The last two mornings I have awoken to a bang. Yesterday it was an electrical transformer in our neighborhood exploding. We were without power for awhile. This morning it was thunder and lightening. It really messes your day up when you are jolted out of bed.

Testing is finished and mailed! This Saturday there is a used book sell and I hope to find some of the curriculum I need for next year. Then I don't know we may take some time off, we'll see.

I did not do any sewing today. I took Captain Cool to the doctor to get his shots for his trips this summer; hep a, tetnus, whooping cough, and menengitis. I did deliver completed sewing to some customers. I ran lots of errands. This evening Captain Cool helped me shampoo the carpet in the livingroom, our bedroom, Captain Kitty's room, and two of the cars.

Sew Long for Now.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday. We did. We went to a friend's farm in Thaxton and had a cookout. Even at 90 degrees it was cooler out in the country than here in the city. Today it was 93 degrees here. I don't know how the General does it. He works outside all year round. I melt in heat. He is so good to me to let me stay in the air conditioning while he works so hard out in this heat.

We are testing here this week for school. Also, Captain Cool is taking the SAT this Saturday. Please keep him in your prayers.



Here is some blue material that I cut out today to make a bag. Our friends have had an exchange student for a year and she is going home in a few weeks. I wanted to make her something to remember us by. I also took some chiffon and made two bands and ties for two flower girl dresses. The dresses had white satin bands across the front and long ties to make a bow in the back. I took the white satin off and replaced it with a green chiffon that matches the bridesmaid dresses. I sewed out a test of a digitize that I am doing for my nephew. It needs a bit of tweaking. The last thing I sewed today was a pair of pants for a friend's Mother who is in town for a visit. I took the pants up 2 inches in the waist.

I am waiting for Captain Cool to get home from a friend's house so that we can all go out and work in the garden.

Sew Long for Now!

Just for those who like to crochet dishclothes ;)

I finished this yesterday. I haven't done a lot of sewing the last several days. Instead the General took me shopping for a new serger. We picked out one that I will bring home June 6th. It is an Elna 744. I will have to share a picture when it comes.

We also put in our garden. We had to put up new fence this year so that took us extra time. We put in 6 rows of blue lake beans, 19 tomato plants, 2 sweet pepper plants, 4 habinaro pepper plants, 2 squash, 2 zucchini, and 8 cucumber plants. I have sew much sewing to catch up on! I have got to get some work done this week!

Sew Long for Now!

If you go to http://www.lovetocrochetandknit.blogspot.com/ you will see Tammy's idea about showing your aprons. I don't have any vintage aprons. I only have the ones I have made. I have about 4 I have made myself. I started wearing aprons a couple of years ago when a friend gave me one as a present. I have only made bib aprons. After reading on Tammy's blog, I was going through my fabric and found a neat fruit print that looked vintage. I also found some yellow gingham I wanted to use. I put them together with the lace I made and came up with...




My surprise. I look at the fabric now and think I would like to try a waist apron out of it. I don't have any more yellow gingham, but I do have blue, green, and red.














Here is a close up of the lace on the top.

This is a close up of the lace on the bottom. I haven't got the hang of getting the pictures all the same light.

Sew Long for Now.

Of course there was not enough time in today. I did manage to do some sewing. I hemmed a pair of pants and a shirt for a lady. I also almost completed my project. I have to finish it tomorrow and then I will share a picture. It has something to do with this,

some edging I machine embroidered using my new Criswell CD, yellow gingham, and material with fruit on it.

We cleaned the bathroom today. I went to the store. Of course I took CC to drivers ed and picked him up. I did math, language arts, and history with the youngest two. I also took them to the library. I found some books to help me in my quest to find what colors look best on me. I am finding out that I am an autumn or sunset. I need to start to plan a wardrobe around this information. My wardrobe is a hodge podge of pieces given to me by others. I have made some things to match what was given me, but, never with a rhyme or reason. I want to put together a wardrobe with staples that look good on me, not just cover my body.

Sew Long for Now!

Every time I tried to sew something this evening the phone rang! I did put the binding back on the quilt I embroidered for a customer yesterday. I started on a project for myself. It's a surprise. I was hunting around in my fabric stash and found some that is at least 11 years old if not older. I had an urge to make something and this is turning out sew cute!

We did math, language arts, and geography today. We also cleaned the sewing room and all three children's rooms. We spent the afternoon playing a game similar to Monopoly called America in a box. It was fun! Hopefully tomorrow I will sew more. I have two ideas for the quilted bags and at Bernina Club last week she showed us a really easy bag that I want to do and then show you. Boy, I better get busy. Oh, and I have been thinking about making some new skirts and some new shirts. LOL, my head is so full of ideas there is never enough time in the days to do it all!

Sew Long for Now.

It's been a beautiful weekend here. The children had a great time at the all nighter. At the end of the Awana year the 3-6th graders have this event. They went swimming, roller skating, went to laser venture, had a cook out, and a water battle. I didn't mention, but, Captain Kitty was honored this year in our Awana program. I don't know if you remember my mentioning how amazed I am with her memory. She has always had a phenominal ability to memorize. When she was 2 the doctor ask me if I had started teaching her the alphabet, she recited Psalm 100 for him. She had memorized it while I was working with her older brother to memorize it. This year in Awana she did her third year book, ALL the silver and gold and a bronze pack. She wanted to start on a silver pack and the next book, but I ask her to wait until next year. So she got her book award, an extra award for those things, and clubber of the year for her group.

The General and I made a quick trip up to my folks Friday night. Saturday I made thank you cards for Captain Cool to send out for his birthday.

I made this blanket for a baby present.














Here's a close up of the edging I crocheted. I crocheted over 180 inches of it.

I made this wallet for me. It's not exactly how I had envisioned it and I may make another one.

Sew Long for Now.

I am sorry I have been absent a few days. It is just very busy around here right now. I have done a little sewing, but, not much. I embroidered two sweat shirts and two t-shirts for some one. I went to a Bernina Club meeting today. I got a new Criswell CD. It has been out a while, but, I just saw it today and decided I needed it. I got the Flexible trims k-lace sampler. I have been crocheting the edging for the baby blanket and knitting a pair of socks for Captain Kitty. I tried to make the continuous bias binding the other night and did something wrong and it flopped. I cut out the pattern to make myself a new wallet. I made my last one and love it, but, it is tie dye and doesn't go with the new bag. I hope to get some sewing in this weekend, but, the younger children are going to an all nighter and the General and I have to run up to my folks to pick up a chair my Momma is giving us. Then Captain Cool has to paint for some one Saturday and I need to visit the store! His Drivers Ed classes every morning are killing my days. I get up and take him and then have to pick him back up in a couple of hours. That's 80 minutes of driving a day for me. It will make my life a lot better when it is finished because then I don't have to play chauffer.

The yarn I using to knit the socks is a varigated and some times a blue and yellow come together while knitting. This has spurred the idea in my head of making a blue and yellow quilted bag. I hope to start one soon. I still have lots of customer work to do and more coming, but, I need to do some creative things also.

Sew Long for Now.

Today I had to get back to business and catch up on some of the paid sewing I have to do. I repaired 4 pair of pants and moved the waist band down 2 inches on a fifth pair for a lady. We did math and language arts in school. For afternoon lessons I assigned them to plan a trip from our house to Maine for a vacation. They had to tell what states we would pass through, find attractions to visit in Maine, and plan when we were going etc.

My creativity today consisted of stamping. One Monday a month I meet with some other ladies and stamp. One of the ladies brings samples and supplies and shows us how to make different things.

I love this card. We used Versa mark and pearl ex powders.

This is a card I made to go with a baby gift I am giving this weekend.

Sew Long for Now.

Last night I stayed up late watching the A&E of Pride and Predjudice. I have had an emotional ride the last several days. Some things happened that upset me greatly. You can do a lot to me and I will ignore it, but, mess with my children and I can get really mad. I forgot to set the alarm clock when I went to bed. I was awoke at 8:39 by my children bringing me a beverage in bed. Since Sunday School starts at 9:15 there was no way we were going to make it. The General suggested we not attend church today since the people who made me so angry go there. He suggested I needed to cool down. He was right. So today we worshipped God through nature and being together as a family. The children made us a wonderful breakfast. The General suggested going to buy some flowers for the front porch planters. The children ask to stay home, so the General and I went together. We went to two stores and just piddled around until I found what I wanted. The General also threw in some wild flower seeds for the youngest to plant. The children helped plant and then made lunch. I feel so much better.

I fell in love with Dahlas today. I never really gave them much attention, but, today I found these beautiful white ones.











I don't know the real name of these, we call them paint brush flowers. We put them in the pots every year.












The General really loved these purple flowers. They were called Mystic Blue.

Here is one of the finished containers. We filled two alike and put them on either side of the front door.

Sew Long for Now.

I finished the purple bag yesterday, but, was in a hurry to get to my sewing guild meeting last night that I didn't post the picture.

It is lined with the white fabric with the faint purple flowers. The inside pockets are made of the pansie material. You can't tell in the photo, but, I put some heat set crystals on there because the girl who it is going to likes sparkly things.

Today the General and I stopped by a yard sale! I got this great vintage dresser cloth for $1.

This beautiful embroidery with this tiny crochet edging. I haven't decided what I am going to use it on, but, it is lovely.

Sew Long for Now.

Today is the birthday of two special people in my life. My Momma's birthday is today. It is also the 17th birthday of Captain Cool.

Here he is playing the bass with his senior high singing school at Tanglewood Mall in the music festival. I remember when I first found out I was pregnant. Doctors had told us that we would never have children. When I got pregnant with him they told me he was not viable. I prayed to God pleading for my baby's life. I felt God tell me everything would be ok. I insisted on a second and then third opinion. They tried to get me to have a D&C, I refused. I promised God that if he let me have this child I would raise him for God. We have tried to do our best to raise him as a righteous young man. He is a great young man. He has a work ethic that astounds me. He is very gifted in music. He is self motivated and very intelligent. God has showed him His will for his life and he is trying to follow that. This summer Captain Cool has been accepted to participate in the Air Force Academy's summer seminar. He hopes to attend the AFA. He will also be participating in a mission trip known as Merge with our church in July and then going to the Dominican Republic on a mission trip the end of July into August. There is so much I could say about him. Oh, we have our ups and downs. He is not always the best son and I am not always the best Momma, but, on the most we get along. He is a good son and is devoted to his family.

Well, I have to get ready to go to our ASG meeting. Sew Long for Now.

Yesterday I whiled away my time in self centered pity. The General had to work both morning and night. We had no extra money for me to get him a great gift. I was sad and wanted to do something special. Today I had to kick myself in gear because self pity never does any good. The General and I haven't had the smoothest life. We have had many uphill struggles, the best thing is that we both have learned to compromise and live with it. We have a wonderful life. My Momma always tells me to look around and you can always find some one worse off than yourself.
This evening sewed the strips in this bag, cut out the lining and pockets and sewed the pockets on, and cut out the hands and sewed them.

I also cut out this purple mantel and made it for the customer's statue.














I also finished this gold mantel for her friend's statue.


Sew Long for Now.

In honor of today, twenty reasons why I love the General:

1. You are the handsomest man I ever met.
2. Even though people think you are tough you are really a softy.
3. You spoil me beyond belief.
4. You are a great Dad.
5. You would help anyone who needed it.
6. You have a wicked sense of humor.
7. You work hard and never complain.
8. You make the best fried potatoes and onions.
9. You love God.
10. You are so level headed.
11. You love history.
12. You are fun to be with.
13. You love your family.
14. You spend all your free time with the children and I.
15. You call me several times a day just to talk to me.
16. You always encourage me in my interests.
17. You are always there for me.
18. You put up with a lot.
19. When I need correction you do it gently.
20. You have stayed with me through thick and thin.

There are so many more reasons why I love the General, these are but a few. My prayer is for another 20 years or more of sharing our lives together. Happy 20th Anniversary Dear!

Mondays! Don't you love Mondays? You get to start over, to have a new beginning after a day of rest. This Monday started out on the run. Captain Cool had to be in Vinton by 8 a.m. to help a friend paint their kitchen. This is a 30 minute drive from our home. When I got home Captain Kitty and Captain Chaos had done their chores and were ready to start the day. We did lessons in math, language arts, Bible, and history. By the time we finished it was lunch time and I made our big meal. After lunch I knit on a pair of socks for 1/2 hour and then went to pick up Captain Cool. I have some health issues so I get tired and need a nap almost every day. After I got home Captain Cool had a guitar lesson to give and the General had assigned a report for the other two. I laid down, the guitar lesson was given, and the younger two went on the computer together to research for the paper they had to write. When I got up I altered a dress for a customer. I made a checkbook cover to match my bag.







It is made from one of the materials that I used as a strip














I embroidered my initials on the front.










A new pin cushion I made.


Sew Long for Now.

She also brought me the curtain from her living room.

She had FOUR layers on her living room window. I only have two rods up on this window. One has lace panels on it, we don't have blinds. I wanted to use the valance with the panels, but with just one rod I had to get creative. I sewed the valance to the top of the panels. They are being held back on metal curtain holders. At night I can let them down.







On this smaller window I used the other valance and to make the panels I sewed the four swag pieces together in two sections of two. They are interesting pieces. Each of these four pieces has a rod pocket at the top and bottom. On her window you put the rod through the top of the piece and then twisted it and put the bottom right next to the top. They also have a shear attachment on the back that is made at an angle and when she put the rod through both pockets the shear part would hang down. She got new curtains because she said these were two complicated to put up every fall and spring when she washed them. I took a lot more time than I expected to alter these. They do look better than what was up there.

Sew Long for Now.

My new kitchen curtains.


When my parents came last week my Momma brought me some curtains she used to have in her home. She got some new ones and thought I could do something with these. This was the prettiest lace panel with a matching valance, but, I have two windows in my country kitchen so.... I have been using cafe style curtains in my kitchen and there was enough fabric between the valance and curtain to make two sets of cafe style curtains for my kitchen!




You can see the lace a little better in this picture. It is beautiful lace material!

I got little sewing related done today. I did cut out more strips for another bag. I have a friend graduating from college this week and she loves bags. She also loves purple, so I cut out strips with purple in them. We also went shopping this evening and I picked up some felt in different colors, more pin cushions. Captain Kitty made another one tonight. We had a family portrait done this evening for the church directory. Today Captain Kitty cleaned the bathroom, Captain Chaos swept the kitchen and vaccumed the living room, and I did the dirtiest yuckiest task of all! We live in 1950's brick ranch. Every room has vents in the floor where the heating and a/c comes through. I went through every room and took the vents off and washed them out and vaccumed out the ducts. After a winter of heating, nasty. Tomorrow I have to get more sewing done! I have so many things that need to be caught up!

Sew Long for Now.

My first mini pin cushion

Captain Kitty's first one.

I began to think evening would come and I wouldn't have sewn a thing today. I over slept. I tried to do some lessons with the children. We made it through math. As soon as lunch was done I had to take Captain Cool to a nursing home to sing with his choir. I spent an hour looking for the nursing home. The directions we were given gave a place that is no longer in business as the landmark to look for. Thanks be for cell phones. After dropping him off I picked up some sewing and hurried home because a customer was suppose to pick up some sewing. She hasn't showed up yet. About 2:30 my head ache became a pounding mess again. I took allergy medicine and tylenol. I tried to lay down. All I could think was how messy my file cabinets were and how messy my sewing/craft room was. I got up and started to clean them. I decluttered a lot. I have a huge can full of trash and the flat surfaces in my sewing room are visible. I was thinking while doing this how hard a time I have being creative when things are so messy. I was also thinking how much material I have. I really need to try to use it before I allow any more in. I didn't say buy because quite a lot of my stash has been given to me. I have friends who for some reason buy material then decide they are not going to use and bring it to me. Both of the bags I just made came from all donated material.

After I cleaned everything up I decided to make one of the mini pin cushions I saw on 4:59 a.m.'s blog. I had been saving bottle caps to do this. Captain Kitty and I went looking for felt. For some reason we both thought I had more colors than we found. We followed the instructions on the tutorial and they turned out so cute! We have decided we need to go get a better variety of felt colors and do more. Oh, and some thing good about my day. I had just been telling the General that I needed a new digital camera, one with a macrozoom feature. While trying to take a picture of this cute little pin cushions I discovered my camera does have a macrozoom feature! Go figure, who would have known I should have read the instruction manual! I called the General to excitedly tell him the news. For some reason he just wasn't as joyful about the news as I was! LOL.

Sew Long for Now!

For some reason blogger wouldn't let me put the pictures with that post. Let's try again.

Sew Long For Now!

Today didn't quite go as planned. I woke up with a terrible sinus headache. I took some medicine and vowed to trudge on. By the time the General got home from his morning job I was seeing blurry. The children were all cleaning their rooms so he told me to go to bed and he took over. The next thing I knew it was noon and they were waking me up for lunch. Since the General works evenings our family meal is lunch. The General had grilled burgers and the children had made fries. While I was eating my head was pounding and I felt sick so the General gave me some stronger medicine and sent me back to bed. You know I can't thank God enough for the husband he gave me and the children he has loaned me. They are great and treat me wonderful. By the time the General had to go into his evening job I was feeling better. I still have a feeling of fluid in my one ear, so it might be a sinus infection. I don't really think it is. In the last year or so I seem to have developed allergies. I also have developed an uncanny reaction to the weather. When ever a pressure system for a storm moves through I can tell you it's coming without even watching the weatherman, I get a horrible headache.

The only lessons done today had to do with Awana. The year is ending up. Captain Kitty has finished her book and done all her silver and gold also. She is working on memorizing a bronze pack. She is saying 35 or so verses tonight. Her ability to memorize things just astounds me. I can't remember my name some days, but my daughter can memorize 35 verses in 3 days. Captain Chaos finished his book and is on his last four silver and gold. One of the things he had to do for his was make something for his leader and write a thank you note to him for his help this year. Captain Kitty helped show him how to work the bread machine to make dough. He made French bread dough then got it out and let it rise and baked it in the oven. He had to also figure out a reading schedule to read the book of John in three months. Since he is in 3rd grade it took quite some math skills to figure out how many verses he would have to read a day to finish the 21 chapters of John in 3 months.

On the sewing front, since I did not feel well I decided not to do any work for customers today. I also was itching to work on my purse. I thought through the rest of the process this time. I made the two handles by cutting out 3 inch strips about 28 inches long. Then I folded the sides together and ironed. I unfolded the sides and then folded the edges in to the middle and ironed again. Next I folded the strip back in half on the first fold and then sewed 1/4 inch from the edge on each side of the strip. I used the quilted outside pieces and laid them on a piece of coordinating fabric and cut out lining the same size as the outside. I cut a couple of rectangles from some of the print used in the outside pieces. These became the inside pockets. I cut them double the size I wanted. Then I folded them right sides together and sewed down the sides. I flipped them right sides out and ironed them flat. I top stitched the folded edge. This made self lined pockets. To hide the raw edge bottom I marked where I wanted to put the pockets on the lining fabric and then flipped the pocket rectangle so I was sewing across the raw edge and the pocket was laying upside down from the way i wanted it to go. Next I pressed the pocket piece over this stitching and pinned it where I had marked it to go. Then I sewed it down and marked and sewed the divider seams. I liked the closure that Turkeyfeathers used with her bags so I got out my size 0 crochet needle and some coordinating embroidery floss and crocheted a plain chain the length of about 6 inches. I found a button in my stash I liked. I sewed up the sides and bottom of the outside of the bag and the sides and bottom of the lining. I folded and pinned in 1/2 inch on the top of the outside portion and the lining portion. Then I put the lining in the bag and pinned them together. I placed the handle straps where I wanted them and pinned them between the bag and lining. I made a loop out of the crocheted chain and pinned it to the center of one side between the bag and the lining. Last I top stitched all of it together and then sewed the button on. I love the look of this bag and it was very easy to put together. I can't wait to start another!

Another beautiful day in the neighborhood. Blue skies, nice temps. We cleaned the living room today. Captain Cool worked some more cleaning the basement. The General and I went to vote today. The General had to be at work at 5 a.m. this morning because our church was used as a voting place. That wouldn't have been so bad, but, he didn't get home from work until 11:30 last night. I tried to keep things quiet and let him have a long nap between jobs today. Math, language arts, Awana, science, and reading out loud were all done today. We even got in a walk. Captain Cool had his finals in his community college class. He took pre-cal this semester. The teacher checked it while he was there. He got an A on the test and an A in the class.

I hemmed a pair of pants, a skirt, and a dress for a customer today. I also quilted the purse pieces. I learned something; do not put heavy stabilizer on first before quilting if you want it to have that puffy quilted look. Mine just looks like rows of stitching. I am going to finish this bag and do another one where I quilt it with the batting first and then put the stabilizer on. Some times I just don't think through projects. I need to put it on another color to take the pictures. The colors are not coming out to their correct hue on this background. Tomorrow I have to pick up some sewing from a blind lady I do work for. I hope to put the pieces together, make a handle and work on the lining. Tomorrow night I have to take the children to Awana so we will see how much I get done.

Sew Long for Now.

What a beautiful day it has been! I love it when it is not too hot and the sky is so blue and the trees are so green! Candy for the eyes!

The concert was great! I didn't get any pictures to turn out though. Saturday I spent most of the day outside with my husband cleaning up our front porch. The deck looks nice now and I have a canopy up to sit under. This afternoon I had tea out there. It was lovely.

Sunday I was tired and so I just knitted and crocheted.

Today I tried to get our life back in order after the last several months. We spent time this morning cleaning the laundry room/basement. We got math, language arts, Awana, geography, and reading out loud done. We also went for a walk after lunch. This afternoon I altered a skirt and pair of pants for a customer. Then I put together the strips for my new bag. Tomorrow I hope to quilt them. I am so excited about this project. I think I needed a new project to inspire me. I love the world of blogs, because I have gotten so much inspiration from so many people!

Sew Long for Now!