Too Practical? Maybe

Okay so now here’s an idea for those of you who use a sewing machine. Remember I warned you that some of my tips may be out there. This one may be going a little too practical.

You know it’s recommended that when you go to change your thread that you snip the thread up by the spool and then pull the loose thread out through the needle. If you pull the thread back through the machine thread lint gets into the machine. Not good. Now if you rarely change your thread like only when the spool is empty or nearly so – no problem. But if you change colors a lot like I was doing recently it seems like a waste of thread to do it the correct way. Do I just throw it away? Chop it up for the birds? Wad it up and store it somewhere – say in a baggie – until an art piece comes along where I can use it? All good ideas but then another one hit me.

I make a lot of yoyo’s, sew on buttons, and hand stitch stuffed things closed, etc. I looked at the length of thread snipped off when changing threads and realized that it’s about the length I use for hand sewing. What if I kept a few empty hand sewing needles near my machine? I could thread them with my snipped off thread and I would be ready to go next time I needed to do some hand sewing.

Thread Saver and Needle Safe

I double the thread and knot it with a single knot at the very end. If I want to sew with a single thread I just cut off the knot and re-knot one end.

Storage for me wasn’t a problem as I keep a needle safe loaded and ready for yoyo making. But I didn’t want to clutter up my sewing area any more than it already is, so I added a piece of felt around an empty spool and stuck my needles there. When I get several threaded I’ll add them to the needle safe and reload my felt with empty needles.

You could also put the felt around an empty medicine container and that way the inside of the container could hold broken, damaged, used needles and pins.

Felt and Empty Medicine Container with Needles

Enjoy stitching!

Rose

Well, Well, Well,

It’s Monday night and I have a tip for you. Well that is if you are doing French knots. Talking embroidery here.

I frequently use a lap pillow when I’m doing handwork to support my hands and wrists. 

Lap Pillow for Handwork

But when I started doing the daily Stitch Meditations I grabbed one of my small block/applique holders to contain the small pieces I was working with. These holders are just made from the purple insulation boards or foam-core boards that are then covered with either batting, felt, or flannel. I made these many years ago when my son helped me put up my design walls. We have small pieces of the purple board left over so I covered them and used duct tape (the fancier kind) to hold the fabric down and to neaten up the edges of the boards. 

Boards

You can see I have several sizes.

So one day while I was using the smaller one, I started making French knots and just happened to stick my needle into the board. The board held the needle while I tightened up my thread before I pulled the needle and thread all the way through. I found that I could even lift the knot and fabric up to the top of the needle before removing it from the board. This made for some much neater knots and more consistent knots.

Needle stuck in board while making French Knot

Pulling the thread taut for the knot

Knot ready to be finished

The finished knot:

Completed French Knot

Now if you are wanting the looser, sloppier knots this probably won’t help much. But I’ve found myself using this method more and more. I may even modify the pillow pattern to put a pocket on the bottom to hold the small board so I have it when I stitch other places than home.

And that’s my tip for today. I’m not sure I will have a new tip every Monday (some of them may seem a little far-fetched I guess) but you can always search my blog for some of my older ones.

Happy French knots!

Rose

Finish It Friday Is Back!

Well technically Finish It Friday is to be something I finish on Friday. This kinda is since it is Stitch Meditations for Week One 2019-

I'm actually planning on posting these every seven days so I am a little late with the first seven for 2019.

So here they are:

One

Fabric samples from long ago plus some old variegated threads

Two

Background fabric hand marbled by my son 30 years ago, dk pink scrap left after cutting out petal for an applique rose design. Looked like a footprint to me!

Three

Scraps of fabric and a couple of buttons.

Four

Background fabric was cut from a piece of Sharpie/rubbing alcohol treated fabric gifted to me. My son mentioned a fan I had when he was a kid and this piece turned into a fan with a little stitching and some lace.

Five

Scraps of random fabric stitched together, some more of the Sharpie/rubbing alcohol fabric plus two commercial fabrics. This is one of my most favorite works so far. So much so that I scooped up what little fabric I had of these and stored them away for a future small art quilt I want to make.

Six

Just some scraps of fabric, a yoyo someone else made and a button tied together with some sweet light pink thread.

Seven

Scraps of fabric and two buttons. Love the slightly bohemian look of this one.

Enjoy!

Rose

WELCOME 2019!

And welcome back to my blog! I haven’t been blogging for quite awhile but it is something I enjoy doing so I’m going to give it a go again.

Enjoyment comes from writing down ideas, projects, thoughts, hints and tips and whatever else comes along. I don’t know how many posts I’ve written in my head but never but down to keystrokes or even handwriting. It’s time to get it out of my head and down where someone else can read it and maybe be blessed by it. But even if that doesn’t happen it is good for me to be able to look back on what I have accomplished. So here goes.

Lately I’ve been thinking of a new way to increase my income (if you are on a fixed income you probably understand the need to at least consider). In doing some research I came across a group on Facebook called Stitch Meditation. I decided to give it a go and am actually enjoying it. The basics of it are simple just spend 15-30 minutes a day hand stitching. Now I’ve done that in the past with my embroidery just to get me to finish things. It worked quite well and so it is doable for me.

There are no real rules to it – well really only one rule – you are not to take out any stitches you make. Not even the un-perfect ones. And I’m okay with that because I think those are the ones that make the piece uniquely yours. We are encouraged to stick to a small format –

About 4X4 inches although some are working on much larger pieces. Another encouragement is to spend no more than 3-5 minutes getting you pieces of fabric, threads, trims, etc. together. Many of us are setting up small “kits” ready to start stitching.

I worked up 17 pieces doing one a day. One day I missed but that’s okay. I’m planning on trying to get 365 of these little collages done this year.

One of the questions I get asked is “what are you going to do with them?”. The short answer: Enjoy.

That’s my word for the year Enjoy.

I enjoy hand stitching.

I enjoy collage work.

I enjoy using up bits and pieces (and I have a lot of those!).

I enjoy sharing my work with others and encouraging and inspiring them.

I enjoy all of the likes, hearts, comments, and compliments I receive.

So for now I have no plans for them other than to take them out and enjoy them. I do have thoughts as to how to use some of them in the future.

For now just enjoy them along with me!

My first six stitch meditations

These are the pieces I made in 2018. I will post new ones here and on Facebook and elsewhere.

The Christmas Series

 

And the last for 2018

Keep on stitching (and collaging)!

Rose