Wow...I fell off the radar....

Summertime hey? .... everything is turned on its ear.

I heard parents humming this morning...humming that tune...."It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year".... as they put kids on buses...hahhahah.... only 180+ days left kiddies... til next summer.... huh? ..is that all?  Obviously the reason nobody learns to read and write anymore ...well, that and computers...

Anyway..onward with other things.  I've been golfing, and waiting on trades and others to finish up the renovations...that were supposed to be completed by last October....sigh... oh, and dental visits... for complicated things with my mouth that are too technical and involve older implants etc... to bother explaining to most folks.  Easy enough for me to understand after being in dentistry for 20 years.... the hard part is sitting in the chair again.. after not having to do that for years.... I didn't think I'd ever have to go through this again.  But, every body reacts differently to things and mine failed me with a front tooth implant.. and, so ..lots of other work taking place to try to save and fix and replace things.

Recently I also made a master sheet of fabric as Karen calls it.  At least I think I remember her calling it that.  From my second class with her... although, we did take to calling it the class that was not a class as it was supposed to be more a gathering of cloth and embroiderers..but, you know how it goes.  Folks want to know how to do 'stuff'...and she has to show and tell.  The second class was called Simply Stitch and now she has another on the go... Simply Stitch 2 .. head over to her blog to check out her work.

Anyway, when I made my first pin pillow, I just put together tiny bits of fabric and made only one.  This time I'm trying for several at one go.  Not that it is any quicker.  For me, it is actually more confusing it seems.  Trying to get things measured etc..   I don't seem able to piece things and just get on with it. Square off things and use the pieces I squared off.  Nope.  Not me.

Karen also did say she is happy to be of help with any part of what we are doing and if we find our own way of doing ... that means she has succeeded.  Well, Karen, I have this little trick I'm using to help me envision it in the finished stage, because I just can't look at the large piece and see my little pillow area done.

I made up a beautiful piece... FME'd (Free Motion Embroidered) on it... then, cut out some squares from a piece of heavy paper and can move it around to look at which area I want to use for my pillows.  Stick in a few pins to mark the edges, turn it over and then place the cutout on the pinned spots to draw on my squared off lines.  Then, work away on the front with some embroidery, some placement of laces and other bits of trim.  At the end of the embellishment and stitching, I will cut the pieces off the bigger piece of fabric, stitch the front to a silk backing and more embroidery around the edges and voilà... hopefully another pin cushion as beautiful as my first one.

Sometimes, as we know,  the first is the best.  But, I did learn my lesson with bear and doll making... don't sell or give away the first one til you see how they turn out after that.  You may regret giving away the absolute best one you ever make.  Been there; done that.

And, speaking of Free Motion Embroidery...helpppp!!  I don't know if it is something 'bout my machine or if it is just me or what.... but, when I begin, I want to bring up the bobbin thread so I can hold onto to both threads at the start of machining...however, .....I can't get the lower thread to come up through the fabric...even in test fabric which is much thinner than my doubled up stuff.... what gives?
I am wasting yards of thread just trying to pull the top one and hold the top one etc...to try to coax up a single stitch from below....acckkkkk!  That was the reeeeellly hard part of all of this!  Plus my foot thingy must have something wrong with it as well... can't keep the speed continuous at all right now... it wasn't doing that before....must take it in to have things looked at I guess.....I even took the bobbin holder out from underneath (that was a wrestling match to get back into place!) and cleaned with my tiny brush, etc....no luck so far...

See?...You can get the idea ...sort of from noting where the basting lines are around the outside of the size you decided upon.... but.....

...with my cutout, I can play with trim and see the actual look of a completed cushion.  So much easier ....for me ....

Last night I did some web stitches (I love that stitch; my fav I think) some French Knots, and today, hopefully, a few cross stitched hearts will make an appearance.  But, I do have the door and window place on call....and I must drive over to pay up my dues for the Leisure Centre (you can't do it over the phone) ....or they may not let me golf tomorrow...oh, and waiting on the dental office to move my appointments around to accommodate their holidays ....sigh...... how does a person ever just plop down and enjoy some "ME" time?

Probably when the snow flies....nobody will want to do anything then, I'm sure.