Check-In Post March 10th 2023

[badly_knitted]

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.


Today's Question: No question today.


If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Comments

[badly_knitted]

No knitting yet, but I'm hoping to finish the first sleeve.

[wiseheart]

Good luck!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Good luck!

[sister_raphael]

I'm doing sleeves too, so I'll be thinking of you!

[spiralicious]

Good luck!

Crafting disaster

[wiseheart]

... or, at least, very close to it. I've managed to iron out the worst, but - as badly_knitted rightly stated - paper isn't very forgiving. The traces will remain visible, unfortunately.

I've wasted the morning waiting for the insurance agent who didn't show up; nor did she call and cancel our appointment, which I find rude. In the afternoon, as it was clear that the lady won't come, I decided to make the binding of Baby Book #2 - the one where I previously managed to botch up a page completely.

Now, binding is always the most tedious and frustrating part of making a book, whether of felt or of paper. But if you botch it up while working with felt, you simply undo the stitches and do them again. With paper, it's more complicated; paper applications rarely survive if you have to tear them off. And I've barely started binding the dratted book when I discovered a grave mistake: I had forgotten to glue the applications onto the base page; instead I glued them together, back-to-back. *facepalm*

There was no way I could have pried them apart in one piece each. So I decided to glue the botched "page" directly to the inner binding - only that one side was too wide. So I had to remove the 4-part folding card (very, very carefully), cut it into 2 pieces, cut off the excess width and then glue them together again, with the help of a small piece of the same cardboard, so that the card could be unfolded again. It was horribly frustrating, and the results are far from what I'd hoped for this particular book, but I can't help it. I only hope that Elise won't mind the mistakes too much, as I don't feel up to redo the entire book again. *sigh*

Re: Crafting disaster

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Aw, that does sound frustrating. It seems like you coped as best you could!

Re: Crafting disaster

[badly_knitted]

Oh no! How disheartening! Hopefully the recipient won't notice, but it's so frustrating when something goes wrong and can't easily be fixed =(

Re: Crafting disaster

[darkcedars]

Oh nooo, such a frustrating day.

Squirrelly insurance agents! Arg.

Re: Crafting disaster

[sister_raphael]

That is an epic save, but it sounds like you've made a good fix in the end. Phew!

Re: Crafting disaster

[spiralicious]

That really sucks. Gluing mishaps are always frustrating. It does sound like you found a fix without having to start over, which is good. I have found recipients rarely, if ever, see mistakes in handmade gifts, even if they are glaringly obvious to the maker.

(Rude insurance agents are also not fun)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I am warming up for spring (even though it's cold and rainy today)!

[wiseheart]

They are so dreamy and pretty!

[badly_knitted]

How lovely!

[darkcedars]

Perfect project for cold.

[sister_raphael]

I can feel spring radiating off the page!

[spiralicious]

Very cute!

[badly_knitted]

14 rows. Finished the first sleeve!

[sister_raphael]

Huzzah!

[spiralicious]

Hurray!

[darkcedars]

Finally attached the orange to the Tunisian project today. There's only a few rows of orange (ran out of it too). Thinking of blocking the square tonight.

[sister_raphael]

Orange is so cheerful! Looking forward to photos!

[sister_raphael]

Still sidetracked taking more medieval model photos and editing them (which takes hours) but is worth it! I've done a little more sewing on the "Elsa" coloured silk gowne and my aim is to have it finished around the body and neck enough to wear it for photos while the backdrops are all set up. I've got a new backdrop which is totally not my colour but will make the gowne pop, so all for the sake of good photos! I'll take some others with a colour I actually like too. The last model was very obliging and five more women coming tomorrow for an epic session. I'm colour matching the outfits with the backgrounds for the book as it works best rather than making regular photos, if that makes sense.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Oh wow! Sounds intense but you've got a good idea of what you want!

[tielan]

I have cut the battings for a number of quilts that are going to the quilter in a week. So many battings that I've run out of the batting material! I'm going to need to buy some more - I have at least two more quilts that need the battings cut - and that's just my existing tops!

SRSLY SO MANY QUILTS.

[spiralicious]

So many quilts indeed!

[spiralicious]

Is it really the 10th? I apparently lost a day somewhere.

Today, I finished the 22 inch rectangle that shall make up the body of the bag. There at the end, it felt like it was taunting me. Everytime I measured it, it would be 21 inches, no matter how many rows I added. But somehow we finally got there.

I also made some repairs to the altered book. Now that everything is dry and ready for embellishments, the glue is popping. I knew it was a possibility and I am repairing it with white Elmer's/PVA glue. It will hold better, it's just messier to work with, longer drying time, and wrinkles. Also, stray glue drying anywhere I didn't intend it to be could screw up some dyes. It will be better in the long run though. I will make it work.

[badly_knitted]

Yay! The bag is coming along well!

It's like that with knitting sweaters too, but the right length is always achieved in the end.

Good luck, hope the glue does the job without causing problems!