Sew What (#11)

Dave stayed the night at his mother's house, so I was home alone last night. I stayed up way too late watching YouTube videos and Netflix. I finally got to sleep just before 3:00 a.m. and then got up around 7:30 and couldn't get back to sleep.

I got up and, still in my pajamas, put on today's lipstick: NYX Suede Cream Lipstick in the shade Oh, Put It On (a very, very deep purple). I cleared away my art journaling things from the kitchen table and took out my sewing machine.

I've been watching lots of quilting videos on YouTube, looking for information on quilting techniques. I like The Missouri Star Quilt Company's YouTube channel. Their proprietress Jenny Doan has very good tutorials. I won't ever be a traditional quilter, but she is good at explaining the basics of quilting.

I took out some of the fabric I have and started to cut it down into five-inch squares to practice making half-square triangles and four and nine patch blocks. I practiced using my new rotary cutter and self-healing cutting mat. (I don't really like the cutting mat. It is a giant piece of stinky plastic and I have some kind of allergic reaction to it that I hope will go away as it off-gasses a bit. For now though, it's kind of yucky but very, very handy.) I sewed a half dozen or so blocks of various types. There's a lot of ironing that goes on in between sewing. (In fact, it often seems like ironing is the bulk of machine quilting.) Anyway, that all ate up most of the late morning and early afternoon.

Around two, I got up and took a shower and changed into new pajamas and sat down to sew some more.  I made a small lined and zippered pouch out of a quilt block that went bad.

Dave spent most of the day with his mom, but he texted around 5:00 (?) to tell me he was coming home. I had enough time to clean up and put everything away and get started on dinner (baked potatoes and left-over chili with cheese and sour cream). Before we had dinner though, we went out for a fizzy drink and a chat so I could hear all the drama of his past twenty four hours.

We watched the first episode of the newest season of The Great British Baking Show on Netflix while we ate, then shared a bit of dark chocolate at the end of the episode. Now I'm back in my pajamas and in bed.