Joy's Needled

Problem Solved?  Such a Small Solution
Jig Pro hollow ended needle for paracord and leather laces

The Joy's plaque I'm needlepointing to be mounted on a bag above where it already says: Getting Things Done, has been languishing for want of a needle.  A needle of a kind I wasn't sure existed.

I was picturing something hollow on one end and with a dull point on the other and some way of securing the end of the cord in the hollow end. And slim enough to fit through the plastic mesh without breaking it.  I also pictured it with a tiny clamp or pincer instead of hollow but couldn't picture how that could be made not to snag the cord.  So hollow was better but I couldn't picture how the cord could be secured.  Turns out screw threads are the solution.  And to make the cord grippable you melt the end first..  I didn't need to do that as it acquired a good grip onto the end I'd treated with Fray-check.--a kind of chemical melt I suppose.

I found it in leather-working supplies on Amazon.  I wasn't positive it was small enough because my eyes were not able to judge the measurement of the mesh hole and there was nobody around to do it for me so I took a gamble thinking that it was so close the canvas with the larger mesh would work with the needle on future projects.

Why do I need such a bizarre sounding needle?  The paracord is too thick to go thru the mesh doubled over in the eye of a needle.  Besides needle eyes big enough to hold the cord are already too big to go through the mesh holes. I had resorted to fraying the end of the cord and then painting it with fray-check and twisting it into a point as it dried.  This worked.

  Sorta.  But it was slow going. Like threading a cooked spaghetti noodle through a bead.

But it did work OK as long as there was just one strand occupying the hole.  When trying to put the strand through the hole already occupied by the stitch in the neighboring row tho the fray-check coat on the point began to loose its stiffness and without that it was like trying to push a worm through a straw.

The new needle works exactly as I imagined and it fits the empty hole.  But when I push it through the already occupied hole I must be very careful to go exactly straight as any pressure toward the side will break the mesh.  So far it only happened once and I managed to repair it by wrapping thread several times around the mesh bars on either side of the gap to replace the missing bar.  I hope that doesn't happen very often as it is a pain'

I would send for another hollow ended needle in a size smaller except I'm pretty sure the specs on this one said it was the smallest.

The brand of the needle was Jig Prol  It seems a very fine quality of metal with nothing on the surface that could snag the paracord.  What impressed me most about Jig Pro so far tho was that of the three different brands selling leather working needles that I ordered from in the same order they were the only one whose method of shipping made sense to me;  But that was probably because Jig Pro itself was supplying whereas the other two orders were being supplied by Amazon.  Amazon sent one needle set in the same box along with a couple other items in my order but I almost missed it as it had slid under the flap on the bottom.  The other one was in a box the size of a hardback book all by its lonesome.  Jig Pro sent theirs by snail mail in a greeting card sized envelop.

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Fiber Art WIP: Jewelry Travel Organizer

Jewelry Travel Organizer

The craft project I've targeted for dedicated focus until it is done is this jewelry travel organizer kit that I am making for my sister.  It was meant for her birthday in July and I did giver her one part of it the week of her birthday--the earring wallet with a postcard picture of a baby polar bear for a cover.  It had three sections of plastic needlepoint canvas joined on the short sides and it folded accordion style.

The jewelry box, also made with plastic needlepoint canvas, has a top cover with a picture of a mama and baby polar bear.  The picture has a vinal pocket on the back and is attached on its bottom edge to the front edge of the lid so that jewelry can be mounted on the inside of the lid.    I have a tiny mirror mounted with decorative electricians tape but it is coming loose so I'm going to have to rethink that.

I actually gave Carri the box two weeks ago thinking that the project was finished and I was free to move on to the next target (the nearly three years past due Secret Santa project for my Sister-In-Law--the Quilter's Tote) but Carri handed back the earring wallet telling me it wasn't working.  I took back the box too because I'd forgotten to attach the clasp.  Then I spent that weekend rethinking the whole project.

I decided to turn the postcard sized wallet into something that can hold loose items and to crochet the earring wallet.  I spent the whole weekend crocheting the fifteen inch piece seen above.  Then Carri brought me her earring collection so I could mount them for her.  And Lo it did not work!!  The two-chain mesh I worked with size 5 thread was too big.  So after some more thought I decided to put an Aida cloth lining.  That did seem to work.  Especially with the crocheted back putting pressure on the hook keeping them from sliding out.  The lime green ribbon will serve a double purpose--to protect the earrings from scratching each other when the wallet is folded and as part of the clasp holing it closed.

The lime green border on the purple crochet is done in lace weight yarn that I created by pulling apart the four fibers in several yards of Carron Simply Soft yarn.  i put that border on last weekend and during last week spent two days trying to find a way to mount a 15x2.5 inch piece of Aida cloth on a jerry rigged stretcher frame so I could put a backstitch border around the edge to stop fraying while being decorative.  I spent hours and hours untangling the sewing thread I was using to attach it to a loom I'd made from my Martha Stewart loom set.  I finally realized in the wee hours of a morning after extricating myself from the upteenth game of evil cat's cradel I realized that in the time I'd spent on that I could have backstitched around the border four times.  Plenty of time that I could have worked slow enough to stay mindful of my tension and thus prevent the puckering of the cloth that stretching it on a frame is intended to do.

So I spent part of this past weekend doing that.  The remaining steps are:

• attach the crochet, aida and ribbon pieces together
• make the buckle for the clasp out of a 1 in sq piece of plastic canvas
• mount the earrings
• take the mirror off the lid and attach it to the back of the baby polar bear
• create an enclosed wallet with that postcard and the three plastic canvas pieces
• add clasp to jewelry box 

I'll post pic when it is finished.  I'm hoping by Sunday night if not sooner.  Idealiy I'd like to have it done by Friday afternoon so I can get back to work on the Quilter's tote

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Hooked on Beginings

9 New Crochet Projects

4 hats, 3 scarfs, 2 drawstring bags.  Just in the last week.  3 are not for me.

There are more fiber art beginnings since January 3rd which was Mom's birthday and the end of the holiday and family gifting occasions strung between late August and early January.  I cut myself loose.  A reward for finishing 57 fiber art tasks since September 1.

Besides these there were several experiments that didn't pan out, two smallish needlepoint projects and some crochet bookmarks.

It's been fun but I need to settle down soon and put some focus back on finishing things.

If I just finished all the bookmarks on the hook I could maintain last year's motto of finishing more things than I start through the month of January 2015.

Bookmarks used to be a one-sitting project.  Once I could crochet over ten of them in a single day.  Now I have over a dozen on the hook.  Some of them for over two years.

I think what happened is that as I began adding larger projects the bookmarks got classified as 'the portable projects' and don't get attention when I'm at home.  They end up languishing in pockets and purses from previous outings and not quick to lay hands on when leaving the house again so I grab a new ball of thread and start a new one for that next car ride or waiting room.

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Fiber Art WIP

This is the scope of the project I've set myself to catalog all my fiber art WIP, get photos of their current state and note relevant data--percent done, thread brand and color, pattern, hook size, what's left to do, what materials need buying before it can be finished etc...

And to think I've started another half dozen since Sunday...

And that's not all

That's still not all...

Nope.  Not even. 

There's more in drawers and boxes of various sizes.

Plus many of those bags and boxes in the shots have multiple projects in them.

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Sunday Serenity #370

Needle Book w Scissors Fob by Isiscat777 on deviantART

This is an ongoing series from my Bucket List
of things I desperately want to do before
I loose the rest of my vision

My Bucket List
#12 Add Petit Point to My Fiber Art Repertoire

Turkish Delight Smalls 6-21-11
by Isiscat777 on deviantART

Ever since my fiber art passion switched from embroidery to needlepoint in the early 90s I've dreamed of working a petit point (18 to 40 stitches per inch) but I've yet to get around to it.  And now my eyes have already degenerated enough to make that proposition iffy.

I wouldn't dare start a large project, but I could consider small ones: bookmarks, button covers, fobs, cell phone case cover, barrettes, pendents and broaches, scarf pins, pin cushions and needle cases, cuffs and collars, Christmas ornaments and other holiday decor, small book and notebook covers, pencil case, wallet, box tops, watchbands, headbands and hair ribbons, napkin rings, cozies...

I think this is something I should target for 2014.

I added counted cross stitch in 2000. The physical motions of working the two feel so similar and with their use of the same materials and tools and pattern charts I never emotionally differentiated them so for this challenge I'll consider either to fulfill the dream.

Meanwhile I'm scoping out ideas and drooling over designs on Pinterist, Deviant Art, and Heaven and Earth Designs.

Maybe I'll start with a Christmas ornament to aid in fulfilling #11.

My Bucket List

#1 Hot Air Balloon Ride
#2 Play on a real drum set
#3 Swim with dolphins
#4 Visit Shakespeare & Co. Bookshop in Paris
#5 Visit the Library of Congress
#6 Attend a Performance of Beethoven's Symphony #9 by a top notch Orchestra

#7 Visit Hawaii
#8 Visit Russia 
#9 Learn Russian
#10 Learn Braille

#11 Celebrate Christmas in My Own Home with All the Trappings

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My First Fiber Art

Embroidery was my first fiber art passion. These appliance covers were my first embroidery project. It was the late sixties when I began the mixer and toaster cover which I believe were for my parent's anniversary. I was eleven when I started them and am sure they took me at least a year. They use only the outline stitch.

I went on from them to a marriage record sampler and then a birth record sampler. Both were at first intended for my own hope chest but I ended up giving them as gifts. The two samplers introduced me to many more stitches: satin, daisy, chain, back stitch, french knot, cross stitch.

Though I crocheted two afghans and began a pair of knitted slippers for a home ec class my Senior year of high school in the mid seventies, embroidery remained my passion until my early thirties in the late eighties when I discovered needlepoint which I stuck with until 2001 when I shifted to counted cross stitch.

Since 2009 I've been nursing an obsession on crochet but I feel my fingers itching for the needle again. Not sure whether for embroidery, cross stitch or needle point. But I do have several needlework projects to finish so I won't be starting any new large projects until those are finished. I may scratch the itch by trying out a few of the needlework bookmark concepts I've had in mind for some time. I think I can justify a few small projects like that while I work at finishing up the two needlepoint book covers and the two large counted cross stitch projects.

I received a lot of praise at the time for keeping a clean backside when working these. Many adults seemed amazed that they were my first and that at my age I was taking such care. Maybe due to this recognition but more likely just due to my perfectionist tendencies, I still take care to keep a clean backside. In these I was using knots to end thread but when working the sampler kits I learned that was not the correct practice and I learned how to secure and hide both the beginning and end of threads without knots.

I found the toaster cover in the kitchen towel drawer and my sister located the mixer cover in the laundry room in the 'to be ironed' pile where it's probably been for half a decade as I don't think Mom did much if any ironing after my dad's diagnosis in 2004. I'm a bit embarrassed that I took these pics without ironing them first. But I'm running out of time to finish the bridal and wedding gifts for my niece and the wedding is tomorrow. 18 hours actually.

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Knottywares--Sometimes You Wear Them

Introducing Knottywares a web biz for fiber artists. This business was created by a friend, Summer Clemenson, and her friend who live in the Longview WA area where I grew up. I am probably going to be testing the waters for selling my crocheted bookmarks via her site. She studied how to promote online business and organizations in college so I'll be talking to her about it while I'm in Longview this month and maybe getting her advice on how to set up a proper 'for sale' page right here on Joystory too.

If you are into fiber arts in any way check out Knottywares and if you have fiber art items for sale she is looking for more artist to display their efforts there. It's a good way to promote your blog or other fiber art related business you might have and maybe make a little money to buy thread and other stuff you need to support your knotty habits.

Oh and here's Knottywares fb page

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A Flourish of Floss

Above is a pic of my hoard of embroidery floss which I had collected into one place as I try to sort out which of the colors called for in this free chart I found online I already have. The chart uses DMC which I have a lot of but DMC accounts for less than half of the colors in my hoard. So I needed to find out if I could discover the DMC equivalent of the other brands and sure enough I found a good selection of conversion charts.

The best one of all is the one I found at Cyberstitches though as it gives conversion to and from several brand names and several of the kit brands as well. I had two kits, one a Dimensions Gold and the other a Candamar.

I spent hours and hours on this project in the last two days and ended up discovering the exact DMC color or an equivalent for 12 of the 90 colors in the chart. And four of those are actually just 'close enoughs'. I'd hoped for 20 to 30.

It's possible I can put together a few more 'close enoughs' from a bargain brand that has no color numbers on it and the old hand-me-down threads from brands that no longer exist or whose codes are no longer what the bands sport. A good 50% of my hoard fits one of those categories.

It feels like a lot of work for such small return. It would be so much easier to go buy the thread. But buying full skeins of all 90 colors would make this small cross stitch or needlepoint, in spite of the free chart, more expensive than a Dimensions Gold kit for a 16 X 20 picture that includes chart, canvas, thread and needles. That dolphin kit seen in the pic cost over $30 13 years ago. For most of the colors in the planned project I need only a yard or two of a couple strands not the 8+ yards of six strands in the typical skein.

So, especially since it looks like I'll still need to buy over 2/3 of the colors, I need to set up a system to insure that the remainder of the thread from this and every other project past and future, can be quickly identified and found for future projects. That means organization of the hoard and useful record keeping that keeps track of the colors, brand codes and conversion codes and locations of all my thread.

Arrrrrgh! I just took another look at the color list for the project in my note ap--the list against which I've been checking all the colors from my hoard today--and discovered that the list was missing it's bottom half. Now I'm going to have to check that bottom half against the lists I made of the codes from my hoard. Well at least I can do that without getting it all out again. This lists are all on the clipboard.

Maybe I'll pick up another half dozen colors for the project? One can hope?

You know what? There have been several other times in the last couple days in which I went to look for something I thought I'd stored in my note ap and not found it. I thought maybe I'd not put it in the place I thought I had or named it what I remembered. But now I'm wondering if maybe I forgot to do a final save before I closed the ap when I did a restart. Now I'm wondering what else I might be missing that I thought was safely stored for later as I'm constantly copy/pasting links, info, thoughts and etc into my WhizFolder ap.

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Escape into Enchantment

The baby afghan fringe is still giving me fits. So much so I am even beginning to avoid thinking about crochet as it is becoming tainted with this frustration. Then while wielding the needle in an attempt to use couching stitches to tack down the fringe pieces muscle memory reminded me of the joy I once had in embroidery, needlepoint and counted cross stitch. But instead of hankering after one of those unfinished projects I began to yearn to start a new one. Maybe a petit point (18 to 22 stitches per inch needlepoint) which I have always meant to do and must do soon before my eyes can't do it anymore even with 2.5 to 3.0 magnification.

Well I can say I have an excuse to do so in that I would need to start something brand new for my Secret Santa Giftee this year. Of course that could be something crocheted which would be a much simpler and quicker project. But well, I need a good excuse to start something new. :D

I've been looking at the kits online for needlepoint and counted cross stitch. I even found some very likely ones but it will be a couple months before I can afford the $30 to $40 cost of one of the good kits. I prefer the ones of the caliber of Dimensions Gold which tend to have the extra embellishments like gradual shading, blending filament, metallic thread, beads, outlining and other embroidery stitches on top of the needlepoint or cross stitches all of which creates a more intricately detailed work that looks less cartoonish than some of the plainer kits.

I got to thinking though that I had all the thread I needed to get started on a project of my own making. I even have a 10 inch square piece of petit pint canvass tho a yard of aida cloth would not be too expensive. I have some beads though by the time that step came around I could afford to add whatever is missing from the collection. I have nearly a full pallet of thread as once I collected two each of every color in the trays when there was a sale. I'm sure I'd be likely to run out of this or that color once a project got under way but I can easily replace the thread.

So all I need is a picture to turn into a pattern.

I spent six hours online this evening doing image searches on the theme of enchantment, fairies and fantasy collecting possibilities. I was completely surprised when Ed came in to bed. I hadn't done my post yet and didn't want to change the subject in my mind so I continued working planing to post a handful of the pictures. Then I remembered the slide show gizmo.

But I had not be careful to keep track of the artists during the search before I planned to post images. I'd just be getting screenshots of them for my needlework folder. So in order to post the images with a clear conscience I had to go back and find each one again to establish title of work and artist name.

I discovered the artist Sanderson via the Dimensions Gold kit that was made of her Woodland Enchantress. That is the kit I was hoping to get but I can't afford it for two or three more months and that may be too late to get started in order to finish by mid December.

Even after the intense search that image is in my top five favorites. I'm just not sure I should choose it if I can't get the kit that already exists. Whatever project I start I would want to blog about it and if I feel like I'm violating some ethical code I would shy away from posting images of my work in progress or even just admitting to what I'm doing.

But before I can start a new major project I HAVE to get that afghan finished. But that's a story for another post.

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You Thought I Was Kidding?

A while back I posted about my issue with hoarding and mentioned that one of the things I save are the thread clippings off my needlework projects. That's a picture of the collection of ends clipped off the tails of my crocheted bookmarks in the last several weeks. Actually that picture was taken a couple weeks ago and I've tucked a lot of tails since then so there's even more in that envelope now.

Saving these sixteenth inch to two inch thread pieces began as an attempt to keep the litter off my clothing, the floor and the furniture especially since I carry small portable crochet, embroidery, cross stitch or needlepoint projects with me to other people's homes and cars and in public where it would be rude to leave my droppings indiscriminately.

So I began putting them in envelopes or small plastic bags kept in my sewing kit to keep until I was near a waste basket again.

Ha.

It wasn't long before the build up of the colorful little threads began to look too pretty to me to just toss. I concocted a number of theoretical projects for which they might be used: laminated bookmarks, book covers or greeting cards; decoupage fridge magnets; decoration on any number of items--mostly small containers, say pencil holders, jewelry box, picture frames, even wall art.

So I stopped throwing them away. At times in the past two or three decades I've had fistfuls of these floss, thread and yarn leavings scattered throughout my sewing projects. But have I ever actually made anything with them?

Guess.

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Sunday Serenity #176

Two of my favorite things. Kittens and yarn (or thread).

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Some Things Are Just That Fun!

moar funny pictures
Today was the second weekend of race season at the local dirt track and thus my second Saturday home alone for 8 to 12 hours. Last week it was very close to twelve. Today it was just over eight hours. Last week I had to prioritize the 300 some pages I had left to read in King's Under the Dome and 5 DVD all of which had to be in the library drop box before noon Monday. This week such pressures were off. I did have some chores to do in our room and laundry but nothing pressing. I was planning to spend the bulk of the time working on my script for Script Frenzy as I mentioned in last night's post. And if the weather was good (and it was!) I wanted to sit on the porch with Merlin and a book for a bit, alternating reading with sessions on the mini-tramp. And this evening I'd hoped to watch a movie on the big flat screen TV in the front room.

But before Ed and his folks left at 2 this afternoon, I started crocheting while listening to downloaded news pods. After making five more of the original pattern bookmarks, my wrist was twinging so I decided to get out the embroidered bookmark I've been working at for several years off and on. Next thing I knew I was glancing up at a dark window. I hadn't eaten. I hadn't started laundry. I hadn't sat out on the porch with a book and Merlin. Hadn't got on the mini-tramp.

No. Instead, I had sat in the same spot I spend most of my waking hours all week--the edge of the bed--and worked the hook or needle while listening to month old news; something I could do any time of any day. Now, unless Ed's folks choose to go out of town on the same day Ed has to work, sometime this week, I have to wait a week for the next race day, hoping for a dry track, to have another chance to do those things I can only do when I'm home alone.

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Motivated to Finish

Here I am at my workstation for reading, writing, net surfing, DVD and podcast viewing, and sewing, and crochet. I've been on a finishing spree since the new modem was installed Monday. I'd crocheted the main body of half a dozen bookmarks over the four days I went without web access and since five of them were still attached to the thread spools until their tails were tucked so their borders could be crocheted on, I was motivated to get those tasks done so the colors would be available for new projects. I finished up the forth and fifth one today and as reward, I started a new one after dinner.

See the little drawstring bag hanging off my left wrist? That is a method for carrying single projects about in--as long as they use only one or two spools of crochet thread. I pull the thread(s) up through the top and as I work a gentle flick of my left wrist is usually enough to pull up enough thread for a couple more double crochets. Sometimes though I need to reach over with my right hand and give the string a strong tug.





Above is a close up of my hands at work with the bag hanging off my wrist. The crochet hook is in my left hand as I deal with a small snarl.

This has been nice for taking my work out on the porch this week. It protects it from Merlin our cat, dust and cigarette smoke.

It is working so well I'm thinking of making a bigger one that will hold up to four spools for those projects with multiple colors or for multiple small projects with one or two colors. I tried to get a third spool in this one but the fit was too tight, leaving no room for them to turn and release the thread.

I didn't make this one. It was just one of those container things I tend to collect (bags, pouches, purses, boxes, trays, envelopes, etc) in hopes of fining a use for them. Many such items tend to contain little but each other, serving as storage for empty containers waiting for uses. But this pouch, made of windbreaker material has seen much use over the last 6-8 years and I can't even remember where it came from or if I ever knew its original purpose.




Here I show off the bookmark in progress next to the half-loaded bag. This is the size of the variation of the one pictured below which I've been making this past week. The five I finished in the last two days were five different pastels where the purple is here and a pastel variegated where the turquoise is.

The week before I made two of the long ones with the bright Mexicana variegated where the blue is--one with red, the other with royal blue. And also the first of the short ones in yellow with the Mexicana. They are all ready for blocking and tassels. When finished they'll have the shape of this one:







The bookmark I started tonight is intended to accompany this Bible cover which I'm (still) making for my niece. It has a third panel for holding a tablet and pen. I finished the needlepoint on it nearly a year ago during my stay at my Mom's. I still need to sew the lining onto the back

I am motivated to get cracking on that this week as my in-laws are going to be seeing her on their trip next weekend. They are leaving Thursday morning so that gives me a week. As I confessed in this post last summer, I started work on this six months before her sixteenth birthday. I think it is her 27th coming up in July.

I think I may really do it this time.




That silver fabric is what I'm lining it with. It is stretchy which intimidates me. I'm not sure how to sew on it without puckering it. I researched the hand stitches and chose the backstitch done while the two pieces are facing each other. Which means it will be wrong side out until I have all but a few inches done and then I have to turn it right side out and sew up the remaining inches with a blind stitch. I had considered doing it right side out with the blind stitch all around but I'm sure the puckering would have been impossible to keep under control and besides it is not a sturdy stitch.

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Dreaming of Cool

see more dog and puppy pictures

Temps are still nudging 100 by late afternoon. But either it was a tad cooler today or I'm starting to acclimate. I found the energy to sew for several hours this afternoon and even went outside and sat on the porch with it after 7pm. I was working on the embroidered bookmark. The picture to the right was taken a couple of weeks ago when I was taking inventory of my sewing works in progress. I started this in 2005.

The words you see on the bottom were put on then. "Books can take you anywhere!" They are done in back stitch. Each one a different color, which wasn't on the pattern that came with it. The pattern shows them all done in red. There will be three balloons and a book cross stitched in among the words. Each one a different color and I hope a different color from any used in the words. I put on the book today and I made it brown instead of the blue the pattern showed because I was using the thread left over after petite-pointing the teddy bear in the picture at the top.

The picture at the top was painted on and I don't think it was intended to be stitched but I wanted to anyway. It is of a child laying on an open book that is flying in the air. I didn't care for the shade of green they had made the book so I thought it would look better needle pointed in purple. I started working that in the summer of 2005 and got about a quarter of the book covered in purple before the events preceding my Dad's passing that year distracted me. I'd been working on it while sitting with Ed's grandma that summer but when I got back from Longview after my Dad's funeral that November I'd switched my attention to another project.

Last week I finished covering the book in purlple then did the edges of the pages in gold floss with gold metalic thread and put some decorative stitches on the cover in gold metalic as well.

At 8PM I had to quit sewing and switch to reading as the light wasn't right for sewing anymore. Shortly before 9PM there wasn't enough light to read by either so I got on the mini-tramp and ended up spending an hour on a gentle workout, visiting with Ed during part of it. I'd missed getting on it for the last two days.

I also read for several hours earlier today and will be retuning to the books again as soon as this is posted as I've got four library books that must go back by Thursday morning. Also two DVD so I may play a movie if my eyes wear out on the books. I'm not likely to finish any of the books so I've already put my request in for all four of them to come back to me. One of them though, has a queue and I'm forth in line. That is the one I'm spending most of my time with. Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them) by Bart D. Ehrman. The author is an ex-fundamentalist who is a professor of Religious Studies at Chapel Hill University in N. Carolina. He is a scholar of the Bible in what is know as higher-critisism. I guess it's obvious (if you read my profile) why I'm interested. I may want this one in my personal library someday.

Tomorrow my in-laws will be out of town and I'm taking advantage of that to do our laundry. Then I won't have it do on Saturday when everybody is at the races and I'll be free to do something else.

Thursday I'm planning to go to the library and spend as much of the day as possible in their airconditioning. I went a little nuts ordering books in the last week and may have close to twenty waiting for me by Thrusday. What was I thinking? I don't have room for twenty more books in this room.!!!!

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Sew Busy

moar funny pictures
I'm busy working one of the projects in yesterday's list. The one I'd like to put in the mail first of next week.

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High Priority Sewing and Craft Project in Progress

Several of the sewing projects I've got going which. These and more will be described individually below.

I am embarking on a finishing project for the several sewing and craft projects I have going. I'm hoping that by posting about it here, I will be more motivated to stick to a plan to wrap most of them up in the next six to eight months.

As you can see my working environment in this room is often compromised so its nice to be able to take a project elsewhere. I also like to take a project with me whenever I leave the house. I never know when a free minute or two might be available. And pulling out a needle or crochet project is more acceptable socially than pulling out a book. :)



Below, in no particular order, are the in-progress sewing and craft projects I currently have in portable condition and which are also high priority:

• The sixteen naked bookmarks discussed extensively in yesterday's post. I'm planning to offer several as prizes for the next Read-a-thon in October. And more are slated for birthday and Christmas gifts over the next year.
  
  This picture is not current. It was taken over a month ago in Longview and a few of those have been finished and given away. And many more added.
  
  
  
  
• The sweet pea vine embroidery on my Mom's sweater which I've promised her she'll have by the time it is cool enough to wear it in Washington--early October.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The tank top I'm embroidering the neckline for my sister's birthday--this week!! Not even started yet!!! But I want her to have it for a road trip she is taking later this month. The design I have planned is very simple and shouldn't take me long.
  
  
  
  
• A needlepoint three panel Bible cover with room for a note tablet for my niece whose birthday was also this week so I'm aiming for Christmas.
  
  Again--sigh.
  
  I started this for her sixteenth birthday and she just turned 25.
  
  But at least I finished the needlepoint step while in Longview. Now I need to turn the edges in and cut out the cloth for the lining and sew it on.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A needlepoint three panel notebook and file cover for myself. Still have several hours of stitching on the front and then sewing on the lining. No time pressure I guess though I did start this a year before I started the Bible cover for my niece. Sigh.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Several embroidery, needlepoint or cross stitch bookmarks and book covers slated for Christmas or birthday presents in the coming year.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A needlepoint on plastic canvas cover (front and back) for a writing tablet. It's to include space for filing loose pages and carrying writing implements. Maybe stamps and envelopes as well.. Not begun yet but planned and all materials gathered for it.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A needlepoint on plastic canvas cover for a small spiral notebook like the one I made for my traveling writer's notebook.
  
  I always intended to make a second one either for a different purpose notebook for myself or for a gift. I bought the materials for two when I made the first one in 2005. That one only took a week from the day the materials were bought because I was highly motivated by the fact the original covers on my writer's notebook were falling off.
  
  
  
  
  
• A 10x10 inch petit point mandala. Petit point is needlepoint that is more than 16 stitches per line inch. I believe this one is 18 count but I didn't stop and count while taking the picture. This will probably be a wall-hanging but possibly something functional like a notebook cover or purse. I started it once but there are no patterns or pictures with it and I can't remember my plan except the concept 'mandala' though possibly I was going to try free-form--make it up as I went. I'm not currently loving what I see here so I'm probably going to take out what is already there and restart it. Maybe I'm not cut out for free-form? But maybe I should make myself give it a whirl anyway. As an exercise in trusting the creative process.
  
• A long sleeved red blouse needing mending at the seams in several places and one sleeve's hem. Would be nice to have it wearable by October.
• A short sleeved blue and gray shirt needing mending on the shoulder seams.
  
  
  
  
• A long sleeved white blouse with over long sleeves which I wish to blouse with elastic at the wrist. I want it wearable no later than October 1st.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A blue table cloth with a white geometric design embroidered around the edge. It's too small to be a dining table cloth and probably not of the right fabric for it either. I was picturing it as a runner for a dresser, upright piano, or lamp table.
  
  I've also considered making it into a throw by backing it with fleece or flannel. I was excited about it when I bought the thread for it ten years ago but I've packed it around with me ever since and keep dithering on design and function. It was once meant as a gift but I may choose to make it for our future home. We are going to be more bereft of the furnishings and decor for our next place than we were as newlyweds seeing as there won't be a bridal shower and wedding presents and we are starting from nearly scratch. So if I don't settle on what and who in time for this to be a Christmas gift this year, I'll aim for finishing it for our home sometime in the next year.
  
• The knee length wind breaker which my sister scorched with the iron across the left breast in 2007 while trying to iron on one small butterfly to cover a small tear and then ironed on a bouquet of butterflies to cover the scorched area but the edges of the iron on pieces keep curling and starting to peel off after washing so we brainstormed the idea of sewing an outline of sequins around tha edges. I would like to have that ready to wear by the time the weather permits--probably mid to late October.
  
  
• The dolphin cross stitch which is 90 percent finished. The only cross stitches left are the decorative metalic gold ones framing the picture. I've got one of the two rows going around about a third done. Then there are a lot of other decorative and enhancing stitches that need to be applied--more akin to embroidery than cross stitch per se.
  
  Neither the dolphin nor the orca project (below) are small really but they are compact and portable to the extent I could work on them here on my side of the bed, out in the yard or in the living room when there is company as long as I have the necessary light source.
  
• The orca cross stitch barely begun. Both these cross stitch kits were bought the year Ed got his Silicon Valley job 1999-2000 and started before he lost it and we were forced to move in with his parents in 2001. I was making them to hang on the walls of our beautiful double wide mobile home in Sunnyvale. I lost heart for the projects when we lost that home. But Ed thinks we are less than a year from being able to have our own place again. In light of which I would like to put my heart back into them as a token of my faith that will really happen this time. I'm picturing them gracing the walls of our new place.

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This Bag Lady's Sham Shame

I bought two shams on Sunday's shopping spree that I neither wanted nor needed nor can I imagine using anything with a label saying 'dry clean only' in the room I share with my husband and cat; the room that serves as bedroom, rec room, office and dining room...
But I wanted the clear plastic zippered pouches they were packaged for my sewing and crafts. And for 99 cents each the price was right. I figured I could maybe keep the shams in a large Ziploc until Xmas and give them as gifts. Or save them for the eventual move to our own place. But it has occurred to me in the last couple days as I ponder unpacking at home and putting our room in order again that they would make good storage for the quilt and extra blankets during the summer while serving as coushins to prop us up for reading or watching TV. Hmmm. We shall see. For 99 cents I can maybe afford to ignore the 'dry clean only' label.

At the same store and also for 99 cents, I bought a manicure kit that was missing half its tools. Again because I wanted the bag. It's the perfect size for storing the crocheted bookmarks as they come off the hook. With room for the ribbon and beads and what not selected for the finishing touches. Which makes the decorating stage as portable as the crocheting stage once I've decided what I'm gong to do and selected, counted out, measured and so forth for several fresh off the hook bookmarks.

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Is it Gluttony, ADD or Simply Creative Inspiration?

Here's the mini crafter's tote now packed with tools and projects. Note that the mini iron I got a couple weeks ago to use with my Omnigrid fits in one of the pockets and its cord fits in the other.


The decorative box I bought yesterday with no clear purpose other than I have a thing for them and always find uses is now in service as my ribbon spool storage. I put two rows on their edges on the bottom, pulled the ends of the ribbon up and over the edge and tucked them under the elastic band I made. Then put cardboard between the two rows to keep them from in place. I may eventually put smaller pieces of cardboard between each spool to keep the ribbons from crossing over or under their neighbors. Next I put a piece of cardboard over the top of the two rows and stacked more spools on it.


There are twelve spools on one row in the bottom and eleven on the other. With those stacked on top there are over 30 now.

And now I'm wishing I'd gotten the second identical box. They were 99 cents at this store in Longview called S & S Liquidators.



Today my focus was primarily on preparing my sewing and craft stuff for the trip home in two weeks, incorporating the things I added to the mix in yesterday's shopping spree. Have also started packing my winter clothes and anything else I'm sure I won't be using again while here.

I also worked a bit on the family picture scanning which is where I'm soon going to be putting the same focus as I've been putting on my sewing and craft supplies the last few days and a similar focus as I put on the sweet pea sweater embroidery project last week and the week before. I relaxed on the sweater Friday after deciding to take it home with me. I calculated another 50-100 hours of work which would have meant 6-8 hours per day and I doubted my eyes were up to that even if the chaotic schedule here were to suddenly turn predictable.

When taking breaks to rest my back (packing is torture on the lower back!) and think, I picked up the crochet bookmarks again. Remember my posts a few weeks back about my issues with finishing things? When I had a dozen bookmarks crocheted but hadn't yet tucked the loose ends and added the ribbons and beads? Well at least then I was finishing the crocheting of each one before starting another. In the last three days I have started five and finished none.



In my defense, it is because I have been playing with new pattern concepts--making up new patterns out of the three crochet stitches I know and experimenting with them. One of the 'bookmarks' is destined to be a key fob if the concept works. I'm using a heavier thread and larger hook and will be putting something sturdier in place of the ribbon and adding a key ring thingy instead of a bead.

I took a picture of the five sitting side-by-side. I'll try to add it to this post tomorrow.

Twelve more days!

Oh, have I mentioned here yet that Mom has graduated from the walker to the cane for night time now? Big milestone. She is still using the walker when away from home in unfamiliar territory and may do so for some time yet.

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