So many hobbies!

This is for Lucia

Six more quarts

Today was a beautiful day for picking.  Not too warm, no humidity... it was great.  It's much more fun to go with a friend.  Alice and I was talking so much, it didn't feel like we were out there for three hours.  The bushes were vicious, however, and both Alice and I have scratches all over our arms.

The plan was to work on the quilt but it didn't happen.  Between napping, working on more boxes, a party at a friends and raspberries, there wasn't time for quilting.  I've got two boxes about halfway done but I need more elastic before I can complete them.  This is the third box from last week:

Sorry I've been away

I haven't been doing much besides sewing spindle boxes.  My only break was Sunday morning when I picked 6 quarts of raspberries.  I've also been dealing with the damn funk that keeps creeping back and when that happens, I never feel like I have anything interesting to say.  Of course, all I've been doing lately is sewing boxes, boxes, boxes, which doesn't make for interesting blog fodder anyway.  I managed to finish 3 boxes over the weekend except for sewing on the bottons.  Two are now completed and up in my Etsy shop but the third had one of the button loops come out and needs to be resewn.  These are the two completed boxes:

 

 

I've promised myself that time will be spent working on the quilt this weekend.  All work and no play if you know what I mean.  And there might be more raspberry picking.

Patent?

I just looked into what it would take to get a patent for my spindle boxes.  Yikes!  Legalzoom.com was recommended to me so I checked out their website.  Even discounted, it would cost me $1130 to file for a patent.  Damn!  Owning a patent would be so very cool but there's no way I can toss out more than $1100 for one.  Jeez!  Now I'm all disappointed.

First, a thank you...

and an apology.  Val was wonderful and sent me some lovely fabric scraps, one of which I'm using in my quilt.  Thank you so much, Val, and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to say so.   You rock!

 

These are the fabrics I'm using.  (The one from Val is second from the top.)  I realized pretty quick that I needed more variety than just creamcicle orange.   I added deeper and brighter oranges.  I'm pretty happy with the variety.  I spent all Saturday sewing strips of white to each rectangle and cutting out each unit.  I somehow ended up with 65 units when I really need 88.  Apparently, I really suck at the planning and counting part of making a quilt. 

 

Monday night, a few of us met at a friend's for homemade pizza.  One of the girls, Julie, is a henna artist and she did this dragon on my back.  After the henna dried, she put some kind of medical tape over it.  The henna had to stay on as long as possible so I slept with it on and washed it off in the shower this morning.  Henna is a permanent dye but it fades after a while with the natural sloughing of the skin.  I love it.

More for quilt #2

 

This is my most recent order from The Fabric Shack.  The one on the far right looks gold but it's really orange.  I'm not sure about the 2nd and 3rd from the left.  Too much red?  Too much gold?  Not sure.  I'm working a half day tomorrow and I'll be coming home to start cutting for the quilt.

The weekend is happily unplanned.  Saturday morning I'm picking raspberries but I have nothing else until Labor Day.  I might see a movie.  I'll definitely be spending a lot of time on the couch reading a book I just got.  The rest of the time, I'll be working on the quilt, constructing spindle boxes and maybe dyeing some roving.

What are your plans for the long weekend?

Nothing too exciting

I'm sorry to say I haven't been doing anything terribly interesting.  I've been sewing spindle boxes and cutting out the components for more.  Much I'd like to, I haven't started on my next quilt.  I finished two spindle boxes last night and I've just put them up in my Etsy store.

 

This one was commissioned by Pat.

 

And this one is for anyone who wants it.  More will be coming.