The quilting made me do it....

 I've updated the famous phrase by Fred Sandford - or was it Flip Wilson? (I'm also dating myself here with that reference...).  Instead of the devil made me do it...It was the quilting made me do it.

Quilting leads to a lot of bad habits.  Habits like hoarding fabric and thread, obsessive need to save scraps, lusting after gadgets to name a few.  It's not just some simple craft left in the hands of sweet little old ladies who only drive their cars on Sunday.  Ladies and gentlemen.... quilting has lead me down a very slippery slope this time.  You may recall a few posts ago (or in several) where I rambled on about my new seam ripper.  Torn between this one and the purple one...  I made the choice for this one ...but still lusted for the purple one.  Because two of something is usually always better than just one.  Shown in the photo above, you can clearly see why I'm enamored with this tool.

Look at the depth of the color.  Look at the pearly sparkle it reflects when your hand moves about.  Marvel at the voluptuous curve and how it fits in my hand.  My only problem was....did I want this one or the purple one?  I had to settle on just one - so this is the beautiful kitten  tool that went home with me.

The slippery slope... you ask?  My husband took up woodworking a couple of years ago.  He's WONDERFUL at that craft so I'm always tagging forced to follow along along when he goes to the woodworking store.  All of that knowledge by osmosis lead me to realize....  That seam ripper is turned on a lathe.  My husband has a lathe.....  BINGO - I'm getting a purple seam ripper!!!

A beautiful bookcase for under our tv made by my dear husband.

But not that quick folks.  I came home and proudly displayed my new beautiful tool.  I asked him if he could make another one for me...  You know what that crazy guy said...  Why don't you do it?  Working on the lathe is easy to learn.

My head spun off my body.

He had me at "why don't y".  He didn't even have to finish his sentence.  Why didn't I think of this myself?  My gosh - I think I can do everything else myself (the posts about my replacing the coil in my car or the faucet in my laundry room will come much later....) - why not this??

So bing, bang, boom - off to a woodturning class I go.

Very glamorous attire here...

I took a class at the local wood shop and loved it.  We made a pen in class but it was just enough to give me the basic premise for my needs -that and a new lathe, some lathe tools, and like 200 hours of You Tube videos.  There are some amazingly informative videos out there.  Thank you Internet.

It starts like this

And in progress here

And here's the final product!!!

I love it!!!  Although, it has cut into my sewing time a bit...  I am participating in a craft fair this Sunday, 7/24/16, with a load of seam rippers and some vintage communication tools a.k.a. - pens....I am amazed at how many people want these handcrafted pens!!  I guess not everyone is using Docu-sign!

As with quilting - it's all about color for me so I've been busy working up as many different colors as I can find.  My poor husband is probably not as happy about this as I am.  He feels like he needs to "schedule" time in his shop since I've been in there so much lately.  

You just can't get a good glamour shot with this head gear on.  No Kim Kardashian-style lip pout is going to make that look any better.....

Just like in quilting, when you square up blocks and have all those tiny scraps - turning gives you these shavings.   I'm pretty sure I'm not saving these for any future use....

If you're interested in quilting or quilting gadgets or hoarding quilting tools....check out my Etsy site after this weekend.  I'm "on vacation" in the shop until after the craft show.  I can help you with that problem.  Muahahahaha.

How about you?  Do you have a favorite tool you use?  I also have a lust for Bloc Lock rulers - but thankfully I haven't gotten the bug to buy whatever you might need to make those....