I have been getting a steady stream of comments and personal emails over the past few months asking that I post a picture of myself... ummmm... you guys actually want to see the face that goes with the voice in your head??? Really??? Wouldn't you rather just pretend that I look like Audrey Hepburn and sound a lot like you?
No, huh?
Sew... after much debating and hemming and hawing (and some whining too... RonChops endured a lot on this subject)... I figured it was high time I posted a pic... (for some reason the third eye in the middle of my forehead makes me shy sometimes... it just does).
Let's get started! I had the grand idea to make a butterfly 3D mobile (I should not call it a mobile since it's just one single string but since I am going to let you guys take a look at my 3rd eye today - I figure I can call it anything I want and get away with it). I know there are like 9 million variations of this project out there but I wanted to do something different. It took me about a month of toying around with different ideas until I found something I really liked (I shared a sneaky peepy in this post HERE of one of my early prototypes).
My idea was to string up shapes (in this case teal butterflies (totally unlike me I know)) from fishing line strung up with seed beads in matching colors. I was thinking that just one single line would work best as it's a little bit of a booger to get a mobile to hang straight and not all wonky.
My first attempt at getting the butterflies together was a smashing success (see the prototype above). I used a thicker/fancier stitch on my sewing machine and basically sewed 3 paper butterflies together. This thicker stitch basically gave the center a nice thick line from which I could I bend their wings. Doing this even made it so that I could stand them up if I wanted to...
Soooo...
I decided to get overly fancy with the butterflies (a fatal mistake)...
I heat embossed some of them.
I got the idea that it would be nice to have a lace pattern over the tops of some of them... sooo
I got some spray adhesive and glued laser cut paper (like this stuff HERE) to a piece of contrasting (teal) card stock paper.
...and then once the laser cut paper and the backing were glued together I then die cut them with my butterfly die!
I was all ready to share the stitch on my sewing machine...
...with the hope that it might help you find a similar stitch on your machine)...
...and then...
I did a little test with some of my extra butterflies...
...and guess what happened?
It goofed!
I could not get the machine to advance the paper using the feed dogs!
(in case you are wondering what in the heck feed dogs are...
It's not some rabid pack of dogs I keep under my sewing table (monitored closely with my 3rd eye)...
oh no... feed dogs are nothing that exciting at all..
...but they are critical if you want to get your paper to advance!
(you can read all about feed dogs HERE)!
So since that was not working I figured I would let my butterflies dry a little more and then try again the next day.
ummmm... yeah.
That's real purty.
Take a look at the sample way up top to see how it's supposed to look...
...this ain't cuttin' the mustard.
So what if I have 3 layers I am trying to sew through here that consist of:
1) Heavy card stock paper with a glued laser cut paper on one side and heat embossing on the other
2) Thick double sided card stock
3) Textured AND heat embossed heavy card stock
Why on earth would the machine be giving me heartaches???!?!?!?!?!
Sigh.
So then I figured I would try 3 somewhat heavy pieces of card stock.
(since the lighter stuff from before did just fine I hoped this would to)!
Ahhh noe.
This was a bust too!!!
grrrrrrr...
At this point I dabbed a hanky to the tears coming from all three of my eyes and decided to give up on this project for the weekend and go to South Texas for an early Thanksgiving with my fambily!
I am totally not even kidding.
Since everyone was going to be super busy over the actual holiday we decided to get together a couple of weeks early this year so we could still do our Thanksgiving together!
We rode horses.
(that's DadChops with one of UncleChops horsies!)
We ate.
...and ate.
...and ate.
...and ate.
(it was Thanksgiving afterall)
We shopped, we knitted, yours truly tried to learn to knit (again)...
...and we just basically hung out and had a super nice time!
...and...
One sister talked the other sister into getting her picture taken with the new scarf the first picture takin sister had made for her (let me translate that nonsense... I basically let my sister take my picture with the new scarf she had made me with the yarn I had given her Friday afternoon as we were flying down to South Texas together).
Did that make more sense???
Oh well.
Sometimes I confuse myself.
I have no idea how you guys have hung in there all this time.
You ready to see my 3rd eye?
Just kiddin'
I had to throw these knit olives in first just cause they are WAY cool and I have got to post a GIANT thanks to my sister for making them for me!
She found the pattern HERE (well actually I found it and have been bugging her non-stop for about 6 months to make me some since I cannot knit to save my life).
When I say bugging we are talking FB messages, text messages, voice mail messages and even little gentle reminders every time we talked.
I usually started and ended our conversations with "where are my knit olives...", "so when I am gonna get them", "have you started on them yet"...
...and she still somehow loves me anyway...
So since we basically were rolling Thanksgiving AND Christmas into one jam-packed weekend she gave me my Christmas presents too (which were these super cool olives)!
...and somehow it got even better than just having some regular ole green colored olives...
She kicked it up a notch...
...and made me one in TEAL (the first of many I have been told/promised/pinky sworn)!
Do I not have the coolest sister ON THE ENTIRE PLANET!?!?!
So lastly...
The last time my sister was in town (for the pottery weekend)
She took me to some fancy schmancy salon so I could get 8 inches cut off my hair.
How I let her talk me into this I have no idea.
It totally traumatized me.
Totally and completely.
I bawled my little baby eyeballs out.
So much so that the 3rd one fell out.
So then I felt like it might be ok to get my picture taken after all.
Right?
Yep.
That's me!
No 3rd eyeball.
(or did I just PhotoShop it out???)
I am donning my teal glasses and new teal and red scarf (made by sisterChops in less than 3 hours).
I was tempted to sport some teal hair, a teal shirt and teal earrings...
...but teal and I had a fight before this picture was taken and we broke up.
But we are back together again cause my heart will always belong to teal (and RonChops of course).
So now that I finally have that out of the way... whew. I feel loads better about it!
I'll be back Wednesday Thursday with the results from the image border design voting thing last week (you guys are crazy when it comes to voting... seriously guys... 141 comments)! Wow... I'll have the background samples to vote on too (this might not be as exciting and scandalous as the image borders but you never know)!
So what do you think... do I look like you thought I would look? You missing my 3rd eye? Should I have gone for the teal hair after all???
P.S. After we get this last butterfly project out of the way next Monday it's going to be all holiday crafts from now till Jan! Hang on cause it's gonna be FUNSIES! Honest to peanuts!
P.S.S.T. xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
O.M.T. This last pic is of something RonChops has been cooking up for me in the wood shed. Care to take a guess of what he's making? I'll give you a hint... you cannot hang anything on it!
