Seeking hobbies
 

Okay I've done crafts of all sorts over the years, woodworking to needlepoint, painting, and sewing, used to make all my own clothes from my own patterns even that I sketched out. But my left and dominant hand is quickly giving up the ghost on functioning. The little needles for hand stitching are quite literally slipping through my finger tips. My three year old granddaughter could color better within the lines than me by now and probably work a crochet hook better too. Naturally I am staying far away from our lathe lest I become an episode on some ER show for having a chisel lodged in my skull. And my right hand has spent 37 years as just an accessory to make me look even, like most righties are with their left hands. I can no longer pick at the strings of a guitar, maneuver my violin bow, or depress the keys on my clarinet, or piano.

So I am now growing ever more desperate for a hobby. The work arounds I've been using to try to keep my hobbies have all but failed, 3 fingers are completely numb, the pinky to the middle and the other two only have partial feeling. My poor brain is going crazy from lack of use and I can feel myself growing depressed and frustrated with myself. But the only hobbies I can think of aside from reading excessively as I already do, require the coordinated use of at least one hand.

I can still operate my sewing machine, but require someone else to make all the cuts :(. I lost sports in my early twenties, lost my education in my early thirties, and now here I am just a few years later and it's taken away my music and my arts. And about 6 months out of the year for my gardening as well... mostly because it's just tooo hot to tend to the garden all the very loooooong summer we have in GA. Even my bread making days are over, and any fancy baking, I can still manage a few chocolate chip cookies on a good day, but forget about shortbreads or windowpanes, or any kind of decoration on cakes and such.

I'm just getting fat dumb and lazy it seems. I mean if you're in the mood for cake and you make cute dainty little confections that look almost too good to eat you've one spent a lot of calories making them, but also you slowly savor one of the poor little things and leave the rest alone for the day or fob them off on friends and family where your little baby can be consumed without your knowledge. Versus making a batch of chocolate chip cookies with a stand mixer, you spent next to nothing in calories to make it, and half your cookies are gone before they even touch the cooling rack. And geez I have never in my life eaten as much fast and convenience food as I have this past year... I think you could total all years before and still come up with less than this past year combined.

I need something to do, something more stimulating than playing on the iPad or reading through encyclopedias and really any books, papers or whatnot I can get my hands on. But also something I can do that won't suffer a clear failure, or worse result in personal injury or accidental death. Even writing which I used to love to do, is fading quickly as my dyslexia and memory issues become more pronounced (thank god for spell check). I'm feelings very much like the antagonist from the Conquer Worm :p or maybe just wishing I were.

Bless your Heart
 

My mom has vision loss, she had to give up her sewing, gardening for the most part, still can cook & bake w/ special magnifier for recipes..
We are trying to think of activities she can do at home too, it is hard to come up with ideas..

Hmmmm.... such a tricky thing, when it comes to vision loss... it's harder to aquire new skills when you can't see well enough to read the directions and when working with something unfamiliar. If it was the eyes going on me rather than the hands, I could still play my instruments, or knit and crochet and some hand embroidery, like sashiko that's done in repetition more on feel than staring it down, but only because of how long I've been doing it. I couldn't imagine trying to learn a new craft without being able to see what I'm doing. Not that one couldn't learn, there's plenty of blind people out there who can sew, knit and crochet, even paint but it's been my experience that the ones who have an easier time of it were either born blind or lost their vision very early in life, once we gain that dependency on sight it becomes our all.

I suppose I should be glad it's the hands and not the eyes all the same... I can still read as much as I like to at least keep my brain from going completely idle, and I'm sure with that reading I'll eventually come across some sort of solution to my current predicament.... speaking of which I wonder how deft your hands must be to do bobbin lace? I've never tried it before, but I can tie my shoes with my right hand only because of the number of times I've injured the left and a general despising of slip on or velcroed shoes, just need to be able to get the pins into the pillow or board, and print out my patterns rather than drawing them... I don't really care for lace on the whole, but I do have a GD who would probably be able to put it to good use. Now is it worth the $40 for bobbins to find out?

Ahhh... better still, before spending the money I could probably fashion a close enough proximity to a bobbin from some old pencils and rubber bands. Yiiippppeeee a project!!!

Have you tried paracord braiding?

I know you're having problems with your hands, but so was I when I started trying out paracord braiding. I was basically using it as a physical therapy.

It's kind of like macrame...actually, it is macrame, just on a smaller scale. You can use just about any thickness of cord you want. The thicker cords might be easier for numb fingers to maneuver.

linky 1

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youtube linky

Wow that really takes me back to the totally 80's friendship bracelets :p Gosh I must have made thousands out of embroidery thread back when I was a kid. And the 90's hemp bracelets and necklaces... but I never thought of doing it out of paracording before.... what do you do with them when you're done though? Untie and try another knotting? Make a rug? Dog collars? :confused: I can't picture tying paracord around my wrist or neck, though I believe I have some left over from my camping days to play with.

I'll have to hunt it up tomorrow afternoon, sort of fighting with the DH tonight so I'm naturally suffering the effects of insomnia while he's blissfully asleep. Hot day, had to go food shopping and my wheelchair had a flat tire, I didn't want to use the store chair, silly of me I know but I despise the motorized carts especially when I have tunnel vision and poor coordination now, and he had a bad day because his work kept bothering him even though he was off and we both just basically got snippy with each other. Which even carried over when we got back home and he criticized my attempts at putting groceries away which was really just succeeding in throwing half of them on the floor because left hand kept reaching to grab stuff though it can't hold anything. And he thought I was throwing them on purpose thinking I was still mad at him... honestly I was ready to bean him by the end of it.

Hot, tired, sore and my left hand refused to listen to me and stop picking things up, while my right hand just sat idly by, not even trying to help. But then to I was rushing to get things put up because I was hot, tired and hurting and wanting nothing more than to hop in a nice cold shower and lay down, so I wasn't focusing enough on which hand was doing the work till the bread when skittering across the floor, followed by the DH's soda, the cats food, the DH's chips and when I reached for the meats he stopped me and kicked me out of the kitchen. And from there we've been in the silently seething at each other point of our argument and to which tomorrow afternoon he'll call me to apologize while he's at work and I'll feel guilty for having never once in 17 years of marriage being the first one to apologize and after dinner tomorrow we'll be cuddled up on the couch together like the whole day never happened, and once more I won't have learned my lesson to simply say I'm sorry first so I can get a good nights rest, because he always lets me win any argument... sooooo infuriating.

This is why I need hobbies!!! I need challenges and conflicts... better they occur by paint brush or thread than my poor DH, who agrees that a bored me is a very very stubborn and ever so much a *^%#~ me.

I made a few bracelets, a heck of a lot of keychains, and I was going to start trying actual macrame with actual macrame cord when exboyfriend dumped me and I basically ran out of steam on all my hobbies for a long time. (he dumped me in 2014, it's taken me a bit to start back up with any enthusiasm. MS has also kind of sucked the crafting enthusiasm out of me for a bit too)

I'd really like to get back to playing with paracord and trying out some macrame cord but since my dad died in April I just haven't had time, or money to do much with the hobbies. I'm trying to work on a scrap afghan right now, but haven't really gotten all that far. Been mostly trying to help my mom who's been super depressed about my dad. Usually I'll sit down to start crocheting, and I think that's when my mom takes her cue to start picking on me because she's sad and bored.

I found several packages of keyrings the other day in my desk. I keep hoping I'll find a magic stash of paracord, so far nothing. I did play around with some crochet thread (not really thread, it's cotton yarn that's a step down from worsted weight) and the knots that the paracord braiding uses. At least the cotton yarn was easier on the fingers than the paracord is.

Well couldn't find any paracord laying around the house, but I have combined the "lace bobbin" technique with some old embroidery thread and am finding that I can make little friendship bracelets with it. Just used pencils and elastics to hold the skinny threads that I otherwise would have a problem in manipulating and I can "weave" away.

So the next thing I guess is convincing the DH or my mom to make me some bobbins out of our scrap wood. Saving myself a pretty penny on buying them and also hopefully making them so they can clip into my sewing machine's bobbin winder so I can wind them easily.

You never sound like a "directions" person. You sound smart, go on your own paths. I have no hobbies, use Trivia (you are on list - PM me (I'm administrator) if you want to, yet have a problem getting on. - there's one of things/tasks I set for myself) of things I don't know to investigate that area more. On computer you can make print bigger when that's an issue. I have no set hobbies, tend to meander in all different directions as they arise. What interests me today, may not tomorrow.

-you can go places like museums, etc. on computer
- take courses.

Play to find stuff you like.

I read quotes once in awhile, TS Eliot, etc. No two days alike.

Yeah, not real big on "following directions" in most cases :D To me they're more guidelines when I'm given directions. I used to play a lot of trivia games, but they do tend to get boring after awhile... even though I'm losing it some I do still have a pretty decent memory for weird trivia, so all my trivial pursuit type games are now out the window, Q and As are all memorized enough to not make them a challenge and I run into the same thing with apps, run through the question database once and thats kind of it.

I do love foreign languages though so I've returned to learning Japanese, already have gone pretty much as far as I can with French and German short of moving to one country or another or at least finding a good friend from one. And I'm thinking of trying Portuguese next, we'll see if I'm able to gain a reading profiency with Japanese first, right now I know it better by ear than character, though I can sound out and somewhat translate if it's in hiragana, and I know about half the katakana characters which are primarily used for spelling foreign words, but once you move into kanji I'm lost aside from 人 person and the numbers up to ten. But oddly enough I find it helps my dyslexia some learning Japanese, from learning it I'm able sound English words out a little bit, something I was never able to do before. Mines kind of weird because I could read long before being taught to "read" I just could never read aloud, my brain kind of made its own sounds for the words but was able to maintain the meaning.

So at four years old I could see the word feline and understand it meant cat, but couldn't sound out the word not even the starting sound, could write it down but couldn't even speak the letters in order to spell it aloud with it in front of me, my brain just kind of made its own sound for it. But I could define it, and learned how to say it by someone else reading it to me, then it would go "click" okay, so that's the word sound that matches this 'picture'. That's been the norm for me all along until learning Japanese, something about their different characters just seems to make sense in my brain at least with the phonetic writing (hiragana and katakana), probably because they don't change sounds "せ" is "se" no matter where in the word and no matter the letters that surround it. And I couldn't even tell you if the e is short or long vowel sound other than to say that it sounds like you're saying "s-eh".

Either way it's fun... but kind of hard to dedicate enough time to learning it to stave off boredom. At most I can dedicate maybe 2-3 hours broken up throughout the day to it, but trying for anymore than that and the brain gets fried, jumbled up, confused and spits it all out. So I try to keep it to no more than an hour or so a day, aside from listening to it... I can watch anime and jdramas (sooo cheesy, like really b-list 80's but funny) all day long. Okay "watching" may be a strong word, but I can have it as background noise all day long and glance at on occasion, I just don't like watching tv that much, two shows, NCIS and Big Bang Theory and more the latter, I'm fine with missing a few episodes of NCIS, but I love BBT (Sheldon's my hero!!!)

Hi Starz! Finding things to occupy our time is tough some days. You are very creative and innovative so I'm sure you will be able to figure something out so you can continue some of your hobbies. Check out some of the assistive things online, like grabber gloves, as you may be able to purchase them or get ideas on making your own.

Have you tried clay or plastering? You can make it as easy or as hard as you want. It can be inexpensive or expensive and everything in between. Making your own would be an inexpensive way to try it out. Pinterest has lots of recipes besides the standard salt dough. You can purchase silicone candy molds to press the dough into. You can color the clay so you don't have to paint it. You can make a bunch as Christmas ornaments and give them away or sell them at a bizarre, craft fair, or even a garage sale.

You also may be able to do some paper crafts/scrapbooking. YouTube has a ton of videos you can view to see if you think you would be able to do some. Paper is cheap! Plus, there's all sorts of paper trimmers, scorers, and rotary cutters that you may be able to safely use.

Those are just a couple of things I thought of right now. If I think if more I'll let you know.

I've always wanted to take up birdwatching or photography. Those would be pretty easy to get into.

I spend a lot of time in my garden when it's not hot as well. I like to take photos of my flowers. If you can have raised garden beds it's easier to maintain them as well.

I do love gardening and have some nice raised beds as well as just regular beds throughout my garden but it just get sooooooooo hot down here, that I really can only care for the garden in early spring and late fall through the winter... good thing is snow doesn't cover everything down here in the winter and some plants will still grow so I don't have to worry about things to do come winter normally. I also have a great dsrl camera my DH got me, but once again the heat kills me in the summer so the camera sits on the shelf throughout the summer months unless I make a trip to NH.

I will have to look into playing with some pottery though... I used to do a lot of pottery when I was younger, heck my mom had a whole China cabinet filled with my works before we moved from NH to GA, then unfortunately like so many other things we had they we sold off to help pay for the move :(, bankruptcy bites let me tell you... but I hadn't really played around with it since the move over 20 years ago, short of salt dough ornaments with the GB last Christmas and i think one school project after we moved... though thinking of it... that was before the move.... anatomical figure of a bottlenosed dolphin :D easiest A I ever got... it was erosion and stream patterns down here :rolleyes: dirt was free.

But yeah, I could see giving pottery another whirl (both figuratively and literally :p) and if the cheaper doughs work out, I can always have the DH build me a nice little wood burning kiln... we always have plenty of brush to burn why let the energy of burning it go to waste... and I would like some new dishes, we just have the simple white Corneille ones right now, and there's tons of different dip dyes out there for ceramics along with different stamps for making patterns in the wet clay...ok creative mind is churning up a storm now and excitement is building over possibly making my own dinnerware again. THANKS :hug:

Oh the poor DH, he's not going to be thrilled with me for a bit... got to thinking about the gardening dilemma down here and now trying to convince him to build me a garden on my kitchen wall lol. I've seen a few different ideas like using mason jars that would be water tight so as to not flood my kitchen every time the plants need water to setting up water tight boxes and attaching them too the wall.

A nice plant light (which they make in LED form now) overtop the "wall" of plants and I can grow everything from strawberries to lettuce bug and heat free and all throughout the year... another option is turning the aquarium in our living room into a hydroponic garden wouldn't even need to worry about fertilizer with the little fishies keeping the plants well fed while the plants keep the tank clean. And all the while the plants can help keep the air in the house nice and fresh too.

Plus if I get into pottery again, I can make my own planters too... poor DH is going to have quite the little projects ahead for him, now I just wonder if I can bring him over to my side of it being a good idea by telling him I'll stop asking for an addition window in our kitchen and we'll make the plant wall where I wanted the window to go lol. Though I might have to offer more compromises if I want my garden to be rotating (pulley like system so I can move the plants on top down to a place easy to reach to tend to them)

I think a locking bicycle chain and gear would work for that... maybe even find some old peddles so it can be hand wheeled to rotate the garden around as I need to and hang the whole thing from the ceiling almost against the wall... hmmm need to work out the particulars still... but I'm thinking this could work... providing the DH is willing to put in the initial grunt work... failing fancy gear works, I suppose my mom and I could just make something and put it up and "surprise" him when he gets home one day lol.

What is it they say, easier to seek forgiveness than permission?

Awesome! It sounds like you have found your new/renewed hobbies. You will have to take pictures as the project progresses and post them here for us to see. :hug:

Well DH is so far saying no on my ideas for a wall garden, but he did send me to michaels carte blanche so I picked up a few different crafty things, mostly silly little kits to try out some new things... Needle Felting is my favorite new craft :D. I can do it with either hand...it's not much different than sculpting with clay aside from the numerous pokes you're making but requires less deft fingers than clay work. No waiting for it to dry, or kiln required and I can make pictures by felting 2D or sculptures in 3D all with the same needles and wool... I can even start saving my cats fur to wash, card and then felt:p. And I'm actually considering going to the local pet groomers and seeing if they won't bag up some fur for me from when they groom. In which case it'll be free minus some soap and dyes.

Hey less bags in the local landfill and free "wool" for me, sounds like a win/win to me. What exactly I'll do with pictures no doubt aplenty and tons of little sculpted animals I'm not real sure yet, but I figure I need to get my supply line down before worrying about it too much, even though the wool roving is pretty cheap too, 200 grams for $10 plain and 100 for $10 colored, still if it's free off the groomers floor why pay for it? And there's a few natural dyes I can gather up from my garden soooo even that would be free minus the $1.00 a gallon vinegar and some water.

So far in from just a bit in the morning I've managed to roughly shape the fox's tail from the kit I bought, isn't it cute? Needs a bit more shaping and a few more wisps of white at the end, but don't think it's all bad for a first time attempt:rolleyes:

you might like this

I've never needle felted, not sure if I would like it. It looks kind of cool though.

Using dryer lint made paper for fun. (have to admit, I've had better fun!!!:D

My little fox is done... for now at least I might play with it some more since the wars came out a little too big and the tail could be a bit fluffier.

How cute, Starz!! I'm so glad you found a new hobby and enjoying it. I have heard of felting but don't know much about it. I'll have to check out some YouTube videos on it.

I like Kickers idea of using dryer lint. You can accumulate a bunch of it.

For those of you who like animals... there is a wonderful live safari
on YouTube you can access. They stream 6 hrs a day divided into
sunrise and sunset. The guides are very knowledgeable and the animals spectacular.

I am making screenshots for my future and present art work.
It is rather like birdwatching with professionals too, as lots of birds are shown and explained.

Streamed from Djuma reserve in the Kruger Park, S. Africa and newly established at Mara reserve in Kenya.
Facebook:
safariLIVE - Home | Facebook

Youtube: example
these are shown each day after the drives end. You can search by subject as some partial videos of special interest are posted separately than the daily ones.
Safari Live : The Nkuhuma Pride, Lost cubs found on drive this afternoon Sept 9, 216 - YouTube
This one is from Sept 2016 when the young cubs were lost and then reunited with their mums.

The Djuma videos of S. Africa are not really often showing deaths of animals or other distressing situations. I just move the YouTube progress bar along and skip what I rather not see.
The Mara Kenya is much more graphic, but the videos of the landscapes and massive animal migration are stunning.

Since I will never be able to go on a live safari, I find these videos really interesting and helpful for me. The day passes really quickly when I attend to these digital safaris! The Djuma part gets up close and personal to the most amazing events and baby animals.

Another member here suggested SafariLive to me since I am mostly homebound now with my lupus and pain, etc.

Here are two graphite drawings I have done from screenshots. The first one is of a lioness introducing her new cubs to the pride. The second one is of the cape buffalo which are so ugly and mean they become interesting! The standing one has 3 oxpecker birds grooming it.

I do love animals... my favorite place to be when it's cool out is down at our local zoo, we even have the annual passes and have ridden the train so many times that we have the whole spiel memorized and even know most of the conductors by name... worse still they know us by name :p, at least I never have to fear losing the GB even if it is in Jacksonville, since EVERYONE there knows she belongs to us LOL. Funny story actually is that my DSD decided to take the GB down one time without us, and the zoo officials very politely questioned the GB about "Where's your nama today?... Are you having fun with your...mommy???" hand's on their radios ready to call it in. The daughter was completely embarrassed, and more than a little miffed...while the GB who doesn't have a shy bone in her body was quite happy to tell them where I was and where Nampa was and why she was at the zoo with mommy.

She called me to complain after her fifth time being stopped by employees and I just explained to her that that was a great thing! Sure a little bit annoying till word passes around the park that she is with you and you are her mother... but at the same time, at least now you know you never have to worry about her getting kidnapped at the zoo. :D (I'm sure one day she'll apprieciate it... she still complained a lot to me about it, I of course was thrilled beyond words that I don't have to worry quite as much about losing a 3 yr old in a crowded zoo with plenty of distractions for her to get caught up in.)

But anyways I will need to check that out, see how it compares to the endless number of animal documentaries I've watched and pray the camera isn't too bouncy.

And as far as the needle felting goes, it really was simple to do and not exceptionally time consuming, of course there's plenty of room for improvement and you can also do almost a punch embroidery with the roving as well so I might have to try that out too, even though the sculptures are fun to make as well. But its pretty much roll a basic shape then stab it with a needle (watching your fingers) for about 40 minutes to an hour, sculpting as you go, that's even what the directions said... Read through to ensure you understand all the directions... pull off two x five inches of roving, roll into a snake then stab with the needle till done..... such clear directions :rolleyes:, is what I initially thought... then after following them it really couldn't have been any clearer LOL.

The SafariLive feed is not exactly like a nature documentary.

It is unscripted and happening right there. Some days can be slow so they do birds a bit more. There are brief glitches if something blocks the signals... but they are not a reason to not watch.

There is only one guide I don't like and I tend to mute him.
They allow screenshots and do not enforce copyright. Some people who share the screenshots do put copyright on the photo
but they are few.

The level of reality and intimacy is amazing with their special zoom cameras. And they have cameras for night time events as the sunset drive daily goes into the dark. There is no comparison to zoos!

I enjoy the elephants the most, followed by leopards and the dwarf mongoose. The birds are really enjoyable too.
The elephants are truly amazing IMO. Their herd behavior and intelligence and their babies and youngsters, you would rarely see in a zoo. I don't watch it "live". The drives are rapidly posted on YouTube. I prefer to have the timer bar available to scroll thru things I don't like or are too triggering for me.
The Kenya feed, which just started is more graphic so I usually just scroll thru it. Because of the size of the Mara getting up close like S.Africa's is less intimate. But I enjoy the landscapes.

The day just buzzes by me... my infirmities and pain forgotten.
I have learned alot about Africa as well. ;) It is free and no membership required. Some days are quiet so the guides give little informational talks, but some days are very busy with exciting situations and beautiful animals. They find many animals by following tracks in the dusty roads. Last year was a huge drought but since the rains in Jan-Feb the Djuma greened up and is much prettier. So one can really learn from the tracking. Many viewers keep a bird log, or an insect log, and on the weekdays there is a 45 minute segment for children who watch from schools.

It seems my mother has gone a wee bit crazy... since I can still operate my sewing machine she has been cutting out quilts like crazy and making me her little sewing bee. Including making a tall ships quilt for my brother who barely even talks to me, that requires 180 tiny little triangles sewn for the sails alone. :eek: All I can say is bro better send me a Christmas card for all those little sails his ships are getting.

We just finished the top of a quilt for my cousin as well, I'll have to remember to snap a picture of it to share, it's an adorable patchwork kitty, the whole quilt is one big cat pieced together by squares following a grid pattern. It's truly cute and my cousin is cat crazy so she should love it. And my mother has also already begun cutting out a sampler quilt for my one of my aunts, has all the fabric to make another quilt for one of my uncles and my sister who I'm on even worse terms with than my brother, and still has plans for me to sew up quilts for all three of my nieces and my nephew, as well as my GB's and my other aunt (who also wants a tall ships quilt), and then of course there's the quilt for my DH.

Oh and she wants a quilt as well, she just can't decide if she wants to sew it herself making a cathedral window quilt by hand, or think of something else so I can sew it up for her.

Crazy... that's my mother to a T. Love her to death, but she has me working my fingers to the bone right about now, because naturally they all have to be done in time for shipping them out at Christmas. And this week so far I've only managed to sew 70 of the 180 sails I need for just one quilt (and I still need to sew the whole thing together and build the body of the boat :eek: then quilt it all).

But hey I did want a hobby that I could do, and my mom came through in spades, plus a few clubs and hearts and a couple of diamonds (cheater! :p) All joking aside it is enjoyable, and I did tell her that if I'm falling behind too much she's just going to have to jump on a machine as well and lend a hand if she REALLY wants them done by Christmas. Otherwise I'm moving at a nice pace slightly above that of a snail, but don't they say slow and steady wins the race?

Not the cat quilt but the quilt that started her on her trip to crazy town 😋

I have a sewing machine. I can only do basic stuff on it. Haven't gotten it out of the closet in years. I don't even know if I can work the pedal now, seeing as how I need hand controls to drive my car.

I should dust it off, and see if I can actually still work the thing.


I've finished two scarves in the last couple of weeks. Using a really nice stitch that looks good enough that I don't even have to crochet an edging onto it to make it look finished. I ordered more yarn from Joann's Craft's last week. Can't wait for that to get here, it's a self striping yarn with a lot of orange color in it. I'm hoping it's as good as the reviews on the yarn have been saying. I'm going to maybe make one scarf, and if I have enough I'm going to crochet a rectangle granny square with it.

http://i1036.photobucket.com/albums/...psdd4clkxr.jpg

http://i1036.photobucket.com/albums/...psyp0upbqy.jpg

This is the first scarf that I made last week, picture was taken while it was still in progress. I haven't taken a picture of it finished.

I love the colors on that, it's perfect for fall! :D

I don't know how hard it might be to work the foot pedal on your machine... but my mother did buy my niece a little singer sewing machine when she turned 13. We really had a hard time using it because it just went soooo slow... but it was perfect for a beginner since even if she put the pedal to the metal so to speak it never "took off" on her. And it was a really cute blue too ;). But if you find difficulty with controlling the speed through pressure with your foot, you might look around for one of the beginners machines.

It was as sturdy as any sewing machine we've owned, and a fraction of the price and it still had a few stitch option, nothing fancy and it moved at a slow but steady pace no matter how hard or lightly you pressed the foot pad. She even still has it 12 years later. She doesn't sew a whole lot, but can manage a few alterations. Failing that, when my legs are really acting up on me I have placed the foot pedal up beside my machine and sewn one handed. Guiding the fabric with the left hand while the right hand works the pedal. I need to pin like crazy to manage it, but it can be done :D.

Kitty quilt top

Well... sometimes I'm so foolish I astound myself. I have a sewing machine that was marketed for quilting. Since purchasing it many moons ago it has made a grand total of three quilts (and the 4th I'm now working on), I primarily used it to make clothes so the only foot I've needed and have paid any attention to is the simple pressure foot, and the odd buttonhole foot but since I hate doing buttons mostly I'd pass the articles off to my mom for her to sew the button holes and buttons on. So one foot, that's all, I've done invisible zippers, cording and all with just the standard pressure foot.

But as we were talking about doing the quilts, my mom couldn't help pointing out how much easier they would be to quilt with a walking foot, and a freehand foot (I've done freehand with just the pressure foot too...little tricky but not impossible) but sure whatever makes it easier right :rolleyes: (was my initial reaction)

So we first hopped online and started looking at feet. Some were pricey, some were cheap, some... who knew if they would work with our machines or not??

Then my mom found, while digging through our sewing stashes, the freehand foot she was talking about! Woohoo, we don't need to buy one, but really wasn't wholly necessary, is what I thought... well a bit more digging around and we found the walking foot, okay so things will be a little easier pfft whatever... then she found the holy grail of quilt cheating!!! :eek:

HOW could I make it these 37 years without ever using a guide foot??!! Forget sliced bread this is like the best thing since... the invention of fire! Mother of all sewing cheats!! I'm waiting for the house to drag me into some dingy basement and beat me for cheating while I'm sewing with it. Like the fat quarters are just going to turn into Italian mafia and come at me with baseball bats and cement shoes.

And yet... such perfectly squared perfect little squares!!! :p *squeaking with joy*. I know it's absolutely ridiculous to be this excited about a sewing machine foot... but seriously... best thing EVER! And all this while was hiding in my little baggy of misc. sewing machine parts that I haven't opened once and looked in.

Sooooo soooo many more quilts to see that are going to be soooooo easy now.

Well the quilting is coming along nicely as a new hobby, other than waiting for my mom to finish cutting things out :p. But I finished the top for my brother's tall ships, over sewed a bit since my mom cut out more triangles than we needed but I now have 25 ships all lined up and ready to be quilted when we're ready for that. I'm now working on my aunt's sampler quilt, we have a few plain type blocks mixed in with many different style ones plenty of stars and such including an 8 point paper-piece one that I can't decide if I love or loathe but since I'm only doing nine of them I figure it won't matter much in the end :D.

I've been a lot happier after finding something I can do, and my DH is happy that I've commandeered our spare room as my sewing room so he doesn't come home to the old mess across the kitchen table and floor from any other time my mom and I have gotten together to sew. I just hope I don't start getting bored with the whole thing, not especially worried on the sampler quilt as there's something different pretty much every day with it, but when I'm back to baskets and scotty dogs, I might be in trouble of boredom setting in once more.

Okay not so much with the scotty dogs LOL, it's for my sister and kind of an inside joke, since when I was six I had a red white and blue scotty dog shirt that I always wore with my red and gold plaid jumper, my sister hated it because "she" said they clashed, I rationalized it as what else would scotty dogs wear if not plaid... duh! My favorite outfit and the one she most despised of all the things I ever wore. So we're making her a very clashy plaid scotty dog quilt for Christmas heheheheheh..... and no it wasn't my idea but my mothers :D. I love my family sometimes, and if that doesn't get her to talking to me again, well... there's just no hope for our sisterly relationship :p.

I like polka dots, checks and stripes all together... she's more the solid neutrals kind of person, I liked GI Joes, she liked Barbie (I liked storming the giant Barbie stronghold with the GI Joes :p). She likes sappy hair bands and bubble gum pop, I'm more death metal and underground. About the only thing we have in common is we both love the Beatles, different favorite songs, mine's Eleanor Rigby and Helter Skelter, hers is Yesterday and The Long and Winding Road... but at least it's still the Beatles. And we both sew, knit and crochet (or at least I used to be able to do the last two).

She scrubs her house top to bottom before company comes over and then annoyingly tells them to not mind the mess... I swipe the cat hair off the chair while they're standing there and tell folks not to mind the mess :rolleyes: And only if there's a mess beyond cat hair for them to mind.

Really if not for liking the Beatles which my brother does too (When I'm Sixty-Four was his wedding march). I'd wonder if she was even related to any of us by blood. :confused:. Everything with her has to be perfect... it can be a perfect disaster, or simply perfect, but it must be perfection to one extreme or the other, there's really no in between and she has the sense of humor of a dead fish, and doesn't do sarcasm at all. She was found in a garbage can, I just know it! ;)

Oh well, back to working on my paper pieced stars, and hopefully maintaining my sanity till I finish all 9 blocks.

There is so much you can do with quilting. I have a friend who traveled the world teaching fabric arts. She's a well known fabric artist and has tons of quilting designs that you can buy. Her quilts are amazing! They are like looking at a painting but instead of paint she used fabric. So, I don't think you'll get bored in terms of lack of design options, but maybe lose interest in sewing. Post pictures of your masterpiece!

One 8 point star down, 8 more of the finicky little things to go. And I've still not decided if I love em or hate em yet lol. But mind numbing sewing they are not that much is for sure

My DH is letting me get a new toy!!!! I'm getting one of the cricut wireless cutters. I'm sooo excited!!! I'm waiting to see if it pops up on Prime Days with Amazon, and if so then I'll get it at a bargain price and if not then at 3 am on the 12th, I'm ordering it!

I don't know if there's any other really crafty folks on here, but this thing will cut through so many different things! It does vellum, leather, fabric (including denim), felt, paper, balsa wood, corkboard, aluminum. It can emboss copper plating, I mean soooo many things it can do, which then means sooooo many things I can do. :D And it will even write on things with it's little pen, soo awesome!

Primarily I'm getting it to give my mom a break from cutting quilts so she can actually enjoy sewing some. But I really see myself picking up some balsa wood and having fun making little things out of it, and maybe a copper plate or two, and some leather, definitely some contact paper to make my own wall decals (those things are ridiculously expensive for an oversized sticker), and making up stencils too, and some stamps!! Decidedly bored no more :D And not really seeing an end insight to what all fun things I can do now. (Fingers crossed and knocking on wood so I don't jinx myself, I can't lose function in anymore body parts.)

Well one last hobby to give a whirl in addition to the quilting, just to ensure I really don't get bored with simply sewing. I'm going to try my hand at making my own area rug doing gobelin embroidery on netting. No worries if you haven't a clue as to what that is... I only discovered it tonight looking at antique patterns :D. I'm obsessed with the antiquepatternlibrary.org next to the Gutenberg project, it is my favorite sight. I just love all the Victorian through 1970's crafts they offer. And it seems there's always something new to peruse.

But basically you take a large blunt needle, and some very fine to fine yarn/threads and you just do a darning stitch around latch hook canvas. And what you should end up with is a Victorian era knock off of an oriental type rug. A very dense, rug with an almost embroidered design. It's ideal to at least make an attempt on since the needle should be quite large giving me more to grip than using a tiny embroidery needle and it's going on a very open and stiff netting so there won't be any tiny holes that I'm trying to line up.

Furthermore the darning stitch is basically just filling in the blanks in a straight line. And with 3.75 canvas and baby weight yarn it should take only about 5-6 passes around to fill in my squares, and I can use any cross stitch pattern out there that will fit to the "grid" so to speak, in that if my grid size is 125 x 225 then that's the size cross-stitch, filet or embroidery pattern is that I need (give or take depending on borders going around).

So in about a week or two, hopefully I'll have enough done on it to show ya'll, I'm really looking forward to have yet another thing to keep my hands and mind busy. Plus my new toy too, so yeah, my DH might end up being upset with me when the CC bills come in :p. Honestly though they're inexpensive enough crafts minus the electric cutting machine and only in the cost of the machine, but for an 3'x5' area rug I'm looking at well under $50 providing the yarn doesn't go on sale at Joann's or Michaels'. If I can get a good deal on the yarn I might even be sitting pretty at less than $30 for what I'm hoping will be a pretty sweet looking area rug for my living room. :p

Wow!!! You're on a roll! They star looks great! I have never been into quilting but looking at your start has me thinking. Just thinking, not planning.:D

A Cricut! You are so lucky! I've seen how they work on a few YouTube videos. They look amazing! That certainly will help you with all the cutting. There are tons of things you can do with those machines. Enjoy it!

It's like my body knew what was coming, my knee went backwards today, collapsed itself in a full backwards bend, that is rather than bending toward the toes it bent towards the heels.. completely, like I was taking a step in reverse from the knee. Let me tell you, I have felt some pain in my life, massive shock inducing, pass out-wake me up when it is over pain, and nothing at all to date in my life has compared to having a knee go backwards like that. And i didn't hit it or anything, I was standing but not walking when it happened, the muscles jerked the knee went backwards and all I saw was white for about 3 seconds before the world went dark on me. When I came too, the knee was swollen about twice it's normal size and the muscles still kept pulling at it trying to force it backwards again.

When the DH got home he got my knee brace out for me, it's hinged so it won't let it go backwards or sideways, and lots of ice. But I imagine I'm going to be a couch potato for at least a few weeks now till whatever gave way in there can heal up. But I got my cricut today to play with and still have quilts to make so I'll be busy even while keeping one leg propped up and iced down. My mom said I just wanted to get out of all the ironing involved with making quilts... I'm not gonna lie when I say I'm not exactly crying over the ironing :D even though it's just delayed until I feel better, since my mom dislikes it almost as much as I do lol

And found yet another craft I can still accomplish... though really only just learned about an hour ago after finding some tatting needles I bought ages ago, always meant to learn it but never got around to it. Then I feared I wouldn't be able to learn it but I wanted to try the bigger needles for doing my rug. (Still need to make it to the store for yarn on that...) but since I don't have the yarn to do that yet I figured why not... looked up the directions and my gosh is it ever easy to do even without having decent hand control... (I did modify the thread "grip" to fit with what I could do, versus what the directions say to do)

But in an hour I learned how to make picots, rings, chains and split rings... and there's really nothing else to learn, it's all just one stitch (really more of simply making knots) And unlike knitting or crocheting it is super forgiving when it comes to tension, really, really forgiving, just not forgiving to pulling the wrong string :p. It also doesn't take a whole lot of coordinated movements, its wrap a thread loosely around a finger one way and slide onto the needle, wrap it around loosely the other way and bend the finger and slide onto the needle... I was even smart for once and just did it the right handed way, still easy. And the needles is both long and wide enough that it doesn't feel as though it will slip through my fingers unnoticed.

Below is my hours worth progression :p

I enjoyed reading of your plight very much. Perhaps it's time for you to write a book. I detected a subtle hint a humour. ;)

I find the Memory Lane has many exciting and warm feelings yet to be discovered. :hug:

I've done needle tatting too!! I even still have my tatting needles!

I bought a needle tatting book back in the very late 90's. Taught myself how to do it, tatted for a few months until I got bored with it. It did always look like single crochet stitches to me. I looked, and found a crochet pattern book/leaflet that had patterns with a "tatted look" for doilies. They were all single crochet stitches. I think I have the book/leaflet around here somewhere.