One of my favorite Christmas decorations.

I finished up the basketball pants and they have been picked up. Now on to more work on the soldier costumes.

Hope everyone's weekend is blessed.

Sew Long for Now!

Sewing is in full swing again here. I have been working on embroidering 12 pairs of pants for a jv basketball team. I have the stuff and need to finish cutting out the soldier jackets for the Nutcracker. The phone has begun to ring a lot with requests for sewing for Christmas. I keep playing the lines of an old song through my head, "If we make it through December every thing will be alright I know. It's the coldest part of winter and I shiver when I see the falling snow. If we make it through December every thing will be alright I know...."

Sew Long for Now!

The table topper was completed late Wednesday night. It graced Thursday's table. A table surrounded by family and new friends. One friend was a lady, 87 years young, who lives by herself. She was an only child and through her married life never had children. Now, except for a cousin she is alone. We invited her to join us and were so blessed by her. She has history. She told the children about her college life at Kent State in the late 1930' early 1940's. She told about being in the U.S.O. She told about playing for the Baltimore Symphony and the National Symphony. She listened to Captain Kitty play the violin, Captain Chaos play the piano, and Lt. Col. Cool play the guitar and gave them all helpful advice. We invited her to minister to her and she instead blessed us.

No other sewing has been done since then. There has been shopping and decorating and more company over the weekend. Today I have to get back to business.

Sew Long for Now!

I am an avid coupon clipper. I love a sale. My husband tells the story about how he mentioned to me one time that our lawn mower needed a new tire. I was shopping and found a lawn mower tire marked down to .25 so I bought it. It didn't fit the lawn mower, but for .25 it was worth a try. He thinks I was silly for buying it. Hey, it was on sale! LOL. Yesterday I went grocery shopping. I haven't been in a couple of weeks and had been saving up lots of coupons for things I was hoping were going to be on sale this week. Nothing beats combining a coupon with a sale price. I also had quite a few Krogers coupons for money off your total grocery bill if you spend so much in a certain department. When I finally got to check out the clerk looked at me and ask if I was really going to use all those coupons. I said yes, that I had put a lot back because I found the store brand cheaper. When the sale was totaled I had $104 and some change in coupon savings.

On the sewing front I embroidered a sweatshirt yesterday that had 10 words on it! It took two hoopings with my biggest hoop. I did not get my table topper done. I mentioned that to the General and he volunteered to take Captain Kitty to both her dentist and orthodontist visits today and also to pick up Lt. Col. Cool from school. Yes! I will get it done.

Sew Long for Now!

11 more of the soldiers leotard undershirts are finished and now all 17 are gone to be fitted to the toy soldiers. They will be back this week for final hemming and seaming. Next onto the the outter vest that will make them look like toy soldiers. The reason they are made in two parts? Ease of movement while dancing. We also cleaned the fish tank over the weekend. Can you say ewwww! Today I hope to finish up the table topper (I know I say that everyday), and embroidery a sweatshirt for a lady. Shopping. I greatly dislike grocery shopping. Today I need to shop for some supplies for our Thanksgiving celebration. We will be having the General's sister and an elderly lady we have met who has no family besides all our family. I hear my parents are stopping by for dessert.

Sew Long for Now!

Cutting out. That's about it. I spent my time in the sewing room yesterday cutting out more parts to costumes for the nutcracker. I still have two pieces to cut out, they added more costumes. I need to get that done and sewing started today. I really would like to finish my table topper this weekend. I would like to use it next week. Oh, we had snow flurries here last night. It helps get you in the mood for the holidays!

Sew Long for Now!

I snapped this photo this morning while trying to get ready for our day. Captain Chaos and the kitty are watching the Bali sharks eat. They both looked so cute sitting there intent upon watching. Yes, cleaning the fish tank is on my to do list. We used to have a scum sucker fish, but the sharks ate it one day. There have been two craw fish living in the tank since July. C.C. caught them in a stream. One died last week and before I could get the net to scoop it out they had ate it. The kitty often tries to get his paws into the tank to get to the fish. I think if he ever did they would eat him! No sewing was accomplished yesterday due to running! I think if I could never leave the house I could accomplish a lot. I am off to sew out a digitized design tonight.

Sew Long for Now!

I hemmed the pants yesterday and that is about it. I have been working hand quilting in the evenings. I have a quilt I pieced together years ago and I also started hand quilting it. I put it in the closet for one reason or another. Last week I got an urge to work on it. Two evenings this week I have pulled it out and quilted while everyone watched some TV. LOL, well as much TV as you can watch with no cable.

Sew Long for Now!

I have almost cut out all the soldiers shirts. They keep changing the pattern and the number needed so that makes it hard to complete. I need these shirts done by this coming weekend. I just remembered this morning that I also haven't taken a look at that Bernina sample. Maybe this week. I can't tell. I am getting excited Lt. Col. Cool gets to come home for a break next week! I am so looking forward to him being here for a few days. Well, off to hem some pants.

Sew Long for Now!

The dolls are finished and delivered. We hope that three little girls will be happy to receive these for Christmas. Captain Kitty made the dress for the red headed doll in the middle. This weekend brings lots of work. I have to cut out more soldier outfits for the ballet, work on digitizing an embroidery, hem some pants, and the list is longer but the time is not. I love when people ask me will I not be bored when my children leave home. I have so many ideas and dreams of things to make that I hope to never find myself with nothing to do!

Sew Long for Now!

Yesterday Captain Kitty and I worked all afternoon on the Salvation Army dolls. Captain Chaos went to a birthday party, so Kitty brought her sewing machine into my room and we set to work. I made all the slips you see here to go with the bloomers I made before. I have not attached the snaps on the back of the slips yet. Captain Kitty finished all but the snaps on her dress for the red headed doll. I made dresses for the other two dolls. Today we need to add the snap closures to everything and they will be ready. On the way to take Captain Chaos to the birthday party we went by one of the local area quilt shops and I bought some Christmas fabric to work on a new table topper. I still need to quilt the last one. I also need to sew out a digitizing I am doing for some one and hem some pants. Idle hands are the devil's workshop. No worries here!

Sew Long for Now!

Yesterday was violin and piano lesson day. We also had to run errands due to a birthday party and church today. My only sewing related event of yesterday was going to JoAnn's to purchase a 12 1/2 X 12 1/2 square Omnigrip non-slip ruler to help with some Christmas presents I want to make. I had a coupon and you really need one to purchase this ruler. It retails around $20. Today I have to finish the doll dresses. Let's hope I find time between school, running, etc.

Sew Long for Now!

Yesterday I thought I wouldn't get any sewing done. We all had dentist appointments and I had lots of errands to run. By evening though I found some time. I digitized a design for a martial arts group. I also began the doll clothes. Above you see two sets of bloomers. I had a pattern of sorts. It was a hand drawn pattern on a piece of copy paper with hardly any instructions. I later figured out I did it the hard way. I have ideas now on how to do the next ones much easier!

Sew Long for Now!

I had entered my name in a give away over at Mountain Musings and look what I received in the mail! My children told me this was the best type of mail! There was a magazine with recipes also, but a certain girl had disappeared with that to check out the ideas. Thanks Sarah! I embroidered a jacket over the weekend for a customer. I also cut out three outfits for the Salvation Army Christmas dolls.

Sew Long for Now!

Yesterday I finished remaking the sweater. It's a bit wrinkled in the photo from the manipulation I had to put it through to get it in the hoop. I will hand wash it and lie it flat to dry before giving it to the customer. I hemmed the sleeves using a fancy stitch on my machine that looks like pansies.
Here is a close up of the sleeve. I didn't use interfacing so that it would get that ruffles look. I think it turned out sweet. I also put both sides of my table topper together.

Sew Long for Now!

Because of the season of life I am in I don't often get to go to all day workshops. As part of my birthday present I got to spend all day yesterday at a workshop learning to make a quilted table topper. I did not complete mine in class. It is completed up to the point that I need to sew the two halves together and then attach the batting and backing and quilt it. It was so fun to spend the day sewing for fun!

Sew Long for Now!