Correcting My Crabby

Yesterday, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, there were even white fluffy clouds floating around. It was beautiful. I cleaned so everything smells and looks lovely. I shopped so we have fresh fruits and vegetables in the fridge and a chicken ready to simmer for soup tonight. It was all good and even so I felt like I was living under a great big grey umbrella. I'm amazed that I got that much done. I was SO CRABBY.

Maybe it's PMS, maybe it's the land between, maybe it's yet still another one of those you're so intimidating type comments but boy is it annoying. I darn near couldn't stand myself although I apparently hid it well because when I dropped off the afghan squares in the afternoon - I was too crabby to go to knitting last night - Brenda said that she couldn't even tell. Good. It just wouldn't be nice to make everyone else live with my crabby - LOL. I did sew in the afternoon. That part was very very good.

I thought it would be fun to use the hands as pockets. When I separated the "blue" hand from the original quilt, the resulting piece was almost square. Other than truing it and shaping around the finger tips, it's used as is.

The background of the "beige" hand was mostly missing. If you click on the image, you'll be able to see how I pieced in bits of beige using a zigzag stitch. I then matched the square shape at the bottom to the other hand and curved the top edge around the finger tips as well.

To give the edges rigidity, I patted them with acrylic paint which also painted the white Thinsulite a more friendly color. On the "blue" hand, I used black on the edges and on the "beige" hand, I used copper. Both were then zigzag stitched to hold the edges together before securing the pocket to the bag. There's a snap closure on each.

Some button details were added for fun - one blue button in each upper corner of both hand pockets and a fuchsia button with this "blue" hand and a speckled brown/beige button with the "beige" hand. See the line of black just below the button? That's a line of stitching to prevent...

... things from getting stuck in that corner of the pocket. Before I sewed the center seam on the bag front/back, I added a zipped pocket to each side using the light side of the denim. When the hand pockets were sewn in place, they overlapped the zipped pocket creating that weird corner. All four pockets - the two zipped and the two hands - are lined with the dotted print fabric.

There are two things that I'd do different if I sewed this pattern again. The first is to add length to the shoulder strap. When I tried the bag on, it was obvious that the strap length was designed for petite Asian women. Since Susan is taller than me - which is not hard to do - I added five inches by butting and zigzagging an extension in place before...

... wrapping it with the lighter denim and stitching it in place with a zigzag stitch. It looks okay. It fits with the pocket on the front only next time - the second thing - I'd place the back neck edge on fold to eliminate all the bulk in that section. Whenever you're sewing bags, you're constantly looking for ways to eliminate bulk and to neaten the finished project. A hammer works quite well. Other times, you discover a way only you can't use it until the next time you sew that bag or - hopefully - when you sew the next bag. Taking the learning forward is a nice bonus. When I'm out and about, I find myself analyzing women's purses to see how they're sewn together. I've gotten many ideas about the order of the sewing steps that way. Hmm... maybe today I should go snoop shopping to look at purses. What fun!

The zipper was one place to think through dealing with bulk. First, I basted it on right sides together with the line of basting closer to the outer edge of the zipper than the teeth. Then I folded the fabric so that the fold butted up against the teeth of the zipper on the right side and stitched it in place about 1/8" away. Next, I removed the basting and clipped the seam allowance up to the line of stitching and when that wasn't enough, I cut away the seam allowance under the zipper up to the line of stitching and then whip stitched the edge of the zipper to the lining of the purse. Whip stitched, the zipper isn't as smooth as it could be however, the raw edges of the fabric beneath are no longer visible and are protected from wear. It works.

I was wrong. My daughter did NOT like the shape of this purse. Sigh. Just when you think you've got it right... wrong.

When I took the afghan squares over to the yarn store, I ran into Karen, one of the women whose hands are on the quilt. I hadn't seen her in years so we went for coffee. Luckily when she asked me what I was working on and I said a big project, that was the end of those questions and the talked moved to how she's taken up quilting although she did ask for my email and might somehow connect that to my website and/or my blog. If so, the bag may cease to be a surprise but not likely. That would be a lot of connecting so... probably not. Several people have asked me if the women who are getting these bags read my blog. Not that I know of so they should be a surprise but it doesn't really matter. The project is for me with a bonus for them. I've started to think about how to photograph the bags in more interesting ways. We'll see.

Momo wrote - Try lynda.com for Office 2010 tutorials.

THANK YOU. What a great link. I'm going to look into that more for Word and Excel AND perhaps learning about photography. I'll see what they have to offer.

Some of yesterday's crabby was definitely about the land between. Why is that just as soon as we say we're going to do X, we do Y, or Z happens to make the rest of the alphabet seem impossible? I really want to be serene and calm and patient and it's so darn hard BUT... one thing I've learned over the years is that what is, is. You can't change what has happened or what is happening. You can only chose how you're going to react. I'll keep correcting my crabby.

Regarding the you're so intimidating comment. You wouldn't believe how often I hear something like this. It's usually included in some sentence about why we can't get together and I'm never quite sure what I'm supposed to say. At first, I took it as a fault in me as if I was somehow too aggressive or something along that line however, I've come to realize it's not about me. It's about the other person's feelings of comparison and inadequacy. Unfortunately, faking who I am isn't a doable solution... which leaves me alone. I'm thankful for the wonderful friends I do have who don't find me intimidating at all and that over the last few years especially I've become much more comfortable with my own company. Perhaps that's part of aging. Who knows. It works.

Yesterday, we had some interesting news about my husband's place of employment - the potential for someone else to buy the company which could result in changes. I found myself wondering if one of those changes might be leaving Kamloops. Who knows. It reminded me that the future is always undefined. We only think we know what's going to happen.

Also yesterday, three people forwarded the same information about an interview today with Marcy Tilton and her sister Katherine on The Sweet Spot Salon. It was incredibly nice of these people to know that this talk would appeal to me and to send the information. I appreciated that especially as I didn't know about the salon. It's a new website and online community focused on living creatively. It offers interviews, courses, and discussions and reminded me how much I love to teach and especially how much I loved to teach design and creativity. I wondered why I needed that reminder.

We just never know.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - sunshine, blue skies, fluffy clouds, and mood changes