Stitching for hours and hours...

...is not good for my posture! Aches and pains greeted me the next morning.  I managed to get about 9 hours of stitching in on one day last week!  I don't usually get that many hours in one day to stitch -- usually it's only an hour or two at the most.  I've been working on a baby birth record that I'm anxious to get finished, so when I get a chance for long stitching periods, I take it.  Don't we all do that?

Baby Express Birth Record  kit by Dimensions

Still need to add the French Knots for the eyes.

The blue dots you see on my fabbie are from a fabric marking pen that rinses away with cool water.  I decided to try this pen after I heard about it from another stitcher.

I usually stitch "in hand" meaning that I don't use hoops, scroll frames or q-snaps.  Alot of times if I'm stitching a large area of one color I will also use the "sewing method" for stitching as well.  As a result of using the sewing method, the middle finger on my right hand always seems to get a hole from pushing the end of the needle through the fabric and the index finger and/or middle finger on my left hand always gets poked when I feel for the needle from the underside of the fabric.  You can imagine how my fingers look after a 9 hour stitching session.

I've been on the look out for something that would work as a thimble, but still allow me the ability to feel what I'm doing.  I've tried a small piece of moleskin, the non-bandage part of a bandaid, several kinds of bandage tape and the end of the needle always pokes a hole through whatever I'm using.

Somehow I found this product called Poke-A-Dots by Jillily Studio http://www.jillilystudio.com/pages/poke-a-dots.html and ordered some.  I used one "dot" and found that it was too thick for my method of stitching because my needle kept slipping off the dot.  I may try them again if I'm using a sharp sewing needle for sewing on a button or some other type of hand sewing.

The dot is about 2 mm thick.

However, that red tape they used to seal the lid is awesome!  I'm not sure if it's a type of electrical tape or what.  It is slightly stretchy and molds to the shape of whatever it's stuck to.  Hubby thinks it could be plastic tape.  Whatever it is, it works so well for my method of stitching.  I snipped off a small piece and stuck it on my finger and was able to stitch with it for HOURS without the end of the needle ever poking through it.  If I remove it carefully, I can even use it more than once!  It doesn't leave any color or residue on my needle, thread or fabric.  It does leave a little adhesive residue on my finger when I remove it, but rubs off easily.

 

Daughter's Soccer Tournament - Weekend #2

My daughter is the one on the bench in the bright yellow jersey.  As keeper, she gets to wear a brightly colored jersey that's very different than the team uniform.

The weather was much, much better for the second weekend of the tournament than the week before.  It was warmer and once the clouds moved out and the sun was bright, it was actually fairly comfortable sitting in the wind.  We've had alot of rain in this part of the state, and the custodians were out on the fields trying to push the water off and away.  It was rather an useless attempt because water was seeping up from the saturated ground.  In some areas, the players were standing in ankle deep water and mud.  Not my idea of fun, but I think some of the girls liked getting wet and muddy. 

Happy Stitching!