Sow Along - May 28 Progress!!

I have to admit, I'm not really sewing ALONG with anyone, I'm just sewing along, making progress once in a while and getting behind at other times.  But I counted some progress this memorial day weekend.

I hemmed five pairs of pants for DD, fixed some pants for the eldest grand and did some minor sewing to a blouse and a swimsuit.  I cut a pair of my own slacks too short, and now I guess I'm making a pair of capris out of them.  And a couple of evenings I let myself be seduced by the bin of green fabrics and a couple of pattern books!

Remember back to our first basket block, how some of us didn't really LOOK at the templates and decided this basket didn't have a handle?  Clearly there WAS a handle, but without instructions some of us missed it.

Well, I decided to go back and put the handle on.

This is the result:

The handle is straighter than it looks.  And the color of this picture is actually more true.  I'm not sure what was wrong with the first picture... it could be that it was the camera or phone or whatever I took that picture with. 

I have 45 blocks done, but my design wall holds less than that.  Here's a photo of the current wall-full.

Six rows and seven columns... I think I'm going to do sashing and corner stones as a setting.

They look more restful with white space between, don't you think?

I started out with 2 1/2 inch strips, which will finish at 2 inches.  But I could just decide to cut that down to 1.5 inches finished.  It just depends on how many I have when I stop.  Although these things are like potato chips... you can't stop making 'em!

The three above, with the no-longer-handle-less basket, are Waterwheel, Tall Pine Tree, and a variation of Flying Geese that I saw in the book 501 Rotary Cut Quilt Blocks.

I hope you're having fun with your blocks!

Sew on!





The List....

Remember the list from a few blogs ago?

• Mrs. D sewed a suit for Gail
• Mrs. W's gray wool skirt
• Mrs. H's blouse
• White wool coat
• Fabric shopping
• Jean jacket/batik remake

I wrote about the suit and the skirt and the blouse, with a segue into the white wool coat.  So this is the story of that coat!

After Mrs. H bought me the gorgeous white wool and all the accessories to make a dress coat, I went into whatever it is that's the sewist's equivalent to writer's block!  I was so undecided on what to do next... imagine what it's like to stare at beautiful, pristine, NEW fabric, after working on fabric salvaged from recycled items all the time.  Somehow having the freedom to choose the pattern myself and make anything I wanted seemed too hard.

But my mom did not suffer fools lightly, and she said, basically, "get your rear in gear and get it done".  So I cleared off the kitchen table, laid out the fabric and started cutting.  I cut lining and interfacing, because by this time I had learned to read the pattern directions all the way through before starting anything.  I marked with old fashioned tailor's tacks because anything else might have left permanent marks.  And I started to assemble the coat.

Working after school and around my part-time job, it took me almost a month to get it done.  I never spent a lot of time on homework because school was pretty easy for me, but that had to come first.  That was the first question we were asked at the dinner table, and a no meant you were going to be back at the kitchen table with books right after the dishes were done.

So that was probably the longest period of time I ever worked on a garment continuously, that is without working on some other project in between.  But I spent a lot of time reading my source material (the pattern guide sheet) to make sure I did it right.  And I had to set up anew each time I worked, which also meant cleaning up after -- machine, materials, iron and ironing board.  Each time I think of this project I give thanks that now I have a big dedicated space in which to work!

I learned the use of a press cloth working on this coat.  I learned how to press lightly so as not to get the impression of your hem showing on the right side of your garment.  I finally perfected that button hole attachment... and I was impressed at how much the texture and loft of wool can hide some of the imperfections of a beginner sewist.

The first day that I put that coat on over my church dress, I felt like the princess going to the ball.  And when I showed it to Mrs. H, she was very liberal in her praise of my skills. 

I wore that coat for 'dress up' occasions until about 10 years after I graduated from high school.  Somewhere I have a photo of me wearing that and holding my DD as a baby in about 1976 or 77.  It still looked really good! 

Sadly, having two small children and a white coat didn't really go together.  Wearing the same coat every spring and fall for a number of years, and sending to the dry cleaners regularly, made it kind of an expensive item of clothing.  It really didn't make sense to hang on to it, and the fabric became so worn that it couldn't be recycled.  One sad spring day it was put into the donation box and that was that!

I never made another coat for myself.  I used those skills to make a number of coats and outerwear jackets for my children over the years.  Now I make other items of clothing for myself and the family.  But I will always have warm memories of the years with my white wool coat!

Thanks, Mrs. H, for lovely memories.

Sew on!

Sow Along Catch Up May

Time for a little catch-up on my Sow Along.  Some of you like my one color blocks.  I have to say I'm liking the other blocks I've seen.  Bonnie Hunter's plaids are great.  I hope some day we can all link up at Bonnie's blog and show off our blocks to each other. 

I started with the basket I made too small.  This one has different fabrics in it, but this time it came out to the proper six and a half inches!

  You can see this one is larger by half an inch!

This one was pretty but too small!!  Oh well..

Next I worked on a block I've seen in a couple of places, called the Evening Star.  It has a dark background and light points.  I was fascinated by the 2 inch by 3 1/2 inch flying goose block.  As in, can I make one that small accurately?  I made the eight required and when I squared them up I only had to shave a little off each one.  For some reason my sewing does not provide a rectangular goose -- I seem to get one that gets a little wider where the point is in the center of the block.  I wonder if I'm stretching those bias seems a little.

I apologize for the fuzzy photo.  This is from my cell phone.

Finished size 4 1/2 inches...

I also made a Shoo Fly block.  Well, actually I made two.  Follow the directions!! I didn't and made a perfectly adorable Shoo Fly with 2 inch blocks instead of 2 inch (finished) blocks.  This little fly finishes up at just four and a half inches!  And here's her larger brother, too.

Finished size six inches!

After the fun I had with Shoo Fly, you'd think I would have stopped for the evening, but I made one more.  It's called maple leaf.  I've seen it done in glorious fall colors, and it's always so impressive.  But our maple in the back yard is full of green leaves right now, so here it is in green plaid with kind of a fussy background. 

Maple Leaf in summer

I think I have made at least 32 different blocks, but I have to count because I think I have more than 30 six inch blocks, plus some others of various sizes.  LOL!!  Hope you enjoyed looking at these blocks as much as I've enjoyed making them.

Keep on stitching!

Mrs. H's Blouse

One of my jobs in high school was to sew my own clothes.  I am from a big family, back in the days when having a big family was something you did.  I'm the oldest of eight, one of two girls.  Men who grew up with lots of sisters sometimes complain about living in a house full of women, but we had the reverse -- 30% estrogen, 70% testosterone!

NOT my actual brothers but some of these guys are dirty enough to qualify...

I started babysitting for other families when I was about 12, and I saved up my 50 cents an hour to buy garments at the thrift stores and Goodwill (see other post on the subject).  I used my mom's machine but always had to clean up to clear the table for dinner, and things took forever to finish.  Otherwise I sewed in an unfinished basement.

When I was in high school I got a job for the Christmas season at a local variety store, one that had a big fabric department.  Someone traded in a used sewing machine in a cabinet for a new portable machine.  The store manager let me purchase this beauty for $65. 

It was a couple of days before my mom could come with the station wagon to haul the machine/cabinet home.  I set up at the foot of my bed, put my sewing basket under the legs and was thrilled to be in business!!  Funny, I am trying to remember what kind it was, probably a Kenmore.  I remember it had cams for the different stitches, and a big honkin' buttonhole attachment that fastened to the back of the presser foot.  It took me months to figure that thing out.

But figure it out I did, and that led directly to Mrs. H's blouse...

Mrs. H was a lady who went to our church.  She had a daughter and two sons.  The daughter was older than me, I think she was away at school most of the time.  One son was my age and one was  younger, and my brothers were friends with them.  I think Mrs. H missed Karen because she always was so nice to me.  But then she was a VERY nice person...

This is what it looks like in my memory...

She knew I sewed, and I think she must have been impressed with my skills because she offered to actually pay me to sew some things for her.  She had her eye on some fabric for an outfit for work at her job in a doctor's office.  It was a gray a-line skirt, and for a blouse she picked out a lovely teal paisley cotton blend.

 Sewing that outfit was a challenge; I wanted it to be as close to perfect as I could make it!  I sweated those buttonholes.  I'll bet I made them a dozen times in my dreams before I dared to make a couple of samples on the scraps.

I didn't have the benefit of any sewing classes, or a mentor who knew anything about garment construction.  My school schedule was full of college-prep classes like Advanced Algebra and Chemistry.  When I think about the vast amount of stuff I didn't know, I'm appalled at my hubris in thinking what I did would be worth payment!  Mrs. H, if you're still around, I'm humbled by your faith.

The blouse was very pretty.  It had a button placket and about 7 buttons that couldn't have been bigger than 5/8 of an inch.  Plus one more on each cuff.  The skirt was easy, a centered back zipper and a metal clasp on the waistband, pretty standard stuff.  I pressed carefully as I worked.  I didn't prewash anything, I'm sure.  I can't remember seeing Mrs. H in the outfit at church, but she thanked me prodigiously for my hard work.

Instead of money, she bought me all the supplies for a personal project at an actual FABRIC STORE downtown.  Two and a half yards of white wool, interfacing, lining, and buttons, and a pattern for a dress coat for spring and fall... at the time it was a dream come true.

And THAT project was so enjoyable to complete that it should be worth its own post!

Thank you and bless you, Mrs. H, wherever you are.  I hope you know how much you influenced me!

Sew on!

Instead of Sewing...

This morning I intended to post the catch up photos of the blocks I've finished since Randy's last Sow Along post.  Key word being intended.

The famous writer said "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" or something like that.

First of all, DH is painting the second floor of our house.  Why that matters is that he decided to do it without giving me much notice, and he went at it with a vengence!!  He started hauling stuff down and stacking it in the garage before I knew what he was up to.  I wanted to go through it and make decisions about what actually goes back into the rooms, but that will have to happen in the garage, I guess!

The reason he took off with this is because I had requested that we think about taking down a wall that divides our basement in half, and expand my sewing room downstairs.  We have a gigantic laudry/storage room with a lot of junk in it, and we could make better use of that space.

HE decided that he'd rather shuffle the furniture in the three bedrooms, making the smallest room which is a den into a guest room/den, moving our furniture into the guest room, and putting my sewing stuff into the master bedroom.   Huh.  Except. My cutting table has to stay in the basement.  And probably a lot of the stash too.

Just think about it before you say no, he asked.  OK.  I knew the answer to that one.  He MUST have known it was a big no because when I said it three days later he was not really surprised.  Meanwhile he started dragging stuff down and I had to go to the paint store.

But all this moving and cleaning and inspecting has put me seriously behind schedule!  Can you imagine what it would be if I had to move all my stuff up two floors?  Well, I can't afford to lose the whole summer, can I?

I spend enough time cleaning up after I work on a project, or more accurately, cleaning up and organizing when I want to work on something because I didn't clean up after myself when I last stopped!  Last night after dinner with DH I spent a half hour re-ordering the Sow Along greens and backgrounds so I could catch up.  Two blocks were actually sewn together and pressed but I can't find the camera again.  It WAS on the desk.  Which could now be in the garage or under a dropcloth!

Well, after A's preschool graduation ceremony on Friday, and E's last school concert, there is a long weekend ahead. 

Maybe I can get caught up.

Sew on...
 

Tabbed!!

I'm taking a hint from Randy's blog (and others!) and I have created a tab, as a place to link up the pictures of my Phone Guy's Wife quilt blocks.  Hope you enjoy it!  It's very "green"!

Sue

The Importance of Reading Directions

On Sunday night last weekend, after all the kids had gone home and the Mother's Day cake crumbs were cleaned up, I went into my sewing studio to work on some more Sow-Along blocks. 

Randy had posted three blocks on her blog, the Barrister's Block, and I wanted to do at least two of them.  I like the Fruit Basket block, I'm really starting to like doing baskets!

I made the middle block, called Union Square, without too much difficulty.  I had made a batch of 1 inch finished HSTs a while back, and stashed them in a baggie.  It was enjoyable picking out some other greens to go with them to make the block look like Randy's.  I was using my Little Wooden Iron to make the seams go where they belonged, or at least go into a direction that made the block lay relatively flat before it was pressed.

I'm pleased with the way it turned out.  You can judge for yourself:

Then I got to work on the basket.  The block divides into four rows and four columns.  The basket center takes up the two center spaces in both the columns and the rows.  Sort of a block with a border kind of thing.  Dividing the 6 inch finished block by four units gets you to an inch and a half finished per unit. 

OK, so I'm so smart I can sew this block together without even thinking about it.  I proceeded to cut pieces, sew the rows, sew the columns, sew everything together.  Gosh this block is so cute!!  I'm sure you'll agree!

The only thing is, when I laid it next to the Union Squre block, it's so cute because it's smaller... When I did the cutting for the units in the 'outside' rows, I mentally added the required seam allowances to the pieces I needed, and came up with the idea that in order to finish at 1-1/2 inches,  they should be cut 1-3/4 inches, not 2 inches.  I must have thought I only needed seam allowance on one side!!  Duh...

So I guess I'll make it again, this time reading the directions...

Keep on sewing!

Mrs. W's Gray Wool Skirt

When I was about 12, I fell in love with a gray wool skirt.  My mother thought it was all about the boy down the block, but she was wrong.

There was a woman who lived across the alley from us who had three sons.  One was about 15 or so, very quiet, kind of cute.  He had two younger brothers who played with my younger brothers.  This woman, Mrs. W., was a friend of my mom's.  She knew how to sew.  She used to bring her projects over sometimes and work on hand work while my mom and she talked and drank coffee.

I remember the first time I saw the winter coats she was making for the two younger boys as if it were last week.  The one coat was burgundy wool with a black sealskin hood lining.  The other was brown with a sheepskin lining.

But the most wonderful thing she was working on was a gray pleated skirt.  I think it was just wool, but to my mind it was the most wonderful fabric I had ever seen!

At the time I was wearing mostly cotton dresses and nylon sweaters to school.  In fact most of the things I wore were hand-me-downs from an older cousin.  Nice things, but ordinary. 

I lusted after that gray wool!

Mrs. W. invited me to come to her house and watch her put it together.  I remember how she steamed in the pleats.  The iron gave off clouds of moisture as she pumped the steam button.  Fabulous!  And her stitching melted into the fabric.  When she lifted off the press cloth I was amazed at how beautiful the seams looked.  She finished them all off with an overcast stitch -- remember, this was WAY before sergers!

She was explaining to me how she kept her scissors very sharp and never let anyone use them for anything.  Men, she said, would cut the craziest things and just ruin your edge!  Keep your scissors locked up and sharp, she said!

Suddenly my mother was at the door.  She said it was time to come home, and I'm sure she was thinking that I was there drooling over Phillip, who was in the living room watching something dumb on TV.  Probably Ed Sullivan or something.

I knew better than to argue.  Mrs. W. gave me a little pile of wool scraps to take with me.  My mom didn't say much on the walk across the alley, but I could tell she was not happy.

How could I explain the hold that wool had over me?  What chance did a 15 year old boy have against one of the most beautiful and beautifully made garments I had ever seen??  None, I tell you!  And that night I dreamed about a gray wool skirt with a perfect pale pink twin set and a strand of pearls.

Mom-isms

This past weekend was Mother's Day.  My children and grandchildren came to visit and we had a good time.  But after they were gone, I realized how much I missed my own mother.  She would have enjoyed the day I had with all the people running around, laughing and talking.  And she loved kids, especially small ones.

Mom died in 1998 at the young age of 66.  She suffered from Alzheimers disease for at least four years before that, with her short term memory fading away over time.  So in reality I was losing her for a long time before she died.

Some time in 2009 I was doing an exercise in self-image for a class I was taking.  You had to write down all of the things you had accomplished in your life.  After we did our lists he reminded us how much others had assisted in those processes. 

At that same time, I started writing down things that I learned from various people.  I had a wonderful set of grandparents, some super aunts and uncles (one most particularly -- more on that later), and then there was my Mom.

These are some things she used to say to us regularly.  I call them Mom-isms.  And they're just as true today as they were when she last said them.Last weekend was Mother's Day.  While I was joy-filled to have my children and grandchildren around me, I missed my own mother. 

• Captain Kangaroo was right, and please and thank you ARE magic words.  Use them!
• If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. 
• You don't need fancy clothes to look nice.  But whatever you‟re wearing, make sure it's clean and neat.
• Call or send flowers to people who are alive.  When they're gone they don't care how many you send to their funerals.
• Wash your hands before you hold a baby.
• Don't frown, it makes wrinkles.
• You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.
• Use your head for something besides holding up your hair.
• Damn is not God's last name!
• Nobody ever said life was fair.
• Crying washes out your eyeballs.

Well, Mom, I still miss you.  Life isn't fair or you'd still be here.  And I washed my eyes out today just thinking about you.

If your mother is still around, call her.  You know she worries.

My Early Sewing Days

Do you ever have the opportunity to meet with people who love to sew as much as you do and share memories of how you learned?  Or even share that information with people who DON'T sew?

When I started this blog I made a list of topics I could write about.  I must have pinned it to the bulletin board too insecurely, because I found it tonight while I was cleaning the desk. 

The note says:

• Mrs. D sewed a suit for Gail
• Mrs. W's gray wool skirt
• Mrs. H's blouse
• White wool coat
• Fabric shopping
• Jean jacket/batik remake

So are those topics ringing any bells with you?  No, huh?  OK, I promise over the next five or six days to explain how each of those topics inspired me to want to learn to sew.

Topic 1:  Mrs. D sewed a suit for Gail

My sister Gail is a few years younger than I am.  We're separated by three brothers born between, and three more followed her.  We were too far apart in age to be close when we were growing up.  So this may contain just a little bit of envy for the way the story unfolded.

We lived in a fairly rural area when I was in elementary school.  There was a one room school and lots of families with multiple kids.  There was one lady my mom became friends with, and this lady had lost a daughter to some grave illness. 

The lady had sewn lovely clothes for her daughter, and wanted to do something nice for my mother, who had all these kids and not much money for nice things.  She offered to make over a darling little suit and since I was already older than her daughter had been, I was too big.  So she made over a little plaid skirt and jacket for my sister who was about three or four at the time.

This is as close as I can come to what I remember Mrs. D making.  Nobody dresses their kids like this anymore!

We went to the lady's house so Gail could have a fitting, just like at a real dressmaker or department store.  I remember being envious of the way she had to stand on the chair and get the hem pinned up.  The fabric of that suit was some gorgeous wool blend that had to be washed by hand.

I don't remember my sister wearing that outfit more than a couple of times.  Who these days would put a wool blend, hand washable suit on a toddler?  Sticky fingers, catsup, dirt, ugh!!  And the tot probably would not even be able to play properly in it!  But it was fine for church and maybe a visit to our paternal grandmother, who never let us play at her house anyway!

But the real take-away from this memory is that fabric!  It was a very rich deep burgundy with some tiny lines of navy and dark green for the plaid, or at least it is in my memory...

Again... as close as I can get to that memory.  This plaid is too large but the color is right.

and I was deeply impressed by the workmanship and tailoring that went into making this garment fit, even on a toddler.  I couldn't have been more than 8 or 9 at the time, and I was bitten by the garment sewing bug right then and there.

Do you have a memory of the first fabric that caught your eye?  Leave a comment if you do!

I'm Going Back to School!

Tomorrow I'm going to Kindergarten!

Nope, I haven't regressed, and I haven't been demoted.  I'm standing in for a Parent at Kindergarten orientation day at the local elementary school for one of the grands.

Through no fault of anyone involved, except maybe the Murphy guy who's laws tend to mix things up, tomorrow is Kindergarten Splash and both parents are involved in work things that prohibit their attendance.  All preschoolers who are going to this elementary school are attending one session with their prospective teachers, and there is a "Parents' Session".

My DD said "I hope you aren't bored at the Parents' Session"...but I don't think I will be!  For one thing, I love going anywhere I can meet with new people.  Also, I remember fondly my days in school, and being in school, any school, always makes me happy.

I think she may have the same teacher as her older sister had, and that teacher is a lovely young woman with a creative and adventurous mind.  I went to her class once to help with a kid-level sewing project and read them the story about "Corduroy the Bear".

My boss gave me the afternoon off and said "Do you think you'll pass this time?"  He only thinks he's a comedian!

So I'm going back to school.  I'm looking forward to it!  I just hope I get a decently sized chair!!

Bargello Update - ALMOST There!!

I finally have ALL of the 37 zillion strips of the Twisted Bargello wall hanging sewn, and the seams pressed in the proper direction.

The progression of colors and the twisting of the pattern make it very easy to sew in a mistake now and again.  I had places where a few strips were upside down, and a few places where I put in a whole set of four pieces when I should have used only a partial set.

Oh, I should explain that!  When we took the class for this quilt at the February retreat my family group attended, the teacher had modified the pattern we were using.  We had 20 fabrics in all, cut into strips.  We made a series of five strip sets of four fabrics each, rather than sew all 20 strips into one big piece.  It made sub-cutting easier and more accurate for one thing.  And for another, it made less 'un-cutting' when you had to separate the set to achieve the twist in the pattern. 

   It worked really well, if you were paying attention, and super well if you weren't!  So say you had to use the strip we were calling 1234 and attach it to the strip 16-15-14-13, you didn't have to dismantle a whole big strip and then discard the center.  And I think we actually did fewer sub cuts, because we only cut the sections we needed, not a whole 20 fabric strip.

So here we are, pinned up on my design wall.  The pieces of white and yellow at the top are paper scraps with the row number written on them.  It helped immeasurable to keep those pinned to the strip.


Not pinned at the bottom, which is why they're flying free... that's on a set of closet doors.

 You can see where I've sewn a couple of the strips together into sets by where they don't separate at the bottom.  That piece of yellow paper is a note one of the grands taped up -- I forgot to move it for the picture!

I have folding doors, two sets, on the storage closet in my sewing room.  For a design wall, I took pieces of quarter inch foam core board, covered them with flannel, and tacked them to the doors.  I used 24x36 inch pieces, which are bigger then the doors.  The ones that swing out can hang over the edge of the door, but on the ones that fold in, I had to cut the board into pieces, and leave a small gap for the fold area.  I only placed them above the handles.  Primitive but it works.

It shows better in this picture.

And no, they're not even at the top.  That's because I'm using recycled foam core board, from presentation boards that were discarded by the engineers at work.  I peeled off the maps or charts or whatever.  I figured since I was covering them it didn't matter.

And the price was right!!

Keep on sewing.

Nancy's Sewing Weekend Goodies

This weekend was a national holiday in Wisconsin... well not an ACTUAL national holiday, but it was Sewing Weekend at Nancy's Notions in Beaver Dam.  It's always around my birthday sometime, and this year it started ON my birthday.  I usually tell people how happy I am that someone as big as Nancy throws me a party --  <wink wink>

DISCLAIMER: I have NOT been paid to talk about any of these products, nor do I work for any of these companies. The opinions expressed here are my own!

I don't know how long I've been going up there.  This was the 28th year it was held, and I can find souvenir pins that go back to 1996 or 97, but I think there were a few years when there were no pins or I didn't get one.

In past years I've reviewed the Nancy's Notions catalog and crossed out things I had and circled things I wanted.  They would have sale items and clearance, days for 'remnant bargains' (more on that), and you'd get 10% off your total order at the end.  In recent years the merchandise offered has been more select, and the prices of the individual items have been marked down.

There still is clearance, but this year it wasn't anything in which I had a lot of interest, although I did find the book Word Play, that shows you how to build letters using fabric.

I am excited have this book as I want to try to use this method to put some names on some of the quilts I make and give away.

I also bought some of Nancy Zieman's booklets from her TV show, another of her templates for making purses or totes, and some Clover notions.

Speaking of Clover Notions, they have a booth at Sewing Weekend because Nancy has her name on some of their products.  They usually have a very nice sales rep or spokesperson giving away 'goodie bags' with some literature and a notion in them to all who visit their booth.  They do regular demonstrations of their new products and talk about what's on their tables.

Olfa was also there, displaying their cutting tools and mats.  Did you know you can buy a 2.5 inch square ruler, and a mat as small as 6x8 inches?  How about adding one of those to your Tablet Keeper??  Of course I couldn't resist a ruler that cute, so I bought one of each.  The mat came in so handy today when I was working on finishing up Twisted Bargello, the wall hanging from H##L. 

Oh dear, I don't know why that is rotated!!

Other vendors in the warehouse were the folks from Amazing Designs embroidery specialists, and of course Baby Lock, with all their super sewing machines and sergers.  I have a BL serger with the pneumatic threading, and I have to tell you it was among the best things I ever did for my sewing.  It threads the loopers with the push of a lever.  No more being afraid to change threads, or dreading the broken thread! 

What else did I get?  Oh, let me not forget the zippers!!  6 inch separating zippers in several colors for doll jackets, and some really wild 18-24 inch separating zippers for jackets and tops for the grands.

About those remnants...  Nancy's Notions has better remnant sales than anyone I know.  I was bound and determined not to buy fabric this year.  I have a ton of fabric.  I have so much I forget what I have.  But those NN remnants always get me.  They take cuts of fabric, sometimes several yards, sometimes bits and pieces, fold them attractively, put them into plastic bags with a label that gives fabric name, yardage, fiber content and regular price.  Then they start the markdowns.  The first day most things are half price, the second day they're lower and what's left at the end of Friday is drastically reduced for Saturday.  I've never seen such nice stuff in the remnant pile, and honestly if there's anything left on Saturday afternoon it's nearly free.

This year, I had to walk by those remnant boxes to get to the registers to check out, and I did succumb.  I picked up a lovely piece of black & white houndstooth check, nearly two yards of blouse weight fabric, for the scandalous price of $7.

But my premier treasure is a long handled, lighted magnet, for picking up the pins that fall under my sewing table too far in for me to reach without getting on my hands and knees.  That alone was worth the drive up!

There were lots of ladies shopping, so if you don't get there next year, there will be more for us!

Check it out at www.nancysnotions.com.

Sewing Weekend in Beaver Dam

Every year I save some vacation days for the weekend that Nancy Zieman holds her Sewing Weekend seminars in Beaver Dam, WI.  In my opinion it's three of the best days of the whole year.

Sewing Weekend has been going on for a while.  This year was the 28th year.  It is a big deal now, but if you have attended any of Nancy's seminars anywhere you've probably heard about how it started in the basement of a church with about 250 people.  And that was more than were expected to come, so it was a hit from the get-go!

DISCLAIMER: I have NOT been paid to talk about any of these products, nor do I work for any of these companies. The opinions expressed here are my own!

This year I didn't check the numbers before I left, but thousands attend, and they come from all over the country!  There's a map where you can stick a pin in your home town.  Of course I live close (OK 87 miles give or take.)  There wasn't room enough in the map for pins from everyone from the southeast corner of Wisconsin.

Many ladies came with or were delivered there by their husbands.  It's nice to have someone who supports your passion and is willing to carry your purchases!  And there are activities for the guys in the area... golf, fishing, sporting goods department at Sears, etc.

You sign up on line on Nancy's web site to attend lectures with national sewing experts, attend 'sit and sew' classes where you make a project on a high-end sewing machine provided by Baby Lock.  The lectures and classes are reasonably priced.  There are evening entertainments on one or two nights.  There are vendors who demonstrate their products and show you what's new.  And there are free lectures/demos in the warehouse if you have a bit of time.

For lunches on Sewing Weekend days, you can enjoy the buffet at Ponderosa Steakhouse or grab a quick sandwich or salad at a wonderful snack stand in the warehouse.  The same ladies have been there for the last 5-6 years or so.  I always want to ask the name of their business but never remember to do that until after the fact!

The best part of the weekend for me is going to the lectures.  This year you could have seen and heard Alex Anderson, Louise Cutting, and of course Nancy Zieman, among others.  In the past I have gone to lectures from Sandra Betzina, Patti Palmer, Marty Michel, Eleanor Burns and Eileen Roche, just to name a few. 

It's the one time of the year that I get to ride on a yellow school bus!

Here's the drill:

You arrive at the Nancy's Notions warehouse at least a half hour before your seminar starts.  The times are staggered so everyone doesn't arrive all at once.  You park your car, either on the parking lot if you're early enough, or on the grass next door or across the street.  Beaver Dam policemen and other volunteers are there to assist you in finding a good spot.  You do a quick or leisurely meander through the building depending on the timing of your arrival.  At the bus loading station, where shipments usually arrive, there are yellow buses and plenty of drivers and aides to help you on the bus.

Bus drivers take a route through town to the various places that have been rented for classes.  Since Beaver Dam doesn't have a convention center, the places where you may be dropped off include the high school and middle school auditoriums, the Family Living Center, or a couple of the area churches.

At any location, you will enjoy a lecture or demonstration of some sewing or quilting techniques, trunk shows, how-to-do this or that, or mysteries revealed/quick and easy methods from a nationally known expert in the field.

When it's over you jump back on the bus, to be delivered either to a lunch location or the warehouse for shopping.  If you get tired of hauling your basket around, you can check your package and sit down for a bit of refreshment or a short, free lecture in the warehouse.  You can take a nap (a favorite husband activity) in a nice comfy chair in the NN employee break room if you want to, but I personally try not to miss anything!

There are usually contests for sewist young and old.  This year there were lots of lovely challenge quilts hanging in the halls.  Nancy and her staff support the sewing education of 4H and other young people in Central Wisconsin. 

You can sign up to win door prizes too.  I always wish I had remembered to put address labels in my purse when I'm writing out the 23 numbers and letters of just my street address!

Nancy said at her lecture this year that the radio station reminded everyone that it was sewing weekend, and basically to look both ways when crossing the street.  It must be a big deal if it makes the local radio station!!

If you haven't been to Beaver Dam, a sleepy little town of about 15,000 normally, when it gets invaded for sewing week, what are you waiting for?  Mark your calendars for next year, and come to beautiful Wisconsin!  We'll leave the light on for you.

Sewing with Nancy

Today I am going to beautiful downtown Beaver Dam, WI, for one of the best shows in sewing.

www.nancysnotions.com

Bargello Redux

This weekend I worked on two projects:

• Twisted Bargello
• A's project 'blankee'

So which one got more time, do you think?  I'd say it was about even!

These are chumks of the twisted bargello... other pieces go between some of these sections, that's why it looks choppy.

I'm behind everyone (except Meta & Sharon, I think.)  I got desparate for some progress so I sewed some of the adjuoining strips together.  This necessitated re-pressing some of the seams in the opposite direction from where I originally pressed.  And there are a LOT of seams in each strip!

But it's starting to take shape.  After helping with a couple of these I feel pretty confident that I can actually get it sewn up into a top before the end of the summer...

By the way, I also finished the LLA preschool quilt.  Susie Banks quilted and bound it.  We are an awesome team.  It's ready for auction, so the teachers can expect a special delivery today when DH drops A off for school.  Here's a peak.

The hand prints are in alphabetical order.  I love the one leftie... Miss A is not in this class.  I'm looking forward to seeing what Andy's mom came up with for her class.

Yay, Amazon!

I got home from work today and there's a box from Amazon in the kitchen.  Yay!  My Bonnie Hunter books are here!  I posted about ordering them last Wednesday or Thursday.  I ordered them on Thursday, and here they are!

   

I'm going to take my iced tea over to my favorite chair and give them a good read.  I love books, and books about sewing are a little piece of heaven!

Then I have to get my butt to the basement and put a hanging sleeve on the preschool quilt.  I'll post a picture tomorrow.  Susie B did a great job on the quilting and binding.  I hope the parents like it and they raise a bunch of money for the preschool when it goes to auction.

Question of the Day:

Why is it that the dial pad on your telephone...

is not the same as the key pad on your calculator???

Whichever one you use the most often gets embedded into your fingers... and it certainly makes using the other one more challenging.

Friday News...

If you're reading this early and the ASG blog hasn't updated yet, please go back a little later today.  Those of us who check EARLY in the morning sometimes beat the postings, but Samina at ASG promised it will be there today.  And E and I thank you for your interest in her progress!

I mentioned this week that it was Administrative Professionals Day on Wednesday.  I got a nice bouquet of flowers from one of the execs I support, and in the afternoon I received an email from Amazon.com Gift Cards that said

from the managers in the office for all your efforts every day making the office run smoothly.

So I went right out and bought a copy of Bonnie Hunter's book,

... which I have been lusting after and somehow never ordered.  Her books almost never go on sale anywhere.  Then I added



because if I'm getting one 'free' with my gift certificate, that is the same as getting two for one, or half off both!  I'm very happy and expressed my gratitude to Chuck, Kevin, Paul, Mike and Jim, a bunch of truly great guys to work for!  If you have to work outside the home, it's good to be in such great company.

Guest Blogging Friday

My granddaughter E and I are guest blogging this Friday on the American Sewing Guild blog again.

You can check us out at www.asg.org by clicking on the Blog icon in the upper left corner of the screen.  It's open to the public.

While you're over there you might want to check out the member benefits, and if you want to join you can do that right on line!  ASG has lots of great things going on, including meetings in a neighborhood near many of you, on line classes that come free with your paid membership, newsletters and quarterly publications, member discounts at lots of merchants, and the best national convention you will ever attend.  This year the conference is in Houston, Texas, which just happens to be the home town of ASG headquarters.

If you love to sew you should be a member of ASG!

Keep on sewing.

Sowing Along...

This Sow-Along is so enjoyable that I can't resist sewing a few blocks nearly every day.

I'm also trying to do things like hem pants and finish a couple of projects, but...

I took the corner squares off the churn dash and substituted white for the print that was there before.  I like it much better, don't you?

I completed the block called Darting Birds.  It's turned a different way in the book we're not talking about.  I think it's very cute, with its little one inch hsts!

Then in keeping with the birds theme, I finished the block called Flock.  I think I have this picture upside down, but it's also cute.  1.5 inch hsts and 3.5 inch hsts this time.

I am trying to mix up the greens with each block, but I find myself trying to use up the chunk of fabric.  Also I make a sheet of hsts of one size, so the same fabrics tend to appear when the size is the same.

This is Old Windmill.  Four different shades of 1.5 inch hsts were called for, but I used the same white background for all of them.

This one is called Peace and Plenty.  I loved these two fabrics together.

On a roll with hsts, this one is called Prairie Queen.  The four patches are two inches finished, and the hsts are two inches finished...  This one maybe should have had more contrast between the two light fabrics.  It does look nicer in person.

This is the Railroad block.  This one is two inch four-patches and two inch hsts (finished measurements) similar to the Prairie Queen.

Here is Spool.  This one is based on 2 inch finished hsts and squares.  I think I like the one made with more squares per block, because you can make the spool portion wider.  This looks like an empty spool -- not something you want to encounter in the middle of a project!!

I'm up to 30 squares.  I actually have more made, but some are duplicates, and due to my inexpert measuring and my inability to make the templates work for me, I have four that turned out to be 8 inches finished instead of six.

I'm not too worried, I will either find a use of them, or A will cut them up for her next project!!

Happy Sowing, everyone!

Saying Thank You

For those of you who work in offices anywhere, this week Wednesday is Administrative Professionals Day.  It used to be called Secretary's Day... way back when.  Suffice it to say that calling it Secretary's Day, or calling the person who helps you do your work a secretary, has developed some negative connotations.

Enter Administrative Professionals.  There are all sorts of folks who assist in the ordinary everyday operation of your average office.  I used to joke with my boss that I was waiting for Executive Assistant's day or Financial Assistant's day.  See what I mean?

Gone are the days when you have to pick up the boss's dry cleaning, get him/her a cup of coffee with two sugars, or pick up gifts for his/her spouse or kids!  Unless you work for the Devil Wears Prada boss -- but I think that's just a movie, right??  Ha ha, I wouldn't have lasted half a day with THAT boss!!  I'd have said 'I don't do coffee' and I would have been so fired!

I work with a great group of senior executives, who are for the most part self-sufficient and can handle their own business.  They rely on me to review and analyze information, prepare necessary paperwork, keep meetings on schedule.  I keep track of busy calendars, resolve schedule conflicts and arrange travel to send them all over the world. And get them back.

It's nice to be recognized as part of the team.  Some of these people are very good at expressing their appreciation.  It's good to know that even though they don't always say so, they notice the extra care put into making their jobs easier.

I try to do what gets them what they need and where they need to be with a minimum of B.S., red tape, and aggravation. 

And sometimes it pays off!

Oh no, Marty, thanl YOU!  And you're very welcome.