Mask up!

Life continues to get more complicated.  There was a day when a gal could just grab her handbag and her car keys and go.  Now she needs a check list: cell phone, grocery bags, reading glasses, hand sanitizer, wipes, mask and a water bottle. This all in addition to the handbag and car keys.  It makes a gal wonder why she should ever leave her recliner.

You will notice that I've made a few more masks.  It started when I offered to make Mr. Gadget a spare.  You may remember the wine-cork one I made for him a while back.  This one has bicycles.  Mr. Gadget loves his bicycles.  He has an east coast one and a west coast one.  Just like me with my two sewing machines, although his bicycles burn carlories and my sewing machines not so much.

Yesterday I noticed that my sunglasses were a little loose and were starting to fall down over my mask.  So I asked Mr. Gadget if he had a gadget that could help him do a repair.  After a bit of searching through his tools he was confident he did.  It wasn't long before a string of expletives began to waft up the stairs.  I've learned not to panic unless I see blood.  Long story short: I'm due for some new glasses anyway, and Mr. Gadget doesn't think he needs to see a doctor for the hole in his thumb.

So the elves-on-ladder project is coming along.  I'm in the glue-up process (a woodworking term that works for felting too).  All of the components are being affixed and the elves will be ready for some serious Christmas-tree decorating soon.  I'll have to think of a way to hold them back until December.  The pub is a possibilitiy.

Neat and tidy....for a few minutes anyway

I finally got my fabric organized.  Well, I should say, some of it.  It's all thanks to the dollar store where I've managed to collect an assortment of canvas collapsible boxes.  They're just the right size for my big cubby thingie.  So now, what should I make?  All of this neatness kinda puts me off-balance.

Then, while I was searching around for an old padded envelope that I could re-use to mail something to Big City Girl (the dollar store was out of those) I found a pattern for a Christmas stocking.  And I thought maybe it would be fun to make some patchwork stockings.  And then I thought maybe it would be best to finish the patchwork jacket first.  And maybe the needle-felted elves and the ladder project.  And that's what happens.  By the time I get to the deciding part it's time to make dinner.

Haute Couture

Last week I got a new phone...not that I needed one.  My old phone was serving me well.  I'm a gal who rarely uses her phone and considers it mostly just for emergencies.  But Mr. Gadget believed I needed to be more modern and up-to-date.  If I had my way I'd retire completely from the technology world.  Well, almost. I do enjoy writing the blog. And I like the occasional texting to and fro with Big City Girl.  Just not the part where I have to dish out mom advice in short, quick pokes.

So here I am now with my brand new phone and, thankfully, a book entitled I-phones for Seniors.  I almost made it to Chapter 2 before I had to ask Mr. G to translate a few tech-speak abbreviations. WTH!  Obviously there needs to be a book called I-phones for Senior Dummies.  

One of the first things I did was make my new phone a patchwork jacket.

I've made several of these phone jackets for friends.  The biggest challenge was finding Velcro in the colors I wanted.  Lucky for me, I live just a train ride away from NYC and the garment district.  Big City Girl was happy to meet me for lunch and Velcro shopping.

I lost my previous phone jacket in a restaurant near San Francisco.  It would have been too small for my new phone anyway.  Sometimes when something goes missing I just accept that it was ready to be adopted by a new owner.  So I hope that person is enjoying a pretty red and purple handmade phone jacket that's been around the block a few times.

More patchwork

While Mr. Gadget and I were at the Calcondo earlier this year I made a patchwork jacket.

It was a rather ambitious project I must say. There was a time, many years ago, when I made most of my own clothes. Sometimes I even ventured outside the box and attempted to copy something that had intrigued me. So when I had the idea for the patchwork jacket, I was hopeful my old sewing skills would come back to me.....kind of like riding a bicycle.

It all started with a vision of something in black, white and gray.  It came to me after browsing online to see what other creative jacket makers were doing.  I especially liked Pearl's. So I searched for a pattern and started in...with the idea that this project would be an experiment.  Maybe it would match my vision.  If not, I would tweak it a bit to see if I could beat it into submission. And if nothing came of it, it would go right to the scrap heap.  It certainly wasn't a big investment.  It would be constructed with fabrics from my stash and a few small purchased pieces to complement what I had.

I'm very happy with the result.  It fits well, partly because the front fasteners are only on the top half and allow for plenty of ease over the hips....which is a great benefit for a woman whose hips are from another era.  If I make another one, which I'm already contemplating, I will make it a little longer.  And I might leave off the collar.  Something in dark blues and rust tones might be interesting.  I'm already salivating.  But first, I have to clean my plate.

Small fibers of goodness

There's a lot of bad news at the moment.  Sad, depressing, discouraging news. But I do have a few small tufts of good news to report. The neighborhood birds have made use of my repurposed Clementine bag o' fiber in their nest constructions.

This morning Mr. Gadget decided to dismantle the annual bird nest at the top of our deck awning. I had admonished him to wait until it had been vacated, and no peeps had been heard for a week or two. Today I gave him the go-ahead. Those birds were an industrious bunch with a substantial construction crew.  When the twigs and feathers started to land on the deck below I was able to see the fruits of my efforts.

Mr. Gadget rolled his eyes when I told him I'd sweep up the mess because I wanted to pick through the debris and maybe take a photo or two. 

Next year I will crochet a small bag for the fiber.  I have the perfect cording I discovered during an archeological dig here in the Treehouse.  And maybe I'll add some brighter colors to the stash.  Perhaps that will result in more interesting debris to examine.  I am easily amused.

If only the world's woes could be remedied with a small bag o' fiber.