Somewhere around here, I have a set of bias tape makers. Handy little gadgets, when you can remember where you’ve put them. When you can’t, there is a printable version at The Scientific Seamstress… or there was. Luckily, the Internet Archive has the blog entries (and associated PDF) for both the 1/2″ and 1″ single-fold […]
Month: August 2020
Space Shuttle icon snap tab
If you follow my Silver Seams Surplus Etsy store, you’ll have seen a few space fabrics turn up. Someone bought a couple, so I needed a little shipping gift to go in. Here’s what I came up with. The file is for five color-sorted tabs in a 4×4 hoop. You’ll notice this has a slightly […]
Farmers market flowers
A local farmers market has made do in these Trying Times by ordering online and then holding a pickup time where customers drive through and get their stuff contactlessly. (Is that a word? It is now.) I participated this round, and splurged on a bunch of flowers, which is what I am posting a picture […]
Revisiting the to-do list
A while back I posted about my unfinished projects and a to-do list, so I thought I should revisit it since it’s supposed to keep me accountable. It’s going… okay. There’s good and bad. The good: it’s been pretty good about the small routine stuff. I take my vitamins, zero my inboxes, keep my business […]
Even more dice
I’ve been acquiring dice faster than I can come up with dice trays that match them. Normally this wouldn’t merit a blog post, but I’m going to list one in the on-site shop and see what it looks like in the crossposts. I mean, I’m going to list eighteen, but I’m definitely not going to […]
Arguably the best mail we ever received
Throwback Thurs… er, Monday, to the “box of chocolates”: eight Khaki Campbell ducklings, delivered from Pennsylvania to Wichita. Carl had to open the box in the post office, ostensibly to confirm that they had arrived alive (as if the peeping didn’t make it clear) but mostly, I think, because everybody wanted to see the babies. […]
Special-effect fills with Ink/Stitch
We’re going to get a little adventurous with the effects today, using a feature that hasn’t been added to Ink/Stitch’s menus yet. First, I’m going to prepare my objects that I’ll want to fill. In this case I’m using text (not Ink/Stitch lettering, but Inkscape text) that I will convert to shapes and ungroup (Path […]
Things you probably didn’t know
The USPS isn’t profitable chiefly because it (unique among federal entities) is required to fund retiree benefits fifty years in advance. Because of this, it relies on overtime instead of additional personnel – fewer eventual retirees. Cutting overtime accomplishes the same thing as cutting post offices but bypasses the requirement for public comment. Ditto shaking […]
Empty nester
On Saturday I realized the constant yelling of the Carolina Wren parents wasn’t happening, so Sunday when I changed the water in the bird bath I checked the nest. Sure enough: empty.
Adding die lines to embroidery designs with Ink/Stitch
Ink/Stitch on top of Inkscape makes producing a die line for embroidery designs that don’t have them easy. Both pieces of software are free and open-source, and run on Windows, Mac, and Linux.