Experiments, experiments!

Well, the past couple days I've been experimenting with quilting and crafting. Mmmm, not sure how it's turning out - lol! Yesterday I was just so frustrated in having to pamper my shoulder and not being able to do much, so I decided to do some quilting on the sewing machine. I love those quilts that have the long strips in them (is that what they refer to as "strip quilting"?) Not having done it before and just going by the seat of my pants, I tried it. Wellllll...I learned I need to cut thicker strips - haha! I do like how it's looking so far, but now I know how to do it much better next time.

Confession: I've always had creative ideas, but I've never put them much into practice. I took a quilting class back in the 1980s and never did get around to finishing that quilt we were supposed to do for our class project. I've only done little quilting projects here and there over the years.

I have to admit to mentally beating myself up over some of the mistakes I've made lately, but then I realize I haven't been a seamstress, quilter, crafter for a long time, so I suppose I should cut myself some slack - pardon the pun!

Today I tried making "fixens," and I think they'll turn out all right. I did have a recipe to follow, but I decided to use up some ingredients around the house that were expiring - like a pancake mix and pumpkin pie filling. Whoof that pancake mix sure raises those little cookies, tiny balls, and hearts! (I forgot about the baking soda in them). I've set them upstairs -which is unheated - for them to harden up even more overnight. Then tomorrow I'll coat them in some heavily scented wax. They actually look kinda cute now. Oh, and I also used some old almond amaretto coffee I've had for years. Made a couple cups out of it...and there it sat...all these years. Blech...I'm just not a coffee drinker, although I love the smell. And I very much love coffee flavored things - just not the real thing.

Also experimented with a soap "recipe" tonight. I'll see how it turns out in a couple hours. Hopefully it'll be worthy of giving to someone else; otherwise, I'll have yet more soap for myself. I did an experiment a couple days ago - trying to make soap balls. I just don't have the knack for it, or I don't know the trick to it. I kept wanting to add flour so it would stop sticking to my hands! Anyway, I have a lot of Oatmeal Raisin Cookie scented funny looking soaps from that experiment.

Tomorrow I'm going to make an orange and cranberry soap. I recently purchased a yummy Cranberry fragrance that I can't wait to use.