Progressing

In order to get back to work, I need to keep this post short and sweet.

Three more rows are quilted now.

I pieced another row that needs appliques attached. This one is from Grantsville, MD, and is one that my neighbor picked up for me during her road trip. I had to add the strip of brown to make the row the same height as all the others. The fish appliques are needleturn but there will be fused applique grasses as well.

The row I showed last week was a surprise row sent by a friend who was visiting California. She didn't even put her name on the return address (her son's home), so I had quite the mystery on my hands for a few hours! It still needs some work on the needleturn applique. The seahorses will be fused applique and made from the brown fabric sitting next to the iron. It's from Color Me Quilts in Fremont, CA.

Two more rows are ready to quilt.

And I finished a row that ultimately needed to be taken apart because it was 4 inches too long. Needless to say I was irritated. The directions left quite a bit to be desired. I use scant quarter inch seams, but 4" is too long for even that. Plus it started out too narrow as they'd designed it at 6.5 inches wide, so I needed to add the sashing. I also made the row vertical whereas the original was horizontal. So it's waiting on me to find out if I"m getting a specific row from Albuquerque, NM that will be used in place of this row vertically before I make any changes.

I have to get back to work now. See you next weekend!

An Experiment In Irritation

So FH and I were at Tandy Leather a couple weekends ago and I saw they were having a class on a leather stocking.  The sample was trimmed in rabbit fur and had a cute little buckled belt across it.  I thought it was really cute and the class was only two hours long, so I signed up.

When I got there on class day it was another story.  Suddenly the cute belt with buckle were nixed (by the instructor/manger) and instead we were to personalize our stockings with a piece of veg-tan leather.  You know... the kind that FH carves on.  Ok..... I went along with it thinking "why not?"

I'm really happy with how my carving and dye work went. 

However, that's where I cease being happy.

The only thing resembling a pattern that we worked with was a tracing of the original class sample...you know, the one we didn't work with.  I should also note that we didn't get to keep the pattern for whatever reason.  Let me state again that the design concept was changed that very morning... minutes before we walked through the door with no prior testing.

The class turned into an all day affair, six and a half hours, with the extra time it took to work on the carving.  No one left with finished pieces.  I had purchase supplies that FH didn't already have in order to finish it at home.  It took me the rest of the evening to sew the seam closed by hand since I couldn't use my machine thanks to the carved section.  But that's isn't the worst part.

The carved section was to be attached with decorative buckstitching before the stocking was sewn shut.  The piece was so large that I had to trim it down to make turning the stocking right side out after sewing even possible.  This meant I would loose width on the rabbit fur trim, a point the whole thing still had in it's favor.

This is what it looks like.  I refuse to finish sewing the fur together at the top because I'm debating tearing the whole thing apart for parts.  I'd turn the carved section into an ornament somehow and use the suede for minis if I take it apart.

I've already figured out how to fix every issue I have with this project and am working on two new ones at the moment.  I'm just disgusted that the whole thing cost a bunch of money and I hate the result.  I'll be posting pictures of the new ones sometime soon.

I need a sign

More specifically a "No Soliciting" sign for my front door. This is the second time in four months the same chump selling "cancer and heart disease insurance" has shown up at my door, scared the cats, and irritated me. He doesn't understand the concept of "not interested." He doesn't read body/mostly closed door language either.

If a woman is standing with the door mostly shut it's likely for one of these reasons: 1) she is uncomfortable with you being there, 2) she has pets and/or small children who she doesn't want to slip outside, or 3) a bit of both.

In my case it really is mostly just reason #2 since I'm fairly large and he's past middle aged. I'm quite certain a spinning wheel to his cranium would hurt him more than it would hurt the wheel. Failing that, a mag-light does wonders. Not only that, but I live in a small neighborhood, literally surrounded by my neighbors, many of whom are veterans. But this is the second time in four months. I'm not the only one who finds him suspicious. I would prefer a revolver though. This state for all it's anti-gun laws has a castle law.

I figure a "No Soliciting" sign would keep that annoying man away if his intent is legitimate. . The cute kids selling cookies and candy for school, sports, and scouting fund-raising don't know the meaning of the sign, which means I will still have the opportunity to acquire fat, sugar, and salt while giving to charity.

If he shows up a third time I'm calling the cops.

Thoughts on exploited children

According to a recent article on CNN.com the FBI has freed 576 children from forced child prostitution. This makes me wonder how those children are going to be helped in the long run. Will they be reunited with their families? Will they be given the counseling they need to heal the damage to their spirits? How does that work? Are they just given back to their families or sent to foster care and left to fend for themselves? Can anyone shed some hopeful light on these questions for me?

Then my thoughts turn to the people who put the children in the hellish position that the Bureau rescued them from. Horse whipping is too good for them. Bullets are reloadable. An angry mob with torches and pitchforks might be fun. I suppose what I am getting at is that prison is too good for them. I would prefer that my tax dollars not feed and clothe those particular monsters for any length of time.