Pretty things at Patchcom today

Patchcom is my LQS. Today we had a sew-in and I saw some cute toys. Nothing here is bigger than your hand.
Enjoy the pics! Sorry for the cell-phone quality, but that's all I had with me.

How to have a good cry

Work was hard yesterday. We got different bits of news about our takeover, mostly that it will happen sooner than anyone thought. Add to that a management team who has no clue what they have to do to follow German law, and things are a mess. Part of my job is to make sure these clueless people fix what they've done, so it was stress piled on top of stress yesterday.

That manifested itself in frustration. First I couldn't get a software installed, then a hard drive didn't work, then I couldn't get into an encrypted drive, it was one thing after another. So frustrating I wanted to cry.

So last night I did. Had a good cry, although it was artificially induced. How do you artificially induce a good cry? For me, it's watching video clips of my favorite tearjerker movies.

Here's what I watched, all on Youtube.

• An affair to remember final scene (part 1 and part 2)
• Four Weddings and a Funeral, the eulogy
• Beaches last beach scene
• Bobby Goldsboro singing Honey

Then, to feel better, I watched the trailer for the German film Mord ist mein Geschaeft, Liebling.

And went to bed listening to Glee songs, feeling Lucky

Finished Spring Wall Hanging!

Ta-daaaa! One finished project, except for label and hanging sleeve.

This was my sampler of decorative stitches, made a little fun. 

Particular characteristics:

• almost every quilted fern is a different stitch
• I love the detailed stitch hanging from the mushroom the best
• It's raw-edge applique, and I left plenty of edges raw on purpose
• The ferns are in yellow thread on purpose, so don't bother suggesting green. I was trying for that subtle look that makes the quilt look one way from a distance, and more interesting close up
• Don't even bother telling me some of the stems are too wide - that was another design element
• The yellow fabric is ombre´ going from dark yellow to light yellow

Here are the pictures, before I coaxed the basting stitch holes out and gave it a final pressing. 

Celebrating the last holiday

Spring is my favorite season. Best weather, prettiest colors, full of hope and renewal.
Germany enhances spring by having the most holidays during this season. What with Easter being so late this year, we've had very few weeks recently without a day off.
Today is Fronleichnam*, and it's our last holiday before a LONG stretch without a public holiday. I intend to enjoy this day to it's fullest.
          * Don't ask me what Fronleichnam is. No one has yet been able to explain it to me.

Anyway, since I've got busy days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (guild mini-retreat and monthly meeting), I'm taking it easy today.
Goal for the day: have fun and relax
There are lots of things I want to do, but none are required. Here's a partial list.

• Add Tina to the guild bloggers list (Done!)
• Backup the guild web files
• Get my stuff ready for meeting (almost done)
• Gather my gear for the mini-retreat
• Start the hand-sewing on the binding of my latest finished project (see pic below)
• Play with quilt labels in my embroidery software
• Read
• Exercise
• Play harp
• Declutter a little in my sewing room

None are required. My day's success will be measured by the question, "Did I have fun?"

Did you have fun today?

An in-process picture of my latest now-finished project:

It's called Resource Provisioning, not shopping

What does it take to do home machine embroidery? Beyond the embroidery machine, it takes supplies and knowledge.
Well, it turns out I didn't have enough of either, so I had to lay in some resources. In the meantime, my iron started causing me trouble, so I decided to replace it as well with one that doesn't produce steam.
Here are the results.

My thread choices came from a Mettler product line offered by quilt artist Pia Welsch. For her machine quilting classes she designed a set of threads along the color wheel. She even has light, medium and dark versions.
The silly thing was, all of her sets only com in 200 meter long spools. That's nothing when you talk about embroidery patterns, which can consist of thousands or tens of thousands of stitches.
So I set about composing a set of threads from Fadenversand. I tried to match similar shades to those of Pia's, but in the 800 meter spools instead. Those are the threads in the picture. Nice, huh?
Those two books are great as well, but I'll tell you about those some other day.

Finished a project!!

After the first rush of playing with my new machine, I got the usual "honeymoon's over" period. I kept bouncing from project to project, and everything was so compelling that I just set the other projects aside, stacked all the leftover fabric in a pile and started something new.
Well, last night I said, "Enough is enough. Time to actually finish a project and start getting this room cleaned up."
Can you believe my daughter moved out almost a year ago, and I still don't have my sewing room properly set up?
First there are the things left in the room that I can't go through and throw out or put away.
Then there are the supplies for future projects, both real and imagined.
Then there is the occasional piece of unnecessary furniture.
Finally there is a distinct lack of organization.
None of this helps me feel excited about working in this room. Certainly the projects are exciting, and my machines are fabulous, but my room is so messy, I can't have anyone over to play.

Enough is enough. Both last night and today I've spent time decluttering as well as sewing. And when I pick up a project, I work on it until I'm really stuck, or it's done.
Last night I moved a guitar, a sword, an axe and cleaned out one tiny corner of the room. A good start.
And I worked on my notebook cover.
Today I continued with the notebook cover, and it's finished!!! I also cleaned out some games and planned where I will keep my books and patterns.

Here are pics of the notebook cover. Using batik scraps and decorative stitches, even a little embroidery, I am very pleased with the project. The 830 has this ability to do sideways stitching, and I used it extensively. Also learned how to do basic lettering and combine embroidery designs.
Good stuff.
This cover has an Edelweiss theme, even though some of the designs aren't quite to edelweissy.

Poetry: My Wife, the Quilter

>>>Still looking for the author to give proper credit.
My Wife, the Quilter


She learned to quilt on Monday.
Her stitches very fine.
She forgot to thaw out dinner,
So she went out to dine.

She quilted miniatures on Tuesday,
She says they were a must.
They really were quite lovely,
But she forgot to dust.

On Wednesday it was a sampler.
She says the stipplin’s fun.
What highlights! Oh what shadows!
But the laundry wasn’t done.

Her charm quilt was on Thursday,
Green patches, blue and red.
I guess she really got engrossed:
She never made the bed.

It was wall hangings on Friday,
In colors she adores, but she never seemed to notice,
The crumbs on all the floors.

I found a maid on Saturday! My week is now complete.
My wife can quilt all the hours away, the house will still be neat.
Well, it’s already Sunday. I think I’m about to wilt.
I cursed, I raved, I ranted­ - the maid has learned to quilt!

Replacing resentment with joy

Our guild has a nice opportunity to be acknowledged by the community we serve. All we have to do is track our volunteer hours and report it. Not so hard, actually.

Which brings me to a specific volunteer project I'm working on right now. It takes a LOT of time, and I'm struggling with resentment.
Funny thing is, I don't really know what I resent about it. Here are some of my brainstorm ideas, none of which are completely true:

• that I was asked to organize it, when I knew already I'd be participating at a heavy level due to my web responsiblities
• that I don't know how to say no without feeling bad
• that I'm not enjoying the work. Volunteer work ought to be fun
• that to keep this project on track, I'm giving up some things I want to be doing for myself
• that I don't see where I could and should delegate tasks to others

OK, enough analysis. What will it take for me to find the work joyful again? 

• Let go of the things I cannot do.
• I need to tell myself what I tell the people who want to participate, but cannot. I say, "This is a totally voluntary activity. If you do nothing, it's ok. Do what you want and what you can. Don't worry about the rest."

What do I want?

• I want to sew the blocks and make the two patterns I promised, because I want to have them.
• I want the recipient to be absolutely delighted with the result.
• I want to see all the wonderful pieces coming together, and build something for everyone in the future.
• I want to have time to work on my other projects as well.

What can I do?

• I can mentally let go of the long task list, and make sure I reserve time for me and for my other projects every day.
• I can start to figure out how to delegate.
• I can remind myself of what I want from this project every time I start to work down the list of tasks.
• I can make more decisions like I made last night, when I decided I would provide the data to the responsible board member, but let go, and not do more than that.
• I can start finding tasks for those volunteers to work on, and letting those tasks go.
• Make a list - lists help me feel more in control. 

Do I feel more joyful now? Well, not exactly, but at least I see a path to what I want.

What does tonight's list look like?

1. Leave work on time
2. Bath and relaxing
3. Cook
4. Work on a volunteer block pattern
5. Eat dinner and watch Glee on Super RTL
6. Take the rest of the evening OFF

I can embroider!!!

Here's proof. I'm still experimenting with the adjustments needed to get the stitching right when I change sizes of the designs. All of the little pink bars are the letter "I" at different sizes and with different stitch densities.
Off to do more!

Tea for one quilt

When my Round Robin came back, it was gorgeous. My partners had done a wonderful job creating beautiful borders and I am very happy with the results.
Except for my part. The white on the strippy triangles was simply too white for the rest of the quilt, and no one had added any white during the RR.
When looking at it with Billa, she immediately noticed that the white stood out. I thought for a minute, then decided tea-dying was worth a try.
I'm very pleased with the results. The white is softened just enough. Now to finish up with the quilting and binding. This will be a gift for someone who can really use a little extra warmth at the moment.

Before dying:

 After dying (subtle but good enough in real life):