Sewing Room Injuries

No, things have not been that stressful in life that I felt the need for drastic action. It sure looks like it though. I just accidentally touched my arm on the iron last week. This latest burn is healing nicely. It criss crosses a previous burn. And goes nicely with the other two scars on my arm from the same type of injury. Quilting is a dangerous activity!

It is dangerous indeed. We use sharp tools all the time. Hot tools too. All while creating something soft, cuddly, and beautiful. Here are some of my quilting injuries:

... Burns, as described above.
... Dropped a ruler and caught it with the top of my hand, where it landed on the corner and dented my hand nicely.
... Sewn my fingertip to appliqué (just a flesh wound, but a dramatic look).
... Sliced off the tip of pointer finger with the rotary cutter. Pay attention when cutting and don't look away because someone called your name from the top of the stairs. Or else you might almost require a skin graft, if it wasn't for having a brother who is a doctor who can bandage you up properly. And it is nice to be able to keep cutting and do simple things like flick on a light switch with that finger.

What about you? What are your sewing room injuries?

Big Craftsy Sale This Weekend.

It's the big Craftsy sale this weekend. You can get classes that normally sell for $40 for $20 or even $15! It's a great deal.

I've had a few Craftsy classes downloaded myself, but have never watched them. But in part of my efforts to move through this recent slump I decided to brush the lint off the laptop and watch some. Now why haven't I done that sooner?! The classes were inspiring for sure. So far I've watched Quilt As You Go Patchwork Bags and Improvisational Piecing and Modern Design. And I've already bought the supplies to make my own Tinkertote from the bag class. Considering I've never wanted to make a patchwork bag in my life, this is a very big deal!

One of my favourite things about the Craftsy classes in the focus on teaching technique. Even when there is a specific project the instructors are all about tips, shortcuts, and general guidance on technique. You can pick up so many neat tricks and insights. So, even if you are comfortable with the concepts taught in the class you will still pick up something new. It's pretty awesome.

So check out the classes on offer and pick up something on sale. Sale ends at Midnight on June 9.

Don't forget, you can always pick up my class - Inset and Applique Circles by Machine - while you're shopping.

Friday Favourites - Scrappy Fabric Rug

It's awesome when friends just get you. They know what you need, when you need it, or anticipate the joy they can give you. After the last few weeks it was so perfect to have this awesome rug arrive in the mail.

Amanda Jean made it for me. She is such a generous person and I'm really quite lucky to consider her a friend. Now, she may have finally got tired of me talking about how much I wanted one of her scrap rugs. Or maybe each of her showers had their own already? I'm going to go with she was just being her awesome self. It was quite a surprising birthday present.

Right now I'm not sure where to put it. I actually just did some spring cleaning and rearranging in my living/dining room. So it sits in the now dining room, hosting an up cycled table. It sits, rather like its own piece of art, in front of the picture window. Seems like a pretty good spot for now. That way I get to see it every day and think of my dear friend.

Now, I am no expert in knitting or crochet. That means I don't know exactly which technique she used to make this one (I think it is crochet?). But she has provided tutorials for both crochet and knitting one of these rugs. What an amazing use of scraps!

Playing for Karen

So many people are on Instagram these days and many people credit it with the downfall of blogs. It may be that people love the immediacy of Instagram. Me, I love the inspiration and camaraderie of it.

I follow Karen Lewis on Instagram. She does incredible screen printed fabrics, and even sells bags and such. Not to mention she's got a book coming out called Screen Printing at Home. On Instagram I find her funny and wildly inspirational. If there wasn't a continent and ocean separating us I imagine a good old fashioned catch up with her over challah and tea. And then she would teach me just an ounce of what she does and I would explode with creative joy.

A few weeks back Karen posted pictures of a bee project she has going on. Her contributors are making rows of isosceles triangles, inspired by this incredible antique quilt. Now, I'm not in her bee. I'm quite a bad bee member, if I'm being perfectly honest. But I loved the fabrics and thought this might be a perfect small challenge. Maybe something to pull me a little bit out of my slump?

While I cannot attest to the success or failure of a life changing bit of sewing, I can say that I quite enjoyed a little rustle through my fabric and an hour of sewing in the sunshine.