ripping seams

Oy vey, I can't wait for this quilt to leave the Sweat Shop.
I've spent about 3 hours stippling the quilt, and have broken 4 needles. I re-threaded the machine, changed the bobbin, got all the dust out, and took a break. The front looks fine, but the back has tension problems.
Also, I did too good of a job picking out the green thread: it blends in exactly with the front of the quilt, so I can't see where I'm going. Here's a horrible picture of some of the worst quilting I've ever done:

So, I'm ripping out all of the quilting, and I'm going to quilt it in straight lines. I'm putting this on here to show myself that I can remedy this problem. Wish me luck, it's going to be a long, thread-covered day.

summer blouse, in progress

I got my hands on a copy of Heather Ross' "Weekend Sewing", courtesy of my local public library. I appreciated all of the vintage Singer sewing machines-- that's what I sew on, and it's the best. I love just about everything in the book, and while I really want to make the shirt dress, I decided to ease myself in with the summer blouse. Here it is, without sleeves:
I don't sew garments very often, and part of the reason is because they end up much too large (I'm between a size 0 and 2). This is much the same-- but it's not a really tailored look. The picture in the book has it over a tank top, and I could see it over a swimming suit at the beach. The sleeves are long; I'll probably make them 3/4 length. I know that the V neck looks really deep, and that's because I haven't decided how low to make the placket.

Now, you may be asking why I showed you something like this in progress. It's because I didn't buy enough fabric (it was the end of the bolt, and I decided to buy the rest) to cut the sleeves properly, and so I decided to make them too skinny for the armholes. Luckily, it's just JoAnn fabric, and I'll go to a different and bigger store tomorrow to buy some more for the sleeves.
I'm in love with this fabric, though-- I think it'd be cute in a quilt.

Coming soon: my grandpa's quilt quilted, bound, and washed!