Sometimes I Change My Mind . . .

Those of you who blog--do you find yourself thinking you're going to write about one thing and you end up writing about something totally different? Do things happen throughout the day that you think may end up being the subject of your next blog post, but then something else comes along? It's funny the way that happens!

This morning I was bugged about single roll toilet paper. Yeah, it's funny what my mind wanders off onto. The story there was that a couple weeks ago, Hubby had to get something at the grocery store, so he took our running grocery list with him and picked up everything we needed--except it turns out that he doesn't know anything about the finer points of buying toilet paper. So he brought home a HUGE package of 144 single rolls of toilet paper that need replacing about six times a day, and that annoys the heck out of me. (Okay, yes, I exaggerate a little but really--is there EVER an opportune time to run out of toilet paper?)

But the day moved on and I forgot all about the toilet paper (until I came home from work). In the meantime, late this afternoon I thought that after surviving a super busy day at work, I'd come home, take a nice bath, and go to bed and read a book. I thought maybe I'd even shoot the third in a series of nude self-portraits with me naked in bed holding a book which, of course, would prove that I'm not only creative and naked but I'm also literate. Cool, huh? Except when I got home, I found that the long stretch of television reruns seems to have ended, and an early night in bed would mean missing a couple of the shows that I normally enjoy--at least enough to quilt along with. So there went my second blog post idea.

What I did instead of reading was to baste the next basket block pieces, and that got me thinking again. (When you reach 50, the act of "thinking" is an event that I would liken to jump starting a car battery--it's kind of a big deal, at least when you remember doing it.) I never can predict when a blog post will elicit a lot of comments. Yesterday's post about the football cops, the Valentine topper, and the basket blocks got an amazing number of comments--I was quite surprised! So I thought I'd just write tonight's post in response to a few questions that were asked in the comments.

Yes, I might turn the basket quilt into a pattern for sale, but there's really no telling how long it will take me. I'm trying to remember to keep notes of what I'm doing. I'm also trying to keep the applique reasonably simple. The problem I envision is that quilters often want a layout of the positioning of the applique in each block, and I don't want to draw up 13 separate blocks when all that's really necessary is to move the pieces around and audition the positioning. Still, that's hard for some people. So I'll see how it goes and ponder that a bit.

The basket handles. Yep, it's red rick rack--I started with a thicker, larger rick rack when I laid out the first block, but it really dominated the block, so I switched to the medium size. I've been watching rick rack trends a little bit and looking at quilting magazines to see how different designers are using it in their quilts. I took the general feel of what I've seen and used white embroidery floss to sew down the rick rack in a way that would also look decorative. I like the way it's turning out!

Finally--how much fabric should a person should buy? I highly recommend that each of us purchase a quilt shop, but I realize that's not practical! Seriously, though, someone mentioned they wished they'd ordered three charm packs of L'Amore instead of two and how do you know how much to buy if you don't know what you're going to make? Yep, I understand completely. If you want to make the Valentine topper, just use your two packs and match up 25 of the squares for the diagonal cut triangles. For the center squares, use what's left. If there's not enough, look in your stash for colors and patterns to supplement what's in the charm packs. It's do-able. I only ordered two charm packs of L'Amore too and I don't know what I'll do with them, but I was just looking at my little "stash" of Schnibbles patterns, so maybe there's something there that I'll make with the L'Amore charms.

I wonder how many comments there will be on this post? My prediction is somewhere around 6. Unless several people want to mention their strong feelings about single roll toilet paper, future nude self-portraits, writing applique quilt patterns, rick rack, or buying fabric. And if you do, I'd love to hear from you! By the way, does anyone know why they even MAKE single roll toilet paper anymore?!