to try it, and yes, I absolutely loved this design and can totally see myself using this on a bigger scale for a larger quilt.  It's called Loopy Doopy Spiral:

 A look at the back:

Brain Cell Depletion

I don't know if it's from my recent additional responsibilities at church or my husband's particularly awful work schedule, but I've been so tired lately and as a consequence I keep doing really dumb things.  Now that I think about it, being 7 months pregnant is a pretty good excuse as well.  I used to think "pregnancy brain" was a joke, but I tell ya - I feel like this baby is sucking away my IQ.  I'm getting dumber by the day.  My car keys will be sitting right in front of me and I'll be frantically searching everywhere for them (with absolutely no memory of the last time I used them even if it was only 5 minutes earlier).  I am a constant source of amusement for my husband.

Anyway, I say this because the quality of my sewing seems to be sliding as well.  My seam ripper and I have recently become rather good friends.  Last night I was piecing together the April Modern Sister's blocks and I had the weirdest thing happen:  my tiny triangles didn't even remotely line up with the larger triangle.  If you take into account both sides - I was at least a full inch off.

I went back and checked my cutting measurements and they were all correct.  I guess my scant 1/4" was a little too scant.  I probably should have double checked the size of my triangles, but I've never had any issues with this before, so I was completely dumbfounded.  I sat there a minute and thought of the 20 triangles I needed to seam rip and then a thought entered in my head, "I wonder what it would end up looking like if I didn't fix it.  How bad would it be?"  The more I thought about it the more curious I became, and I decided to just center it and if it was totally hideous I'd redo the whole block.  What did I have to lose?

Does everything line up? Absolutely not.  Is it hideous?  Not at all.  Am I ok with it?  Yep.  The only thing that I wasn't taking into account though was that I still had to make a corresponding second block.  I was going to make sure all the triangles were the right size for that one, but then I thought it would probably be better to match the blocks since it's going on the same quilt.  So I give you 2 dysfunctional blocks for the price of one!

Now if only I could find a way to raise my IQ back up...

More Blocks

I've gotten into the flow of plowing through the production of blocks lately.  :)  I'm on a roll which is good, because I'm finally caught up to blocks that need to be done for this month.  Here are the April blocks for Do. Good Stitches:

  This month we had to make 2 Modernized D9P blocks.  These blocks are a lot of fun, because they are easy to put together and there are a ton of variations to choose from.  It makes the process fresh and varied.  The colors we had to use were red, turquoise and dark brown with a white background.  I also love being a part of bees because it forces me to use color combinations I wouldn't normally think of using. 

Starting Bee Blocks

I started making my Bee blocks for the Spring Round of 4x5 Modern Quilt Bee.  I was in the mood to make some more wonky stars.  The first 2 are very similar in color requests, but with a different background color.  I love how something so subtle as going from white to gray can change the look of a block.