September 12, 2011

Meaningful Distraction

So, what to do?  My current quilt project is literally kicking my butt.  It is for a client and I'm having the worst time with it.  It went together flawlessly and now, way too many months later, my mother's health has deteriorated and my projects are piling up.  My sewing machine is soooo NOT even trying to be agreeable.  Quilting it has turned into a nightmare.  I have the feeling I have lost my sewing touch.  All my years of expertise and skill could not be found in my sewing studio.  My heart was breaking over my new machine and my inability to use it.  I finally had a fit.  I mean a throw-down, knock-out fit and decided to seize the situation in my grubby little hands and wrestle it to the ground.   I've been around enough years to know that when I'm struggling with a project, I need to lay it down and come back to it.  So, that being decided, I grabbed up a couple of quickies that would inspire confidence in myself once again.

Thus, you see above, one of the fruits of the wrestling match.  I have an ASUS Eee Slate at work.  My Slate is a lovely little device that I have grown fonder of as the days wear on.  The problem is a cover for it.  The accompanying sleeve is nothing but institutional, generic black and vinyl.  And because of its new cutting-edge design, there are no commercial covers, not that I'd buy one.  I'm not the type to be average.  The Slate is a PC alternative to an iPad but it is different in that it is not the same size so even those covers or carriers won't work.  So, the creative juices have been flowing and an idea blossomed.

I purchased these two place mats at a local Pier One store.  I hadn't been in one in years and suddenly, these place mats caught my eye.  Yes, the ones you put on your table under your dinner plate kind.  Once, very expensive, they were now on clearance for 77¢.  They had a lovely paisley on one side with coordinating stripes on the other.  The large white button is actually a piece of jewelry found in the clearance bin at Hobby Lobby.  The colors are lovely and unique.

One design problem:  I can make a cover for my Slate but it loses battery power rather quickly so I can't take it very far without needing the power cord so I needed a pocket for the large power converter and the associated cords. And this is what I came up with.  It is hard to see in this photo, but a zipper was inserted in the fold on the top place mat and then the place mat was folded and stitched down to create a pocket that barely holds all my accessories.
I really need to spend some time writing this project up.  I've not seen any other sleeve patterns with a similar pocket.  And I don't know how people take their gadgets with out pockets.

Yay!  I carried it in to work today and it looks like part of my mojo is back.  This is the first of my 2 confidence-building projects from the weekend.  Stay tuned for number 2.  It will blind you!

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