My mother-in-law said, “Soon you’ll be so organized you won’t be able to find anything.”

My brother Jeremy, when writing about the sewing machine pad, asked “Where is the snack drawer?”

Clever, clever folks.

This is actually my last post about all the organizational items I’ve been making, because I finished the LAST 3 ITEMS. Have I bored you to tears yet with my quest for organization? Did I do enough sewing? I promise, there is a reason I’m doing all of this. One day it will make sense! Eventually you will all look back and say ohhh, yes, I see what amazing forethought she had.

If that’s not foreshadowing I don’t know what is.

So this is 2 small pockets for Stuff. The green one is for crocheting and holds things like my gauge measure, stitch counter, stitch holders, plastic and metal needles, that sort of thing.  The purple one is for embroidery & hand-sewing, and has things like a seam ripper, adjustable measure, measuring tape, chalk, thimble, etc.  Each has two outside pockets and one main pocket. I haven’t decided whether to put a button close on or not. I think not.

I made myself a needle book, designed from the initial issue of Stitch in 2008. There are 8 felt pages for all sizes of needles and you know what? I own a lot of needles. And many of them are huge. Why do I own so many dagger-type needles?! Well anyway – each felt page features a sewn piece of bias tape written on with a fabric marker.

There you have a bit of detail. On the back of the purple pocket is elastic for holding whatever spools of thread I might be using at the time. Nice, right?  It will also hold embroidery bobbins. Then there’s the needle book stitching, there, I was happy about that – there’s a piece of fabric in between each felt page of needles.

Finally, THE BAG. The bag that holds all this stuff I’ve been making lately. The bag that holds every last little fiddly notion, tool and do-dad that I could possibly want whether I’m sitting on the couch or sitting in a car. Fact is, I do more handwork than anything else, and I HATE continually getting up to get things, and I also HATE losing things.

The bag has a top zipper in a very nice casing. But it’s the lining that makes this bag. It’s got three compartments.

YES THREE. Now, all you sewers out there, please take a second and try to imagine exactly how you would make a T-shaped three-compartment inner lining for a bag. It isn’t exactly easy. But I insisted. One pocket is for crochet, the other for sewing, and the end one for general STUFF like eyeglasses and pens.

And you know what? I’m not great at visualization or anything, but I am quite pleased with this.

Before and after. Haha!

I should mention I got the yen to make a chatelaine in the midst of this craziness, but I think I’m done for now.

You’ll notice I’ve used white thread for all these items. I like seeing my stitches and quilting,so  I don’t always think it’s ideal for the stitches to blend in. Plus white thread for these things – well, it’s useful for me to have clear delineation between the pockets for the hooks so I know where to put them.

Visible stitches does bring out the perfectionist in me. After taking this picture I saw the top seam in the green one above – really crooked, right? Actually, ironing distorted it, it’s mostly straight but now it’s bothering me.  Non-pro tip 2: Think, plan, sketch, and visualize first. Cut second.

The purple one has a foldover flap that’s attached on the sides. I thought it would be useful for small metal hooks that tend to slip out easily. Hard to access your hooks, though. The one on the right was an experiment in using bias tape for the sides that irritated me so much I nearly didn’t finish it. Nice idea. Needs work.

These are, again, quilted. Now for your third non-pro tip. If you’re a sewer, you know they make a special quilting foot (and walking foot) that has an adjustable guide for sewing perfectly straight lines. If you don’t know about this, you can see this miraculous invention in action here.

I don’t have such a foot (I could, but that’s another story). But still, you’ll notice my quilting lines are pretty straight, right? Because I wouldn’t want to mark all those lines (how tedious!) I sew straight quilting lines this way, a trick that’s the result of a combination of necessity, perfectionism and laziness. And if, perhaps, your guide isn’t as adjustable as you’d like, this would still work.

1. Mark the first quilting line with chalk so it’s even with the side or whatever diagonal you’d like. Sew that first line.

2. Cut a thin but stiff piece of cardboard the width of the lines you’d like to make. Make sure it’s straight, and make it fairly long. Or you can use one already cut – for example, it turns out the instructions that come with zippers worked pretty well for the sewing machine pad lines.

3. Set your machine to either right or left positions, depending which side of the cardboard you’ll be sewing on, whatever is more comfortable for you. I prefer to sew on the left side.

4. Position the right (or left) edge of the cardboard parallel to the first sewn line, and position the other edge under the foot. Lower the presser foot so the needle is just off the left edge (or right edge) of the cardboard. Since the needle is to one side, quite a bit of the presser foot ends up on top of the cardboard, the effect of which is that the presser foot will hold the cardboard pretty steady.

5. Sew along the edge of the cardboard, moving the strip up when you run out of length. Be careful not to get too close and sew through the cardboard. Repeat step 4 and 5 for each quilted line.

It was fairly easy for me to keep the cardboard in place and sew a straight line this way. I’ve quilted all these pieces this way with good results. I’ve also found the cardboard makes the material flatter – the three layers seem to feed really easily this way without a lot of bunching up of the fabric, which can be a problem when you’re not using a walking foot.

Just a few more items left now.

I’ve now followed up my much-neglected cover with a quilted pad for my machine, a pad which also features convenient pockets for stashing sewing items that I’m constantly misplacing.

Now there is a pocket for bobbins and scissors. And a conveniently matching pincushion. And of course, one of the most frequently used tools of any sewer’s kit – the seam ripper.

Now there is a removable pocket (attached with Velcro) – a place I can stuff the millions of thread-ends and teeny bits of fabric each sewing project produces.

Now my little closet is a lot prettier, eh? I surprised myself by doing a very tidy job with this. I didn’t even lose my patience until the very end!

Details: This sewing machine pad with pockets was based on a free pattern from Butterick (it’s the Machine Organizer in their Free Patterns section – I think my fabric is prettier). I used felt instead of thinner interfacing, and quilted the back. Theirs is an organizer, I wanted to create something of a pad. Plus, you might as well know that ALL the patterns in this particular group of sewing items are going to feature quilted linen.

Other alterations:  I pieced the front pocket from the same fabric I’m making the other elements from.  I also added the velcro and additional pocket for threads.

One more note – this pattern calls for single-fold bias tape, which I used, but wouldn’t use it again. My quilted pad is too thick for the size and type of tape, and although I made it work, there may have been swearing that took place as a consequence.

Next up is some wrangling with my crochet hooks, I think. I made 2 hook rolls, and I may continue experimenting for the “perfect” hook roll, whatever that means!

Then I found this description of how the mechanisms of sewing machines work on How Stuff Works and literally sat there and stared at the little Flash movies for half an hour. So that’s how it does it! [the picture below is a pause of one of the Flash movies]. The whole article is just interesting, if you’re a fan of figuring out how stuff works. Finally knowing how my machine works is FABULOUS. I’m incredibly thrilled by this, and the next page in this shows the internal gears.  You can tell it really bothers me when I’m not sure how things are doing what they’re doing!

While I’m blathering on about learning how stuff works, I thought I might also mention these lovely pieces of knowledge as well, for minds of neverending curiosity.

In honor of putting in a zipper: the Glue-Set Zipper for a skirt from Sew, Mama, Sew; sewing a zippered pocket into a bag lining from U-Hanbag; a flat fly-front zipper for clothes video with Sandra Betzina on Threads (really the clearest of these tutorials, but maybe that’s the video); various other zipper types (lapped, invisible) also from Threads.  And the one I’ll be hopefully using this week or next, a concealed bag zipper with casing also from U-Handbag.

How dress forms are made -  I always thought seeing your shape via dress form was probably the best way to figure out how a piece of clothing will work on you. Well, this is a video about the process of professional dress form construction. I find it odd they start out as a base of wet cardboard.

Just noticed Margaret Wertheim’s TED talk on coral reefs and hyberbolic geometry, as modeled by crochet. It still seems funny to me that something as simple as crochet increases could so easily model a mathematical concept as difficult to conceptualize as hyberbolic space.

I’ll leave you with this: speaking of crochet, still one of my favorite explanations of how stuff works is the structural/sculptural possibilities of crochet as demonstrated by Jessica Polka of Wunderkammer for a class she taught. One day, I will make one of these. It’s not only useful, it’s pretty!

First up: Button Pincushions! These are not fancy pincushions–not cute animals or stuck into teacups or some such–but they are functional. My intent was to just make the wrist pincushions, but I had extra fabric, so I whipped up a third fat little guy.

I’ve loved wrist pincushions since I first discovered my mom’s when I was a kid – I thought it was genius and stole it regularly. I now have one of the standard Dritz wrist pincushions ones too, but these days the shine is off. I think it’s ugly, too thin, and I don’t like the plastic wrist band. My wrist pincushions are a take-off of a Keyka Lou free pattern. I sewed mine with 2 fabric layers and iron-on fleece, while hers are made of 3 layers of fabric. Also, mine have a comfy elastic wrist strap which I came up with all by my lonesome.

Not sure what happened, but the green one is a tad malformed … I must have stuffed it funny. These little guys will save me from sticking my pins and needles into random cushions on the couch or into my clothing while embroidering … a practice which I’m sure will one day become tragic if I continue.

Second: FEAR OF ZIPPER. These two items mean that I’ve now sewn a zipper into three items in my entire sewing life. I decided my irrational fear of sewing in zippers must end. It’s not that hard. At some point I became petrified of zippers to the point of avoiding them like they are months-old moldy cheese. So here I am facing sewing fears–I’m sure some past therapist is very proud. I’m not going to pretend my zippers are at a professional level, but they’re definitely functional and not bad-looking, I think.

Plus it never hurts to distract everyone by adding cute cat charms

I messed about with quilting for these bags … each side of the bags is quilted using thin fleece. One bag has straight line patterns, the other curvy free-form sewing. Quilting makes for thick sturdy bags, which is useful because I intend to keep sharp pointy objects in bags like these – an awl and scissors to start – and thick sides mean the sharp pointy things have less of a chance of poking me when I reach for the bags.

I’m plowing through these now at a great rate of speed, should be ready to post a couple more items soon!!

I think it’s worth noting that I actually sat down and messed with the stuff (sidebar, pages, settings, etc.) on this blog the other night. I think some things hadn’t been futzed with since June 2007 when I started this blog, and others have stayed static since the redesign in October 2007.  I’d love to do another redesign, and restart the Index of Indie, but that will have to wait for available time, so I thought some tidying was in order. My blog’s making me feel a bit claustrophobic, it needs trimming. But I did like that I put the projects I’m working on in there.

Wesley graduated from the first round of obedience training last Monday. He is now an occasionally obedient dog. I’ve gotten mixed reactions about dog training – you all can rest assured, obedience training does not turn your dog into an automaton and there aren’t any choke collars involved. Our trainer Tara and co-trainer Amanda have been great, they love dogs, and they actually specialize in difficult, aggressive dogs, which Wesley is not. I love people who love animals, and don’t give up on them. Anyway, Wesley is still very much puppy-like and doggy. Just the other day he ate my wallet and license, the plastic on Jeff’s new tea mug, part of my shoe, the cheese crackers from a friend’s purse and an entire box of Kleenex. We are doing intermediate obedience training because Wesley enjoyed the classes so very, very much, him being an intelligent dog who likes people, activity and treats. I enjoy that he’s not chasing the poor cat as much, and that he’s ceased trying to dislocate my shoulder on walks.

I have sadly suffered cooking fail twice this week already, and it’s only Wednesday. On Valentine’s Day I did my usual and cooked Jeff dinner. The baked vegetable baklava turned out well, as did the saffron rice, however I … sort of melted the falafel. I used a recipe. I shouldn’t use recipes. The last time I made falafel I just invented it as I went and it turned out beautifully. Then tonight I tried to make red beans and rice – another recipe! – and burned the ever loving hell out of a dish I’m eminently familiar with and is only rice and beans, after all. I must be tired or something. I’m off my game.

I’ve been working really hard on my stack of crafting organizational items, and am proceeding quite satisfactorily. I’ll have some show-and-tell once I have some acceptable lighting. I am enjoying the time sewing very much. I should do this more often!

On Monday I took the day off and decided to work on a new sewing project. It’s one I’ve been considering for a while due to all the hand sewing and crocheting I’ve done in the past year, and the handwork I expect to do this year.  Over time I’ve gathered a collection of portable tools that currently reside in a motley collection of bags. Mostly, the bags are the result of the free samples that Clinique periodically gives out. This is not exactly ideal.

Plus, I’ve run out of room for all my hooks in the crochet hook roll I made myself. So the material there on the left is for making a new set of portable tool-holders and handwork helpers. I’ve been putting in an hour or so of work on it every night. Yes, it’s taking that much time! I’m planning 3 zippered bags, 2 pincushions, 2 crochet hook rolls and 2 more keepers of another sort, plus a long-awaited mat for my sewing machine and something for car crafting. I’m making up all the patterns – essentially refining the jury-rigged versions I have now.

Hey, it’s a lot of stuff, but if you’re going to do it, might as well go big, right? Plus, this way it will all match!

Tool talk always reminds me of chimpanzees. Back in some anthropology course I took sometime we talked about chimpanzees putting twigs into anthills, waiting for the ants to climb on, and then eating the ants off the twig. This was, apparently, very interesting because it’s a rare example of tool use by an animal. The use of tools seems to relate to learned behavior and intelligence, and humans are nearly unique in their adoption of tools.

In that case, with the immense quantity and variety of tools required to craft, that means crafters are be a pretty darn smart group of folks, right?

Why is it that I always end up choosing green and purple when free to choose any colors? In no other area of my life (clothing, crochet, etc.) do I choose green and purple. Yet it’s always my choice in sewing. Let’s review: many, many quilt designs, my sewing machine cover, and my crochet accessories holders, and stuff from pre-blog days: a pieced quilt top I made but never actually attached to a blanket, a chair cover, some pillows … all green and purple.

Ah well, I’m nattering on now. Should work on a hat or something …

And then I said no. I am not going to beat myself up about this. I know this happens. It is not a real problem and I am not actually upset. I think, in fact, that I’ve soldiered quite bravely on in the face of some disappointing problems that require fortitude to correct. You see, sometimes when I encounter a problem, I solve it by just getting rid of the problem. You have to admit, it is a type of solution. However, when the problem in question is something you’ve spent hours or days working on, it’s not so easy to just get rid of it. Actually, I think it would feel physically painful to try to throw something away like a sweater I crocheted.

The red sweater is a good example of this. After my last post, I sewed up the sides.  As I suspected, the sweater does not fit – the arms are too small and it requires decreases in the yoke. I am going to have to rip out the entire yoke, detach the sleeves and start on this part again. I do not want to. It makes me want to throw a two-year-old’s tantrum. But I will finish. Later. When I’m not so irritated that just looking at the problem makes me feel a little, ok a lot stabby. It’s a long version of that “count to 10″ recommendation for people with tempers.

Then there is the case of Jeremy’s Mountain Hat.

First, I made a mountain crochet chart. The chart is awesome. Then I made a beanie crown. The crown was … meh. Then I started making the rest of the hat, and encountered HAT FAIL. (1) I didn’t like my color changes, and (2) somehow I lost 10 stitches around. That’s right. I went from 72 stitches around to 62. The yarn that I’m working with is bulky, and when you carry yarn, sometimes the stitch the color changes on ceases to look like a stitch, so I ended up accidentally skipping it in the next row. I thought I was losing my mind.

PLUS -(3) the crown color yarn is slightly less bulky than the other two yarns, and I’m using tapestry crochet (where you carry 2 strands of yarn) for the pattern part. Ergo – there’s a significant fabric difference between the Not-as-thick-single-strand-crochet of the crown and Thicker-two-strand-crochet of the pattern. It was not attractive.

So I frogged the whole thing.

I going to start over. And when I’m done, it will be a thing of joy and beauty.

Just you wait.

Ever since Andy Warhol made “ideas without skill” fashionable back in the 60s, it seems to me that popular culture has been playing a game of “skill limbo”. How low can we go? How badly drawn can a cartoon be and still be considered a cartoon? How many drum machines and sequencers can we stack up to avoid having to learn a real instrument? How much plastic surgery does it take to make acting skills unnecessary? I really don’t know the answers to those questions. Every day is a new horror.

But when I see someone who has both an idea AND skill, I’m reminded just how doggone powerful and dynamic a creative artist can be. I’m sick and tired of accepting “half a loaf.” (Boing Boing)

I wonder, sometimes, what value we place now on skill in the current crafting arena, the arena that’s visible on so many blogs and internet stores today. Is it enough to have a good idea? How necessary is it that skill be involved as well to render an idea well? I wonder about the cross-section of skill and art as well.

There is of course value in that I can pick up an X-acto and try something new one day – because we all have to start somewhere, sometime. In the middle is my own sewing and crocheting, which I’ve practiced for years but still, I’m nowhere near satisfied with the skills I have. On the other end of the continuum are people whose practice of a skill go back years. My grandmother, who has been sewing and quilting her entire life, whose seams are a marvel of precision and her garment fitting a thing of wonder. The 70-year-old crocheted potholders I have that astound me with their intricate attention to detail, evidence of a long life of practicing fine handiwork.

I think about the sweater that I am struggling to finish, the hat I’m now making for my brother, the needlework that I do, and I wonder myself about what value I place on my own skill. Do I turn away from the hard thing or persevere, hoping to add another aspect of a skill to my arsenal? Do I place enough value on my crafting to put in the work it takes to be really good at something, to really understand how it works and be able to use it as a tool for expressing my ideas?

Just some things I was thinking.

p.s. The mountain in question, as guessed correctly by my brother who has been there, is Denali. Because Denali is awesome.

p.p.s. This hat I’m making for Jeremy also features mountains.

It was fun. Papercutting. It was nice to think of something and do it in one day. Most of the things I think of take a lot more time. It looks nice with light behind it … so I’m trying to think of a way to mount this so I can have space in between the two layers and allow some light to filter through as well. I sense a trip to a framing store coming on.

While I was doing this one, I was talking to my brother. He saw the final and liked it, so I said I’d make him one. I figured I could handle something a little more complex on time 2. His request was expected – he also has a usual theme that he requests on a regular basis, and it’s not flowers. I’ll give you a hint, his email signature is “I fear flat planets.”

Can anyone guess what mountain this is? If you follow the picture to Flickr, you will see, but if anyone can guess that would make me happy that I got it sort of right. The inspiration for my original pencil sketch was a great photo by birder7 I found on Flickr. This one also does well being backlit. An Jeremy, once I figure out the frame, I’ll send this to you.

Papercutting is fun, if a little hard on the fingers holding the X-acto knife. Next time, I’ll investigate using a thimble on my forefinger. All those tiny trees! The backgrounds are watercolors. I’m not sure if I’d like these as much if they weren’t transparent colors.

Since this wasn’t exactly the theme I had in mind – I have a scene in my head I’m not sure how to execute – I think I will try a couple more (once my finger recovers) and see if I can really manage to put on paper (or cut out of paper) what I was thinking of. Ooh! Just thought of another one too …