'Tis the Season

Look for the November NewFO Linky Party and Giveaway right here.

'Tis the season for sugar fiends.  To say I've been counting the days until I could make some Divinity would be an understatement.  It seemed a little too soon in July.  This morning, my lack of willpower took over and I made up a batch.

You can find the recipe I used right here.  Is it any wonder this candy is called "Divinity"?  Of course, if you're not into sugar, you may disagree.  But I have never been ashamed to admit my sugar addiction.  There are certainly worse vices to have.  (Like Spiro Agnew, for instance.  Hahahahahaha.  Ahem.  Oh, and please tell me you're old enough to remember Spiro Agnew.)

So what else have I been up to?  Well, yesterday I finished up the stitchery for the November Vintage Miniature Sewing Machines BOM.  Lotsa stitching in this one.

This one fought me every step of the way.  First, I had to request a different pattern because the first one I received wasn't an embroidery transfer, and I was loathe to trace all those little details out by myself.  The second one transferred just fine, and I learned that I wasn't the only one who had trouble with it.  Something in the manufacturing process, I guess.  But then, some of the stitching that was shown clearly on the picture of the completed stitchery was just missing from the transfer, and so I had to draw some of it in myself.

For example, the picture showed four little rosebuds at the bottom of the machine.  These were missing from the transfer.  I tried drawing them in myself using a Frixion pen, but I couldn't make mine look any better than moles with hair growing out of them.  Seriously.  Thank goodness for that heat-sensitive disappearing ink.  Finally, I just drew one big one with some leaves, which had the added bonus of allowing me to use a little green floss where there was none before.

So I was all set to start on my next stitchery and trace out the designs to work on this morning.  My next stitchery is going to be for "A Gardener's Journal" quilt by Anni Downs:

Some of the stitcheries are fairly small for this quilt...like 2½ inches x 2½ inches.  I wanted to use my small embroidery hoop for these.  To make a long story short, I'll just say I searched high and low in my sewing room looking for that small embroidery hoop.  No point wasting time tracing out stitcheries when I can waste a whole lot more time--say, an hour or so--looking for my embroidery hoop.

I recall putting it somewhere and saying to myself, "There.  Now it will be obvious (snort) when I go looking for it next time."  And if you've ever said those words to yourself, you know that you have just placed said item into a sucking black hole of you-will-never-see-it-again-as-long-as-you-live.  In frustration, I gave up searching.  Looks like I have a trip to JoAnn in my future because I've looked all I'm going to look.  It's gone to the place of missing socks.  And the corollary to this story is that as soon as I purchase the new one, I'll walk into my sewing machine and the old one will be hanging from a string in the middle of my sewing room with a spotlight on it and arrows pointing in its direction in a sort of aura-like fashion.  And I'll say, "Of COURSE!!  THAT'S THE OBVIOUS PLACE I LEFT IT!!!"  (And I'll smack my head to my forehead in the gesture of I'm-such-a-dunce-sometimes.)

So that left me with nothing else to do but quilt my quilt...which I am getting very tired of doing.  But I will finish it up today, and then I'll be able to hand sew the binding.  Since I can't find my embroidery hoop, this seems like a reasonable substitution until I can get to JoAnn's.  Always thinking, that's my style.

There's only a little left to do on this, but it will still total up to a couple of hours of work.  Still, I'm glad to be finishing it, and taking one flimsy off the pile.

What's on your agenda for today?

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