Random Thursday

Let's start this post of with a recap of last night's Project Runway.

First of all I'm glad Angela(Jubilee Jumbles) is auf'd. It's about time. Just because one doesn't "jet set" it doesn't mean one is clueless about comfortable and chic travel clothes. The fleurchon butt presentation was a hoot. What was she thinking? Definitely a "Glamour Don't". I can say this because I am always a "Glamour Don't" myself.

Kayne was dangerously close to being auf'd and that would have broke my heart. I adore him. Yes, he's over the top, but that's part of his charm.

Jeffrey should not have won. His jetsetter ensemble was him, but was it new, fresh? It was current. I believe NinaGarcia said it was "Now" so if it's now it's not fashion forward or new. Yes, I could see Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx, Sebastian Bach(anyone else love him on the Gilmore Girls?) wearing this outfit but they are all a little stuck back in the 80s. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Nikki Sixx. But isn't it all about new ideas?

Laura's dress was fabulous, so her, and she did venture out of her comfort zone, not far but she still tried something a little different. Did anyone notice in the interview sections that in some of them she looked like she wasn't wearing lipstick? Granted our tv is missing red, blue and green at the moment but even with the limited color palette I can usually tell Laura is wearing that blood red lipstick. It appeared that Laura was not as made up as usual. I was afraid that it might mean she was out. No way, I kept telling myself, her dress was too good to get her auf'd. (Vincent flash back right after I typed that, YIKES!)

Uli looked upset(mad) when the judges called her on her gown being the same thing she designs over and over. I didn't like that they did that because she was designing for herself. I expected more of the same. I love Uli's stuff and would love to own some of her dresses. I always liked those long gowns, what did we call them back in the 70s maxi length skirts? Uli wears them as comfortably as she would a short cocktail dress or her jeans. Uli is my favorite, I hope to see her in the final three.

Micheal's was very P Diddy(I know not an original description, everyone has said that about his design, but face he's more P Diddy than Jay-Z). He looked like he was ready for a weekend in the Hamptons. I didn't get the strappy things on the pants but it looked good on him and he took Tim's advice and immediately changed his ensemble. Loved him showing Kayne how to work the Runway.

Vincent=boring. I own that outfit. I did enjoy watching him trace his pants to create a pattern, working in his boxers. Wonder if that was payback for Laura's almost nipple action a week or so before?

My prediction for the final three Micheal, Uli and Laura. Yes Laura is boring and predictable but her stuff is gorgeous. If not Laura, Kayne, for entertainment value alone.

At first I thought it was cruel to toss Angela out in Paris but I read on Bravo or heard in Tim's podcast that she was able to spend the night in Paris and catch some of the sights without the stress of the competition. Very cool. Flying first class, even cooler! I loved how excited Tim was over the TV screen or remote on the plane. Over at Bravo they have lots of footage you don't see on the show. I enjoyed that more than the show.

Already counting down the hours until next week's episode.

Stitching Odds and Ends

I'm so uninspired with my stitching these days. I'm not sure what it is. Pulling out all the old WIP/UFOs has really opened my eyes to how distracted I become with projects. I remember back in the old days(when my mom bought my stitching supplies at Woolworth's) I was a one at a time girl. I don't recall when the whole chart collecting thing started. I think it was with Paula Vaughn charts or maybe Prairie Schooler charts or possibly TW. Sometime around 1987 I started buying charts just because I could. I had no intention of stitching them at that moment, just buying them and putting them up for a later date. My stash of stitching stuff is small compared to some people's. I tend to buy charts more than anything. I only purchase fabric and threads-unless it's DMC-when I'm close to starting a project. I also kit things up slowly, if a chart calls for overdyes it doesn't bother me to buy a few here and there and not start stitching it for a few months. That's easy to do when one has 11,000 WIPs. There is never a rush to start anything. There's a "want" to start stuff but never a need.

I want to say that I'm not going to start anything new until a few things are finished but I can't say that. I have a few things just begging to be started. If I can get Quaker Garden finished this weekend I plan to start CHS Haunting Mermaid.

Oh and I forgot to mention my in progress Mouline Rouge by Long Dog in my list of UFOs the other day, I can't remember if I added Good Huswife's With My Needle either.

Knitting/Crochet

I kind of slowed down on my warsh rags, I have one close to finished but haven't touched my knitting in a week or so.

I want to start working on my Alien Illusion scarf again, but am concerned I'll start knitting on the wrong side. I'm afraid to touch it until I'm 100% focused on it or I'll end up ripping out everything I've done so far. I've ripped this scarf out too many times to start it over again. Why would I have to start the whole thing over? Because I can't frog my knitting. When one doesn't know what they are doing and are a poser, it shows when a mistake is made and the only way to fix it is to unravel the whole darn thing.

I started crocheting an afghan for my mom months and months ago. I'm a terrible daughter and haven't done much of anything for her over the last couple of years. She bought a new house, new furniture so I crocheted all these blocks for an afghan, I freaked out trying to put it together, it's made with Lion Brand Homespun and for some reason I couldn't figure out how to connect all the blocks. This is not my first afghan by any means, I just had some kind of bizarre brain fart where I couldn't figure it out. Talking to my friend about it a few weeks ago, it hit me, I knew how to do it, I was just making it difficult. Connecting blocks with the Homespun is the same thing as connecting blocks with your basic acrylic. What threw me was that the blocks are connected along the bottom, bottom to top, then the long strips of blocks are connected to a long double crocheted panel on the side. There are two strips of blocks, three of the double crocheted panels. I kept telling myself that the blocks wouldn't hold together, well duh, to me, I connect the blocks, bottom to top, then to the sides, it'll be perfectly secure once connected to the solid strip. I don't know why I was so blocked on this other than maybe I wanted to work on other things and not that afghan. Which is entirely possible.

Quilting and Sewing

I have several quilts planned in my head. That's about as far as they ever get. The same quilts I've mentioned here in the past. At least I'm consistent in my planning. I love planning quilts but the execution is usually years in the making. For example DS#1's Ohio Star Quilt(he was born in Ohio) has been floating around my brain for 15 yrs or so. I just can't find a color combination I like. He likes green. Greens are not my strong point. I've found it tricky to find colors that work well with the bright horrendous green he likes. I want to do each of the boys "Story of Their Lives" quilts. I think it's such a cool way to tell their stories. I plan the heck out of those quilts but never actually get around to making them. The other two boys were born in Arkansas and I don't want to make two of the same quilts so one would get an Arkansas Trouble quilt(I'll use the Kansas Trouble block and just call it Arkansas Trouble) and I found a quilt in an old, old issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine called Jack's Circles or something like that but it's a tedious pattern, very cool, the circles are created with mini ninepatch blocks, I need to find that pattern again. I set it aside when I determined it would have to be pieced using a machine. I prefer handpiecing. So daydreaming about quilts is something I do a lot of, it just never gets much beyond that. But it's fun.

I have a purse pattern here, fabric, and I want to use my skull girl cross stitch as the outside pocket, my sewing machine doesn't want to cooperate so I'm kind of scared to try to sew a purse on a machine that stitches inconsistently, my luck the bottom would fall out or the sides come unsewn and my whole world would be on the floor. My friend who can fix anything borrowed my machine when her's broke, my machine frustrated her so much she went and bought a new machine for herself. I took that to mean my machine is a piece of junk.

Many, many projects running all around my brain these days. No wonder I can't sleep.