guy working on an artwork they knew would push them technically: what the hell why do i keep doing this wrong. am i haunted by malevolent spirits and such
The first rule of sewing is you can fix anything if you have patience, creativity, and a little bit of extra fabric! The second rule of sewing is AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Sometimes we’re unsatisfied with a thing we made because when it only existed in our head, we saw all the things it could have been and when it’s done we know all the things that it isn’t, but we can’t see the way it expands into a million new things when someone else unpacks it in their head.
that comment about how you should not borrow grief from the future has saved me multiple times from spiraling into an inescapable state of anxiety. like every time i find myself thinking about how something in the future could go wrong i remember that comment and i think to myself: well i never know, it might get better. it might not even happen the way i think it will and if it does happen and it is sad and bad ill be sad about it then, when it happens. and it’s somehow soo freeing
You actually cannot skip to being good at a creative endeavour that you haven't put much practice into. You cannot trick your way out of the 'knows that your work is not what you want it to be but don't know how to improve it' stage by planning or reading or talking about it really really hard. At some point you just have to craft through it until your brain finds it's own unique way back to the 'everything I make slaps' stage and be prepared to start the cycle all over again. You just have to make that project you're excited about slightly less good than you want it to be. (Says this standing in a pool of blood and covered in blood and also coughing up a little blood)
This is a random ask, but I around 10+ years ago you had a playlist that I used to listen to a lot. Do you still have a link to it somewhere? It had Grace Under Pressure, and a song that had a line "go east go east go east"? I would love to listen to it again, but no worries if it's too much trouble digging up/you don't have it anymore. Have a good one!!
Oh!! That's one of the first TJ&Amal mixes, from like 2008 or so. The other song is "Go East" by Le Loup, which I haven't heard in so long. Let me see if I can find it...
(after a workout and getting back home)|
OK no luck finding that particular mix, but there are these:
big-big-truck(dot)com/tja2/TJA7.zip
big-big-truck(dot)com/tja2/TJA5.rar
big-big-truck(dot)com/tja2/LTE6.zip
big-big-truck(dot)com/tja2/LTE4.zip
big-big-truck(dot)com/tja2/lessthanepic3.zip
Should cover a good bit of the old TJ&A mix territory!
VA-11 HALL-A is possibly one of the few games to accurately capture the way that straight girls talk vs how sapphics talk. Alma is like “omg girl you are absolutely GORGEOUS. you are STUNNING. anyone blessed enough to have you by their side is lucky ❤️❤️ I’m so lucky to have you in my life ❤️❤️” and then Dana is like Big papa’s got her head stuck in a bucket again. I’ll see you in the ER. Can I bring your cat with me
call me furio tigre the way i'm presenting my fake badges to you
(patterns + a patch tutorial under the cut, if anyone wants to make one themself!)
Here's the patterns, in both color and symbol form. I made mine on 14-ct Aida and they came out to be about 2.5" square. Tag me if you end up making one; I'd love to see it!!
I won't explain the process of cross-stitching & back-stitching (the cross-stitch community on Reddit has lots of tutorials if you want to learn!), but patches are harder to find resources on, so this is how I make mine:
1. Turn over your cross-stitch and iron on a large square of iron-on interfacing. I use Heat n' Bond, but any kind will do. The square should be larger than the back of your piece by at least 1/2 an inch / 1 cm-- you want a border! I've never had issues with the adhesive "going through" the holes on the Aida as I do this, but use an extra pressing cloth if you're worried. (This step isn't 100% necessary, especially if you're going to sew on your patch, but I find it makes things more stable when you finish the edge.)
2. Once it's cooled, remove the paper backing from the interfacing and cut out your cross-stitch with a 2-3 square border. Sharp angles will be a pain in the ass later, so try to round them off if possible. It should look something like Mothman here:
3. Using 2-3 strands of embroidery floss and a standard needle (not a tapestry one), start "looping" around the plain fabric border to finish the edge. You want to insert your needle RIGHT up against the cross-stitch. Don't follow the holes of the Aida as you normally would; just punch through close to your last loop. You don't want to pull the loops so tight that the edge is warping, either; only make them tight enough to stay in place.
I also never tie off my thread as I do this; hang on to the first tail until you have enough loops that it's secure, then when you run out of thread, go back and use your needle to tuck the tails underneath the finished loops. Trim the excess if it's too long afterward
This is one of the badges in progress, and a picture of the needle mid-loop on another WIP:
Like I said, sharp corners are a pain in the ass. I often have to insert loops at the same spot and let them bunch around each other to make them look nice. If you're doing these badges as your first patches, do the attorney's badge first; circles are way easier!
4. Attach the patch! You can follow the instructions on your iron-on adhesive, but I have trust issues with mine (and cross-stitch is thicker than standard fabric) so I usually hand-sew mine on with standard thread. Here's the attorney's badges with the pink moth from before:
And lastly, I'm using this as my free space for @aceattorneybingo. If we're being super technical, the digital patterns are my fill (since I made those for the event), not the patches themselves (which were finished. erm. a few months ago). I haven't shared either of them anywhere before, though, and you cannot say my hours-long battle with my clunky pattern software wasn't a labor of love.
almost christma-- almos-- almost christmas means it wasn't christma-- 💥💥💥 AUUGH!!!
(patterns under the cut!)
Here are the patterns, in 3 different forms. Tag or link back to me if you make one yourself; I'd love to see it!
There's some back-stitching, half-stitches, and dreadful French knots... adjust as you need. It fits well in a 6 inch hoop :-)
Additionally, this fills my "Almost Christmas" prompt for @aceattorneybingo... we're going to ignore the fact that I haven't had time to do any others since last time. Mermaids soon, hopefully!
dededos
theartofmadeline
snowghoul
ellievsbear
tangentwithtanner
titsay
origamiaround
