Some days are diamonds...

... and some days are stone.  Do you remember that John Denver song?  Today I'm going to share one of each.

I had a stone day a couple of weeks ago... I was working on a new page for Doodlebug's Quiet Book and everything I did turned out to be a mistake.  One day I'm going to listen to the little voice in my head when it says... today's not a day for sewing... but on this day I was DETERMINED that I was going to make a particular page... a colourful umbrella complete with raindrops on a rainy day background.

I'd seen a YouTube tutorial... complete with a template...  so I figured I couldn't get much wrong... that was my FIRST mistake folks!

So I got busy cutting felt and making the colourful umbrella... that part actually went really well.

The next step was to sew the umbrella top and handle onto the background page... yep that went smoothly too.

Then I had to make the 'strings' for the beads... and this is the part where things started to go horribly wrong.

My first attempt at this page... don't even ask! I sewed some elastic onto the background for the beads to go on... and when I tested the strings 7 out of 10 pulled right out!  So... I TRIED to shorten my stitch length which resulted in the machine having a MAJOR hissy fit!  The feed dogs disappeared under the presser plate and wouldn't come up... the machine would only sew up and down without moving backwards and forwards AND... the stitch length control moved around aimlessly and clearly wasn't connecting anymore!  End result... my machine is going in for a full service and I bought a simple sewing machine on sale for making my book pages.  As a side note... it turns out that you should get your sewing machine serviced every two years... I bought mine about 14 years ago and have NEVER had it serviced!

So... new machine set up and ready to sew... I decided that I was going to make the strings using silver elastic so there was a bit of sparkle on the page... so I bought 1 meter of silver elastic thinking this would be plenty.  BEFORE I lined the strings up on my page I CUT the elastic into 10 pieces... and then I laid them on my background... ummmm the strings were way too SHORT!

But I persevered... I was thinking "I can work around this"... so I went ahead and sewed the umbrella in place using invisible thread... urgg this stuff is FIDDLY!  Being a new machine I of course didn't know all it's settings and it wasn't until I was half way through that I thought... hmmm those zig zag stitches should be a little closer together... but it's okay... I can work around this!

I sewed on the raindrops... yep that worked totally fine... maybe things will be okay after all.  Ha ha ha... they should turn that into a TUI ad:

So...  I popped the beads onto the strings... just in case you didn't notice... there is ONE bead on the first string... TWO beads on the second string etc etc until you get to TEN beads on the last string.  And then I sewed down the ends... yep it's still looking way to short to me!

And then I tested the page and made a sudden realisation... elastic STRETCHES folks!  It REALLY stretches... as in it stretches out of shape!!!  I was heartbroken... I took a little video to show Mum what had happened because I just couldn't believe it... take a look at this:

It was at this point that I realised that NOTHING was going to make this page look right.  But I'd put so much time and effort into the page... and my umbrella was COOL... those colours really POP against the grey, watery background!

So... I did a quick internet search and found out Spotlight was open for another 30 minutes... Toby and I rushed down in the car and I was able to buy TWO meters of cord that would NOT stretch but would be perfect for the page.

Please indulge me while I share the re-making of this little 20 x 20 cm page of TORTURE!!  One thing that worked in my favour... since I'd already made the page before... I knew EXACTLY what I had to do for each step.

Step 1 and 2: Sew the umbrella top and handle onto the background and then attach the 10 cords and sew in place... see how LONG those cords are!!:

Step 3: Sew the umbrella in place and shorten the zig zag stitch so it's a bit closer together:

Step 4: Sew the raindrops in place:

Step 6: Take the beads off the previous page... put them on the cords and stitch them in place:

By this stage it was late... well after dinner... and I had school the next day... and to be honest I was DONE!  Part of it was that I didn't 100% love the puddles at the bottom of the page I was using as a tutorial... they just weren't what I was wanting... BUT I didn't actually know what I DID want... so best to stop... take a break and figure it out.

Two weeks passed and all of a sudden I knew EXACTLY how I was going to finish my page!  Best of all... it worked perfectly the FIRST time... so here's my finished Umbrella page:

Yay for perseverance!!!

Just before I go I wanted to share a little DIAMOND moment in my life.  Of course today is Mother's Day... and my girls decided they were coming home to make me brunch... Yay!  Krystal made me a beautiful card on behalf of both of them:

PLUS... they got together and bought me a Screenprinting workshop class for next weekend!!  So excited!!

 

And of course there was the actual brunch... complete with sparkling grape juice:

Before I go I thought I'd share this quick little video of Miss Doodlebug having a taste of sparkling grape juice... this beautiful girl melts my heart every time I see her: 

 

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mum's out there...  I hope you had a wonderful day full of love and laughter xx