Year of the Unorganised

I have decided to endow this year with the above title. It fits on the dragon calendar after 'Year of the Good Intentions' and the 'Year of the Stark Reality'. I do, however, yearn for the 'Year of Error Free Applique', but Duncan tells me that only comes around once every 70 years or so. So if you've already had a year like that, sorry, that was it. Hope you got a lot done.

I was chatting on email a couple weeks ago, and confessed I should do a section on the site called 'Brain Fades I have committed'. So here goes. For example, have you ever...

- Sewn a long side outer strip on the completely wrong side of your patchwork and had to unpick the whole seam? Or worse still, find the fabric you REALLY wanted for the side panels one week after your lovely partner in quilting has already completed the single bed quilt top? (Sorry Margaret!)

- Forgotten to include enough fabric for the binding strips (ARRRGH- just last month! Sorry Lynda.)

- Had a rotary cutting moment, and cut a strip one inch too small out of that special fabric which is no longer on sale, and there's not enough left for another cut.

- Chosen a fabric, bought 3 meters of the stuff, and then realised that it's a short width fabric, and won't stretch to the 42 inches across that your design calls for? ($%^#@!!!)

- Found out that the people who do your printing for you have neglected to include a page in a pattern after you've just mailed out the last one in a batch of 20.

- Blithely pressed down your intricate Egyptian chariot, half finished the stitching, and then realised you've somehow pressed it an extra 3 inches too far over from the edge, and now there's no way you can actually fit the rest of the pieces on the strip. ($%^#@!!! to the power of 10.)

- And the best of all time, ironed fusible webbing on wrong way up, so that the Iron is COVERED in GLUE!

If you have done all or one of these, don't worry, you are not alone. I too, walk the patchwork Hall of Shame. Actually, I don't think there's anyone who hasn't made mistakes. (But if it's you, please go away.) I figure until I get to heaven, I'm never going to be perfect, so I can either stress over it, or choose to let it go and live life in a happier frame of mind.

So here's to a year where I know I will be unorganised. I may not get everything done correctly the first time. I may have several more brain fades, but hey, as long as I have fun and can laugh at myself, I'm not going to be too stressed about it. (Duncan says don't worry, he laughs at me enough for the both of us.)

May your needles be sharp and your pins be pointy.

cheers,

Natashia

P.S. On a completely different note - did you know there's actually a whole book on quilts inspired by Barak Obama????? I saw it at AQC this week in Melbourne. Can you imagine something similar done in Australia? Quilts inspired by Kevin Rudd! The quilts may not turn out quite so 'inspirational', and have issues with badly installed batting! tee hee hee!

P.P.S. Before you send any letters, I am SO not political. The best thing about politics are the cartoons in the paper.

P.P.P.S. Here's my latest fun little project. Sometimes doodles just look 'right' and are ready for a quick project, other times they take a lot of fiddling. This one is going to be a backpack. I think it must have been inspired by my two 'monkeys'. :-)