Eight little legs!



All in a circle!

Waiting to have stitches picked up, so they can be joined to a "mantle."

This is one of the Hansigurumi patterns. Not one from her new book; this is the Dumbo octopus which is (I think still) available at her etsy shop.

It's a pretty complex pattern, but is one of those things where you have to just trust the pattern.

(Trust the pattern? Be the pattern? And of course, my mind blips to this:

"Squidward: But, this is my last quarter.
Spongebob: In the machine, Squidward.
Squidward: Ok-ok.
Spongebob: Close your eyes. (Squidward does) Now be the crane. (while Spongebob is telling him this, Squidward is playing the game) Be the crane. Be the crane. Be the crane.
Skill Crane: Winner!")

(Incidentally, while searching for the exact dialog online, I find that they make a SpongeBob cool-mist humidifier. Which I think would give me nightmares if I had it set up in my bedroom (the usual destination for a humidifier; I use them when I have a cold or my allergies are really bad). There's also a Hello Kitty one on the same site. And a penguin, which is actually kind of cute. And a cow, which is sort of inexplicable. I mean - a penguin sort of makes sense because they swim in the ocean, but a cow?)

****

I also started a new quilt. I unrolled the packet of 2 1/2 inch strips (known as a "jelly roll." Similar twee-named fabric combinations include "honey buns" and "layer cakes." I wonder if there is some relation to "fat quarters," which are kind of the grandmama of all pre-cut quilting fabric pieces. And ew, there's something else called a fat roll).

Anyway, I have to admit except for my misgivings about sewing with un-prewashed fabric (which just feels wrong but there is NO way to prewash the strips without distorting them or making them fray), jelly rolls are kind of nice. They're great for people who are pressed for time because part of the time-consuming part (the initial cutting) is already done, and so you can get to the fun part of planning out the quilt and sewing.

I'm doing a very simple pattern from a "jelly roll" book I have (it was very cheap at JoAnn's with one of their 40% off coupons, and of course, you don't have to use the pre-purchased Jelly Rolls, you can cut your own 2 1/2 inch strips, and they tell you how much you need of a fabric depending on how many strips you want from each.

The pattern is called "Sparkling Gemstones" or somesuch; it's a modification of the four-patch. The fabric line I am using is "bright pastels" (It's called Swanky). I'm not very far yet, just sewing 1 1/2 strips of white to the bright colors.