Heat Wave

Ugh.  This is one of those weeks where we open the doors and windows late at night and early in the morning, and shut up the house during the rest of the day, hiding from the heat.  The fans are on, and the lightly-clad individuals are miserable.  Or maybe it's just me.

Ironically, if I was at Costume College right now... the temperatures are slightly lower in Woodland Hills, California than they are in Gig Harbor, Washington.  Ah well.  Que sera sera.

So.  Picnic Quilt #2 still sits on my sewing table, a bit over half quilted.  Eight more basket blocks to go!  But I've not been feeling it in this heat.  (Was it just earlier this month that I told Wonderful Husband that I was amazed that I was quilting during the summer, because in California it would have been Too Hot?  Clearly I jinxed myself.)

So what have I been up to?  Well, yesterday I took Squiddle and Jazzy to see Kung Fu Panda at the cinema.  During the summer, the local theater runs a different cartoon movie each week for $2/ticket.  And we've gone to the splash pad once.  Today's plans involve the library, the tiny thrift store next to it, and one item to pick up from the Food Market next to that.

Speaking of thrift stores!  Last week I found this at Goodwill:

It was $3.  And it may not look like much in the above, but take a closer look at some of the fabrics:

I think it's possible this quilt top is over a hundred years old.  Unfortunately, no one at my main guild is really into vintage/antique fabrics, so when I took it in for show-and-tell, I wasn't able to get a consensus.  Still, it's awesome and it has me jazzed!

Guild was actually kind of funny (to me) this week, because the activity was fabric sorting, in prep for the October Sewing Room Sale.  "Get rid of anything that's old or ugly" was the goal.

And I?  I am a scrap quilter.  I have no judgment of what's "ugly".  One of the other members held up a piece of fabric and lamented how horrible it was.  I looked at it and LOVED the color combination and William Morris-esque design!  I was as useful as a lead balloon.  (Well, not really.  I ran fabrics to various themed tables, and put together bundles, and helped unpack and repack the tubs.)  At the end of things, we were all told we could take what we wanted off the discards table.  And I picked out a few things, including several yards of green silk charmeuse!  In the end, there were three big totes worth of stuff to be donated.

One of the pieces I snagged was what turned out to be a fat quarter of this:

Which is on its way to becoming a Barbie dress. Because while going to thrift stores, I have picked up a quartet of $.50 Barbies.  Two are Skipper and Courtney from the 1990s, both in fabulous (if nude) condition.  The Courtney has an amazing lot of hair!  I thought they might be a good gift for Niecelet, but apparently she is not a doll girl. :(  So they're for me, I guess.  I also found one of the modern "curvy" Barbies that has a more realistic figure, and a Black Barbie, which I know I don't have any of.  (My dolls from the 1980s are in the trunk in the garage; I should dig them out.)  So after removing the blue marker swimsuit from Curvy (using a scrubby and dishsoap for most of it, and a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol for the last 10%), I'm making her a dress using this pattern.  Currently I'm overcasting the edges of the dress by hand; I'm thinking the next time I'm near a Joann's, I need to pick up a bottle of fray check, because that will be much faster....