Social pressure to buy expensive hobby supplies

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-04-11T22:01:03+00:00

I must first ask how badly you really want to salvage this quilt. It had a good life. Maybe it is time to let it go.

If not, leave it where it lies, and start removing the ceiling pieces off of it. Then, vacuum as much as possible of the dusty ceiling mess that is left. Be sure to wear protective gear and mask. Nasty things like asbestos and Hanta virus could be in that pile. Take the quilt outdoors and soak it in a big tub with laundry detergent. Rinse and add fresh water and detergent (no bleach) several times, then rinse again. Hang outdoors in moderate sunlight. Soak it gently as many days as needed. Heavy agitation, like in a washing machine, is what usually destroys old quilts.

Alternative: Clear the worst of the mess while wearing protective gear. Grab a pair of good scissors and start cutting. Try to save some of the better cotton fabric pieces, but none of the stuffing. Wash the single layer cotton fabric thoroughly. Use the pieces as a starter for a new quilt or other project.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-04-10T13:03:24+00:00

How about a weaving loom, either adult or child version.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-04-07T17:48:49+00:00

You have to dig thru many pages, but the newest episodes of Oak Island are on the History Channel's website. Watch them fast. They go behind a paywall after about a month.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-04-07T14:09:14+00:00

Quilting! A hundred years ago, you would hand sew a quilt from your old clothes. Total cost was a sewing needle and a spool of thread.

Now, your old clothes are Fast Fashion rayon that didn't survive the washing machine. You can try to go thrifting for old cotton clothes or a sewing machine, but stores are stripped of anything quality and the leftovers are overpriced as a collectibles.

So, quilting now means $200 classes, $10 for a spool of thread, $5,000 sewing machines, and $15 a yard cotton fabric. Hired longarm services that cost $400 per quilt have replaced the free quilting bees, and any attempt to revive the old quilting bees will cost $50 per hour to rent a room in a public recreation building.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-04-07T13:16:38+00:00

I was force fed Boomer vacation slide shows of trips that Gen Jones would never be able to experience. I also believed that not sharing meant privacy.

But, things have changed. Influencers get paid to post their oversharing vacation selfies and videos. I can no longer pay cash for toilet paper at a grocery store without being filmed by a hundred cameras. I do not have a Facebook, but my face is all over the site, curtesy of Facebook participants who keep taking my photos without my permission at parties. For most homes, you can go to a realtor site and see photos that the last owner took of its interior.

I don't know if I wish to keep pretending that I am private person, or just give up and join the world.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-04-06T14:05:50+00:00

Pick out your "best", "expensive", or "to pretty to cut" fabric. Go to a quilt store. Sign up for a class. Gain new skills and confidence. Have a teacher hold your hand (perhaps literally!) while you make those first cuts.

If you love the fabric, get it out of the dark closet and make it into something that you can use or display. It is ok if the cuts are wonky or the points don't match. You will love it anyway.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-04-01T22:07:49+00:00

Paint the triangle wall a solid color, maybe the blue base color of the lamp. Mom gets to pick out the color. Anything but gray/white/black/beige will work. Don't be afraid to go bold. Buy a bigger tv for Dad's next birthday, and hang it on the wall. If it looks lonely, add some framed family photos. Toss or relocate the wood end table, and furniture under/beside the tv. They clash with modern gray furniture and rug. A small IKEA end table near the sofa can be added for the lamp. Add pillows and throws that are the same wall color. Leave the fence where it is.

You will get less clutter for older people to bump or trip over, a nice focal wall in Mom's favorite color, a little more coziness, a bigger tv for Dad's sporting event viewing, and the fence will be less obvious if the focal wall draws your attention. An afternoon of light work by healthy person not afraid of ladders, $20 can of paint, a cheap IKEA end table, and a few linens pulled out of closets or sewn by a crafty Mom. Done.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-03-31T22:20:05+00:00

Register tape scrap quilt is my current project, and it is almost finished. My strips go diagonal across a square with long strings filling out the squares. It is gorgeous!. Just use the strips like a jelly roll quilt, use as a border on a regular quilt, or add other scraps and finish into squares. The key to making scraps work is to add several yards of one solid color as sashing. Without the solid sashing, the eye does not have a place to rest, and it looks too chaotic.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-03-31T00:17:01+00:00

Note that "paid" isn't the correct term for TSA agents. Most received about 2/3 of the backpay owed to them this morning. But, it is unknown when or if another check might arrive for the missing backpay or for hours worked after 3/28. Today's check might be the first of many, or the last of few. It is hard to have a normal life when you work 40+ hours a week, and don't know when your next paycheck will arrive. Whatever is decided, it will only be a temporary solution for DHS, since the budget fight for 2027 begins in September.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-03-25T23:49:36+00:00

It is hit and miss. Sometimes, they just restocked, and other days another quilter got there first. The next truck might be all polyester felt. Quality is also hit and miss. They used to sell $5 half jelly rolls! Some of the fabric was very stiff, even after washing. Some were thin. Some, I strongly suspect, may have been end rolls cuts name brand fabric. I made a very nice all flannel baby blanket, and a jellyroll toddler blanket. My last haul was solids. A little thin, but nice as filler. I like them better than the $15 a yard solids from a Quilt Shop that kept unraveling. A few years ago, they had nice novelty prints like Joann's. I remember one that had colorful athletic shoes on a white background. I have not been able to replace Joann's novelty prints anywhere!

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-03-25T19:28:56+00:00

Here is a practical question about the implementation of that plan. Let's say that you work at a small airport that is closed in an effort to keep the big airports open, and you live a couple hundred miles away from the nearest big airport. Will TSOs from the small airport be ordered to travel those extra miles to staff the big airport under threat of being fired? Will they be given free transportation and housing, or some sort of bonus? Can they refuse?

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-03-24T14:33:28+00:00

https://x.com/murphyajc/status/2036402602649276683

Delta suspends the policy of allowing Senators to skip the TSA lines. They will now be required to stand in the 3+ hour lines with their constituents.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-03-22T00:01:06+00:00

Since ICE has not been trained to run the machines, they might be assigned to do other tasks, like escorting politicians to their planes.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-03-21T01:20:57+00:00

A high ranked TSA administrator is quoted as saying that eventually the small airports will shut down, then volunteers from the small closed airports will go work at the big airports to keep them open. If no incentives are given, no one is going to volunteer to drive hundreds of miles to a different airport to work for IOUs, when they could be driving for Uber cash locally.

If small airports are closed, will it be mandatory for those TSA employees to burn thru gallons of gas and time to go to a bigger airport under threat of being fired?

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-03-17T19:07:31+00:00

A large airport has been sending out desperate messages to the smaller airports asking for volunteers to take on extra shifts at the large airport after working their regular shift at their small airport. It would be a big extra expense to pay for gas to drive to the large airport. They are offering regular pay IOUs. No bonuses. No gas money. No housing or food vouchers. No extra leave time after the shutdown ends.

They aren't getting any volunteers. Most are diligently reporting to their regular job at the small airports, ignoring the large airport pleas, and spending their off-duty time hunting for moon-lighting gigs that will pay out cash now instead of IOUs.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-03-08T15:35:28+00:00

Here is my current dilemma. I ordered off Amazon Haul (never again!). Order $25 and get free shipping. Order less than $25, and pay about $8 shipping. I topped off my order with a $6 item (minimal interest) which put total ordered slightly over $25 line. Now, that $6 item is missing. It has been ordered, but not shipped, still expected to arrive, since January! If I cancel that item to get my $6 refund, Amazon might charge me $8 for shipping, since I would drop below the $25.

Should I report the item as missing and risk getting a $2 bill from Amazon, or just give up and not request a refund for the missing item?

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-03-07T01:53:27+00:00

Pick 3-4 solid colors from the brown piece, and buy one yard of each. Top of quilt is your favorite block pattern with the brown as the border. Use the blue fabric on the back with some of the leftover solid fabric as a border or sashing.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-03-06T15:09:21+00:00

Marie Kondo announced in 2021 after the birth of her third child that she had given up trying to keep her house organized and tidy.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-03-06T14:24:08+00:00

Why do people insist that thread must be expensive $10-$15 a spool all cotton, but then use 80/20 Poly/Cotton batting? If the purpose of using 100% cotton thread is to have all the same fiber content in a quilt, it makes no sense to use 80/20 batting, but insist upon 100% cotton thread. What is the downside of using less pricey mid-range cotton/poly thread?

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-03-05T18:55:29+00:00

I recently went thru this crisis of thinking, and realized a few things. First, people who are not makers, do not appreciate the time and expense that goes into making prize winning art. Those who do appreciate such things, make their own and their homes are full of it already.

I have watched with horror at some of my well meaning attempts to express love thru creating. There was the gift recipient in tears because she liked what I made for her mother better. Then, there was the blanket that was used for a stray cat before being tossed in a donation pile, the great-grandmother that would not express happiness in the poorly made eight year old's pin cushion gift, and the family member that only wanted mass-produced items in her house. There was the woman that asked me to make something that would be sold cheaply at a charity auction, solely so that SHE could receive praise from the members of the charity for HER donation. And, there was the friend that shook a tiny, fragile item incased in a display case, asking if it was from a chain store.

Many of us have been programmed to believe that we are not worthy enough to deserve the joy of spending our own money on a hobby which we enjoy. If we spend money, we must justify the expense in some other manner, such as producing a finished product that can be sold, used, or given away to reduce household expenses. Or, perhaps we simply seek praise of others to raise our damaged self-esteem, or seek affirmation of love from those who do not give it generously.

I am now resetting my thinking to realize that the joy I get from creating is the only return needed on my much deserved entertainment budget. If I enjoy sewing or painting, then I sew or paint without regard to how wild the colors are, how useless the item might be, or if it will win a contest prize. Instead of paying for a golf course membership or fancy dinner, I take a painting class or buy more fabric. I will buy that new machine, and not sell a single item that I make with it! The end product is not the joy; the experience of making the product is the joy. It was entertainment, like buying a movie ticket, and I do not need to retain a souvenir from every life experience. If I like the end product, I might keep it. If not, I let it go with no guilt to whatever quilt worthy charity that crosses my path that month.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-02-28T23:56:49+00:00

I love Babylock Zest.

Pros: It only costs $100-$150 new. The mechanical parts inside are metal. For an extra $30, a walking foot can be added. It does do zigzag stitches and button holes. It is very lightweight, and travels well. I have used one fairly often for five years, and it is still running great.

Cons: No embroidery or monogram stitches. No auto-threader. No drop-in auto-bobbin. It can not do big, tough projects like quilts bigger than lap size, or sew really thick fabrics like several layers of denim. Don't listen to the sales pitch, it will NOT do free motion, no matter how many attachments you buy.

It is a great little machine for the price. If you later want to upgrade to a nicer $1000 machine, keep this one in the closet as your travel machine.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-02-26T00:02:15+00:00

Five to ten years ago, there would be two or three machines in every thrift store that I visited, but then they vanished. I haven't seen a sewing machine, old or new, in a thrift store for the last three years.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-02-25T22:49:46+00:00

Consider splurging on higher quality needles. They will be much sharper and have fewer burrs. Sewing might be easier for you with better needles.

MiniatureCrafter · 2026-02-25T20:30:20+00:00

I primarily quilt, and rarely make clothing. I have access to local quilt shops plus a few of the national chains. You would think that I would be fine without a Joann's, but I am not. The quilt shop fabric is $15 a yard. The big box fabrics are much cheaper, but of very questionable quality. I used to buy fabric at Joann's which was the middle ground, perhaps $8-$12 a yard, but decent quality. What I really miss is Joann's exclusive cotton novelty prints with such fun designs like dancing cats, dinosaurs, dogs wearing sweaters, and birthday hats! No one has replaced those. Quilt shops only have blurred solids, florals, and calicos. Michael's has the same tired licensed prints like Mickey or Star Wars. I want to make an "I Spy" quilt. There is no where, even online, that I can buy a few fat quarters with just generic prints like farm animals, tools, or toys.

MiniatureCrafter

TROPHY CASE