I used to be addicted to minesweeper. You know, that game that comes standard on every PC. The one with the grid, and the smiley face up top. The one that probably 1 out of 10 people know how to play. The object of the game was to find out where the mines were and mark them without setting them off. You would do this by uncovering one square at a time. If the square was a mine, the game would be over as you'd have just detonated it. If it wasn't a mine, you'd see a number and hopefully clear out some surrounding squares as well. The number denotes the number of mines present within an 8-square radius (basically all the squares touching that one square. By knowing this number, you'd be able to figure out which squares around it contained mines to mark them and the ones that didn't contain mines to uncover those.

I'm currently working on the Plain Spoken quilt from the Modern Quilt Workshop and I feel like I'm playing minesweeper. The quilt is based on two simple rectangles in range of colors. I chose to use shades of green for my friend who's expecting a boy next month. The way the you're supposed to arrange your quilt is to randomly pair a skinny rectangle and a "not so skinny" rectangle together. Then pair up each pair with another pair which then comprises your quilt block. From there, you're supposed to arrange your blocks in a manner where the colors compliment and contrast each other, ending up with a balanced looking quilt. So this is where the game of minesweeper begins and where my warning comes in.

WARNING: If you want to make the Plain Spoken quilt, choose more than 4 colors.

I only choose four colors for the quilt, three shades of green and a beige. Big mistake. By only choosing four colors, I was extremely limited in the way I could arrange the blocks. I did not want to put the same colors next to and/or directly above or below each other (I'm not concerned with the colors being the same along the diagonal). I also didn't want to put the same color "not so skinny" rectangles next to each other. Because I only skimmed over the directions, I ended up skipping the part where I was supposed to pair each pair with another pair, which actually worked to my advantage, giving me more control over where I could put what. (Now that I think of it, this actually sounds more like sudoku, a game I will not start playing because, knowing myself, I'll get addicted to that too.)

I initially had a pattern in my head. I would establish a pattern in the first row, and then would shift it one pair over on each following row. This plan so does not work, because eventually, I'll have to put two same colors next to each other. Many other patterns and an hour or so later, I was finally able to put something together that I liked. It was a combination being random and using a pattern. The quilt is comprised of 8 columns and 6 rows. I worked on the first four columns, established a pattern basing it on the colors of the "not so skinny" rectangles, then copied it over to the second four columns. After all was said and done, I took a step back to make sure no similar colors were touching each other.

Pardon the flash. The beautiful light had already escaped the day by the time I got to this point.

So being as my eyes are probably all googly green from staring at this all evening, please let me know if you see any similar colors touching each other. I already found one mistake from looking at this picture and immediately fixed it (swapped row 2 (from the top) column 4 (from the left) with row 6 column 8.

And for those of you who are wondering what I'm using to lay out my blocks, they're my Sew EZ boards! Man, if you don't have one, you better go out and buy TWO. I'm serious. This was such a great investment for me. Not only are they good for blocking knitting, but I've used it to straighten the grain on fabric and to lay out and cut patterns. And now you can use it for quilting too. Flip it over and the felted back side will hold up your quilt blocks with ease.

I started Plain Spoken a full month before my friend was due and I was on track to finish and send the quilt off by her due date (scheduled c-section). babyG was born on July 17. It's been over two months. What have I been doing? Naturally working on other things, like dresses and tops and shirts.

Poor babyG has gone quilt-less for two months while I've been crafting away selfishly. I can name the reasons, but the amount of time to go from quilt top to quilt was less than 2 hours. I totally could have finished it and sent it on time. I'm definitely guilty of crafty negligence.

Okay babyG, this ones for you.

Pattern: Plain Spoken, The Modern Quilt Workshop
Fabric: Country Cotton Solids and Symphony Broadcloth
Size: Approximately 38" x 40"

Notes:
This was a fun quilt to make. I followed the string piecing method as instructed in the book. The hardest part of the quilt was the layout. As I mentioned in a previous post, it will probably be easier to use more than 4 colors (the book, I believe, recommends at least 7). Other than that it was easy as pie. I quilted it using this "rolling pin" motif crisscrossed with a bead type motif rather than the nice stiple/free motion style they show in the book (I'm not versed in free motion, yet).

Love those ripples and rumples

I also attached the binding by machine instead of half by machine and half by hand like I did on the Charlie Brown quilt. Sewing it on by machine gives you a visible stitch on both sides whereas attaching one side by machine and slip stitching the remainder by hand gives you an invisible finish. It is more time consuming to do it by hand, but I prefer the invisible finish over saving time.

The quilt back is nothing more than a coordinating polka dot print. I was lucky to find one that pretty much matched the greens I chose for the top.

I hope they like it as much as I do!

And for those of you who want the full shots of the quilt, here's the front and the back.

I took a little trip down to LA last weekend to take care of some personal business and also pay a good friend a long overdue visit. B and I booked our flights on Virgin America and we had no idea what we were in store for, at least I didn't. Let's just say the experience was interesting. And by experience, I'm speaking of the ambiance and not the service. The service was great (despite the delay on our outbound flight due to the poor design of the SFO runways (any hint of fog or rain will delay almost every flight). So we're on the jetway waiting to board and we see some odd lighting. Once we get into the plane, we encounter pink and purple lights illuminating the cabin.

I described it as Austin Powers and B described it as Miami Vice. Either way, this wasn't your every day plane. Each seat comes with it's own tv, equipped with satellite tv, movies, premier tv shows, music and music videos (only artists representing the Virgin label, of course). This was a great way to catch up on a lot of things I don't have time for during the week.

Music videos

Politics

Gossip: Did you know that Mary J spells her name differently now?
I don't think she's aware of that either!

You're also able to play games and text from seat to seat, given that your friend may be sitting far away from you. It was kind of pointless for B and I to text since we were right next to each other.

And did you notice, the back of the seats aren't that plain, boring old, matte plastic like all the other airplanes. It's shiny white plastic! AND, the one cool thing I liked, there's a cup holder on the OUTSIDE of your tray table, so you don't have to always have it down in order to enjoy a drink. The downside, it doesn't fit the mini water bottles they give you during the flight. Boo!

Needless to say, this is a pretty hip airline. But you still haven't seen nothing yet. Peep the Emergency procedure card.

Click through to see it in its full glory

Now I don't know about you, but those are some of the hippest people I've ever seen demonstrate, er, illustrate how to conduct yourself during an emergency on the plane. Maybe I should invest in more tank tops and hip slung pants and buy B that trucker cap he's never wanted, because, heck, I'll be darned if an illustration looks cooler than me!

Anyways, despite me feeling uncool after riding on the Virgin, I was still able to take care of everything I needed to and also have lunch with these two ladies.

Mari, Lori, and I (oh, and B also), met up for lunch in Costa Mesa. We had the BEST ramen ever from Santouka in the Mitsuwa food court.

If the only ramen you know comes in a package, you have no idea what you're missing.

We ate, chatted and had a blast! And if it weren't for B, we wouldn't have had an proof of the meet up. Does that happen to any of the rest of you? You're so into taking photos of anything crafty but the moment you find yourself in a crafty meet-up it's like, "What? Camera? Photos? Huh? What's that?" I guess I just get so engrossed in the actual meet-up itself and talking and getting to know people, it just slips my mind!

Oh, and if you're in need of pest control products while you're at Mitsuwa, remember, it's in Aisle 5A.

And the best part about my trip was being able to spend time with my friend and her family. We haven't seen them in close to a year and a half. A year and a half is decades in kids years! This was the first time I would have interacted with her first born since he barely started uttering words and now he's speaking in full on sentences and knows how to play pretend! And this was the first time I got to meet her second born, all cute with his chubby cheeks, sausage thighs and firm belly. The bonus from this visit, I got to see a quilt in action.

Remember me?

I think I love babies as much as I love making quilts for babies. So proceed with your baby making. Just be aware that if your quilt is late, it's not due to lack of love. I just don't want to be naked in Brazil.