Day: August 3, 2022

My First Time at Gracie’s Apizza

I heard about this place while editing a blog post for my job. At Gracie’s Apizza, Craig Melillo makes 70 pies per night and when they are gone, he’s done. There are no more pies to be had.

This has always struck me as a very sane business model. Figure out what makes you enough money and just do that. Then stop.

I got the ricotta pie. Ricotta, provolone, mozz, young onions, heavy on the black pepper. Plus I opted into the greens. It was a little too heavy on the black pepper for me, but I’m willing to overlook that because the crust was so very good.

Sadly, one of the 70 pizzas fell on the ground as Craig was delivering mine. Poor pizza.

It took a bit to figure out the trick to actually getting to eat one of the pizzas. If you order on Wednesday, that’s when the orders open for the entire week. Choose your date and time, but be sure to show up because if you don’t show, you don’t get your money back.

In the category of what I did while waiting for my pizza, I read my newest letter from Sara, and texted her the good news that while the letter was marked postage due, no one made me pay any extra postage.

Sara pointed out that she weighed the letter and put on an extra stamp. There did seem to be enough postage. Perhaps they stamped it in errors and that’s why I didn’t have to pay.

The Importance of Centering When Transferring

Why? Why did I make the top of the circle so close to the top of the material, especially when I had so much more room below? Because this sampler isn’t really a circle—the big wagon wheel flower knocks this into more of a square—the size of hoop that fits the design leaves a gap at the top. This size hoop would have worked, if only I’d paid more attention when centering the design on the material..

This one would have worked too, but again, gap.

This one does fit all the way around, but it makes everything look too squished.

Well, time to switch shapes. And now I have three sizes of hoops waiting in the wings.

Kiriki Press Sampler: Floral Bun

This one was a big win from the Kiriki Pess sampler club. When it came in the mail, I thought, “If this one looks good when I’m done, it’s going on the wall. And thanks to the excellent instructions, it did turn out and it is going on the wall.

I think Kiriki Press’s talent is teaching cool skills with her samplers. In this one, I learned about blending strands to show different shades of hair. Plus I learned Turkey Work stitch. I’m not going to lie. I had to set aside the half-done Turkey Work for a few weeks because I was scared. But I eventually picked it back up and finished making all those strands into a tidy bun. Matt had to hold sections while I worked.

I also liked this section. This is actually much simper than it looks. Two diagonal crossed strands (purple going to the right and alternating pink and green going to the left) and then the circle part is woven around the grid.

Here’s the back, for people who like to look at backs.

I wish the lettering and outlines were in a darker color, but I think she must have had to choose one color and needed the light purple for the shawl background. Overall, still a big win.