LaVieEnRosie

And in less than 24 hours too!

I just couldn't wait any longer.  

I don't like to admit it, but I've never been good about waiting.  Impatience is one of my worst traits... faults?  

I'm okay if I can see a reason for the delays but if the cause is "general slowness"... then I'm the worst.  The amount of time I've spent recently in waiting rooms and such hasn't helped.  In the hospital, there are notes on charts and patient bracelets for allergies, "fall risk" and other things that nurses and personnel need to know.  I think the local hospital is considering introducing an "Impatient Daughter" bracelet.  I'm sure it has already been noted on my Mom's chart --  Lovely Son.  Impatient Daughter.  

But back to the topic at hand.

A giveaway.  

I've got this book.  It's new.  Martingale very kindly sent me a few of them.  Another Bite of Schnibbles.  

And I've got this fabric.  

Nine Dots.  

It's sort of vintage-y because the prints were all taken from my stash of vintage feedsacks.  But the color is a little brighter.  These are fat quarters.  

And I have this toy... gadget... tool-thing that I really like.

It's sort of funny looking ~ a cyclops-like lamp.  From IKEA.

I got this one about two months ago and it has been love at first light.  That's right... "first light".  I liked the lamp on sight but that was probably due mostly to the $9.99 price tag.  Once I assembled it (easily done, takes about 2 minutes), plugged it in and started using it, I had to go back to Ikea for a couple more.  A spare, gifts, giveaways, etc.  What I love about it is that the base is nicely weighted so its quite stable.  The bendy part is 24" long so it can be moved and adjusted to shine the light exactly where you want/need it to be, and the light itself is bright without too harsh.  Of all the additional lights I've had on or around my sewing machine, this is my favorite.  It's also small enough to take with you to retreats and sewing days with friends.  

They come in red, pink, black, silver and white.  Since I wasn't sure what color you would prefer, I played it safe and got the white one.  

[Note: While Ikea does show this lamp online, you have to go to a store to get one.  Jansjo.]

For this drawing, I would like you to tell me something.  If you were going to be whisked away to a sewing retreat island, what is the one thing you absolutely, positively couldn't live without?  What one thing would you need to have with you to make you happy?

Assume that everything else you could "need" is provided... sewing machine, iron, scissors, rotary cutters, rulers, snacks, etc.  It is all excellent quality and brand-new.  You've also got all the fabric you could ever use.  

There isn't any right answer, I'm just curious.  And really, it could be anything.  Could you live with pretty much any good sewing machine so long as you had an unlimited supply of peanut M&Ms?  Or would you just not be able to function or exist without your grandmother's Featherweight to sew on?  It can be silly... e.g., you simply cannot sew unless you're wearing your TweetyBird slippers.  Or it can be practical... e.g., you must have a chair and table set-up that allows you to be 13 1/2" below the plate of your sewing machine.  

As I wrote, I'm just curious.  We're all creatures of habit in one way or another. 

After much thought, my answer is kind of sad... and it is the result of getting old... older. 

Reading Glasses.  Cute ones.  

Anything else, I can make do.  I have my preferences and I might whine a bit if I don't get to sew on an old Bernina... but I'll adjust.  So long as I can see what I'm doing... lest I also have a huge supply of bandaids I can open with one hand.  

So leave a comment before Midnight ~ 12:00 am MST ~ on Friday, October 28th to be entered.

And just so you know... it has been noted by a friend that I seem to buy things in twos...

 

Amateur Night...

Oops. 

Uh... no comments regarding the irony of, or appropriateness of, which of my fingers was injured.  

After all these years, you would think I would know not to put my finger under the needle of my sewing machine while it was running.  This is what happens when you're sewing in the middle of the night and you're rushing to finish something because you want to see what it is going to look like.  

As injuries go, this was rather minor.  No stitches required.  The needle broke and both pieces were in my finger, requiring me to use pliers to remove them.  And the thread went through too, meaning that I had to cut the end to pull it out... trust me, it wasn't nearly as gruesome as it might sound.   

A little Neosporin and a couple of BandAids and I was ready to finish... but can I just ask one question?  Why is it that the world can create rockets that fly to the moon and back, robots that can do micro-surgery, and put all the knowledge in the world at your fingertips with smartphones but we can't come up with packaging for a bandaid that you can open with one hand?  

Just so you know, I did consider calling 911 to get some good-looking assistance but while in the bathroom looking for the aforementioned bandaid, the mirror provided a reality check.  One look at moi and the paramedics would have thrown me a bandaid and run.  

Bleeding stopped and wound dressed, it took me less than an hour to finish these.  

These are by The Quilted Crow and they are two of their "Weekenders" patterns.    

Except that I made both of these in an evening.  When I bought these ~ can't remember where ~ they were packaged as a little kit with the pattern and necessary wool.  I did make one change though, substituting this red for the solid black included for the background.    

Okay, two changes.  My pineapple is a skosh bigger as I wanted a little bit of the background showing.  And I got the pieces of the crow spaced out a little more so my finished circle is also a bit larger. 

Pretty cute, don't you think?  I was going to give these away as Christmas presents but I think I just might have to keep them.  Or make more.  

After all the wonderful comments and sweet e-mails I've received in the past month, I should make a lot more. Though a pincushion wouldn't begin to convey how much I appreciate the kind thoughts and good wishes.  Thank you.  And my Mom thanks you.

She's doing well and getting better every day.  She's busy making lists of Holiday baking.  And once the weather cools off, she's got plans to go through the closets and cupboards in the garage to clean out holiday decorations and accumulated "stuff".  That's a good sign, right?

The irony of all this is that when I decided not to worry about Fall Market, I wound up pulling out, working on and even finishing various projects that I had started over the years.  

I finished this Penny Rug by my friend, Ginger Sanchez.  When I pulled it out a little over a year ago, it was about half-done.  I worked on it and then life got busy... so when I pulled it out again a few weeks ago, it was about three-quarters done.  I finished it in a couple of days... then had to go back and re-finish it when I found a couple of pieces that had been "stored" in another box.  (I'm organized but not THAT organized... if that makes sense.)  

My Mom loves this so I gave her the choice ~ penny mat or pillow?  She picked "pillow" so that she would be able to see it every time she looked over at the sofa.  (She adores Ginger.)

I've also been playing around with some boxes.  I bought two little boxes about five years ago with the intent of changing out that stitchery.  

The boxes sat unused on the shelf waiting... until a week or so ago.  Now I have two "new" boxes that I'm using and enjoying.  Both have "stitchy" stuff in them ~ the needles, scissors, etc. stuff that I use while stitching, binding, and so on.

New Box No. 1.  

New Box No. 2.

I even put some of my favorite cork Contac paper on the inside.

I've also been dabbling with the Block of the Week thing I received this past summer from Primitive Gatherings.  Each week for twelve weeks, I received the fabrics to make five (5) Lemoyne-like sawtooth star blocks that would finish at 4" x 4".  As with most programs like this, I fell a little bit behind.  

Okay.  A lot behind.  

But I'm catching up.  I've got another twenty blocks done, and then about thirty more to go.  

Of course I had to make a few changes.  

It's okay.  You can laugh about that.  Everybody else already has.  First, since there was enough fabric, I decided to make the blocks finish at 5" x 5".  And I'm switching around all the combinations ~ after all, I want mine to be different.  And since I was switching the combinations around anyway, I might as well make some substitutions.  If that wasn't enough, I am going to need about 12 more blocks for the setting I decided to use.  

If you're wondering... yes.  I've always had trouble with following directions.  

What I hope all this tells you is that life is different but good.  We're adjusting and figuring out what sort of routine and schedule works.  While I don't have long stretches of uninterrupted time, the time I'm spending with my Mom has resulted in my pulling out handwork and projects that I can work on in little bits of time.  

And just so you know, I really am very lucky.  I know that many of us in this age-group are in a similar situation, caring for elderly parents.  While I have teased about my brother, the truth is that he is incredibly supportive and has dropped everything, re-arranged his life and schedule and come for a couple of days or a week so that I could do whatever it was I needed or wanted to do.

I will be back tomorrow with a book, some fabric and one of my favorite new little gadget-things.  All of which could be somebody else's... but more on that tomorrow.  

Really.  

I promise.