Merry Christmas!

This is the time of year when everyone starts being nicer. For the past three weeks or so, I've noticed that most people are smiling more, saying hi or good morning, and just generally being nicer.

Most people are relatively happy around the holidays. If there are children in your life it can be a wonderful time. But sometimes people get grumpy over the holidays, or depressed. If you've lost someone, or if you're alone or feel like you're alone even when you're around people, it can be a hard time of year.

This was going to be a post about the man who invented the yellow smiley face back in 1964. He was paid $45 for his graphics work and that was all the money he ever made from it. But as I was thinking about smiles, I was reminded of the saying "if someone needs a smile, give them one of yours".

There are many people who are alone or lonely this time of year. No one should ever feel unloved because God loves all people and desires that all people be saved. But not everyone knows or believes that. I consider it part of my purpose to let people know that.

If you know someone who is alone or lonely, reach out to them. Tell them someone cares about them because it's true. It could be you, but if it's not, it's someone else and most definitely it's Jesus. If you celebrate his birthday, you know this.

If YOU are lonely, find a church or other place of worship and stop in this week. People will be friendly, but if they're not immediately welcoming, go anyway because God will be glad you did.

I also came across a quote from Mother Theresa this month that applies here. I'll paraphrase because I can't locate it right this second --

"If you have the choice to be mean or nice, be nice. If you have the choice to be good or bad, to return insult for insult or to forgive insult, whatever, always choose to be good or forgive. It's not about what's between you and the other person. It was never about you and the other person. It's about what's between you and God."

So be good. Be kind. Be nice. Be happy. You are loved by the Father in heaven.

Sew on! And Merry Christmas.

Craft Fair Debrief

I participated in my second craft fair last Saturday and I am happy to say it went very well. I may have gotten over the aversion to doing them! OK, no guarantees, the jury is still out on that one.

The show filled a nearby middle school cafeteria, two gyms and the hallways. Carol and I chose a hallway since we thought the traffic would help her sell her jewelry. As it turns out, the traffic was probably the same in all locations but the booth size was better for us in the hall... except for the crazy neighbor we had it was really good. Why do people dress the way they do to go out in public? Let me say two words: gray sweatpants.



See the tiny mittens?  Carol said the first eight or nine pairs were fun to sew but then they got annoying.  Well that's more than I made!!

 So the show cost me $37.50 in table fee and the gas to drive over to the next town, which was not far. I figured since most of my materials are left over from previous projects, my cost of goods isn't much, it's mostly my time. And since I have to do SOMETHING while sitting with DH who is watching sports or bad TV, it was a good investment. (Yes, most of you know what I'm talking about -- how many golf matches can you stand?? And mine is addicted to Food TV!)

I filled a card table top and three feet of a six foot table with doll outfits, scarves I knit, and some little bags I made last year, the kind you tuck into your purse with a tube of lipstick and your sewing kit inside.

I sold a few things in the morning, but lots of people were looking and not buying. We figured they were scoping out the place and making mental lists. Carol had her earrings and necklaces, some pretty cowl scarves she knitted, and she made a bunch of American Girl doll mitten sets plus some scarves and hats.

At around noon, the Pompom Squad girls were around with lunch menus and order sheets. Hot dog meals, brat meals and sodas. We chose brats. They were delivered by the same girls a bit later. How cool was that? We tipped them and they giggled like crazy.

Later there were more shoppers, and we sold all the doll mittens, all the knitted doll hats, all the doll sweaters we had, the Packer shirt/pants, and five of the six pairs of pajamas. It's funny, I thought the pjs and slippers would go together, but not all did. The big color at this event was red. Last time it was pink. I guess you never know, do you?

Our models... We had to pin a tag on the dolls saying "Dolls not for sale"!  Check out the leopard mittens on the doll's hand, and the matching vest on the table.  Yep, we sold ALL of those!

I had some crazy socks that I made from kid socks.  Those did not go.  I should have made white ones, or red ones, or matched them to the dresses and skirts.  I made green to match our purchased Girl Scout outfit and left them on the doll.  Logistical error -- people did NOT like them!

I started out with a sixteen inch by sixteen inch by 14 inch deep basket full of items.  I came back with about 25% of what I took.  I am a happy person!  I also got two inquiries from people who want to commission special items... and several questions about where I will be next.  (We'll see about that!)

The weirdest thing to me was that these little Christmas dresses didn't sell.  I guess little girls and their moms/grammas were looking for full skirts?  Or maybe long sleeves since it was SO COLD on Saturday!  So these little gems came home with me.

Carol sold two pairs of earrings and two scarves in addition to her mittens. 

I hope she will forgive me for doing well...

Sew on!

Ready for the Craft Fair!

Here's a sample of what's going to be available from my table at the Midnight Magic Craft Sale tomorrow:

If you're in the neighborhood stop on over. Google "Midnight Magic Mukwonago"

Sew on...

Get It Done List...

Ha ha... just chuckled to myself as I typed the title. Get It Done, Git 'er Done, whatever!

 

My company used to have a Safety Manager who was from Kentucky and he used to say 'gitter done' a lot, which made me giggle. I always helped him edit his newsletter to 'take the Southern out' (at his request, he wanted to sound professional to the engineers even though I found it charming.)

 

So here's my Gitter Done list for December:

 

December 2013

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30 31

Holidays and Observances: 24: Christmas Eve, 25: Christmas Day, 31: New Year's Eve

Time for???

a new car? Might be! Now I am not one for fancy cars. I drive an 11 year old compact car. It's a Toyota and a darned good one -- here's me knocking on wood... DH takes it for oil changes and tune ups religiously, and the tank is never ever below half in the winter. I've driven on lots of trips and she's a pretty good vehicle. Knocking again.

This is what my dashboard clock said this morning on my way in to work...

Sew on!

Slipper Update...

Update to the grandson's slippers -- they are done...well except for the weaving in of the ends. They are so cute in camo!

A woman at church had seen me knitting and asked about them.  Her husband wants some.  When he saw the picture of the camo slippers he said 'those are exactly what I need!  I'll take two!'  We giggled because he meant two slippers and I thought he meant two pairs...

So now I have to knit an adult sized pair.  I think I will knit them both on the same set of needles because my main problem with making two of anything is always getting them exactly the same.

I'm going to use my yarn winder to make cakes instead of balls 

so I can use both ends of the cake for one slipper and both ends of a second cake for the second slipper.  Cakes have the advantage of not rolling around.  And since I bought the winder, I probably should use it!  (I used to own a knitting machine so it came in handy, but the machine took up too much space and the shuttles were too heavy to work comfortably so I sold it.)

I made a second girlie pair.  The picture looks pink but they are actually two shades of red, garnet and chardonnay.  I added a pompom.

Sew on!

Weekend Sewing

I spent the weekend in sewing land...

Remember DD's quilt?  I trimmed the big brown border and remeasured, then pieced a blue/blue/blue backing.  I have to square them both up and then it's off to the quilter!  I usually go to Patched Works in Elm Grove for professional quilting.  The ladies are nice and they do a good job and quickly.  I think I'll get this back in time for Christmas.

One gift down.  A zillion to go...

Saturday my friends Marlene and Judy and I went to the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo in Tinley Park, Illinois.  This is the south side of Chicago.  In the spring there's another one in Schaumburg. 

http://www.sewingexpo.com/Home.aspx

It's expensive to go to Tinley Park!  We paid more than $10 in tolls.  That cut into our lunch money in a big way.  Admission was another ten.  I should have hit a TYME machine before I left town, but it was so early and I'm lucky I remembered my purse...  so when lunchtime rolled around and I went to the concession stand, there wasn't much cash.  It was OK because the choices were not great.  Think high school football concession only worse.  I had a hot dog.  It was comparable to what the street vendors sell in the summer so I wasn't starving.  But I had to save $$ for tolls on the way home and to contribute to the gas fund for the driver.

There were lots of cool vendors there (who took credit cards!).  I picked up some black and white fabric cuts from Vogue Fabrics, a piece of batik from SewBatik from North Dakota.  The stuff was to die for!  Rayon and cotton were available, and some of the cottons were 108" wide for quilt backs.  WOW.

I also bought a few patterns, some thread from a Floriani dealer, and a fabric decoloring kit from June Colburn's booth.  When I got home and told Miss E about the decolorant she said it sounded very interesting, so we hope to have a craft day or two next week when we're both home.  (I'm taking vacation, she has days off of school.)

Marlene bought a few nice things too, but the big winner this time was Judy.  She picked up a cutting table floor model at the booth for Tracey's Tables from Stratford WI.  She got it at a super-duper price and he will deliver it to her house for a very small price.  We tried to figure out if we could get it into her SUV but since it was already assembled it was about four inches too tall.

He says they sell his tables at some quilt shops in the area, but so far I haven't located one.  He has a web site but there's no list of locations where his products are available.  I had my eye on a cutting and pressing station.  It has storage, a big pressing surface, and if you lay a cutting mat on top you can have a two-station station!

It looks much sturdier than my cheapo $60 table from the local chain, and it has storage!  Maybe Santa will  bring one to my house...

I'm taking a knitting class tonight at Fiddlesticks Yarn Store in Kenosha.  It's a cowl style scarf on bulky yarn.  I have to confirm the needle sizes though.  The blurb on the web said 3, 4 and 5.  Really?  For bulky yarn?  I think I'll call before I drive all the way down there and find out I have the wrong sizes...  and I'll post the finished product later.

Sew on!

Slippers

I'm knitting some slippers this week. I was reminded of the slippers my mom used to knit two weeks ago at the church's craft fair. I was knitting a doll cap...

and someone asked me if I ever knit slippers.

OK... well, I knit, and slippers are easy. So I looked around for the ones Mom made for me before she passed away. She developed Alzheimer's in her early sixties, so she stopped knitting and crocheting when she starting having trouble remembering how to do it.  She died in 1998. 

Found the slippers in a box in the closet -- they're getting a bit thin in the sole.  OK, so I might have to make myself another pair because these babies are warm and it's getting to be winter!

I didn't have a pattern for them, but they're so stinking simple, I figured I could 'read' the slipper and figure it out.

not mine... not the ones I'm knitting but darned close!

Mine are bright green, two strands of worsted weight, undoubtedly Red Heart or something comparable. Looks like 32 stitches on a fairly big needle, as well you'd have to if you were knitting double strands. On examination it looks like you knit 10, purl 1, knit 10, purl 1 knit 10 on odd rows and knit 32 on even rows until you get to about the ball of your foot, then you change to ribbing until it's a half inch shorter than your foot. THEN you have to sew it up at the toe and the heel. If you want to decorate the toe you can make a pompom or a flower or whatever you like, or you can leave it plain.

I knit a pair for my grandson in camouflage yarn. Actually the color says Camoflaj... must be some Red Heart cutsie naming convention.  I don't have to worry about him finding out since he doesn't read my blog...

Out of curiosity I searched the Internet for easy knitted slippers and came up with about a million versions. About half a million of those can be found free on Ravelry, a free service for knitters and all-round fans of yarn. You have to join, but once you do it's so cool to see what people are doing out there in Knit-land. You can buy patterns or get free ones; you can post and view photos of people's work; you can get help or give it; you can even find knitting groups and knit-ins.

My pattern that I read from the slipper was darned close to the ones called Grandma's Slippers!  (I know, right?)

On www.ravelry.com you can store your patterns in your own library, post your stash or sell or trade it, and locate knitters in your area. Boy, that's a rabbit hole you could disappear into without a problem. Ask me how I know this!

So next time you're in the mood to discover something cool, or have a memory of mom, or warm your feet, you will know where to go.

Sew on!

Stash Enhancement over the Weekend...

I finally finished DD's quilt a couple of weeks ago and am ready to send it off to the quilter, or so I thought.

I needed to find a backing, so I thought I'd just buy some extra-wide fabric. That is until I measured it! Extra-wide fabric is usually 108" wide. The quilt top is 110". You have to have four inches extending beyond your top in order for the quilter to get it on the long arm machine.

So either I have to reduce the size of the top or I have to piece a back. Or both.

If you remember, I had a big brown border on this quilt. I guess I must have thought I needed an extra four inches on the FRONT... duh.   So I can trim it down by about eight inches.  Now it's going to be 102" wide.  OK, that will JUST about fit.

Then I got to thinking, I have a couple of big pieces of the strippy blocks left over, why not put them in the backing?  It's not like I'm going to use them in another quilt. So I tried to go to Joann's on Saturday to pick up the main backing fabric (which I never buy with the quilt fabric since most of the time I'm working from stash).  (Anyway, who has five yards of double-wide fabric in their stash without a reason --  no, no, don't tell me, I'm sure someone does!!)

Saturday was either a good day or not so good a day to go to Joann's.  They had a 25% off coupon  that ended Saturday.  The cutting line was about 25 people deep, and the girls were waiting in the car.  I couldn't subject them to that long a wait.  So I went back Sunday.  No coupon, but what the hey, I'm only buying one piece, right?

Right.

The line was only about 10 deep on Sunday.  The bolt was pretty heavy.  I was number 16.  They were serving number 8.  I had to wait in the calico section.  Right next to the Christmas fabric.

Oh yeah.  You guessed it.  I'm now up five yards of red and green.  Oh and I also picked up three yards of Wonder Under.  It's a good thing I'm not keeping track!

Sew on!

Catching up on Project Runway

Craft Fair Redux...

I experienced my second 'first' craft fair on Saturday, to mixed reviews.

Let me explain the second-first comment.  Last year, a woman at church was having a booth at the craft fair and she didn't think she had enough merchandise to fill a table, so she invited me to join her.  I was making small cosmetic bags for gifts, so I made more.  I also knitted some of those skinny scarves that are so popular.

I sold 6 bags and no scarves, but Jean sold a lot of her little cell phone holders and some pillows she made.

This year, I was taking a booth at the same craft fair with my 18" doll clothes.  I invited a friend from work to bring her beautiful hand-made necklaces and earrings and share my table.

Saturday dawned chilly and a little damp.  We went to set up and I was surprised that there were only about half the vendors as compared to last year.  There was the Pampered Chef and the Tastefully Simple of course, and Bill's Xmas Crafts (very cool decorative items for the holidays), plus one jewelry vendor, the Scentsy people and 31.  I'd never heard of 31 until last year, but her booth seemed to be the place to be!

Ours was very cool, I thought.

Of course I attracted every little girl in the place.  Too bad there weren't that many little girls!!  Although I do have to say that I sold a respectable amount of outfits.  The sweaters and the GB Packer shirts seemed to be the most sought after items.  Note to self:  more PINK.  Little girls like PINK.

I still have about half my stock, so I'm looking for another not-to-expensive venue, and what's left will either go to the little girls I know for gifts or be put away for next year. 

BTW I couldn't see the pink sweater my model was wearing because I didn't get the buttons sewn on!  But I sold the hat she was wearing, along with about six others. 



continued...

I don't know why but Blogger is not behaving normally today.  It would be doing that since I'm so busy I don't have time to think!

Do you love craft fairs?  I do and I don't. 

Let me explain.  Since I do lots of crafts such as sewing, beading, embroidery, knitting, and on and on, I go to craft fairs and I find a gazillion things I love and I think "I could make that".  Then I don't necessarily buy the thing, but I want one, so I try to remember what it was and I look for patterns.  I may or may not actually make one.  Who am I kidding, I usually don't!

Then I think "I should be in a craft fair sometime and sell the stuff I make".  Hmmm, but could I stand to make the same thing over and over so there's enough merchandise?  Probably not.

But last year, I actually made and sold some doll clothes for the 18" dolls to a couple of people and that was fun.  Granted, it was not a lot of people and it wasn't an organized thing, so it wasn't like work.

This year, I convinced myself that I could make enough stuff to take a table at our church's craft fair.  I think I've done it in a rather painless manner.  I've been knitting and sewing various items for several months, stashing them in a couple of boxes out of sight of little girls who might appropriate them for their own dolls.

The craft fair is a week from Saturday -- November 2.  I've partnered up with a friend from work, and we're going to share a table.  She's made some awesome jewelry including some very cool crocheted necklaces using ladder yarn.

I pulled my boxes out, and I am amazed at the number of items I have finished!  I guess I have to fool myself into thinking I'm just making a few things and it works.

Of course they're all one of a kind items, because as I've said before, if I had to make a dozen of the same thing I might abandon the project by items number four.

If you're in New Berlin, WI, next weekend, stop in at Peace Lutheran Church and check us out.  There's a Scholastic Book Fair going on at the same time,  There's lots to see at the craft fair, food is available and we'll be selling doll clothes and other hand made items at the table for Susan Sews.

Sew on!



Craft Fairs

Samantha is getting ready to model for the craft fair...

So What's A Gusset Anyway??

There is not much I hate more in clothing than tight sleeves.  Maybe a tight waistband, but it's a near thing.

I have had occasion recently to apply gussets in two garments that were ready-made but didn't fit well.  My cousin Sharon's granddaughter had a Halloween costume with a jacket, and the jacket was too tight in the armholes and sleeves.  She asked if I could figure out a way to make the jacket more comfortable so she could avoid returning it to the catalog store where she'd ordered it.

I immediately thought of a gusset insert, which would enlarge the armscye without distorting the fit in other places in the jacket.

The term gusset in sewing is used to define a piece of fabric, sometimes diamond shaped, sometimes a triangle, that is inserted in a sewn to provide either expansion or reinforcement.

It also means the triangle that is sewn into the bottom of a bag or pillow to square the corners. I knew you did that, I just didn't realize it was a gusset!

The Miriam Webster dictionary says the word gusset comes from a Middle English term for a piece of armour covering the joints in a suite of armor, from the Anglo-French word gouseete, first used around the year 1570.

When we actually got together and I saw the jacket on Evie, I realized that the arm was too tight all the way down to the wrist. So technically I suppose the piece I inserted doesn't really conform to the true definition of gusset, but regardless, I am calling it a gusset, like the ones shown above

Of course I didn't take any pictures of the costume transformation, so I have tried to do an illustration of what I actually did.  Here goes:
 

 

So last week when the occasion to insert another gusset came up I was totally prepared!  And guess what, so was Sharon...  who is going on a cruise and bought the perfect dress and jacket except -- you guessed it, sleeves too tight!

 

This time the unsewing took longer than the sewing.  The jacket is polyester organza, so sheer and light.  The seams were serged, and in order not the shred them, I took my time (about an hour it turned out!!) to remove the serged seam which included a reinforcing chain stitch.  In hindsight, I don't know why I didn't just cut the seam off completely, because that quarter inch really would not have made a difference.  But then you know what they say about hindsight!

 

When Sharon put the jacket on to show me the fit, it was SO tight she almost could not move her arms.  The addition of a three inch underarm gusset going down to about an inch at the sleeve end gave her just enough room that she can move and breathe but not so much that you could even see it when she put it on again.  Of course she found a really close match in fabric so that helped.

 

I had the same tight feeling in a sweater last week, but instead of a gusset, I just enlarged the armscye using my serger.  I trimmed off about a half inch from where the front notch would be in a pattern, under the arm across the side seam ending where the back notch would be in a pattern.

 

Ahhh.  The fit is so much better.

 

Sew on!

Girlfriends

Last night I had dinner with my three 'best girlfriends'... which we do regularly but not regularly enough.  It was a night to catch up on grandchildren and husbands and knee surgeries (past and scheduled) and all the other stuff girlfriends do.

Pam has a new hairdresser so she had a new, shorter hairstyle.  She looked pretty cute, and we told her so.  That's what girlfriends do. 

Kathy was the last to arrive and we called her to find out where she was.  "I'm in my car"... oh yeah, but WHERE IS YOUR CAR??  LOL!!  Then the hostess didn't know we were waiting for her so we had to stand up and wave.  That was a good moment for a big laugh.  That's what girlfriends do.

Of course we had coupons -- free appetizer, with lots of gooey Wisconsin cheese on top.  Nobody mentioned diets or health-consciousness or the effects of cheese on our cholesterol... at least not last night!

We laughed about how Kathy had told her husband that she had to hurry or Marian would be at the bar getting sloshed and someone had to be there early to stop her -- haha, Kathy, the last to arrive, and Marian, the LAST person ever to either sit at the bar or get sloshed!  That's what girlfriends do.

We laughed about how long we've known each other... we worked together at a national fabric chain store in 1987 and 1988, bonding over hand written fabric receipts and figuring out the fractions for 3/8 and 7/8 of a yard.  (for the record, .375 and .875 and we had to do the math using a chart and a calculator!!)

So after we updated our phones with everyone's proper emails and phone numbers, we sat over dinner and chatted until they started turning off lights in the restaurant and sweeping the floor, still telling more stories and laughing.  That's what girlfriends do.

Dinner, $22.50 each.  Catching up with friends, priceless.

Girlfriends, absolutely worth their weight in gold!!

Thanks, ladies.  I love you all from the bottom of my heart.

Sew on...

Just Got Back From The Windy City...

"I just blew in from the windy city
The windy city is mighty pretty
But they ain't got what we got
I'm tellin' ya, boys
We got more life in Deadwood City
Than in all of Illinois!"

So seriously, I was in Chicago for four days for a big engineering conference and now I'm playing catch-up on emails, projects, work and grandchildren and sewing and SLEEP!

I love Chicago... the energy is crazy, there are a gazillion things to do, and they never seem to go the bed there!  The L runs all night long, and I could hear the rumbles from my hotel room on Adams Street, that is until I fell into a coma in bed from all the late night dinners.



This is the carrot cake at Gibson's!  Lucky for me I was sharing it with seven other people...

I rode in more taxis this week than in the rest of my entire life, I think.  The taxi drivers are sick.  They zoom around and honk at each other like mad.  Although I'm told it's nothing compared to New York, I'll believe it when I see it.

 And I WOULD love to go to New York, at least once in my life.  But not alone, and I can tell you right now DH does not want to go there.  I'll have to work that out somehow.

Also they have these bike rental stations where you can put in your credit card and take a bike over to a location, leave it there, and grab another to ride back.  Oh yeah, I did that -- not!  But one of our engineers did, and got his workout.  Riding off the carrot cake?

OK, back to the grind. 5 million emails, the expense reports...  thank goodness it's Friday!

Sew on!

Happy New Year!! Fiscal, that is...

Each age had deemed the new-born year
The fittest time for festal cheer.
-Walter Scott

This week started the fiscal year of 2014 at our firm.  Being the first week of the new year means that some things are working, and others are not.  The things that are working are doing OK, mostly.  The things that are not working are horrendous.

My grandmother used to quote a poem, I have no idea who wrote it or where it came from.  Here it is for your reading pleasure:

There was a little girl who had a little curl

Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good, she was very, very good

And when she was bad, she was horrid.

So our new fiscal year is starting out horrid.  Finance closed all the projects and task we were using and opened new ones.  AAAAKKK!  You can't do that to engineers.  They can't cope with change in small ways, big ones throw them for a loop!!

Here's a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt that I love so much I have it hanging on the wall in my sewing room:

A woman is like a tea bag -- you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.

I'm not in trouble kind of hot water, but I'm trying to cope with life that's running too fast for me.  I'm working on coordinating four meetings at a conference in Chicago starting Sunday, I'm on a committee for improvement of morale at work,

I'm getting ready to show at a craft fair in November



and I guess I just need to learn to relax and enjoy the chaos!!

 

Sew on...

Finally Friday!

Yay!!  It's been a long couple of weeks, but today is the last day for posting/charging/entering info for the end of our fiscal year.   Then we have a one week blackout during which we madly rush around reorganizing ourselves.  Again.  It's a perpetual cycle. 

Change,

change,

change.

The new fiscal year holds such potential.  A clean slate, all brand spanking new!

For me it's a new department, a new boss, and new assignments.  I will now be supporting five, yikes! -- five senior vice presidents, three of them brand new to the company.  We'll have new budgets, new rules, new procedures.

It's like getting a new job without having to do an interview and get all dressed up and selling myself!

Alright!!  Let's get going...

Sew on.
Sue