eggywitch

[eggywitch]

A conversation at a wedding, beside the gifts table. There is a large box wrapped in violently purple paper sitting beside the table.

Guest: That's a big box. Wonder what's in it.

Me: A custom handmade quilt on an oak quilt rack.

Guest: Really?

Me: Yup. Wanna see?

Guest: Sure.

Me: *shows pics on my phone*

Guest: Wow. You made that?

Me: Yep. Finished it last night.

Guest: That's amazing. Very purple.

Me: Yeah, (bride) asked for that.

Guest: Oh, she knows about it?

Me: I worked with her on the design. But she hasn't seen the finished quilt yet. It's a surprise.

Guest: So you take commissions? Could you make one in, say, two weeks?

Me: That depends. Do you have ten thousand dollars?

Guest: What.

Me: Materials, labor, overtime to make that deadline--yeah, it would start at 10K. Might be higher if you wanted expensive materials or some really fancy technique.

Guest: That's a lot of money!

Me: It is.

Guest: Did you charge (bride) that much?

Me: No. Hers is a gift.

Guest: A ten thousand dollar gift?

Me: Well, to the extent that I am part of a quilting tradition at all, the tradition I'm part of is that quilts can ONLY be given as gifts. Anyone who could casually afford to pay for the amount of work involved in a quilt is probably not someone to be trusted with art.

Guest: Art?

Me: ART.

Guest: ...

Me: I also made her a nice satin dressing gown, which she wore for hair and makeup earlier.

Guest: Is that art, too?

Me: I mean, it's got pockets.

[eggywitch]

Working in a quilting store I get A LOT of this. They’re lovely people, but I get asked at least once a week if we have “boy fabric”. My secret: Animals. Every child (or almost every child) loves an animal, and something with animals on it is automatically gender neutral. I will sell them a million fabrics with foxes to old women making quilts for their grandsons—- it always feels way better than just sending them with our one sports themed line.

Interesting interaction on Facebook today.

In one of my quilt groups a member posted some pictures of how she made ruffled aprons for her granddaughters, and then was stumped on what to make for her grandsons. Oh, she thought, custom pillows!

Gentle reader, I saw red. The backstory here is that quilters are overwhelmingly white retired women, and they (or at least the ones who join FB quilting groups) tend to have some VERY old-fashioned views on men and women and girls and boys. (Lots of posts like "what ideas do you have for boy quilts?" and the comments will be full of pictures of quilts with tractors on them.) So I thought, I guess the message here is that girls are supposed to be working in the kitchen while the boys lounge around on their fancy pillows waiting to be served. I was ready to let her have it in the comments and risk getting booted from the group. But first I looked in the comments to see how the post was being received.

I was blown away by the comments. Comment after comment saying things like, "those are lovely, I make aprons for all my grandsons and they love to wear them when they help out in the kitchen!" "I made custom aprons for all my sons, and then more for their sons when they got old enough! They all love them!"

Then, after all these comments, here comes OP with one of her own: "I think next year I'll make custom pillows for my granddaughters and ruffled aprons for my grandsons." My comment: "That's a great idea!"

Sometimes people surprise you.

And sometimes people just need a little nudge, not a flamethrower.

[eggywitch]

RIP Joann, now what?

I wanted to make a post I could copy and paste and or link when I see folks asking where to buy fabrics when Joann is gone. I sew a lot, generally between 100-200 items a year and I don't do it on a big budget. Stores are not in a particular order.

Notions:

Wawak.com - start here, mostly stay here. Wawak is a supplier for professional sewing businesses and have the prices that show it. I will not pay for gutermann Mara 100 anywhere else. I buy buttons, tools, thread, and most elastic here.

Stitch Love Studio - this is where I buy lingerie supplies https://www.etsy.com/shop/StitchLoveStudio?ref=yr_purchases

Fabric:

Fabric Mart - this is one where you want to sign up for emails and never buy unless its on sale. They run different sales every day and they rotate. Mostly deadstock fabrics but I buy more from here than anywhere else. Fantastic customer service and if you watch you can get things like $6 wool suiting or $4 cotton jersey. https://fabricmartfabrics.com/

Fabrics-Store - again, buy the sales not the full price. Sign up for the emails but redirect them to a folder because it is TOO MANY. They stock linen or good but not amazing quality. https://www.fabrics-store.com/

Purple Seamstress - This is where I buy my solid cotton lycra jersey. They have other things, but the jersey is what I'm here for. Inexpensive and very good quality. If you ask she will mail you a swatch card for the solids. https://purpleseamstressfabric.com/

LA Finch - deadstock fabrics with a fantastic remnant selection https://lafinchfabrics.myshopify.com/

Califabrics - mix of deadstock and big brands, easy to navigate and always seem to have good denim in stock. https://califabrics.com/

Boho Fabrics - good variety, nice bundles. I have also gotten some really great trims from here. https://www.bohofabrics.com/

Firecracker Fabrics - garment and quilting fabrics, really nice selection and great sale section. I've bought $5 yard quilting cottons here several times. https://www.firecrackerfabrics.com/

Hancock's of Paducah - Quilting fabric and some limited garment fabric. AMAZING sale section. Do not sleep on the sale section. This is my first stop when buying quilting fabrics. Usually the last stop too. Not particularly speedy shipping. https://www.hancocks-paducah.com/

Itokri - This is something a little different. Itokri is an Indian business with incredible traditional fabrics. Shipping to the US is expensive, but the fabric is so inexpensive it evens out. I generally end up paying like $30 for shipping. Beautiful ikat and block prints. https://itokri.com/

Miss Matatabi - this is a little treat. This isn't where you go to save money, but there are so many beautiful things in this shop. Ships from Japan incredibly quickly. https://shop.missmatatabi.com/

Lucky Deluxe - Craft thrift store, always has an incredible selection and fantastic customer service. I need to close the tab fast because I never go to this website without finding something I need. https://www.luckydeluxefabrics.com/

Swanson's - the OG of online craft thrift stores, but I find their website harder to navigate. https://www.swansonsfabrics.com

Honorary Mentions: I haven't shopped at these places yet but I have had them recommended and likely will at some point.

A Thrifty Notion - https://athriftynotion.com/

Creative Closeouts - https://creativecloseoutsfabric.com/ being rebranded to sewsnip.com on March 1 - quilting deadstock

Hawthorne Supply Co. - I just got this rec and I think I need to not look too closely or I'm going to slip with my debit card. https://www.hawthornesupplyco.com/

This is not an exhaustive list of everywhere you can buy fabric, or even a full list of where I shop. There are SO many options out there in the world. You also need to think outside the fabric store box. I thrift men's shirt fabrics for quilts and sheets for backing fabric. I don't do a ton of in person thrifting and my local stores don't get a lot of craft materials but every thrift store is its own universe and reflects the community it is in. Go out and find something cool.

Oh and final note: Don't shop at Hobby Lobby.

[eggywitch]

how do you do, fellow Creatives™

[eggywitch]

Finished this sweater weeks ago, but haven't felt up to blocking it or taking final pictures. It's hot outside now!

I am still undecided about the collar length (is it too long or not? Who knows, the sensory issues haven't decided yet)

I learned a different way to do 1x1 ribbing that adds a lot of neatness and firmness into the stitch, I wish I had done that on the waist band, I want the cinched look.

I might have better post-block photos in a week or so.

[eggywitch]

anyway you should always remember that all those foreigners you see dying on the news are just as real people as you are who have just as much interiority as you do. there is nothing about you that makes you more important and it is by pure chance that you are not in their position. in fact, this holds for all of history. every person, no matter the horror of the fate that befell them, had just as much interiority as you do. i feel like some people haven't fully internalized this.

[eggywitch]

An experiment I ended up loving!

A handmade phone dust plug with tatting lace and a bold red crystal — both decorative and useful.

It started as a spontaneous idea… now I’m wondering if I should make more like this.

[eggywitch]

that one friend who's too ( )

↑

cutout in wall for you to stick your head through and take photos of with at an amusement park

[eggywitch]

has to explain to someone that last night i was laughing myself into tears just googling “baby echidna”

just for the hell of it heres a baby platypus too

[eggywitch]

Day 1 of the lace cape project! I’ve begun patterning, and my bobbins are all wound for the first part of the yoke— my plan is to do a half stitch ground with a couple spiders and use. Tatting to make a neat edging

[eggywitch]

I’m sorry but I refuse to believe William the bloody’s poetry was bad. Like, have you heard the stuff he says to his girlfriends? “Eyeballs to Entrails my sweet” “I may be dirt, but you’re the one who likes rolling in it” My man is a POET.

[eggywitch]

pretty sure the people complaining that all the available fics about their blorbos are ooc and mischaracterizations thereof have (1) never considered blessing the world by writing a fic themselves to teach us how their blorbos should be written and (2) have not found the back button in their browser yet

[eggywitch]

If you haven’t read the “Bunsen and Beaker’s relationship” article on the Muppet Wiki you’re missing out on a great summary of how the two have canonically gone from “could be read as gay but probably not intentionally” to “we’re not even pretending these two are straight” over the years. these aren’t even half of the entries btw

[eggywitch]

Bajorans and Food

After looking through different foods mentioned in DS9 and considering the environment, I've come to the conclusion that Bajorans are vegetarians for the most part (bordering on frugivores)

We don't see any mention of Bajorans specifically eating meat except for during the occupation for survival. When Bajorans are given whatever food they want, they rarely opt for meat and there's no culture shock about not using animals for products anymore (however this could be because bajorans have been warp-capable for over a thousand years and star trek tends to show veganism and warp capability developing at the same time in cultures)

The foods that Bajorans often like to eat are often spicy or very sweet, which makes it an ideal adaptation to seek out and breed for those flavors (spicy means that most other animals won't want to compete, sweet means it's on the edge of fermentation so they can enjoy it later than other animals and sweetness means theres more sugar to break down into nutrients)

When we see Kira pregnant, we hear Julian talk about different nutritional needs. If Bajorans were evolved to have more protein receptors so they could get their protein easily from plants, this would make sense

Additionally, the internal organs of bajorans are different as well. Being able to cook and eat meat as part of our diet contributed greatly to the digestive tract of humans shortening, so bajorans also probably have much longer intestines

Most of Bajor (especially parts that did not undergo ecocide) appears to be a rainforest, so fruits would be readily available and play a large part in the evolution of bajorans from presumably tree-dwelling ancestors. This is also proven by Bajorans preferring a temperate to hot, humid climate as opposed to Cardassians seeking oppressive dry heat with access to the sun

[eggywitch]

[eggywitch]

Jadzia, wearing the earrings Lenara gave her, because rejoined made me cry again

[eggywitch]

It’s practically tradition for me that as soon as I learn a new craft, I take it and run with it, starting a project completely out of my skill level with no instructions and poor planning. It always goes fantastic or terrible, but either way I enjoy it.

It turns out lacemaking is no exception. After completing 5 bobbin lace samples, I have for some reason decided it is time to make a full garment out of it, because Im insane.

I present to you the fairy lace cape:

The concept is of a fairy queen of some sort at an Edwardian fancy dress ball, dressed in a cape resembling fairy wings. Right now, my plan is to make just the cape, but I may get around to making the dress if I feel like it (and if I can find beetle wings for the embroidery).

My plan is to have a unique design for each piece of the wing. Do I have a pattern for this? No. Do I have any experience making lace images more complicated than hearts? No. Will this be a disaster? Maybe.

I’ll be tagging everything related to this project as #Faeriecape

Let’s wing it (pun intended)!