I Have A New Project!!

I'm kind of excited to say I have picked up a new project.  A young lady I know asked me if I knew someone who could make a baptismal dress from a wedding gown.  Do I?  Yeah, me! 

I picked up the dress and her chosen pattern last night.  I'm excited to get to work tonight, taking pictures of both and doing some planning.  The baby is due in November so I have some time.  My only worry is that since the dress is a strapless number with a pretty straight skirt, I hope the pieces of this very full baby gown fit on the available fabric.

I'm told there is a train folded up in the dress bag... so wish me luck!  There's a beaded overskirt that she wants used to cover the skirt of the baby dress.

Photos of the project will be forthcoming!

Sew on...

Lemons

There's a saying that goes:  when life gives you lemons, make

From my interactions with the dozens of folks I talk to on a daily basis, I think most of the world has forgotten this.  People like to complain.  Nobody wants to see the good side of anything.

Well, that's a gross generalization if I ever heard one!

Lots of people like to complain.  I like to complain once in a while.  Like when traffic comes to an absolute standstill on the freeway and there is no earthly reason why it should.  Or if the bag of fast food I used the drive-thru to buy ends up short one greasy sandwich.

But lots of people don't ever get beyond the whining and either do something about it or forget about it and move on.  There was one guy at my office who was perpetually gloomy, raining on everyone's parade about everything, never ever happy about anything.  Even in the present economic climate with so many people out of work he couldn't be happy about being employed.

I read somewhere that women love to talk about things and men like to solve the problem and get on with it... another gross generalization to which that guy in my office was the rule-proving exception!

There is a lot of bad stuff happening in the world.  There are lots of mean people, only out for themselves.  Bad things happen to good people.  Sometimes it's just traffic backing up, or you stubbed your toe.  Sometimes it's horrible, like a terminal illness or loss of a job.

For me, those bad times are a test of faith.  If you believe that God cares for you no matter what, you can live through the bad times and look at them as character builders. 

There ARE good people in the world, and if you reach out when you have a need, you will almost always find someone who will take your hand and help you.  To me there is nothing better than the company of a couple of girlfriends to help you through the tough times and put the positive back in your attitude.

If you're one of my girlfriends, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.  If you are part of a girlfriend posse somewhere, bless you.  If you are blue or lonely, find a girlfriend or two and start your 'therapy'.

And I will tell you one thing for certain -- there is nothing like the friendship shared by the people in the sewing world!  Guilds and sewing/quilting groups and sewing sisters are special people. 

Thanks for being you!

Sew on...

Photos for a 90 Degree Day

Remember this?

My driveway, February, 2011

Or this?

How about this?

Latest Conditions in Milwaukee, WI					Choose Your Front Page City
		Partly Cloudy Thursday Chance Showers High: 86 °F Next winter, let's try to remember how upset we were when it was hot!!	Aug 1 7:52 pm 78°F (26°C)

Resource Center Musings

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

A notepad from my desk

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

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

So you probably weren't surprised when I showed my stack of bins...

or my boxes of patterns...

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

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

I have approximately $300 worth of sewing machine needles. 

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

You've seen these before...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Laughing out loud ---

Keep on sewing!

Fixing Up The House...

When we moved into our present house five years ago, I knew dogs had lived here.  The first winter when we closed up the house and turned on the furnace, I smelled them daily.  Even after shampooing the carpeting multiple times, I could still tell.
When my DH would ask what I wanted for Christmas or my birthday, new carpeting was always on the list.  He's say "That's no kind of present!"  Ha!  My nose disagreed!!

This year we got a pretty good tax refund.  Once again we discussed new carpeting for my birthday in the spring.

Finally, finally, things got moving.  We pulled all of the furniture out of the two guest bedrooms and painted walls.  And a couple of weeks later I promised to shop for carpeting.

DH started removing the old carpeting.  The house smelled better right away. 

A month passed.  Summer got really HOT.  Work was crazy, our office was moving and I was on the committee that was organizing that.  Carpeting got put on the back burner.

The week of July 4th, I finally got the urge to get something going.  Well, a month of crap piled in the garage and parking the cars in the driveway finally got to me!

I knew what I wanted... light brown good quality carpeting with a million year wear guarantee and a new carpet smell!  Not too expensive either.

Long story short -- went shopping, found the right color, got the right price, and last week Larry and Dan came over and spent two days hammering, cutting and laying pad and carpet.  Now when I dash up the stairs my feet say 'thanks, we enjoyed that'!  And when the alarm goes off and I have to roll out of bed, they say 'oh, THAT wasn't so bad, we feel NICE down here!'



See?

I'm On The Five Year Plan

I spent some time in my sewing studio this past weekend, working on some projects.  I think I must be on the Five Year Plan in my garment sewing life.  Why do I say that, you ask?  Well...

Yesterday I sewed part of a blouse.  I only sewed PART of a blouse because when I cut out said blouse, somewhere within the last five years, I unpinned it from its pattern. 

I put the pieces into a gallon sized zip lock bag.  Good thinking, right?  Keep the pieces together so you can find them when you need them.  Nothing organizes better than gallon sized bags!

See, I had good intentions...  from front to back:  jacket, blouse, vest, vest, jacket, blouse and jacket.

Except I forgot to include the pattern envelope and the instruction sheet!  I have the brand and the number, but if you've been in my sewing room, you know that I have a TON of patterns in various boxes and bins, and that pattern could be in any one of them!

Lucky for me, I remember the picture/drawing from the front of the envelope, so I have a chance of finding it just from that, instead of having to read the numbers...

So I sewed the most obvious pieces -- front yokes to lower fronts, matching the notches, and back yoke to lower back.  I stopped at putting interfacing onto the facing pieces because it was getting late and I need my beauty sleep more and more these days.

Left and right fronts, waiting for facings.

Before I go too much further I need to find the pattern envelope.  Oh, and some light weight interfacing.  The fabric is a light weight linen blend from Joann Fabrics.  The pattern is kind of a loose fitting top with asymmetrical hems and a cross-over front.  There were some trousers included.  I didn't cut those out.  I still may, if I can find a coordinating fabric in my stash.  This linen was purchased at least 10 years ago, but teal is back...



I think I may be able to find something in here somewhere...

How do I know I'm on the Five Year Plan with this outfit?  DH and I have been living in this house for five years now, and I know this pattern was in my stash when I moved in!  So it's at LEAST the five year plan -- that is, if I finish it in 2012!!

Keep your fingers crossed, and keep sewing!

Oh, and keep good thoughts on the pants fabric, OK?  I'd hate to have to do more fabric shopping...

Finished Projects and Utility Sewing

This weekend, while my DH was busy tearing out the carpeting in our upstairs, I worked on some projects that had been nagging me for completion...

I fixed a small hole in the back of a pair of DH's blue jeans.  How exactly does one tear through the place between the center back seam and the back pocket?  And it wasn't so much a tear as it was a worn out spot, about the size of a dime, with some sort edges around it.  I think it was the process of making the fabric look aged that did it.  So I cut a small piece off an old pair that I've been using for patches and stuff, and pinned it to the inside of the jeans.  The patch was much lighter in color than the jeans, so I figured I'd sew it to the inside and it would be less conspicuous.  You're going to be able to tell they were mended either way, but the thread sewn on the outside was closer in color than the patch.

So I zigzagged around the edges to secure it, then I sewed back and forth across the length of the patch to make sure it stayed secure.  I used the pinking shears to cut the patch, so I'm sure it won't fray too much but I sewed the daylights out of it just in case it decided to wiggle itself loose!  I'm sure it's a strong patch, and if anything the jeans will spring another leak (hole) in some other, non-reinforced area!

Then I made a tent bag.  SIL brought me a 'present' a couple of weeks ago.  "Can you fix this?" he always asks. 

Sadly, sometimes the answer has to be no, like the times when HIS jeans tear a quarter inch away from one of the flat felled seams and there's nothing to sew a patch to...  but in this case, the tent bag was so torn and thin, I couldn't save it. 

I found some twill in my stash.  I must have planned to make some boy pants or something, this stuff was S.T.I.F.F.!!  So I cut two layers about the size of the tent bag, and did a big, double flat felled seam on the side and the bottom.  I made the outside layer  about a half inch shorter than the inner layer, and folded both layers over on the outside at the top.  The longer, under layer got folded over again about a half inch, to make a clean finish on the outside.  I stole the drawstring from the old bag, inserted it in the casing, and viola!!  New tent bag!

I know, totally not sexy, but it will do the job.  Now if he gets work in Iowa (he's an iron worker and travels where they're building) he can stay in his tent and not have to pay for a motel room.  It's not an impressive project, but he really liked it!

Next I sewed the three outer borders to my DD's quilt.  This project has been on the back burner for a while.  It's folded in half on my design wall because it's queen sized.  I think it's big enough for a drop on either side of the bed and at the end, but I have to check the measurements.  I might have to put on one more border.  Then it can go off to the quilt shop for finishing.  There's no way I'm machine quilting anything this big!!

Last but not least, I put the final border on the Bargello from Hell wall hanging.  This photo is before the final 4 inch brown border was sewn on all four sides.  Now I just have to piece a back, because it is wider than the backing fabric I bought.  I have some strip sets left from the interior pattern, so I'll probably piece those together for a large center block and put the brown and teal polka dot fabric around the edges.  I'm going to try to quilt this on my home machine.  Maybe...

My final finish this week was Jennifer Chiaverini's book, The Union Quilters.  It was a good story, about how the women left at home during the civil war supported themselves and each other with and through their quilting.  I know there's another of her books that refers to this time period.  I don't recall which one it is, but some of the plot lines are echoed in this book.  It's a good stand alone story, but I think you could benefit some by having read the other book.

Hope you're staying cool in the hot weather.  We got about a quarter inch of rain on Saturday, not enough to save the grass or help the corn.  I guess if I want to see green, I'll have to work on the Phone Guy's Wife quilt blocks!

Happy summer, and keep sewing.

995 and Weekend Accomplishments

I am happy to report that I had a wonderful five whole days off work, and I spent some time in my sewing room!

Ta DA!!  Last Friday I put the inner borders on the Bargello wall hanging from hell... all I have to do is sew on the outer 4 inch border and it will be ready for a backing.  How to quilt it is the question.  It's got nearly 2000 pieces in it, some of them are only showing 1/4 inch.  I am not an experienced machine quilter, nor do I enjoy it.  Hmmmm, this one will bear some contemplation.

I have to say, I like the colors.  It goes from darkest brown to cream and from light teal to dark.  I have a space in my upstairs hall where it will be the perfect thing to brighten an empty cream wall.

There hasn't been much time for the Phone Guy's Wife blocks recently, but I did finalize my layout decision.  I'm doing 'sashing as you go', which looks very nice and not so busy when you lay them out.  I cut 1 1/2 inch sashing strips from white, and 1/1/2 inch squares from dark green.  This is just a section of the new layout.  My design wall is too small for much more, but you get the idea.

I need a big spot to lay them out so I can make sure the colors kind of balance out.

995, what's that about?  Tonight that's how many views my blog has gotten!  I have posted 88 blogs before today, and I have three followers.  So someone must be reading without following or else I come here a lot!!  Anyway, thanks for the visits, however many you may have made.

Last thing for today... I went to the big chain to buy some stash fabrics for our church quilt group.  They had cottons for 40% off, and I had some cash.  I picked up some things that will hopefully make our big bin of calico florals into some interesting combinations.

Big Bin

New Fabrics

I realized when I took this photo that I was going to pick up some pink and rose colored stuff too, but I must have been distracted by the person at the cutting counter.  She was literally telling the customers her life story and offering high fives when someone said something she agreed with.  Lucky for me the person who was doing my cutting was paying attention to what she was doing.

Also over the weekend I cut a ton of stuff for kits for the church ladies.  I start with a group we've decided looks cool together.

Then I read the 'recipe' and cut the pieces.

Obviously NOT the same bunch as above... but you get the idea.

Then it all goes in a Ziploc bag.  Ready for transport, with the name of the pattern on the bag or a copy inside.

Everyone's building their own portfolio of patterns and they have their favorites.  As long as I have the cutting directions, I can keep people busy.  I wish I had a photo of the last batch of finished quilts to show you.  Next time we have them laid out, I'll try to remember to do that!

Here's my batch for this Sunday's get together:

Now to get to that pink dress...

Sewing Again!!

I am so happy to report that I actually did a little sewing tonight after work!!  Yes, I turned on the machine (since I can now see it on the table, it's no longer piled with stuff) and sewed two blocks for my Phone Guy's Wife collection.

First I finished up the Maple Leaf block that I had cut out about a month ago.  It's a spring maple leaf, bright green like the tree in my back yard was before the heat wave.

Then I did a block called Northern Lights.  I think it was supposed to be a lower contrast, but honestly I don't think I like blocks where the colors sort of mush together.  What is the point of doing all that piecing and not have it show, you know what I mean?

So this block looks very nice but I must not have been careful sewing because one side is slightly less than the full 6 1/2 inches, I think you can see the offending corner.  I might have to un-sew, and re-sew this one.

I also pressed some more hearts onto some more muslin.  I'm trying to convince my oldest Grand that she can do the sewing around the edges.  Right now they're just held on by Wonder Under.

Also I am ready for a marathon sewing weekend, (since I have taken vacation the two days after the coming holiday) having cut many small pieces into usable strip sizes...  I have a bin of two inch strips

and another of 2 1/2 inch strips...

just ready and waiting for some production sewing.

Also ready to go is one little girl's dress for the smallest grand

All that is needed is a zipper, and some facings or bindings on the neck and sleeves.  I guess I didn't hang it too well, did I?? 

Oh, and I got a 'housewarming' gift in my new office today.  It matches exactly the green of the guest chairs and the wall and ceiling in the break room.  Thanks went out to the generous guy who sent this to me from Overland Park, Kansas.  What will they think of next??

This is actually a very functional tape dispenser!!  What a hoot!

Sew on, and I mean it!!

It's All In the Prep Work

I am part of a group of quilters through our church, the Loving Hands Quilters.  We make baptism quilts for the babies in our congregation and those who are baptized in our church.  We donate quilts to various charities both local and worldwide. We enjoy working together.

Everyone has a task they like best, but we all do various things.  Over the past couple of years I've become the "kit maker".  We pick various patterns to sew, and I cut up fabric from our stash and pack each kit in a zip-locked plastic bag.  I label the bag with the pattern name, and everyone works from their personal copy of the pattern.

We cleaned and organized our stash recently.  I ended up with a large tub of fabric, tied into bundles of fabrics that go together.  Now I have to start cutting.

Normally we're what we call 'self-funded'... that is, we are on our own for finances.  This has been OK for a long while, because we have donated fabrics to work from, and we've made do with things from our various personal resource centers.  Once in a while we get some money and go pick up the things that we're missing.  Most of the time we buy solids or tone on tone fabrics, and batting.

This month I have the pleasant task of spending a few dollars to fill the gaps in our stash.  We have a lot of floral calicoes, and we need some coordiates and some muslin.

The ladies requested that we do a couple of heart applique patterns.  I picked up a bolt of Wonder Under at Joann's with my 40% off coupon.  Then I used my ASG discount for another 10% off.  I spent this afternoon tracing my heart templates onto the paper side, and ironing them onto swatches of the various florals and other small pieces of fabric. 

Then. I. Cut. Them. Out.  Wow, even when watching reruns of The Gilmore Girls, that makes for a long, boring afternoon!!  Then, more ironing onto 6 1/2 inch squares of muslin. 

I hope someone else wants to sew around the edges of these hearts.  I think I may be tired of looking at them...

The Move is Over!!

The move is finally over, and we're putting our stuff away!  Today was the day to empty the totes and carts in preparation for the movers to come and pick them up.  I have a whopper of a bruise on my left knee area, and a smaller one on my wrist..

Bruise, also called a contusion, a type of relatively minor hematoma of tissue^[1] in which capillaries and sometimes venules are damaged by trauma, allowing blood to seep into the surrounding interstitial tissues.

A bruise is a common skin injury that results in breakage of blood vessels under the skin. Blood from damaged blood vessels beneath the skin collects near the surface of the skin resulting in what we recognize as a black and blue mark.  The shades of color of a bruise are red/blue when it's fresh, turning blue/black/purple after a day or two, then going to greenish-yellow and finally fading away.

I should try to coordinate my outfits with the color of the bruises I got while moving stuff in our office.  Or maybe that's a little crazy! 

Our new office is much bigger than the old one, well at least it's wider and longer.  We were on three floors before, and now we're on one, so it would stand to reason that it looks bigger.  The acres of space between me and, say, the ladies room, is huge!  So my feet are feeling the effects.  Anyone know a good foot massage technique??

And all the bending and stretching!  I washed down about 75% of the work surfaces and shelves and conference tables on Saturday.  Oh, my aching back!!

But things are getting there.  Today when I left the office I didn't feel that my cubicle was in any way horrible or disgusting looking.  :-)  It's starting to feel less like a storage space and more like a work station.  Progress indeed!

Now I only hope I can get motivated to work on some of my sewing projects this weekend.  I have to finish the bargello from hell

and get back to the Phone Guy's Wife blocks

Happy sewing (I hope!!)



Stash, Resource Center, and Other Miscellaneous Terms

Our office move is done, and during the move we discovered how much stuff we had accumulated over the 25 years our company had been in the building.

We donated enough three ring binders to my granddaughter's school to provide all the incoming kindergarteners with their portfolio binders at no charge, plus binder clips, book ends, file folders, pens and pencils and paper for the teachers.  My SIL drove over twice with the back of the station wagon full. 

This was not surprising because we had over 100 people in our location two years ago, but when we moved out we were down to about 60.  So there was a lot of stuff sitting in desks and file cabinets.  The other location we merged with was about the same.  So putting things away yesterday involved cramming and being creative!  All conference rooms have their own supply of supplies... is that a redundancy or an oxymoron?  Oh well, we don't have to buy some things until next fiscal year!

I brought all my personal things home because the movers would not be responsible for lamps, pictures of relatives, or chotchkies.  Combined with the fact that we're painting the two upstairs bedrooms and having carpeting installed makes our garage look like a warehouse.

SO--- imagine what I was thinking when I got this call last weekend:

"Hi, Sue, what are you doing Tuesday night?  Can you come to church at 6:30?  Someone donated 11 boxes of fabric to the quilting group and we have to go through it."

Hmmm...  11 boxes.  Big boxes or small?  Of fabric.  Could be anything.  Could be good.  Could be junk.

So I met the other ladies in the Loving Hands Quilt Group after work, and got the answer.

Six of the boxes were pretty good sized.  The other five were wide but only about six inches deep.  They were all full of samples of drapery and upholstery fabric.

OK, not what we normally use for quilting!!  I guess when some people say fabric, it's a generic, all-encompassing term like paper or fish.

There were some poly-cotton pieces that can be used for general use quilts.  We do make some to send to charity that need to be sturdy.  Some of the recipients of our work live in less than ideal conditions and normal quilt fabric wouldn't last or keep them warm.  So one box was filled with small pieces that can be sewn as is, and one was filled with larger pieces we may cut up later.

A quantity was designated for another group who can turn them into crafty projects, and some was set aside for a lady who makes small purses and tote bags.  Some of the pieces were backed with some sort of coating that would surely gum up the average sewing machine, so a bunch was tossed out as not suitable for anyone we know.

But I am the lucky owner of several stacks of things picked out by the group as likely candidates for tote or travel bags.

These are a few of the things I came home with, and now I just have to find a place for all of this while I finish up a few other projects to make room for the NEW projects that will surely come to mind when I take the time to tear all the tags off these pieces!!  <sigh>

Today we worked on our quilt projects after church, and Jean came in to look through the boxes we set aside for her.  She kept commenting on how pretty things were, and asking me if I didn't want to look at some of her rejects.  Nope!!  Not looking!!  I know they're lovely but I cannot.  I. Cannot. Bring. Home. One. More. Scrap.

For now...

.