Muse: in Greek mythology, one of the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, goddess of memory. The Muses inspired and presided over the creative arts. They were Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania, responsible for epic poetry, history, love poetry, lyric poetry, tragedy, sacred song, dance, comedy, and astronomy, respectively. (Encarta Dictionary)
Creativity: the quality of being creative; the ability to use the imagination to develop new and original ideas or things, especially in an artistic context. (Encarta Dictionary)
Have you ever had one of those days when you really, really, really wanted to do something creative, but for whatever reason, things kept going wrong? For me, that's my inner voice trying to tell me that NOW is NOT a good time to be creative! Even though I know that voice, I usually don't listen to it in the beginning. There must be more than one foobar before I take the hint. Tonight is one of those nights!
The dreaded owl blocks went to work with me today. They came out during my lunch break and I got most of the remaining thread ends hidden on the back of the blocks. Only one left when it was time to get back to work! Hooray! Then it seemed as if quitting time would never arrive. I couldn't wait to get home and start working on the eyes. Since I spent so much time last week perfecting the goo-goo look for these owls, I actually thought that it would be a breeze to get all 16 of them embroidered. Famous last thoughts!!!
The first owl went famously. The second one started out ok, but when it came time to add the black part of the eyeballs and the eyebrows, something went dreadfully wrong, causing the machine first embroider white bobbin thread on the top, and then the needle began hitting something that sounded suspiciously like metal. At first I couldn't figure out what had happened, then discovered that my thread was not only broken, but had somehow become locked on the spool, an errant loop holding everything tightly in place. Ok, we can deal with that. Change the needle, start over on a scrap, stop when we get to the same place that the error began, put the owl back in the hoop and continue on like nothing ever happened. Believe it or not, everything actually lined up. Not such a bad foobar, I thought.
Then it was time to wind a new bobbin. Bobbin thread spool 1 had slipped its loops and I was just too tired to figure out the thread path. After many contortions, really weird faces, and hopes of not destroying my manicure, I managed to get the dad-blamed plastic wrap off the thread package! Ok, let's wind that bobbin. But no, in holding the tail of the thread, I managed to pop the bobbin up too high. I readjusted, resumed winding, but it looked like no thread was being added to the bobbin. Well, I got that part right - it was winding underneath the bobbin, on the metal bobbin post! Should I be sensing a trend here?
Finally got the bobbin thread on the bobbin, loaded it, hooped the third owl. And promptly forgot to trace the embroidery area with the needle. So, one little owl's eyes are a tad bit too high...and slightly off center. Hmmm...am I trending yet?
Seems not. Went ahead and hooped owl number 4. After all, there are sixteen of the dad-blamed things! The baby is due in July. I'm out of time and MUST get these things ready to quilt. Remembered to have the machine trace the embroidery area. I swear, it looked ok. It DID! So please tell me - how did this little owls's eyes end up right on top of its nose?!
By now, I am nearly in tears, envisioning two months of cutting owl parts and painstakingly doing applique slipping to the floor under the cutting table, so to speak. Have I sensed the trend yet? Well, evidently not, since now I'm attempting to blog!
As Scarlett O'Hara would say, "Tomorrow is another day." Maybe the Sewing Muse will be sitting on my shoulder, not pooping on my embroidery again! And maybe, just maybe, this little baby will one day see the humor in all of these crazy, most definitely unsymetrical owls and crazy Nonnie!
