Winging It.

I've been thinking that I need to come up with different templates for my embroidery pieces.  I always end up mounting it in a hoop.  It's great for some pieces, but I need to branch out a bit.  So I decided to make some blocks.

This is my first one.  I've never sewn this kind of stuff before, so I'm taking baby steps.

The corners took me forever since I had no idea that I was doing.  I'm pretty pleased with the results.  Ok, I'll admit it, I was thrilled.

You guys, I think I have my mojo back!  I've been a making fool the past few days.  More stuff than in the past few months.  I'm super happy about that and can't wait to share my new projects.  Maybe even a tutorial or two.  Told ya, I'm back!  Have a craftastic night, I will!

Find Your Floss Bunnies a Home!

A big thanks to everyone who commented on the last post, I love craft talk.  Yep, I'm a big nerd.  

It seems like some things are universal.  Such as walking around with random bits of floss stuck on you.  Or the compulsion to store pins and needles anywhere but a pincushion, preferably articles of clothing.  And let's not forget the floss bunnies.  Those little bits of floss that seem to sneak off into the corners and under furniture...and seem to multiply on their own.

Becky brought up a very good point, that those little guys are dangerous!  If an animal is to get a hold of one of those little floss bunnies and eat it, they could end up seriously ill.  Embroidery floss is not friendly on an animal's digestive system.  Her poor kitty required surgery to correct the problem.  So in addition to being neat and tidy, it's a good idea to pick up those flossy bits for our furry friends.  Safety first, people!

I know lots of people have thread catchers in their sewing areas or placed over the arm of a couch.  These are great since they also have the pin cushions right on top.  Someday I'll make one for my sewing machine, Ol' Bessie.  However, until then I'm perfectly happy with my current arrangement.  

A glass jar. 

It doesn't take up much space on the desk and I can easily take it from room to room.

Plus, it's nice to look at and changes with each new project.

 It's also good for those times when I just need a little bit of a color.  Or when I'm sewing something that will be turned inside out and you won't even see it.  Since I don't need to worry about keeping track of a floss #, I can just grab a bit from there.  Saves time and resources.

How do you keep your floss bunny population from getting out of control?

p.s.  Sometimes when I'm making tiny stuffies or puffy applique, I use the leftovers from this jar as stuffing.  I just weed out the really longs ones that are still good for stitching and stuff the rest.  It makes me happy to think about colorful guts!

Bright and Cheery.

Yesterday I made some new curtains for our bedroom.  I was shocked at how quickly I was able to get them done.  Thank goodness Dillon was around to help with the measurements.  For some reason I'm terrible at that sort of thing, usually no matter how accurate I am something still turns out crooked.

Here, take a look!

I really should have pressed them before I hung them up but my iron has been doing more harm than good lately.  So I wasn't letting it anywhere near these babies.

It's so bright and cheery in our room now, I just love it.  Before the floor-to-ceiling dark green curtains you see in the corners ran the entire length of the wall.  And because they weren't made to go on that type of rod they were impossible to slide open very much.  It was like a cave.  Now with these ones I can slide them open pretty far, and with a whole wall of windows it lets in a great amount of natural light.

Yay!!  I'm so excited to finish off the rest of our room to be bright and happy.  It'll be a big change but I'm ready for it.  I'm also ready to move onto making custom curtains for the rest of my house... kitchen, here I come!  Ol' Bessie and I had quite a bonding experience and I feel like I know her much better now.

Any big changes coming your way?

Thanks for looking, I hope you are having a bright and cheery day!

Mail Fix.

The other day I mentioned my mail obsession.  Well, to keep this good thing going requires I have a healthy intake of stamps on a regular basis.  When I was out and about last week I picked up a little Christmas present for myself.  The man working the counter the day I purchased these became visibly upset when I asked for 10 cent stamps.  He said, "Don't have 'em!"  To which I replied, "Oh ok, like your particular drawer/ mail center is out of them or the post office in general doesn't make 10 cent stamps?"  He just repeated himself, which didn't really clear anything up for me.  However, it was Monday during the week of Christmas so rather than experience a total meltdown from the guy and possibly "line rage" from my fellow customers I admitted defeat and walked out with 5 cent stamps.

Little lovelies about to settle into their new home in my address book.

The mention of little lovelies brings to mind some ATCs that I've received but not yet shared with you guys.

The first, Diamonds, comes from brendagrace in Australia.

Hardly as pretty as in real life.  I used this photo to capture the shimmer in the corner, can you see it?  Since Dillon picked this card I'm going to frame it for his desk, as a friend for another vintage lady that already lives there.

Lady at the Opera comes from mrsb007 in Illinois.

mmmm, texture.

Thank you ladies for your gorgeous cards.

P.S.- Ol' Bessie update!
I took her into the doctor and she's going to be ok.  Jim at Parkside Sewing (is the best!) had her purring within seconds.  He took one look and said "Oh!  No biggie, it's just threaded wrong."  Now I feel a little less guilty about the cheap thread I had in there.  I spent 15 minutes and learned a wealth of information.  I'm going to schedule a lesson with him and pretty soon I'll be a sewing guru (according to Jim.)  Maybe I'll be able to snag a few photos of my new hero and his shop, it's very quaint.  It has the most awesome wall of old school aviation photos and memorabilia (his mother in law was a airplane pilot in the 1930s!  Yes, I only spent 15 minutes in there and know this.)

Much better, no?

A big thumbs up to Jim at Parkside Sewing!

My Crafty Man.

I spent at least an hour of Christmas Eve watching Dillon torture poor ol' Bessie.  I'll be honest, I was terrified the whole time.

It all started when I set up the sewing machine to stitch a little something up.  It was meant to be a really quick project, 10 minutes max.  The kind of thing that takes you longer to set up then it does to actually stitch.  Upon hearing that I had not yet taken advantage of some of then fancy stitches I have, Dillon insisted upon showing me.  Not that he knew how to do it really, but he'd been shown by the man he purchased it from.  Gotta love him for trying!  Admittedly, my hubby is a genius and a whiz with machinery so I trusted him.  For some reason, after hearing about how crafty his Mom is, I just figured maybe he'd played around with one as a kid.  It wasn't until after he'd started that he casually mentioned he'd never used a sewing machine before.  Great.

 

This happened.  A lot.

Yes, the manual was consulted.  Several times.

The end result.  Lovely isn't it? 

 Needless to say, I never got around to stitching up that one little thing.  Such is life.  And I heard some noises that I don't think are good to be coming from a sewing machine.  I'm hoping that it was just the thread that I had loaded in there in a pinch.  I know, shame on me, cheap thread is the worst for ol' Bessie.  I went to the craft store to get some nice, high quality thread and I'm hoping that makes her all better.  I've been too frightened to fire her back up since then, but that's on my list for the beginning of this week.  After all that Bessie has been through this holiday, I'm going to do something nice for her, I'm getting her some ink.  I can't wait to pick up some paint pens and give her a tattoo!

Baby Stuff- Complete with horrible pictures!

My first taggie blankie ever!  It felt good to break into my huge ribbon stash (I don't use it enough) and fire up ol' Bessie, my sewing machine.  At first, I was a little hesitant about using the flower flannel for it, as it was for a little boy.  However, it's softness won me over.  It's like a cloud!  Besides, it's a baby, do we really need to start drilling in gender roles so early?  I think not.  Ok, yes- I made him a rocket onsie, but in my defense, it's darn cute.  And I assure you that if I have daughter someday, she will also wear rocket onsies and play with robots!

I used two different colors in the flames.  I really like the way that came out.  That's a little trick I picked up online thanks to Jenny Hart.  (Btw, both of the patterns for the onsies came from Sublime Stitching.)  I've been doing the mixed floss a lot lately, it always looks good! 

This was the first time I've ever crayon tinted on colored fabric.  I don't know how I feel about it, I think it's ok.  (I took this picture before I washed it after stitching, so ignored the pulled look of the fabric.  That went away in the wash!)

This is the other one I made for a different friend.  So many babies lately!  I also tinted it a tiny bit, although it's hard to tell.  I used rayon floss for the stork, it's super shiny.

Thanks for looking!  Now go make something :)