Usually I'm all about circles, squiggles and curves, but today? Square all the way.
First the patchwork top for a stroller blanket (pregnant friends, please, someone have a girl, kay? you know who you are) I made with a charm pack from the Fat Quarter Shop
Though it looks random, I did plan out the arrangement of blocks and strips a little bit based on colors. I am not a patient patchworker--I have trouble picking out fabrics and then get overwhelmed arranging the pieces, then get bored of sewing pieces together (ending up accidentally sewing them together wrong sides, or wrong to right side). So with all of the pieces cut out for me, of different fabrics in harmonious colorways, it was much easier. I am practicing for a picnic quilt I want to make out of some of my favorite fabric ever. I'm inching closer to being ready, though I need to go to a good quilting shop (read, not Joann's) for quality accent fabrics to set off the fave.
But I shouldn't speak too soon! I do have to back, quilt (or tie off) and bind this blanket before I start on anything else!
After handling squares at the sewing machine, it was likely not coincidental that I noticed a shop on my street had lovely square painted tiles that would make *perfect* coasters:
I just have to get some of those stick-on non-skid dots to put on the bottoms so they don't scratch. Like patchwork, I have a love/hate relationship with coasters. In all of the live-and-let-liveness of my youth, there was a hard and fast coaster rule (to go with the "no hawaiian punch within 10 feet of the white living room furniture" rule). I twitch when someone puts a hot, cold or otherwise glass down on a naked wooden surface, but I haven't got any coasters to shove at them. I've been looking for months-- everything I've seen has been either cheap and awful, or $20 each (wha? for a coaster? when I need between 4 and 8?). These please me no end with their randomness tied together with complimentary colors (rather like the charm pack, hmm?). And the lady at the shop promised that they carry them all the time so I can come back for more.
Back to regularly scheduled curvy roundness tomorrow.
p.s. The charm pack was the Faded Memories collection by 3 Sisters for Moda