adventures in absent-mindedness

Ta da . . . the ribbon!  My oldest daughter helped me draw the winning name for my latest guessing game.  

And the winner is . . . Tana! 

You are the proud new owner of a unique gel-pen roll.  Try to control your excitement.  I'll be in touch about delivery.

As I mentioned, my second roll - a gel-pen roll - was an adventure in absent-mindedness.  Honestly, it's an overused saying, but I would have lost my head if it wasn't attached.

First, I need to digress . . . I know . . . I might seem slightly obsessed over fusible interfacing.  I've made a pact with myself that this will be the last time I allow myself to rant about it.  Truth be told . . . I'm a vegetarian, so I don't know much about meat and cooking procedures that go along with meat.  I do know that every Thanksgiving my husband spends time basting the turkey.  I think that this involves taking a little kitchen tool (it looks frighteningly like the same thing I use to clean out my kids' noses) and squirting turkey juices back onto the bird.  So . . . you can imagine my surprise when I read these words on the directions for fusible interfacing application, "place fusible side of interfacing on wrong side of fabric, pin, and BASTE along edges with tip of iron."  Why am I squirting turkey juices on my fabric with an iron?  Anyone?  

Thankfully, the internet came to my rescue, and I was able to find out that you don't actually fill the iron with turkey juice.  Thanks goodness!  And this is where my first adventure in absent-mindedness came in.  I basted and basted, ironed and ironed, and yet, my interfacing would not stick to the fabric.  After about five minutes of that, I realized that I had the interfacing facing the wrong way, and I managed to baste my interfacing to my press cloth.  

My second adventure in absent-mindedness happened when I felt a moment of success after finally getting the interfacing fused to the fabric - not the press cloth - only to realize that I fused it to the wrong fabric . . . oh come on . . . are you serious?  Unfortunately, yes! 

And that brings me to my third adventure in absent-mindedness . . . the source of my guessing game.  When I finally got the gel-pen roll sewn, I sat there looking at it thinking, "hmmm . . . I feel like something is missing."  It took me about three minutes to realize that I had completely forgotten the ribbon needed to keep it closed.  Duh!  So I ripped out some of the seam, inserted ribbon and did some more sewing.  Ta da!  It's hard to believe after all that but the gel-pen roll done!            

Congratulations Tana!  May this gel-pen roll find happiness if your home.  Thanks to everyone who guessed, and thanks for reading! 

I found some super patterns at Hobby Lobby the other day, and I'm going to try one more of these before I start my next project. 

Craft on!

i've been brought to my knees by fusible interfacing!

Let's just say that I am not a fan of fusible interfacing.  How can such a light, wimpy fabric-wantabe be so maddening and frustrating.  First of all, I asked for a 1/2 of a yard from the gal at the fabric counter, but when I unfolded it I found out that I only received a 1/4 of a yard.  (That's technically not the fusible interfacing's fault, but it started our relationship off on the wrong foot.)  Second, the directions for using the interfacing were cut in half due to the fact that it was only 1/4 of a yard, so I didn't have all the instructions that I needed to use it correctly.  I found instructions at sewingsupport.com.  However, I'm a slow sewing-learner so I didn't fully get it.  Also, as I mentioned before I don't follow directions very well.  Long story short - my fusible interfacing didn't actually fuse to the cloth.  Arrrrgh!  I may be going back to the flour-sack cloth I used in the first crayon roll.  Any advice from those of you who have more sewing smarts than me?

   

On the up side (I'm trying not to be overly negative), my relationship with the rotary cutter has definitely improved.  The second time around went much smoother, so I do have hope for fusible interfacing after all.  My fabrics pieces are ready to be joined together; however, I'm going to be taking a break for the next few days from crafting (and probably blogging) due to a busy work weekend.  So unless these fabrics figure out how to join themselves together in the next three days, I will be finishing up round two of the crayon roll Sunday evening. 

In the meantime, craft on!  

finders keepers, losers weepers: behold . . . lightweight fusible interfacing!

Friday was the coldest day we've had in a century, and what did I do?  You might think I would stay inside with a cup of hot tea and enjoy the day.  You would be wrong.  I bundled the kids up, piled them in the car and went in search of lightweight fusible interfacing.  And behold . . . I found it.  Well, I didn't find it exactly.  I found featherweight fusible interfacing and light-to-medium fusible interfacing.  Nothing called simply . . . lightweight fusible interfacing.  Why would I expect this to be easy?  So I stood there like a horse with blinders on as my youngest started throwing everything in our cart onto the ground and my oldest started pulling her favorite fabric bolts off the shelf.  Of course, I could have asked someone for their expertise, but that would have been the easy thing to do.  Why would I do that when I can blindly choose one on gut instinct and experiment?  So after loading the cart up again and putting the bolts back on the shelf . . . the light-to-medium fusible interfacing is in my possession, and I plan to start on crayon roll number two sometime soon.  

In the mean time, I am teaching my oldest daughter to use a needle and thread.  For Christmas I put together a sewing basket just for her with a variety of age appropriate sewing projects and other sewing items.  She's been tinkering with the sewing cards and today we tackled her first project . . . a little coin purse.  About 45 seconds into the project she said, "This is hard.  My arms are tired."  But she persevered - with some prodding, and she did finish it - with some assistance.  Then she spent the next thirty minutes turning over every cushion, looking on every shelf, and peering into every bag looking for change to put in said change purse.  All she came up with was one lone penny - it was a plastic penny from the toy cash register.  Poor kid.  

I'd love to know if you have any patterns or suggestions for my next crayon roll.  A friend from the past mentioned that she makes her crayon rolls with placemats.  She called it the cheater method.  Truth be told the cheater method sounds right up my alley.  

Craft on!