THREE FINGERED,HALLOWEEN HAND-PINCUSHION-ART PROJECTS-HALLOWEEN SPECIAL-LECINQBLOG'S SEWING SERIES!

click on picture to see a larger version-three fingered halloween hand pincushion-lecinQblog sewing series

THREE FINGERED ,HALLOWEEN HAND-PINCUSHION
This is a halloween special art project.This is also a sewing project
to make sewing accesories.
What is a sewing accesory?
Well,something that we would use while sewing ,to help us sew.
I have been SERIOUSLY taking up sewing projects in the past couple of
years and as i went all serious with my sewing projects,i got all
finicky about my sewing accesories too.Only frantic finicky sewers end
up needing pincushions now,don't they?
I have been sewing since I was a kid.My mom is a physics graduate but
she also DOUBLE-MAJORED with a second degree in fashion design and
garmet making.(smart mom means smart kids,no?)She is a big combo of
art and science and I am a big combo in art and science too ..yay!
I have grown up watching her make my birthday dresses .Each birthday I
would get a dress,very very elegantly and meticulously designed and
made by my mom.What a beautiful birthday present,no?
My sis would get a similarly lovely birthday dress of her own for her
birthday each year.
BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL dresses my mom used to make for us as
kids.particularly chosen fabrics textures,specially designed patterns
,cute hand selected buttons,colors and what not...awwww!
Now,my mom had grown old and both of us sisters have moved out of home
and so, mom has started making QUILTS instead of dresses.Good switch,
I must say.
...hey...btw,,this blog was supposed to be a halloween special,so,let
us get around to discussing it.THEN YELLOW,THREE FINGERED,HALLOWEEN
HAND-PINCUSHION!
Each year,every one WASTES tons of money of making or buying
halloween costumes WHICH JUST GET WORN ONCE and then are left rotting
in storage for the rest of the year.And no one really repeats their
costume for next year either..So,essentially,elaborate costumes are
made FOR JUST ONE SINGLE USE.
I AM NOT A GREAT FAN OF WASTAGE..Don't like making or doing things
unless i have MORE THAN ONE USE for a thing or have CONSISTENT use for
a thing.
So,needless to say,I AM NOT A BIG CONSTUME WEARER for halloween.
bUT THEN,This year I am making this blog entry for the sake of kids
who are great halloween fans and love halloween fun stuff.... A FUN
BLOG ENTRY for fun loving kids(and adults too)
And guess what,ONCE HALLOWEEN IS OVER,you can continue to use this
halloween hand as a pincushion ALL YEAR THROUGH.
Why is a pincushion a sewing accesory?
Well, for one,REGULAR SEWing enthusiasts, will fully understand,how
bob-pins help the tailor("sewer" almost sounds like sewage gutter)
secure fabric in place while attempting to sew them together.
Taking time to secure the fabric bits in their place prior to sewing
them on the machine DEFINITELY helps attain a sleeker finish .
My mother NEVER USES bob pins..SHE USES a basting stitch to secure
fabrics in place..
I tried using the basting stitch and for some reason,DIDN'T find it comfortable.
So,I went and purchased two tiny boxes of bob pins...Initially, I
would just put them in a bowl or cup and then pick them up as i pin
along..but ,soon, my whole workarea was filled with pins-astray..ON
THE FLOOR, on the couch ,everywhere,PINS !! and when i sat on them,
PINPRICkS!
So that is when it occured to me that having a pincushion is the best
way to SECURELY STORE PINs,WHILE STILL HAVING THEM READILY
ACCESIBLE,,and yet,making sure I don't having poking pins strewn all
around the house.
FLASHBACK-OLD STORY
SOMETIME IN 2009 OR 2010,i had attempted to make ONE BIG HUMAN
PILLOW...all from scrap clothing ..I DID MAKE IT...and this hand was
part of that human pillow...
I had made that LIFE-SIZE human pillow so that i could use it as a
body pillow in bed...
But since the human pillow was life size and since, in some places ,I
had used CLOTH SCRAPS for filling it out,IT BECAME very very
heavy...and trying to use A VERY HEAVY pillow which almost smothered
me AS A BODY PILLOW just got cumbersome...LOL.
So,finally,in dismay,I DIMANTLED IT...and this hand has been lying
around the house since then.
luckily,i had used sythetic foam to fill out the hand..and thus,the
hand was sufficiently boing-y. (for lack of a better work)
fast forward, 2013..
WHEN I NEEDED A PINCUSHION and was this close to making one for
myself,I SUDDENLY came across this hand AND VOILA,this hand instantly
became my pincushion..
I DID also proceed to make another WRIST BAND pincushion for
myself...but that is for another blog entry.
so,YEAH,
HOW TO MAKE THIS HALLOWEEN HAND?
This halloween hand has only three fingers AND THUS QUALIFIES AS
spooky enough..:)))
it is yellow in color,so ,hopefully it adds to the "disgust factor"
both the outer cover and inner filling are RECYCLED materials.
poly-fill from an old pillow that was shrunken and was about to be
thrown out and the outer cloth is from an old pajama cloth of mine.
Incidentally,the old pajama was in itself a HAND-ME DOWN from one of
my older cousins..So,,RECYCLING at its best..i wore the pajama for
years and finally WHEN I GOT BORED OF IT..i cut out the fabric to use
in various projects!
First off,
I just placed my hand on the yellow pajama fabric .The pajama fabric
is folded over prior to making a hand drawing on it...so,when you draw
your hand outline and then cut,you get two sets of the same cut out...
Then,you just stitch along the edges of the fabric that you cut
out..you can hand stitch or machine stitch and then you reverse it,so
that the raw edges become the innner side..
(sorry, about not posting step-by-step PICTURES),coz,see,I never meant
for it to be a blog entry at all...so,sorry!)YOU DO HAVE PICTURES OF
THE FINAL PRODUCT,up at the beginning of the blog entry though,k?have
a look.
agaain...I DO HAVE ALL MY FINGERS INTACT...but then for some reason,
the other two fingers turned out too thin on the cloth drawing and
could not be filled out,SO THE HAND i made, INADVERTANTLY and
comically ,ENDED up having only three fingers..LOL.
So,first place your own hand on fabric,make a drawing,cut along the
drawing,stitch ,then reverse..
BTW,,WHILE STITCHING,LEAVE the palm end OPEN,,don't stitch there..that
is where you will fill in the hand..k?
Now,you proceed to fill it with polyfill from an old dismantled
pillow.fill the fingers first and use a pencil or chopstick to push
the poly-fill into the fingers .
Then,fill out the palm area..
after filling,,secure the open end with either a hand-stitch or machine stitch..
There must be a wee bit of fabric left on the wider end beyond the
stitch..This fabric bit you use to attach the hand to your sleeves
with a safety pin.
Wear a long coat with sleeves LONGER than your actual hand,so that
your real hand remains hidden under the sleeve, and attach this hand
to the edge of the sleeve using a SAFETY-PIN...This yellow three
fingered hand will hang loose from the sleeve-all halloween style and
when you go around asking for candy,use this hand to show out your
candy basket..
ONCE halloween day is over,,YOU CAN USE THIS HAND AS YOUR
PINCUSHION...I am in love with this pincushion and it comes in handy
too.
cheers and happy halloween everyone!
Tags: #childhood_stories , #halloween , #art_projects , #pincushion ,
#birthday_dresses , #mom , #memories , #sewing_projects ,

yada yada yada-blah blah blah AN UNREQUITED ELEMENT TO IT ALL

okay, so, well, I know I am raking up all my old wounds by attempting to write this mail, but, i have to do it.
After may 2010,we never really got an oppurtunity to INTERACT one on one, for long hours like we used to do in 2009.
2009,looks like eons ago and suddenly, I am in my thirties? and you are in your forties? gee

anyways,THERE IS AN UNREQUITED ELEMENT TO IT ALL.

I have no idea what you have told your wife about me or what you have told your twitter and facebook friends about me .I am sure you FREELY and guiltlessly used the word STALKER...(just to save your ass too,,,hmmm..sigh..people do that you know..say anything just to save
their ass)

So,yeah,anyways,irrespective of what you told anyone else,YOU of all people,KNOW,what happened between us back then...NO ONE ELSE NEEDS TO KNOW..but you know..right?

you know ,what you felt for me or feel for me, and you know why you did what.. yeah?

Even, I DON'T KNOW why and for what you did and said certain things.

Even, I DON'T KNOW if anything you told me in those emotionally mushy letters,some written to me at the end of drunken nights and some written in moments of utter honesty...WERE TRUE or not...

Maybe  those UTTERLY EMOTIONAL THINGS TO ME were written for the effect..because ,some porn website or askmen website tells you that THAT IS HOW YOU WORK UP A WOMAN to get her p**sy..(this is your vocabulary and your italians friends' vocabulary,not mine,just quoting,is all)

SO,YEAH,I DON'T KNOW WHAT WAS TRUE..

I know what I FELT,,I know what i wrote and when i wrote things to you and POSSIBLY have a vague idea as to why i felt the things i felt for you or still feel for you.

but,I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU FELT or feel. so....yeah,ONLY YOU KNOW..no one else.

From my point of view.
THIS IS WHAT I THINK I MEAN TO YOU.

I have had the biggest impact on you ,on your psyche,on the way you think or do things...
I KNOW THAT FOR SURE...FOR SURE..

ONLY,it just saddens me that WHEN A PERSON IMPACTS YOU THAT MUCH ,how come you throw them under the bus at the slightest assumption that she might out your connection with her and ruin a MEANINGLESS BUT TANGIBLE RELATIONSHIP that you had or still have with homever you are with now.

yeah?

IT BREAKS MY HEART, that i went out of my way to INTERACT WITH You AND quoting YOU from what you wrote in your letters to me, 'CHANGED you in so many ways" ,and after me going out of my way to heal and help you,YOU TURNED AROUND AND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE OF MY KINDNESS,just cause ,IN YOUR PARANOIA,you suspected that i was out to destroy your TANGILE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LADY YOU WERE ENGAGED TO OR LIVING WITH OR MARRIED TO ALREADY(WHICH I DIDN'T KNOW BTW)...

It saddens me ,THAT WHEN A GUY does that to me AND YEARS DOWN THE LINE,when I SEE AN ESSENSE OF ME in his life choices,and when i see an essense of my thoughts and my spirit and my ideas and my way of doing things, IN HIM,in his current life,I KNOW HOW MUCH I MEAN IN HIS HEAD,even to this day.

AND yet,sadly,YOU HAVE TO KEEP UP WITH THE LIES YOU TOLD EVERYONE ABOUT ME..yeah?

sadly,the one woman ,that impacted your life in many ways,IS SOMEONE,you can't even interact with on a regular basis because of that..yeah?

So many questions,suddenly come tumbling out of the pandora's box of pain that I HID AND BURIED...i open it just to take a peek and a world of pain suddenly grips..

THE PAIN just won't go away..
WHICH IS WHY,
we need to talk.
HUGS.
A
(talk to you soon..let us do this slowly,tiny baby steps,one Q by one Q)

tAGS:mr_green, love, love_triangle, lust, romance, HATE, pain, memories, SADNESS, unrequited,

The smell of his body

If you follow my Twitter stream on a regular basis you might recall that weeks ago, i got drenched in the rain--to the bone.. got my camera and phone and other paraphernalia wet too..not to mention the boots and what not.. I could have easily found refuge in a building just as the rain began to pour, but i kept moving on, partly because it had been so long since i got wet in the rain and I like getting wet in the rain.
Anyways, I came back home and within an hour had to go out again..NO time to dry off my stuff and my favorite coat was wet to the core.. So, i decided to dry it out by ironing it.
I think the coat was of a synthetic waterproof material-something that would melt if i put the hot iron right on top of it..So, I used newspaper between the Hot iron and the overcoat and kept ironing it..It was probably the chemicals in the newsprint but a strange smell of print admixed with wet coat and smell of rain and all that finally reminded of a strange smell that came back from distant memory.My ex boyfriend...hmmmmmm...His body..that smell....I guess, he used to accumulate all the automobile exhaust smell on his body -It can happen when you ride a bike  in the open exposing yourself to automobile exhaust on the streets.
We used to have a fixed time of roughly an hour at my home each day to speak and spend time with each other.He would brave all kindsa weather to make it there in time ..and since there was only a hour(this one hour was besides the eight hours we spent together at med school-that is like 9 hours together,geez)
anyways, in that one hour at home, we would get down to business(if you know what i mean) like clockwork..and his body sweat, the automobile exhaust and sometimes the wet coat smell that lingered on his skin ..that smell.. that is how the present smell smelled of..funny how smells get forever etched in our minds like this.. It was a spooky experience to smell that smell again. all while ironing out a wet overcoat.LOL

===========================================
I just realized that a lot of young impressionable minds are reading my blog entries and thus i felt the need to come here and add a post script to this story .
Original blog entry was written on Nov 25 2009
Post script has been added on Dec 24th 2009
How many hours are there in a day? 24 , yeah? Then we sleep for 8 and that leaves us with how many?16.
Out of those 16 hours, we were spending 9 hours together..and the med schoool and 1 hour of to and fro travelling.. that leaves us with how much of time for ourselves?
Let us see, 5 hours ..and in those 5 hours, we had to study, shower, eat and do whatever other stuff.
Is that enough? Is that enough time for ourselves?
Also doing such a thing(getting down to business)  at a  prescribed time like clockwork each day, coz we only get  that one hour together at home in full privacy ..again..How healthy was that?
On retrospect, doing it like that coz that was our only chance to do it. was unhealthy in itself..
                          It is like eating and stuffing yourself silly coz you may not get time to eat  when you actually get hungry..it is sad and unnecessary .
                        It was more like an obligation which we felt the need to do coz if we didn't do it at the time we had together,we  won't get time later when we actually miss each other and feel the need to do it.
                                  And yeah, did I mention  the pathetic all nighter phone calls we used to make each other ..all coz i would feel that those one hour sessions ended abruptly just when i started to emote..(I need alteast a 3 hour session, to do it slowly.I can't hurriedly do it like it was my job and i was getting paid for it or some such)
                          So i used to feel that these sessions  were animated and forced and were not done sponteneously and i had to emote and express during that prescribed time of one hour out of force and that doesn't ever happen with me. I need 3 hours...I need it to escalate , slow and steady.(btw, if any creeps are reading this....if you are over the age of 44.please imagine your daughter is writing this blog entry and move on...instead of having creepy fantasies in your head)
                                         When i look back , I understand how distressed I was with the whole scenario.
On top of that,this particular person that i was with., I really didn't want to be with him at all in the first place. It was because he tried every tact in the book so that he could make me be with him, I finally gave in.
Giving in like that,out of the fact that the other person is so into you and that if you are with such a person you are doing something for them..is a VERY BAD IDEA..
                                     nuff of preaching..btw,, to read more on relationship dynamics and such, you might want to check out my other blog "antidote to anger" look to your right and there is  a link.
cheers
                         

Silly delusions----Our own version of reality !

Why is this title called silly delusions?
well, i opened up this blog to make a very spontaneous sentence that came up in my head .. Then , instead of putting the thought on here, i first went to my political blog_not so daily ramble blog and then went to be Ultimate vegetarian blog and posted blogs there..
gosh.. I forgot what i had intially wanted to post..
Now finally when i come here .. i cant recall what i wanted to post.
hmmmmm
so yeah..
reality is very relative..All of us might witness the same thing. but our understanding is what guides us and therefore our version of that incident is going to be quite unique.. Each of us have out own version of reality.. The same situation might make us think and assimilate it in a very different way..What guides this unique understanding? it is us..our personality, our past experiences....
Not all of us will have the same exact experiences , coz even as siblings who are brought up in the same house, still there are going to be a lot of times when we face separate situations.
What about twins?
They say, a lot of twins exhibit same personality traits and same behavioral methods too.
As a physician i will have insist that though we might be quick in pointing out the fact that genetic material might somehow govern one's personality..it is still possible is that the fact that both twins face the same environment might be a factor that moulds their personality over time.
Hmmmm.. so yeah.. we all have our own versions of reality, and to add up to that,, memories are deceptive too.As in, our brain might make its own version of the reality while creating a memory, which might not be true .
Anyways, inspite of all this rambling, I still can't figure what i initially came here to blog about..It was a very clever sentence.A very simple single sentence which was capable of conveying so much..
now, with all this rambling, I still haven't managed to get that sentence out .
that sentence i surely going to sprout out again in my thoughts in a day or two.. I hope at that time, i have the intelligence to type it out immediately.

ode to the pear

August 9th , 2008
This guy i like very much,once wrote a blog about pears (yeah, the fruit Pear) more than a couple of years ago..
.It was a 'poetic prose' of how; though the pear is the underdog(atleast according to him , it is an underdog?I personally don't think the pear is the underdog at all) in terms of how it looks and how one perhaps needs a knife to be able to peel it (he think one needs to peel the pear before you eat it?I always eat pears with the peel! ) and such and then finally ,
he writes a punch line of how; though ,inspite of all this,he still gets the pear..


He says " I still get you !"( or something to that account though i don't recall the exact words he wrote) as the last line of the prose poem piece talking about the pear!

And two years later,I went back to his blog and out of whim and fancy posted a comment on that blog entry about the pear, of what came out spontaneously out of me when i went back there -


Here is My own version of " Ode to the pear"
You see, I have a whole different take on the 'pear'..I DON'T THINK IT IS THE UNDERDOG IN THE FIRST PLACE....I mean..if you have a fixed idea of what an UPPER DOG IS (if the term even exists) then ofcourse, anything that deviates from that norm of the characteristics of what seemingly is class material and what is the poor cousin of the class material,you might find it as an underdog...
So, since i have no fixed ideas of what is A grade and what is perhaps the unnoticed and uncherished B grade...i consider the pear NOT an underdog.. LOL

Anyways here goes the comment i left on there  on his blog about the PEAR
" Ode to the pear !!!
I looooove pears... the gritty yet interesting juicy texture... the just right sweetness and the thin skin.. the shape is fantastic as one feels it in one’s palm before proceeding to make that crunchy bite while the juice flows in a single drip down the angle of your mouth onto your chin.. you bite on till you finish the pear,peel and all . till all that is left is the stalk attached to the core with the seeds.... the teeth feel squeaky clean .. and the parched throat feels pleasantly moist but not acidic... the tummy is happy and life is livable again.. Pear is indeed the fruit from GOD"
 

A peerless lotus and the autograph book !

Funny title , You must think.Naaah..
When in tenth grade, when all of us were passing out of school, I did pass out with top honors(ofcourse, I would..I am a smart woman), we had this school ritual of getting our slam books signed by friends and teachers.
We used to go ask our fav teachers and sometimes the Not so fav teachers too..for autographs.. and they gladly wrote down something for us.
In my tenth grade , our class teacher was our English teacher.( i think he also taught history)
I was the class topper all through school and i was quite this self confident young woman(have always been ).
So yeah..coming back to the story.. He, this class teacher had this JUST PERFECT behaviour...He let me have my own dignity and ego and yet again once in a while would not hesitate and take charge and act as my mentor where he would be a dependable adult too...
As you all know..there is no dearth for(of?)perverted males (female too) class teachers) who for one forget that they are adults and cannot start having sexual fantasies about children and that at school they are suppossed be the substitute parents
( Off late, There have been so many cases of female and male teachers having sexual relations with their just teenaged students that it baffles me---I am not even sure if these teachers understand the gravity of what they are doing.. I know that hormonal levels don't ask your cognitive permission before they surge, but, hey ! there is always room to take control and put those impulses under control)
Yeah..so well.. I think..secretly, this class teacher was really proud of me and was very fond of me(in a non creepy way-coz, had it been creepy i would have instinctively known, just like i have been able to percieve and cringe each time some very old male has looked and lusted at me-such creeps could very well die and no one will weep for them..gosh!)
So , yeah.. we had this perfect relationship...He was this responsible teacher..who knew that i was a smart lady and a good looking one and he also knew that i knew my worth...and He was really proud too..and to be proud and to be supportive of a woman-child, and be mentor too when i wasn't related to him by blood.. I think..it was great.
Also, he had this really great talent where he would be able to draw a whole map from scratch on the board ..geographical maps with no scale avialable..
I sometimes think that he chose a very ordinary profession visa vi what he could possibly have endeavoured to do professionally had he had an opportunity to do so .
Anways..Gosh..I babble and babble and it tires me..LOL..the babble just won't stop
He, well.. when all of us went to get his autograph..he actually went ahead and wrote small poems for each of us...These were his own poems and all tailor written on the spot just for each of us individually.
He had a great hand writing too .
He wrote a four liner for me and the first line went something like
: "In the pond bloomed a peerless lotus" and
it went on( i must go and search for that slam book_i am pretty sure it is still there in my attic)
Wow..
He called me a Peerless lotus..
wow
I kept musing over what he wrote for years after that...
BTw...I hope he is not reading this blog..coz..that would be far too embarassing...It has been more than ten years since then.
I haven't gone back and visited my school.. I don't know if he is still there... I just wish him happiness and good health..
He taught me in so many ways that sometimes relationships can be pure and fantastic ..where there is no creepiness involved..no hidden crushes...just mutual admiration and mutual respect irrespective of age.
He was a great teacher and taught me lessons in human dignity and the value of hard work and about regulating and optimising one's own behaviour.
He Taught me about self regulation .
More than anything else he taught me to be proud of the fact that i am a self assured young woman.Because that pride was ingrained in me by positive reinforcement coming from such an unexpected source..I will never shake that self confidence away.This pride and self assuredness will stay with me forever.Thanks..thanks .thank you sir.