This Project is Cursed

After I sliced up my right index finger on Thursday, I sulked for 48 hours, then decide maybe I could still sew with the machine.  Threading the needle took 20 minutes.  Finding the right tension and stitch width took another 20 minutes.  Finally, I was ready to go!

And after ten minutes, I ran over my right index finger with the needle of the sewing machine.  Right through the finger, to the other side, in that squishy bit next to the nail.  The needle broke off, leaving a metal shard that R had to remove with a tweezers.

I learned to use a sewing machine when I was 8.  I have been making quilted things with the machine for over 20 years.  I used to laugh at people who were worried about running over their fingers with the sewing machine, because nobody is that stupid.

I am that stupid.

What makes me extra angry is these accidents happen at 10 am, when I'm cold sober and reasonably alert.  Two beers in I can embroider past midnight without incident...

I have used the idle time looking at photographs, creating a Patreon, and watching ALF in German.

The most boring Object I have ever Finished

This morning while I was making lovely forward progress on a new half-inch hexagon piece, I sliced open my right index finger with my lovely extra-sharp Japanese scissors. I guess what's important is I didn't drip any blood on my project, but I can't hold a pen or a needle right now and I'm angry.  I lost a month of embroidery in November after peeling a strip of skin off my left thumb in what I will call The Sweet Potato Incident, but at least I could write/sketch.

But I can still type.  Sort of. 

Shortly after Smokey died last month I finished a thing. A terrible thing, but at least a thing with a story.  The interior pieces were a door prize from my old quilt guild in 2014, a packet of 2.5-inch squares of 19th-century reproduction fabric.  Lovely, but really my style.  In 2016, we bought the rug and I had a realization.

I bought the border fabric at the Patchworkmesse in Erding. It's from the same designer/collection as the squares, which is not a thing I care about but made harmonizing easier.  After starting the border, I got stuck and let it sit around for two and a half years, mocking me.  Parts fell on my head. Stray half-hexagons got stuck to my socks.  I couldn't figure out how to make the edge straight, so finally I ripped all the half-hexagons out and performed the SHOFS (See Hexagons On the Flip Side). Gave it a good hate finish, one might say.

 It's puffy and asymmetric. It will be a pleasure to set flower pots on it.

But hey, I've got this:

It's my third finished UFO of the year, but I can't find the second.

Spring Flowers at Der Sichtungsgarten

Earlier in the week it wasn't too warm and I didn't have to cook dinner, so I spent a late afternoon hour at Der Sichtungsgarten.  Late tulips, early peonies, and the wisteria and lilacs smelled absolutely divine.

Die Pfingstrosen (peonie)

Der Flieder (lilac)

Die Tulpe (tulip)

And finally, something for you weirdos who like to look at things further than three inches from your nose--all the spring colors!

Der Blauregen (wisteria)