Practice, practice, practice

Yesterday I was trying some new sewing techniques. I came home after doing my coffee biz for the day, turned on This American Life via podcast, and got to it. I had read a tutorial about a month ago about bags with kiss clasps and in it, I learned some easy tips for turning out bags and straight stitching. My goal was to practice those easy tips, and hope it made my straight stitches more straight and crisp.

About an hour an a half later, and with Nancy Pearl's voice (via her podcast Book Lust with Nancy Pearl) I was angry and frustrated. I couldn't remember how to do it! I stitched and seamed ripped. I stitched and seam ripped. I turned the fabric, tried from different angles, and I still couldn't get what I wanted in the outcome. (I refuse to tell you what I was doing, as it is so embarrassing, and now, irritatingly simple.) Not only could I not get it on my own, but I just could not bring myself to go back to the website and re-read the directions, which as you are saying in your head, would have saved me time and the eye strength to stare at all of those stitches I yanked out. Who was this crazed girl at her Bernina?!

Then Dan came home. IPod plugged into his ears, absolutly dashing in his work clothes and new haircut, and happy as can be. He unplugs, drops his gear, and breathes in the cool air of our oasis of an air conditioner. I take his lead, and I step away from my machine and the devil fabric.

We chat about the cases he is involved in, with as much detail as he can, without giving any details. Honestly, I'm half listening because with the wind of the air conditioner going past my ears (I'm directly in front of it as Dan moves to get some iced coffee), and my mind still reeling from the fabric gauntlet in the other room, I only hear Dan's low voice in mumbles.

While he's still still talking about what he's going to do for his cases, I move to my computer and look up the website with the tutorial. Now I just want to get it over with.

Dan takes a drag from his cigarette, notices what I can only imagine is a scary expression on my face, and asks what I'm working on. I tell him I re-reading a tutorial. He, still happy with post-work euphoria, tells me, "Practice, practice, practice!" in a sing-song way. Poor Dan. He has no idea this was the exact wrong thing to say. I glare and fire back, "I have been practicing all goddamn afternoon. So please, just ..." and I made a 'zip it' motion with my hand. He closes his mouth, grabs his computer, and heads off to the bedroom without another word.

Later I apologize. He accepts. All is well. (Side note: today while recounting yesterday's events, he says, "I did good! You said zip it and I zipped it!")

All that is to say, today some cool things happened. I swallowed my pride, read the tutorial, and made some stuff. Here's a peek.

1) A clutch made with utterly fantastic flame/transparent butterfly wing/orange and purple goodness. It fits my cell phone and check book perfectly, side-by-side, with room for lipstick on the side. 2) It's a bit large for a wrist-let bag, so I'm thinking this is more of a cosmetics bag. Or perhaps an art supply bag. It also happens to be the first zipper I've ever sewn, and I proudly showed it off to Dan as he came home today.

More Stieg Larsson is a good thing.

A present came for me in the mail last Tuesday that made my whole week. The third book by Steig Larsson arrived from Linda. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest hasn't been released in the US yet, but Linda happens to have a friend across the pond that was happy to loan out her copy! This book/series is quite a read. The lead female character is unlike any I've read before. Lisbeth Salander is a wisp of a person (physically) but has skills and a stoicism that is both scary and inspiring. I won't go into plot lines, but if you are interested in some great crime novels, the first two are The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and The Girl Who Played With Fire.

(found here)

And so now, happy Sunday.

I started my day with the kitties getting into trouble. Knocking things off the counter on their wild laps around the house, all before the sun was up. Luckily there was just enough coffee left to make a pot for today. Whew!

We've had glorious thunder storms all weekend here in C-dale. Wind and downpours without any sprinkle of warning. Dan got soaked coming back in from changing the laundry, and it was only a few minutes and maybe 15 yards away!

I'm sewing bags and pockets, and altering dresses and skirts I picked up at Good Will. The more I get to using my sewing machine, the more I want to try. It's a rewarding/ongoing cycle.

Enjoy the day!

88 degrees!

The Bank of Carbondale said it was 88 degrees today when I got off work. My steering wheel was too hot to hold. My knees were sweating.

I stopped off at the Murdale hardware store and bought this wonderful lemon yellow watering can. This is the first place I've lived where my outside planting need to be watered from a spigot inside the house. I don't have the balance necessary to carry bowls of water back and forth outside the door. And isn't it cute? It is so happy and welcoming!


This is the finished apron I've made for one of my customers. I love how it's turned out. The stitching (although you can't see it) is very fun and colorful, and I played with a multi-use pocket instead of a single, smaller one. There's places for pens! I also made the neck strap adjustable. Dan suggested adding loops for all sorts of utensils, sort of kitchen utility belt style, but I didn't think a commissioned apron was the one to try spoon holsters on. I offered to make him one with any type of holder he would want, but he declined the offer. : )

Today at work my mind was happy to imagine my future coffee shop. I am frustrated with myself for not having something started (other than ideas, notes, and a swollen dream) and realized (again) that sometimes it's best to just do it. Do it and learn what I need to learn as I go. So I'm thinking about ways to reduce start up costs. Anyone want to help me convert a van to a mobile coffee haven?

I'm going to go enjoy the rest of "Spring" before the humidity shows up.

Painting

Man, this picture looks like crap, but here it is mom. The tree I was telling you about. I can share it, now that I gave it to my dear friend, Danny. I'm really bummed I didn't take a better picture. Oh well. I guess this is even more motivation to save my pennies for this. Recently, there have been many opportunities to use a camera, and I'm feeling sad that I haven't made it a priority to replace the camera that was taken in Juneau.

Other picture news, here is a recent one of Miah, me, and Ciara, while C was flying through on her whirlwind job finding adventure! We probably won't all be together again until Josh's wedding, and then all 4 will be together! (Miah and I used to be thought of as twins growing up. I think you can really see it in this pic.)

And I don't know why the font and size is all over the place. I promise, I'm not trying to shout at you.

Bags!

I am in love with making bags. I can't seem to stop buying fabric and getting pieces cut out. I have never used a pattern, and these projects are no exception, and each creation is something I'm enjoying from start to finish. This is the one I made for myself. I put a magnetic clasp in it, and am a big fan of that new flourish.

Rebekah!

Finally I got the quirks worked out with my camera. There was a goblin, or some other such creature keeping me from sharing Rebekah with you all. This is my friend that lives in Sitka, that came to Juneau last week. She's great!

I've gone and hurt myself. I was running my track around downtown and the docks on Thursday. Friday I walk to work, but started to feel pain in my left Achilles tendon. Saturday I had a hard time flexing it fully. Stairs were/are particularly painful. I had the day off so I stayed off it as much I could, did slight stretching, and massaged the area. Sunday was fine for the morning, but after work it was back to stabbing pain. There is no knob, or swelling. I'm wrapping it today, and the slight immobilization feels better. I am not going to the doctor. Yet.

However, why I went on that rant was to explain the picture below. Saturday when I was sitting around feeling like a gimp and watching episodes of Deadwood, I pieced together this, a quilt-to-be. I brought up a silly amount of fabric, with the hopes of getting to some project, and hurting myself offered the perfect opportunity. There will be more strips of fabric of varying widths on the outsides of the green and blue, and some appliqued swallows in there too.

I brought the fabric, but I didn't bring my shears, cutting board, or sewing machine. It was interesting slicing the chunks with the knife on my leatherman, and determining the size by folding the pieces in varying modes of "half." It was interesting hand sewing too. About half way through I got in the rythum and went in mostly straight lines :) It adds character, right?

When it's done, with edging and border, it should be about the size of a twin blanket. Probably lopsided, but in that general area.