Planning, and packing, and planning to pack.

Whoa! Life has been a little chaotic recently, in a good way, hence the radio silence.

Below is a post I never got around to posting. You'll see why...
 

We are looking down the barrel of a big, big move in a couple of weeks time, which will entail all of my beautiful Stuff being out of bounds for something like 3 months. Eep.

I've spent an unsatisfying few months not quite finishing things, but getting my WIPs into a parkable state for shipping. Last weekend, while the BoyGoblin had the Biggest Nap Of All Time, I finished the machine sewing on the final project I will make in the UK. I know this is true, because when I was done,  I packed up my machine, removed the needle and foot, and tucked it gently into the corner of Stuff To be Shipped. (Momentuous times call for Many Capitals.)

We ended up with 100 of these.

And it feels pretty momentous, frankly. Never mind that we have spent the last few weeks cleaning shoes, counting CDs, sorting paperwork (essential (to be shipped), irreplaceable (to be flown on our persons) and shreddable (not to be confused with the previous)) and revaluing everything from lithographs to lampshades. The moment I really felt my stomach drop was when I unscrewed the little knob on the machine and removed that needle.

I'm not quite going cold turkey as I’ve already started planning a strategy to keep me crafting throughout. Some projects will need to come on the plane, and others will be stashed in the suitcase. Some wull be stashed in the suitcase and then removed at the last minute in favour of traintracks and sticker books, and posted instead. (Its a tough call, but I think Boygoblin is marginally more cranky than I in the absence of playthings.)



BoyGoblin was quite clear he wanted to come
 in the plane with us, but he did think hard when
his train set was packed for the ship.

Some might think there are better things to plan for (job search? housing? childcare?) but I know better.

Bobbin huggers

I use a plastic box to store my machine threads in, which means I end up with bucketloads of bobbins rolling around carrying identical looking white thread – that is not identical!

Rather than risk the Dark Forces of Mechanical Wrath that ensue when the wrong thread is loaded into my usually sweet tempered sewing machine, I have spent a lot of time unwinding bobbins, and wasting oodles of thread.

Enter the bobbin-hugger, designed to keep a bobbin snuggly cuddled up to its mother-reel.

A button, a toothpick, two seedbeads and a bit of elastic is all you need. Oh, and some glue.



The materials are almost as pleasing as the result.

So, so simple, and so, so pleasing.

It looks like a bit of an ugly duckling...



...but works perfectly (and looks a bit nicer in use.)

You could use the toothpicks to hang the pairs on the wall, like a shed storage system. Ooh, the organsiational possibilities are endless... (but mine are still rolling around in that box).