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Sewing slugs in the sunshine

It’s a beautiful day here today, and I’m making my first large fleece “Hug Me! Slugs”. I’ve been sitting outside, when possible, sewing and stuffing, taking advantage of the weather. A nice mom put in a custom order for two “mommy and baby” slug sets, and she’s going to be knitting clothes for them once they arrive at her house. I really like that idea, and I started wondering if I should try offering slug skirts, or something similar, myself.

It looks like my Platinum sewing machine is going to be in the shop longer than anticipated. It needs a couple of electrical parts, which need to be ordered from the company. Hopefully, they’ll have them in stock. In the meantime, I had forgotten how persnickety my older Viking machine, Sarah, is about thread. She was eating up thread for hours. I asked the repair place for advice, and, oh yeah, “Change the thread and the needle.” I’d forgotten. We had to make a run into town to get some more expensive thread. I’d only recently gotten a few of the newer spools of Coats and Clark cotton machine quilting thread to match some fabric I had, completely forgetting I’d ever had trouble with Sarah’s thread tastes. Their other, older cotton machine quilting threads never seem to bother Sarah, but she wouldn’t tolerate any of these new spools. Makes no sense to me. Ah well. It’s okay now. I was relieved it was a simple solution, and no repairs were needed. Whew.

My usually helpful kitty assistant wasn’t too interested in helping me out on the porch today. I woke him up too many times while he was sunbathing. He scolded me. I’ll have to learn to sew and stuff in a less disruptive manner. Or maybe he just thought I was going to ask him to come back in the house.

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Slugging away

I’ve been having a little rush on “Hug Me! Slugs” this week. These are just some of the ones I am working on. There are others, in boxes, on the ironing board, on the extra table. They’re taking over my workroom right now. Poor little Sarah, my older sewing machine, is having to stand in for my Platinum, which is in the shop for repair. The man who does the repairs thought the feed dogs might have gotten accidentally tugged out of place, a minor repair, hopefully. I think Sarah will have to go in to be serviced next, with all the fuzzy stuff collecting inside of her.

Fall finally feels like it has arrived. The leaves are turning color, and it’s slightly chilly…sometimes. It seems warm compared to NY state. It feels just right to me.

Even though Mr. Duck’s leg has healed, the ducks still come asking for cracked corn treats. We give them a little bit, just to encourage them to forage on this side of the pond and not wander toward the roads in the other direction. It’s not as nutritious for them as what they can find on their own, and you have to make sure none is left on the ground, because mold is dangerous for ducks. But they get very excited about it. I can’t believe the duckling is so big now. That’s him (or her) in front, on the left. Mama duck is watching me. She’s got her baby quacking at me now too. They are a funny bunch.

We cleaned out our flower bed out front, and this little anole has been enjoying the warmth of our solar lamps, which are now exposed more to the sun. He was sitting there sunning himself for a long time. I think I will follow his example, and sit out on the porch with some hand sewing.

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Need a hand? How about an eyeball?

Happy Halloween! I was going to make cat ears, but that seemed too time consuming, and I was feeling much too lazy at the end of the day yesterday. I wanted something fast. So, my mom suggested I just make a big eyeball. Okay. One big eyeball coming up. This doesn’t take long to make at all. You can download and print my pattern here. It prints on a standard 8 1/2 x 11, letter-sized piece of paper.

You can wear it in the middle of your forehead as a third eye,

and it works pretty well as an eye patch. You could also attach it to a headband, a bandanna, a gauze bandage, or, who knows, it might look nice pinned to your sweater.

There are only three pieces. The largest is the size of a CD, and that’s the eyeball itself, or the white of the eye. The other two circles are the iris, in any color you like, and the pupil, in black. I used fleece, but you can use felt, or old T-shirts, or anything you have lying around, socks, washcloths…whatever you like, as long as it is soft enough to wear, if you plan to wear it against your face. You’ll need a small wad of stuffing, some strong thread (I used upholstery thread, but you can just double your thread up), a needle, and embroidery floss to match your eye color and your pupil (black), and some white floss for a highlight. You’ll also need about 5 feet of 1/4 inch ribbon, if you want to tie the eyeball to your head. A short length of ribbon works if you want to tie it to your finger as a ring.

Start by sewing a running stitch, just in and out, about 1/4 inch in from the edge of your white circle, pulling your thread a little a you go around.

You’re gathering the edge as you sew around the circle.

It will make a cup. Poke your wad of stuffing in the middle, and tug your thread some more.

Pull it as tight as you can without breaking it. It helps to keep sewing around the circle, picking up the edges of the circle as you go, and pulling the thread. Once you have it gathered as much as you can, knot your thread and cut the end.

Now you have an eyeball. Time to attach the iris.

Pin the iris on wherever you like, right in the middle if you want your eye to stare straight out. Sew a blanket stitch around the edge, using your floss. I have a step-by-step tutorial for the blanket stitch here.

Knot the end once you’ve gone all the way around, and pull it under the edge of the iris, and out the top of the iris with your needle, to hide the knot. Cut the end of the floss.

Lay your pupil on top of the iris, in the middle if you want it to stare straight out, and attach it with a blanket stitch using your black floss. Knot the end, pull the knot under the edge of the pupil, and out the top to hide the knot. Cut the end of the floss.

Take the white floss, enter from under the edge of the iris, and come out on top of the pupil. Take a few stitches to create a highlight for your eye. This is really the same as taking a few satin stitches. You can see my tutorial for a satin stitch here. Then poke your needle back in and under the iris, and out under the edge of it, to hide the end of your floss. Cut the end of your floss.

There’s your eyeball.

I attached a ribbon to the back of mine, trying it on first to see where I wanted the ribbon. Just hand sew it on to the back and your all set. I still like the idea of pinning it to a sweater like a brooch.

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Chrysanthemums

I just got my slugs and toads up on Etsy. I think I am up-to-date now on my available soft dolls and toys, for the moment. I am so tired! We’ve been taking advantage of the nice weather here to do some yard work, and a little home repair, using lots of muscles we aren’t used to using.

We had some cold weather just before this string of really lovely days, and so we aren’t taking them for granted. I thought I’d better take some photos of our chrysanthemums before the chill comes back. I had wanted to photograph our Pixie Kittens with them, but I’ve been so swamped, I haven’t finished their tutus yet.

I still have to draw a toad for my “Hug Me! Toad” hang tags. I’m going to try to do that this weekend, but I’d also like to take some time to just hang out and read. I’ve been very slowly journeying through The World According to Garp by John Irving, not for lack of interest at all, only for lack of time.

This toad looks much wiser than mine, but then, mine are probably just pretending to be innocent and naive so I won’t catch them getting into trouble.

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy your weekends!