QuiltCon Countdown

I enjoyed our guild's Sew Day on Saturday and made big progress on my Easy Street Mystery. I finished two last big blocks and 11 setting triangles Sunday and Monday. Woo hoo! All I need to do is press everything, lay out the blocks on my design floor, and sew it all together. This sucker is going to be huge. Way beyond my attention span, but all the little mystery pieces kept me going. I'm pretty thrilled to have all the blocks done.

There was some Shrinky Dink action in the house last night. I forgot how amazing they turn out and how fun it is to watch them curl up and shrink. The color on them is amazing. I found a kit at Michael's for 90% off, so it was well worth 29 cents to occupy a little one and see the amazement on his face while they baked. I have a few sheets of the plastic, so we'll have to make more some day.

I've been collecting my supplies for my QuiltCon workshops for a few weeks. Today I assembled them all together and made sure I had everything. I'm missing a palette knife, but I think I can make-do with something similar. I'm taking three workshops: Color Your Cloth, which involves batik/wax resist, and is taught by Malka Dubrawsky; Machine Applique with Debbie Grifka of Esch House Quilts; and Blockprinting on Textiles by Lizzy House.

I'm bringing my gigantic suitcase my parents gave me for high school graduation. I hope it hasn't dry rotted. ;) I'm also hoping it doesn't weigh over 50 lbs. when I fill it, because I'm sure I'll find a few things to buy while in Austin. I may have to leave all my clothes in the hotel room trash when I leave. Well, at least the dirty ones.

Inspector Gadget bought groceries yesterday, so I guess he'll play chef while I'm gone. I bet I'll miss some good eats, but I won't worry about everyone starving to death. I really thought they would eat pizza, tacos, burgers, fried chicken, sushi, and Chinese takeout while I was gone. I'm a little proud! Of course last time I went out of town they set off the smoke alarm and the fire department came. I'm sure that was just a fluke.

I noticed a few blog announcements about pattern theft. Sew Hooked and Artisania have blogged about it. It appears a creepy company calling themselves Los Angeles Needleworks is stealing free tutorials from popular blogs and selling them for their profit. Whaaa?! This is outrageous and illegal. I cut my sewing teeth on free tutorials and am in debt to the giving nature of those bloggers. I hope the thieves are shut down quickly and have to pay everyone back. And that their bobbin runs out at the worst moment. :P Spread the word if you can.