Bento Box

My Bento Box top waited three and a half years for me to work up the nerve to quilt it. I was so emotionally involved with this project that I din't want to screw it up. It hung on the quilt ladder for a while...it was folded on top of the treadle sewing machine for a while....it made its way up to the sewing room and sat there for a while...

I'm glad I waited. When I first finished the top, I didn't have the skills to quilt it. I knew I didn't want to stitch in the ditch. Beyond that, I didn't know what to do. I was afraid that any thread I used to meander it woud look too dark against the light fabrics, or too light against the dark fabrics....

Last weekend, I pin basted it and meandered it and I couldn't be more pleased with how it came out. Unlike the pumpkin quilt I waited too long to finish, I think I timed this one just right.

And, although it's not a new finish, this is the first week I've been able to show off my Nancy Drew quilt. There's a picture in my sidebar, and a free pattern at the Moda Bake Shop.

I'm linking this post to Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Link a Finish Friday, and Friday Finishes. and Thank Goodness it's Finished Friday.

and diet Coke is on sale at WalMart!

Our phone rang very early this morning -- early enough that when it woke me up, I thought it was still night and someone in the family must be dead or maimed. Maybe some people might want to consider that making last minute car pooling plans at 4:44am isn't the best phone etiquette? I had planned on getting up early, but not quite THAT early.

I did get myself motivated enough to finally assemble the Bento Box top. And I finished piecing the blocks for Simple Pleasures, so if my luck or motivation or whatever holds out, I hope to get that one assembled tomorrow morning before the kids are out of bed.

Bill is back at work after two weeks of vacation and when it's just the kids and me at home, I can chase them out of the front room to lay out blocks and pin rows and do all of that other less-than-fun stuff that you have to slog through if you're ever going to finish a quilt.

This stretch of vacation was very low key -- we rattled around the house and made a few day trips. Yesterday's was to take the kids to the fish hatchery near Sisters. I could never get quite the camera angles I wanted, but it was so cute watching Leif toss in a couple of little pellets of fish food at a time and then jump and clap his hands every time the fish went after them.



The diet Coke? I really needed the caffeine today and it was on sale cheaper than I've seen it in ages. Now there's enough in my kitchen to last quite a while. I'm happy.

I am so in love with this quilt that I've even lost my bitterness about the selvedge bag with no selvedges in it. I might've made a Bento Box if that hadn't happened, but it wouldn't be this one. And I really really like this one.



I think it'll be done soon, but I'm not in a big hurry. I'm having too much fun watching the fabrics come together into blocks to rush.

I do want to rush Simple Pleasures, because I don't have enough faith that it's going to come out the way it looks in my head.

And I want to get started on North Pacific.

A few weeks ago, I was blindsided by an ad in one of my new quilting magazines -- you know, that sudden urge to grab the car keys and head out the door to search for that particular yarn or fabric or magazine or piece of wood from Home Depot. I rarely -- more like never ever -- have that reaction to quilt shop fabric. But the ad for Moda Shirtings 1875-1900 got me.

I'd been wanting shirtings ever since I read Scraps and Shirttails, even without Moda trying to seduce me into the fabric shop with descriptions of "Kittens, dogs, horses heads, sewing tools such as thimbles, needles moving thru fabric..." Actually, I'm more tempted by the ad copy than the fabric in the line. And just look at the log cabin border on that quilt in the picture!

Turns out that the line isn't even available yet, or wasn't when I was keeping an eye open for it on that shop hop with my best friend. But I did find a fat sixteenth of a needle moving through fabric. That little piece has already been incorporated into the Bento Box and is one of my favorite prints in the whole quilt so far.

That North Pacific quilt absolutely demands white fabric with little blue or black prints on it. Joann's doesn't have anything even remotely appropriate. I've got a few suitable fabrics in my stash, but not nearly enough.

It was exactly the wrong time for Moda to be tempting me with something that would be absolutely perfect if it wasn't so pricey. Aren't I lucky that those fabrics don't seem to be available quite yet?

And aren't I lucky that I saw the discussion of Whittle's Fabrics when it happened on Quilting on a Budget not long ago? THEY have shirtings, which I like better than the ones in the Moda collection, and which are four bucks a yard.

I am completely in love. I want to roll around in this fabric. I want to order lots of the other fabrics on their site. (It's a bit harder to have self control when the fabric is so gorgeous and so affordable.) But I'll try to finish a few projects first and have faith that they'll still be there and have pretty stuff when it's time to shop again.

We did some thrift store shopping with Grandma yesterday and I found a perfect sheet to use for the back of Simple Pleasures. And another perfect vintage sheet that had to stay at the thrift shop because it was full of cigarette holes. At least I saw them before I bought it.

Quilting on a Budget is giving away the Quiltopoly board game. Wouldn't that be fun to win?