THE quilt day 3, 4, & 5.

fabric has been coming in a few pieces at a time, so i have been making a few circles each day. here is where i should note that the "day" in the title represents the days that i actually work on the quilt. i take pictures after each set of circles, but somehow i got a bit sidetracked with who knows what and i neglected to post the pictures from the weekend. my deepest apologies to mrs. s.s., who expressed her desire to see the latest contributions (which include hers) by telling me to "get to it missy!" i cannot argue with enthusiasm, so all i have to say is "yes ma'am."

day three. representing new york, illinois, arizona, and florida.

day four. representing colorado and germany...added another continent!!! yahoo!!

day five. the most recent contributions. representing virgina and ME! for reasons unknown, when i finished sewing my wedding dress, i left all the scraps at my parent's house, so i have been waiting for the arrival of that fabric. in case you are not sure, it's the white circles.

THE quilt. day 1.

for the past month we have been receiving fabric and wishes in our mailbox. i was expecting this project to be fun, i had no idea that it would be totally amazing. i have been blown away by the spirit and generosity of each person who has sent fabric. thus far we have 32 fabrics from 23 different people...we have gotten old, new, used, and blue...they have come from 8 states, and three continents...

32 fabrics.

this week is my spring break, and for my entire five years of teaching, i have always sewed my way through spring break. i did not see any reason why this week should be any different. but i spent yesterday morning at the doctor's office suffering through a glucose tolerance test and yesterday afternoon moping around hoping against hope that the tests would come back normal. last night i organized and ironed all of the quilt fabric and today i was determined to get to sewing. but then the doctor's office called to tell me my results were normal, which made me so happy it took me thirty minutes to come back down to earth.

circle templates.

back to the quilt. i had planned on cutting a square from each fabric and sewing them all together. and then mrs. nipper knapp found this gem of a quilt at purl bee. neither one of us can imagine why anyone would make a mini quilt, so we both opted for baby quilts. she has already finished hers, which makes me feel like a slow slow dodo-bird, but i digress. this quilt calls for circles. lots and lots of circles. and i LOVE circles. my plan is to make a big circle with each of the fabrics and then make little fill-in-the-gaps circles with all of the scraps. today i made a circle with each of the 32 fabrics that are in my possession. and if i may say so myself, this quilt is gonna be stupendous.

next step...start making fill-in-the-gaps circles with the 32 scraps and wait for the other fabrics that are en route. luckily this pattern is perfect for all of my procrastinating pals. since the circles are attached to a large background fabric, i can just leave spaces for the twenty or so fabrics that have not yet arrived. fantastic-O!

fountains of frustration.

i woke up on saturday morning positively determined to set forth in my pursuits of academic excellence. i started off in the kitchen where i brewed up a tasty mug of coffee and then promptly sat down on the couch to watch television. problemo numero uno. should never ever have turned on the boob tube. at this point my brain does an about face and insists that it is imperative that i write a letter to my pal, before i start my studies. sure thing. why not? it will get the noggin juices flowing. right. problemo numero two. i snagged some paper and started my communication. now, it needs to be said that i am a pen snob (and yes, freakishly picky), although my tastes change depending on my mood. some days i want the basics, namely a papermate medium point blue ballpoint pen. other days i gleefully swirl ink across the paper with my pilot g-2 gel pens. then there are days when i am satisfied with the pure genius of the sharpie pen (yes, it is as delectable as its commercials imply). but, on saturday i wanted the crème de la crème. a fountain pen gracefully spewing my higgins black india ink.

easy right? ummm..not in my world. i located my stash of fountain pens only to discover that none were willing to provide a free-flowing ink experience. i gathered up some supplies - water, and paper towels - and sat on the floor prepared to do battle with the innards of the first pen. i dismantled the pen, washed it out, reassembled it, and added ink. after some wheedling, i caught a glimpse of ink emerging from the nib. i hastily started drawing loops across the paper, intent on encouraging the ink to appear. it did. and then it promptly disappeared. argh! after about twenty torturous minutes, i moved on to the next pen. same story. this time, the ink was a little more forthcoming, except the remnants of blue residing in the ink well refused to give way to the black. grrrrr. this brought me to my third (and final) fountain pen. the superlative tombow fountain pen, which i received many moons ago, as a christmas present from my brother. long story short, this pen did NOT appreciate the third disassembling of its guts, choosing instead a fate much worse - a snapped in half ink well. gasp! the horror the horror! yes. my desire to finagle this pen into demonstrating its prowess as a writing implement, resulted in its demise.

at this point i have not only reached my wits end, i have expended THREE hours cleaning pens, staining my fingers black with ink, and making a general mess. i still have nothing to show for my efforts. but wait! a glimpse into my memory reveals that perhaps there are more fountain pens to be found. ahhh..yes. i found two more. rather than bore you with the details, i shall simply say that these two pens did not revive any better than the first three. so FIVE hours after the ordeal began, i had to resort to my trusty standby, the koh-i-noor technical pen. i filled the ink well with my black india ink and began the letter anew. the pen worked as expected, but the writing experience with a technical pen is incomparable to a fountain pen. this prompted TWO hours of scouring the internet for reasonably priced fountain pens. this experience might qualify me to steal my best friend's title "queen of procrastination," but i am left wondering if i can justify to the mister why i find it imperative to spend $25 on a pen. me thinks he will not understand.

cardboard conundrum.

this is the last week of my summer courses for graduate school, so what better time to dilly dally? the fun factor of procrastination significantly increases as time runs out. since i have to read charlotte's web in its entirety tonight, i thought i might as well put down the book for two hours to ensure that i will have to stay up all night. i know what you're thinking...charlotte's web is for kids. yes, that's right. it is. i am working on a masters in children's literature, so i spend my time reading kids books. the difference between myself and the kids (yes there is occasionally a difference) is that after i finish reading the book i have to analyze it, research critiques of it, and then write a two-thousand word paper detailing the represented theories.

as i am sure is totally obvious by now, tonight it was important for me to endlessly dawdle to maximize the sheer terror i will experience in six days when the paper is due. i figured i might as well drag my husband around some stores looking for the perfect cardboard boxes for my storage bin project. i have to say, the mister is a total trooper. he traipsed through four different stores looking at cardboard boxes. he even stepped out of character and encouraged me to buy some lovely canvas covered metal baskets, which are about as close to exactly what i want as possible, because he figured it would save me time. i had to explain to him that the thrill is in making a giant mess of the house while eliminating the cluttered chaos on the shelves. not sure that he fully appreciates my need to be constantly submerged in a thousand craft projects, but we've only been married for two years. maybe in another few years this part of my existence will start to make more sense to him. probably not, but one can always hope.

our search ended in home depot where we finally found what i declared the perfect boxes, for the perfect price. sadly, the forklifts took over the paint aisle, so i will have to go back to buy the paint, but i did bring home some samples of "off-white." it's always a bit surprising to see how many different versions of "white" you can find in a paint store. i am leaning towards a creamy pale pale pale yellow. i think it will look lovely with the fabric i already purchased. tomorrow i will start putting together the boxes. after all, doing research for my paper is on tomorrow's schedule, so what better idea than to start a major project.

fresh in the water.

greetings one and all and welcome to the inner workings of my brain.

this is it. the official blog of pickel. lately i have been spending inordinate amounts of time by myself, which has prompted me to spend perverse periods of time contemplating the meaning of life. what better thing to do than share my lunacy with the world? okay fine. my reclusive behavior is 100% attributable to my desire to earn 1/8 of my masters degree in a six week period. seeing that i am second to only one in the world of procrastination, i spent the last six weeks engrossed in a plethora of activities purely designed to postpone the nightmare of daily coursework. one of my courses indoctrinated me into this strangle little world of blogging and then i met a lovely lady, who writes a fabulous blog (http://mymomsanerd.blogspot.com/), so i decided that i wanted to join this merry little band of bloggers.

since this is my first blog, who knows what direction it might take. for now i am thinking that it will just be a glimpse into the weird little world that i inhabit. i am sure my darling husband will be thrilled that i have decided to post our life on the internet. luckily for him, this post is about MY world, not his, so other than the fact that we cohabit the same world, he'll be immune. mhmm, sure. i predict he will be mentioned in every single post. so much for immunity.

current status: procrastinating. yes that's right. i have four papers to write today, totaling about seven thousand words. rather than even pretend to work on those papers, i decided to start a blog. this might be the most perfect tool i have ever discovered for delaying the inevitable. only my first post and i am already hooked.

unfortunately, i think that i should stop being so obvious about my dallying tactics. me thinks i shall go and peruse my favorite cookbooks. if i can write a shopping list before the mister gets home i might be able to prey on his hunger and convince him to go grocery shopping with me. since both grocery shopping and cooking qualify as official domestic business, they have every right to postpone studies. yesssss!! are you starting to get a picture of my capacity for lagging?