Practice makes perfect.

Sometimes I will throw myself into a project without practicing first, figuring I'll nail it the first try. I do this all the time when giving a talk, and the vast majority of the time it works out really, really well. The first time I give a talk, it just goes better. It's not like a I don't prepare, because I do — I just never rehearse in front of crowd or even a person or dog first to practice. It's the same for most of my class lectures too. Maybe it's my enthusiasm for the topic the first time around that makes all the difference. This is not great when you have to teach a class over and over... and over. That's why it's important to constantly tinker with the subject matter and material so it's always fresh.

With other projects, I gravitate toward the same approach but sometimes have the good sense to actually do a real trial run. I am so glad I did that today with my sewing project. I had to fiddle with my sewing machine (I don't really know what I'm doing, really) to test out some stitches and adjust some nobs to see what they did..... trial and error style.

That's how Miss Yuki's new toy came to be. I knew I needed to practice stitching a sort of patch like thing onto something before I attempted something similar on the fabric book I am making and certainly want to get the new-to-me stitch perfected before attempting fabric alphabet blocks.

The Y on Yuki's new toy turned out well, I think, not that it matters at all to her, but it certainly looks extra cute hanging out of her mouth. I used scrap fabric from a blanket project, stuffing from old dead toys and a squeaker rescued from one of those mortuary toys. Yes, we have a mortuary for dead toys. This one will probably only last a week or so.... such is life with Newfies. They are very hard on toys but absolutely FLIP OUT for soft squeaker toys. So, I get many occasions to repair and sew new toys.


Poor Katy did not get a matching one with a big K on it... not that she noticed. Yuki actually shared this one enough to make Katy happy. And, truth be told, Katy would have rather been given a real bone.