My current progress doesn’t look like a lot, but it is a small amount on a bunch of different projects. Since I was sick, and my mental health needed adjusting, I wound up letting a couple of things around the house go a little bit longer than I would like. I spent some time clearing those up and getting back on track where I wanted to be. Fortunately, I’ve still had time for crafting in between all of those other things, so while there isn’t any progress on the projects I showed you last week there is progress on a couple of other projects that I had been working on earlier.
I had glued down all of the pieces for a Tula Pink Nova English Paper Piece quilt. Over this past week I’ve almost managed to complete one of the sections.
I had also picked up two kits for cheap and decided to work on those. One is painted rocks, I want them to be glow in the dark so I tried a base coat of glow in the dark.
I do not like how they have turned out so far, however I’m going to try a few more coats over the next week. I also picked up a super cheap birdhouse kit that I’m going to turn it into a fairy house instead. I like how the paint is going so far, but I’m going to try a few more coats.
That has been most of my progress this week. I’m still working on hiding threads for the whole cloth quilts I made for a colleague pregnant with twins. Until next time I hope that everyone lives their life A Little More Abstract!
Between fighting for medication’s and various appointments, I was not able to post last week. In the past two weeks I’ve come to understand that my antidepressants are really more of an anti-anxiety medication for me, and that it has greatly decreased the level of anxiety that I didn’t realize I was feeling. My psychiatrist and therapist have also come to the conclusion that I have a mild form of ADHD focused around organization. Due to this, I have spent this weekend testing an extremely low dose of an ADHD medication to see if it’s something I would like to take. I am going to take it tomorrow for work to see if it assists with my ability to focus on mundane tasks at work. Right now I believe that it has helped me to focus, as I pointed out at a weavers guild meeting yesterday: Usually I would think of some thing and five minutes later I would know that I thought of some thing, but then I would have to spend 20 minutes or more, sometimes hours, trying to remember what I thought of. With this medication, I can keep the thought in my mind even while thinking of other things.
I did finally pick up two diabetes medication’s. However, my doctor decided to put me on extremely low doses to see if she can adjust the medication from there. This does mean that my blood sugar is still quite high and as you can probably guess, I’m not happy. I do have an appointment with her in the near future, hopefully she can just put me back two doses near where I was previously right now it looks as though she went from my 300 mg of two different medication‘s to 15 mg of each of my medication‘s.
I did receive a diagnosis from the MRI on my wrist. Unfortunately, the diagnosis was that two of the bones in my wrist have been ground to dust. That was the actual phrase that the doctor used ‘ground to dust’. While I am a candidate for a surgery that would remove the bones in my wrist and have essentially my hand sit in my wrist joint, I am not going for that at this time. 90% of the time this does not pain me, so I do not see any point in having surgery until the pain gets to a point that I can’t stand it.
As you can see, the past two weeks have been pretty much focused on my physical and mental health. They are both getting better however, it hasn’t given me a lot of time for other pursuits. This weekend was the turning point for that, and while part of it was that I did have an extra day off I do believe a good deal of it can be credited to the new medication for ADHD. Onto the crafting content.
I have finished my first plaid plain weave bookmark, and I am currently working on a twill bookmark. I discovered that my folding plastic table will not only fit my loom, but it’s very good height for me to work from my usual chair. This has made weaving on that four shaft loom, much more accessible. Right now while on the loom I don’t see much of the plaid showing up in my twill. This is a 2-2 twill, next I am going to switch to a 3-1 twill and hope that the plaid shows up better in that version. This is not the only project that I’ve been working on, though the next one falls more under organization than crafting, the crafting will show up soon.
I have started getting ready for the planting season, though in my portion of western New York, I will not be planting anything outside until late May. That doesn’t mean that I would need to start my indoor plants that need about eight weeks to germinate the first week in April, which is coming faster than I like to think about. To that end, I am starting to get a germination station set up, as well as ensuring that the grow lights that I have will be able to reach the plants. I have managed to get some sorting and organizing done to make room by where the grow lights are, and I am very happy with how things look so far.
I’ve also started doing a little bit of spinning again, though not enough to show a photo of my progress . Of course, this is not all the crafting that I’ve been doing, I have also taken some scraps that I had, and used my Accucut to turn them into 2 1/2 inch squares. I use the green and white and hope to make shamrocks sometime in the near future.
I know, for two weeks work this isn’t a ton but I have had a lot of other stuff going on. I did manage to get the test in for the company, I hope to work with them some more in the future and hopefully let you know what I have accomplished sometime soon. That’s about the end of this update, so until next time, remember to live life A Little More Abstract.
If you are just here for the crafting content then skip down to ******************.
My mental health and work are both fine for now. I took the bull by the horns and spoke to my big boss and she assured me that she has seen a difference in my behavior, she appreciates that I have taken steps, and at present I do not feel like my job is immediate risk. I still need to do work to get the trust back, however, this medication is helping me a great deal so I feel that it is in achievable task. My physical health is much better, I am still taking it easy this week and I have taken time off in a couple of weeks, I already had it planned, so that I can have some fun. My primary doctor is moving, however I am not very happy with her anyway so I am not considering that a loss. She ignored my requests instead of simply explaining to me that the Diabetes medicine I wanted will not count against my deductible. So now I am almost out of medication and have not heard from the pharmacy yet, so I have to call them on Monday so they can bug my doctor. Yay.
Yesterday I had my MRI, I do not recommend having a wrist MRI if you can avoid it. The technician was amazing, and I did treat myself to Barnes and Noble afterwards and a lovely Chinese Buffet.
I am doing everything that I can to take plenty of time for myself, reminding myself that I am not an extrovert so judging my activity level against extroverts is not fair to me. I need to protect at least one day a week for me to completely decompress. I enjoy Asian foods that I can just throw into the steamer, if I have to go to Buffalo or Erie for that once a month then that might be what I have to do.
As I am typing this, though I will not post this until Sunday, I am listening to a wonderful presentation through Lesson Face, provided by MAFA, about weaving chenille for chenille rugs. I am loving this presentation and hope to use up some of the scraps I was gifted with and haven’t known what to do with them.
I am making progress on the Christmas Presents (Yes I know it’s almost March but with a messed up wrist and understanding that I was experiencing depression I think I’m doing alright). I am also working on another secret project, I was sent a kit that I am testing out for a company. If I can post about this in the future I will. I was given a bare two weeks deadline so I hope to make progress on that this weekend.
Oh, I do have a Block of the Month project that I have received all of the kits for and I haven’t even cut one apart yet. I finally pulled them all out of their mailers and I am going to start to cut the pieces that I need for the first set pretty soon.
I still do not have the heddles threaded on my 16 shaft loom, it has been a rotten month so far. March will look up.
The Winter project for Jamestown Weaver’s Guild was to weave a plaid. I did a chart on the website given and warped up for some bookmarks. My first plain weave plaid bookmark is almost finished, then I plan on making some fringe spacing before I start working on a straight twill bookmark. After I have the two samples made I might mess around with an undulating twill.
Okay, health is improving, work is not a panic, I’m regaining interest in projects, I am letting myself find joy in projects again. I have three things going on, only one that I can share pictures of, oops. In March I will be teaching a class on how to make Scissor Fob’s at the Quilt Guild, which should be a fun learning experience for everyone. Then during the summer I will be teaching the Scissor Fobs as well as Needle Tatting to the Jamestown Weaver’s Guild. My other Weaving guild knows what I am capable of, so I do not know what they would like me to teach this year. I am, honestly, hoping for some pay so that I can put it back for future learning opportunities.
Until next time remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!
Honestly, I have had a really rotten three weeks. A single phrase in an e-mail that I did not recognize as aggressive led to a meeting. That meeting led to me feeling cornered, feeling cornered led to me snapping at the big boss. Whoops. I had an emergency meeting with my psychiatrist, who told me he saw this coming, which resulted in my being put on a mild anti-depressant. I feel as though I am on a more even keel because the anti-depressant actually helped a lot with the anxiety I knew I was feeling, I was unaware of how much anxiety I was feeling however. This week is 2 weeks after the precipitating event, I am not sure if the big boss is satisfied with my progress. Of course, now at two weeks out I have come down with a cold that I am trying to stop developing into an upper respiratory infection, as colds tend to do.
Things that I have learned:
Anti-Depressants = Anti-Anxiety medications. If you are anxious then stressful situations make that worse which means that your reactions tend to be out of proportion.
Taking a day where I don’t worry about being productive, doing the dishes, or anything really is my form of self care. So is crafting, but I need to be in a better place to feel up to crafting.
I am sure that there are more lessons in there, probably one about taking Dayquil when you know that it doesn’t react well with Diabetes and High Blood Pressure, but I’m willfully ignoring that one until I get through work. (I’m taking less than half of a regular dose and will not take any for the next two days. If my symptoms are manageable by time I need to get back to work I’ll stop altogether.)
Until next time, do a craft for me, and Live Life a Little More Abstract.
One of the weaving guilds I belong to assigned plaids as the winter program, I don’t believe that the other guild set up a winter program this year, Upon realizing that Wednesday is February 1st. I realized that I had better get started on this! I wound up a 12,6,3,1 non mirrored warp in 3 repeats for little bookmarks. I put the sett through the reed at about 15epi. Currently I am working on threading it in a straight twill through my heddles. I have not made much progress on warping up my larger loom, but I think I have another inch warped.
I had an opportunity to explore the local art studio that offers lessons and other activities. Since it was an open house event I made a little ceramic fortune cookie, and then I signed up for a 1 day wheel exploration to see if my weak left wrist will prevent me from using a wheel. They have amazing bisque to glaze at great prices. Including the studio fee all of the items pictured are under $25 to glaze.
I also explored their sister organization that offers music and art lessons. I got to play a violin, double bass, and look at other instruments. I ordered an inexpensive, but well reviewed, violin from Amazon. I plan on trying it out for 2 weeks and then returning it if it does not work out. If I do alright with trying this out I will look into signing up for lessons.
Finally, I have gotten around to exploring the mini electric wheel that I purchased using Kickstarter. I love how it is working out. While it doesn’t stick wonderfully to the table, the spin is nice and the on off switch allows me to keep the speed constant. It also fits perfectly in my Train Case from Namaste which is owned by Jimmy Beans Wool. On a related note I realized that I needed to get a replacement cord for my spinolution electric wheel.m which should be arriving relatively soon.
I have had a fun week of exploration, and I hope to have more progress next week! Until next time, I have a warm veggie filled stew waiting for me, Live Life A Little More Abstract!
I created a label for my Halloween quilt to hide a mistake I made in the binding. I love how it turned out. The fold over binding did not work for me on the fidget quilt since I accidentally snipped into it when cutting off the extra batting. I spent about an hour this morning hiding and snipping threads, then threw them in the wash since I photographed them on the floor.
I am also considering how to finish off the stitching project, the dark grey background would cause the cream to pop. If I decide to add that in then I’ll use stitching to go across both pieces.
That’s it for current projects. I’m going to see the hand surgeon tomorrow to see what’s up with my broken wrist. I’m hoping that I can do more crafting after that, but only time will tell. Until next time, remember to live life a little more abstract.
I have made some progress in warping up my loom. The threads are all through the front reed, I know that the weave is unbalanced because I did not measure it to begin with. At present I am working on getting all of the threads through the heddles in a twill pattern, straight 1-16 then 1-16 again. At the time of writing this I think I have the first 50 threads through heddles, wish me luck getting the rest set up.
This is not the only craft I have going on, is it ever just one craft? I have also been taking part of the Stitch Camp through TextileArtist.org. This is quite a bit of fun, and since it only takes about 30 minutes a day, lasting just 5 days, I find it to be a reasonable goal to maintain. The first step is to use a limited palette of 3 colors and make marks on your lightest fabric, then cut them apart, reassemble in a way that you like, and now on the third day I added in some stitching. I am not certain if I am finished stitching or if I will give it a little more jazz.
You didn’t think I was done did you? Two projects, pfft. I am also working on a pair of quilts. One was discovered when a friend of mine wanted me to make them rice packs was looking for the skull fabric I had mentioned. The other quilt I am working on turning into a tactile quilt or fidget quilt for the father of a friend of mine, he is having trouble with ‘Sundowner’s’ in the facility he is currently living. For the Halloween Quilt I need to add a label, since I was unable to catch one border in the binding of my quilt. For the Fidget Quilt I need to redo a couple of small sections of quilting, I had caught the side of the backing in the quilting, so I had to pick out the quilting. Once I have the quilting done I need to carefully trim the batting, and turn the backing over to bind the quilt. If I can get away with not having to trim the edges of the quilt and make a traditional binding I am going to take that and run with it.
For the fidget quilt I have added on a rough ribbon, soft fleece, and a changeable sequin patch. The sequin patch, much to my shock, was easy enough to sew on and did not break a needle.
Okay, that is it for today. I hope to have an actual update ready for you on Sunday, but until then Live Life a Little More Abstract
Okay, so I am one week into 2023 and my resolution has (mostly) held. This year I am going to be teaching 3-4 classes outside of my normal work. One of those is going to be a needle tatting class. I decided to purchase supplies for 10 people to be able to take the class, I wanted to make the purchase before prices to up. It will be about $10 per person to take the class and this just covers the supplies. Given that I hope to be given a speaker’s fee which I can then put toward some future classes I would like to take. Other than those supplies and a case to put them it I have bought the supplies I need to finish my holiday plans and some fabric I was missing for a couple of cousin quilts, as well as the batting for a donation quilt.
Every day I have managed to do something to make progress on my various crafting plans. The 16 shaft loom has the warp through the front beater bar, it is just waiting for me to thread it through the heddles next. I have spun a couple more puffs from my Unicorns in the Library fiber ( split it into hand length puffs to give me smaller achievable goals). I have half of the fabric I purchased torn into the right size for my embroidery project (for the family), and I stitched up 4 pieces this morning with another 2 designed and ready for me to hit the button when I get home. I have also signed up for three different ‘summits’ that will happen this week. One is Stitch Camp scheduled to begin next week, then the Knitting Summit the week of the 23rd, and finally selling your crafts for a profit the 26th- 28th of January. I am not sure how much I am going to get out of these classes, however since they are free I am going to give them a good shot.
The last thing I have been doing recently is going through my Amazon e-magazines, and taking screenshots of the projects and instructions that I want to keep for now. That way if I decide I want to get rid of Kindle Unlimited I will not lose access to those projects. Okay, that is all for this week (I will try to add photos later if I remember).
Until next time remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!
Over the past four days I have taken the time to sew together 2 charm packs, one white one colored. The next day I ironed them flat. Yesterday I sewed them into 4 patches and began the square them into 8.5″ blocks. Today I planned the layout and sewed them into a completed top taking care to match the points as best as I could. I love the result. Nothing too complex, only about a throw size, but completed in less than a week. This is the motivation that I hope to take into the new year.
This is not the only project that I have been working on, as I find it very difficult to stick to just one project. I am still working on threading my 16 shaft table loom for the towels I warped up earlier this autumn. I have brought out my sock that I am working on loom knitting, I have finished three rounds in two days. There are always work projects, however I find myself very interested quilt tops right now, the actual quilting might take a backseat for a while.
I await the fabric to finish my holiday crafting, hopefully it will be here this week and I can make some progress this weekend. My wrist, I don’t know what to think about my wrist so I am making a conscious effort not to think about it. I wrap it when it gets a bit sore, I use heat when the wrapping is downstairs and I am upstairs. Other than that I will wait until my appointment with the hand surgeon and get their professional opinion.
New Year’s Resolutions. I am not making any. There are things that I will work on, creating and sticking with a budget, eating somewhat healthier within that budget, and the like. For crafting, I hope to finish more projects than I purchase supplies for this upcoming year. Other than that, I hope to live life to its fullest in a way that is A Little More Abstract!
Sometimes it takes an event to remember that there is a bigger plan that what I want to do. I had to cancel a weaving retreat and I am trying to plan when I can get back to crafting. Thinking about this has caused me to realize I need to re think my next year. There are two major conferences, MAFA and EGLFC that I was hoping to get scholarships for and attend. While one is July and the other October I am not certain that I will be up to 2-3 full days of crafting. Given that, I think I am going to have to wait for 2025 to attend. Living Life a Little More Abstract involves pivoting, so this is me trying to figure out what I am pivoting toward in 2023.
I am certain that this is going to be for the best, I will have 3 years to get my house, life, and credit card debt under control as well as saving toward these conferences. Perhaps they will have something I am passionate about rather than something I would not mind taking. Each step in life is toward something, sometimes we do not know what we are heading toward.
I hope that everyone has a Happy Holiday Season no matter what you celebrate! Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract.
A Little More Abstract 