The Trouble With Chickens!

I have been pretty busy these days trying to stock my Etsy store and preparing for my December 10th craft show.  On top of all that, I am a stay-at-home mom!  Despite what my husband says in jest, I do not live the life of leisure.  Lately, my two year old has been a typical bi-polar two year old.  I never know from minute to minute if I will have Sweet Violet or Volatile Violet.  But, that is just life with a two year old.  My now five year old is becoming the calm child and can't stand her sister's outbursts.  Therefore, lately when evening falls, I have not been in the mood to blog or sew.  This is a bad thing because pillows are my new job.  When I worked from home, I worked because I had to work, even if I did not want to.  I need to take the same attitude when it comes to pillows.  But, sometimes when things don't go my way I tend to get discouraged.  I think I started to lose some of my zeal for sewing when I met the chickens.

My little energy suckers!

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Ugh, when I started sewing these regal, okay silly chicken pillows the following song kept running though my brain: chicken and egg song from "Sesame Street."  I only bought one yard of chicken fabric against Kevin's pleading not to buy it at all.  Country is not really my style but I do love decorative chickens, roosters, and farm animals.  Not that I really own any, but I like the little critters.  I also love pineapple curtains and wall stencils.  Again, none exist in my house.  Once again, I digress, back to the chickens.  Now I am not sure if it is the songs fault or if the problem was that I matched the fabric too closely with the thread, but I messed up one of the pillows.

I chose to make small chicken pillows because I thought the pattern might be overpowering.  A little chicken goes a long way.  When I was buying the fabric, I found the exact, I mean perfectly matching thread for these little pillows.  I was so excited.  I pinned, I cut, I pinned again, I sewed, and I snipped off the corners.  I snip off the corners before I turn the pillows right side out so that it is easier to pull the corners out.  Well, I could not tell where the thread was and as Rick Perry would say, "oops" I snipped to far and literally cut a corner...off.  The fabric started to fray and I could not fix it.  Grr...  I was much more careful with the other two, which are posted on Etsy.  Ultimately, two turned out, one did not.  My failure rate is not horrible.  But it was frustrating.  Now, I have to figure out what to do with ruined pillow.  I hate to throw the fabric away.  

I really do love these chickens!

When I mess up (hey, I am human) it sometimes gets me down.  But I needed to move on.  Last night I completed my blue, red, and gold floral/leafy pillows which are also listed on Etsy.  Once again, everything started out well but when I was on my third pillow, my machine went haywire.  Okay, maybe not haywire to the experienced sewer seamstress, but to me it was panic time.  My thread kept bunching and it did not seem like the bobbin was doing what it was supposed to do.  It was the overall tension of the thread that was causing the problem and causing me to pull out the seam ripper.  Fortunately, no damage was done and in the end, four lovely pillows were completed.  Just frustrating.  

A modern classic!

After a few days of feeling a bit sulky about sewing, I decided that while Violet was having some quiet time today, that I would tackle a couple pillows.  And I am so glad I did!  I actually sewed the perfect pillow.  Now, the pillow is not yet complete but it will be completed and photographed by tomorrow.  This perfect pillow needs it's own post.  It is so perfect, it cannot share a post with a troublesome chicken.  Stay tuned friends, I am getting my groove back!