Another One Bites the Dust!

Hellooooooooooooooooooo on Friday!  A gorgeous, sunshiny day again.  I have to go to our store in town in a few minutes to get the dress form packed in three boxes and ready for pickup Monday by Fedex.  I will be SO GLAD when that stressful ordeal is over.

What I am playing with today is actually EASY to use -- EASY to assemble -- EASY to work with -- and gives me great pleasure.  It is my latest "Kewl Tool".  Hence, I am starting a new blog section over there in the right hand column called KEWL TOOLS.  Check it out, and let me know what you think.

Before I decided to play with the new kewl tool this morning, I decided to toss the princess seam blouse in the trash.  Every time I look at it, it reminds me of that dress form.  I'm going to start over on something that never adorned Marsha's body, especially, since the makers of the dress form informed me she was made wrong -- my blouse was made wrong -- and I was made wrong.

This reminds me of the time I took the quilt class many years ago from a teacher named Mary Beth something-or-other.   I was a total novice quilter, and didn't understand any of the terms.  The class was called  "It's Okay if You Sit On My Quilt".  It was suppose to teach you how to make a quilt simply and quickly.  The class was weeks and weeks long.  You had homework every week where you had to make a sample of whatever technique/pattern Mary Beth taught in class that week. 

This particular week, the assignment was:
Make a quilt that has one PLAIN block and one PATTERN block and alternate them in the quilt.  You can't imagine how I studied and worked and painstakingly agonized over the homework.  Finally, I came up with two blocks -- one just a plain square and the other was from a book I had.

I made an equal number of plain blocks and patterned blocks.  Then I crawled around on the floor on my hands and knees for hours arranging and rearranging the blocks until I thought they looked good.  The little quilt was about 3 feet by 5 feet.  I got the quilt top all sewn together -- not padded or quilted -- this was just about TOPS -- and I went to class with my homework proudly in hand.  Now, let me point out here, that the class was jam-packed-full of women.  Some were young, but most were older and very experienced.  The teacher would call us up to the front of the class to show off our homework, and I would go up with what was usually a 1 foot by 3 foot sample to show the class.  Most students had finished tops, but one lady -- 60 or older -- would come up in front of the class carrying an ENTIRE QUEEN SIZE QUILT completed padded, quilted and bound.  I didn't know if there was any hope for me or not, but I sure was going to give it my best try.

So homework night came, and we had to show what we had done.  My turn came to go up to the front of the class and give her my quilt.  I handed my quilt to her.  She lifted it up and looked at it and said to me in an annoyed voice, "WHAT IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE?!"

Why couldn't the floor just open up and swallow me and my awful quilt right there and then?  I was so, so, SO embarrassed.  I didn't even know why she didn't like it or what I had done wrong.  She tossed my quilt down on top of all the others and said, "Who is next?"

I went to my chair and died slowly the rest of the night.  I wanted to throw up.  I was hot and sweaty and confused and sick.  I thought everyone in the whole room but me KNEW what I had done wrong and that my quilt was really horrible. 

That was it for me.  I never went back.  I quit quilting.  I kept all my homework samples from that class including that piece which I finished when I purchased my long arm 15 years later.  I named it "What Is This?"  Here is a picture of it.  The little square at the top has the name on it.

Anyway, farewell to the turquoise princess seam blouse! 

The weekend starts today, so I will start a brand new project.  I may finish the brown pants I was making though.  Even though they were on Marsha, I don't relate them to her like I do the top. 

I better get to the store.  It will take a long time to get the dress form and all of its attachments, padding and base packed. 

Remember to check out the Kewl Tool, and I'll post some more if any one of my not-so-vast audience says they like the idea.

Hugs, Joy