This past year I have focused a lot on painting and various media for art work. Watercolors, acrylics, portraiture in pencil, oil pastels, gouache, and probably a few others. I started my “Not Taken Vacation” series, which still needs to be completed, with pen and ink. Rewarding as this has been, and the gains I know I have made, I have also missed adventures in other areas. In 2024, I want to continue working on art work, as it is my first love, but other areas for creativity and exploration, have fallen to the wayside, and I miss them.
If I were to just list some of the things I missed doing and want to continue to do, I think I would begin to feel overwhelmed . . . but let’s see what a list will produce.
Sewing?
Knitting?
Gardening?
Photography?
Hiking?
Travel?
Reading?
Cooking and baking?
Exploring?
If I look at what I have been playing with to date, I am knitting, taking a few photos, and sewing. Most of my “reading” is really using an audiobook and listening to it while I knit. I have a number of sewing projects on hold because I have been lacking in time to focus, but that is really silly as I have everything in place and ready to go at the sewing table. I have a tabletop ironing board I can put on a countertop, so why not?
Being a Libra, indecisiveness is the norm. This? That? (Yes, laugh if you like at astrology, but sometimes it is too true!) Experience shows me that just starting something is usually all I need to get out of my slump, whatever form it may be taking and just 
2023 has been a strange year for me. In many ways it has been productive in creativity as I have seen advances in skills I have been focused on. In other ways it has been limiting, too, when focus is more in one area than another. I am the kind of person who is interested in too many things but who does not seem to excel at any one thing in particular. That can get pretty frustrating.
And then there was The Fall. Breaking my left arm was pretty traumatic in a lot of ways. The esposo is still trying to recover from it because the vacation we had looked forward to, one of relaxing and traveling and visiting new places and seeing old friends, turned into several weeks of taking care of me and schlepping me here and there. His time off never really happened, so there is the mental and emotional repression that ultimately does no one any good. He has taken the next few weeks off, and I hope that will help ease things and take off pressures which are there. At least I can get here and there on my own, although we both fear another fall. I have broken 3 bones in the last 5 years because of falls.
As far as myself, I am really bored with my ongoing fear of falling, and the self-assignment for the next several weeks is to watch YouTube videos about balance and strengthening muscles, taking a “How to Walk” class if possible, and moving into forcing myself to do things that frighten me. I have a dislike of being out of shape and incapable of independence so hopefully this will motivate me into a more active approach to these things. For the first time in my life I have felt old, and normally I am emotionally and intellectually about 12 . . .
Creativity, too, needs some sort of order! I keep saying “schedule yourself” - and by this I mean making deliberate choices for time to do all the different things which interest me. Let’s see what happens! I want to do more photography, travel, sewing, knitting, gardening, and of course drawing, painting, learning. My own personality is set toward doing the daily chores and drudgery before having fun, and that is okay as it weighs me down if I know a pile of something needs to be done. 
For example, since August, I have not really addressed paperwork as I usually do, and that is because my daily life was filled with exercises, occupational therapy appointments, dental appointment, doctor appointments, and home health care appointments. Yesterday, I pulled out all the things I needed to sort through. I sorted them and shredded until the 20+ year old shredder up and died. (New one arrives today.) I logged expenses and so on. Fortunately, it wasn’t a horrible process as I have kept up with the daily stuff quite well, but the paper stuff needed sorting and discarding. It feels good to have that done before 2024 shows up! And I have a bog full of papers still needing shredding, so I can practice on the new shredder, and see if it works. What fun!
And so, it is New Year’s Eve. We will be going to the Descanso Gardens to enjoy the Enchanted Forest of Light. We did it a few years ago, and I thought it a lovely way to end a year. I hope that 2024 is not as rough, and realistically, while tough in many ways for my immediate circle, it is far easier and pleasant than it has been for many. I hope that changes, but sadly, I do not think it will.
A “hussy” is a rather slutty woman in today’s parlance, but a few centuries back, a “hussy” was a shortened term for a “housewife” or “hussif” – in today’s terms, a sewing kit containing needles, thread, pins, spare buttons, scissors, whatever. They could be practical or fancy, depending on class and income, but the fact is, a sewing kit is a handy thing to have. I admit, I have fixed hems with scotch tape or a stapler, but good sewing helps many a problem! In fact, according to one source, the English troops were routinely issued sewing kits after returning from battle in rags, whereas their Russian counterparts were all supplied with a sewing kit, and could fix their uniforms on the march, or at least around the campfire!
As we make preparations to take a trip, I know I need something to keep me out of trouble – in other words, to keep from being bored. I like to work with my hands, but knitting can be cumbersome (i.e. a sweater), and truthfully, I am tired of socks. I make hats for presents off and on, but those are dull, too, after a while. I am thinking I may try to hand sew a blouse on our trip as we will be on a boat for a couple of weeks – and hand work with a good audio book is not a bad thing to have in quiet moments.
So, with the hopes my scissors and needles will not be confiscated at the airline, I will adhere to the TSA parameters for carry on luggage. If I lose my scissors, I will be surprised as per TSA the blades can be 4″ from the hinge. I am getting some little folding scissors – will that work? Anyway, to bring all this stuff in one convenient spot, I made myself a hussif . . . .
Click on the photos to see them in more detail if you want!
The nice thing about these hussies is that I can customize them! It took a bit of time to come up with a design – and fabric – and so on. To begin with, I had to decide on width and length – in the end, from top to bottom, it is about 16″ long and about 5″ wide. From top to bottom of the above picture you will see the ties to keep the hussif rolled up. Then, a pocket to hold needles and other thingies, but on top of that pocket is a needle book with felt to stick needles into (picture below). The second section, with the tape measure upon it, is simply a pocket to hold supplies. Below that is a pocket for my embroidery scissors with a ribbon to help keep them in place. Finally, the fourth section is a pin cushion of sorts, made with 4 layers of quilting batting to give it some loft.
Above is the hussif with the lower to sections folded up, hiding the pin cushion and scissors pocket, and general pocket. The needle book is opened to show a needle in place. I have 3 pieces of felt here so different needles can be placed in them. I use needles with large eyes or the Clover self-threading ones – I can actually thread them quite easily! I recommend Bohin large eyes if you don’t want the Clover ones – other brands, too, are good. For hand sewing needles, get reputable ones. You will pay more, but trust me, 100 cheap bits of crap metal are not worth it!
And here is the hussif rolled up on itself. It ties quite nicely to keep itself from falling apart. Below is another view of it tied up.
Making the hussif took some doing, and I played around with it for a few days, experimenting and sewing at the same time. I watched a number of YouTube videos on both hussifs and needle books. In the end, to put it simply, I did the following:
Chose 4 colors of cotton quilting calico
Used fusible interfacing
Used cotton quilt batting for the pin cushion
Cut 2 major pieces of fabric for front and back, about 6″ wide and roughly 18″ long. I fused the interfacing to the outer layer of hussif.
I cut out the pocket – about 4×6″ – and doubled it up so that the fabric was 2 layers. I sewed a top and bottom seam, right sides together, and then placed the pocket on the unfinished body of the hussif – the binding would cover the raw edges.
I cut out a heart-shaped pocket for my scissors, using 2 layers of fabric and, as with the pocket, sewed right sides together leaving a hole to reverse it. This was a bit of a challenge, but it came out okay in the end. I sewed it directly to the inner layer of fabric – I should have moved it over a bit, but that is for next time!
The pin cushion is one layer of fabric laid over 4 layers of cotton quilt batting. I sewed the seam at the top and then folded it over the layers of batting, leaving all the raw edges to be covered with binding.
The needle book and pocket at the very top were done after I did the binding. More in a bit here!
I used non-bias binding on the hussif. I cut a very long length of 2″ wide fabric, sewing the pieces together to have plenty of material to go around. I created a double-folded strip from this – first folding the binding in half, ironing the hell out of it, and then opening it up and folding each edge to the midline. Essentially, this is quilt binding.
The binding was sewn from the outside in, meaning I sewed the binding onto the back of the hussif. I used the first fold – at 1/2 inch – as the seam line. I pinned it to the edge of the hussif, and used mitred corners along the way. I then finished it by hand by folding it inward, pressing it again, and steaming it, and using whip stitches to keep the binding in place.
Now, the top pocket and needle book! It drove me crazy. In retrospect, I would make the pocket as I did the one in the second section, beneath the tape measure in the first image. However, before doing that, I had to cut the felt and then place a bit of calico as a cover – this is to keep me from stabbing myself with needles.
First step here – sew the needle book together. Then attach it to pocket. Then sew it onto the hussif. I will make the pocket first, attach the needle book to it, and then make sure the pocket stretches side to side before using the binding to cover the raw edges.
Yeah, this is wordy – but it is what I worked out while doing it. I watched videos on doing quilt binding – perhaps bias would be better next time – and made things up as I went. I spent about 3 days and 7-8 hours designing and sewing it. All told, the fabric and supplies ran about 18.00 USD. Scraps would have worked, too, or stuff from my stash, or even fat quarters, but I was in the mood for purple and lavender, and that is not in my stash!
I am pleased with this – frustrated as I was at times – but the creative experience and learning experience make it even more valuable to me. I have been wanting to make one for some time, and this may keep me from too much trouble in the not too distant future . . .
Awhile ago I decided to try my hand at sashiko, a traditional Japanese embroidery used for both practical and artistic reasons. Originally it was used to quilt layers of cloth together, old clothes to make new ones. Patches were pieced onto already patched clothing. Today it is hard to imagine that clothing had to last generations, but this art form was for practical reasons. The artistry of it – the creation of patterns – shows the fact that, despite hardship and poverty, the need to express and create, to add beauty to the world, exists at many levels.
Today, we don’t patch clothes like that, to make them last for ages. We don’t need to for the most part. Instead, we call it “visible mending” and use it to enhance our clothes or show off our skills. It is a tradition that is now becoming a fabric art, much as quilting. However, these stitches are made by hand (although Babylock does have a machine which mimics hand sewn sashiko) and add character to jeans or old denim, or are used as a way to enhance something, such a purse or towel or whatever.
I bought sashiko thread, needles, a palm thimble specific for sashiko, and from there watched a few videos. I have some denim that I am cutting up to practice on. My stitches are uneven and I am trying to find a rhythm first in creating a running stitch. It is far harder than you think. So, first, the rhythm and comfort with the stitches.
Above is my first attempt. I just drew straight lines by hand, but later got out my pica stick and used it. Loops are left so that the fabric does not pucker as the rows are stitched, and as each row is done, I attempted to straighten and flatten out the fabric – a running stitch is great for gathering!
Above is my second attempt. More running stitches, but I tried different ways to begin and end rows. The loops prove to be important is not getting puckers – I got rid of a few with a hot iron, but you can see at the bottom a pucker across the left side.
Securing stitches is important. I tried different ways – many involve stitching over other stitches. I am still exploring that element – I want to figure things out on my own!
Above is the reverse of each of these samplers. The one on the left is the first; the one on the right is the second. The second one is neater as i carefully used a Chaco chalk pen to mark lines as I moved along.
Currently I intend to stick to straight lines and figure out how to connect them in different ways to make patterns. Tradition holds many patterns to be explored – many straight, geometric, circular, a combination of both, and many can become pictorial if you desire. Not all are done in a running stitch is my guess as I have seen some designs with completely solid lines of thread – backstitch or a running stitch then redone in between and in the reverse direction with another running stitch?
When I made the knot bag the other day, I had gone out to buy fabric. I bought enough material for two bags – one blue, one purple. The latter was chosen knowing full well someone I know named Judy might like one for her sock knitting. Well, Judy, here you are, as promised in my reply to your comment . . . see you soon!
Ink, Yarn & Beer 