Small Gifts Part II on Off the Wall Friday

Curves, Still using the scraps from this one!

 Well here on the banks of the Great Lakes, we are still waiting for spring to arrive.  I'm not sure how much snow and cold this girl can take but I'm getting close to my limit.  More daylight has helped though, and I started a new sleep routine ...working back to my goal of 8 hrs a night...every night.  I'm quite sure I haven't done that since the early 2000's so this ought to be interesting.

The nights I'm getting over 7 hours, I'm noticing that I do have energy to do stuff after work.  To that extent, I've started the small project for my teammate's birthday. First I started with a simple design.  When you are designing small, you don't need a complicated composition.  What I'm thinking is to do this simple flower that will show case big stitch embroidery.  Then add a simple quote...or words....or something of that nature.  As always, I like to make one design decision at a time. 

 

Then the fun stuff.  I tackled my stash.   In true Disney Princess fashion, my co-worker loves all things pink.   To that end, I had to find fabrics that said HER rather than ME. Starting with the backgrounds....

I have in mind doing a pieced background that will be stitched to a foundation . I'm not sure exactly how, but I think raw edges and stitching will be involved.  

Then the flower fabrics...I started in my stash...nothing that would work there, down into my studio's stash...nope.  All of them yelled NINA and nothing said Disney Princess.  Finally, I spied my scraps.  It really felt great to get back into my studio.  How did I forget that I had cleaned it so well?  My whole body just relaxed stepping into it.  For as messy as I can be, I love things neat and tidy.

Sorry I digress...yes I did find what I needed in my scrap bin.  This is about the time when I realized something that you probably caught on to ..that the background wasn't pink but actually coral.  Once that realization set in, finding the right scraps was easy.  I chose some left over from my curves quilt.  The improv piecing is already done and they will be the right value for that medium to light background...a Win - Win .  Plus she's so going to dig knowing that a bit of a quilt was in her little piece.

Running my fingers through fabric again made me think...why did I stop quilting again?

Just typing it all out gives me a solid plan on finishing this ...because finishing it I must ...her birthday is the beginning of April.  

Under Things I Like....

My sister in law, Susan recommended her new favorite show...The Great British Sewing Bee.  Am I the last to discover this show?  It has all the things I like in a reality show...regular people, showing us a bit about them and what they do and not too much ridiculous drama.  Honestly, I would rather watch this type of reality show than the Housewives of BumFEygpt anytime!  Because I've been limiting my screen
time in favor of ...wait for it...sleep, I'm only 2 seasons in but I just love to watch people create.

I'm always a little shocked that for as little as I know about garment sewing, I totally understand what they are doing and why.  It's nice that needlework crosses over.  Plus, I think this counts as cross training like we I said in last week's post.

You can find the show on Roku here ...watch online or download the app to your smart tv.  Commercials are short and not obnoxious.  Plus, it's all free which is refreshing.  

Has anybody else watched it?  What do you think?

and of course...

What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

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It's Okay....On Off the Wall Friday

Something like this

This piece needs a Crop 

Let's face it ... most pastimes come with a lot of rules.  Name a hobby, I'm sure we could name the rules that go along with it.  It's no different for quilting.  Really that has suited me just fine for 35 years since I'm a anal natural rule follower. Then there's the saying we've all heard .."You gotta learn the rules, to break the rules".  This week, it dawned on me that nobody said how well you needed to learn said rules.  Also, I'm an adult now and can't get in trouble for breaking the rules.

As I am stumbling through my ReSet of the year of our Lord 2026...I've learned that there are some rules that need to broken ...Sooooooooooo

it's okay....

1. 

   Not Perfect

    To change the goal - I started the BOM with intention of honing up on skills that have gone rusty or were never really perfected.  The new goal is to finish.  Finished is better than perfect. REPEAT AFTER ME...Finished is better than perfect.  
2. To cross train into different artistic media - cross training will relieve boredom, improve productivity and enhance creativity.  It's good to use different mental muscles as well as physical muscles.  So quilt a little  - Rug Hook a little - Work on my new puzzle book a little.
3. To Destroy - My journey has always been about creating, but it's okay to destroy as well.  Just because you made it doesn't mean you need to keep it and cherish it ...forever.  Some projects are meant to go unfinished, some ideas need to be trashed and some designs need a good crop.  I really been meaning to take out that Christmas piece to give the cropping it deserves

   

   My latest distraction a puzzle mystery book 

4. To start over - restarting is not about failure, it's about renewal - Leaving the opinion of the critic committee in my head on mute is a good idea.  Just because you are resetting doesn't mean you were a big fat loser to begin with.  

Yep Calvin you said it! That's enough self-reflection for a post...I just feel that it's important to stay mentally strong if you are going to tackle the challenges of this crazy world.

Is there anything you want to say "It's Okay" to?

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Off the Wall Friday

What Have You've Been Up to Creatively??

 

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Small Gifts on Off the Wall Friday

Sarah Lyte, machine quilted
Rough organic edge

Caro Ramsey 
pulled tight on a board

 I learned long ago that I don't like "making" gifts.  I mean at first glance it seems like a broke girl's bestfriend, right?  But in reality, it's a lot of time and effort.   In today's world time is definitely equated to money. Making a gift even a small one can be hours of work.  

As for effort....well think about it...how hard is it anymore to whip your phone out of your back pocket, pick a gift on Amazon and press a button to buy??  In a day or two,  it will be easily shipped to the person including a personalize note. The other option?? You can design, make, finish AND deliver a gift.

Honestly both of those things (time and effort)  I don't mind actually....it's more the fact that most people don't appreciate the time and effort that went into the gift.  But is that a THEM thing or a ME thing??  Without this evolving into a long therapy session of  why you give a gift (to give some love or to recieve some love), let's just say, I don't like making gifts.

Well, until I do.

I think this is fused, machine stitched 
And the lettering was done on a 
computer 

Deb Smith, post card
Blanket stitch edges

I work with a Disney Princess of a young woman.  She's kind and empathetic to a fault  and it's been a challenge to blend her Gen Z warm heartedness with my Gen X snarkiness  cynicism   realism. But we've done it by finding common ground.  One of which is that we like things that are homemade.  

To that end, I want to make her a little birthday gift. Little gifts aren't as much time or effort and they still say I care enough to not buy a gift for you off of Amazon.  Especially for someone who will appreciate it.  So now that I am feeling better, I spent some time revisiting my pinterest boards and picked some cool ideas.  I posted some inspirational photos here which I tried to attribute properly but the older pinterest gets the harder it is to track that down.  

All of them have two things in common...they all involve stitch texture which I still want to explore some more and they have a cool collage element.  Plus, I want to keep the size 5 by 7 or so.  I love the fabric post card ideas too.  

Pretty aren't they?  Our team is small and we've established a rule of small little gifts...nothing elaborate or expensive but just things that say ... I appreciate working with you everyday.  Let's see if I can actually get it done by April.

Oh that's a good thing about making gifts...it comes with a built in deadline to help a girl along on her reset!

Do you have any good ideas for small scale quilty projects?

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Off the Wall Friday

 Week 2 of this weird stuffy cold I have.  I wouldn't doubt its some Covid variant...stuffy nose...tired as all get out.  But that's it.  For a cold it's not too bad.  But it doesn't leave me much energy to get much done besides work.  

That said....I did manage to start a texture sampler.  What is that?  Oh, I'm so glad you asked!  One thing rug hooking and quilting has in common is that with both of them, you take perfectly good fabric, cut them up to form something new.  With quilting the visual appearance of the fabric basically doesn't change. (Well unless you are collaging it!)  But with rug hooking it can change drastically, especially with textures.  Textures are what the rug hooker names most non-solid wools like plaids, houndstooth, ombres etc.  Once you cut them up into little strips and then hook them into little loops, they look totally different.  Plus, the look may change with the size of the strips.

To get a feel of how a texture will hook up, you can start a sampler.  The concept is easy enough.  You take pieces of the fabric whole and then hook a sample square next to it.  I would have started this long ago but I got all caught up on getting the layout done.  Silly me!  I mean why?  I haphazardly cut some

rectangles and strips and got going.  I used a blanket stitch to sew down the whole pieces and hooked in size 4.  At least one I did.  The next one was so loose it needed to be in a 6 because the 4 would not hold together.  That isn't totally uncommon because some textures are too loose to hook in small size strips. For this start, I picked three colors I wanted to audition for the next step in my Santa rug. 

This is far as I got.  Cool right?  I don't think any of three will do but at least I know what they look like hooked up!

Hopefully I get more done this week!

So, What Have You've Been up to Creatively?!

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Off the Wall Friday

 I'm struggling with a cold this week, so I'll keep this short.  You all sure know how to make a girl smile.  Just when I needed a little encouragement, you're there to answer the call.  Nothing makes me happier than to see a post spark a conversation in the comment section like last week.  

I think we can all agree to coin  Julierose's phrase, "Wordy Person".  I 100% represent that.  If it has words involved, I'm in. I grew up playing word games, writing pretend newspapers and creating poetry.   Not to mention I'm the mother of a published author.   Blogging has just continued that trend of words in my life.  

Plus, I totally agree with Sara. It's a great way to journal your creative journey and find your people! As Margaret said, "Bloggers Unite!"

So thanks for the encouraging words....with that I'm going to go put my stuffy head in a steam tent and just ask....

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2026 Reset Continues on Off the Wall Friday

 

Yea know, sometimes I wonder why I keep blogging. I mean, it seems that in this ever-changing world of technology, things come and go.  And blogging probably has had its time.  Why read a 5-minute post, if you can have 2 minutes of content spoon fed to you on Tik Tok?? 

Then I remember the main reason I keep going is so that it keeps me going. Without my weekly post, I would just shut down creatively 4 months a year and peak my head out when it turned March. 

  Is it just me or does it seem that as we get older the weeks go faster?  It's like the months just run into each other.  And here we are already into February! So, my reset continues.  

I happily can report I did finish my studio...

The before....

The After....

The thing about my studio is that it's little but functional.  After many failed attempts this set up works the best for me, but the secret is I have to keep it cleaned.  Andddddddd the secret to that is everything has its labeled place.  So Whaaaaa-Laaaaaaa a Reset! 

Also this week, I manage to learn how to use Notion as a catalog for my creative journey.  Does anybody else use it to help keep track of your projects?  For me, with a blog and pinterest it's a little redundant but I needed it for my Rug Hooking Journey class, so I buckled down and posted my Santa Rug to it.  I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.  So far it seems a little clunky but that could be just because I'm so new to it.  

Now that I turned my studio back into a sewing space, it's time to get back after my BOM quilt from 2023!  Honestly, I have no idea where I stopped...but I did keep all my fabric together in a bin marked "Project" (one of my smarter moves!).

There's the tub of my BOM Project!

That's all for me this week ...  what can I say?  it's cold and dark out!

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