Month: April 2012

Modified Log Cabin Quilt Blocks

Modified Log Cabin Quilt Blocks
I just realised that I forgot to blog the April MetaQuilter quilt blocks! I finished these really early in the month and posted them off to Melissa, the designer for the month. They were a simple modified log cabin. Well, I say “simple,” but it’s just not patchwork if I don’t cut something the wrong size and swear repeatedly. But I managed to get them right in the end. 🙂

Modified Log Cabin block Modified Log Cabin block

Melissa said to feel free to put in any scraps we had that were LOUD. So the piece with the crazy fruit on it is actually mine!

Buy Our Stuff

Buy Our Stuff!
Since our house is already chaos due to the kitchen renovation, the Snook and I decided we might as well upgrade some of the furniture as well. As a consequence, we’re having a garage sale next weekend! Saturday, May 5th is the big Sydney “Garage Sale Trail” event and we’re taking part. If you’re near Chippendale on the day, swing by! In addition to the furniture, we’ll also have knitting wool, VHS tapes, and some computer bits for sale.

If you think you might want some of the furniture NOW, we’ve actually put them up on Gumtree as well: couch, TV stand, and “cat automation system”. (That’s a LitterMaid plus an automatic feeder. The Snook wrote the ad and it CRACKS ME UP.)

For the knitters, I’ve also posted a few books and things over in the Ravelry Destash thread…

Photo post

I finished my dress! Very, very pleased with it.
I finished my dress! Very, very pleased with it.

Edited to add: Yes, I finally graduated from shirts to a whole dress! This is the Colette Parfait. I didn’t want to spend too much money in case it came out badly, so I went with a cheap cotton poplin from Lincraft. I didn’t expect to get something so wearable out of it! In terms of sizing, I went with a 16 to make sure it would fit. Yowza, it was quite big around the bust. I ended up taking about an inch from under each arm tapered down to the waist, so I definitely think I’ll make the 14 next time. I didn’t do too badly with the zipper, especially considering I don’t actually have an invisible zipper foot. (I used this tutorial.) I also got to use my sewing machine’s automatic buttonhole function for the first time ever! This project was a big win. I learned heaps, and I got a wearable and CUTE dress out of it.

Hmmm… what should I make next?

“Oh, You Sexy Geek!”: “Geek Girls” and the Problem of Self-Objectification

“Oh, You Sexy Geek!”: “Geek Girls” and the Problem of Self-Objectification – A longish piece, but well worth reading. The sexiest cosplay I’ve done was probably the Wonder Woman outfit from Halloween last year. It falls in a weird area though. I didn’t alter the costume to be sexier; Wonder Woman by default wears a pretty skimpy costume. And I didn’t choose it to be sexy; I chose it because she was my childhood hero and I had the WW Underoos as a kid. (Unfortunately they don’t make WW Underoos for grown-ups.) I actually tried to de-sexy the outfit a bit by adding a skirt over the (very brief) shorts. I guess it’s a bit like the woman in the essay who defends dressing as slave Leia. For her, that outfit is about empowerment. “You put me in a gold bikini with a chain, and I’m gonna choke you to death with it.” For me, Wonder Woman was about embodying my inner 4-year-old’s ideal of a strong, powerful woman. (That said, I felt much more comfortable dressing that way at a party with my friends. I don’t think I would’ve done it at a convention.)