Quilting With Friends

I'm at a quilt retreat this weekend, and I have to say that the most fun I've ever had sewing has been with these ladies!  They are part of our Friday night sewing group, my friends as well as my relatives. 

The view while you're eating breakfast.

My favorite thing to do is sew, and my second favorite thing to do is visit with friends, so you can imagine how happy I am to be doing both at the same time.  Oh, and my philosophy about strangers is that they are just friends you haven't met yet.

We're going to spend some time working on one project or another from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon.  We'll also spend some time visiting some cousins who live in in the town we're in, whom we don't get to see a lot.  But when we're here, we make a point of visiting, eating and laughing and talking.  My cousin's youngest daughter will be getting married this spring so I'm sure the conversation will be lively!

Another cousin is a relatively 'new' sewist, what we call in Sewing Guild an older beginner.  I promised to sit  near her and make sure she has all the help she needs to do a finished project. 

Two aunties will be along this time.  One doesn't sew.  Well, she says she doesn't sew although she knows how, but she does beautiful redwork embroidery by hand and that counts.  But she's a great 'ironer'... and when we get together, that's her task, ironing pieces for other sewists.  (I can say the word 'sewer' but when you type it, it looks so much like the word for the plumbing refuse system that I resist!!)

Wherever you are this weekend, I hope you're with people you love, or people you really like a lot, and you're doing something fun together.

Sew long for now!

Where have I been and where am I going?

Oh my goodness dear reader/followers (both of you!)... I visited my blog at lunchtime today and realized that I haven't posted in a week!  So belated happy Valentine's Day, and I'll try to be more current.

Last posting I wrote about making sample blocks and what I do with all those 'oprhans'.  I made another one last night (no pic, sorry).  I saw the quilts my aunt and cousins brought back from the quilt retreat last fall and wanted to see if I could figure it out.  It was called 39 And Counting.  You can see a picture of it in the fall 2011 newsletter for Quinessential Quilts in Reedsburg, here:  QQuilts Reedsburg Newsletters

I took my paper and pencils down to the sewing studio (basement) and did a little drawing.  I started with a two color four patch from a light print and a dark print.  Easy, no challenge there.  Then I put skinny 'logs' in what looks like a solid color on opposite sides and trimmed them until they looked right. 

Now I do not have a pattern for this, but I did examine Amy's quilt last Friday so I have a pretty good picture in my head!  We'll see if I'm close!

After pressing, I went back and measured the pieces of the almost solid, and wrote that down on my drawing.  I took the two prints and cut them long enough to cover half the resulting block size plus a half inch.sewed the strips together on the short sides using a quarter inch seam allowance.  I sewed these on the opposite sides first, lining up the center seams as well as possible with the center four patch.  I pressed and trimmed.  Then I measured those pieces and wrote that on the drawing too.

The last step was to repeat the process for the two remaining sides.  Now I measured the block.  Hey, 9 1/2 inches!!  Cool.  I started with 2 1/2 inch strips, because I have a whole bin full of those, and the solid frame around the four patch was cut down to 1 1/4 inches. 

The colors I used were dark green, a tone on tone of pale green, and a bright lime green.  It's a totally different look than what the cousins made at the retreat -- they used black & white prints and either one color or many solid colors for the frames.  But I have LOTS of green fabric.  Tons.  And I never saw anything that didn't go with green.

Knowing the sizes of strips and squares I need, I'm going to make a kit for this pattern and make 30 of these squares for an actual quilt.  I haven't decided what color scheme to use yet.  I think I have to look at this green square for a while to see if any inspiration comes to me.  Or maybe I need to make one more with different colors.  I was thinking maybe greens with a black frame, or blues with another color.  Or red and white??  Hmmm.

This is the part of sewing or actually any craft that I like the best.  Picking the materials, choosing color combinations, planning it in my head.  I actually have too many ideas sometimes, they get jumbled in my head and I lose track of them.  I try to stay organized, kitting things up in baggies or plastic bins.  My DD bought me a label gun for Christmas one year, and I use it!  But this year I committed to actually finishing some of those projects.

The winter quilt retreat starts this Friday.  I'll be packing up my project kits and traveling tomorrow afternoon.  There IS that bargello quilt that's being taught and that's all cut and ready to go.  But I'm taking along a few other things, in case I get bored.  That's one of my problems, and why lots of things go on the five year plan.  Unless there's a deadline. 

I did finish the quilt top I did after the last retreat I attended a couple of years ago.  It's a beautiful top, lovingly pieced and complete with borders.  Maybe one of these days it will actually become a quilt!!

Keep on stitching!

What do I do with all these quilt blocks??

In my mailbox nearly every week there will be a new quilting or sewing magazine.  I haven't counted how many I get, but I know off the top of my head that I get Threads, Sew News, McCall's Quilting, Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, Better Homes & Gardens Quilting, and maybe a few more.  The joy of opening those covers and checking out what someone else made knows no bounds!

When they first come I spend a few minutes rapidly paging through to look at all the articles and patterns.  Then I take them one by one and spend some time studying the patterns.  Are they based on 2 inch or 2 1/2 inch or some other size strips or squares?  Can you assembly-line sew parts, are there triangle units or geese units?  I love figuring that out, and I love it even more when the author or editor has good, clear directions.

Then I spend some time looking at the color combinations.  I especially like it when a second color scheme is included.  Sometimes I think I don't like a pattern just because it's not my favorite colors, or I DO like it because it is in my colors, so I like to see a second or third colorway to test the theory.

After I've been through the whole magazine I go back with sticky notes or flags and put them on the patterns I most want to try.  If there are three or more in one magazine, I will usually keep the whole magazine.  But if there are only one or two, I'll make photocopies of the pages I want and recycle the magazine to quilting friends or the local sewing guild free table.  This way I can pare down my collection and keep myself from starring in an episode of Hoarders!

A couple of times a month I'll sit down with my patterns and make up a test square.  Sometimes I make more than one in different colorways.  I test how long it takes to make one, and see the finished size.  Often I take these 'tests' to Friday night sewing for 'sew and tell'.  Sometimes we're inspired to make more and finish a top.  But sometimes the test is the only square that actually gets done.

If they were always the same size or colorway, they might be made into a sampler quilt.  But they're not, because, well, that would be boring.  So I end up with a box of various sizes and colors and patterns.  If I can make a 24 inch square or a 24x30 rectangle, they can become a doll quilt.  If the squares are smaller, say 8 inches, I've made them into eyeglass cases and pot holders.  That's also a good use for those bits and pieces of batting.

Other things you can use your leftover squares for are purses and bags, table runners, pillow cases, children's clothing (think a square in the middle of a small jacket back!) or cushion covers.  I've been wanting to turn some of my nicer squares into a seat cushion for my office chair.  It's a wonderful chair but it has a mesh seat and back, and in the winter it gets a bit chilly.

I've also seen very cool covers for the backs of those square-backed kitchen chairs.  You make a sleeve that fits over the top third of half of the chair, and it dresses up your kitchen.  I want to turn a set of bright colored squares into some valances for the spare bedroom, to dress up the plain white curtains that are in there now.

Lately I've seen those extra squares used very effectively with large chunks of fabric for quilt backs.  There's no reason why the backs can't be as lovely or interesting as the fronts, is there?

One other very interesting way I've seen these orphan squares used it for a kind of crazy quilt top.  Not 'crazy quilt' in the classical sense.  More like a wildly insane top made with bits and pieces.  I can't remember who did this, but the person cut the squares on the diagonal and sewed them to other squares, intentionally mis-matching.  But because each piece appears more than once in the top, it looks planned.  Then smaller squares were enlarged, or sewn together into groups to make a panel, and when the panels were the same size, those were sewn together until the top was large enough. 

I think that one will take more planning than I can devote to it right now.  Meanwhile, I'm still sewing some sample squares every week.  Last week's was Bonnie Hunt's Scrappy Sister's Choice , which you should go and view on her blog.  I made some with 2" strips because I already had a bunch of nine-patch squares done.   They're super cute!  They'll be a quilt for some lucky American Girl doll sometime soon.

Try something new.  If nothing else you'll end up with some jazzy pot holders!

A Sad Farewell to a Friend

This weekend, we were informed of the sudden death of a man my husband has known since high school.  This man was DH's best friend for many years.  We spent time socializing when the kids were all small, visiting each other's homes and going on 'double dates' with him and his wife.

Over the years we lost touch, but would exchange Christmas cards saying 'let's get together'.  Sadly, even with the best of intentions we never did.  I think the last time we saw them was at a family funeral, probably over 10 years ago.

I remember him as a gentle, soft-spoken man.  He loved his family, was a proud and caring father and a devoted son to his parents.  He and his wife and my DH grew up in the same neighborhood, went to the same schools and churches, and shared many values.  Not that they were peas in a pod, but you know how it is with the familiar and safe.

I was a new and unique ingredient in the mix when DH and I married.  I am a good deal younger then the rest of them, and I had a different take on a lot of things.  We didn't always have converging viewpoints, and I'm sure my opinions sometimes threw a monkey wrench into things.  But overall, we valued their friendship.  DH is not hugely sociable, and when family events made picking a date to get together kind of tough, he didn't seem to mind not visiting with his friend.

Would he have liked to socialize with his friend more?  Should I have encouraged him to call and make fishing dates or coffee dates?   He's an adult, he can make his own decisions, but could he have used more motivation?  He DOES get together with other friends, and those get-togethers are initiated by the other party as frequently as by DH.

I guess the moral of this story is not to take a single day for granted.  You will never know how many days you have left on this planet, only God knows that.  Stay in touch with those you care about and don't wait for them to call you.  Go outside your immediate circle and let people know you're still around!

The good news is I know that this man knew Jesus, so I know he's going to heaven and I'll see him again.  (I hope that didn't offend anyone, but this is MY blog, after all.)

So wait for us on the other side, old friend.  We'll miss you.

Superbowl Sunday

This coming Sunday February 5 is the most important day in the lives of most American men.  The Superbowl is being played to determine who is the best team in the country, or maybe for all I know the universe.  I am really not a football fan.  Well, not of professional football anyway. 

According to most of the men I know, it's not right that the Green Bay Packers aren't playing this year.  Since I'm not a purposeful fan, and I only 'follow' them because I can't escape it in the office, I suppose that's true.

I remember going to Friday night games in high school.  I loved how it felt to go out with friends, to sit in the bleachers and freeze your butt in the coolness of fall in Minnesota.  It was cool to actually sit in class with some of the players.   Even cooler if you knew you were helping the team by tutoring some of them in algebra or chemistry! 

The sport never appealed to me much even then.  I dated a basketball player for a while.  That was a more elegant sport.  The guys were cute in their uniforms, and that was the most 'skin' we EVER got to see of any boy other than our brothers!!  And as to football, did you ever wonder why 200-300 lb men put on 20 lbs of equipment, then intentionally run into each other?  They gotta know someone's going to get hurt eventually!

I married a guy whose very blood is green and gold.  Nothing interferes with Green Bay football at my house.  And if I choose not to watch, so much the better!! 'Just stay quiet wherever you are OK??  And keep the food hot.'

When the kids were small we used to have a neighborhood party on Superbowl Sunday.  Someone would make chili or soup be the host, and the rest of us would bring snacks and desserts.  The kids would play games, the women would congregate in the kitchen, finding alternate entertainment while managing the grub. 

Every year for the past six or seven years we've done a similar thing with some friends from work.  Similar but different.  Some of the other wives are actually interested in the game!  And they're knowledgeable about the sport! 

I normally find some alternate activity that can be done in the same room with the sports fanatics.  I've taken knitting and hand sewing, but I have drawn the line at reading a book while they watch the game.  That might be bordering on the rude -- although my impression is that no one is too concerned over whether I'm enjoying myself and they might not notice!  That's not strictly true, I'm sure.  And I love socializing with these folks... I DO have a good time.

So this year, we all said the theme is going to be something along the lines of 'the game we don't care about because it's teams we don't like'.  Everyone else can rely on their football knowledge to be for one team or the other.  But I can't even pick a team based on the color of their uniforms because they're both going to be in red, white and blue.  Maybe cute QBs?  Not so much.  Mascot?  Theme song?  Phooey. 

I'm really just going for the commercials, and the snacks.  OK, just the snacks.  What down is this?  Who has the ball? 

Lunch hour? What lunch hour??

It's almost 1 p.m. here in the Midwest on Monday, and I have just started my lunch!  Not that I'm not hungry, the tummy's been rumbling for over an hour.  No, my problem is I work in an office area populated by people whose attitude is "Lunch hour?  What do you mean, lunch hour?"

My boss does not eat lunch unless he's taking someone out, or he's attending a meeting where lunch is being served.  His idea of lunch is switching from coffee, the morning beverage, to diet soda, the afternoon beverage.  One of the other guys eats ALL DAY LONG, no kidding this is annoying.  Some of the others play cards during lunch hour, so they go off to another room and are not seen for an hour.  It might be nice if someone said 'hey, we're leaving, it's lunchtime'.

I set my calendar to send me an electronic reminder when I have meetings or calls to attend.  Maybe I should have it remind me of lunch!!  Maybe then I'd get it before dinner-time.  I worked at another company about 16 years ago where they had an organized break every morning and afternoon, and the whole office took its lunch hour at the same time.  They had a big lunchroom, lots of chairs and tables.  It was nice and social, and your desk didn't get messy from eating there.

Our office is being relocated this summer.  We're not moving far; actually it's only six or seven blocks.  But when we toured the building last week, I saw a big space full of chairs and tables, with a coffee/tea/snack counter, a big screen TV up on the wall, and actual people socializing with each other!  I'm actually kind of excited about this development.  They have tenant activities like Tai Chi and weight loss groups, and they offered to set up a knitting group if I want to try one!  Cool stuff.

You have to understand my current situation to know why I'm excited about this.  Our current building is only about half full, and even our staff is not all on the same floor.  I'm in an area of the building that's kind of closed off from the rest of the staff.  And for about the last two years, this group of offices has consisted of way too many testosterone sources and not enough estrogen donaters. 

Yes, at least a year or more ago the last of the women moved out of this area, and I've been surrounded since then by football pools, baseball scores, fishing stories, car stories, and once in a while dog stories.  No socializing about sewing shows or sharing Project Runway stories around THIS water cooler! 

If there is one thing I have learned over the past few decades, it's that nothing beats the friendships you get from your girlfriends.  Nothing.  I mean, you love your husband and your kids, your parents, your siblings.  But really, what can beat the woman to woman friendship?  Nothing.

MY girlfriends are super-special, because some of them really are family too.  My Friday night sewing sisters are the best.  Feel blue?  They cheer you up.  Feel crummy?  Someone has made chicken soup, or can tell you a funny story to make you smile.  Disappointments, crappy days, you won the lottery?  Hey, this is the first group you have to tell.  They understand that when you're whining about DH, you still love him, you just don't like him very much right now.

I have a couple of 'friend circles'.  If I had to talk to someone I know who to call to discuss what topic.  I have one friend who lives in another town, and we only see each other once every six months or so.  But when we do get together we pick up right where we left off. 

I have Facebook and chat friends too.  That put me back in touch with siblings living in other states.  I love seeing the photos!

But I will totally look forward to being able to lunch with friends, sit down at a table and chat over yesterdays' leftovers or a treat from the coffee place.  Nothing quite matches the face to face interaction, reading body language and seeing the facial expressions.

So I'm happy if you're reading blogs, mine or anyone else's.  It's nice to see your updates on FB, or get a card or letter in 'snail mail'.  But remember to have the original social networking experience - a live lunch meeting with a real person.  I for one can not wait!

Not sewing today!!

I'm a little under the weather today -- been coughing for about 48 hrs and I have a stuffy head.  This is disappointing, because normally Saturday is my big day to sew.  It starts Friday evening with my visit to the 'secret sewing sisters circle' at my aunt's house.  I blogged about that a couple of posts ago.  But this Friday I was feeling crappy so I begged off, saying I was too tired and didn't want to infect everyone else.

So today I was a lazy slug, vegging on the couch and watching some old reruns of Murder, She Wrote.  Now this is possible since DH is retired and does most of the normal household chores like laundry and vacuuming.  In fact I'm no longer allowed to vacuum or load the dishwasher, since he has become so particular about how it gets done.  So usually the weekends are for visiting family, working on projects, church and other fun activities.

DH had a tooth pulled yesterday, so we both decided to be lazy.  He brought in the mail.  I love the mail!  Several times a week there will be a magazine or sewing newsletter that arrives, or a new catalog.  Sometimes I order things and the days when a package arrives are lovely!  Today, the quilt kit from the upcoming retreat arrived.  The fabrics are beautiful, browns and teals.  The project is a wall hanging using a bargello technique.  I opened the box to check it out.

According to Wikipedia, the word "bargello" appears to come from the late Latin bargillus (from Goth bargi and German burg), meaning "castle" or "fortified tower".   In quilting, strips of various colors are sewn together, subcut into various widths and resewn into a configuration that could resemble mountains or castle walls.  If you have good contrast between the extremes of your color selection, it can make a striking end product.  If your colors are too similar, it will just be a muddy mess and won't be worth the effort it takes to make all those cuts and all those seams!  I'm on the fence about this project as I said in a previous blog.

Very brief instructions in the box say to cut strips from each of the 20 fabrics.  The strips are to be one and a half inches wide by the width of the fabric (WOF).  OK...  a strip loses 1/2" in seams, so what will be visible on the top of this project is the width less one half inch, or ONE INCH!!  Wait, this is nuts!  OK, an inch isn't the smallest piece I've ever cut, but people, ONE INCH!!

 I LOVE scraps, don't get me wrong.  But the smallest thing I save is 2"x2".  The other stuff, like 1" strips or less than 1" strips go into bags of strings and usually don't get sewn into quilt tops.  Or even wall hangings.  I'm going to have to think about this one.

The directions say, if you're making a queen sized quilt, cut 2" strips x WOF.  Not that much bigger, but you cut more strips, 9 as opposed to 4.  I know there's a method to this that I'm not seeing so far, but I am not loving this project at this point!  What size is a wall hanging?  36" square, 42 inches? 

OMG maybe I'm just not supposed to be thinking about sewing today!  If I'm habing a code in my dose I should just hab the code and give byself one weekend not to sew!!  Oh, my head hurts.  Time to lie down.

Did I say I also got a box of books in today's mail?  A lovely box of seven used books by Margaret Truman about murder... Murder at the Smithsonian, Murder at the White House, Murder at the Opera.  Yes, it's a much better day for murder than it is for thinking about bargello!!

Sew on, or not as the case may be...

Sewing and Quilting Retreats

Since I've been sewing a long time (I'm afraid to put down a number of years, it's such a scary number!!) I know a lot of other people who sew.  Lots.  Members of my family, friends, ladies at church, members of quilt guilds and the American Sewing Guild.  One thing we have in common is that we love to share our projects and experiences.

I've read about a lot of sewing and quilting retreats.  There are groups that go to the shore, or on cruises, or just 'up north' or away from home to get together and sew.  Sometimes these are week-long events, and sometimes they're for weekends. 

My extended family has an almost-every-Friday night sewing get together.  It's not a retreat, but it IS very social.  It started a couple of years back with a family quilt project.  People signed up, everyone made a number of the same quilt square (one for each person who signed up), and they were traded so everyone ended up with one square from every other person.  After those projects were all done, we just kept getting together -- aunts and cousins and second cousins and in-laws and whoever is around come for the fun.  Sometimes we sew and sometimes we just eat and think about sewing. 

We've made quilts, start to finish.  We've remade a couple of UFOs that were inherited from other people.  We made skirts and dresses for the little girls and their dolls, and Halloween costumes.  We made a camouflage prom dress and other interesting stuff -- no project too challenging!  

Twice a year some of the ladies go on a quilt retreat in Central Wisconsin.  I went once, and -- well -- it wasn't exactly my cup of tea.  The place we were using wasn't all that well lit, and the project was BIG.  I'm not a late-night person and people stayed up late sewing or playing games.  Plus since I work full time at a fairly challenging job, I need my weekends to rest, and this retreat lasted from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon.  I did finish my project at home later.  I loved the pattern and my quilt turned out well.

I went on another sewing retreat one summer with a different group.  We were having so much fun I stayed up later than I should have.  Now, let me tell you, I have never watched the Tonight Show or Jay Leno on purpose!  By 9:30 or 10 p.m. I am usually out for the night.  And I must have eaten something that didn't like me because I ended up in the emergency room with the worst migraine headache I'd had ever.  It was the worst trip of my life to that point!

I skipped the next couple of retreats because I wasn't prepared to spend time and money to repeat a bad experience.  But I do love spending time with family members working on projects!  So once again I've forked over the deposit and kit fee for a retreat in February.  I'm telling myself that if it's tiring or boring or I just don't like it, I have permission to leave early!  And I'm going to bed by 11 or so at least one night.  Promise

We planned some extracurricular activities too.  Lunch at a Chinese restaurant, a little antique shopping on the side, a book on my Nook in case my hands get tired, and a couple of alternate projects.  I'm sure we'll have fun.  And maybe I'll have to call in that Monday with a hangnail or something.   Hmmm, you don't know my boss, do you?  Don't tell!

Sewing with friends is a lovely thing.  Sew and tell is an excellent way to get ideas and inspiration.  Years ago women had sewing bees for the social aspects, and because they had so little time to visit that a joint sewing session was permission to get together.  I highly recommend sewing with friends, even if you can't 'retreat'.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

Keep on sewing...

To PFF or not to PFF...

There's a debate going on over at Gertie's blog on whether when you are sewing you should press any seam flat first before you press it open (she's coined the acronym PFF - Press Flat First).  I left a comment over the weekend when she brought it up.  If you want to check out what she said, there's a link to her blog on the right in my blog list.

Now when I was learning to sew, back in the stone age, I was taught to sew-press-sew-press and not to sew across a seam before it was pressed.  I was also taught that pressing was an up and down motion with the iron.  "Ironing" was a term for what you did after you got the clothes in off the line or out of the dryer.  This was before permanent press.  THAT is one of my favorite modern inventions! 

Ironing is different than pressing.    I learned to iron by watching my mother.  She didn't have a nice fancy steam iron, so she used a sprinkler top on a bottle, sprinkling all the garments and folding and rolling them up.  She put them in a plastic bag in the laundry basket, then started ironing the smaller pieces first, because they would dry out more quickly than the big ones.

My six brothers and my dad wore white shirts to church every Sunday.  Those shirts needed ironing every single week.  So did the five oxford-cloth dress shirts that Dad wore to work during the week.  In addition we ironed our blouses and dresses, pillow cases and Dad's work pants.  Believe me, I know how to iron!!  My DD asked me how I learned, and I told her by watching my mom.  She promptly covered her eyes!

I learned to press in my first sewing class in seventh grade.  I can't remember the home ec teacher's name, but I do remember some of my experiences very well.  I had to tear out a lapped zipper three times because I didn't do it her way, and she hated my blind hem (by hand, no less!!)  That class put me off sewing for a while!  If it wasn't for a friend of my mom's I probably would have stopped sewing completely by the end of ninth grade.  But that's a blog for another day.

I learned to sew about age 10 or so on my grandma's treadle machine.  Of course she thought I would burn my fingers on the iron, so the stuff I did was what we now call 'finger pressed'.  But finally in home ec class, I was taught to press.  Up and down, slide the iron as little as possible.  The goal is to flatten an area without distorting it.  Today's fabrics, with their blended fiber content and wrinkle resistance, are less in need firm ironing than light touching up.    Lots of times, after prewashing a fabric, I find the only area that appears wrinkly could be the selvedge edges.

My fellow sewing guild members say they can tell who presses and who doesn't; that garments that were unpressed during construction look 'home-made', while garments using the press/sew methods look hand-made, or more like ready to wear. 

When I sew garments, I sew/press/sew/press religiously.  When I'm quilting, sometimes I finger press the small pieces, or use my 'Little Wooden Iron', or press a quantity of pieces after assembly line sewing them.  But the point is, I still almost always press after each round of sewing.  And I can tell right away when I break my own rules!

I'm not saying that anyone who doesn't PFF is wrong.  There are always multiple ways to do almost anything.  You have to find the right method for yourself.  It's like a recipe book, use the ones you like that give you the results you want, and pass over the others.  But if your projects are not turning out exactly the way you want them to, one thing to look at is whether your pressing techniques need a little tweeking.  Try PFF, you might like it!

Sew on!

Great Jeans Idea!

Anyone who's reading this absolutely has to pop over to Rita Farro's blog today and read about a quick jeans repair.  This is one of those things that you see and say "WHY didn't I think of that?"  It's so simple it's beautiful and I have to share it!

You know the reason your teenager's jeans or your kid's jeans or your OWN jeans get all raggedy at the bottom is because they wear them so long they're over their shoes and the bottoms drag on the ground.  To someone like me who had an actual DRESS CODE in high school and could not wear them just anywhere, this is appalling!  I understand why it happens, just like I understand why it's OK if linen gets wrinkled when you wear it.  But LIKE it, no.

Mind you some of the folks wearing these raggedy jeans like the way they look.  It's a fashion statement, like pierced ears.  Or pierced noses.  So you wont' get everyone to buy into this method of prolonging the life of your pants.  But I am sure that some will.  Husbands, for example.  And it's so simple that even if you don't sew (gasp!!) you can probably find someone who does who will do this for you.

I myself have never worn pants that were long enough to drag over my shoes.  I WISH I could find pants just that length!  Being height-challenged (I claim 5' 2" but I'm actually a little shy of the 2") almost every pair of  pants or jeans I've ever bought has had to be cut off by at least 3-4 inches.  I bought a really nice pair of capris pants last spring.  They were just a tad short of my normal inseam so even they had to be hemmed.

My daughter is about 3 inches taller than I am.  My son and daughter-in-law are both around 6 feet tall.  Even the oldest grand is nearly as tall as I am and she's in grade school.   I think the good Lord intended some of us to stay close to the ground, that's why we're short.  I don't climb too many ladders and I never liked the top bunk anywhere.  So my pants always need to be cut off.  DIL says I should save those bottoms to sew on her pants!! 

So jump over to the far right column, find Rita's Sew Fun Blog, and see the quick fix.  You can tell her I sent you.

Scraps!

My blog header admits that my stash is out of control, although I do sew nearly every weekend, and some weekdays.  I have stacks of projects, my room is moderately organized, and I have an inkling of what I own as far as fabric is concerned.  I say inkling because I'm not sure.  Sometimes I open a tub or move something and rediscover something I bought a while back and think WOW, I found a treasure!

I try not to overbuy, but I have a problem... well not just one but that's for another post.  I wrote previously about Goodwill shopping as a young person, that being my source for fabrics when nothing or very little else was available to me.  And all these years later I can still, in a weak moment, remember how it felt to have to make do with what I had when the girls in my class were buying poorboy sweaters in a dozen colors and wool plaid skirts to match.  So now that I can afford to buy nice things (OK not Armani or the like but nice things) I can get a little crazy on a shopping spree.  There, I admit that!

That is why it was so much fun to come across Scrap Therapy the book, and why I'm a fan of Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.com.  In 2009 Bonnie wrote a blog post titled Scrap Insanity.  She gets it!!  And she has a method for people like me, who can't bear to throw something out, to deal with and USE the scraps.

Now here's the thing about finding cool fabric -- you have it, but if you use it, you could use it up and you wouldn't have any anymore.  So you can use SOME of it, but you have to keep some.  And those little pieces? Well they could be used somewhere, like for paper piecing, or a small project, or doll clothes.  But you can't just toss them.

So here I was with two LARGE and several small cardboard boxes full of things I was saving.  Some pieces were big enough for projects, some were the remains of a project, and some were very small.   I've seen lovely jackets made with the strips you cut off of the selvedge edge, so how could I justify tossing perfectly good chunks of fabric?  I had boxes labeled "Barbie pieces" -- probably pieces under 4 inches wide, and boxes for Cabbage Patch and boxes labeled "cut into usable pieces".  This was becoming a problem!

I happened to be in a quilt shop that is now closed and saw a class advertised -- "We're having Scrap Therapy".  Hey, for $15 I'll try it, plus you get a bin and a ruler.  I turned up on time and listened to the teacher talk about this scrap theory.  You cut the scraps into standard sizes, and YOU TOSS THE BITS.  Ahhhhh, can I do this?  I'm a saver by nature.  My grandmother saved the papers from the inside of peanut cans, cleaned them and cut them into curlicue decorations for her Christmas tree.  She taught me how to unwrap a gift without tearing the paper so you could reuse it.

For an hour and a half I cut up the pieces I'd carried to class in my brown paper bag.  I pressed and cut and arranged things in my bin.  When I was done, I had lovely 2 inch, 3.5 inch, and 5 inch squares.  About a shoebox full.  And three patterns that called for a quantity of those sizes of square plus some background fabric. 

Later I discovered Bonnie Hunter, the woman who rarely tosses anything!  She's got a plan for everything, and she loves to make scrappy quilts.  She saves pieces that are oddly shaped and very small called crumbs.  And she uses them!  Well, now we're on to something.  A reason to save those pieces, permission to do so, and no guilt!

I'd like to report that I have fewer scraps now.  But no.  What I DO have is more organized scraps.  And I don't limit myself to those three sizes of square, although that's the majority of what I've cut.  I have a box of six and a half inch squares, which make lovely applique backgrounds.  I've made three small quilts with those squares with hearts appliqued on some of them.  My youngest granddaughter's favorite quilt is a 'checkerboard' of cool prints and white squares.  

Any piece that's width of fabric I cut into 2 inch, 2.5 and 3 inch strips, depending on the size of the chunk.  I have a small box of 2.5 inch squares, and a tub with strips in it that are any size less than an inch wide.  Those make good ribbons and ties for packages and for bundles of other things, and for the garden.  Or you could knit with the narrower ones.  On and on it goes.

But I do have at least four quilt tops made from various sized pieces.  There's one made entirely of nine-patches consisting of 2 inch squares combined with five inch squares.  There are a couple made with just five inch squares, and one that used the two inch squares sewn diagonally on the five inch squares' opposite corners. 

... to those ladies like Bonnie (at Quiltville.com) who made me realize a crumb could be useful, a big THANKS!  And some day I hope to make some of those wacky pieces she makes, using the small drawer of crumbs I'm saving.

What I'm Reading

Every night before I go to sleep I spend 15 minutes to a half hour reading something.  Anything.  Lots of things.  I just cannot hit the pillow and drift off unless I'm super tired.  So I read until my eyes start closing, turn off the light and sleep.

I tried making a list of all the books I've read in the past year.  I went to a site called Library Thing and used their search function to list the authors and books I've read in the last decade, and topped out the 200 things you can put in for free.  If you want to list more you have to pay.  So that ended that.

On my nightstand right now:  Nights in Rodanthe, The Woman Who Heard Color, Legacy of Ashes - the History of the CIA, and V is for Vengance.  I started The Woman Who Heard Color but the beginning is kind of choppy, so that one sits while I read Legacy of Ashes.  I'm holding V is for Vengance for next week.  Then today a guy at work stopped by my office with a Steve Berry novel, asking if I'd like to read it.  Historical Fiction, you bet!  I can read several things at once and keep them straight.  If something gets juicy or really interesting I'll read that until it's done, but I'm good at multi-tasking.

My favorite types of books are (in no particular order) biographies, mysteries, detective novels, historical fiction, history, drama and comedy.  I think I've read everything Agatha Christie wrote, and nearly everything by Robert B Parker and James Lee Burke.  I love the victorian novels of Anne Perry and the ones by Elizabeth Perry, and I don't think they're related.  And Dick Francis wrote the best novels ever about horse racing.  I read Julia Child's bio before they made it into a movie. I've read all the Harry Potters, all the Nancy Drews, and all the Anne of Green Gables too.

Did I mention I like books about sewing and knitting?  Oh yeah, I love those, shelves and shelves of them.  I have two five-shelf bookshelves of books about crafting.  Embroidery, quilting, garment sewing, applique, knitting hats and mittens and scarves and on and on and on!  When someone I know needs a reference book, I probably have it.  I do use them, probably not as frequently as I should.  However, I did teach  myself to knit socks, do redwork and Sashiko embroidery, and Hawaiian Quilting, all with books I own.

I'm passing on the love of books to the grands.  They all get books from me for birthdays and Christmas, and I buy them books I can read to them and with them.  They love reading together.  I tell them "reading makes you beautiful".

I love book books, real books with paper pages.  I was given the gift of a Kindle when they first came out with the small version.  I like the size of it, and it beats lugging a bunch of books around on airplanes and car trips.   Sometimes the Kindle version of a book is free or less than the price of the paperback.  Sometimes the idea of a pile of books is nice and other times not so much.  On the Kindle at present I am reading the Biography of Benjamin Franklin, The Egyptian Cat Mystery, Here We Go Again by Betty White, and the Bible. 

I don't mind used books.  I buy used books quite frequently.  Downtown Books in Milwaukee has an awesome selection, as do a few other places.  And after all, the words are the same the 19th time they're read as they were the first time.

The library is also a good place to get books -- that is, if your card is current.  I have to check on mine, I think it may have expired.  Besides, they want you to bring those books BACK!

Here's my favorite quote about books:  Outside of a dog, man's best friend is a book.  Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

Elizabeth Kubler Ross

Elizabeth Kubler Ross was a psychiatrist who was driven to work with children with HIV and with the dying.  She was a pioneer in the field of hospice care.  She passed away in 2004 but not before she wrote a book called On Death and Dying.  She believed that the five stages of grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance - have to be worked through before anyone can find peace.

The quote above is listed on Favorite Quotes sites everywhere under inspirational quotes.  It tells me that while she worked with the dying, Dr. Ross must have really known how to live.

I believe everyone has a light.  That light comes from lots of places.  It comes from your love bank -- that is all the love you exchange with ALL of the people in your life, and it comes from your faith and beliefs.  You build it up when you do things that bring you joy, whether it's your work, your leisure activities, the people with whom you spend your time, and when you spend time by (and with) yourself.  Everyone needs that!

Fill your love bank regularly, just like you do your car's gas tank , but empty it often.  Share your joy.  Let your light shine!! 

Nancy Zieman Tablet Keeper

This month Nancy Zieman is asking several people to test her new Tablet Keeper templates.  Each day someone different is posting their results, sometimes making more than one size or design.  Of course the one Nancy featured was beautiful, they do great work up in Beaver Dam.  It made me want to buy the template set and get started!  (You think that was their purpose??  Nah...)

So this past weekend I spent some time in my sewing room looking for possible candidate fabrics for a couple of Tablet Keepers of my own.  I have a Kindle, an idea notebook, several other notebooks for which a cover or holder might be nice.

I found some quilt squares that were left over from projects that were started or abandoned.  I also located the 1/2 yard of blue print that I was missing so I might be able to finish binding the quilt I made for my bed a couple of years ago.  I'm using it right now with the edges serged off so they don't ravel.  Additionally I found the pattern pieces for a couple of projects.  These pieces need to be returned to their envelope at some point, in case they are to be used again.

I have lots of fabric sorted by type and color, most of it stored in these plastic boxes...

some big tubs, some small ones, but all very necessary.  We've had tiny livestock in the basement for the last couple of years.  Last year they started moving in for the winter, and to make room for themselves they chewed through the folded side of 1.5 yards of a silk and wool blend that I was saving for a jacket.  Why can't they develop a taste for polyester??? 

I moved several stacks of things around.  Moving things next to things sometimes results in interesting combinations.  Nothing was too inspiring.  Maybe I need to take a pile of things with me to Friday night sewing and look at them in someone else's sewing space.  Or maybe I have been too limiting in what I'm looking at.  A third possibility exists -- I may just have to agument my stash somehow.  I have a lot but maybe I don't have the RIGHT stuff!  (OMG, I'm truly crazy.)

My oldest grand came over looking for an "artifact", something "from history that's older than grampa"... we dug around and I found some antique linens that I picked up in Columbus.  We had to write down who might have made them and what they might have been used for so she could take them to history class.

 I wandered back to the living room.  I looked through a stack of books on the coffee table and started reading one.  Since there was no Green Bay football game, hubby was not shouting and pounding the arm of the chair, and I guess I took a little nap.  When I woke it was 5:13 p.m.

I still have no idea what I might use to make my Tablet Keeper.  But since my DD stopped over during the search, now I also have to make one for the Nook she has.  Once she locates the fabric she wants me to use...

Where's my camera??

OK, now that I'm getting the hang of this blog stuff, I want to start adding some photos to my posts. 

Like this.

or maybe something else.

Like a picture of one of my projects or something.  BUT I can't seem to get the photos in my iPhone to go to my computer, and I can't find my real camera!  Sad, but true... technology seems to be wagging its finger at me recently. 

I have five voicemails on my phone, but what I thought was my password to voicemail evidently isn't my password.  I have instructions to fix that.  Hopefully I'll get that done soon.  Then I can work on getting the phone to communicate with my email account.  But on the bright side, I do know how to text. 

The camera is another story.  It takes lovely pictures, and I have the uploading process to the computer down pat.  But I put it somewhere before the holidays.  I did that because I was tired of uploading pictures only to find that 60% of them were of toys or the four-year-old's bare feet or a bug on the sidewalk.  Yes, I know they can be deleted and they don't cost anything to save, but seriously, she's a mad photographer when she gets started!!  I have a picture of a bowl of Bugles.  Yep, the snack food.  And plastic dinosaurs and stuffed dogs.  Cute but not desirable for blogging purposes.

So hopefully this weekend I can find the camera and start showing off some of my projects.

Stay tuned!

Product or Process?

Are you a product person or a process person??  How do you know which one you are?

By my definition, a product person is one who will not necessarily start a new project while the last project is incomplete.  This type of person likes to see a finished item put to use.  They would be very happy owning one pair of knitting needles because they would not dream of starting a second scarf in a different color while the first scarf is still being knitted! 

On the other hand, the process person is one who enjoys part of all of the process of any craft.  To use a knitting example, the process person may be happiest picking out patterns and buying yarn.  Maybe they have even started projects.  They may love learning new stitches, or the way the project feels rolled up in their lap during the knitting.  But they may be proud owners of 76% of a sweater in blue and 22% of a pair of red socks.

You can usually tell at a glance which person you're dealing with... baskets of yarn overflowing in several rooms, needles stuck into skeins on the coffee table?  Process.  One carefully loaded knitting bag next to the favorite chair?  Project.

I am a process person.  I freely admit that my stash of fabric, yarn, embroidery floss, craft supplies, exceeds the conceivable number of projects I can do in my lifetime.  But as someone once said if his own wife's works in process, it's a lovely pile of stuff and could be considered decorative in some circles.

My cousin Amy is a project person.  I piece a quilt top, fold it, and ponder its beauty.  Amy will make the quilt sandwich, machine quilt it over the weekend, bind and label it like lightning!  Her UFO pile is almost non-existent!! 

Did I mention that process people and project people don't understand each other??  Like Venus and Mars, baby!  She's thinking "why can't you finish this one before you start another one?" and I'm thinking "boy, the woman is an overachiever for sure!!"

Bless Amy and the other project people... sometimes we can convince them to finish OUR projects because they'd rather do that than stare at a UFO!  Oh, and THANKS!!

Why Susan Sews or Why "Susan Sews"

Someone asked me "Why do you sew?  I'm sure you could buy what you want just as inexpensively and it would be faster."  The answer is not to save money!  These days you can go to Walmart or wherever and buy a blouse, tee shirt, outfit, for less money than ever before.  Although if you shop discount chains or even your average mall shop these days you'll have to accept less than brilliant workmanship, and your clothes or household items will probably not last the season.  (I mean, does anyone out there match plaids anymore?  Evidently not in ready to wear!)

I sew because a.) I don't want to see the same outfit on every other grandma in the library/mall/restaurant, b.) because I care about how well-made my clothing is, and c.) because it's FUN to do it.

A part of my soul is very satisfied when I take a piece of flat fabric and make it into a jacket, pants,, or top, that will cover my decidely not flat bod.  I get a thrill when someone says "You MADE that??", although those who know me well now say "You made that, didn't you?" in that kind of know-it-all, you disgust me tone.  Sorry, yes, I probably did make it, and I'm glad it looks good enough that you don't think you'll find it in the mall somewhere!

My granddaughters love to bring me stuff from the stash with requests to make them a 'top with ruffles all the way around the front" or "pajamas, please".  In fact, I'm encouraging them to build their own stash.  Last week we went to the local quilt shop for their scrap bonanza.  Fill a bag and pay by the pound!  How cool is that, because you know someone else's scraps are always better than your own...  even the little one managed to pick up a pound of stash.  We came home and sorted and played.  E made a very cool collage with some of her stuff.  I needed something on the wall in the sewing studio!  And A made a 'blankie' -- well, she pinned some things together and I fastened it all down with zigzag stitches.  We were happy girls.

About three jobs back I worked with some engineers, who are pretty buttoned-down kind of people generally, and we took an interest in each other's hobbies.  They all got a kick out of my annual trek to Beaver Dam WI to Nancy Zieman's Sewing Weekend. Since Nancy is one of my heros, I told them how she started her mail order business from her basement.  They suggested that I should start a sewing business too... even decided it should be called Susan Sews.  They said the alliteration was a good sign that it would be successful!

Here's the thing about sewing for me:  I do it because I love the process.  I'm not going to be love having to finish everything I start, and I know I won't always love the clients, with their opinions and wishes.  Yes, they're paying, but hey, could you, would you, sew something with fabric you considered 'ugly'??  Not for me, too much like work.  And as for sewing and selling, well, I enjoy making one of something, sometimes I enjoy making a second one if it's different enough.  But I absolutely cannot keep making the same thing over and over, making many copies of the same item, even if they're different colors or fabrics.  Sorry, no bazaar sales or craft shows for me!

So I sew for the fun of it, for people I love, for my friends, because I can, to try something new, for all those things.  But could I sew because someone was paying me?  Probably could, but probably won't.

Susan sews for Susan.  End of story!

Shopping at the Goodwill

I know, so far this blog hasn't been about sewing nearly at all.  But today I cleaned out my spare room, and went through my stash of magazines that were put away to look at 'when I have time'.  I did a lot of daydreaming and planning while I was doing that, does that count?

I found about a dozen different quilted vest variations that got me thinking about some sewing I need to do.  With the winter coming on (although there is a decided lack of snow on the ground) I will not feel sorry to go down to the sewing studio and miss any daylight... because there won't be any daylight to speak of!

So what does this have to do with Goodwill shopping??  Well, let me tell you, the Goodwill is one of my favorite shopping malls.  It's cool to go there now because the whole world seems to be into reusing and repurposing, but I always tell people that I've been shopping there since before it was cool! 

When I was in junior high and high school, I didn't have money or access to regular fabric stores.  My mom didn't sew (who would have time with eight kids??) so she never went to a fabric store until she went there with me in later years.  I had baby-sitting money, and there was a Goodwill store near the grocery store Mom shopped.  While she was food shopping I would go to the Goodwill and look for the largest garments I could find in colors and fabrics I liked.  We would launder them and I would 'unsew' them, pressing the resulting yardage. 

The challenge then would be to make the pattern pieces of a garment for myself fit onto this fabric.  I got quite creative in this process.  One favorite outfit began life as a blue and white herringbone wool blend dirndl skirt and ended up as an a-line skirt and vest, lined with navy poly from the local variety store.  I had a gold wool skirt made from another big, long skirt, and to wear with it I found a forest green sweater with some stains near the cuff of one sleeve.  Since the sleeves were pretty long, I cut the ribbing off, cut off the stained section, and sewed the ribbing back on, using a zig-zag stitch.

Yesterday, the 'grands' and I went to the big Goodwill store near us.  We started in books, and each of them picked up at least a half-dozen books if not more.  At 89 cents each, we can do that.  Yes, the library is free, but only if you return the books on time!  Besides, it's nice owning real books, but that's a post for another day.

We perused the assortment of dishes and glasses.  This store's employees group like things together for the most part, and the clothing is sorted according to size.  I like that in a thrift store.  :-)  We could have had 13 Pepsi glasses, or 3 Coke tumblers, but we passed.  E found a nice water bottle.  A wanted a purse. 

We cruised past jeans in dozens and dozens of colors and styles.  We have to shop for those while A is elsewhere... she has no patience!  Well, she's small.

I was looking for green wool sweaters to felt.  I have the coolest pattern for a Christmas tree table decoration.  You start with a piece of wire stuck into a board or a piece of Styrofoam.   Onto this "pin" you place circles of red and green colored felted wool cut from old sweaters, starting with the largest circle on the bottom, getting gradually smaller.  You top it with a gold star button or bead or even a felt star you sew yourself.  Totally cool!

Anyway, someone else must have seen that pattern too, because all the green or red sweaters that were there were polyester blends.  Better luck next time.

Missing Marty

This Christmas my dear daughter gave me a lovely diary for 2012.  She gave me a desk calendar last year, I thought this one was the same thing -- weekly calendar with space for appointments and occasions, you know the type.  When I looked at it again later, I realized there are two pages per week; one for appointments and the other for entries in diary form.  I tried writing a diary some years ago, but wasn't very consistent.

Blogging seems like the same thing to me.  Some folks seem to live on their computers, checking email or blogs regularly, not letting a day go by without posting. Then there are folks who don't update unless something BIG happens to them. The same seems to be the case with Facebook and other social media.  I think I start out in the first group, and gradually end up in the second.  For example, this week, since I'm on vacation and not checking emails at my office, I'm not checking at home either.  I did check today... good thing too, because I had over 100 unread emails (about 95% of them were from merchants advertising after Christmas sales).

I follow many blogs related to sewing and crafts.  I love Rita Farro's blog and Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing, and Quiltville from Bonnie Hunt.  Samina at American Sewing Guild has a blog, as does Nancy Zieman.  From the links on these blogs I've branched out to the French General and The Warp and the Weft.  I've discovered that many of these folks blog daily, some blog several times a week, and a couple are what I will call 'irregulars'. 

It's disappointing when someone just stops blogging for a long while.  I was reading and enjoying Marty Sews, a blog by a fellow ASG'er, when she just stopped.  Her last blog was in August of 2011.  I miss her.  From some of her prior posts,  I understand that there were some health issues with both herself and her husband.  I hope everything's OK with Marty.  I wish there was a way to know!

That's part of the problem with going from diary to blog.  If you miss writing in your diary, no one knows but you and the person who has to clean out your papers after you go to the Big Blogosphere in the Sky.  But if you quit blogging, your followers have no idea whether you're very ill, never coming back, or just vacationing in the South of France!

Well, I guess you have to actually have followers for this to be the case.

Christmas Programs are for Children!

I'm the director of our church's Sunday School progam, for children age 3 to sixth grade.  I support the teachers, order the materials, plan special events and collect offerings.  Part of my job is to organize and direct the annual Christmas show.  This year is my first year doing this particular job, but I love spending time with the kids.

One Sunday morning while running around and taking attendance, making sure everyone had words and music for the songs, and arranging times for practive, we seemed to be particularly stressed out.  The older children came and rehearsed their three songs and read through their parts.  Then the 3 and 4 year olds came out to sing their two songs.  They were going to sing "Away in a Manger" and "I Am Jesus' Little Lamb".  These songs are very familiar to us, but to these little ones, especially the three year olds, this was the first time they were hearing it.

We sang the first song through a couple of times, and I was thinking, hey, they're doing pretty well.  So we started the second song.  We sang it a couple of times, and I could tell enthusiasm was waning.  I took a minute to look at them, really look at them.  I saw glazed eyes and wiggly bodies.  I said "I think from looking at you, that you all have had just about enough singing.  Am I right?"  In their honest way, they said yes.  I said, "can you sing it one more time and then we'll be done?"  Yeah, home run!  They sang one more time with gusto!

I decided then and there that it didn't matter if they memorized both verses of both songs, because their parents and grandparents are going to think they're adorable regardless, and Jesus will not care as long as they love him.  Stress vanished!  Wow, things got easier from there, right??  Not exactly...

Dress rehearsal brought lots of challenges.  A couple of sick children needed to be replaced.  The fire alarm bell was too hard for the boy who was supposed to push the test button.  One of the bells got broken.  Everyone had a suggestion for improvement.  The kids weren't singing with the piano, some of them weren't singing at all!!  This had disaster written all over it.  But I had a feeling I shouldn't worry.

So I didn't.  Day of the program came, the kids were all dressed so beautifully, and there faces showed the pleasure they anticipated in telling the Christmas Story.  We processed in, we sang, we rang the bells, not always at the right time but close!  We processed out at the appropriate time, and as we were leaving I heard APPLAUSE!!

So remember, blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape!

If you're reading this and enjoy this story, please leave a comment.

Thanks!

Sue