Sunflower Pillow

I completed a pillow made with Dimensions Dramatic Sunflower Needlepoint Kit, which contained presorted wool yarn, full color print on 12 mesh canvas, and instructions.  The design is by Lisa Audit and the finished canvas is 14x14 inches.

I enjoyed the needlepointing.  There were a couple of colors on the canvas that were difficult to tell apart, but the pattern is logical enough to figure it out. I chose this fabric for the backing because it mimicked the colors and shapes of the design on the front:

I had some difficulty re-shaping the canvas after I finished the needlepoint.  Because they recommend the continental stitch, the square canvas ended up more like a parallelogram.  I sprayed it with water and tried to stretch it back into a square on a bulletin board using pins, but after several attempts at that process without making much progress, I gave up.  I think in the future I will always do the basketweave stitch, even if the continental stitch is recommended.

Sewing it together was a fiasco, as always.  At first, everything was going suspiciously smoothly.  It was looking like I might get it done in one sitting and have time to do barn chores and make dinner.  Just when I began feeling elated over my good fortune, I turned the pillow over and saw that the backing fabric got bunched up and sewed down that way.  Out came the seam ripper.  I must have removed some pins prematurely.

Once I re-sewed the fabric down flat with the help of more pins, all I needed to do was double stitch another row around the perimeter of the pillow.  I could do that in one minute.  However, the thread broke.  Cut to re-threading the machine.  Then the needle broke.

I insisted upon being undaunted by all these challenges and worked as fast as I could to fix them.  I was determined to get that pillow done since I was so close.  However, the screw I needed to loosen to change the needle would not budge.  I had to locate some oil, oil it, and then hunt around in my husband's toolbox for some needle-nose pliers.  Once the needle was finally changed, I was on my way, whizzing along the border until the bobbin thread ran out.

Hands in air, I gave up.  I was running out of time to take care of my other responsibilities.  This morning, I put more thread on the bobbin and finished sewing the last row of stitches.  Then I turned it inside out and stuffed the pillow form inside.  Still a parallelogram.  Oh well.

I think the biggest insult in this entire project was when I suddenly remembered while sewing the last side of the pillow together that I forgot, once again, to include piping, lace or ruffles in the border.  This forgetfulness is getting to be a habit with me.  I think black lace would have looked nice, but there's no way I'm going to rip all those stitches out now.

My Amish Quilt

My husband and I recently traveled to Lancaster, Pennsylvania for our son's wedding, and while in Amish country, we perused a couple of quilt shops.  My husband wanted to purchase a quilt for a full bed in our back bedroom.  He was drawn to a beautiful cream and white applique quilt, but I had to remind him of our dog.  Then we debated over a fantastic Tumbling Blocks quilt.  After much deliberation, we agreed on purchasing this one:

This is a Curvy Log Cabin by Rachel Lantz.  We purchased it from Village Quilts at Kitchen Kettle Village in the small town of Intercourse, PA.  Yes, it was very expensive, but handmade, heirloom quality quilts often increase in value with age, so we're considering it an investment.

I normally prefer bright colors.  My husband and I have learned that we each see colors differently.  What I see as yellow, he sees as white.  What I see as orange, he sees as red.  The two colors that have the strongest saturation for me are teal and purple, so I love those two colors together.  I gravitate toward them.  We had seen a purple and teal quilt in another shop, but it was king sized and appeared to be mostly machine sewn.  Most of the quilts available at the second shop we visited had subtle, more neutral color schemes, but this one caught my eye because of its use of batik fabrics.  There were small sections of teal and purple that jumped out at me.

When I first started quilting nearly 30 years ago, I loved the batik fabrics, but could not afford to buy them.  When I first saw this Curvy Log Cabin quilt, it was hanging on a rack.  Linda Wenzler spread it out for us on a bed and it really popped.  I couldn't take my eyes off it.  Every time I look at it, I see something else I hadn't seen before.  Even the white portion has different fabrics of varying whites and off-whites, some solids, some patterns, adding to the dimension.  Just the complexity of the design is awe-inspiring.

I learned so much from Linda.  Her shop sells one-of-a-kind quilts.  Nothing is mass produced.  They may carry quilts of the same pattern, but there is always some variation.  The artists sometimes have small groups of quilters help them piece and quilt the bedspreads together, but the quilts are mostly hand-sewn.  You can view their quilts online.  I had mine shipped to me to avoid finding room for it in our suitcase.  It arrived in a special case with care instructions.

We took a quick spin around the countryside on our way to the airport and came upon many horse drawn carriages, as well as men and horses plowing fields.

The wedding was beautiful.  Now that we are home, I've been getting my ducks in a row to prepare for my total hip replacement surgery.  My daughter is here helping keep things running smoothly around the ranch while I'm off my anti-inflammatory medication in the week before the surgery.  The surgeon promises that I will feel much better soon.  He said that the damage from my arthritis is severe.  While that's not a good thing, it was nice to hear a doctor finally acknowledge all the pain I've been in these past few years.

It's been hard having people ask me to do simple things, and me having to stave off panic attacks knowing how painful doing that one task is going to be for me.  I've actually spent the past couple of years of my life trying to keep people at arm's length so that they won't ask me to do anything outside of my normal routine.  Every little thing has been a big deal for me.  It will be nice to get back to some normalcy and not have to think twice about every action I take.

Two More Finished Needlepoint Pillows

I know what you're thinking:  How many pillows does one person need? 

Well, I don't need them, although they do come in handy propping up my laptop in my lap.  I just enjoy needlepoint.  It's a fairly mindless, easy craft one can do with her hands while focusing her attention elsewhere.  When I finish a canvas, I don't want to litter my walls with hangings, so I make pillows out of them and pile them in the corner of my craft room.  If I ever need to give someone a last minute gift, I can grab one, wrap it up really quick, and claim that I slaved over it for months just for that person. 

Here are my most recent projects...

The 14x14 one on the left is Dimensions Bouquet on Black, designed by Lisa Audit.  This one came with plenty of thread.  It was a bit of a struggle for me to differentiate between subtle tones in the threads, so I needed a lot of light while needlepointing it, but it's the fine details that make it look so realistic.

The 12x12 one on the right is Design Works Blue Floral.  The kit was a birthday gift from my daughter.  This one had acrylic yarn while the other project had thread.  Halfway through needlepointing the design, I realized I had been using the ice blue yarn instead of the light teal in too many places, and as a result, I ran out of the ice blue yarn.  Luckily, I just happened to have a skein of that exact same yarn color that I had been using for knitting projects, so I borrowed from that.  Just for the heck of it, I went over one section with the light teal after finishing with the ice blue to see what it would look like.  My plan was to cover the ice blue with the light teal and make those sections standing with extra thickness.  However, I liked the ice blue better than the teal, so my pillow is a cooler color than was intended with the kit.

It took a long time to get the pillows constructed because I had to order some trim and wait for it to come in.  I ordered a whole bolt of white cord with lip, and an assortment of laces in black, white, and pastel colors.  The whole time I was sewing the Blue Floral pillow together, I kept thinking, "This is too easy.  This is going too quick.  Something's wrong."

When I turned it outside in, I realized that I forgot to include the trim I'd been waiting for all those weeks!  See what I mean about my memory being bad?  I had them sitting right in front of me on the table and I still forgot to include them.  Then, just to add insult to injury, I discovered that I had no 12x12 pillow inserts!  After what happened with the trim, there was no way I was going to order 12x12 pillow inserts and wait for them to arrive, so I dug through my supplies and found some stuffing.  It worked just fine.

I chose off-white or vanilla lace for the big pillow, because there were a lot of shades of cream in the needlepoint.  These are the backing fabrics I chose for each out of my stash...

I don't buy fabric anymore because I went through a phase when I was ordering fabric at online sales much too often when I first started quilting.  Although I'm glad now that I did, because back then I could buy fabric for $3 to $8 a yard, and now it is much more expensive.  

Originally, I just bought purple and green fabrics for a king sized bed quilt I was making at the time, and I kept running out.  It was frustrating to get into a flow, only to have to stop work because of a lack of supplies.  So, I overcompensated by constantly buying fabrics to build up a stash until I needed to dedicate two floor-to-ceiling shelves to hold it all.  I've promised myself I won't buy anymore fabric until I've used what I already have.  

But I do accept gifts of fabric.  My sister-in-law sent me a beautifully coordinated set of fabrics by Robert Kaufman and Gustav Klimt for Christmas this year, and I can't wait to start tackling that quilt project.  We are definitely using quilts I've made in the past right now, because this has been the coldest winter I've experienced since living in Arizona.  Throwing a quilt over my bare feet sure beats struggling to put on socks with my arthritis.  

For those who are interested in what's going on in my life beyond crafts projects, my right hip has officially disintegrated.  The ball and socket are all jagged and I have several torn muscles.  I postponed hip replacement surgery until my son gets married, because I don't want there to be any complications that would prevent me from attending his wedding.  The wedding is in March, I should get my hip replaced in April and be done with physical therapy by June.  We'll see where it goes from there.  I'm anxiously waiting to see if I can ride horses again.

Small Dog Coat

A couple of years ago I ordered a custom dog jacket for my Chihuahua/Min Pin mix through an Etsy store.  Stewie wore it for two winters and it has served us well.  Recently, I saw a pattern for a dog coat and bought it to see if I could make a new one for him myself.  The pattern I used was Simplicity 1239.  The examples are super cute, such as a dog coat made to look like a football and a camouflage dog coat with pockets or saddle bags on the sides... 

Any time that I sew, my goal is to use my existing fabric stash, because I'm pretty sure that even if I lived another 50 years, I wouldn't have enough time to make something out of all that fabric I've bought, washed, and stashed throughout my lifetime believing that "some day" I will make something with it.  After perusing my shelf full of dusty fabrics, I decided to make my dog look like a butterfly...

And I found some bright colored flannel to line the inside of the coat.  The colors match!

My only issue with Stewie's first coat was that it was too short and didn't cover his bum, so I made sure that this coat did that.  Still, I probably could have made it even longer...

I followed the pattern exactly, but the neck turned out to be too tight, and the material is constricting in the shoulders, so I'm going to make some adjustments on the pattern that include the following:

1.  Larger, deeper neckline.
2.  Less hang over the shoulders.
3.  Longer from neck to tail.
4.  Longer straps at both the neck and belly.

It's hard to see, but I sewed a D-ring onto the back to hook a leash up to.  I had fun making this.  It's quick and easy.  I think if I get really good at it and feel confident adjusting patterns to custom measurements, I might open my own Etsy shop selling these creations.  Of course, right now is not the season for it, so I've still got a few months to practice.  I'll also have to find some creations to make and sell that aren't dependent upon it being cold outside.

Two Finished Needlepoint Pillows

I finally did it!  I think it took longer for me to piece the pillows together than it took for me to complete the two needlepoint canvases, but now I have the perfect lap pillows to set my laptop on while working.

The needlepoint canvas on the left is Design Works "Watercolor Floral" 12" x 12" Needlepoint Kit, which contains a 12 count interlock canvas printed in full color, acrylic yarns, needle and instructions.  The one on the right is Design Works "Peacock" 12" x 12" Needlepoint Kit with all the same contents.  Backing fabric, decorative edging, and pillow inserts or frames are not included.  Here's a picture of the backing fabric's I chose:

I'm impressed with my choices, because the coloring, subject matter, and style match the needlepoint images pretty well.  The instructions say to leave one edge open and hand sew it closed once the pillow form or stuffing is put in, but I like to make pockets so that the pillow forms can easily be slipped in and out.  The pillow on the left has a 3" overlay for the pocket, while the pillow on the right has a 4" overlay.  As you can see, the 4" overlay worked out better because the backing sits nicer and doesn't appear to be bulging at the seams.  For my pillow forms I used Acanva Home Collection 12" squares.

My life got turned upside down recently when my oldest mare colicked and had to be tubed by the vet, my oldest dog began urinating and vomiting all over the carpet, and I broke my toe on the shower door railing all within a few minutes of each other.  All that served as just one more reminder (or three) that time is of the essence and I have to get down to business and complete these various projects when I've got downtime and when I have two legs and two arms (and enough digits) to get the jobs done.

Intermission Explanation

I know I'm long overdue for a post.  How is it that sewing together a couple of needlepoint pillows can take several months?  Let me count thy ways...

I did get new eyeglasses and prescription sunglasses from my new optometrist, and they work great for every day wear, but what I really needed for fabric arts and crafts projects were powerful reading glasses so I picked up a three-pack for twelve bucks at the local clothing store.  Now I have a pair next to each sewing and serger machine.

So, for the most part, my eyesight problems have been corrected, but now I find myself struggling with cognitive issues.  For instance, I could not, for the life of me, find the right sized pillow insert for these 12x12" needlepoint canvases.  The websites selling them said to always buy the next size up, so I checked out the 14x14" pillow inserts, and the reviews said they were flat and recommended that you buy the next size up, which was 16x16".  So, I bought that, and it was way too big.  I tried adapting to the large pillow insert by cutting out a 18x18" square of fabric, but could not figure out how to attach it smoothly to a 12x12" needlepoint canvas without gathering the fabric, so I ordered some 14x14" pillow inserts, which were still too big.  I went through the same rigmarole until I finally bought the 12x12" pillow inserts.  Don't listen to what anyone says in those online reviews.  Trust your own instinct.

Now I'm in the process of cutting that 18x18" square of fabric down to a 14x14" square of fabric, leaving room for hems, because the fabric is very lightweight and frays easily.  Somehow, some way, I always manage to do my math wrong and when all is said and done with the hems, the square is still too big.  You know the old saying of cutting it twice and it still being too short?  Well, I cut twice and it's still too long.

When I work so hard only to make a mistake and have to do the process again, I tend to walk away from the project either because I have to get on with my life, or because I need a time out from it.  That tactic wouldn't be so bad if I could return to it the next day, but usually some other problem or activity commandeers my time, and before I know it, several weeks or months have passed and my project is collecting dust on my sewing table.

The serger intimidates me.  I had my first thread breakage the other day, and it took me hours to get around to reading the threading instructions and watching a video on how to thread it.  The actual threading repair only took seconds, but learning how to do it seemed to take all day because I had a learning block.  As soon as I started reading the instructions, I fell asleep.  I know that my fear of the serger thread breaking again is a big reason why I keep avoiding finishing the pillows.  I think, "I can finish this pillow in an hour.  I know exactly what I need to do.  But what if the serger thread breaks and I have to re-thread all four threads through the machine?  Then it will take days to get the pillow done."

And that's the point in my thinking process where I start looking around for something more urgent to do.  Besides the intimidating serger, I also just don't trust my brain.  Every time I make a mistake, I'm like, "What the heck was I thinking?"

Then I look in the mirror at myself like I'm a stranger.  "Who ARE you?  You're not the intelligent young woman I used to rely on.  This isn't rocket science, you know."

It's scary when you can no longer do something that you've done a dozen times before because you're over the hill and you brain is slowly dying.  I have stacks upon stacks of fabrics and patterns waiting for my attention, but if I can't complete a simple square pillow, I doubt there's much hope that I will be able to construct some clothes.

I've been anxious about summer coming, because that was when I was in the most pain and the most crippled last year, but it turns out that the heat had nothing to do with my pain levels.  I suspect that my pain levels had more to do with stress and the lack of support I'd been receiving from doctors in resolving my pain and immobility.  Pretty much all I've been dealing with lately is stiffness and a lack of flexibility, but the pain is mostly gone since the steroid injections.  So, the leg pain and the eyesight issues are no longer getting in the way of my craft projects.  It's mainly my cognitive functioning and my inability to concentrate on something for more than a few minutes without getting interrupted.

After my oldest dog passed away, I thought my time would be freed up, but within a few months, my next oldest dog started going downhill and developing health problems that require a lot of my attention.  She is now at the end of her life, and just when I thought my time would be freed up once she passes, my youngest dog developed a health problem that is going to require a lot of my time and the vet's time.  I'm going to have to be taking him in to see the vet every few weeks, and that's going to get to be both time consuming and expensive. I'm planning on switching vets, because my current one is in the habit of leaving me alone in an examining room with my dog for an hour while she chats with her staff.  She clearly has no respect for my schedule.  I just can't figure out how I can be so unlucky as to end up with three dogs with special needs.  I've owned dogs my entire life, and up until these last three, they were all pretty low maintenance.  Now my life revolves around the bladders and bowels of dogs.  Usually, when I am on my way into the sewing room to finish the pillows, I get sidetracked by a dog accident on the carpet.  By the time I'm done scrubbing the stain out, I've either forgotten what I was originally going to do, or I've run out of free time and have to move on to the next task.

So, those are the reasons why it has been so long since I've last completed a project to share on this blog.  As usual, I have high hopes that things will change soon.  Unfortunately, they rarely do.  Until next time...

Needlepoint Projects in Progress

It seems that I like working on needlepoint canvases, but I'm not so keen on finishing the canvas by sewing it into a pillow.  Right now I've got two finished needlepoint canvases and started working on a third.  I've got pillows waiting to be covered, I've picked out matching fabrics and lace, but can't seem to get a big enough block of time to actually sew the finished product together.  I know what to do.  I've done it half a dozen times before.  I just seem to be suffering from a little sewer's block when it comes to these projects.  Here are some photos of what I've got so far...

One of my biggest challenges with needlepoint as of late is my eyesight.  When I complete all the sections of needlepoint, I start noticing stitches I skipped that reveal raw canvas, and I have to go back and do one stitch here, another stitch there...  It's very time consuming.  I got tired of tucking in heads and tails, so I ended up just stretching the yarn long distances across the back of the canvas to get from one missing stitch to another.  Very unprofessional of me, but who cares?  It's going to be hidden inside the pillow, right?  These are just for me.  I'm not planning on entering any contests, so all is good.

Oh, and I've got an appointment scheduled with a new optometrist next month.  Hopefully, they'll be better than my current dentist who called me in today to fill some cavities, and then told me to go home because I didn't have any.  There was a miscommunication between the dentist and the assistant and hygienist.  And before that I had requested a female hygienist, and someone switched me to a male hygienist at the last minute without my permission, so I had to pitch a fit to get the one I requested.  They also called me while I was sleeping early in the morning to try to move my appointment up earlier in the morning when I had specifically told them the only time I was available was in the mid-afternoon.  The list goes on and on with those people, so I'll be switching dentists soon too.

Painted Rocks

About a year ago I found a local rock painting group through Facebook that paints rocks and then hides them around the community for people to find.  It's a good will type of action meant to bring a smile to someone's face or delight a child.  The finders of the rocks can keep them, leave them where they found them, or hide them someplace else for someone else to find.  The rocks are labeled with the group's name, the artist's name, and instructions to post a picture of the rock to our page on Facebook so that the artist knows that his or her work was found, and hopefully appreciated.

I liked the idea for a lot of reasons.  First off, it was a small, but positive way to make an impact on people.  For those who like to find the rocks, it feels like Easter every day.  My family has always had a lot of fun organizing and participating in Easter egg hunts.  We often found candies from past hunts at unexpected times, but most often when we cleaned house or moved furniture.  The kids would be talking about it for weeks afterward, because it was always special to find a treasure when you weren't even looking for one.

I find painting rocks to be relaxing.  I can make mistakes and no one cares, because it's not on a $100 canvas with expensive oil paints, but just a rock and a 99 cent bottle of acrylic.  Plus, if I make a mistake, it's easy enough to cover up with the next layer of paint.

Around the time I found the group, I was at the beginning of my battle with arthritis along the right side of my body.  I needed to exercise every day or my leg would lock up and I'd be crippled.  However, I was bored taking walks near my home, and this group gave me the incentive to get my exercise at local parks so that I could look for painted rocks along the way, and hide my latest batch as well.  So, rock painting has become my most recent craft of interest.  Here are a few photos of some rocks I've painted in the past.

What's really fun is when some rock I painted months ago that disappeared suddenly shows up in circulation again.  We call those "recycled rocks".  People find them and keep them to enjoy and show around for a while, and then they put them back out into the community for someone else to find.

My New Workspace

I meant to take pictures of my new sewing room a few months ago when I first set it up, but forgot.  In fact, I haven't even used it much since I put it together.  I've been in so much pain lately that it hurts to do anything physical, and my frustration level gets pretty high as is when it comes to sewing.  Imagine having to constantly undo what you just spent hours doing because you made a mistake.  Now imagine the same thing, but while you are experiencing relentless pain.

Yeah.  Like that.

Previously, my sewing supplies were scattered all over the house wherever there was a little space to set them up.  I could never complete any big projects, because I spent all my time running around the house looking for items I needed.  So, when it became apparent that my son was never going to move in with us ever again, I decided to turn his bedroom into my new sewing room.  I knew it wasn't big enough to fit everything in there, so I just planned to keep the essentials together.

First, we had to go through everything my son left behind and box it up.  That was mostly books.  Although, I did keep some of his books, especially the classic literature, on the shelves.  I also kept our record album collection in the room so that it wouldn't have to be stored somewhere hot where all the discs would warp.  I left enough room for my quilting books, button cases, and thread stands.

We had to take most of his furniture to the dump.  Then I replaced his uncomfortable twin bed with a comfortable full bed that my daughter was selling, so that we could also use the room as a guest bedroom in case my son and his girlfriend came to visit.  From there, I situated bookshelves, trunks, storage, and sewing tables around the edges of the room.  I managed to squeeze all three sewing machines and a serger in there, and bonus!  Because the new bed came with giant storage drawers underneath it, I was able to store most of my supplies in there rather than having them cluttering the table tops.

Here are some pictures...

This is Why I'll Never Be a Fashion Designer

Ha ha ha!  Fortunately, it hasn't been sewn yet -- just pinned.  The other good news is that I have learned never to sew until I look at the big picture and try it on.  Ripping out seams is a major hassle.  Although, pinning that seam wasn't easy either.  I was trying to get the pleating even all the way around, so it took me half an hour to pin it.  I actually did a decent job making it even the first time, but because I was so focused on that, I pinned the inside of the top to the outside of the skirt, and now I have to take out all the pins and start over.  Waaaaaah!