Square Dance Shoes Panel No. 3 Finished

This one took a while, partially because that yellow thread stitch to the right of the negative space square took a lot of thread, and I ran out and had to reorder, and also because my interest in this project seems to wax and wane. For instance, I finished it several weeks ago, but it sat waiting to be washed and stretched for a long time.

I like the overall result though.

Here’s a closeup of the left side. I like my double zig zags with the maroon and gold. And the simplicity of the turquoise running stitch next to it. The wrapped purple guy was when I started to incorporate stitches from Pop-Up Embroidery.

Here is a closeup of the right side. The yellow floss eater also came from Pop-Up Embroidery. I wasn’t very good at it. And then, for some reason, I decided I needed to make a billion figure-eight knots right next to it. You can see that the final bits were stitches that didn’t take long to make.

The back, for those who enjoy.

When I published the side two post, I discovered that I never chronicled side one, so here is side two:

And here is side one. I initially thought this project would be a good one to use up the bits of thread I had left from other projects, but I only had to run out of thread one time before I reached the top to abandon that plan. (You can see the little lime running stitch next to the white chainstitch in the middle not quite making it to the top.)

I also learned by doing. It’s best to start on one side and work to the other side. I initially added a line here and there, but didn’t like how much some of the things were getting beat up from the hoop, so everything after this panel was worked left to right.

One more panel to go! (And then I still have to make the bag…)

Dear Evan Hansen at Broadway Rose

I’d not seen Dear Evan Hansen, so I was glad that the Broadway Rose was staging a production.

Ryan Burton did a great job as Evan Hansen, I felt for him and also understood why he had trouble connecting. Cuin Moore was a Connor Murphy that really drew the eye, and my favorite performer was Azhia Ellis as Alana Beck. She has recently moved to Portland from Florida, and I’m hoping to see more of her.

New Bag from Maruca. And, what’s this?

I wanted a somewhat lighter bag for summer. The orange leather one has been a great fall/winter bag, but it was time to lighten up. Enter, this new Maruca bag. It arrived today.

As I was going through the pockets, I found Maruca’s calling card.

And in the back zipper pocket, I also found Emma’s Algebra quiz on factoring???

It amused me, and had me running scenarios as to how Emma’s quiz made it into the bag. I sent the quiz back with a note saying how much I liked the bag and congratulations to Emma, factoring whiz. I heard back from the owner via email more or less immediately after she received the mail. She said:

I wanted to reach out and thank you for the lovely note you sent us. I laughed so hard! Recently I was walking through the warehouse looking at some of my favorite patterns when my daughter came running in to show me her most recent math score. It was a herculean effort on her part and we were so excited! Hugging with such excitement that I totally forgot what I was doing. Emma and I walked back to my office and in all the excitement and silliness I put the test in the bag. Yes, I was wearing it. I randomly test our bags to make sure QC is catching everything. I put the bag on to test fit, zippers and strap and I look for any imperfections.

I also laughed. What a fun random happenstance.

Easter Egg Cake

Never again will I make a cake that requires me to crumble cake and mix it with frosting then mold it into a shape. Never. Again.

The Easter Egg Cake from Serious Eats came out much better than mine did. I would have been better off making the cake that site links to, which has better layers.

The problem started when I didn’t cut the layers correctly, leaving a big gap between the back and front halves of the cake. I ended up cutting the circumference of the back half and mushing up that part of the cake to make some cake spackle to bridge the difference between the high and the low.

Here’s the finished product. I ended up running short on frosting (blame the cake/frosting spackle?) and by the time I got all the crumbs moderately covered, I just sprinkled the sanding sugar on top rather than make a pretty design. I was done.

It didn’t cut nicely in layers, which makes sense as much of it wasn’t a layer but was cake spackle, but it did taste good. Especially with Rick’s homemade ice cream.

Type 1, Gone Forever

Type 1s were one of two of the the Max train cars in use when I moved to Portland. They weren’t very ADA friendly; there were steps to climb up. The Type 2s with their flat entry were the other type.

Reading the TriMet newsletter, I sadly realized that I would not be in Portland for the Type 1 sendoff.

I ordered a Type 1 pin in lieu of going to the sendoff and signing my name on the exterior.