The quiet book is coming along.
Five pages completed and stitched into the book, five pages in various stages of completion, and two where I have no clue how to proceed. The ideas for them are just not translating into patterns and pieces yet.
Having said all that, I am in good shape to hit the July 4th deadline. Why the 4th of July? It's a day when we always gather in Indianapolis at my sister Jenny's house for our annual family bocce tournament. (People are practicing already. Yup.) And this year the JCs^2 are going to be with us!
Aside from being stumped for a couple of ideas, there is another problem. My eyes.
I discovered that I could not read this dial on my sewing machine when I needed to make an adjustment for putting in a zipper. Not even with two lights over it and my phone flashlight centered on it. Work came to a crashing halt as I considered my options.
A visit to my optometrist resulted in coming home with a second pair of glasses. They were to be used when I was doing close or tiny work while sewing.
I was amazed at the difference they made. I was also sobered by how much my eyes seemed to be deteriorating.
Regardless, the work is continuing. Saturday I put together a page that I designed and drew myself. Feeding the Pony.
I first made it for Melissa's quiet book during the pandemic.
I even tucked in a candy cane so a little bit of Abby was in the book.
Pleased with how it turned out, I decided to make it again for the JCs^2.
This page takes far more work than you might think.
The top and bottom mouth pieces are three different pieces of fabric as are the ears, all needing to be stitched together with numerous thread changes in between each step.
The carrots (oh, they look sad!) and apple needed to be stitched down to felt and then carefully cut out, and the feed bag needed an interfacing backing to be attached and then zigzagging along the raw edges to make it sturdy.
Jessica is a dental hygienist and she sent the healthy horse treats and the toothbrush. Love it!
As the pony progressed, I was not happy with color of the yarn I'd bought for the forelock. So, Lisa and I went to the craft shop where Lisa found the perfect color and the perfect fiber of yarn.
It makes me think of a very sassy pony's mane blowing in the wind!
Thinking I was done, I carefully stitched it all down into the book.
Only to realize that I'd forgotten the nostrils.
It was too late to machine sew them down at this point, and any hand stitching would show inside the mouth.
I considered leaving the nostrils off, but I placed them on the face to see how they looked, and they absolutely were needed to visually break up that long nose.
As I considered my options, I remembered that I had some double sided fabric binding and could simply bind the nostrils to the nose with heat from my iron. While not as strong a bind as stitching the nostrils down, it should work for what I needed.
Success! I think the pony looks so much better now.
Now, to find some candy cane patches or appliqués.
Stay 'tooned!
