CRISIS

***If you do not wish to be moaned at - please leave now!***

You know how sometimes you do something so stupid that you could, quite literally, just smash your own face into a wall? Those moments when you have to step out of your sewing room to avoid the almost uncontrollable urge to blind yourself with a pair of scissors, poke pins under your knee-caps and rip open your windpipe with pinking shears? [Ok, ok - so a little O.T.T. but sometimes a little bloody humour is appropriate!]

Well this, in the last 24 hours, was me.

Now that Hubby has managed to talk me back in from the window ledge and I have been persuaded not to stick my head in the oven, I can tell you all about it.

My blocks, for the Mod Sampler Quilt?

Remember those?

Yeah - they're all the wrong size! But no no no....I ought to rephrase. Some are the correct size BUT THEY ARE ALL DIFFERENT!

So typical of me to just rush in without checking anything (white linen trousers with red undies anyone?! I've done that before! Really, how foolish can you get?!) I didn't bother to verify the markings on my 1/4" quilting foot. It looked like the third groove, at the rightmost extreme, was a quarter of an inch from the needle, so that's the one I used giving no thought whatsoever to the fact that 1/4" and 3/8" are really RATHER SIMILAR!

Oooooohhhh I was so annoyed with myself! But more importantly, I was furious with whoever manufactured the foot for my machine! I mean COME ON! If you are selling something under the cunningly misleading description '1/4" Quilting Foot' (trust me - I've been back and checked, so indignant was I!) then why, OH WHY, include three, YES THREE, grooves on the damned thing! I didn't buy a 'Quilting Foot with Multiple Seam Allowance Guides', I bought and paid for a '1/4" QUILTING FOOT' so I only expect it to show me where a 1/4" is!!!!

[I don't have anger management issues in the sense that I am volatile or violent, but can you tell that I am the kind of person that upon stubbing their toe will immediately (and stupidly, I don't deny it!) kick whatever they hit it on in some innately ridiculous attempt to take revenge?! Like a wooden chair leg or a concrete step feels the pain of being attacked by a bare-foot, mincing queen!]

So here I am! A few weeks into my quilting career (ever get the feeling it's going to be shortlived) and already I am in crisis! I am going to have to take a few days to wrangle things out and come up with a solution. They (the blocks, that is) should all be 8.5" square, but as some only have vertical seams I now have a set of blocks that are like 8.5" by 8.25" and others that are 8.25" square. So very annoying when one considers that I spent all that time perfectly measuring and cutting the pieces!

I will not be beaten! Like every singer I have ever loved (seriously - they all seem to have had breakdowns of some sort! Whitney, Mariah, Amy Winehouse!!!) I will rise from the flames like a phoenix! I'm just wondering if taking a 1.25" seam allowance (hello!!!) is going to be a) too risky b)not strong enough and c) another disastor waiting to happen......

On a slightly more positive note (only slightly) I have just finished knitting a small item. I'm not entirely happy with it though.....(honestly, I moan like this at Hubby all the time! Just think yourselves lucky that you only have it once in a while and even then you can be outta here with a simple click of the mouse!)

I'm pretty sure that most people, at some time or another, have made a scarf similar to this one. I've had a couple on my Folksy shop. I love how they look - so much more tailored and retro than a normal scarf. I just wanted to do something a little different so decided I'd have a go at mixing things up! I used contrasting fibres (pure wool & pure mohair) in different shades of red and knitted the ruffles in a horizontal rib using swing needles (have you ever tried them - they're wacky!). I also replaced the traditional 1x1 rib for moss stitch to increase the textural pleasure! But still, there's something that just doesn't quite feel right. Having just about reached the top level of frustration that one can safely endure without giving oneself a heart attack, I cannot bear to look at any less than perfect (in my eyes) project pieces for a while! For this reason, I would like to offer this scarf to one of my readers! If you like it, you are more than welcome to have it. Drop me an email/comment and we can arrange to have it sent to you F.O.C. There's nothing wrong with it at all - it just doesn't look how I saw it in my head! Boo!

Anyway - now that I have written my entry monologue for 'The world's most miserable blogger award', I'm off to wash my face with a brick......

Love to you all

Mother's Ruin xxx