Saturday, October 5, 2019

Just a word

Hi everyone! You know those "word of the day" calendars? The word of the week for me is cash. It's been an expensive week. This week I paid taxes on my car for the *third* time-- when I bought it, when I moved to Delaware, and now when I moved to Maryland. Maryland's taxes were by far the worst, plus they came with a huge fee for a car inspection and the plates on top of that. It's like they really don't want people to move here or something.  Did I mention that the hubs has a car, too?

But I digress. . .let's talk quilty stuff, which is so much nicer to discuss than the time wasted at the DMV. (Excuse me, the MVA.) I did manage to get a few things stitched up this week, in between waiting rooms. First off, I have one last purple block to show:


This is what I made from the purple scrap I showed a bit ago. It was inspired by the block that Angela posted this week. I'm probably not going to make any black blocks, but this one sparked just enough to get me to use up that purple. Yay! And take a look at that lovely mum! I found a farmer's market near here and they had a whole bunch of these, along with some great tomatoes. The plums were awesome, too.

The other thing I did this week was work some more on the letters and words I've been putting together into mini quilts. I promise I did not make any of the words I was thinking repeatedly this week. (Those would be too R-rated.) I haven't decided what to do about the kindness panel yet, but I did finish this new word panel:


This is my favorite one so far! I made some lower case letters and they are actually readable. I didn't want to crop this picture because I love the trees in the background, so you can't really see how rounded the letters are, but I clipped all the points. I think they look great. That little "e" took forever but was so worth it.  Pretty sure that I'm going to go back and round the corners on the "h" as well. That little tail is not working for me.


Speaking of not working, sometimes experiments don't work out. You can see that I tried to make the "p" fancy or something and it just looked weird, so I had to lose the little tail. Not sure what I was thinking, but I definitely want to try some different fonts and ways to make letters.  I have several more words in mind, too.  (Still can't say enough good about Lynne's tutorial, either. It's great!)


That's the news from here. Hope you're having a good and inexpensive weekend! I'm going to drive my car with the very expensive plates to the grocery store and see if I can still afford something for dinner. It's a close call-- we'll see what happens!

11 comments:

Danice G said...

Yes those auto taxes can be expensive. When I moved back to AL I had to purchase an AL title, and it was not inexpensive. The Hope mini is adorable. The purple mum is gorgeous!

Home Sewn By Us said...

Hi Cathy! I've been stressing about the money I've spent since October 1st and it's only the 5th!! Here's just a sample: plumber, furnace repair, new lease car with down payment and taxes/DMV, house insurance, wedding gift, shower gift, new baby gift, AND some new fall clothes. That's not even counting the fabric buys that Missouri Star Quilt Company had and that I succumbed to. EEK! Not thinking about that any longer now - my blood pressure is rising. Your purple block looks FABULOUS especially sitting on top of that beautiful mum. WOW - that is impressive. HAHA about the words one could spell but Hope is a great choice. ~smile~ Roseanne

MissPat said...

I think I'll use your lovely purple block as a substitute for one of the earlier applique blocks that I still need to catch up with. And I laughed when I realized that your background for the little block was a mum and not fabric (which I did realize before you explained it). Hope you've cooled off some. We had a light frost last night.
Pat

KaHolly said...

Okay, I’m convinced. I’m hopping over to Lynn’s tutorial to check this out. So far my attempts at making improv letters has been very discouraging.

piecefulwendy said...

This is very fun, and I'm tempted to try some. Perhaps I should finish some of my ongoing projects first though? Or not. We will see. I have errands and cleaning I need to do today, and I'm pouting. I just want to sew. Haha.

Cathy said...

Omg, those car fees alone should be enough to discourage any of us from moving to a new state! Well, it can only get better from here, right? I absolutely love your letters and words. Lynne’s tutorials are always great (and so thorough), but I haven’t gotten her improv letters one yet. I guess that’s about to change!

Farm Quilter said...

Just be glad your state government isn't making you give them the mileage every time you get new tabs on your car. They won't say why they want it, but we know they are going to add taxes to those who go over a certain number of miles. Glad I have a horse, motorcycle and a bike for alternative transportation, because living in the country, everything is a drive (like 70+ miles one way to get groceries). Love your block and I'm totally going to check out the improv letters!! Yeah, that "p" doesn't look quite right with the tail!!

PaulaB quilts said...

There is so many things that you don’t show up while you’re moving, but end up is terrible headaches. If you only live in a house one day or two in a month, you have to pay for the entire month so maybe you have to pay two places at once. But your flowers are just gorgeous and you should take a picture and use Spoonflower to turn it int fabric.

Bernie Kringel said...

Haha - how did the grocery shopping go?? Jeez, that is just ridiculous, isn't it? Money which would be so much more fun to spend on just about anything else.

LOVE the letters you are working on. I think they looks so sweet. Also love the purple mums in the first picture. That will be an explosion of color when all of those buds pop open.

Happy Saturday Mari!

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

I love your new purple block, Mari - that is a great way to use some small bits of a pretty fabric! The letters and words you're making are turning out so nicely, too. Glad that tutorial you found is such a good one!

The Joyful Quilter said...

I've always done Improv letters. Thanks for sharing the link to Lynne's tutorial. LOVE you Hope block!!