Embroidery

Work In Progress

by CZeitler

I have recovered from my cold! I also got a minor secondary infection that I had to take medication for! YAY!

January is almost done, the world is still turning. Nothing majorly bad has happened, I plan on catching up with my January stitching as I am able, there are the most recent 5, I see that the door in purple is not showing up on my dark grey circle. Many of these are experimentations in stitching styles, I planned to do more with the tree, however I decided that since it did not get finished that morning it is considered done.

There was a plan for me to have inventory up on my website by the end of January. For some strange reason that did not get done, I’m refusing to fret about that. Either it will get done or not, I have other things to work on before I get to that. Honestly, with the illnesses and work I have not gotten the presents sent out yet, that is planned for next week when I get paid. I did get my time off scheduled for work, so I can make some of the trips I planned for this year and ensure that I use up all of my vacation time that I need to.

Honestly, that is my update for this week, I plan to do more over the weekend if I am able.

Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract, don’t let the little things get you down!

Rough Start to the New Year

by CZeitler

I believe I mentioned in my previous post that my heat had gone out and I was lucky enough to have family and friends that allowed me to get a new heater so I can survive the winter. Well, I caught a cold that weekend. One of my supervisors assures me that cold does not cause infection, well this terrible infection disagrees with you, ma’am. It might be the workers coming in and out or the large variety of patrons that think nothing of coming into the library coughing and hacking everywhere, no matter what I’ve been coughing and hacking for almost two weeks now. I only lost my voice for a couple of days, I never knew that menthol dries out the vocal cords, so things are much better now.

This cold has made it difficult to keep up with my daily stitching practice and I have made no progress with the quilt for my aunt even though I just have the binding left. As seen in the pictures above I have mostly been able to catch up with my stitching, though some are simpler than I planned, I cannot stitch today since I overdid it by stitching three pieces yesterday and my thumb joint will not allow me to do much today. There are many days where I have to remind myself that I have so many positives, the negatives are just there to remind me of what I have. Some people talk about having a word that defines their year, I think that I am going to try to have two words, ‘Gratitude’ and ‘Family’. I have so much amazing and fascinating family, I need to remember to spend more time with them, to remind myself and them that I love them, and that I appreciate them not for what they can do for me but just because they exist and are amazing. I also have so many blessings, I am able to pay my bills every month, okay so some are a little later than the ‘deadlines’ however everything gets paid. I have a roof over my head, heat (thank you family & friends), relatively good health, food in my fridge and freezer (thank you to the hard times that taught me several cheap, bulk meals that I enjoy), a full-time job from which I am finally getting ‘cost of living’ pay increases which gives me some breathing room, and so much more. I still hope to get my online shop going, making some things in bulk so that I can sell them, there are a couple of fun ideas I would like to make progress on, but that is an extra. I have vacation time, a reliable car, and a small amount of extra money due to the pay increase, so I plan on visiting with family members that I do not get to see nearly as often as I would like. Last year the family lost three members in very different ways and they made me realize how long it had been since I saw anyone, I need to fix that. I love them, I haven’t visited with my dad’s favorite cousins since 2018, the little kids I played with are graduating high-school and looking at college. It is sort of devastating, fortunately I have the means to fix that.

Okay, enough of my self-reflection for today, I’m going to pick up a bit around the house working on my organization still, then I’ll put a heating pad on my thumb joint to see if the heat will loosen up the muscles some. Until next time remember to Live Life A Little More Abstract!

Small Acts of Embroidery

by CZeitler

As a start to 2026 I have decided to make small embroidered pieces each day to applique onto a quilt top at the end of the year.

I have managed to keep this up for an entire week so far, which is better than my usual efforts. I hope that this momentum keeps up throughout the year. Each day I try to explore a different technique or using the stitches in a new way. The first is the rainbow, the second is the purple flower and the third is the moon and stars. Each of these use the same type of stitch as the center with other stitches such as satin stitch or french knots to accent. This has been so much fun.

Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Happy New Year

by CZeitler

2026 is starting out with a bang. I live in Western New York so we have gotten about a foot of snow, not too bad really. The ice storm is mostly melted away, this weekend is supposed to be clear, and I am warm and safe in my home. New Years Resolutions are something that I have never really bothered with, they are too easy to fall off, often too unrealistic to maintain, and once a problem arises they are too easy to forget about. Given this history, I decided to set a few resolutions that I believe are easy for me to achieve, and goals that I should be working toward anyway. The first is to spend more time with my family and make sure that they understand that I love and appreciate them. My dad was the second of 11 children which means that I have a lot of family. To spend more time with my family I need to do some traveling, which means that I need to get my two smaller credit cards paid off. The third goal is that I am going to try to focus on my business a bit more than I currently am. Having my anxiety and ADHD medicated is helping me a lot, I hope that this is enough for me to focus on aspects of my life I want to be better.

For crafting I hope to stitch a small piece every day of the year, to add to an overall quilt. I also signed up for the Creatively Crafting Crypto-Adorable Stitch Along, which is a different cryptic pattern each month for a year, I hope. Upon purchasing the printable version of their annual planner with 12 free patterns, I discovered that the patterns are about the circus…I certainly hope that these are a separate project. I freely admit I felt very disappointed and misled since I have no fondness for circuses. Despite that I hope that the stitch along I signed up for actually involves cryptids. As far as reading goes, I hope to read 100 books this year, which is my goal for every year. Though I have these goals I will take whatever life chooses to give me and try to turn it as positive as possible.

I hope that everyone has a very Happy New Year, and that you can Live Life A Little More Abstract.

Assistive Tools

by CZeitler

Yes, I am only in my early 40s. It could be commonly thought that I should not need any type of assistive tools since I do not have any major disabilities. However, I have been crafting ever since I was about 5 years old, so my joints see a lot of stress. Due to an incident at work, a previous job, I had to have ligament repair surgery in my left wrist…and according to the orthopedic surgeon my bones in that wrist are dissolving. Horrible things that the human body can do for 800 please Alex.

All of this means that if I want to keep crafting and maintain a good quality of life for myself I need to take care of the joints as best I can. In addition to physical concerns, I also have ADHD which means that organization is very difficult for me. I can put things ‘away’ and have a logic to my organization, however, I then forget where I put everything and cannot remember if I have something or not. The one that drives me insane is ‘I just saw that five times in the past week, but where did I see that?’

Due to these circumstances my assistive tools mostly revolve around keeping my joints supported and healthy, as well as basic organization, or advanced organization if you prefer. I will be mentioning some basic devices that work for overall maintenance of joint health and organization, but most of what I will be talking about is specific toward crafting.

Starting with organization, my favorite tool is this label maker. I can customize the size, font, tape, and even add some symbols to the labels using a simple and free app from my phone. The labels are not huge, however I can easily get two lines of text while still having them legible. I use these to label the clear boxes that I prefer to use for storage. I have also begun using what is sold as a photo storage container, that has smaller containers inside, for storing a wide variety of items. Each individual mini box is labelled inside of the larger container. To keep things in order I have set up a system where each item in the box is labelled on a sleeve, and the item name on the sleeve corresponds with the box label. I currently have 3 of these boxes, though they are not all full, so I have a sheet that corresponds to each box. It sounds complicated, however it is easier for me to pull the sheets, check which box has what I am looking for, then pull the box. Previously I had been pulling the boxes out, opening them, looking at what was in each compartment, and then putting things back willy-nilly. For me, organizing is often a trial-and-error method which is why I seem to be constantly rotating through different types of organizing supplies.

I also enjoy putting labels on several sides as well as the top of a box, that way no matter how I choose to store it I have an easily seen label. While I prefer clear containers, sometimes it is not possible such as in my Kallax Units. This is another way that my labelling system comes in handy. Not to mention my unfortunate tendency to put things on top of other things, labels come in handy then, though I hope that my final bookcase will help prevent that tendency by forcing a place for everything. This will probably mean a spate of attempting to use things up and de-stashing items, however I hope that the result is a productive workspace in 2026. Enough about organization, how about getting to items that help my hands, joints, and more?

The first three items are for holding items so I do not have to pinch things quite as often or tightly. The first and third pictures are items that are intended for people working on circuit boards, soldering, or similar. I can easily use them to hold a piece of embroidery I am working on, some fabric that I plan on stitching, wire for a piece of jewelry I am working on, or similar. The top middle is a clamp intended for woodworking. Since it is very adjustable I can use it with an embroidery hoop to hold things steady while I try to stitch. The larger picture on the bottom is of some ‘bead stoppers’ intended to be placed on wire/string/filament that you are putting beads on so they do not fall off of the end. I have not been beading much recently, though I have a couple of projects that might change that in the near future.

Just today I have been working with my embroidery machine, and so had to discover a new assistive device. I have a small flat head screwdriver that I use to tighten up the hoop so that my fabric does not slide around while the machine is running, this has happened a couple of times. I was very productive this morning and managed to get five motifs embroidered on the quilt this morning…and now I have to wear my wrist brace because my thumb joint is protesting. Of course, I have to wear the brace on my ‘good’ hand because that is the one that I have been using, lol. This caused me to see if there is any kind of screwdriver that I can use without having to create a pinching motion, there is! I T-Handled Screwdriver! I will order it when I next get paid.

There are a few more tools, such as the ones I mentioned in an earlier post, however I will have to get to those later. I did discover that the Crafteaze pillow by Valari is manufactured in India and their supportive gloves ship from China. I have not had an opportunity to test them yet, though each finger in the gloves is finished with a serger so they seem to be good quality.

Until next time remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Good Things

by CZeitler

At work we have a ‘Kindness Cart’ with hot chocolate and tea on top for patrons (and staff) to have during some of our programs. I am diabetic so I should not be drinking full-sugar hot chocolate, but I also have an insane sweet tooth so I bought some no sugar added hot chocolate. I also gave in and bought the new sprinkle things from Walmart, they are so cute and fun. Surprisingly they actually add flavor. I also gave myself a couple of treats when the SpongeBob and Grinch collabs came out from Burger King and McDonalds respectively. I didn’t really want the pineapple drink so I bought a meal that had everything but that, and that means that I did not get the box, lol. While I enjoyed the ‘starberry’ pie, everything else was just meh. The bacon potato cheese bites were just like the potato cheese bites, and the sandwich had no extra flavors to it. The drink may be good, however I don’t think I’m going to bother trying it. For the Grinch Meal I bought the nuggets meal, I was surprised at how small the nuggets seemed. I sort of think I got a 10 pack a couple of weeks ago and they were much meatier. The socks are cute, I received the green pair. The pickle salt was used to dip my fries in, this kept it from being too strong. I now know that there is a free Walmart express delivery for orders over $50 added into the Grinch meal. I guess I’m going to see if I can get a set of groceries that are either non-perishable or that I can put in my freezer sometime this weekend.

Okay, that is enough life and food content, onto the crafting. On one of the Facebook sites I follow they mentioned adding. tape onto their embroidery frames to help the machine recognize the frame. I taped where they did, and ordered a new embroidery frame in case it really is the embroidery frame, as shown below.

This did not work for me. I finally got fed up and used some of the foam board left over from cutting out my vest pieces to add to the opposite side of the frame to boost it about an inch up. This was enough to get the machine to recognize the frame. I created a couple of Celtic Knotwork Hearts in red on white felt. I still have to rinse off the top stabilizer before I add a grommet as a hanger.

Right now I am eating lunch and I have a lovely Firelight Fables candle burning. After lunch I plan on getting more of my aunt’s quilt finished. I hope to have the entire thing completed this weekend if not today. Since the hoop is now working (I hope) each section should take about 5 minutes of active embroidery. The longer part will be hooping the quilt, making sure that the embroidery is falling in the correct place, and wrestling it onto the machine.

This Saturday and Sunday is the Sorted Food, a YouTube channel I follow, murder mystery live show. While I have to work on Saturday I get to see the start, and catch up on everything after work so that I can take part on Sunday and see if I can solve the mystery.

I have so much to be thankful for, family, friends, a steady job, my bills are (mostly) paid, a roof over my head, food in the cupboard. There is a lot that I want to get accomplished, however very little will actively affect my life. I hope to get holiday cards and presents out to my family, I hope to make progress on my business and crafts, I am making progress on getting my home organized. I live in the knowledge that I will do what I can, let go what I cannot, and be happy with whatever progress I make.

Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Wrist Concerns

by CZeitler

I like to pretend, most days, that my left wrist is just fine. I don’t twist it too much, make sure I don’t lean on it or carry anything super heavy with it, but the truth is that I had Ligament repair surgery in 2020. 90-95% of the time my wrist does not bother me, if I fall and try to catch myself then I go to the hospital for an x-ray, if I pinch with my left hand too much then it becomes sore or the joint locks up. Fortunately I do not fall that often, winter in the north east can be problematic, and I am aware of my limitations and try to keep to them. The last time I fell the x-ray showed a concern that the orthopedic surgeon explained to me. The little bones in my wrist are dissolving. Again, the vast majority of the time my wrist does not bother me, however this morning I woke up to a sore wrist. I cannot think of what I did to exacerbate the situation, so I decided I need to look into items that can assist me by decreasing the strain placed on my wrist, and other joints, while I am crafting.

The two closest parallels I can find would be crafting with arthritis or carpel tunnel syndrome. I highly recommend getting any surgeries or medications prescribed by a doctor as they have extended my healing and ability to craft for at least five years. I am not giving any sort of medical advice. The first step in ensuring that you are not causing lasting damage is to listen to your body. All too often I hear people saying, I crocheted/knitted until my hands hurt so much I could not hold the hook/needles. Please do not do this, if your wrists and shoulders are getting tight while you are crafting then take a break, stretch, do something else for 15-30 minutes, and see if your joints are feeling better. Again, this is not medical advice.

The rest of this post is just an FYI of what items I am going to be purchasing to assist my comfort and health while crafting. I am not in any way affiliated with any of the brands and I plan on giving a complete and honest review a week after purchase and then (hopefully) a month or so after purchase.

First I have purchased Furls size-G Crochet hooks. I can tell you right now, I love these hooks. I have purchased them in the past, and passed them onto a cousin that is crocheting more than I am. These are hard hooks, made from metal, acrylic, or wood. If gripping something softer would be more of an aid I would look into getting some pencil grips for arthritis.

Second, there is a website called Crafteaze.com where they sell pillows to offer support while engaging in crafting activities. While you are seated the pillow wraps around your torso so that you are able to rest your elbows and forearms on the pillow as well as allowing the pillow to take some of the weight of your project. This greatly decreases the strain on your shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints. I have tried a couple of other methods to make crafting on my chair more comfortable, hopefully this one will work. The pillow is currently on sale for $100, the crafting variety is about $109. This is going to be the most expensive of my ‘ergonomic’ purchases, hopefully it will make the greatest difference.

A pair of electric scissors. For little things like snipping off stray threads my regular scissors work just fine. When it comes to cutting out patterns, designs, etc. every step is more difficult. I realized writing this article that I do not sew as much as I would like because I need to lean on the ruler with my left and and use the rotary cutter with my right. However I am not supposed to be leaning on my left hand so it becomes very sore very quickly. Isn’t it fascinating how often we just work around problems without thinking them through? I am going to mark my pattern/fabric with chalk or erasable pen and use my new electric scissors to cut the pieces out. Hopefully this will help. The pair I will order are $18. If they work and hold up I will add a link if not I will keep trying until I find a pair that do work.

Stainless steel hemming clips. Yes, I am discussing my wrist pain, no that is not stopping me from trying to expand my crafting. I have been working on making my own Victorian Dress, since I am plus sized and don’t want to wear polyester unless I cannot help it. This means that I have been doing more long hems than I am used to. I can, and do, pin them then fight with the pins because I have inevitably placed the pin heads on the side of the fabric facing down on my sewing machine. I will be getting 40 for $12 and hope that this prevents my having to hold the entire piece in the air while I desperately pinch the hem in place trying to get the pin in.

Tube turner, these are a great way to turn long narrow pieces, like straps, inside right. Essentially they are a straw with a dowel of the correct size to push the fabric through. I am hoping that these are sturdier than the average straw but for $9 I do not know.

Magnetic Helping Hands Soldering Station for $24. This device is about 9″ long and 6″ wide with 4 magnetic alligator clips with rubberized tips. I am hoping that this will be able to hold some of my stitching in the air so that I can do the stitching hands free without worrying about the bulk of a hoop. I have a floor quilting frame out of PVC, however it is too big for me to use it to stitch smaller projects.

Finally, I am purchasing a High torque electric jar opener. Normally for $20 I would not risk this being junk, however Sorted Food (a YouTube Channel I love) reviewed a similar device a few years ago and they were shocked at how well it worked.

I already have a couple of wrist braces as well as similar devices that provide ergonomic support to my wrist and hand. I am considering ordering a pair of compression gloves as well to assist when I am not in active pain.

At present this is a minor inconvenience to me, however, it has given me a much greater appreciation for those that have constant pain, or very limited mobility. It is my fondest wish to find methods/aids that I can utilize to aid individuals with mobility concerns to discover/rediscover crafting.

Until next time please remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract and listen to your body.

Always Learning

by CZeitler

At the most recent Weaver’s Guild meeting I attended we had an amazing instructor that showed us (and provided kits) how to create Huck Embroidery or Swedish Weaving. The techniques are very simple and I sort of fell in love with another craft, oops. Spruce Crafts has a great explanation of what this craft entails and how to get started.

I have been working on some other projects as well, a friend of mine is going to have their second mastectomy, their brother had one last year, and they asked me to provide knitted knockers. I crochet better than I knit so I am doing those, however I was able to quickly create some heart shaped pillows to relieve pressure on the stitches…though they are also being used as neck pillows.

I am still working on the invisible tacking of my aunts embroidery on the quilt top she asked me to quilt. I feel like I am on the home stretch for that, though once I have the last of the embroidery done I still need to hand bind it…what fun! Another aunt, my dad’s cousin technically, is not doing too great so I am trying to get a quick quilt made for her as well.

I finished the skirt for my Victorian psychic costume….I like how it looks for the most part. It is made from Linen, however I was treated to a glimpse of my colleagues costumes and I realized I need to just buy one. If I wear my amazing linen I’ll look like the country cousin…not the look I was going for. I get paid soon so I will order a costume that fits the bill and will arrive on time. I did figure out that I can make a beautiful skirt on my own, and if I rip off the Tulle that I hate I can add the linen ruffle and have a beautiful finished skirt out of linen.

I did have a gigantic positive come out of everything! I had been saving up to purchase some Billy BookCases from Ikea. I finally had enough to get their corner unit that consists of three of their narrower units connected at the top for about $160. The weekend I planned to go to Pittsburgh to see my sister, and try to take our cousin (dad’s cousins daughter) out to lunch to give her a break, Ikea decided to have a sale on their Billy Bookcases. Instead of the smaller corner units I was able to get 3 of their full sized units for less than the corner unit would have been. They are currently living in my trunk until I A. Make room for them, B. Finish up some of my projects so I can clear the room up, or C. A&B Plus I need to make sure I have the space to assemble them.

With the weather starting to change, and a lot of things sucking right now, I need to find the joy and blessings so that I can remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Time Flies

by CZeitler

I did not realize that it had been 7 years since I saw my dad’s cousins for Maryland Sheep & Wool. I also did not realize that it had been about 20 years since I saw some of my cousins. Time flies so quickly and all too often we think that we will have another day, another week, another year to see someone, however that is not always the case. I hate that it takes tragedy for me to find time to see some of my family. I think that this year is meant to open my eyes to possibilities, chances lost, and steps that I can take to change things. I’m bad at small talk, even with family, however I think this is well worth taking the time to work on.

Talk about time flying, I wrote the above paragraph last week when I had just returned from my Uncles funeral. I did not realize how much this was going to effect me, which seems stupid to say. I do not recommend having two funerals within two months, it really takes a toll even if you do not feel that you were especially close to those involved, though I loved them and still do they were always periphery for me. Before this post was started last week I had a burst of energy and I was making progress on projects, this was probably so I did not have to think about anything. In the past week my progress has come to a halt. Over the weekend I decided to give myself the opportunity to play while working on a few things that I needed to get done around the house.

Most of what I worked on were embroidered quilt blocks that I hope to use a quilt as you go method to put together as a completed quilt. I did play around with adding beads to a bracelet, and I hate how that turned out, so I will need to try again.

The final thing that I am playing around with in my mind is doing some wholesale purchasing from some smaller creators that have awesome materials I would like to share with more people. I believe that I would put some on my storefront and then also do one or two craft shows this fall.

Until next time remember to Live Life A Little More Abstract!

Progressing

by CZeitler

I love how my Fey piece is turning out. The wings are tulle, the crown is made from beads that the person is for had purchased. I think I’ll add some red thread to the other side to signify their pain and death, then bind it.

You’re getting to know me and side-quests, these keyrings are my current side quest. They are faux cork with specialty ribbons as the loop. I love how they have turned out. At present they are being glued together then I’ll top stitch around the sides. I’m going to see if my sister wants one of the sparkly rainbow ones, or if I’ll put them all on my shop.

I am finishing up the three memorial pieces, rinsed off the top stabilizer this morning so I’m waiting for the other two to dry so I can do the fold over binding. I’m also using a tiny bit of fabric glue to ensure that the stitches on back will not destabilize, then I’ll whip stitch a couple of jump rings so that they can be used as wall hangings.

I am going to be seeing a lot of my family on Tuesday that I have not seen in years, if not decades. I have no idea how this is going to go. One of my relatives has offered me a place to sleep on the way there if I want to start out Monday night. Another has offered that I can stay with her and her daughters so I don’t have to leave immediately after on Tuesday. So I think I will head out early Tuesday morning the way I originally planned but then stay with my Cousin, I let her know I have to head out at 6am, so that should be okay.

I also randomly decided that I was going to sew a mask and a reversible hat for myself. I purchased nose pieces for masks when they were on clearance, so think that will be good for me this summer. The hat is more because I realized that with my thin hair my scalp can get sunburned easily and I need to prevent that.

I only have two more flowers and two more branches to hand sew before I can start embroidering the commissioned quilt again. All in all I have had a very productive week so far. I’m proud that I have gotten quite a bit of the items that I wanted to do complete. There are other things that I really do need to get working on, putting things onto my Etsy site, seeing about getting a couple of quick makes to set up an in person craft booth sometimes this summer, and so much more. At present the weather is going to be really hot and then thunderstorms so I don’t think I’ll be doing too much outside…though I did finally get my lawn back under control.

Things could be so much worse, I have no real room to complain. Given that until next time I hope that you Live Life a Little More Abstract!