Seam ripper and faulty cube construction

Without deadlines to prompt me, I'd never get anything done. That said, it's irritating when I decide I must finish something and then I just can't. I tried mightily to finish a set of 3 blocks for the Etsy Kids Challenge. I stayed up too late, picking out the 18 sides of fabric and thinking over possible designs. But then the next morning time went too fast and I totally ran out of time, not to mention the sewing machine decided to hate me.

Here is what I experienced:

# of infuriating balled up messes of thread: 15-20

# of needles broken: 1

# of times I had to re-thread: 10-15

# of totally sewn sides I had to rip out and redo: 3-4

# of times the thread broke while sewing: 5


All was going ok, though I was looking at the time and thinking those Project Runway folk are crazy. But then after all the sewing machine problems, I thought I had the first block done and lo and behold I had sewn the cube together wrong. I don't know how I did it, but it was some sort of rectangular-tube shape. I guess a cube is the kind of thing I thought I could just do without really thinking, and then I sewed the sides together all cockeyed. Well, I had to rip out the seams on those and redo it. And then I had to stop to go to work and I knew that was it as far as meeting the deadline.

So, in the end, I had one complete block. The rest of the prepared pieces for two other blocks will have to wait.




For some reason I felt compelled to adapt Moon River in my head to the occasion although I kept in "Huckleberry friend" because it's bizarre to begin with regardless of having it be associated with a seam ripper.

Seam ripper... wider than a mile
I'm tearing out these sides today
You dress maker, you threadbreaker
Whatever you're ripping I'm watching it fray....
Two sewers off to stitch the world
There's such a lot of world to sew
We're after the same ribbon's end
Hemming round the bend
My huckleberry friend, seam ripper...
And me

I've always wanted a Huckleberry friend.... I think....

And last but not least, from stumble upon Modern Life.

Don't try this at home/why I shouldn't have access to pliers

So, thanks to the tip from Andrea at Artwork by Andrea, I'm going to be participating in the make a purse fundraiser project It's in the Bag for LINC (Legal Information Network for Cancer). I have an idea but have only just started assembling my materials.

I've made "bags" before, but not exactly any kind of structured purse, so I was going to consult with some old purses for inspiration. I learned from friend M. that the certain kind of clasp I had in mind is called Kiss Clasp. So I took apart an old purse to see what I could learn about this strange apparatus.



I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking when I took to this thing with pliers, but it was not a pretty process. And from other accounts I found online, I am certainly not the first to make this mistake.


Kiss clasp reminding me of a shark-skeleton mouth.

After this debacle (and yes, I'm still considering I may be able to salvage this), I came across this very helpful lesson from u handbag. Now, I'm not one for following patterns (short attention span?), but in this case I'm going to at least follow the general directions. I will certainly be back to tell more about this project ... it also involves an ancient package of coral RIT dye I got out of my thrift store treasure box.

Once again, I must report on other news, and that is that the return of my pincushions after their summer camp at Interweave Press. They came back with many stories to tell, but sadly no prizes. Congratulations to their rivals and comrades, all of whom are quite striking and wonderful. All said and done the pincushions admit bashfully that they were more conceptual than technique-based, but they're looking forward to the next adventure, probably including an upcoming appearance in the etsy shop.

Karee Raisu and a Crochet Tongue

Karee raisu is the Japanese "katakana English" word for curry rice. And that's Japanese curry rice (quite different than an Indian or other Southeast Asian curry). It's kind of like a thick curry gravy stew served with sticky white rice. It's one of my favorites!




So, I had been planning this for some while, since I bought some tiny little china "bowls" at the thrift store. This is a curry rice pincushion. I was scared the curry rice pincushion in my head wasn't going to come out... but I'm very pleased that it worked out pretty much as I imagined it.

I need to get to the post office before it closes in the late morning. I have a postmark deadline to meet, and if anything is a form of motivation, it's a postmark deadline.

If I make the deadline, I'm planning on entering the curry rice pincushion and a re-worked toothy pincushion into the Interweave Press Pincushion Contest. Thanks to my friend Catherine for telling me about it quite a while ago - of course I waited until a week before the deadline to get these going.

I had to "learn" to crochet as a technique which would fulfill the requirements. So I crocheted a tongue for a toothy pincushion.



Previous incarnations of the toothy pincushion have been sewn velvety fabric. It's much much more difficult to crochet a pincushion tongue than it is to sew one.



It's been a hectic week, craft-wise. Let alone organization/cleaning/yardwork-wise. There's just too much I need to do. As crazed as they make me, deadlines really are helpful.