No. 1 - after getting my brand new sewing machine three years ago, I was reading through the instruction booklet looking up something the other day, and came across a part where it mentioned the quarter inch foot. Yep, sure enough - I have one. For the last three years I've been following a line by the usual foot ... with out being nearly as precise as I could have been. I made up a couple of ornaments last weekend and was amazed at how much easier it was with the amazing quarter inch foot!!
No. 2 - remember I commented that my camera just wasn't taking pictures like it should? Um, I cleaned the front lens today, and they look sooooo much better again. In my defence, there is one setting on the camera that is definitely not working, and I can hear the shutter working or doing something and I'm pretty sure I never used to - so I still think there is something else wrong with it!
... there is nothing like laughing at yourself ;)
More importantly - here are the couple of progress pictures I took - with the newly cleaned lens!
Wedding Apache - I worked on this on Sunday, it doesn't look like a whole lot of progress, but I did a lot of backstitching which took a while.
and one of Praire Schooler's Band Samplers - I'm planning this as an ebay sale.
... oh and another we blonde moment - I remembered that I could inter-mix my Q-snaps - they are a wonderful fit for the sampler like that!
Talking about ebay - I often get people ask whether it is worth it etc (someone in my comments did, Heather?).
I don't think you ever get back the time you put into the stitching. But for me, it's an "extra" source of income, for the "extra" things that always seem to come up with five children! I'm lucky in that I seem to stitch pretty quickly (or so everyone tells me ;)), I have a heap of stash, that I'd never get my money back on selling as "stash" and I LOVE stitching - I'm definitely a process person, I love the finished product, but seriously, after 20yrs of stitching I have a huge pile of unframed things that in all realty, will probably stay that way for a few years yet. So, I choose charts that I like, knowing that I'm going to sell them I don't become too attached, and I know that most of them I stitch I can always stitch again for me one day, and plan to with most of them. I find that the medium sort of size get the best value, people don't seem to buy the really small ones as much, large ones sell for a lot less than they should (I think because of the Indonesian (is that the right place?) cheap laboured ones that are always for sale). I'm not always successful, I just had six up for sale, and only three sold, with only one bid on each. Occasionally I'll manage to stitch something that obviously more than a couple of people are interested in and will bid against each other. At the moment I'm $50 away from having enough to send my oldest boy to a cricket camp in about a month - it's US$200 which is a lot of money for us to find at this time of the year with Christmas gifts etc to buy, so it's a definite weight off my shoulders to know I've nearly paid for it. - way more than you ever wanted to know? LOL
In other ramblings ...
I just went and visited a friend (mother of 14yo's best friend) who had a hip replacement a few weeks ago, she is still hobbling on one crutch and very frustrated at her lack of movement and being more housebound than she'd like, and on top of that they have just found out that her mother (early 60's) has breast cancer, luckily they seem to have caught it early, she will lose her breast and then have radiation. Makes me remember how blessed and healthy my family and I are!
In stitching ramblings ...
I've had this insane idea of stitching ornaments from the JCS Mag ... starting from the first one in the book and carrying on through it ... it would be interesting to see how many I'd get done over the year - I'm thinking of spending 1-2 days a week on them next year. Something I love about the ornament RR I'm in is the lack of making a decision and having them all kitted up ready to go. So I thought if I sat down and kitted up say five at a time - it would be fun to just pick up the next one in line and go for it - I'm always amazed at how I can pick up something I never thought I'd like, or normally try and find it's easier, or nicer than I thought.
I'm off now to try sewing up a simple bag - I'm going to use Princess material and hopefully stitch up a couple for the girls as an experiment ... if it works I've got ideas of doing the same for project bags :)
... so I should run and do that, because it's only an hour until I have to pick up kids from school etc!
2 comments:
Love the toothless grin!!
All your recent stitching finishes look great...including your progress pics.
Thanks for sharing your blonde moments LOL. I have those moments too and I'm a brunette!
I love your Prarie Schooler's pattern. And your last finishes are lovely. Yes, you look a really quick stitcher!
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