Kerry'd Away

Woodworking – Desk Organizer

Posted on March 17, 2016 by civilwarrose5

Last week I arrived home from work and Jay said that he needed my assistance. Now, he doesn’t often ask me for help so I had no idea what to expect. Apparently he needed my finishing skills, such as they are. He has recently received more responsibility at work and needs a better way to set up the work area on his desk, which will include two computer monitors.

He had drawn up something in SketchUp and had already cut out all of his pieces by the time that I arrived home.

This organizer has a few shelves plus two “ears” for the two monitors.

Jay wanted this to be dark so I used Red Mahogany stain on the pine. I have to say that I really love how the grain showed up with this stain.

I then put three layers of gloss polyurethane on all of the pieces. Gloss is my go-to finish. I LOVE the look of it on wood.

Once all of the pieces were dry Jay then assembled it using the new pneumatic brad nailer that he received for Christmas.

He took it to work and set it up. He doesn’t have the second monitor yet, but so far he loves it. His boss said that I did a good job with the finish, too.

Posted in Wood Work | Tagged Desk Organizer, Wood Working | Leave a comment

Sewing With my Singer 301A

Posted on March 10, 2016 by civilwarrose5

If you remember, I purchased a Singer 301A this past fall for $25. This was at my mom’s insistence for she has one and loves it. The 301A is supposedly very similar to the Singer Featherweight, which quilters just go ga-ga over.

Since I’m not very involved in sewing I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to have a back-up machine.

For Christmas I gave Jay a list of accessories that I would need for this new machine. Of the utmost importance was a power cord since the woman from whom I had purchased the machine couldn’t find the original. On my list was a new O-ring for the bobbin winder (Jay had noticed that mine was cracked) and some shiny new bobbins.

The jewelry box that he made me is now my 301A accessory box. 🙂

I also asked for a new foot pedal because the original Singer foot pedals don’t inspire much confidence in me. To be completely honest I’ve never tried one like this (on the left), but I have giant feet and I didn’t think that I would be able to easily control the speed of the machine with that tiny little button.

Last week I finally had some time to play with the machine! I found a copy of the manual online so that I could correctly wind my bobbins and thread the machine.

I have decided that I will continue to use my current sewing table, but as you can see I needed to add some helpers to bring the machine up level with the table top. I have asked Jay to make me a slightly prettier base for this to sit on.

Here is where the bobbin lives. My current machine, a Singer Merritt 2404, has the bobbin that drops in on the top in front of the needle plate.

I’ve heard that the vertical bobbins like this actually make a more consistent stitch, but who knows. I do remember that my mom’s old Kenmore had a front load bobbin like this, too, and it really intimidated me!

One other thing that I found to be interesting on this machine was that the needles sits with the eye facing the side, not the front. I haven’t done any research to figure out why this is the case and if there’s any benefits to having a needle placed in such a way. I do know that it will take me a while to not automatically try threading it from the front!

Once everything was in place and tested I decided to go ahead and trim out a dress. I wasn’t sure what stitch length setting to go with, but I chose one that looked to be around the same length as what I typically use on my other machine.

This machine whirs through the task like a hot knife through butter! It is much quieter and doesn’t jump around like my Merritt. The pedal is a little stiff, but it’s also brand new, so I’ll have to get used to it.

The only thing that I need to change is the light bulb. I’m right handed so when I go to monkey with the fabric or pull my thread out I reach through the machine… right under where the bulb resides. From experience I can tell you that it gets quite warm! The website where we’ve purchased the other parts for this machine has an LED replacement bulb, though, that I will order. If you’ve never used a LED bulb I highly recommend them! I am slowly replacing all of the incandescent bulbs in our house with LED bulbs. LED bulbs need very little energy to power up and they come in all different strengths. I use a 100 watt-equivalent bright white bulb in my cross stitching lamp, but in the regular table lamps I use a 60-watt equivalent warm white. The bright white is more like a daylight bulb with a very crisp whiteness whereas the warm white has a bit of yellow mixed in to give it a softness.

As for sewing machine parts, I HIGHLY recommend Sew-Classic. That’s where we’ve been purchasing all of the parts for my 301A. The prices are reasonable and the service is outstanding. When I ordered the power cord I placed the order Saturday morning and it arrived on my doorstep on Monday. Granted I only live one state away, but that was the fastest that I’ve ever received anything that I’ve ordered online!

Posted in Crafting, Sewing | Tagged Sewing, Singer 301A, Singer Sewing Machines | 2 Comments

Crochet Progress and Shawl 3-5-16

Posted on March 7, 2016 by civilwarrose5

This is the practice blanket that I’d been working on. I was using this to make sure my tension was good and that I was able to make a big swatch of something without dropping or picking up stitches.

Here it is “finished”. Technically it didn’t really have an end because I was just stitching to use up the yarn I had purchased. In fact, you can’t see it in this picture, but I literally ended in the middle of a row. Also, One side has a TON more double crocheted rows than the other because I got tired of trying to balance it out. I just wanted to use up the yarn that I had purchased. Besides, Bob doesn’t care if his blanket is even or not.

You can see that I was practicing different stitches. It starts on the right with double crochet and transitions into treble crochet. In the middle you have a patch of dense half-double crochet. Then it goes back to treble and ends on double.

I was very happy with how even my edges turned out, too.

After completing this project I felt confident enough to start on my shawl.

This is the class that I had purchased on Craftsy last fall.

My mom has made me a ton of crocheted afghans, so I didn’t want to make another one. I thought, though, that I might actually wear a shawl.

On Black Friday I bought these skeins at a really good price for the shawl. They have enough of the colors that I typically wear, so I figure I would be able to wear the shawl with quite a few of my skirts.

I started it last week and this is how far I’d gotten as of Saturday. It doesn’t look like much, does it?

Here’s a better shot of the details. It doesn’t have the same look as the shawl in the Craftsy picture, but I think that’s because I’m using a variegated yarn instead of a solid one. Also, once I block it the pattern should show up a little better. This is a three row pattern and I have to repeat it until the bottom edge of the triangle measures 60″. I didn’t check my gauge on this, but after looking at the picture I think that I probably should have used a slightly larger hook than the one called out by the pattern. My stitching just doesn’t look as loose as the one in the picture for the class. Oh well.

The great thing is that this yarn is so smooth! It’s got a silkiness to it that I love, especially after having done all of the stitching with the cheaper acrylic stuff.

I made one other purchase last week, too. You see, I was trying to figure out how to crochet stuff without just doing it to make things. I don’t need a lot of shawls or blankets or anything else, yet I decided to learn how to crochet so that I could keep my hands busy while watching TV with Jay. That’s when I hit upon the idea of crocheted edgings on blankets for the Dresses for Missions ministry that I’m involved in.

My mom has some patterns for crocheted edges for fleece baby blankets. I found the rotary blade above that is supposed to put the holes evenly around the edge for you without causing the edge to be cut off due to the perforations. When my mom made the ones on the right I think that she had to punch a sharper hook through first, and then she could stitch it. I’m too lazy to do that, but the blade should be a big help. At least this way I won’t feel like I’m just crocheting to keep busy. I will be helping out babies at the same time!

Posted in Crafting, Craftsy, Crochet | Tagged Crafting, Craftsy, Crochet | Leave a comment

Laser Cutting Airplane Kits

Posted on March 5, 2016 by civilwarrose5

Almost two years ago Jay bought a Shapeoko CNC Router. He has spent many hours learning the various software that is required to not only draw up what you want to cut out, but then translating it into a language that the router can understand. Luckily there are a ton of resources for you to learn the open source software.

Well, almost from the beginning he wanted to get the laser head that you can put on the machine. As his second anniversary of not having a cigarette rolled around I told him to go ahead and get it.

Learning how to use the laser is a whole other ball of wax. He started out transferring pictures to pieces of wood. We even stumbled across a way to do this that really sets the image without the charred wood smudging.

Well, then he decided that he wanted to try actually cutting things with the laser. He started with MonoKote, which is used to cover RC airplanes. It’s a thin, heat-shrinkable plastic covering.

Once he had the technique down for MonoKote he moved on to balsa.

Many RC Airplane kits that you buy nowadays are all laser cut. They used to be die-crushed (the manufacturers claimed they were die-cut, but the blades would become dull and just end up crushing the balsa instead of cutting it).

As a test run Jay found the plans for the ACE Whizard that he used to fly. He drew up the plans, cut the pieces with the laser, and started to assemble the Whizard.

He found that he had to do a few tweaks here and there, but for the most part it came together so nicely!

Suddenly the door of possibilities was wide open!

The old airplanes that he loved, but could no longer build because nobody made the kits anymore were suddenly at his fingertips! As long as he can get the plans he can cut his own kits!

This isn’t all of it, but he even put in an order for a LOT of balsa wood pieces of various shapes and sizes. The model airplanes were flying around in his head. All he had to do was sit down and put them into the computer.

Enter Kenny and his want of a ME163 Komet. I found this picture on the Smithsonian’s website. You can’t really see it in this picture, but when I did an image search online this airplane reminded me of a pig with wings. Do a search and tell me that I’m wrong!

Anyway, Jay found the plans and is bringing it to life for Kenny.

It all starts with Jay making a few working copies of the plans. He built an extension for his desk so that he can more easily access the plans while at the computer.

Using rulers, calipers, and liquid fuel he patiently measures every single little angle and draws it into the computer program. FOR EVERY SINGLE PIECE.

He thinks that my cross stitching looks tedious and boring! This looks like a cure for insomnia to me!

After all of the pieces have been drawn and saved he then begins the task of arranging them to best utilize the pieces of balsa that he will be placed underneath the laser for cutting.

After all of the pieces have been cut comes Jay’s favorite part… building!

You might wonder how Jay is going to be able to assemble these airplanes since all he has is the plans with pieces. He doesn’t have the actual instructions.

The thing about Jay is that airplanes are a sixth sense for him. He just automatically can put an airplane together as long as he has all of the pieces. He’s been assembling Chad the Spad and I don’t think that he’s actually used the instructions for that since before he started sheeting it. Once all of the stringers were in place on the fuselage the instructions became something that was just in the way.

Here are some of the pieces of Kenny’s Flying Pig, or the KFP.

How is that going to end up being something that can be flown??

For Jay, it wasn’t hard. He quickly assembled the wing. It’s nice and light and beautifully shaped.

He took pictures of the wingtip building process for me to share with you.

First he had to glue pieces of balsa together. That’s what the block weights are sitting on in this picture.

He made sure that they were long and wide enough to be shaped into the correct profile for this airplane.

Once they were glued on and dried he began the shaping process.

It starts with carving all of the extra balsa out of the way. When asked how he does it he said, “I just removed everything that wasn’t part of the wingtip until all that was left was just the wingtip.”

He must have been channeling a bit of his inner Michelangelo.

Once all of the excess balsa is removed you use a little sandpaper and some elbow grease… and Voila! You have a wingtip!

Those are all of the pictures that I have of the KFP right now. I will post more as Jay continues to assemble it and take pictures. That last part is the hardest to accomplish… progress pictures!

Posted in CNC Laser, RC Planes | Tagged ACE Whizard, Komet, Laser Cut Kits, Laser Cutting, MK163 Komet, RC Airplanes, RC Planes, Shapeoko, Whizard | 4 Comments

Book Review – Meet the New You by Elisa Pulliam

Posted on February 29, 2016 by civilwarrose5

Do you feel like you need to make a change in your attitude and perspective, but aren’t sure how to do it? Do you want to open yourself up to a life where you can feel God’s love transform you and bring out the person that God made you to be? Elisa Pulliam’s “Meet the New You” will help you on this journey. Elisa Pulliam is a life coach and mentor who has written this book to help the women who know that they can be better, but aren’t sure how to even take the first step.

Each chapter is a single day and a single step to take in order to really figure out what makes you tick and how you might need to make a few tweaks. Peppered throughout the chapters are bible verses and real life examples. Ms. Pulliam writes in a very conversational style so you feel like she’s sitting right there actually talking to you. Bringing up her own personal struggles that she experienced when she went through the process helps you to feel like you aren’t alone.

The great thing about this book is that at the end of each chapter/day there are multiple questions and activities to help you utilize the information that you’ve just learned. One day you work on a list of priorities to figure out just what is most important to you right now and where all of your time is going; then later on there is an activity that helps you to determine your passions in life and what your purpose is based on those passions. All of this is surrounded by Biblical passages and reminders that God has made you as you are and He loves you no matter what.

Unless you’re doing this as a group study, you can take your time working through it. Take it at your own pace, even if that means you don’t move on to Day 5 until two weeks after you first started this journey. All of us move at different speeds, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t think that you’re making progress. You are making the progress that you’re meant to make. Why? Because to quote something I learned recently, “God don’t make junk.”

I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books in return for my review.

Posted in Blogging for Books, Book Review, Faith | Tagged Blogging for Books, Book Review, Faith | Leave a comment

Egads! It’s A Spad – Part 10.5

Posted on February 27, 2016 by civilwarrose5

I didn’t know if I could truly refer to this as an entire post all by itself, so that’s why it’s only 10.5 instead of 11.

There hasn’t been a whole lot done, but I wanted to give you an update on the pictures that I found. Jay had apparently taken a couple.

A great big round of applause goes to anybody who can guess what this is…

Nope. It’s not half of an acorn. Nope, it’s not a wooden tongue.

Do you need a clue?

When it’s installed you will be able to see it from this angle.

Any idea?

Come on… I know that you know the answer. And you know that I know that you know.

It’s the scoop thing that goes on top of the nose! Yes, that is the actual technical term (in my world) – Scoop Thing.

Jay is very good at carving. He drew this up and had whittled it down in no time. He sits in his rocking chair on the porch with a toothpick in his mouth and just whittles away…

Here’s a picture of Chad with it installed. Chad was a bit nervous about this rhinoplasty, but I told him it would be okay. I told him to think of it like a beauty mark.

I told him to hold his head up proud! We did a quick modeling shoot where I told him to gaze off in the distance as if he’s looking ahead to the future…

Chad, however, is most pleased with this latest accessory. It is a very nice tail hook. Although, I think that he’s already grown tired of hearing me ask him, “Is that a tail hook back there? Or are you just happy to see me?”

Poor Chad! The abuse that he has to endure!

Posted in A-1 Skyraider, RC Planes | Tagged A-1 Skyraider, R/C, RC Planes, Ziroli Skyraider | 1 Comment

Sewing A Pillow Cover

Posted on February 27, 2016 by civilwarrose5

My mother-in-law, Karen, lives three doors up the road from us. This comes in very handy when you are getting your only bathroom remodeled and, unlike the guys, you can’t just go into the shed to relieve yourself.

This also allows her to stop by for her Tuesday and Friday evening visits. Typically we sit in the front living room, chatting about whatever is going on, and sipping on some wine. Well, this past week was her birthday and I didn’t know what to get her. But then, I had a bit of inspiration…

Apparently I need to take some updated pictures of my living room! Anyway, because Karen is shorter she likes to have a pillow behind her back so that she can comfortably sit on the couch. Up to this point she’d been using a smaller sofa pillow and one of the afghans wrapped around it to give it enough substance. What ends up happening is she fights with this arrangement every time to get it just right.

I decided that I would buy her a stouter/bigger pillow to sit against. However, I worried that it was a pathetic gift. “Here’s a pillow for you! But you have to leave it here.” Also, it wasn’t a very personal gift, either.

That’s when I decided that I would make a pillow cover for it.

Mind you, I’ve never sewn a pillow cover in my life. How hard could it be? It’s just a poofy square, right? I had never sewn a zipper in before, either, and that turned out okay.

I made sure to get a pillow with a removable cover so that I could use it as my template as I knew it would already fit.

Then I ran over to Hobby Lobby to look for material. I found this corduroy that would go great with the slipcovers that I use on the couch. I also grabbed a zipper while I was there. Would you like to understand how I operate, though? I hadn’t measured the pillow so I didn’t really know how much of anything that I would need. I knew that I would be safe if I bought a yard of fabric, but I really had to sit and puzzle over the zippers. From memory I was thinking that I would want one about 18″ long. I measured this by holding up my hands to the width of the pillow (pulled from my memory and probably not at all accurate) and determined that around 18″ would be good. The only lengths of invisible zippers that they had were 12″ or 22″. I had never shortened a zipper before, although I had read about it and seen it done on one of my Craftsy classes. This project was going to be filled with a bunch of ‘firsts’ for me!

When I took the blue cover off and turned it inside out I have to admit that I was underwhelmed with the quality of construction. To be fair, I’m sure that the six-year-old in China was paid by the piece and so the quicker he could get it sewn together the more money he could make that day. It looks like they sewed the pieces together and then serged the edges together around the entire thing. When doing this they were not at all worried about doing it straight. As I was trying to measure this to see how big I needed to cut my pieces I was irritated by the unevenness of the edges. They also left all of the serger tails in place. I managed to get a rough measurement despite the waviness.

With the help of my two supervisors I managed to cut the corduroy into two fairly square pieces of fabric. Considering I’m not a quilter and don’t really need that skill very often, I was happy with my results.

I was originally going to tack a frilly doily on the front, but didn’t have any in my stash. So I decided to go with a panel of lace that my mom had given me. I wanted to add some decoration to it so that it would be just a plain pillow. I also had thoughts of adding lace around the outside, but forgot to incorporate that part of it when I was sewing the zipper. So I left it out.

I did some measuring of the fabric and determined what length I wanted my zipper. I then read the instructions on the zipper package for shortening it. I think that it turned out okay. As you can see, Chester approved.

The next step was to sew the zipper to one of the pieces. This took me a few minutes to lay out because I had to picture the construction in my head (which I’m not good at) and determine the steps that I would actually need to do to get it there.

Success! I had done such a good job that Chester didn’t even have to wake up to check out my work.

The next part was even trickier for me to work through. I needed to figure out how to pin the zipper to the other side of the fabric. I needed to do this in such a way that the lace would be on the outside and nicely edged. It doesn’t sound complicated, but I had some difficulty with it. I finally managed to get it done, though. Phew! Not bad for never having sewn an invisible zipper, eh?

The easy part was next. Pinning the two sides together so that I could sew around the outside.

IMPORTANT! Don’t forget to open the zipper so that once you have sewn the sides together you can then turn it inside out!

Before turning it right-side-out, though, I always clip my corners. It helps to keep the bulk down and makes it lay a little flatter.

TA-DA!!! A pretty pillow cover!

Okay, so yes I used a navy blue zipper on this instead of a red one. Hobby Lobby didn’t have a red one and I hadn’t come up with the idea soon enough to be able to get one somewhere else. Also, it’s just a pillow. If somebody comes over and judges me for having a navy blue zipper on my red pillow cover then they have issues that I’m not prepared to deal with. Besides, it’s patriotic! And it goes with the Civil War-themed lap quilt that is often covered by the afghan on the back of the couch to keep it cat-hair free.

I think that I’m happy I forgot to add the lace around the edge. That would have been too much. I like the simple prettiness that this has without it.

What do you think? Not too bad for my first pillow cover, eh?

Even the back looks nice. I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to make sure that the pillow squished into all of the corners because I figured that would happen naturally with use.

Okay, so my invisible zipper isn’t quite invisible. Honestly? I don’t really care. I’m not going to be parading the pillow down a catwalk in a fashion show so I think that it will be okay.

I did a pretty darn good job without even reading a tutorial, don’t you think? Maybe I inherited more of my mom’s sewing abilities than I had originally thought.

After all of that hard work I don’t feel as bad about buying MORE fabric for Dresses for Missions… even though I haven’t touched any of the fabric that I bought last summer.

Posted in Cats, Crafting, Craftsy, Sewing | Tagged Cats, Crafting, Craftsy, Sewing | Leave a comment

Egads! It’s a Spad! Part 10

Posted on February 13, 2016 by civilwarrose5

Chad was despairing. “Oh, woe is me! When will I get some more attention?!”

Poor Chad! He felt like he had been neglected.

But as you can see, he’s had a bit of attention paid to him. The leading edges of his wings have been rounded, and there has been a lot of sanding being done.

Even his cute little belly has been sanded.

Tickle, tickle… who has the cutest little Spad belly? Chad does!

Laying on his side you can see… his belly. Umm.. I’m not sure what we’re supposed to be looking at here.

Let’s just sit and gaze for a while, shall we….

Oh, maybe we are supposed to be looking at the sheeting. Now that the tail wheel has been installed Jay cut out the sheeting and installed it.

He also installed the tail servo along with epoxying the middle part of the horizontal stab so that it is permanently in place now.

Plus Jay worked on the sheeting around that part, too.

Isn’t it pretty??

This picture gives you a better idea of what I meant when I said that the middle part was glued in. I’m not sure if the plans called for it, but Jay has made the horizontal stab removable for easier transporting.

Also, I must mention that he has not looked at the actual plans for this plane in many months. He’s completely going based on knowledge of how things logically should be assembled and sanded.

Here’s the other side.

I believe that Jay has done a lot of sanding on this, too. Either that or he keeps some of the dust on hand so that after he’s been down there for a few hours he covers his sweatshirt in it and heads upstairs. This way I think that he’s been so busy down there making progress on this airplane.

You see, he wants to get the Ziroli Corsair kit in April. I think that he and I will discuss that at a later point…

Jay has also spent a lot of time capping the gaps. At least, that’s what I’ve been calling it. I can’t remember what Jay told me the technical term is for this process. Essentially it is putting another piece of balsa in place and sanding it into shape so that when the surface changes the air gets deflected correctly and doesn’t catch on a giant gaping crack. Or something like that.

See how beautifully the wind will be deflected when Chad is in full flight?

That is some good gap capping there….

Chad sure is getting big! That rug he’s sitting on is 8′ x 10′!

Just kidding!

Jay has also attached the wing tips and sanded those into shape. To quote Jay, “It’s amazing how quickly 60 grit sand paper will chew away at balsa!”

Posted in A-1 Skyraider, RC Planes | Tagged A-1 Skyraider, R/C, RC Airplanes, Spad, Ziroli Skyraider, Ziroli Spad | Leave a comment

Mardi Gras Chili/Soup Cook-Off!

Posted on February 3, 2016 by civilwarrose5

This past weekend our church held their annual Mardi Gras Chili/Soup Cook-Off. I know that technically Mardi Gras isn’t until next week so we were a week early. It doesn’t matter, though, because it’s an excuse for people to come in and have a free lunch. The various teams make either soup or chili and everybody then votes for the best one. I think that there were thirteen teams this year, so that means there were 6 different soups and 7 different chili’s. At the end of the event the winners are crowned for Best Soup, Best Chili and Best Decorations.

Karen and I entered this year so we decided to go with my cheesy ham and potato soup that I make.

This was my table. I know what you’re thinking… that doesn’t look like it has anything to do with Mardi Gras. You’re half right. It’s not technically themed with Mardi Gras in mind, but Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday. I used a Fat Chester and did a cat theme. Would you really expect anything less of me??

In my own opinion, I had the BEST poster. Every time I walked by it I had to chuckle. I think that I did pretty good putting Chester in a soup pot.

Isn’t she cute??

Jay was the one who decided that I had to use Chester. I was just going to call it Cheesy Cat Chowder. I was just going for a reaction.

And it worked! Not due to my poster, though. Apparently word got around that people had to check out the table with the cat litter dessert. It was complete with ‘turd’sie rolls… on top and uncovered, just as Chester always leaves them.

One little girl made her parents vote for my decorations because she loved the cat napkins on my table. They are cute!

I had Jay make up some 3D printed key chains for me to give away to the kids. I had this one little girl who was very polite and soft spoken. She asked if they were decorations or did they cost money? I told her that they were free if she would like a key chain or one of the mama cat with kitten figurines. She looked at them and softly asked, “Am I allowed to have one of each?” She was so sweet that I couldn’t resist. “If you can tell me what the magic word is then yes you may.” She smiled real big and said, “Please!” I smiled and told her to pick out whichever ones she wanted. She did so and then said, “Thank you! Have a nice day!”

There was another little boy, probably seven years old, with big bright eyes. He kept coming over to look at the 3D printed items. When he had first spotted them he came running over and said, “These are 3D printed!” I can’t recall if he took a key chain or a cat figurine, but when everything was said and done he told me that I had the best decorations there. I definitely did not need a trophy to feel like I had done a great job!

Ignore me (I really don’t like this picture), but I had some great help in the form of my friend Patty (on the right) and Karen (not pictured). I left with only half of a crockpot of soup and zero cat litter cake.

I won 2nd place in the soup category and 3rd place for decorations. Not bad considering the soup only took me about 40 minutes to make (that’s for both batches) and I gathered most of my decorations up from around my house.

Our music ministry had a table, too. They won 2nd place for their chili and first place for decorations. Their theme was the Phantom of the Opera Masquerade.

This is my newest choir friend, Chrissy, in mid-whoop-it-up. Or she’s decorating… your choice.

Chester was concerned that I would actually put her in the soup, but not to worry… she’s safe and sound (asleep).

Posted in 3D Printing, Cats | Tagged 3D Printing, Cats, church | Leave a comment

Crochet and a Bit of Sewing

Posted on January 26, 2016 by civilwarrose5

I think that I’ve found a new obsession. When I have a few moments I find myself gravitating toward my crochet project instead of my sewing machine or my cross stitch. Yikes!

I think that the biggest thing that has been drawing me to this lately is that I don’t have to think about it. I just sit and make stitches while lounging on the couch with my feet kicked up. This swatch is just going to be something for the cats to lay on, but I like the fact that I don’t have to think about it, for the most part, in order to get anything accomplished.

Today I attempted to switch over to the new skein, but I wasn’t happy with the results. I’m not going to tear it out, but I will definitely need to watch that part of my Craftsy class again.

So far I’ve done 15 rows of double crochet, five rows of treble crochet, and I’m beginning work on 10 rows of half-double crochet. As you can see I’ve managed to keep my edge nice and straight!

I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong, or if this is how it’s supposed to look. You can tell which way I was crocheting because as I crochet to the left my stitches slant towards the left as well. Is that normal?

Is it because of how I’m holding my hook? I’m not sure if you can see very clearly, but this is how I am holding everything. I hold the hook very much like a pencil, to the point of actually holding onto the fabric with the last two fingers of my right hand (which are curled under).

I would like you to notice, though, the glitter nails. Remember, sparkle always makes things better. Always.

I haven’t done much in the way of sewing lately. My goal for the start of the year was to attempt to make my own lunch bag. Then right after Christmas one of the vendors that the company I work for does business with decided to give us all new lunch bags. I was excited because this had the pockets on the inside for the ice packs. My other bag was falling apart so I needed to do something, but I’m not happy with the size of this bag. It’s too narrow and doesn’t allow me to fit some of my favorite plastic containers in here like I want. So I guess that I might have to design something for myself after all.

I did make a cover for one of the purr pads that I bought for the cats. They wouldn’t lay on them so I took some scraps that I had left from the wing bags that I made and sewed it to a piece of fleece. I stuffed the purr pad in it and I’ve discovered that Chester has taken ownership of it. Which is good because Jay and I had discussed getting rid of the futon in my sewing room, but I didn’t know how Chester would react as that was where she napped. Hopefully this will solve that problem!

That’s about all of the crafting stuff that I’ve been up to lately. I really need to get back to making more dresses for Missions!

Posted in Cats, Crochet, Sewing | Tagged Cats, Crochet, Sewing | Leave a comment