Nearly Finished

It took another two weeks, but I finished embroidering another row of patchwork on the recycled linen quilt.

I can never resist taking a pic of the back, as it's just as neat as the front of the quilt.

I got stuck for a couple days on the center patchwork, and the feather-stitched circle I tried with the stitches changing direction with each new row. I felt as if I'd run out of ideas for the embroidery.

Slow stitch is mindful, and once I stopped worrying and just let the serenity of the process calm me, new ideas started coming to me.

To acknowledge the process I embroidered "Serenity is a state of mind" on the quilt. One more row of patchwork to embroider, and I'll be ready to bind the quilt.

From the Other Side of the Planet

My favorite person sent me this pic of the plein air painting she was doing down at the beach. Gorgeous.

Flip the Baby

First a quick update on Monday's calamities: We saved my drenched laptop, got a new dishwasher on sale (with free delivery, no less) and found a new compressor for our truck's a/c, which my guy can install himself because he is the greatest mechanic whoever lived. :)

Onto my quilt flip: because this thrifted baby quilt is so cute and in such good shape I was tempted to use it just as a display piece, but I need it for something else I've wanted to make for a while (which will not require me to cut it up, either.)

For the flip I needed to use just a king size pillow, and some big safety pins.

I wrapped the baby quilt around the pillow, and pinned the edges together, tucking the safety pins inside to hold it in place.

Now I have a custom-sized body pillow I can use when I nap on the couch. This will support my right arm, which is prone to bad bouts of elbow bursitis if I don't keep it elevated. Also, if I find a baby in need of a quilt, I can simply unpin the project and give it to the youngster.

Three Times a Calamity

On Monday I took a pic of this Chinese cookie fortune. I'd gotten it when we tried a new place for takeout (which was very good, just a bit pricey) and saved it because of the spelling mistake. Little did I know that it was the universe warning me that fifteen minutes later the calamity part would actually arrive, and my old theory that bad luck always comes in threes was proven right yet again.

This is my laptop, or rather, this is my laptop after I took it apart to see if the glass of water I spilled on its keyboard that day soaked through to the battery. I flipped it over immediately, so only a couple drops got on the battery. My guy thinks if we let it dry out for 48 hours we might be able to save it.

Two minutes after my guy and I finished taking apart my laptop to inspect and then set it up to dry out, I noticed that our nine-year-old dishwasher was still running -- four hours after I turned it on. The timer dial apparently stopped working, so we looked at getting a replacement, but it was too much money. So we decided to buy a new dishwasher, and found one on sale at Lowe's.

For the third and final bit of calamity, as we got in the truck to go get the new dishwasher we discovered the a/c in the truck isn't working. So, okay, Universe, I got the message already. I'd appreciate it if you'd stop adding to my propserity now, please.

Trying Again

Last month I decided to give diamond painting another go with the sunflower kit that came with my Goodwill thread lot. I wasn't thrilled about working with all that yellow in my face, but I thought since I'd only tried the craft once I should take another chance on it. This particular kit retails for over $15.00 new, too.

It took about four days to complete the sunflower with the plastic diamonds, and I did work pretty slowly due to my stiff fingers. Since there weren't as many colors to deal with as was the case with the dragon I made the first time, it seemed a little easier. I also had a smaller area to cover than my first project. The only true annoyance this time was trying to keep the rolled canvas flat; I had to tape it down while I was working on it.

Some of the beads have an irridescent coating that adds extra sparkle, which I thought was pretty. The yellow of the sunflower was mostly a cheddar shade that I don't mind so much.

I found this shadow-box type frame on sale at JoAnn (nothing exactly fit the sunflower) and glued the piece into it before I used a coat of Mod Podge to seal the surface. All in all it was a much better experience than my first attempt. I'm still not tempted to buy any of these kits, but I did enjoy the process more this time.

Making Summer Memories

Summer is my favorite season, and as we enter the last weeks of it I'm usually a little sad. Fall is my least favorite time of the year, and leads into winter, which always ends up being holiday disasterfest in some form or another for me. This year, however, summer has been so filled with fun and joy I think it will carry me through the darker months.

Life can be like a garden if you plant enough good ideas, love and kindness. A dear friend sent me some seeds last year, one of which grew into this delicious watermelon. I'll never forget the delight of seeing it grow, harvesting it, tasting it and sharing it with our neighbors. This is just one of the happy things that happened this summer.

Taking off a week and a half to spend time with these two also made my summer bright. They filled my birthday with light. They fill me with light. I'm ready for whatever fall and winter bring now. :)

Thread Haul Numbers

My $13.00 lot of thread was definitely worth what I paid for it; even used the thread alone is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $100.00. The majority are polyester, but there are a few cotton, one viscose and a spool of invisible thread. Those nice Fiskar pinking shears retail for $44.99 new, and the Crayola thread pack runs around $6.99. Also, that little sunflower diamond art painting kit retails for $15.52 on Amazon (had no idea they were that expensive!)

The vintage crochet hooks and metal bobbins are priceless, and went to the Notions Retirement Home, as just being able to preserve them is a treat for me.

This one spool of Auifil retails for $6.99 new, which this one is. That seems insanely expensive to me but there you go. I'd put the value of the entire lot at somewhere around $250.00.

Thread & More Haul

Today is supposedly the first day of fall, so it's time to get busy on my holiday projects. Although I'm finished thrifting fabric -- at least for a few years -- I needed some thread, which isn't getting any cheaper these days. What I was looking for was included in a seven pound craft lot that cost me $13.00 plus shipping. Let's unpack it and see what more I got.

The original owner must have embroidered; there are two hoops, two small sharp scissors and a brand-new Crayola 24 skein thread pack. Some kits also came with the lot; a crewel that has already been started, a small beginner macrame (which I've never done) that is new, and a small diamond art kit. On the latter, I said I'd never do one again after that dragon I made, but if everything is in the kit I'll give it another go.

The thread was perfect -- 77 clean, mostly full spools in white, black, blues, pastels and a few greens and reds. There were also some old fashioned metal bobbins with thread still on them. Most are Coats & Clark Dual Duty.

There were six spools of Gutermann thread, which definitely is not cheap, and one Aurifil still sealed in plastic.

The bag of notions, unloaded. There are zippers, several packs of elastic, a beautiful pair of Fiskar pinking shears, a ball of twine, specialty hooks and lots of embroidery thread and yarn. Four large spools of neutral-color serger thread came with the lot as well, and these will come in very handy for me as basting thread.

The oddities from this lot are three of the oldest and tiniest crochet hooks I've ever seen, and a brand new wrap around bun maker for hair.

The diamond painting kit does have all the drills and pieces still sealed, so I guess I'll be making this, too. Sigh.

At least it's a sunflower, which I like, and it's not huge. Stop in tomorrow for the numbers.

Crazy Runner

The third thrifted quilt kit I decided to work on last month was this crazy patchwork bundle.

The pieced blocks looked fun (as did the fabric choices) but I didn't want to use everything for the project I had in mind.

I put together the three blocks with some ivory strips, and then framed them with the strawberry and grape print to make a runner for my kitchen wall.

For the backing I used a black/gray print that came in another fabric lot. I'm not much into black or dark fabrics these days, so I'm using them as backings.

Here's the finished runner, hand-quilted with gold holographic Sulky, embroidered with a rainbow variegated cotton perle thread, and bound with a wide green binding leftover from another project.

Mind Matters

I usually skip anything about psychological drama, as I've dealt with enough of that in real life. Actor Jing Boran playing the male lead in the Chinese romantic drama series Psychologist is who snagged my interest, as he's an interesting guy. He completely flips his persona in this long drama, and the female lead is equally as interesting to watch, but as for the rest . . . . we'll get to that, too.

Here's the set up for the series: He Dun (Yang Zi), a psychologist with some major childhood trauma, loses her job as a crisis counselor and decides to start her own clinic. She meets up with Qian Kaiyi (Jing Boran), a broadcaster and former school classmate who wants to recruit her to work with him on a mental health radio show. He's fascinated by her, and doesn't know she had a secret crush on him in school (he also humiliated her back then, too.) Conflicts start popping up involving both clinic and radio show patients, a secretive new neighbor, He Dun's longtime mentor/surrogate Dad, and Kaiyi's intense rivalry with another broadcaster.

Since Kaiyi is kind of a lounge lizard type, and He Dun is super serious, you can't imagine at first how these two will end up in a romance. That slowly evolves, and it's pretty convincing. I was startled and then weirdly absorbed by how different Jing Boran is in this role. He was super serious in Road Home, but this time he's like another person entirely. There's a big cast, and other interesting side plots, but the romantic relationship between the leads is slow but very nice. I also liked the supporting cast a lot.

Onto the problems with this series: there are a lot, I'm afraid. I've never seen patients with serious mental health problems be completely cured by a couple of talk sessions; all of the patients in this drama are. I cannot believe what the secretive new neighbor does so easily, how long he gets away with it, and how when he's caught the cops basically give him a slap on the wrist. This guy would be in jail for twenty or thirty years for the same offenses here. Also, apparently the side effects of Prozac in China turn one into a maniac, if this story is to be believed. He Dun has some serious flaws, but the way she behaves in the last couple of episodes makes me question everything that came before them. Finally the whole series is cut short because the producers had to drop eight episodes due to a new episode limiting law over there.

Despite all the problems I did like Psychologist. The stylization and illustration of the patients' disorders was creative and, if not exactly accurate, very interesting. Jing Boran was again fabulous in his role; the guy is a total chameleon. I think if they ever release the final eight episodes (they were broadcast as a part two/followup series) I'd like to watch them just to see how He Dun gets over her troubles and cements her relationship with Kaiyi. Available on Viki.com.

New Editing Table

My computer stand is pretty small, so when I want to work on a paper copy of a manuscript I have to use a small folding table for it. My guy needed the one I had in my office for his projects, however, so I looked for a new one at the thrift stores, and found this slightly battered, dusty black beauty at Goodwill. One of the legs was slightly warped, and it had some dings on the top, but it seemed solid and stood steady.

Also, it was only $3.99, which I thought was a good deal (new ones cost around $20.00.)

My first task was to spray and wipe it down with some Lysol. It cleaned up nicely.

I chose this thrifted quilt kit to use to make a pad for it.

Using a Dresden fan patchwork design seemed like the way to go, too.

The finished quilted pad and table.

Ready for fall editing!

Little Flip

For my first quilt recycling project I decided to use this little doll quilt. It's about ten years old, made of scraps of different cotton, flannel and knit fabrics, and has no batting. It was also tied rather than quilted, which makes it easier to take apart.

What I appreciated about this little piece was the softness of the fabrics, and the fact that they'd weathered plenty of use and laundering.

My first task was to separate the quilt into its original components: top, backing, binding.

I put the binding away for use in another project, discarded the old yarn ties, and grabbed two of those white cotton utility cloths that I'd washed to serve as my foundations.

I pinned the top and backing with some scrap batting and the utility cloths, and grid-quilted both with an perle thread in an antique gold color. All the materials I'll be using in these projects are either thrifted, vintage or scrap.

I used big stitches for the quilting, as I wanted a particular look.

Finally I sewed both quilted pieces together and stuff them with fiberfill. This I'll use at night to cushion my bad knee.

Small old quilts or quilt pieces make great pillows. :)