Knowing When to Throw In The Towel (or bag)

Months ago, my sister-in-law asked me to make a doll's nappy (diaper) bag for my 2½ year old niece. She hasn't been able to find one for her in Australia. I picked up fabric for it ages ago, but with lacking sewjo and nerves about re-sizing a bag pattern when I've only made one bag it's taken me too long to get around to starting.

Skipped stitches because my machine didn't like using a denim needle
when sewing denim...

This was the week, and up until the last hour of yesterday afternoon it was going swimmingly. I'm making Sew Sweetness' Velocity Girl bag. I've made it before, in fact I took it out for its photoshoot last Memorial Day! And when my sister-in-law saw it she told me that with a flap it and a little bigger it would look just like the expensive real-life diaper bags that were all the rage. So when she requested a doll version for Grace, I thought, well I'll just make a scaled down version of Velocity Girl, add a flap - how hard can it be!??

And the answer is not that hard, there's some maths and counting, but Sara's pattern is so well written that it actually makes putting it all together still really easy when you're taking your little added extras into account. A fact I'm now eternally grateful for, because I find bags really difficult to keep a hold of in my head. It's their 3D-ness. I can't quite grasp the why, until twenty steps later I'm like, 'OHHHHHHH, that's really frickin' clever!!'.

Fighting the Pins

Anyway, the balls up. I made all the various panels and pockets, and added piping (a first - yay!) and it went grand. Then, I started to assemble them, into a bag form. It was when I was adding the second outer wall that I realised I was using half the recommended seam allowance, cos I'd gotten kinda cocky with how well it was going. Part of me was like, well, it would be a pain to unpick and it's fine so far, so maybe we'll just go with it.

Offending Hole

But, no. I missed the underneath layer in three spots, and one was a whopper. I was so cross. Grumpy for well over an hour. That feeling of wanting to break a piece of china, or maybe kick a wall... Grrrr. But, a rant at Paul, a stomp around the supermarket, dinner, Dr Who, and a walk all improved my mood. As did, surprisingly, turning the offending item right side out. It needs to be unpicked, and sewn with the correct seam allowance. But it's shaping up to be really cute when done right, so it will be worth it.

Mollified by the Cute

But it won't be worth it today. Or for the next week. Too much frustration. It's time to metaphorically throw it at the wall. Wait for pay day, grab some Joann's vouchers, take Sara's instagram advice of yesterday and buy some Clover Wonder Clips. So that instead of bending my lovely quilting pins, and trying to figure why I can't push one through, only to discover I've created a small groove in my thumbnail, I can just clip and unclip, and not curse.

Let's Not Forget the Hole of Shame

Last night, after I'd ranted and stomped and walked it out, I had 45 minutes and so I continued the calm with a little bit of English paper piecing. I've been cutting one square from every scrap of the Farmer's Wife Quilt that's large enough, and I'm beginning to sew them together. There's no plan to the colours, and I'm finding the outcome very cottage-y cosy.

This post is getting unwieldy now, but one more picture and a couple of links. The Deep in the Heart of Texas Roadtrip QAL kicks off on Sunday, June 1st. Melissa has cutting directions and the quilt layout up on her blog as of yesterday. Today I got out the fabrics I've chosen for this quilt. I bought a lot of Lazy Day charm and mini-charm packs (one of my oldest friends is having a baby, and I panicked earlier in the year) which were going spare, but which I think on a navy background are going to make a lovely Texas. I've only bought a few extra half yards for the city blocks so far, but this morning I ordered a few more colours for variety. I'm excited to get going and will check in once a week with my progress, and links if you're following along :)

Have a good weekend y'all, x

(did you see what I did there!??!?)

Exciting - Deep in the Heart of Texas Roadtrip QAL

Kicking off next week, and organised by the brilliant Melissa at My Fabric Relish and Cristina at Pretty Little Quilts the Deep in the Heart of Texas Roadtrip QAL is more than just its super cute button.

I couldn't believe when I they let me get involved as an honorary brand new Texan! Have you see the quilt yet??

Cristina made it, she was inspired by this quilt by Dana Michaelsen (who you can find on instagram @danahannah310 for further inspiration!).

The idea of the quilt along is that each stop is with a different blogger who will tell you about their local (or assigned) Texan town or city!  The what to sees, the what to eats, the where to find the fabrics!! And each blogger has designed a block to represent their town. Blocks slot into the above quilt in their rough geographic location and you use scraps, jelly rolls, charm packs, mini charms, whatever you've got! to fill in the rest of Texas!!

I love it! I'm super nervous and excited. I've been checking out the other bloggers and everyone is so different! I can't wait to see all the different blocks and all the interpretations we make on them. It's going to be so much fun.

But more than that - I can't wait to see what YOU come up with!!

The link to the Official QAL Page is in the button above, and it's at the top of my sidebar for the duration of the summer! This is all going to be quite relaxed, running from next week until the middle of August.

I wanted to show you pictures of the bits and bobs I'm prepping, but we're having thunderstorms galore this morning and the lighting is terrible - so I'll save it for little check-ins during the week. Also, this is getting long!

Oh, oh!!! I forgot! There are prizes and giveaways, and so many things that I can't quite believe how big these ladies have gone with this - it's so awesome. Lots of local Texas quilt shops getting in on the act, and each blogger is giving away some Aurifil - that's Aurifil at each and every stop on this roadtrip - I need a Holy Cow! emoticon.

Here are all the dates and stops, in case you feel the need for some further exploring!! I really hope I see some of you popping in and out along the way :)

June 2 - Dallas - Ashley at Urban Spools

June 5 - Tyler - Colleen guest blogger at Pretty Little Quilts

June 12 - Fort Worth - Lindsey and Jodie at Fort Worth Fabric Studio

June 16 - Amarillo - Aoife at thREDhead

June 19 - Lubbock - Jada (guest blogger) at My Fabric Relish

June 23 - El Paso - Jennie at Porch Swing Quilts

June 26 - Midland/Odessa - Donna at Donna's Lavender Nest

June 30 - Big Bend - Cristina at Pretty Little Quilts

July 7 - Houston - Teresa at Third Floor Quilts

July 10 - Beaumont - Taryn at Pixels to Patchwork

July 14 - Austin - Amanda at What the Bobbin

July 17 - College Station - Hilary at Young Texan Mama

July 21 - San Antonio - Ellyn at Ellyn's Place

July 24 - Hill Country - Lissa at Moda Fabrics

July 28 - Rio Grande Valley - Melissa at My Fabric Relish

A Slow Week

It's been a slow one, sewing wise, life wise. Met my new neurologist on Monday, have a change in medication, the navigation of the American health care system began, it's been confusing and surprising (in good ways, so far). The bad parts are all in the withdrawal and new side effects, sleep is being stolen from me among others, but hopefully this is the low point.

I was prepared Monday, left out some easy to piece blocks from an oft put down project, continued on them on Tuesday.

Laid out my progress, over a year so far, 14 blocks left, seeing it all out is encouraging, such lovely colours - all courtesy of Justine at Simply Solids and her Sew Solids Crew stash club last year.

Since Wednesday I've tried to push myself to get to what I really should be doing - but like any time that word, should, is involved it isn't happening. My brain is not up for altering patterns as I go, and my machine has decided that skipping stitches is so in vogue right now. I've walked away. Though I'm eyeing up a potential couple of hours of alone time on Sunday morning for a thorough machine clean and re-thread! I'm actually enthusiastic about that, another surprise.

Yesterday I gave up on the shoulds completely, and started cutting out the fabrics for my next set of Farmer's Wife blocks. It's slow, requires little brain power (apart from the ones that involve mirrored blocks - why, why!?!), and is filled with colour. I'm loving it.

Very much looking forward to this long weekend (magical words), hoping that I will enter next week more refreshed and more human-feeling. Hoping you all enjoy your weekends, wherever you happen to be!