Anarchist Archivist

Alex Quote

Time to reinstate one of my favorite blog entry types:  inappropriate quotes from my sister.

Upon seeing that there is a documentary on Netflix called "Verdict on Auschwitz":

"Uhhhh...I think we know the verdict.  Thumbs down."

Quilting Bitch

I've always loved the idea of quilting, but actually undertaking it has always kind of terrified me.  but then I discovered this wonderful invention called "charm packs", which are packs of precut squares of fabric, usually from the same collection, that are wonderful for beginners.  See, I'm not that great at cutting fabric yet.  My hand always slips at the last minute, or my measurements are slightly wrong, so no two pieces are ever exactly the same. 

I found a collection I loved, "Oh My!" by Moda.  So I bought some charm parks and went to town.  I began by trying to sort and sew by color.  But I gave that up after the first four squares that I sewed.  And by that I mean I sewed four charm squares together four times, making four larger squares of my own.  I had originally planned on trying just simple small and individually quilted squares, little wall hangers of a sort.  But I decided to be a little more ambitious.  After that, I tried my hardest to not have two of the same color next to each other.    And I just kept sewing.  And I fell in love with the results.  Eventually I used up most of my squares.  The finished product ended up being 6 x 11 charm pack squares big, which on my tiny frame is a good lap quilt, though I keep referring to it as a baby-sized quilt.  I bought some cheap but utterly adorable black and white polka dot fabric from Joann's, along with teal binding.  And I did the binding by hand, which is why it kind of looks like crap.  You can't see it in the pictures, but they're are plenty of parts that are genuinely fucked up.  Which is my excuse to keep it forever and always for me. 

This is what the basic quilt top looked like:

This gives a better idea of what it looks like below, showing what my seams ending up looking like.  For the most part it looks the way it's supposed to. 



This is what my "quilt sandwich" looked like, which is basically the top of the quilt, the batting, and the backing safety pinned together to begin the actual quilting part.  you can see here that the four corners of my charm squares don't match up exactly when sewn together, but they're pretty close. 



And the sandwich, pre-binding but post-quilting.  I decided to do a simple straight line quilting, that I'd had the intention of being fairly uniform.  But my poor little $80 Singer can't really handle this much fabric at once, and struggled pretty hard.  So my uniform idea went out the window, and artistically wobbly came into play instead. 

Add another month and half to complete the binding, and this is what you end up with:



Which ain't bad, if I say so myself. 

All By Myself

So I've been living by myself for almost two months now.  and I'm simply adoring it.  I got exactly the apartment that I wanted.  And I got it far too easily, in my opinion.  I'm used to things I'm really in want of being nearly, if not totally, unattainable.  And I literally came and looked at the apartment of my dreams, a huge vintage studio with two closets and a giant bathtub, and was invited to sign the lease right then and there.  I commented on my unease with my friend Will the next day.

"I don't know, it just seems like I'm going to show up and it's going to suddenly reek of cat pee or something.  or 'Oh my god!  What's that train doing outside my window?'"

"Maybe your next door neighbor is just really into model trains."

"And then we're going to have hook up, so I can add awkward neighbor sex to the list of reasons this apartment is a bad idea."

"Yeah, well.  you know those model train guys are just really into good cabooses."

None of that actually happened though.  The only slightly weird thing is it occasionally sounds like something's having sex in my freezer.  But Lauren even gave that a good spin, saying that maybe it's just ice cream sandwiches making more little ice cream sandwiches, which can hardly be a bad thing.  Anyway, here are some pictures from the first night it was officially mine:

The very first thing that went into my fridge. 

 

My enormous and gorgeous hardwood floor. 

My built-in dresser.  All kinds of heck yeah for that.

And finally, my beautiful all tile bathroom.  Where I take hot bubble baths, read nerdy books, and store my multitude of mascaras that I don't really need in the first place.