Late Night Sewing Adventures

If you know me, then you know that I am a night owl to the umpteenth degree. I stay up late and wake up waaaay too early, though not 100% by choice. So what do I do? No, I'm not out drinkin' with the college kiddies. I'm not watching Powerball (okay, so I'm probably watching WWE)  or heck, I'm not even reading. I'm out in the middle of the living room sewing, and sometimes I get a wild hair and try something new.

This is the case with the other night (I can't remember which other night, one of 'em recently...is it bad that at 23 I'm losing track? I need a vacation, lol). I have never really delved into the wild and wooly world of templates. Based solely upon the reception of template usage in Block of the Month - oh yes, there was groaning - I kind of just assumed they were a pain in the keester and I more or less avoided them. But *someone* delivered a subtle hint to me that they wanted me to try them, by putting a freakin cute pattern in my cubby box at work...Mom...

So I gave it a go, and you know? It wasn't hard at all. I don't know what all the griping was about! It took a few extra minutes to draw trace out the templates onto some template plastic, but I had those and all the fabrics cut in less than 45 minutes. The only issue I encountered with the pattern was that it was a wedge type design that converges in the center rather than going across in rows; that in and of itself wasn't the issue, the issue was just the bias on those edges stretching because someone got irritated at sewing it together wrong and tore out the stitches too vigorously, thus stretching the bias and making the center bubbly. Ahem.

 I used fabric from Jinny Beyer's Outback line (the two black pieces) and the rest is from M&S Textiles' Australian Aboriginal fabrics. I think I have Audrey Martin Napanangka and Bea "Nambooka" Edwards featured here.

I love it and it looks great, but uh, I screwed up the middle. That's suppused to look like a peppermint candy, you know, every other one? I got irrtated and pulled out my stitching and put it back together and in the process stretched the bias and made it bubble in the center. Luckily the fabulous Carol can fix that little issue in quilting! But anyway, not bad for a first go!