New gadgets!!

OK -- so what happened? It's freezing this morning! Of course, the temperature is only 17 and feels like 17, and with the windows open, it's cool in the house. It's crazy weather! 

When I was in the Wal-Mart the other day, I spotted this in the yarn section: Faux Leather. What the heck would you do with that? Yes -- it's long and stringy, just like yarn. WAIT a minute—now that I see this again, I want some! 

A skein of Faux Leather

But I guess the idea is you knit up a sweater or a bag with it. There was a small swatch knit up so you could see what it looks like! Hmmm—I'm not sure I would do that. It came in multiple colors! 

A swatch of faux leather "yarn"

Yesterday was time to get out the garment pattern and have a look at it, as I need to decide what embroidery designs to put on it. 

The garment pattern

You can tell the pattern's age by looking at the pieces. Do you notice anything about it? 

What's missing on the pattern?

Yep—there is only one size!!! It's a mens/misses medium pattern. I'm not going to make any adjustments, but I will shorten it as the shirt and the sleeves are quite long. I may look at the shoulders, but this garment has a yoke, and I don't want to mess with that the way it is designed. I separated out all the pieces I need and ironed them gently. Now I'll shorten the shirt and the sleeves and hopefully get it cut out today. I also did some research for an embroidery pattern, and I think I have narrowed the style down; I just need to find the right sizes. 

It's been a long time since I sewed a pattern with plackets on the sleeves. I don't think that's the exact term, but you know what I mean. I just checked, and it's a placket! It also has a two-part collar! But I've made those in the past, and they are not complicated; they just take a wee bit more time. I have a serger now, so it should be easy!

This is another way to buy patterns. This is the Burda Style magazine, and it contains numerous patterns. You'll find them all on the pullouts in the middle, and the patterns are printed on top of each other in different colors. Tracing the lines to form a single pattern will be the most challenging part. 

The new way to buy patterns

Different times!!! 

In case you are wondering this happened. 

The last stitches of the table runner are done.

The embroidery for the table runner, which required three hoops in the 450 by 450 Mega Turnable Hoop, is done! It seemed to take forever, even though the number of stitches yesterday was HALF of the day before. But it's done. I now have to repair that one spot, then figure out how to trim and hem it. You'll get to see it when it's done. 

Have you noticed that there is NO setting things aside to get them done later - it's get them completed NOW. 

I spent the rest of the day prepping fabrics, finding patterns, etc for things that will be stitched out today or in the next couple of days. That was a lot of work. 

The next time you show someone something you have machine-embroidered, and they say, "Oh - that's no big deal, you had a machine stitch it," you'd better set them straight. It's a ton of work -- prepping the fabric, finding the pattern, choosing the thread colors, picking the correct stabilizer, having the skill to combine the elements, and knowing the many tools on the embroidery machine. Then, to make everything come out right and fix any issues should they arise. It's a whole different set of skills from doing it by hand, but trust me—it's NOT just about pressing START and walking away. People have ZERO idea. 

I was exhausted when I went to bed! 

Here is my finish for yesterday. YES -- it's off center, and I could have trimmed it to fit, but then it would have looked very tight! This is the one where I had randomly stitched the bird out in the middle of a piece of blue fabric. Then I figured out what to use the sample for, and well, it has lots of issues. But I bound the edges because it's a great learning piece, and I will certainly use it in classes for placement, the order of stitching, and many other things. I could always put a flower or something in the bottom right corner. It's not too late. Hmm -- that gives me an idea. 

The sample of the day

I'm in the process of redoing it, but it will be done the correct way or at least more to my liking. I started it last night, but I struggled with the stitches as I was so tired. So I left it and will tackle it this morning. 

If I don't get everything I want to done, I'm OK with that, but I can make a huge dent in the list. I think I'm down to ten things on the list and seven days!

So, do you know what this is used for? 

A new gadget

When I first saw the tool, I got super excited. A friend of mine told her husband, who is still working, that he'd better find a hobby for when he retired. Well, he took her advice to heart and bought himself a 3-D printer. He's not ready to retire for a few more years! He made that tool above, and it's brilliant, and about 6 weeks ago, I was looking for exactly such a thing. 

What's it for? 

Let's imagine you are making a small pouch and need to round the corners. But you can't find anything small enough or suitable for use with a rotary cutter. I swear I had some round templates, but at the time I couldn't find them, so I sort of rounded these corners, but they look messy. 

Messy rounded corners

But if I had had this tool, I could have used that! 

So much easier with the rounded corner tool

I didn't do such a bad job hacking with scissors, but I much prefer using a tool like this. And notice that all the writing is raised and printed in another color! I love it!!!!

Easy to read letters and markings

And did you notice that he custom-made the tool in my favorite color? Thanks—you know who you are!!!

But WAIT --- there's more!!!! 

He also made me a set of cord minders! 

Cord minders

They snap together beautifully, and just the other day, I was looking for a cord minder for my heat gun. Now the cord is nice and tidy! 

A cord minder for my heat gun

And I also got a point turner with a hole at the tip that can be used to hold your needle for insertion into the sewing machine. 

A point turner

WOW --- that is an amazing set of tools!!! Thank you once again!!! I love them all. Now I have to remember to pay for them, which I'll do this morning. What did we do without the ability to e-transfer money? 

I believe they will be selling these tools at the Brant Heritage Quilt Show on September 25 and 26, so if you want some of those quilting items, check that out. Or if you want to place a special order, I'm sure that can be arranged. 

Someone at the last Virtual Retreat, which was at the beginning of July, mentioned this puzzle. Does anyone remember this quilt that raised the most money at the Mennonite Relief Sale ever? I believe it sold for $42,000. They made it into a puzzle. The quilt was created by Renske Helmuth and members of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild. 

What a great way to raise funds for the Mennonite Central Committee. There are many stories about this quilt online, but here is a link to one. 

Threads of Africa quilt

I found a store (In-Season) that sells the puzzle, and guess what? I had an $11 credit with the store because I had bought a number of things last summer, and well, that paid for the postage. The puzzle arrived yesterday. I need to stop buying or acquiring special puzzles because I won't want to give them away, but where the heck will I store them? Yikes—I think we need to have an intervention here! 

I'm not this bad yet, but maybe it's time to purge the quilt magazines and use those bookcases for jigsaw puzzle storage!!!

Someone's puzzle storage (not mine)

Speaking of puzzles, the theme for July with the Canadian Jigsaw Puzzle Association is a Villager-brand puzzle. There are already 181 posts from people this month. You know it's been done this month because you have to post a keyword in the picture. I see two people have done this one. I'm working my way slowly from top to bottom. 

Progress on my puzzle

I haven't resorted to sorting by shape for the trees yet, but I may have to. I think I have all the tree pieces pulled, but probably not! And then comes the challenging reflection, water and boats. Yeah!!!! But it's a nice way to end the day. 

And OH MY - the Villager company just came out with 250-piece puzzles, which are fun because you can do them in an evening, and they will also be releasing an Advent calendar. OK -- I have to get that!

Well, there's a lot to get done today, and I have to say I'm very focused and having fun, even though I'm learning with almost everything I do. There's so much more that I want to play with, but after this event, I need to get back to my quilting UFOs! But I will have other machine embroidery samples to make starting in August, so that will blow my quilting time out of the water! 

And on that note, I'm out of here! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!