*Snippets and Blabbery*

This is awesome. Best comedy team ever!

Here’s a sneak peak of my free-motion quilting practice quilt. It’s going well so far, I’m getting more and more confident.

I got my first mini quilt from my swap group on Flickr. It was also my first mail from Canada! Very exciting :) Look how cute. The challenge was for the project to be all hand-made - no machine stitching. I LOVE my new mini quilt! Jill posted a really nice story about it on her blog, which made me love it even more.

That’s it for the craft update :)

First of all, this headline made me feel old. Then it made me sad. He’s only 31! Daunte put my little school - that’s actually not so little - on the map. And now, his career has been cut short by injuries. Here’s the story:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/football/nfl/specials/preview/2008/09/04/culpepper.ap/index.html?section=si_latest

This weekend, UCF will face off with USF. This rivalry is getting fierce - I hope we decimate them. I particulary dislike USF because they were so efficient in setting up their football team and surpassing us in achievements and support in lightening speed. But now, the playing field is leveling out. This should be a good game on Saturday, and I can’t wait to see the Knights kick the crap out of the Bulls!

UPDATE:

Well, we lost in overtime, and the crybaby Bulls won’t play us anymore. The game was super exciting and then a huge bummer. Luckily, there are two more nationally-televised games this season :) Go Knights!

He sums it up so much better than me. (Thanks for sharing, Spankrats!)

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="185" caption="palin family"][/caption]

In my last post, I said if Palin wasn’t pro-life, I’d love her. Well, upon further inspection, that’s not really true. She has a gorgeous family, but I think she’s really just too conservative for me - against same-sex marriage, against sex-ed in school, pro-life. I’m watching her now on the RNC, and she’s a pretty terrible telepromter reader, and she’s boring. But she is pretty. She looks like Tina Fey. So far, she’s not talking about anything at all and it’s about 20 minutes into her speech. I’m also not sure what the crowd is going crazy about.

It does sound like she put up a good fight against big oil, but I wonder how long that would last if they made it into office?

Here’s what Sierra Club has to say about McCain’s energy record:

http://www.sierraclub.org/politics/candidates/mccain.asp

I do think it’s funny that she’s saying that because she’s not a member of Washington elite, some people consider her unqualified. Isn’t that what they say about Obama?

Ugh. I really just want to fast forward her.

Now she’s picking on my main man, Barack, and she sounds like a pretty, more eloquent version of Bush. Fear, terrorism, fire and brimstone…blah blah blah.

“He’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights.” That’s right - we have civil liberties in this country, dumb ass!

I really dislike these Republicans. I think I’ll call them Repugnant-ans from now on.

Look at me, I coined a phrase!

Hooray, my Tivo just cut her off. Whew!

I did like when the littlest girl was licking her hand and smoothing the baby’s hair down, though.

Lacey Schwimmer on Dancing with the Stars? That’s almost not fair - she’s almost as famous as Lance Bass! That really seems like an unfair advantage. I can’t wait to see Cloris Leachman, either.

How about Sarah Palin? If she wasn’t pro-life, I’d love her. If she wasn’t on McCain’s ticket, I might vote for her. But it’s really not about her, is it? Although, remember that show with Geena Davis, where the Pres died and she takes office. She was only his VP to get the womens’ vote? That could happen - McCain is pretty old. BUT, he’s not going to win anyway *fingers crossed*, so it won’t matter. I think her 17-year old daughter being pregnant is a fun little twist for the conservatives to grapple with :)

Just finishing up Susan Wiggs’ Firebrand. Really awesome book. I highly recommend it.

I loved Barack’s speech. Can’t wait for him to be President!!! It’s time to start reading up on all the crazy propositions showing up on my Nov. ballot…inform yourself!

I joined a “handmade holiday” group on flickr, to motivate me to finish all my holiday gifts this year, rather than not finishing any of them, and ending up buying a bunch of gifts right before Christmas. I’m not doing that great this year either. It’s already Sept, basically, and I’m still in the idea phase. I have been buying lots of fabric in preparation for the things I’m GOING to make, but it’s not the same as making them, now is it?

Plus, I need to plan a few Thanksgiving gifts first anyway. I have some patterns for table runners that I think are so adorable, and would be perfect for my step-mom. She changes her table decorations for each holiday, so she’s the one person who could actually use seasonal table runners and place mats. I love making these small projects. Plus, I’d love to make some cute little felt napkin rings with leaves or turkeys or pilgrim shoes. Since everyone is getting cloth napkins for Christmas (which I’ve yet to make), they’re going to need napkin rings, right?

I also have some super cute panel fabric to make trick-or-treat bags for Halloween. My nieces just moved here from Germany, so that panel I bought that makes 3 bags is now perfect for my 2 nieces and my son. I just have to GET SEWING.

Finally, there’s Christmas. I have the 3 quilts kits that I bought for gifts for last year, still neatly tied in their piles in my fabric bins. One is the cutest fleece with hot cocoa cups all over. I’d really like to make that one. Plus, I got special fabric for small quilts for my nieces and nephews.

Basically, I need to get off this macbook and get sewing. Today. See ya.

I just finished glue-basting this first block from Aunt Millie’s Garden by Piece O’ Cake Designs. I’m super excited about it, and instead of being exhausted, I can’t wait to start the next one! I’ve been collecting Denyse Schmidt fabrics for about six months in preparation for this project.

I also found a few new gems on the web - these are some super awesome embroidery sites:
First I found PimpStitch (don’t miss their blog), thanks to a photo on Flickr. From there, I found Stitchy Stitcherson’s blog (I really love that name), which lead me to AnnieOakLeaves (awesome - free patterns!) which lead me back to Floresita, whose blog I already love (and is chocked full of free patterns), which lead me to Stitchy Britches (another great name), where I ended up at Exceedingly Curious’ scans of an 1886 pattern book! What a cool find! Thanks to John Governale for all that hard work!

So that’s it for the black hole of productivity (a.k.a., the internet) for today.

I’m stoked about Joe Biden. Excellent choice. I sad the Olympics are over, but glad I may actually get some sleep this week. I’m excited that my husband has a job interview this week and things may be changing soon.

Now, it’s 7 am, so it’s time to head to the park before it’s 100 degrees outside!

[caption id="attachment_466" align="alignleft" width="290" caption="Heather Ross Mendocino from Free Spirit"][/caption]

Exciting things are happening in my craft world. First of all, I just ordered the whole Mendocino line from PurlSoho.com…I CAN’T WAIT for it to arrive. You both (as in, my 2 faithful readers) know that I don’t need any more fabric, but who cares?! Life is short, and Heather Ross fabric disappears and never returns. I’m still searching for a yard or two of that sweet gnome fabric!

So not only is her new Free Spirit fabric available for purchase, but she has a new blog! So here’s a link: http://heatherross.squarespace.com/

I think she is an amazing artist. Her fabrics include her sweet illustrations, they are witty and fun and super creative. Not to detract from other designers, but her lines seem so much more thoughtful than a lot of what’s available. Anyway, I’ve also added her to my blogroll, so you can always find her from there - under Heather Ross.

Also on the way is new fabric from Heather Bailey - purchased directly from her new web shop. Awesome. I took her up on the early bird offer and got some free trash ties. We’ll see how well I do with those :)

You know what? While I was shopping around at Purl, I found Denyse Schmidt’s upholstry weight line, County Fair. Did you know about that? I almost bought it all up, but then I remembered that I have a whole bin of upholstry weight stuff that I haven’t used and have no real plan for, so I held back. Good for me! I’m proud of me. I also saw Amy Butler’s new upholstry weight line, August Fields. Beautiful. But again, let’s be realistic. How many huge-repeating-image fabrics can you use?

Also, I had already spent $200.

What?!! Good thing my husband doesn’t read this :)

I also found these fun sites:

http://www.trueup.net/

http://alabamastudiostyle.blogspot.com/

http://blog.lenacorwin.com/

http://www.melaniefalickbooks.com/

Insipration abounds! Get crafting!

I often tout the great Slate.com’s Political Gabfest as one of my favorite podcasts. I usually love the interesting legal insight of Emily Bazelon, the timely and often historically-based (and poll-based) comments from John Dickerson and the quick wit of David Plotz. However, this week was a sad exception. John is exempt from my criticism because he was absent. His stand in, Josh Levin seemed as perplexed as me, so he’s also excused.

Emily and David spent a considerable amount of time lamenting the Olympics - using words like “boring” and “tedious”. As they wondered aloud why someone hadn’t come up with a better way to move through water than the butterfly or backstroke, I was thinking, “idiots.” As they went on and on about “who cares if the gymnasts are too young? The older gymnasts better come up with a new program!” I knew that had not seen the heart-warming story of the 33-year old German gymnast. I knew they didn’t know that Micheal Phelps has double-jointed knees, which helps him achieve that perfect butterfly - a ridiculously difficult feat of coordination and timing - but it’s really his life-long dedication that’s made him the most-medal winning Olympian of all time.

They seem to be missing the point. The Olympic spirit, if you will. It’s not about sitting through each heat - unless that’s your thing. It’s not even about these awesome photo finishes - like when Phelps won the gold or Torres won the silver (which both made me cry!), it’s about appreciating the life long dedication and awesome athletic skill of these Olympians. The fact that they represent our country to the world, when we could really use the good press and the good will! The fact that they work their asses off not just for their own glory but also for ours.

I totally hated David and Emily’s lame, small-minded, decidedly un-athletic commentary on the Olympics. I’ll be glad when they get back to talking about politics.