H&ll is mail order...

 

Current Mood : Sick of people

 

Today was Dearest Son's big playdate. I wasn't exactly dreading it, but I wasn't much looking forward to several hours with a lady I barely knew... but as it turned out, I probably had a better time than he did ! After lunch - several hours at a play-place fast food joint - all his friend wanted to do was play video games. Dearest isn't that absorbed with them. I, however, talked for hours with his friend's gramma, who's raising him and a sibling. I enjoyed listening a lot more than talking for once !

 

Stitch Era Universal arrived today - I'd received a note yesterday, saying it'd been ‘missent' from the USPS, so I wasn't sure how long it'd be. It's here now, and I must say that the dealer's a bit... underwhelming. Sierra says dealers can't charge for the software, only shipping and handling. So why ‘shipping and handling' was $9. for two ounces of  installation directions (that were incorrect) and a bare, not even in a paper envelope CD, is beyond my understanding. Her ‘handling' must be substantial, because shipping's about $1.05 at the most. And she uses the ‘print postage at home' which even gives a discount on that.

 

But the program is, in a word, exceptional. I've worked the tutorials on lettering and editing stitches, and it was easy. All my True Type fonts imported in without me doing a single thing, and it was a blast to play with the Barbie font - and the Star Wars font - I've had forever. I even found a NASA-inspired ‘worm' font for free, and I've been trying to find one for purchase for weeks ! It imported that one too, easy peasy. If ya ask me, that's worth the $9. right there ! Embird, another machine embroidery software suite, offers the font program for $80. on top of the basic Embird ($120.), and that doesn't include the digitizing and other features.

 

As usual, though, that one forum denizen has to weigh in with her negative two cents. I've looked around, and she's not that negative to anyone else I've seen. Guess I've ticked her off somehow, but I'm still refusing to engage. If all she can do is snipe at me, if she's not woman enough to bring her grievances to me so we can work it out between us, it's not worth my time to worry about it, much less try to figure out what I might have done.

More family fun at Chez Insanity...already in progress.

 

Current Mood : Worn

 

Actually, Dearest Son got so upset last night about having to pick up his toys, he started crying and throwing things, saying he had a headache. Yet ten minutes later, he's flying his latest Lego creation down the hall, top speed. Yeah, we had a long talk last night. Not that I think he listened, but he can't say I didn't warn him about the junk pit our living room is becoming - and what Mommy'll do about it if he doesn't do anything.

 

He kept going, so I had to disengage. While Beloved Hubby had another talk with him, I retreated to the Lab and stitched. I had to do something engaging, or I'd say or do something regrettable. Sewing was something I could do to calm down, and I couldn't interrupt Dearest and Beloved's chat while it was going. Since I was not about to work on one of his shirts, I decided to work up the ‘Kitty in Paris' design on a nice piece of cardstock - I got a set of 20 ‘marble' edged cards that was just the right size. If I rotated the design 90 degrees ! Luckily, Brody can do that. And it stitched out great. Looks like you'll get to see that on Sunday. Like the other one, I left it for Beloved once Dearest was asleep. He hung it up next to the Japanese kitty. He may soon have a whole wall of ‘em. So much for my ‘I'm gonna need a weeklong break after the Wall-e shirt' thoughts !

 

We had a nice rainshower all night long, so Beloved was home today. Goofed off, ate chips, watched movies. After dinner and dishes - yaaay, they're already done and not piling up ! - the evening was mine, so I stitched out the first of the remote-control race car shirts. Turned out really nice. And y'know what ? I used the same stabilizers with this design that I used with the Wall-e ones. And this one didn't pucker or shift. I'm starting to think that, like with some sewing patterns, the fault isn't always mine.

 

Anyway, this one was actually fun, and only took about 45 minutes to stitch up. Luckily, I'd already applied the iron-on stabilizer and hooped the shirt earlier. And I did a great job - it's centered and looks superb. And now that I have the colors for this one, I have the colors for them all. Yaay ! Into the wash it goes. Now I have 24 days to do four more. I may do the next one tomorrow. I'm thinking of doing this one - the car is holding the remote - on the back, with maybe a small star on front. Not quite sure yet.

 

Laundry's getting kinda crowded. Forgot to say that I got to hit Dollar Tree yesterday and got Dearest four more shirts. These are all kinda big, so I can embroider them, too. Thinking of getting a few long-sleeved thermals for him this winter, for that layered look, and a replacement pair of sweatpants or three. That's about all he needs for school besides shoes and whatever the teachers want this year - the lists aren't out yet. I got something called ‘body butter', a sort of lotion, mostly because I liked the container. But it turns out, the lotion's quite nice, too. I hope to go back soon for the green one.

 

Also yesterday, I decided to go ahead and ditch those t-pins. They're too thick for my kind of sewing, and I already have hundreds that work better for me. So I taped up the box they're in and added ‘em to the Donations bin. It's getting full again. I also recycled part of the air conditioner's box as a pincushion for the ironing board. I have a bad habit of sticking pins on one end of it, then forgetting they're there until I stab m'self with one. So when I saw these soft foam strips in the a/c box, I snagged one. I'd thought to either glue it to the board or use elastic to attach it, but ended up hanging it from a hook in the door where the board is stored. Convenient, but out of the way. Hopefully, I won't stab myself with the strip anytime soon !

 

Whoop. Just saw lightning...yup, and there's thunder. Gotta go unplug Brody and get ready for bed. Looks like things'll be cooler for a few days. Or at least wetter.

Can you hear the tango...?

Current Mood : Indulged

Spent on embroidery designs : $5.00

 

Splurged a bit and bought five designs from Cute Embroidery that I've been wanting. One is a letter to a free alphabet series that I missed, two are tiny snowflakes, one is a pretty free-standing lace design, and the last is an appliqué I liked. I've voted for weeks on the alphabet and snowflakes - the winner is the freebie of the day - but it's been weeks and they never came up. The appliqué and the free-standing lace one aren't eligible for voting. I would have just skipped ‘em, they're nice but not wildly exceptional, but the minimum order was five bucks.

 

What's surprising me is how good a mood that's put me in. I don't have to worry about voting for ‘em every day anymore, and getting upset that the Latest and Newest has ensured that my old design won't ever ‘win'. The alphabet letter one especially. They frequently have alphabets up as freebies, one letter a day. But if you miss one, good luck getting it - because as soon as Flower Alphabet is done, Train Alphabet will start... and by the time Train is complete, Rose Alphabet is coming up - and there's a herd of folks still trying to get a couple letters from Train. Flower collectors can just forget it. Since the individual letters are only a buck each - or the whole alphabet's only $15. - you may as well just buy ‘em and get it over with. If most freebie hunters are like me, incomplete series are like a bruise - doesn't hurt, but it bugs you every time you see it. I can't really whine about getting a whole 26-letter series for a dollar, but it's still kind of annoying that you're never given a chance to get that one missing letter.

 

So this little splurge has been well worth it. Despite our usual end-of-month money tightness, I feel wealthy. Now, all my alphabets are complete, I got what I most wanted, and even got a couple bonus items. Luckily for me, that's all the site has that I want ! Most of the ‘votable' freebies come around frequently in the categories I most like, and I've downloaded one FSL ornament twice now.

 

Had a bit of time this afternoon, so I sewed up yet another drawstring bag - this one using the antique radio stitch-out I did months ago, on a piece of Dearest's trashed khakis. Got tired of picking up the remainders of the jeans Beloved Hubby cut off to make shorts, so I used one of those denim legs, too. Turned out pretty good, I think. Sort of a reverse appliqué effect. Took some photos while I was making it. Maybe I can finally put something on that never-used craft site this weekend !

 

Well, time for the daily fight with Dearest about putting all the crap he's dragged out during the day away. Hopefully tomorrow will go better - I get tired of the endless ‘no I don't see that pile of red and yellow Lego on a crap-brown carpet, I'm done cleaning' fights.

The Wall-e shirt... it is DONE !

 

Current Mood : Happily busy

Current Image Notes : Ya can stitch on cardstock, if the design's fairly simple ! 

 

Went domestic today - reduced the rancid kitchen to a-bit-messy kitchen by doing dishes and general cleaning in there for two hours. Got all the trash to the Dumpster, got the living room cleaned, and finally took care of the clutter in the Lab from this weekend - and finally got the Misc. Bag o' Stuff hanging on the doorknob put away. I have a small pile of still-usable stabilizer scraps to sort and store, but I can do that while waiting for stitch-outs to finish. The new-to-Chez Insanity dolls are getting acquainted, and I am happy.

 

It was with much joy that I finished the Wall-e shirt just before lunch today. Whew. The one design that didn't pucker was the freebie titular character, from a Russian site. But the shirt looks OK, especially if ya don't notice the puckers and wrinkles. Happily I deleted the designs from Brody's memory, and with a song in my heart, I made the final notes on the design sheets and filed them in the binder. Alllleluia ! The shirt's in the hamper for a wash to get rid of all the chalk marks and hoop rash, and maybe ease the designs out a bit. Once it's clean, I'll iron-on stitch shield to the back of the designs, so threads and stabilzer bits don't irritate our skin-sensitive Dearest Son. He's already said he wants to wear that shirt on his first day in third grade.

 

Man, those Wall-e designs have been in Brody's memory since... June ? Earlier ? Seems like forever I've skipped past them to get to another design. It occurred to me that, once his remote-control race car series of shirts are done, I don't really have any additional projects in mind. Well, there's plenty to do, I'm just not sure what I wanna do next. The Stitch Era Universal software I sent away for should be arriving soon, so that's probably the next big embroidery thing.

 

But I'm glad I got the Wall-e shirt done. It's always good to keep a promise, and I got a lot of good practice with hooping clothes in. It's kind of a fight to keep it all together. Once you iron on the knit stabilizer, ya gotta mark where it is on the shirt's front. Then, you gotta load up the bottom hoop with cutaway stabilizer, and get it on the inside of the shirt, aligned with the chalk marks. Without the stabilizer sliding everywhere, of course, and when you use recycled bits like I do, that's a challenge on its own ! Then it's time to slide the top hoop in, and make sure it's straight with the shirt's grain, the chalk marks, where ya want the design to be centered, and encompassing the bottom hoop stabilizer ! And getting it all on a child-sized shirt. Not a lot of room to work in, and often changing threads is a nightmare. But I managed to do it, and doing it four times on one shirt without getting anything inside out, upside down, or with the stitches sewing the front to the back - heck, what's a couple of puckers ? I've developed my own methods, and for now, they work. Thank Everything for masking tape !

 

Of course, now that it's all over. I'm looking forward to starting Dearest's next shirt. Maybe Wednesday or Thursday, depending. He has a play date Thursday, so we'll have to see how the days go. Beloved Hubby found a stash of old T-shirts from the company he used to work for, and I get to cut ‘em up for sewing and stitch-outs. Whoo-hoo !

Wall-e Stitchin' Sunday

 

 Current Mood : Sleepy

And we're back to random-photo days again. Here's the Barbie outfit I bought last week. Dawn (formerly Snow White) is wearing it now, fulfilling her destiny.

 

Was trying to help troubleshoot a problem design with a friend via e-mail late Friday night. We never did solve the problem, but at least we narrowed it down a bit. Having a spot of potential trouble over at the SiCK forums - one of the members has followed me for three threads now, disagreeing with whatever I post. I refuse to engage, because if I get all cheesed off, I'm the bad guy, over-reacting. Plus, I could be. It's just odd that, if I say, hey I found something neat, she says it's not her style. If I explain Brody's USB port to someone else, she says she wouldn't like that setup. Whatevs, dear. I swear, she's trying to pick a fight with me for some reason, but I just won't pick up the other end of her rope.

 

But anyway, the reason helping my friend is significant is because it made me realize how long those Wall-e designs have been in Brody's memory, waiting for me to make Dearest Son's shirt. Brody's available memory isn't much, so that stuff's gotta go, and soon. No time like last night to get crackin'. Beloved Hubby had Friend over, and Dearest was at his grandparents'. Since I'd already done test stitches of Wall-e and Eve, I figured I'd go right to the shirt with MO, put him on the back. Front's gonna have Wall-e, Eve, and the Wall-e logo, so it was already pretty crowded !

 

Only one problem. Ambassador saw the design as having sixteen stops, or thread changes. The specifications sheet that came with the design said there were eighteen. And I could barely tell which colors were going where, since Ambassador decided on its own color scheme that was radically different from specs. And the spec sheet gave colors not as ‘Madeira 1012' or ‘Sulky 0803', but as ‘Red : 094 Green : 104  Blue : 110'. That'd be fine if I were using PaintShopPro or Photoshop, but kinda hard to determine in thread.  Ended up scrolling through the stops Brody had (16 !) and writing down which stop covered which part of MO, then assigning colors based on the Treasure Chest and what else I had. Took over an hour, and I even mis-numbered the stops. But after that, I was finally ready. Too bad it was after 11pm !

 

But I still wanted to sew, because now I wanted to see how it worked out. And after all that, I figured I'd better do a test stitch-out instead, just in case. Turned out well, my color choices were pretty good, I think. I reduced it from ten colors to eight - I'm not sure why MO needed that many colors - or stops - in the first place. Seriously, you should be able to stitch him with maybe five colors. And while two stops have to have a thread change in the middle, I eliminated four other thread changes. It's a bit off registry in two places, but maybe it'll work out better on a t-shirt. The important thing is, I learned how to assign my own colors and how to solve discrepancies between spec and design, so next time, it won't take so much kvetching.

 

Unfortunately, the design puckered on Dearest's shirt when I stitched it out today. As did the Eve one, and the Wall-e logo. You may remember I had some problems with that earlier, but I thought it were solved. Guess not.

 

(sigh) I'm gonna put Wall-e himself on the shirt tomorrow, and I am done with it. It gets so frustrating to be so careful with every little step - and it still screws up. I was so tense that, when the bobbin cover came up missing, I nearly broke down and cried. Managed to maintain, but I've been on edge, watching failure after failure, that it's not been easy. Bust butt to get the hoop centered, straight, and on-grain, plus aligned with two different types of stabilizer, and on the right place on the shirt... and the design itself mucks up ! All three designs came from the same place, and maybe it's me, maybe it's the designs, but I'm about to toss the towel and turn off the lights. Once this shirt is finished, for good or bad, it'll probably be days - possibly even a week - before I go near Brody again. I'm just really, really tired of it all right now.

 

What's funny is that Saturday, I was determined to go to Hancock Fabrics, mostly because I haven't been there in weeks. But I got so involved with the new dolls and the Wall-e shirt, I forgot, and never went. Well, like I always say, get into what you got, and you won't be busy buying more !

Flea Market time ! Now with surprise pigs !

 

Current Mood : Happy, if tired. 

Spent on dolls : $3.

Spent on patterns : $4.

Spent on sewing stuff: 50c

Current Image Notes : Mini Barbies ! Squeeeee !

Flea market ! And from what I heard from the sellers, the next three weeks are also Flea Market weekends ! Wheeee !

 

It was uber-crowded today. There were pigs being shown, and from the patter of the announcer, evidently being sold. Each one was just perfect for breeding, for ham, for bacon, whatever. I heard more about porcine bone structure while digging through doll boxes than I ever thought I would - or ever wanted to. Yep, the pig show/sale was in the same building. In the parking lot and the main Fairgrounds building was the twice-weekly Farmer's Market and this week, a craft show and sale. Lazy me is used to parking right outside the tin barn the Flea is normally in, but today, I had to hoof it for about a block. Lots of parking, which is good - I just hate that I needed it !

 

Spent $3. at the dollar-toys lady's booth - got a Ballerina Aurora in her glittery tights under Ballerina Ariel's tutu (now I have two of that tutu !), and a gorgeous Snow White in a lovely blue gown. I'd swear the gown was Fashion Avenue, but it has a standard ‘Genuine Barbie' tag. How their hair is still in the factory set but is completely destroyed is astounding. I also got a cute red Barbie romper with gold braid trim, a purple jacket that's probably from a Happy Meal doll, and a jade-green t-shirt with doll-size dog tags attached. You know I had to have that one !

 

And you're gonna laugh at me for this. After years of swearing and cursing at the patterns in Johana Gast Anderton's book Sewing for Twentieth Century Dolls, vol. II, I actually bought Vol. I today. Well, it was only $4., and frankly, I've always wondered about Vol. 1. If the first volume was as bad, how did there get to even be a Vol. II ? Perhaps the first wasn't so awful and useless ? Plus, if you have the second of a set of anything, ya usually want the first, if you can find it cheap. And I did. Used, this book normally runs about $20. plus shipping. My curiosity could wait at that price, but $4. was good !

 

Wandered through the craft show. Ugh. Tons of tulle little-girl tutus with $20. tags on ‘em, a field of hairbows, and the usual three or four booths selling over-scented candles. Someone has begun a screen-printing business, but $25. for (again) over cutesy kidswear seemed a bit high. Especially when the shirt's manufacturer tags had been cut out, and replaced with the company's name one. They probably don't want anyone to know the shirts came from Dollar Tree - since those all have split tags, denoting seconds or overstock. Or maybe that's me being snarky, since clearly, I'm not the target audience. I don't see m'self putting Dearest Son in a t-shirt that reads ‘My Mommy is Foxy !!' any time soon. There was so little there that wasn't designed for little girls that I had a pink overdose and had to leave. If it hadn't said ‘craft fair' on the signs, I'd have thought I'd stumbled into an overpriced kid's boutique.

 

As it was, I gladly wandered the Farmer's Market, to wash out all that pink and brown in my brain-vision with some green. Most of the booths had nearly sold out, and several were packing up. I snagged a nice bar of solid, local beeswax for 50c - it really comes in handy for many things. Especially hand-sewing - push your needle through beeswax (or even a bar of soap), and it glides through even thick fabric. I've seen folks do that with leather.

 

My funds - right down to the change in Molly-car - depleted, I came back home. After a nice leftover lunch, I started in on Aurora's dreadlocks. Much like her sister Belle ballerina, who was purchased from the same seller, her hair was wooly and dreadlocked. It took me over an hour to brush it out, and that's with conditioner and rinsing ! Much as I hated to straighten her curls, there was simply no way around it. Maybe I'll curl it back up some day. Like Belle's, it frizzes out alarmingly about halfway down, and it's unmanageable at the very ends. So I took off about a half inch. Much better. Her bangs brushed and curled becomingly, and her hair's nearly dry already.

 

I had another surprise waiting for me when I removed her tights - she's been facing the wrong way for who knows how long ! Yup, her twist waist goes all the way around, and there's very little delineation between ‘front' and ‘butt'. It's there if you know dolls, though. She looks much more ‘upbeat' facing her front instead of her behind !  For now, though, she's resting, and doing what Disney Princess dolls are born to do - look cool in Barbie clothes.

 

Let my arm rest a bit before taking on the over-shellacked hair on Snow - I think she's Sparkle Princess, due to her red and gold hairbow and vivid red lips. I just couldn't resist her, she has stars in her eyes ! Since that seller doesn't care if I switch clothes, long as I pay for my choices, I put them each in what I wanted from her selection. And yes, I did redress the dolls I stripped nekkid. That's only fair to them. It was kind of funny at the Flea - I'm digging eagerly through two boxes of various dolls, and about two feet away, two ten-year-old girls are exclaiming "OMG !" every thirty seconds over her pile of costume jewelry.

 

While attempting to ID my new Snow, I saw that mini Barbie set. OMG ! Dorrie wants ! This was on Entertainment Earth, and it's due to hit shelves in September, probably for about $20. - $23. or so. EE wants $27., and they routinely have prices about 10 to 15% higher than Mal-Wart or TRU. Far as I'm concerned, this is my ‘Barbie's 50^th' souvenir. I also got to see several Princess and the Frog dolls from the upcoming Disney release - very pretty !

 

I also learned that there's upcoming My Favorite ‘Swirl' and ‘Peaches and Cream' repros coming out, a ‘Vintage Career' assortment that sounds like ‘ ‘repro' line to me, Italy and Russia DOTWs, a 30^th Anniversary African-American Barbie Heritage doll, and ‘Barbie as' Cyndi Lauper, Joan Jett, and Deborah Harry dolls ! Whew ! No photos yet on any of this, but there're not on the Barbie Collector site either. Well. I may have to start saving the pennies, in case half of these are good ! The ‘Vintage Careers' I was especially interested in -  in hopes they'd do ‘Stewardess'. The year I got the Friend Ship airplane, I got the Get Up and Go costume sets for both my Malibu Barbie and Ken, and a vintage repro would be so sweeet ! Of course, they're doing ‘Student Teacher', ‘Candy Striper' or ‘Registered Nurse', and ‘Miss Astronaut'. Oh, well.

 

Snow didn't take near the effort or time that Aurora did. Her hair was just shellacked at the factory, then squashed in the back. Clearly, she wasn't played with much, if at all.  Main reason I got her was because she reminded me of Dawn Wells (Mary Ann, Gilligan's Island), so I brushed her hair down, removed the rubber band. That helped her eyes look a bit less huge. Not sure why there's this black tinsel-glitter stuff rooted in her hair, maybe that's part of her Sparkle that's not her dress. Oh, and I've confirmed once again how cheap Mattel is - her gold-and-red hairbow ? It's only gold and red at the top of her head. The ribbon tying it around her head is thinner, cheaper, and has no trace of gold edging. Now, even the edged stuff can be found for four or six spools for a buck (about 24 to 36 yards), so I'm not sure if this even saved them a whole penny. Even cheaper than that, the cheap ribbon wasn't tied - it was sewn together ! 

 

And ya'll thought I was cheap !

Without the black boxes, they're everywhere !

 

Current Mood : all hopped up on new Venture Bros., Season 3

 

Kind of a boring day, really. Beloved Hubby was home early, but we all sort of sat around anyway. Stained a piece of balsa yesterday, so I embroidered on it today. Um. Not good. I'm still using the really narrow stuff since I'm still in the testing phase, and the design I tried was just barely small enough. Between the stain, the stitching, and having to wash water soluble stabilizer off it, the wood cracked. It's still usable, but it doesn't look as good as I'd hoped. It's of a couple tango-dancing, something Beloved likes. So I'll fix it as best I can, and glue a ribbon hanger to it, display it in his Studio window.

 

Yeah, after calling it his ‘parlor' and his ‘salon', I decided on Studio, the name I used to call the Lab. ‘Parlor' and ‘salon' just sound too fussy.

 

Beloved got bored after a bit, and wanted to see Season 3 of The Venture Brothers. So I called Hastings, and they said they had it. Fifteen minutes later, we're there - but the series isn't. Yeah. Somehow they sold their only copy in the few minutes it took us to drive there. A DVD set that's several months old. I'm figuring ‘Mark' didn't bother to check when I called, he just figured they had it. And they didn't. Oh, well. We put down the other movies we were gonna buy, told the manager why, and left. Borders had it.

 

And that, plus Chinese delivery, was how we spent Friday night. The writing is better in Season 3, but there's a lot more gay jokes. If you haven't seen their take on the old G.I. Joe cartoon series, it's a sincere blast. And for some reason, the Season 3 DVD set - which looks like an old Atari game box, so adorable ! - is completely uncensored. I always figured that they drew those black censoring boxes instead of drawing character's privates. Not those cheeky devils over at AstroBase Go ! . There's flopping appendages everywhere, at least one set per episode, and every glorious swear word is there in full surround-sound stereo. I'm not sure why, but it made the whole series seem more like a show for adults than just bad taste and questionable gimmicks.

Is it Friday yet ?

 

Current Mood : Hopeful

Current Image Notes : This pattern came in about four sizes. I already had the 12 to 13 inch size, but not this one. Cool !

Spent on embroidery supplies :  $11.14

Spent on wall décor : 63c

 

I got to have a bit of a spending spree today, mostly because that paper mache dress form I got last weekend had to go back. It's too big, and was not worth the $8. we paid for it. Since it was in the markdown section, I thought it was a bit cheaper. Nope. When Beloved Hubby came home early from work, I had a raft of little errands to do, so I seized the time to get them done without Dearest Son. He's gotten better about not begging for stuff, but taking him to two craft stores and a video shop is kinda askin' for it.

 

Returned a very late video, then had some fun at Hobby Lobby. Since my Brody and balsa wood experiments went fairly well, I wanted some wider balsa wood. After a lot of digging - most of the balsa and basswood was not in the right cubby - I found the right depth and width in both. Yup, I'm gonna try the noticeably firmer basswood soon. I also snagged the recommended size needles, and used a printout 40% coupon on ‘em. Got two more plastic bottles that Beloved requested, and a small package of markdown safety pins. All I have are the tiny ones, and there's no others in the whole house !

 

And I saw my ‘compact' sewing tote, the one I got for $5. at last week's yard sale. It was on markdown at Hobby Lobby - for $19. ! Full price was $27 ! It came with some craft organizers mine didn't, but I still think I got a steal. If nothing else, it made me revamp the sewing area, which would be invaluable all by itself.

 

From there, I got the dress form returned, and took my time prowling Michael's Crafts. Found two of those plastic ‘suncatcher' pieces shaped like dogs, so I snagged ‘em for Dearest, to paint, color, or whatever. Also got a small felt and painted wood star for me, and a neat wood stain pen. Only $2. ! Now I can experiment with staining the wood I'm gonna embroider ! Oh, and Michael's now has a Fun Zone, with lots of interesting goodies for a buck or three. Well-worth checking out, especially if ya got kids -or are one in some ways.

Wednesday's a bit better...and there's balsa !

Current Mood : Sleepily triumphant

Current Image Notes : I thought I had this one - but I don't. Turns out, it's been sold under at least three different pattern numbers, about fifteen years total. So I'm glad I got at least one of 'em !

 

Busy day. Got most of the dishes done, and had dinner on the table early. Beloved Hubby worked on Bonnie-truck for most of the evening, but she's still down. Don't ask me how this happened, but it's somehow become our responsibility for picking Friend up at night and driving him home. (sigh) I hope Friend is saving his money for his own (expletive deleted) car, because I don't think Beloved's gonna put up with being a taxi service for long.

 

But, with everything done early, I got to embroider a bit. Late last night, while touring the Brother website, I found projects and free embroidery designs. One of the projects was for an embroidered balsa wood frame ! So, see, Brother knows their machines aren't gonna sew silk and cotton exclusively - and clearly, they want us to ‘think outside' a bit. I felt like thumbing my nose at those who scoffed at me for embroidering on vinyl a few months ago, because they're afraid to wreck their machines. Well, if I had an over-fussy over-priced temperamental prima-donna machine, I probably would feel the same, but I know my Brody is sturdy, stable, and loves a challenge !

 

Decided to just go ahead and do the balsa wood trials, since sitting and pondering it over and over was driving me nutty. Only two problems. One, the balsa I had was three inches wide, and a yard long. Nearly every design I had that would work with the wood - which means no tiny satin stitches -  was at least 3.5 inches in both directions. (sigh)

 

The other was that I thought I had the Brother recommended size needles, since it's a standard ‘denim' one, 80/12. But nope. Nowhere. Not in the newly redone needle stash, not in KJ's tray, not on the bulletin board above the sewing desk. Well, shoot. I poked various unidentified mystery needles in one end of the balsa, and one seemed to displace less wood than the others. So I loaded it into Brody, hooped up the stabilizer, and glued the balsa to the stabilizer. Figured I'd just use the designs that came with Brody for this experiment. And that I could use the spray adhesive to attach the wood to the stabilizer. I wasn't much up for starting this project with just about everything new and untested.

 

I ended up getting eight small trials on that one bit of 3" x 3" wood. The first, a large outline D, did not go well. The first few threads pulled up, and others were quite loose. And most of the ones parallel to the balsa's grain sank into the wood. Yikes. Took the mystery needle out and reinstalled my well-worn embroidery one. The next two didn't go well either, but that was because I forgot that alphabet was nearly all satin stitches.

 

Increased the tension and tried again. Better. A bit more, and it was nearly perfect. Most designs stitch at around ‘3' on the tension dial, but it was nearly on ‘4' at this point. Stitches were still sinking in on the grain, though. I remember that the Urban Threads tutorial showed a sheet of water-soluble stabilizer on top of the wood, something the Brother one didn't do. Well, now I knew why. A scrap of WSS taped to one corner of the balsa, and booyah, baby ! We have balsa wood embroidery ! A few swipes with a wet cotton swab, and it still looked great.

 

Aren't you lucky ? Thanks to pattern week, you don't gotta look at all that - but you'll see a finished design once I get one going ! Since I gotta go out tomorrow, I hope to get the right size needles and maybe even some more balsa. Hope it works better, ‘cause I wanna do something besides tests and trials.

 

What a Tuesday...

 

Current Mood : Aggravated

 

As is usual when I have photos planned, taken, and edited for a week ahead of time, I have lots of day-by-day stuff to take pictures of, too. Yesterday, for example, I stitched out a pretty card. Today, I actually bought a Barbie outfit.

 

Hard to believe, huh ? But I couldn't resist it. It had stars and moons and was partially silver - like it was made to snag me ! Plus it was just a bit over two bucks, and after the morning I had (more later), I wanted a bit of a treat. So I got it. And the one I bought had a wrinkle in the ‘Barbie' signature sticker on the box front - which put it just off registry enough for me to peel off and use on my ongoing desk notebook. I have a photo of it waiting for another blank spot on the blog calendar...

 

Ok. This morning. (sigh) Beloved Hubby somehow left his cell phone home. This never happens. But I'm glad it did today. We got our second truck back from loaning it to DFIL and waited two weeks...and loaned it to Beloved's friend, who's trying really hard to make a fresh start in his life. If he doesn't have a ride lined up, he starts walking to work at 4am. He lives in another town from his job - and his hours don't start til 11am ! It's hard to ignore that kind of dedication, and really, Bonnie-truck was just sitting around...

 

So, yeah, you know where this is going. Second day he has it, it breaks down. He couldn't get it to the convenience store parking lot, so it's still on the street. Yikes. Friend's already called in late to work. And I was just out of the shower, getting ready for the weekly grocery run... so I toss Dearest Son into Molly-car, put the pedal to the floor, and we're off to where he says he is. Too bad he wasn't there. Couldn't find Bonnie-truck either. I check other gas stations on the road. Nope.

 

Maybe I misheard, and he's on X street instead of Y. Both X and Y are off of A, where he said he was, so off we go. Nope. So I travel further down A. Nothing. Since I know where he works, I figure I'll travel that road, see if I can find him that way. And, an hour and a half after he calls, I find him. Some guys helped him push Bonnie into the parking lot, so at least I didn't have to. Not like I haven't pushed a few cars around in my day. But anyway. Friend has since called to work again, to tell them he'd left his security badge at home, so... He voices concern that he'll be fired, so there's not much for me to do but drive him all the way to Other Town, let him grab the badge, then drive him to work. In short, (too late !) I got in the car at 11am, and got out of it at 1pm. Too tired and sweaty and frazzled and hungry to do groceries. I grabbed Dearest a Mighty Kids meal on the way home, and just sat around for an hour or so. After my energy restored, we headed out and got it done. Aaargh.

 

I'm just glad his call to Beloved Hubby came to me instead. Beloved was waaaay out of town, and it just would have added to the stress of his day. As it was, he was pretty wired when I told him. We spent three hours trying to fix it in the parking lot, but the source issue is still there. I'm now wondering if someone tampered with the fuel tank...

 

So that's been my day. About all I got done was driving, helping Beloved a bit, and groceries. And a load of laundry got done that I'm too tired to put away right now. At least the ‘crown' shirt and the Barbie mini-backpack got washed. Backpack looks pretty good, but the t-shirt has some spots on it that probably didn't come out. But now, I feel confident enough to go after the shirts I bought new from Hobby Lobby !

 

And in other good news, the packages we shipped to our eBay winner Friday arrived today, and he's happy. I really should get goin' on the stuff I have to list... Also, I found directions for embroidering balsa wood on the Brother home site. They call for an adhesive-backed stabilizer - which I actually have ! Thanks to a sample book AllStitch sends all its new customers, I have enough for this project. Lucky !