A Little Yarn On The Side

Feeling pretty brave, I decided to be a bit more daring with the new ornament design yesterday, and have now decided that either I don't care as much for white thread on these designs, or I am just not good enough with the applique scissors to do light-colored thread yet.  Considering I managed to draw blood with the blasted things yesterday, gross incompetence with the new scissors is certainly an issue.  I am sort of relieved to know that I actually prefer that these AREN'T in white, as running out of white embroidery thread has been one of my biggest concerns for the no-buying year. So, after dumping my scrap bin out and finding myself short on scrap pieces of satin in any color EXCEPT gold, I was inspired to experiment with color options with gold (see how nicely that works?)  And since dark thread covers my mistakes better than light, what could be better than black?  I know it's unusual for a Christmas decoration, but don't you just love how this looks?...

Well, mostly. I've never done applique with the embroidery machine (actually, I've only done one applique in my life), and while I love the cleverness of the designs in the set Andy gave me for Christmas, the instructions do presume a level of basic knowledge which I don't have.  I was hoping for some suggestions on what type of material to use, as a few minutes with Google only turned up a suggestion not to use fabric that is "too" prone to ravel.  Satin is prone to raveling, but I wasn't sure if it ravels "too" much or just enough, but as I couldn't think of anything else to use--nor find anything sort of shiny that ravels less.  In the example, they did color changes with the thread AND used two colors of fabric.  I decided to stick with just one for now, as the design wasn't too specific about how it was going to work.  I pulled the design up with my embroidery software and walked through the design, so I knew that it used thread c...

It's Finishing Friday, and aside from a trip to the gym for an hour of pool walking, I am crafting!  It's supposed to hit 100 degrees here today (THEN work its way up to 105 by Wednesday before this insanity is over), so I can guarantee that I won't be gardening.  Wednesday night I thought I would get a head-start on today, so I loaded up my embroidery card for some new ornaments: (well, the lace snowflakes aren't exactly "new," but at least I haven't done them in a while).  What I really wanted to try--and what I haven't yet found the courage for--is this: It's one of the designs Andy gave me for Christmas.  It's a flat free-standing lace ornament, but those big open spaces are for appliqué, which I have never done.  The picture shows the lace in white with red fabric for the top and green for the bottom, which looked very cool.  The problem is, the directions assume one isn't a complete novice and doesn't mention what fabric ...

Not surprisingly, my first approach to dealing with Google Reader's impending doom on July 1--just ignoring it and hope something will change--has failed.  It's one of my favorite methods, though to be honest, I can't think of a single time when it's actually worked.  So, it's time for plan B:  choosing a new reader. Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts earlier.  I have narrowed it down to two choices ( The Old Reader and Comma Feed ), and last night I set up both of them.  So far, I don't like either of them simply because I don't want to change.  I had already changed once TO Google Reader, so I'm still grumpy about having to switch to something new.  So I'm giving them both a test run to see which seems least likely to make me switch yet again. It might seem odd that someone who keeps a blog is so hostile to technology, but it really isn't odd at all.  I'm 42, so depending on what one defines as the "computer age beginnin...

What the heck have I been doing with myself?  Oh yes: *  sucking up to a cat who has spent a great part of the last two weeks drugged and/or caged *  following a cat around to make sure he's drinking and peeing (and is now avoiding the obsessed crazy lady) *  weeding *  cursing myself for the half-hearted mulching job two weeks ago *  getting back into my pt routine and gym schedule *  learning about stomach ulcers and how they can be caused by extended use of the pain medication I've been on for the better part of a year and a half *  researching stomach ulcer-friendly diets in case my stomach doesn't start healing immediately now that I have stopped taking all pain medication *  inventing crazy new ways to "enjoy" hot cereal for breakfast every single morning *  being thankful that the healing process is only slightly slower than my speed at reaching satiation on the Bland Food diet *  doing extra exercises (...

..but making him drink is going to result in bloodshed. The good news is, Theo has been in absolutely no pain all weekend.  The bad news is, in addition to being insanely groggy, he refused to eat or drink anything.  Now I can understand this, as I've had more than my fair share of pain medication, and it all makes me sick in one way or another, but when one is trying to make sure one's male cat HASN'T developed a urinary tract infection, one really needs that cat to take in liquid.  All forms of bribery failed--beef broth, canned kitty food, begging--so we resorted to the syringe method.  I thought I had gotten pretty good at giving Theo liquid medications during his leg saga, but I've gotten rusty or he's gotten smarter.  I am sure some of the water ended up in the cat, but not half as much as ended up on the OUTSIDE of the cat.  It seems to have worked--this morning the medication has finally worn off, he's regained his appetite, and though we haven't...

So, you know that buy-nothing goal of mine?  Um, yeah...... Out of morbid curiosity, I often browse Ebay looking to see how many embroidery machines like mine are up for sale.  If I can get parts for mine, I think mine could  last another 10 years or more--but the problem is that there's no telling how long they'll be available.  So, I keep an eye out for the embroidery cards and/or the reader/writer I use to transfer designs to my machine.  The last writable card I bought was in a clearance basket (though still insanely expensive considering how little support the old machines get), so you can see why I worry.  So, before we left for Indiana, there were several cards on Ebay.  Usually I don't bother with the ones with designs already on them, because they're still REALLY expensive and I'm not interested enough in the designs.  But there was an unused writable card which wasn't going for much, and a lace card with maybe a $10 bid.  I thou...

Thursday night I had some spare time, so I thought I'd get a head start on Finishing Friday with three new icicles,   and three new patchwork ornaments, trying some new methods of tracing the pattern onto the felt, none of which worked any better, and I seem to have not photographed the third one.  Oh well,  it's a heart--pretty much like the last one.  I think we can now say that THREE strips of fabric was maybe an over-estimation of how long my interest in these would last.  They are a great way to catch up on my ornament tally, and I do like them, but I am now counting the days until I can buy fusible webbing and new marking pens. I like the hand-stitched look on ornaments, so both to solve the tracing problem AND try a new look, I made a stocking which I could cut out first, THEN stitch.  It worked reasonably well, though I need to practice a bit to get my stitching a bit more even, and it's hard to see in spots, but I thought it turne...

Look what a friend sent me while we were gone! Isn't he cute?????  She knows about the ornament project and sent him along with the directions for how to make several ornaments she's made (him included).  Isn't that great? 

It may not look like it, but this is a cat with stress issues.  We flew out to Indiana for Andy's family reunion obscenely early on Thursday morning.  Because it's such a busy time of year for our friends, how much I would worry about fires with the drought this year, and because I wanted to poison the little vole-monsters who have been plaguing the garden all spring, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to board the cats while we were gone.  Because of our travel times, the cats were due to check in the day before we left and get picked up the day after we arrived.  I made the reservations well in advance, made a copy of their immunization records, and thought I was really pretty clever for coming up with this whole idea in the first place. STILL feeling like I was planning ahead, we dug out the suitcases Tuesday night.  I have joked many times about Theo getting upset when he sees suitcases come out because he hates change so much, but I always thou...

........the tough make three quick ornaments to stay on track: I had actually decided that I had enough lace icicle ornaments for a while, but this week between trying to combat the vole infestation in the garden, trying to get to the gym, doing my pt exercises every day, then trying to get the garden plants weeded and mulched before the next wave of extreme heat hits, I decided that one can NEVER have too many lace icicle ornaments.  It's best to be a bit desperate flexible with these things.............

I realize it will pay off at the end of the summer, but gardening is REALLY getting in the way of my crafting.  Dang it!

It's this hot today, and after three whole days completely off pain pills, I had a rather bad night and ended up back on full meds for the rest of the night.  That's always a bit hard to take, but on such a hot day it just sucks the life out of me.  And Theo.  Last night I did get the remaining two sets of strips sewn together, with a new color order on the smaller one,  and the original order on the set made with 2-inch strips.  I'm really rather proud of myself for moving on to the next sets.  The way I usually do things is to finish the first set, set the second set aside "meaning to get around to it," and then spend the next year and a half moving it around rather than finishing it.  Of course, these still have to make it all the way to Ornament Stage, but I think them even making it to Long Uneven Strip Stage might be some serious personal growth on my part.  Or, as close as I ever get.  In the meantime, I am keeping myse...

Last night my "helpers" and I finished two more striped ornaments, and kept an eye on all suspicious (meaning "dog") activity in the neighborhood.   (We try to do our bit for the community) It seems that we have had our "nice" summer weather, and have moved on to the "hot and horrible" phase.  For crafting, this means that the morning of Finishing Friday--like all mornings--will now be spent in trying to keep the garden alive.  The afternoons, which will now be mostly in the 90s or higher, will be spent somewhere with air conditioning.  I know temperatures are rising and everything, but I still wonder about people who lived here before air conditioning.  Did they just spend the summers naked? This afternoon's stay-in-the-airiconditioned-house project was: more ornament shapes!  I decided to try out some new shapes, and I thought cookie cutters might be a good source, and these are the ones I found.  We might have more, but I woul...

I've been thinking about a new ornament design, and this afternoon it was a bit too warm to work in the garden, so I thought it would be a perfect time to try it out. First, I dug out 5 blue Christmas fabrics, ironed them just enough to get by, then cut two 1 1/2-inch strips and one 2-inch strip from each color.  Then it was time to play with one of my favorite feet: I have 3 different 1/4-inch quilting feet (one came free with the second Husqvarna), but this is the only one I can truly manage 1/4-inch seams with.  While I think I'm staying on the edge of the other feet, I don't always stay as close as I should.  This one has a guide for me to use, and I am happy to say that even I can manage 1/4-inch seams with this one.  I laid out the strips in the order I wanted, sewed them each together with the 1/4-inch seams, then pressed the seams toward the dark fabrics.   One thing that always amazes me with fabric is this: every last one of these fabri...