Umba month 4! So this month was a homemade bath product box, products made by Rinse. I've tried two of the products and the third, a bath bomb, will likely not get any love for six months. That bath bomb is lavender (image links to shop).

The skin stick is kind of awesome. It's like glue sticking your face/arms/body. There is something satisfying about it.

And the third, I'd actually like to offer to anyone interested.  It's a face mask, which I tried last weekend. And it did leave my skin feeling smooth and lovely...but I had a hard time with the mask itself. Because it smelled so strongly of coffee. And I don't really like coffee. So any coffee lovers who'd like a ton of "make it yourself" face mask, let me know. Mailing envelope here and ready for you! Info about the Cafe Mocha Mask here.

Potholder update - I've completed two. I'm definitely falling in to a groove and I'm pretty sure I know where I have to be more careful on the next batch. When I sew all my squares together, perfect 90 degree seams are a must. And when I measure out/draw on my quilting lines, I have to choose a pattern that works for the particular problems that I may have created with my piecing. All very satisfying. I'm going on vacation at the end of next week for about a week, so no crafting updates for a bit here...

The first (slightly small as I screwed up my seam allowances):

The second:

And a side by side:

Journal swap round 6: me!

I'm clearly into fabric...and my quilting scraps were screaming to be made into bunting.

Journal swap round 6: librarian!

So, I feel I should say that I had both journals for quite some time. And I accidentally flip flopped the rounds. I should have made something in the white journal and instead, I went with black. So we're a bit off now...but in the end, it'll even out.

Update time! I haven't finished anything, but I thought I'd let you know how the quilting is going. And as an aside, I've officially hit the 1st quartile of my weight loss goal. 28% done!

Quilting is...part awesome, part satisfying and a whole lot of exact cutting and sewing. I definitely have not hit exactness. In fact, I think it will be a miracle if I ever get near perfection. However, I am determined to make a series of potholders until I am pleased with the results enough that I would give them away to someone other than a family member. I'm going to become a potholder factory.

I took some pictures of my in-progress potholders. Tonight I finished making the binding tape (a weird process that required a tool I didn't have, which slowed me down), so hopefully in a few days I will have one finished, accidentally too small potholder (I didn't understand the seam allowance, so lost about a half inch on each side).

Here's the potholder with half of the quilted lines (front and back). My lines are not straight. But, for my first try with quilting and the walking foot on my sewing machine, it's not terrible either:

And here's the potholder with all of the lines in. That excess batting/backing has already been cut off in preparation for binding. This is the part where you can see my in-exactitude glaring at you in the face. My squares were not perfectly sewn together/not straight. And the hatching meanders across the potholder in an uncomfortable way. It's in the center of some squares...and not so much for others. The horror. Note that the edge squares are bigger - this is not a seam allowance error, this is on purpose. The binding will cover up the excess amount of square to make it look exactly correct.

So I just need a ton more practice. For a while, potholders. Then table linens. Pillows. Eventually, a real quilt. They say it takes 1000 hours to become an expert at something...just 100 potholders to go...