Work

End of Summer Reading

by CZeitler

Yay! This past week was the last week of our summer reading program. We will be having a finale and prize drawing this upcoming Saturday. I’m teaching a needle tatting class to a guild that day so I will not be available. For the end of our summer reading program I ran my usual classes and two extra events. Due to this I’ve been really busy and not able to get a lot of crafting done.

I have been working on hiding the threads for my big quilt, I’m done tying the top and bottom threads together and just need to thread each one into a needle and slide that needle between the top and bottom quilt pieces and then snip any extra thread off. This will help the threads stay together better and not allow the quilting to unravel. I did wash the quilt and it has amazing crinkle. I’ll post photos next week when I’m ready to put it in my Etsy store.

I haven’t managed to make much progress on my second Tunisian crochet square but I’m having fun with it. I have managed to make progress on a couple of projects. I put some wood filler into the cracks I’ve found on my back porch railing.

I am certainly going to have to do more sanding and possibly more filling. I cannot wait to get this ready for the winter. Speaking of prep for the winter, I’m still working on my garage. I’m going to show you the shame of my garage window and the hole I need to fill in.


As stated in my earlier post about how to repair the window, get the right sized glass. It makes all the difference unless you are good at cutting glass…which I am obviously not good at.

My handyman left a bunch of stuff behind that I need to figure out what to do with. I’m more concerned about getting the hole covered so that I can store my garden stuff in there for the winter. I did spray the place with all natural cat repellent as well as a bug spray to make sure I can get in there without any real problems. I’m on vacation in two weeks so I plan on doing more work at my home then, while wearing some very durable gloves.

I also managed to finish a garment which is one of the few garments where you would ask your significant other ‘Does this make my butt look big enough?’ I am going to be playing the part of a mother from 1880s who is in mourning. I’m trying to put together a costume with minimal purchasing so I used an old pillowcase that I stuffed with fabric scraps and sewed in a semi circle. I then sewed a few lines to roughly keep the stuffing in place before adding in some twill tape to use as ties. This is not how you should make this garment if you want it to last and look really authentic. For a quick job this is an alright result. It will cover my entire backside and give my hips a little more padding. I’m going to try to put together my rough costume this upcoming week to see if it all works.

The final bit of news I have is that my local government is going to release a new grant this week for an opportunity to get home repairs completed. My last application contained a bunch of small things I would like to get done and my application was denied. This time I’m asking them why my last application was denied as well as asking for a list of contractors that will do repairs on my roof. I did see an article released about someone that obtained the initial 10k grant toward a roof replacement and their roof was actually leaking. I’m trying to get this repaired before it leaks, so here’s hoping.

That is it for this week. Until next time remember to Live Life A Little More Abstract

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Crafting Bug

by CZeitler

*I managed to update the photos so they should all show up, sorry about that.*
I’m really not sure what got into me this past week, I finished so many projects and started some more. I’ll start with my quilt that I’ve been working on for a few weeks. I did finish all six types of blocks then I spent some time before work sashing the pieces and putting rows together…then once I was almost late to work (just one more row), I finished putting the top together.

This quilt is on a queen sized bed, so the entire quilt would fit on a queen sized bed without any overhang. I managed to get the quilt sandwich made, I pieced the back together and I love how that turned out. I’ve started to do the actual free motion quilting on the quilt, I’m considering the quilting something like ‘entropic chaos’. Okay, now that I’m looking at it through a camera lens it doesn’t look as bad as I thought, maybe once I wash it the quilt crinkle will hide things.

I can only do a bit of quilting at any time because of several circumstances, my hands cannot move against the natural movement of the quilt for very long and the top thread is giving me trouble by fraying often. Of course this is not enough for me. There is a new free tutorial on how to turn corners when you are sewing, those sort of internal corners that cause so many problems. This worked really well….okay so it would have worked well if I had ironed the pieces down and squared the two halves before connecting them. The new instructions were created as a masterclass be Plains and Pine, I highly recommend this! It is so simple how they have written it out!

As you can tell from my Lemoyne Star quilt I love all things spooky, so I’m playing with coffin shapes.

I also managed another kitchen towel and finger towel on my 16 shaft loom.

I did some weaving on my saori loom, two pieces have clasped weft and the rest is yardage I hope to eventually use to make a shirt.

So five projects in a week, that’s it right? No, not really. I also found a Tunisian crochet challenge, it’s supposed to be weekly but I finished the first in less than two days, it was the Tunisian Simple stitch. I had a minor problem with counting after the first row, I managed to correct it and I’m hoping to ease the extra into a seam when I put it together. I’ve started the second square which is the Tunisian Knit Stitch.

I cannot wait to see what this next week will bring me. I have 4 classes I’m teaching plus makerspace this week so I don’t know if I will have any energy for crafting, but if the rain holds off I should be able to sand my back porch some more. Until next time remember to live life A Little More Abstract!

Time Consuming But Fun

by CZeitler

I guess I did not realize that the most involved part of creating an Etsy shop is putting up the listings. Since each item I create is pretty much one of a kind, though I do have some rainbow bottle necklaces that are going under one listing, each item has to be put up and described individually. Not only that, there is nothing like putting up photos that are supposed to show how amazing your work is to make you realize just how bad your photographing situation is. I ordered a light box and hope to create better photos this week for my listing already up then work on putting up new listings.

Part of what I really need to do is create a general phrase for my stitch markers/progress keepers, resin pieces, and quilted work before adding in additional deatils about that particular piece. I hope to have a new shop update and listings updated by Sunday June 18, 2023.

Other than figuring out the problems with my etsy shop I have been busy getting ready for Summer Reading at the Library, and dealing with vertigo from my allergies. Fortunately I was able to get the correct medicine and now that there is less fluid behind my eardrums the vertigo has gone away, being dizzy is not fun at all.

Sorry there are not any photos in this post hopefully I can add some into my next post with my new photo setup. Until next time Remember to Live Life A Little More Abstract!