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*Bangs pots loudly*

Fun fact: You can win a quilt!

Every one of my ko-fi goals will result in a giveaway when the goal is reached. In order to enter, you must support me reaching my goal. How can you do this?

Donations - These start at $5 USD. You can donate using Stripe (debit/credit) or PayPal. If you would like to donate but not enter, please let me know.

Shop Purchases - Not one of my free downloads unless you choose to pay. I have free downloads for art references and tutorials, as well as a paid tutorial. Physical items currently listed are my original paintings, coasters, mug rugs, table runners, wheelchair/baby quilt, lap quilt, and quilt tops. More items are being added nearly every week right now, all of them small and quick to make.

Commissions - It doesn't matter how much you pay. A commission will earn you an entry into the giveaway.

Tier Membership - This is like Patreon. You support me every month and, in exchange for this support, you will receive a postcard every month (except gift months), automatic 15% discount on shop and commission prices, and a few other goodies that vary depending on what tier you chose. The lowest is $5/month. Oh, and you're automatically entered into every giveaway I have. No need to do anything else.

Multiple support means multiple entries. Oh, and I ship worldwide. If your country accept cotton handmade items, you'll be able to receive it.

Please, share this information. I'm only on Tumblr, so feel free to share it on whatever social media you use. Reblogging here will be extremely helpful. For those from social media sites: reblogging is the only way to have things seen here. We do not see your likes. This is a blogging site with social features, and no algorithm.

If you would rather just get a free quilt instead of an entry for one, head over to my Throne page. Any gift from my list that's $75 or more will earn you a quilt of equal or lesser value, that choice is yours. It can be a listed item or a commission.

Thank you!

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I've gone on about how awesome Chaosfay's work is. You really (if you have the coin) should buy her work.

Especially her paintings.

The short version of this is I offer a partial payment option for shop purchases of $300 or more. 50% payment is due upfront, and monthly payments after that. When the final payment is received, you will receive your purchase. Before any payments are made, however, I will need to write up a contract for you to sign with terms we agree upon. Your options for payment are PayPal invoice (my preference), Stripe invoice, Venmo, CashApp, and Western Union.

Before contacting me about any of this, read the entirety of the linked post. Leave any questions you may have in the comments section of the post as well. Anyone with the same or similar question will be able to see it's already been answered.

This is for shop purchases only. Not commissions. For a commission, it's 100% upfront unless you're one of my members. Members pay automatically every month, like Patreon, and what is paid can be applied towards a future commission. They also receive an automatic 15% discount on commissions and shop purchases. Read the info provided here to see if this is simply you would like to do. The lowest tier is $5/month and you will receive a postcard from me every month so long as you provide an address for me to send it to.

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Re-sharing this post I found on Twitter for people looking for alternatives to NaNo. I haven't tried any of these sites but they might be worth looking into.

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Commission Menu!

I've removed the "Pay What You Want" commission option, though you can pay more than my asking price on any of the commissions. The commission menu itself has been increased though! I had originally intended to open commissions in September, but emergencies happened, forcing me to open them early.

On the menu are:

A set of four quilted magnets or decorative pins.

A set of four coasters, with several options for more coasters as well as insulated batting to make them into hot pads/pot holders.

A single mug rug, with insulated batting as an option. For my shop, I use insulated batting for the mug rugs. For commissioned pieces, it's two layers of cotton batting or an extra $5 for insulated batting.

Due to popular demand, a single serving dining set. This is for a single placemat and matching coaster.

A four piece placemat set. If you would like me to make more placemats for a set, please contact me about this.

A single mini quilt. These range from 18x18 inches to 25x25 inches. They're excellent wall and table decorations!

A single table runner. I'm rather fond of these because of how flexible they are with regards to use. How so? Hang them on a wall, drape over the back of a couch, lay across a car seat, use it on an altar or shrine, etc.

A pine tree wallhanging. These are an excellent alternative to a Yuletide tree. They're hung on a wall and you can decorate it with your favorite pins or buttons. If you would like some decorative pins, I can make those (see the first item on this list). No trees will be cut down, cats won't be climbing up it nor break ornaments, it takes just a couple minutes to set up or take down. Storage is also very easy! Oh, and it can be made with a wide range of colors.

A rag quilt. I have different size options available! These are made using a quilt-as-you-go technique and are very quickly made. Oh, and they're EXTREMELY warm! My house gets very chilly in winter, and the rag quilt I've made for myself works like magic.

Just the quilt top. This is available in several sizes, the largest being twin. This is for just the quilt top. You will need to purchase backing, batting, and either do the quilting yourself or hire someone else. You will also receive all fabric scraps left after the sewing is done.

Please read over the details and don't be afraid to ask questions. If you're a monthly supporter, you will automatically receive a 15% discount, but you have the option to pay more than my asking price should you decide you don't want to use the discount.

Please reblog! It's the only way other people will see this post. Liking this is only a bookmark for you. Remember, Tumblr is a blogging site with social features; it's not a social media site. You are, however, welcome to share this post on any social media site you use.

Remember: commissioning me, purchasing anything from my shop, or donating to my goal will earn you an entry into winning a free quilt when said goal is reached.

Commissions close November 1st.

After November 1st, I'll be focusing on making a stack of quick and easy quilt tops to practice free motion quilting. Those quilts will be sold at a steep discount. Once I'm comfortable with FMQ, I'll be making larger quilts again, and these will be listed in the shop.

At some point, I'll take a break. Financially speaking, that's not really an option unless we pay off thr last vet bill and the water heater installation. If those goals are met, then yes, I'll take a long overdue and well-earned break.

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And another pair of gloves. I'm quite pleased with these ones.

Back to the 1760's Diderot pattern cuff shape this time, and I wanted to try adding some decoration, so I painted art nouveau swirlies around the cuffs using leather dye. (Which is of course not historically accurate, but art nouveau and mid 18th century menswear go together so, so well.) My inspiration was a motif from an 1898 book, which I found on pinterest, and I re-drew it a few times until I had a version that I liked and that fit the glove.

I wasn't sure how to go about transferring the design accurately to the leather, so I ended up making a stencil and tracing it using a very fine tipped pen, then colouring it in with the dye. The dye was very easy to paint with, but putting it in a little dish made it dry out and thicken extremely fast, which was not so good. For the second glove I put the dye in a porcelain thimble, which was better, but next time I'll try to find something even smaller with even less exposed surface area to put the dye in. Or I could perhaps try leather paint instead. I'll have to hold off on wearing these until I've gotten some sort of finishing coating to protect the dye, because it's unfortunately smudged a bit from handling. I did do a sample specifically to test for this and it didn't smudge, but in the sewing up process the gloves got touched quite a bit more than the sample, alas. And it may be partly due to the aforementioned drying out and thickening, which left more dye on the surface.

The leather is lambskin from ItalianSkins on etsy, and they're sewn up using silk yarn that my mother gave me. (With a regular needle again, because the only leather needles I have are too big.)

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How do we break it to boomers with actual brain damage and nostalgic brainrot, and the 'tradwife' thirsting Andrew Tate fans that bodyfat, average attire, an overall lack of professional haircare or makeup, and non-conventionally attractive women existed and represented the vast majority of women across all of history?

And that, yes, in fact, their belief that "all women were hot skinny super models" in x timeframe is because they keep posting images of fashion models, actresses, idealized pinup art, and creepshots of actual teenage girls instead of middle aged, elderly and ordinary women from whatever era. Man, history sure was an insane person's exact perfect paradise consisting solely of people specifically they were attracted to--when filtered through a cherry picked lens of solely famous glamor girls instead of just women workers, family photos and life events taking place anywhere outside of Hollywood.

It really does irk me that one day people will assume all of the 21st century consisted of women who looked like whichever three actresses are most remembered one day and a few odd instagram filtered images--because already, a massive wealth of evidence already exists to the contrary for all of prior history and people are still somehow convinced everyone on Earth was a size zero with perfect hair and makeup for all of human history. That's just not how anything works. It's not how women work. It's not how humans work.

Another fun fact, the majority of surviving articles of clothing from eons ago were extremely petite, extremely glamorous, and unfathomably tiny. You know why? Because they ..weren't worn. This is a well known example of survivors bias in the fashion industry. Expensive gowns and teeny martini dresses were usually only worn once or twice, if not solely worn by manikins in high end stores. Most people kept a consistent and small wardrobe for their entire lives. New clothes were rare, often custom fit or taylored by family at home, or hand-me downs from sibling to sibling. These clothes that were worn to death and destroyed from decades of use were thrown away. They didn't survive to the modern era because they were overly worn, large, and unglamorous.

Think of it this way, you might save your prom dress or your wedding dress but you're not saving the teeshirt with spaghetti stains on it for future generations to see. Why would you? Those are the clothes that don't survive.

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Home Adventures: The Heart Chair

You know how some projects seem easy at first but turn out to be more difficult the longer you work on them? That's this project.

In short, this chair that my family call the Heart Chair has been in my family for decades. From Mama Shears tells me, she's not sure if Grandma Shears (paternal grandmother) got it from a yard sale or if Papa Shears built it. So those posts of me saying dad built it may be inaccurate, but it's hard to tell.

The one thing I do know is we use it for everything, stool, step ladder, I've used it while I would spin yarn, and many many other things. And it has seen better days.

For one, the stain on the chair had worn away from years of my family using it. The wood went grey on the seat from exposure. It was rickety from the nails coming loose, causing us to use a mallet to get it back into place. It would rock anytime you sat on it or used it as a step ladder. Last year the top where the heart shaped hole is broke off (I think the wood just said NOPE) and had to be hastily glued back. The bottoms of the chair were badly chewed up.

Needless to say, it needed some work.

After working on the desk I found on the side of the road, mom asked if I could do something about restoring/revamping the Heart Chair. I decided to give it a go, but not before finishing a table I salvaged to practice on for staining (That's another post for another time).

Initially, I was going to sand it down all together and stain it. Call it a day. However, since it was wobbly as hell, I made the decision to take it apart. You can imagine how shocked my parents were on that.

I had to carefully take out the nails, sand down the glue, and VERY carefully sand down the chair to the bare wood. After I did that, I had planned on using a darker stain than what it was originally. Mom asked if I could just keep it the same, I wanted it to match our furniture.

I did do a couple of passes of pre-stain conditioner after learning my lesson with the table to avoid splotches. Then, I did a test pass with Minwax's poly stain in Ebony. I thought it was nice, Mama Shears did not. Welp.

So I sanded it down again and this time I remembered to plug in any holes from years of use with a combo of wood glue, sawdust, and bamboo skewers so things would be secure. I used wood filler to fill in any cracks.

Then I did a pass in Minwax's Pecan color stain. There was still some evidence of the ebony in the cracks, but I just went "This is fine." I then saw splotches from the wood filler. Dammit.

I did my best to sand that out. I had this issue when I did the table. So after a couple of passes, I knew it was just gonna have to stay. Note to self: don't use that wood filler anymore.

So now, everything is out in the sun drying. The back is on it's first pass, the smaller pieces on their second. The pecan stain is taking very well. For the feet, I'll put in some felt protection to preserve the chair.

Photos to come when I can.

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Neither of my machines are large enough for the Cutie quilting frame. The diagram on Grace Company's website was unclear of where they measured the machine, but it turns out both my machines are nearly two inches too short for the lowest setting. I need at least 8.5 inches of workspace, also know as the throat.

I won't be able to handquilt for the next several months. My hands and wrists are a wreck and need time to heal. This is why everything I make will need to be handquilted until probably next spring or summer. It's why I need the frame, otherwise finished items will need to be small enough to fit in my machine without straining myself. I can manage about 30 inches square max, which is why the largest items I'm making are table runners and wallhangings. Large quilt tops are an option, but finishing the quilt won't happen unless I hire someone else, and I don't want to do that.

Grace Company made a machine specifically for the frame. It's called Little Rebel, and I hope to be able to afford it next winter. It's $3k, which is waaaaay outta my budget. There's a second machine, a Jenome, that's $1200. I have bills, my debt, and smaller things I need, like a printer, an XBox for my husband, and some inexpensive exercise equipment (my asthma cannot handle summer air and my body cannot tolerate summer heat or sunshine), just to name a few things. All money I receive goes to my goals and bills, not machines.

If you fancy purchasing a machine, I have my Throne list here. When I have either machine and get practice in, commission prices for quilts wheelchair/baby size and up may cost less than half the original prices I had them up. Handquilting will be reserved for love and personal pieces.

I will happily give a quilt I finish on the frame to whomever buys one of these machines for me. There are half a dozen quilt tops in my standing wardrobe, all waiting to be completed quilts. More tops will be made, which are more options to choose from.

I'll take my frame apart this weekend, once we figure out a place I can store it in the house. Until I get a machine that works with it, this will remain stored away and no larger quilts will be made except as just listed quilt tops.

Thank you.

My work below, for the interested:

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June 21, 2024 - Namibia's high court has declared the "sodomy law" that criminalised gay sex unconstitutional!

Namibia inherited the apartheid-era law banning “sodomy” and “unnatural offences” when it gained independence from South Africa in 1990. [link]

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*Rings the Cowbell of HYYYPEEEE*

YOU WANT SOME COOL QUILTED ART????

Go support my buddy!

Chaosfay's Fourth Quilt Giveaway

Third goal reached, now it's time for the fourth. This is the largest of the lot, and will have a prize to match. The winner will get to choose a quilt of their choice from what's in my shop or have it custom made by me, up to twin size. My base price for a twin quilt commission is $4150 USD.

Deadline: October 1st, 2024

Do not tag this as a giveaway, raffle, or anything related to it.

Liking this post will not count as an entry. Don't click the heart/like button. Reblogs only. DO NOT LIKE THIS POST!!!!!!!!

Only one entry per person. Reblogging this multiple times will not count as multiple entries.

My Ko-Fi members are automatically entered. If you wish to sign up for a membership, it won't get you an extra entry here. You will, however, be automatically entered into any and all future giveaways I host.

When you reblog this, tell me which quilt I've made is your favorite. I have my gallery here, so head that way. If you don't include this in your reblog, you won't be entered into the giveaway. I would really appreciate it if you also link back to it. This will bring more people to my website, and some of them may purchase my work, and that will me to the goal more quickly.

Purchases, commissions, and donations will be applied to the goal. I have options for all budgets (free downloads in my shop), and the option to pay what you want with a minimum price.

Please reblog!!!

When we meet this goal, I'll make a separate post announcing the winner. Then I'll set up the next goal and giveaway.

If you have social media, please share a link to my ko-fi page. The sooner the goal is achieved, the sooner I'll draw the winners name.

If we meet the goal by the end of June (my birthday and wedding anniversary month), I will giveaway two quilts!

Here are examples of my work:

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I've talked about Chaosfay's work on stream, and cannot recommend her work enough. Help support a fellow disabled creative!

Fancy helping me surprise my husband with a fantastic gift?

His XBox One is no longer reading discs. It also likes to randomly disconnect from the internet. The machine is old, and getting it repaired costs more than getting a new one. Thing is, we don't wanna buy a new XBox One when an XBox Series X is available ($500 USD). Series X has a disc drive, Series S does not.

I have the XBox Series X pinned on my Throne wishlist. My hope is, after paying off the medical bills (done) and the Care Credit vet bill ($1300) with quilt sales, I can surprise my husband with an XBox Series X. He can play more of his games and be able to relax...and get Baldur's Gate 3 for XBox because it's something we both wanna play. My PC needs a new graphics card before I can play this game on it, and I haven't the necessary skills (nor money) to install one.

If y'all wanna help me surprise my husband with a gift, you can do so two ways:

Purchase my work and help me pay off the Care Credit bill. I'll be turning the three finished quilt tops into finished quilts over the next three months, then listing them in my shop. Commissions open in March for my members, April for everyone else.

Donate to my Throne crowd funding thing I have pinned on my list. It's specifically for the XBox. Donations to my Ko-Fi go towards the bill goal, not towards the XBox.

My website:

Ideally, I would have the funds by February. February was once the worst months of the year for me. Something traumatizing happened to me, resulting in PTSD and me, more or less, avoiding everyone and everything. That has changed over the last five years, and now it's just another month. It would be nice to celebrate it with a gift for him. Plus, there's the benefit of him being able to play more of his games.

Yes, we each have separate consoles. He also has his own room with his DnD stuff, a sofa, desk, TV, XBox, films, and games. Separate spaces is vital for us, and has made a massive difference.

After he has his gift, and I'm not telling him about this because I wanna make a surprise, I'll focus on putting all my funds towards paying off the new water heater. An XBox Series X for myself is definitely a yes, later in 2024, because I wanna play Baldur's Gate 3. Plus, other new games are coming out that will require a new console. Maybe we'll be able to get the console for my 41st bday in June? We shall see!

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I want this!

This beautiful invention dates back to 1840

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Pax Unplugged Con Etiquette: Shears Edition

Well lookie there, I'm gonna be at PaxU! This is my first time going, and I'm excited to see all the cool things and meet all the cool people. And since a twitter (I refuse to call it X. No.) was doing that Things to Expect quote tweet, I figured I elaborate for folks on some Shears Etiquette aka rules of engagement with me in person. 240 characters was not gonna have enough context. So here's the basics:

The Basics

Pronouns: They/Them. I am non-binary, and will remind folks.

If I know you, and we have interacted long enough that I trust you: Just yell SHEARS!!! and I'll respond. I'm okay with that! Being in roller derby kinda conditioned me to that. So we're cool!

If I don't know you well: Please, please, please introduce yourself. I am very reserved in large crowds due to being Autistic (more on that in a bit). If someone comes at me and I don't know them I go into Freeze, Fight, and Flight-in that order.

Hugs are okay, but please ask and wear a mask. Mama Shears is immunocompromised, and I don't want to bring anything home that could make her sick. I will also not be removing my mask for photos.

The Advanced/Full Context

If I get overwhelmed, DO NOT TOUCH ME. No joke. Let me take some time to recharge my batteries. There's very few folks I allow to touch me (Hugs, arm around shoulders) when I'm in meltdown mode. Err on caution and ask first. Please be patient if I need space/quiet time. When I'm back to baseline, I'll let you know!

I often struggle to connect faces IRL to names. Just remind me who you are. It literally took me months to connect a friend's face to their name. Yes, that happened.

Being Autistic, I sometimes have a hard time with loud noises. So I may try to focus on what I want to do. But please don't let that put you off, I would love to chat! Just be respectful.

I'm there to have fun, and if you know any cool vendors to support let me know! I am a lover of a good bargain.

When I'm ready to move on, I Irish Goodbye fast. Like, fast. My ability is to navigate a crowd quickly and quietly. Please don't be offended if I do the goodbye of my people. *Laughs*

I get distracted and will infodump sometimes. Roll with it.

Most importantly, I'm just a random person on the internet. We all are! And as such, parasocial stuff happens. Know that we are all people, and don't really know each other very well. I am a fairly open book, but I share what I do because that is what I am willing to share.

Note: There's gonna be a streamed panel about parasocial relationships on friday talking about this. I highly recommend attending it if you are there Friday. If not, here's a link for an amazing roundtable on TheOperaGeek's channel.

Lastly, we're here to have fun! So here's to a fun weekend at Pax!

Love and Music,

Shears <3

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PAX Unplugged is gonna be busy!!!

Friday, December 1st Parasocial Relationships and You 11:30am Mothman Theatre| twitch.tv/pax2 Parasocial relationships or one-way relationships in which fans feel like they “know” a media personality have always existed. However with content creation – and especially live streaming – those relationships take on somewhat new twists that many streamers don’t expect. This panel of accomplished…

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Doreen Ketchens

Clarinetist

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knitting/chrocheting while hanging out with friends is so funny like everyone shut up for a few minutes i have to count to 115. twice