Projects always take longer than one expects

I am helping out with the children's religious education this year, as I mentioned in another blog. Today we had a meeting and decided, among other things, that we could use a miniature altar cloth to teach the children how to fold properly (life skills, fine motor skills, good skill to build on). I said I would make one, and Christy gave me the dimensions of 11X16 inches, which she got off a package. Neither of us actually measured.

It's a simple sewing project. I can do simple sewing projects, much as I can sing simple songs - not expertly, but adequately. I was even looking forward to it. I hadn't bargained with two things. 1) We don't have an electrical outlet in the right place for the sewing machine, which I had moved, and 2) I didn't happen to have a piece of white cotton cloth of the dimensions 12 1/4 X 17 1/4 inches, allowing for hemming.

This led to some rather-more-complicated-than-I
-had-in-mind problem solving, involving, firstly, quite a few extension cords (I even had to go out and buy one), and secondly, finding a nice white cotton pillowcase that hasn't been used since I can remember, and ripping out all the seams. Both of these fixes took waaaaaay more time than I had bargained for, especially the seam ripping.

Once I *finally* had my white cloth rectangle, things started to look up, the only additional issue being burning my finger on the iron. But I didn't get finished until after midnight which annoyed me a good bit. And once it was done, I realized that it really isn't long enough. It should be, I estimate, 11X26 instead of 11X16. I wish I had measured!

I can make another one...and I may, but it won't be tonight!