Quilts!

Am making two twin-sized quilts to be provided to Hurricane Katrina evacuees. The effort is a bit of a logistical challenge as the majority of my fabric and sewing supplies (but not my machines!) are in a storage unit waiting out the basement remodel. Undaunted! I went on my lunch hour yesterday and after a comical interlude which revealed that our storage facility is NOT a well-oiled machine, gained access to the unit and rooted through plastic boxes, selecting bits of fabric.

5:30 PM: After getting home from work, I go to the local quilt shop and buy some 50%-off fabric for the backs of the quilts, and a few other pieces. I buy some full-price heart fabric. Says my mom, savoring the flavor via mobile phone: “But you don’t like hearts?!” I respond, “I know, but they ARE the international symbol for love!”

6:00 PM: I go home, put the new fabric in the washer to preshrink, then iron the fabric retrieved from the storage unit.

6:30 PM: Ready to cut fabric into squares and strips. Oh. No rotary cutter. Spend half an hour looking for rotary cutter, then give up and drive back to the quilt shop to buy a new one: $17.91 with tax.

6:55 PM: Prepare mac and cheese, eat. Somehow disable cable box by changing channels (FOX was the offending choice.) There’s a quarter-size box at top right, and an 8th-size box at lower left. Both contain the “On Demand” preview channel, and I can’t change the channel.

6:57 PM: Decide to watch DVD “Bottle Rocket.” Some moments I love this movie--it hints at Wes Anderson's future brilliance--and then I totally lose interest and have to turn it off. This is not like me—Sheer Cover infomercials hold my interest.

7:15 PM: Cut fabric, begin sewing.

7:20 PM: Realize my White sewing machine is on the fritz. No matter what I adjust stitch length to, it ratchets back to TEENY TINY stitches which slow down the process and make the dining room table jiggle up and down to an irritating degree. Put away White sewing machine.

7:22 PM: Set up beautiful Singer featherweight, which sews like a dream! Huzzah! They don’t make them like this anymore!

8:07 PM: Decide based on motley fabric selection, instead of two color-coordinated quilts, one quilt will be brights/primaries, and the other will be pastel.

9:22 PM: Sh*t! Remember exactly where old rotary cutter is.

11:15 PM: Bobbin runs out. I don’t notice for 6 more feet. Take this as a sign to stop sewing. Cut all plain squares for bright quilt—hard to scrounge up enough brights/primaries! There will be a lot of yellow in this quilt. Most of my fabric has flowers on it, so I don’t know that a boy or a man will like it, though!

11:45 PM: Bed!