Here's my first block for Sew Connected. I sent it to Rita on Wednesday.
I could have made a dozen variations! I was torn between trying to keep with the color scheme in just the fabrics that she sent me and going off on my own tangent. With fourteen people participating, there is going to be a wide variety...I was even looking at other people's squares on flickr to see which way to go. In the end, I think I struck a happy medium, but from now on, I think I'm just going to trust my instincts a little more and let them guide me. After all, if I wanted a quilt that was just all my own way, I could do that by myself. By inviting fourteen people to participate, I welcome fourteen different styles and color choices into my quilt. I'm going to put a little more of "me" in these blocks and not worry so much about whether it will "go" with the other blocks. Deep breath!
Rita invited us to keep some of the fabrics she sent us. I sent most of it back, but I did cut a few strips for myself. I have some crazy idea in the back of my head like "make a quilt using everyone's scraps," but I don't know if that will ever happen. In the meantime, I did use some scraps to make a little Christmas ornament quilt. It's basically a coaster with a loop attached. It did give me a chance to try free-motion quilting. I don't have a darning foot, but my owner's manual says I can fmq just by dropping the feed dogs...I am getting better, but I will probably get a universal darning foot eventually. I would really like to do some fmq on a larger quilt. The binding on this is terrible--I just folded the backing over to make the binding. Doesn't look good!

There's a new blog out there that I'm enjoying. I also like this one for simple and frugal ideas.

In keeping with the simple and frugal theme, here is a story about how to be neither:

I used to get my hair highlighted, but I haven't done so for over a year. I just didn't have the time last year (because I was never kid-free), and didn't like sitting in the chair for two hours trying to converse with a girl who wasn't that happy about life--especially since I wasn't pleased with my last few haircuts from her. (Breaking up with a hairstylist is always awkward--I ended up leaving the salon.) Anyway, on Wednesday, I decided to do it myself. I purchased one of those home kits where you do an all-over color and then paint on your own highlights. Sounds so easy, and for only $15.00, you can look as fabulous as the woman on the box!

I chose dark ash blonde. Because I'm mousy like that, and ash-toned colors work best on me.

Here is before. And in retrospect (damn you, 20/20 hindsight!), it's not so bad:

Now, keeping in mind that the color I bought was DARK ASH BLONDE, here is after:

Um, yeah. And you can't even see how down at the bottom, the old, previously highlighted part only absorbed part of the color, so it's a very odd, almost green shade. So the new girl I've been seeing for fab haircuts has been called. We've already had a consultation, and next Wednesday, she's going to attempt to fix this disaster. I can only pray that the Red Sox keep winning so I can continue to wear my ball cap. The lesson, ladies: just suck it up and go to the professionals the first time!