Monday, August 31, 2009

Introducing: The Crafty Procrastinator

Well I've finally found my destined blog name.

"Just keep swimming" was a temporary (year and a half long) name that I never intended to keep. Sitting here this morning still in a fog from the weekend and The Crafty Procrastinator just came to me. It's a perfect fit for me!

I hope you are looking forward to more regular posts from the crafty procrastinator...I know I am :)

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Maggie Mae

As if life couldn't get any crazier...we adopted a puppy! All sewing/quilting has been on hold since Tuesday...even though my blocks for the zig zag quilt along are ready to be sewn together...

Last Friday night we went to the animal shelter to look at a few dogs...we put an application in for no dog in particular so Hubby and I could properly discuss. That night we decided to adopt a chocolate lab puppy that we thought was 10 months old. A call on Monday led me to believe we didn't stand a chance at getting her due to how many applications they already had. Tuesday afternoon we received another call from a woman who was fostering the siblings of the puppy we wanted and offered us her sister. The puppy was from a litter that was brought up from North Carolina...and was only 13 weeks old, not 10 months.

We went to meet her that night with Paige at the animal shelter. It was all up to Paige at that point, because if Paige didn't like her, it was a no-go. The girls met and really just ignored each other. There was too much else going on at the shelter and too many other scents to get a real sense of how they would be.

Our first night was hell! The puppy cried every hour in the crate. We got no sleep! I really don't think we knew quite what we were in for. Each day/night gets better, but at first I really questioned if we made the right decision. Paige seems happy. The puppy who we finally named Maggie Mae is very attached to Paige. Everyone is adjusting...well almost everyone. It took Spike a few days to come downstairs, but Annabelle still won't come down. She'll come around eventually...I hope.

We took Maggie to the vet yesterday and she was given a clean bill of health. She was treated for a few things while in foster care so we were happy everything came back ok.

Some day Maggie will be a great dog....but for now she's just a puppy!



Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Zig Zagging Stripes

I almost gave up...almost.

I'm working on a Zig Zag Quilt for the ORB/ParkCityGirl Quilt Along this time hosted by Amy. Check out the cool group & instructions on flickr. I picked 15 fabrics, 5 of which have stripes. Lots of frustration (ie cursing) ensued in my hot hot sewing room last night as I tried to assemble my blocks. The stripes were going every which way and I HATED it. So much so, I almost scraped this Christmas gift to be. But alas, I have beat you quilt. I figured out your game and to save anyone else suffering from this predicament and surely myself in the future; here is how to do it so that stripes align:

Here are two of my squares, pinned in the center.

Draw a line on the diagonal of one block. Rotate the second block 90 degrees and draw a line on the diagonal of the second block.


Sew 1/4" on each side of the line. Cut squares on the diagonal with a rotary cutter. Press, snip, etc. (I haven't gotten that far yet, nor are my blocks exactly square at this point!)



Ok, now take your newly cut half square triangles from one block, separate and open them up like so.

Take your second block, separate the half square triangles, and pair each one up with the ones you've already laid out. So one half square triangle from the first block will match up with one half square triangle from the second block.

Now the best part is you can rearrange the squares very easily so that the print can be vertical or horizontal. Vertical wavy lines in the photo below.

Same blocks just rotated so that the light blue fabric has horizontal wavy lines. I prefer this one over the one above.

My next obstacle....we'll see how it goes.

Just make sure that you rotate 1/2 of the blocks 90 degrees. I have 6 blocks, so I need to remember to rotate 3 of them. I'll have to make sure to do this when I'm not tired.

Hope this helps someone out there.

Coming And Going

I love getting mail. Even if it's something I've ordered, I love seeing it arrive on my porch. So when I received these items yesterday....they made my day.

The first is a pincushion from Francesca and a really neat postcard. I won her giveaway featured on Alicia's blog "My Favorite Things." It's the first giveaway I've won so I'm very excited about it. I can't wait to start using it, especially since I've invested in new pins recently! The second item is from Nancy, from Blogging Near Philadelphia. Nancy was recently de-stashing and offered up some really cute patterns on her blog. I snagged the Hugs & Kisses Pattern shown below. Thanks Nancy!

There was some mail going out as well. I love sending cute little packages but unfortunately time is not on my side lately so I do my best. Below is the Amy Butler fabric for the Fat Quarter Drawing for the Zig Zag quilt along. This went out a day late, but I was sick! I swear! There's also a PBS book below the fabric. It seems I send one book a week out these days!


So yes, I am working on the zig zag quilt but it's a Christmas gift...so I may not be posting too much of it here. We'll see!