Cheering Up
Sep. 28th, 2019 10:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Found out at the last minute that a hangout I was looking forward to wasn't gonna work out, so I hit up the comic shop instead. My rule is, I have to do something fun when plans with a friend fall through, so I don't mope. Got myself another copy of an excellent Riddler comic (it is a crime and a tragedy that there were so few issues of The Batman Adventures). Stopped at the vending machines on the way out, and wound up with a $5 coupon to the comic shop and a tiny hollow tiger big enough to keep painkillers in, which I have named Tiger Pudding.
On the way home, I stopped at the fabric store. Guess who owns fusible webbing again? It's me. Gonna get up to some dragon-related nonsense, if all proceeds according to plan. I also bought a couple Halloween magazines I had been looking at longingly for a while and was glad to stumble across in the store. The selection of orange is really bad here, though. There are literally two bolts of orange quilting cotton prints in the store - a flat orange with black polka dots, and a violently bright marbled print. I had thought Halloween would provide more orange, but apparently the polka dot one is all we get. It's just not in fashion right now, I guess, despite the variety of really cute orange prints in those Halloween magazines. I did pick up a nice orange fat quarter with a constellation print, though.
The fire alarm went off while I was browsing. I dutifully headed out the door, taking my purse and leaving my cart behind. A few people went out as well, but when the fire failed to manifest itself, they went back in and continued shopping. That poor cashier. The firefighters came and went, and electricians came and went. They had tripped the alarm doing construction next door. It took about half an hour before the piercing shrieks stopped. I seriously can't believe people went back in there.
If anyone ever wonders where I got my dime cart proclivities, my parents stumbled across 21 quilt books on the dime cart and bought them for me. Most of them are really good, actually! I enjoy traditional quilt blocks and historical books and scrap quilts. This was a delightful treasure trove for me.
I'm currently at two paper pieced dwarves - I'm refining my design, and figure I might as well do it using Tolkien colors, so that's Dwalin and Balin done. I've streamlined the piecing and changed little details like the pointiness of the hood, the width of the belt, and the size of the beard. Might get all the way to Thorin before I'm satisfied with it. I'm using the wrong scale and background fabric for this to be the mountain dwarf quilt I had planned, and I've overshot the Balin solo quilt design I was noodling around with, so I guess we will just see what happens.
On the way home, I stopped at the fabric store. Guess who owns fusible webbing again? It's me. Gonna get up to some dragon-related nonsense, if all proceeds according to plan. I also bought a couple Halloween magazines I had been looking at longingly for a while and was glad to stumble across in the store. The selection of orange is really bad here, though. There are literally two bolts of orange quilting cotton prints in the store - a flat orange with black polka dots, and a violently bright marbled print. I had thought Halloween would provide more orange, but apparently the polka dot one is all we get. It's just not in fashion right now, I guess, despite the variety of really cute orange prints in those Halloween magazines. I did pick up a nice orange fat quarter with a constellation print, though.
The fire alarm went off while I was browsing. I dutifully headed out the door, taking my purse and leaving my cart behind. A few people went out as well, but when the fire failed to manifest itself, they went back in and continued shopping. That poor cashier. The firefighters came and went, and electricians came and went. They had tripped the alarm doing construction next door. It took about half an hour before the piercing shrieks stopped. I seriously can't believe people went back in there.
If anyone ever wonders where I got my dime cart proclivities, my parents stumbled across 21 quilt books on the dime cart and bought them for me. Most of them are really good, actually! I enjoy traditional quilt blocks and historical books and scrap quilts. This was a delightful treasure trove for me.
I'm currently at two paper pieced dwarves - I'm refining my design, and figure I might as well do it using Tolkien colors, so that's Dwalin and Balin done. I've streamlined the piecing and changed little details like the pointiness of the hood, the width of the belt, and the size of the beard. Might get all the way to Thorin before I'm satisfied with it. I'm using the wrong scale and background fabric for this to be the mountain dwarf quilt I had planned, and I've overshot the Balin solo quilt design I was noodling around with, so I guess we will just see what happens.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-05 10:51 pm (UTC)I don't understand how people can tolerate that kind of noise either.
Are the "dragon related nonsense" and the pieced dwarves the same project or different? Is this paired with the Smaug quilt?
I kind of want to see that violently bright orange marbled print. It sounds like it could be really hideous or really gorgeous but nothing in between.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-06 03:46 pm (UTC)That piercing shriek is specifically designed to be awful enough to chase human beings out of stores by itself, even if they don't think there's actually a fire! Either they have less sensitive hearing, or they were on a tight schedule and *really* wanted those craft supplies.
I have so many hobbit-themed quilts planned, it's absurd. The paper pieced dwarves are gonna hang out in their own dwarf quilt, which is kind of a prototype for a second dwarf quilt in a different scale and layout - I came up with the dwarf pattern by myself, and I'm still working the bugs out. I don't mind having two dwarf quilts. I really like dwarves.
The dragon nonsense is gonna involve scanning some of Tolkien's inked doodles and turning that into an appliquéd Smaug quilt. Scanning and blowing it up to a usable scale will be the hard part, since fusible webbing makes appliqué a snap.
Then there's a paper pieced block of Tolkien's signature, which I got off fandominstitches. That may turn into a book-shaped design, if it turns out well - I came up with a paper pieced layout I'm excited about, with an appliquéd spine.
I'm also noodling around with a hobbit door design - a good use for green scraps, but I do need a good brass button for it. I will have to search my collection.
Then there's the bed quilt made of traditional pieced blocks, whose traditional names tell the story of The Hobbit.
No idea how many of these I will actually make, but I am excited about them.
While these are all Hobbit-themed, I don't think any of them really pair well with Smaug or should be in close proximity to him on the wall, because Smaug has an extremely vivid, high contrast design and will clash with pretty much anything. He would go well with, perhaps, a New York Beauty in black and gold, or another paper pieced design. I currently have a black and white framed print near him, and it's working pretty well.
The orange print could go either way, you're right! It's one of those strong colors that can take over a quilt if you let it, like the Smaug fabric. I might circle back to buy it later; I was just sulky over not having more options.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-06 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-07 02:48 am (UTC)