Scuba & Sewing

If you are just passing by and find yourself short on time, please scroll to the bottom of this post and give me some advice on how to finish a quilt. It would be most appreciated!

I got a lot of work done this week. I finished three more of the blocks for the 3x6 bee (First two found here). I am in Hive C, the pinwheels hive. I am making the flying geese in a circle paper pieced blocks, even though they aren't really pinwheels. My hive-mates were okay with the idea. To make these, I am using charms from charm swaps. Now I only have one more of these to make which means I might be done early!

This first one is for Michelle:

This second one is for Nell:

And this third one is for Allison:

I also finished the February block for Quilting newBEES. I really enjoyed the fabric she sent out for us to use.

I also bought a new toy: A GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition. Spweee! So naturally, I had to make a bag to store it and the accompanying accessories. This might very well be the only GoPro in the whole wide world with a quilted zippered pouch. My hobbies are fairly eclectic: Quilting and Scuba! What is ridiculously exciting is that I made this zippered pouch without muttering a single curse word! Take that, zippers! Muahahaa!

I used Frolic by Wendy Slotboom which might very well be my favorite fabric line ever (there is even a second project in this post that was able to utilize it). I am practically hoarding it, but actually using it, which cancels out the hoarding...

Speaking of scuba diving, my boyfriend and I drove up to Mammoth Lake (3ish hours away, outside of Houston) for some frigid diving. The water was only 60 degrees, which felt warm compared to the 50 degree air temperature which was coupled with insanely ferocious wind that made exposed skin feel like it was burning. Because of this, we opted to stay in the water and do one long dive instead of multiple shorter dives. Really, I just wanted to play with my GoPro. So here are a few pictures. This first one showcases one of the best features of the GoPro, the lens flare generator. I kid, I kid. So artsy, though.

This is what I look like when I'm freezing to death.

On one of the sunken boats, there was a whole colony of tiny little fish! Also, these pictures are green because they were taken at the bottom of a murky lake.

Here is my boyfriend doing and underwater upside-down happy dance. He has skills.

One of the things I love most about Mammoth Lake is how much stuff there is to see. The owners understand what divers want, which is tons of crap to look at. They are always sinking new stuff. Take this car. To me, it looks like the sort of vehicle you could expect to see Cruella DeVille racing around the country in as she, Horace, & Jasper attempt to track down a pack of dalmatian puppies.

There are many sunken boats, cars, motorcycles, statues (King Kong, a mammoth, a giant bug, etc.) and even an old C130 that has been chopped up so you can swim through it. This next photo is of the inside of boat where someone left the fridge door open!

I also spent some time this weekend making cupcakes for an early St. Patrick's Day party that my cousin hosted on Friday. I made margarita cupcakes because they are green and boozey albeit not Irish. Yumm. I used my old standby recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and made it a little not vegan because sometimes I get rebellious.

Lastly. I started working on my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt (Pattern by Cut to Pieces & found here). I used 30's repro fabric for the twisting arms and more Frolic from Wendy Slotboom for the middle hexagon. I was eager to try this because it reminds me of the Portal logo, and that is the quilt I was thinking about making my TA (if he ever shows up to labs,that is!). Hopefully I can transfer these new skills into that quilt.

So here is my epic dilemma with this. The pattern prescribes it to be a picnic quilt, which is great. I could finish it off now with home dec backing and be done with it. But I hardly picnic. I live in South Texas. It is over 100 degrees for most of the year. Picnicking is frowned upon, unless you enjoy heat stroke and sunburns. I could make it and sell it, I suppose.

Or I could use it as the front of a baby quilt, but no one I know is pregnant. C'mon! Someone get preggo!

Or I could add a little more Frolic around the edges to make it bigger and have an oddly shaped throw blanket.

I have no idea what to do. Any input or helpful suggestions?

Picnic quilt? Baby quilt? Throw quilt? Ahhh!

Wow, apparently I did a horrible job of flattening out the ripples in this quilt before photographing. I took the picture inside because the wind was too bad outside. But then I left the front door open in order to optimize natural light, so it was still blowing around like crazy.

Anyways, that would be all my WIPs that I actually made progress on. My goals for the month are to decide what needs to be done with the hexagon quilt and to finish the eye quilt. What have you been up to?