Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Photos for a 90 Degree Day

Remember this?

My driveway, February, 2011
Or this?


How about this?


Latest Conditions in Milwaukee, WIChoose Your Front Page City
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Partly Cloudy









ThursdayChance Showers Chance for Measurable Precipitation 30%

Chance
Showers

High: 86 °F


Next winter, let's try to remember how upset we were when it was hot!!

Aug 1
7:52 pm

78°F
(26°C)











Monday, July 30, 2012

Resource Center Musings

I found this notepad in my stack of paper when we were moving all of our stuff from the garage back to the office.  I think this says it all... and I'm a contender!!
A notepad from my desk

In previous posts and in my blog header I've talked about my stash.  I've discussed the reasons why I believe a serious sewist should have a stash. 

  1. When your colors are out of season, or the stores want to sell brown and you like black, you can shop where the proprietor stocks what you need.
  2. When you want to sew at 11 p.m. or 5 a.m. and the stores aren't open yet, you're good to go.
  3. When you have to make a blue monster costume on Sunday night for Monday morning, well, you get the picture!!
So you probably weren't surprised when I showed my stack of bins...
or my boxes of patterns...

But did I tell you that I ran completely out of muslin??  Or that I somehow have failed to store even one single black zipper of ANY size?  How does this happen?

I recently decided to take inventory of my sewing supplies, just for curiosity's sake, and perhaps to give a list of things to my insurance man for a rider on my homeowners policy.

I have approximately $300 worth of sewing machine needles. 

I have six different kinds of straight pin and three magnetic pincushions.  And before you comment, yes I DO use the various kinds of pins.  Maybe not daily but they gather no dust!  When I decide to cut patterns out, I will sometimes do as many as a dozen projects, and I leave SOME pins in each piece, so some are out of circulation, in the baggies I use for my 'ready to sew' kits.

You've seen these before...
I spent some time in the resource center trying to finish up DD's quilt so I can move on to other things.  I have a blouse to put button holes into, and another one that needs some interfacing.  I have about oh maybe 45 yards of interfacings in my resource center.  When I find it on sale at 50% off I buy 10 yards of the light weight or medium weight, and any time I find the stuff that's sold by Palmer & Pletsch, I get several packages of each weight in black and white.

Recently I donated two baggies of flat buttons to our preschool for craft projects.  I barely made a dent in the button collection.  But I did thin out the singles and the big buttons that didn't really appeal to me anymore.  I'm happy to make some 3 and 4 year olds happy.  :-)

What I didn't realize was how many SCRAPS I have saved over time!!  I used to make doll clothes, in fact I started my sewing career making clothes for my Barbie dolls.  I have an affinity for things Barbie.  I loved her professional outfits, I get a fluttery feeling in my tummy thinking about an outfit I bought her way back when, with its Chanel style jacket and matching purse and heels!!  My Barbie was stylin'!

SO I sorted out my scraps into a couple of piles -- Barbie-sized pieces, 18" doll sized pieces and baby doll/Cabbage Patch pieces.

You know those big plastic bins that hold however many gallons??  You know, the ones up near the top of this blog??  Well, there are two that are full of potential 18" and baby doll outfits, and the potential Barbie outfits fill a half-sized bin.  I guess I'd better get to work!!

Know any naked Barbies??  I guess you could send them my way...

Laughing out loud ---

Keep on sewing!