Tuesday Night Ramblings, or Diary of a Mad Seamstress - your pick!

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!

The baby quilt starts to take shape!

Miss Jaelynn Grace Owenby will be here SOON!  So I am frantically working on her "The Hoots" baby quilt, trying to get it finished before the baby shower.  Don't know if I will finish it in time or not.  Sixteen owls have been appliqued.  I still have to do clean-up on the blocks, getting rid of all those pesky threads, finish the eyes, set the strips and border, and get it to the long-arm quilter.  Whew!

Last night I spent ages looking for eyes to embroider.  Once I found some that I thought might be suitable, I got the bright idea to download the demo version of Embird, just in CASE I might need to make some adjustments.  Now that was an experience.  I had to figure out how to turn off my virus scanner and change the approval options in Windows. 

You know how it goes when you are trying to do something on the computer with some semblance of a timeline in mind.  I really wanted to get all of this stuf downloaded, check out my eyeball designs, and then do a test piece.  So, that hateful thing that usually happens to my computer when I have a schedule - well, it happened!  In the middle of the demo download and set-up, my computer decided that it needed to restart because of the changes.  That confused my computer and it froze for a while.  Once it finally re-booted, I couldn't connect to the web to begin the download again.  FINALLY, around 9pm, I got all the stuff downloaded and was doing an install.  You guessed it - error message!  Long and short of the story, I finished a test block around 11pm.

Tonight I decided that the eyeballs I had embroidered last night were too small.  Back to the drawing board, resizing and testing.  But, Houston, we have lift-off!  Lookee, Lookee!  Two of my owls now have eyeballs that won't be hazardous to babies!

 

Something tells me, though, that I won't be taking this quilt to the long-arm quilter this weekend.  Fourteen more owls need eyes, and I've got all the rest of the stuff to finish yet.  But there is progress being made!

Happy Father's Day

In memory of Jerry Clifton Wood

June 11, 1934 - September 3, 2010

Long Time No Blog!

It has been FOREVER since I've done anything with my little blog.  There is absolutely no way that I could possibly catch up, but here is the short version:

• planned and executed a wedding in three weeks (WHEW!)
• sewing like a mad woman
• went to Augusta three times - got dreadfully lost all three times
• joined a Block of the Month club
• joined a Quilt of Valor club
• got into machine embroidery!
• last, but certainly not least, will be a grandmother in a few weeks!

I've had tons of fun planning sewing projects for my new granddaughter.  If/when it gets finished, she will have a "The Hoots" quilt, compliments of an Amy Bradley Designs pattern, several fancy little embroidered burp cloths, a couple of embroidered bibs, and an embroidered quilt.  Since burp cloths don't take terribly long, I've got some of those finished.  Other things are works in progress - LOL!

Small wall hangings are also big fun because they finish up fairly quickly, and I've done a couple of those. 

There are a couple more (LOL) but I've got to get picture of them before I can post.  After I get all of my current projects done, I really, really, really want to make one of those "Butterfiesy" wall hangings by Cedar Canyon that uses stencils and paints.  It is just too gorgeous for words, as you can see here!  (This is NOT mine - it is a picture of the pattern package)

I was doing some web surfing and bounced onto this and I swear, my jaw hit the floor.  Just totally LOVE it!  Maybe I can start it next month, if I get everything else done.  Or maybe I'll stat it even though I've got several projects going already.  Somebody did a survey - how many projects is too much.  In my humble opinion, a body's got to have at least 10 going.  That way you don't get bored!  Seriously, though, I am having to force myself not to order the supplies for this thing, because I know that if I do, as soon as it hits that mailbox of mine, there will be no sewing for baby getting done!  The baby quilts are a MUST!

And before I totally forget - for my friend Peg Baker, who kindly follows my silly ramblings, here are some pictures of one of the lap desks I made for Christmas.  I found her tutorials on how to cut bias bindings on You-Tube and they were VERY helpful!

What is Home?

It's been a while since I have thought about posting here, as you can tell by the date of my last post!  As I was looking through my digital pictures to upload here, I realized that I haven't even taken the time to load them onto the computer, much less put them on my blog.

So...for anyone out there who actually reads this silly thing, my ramblings tonight have more to do with location than sewing.

Home - how does one describe this emotionally packed little four-letter word?  Home is that place that we long for when we aren't there, and yet can't wait to escape.  As small children, home is that special place where our parents are.  As teenagers, home is that place w can't get away from fast enough!  After we enter the work place, home is the place we spend eight hours a day longing for and leave on the weekends!  We spend our lives wanting to be home and yet trying to leave.

My home has become a haven for me lately.  No matter how messy or neat, home is the only place that I don't feel beset on all sides by events and emotions totally out of my control to contain.  Home is that place that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will be greeted overenthusiastically by three fur babies.

It's hard to really express all that "home" means.  There is the feeling of safety when I'm at home.  I don't have to answer the phone if I don't want to - let's face it - I don't even have to get out of my PJ's if I don't want to!  I can disappear into my sewing room for hours on end, spending the day sewing or reading or just staring into space.  It's safe and comfortable and special because I don't have to invite the world in unless I choose to.

In all of the emotional ups and downs of the past year, home has become even more dear to me.  In my mind, home has become this almost sacred place where I can retreat and be still.  After all the trauma and drama, I can be still, relax a little bit, pet my dogs, eat contraband cookies, and feel a little bit of peace around the edges of the tense, uptight person that I seem to have become lately.  I've learned that if I occupy myself by sewing, my mind can't keep constantly banging around over things that I can't change or fix.  My sewing room is almost like the mermaid's song - it calls to me during the work day, during the challenge, during the hurtful, and during the laughter.  There is a piece of fabric needing to be manipulated, a pattern that just has to be cut out, an idea that needs to be brought forth.  It is creativity with some semblance of purpose - creation for the love of creating.

What is a home?  Love, laughter, safety, family, creativity, laziness, stillness, calm.  Strife, anger, sadness, sorrow.  Home is many things, but it is always the place that we long for!

A Common Thread?

Have you ever really looked at thread and thought about what it does?  I hadn't - at least until tonight, when I was getting started on this post.  You see, I had intended to write about my weekend, and still will, but my thoughts have taken a totally different slant because of thread.

We often use the phrase, "a common thread" to mean that something is joined with something else or has something in common with something else.  One thing is tied to another, so to speak.

A single strand of thread is so thin that you can sometimes barely see it.  Especially when trying to thread a needle!  But that same slender thread can combine with cloth to create seams for items to wear, blankets to warm, gifts to bring joy, decorations to bring beauty.  A strand of thread can bring strength; it can cover rough edges and stop raveling; it can repair.  

What is it about that tiny little thread that so many of us find so comforting?  The act of drawing thread through fabric, something so simple and yet universally known, brings to mind home and hearth, wistful images of a simpler time, a child's first exploration into creating something from a scrap of fabric.  We may think of our mothers making a dress for us to wear to school, or our grandmothers stitching a quilt together.  Sewing, the drawing of a needle and thread through fabric, even if only in the mind, creates.  And as it creates, it can also bring together.

During pioneer times, there were quilting bees.  Women working together with needles and thread to create quilts to ward of winter's chill.  Today we can buy warm blankets so there is no real need to quilt in order to stay warm.  But we are still drawn to that act of pulling needle and thread through fabric.  It could be that we sew for the love of creating.  It could be that we sew to keep our minds busy, because sewing is not a mindless task!  Sewing can be a type of therapy when one needs to stay busy.  And that needle and thread can draw women from different walks of life together to teach, to learn, to discover that common seam.

I am usually a loner.  Go to work, go home, do it all over again.  And most of the creative things that I do are self-taught.  But this past weekend, I decided to take a short class on making a faux cathedral window quilt block.  Years ago when my children were small, I made some cathedral window blocks, but the idea of taking a class was appealing to me.  So off to Murphy I went on Saturday morning, Marie and fabric in tow, to learn how to make these blocks.  I had it in my mind to make a table runner to put on my table at Christmas.  IF, that is, I manage to clear the table of all the sewing paraphernalia that hasn't made it to the sewing room yet!

Betsy, the lady who taught the class, was bubbly and upbeat and immediately put me at ease.  I had almost talked myself out of showing up for the class because I don't quilt.  I make clothes - so sometimes they don't fit, but that's what I do.  All this talk of fussy cuts, stitch in the ditch, fat quarters - that's like talking Greek to me, even though I've been looking at it on the internet for a while now.  But Betsy soon had me stitching away, both of us talking 90 to nothing.  Other women drifted in and out of the classroom swapping little snippets of sewing experiences.  The class, scheduled to last 3 hours, passed more quickly than I would ever have thought.  

I plan to take my cathedral window blocks to Atlanta with me tomorrow.  Knowing that they will be waiting in the hotel room at the end of the day will help keep me from being homesick this week while I am at a workshop.  And the thought occurs to me that I came away from my quilting class with more than 9 quilt blocks.  I met a wonderful lady whose path I may never have crossed had it not been for the love of a slender little piece of thread.  As a matter of fact, I was so inspired by those 9 blocks that I made a notepad holder this weekend to take with me tomorrow as well.  And it's quilted!  Ok, somewhat quilted.  Patterns are like recipes - I can never leave them alone!  So I added a layer of batting and did a little stitching in the ditch!  Betsy, I think you've created a monster!  Ha!

Two of my cathedral window blocks before the final stitching

A close-up shot of one of my blocks before finishing

  

This is the open view of the back of my notepad holder

The closed view of my notepad holder

And the open view

  

The Serger Ate My Checkbook Cover and Other Tales

Alas, since I spent all my jack on a Janome serger, I can't get a Kindle.  So I downloaded the free version to my computer and purchased - you guessed it - a book on serger projects!  Since I'm VERY much a newbie to serging, I got a very basic project book that explains about sergers and gives some easy projects and "stepped-up" versions of the basic ones.  It's called Ready Set Serge - quick and easy projects yu can make in minutes.  And you literally can make them in minutes - it takes longer to cut out the material than it does to make the projects.  There are some very nice projects in the book that are helping me to get acquainted with Donnie.  He's very different from a sewing machine like Marie!

Two things I learned from my Kindle download experience: 

• Don't purchase books that may have patterns you would want to print.  You CAN'T print from a Kindle.  Not even the real ones, from what I could learn from the FAQs pages.
• I REALLY REALLY want a Kindle for regular reading!

 So...I perused the projects in my new Kindle book and decided, of course, not to start with the first project.  I had to jump into the middle of the book, deciding to make a book cover since I always carry a paperback with me to the dining hall.  They don't take much fabric - 4 pieces of fabric with the largest being 11 x 8.  So I dug through my scraps and came up with enough to make my very first serged book cover.


Yes, the pages are GREEN!



Too Cool!  It even has a handy bookmark built right in!

I'm all set to take off to the dining hall now, and I don't even have to use a napkin to mark my place when I have to give up reading and go back to work!  First time out of the gate, my book cover actually fit.  I'm on a roll.  So what about larger sized books?  OOK!  This might involve measuring and MATH!  My brain finally cramped around the project and this is what I came up with, again using scraps.  I managed to create a cover for a trade-sized paperback book. 


I got a little funky here and added beads to the yarn bookmark. 

 The "Stepped-Up" version of the book cover pattern involved creating a tassel with the serger to add to the bookmark, but I didn't want to try that.  Instead, I tried using a 2-thread cover stitch to create ladders on a piece of cream-colored fabric.  I literally spent hours running yarn and embroidery thread through these ladders.  But since my directions for creating these ladders wasn't real good, the results were unusable even if the fabric did look pretty.  It looked like tapestry.  Don't know what I did with that mistake, though.  It's somewhere in my sewing room and eventually I'll salvage it to use for something...

So...my project book mentioned checkbook covers.  Pretty neat, I thought.  Back to the scrap bag I went.  And came up with this:

But it didn't feel substantial enough with just the fabric.  So I decided to add some quilt batting to the project.  Everything went pretty well at first.  I thought that I would dress up the front of the cover by adding a little applique.  After all, Marie has this great applique stitch that I figured it was time to master too.  So I did some internet surfing, found some free flower applique patterns, and came up with this:

I really liked the dark flowers.  But when it came time to put everything together and serge, I discovered that Donnie does not like thick wads of material.  He started to jam, then went crooked and ate quite a bit of seam allowance.  I still managed to get everything put together, but it just wasn't straight and neat.  And it took a while to get all the little pieces of batting out of the machine...NOT fun!  Add to that the fact that I had to re-thread Donnie and I was getting stressed out!  But I couldn't quit...

And the inside looked even worse.  So I decided to sacrifice some of my fat quarters, more batting, and try again.  But this time I cut my batting slightly smaller than the cover.  Marie really likes to applique on quilting sandwiches now that I've got this great walking foot, so of course we had to add flowers to the newest cover.  Then it was time to let Donnie have a turn at putting everything together.  After that, I tried putting a check pad in, and everything fit.  It was time for just a little more embellishment - I had found some really great little buttons at Noblet's Dime Store on Saturday, so I added some to the center of the main flower:

That should make spending money just a little bit more fun!

After that, I decided that I could use another set of my precious fat quarters (I'm just now discovering the wonderful world of fat quarters and love to look at my tiny stash!).  I needed to see if I could create a trade-sized embellished book cover for a really huge book.  This is what I came up with, after just a small amount of math-related frustration:

Voila!  I now consider myself to be the queen of appliqued book covers.  Potential Christmas presents for the readers in my family?  Hmmm...there's definitely some potential there!