I think I mentioned some other project being an exercise in patience. That was a lie – a dirty, stinkin’ lie. Well, not a lie, but ignorance.
I hadn’t done cross stitching – real cross stitching – yet.
Last Friday, for my “weekend” project, I picked out a cross stitch kit at work and brought it home, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Saturday, of course, I opened the kit and found a complex maze of directions, a tangle of threads, and a needle. While I was a little intimidated, I did not give up!
Reading the directions about three times, I found the center of my cloth, pulled out some strands of the appropriate thread and began the pattern.
I was 7 stitched in before realizing there was a problem…
I even had the mind to use one of the round frames that mom had sent me in the mail.
But about thirty minutes and seven stitches into the first color, I realized there was a problem. I was swiftly approaching the bottom of the cloth – much faster than I should have been. The problem was that I was not doing it right! Shocker.
As it turns out, when you do real cross stitch, you have to make tiny, tiny stitches, one over each tiny square. You don’t skip spots or anything. So I got to pull out the thread, using the needle to move back the way it came.
But once I had it figured it out, I was rolling!
Kind of.
Here is where I got after working off and on all weekend. I would say this represents about 4.5 hours of work.
The whole pitcher isn’t even done yet!
I have three colors’ worth of shading done on one piece of the picture. Only about 97% left to go!
I might actually finish this by Christmas. And then it will be my gift to myself. And don’t worry. I will post updates as I have them.
I mentioned in my post yesterday (posts two days in a row?! I’m getting back up to speed!) that I bought a needlepoint kit to try out this weekend. I was rather excited because it comes with everything you need.
Dimensions….of difficulty that I failed to fathom
I opened that bad boy up this morning to take a peek. Aida cloth? Check. Thread? Check. Needle? Check. Instructions? Holy check, Batman.
At least the thread is sorted
Just take a look at these instructions.
Oh, nice, it has direct – what IS THIS?!
There is a Key, which lists the thread by number, then tells you, via symbol, where to use that thread and what kind of stitch to do. It also tells you, on some of them, specifically how many strands of the thread to use. You apparently have to pick apart the thread and use only x number of strands on some bits.
I’ve done cross stitch two other times. Once was in grade school. Here is the other. Neither were complicated – certainly not at the level of this thing.
So I’m in waaay over my head.
But, pshhh, when has that ever stopped me? I’ll write about how it went when I am finished.
Sunday is the draft for our fantasy football league. I have been doing mock drafts this week, and I’ve been working, obviously. Today, as I left work, I bought a few supplies for the weekend. I haven’t done a really crafty project in a while, and my hands need to be busy.
I bought a needlepoint kit; I didn’t even realize how amazing these kits were. They come with everything. They have the Aida, the thread…even a needle! So I’ll be wrist-deep in some cotton thread, probably cursing up a storm about the pattern, at some point this weekend. It’ll be great!
In other news, I lost my camera. It’s somewhere in the house, for sure, but I don’t know where. But no worries! I can still take pictures with my computer when necessary.
I digress!
I bought the needlepoint kit, yes. But I didn’t want to make it today and not have it to do later this weekend. Besides, as I mentioned, the fantasy football draft is Sunday, and football Packers season is starting! In honor of that, I made a fantasy football chart for us to use at home.
I also drew the pictures to accompany the team names!
For the record: My team is Deadpool Corps and Eric is Verbal Wirbelwind.
Here’s the picture I took with my computer. Hopefully I will find my camera, so I can take some really good pictures of the needlepoint. In the meantime, here is the poster…and my gin and tonic. Mmmm. Happy Friday!
This week has already been a whirlwind! How is it Wednesday? And before you ask, the whirlwind/Wednesday one was NOT intentional. They just happen so naturally!
I have been doing a lot – mostly work related stuff – but I have not made the time to post about it. Thus the “Woops!” But I’m not apologizing because, um, things have been basically awesome. That said, I don’t want to leave folks hanging, and with the exception of my failed pasta last night (another post, I promise!), I have been making some bang-up food lately.
The fresh produce from the farmer’s market has been helping immensely!
Sunday night, after finishing the porch project, I made “Skillet Gnocci with Chard and White Beans” from Eating Well. It’s, um, exactly what it sounds like. It’s gnocci (potato-filled pasta from North Italy. Scrumptious!), some sort of green (I used spinach), tomatoes, and optional cheese. And you cook it in a skillet.
Also, it’s one of our favorite meals.
It does not require cheese, for those who do not partake in dairy products.
AND, the original recipe calls for a can of diced tomatoes with Italian spices. Skip it! Buy fresh tomatoes, soak them in a little bit of oil, vinegar, and spices, and then add them as if they were canned. It’s the same thing, but it’s tastier and better for you.
So here’s what you’ve been scrolling past all these annoying “words” to see:
Cook the gnocci for about 5 minutes first, then put it aside while you cook the spinach, tomatoes, and beans
My freshly diced and spiced tomatoes
Spinach and white beans: simple ingredients that always end up together somehow…
Despite my garden area being butchered this weekend, I went ahead and finished my porch remodel.
In fact, I am typing this post at the little desk-made-table, sipping on some sweet-tea vodka and lemonade, on the porch. Eric is reading a book at the table across from me, and we have the windows open to let that fine breeze wash through here. It feels nice.
The good news about the garden fiasco is that it made my decoration choices a little more broad in that I had a few flower beds that I could incorporate into the motif, and that’s just what I did.
My first little project was to make some wind spinner type dealies (technical term). I cut out some square scraps of fabric and sewed them at the tops, stringing them together to make little flags, essentially. I hung those in the windows facing the street to add a little bit of color.
I also moved the desk to the other side of the porch, pulled it away from the wall, and I placed our four plastic chairs around it, to make a welcoming table area.
The flower beds I removed from the front yard and placed in the front and side windows. I also put up Zoe’s little cat bed in one of the windows, so she has a comfy place to watch the world outside.
The two pots of flowers I placed on my two Ikea benches from when I had the kitchen bar on Taylor Ave in Seattle. We’re not really using them here, so they are make-shift plant holders for now.
Final touches were made with three of our wedding gifts: we had two wrought iron decorative pieces (birds and a sign that says “LOVE”), which are hung above one of the windows looking into the house. The last bit was a basket decorated with flower shower curtain rings; we had so many of these rings that I was able to ring the basket in them and have “vines” dropping down, so it looks like a basket with cascading flowers.
All in all, I am very pleased with the outcome. I didn’t put a whole lot of work in, and it’s not very crowded (we have almost an entire two thirds with pretty much nothing in it), but it is already more welcoming. The empty spaces will be for holiday decor! Halloween and Christmas, look out!
As for our decimated front garden beds, well, we threw down mulch today. No weeds will grow, and we won’t bother. We don’t own the house, after all. Personally, I think the weeds looked better, but this was the fastest and easiest solution for us. *sigh* Oh well!
Apparently, our friendly neighbors, the church, want to wage war on us and our lawn.
When we first moved in, and I mean that quite literally – we had lived here for less than a month – an elderly gentleman drove up to me as I returned from a job interview on his riding lawnmower and asked if someone had spoken to us about the lawn. I looked at it; the grass had been growing, sure. I smiled at him and said, “oh, well, with the rain the past few days, and our only having a rotary mower, we were waiting for it to dry a bit.”
I showed him our old-fashioned mower (you know, one without a motor), and he seemingly took pity on me.
“Yeah, that would be difficult. Here, I’ll trim it for you this time, then you can finish.”
“That would be great!” I said. “It would save me a lot of work for sure, since this thing isn’t easy to use!”
He rode around our yard, trimmed it, and I spent the next half hour finishing up with the push mower. When Eric got home, I told him that we needed a new mower with a motor, and we went out that weekend and bought one. The lawn has stayed mowed since then.
Now, since we are renting, we haven’t put a lot of money into the yard. We use a broom to sweep excess grass after we mow, and we have only planted seeds that were given to us. We weren’t entirely sure what some of them were, so we dropped them in the little flower beds outside and waited to see what sprang up.
At least two of our plants, though, were dahlias, which Eric’s mom gave us. One died, but the other was starting to flourish! We were looking forward to having its blooms soon.
Then, this afternoon, as we were discussing cleaning the porch tomorrow for my project, we noticed something:
Where our dahlia used to be…
That dirt patch toward the flower boxes, that used to be where our dahlia was. The church “weeded” our garden!
I took a look in our lease because I was furious. There is a yard care bit in there saying that it is our job to maintain the yard – keep the grass short and watered, keep the flower beds nice. Now, maybe there were some weeds mixed in with our flowers – I honestly cannot tell the difference half the time – but they just mowed down our flowers! We had the dahlia, a tobacco plant, bee balm, and a few others. You’ll notice the only thing they left were those in the beds and the hostas that were here when we moved in.
The worst part is that the leasing company might even charge us for the destruction of our own plants! We called them and left a message that our garden was destroyed, and we want to know why.
I am so angry! I don’t want to bother making the porch presentable at this rate. Why should I bother? We are going to be disrespected, so what thought should I put into making this home look nice? I think the church must own the property and rent it through the leasing company, in which case, they are not endearing themselves to us.
I understand that, as renters, we do not have a lot of ground to stand on. But I also know, from management and teaching experience, that when you treat others like no more than dirt, they rarely are willing to work with you.
*sigh*
I am still angry. And I am sad. I’m not the best gardener in the world. The fact that the dahlia was still alive was a big deal to me. Now it’s gone.
These pictures show my front porch. As you can see, it is ugly.
My Project Challenge for the weekend is to make it less ugly. More than that, I must do this without buying any new materials!
Ideas so far: pillows for the chairs, a table cloth, window hanging-things, pots/plants, painted/decorated furniture.
I will post pictures as I go!
In other news: I am going to temporarily help out at the store by being a Support Specialist. It’s a promotion, albeit a temporary one. I am quite pleased.
This is a short post because I am cooking dinner and need to shower after a run.
While thinking about how to make the messenger bag work yesterday, I made a little felt(ish) embellishment for my sound effects fleece scarf.
I haven’t sewed it together yet because I’m not sure how I want to do it. But when I do, I will attach it to the sound effects scarf, and it will be, well, pretty awesome.
Perhaps I will make a second one?
Look at me being patient and not having to finish the scarf immediately.
(2 yards of Spider Man fabric + approx. 2 yards of black fabric + aida cloth + bias tape)Sam’s frustration = ?
You probably guessed, based on the title…
A Spidey messenger bag!
A few posts ago, I mentioned making a tote bag out of the remaining fabric from the Super Birthday Project, but then I remembered that I don’t like totes, and I rarely use them. Besides, using a Spidey tote for grocery shopping seemed, well, sad – Spidey deserves better.
The reason I don’t like totes is that I don’t care for bags that sit on the shoulder and hang down. I much prefer them to across the body. You know, similar to a messenger bag.
But, as usual, there was a problem. Messenger bags are generally sturdy, and they tend to require thick cloth. I have a ton of cotton prints and some fleece. Show me a messenger bag made with thin cotton and fleece, and I’ll show you another item that does not exist anywhere. In answer to this, I wallowed in self-pity for about an hour, bemoaning my lack of good fabric.
Then I got crafty because that’s what I do.
About a year ago, I purchased some black aida cloth for a cross-stitching project that never happened. If you are unfamiliar with this type of cloth, it can be fairly rigid, but it is also riddled with holes, since it’s for cross-stitching. Of course, it’s also easy to wrap in other fabrics.
So that’s what I did.
For whatever reason, I don’t generally use patterns. For better or worse, I just go forward with my ideas when I get them.
Pictured here: fabric about to be mauled
I trace things, sure, but I am not a stickler on perfect cuts or anything. This is probably where a lot of my problems start, but until it becomes a major issue, I seem to fake it fairly well.
I did trace the aida onto the cloth for the panels
I could have done three completely separate panels, but I opted for one large panel in which I sewed three pockets, essentially. I used black for the outside and Spidey for the lining of the insider of the bag. I lined them up on the wrong sides, sewed around the edge, then flipped it back right-side and sewed the smaller middle pocket (which became the bottom).
The flap for the opening
My thought was that having one panel of fabric with three heavy inserts would be stronger than three panels sewn together. Once I had the main panel done, I just had to sew the sides together.
Luckily I had not finished sewing it all up before I remembered I needed a flap for the opening, otherwise it would not be a messenger bag. It would just be a cross-the-body bag. So I made that rather quickly.
Kids, this is what happens when you rush
I did it so quickly that the bias tape is not actually attached to the fabric in one spot. This is a relatively easy fix if I ever bother to do it.
And besides, you can’t tell it’s there unless I pull the bias tape up and out, and even then, you have to be close to it.
The other part that is rushed and looks bad, though I forgot to take a picture, is where the flap attaches to the bag of the purse. To cover the spot, I added a bit of bias tape (why did I not use this stuff before?!), but my sewing machine went a little crazy in the middle of it, and there is this fine curve right in the middle. Luckily, that is the side that rests against my person, so it’s not noticeable.
New Holland shirt courtesy of Pa.
The straps I made with *gasp!* bias tape and Spidey fabric sewn together. I had not planned on making this, so I didn’t have anything stronger. To ensure it can hold up, though, I sewed probably close to a bazillion stretchy zig-zag stitches.
Things I might change if doing again:
1. I would actually buy some heavy cloth, though making the aida pockets worked great!
2. I would have made the pockets with all black fabric, sewn the straps on, then made a liner of the Spidey fabric, so that it would be reversible!
3. Had something more strap-appropriate.
All-in-all, I did a Happy Dance when I finished this project last night. I had a pretty important meeting today (more on that later this week), so I didn’t break it out today, but I definitely will tomorrow to see how it works. But seriously, I can’t believe I made that!
Fabric, you are not forgotten,
While I wrap myself within your formless folds.
I have no patterns to match your designs,
And so you sit, the dejected spinster, the aunt that no one visits.
You yearn to be used.
And I would do as you wish
If I had one single clue how to utilize you.
You say Polymath like it's a bad thing... 