june at noon

Do you ever find that in the process of doing one thing, you end up needing to do another? You know, you start with one project, realize you need a new something-or-other for function or display, and get spun off into a whole different project.

New decorative sewing pins required …

… new paper packages, which required …

… little card stock “stickers,” which required a new hand-carved stamp.

I printed way more than I need at the moment because I have ideas for other ways to use them. I’m still snipping them all out.

The packages are matchbook style and made of double-sided card stock that I had forgotten I’d bought and discovered while looking through my papers. I stapled pieces of white felt into them for holding the pins and attached the “stickers” with a little bit of double-sided tape to cover the staple on the front. They overlap the edge of the bottom flap a little to look almost like a clasp.

Being inventive and resourceful to meet needs can be fun, but it can suck up an awful lot of time. That’s sometimes the trouble with creating, isn’t it? You just keep creating and creating and creating….

Back to snipping. Busy, busy, little bee!

(Find more humming creative spaces at kootoyoo.)

I’ve finished two of three baby blankets now, one already gifted and the other wrapped up and waiting. I forgot to photograph the finished version of the blue blanket before I gave it away, but I took a moment to drape the purple one over a chair for a quick photo shoot, albeit in very poor lighting.

The pattern does not include a border, but I decided to add one. (Hubby tells me I am constantly altering patterns and asks, “Do you ever just make things the way they were intended to be?” Hmmm.)

Anyway, the corners of the blanket turned out just a tad wonky, and I’m not sure if that’s due to poor blocking (only lightly blocked) or poor construction.

Ah, well. No one ever seems to notice except me, so I’ll go with it.

I’ve got a little longer to work on the next blanket, so I’m thinking about knitting up one of my all-time favorite patterns. First, though, I’m going to turn my eye to a few other things for a break from all this yarn!

Oh, and look who arrived on Friday!

I am love, love, loving him! He is even cuter in person, if that’s possible. I’m also loving the little chicken tags and matchbook notebooks. So much fun! Thanks, Lynsey. Tweedie will make a fine addition to my collection!

I finished the decorative sewing pins, all 48 of them.

The first time I attempted these, I had all sorts of troubles with beads that came loose, glue that didn’t cure, and messy, gluey strings and blobs that had to be picked off. It took several tries for each pin before I had it presentable and durable enough for gift-giving.

I assumed this time there would be more of the same, but amazingly, not a single bead was loose, and there was nary a wispy, glooey string to be found when I checked them 24 hours later. Huzzah!

I am contemplating fine-tuning this process so that I can try selling some in the shop. At very least, I’ll be making a few for myself.

The next step is making up little packets for each set of 6. (These will be presented as favors at a quilting retreat.) At the moment, though, I’m having too much fun taking creative photos of the colorful collection. They look like cheerful little trees, don’t they?

Hope your weekend is a forest of color!