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[ss-hikaru]

Various Scrappy Projects

So here are where the leftovers from the past three baby quilts I made went 😝 I even ended up gifting them to the same people as the quilts - it just felt right to me for the fabric collection to stay together.

The pillow was practice for the Eldorado free-motion quilting pattern as well as for an upcoming series of pillows. This is my first time using the zippers from By Annie's. I also used By Annie's Soft and Stable to make the pillow case nice and plushy.

I just really like making potholders from scraps. I like the feeling of making something useful out of bits and pieces that would otherwise go to waste. And it's good bias binding practice 😁

#sewing

[ss-hikaru]

Etchings Sawtooth Baby Quilt

Main Fabric: Collections for a Cause: Etchings (Moda)

Filler Fabric: Emma Loiuse European Linen

Backing Fabric: Emma Loiuse European Linen

Free-Motion Quilting: Interlocking Eldorado (Hancy Full Line Stencils)

So my thing with this one was wanting to try and use as much as possible of the charm square pack, hence the dashed ribbon style border. I had to do a lot of math to make it work... I liked how it turned out though!

I used the sawtooth block I found on Diary of a Quilter. And this was my first quilt using a pounce pad and chalk that I received as a Secret Santa gift from my bro. It's my attempt to try to not use so many marking pens or tearaway paper - I want to try and reduce waste from my hobby.

Because this was my first time using a stencil, I knew I wouldn't be able to interlock it well, so I stuck to sewing it in rows instead. So it kinda ended up reminding me of the old wallpaper in my mum's house 😅

I gifted this one to my Godmother's son and daughter-in-law, they are expecting in May.

#quilting #classic quilt

[ss-hikaru]

Trooper Shirts Part 1

My husband has been on the search for technical fabric button-up shirts and hadn't had much luck, particularly when it came to short sleeves, so I offered to make him some. We haven't purchased any technical fabric yet (finding swatches from places that will ship to Australia was an exercise of its own...) but I tested the pattern (from Tadah patterns) using fabric from The Remnant Warehouse, with the inner yoke cut from some Uniqlo Airism, haha. The checked is slim fit and the chambray is relaxed fit with a pleated back.

The Cinnamoroll patch was a souvenir from Japan from my husband, he gets it back as decoration on the pocket 😁 Japanese iron-on motifs are sooo much fancier and more secure than what I can find over here. The buttons on the chambray were also a souvenir, they are special buttons that supposedly change colour when exposed to UV. I haven't seen what that looks like yet though.

#sewing

[ss-hikaru]

Going from Prophet Song to this was kinda jarring, haha. I guess the Pern series is one of my comfort series, the good guys always prevail.

It's been over a year since I read a Pern novel. I'd forgotten how neat they are. It was so neat I feel ashamed that I picked up on the telekinesis/comet link probably later than I should have lol. This might be the last novel set in this time period? I think it's a nice way to tie things up, in terms of the future of dragonriders post-Thread.

I think I'm getting to the point where I stopped reading back when I was in highschool, so all the up-coming novels will probably be completely new content for me.

One thing about the Pern series in general that I want to comment on is how much the authors want to emphasise how good dragonrider sex is lol. Like, this is volume 16, surely the dedicated readers are well aware of this already? There also seems to be a pattern of experienced guy helps girl realise how good sex is. I wonder if they'll ever write a scenario where the roles are reversed lol.

#book review #dragonriders of pern #anne mccaffrey #the skies of pern

[ss-hikaru]

Pauline-style Dress and Hat (for a 6yo)

Since niece #1 adores Pauline from Mario Odyssey, I decided to make her a Pauline inspired dress for her birthday. It is the same sparkly red, has the sweetheart neckline but a nice circle skirt so she can do spins (cos a pencil-style skirt on a 6yo is just silly). It wasn't a big hit (unlike the mermaid ensemble for her sister) cos apparently she associates Pauline with dress pants haha! That's cool, I don't mind that.

I ended up buying the hat from Temu. First and hopefully last purchase from that online store... it's so tricky though cos it's hard to find stuff like this (especially in specific colours) where I live.

I used the Tea Party Dress pattern from Tadah Patterns.

#sewing

[ss-hikaru]

I feel like there was a missed gear opportunity here. Frye's dango headband is pretty cute! Anyway, Splatfest is kinda a chore now but I do need those snails so...

Played a bit of Salmon Run too, I should try to play whenever mini is in rotation, it's so fun! The fail was only due to egg lag. I should probably try to get bronze in the new salmon run maps.

#splatoon 3 #splatfest #salmon run

[ss-hikaru]

I put this on my list cos I read it won an award. I read it cos it was the shortest book on my list.

I can see why it won an award. It was very unsettling. But I did not enjoy reading it.

I keep reading award winning books outside my usual reading fare and I can tell that they are good novels but they are always so depressing. It makes me wonder if I should just stick to things I think I will enjoy. Since reading is meant to be entertainment...

#book review #prophet song #paul lynch

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Fashion Exhibit #4

Fashion Theme: I dunno, like bohemian artist? A messy one lol (hence the gum boots). I just really wanted to use the embroidered jacket and there weren't many glasses/eyewear options at the time so had to coordinate something with the beret/glasses.

Emote: it just fits the glasses imo

Gear Intent: The usual IA for blaster-things and ink saver main so I can paint a lot. Some SSU and ink-res to help reposition. Random single chunk of SCU, dunno what I was thinking there.

Overall Thoughts: This weapon used to help me cheese my way to S+. It inked well, could get decent kills on tower and had a displacement special to harass backlines. But something changed...the special balance I think. The rise of tacticooler and trizooka kinda killed this weapon for me. It also can't deal that well with kraken or chumps. And given it doesn't deal well with getting multi-teamed rushed-down, I find it hard to bring it out anymore. I enjoyed our time together while it lasted tho 😂

#splatoon 3 #squid fashion #i am fashionaablaagh #4 star weapon freshness get #self-proclaimed president of the ink mine appreciation association

[ss-hikaru]

Salmon Run as a quad is such a different experience. Had to get used to how weak Big Swig amd Slosher are against mobs, then started doing better. First time defeating Megalodontia too! I really like low tide on this map and we got it a lot so it was fun.

#salmon run

[ss-hikaru]

It has apparently been awhile since I last rated a book silver.

I quite liked The Broken Empire trilogy, but I wouldn't say it was a gripping read. On the other hand, I attempted reading the first book of the Red Queen's War twice and barely made any progress. This one was definitely the best of the three.

In the beginning, I thought the interspersal of future events was really well done. My main complaint is that as the book went on, it felt like less and less of these sections were included. It made me lose motivation a bit.

I really like the world building. The ancestors arriving to the planet in days past and the manifestation of their blood within all sorts of people all over the world. The secrets of the ice. The politics. And of course the badass nuns.

I felt like all the characters were quite likeable too. They all had their motivations and acted consistently to them. I wonder if Nona and Zole will end up as friends. I feel sad about Hessa, but it kinda made sense because eventually she would have been a real burden on Nona.

I am glad they managed to deal with Raymel. It was already getting to be a bit of a drag how he just would not go away. I suppose Sherzal might be the main antagonist of the next book. That would be interesting.

#book review #red sister #mark lawrence #book of the ancestor trilogy

[ss-hikaru]

Belated yay we won splatfest plus commemoration of the chicken dance

#splatoon 3

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Fashion Exhibit #3

Fashion Theme: It was originally meant to be Viking Biker for the silver Aerospray with Reefslider. But why play silver when you can play gold and spam a real special instead? The biker aspect of the outfit is gone but at least the gold still matches the helmet and Viking plundering theme haha.

Emote: If I manage to win a match playing this weapon then I think I deserve to put on my Viking Party Hat and do a dab, and a double-crossed one at that.

Gear Intent: I know it would be more normal to pour everything into special related abilities, but I do like to try to fight as well and not just be a turf-booyah machine. The ninja squid does help get some kills and trades. Besides, getting a bunch of kills as an Aerospray feels pretty lol and that wouldn't happen without the ninja squid 🙃

Overall Thoughts: This was a pre-Forge Splattershot Pro weapon, i.e. the booyah shooter when it was the only option. I dabbled with it a bit when I was trying to come up with ways to ink the most and get rid of the backlines, but at the end of the day I need a weapon that can get more kills, and that doesn't really happen outside of turf. The last time I properly used this weapon was on Crableg Clam Blitz and it was so stupid in that I spent the entire match throwing Sprinklers onto the ramp and waiting for people to try make the jump and taking them out, while also alternating between hiding from the charger and booyah bombing them... Game went into overtime when we finally made a break through (probably cos the other team got too desperate) and won by one power clam. So ..it worked? But it sure wasn't fun 🙄

#splatoon 3 #squid fashion #i am fashionaablaagh #4 star weapon freshness get #booyah booyah booyah

[ss-hikaru]

Side Order Run #8

I failed! But I unlocked the gear I wanted and had enough Pearlz! So I'm done!

I knew I should have avoided the Danger challenge 🤣 Taking away my drone with all the upgrades... I almost cleared it, had one target to go, oh well.

So yeah, everything into Pearl Drone again. Even resetting the challenges to get drone related stuff. And spending my membux at the vending machines on more Pearlz. It worked out since I probably would have had to do another round if I hadn't bought them, as I wouldn't have had enough to buy the headset.

So ending on Run #8 with Marina's palette feels almost poetic 😝 gonna take it as a sign to stop here.

#side order #splatoon 3

[ss-hikaru]

Side Order Run #7

Yeah, I'm grinding Side Order cos it's Splatfest. I decided I didn't need to hack Pearl anymore so put it into Player hacks instead.

This wasn't hard, but it did try my patience a bit. Blaster so damn ink hungry. But I wanted to upgrade Pearl, and if I upgraded the main weapon it was for bigger/more damage 😝 It was mostly just painful for the earlier rigorous challenges to get thr Pearl upgrades. One level took almost 10 minutes, me just waiting til I got 3 disc pieces so I could actually move from the place I was stalling at 🙄

Anyway, that makes three clears of non-shooter palettes. I didn't die that much this run either. So like, I guess I just suck at shooters LOL.

#side order #splatoon 3

[ss-hikaru]

Side Order Run #6

Soooo...this run went how I expected the Splattershot one to go... Pearl was just destroying everything for me and all I had to do was pick up all the items really. Pretty sure I didn't lose a single life and barely used the vending machine. I didn't even upgrade to a lunge slash 😂

Why was this so much easier than Splattershot???! 😶

#side order #splatoon 3

[ss-hikaru]

Side Order Runs #3-5

This just validates how I don't like shooters 😣 I can't believe that 2/3 of these attempts I didn't even get as far as the first attempt with no hacks or extra lives or any clue what I was doing 🙄

My plan was to sink as much as possible into Pearl so she would do the hard work for me. Would have helped if I realised Pearl could have multiple specials/subs and unlocked those slots for Run #3 and #4, but ultimately it probably wouldn't have helped 🙃 Cos Pearl was doing her part, I just couldn't get through the Jellytons to pick up the drone batteries etc 😣 I guess I should have put some into Damage Up too?

Anyway three failed attempts seemed like a good place to call it quits for this palette.

#side order #splatoon 3

[ss-hikaru]

Spawning Grounds is always gonna be a bad time. I did 5 shifts one night with expected results. For whatever reason I played it again the next day and I was rewarded with ranking back up. Was not expecting that! I think the game was kind to me and gave me the useful specials.

Dread feels pretty nice as a weapon but a bit frustrating in Salmon Run since it's so weak against mobs. Shame the kits in the main game are so uninspiring, otherwise I would be tempted to learn it for multiplayer.