Peeps and peels

Geez, has it really been two weeks since I posted anything? I have excuses, involving bouts with more than one chronic gastrointestinal problem plus a new one that has decided to crop up all of a sudden, plus a couple of semi-major life changes, one of which I can't discuss and the other being that school is out. Harper and I have had several long talks about how she is going to have to find Things To Do On Her Own and that we will Do Some Things Together, but I also have to Get Some Writing Done or we will Never Make It To Disneyworld In Her Lifetime.

In between periods of intestinal distress, I did manage to haul my carcass to the Annapolis Quilt Show last weekend. Since I haven't been feeling well, I didn't try to hook up with anybody local, figuring nobody wants to see the woman who writes funny quilt jokes on the internet doubled over and grimacing every few minutes. Tends to take the bloom off the rose.

I remember feeling kind of blown away and somewhat intimidated last year, seeing all those quilts with patterns and techniques I would never in a million years master. But this year? I don't know - this year was different and I don't know if it was the quality of the entries or just the increase in my confidence or some of both. I kept thinking that I could do better, and I'm not even sure if I'm right about that. And most of them had been quilted by the same person who pieced them (and apparently a LOT of people own longarms) and I can't compete with that, but I just didn't have that same sense of awe and wonder. I just thought, well shit, I need to get started on a new project.

I did score some fabric while I was there:

Castle Peeps in the red colorway. This is one of those lines I have coveted but never purchased because I knew I would just hoard it and not cut into it, but it's not so easy to abstain when it's all bundled up and giving you come hither looks from across the show floor. She had the green and blue colorways as well, and when I spotted them there were two women fondling them and trying to decide whether to buy one, and as soon as the one woman put this bundle down I swooped in and grabbed it. Yes, I turned into one of those If You're Not Touching It, Bitch, It's Mine people - and I didn't care. And, oh, she had all kinds of good stuff: Echino and Anna Maria Horner and Heather Ross and Erin McMorris and I was drooling everywhere. She has an online shop: Some Art Fabric and her business card (which I have lost) gives her title as Enabler. Her tagline is: We Sell Fabric. Wanna Make Something Of It? I love that.

Since I have my sweet baby girl all up in my armpits for the next two months, I thought it would be prudent to have some handwork to do. Remember this project?

Yeah, well. I abandoned that. I got this far:

and couldn't take it anymore. Those were probably the hardest pieces to do out of all of them, but just doing those was tedious and difficult and I hated sitting there with my Clover mini iron, trying not to burn myself or anyone else. But I still really, really want to do turned edge applique. So I thought that maybe something simpler would be better, and I settled on an orange peel design.

If you have not tried turned edge applique and want to, I highly recommend this route. It's easy to make the template, easy to starch and turn the edges of this shape. So far, I've made 48 squares, and I stitch them whenever I need to keep an eye on the kids without being drafted into participating in one of their games ("Mom, pretend that I'm a princess and you're the evil queen who says mean things to me when I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG.")

I am now going to attempt to choke down a piece of gluten-free bread and some water. Cheers!