as evidenced by the lack of entries lately, things are very busy in preparation for the spring one of a kind show.

our house turns into a disaster of threads and small pieces of brightly coloured and patterned cloth trailing out of the sewing studio. there is a high concentration around the door, and it thins out down the hall and gets denser again in the living room, where embroidering usually takes place while watching the largest documentary series i can find at the great video difference.

this thread trail makes its way all over the apartment, thanks to its ability to stick to socks and its attractiveness to cats, of which there are two. the ability of the threads to get absolutley everywhere was most notably appreciated on thursday, when a nice green thread made its presence known in ted's wonderful bread, right on top of the loaf. can you spot it?

on an unrelated note [well, i guess humour is the connection], ted has also trained the larger of the cats, wu-tang, to sit on his shoulder like a parrot.



i may not have time to post until after the show, i don't know yet if i'll have room to bring my laptop in my luggage.

for mom

my mom has the most beautiful old singer sewing machine that nobody can seem to figure out how to use. the bobbins it uses are these gorgeous little shuttles that are so wonderful they are suitable to be worn as jewelry, but i can't make the machine 'go' for the life of me. i also can't remember where the machine came from [she's an avid antique store hunter and yardsaler, as i am - so either of those are good leads], but regardless, it came with a lovely oak accessories box with all sorts of elaborate feet and parts - but most importantly the instructions for some of these feet were still intact.

now, if you've made ruffles before, you know the agony of pulling the bobbin thread, and it snapping; also the pain of evenly distributing the gathers along the fabric. the little wooden box contained two 'ruffler feet' attachments, neither of which fit my old brother industrial that my actual brother shipped to me from vancouver. i called up the fellas at bridgewater sewing shop, and a new ruffler foot is $300, so i tinkered for the afternoon [having put off ruffle-making for far too long], and with a little macgyver modifications on my part, got the foot working on my old husqvarna viking!

while waiting and waiting after being put on hold during my round of business-related telephone calls, i was perusing etsy and stumbled upon this wonderfully nostalgic quilt by CarolinaPatchworks. this made my morning.

hats hats hats, and halifax crafters

above is a box full of hat crowns. the craftsperson's life really isn't all that glamorous; there is much repetition if you do the craft show route, but it's nice that i can change it up whenever it strikes me.



i do like the stacks of things that i've made, i feel a sense of accomplishment in these stacks of partially stitched goods [more accomplishment will come once they are done!] and i love that my order of gutermann thread finally came after an odd and unexpected detour to cambridge, ontario. no more running out mid-production - hopefully.

and here's what they look like, though they still need some pressing:




and there is another project which i've wrapped myself a little more in, and it's the halifax crafters.
if you're a haligonian crafty person, and want to get involved with the upcoming super-rad event at the north street church on april 26 & 27, check out the blog that is linked above and send in your application. we are hoping to make this a thrice-yearly event.