Catch up post

can't believe it's been almost two weeks since I got out here!

last weekend we made a quickie trip to the Northern part of the state to see the Rocky Mountain Quilt Fest

one last chance to take a look at this quilt before it went off on it's travels for a year with the Hoffman Challenge

and it was pretty cool too to take Mr Cute and let him see all of the quilts that had animals on them -- and all the fabric available for sale with tractors on it!

this trip also gave me the opportunity to drop off this completed sweater for Mr Cute

can we say it as a big hit!?

he wanted to wear it right away even though it was in the 90s!

meantime, here in chaos central, the packing continues

the picture on the left is where my boxes of beads for making projects used to sit

the picture on the right  is after I packed them all up -- ta da!!

and where is all this going you might ask

this lovely arrived on Friday -- we've been putting stuff in it -- the plan is to get as much stuff out of the house as we can to be able to stage it -- and do it quickly

which doesn't mean I'm not doing anything artful --- I'm actually making it a point to spend a little time every day doing something creative, just concentrating more on smaller pieces

this is a barrette -- and it is available now in my Etsy store

and I've just finished the hand applique work on this piece

trying to maintain some sense of balance

time to get moving

The Last Glad

a few years ago we planted a lot of daffodils and gladiolas around the rose bush right outside our front door

the last two years none of the glads have bloomed and only one or two of the daffodils had

I thought they were all dead

we've had a very early and heavy monsoon season here -- almost every day we've had a thunderstorm and some of them have been very heavy

I guess that's what this little gladiola was waiting for

beautiful!

finally finished!

I'll be adding this to my Etsy store and entering it in the competition soon

watch for the notice when the voting begins

and because I need to have something to do with my hands while I'm icing my back or my knees, I started something new!

this is a small piece, but I'm having fun playing with an assortment of beads doing a much easier bit of embroidery


the container for putting household items in arrives on Aug 22 -- time to get back to packing

The Source of the Problem

I've had my current sewing machine for a long time -- almost 15 years

Over the years I've run all kinds of thread through it -- just about every brand that's available -- or has been available clear back to grandma's day because I don't just throw a spool away because it's old

I've never had a problem with any of them

This week, between packing boxes and icing my knee and my back, I've been trying to make the DH a new pair of pants

I went through the drawers of thread and pulled out this spool that was the right color.  The (now missing) label on the end of the spool said "Dual Duty", so I figured there would be no problem

So we did the usual routine --- clean the feed dogs and the bobbin case, change the needle, wind a bobbin, thread the machine -- ready to sew -- or not

It sounded awful -- a machine that usually you can't hear running was making definite "clunk, clunk" sounds

What?!

Maybe it's a defective needle I thought, so I changed it again -- and re-threaded both the bobbin and the top thread

Nope -- still doing it -- stitch, clunk, stitch, clunk, stitch, clunk -- ggrrrr!

Walk away and think

The next day I decided that I would try a different spool of thread -- this spool is not the exact same color, but it will do

So again, clean, wind, thread -- and this time no clunk

Apparently that spool was labeled one thing but is actually something much thicker!  The label has been removed and I'm moving it into the tray that I keep the hand stitching threads in

Maybe now I can finish those pants!

I've been working on the chain for this piece -- it's moving along slowly

It looks good


time to get back to packing

Living with chaos

the piles of boxes are growing

as my back has slowly gotten so I can do more, we're getting more boxes packed -- its a good thing

and yesterday we took a car load of kitchen and other household items off to donate

even though I don't put a high priority on having an immaculately clean house, the ongoing clutter, confusion and chaos does get to me

that's why I try to take some time every day to make some art

I'm working on this beaded piece

the surface design is all finished, and I've started on the bail and chain

it has taken a couple of days of fiddling to figure out the bail, but last night the little switch clicked "on" and I figured out a way to keep the look I wanted without having the piece try to twirl around backwards --- hurrah!

now it's on to the chain

the hand applique on this piece is now done

this one needs some paint and a lot of stitching to create the details and shadows

this one will be the next piece in the shed door series -- I put the pattern together this morning, and sometime later today I'll pick out fabrics and get started

this will be the next piece in the series

the pattern is ready, and later today I'll pull out the fabrics to get started


earlier in the week I cut out two skirts and a pair of pants to be stitched, but before I got them finished, we decided to pack all the dishes in the buffet and the china cabinet, so I've not gotten that done yet -- hopefully soon

A better week

the week started off on a good note

this piece, titled Fiesta! has been accepted as part of the traveling show for the Hoffman Challenge 2014

back in June I thought I had this all finished, only to find when I started to fill out the paperwork to submit it that it was too big for the size limitations!!

I picked off the binding, cut it down and redid the binding and managed to get that all done in time to get it submitted between ER trips and other issues --- hurrah!

I'm pretty excited about this, the list of places this is traveling to is pretty extensive -- and I'm happy to say that now four out of five submissions to this annual challenge have made the cut to travel -- whoot! whoot!

meantime, this week I've worked on this piece some more -- it's still hard to really understand what is going on here, since there is still a lot of work to be done, but I can see progress

progress being made on this project too

in fact, this one is becoming one of those "did I do that?" pieces as the more I work on it the more amazed I am that it looks like what I originally saw in my head

I think this piece will be done in the next few days ---- and amazingly, I haven't yet begun thinking very hard about what the next piece will be --- maybe it's time

this may not look like much, but it does mark real progress in my back recovering

for about a week I hurt too much to sit at the sewing machine, which means the repair of these three bags, which should have taken 3 hours tops ended up being stretched over 2 weeks ---- grrrrrr

they do look pretty good though -- each one had the end pieces removed, new welting applied around the edge and the end piece replaced --- these things are over 20 years old, and now they should be good for another 10 years or more ----  it's all good

the packing continues -- the curio cabinets are empty, the tops of the china cabinets that held all the decorative pieces are almost empty, and yesterday I started packing books --- edging closer to the marketing of the house every day

time to get busy