Lesson Learned #5

 

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I craft on my commute to work each day via train and water taxi or bus.

Over the years I've learned a few lessons about working with needles, beads, thread and fabric on moving vehicles. (Type lesson learned in the little box in the upper left hand corner to read about them all :) 

I've been working on wool applique on my crafty commute lately. I know a lot of people have different techniques for holding their pieces in place from basting, glue to staples, but I am old fashioned and prefer to use pins - long quilting pins for the large pieces and small applique pins for the smaller pieces.

 

The other day, right when I walked in the office, someone stopped by and needed a report that I had taken home to review the night before. I hurried to my briefcase and jammed my hand in for the report. Of course the long quilting pin had poked through my project bag and went right into my right index finger under my nail about halfway up my nail.

Yikes!

I know it isn't the worst that can happen, but it really smarted as I pulled it out...

Today's lesson learned - be really careful when reaching into a briefcase with a project full of pins in it...

 



 

I think I'll switch to cross stitch for a while...

Blessings, Patti

Another Lesson Learned...

Many of you that know me or follow my blog know that I stitch a lot on my commute to downtown Chicago each day to my day job as an accountant.

Over the years I've learned many lessons about seed beads, needles and working with white velvet while in a black business suit. (Click to read about my lessons...)

Today I learned a new lesson...

Today I was working on a wool applique project. Pretty simple, no seed beads, no shedding velvet. Or so I thought...

I was deep in thought while listening to an audio book and sitting in my aisle seat. I had finished a thread and it was time to rethread my needle. I pulled out my trusty spool of thread and purposefully yanked a long strand of thread from the spool when the spool flew out of my hand! It started to roll down the aisle! I quickly leaned out my leg as far as I could to try to stop it with my foot. But instead I kicked it even further down the aisle!!! Yikes! I need that spool to keep me busy on the rest of my commute to work and all the way home!

I quickly tried to jump from my seat while balancing my briefcase, purse, gloves, iPod and wool applique supplies while scurrying down the aisle. Of course I also tried to look graceful and nonchalant, but am guessing that I failed miserably at both of those.

I wonder what all the non-crafting commuters think of my antics?

But alas, my spool was retrieved and is now clasped firmly whenever I need thread. I made progress on my piece and will hopefully have a finished project to share this weekend...

I wonder what other lessons I could avoid by just being a little more careful???

Blessings, Patti

just a little knot

Many of you know that I work in downtown Chicago on the Magnificent Mile (Michigan Avenue) in the historic Wrigley Building. (That's the new Trump Tower behind the Wrigley Building.)

The gothic Tribune Tower is to the right of the Wrigley Building. (That building is a story for another day.)

Most of my stitching and creating is done on my commute to and from the office each day on the train, bus and/or boat.

Just the other day, while stitching on the train I encountered a small knot in my thread as I was stitching away. You know that little knot that if you just tug a little bit will come right out...So, without another thought I tugged on my needle. Then it happened. I'm not sure how it happened. But the needle came off the thread and flew from my hand! I froze! I waited for a reaction from someone in the train car - a yelp, an exclamation, a "Hey did someone lose a needle?" After a few moments I realized that no one was hit and wounded and the needle was lost forever. I assumed that no one had witnessed my major faux pas. So I quietly looked in my purse for another needle...

Horrors! That was my only needle! I spent the rest of my wasted time looking out the window and thinking of all the stitching I was missing.

You can be sure that I put an entire package of needles in my purse that night! And now when I encounter a little knot, I tug lightly with a firm grip on my needle...

Blessings, Patti