Thursday is such a hard day to get any sewing done here. There is a lot of running with the children. By the time I get home at 5 I am tired. I did find two skirts at Goodwill for $6. I was so tempted to buy that leather skirt for $6 to cut up and embroidery on, but, since I have so much fabric and so many UFO's I decided I would wait until I finished a few things to start it. A good friend of mine has gone away for a few days with her husband and she lent me her Sizzix. I have spent a few minutes this evening cutting out some mittens, snowflakes, snowmen, and balloons. I have cut enough to think that I would like to have one, but, I just don't think I can afford it any time soon. I really need to start a savings for a new serger. Mine is broke. I have a new foot for my machine waiting for me at the sewing store. I need to get by there and purchase that. So many wants so little money.

Sew Long for Now.

Two more pair of capris finished for the bride to take on her honeymoon. Right now I am monogramming european pillow shams for the wedding present. I am using 3 inches for the initial of the last name surrounded by 2 inch high initials of the first and middle. I am using two different fonts. The reason why is because one of the initials of both the bride and groom is J. J is a hard letter to choose a font for. It doesn't look good in some of the fonts.

We have changed our schedule around here, trying to tweek it to fit in everything we have to do and things we want to do. I have started getting the children up earlier. I am keeping them on a time schedule to get dressed and do their morning chores. They have a habit of dwadling. So I have been playing drill sergeant. We have then been all pitching in and doing 1 hour of house cleaning. We clean certain rooms of our home on certain days. Next we have been doing our lessons with the goal of getting them done by noon. This has worked out really well. We then have the afternoon to run errands, sew, do crafts, and play. I hope this continues to work. It has been hard getting in the habit of getting up earlier though.

Sew Long for Now.

I finally got the pants hemmed. Four pair. I finished altering another bridesmaid dress. I made two pair of pants into capris today and have 2 more to go. I have to start thinking about Easter. I always make Captain Kitty and I coordinating dresses. We usually pick a color and everybody gets something to wear in that color. The color this year is going to be green. The boys almost couldn't bear the lavendar of last year, so this year we are going for something more manly.

Sew Long for Now.

The hats are finished. Did I mention I hate to embroidery hats! Why oh why do I ever agree to do that. They were a bear and of course I had problems. The skirt is finished. I embroidered two more shirts. I was going to hem some pants, but, found I need thread the right color so tomorrow after Awana games I am stopping by JoAnn's.

Sew Long for Now.

whoo, I have been so busy. The 70 shirts are embroidered. The swim teams jackets are done. The prom dress is done. I am embroidering hats for the Awana coaches right now. I worked on Captain Kitty's skirt tonight.



This first picture is of the front view.




















This second is of the back. I had a problem where all the seams met at the back yoke, so I decided to applicay (LOL, you know I have to learn to spell that word!) some of the flowers cut out of the material over the spot and down the seam to give it a design element.













I still need to hem the skirt. It has been fairly easy except that spot at the back yoke where it is so bulky. For clients I have 3 pair of pants to hem, three to make into capris, a grandmother of the bride dress to alter, another bridesmaid dress to alter, two shirts to embroidery, 8 caps to embroidery, and some doll clothes to make. Easter is coming upon us quickly and I need to think about clothes for the family. I need to embroidery the pillow shams I bought to give as a wedding gift. And I still need some gowns to wear to bed! So much sewing so little time.

Sew Long for Now.

When God blesses you, he really blesses you. The bridesmaid dresses are done. I am working on the prom dress. I am beginning to embroider 70 t-shirts. Yesterday a man from a local embroidery shop brought me some jackets he wants numbers applicaid on. You know I spelled applicaid several different ways and still can't remember how it is spelled! I am still working on the digitizing. Saturday afternoon I got tired of working on stuff for others so I started working on a skirt for Captain Kitty. She had an old pair of jeans that had gotten too short for her, several times, she loves them so I told her I would make a skirt out of them. I ripped the seams out of the legs and folded the crotch over on itself and sewed it down. Next I found some material (actually I am using the scraps from the spring aprons) and have pinned it in the triangle opening between the leg sides. I need to sew this on and then hem it. I will post a picture when I finish...hopefully soon. Oh, and Friday night Captain Kitty and I beaded while watching TV. We made earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. So much fun.

Sew Long for Now.

Yesterday was a much better day and productive. I decide not to work on any digitizing. I worked on the bridesmaid dresses. I hemmed two. Since they had three layers to hem each it took some time. Today I hope to work on the last two, but, it is a busy running day so I am not sure if I will get anything accomplished. I now have the 70 shirts that I have to embroidery by the 24th of March. I also have several doll type dresses to make for a customer by Easter, maybe 10 or more. I have 3 more bridesmaid dresses coming for a wedding in April and some pants to hem for a bride before her honeymoon.

Tonight is the ASG meeting and we will be in a new place. I look forward to going!

Sew Long for Now.

It's been a trying day. I felt I accomplished so much yesterday. I felt ready to tackle today. I did get some things completed, but, I had a lot of frustration also. I finished embroidering the four shirts. I finished repairing and altering a dress for a mother of a groom. I worked on some digitizing. I spent most of my day working on this one piece of digitizing. First the piece that was e-mailed me in bmp was so bad when I opened I just knew I would never get it ready to digitize. I called the lady and ask her to bring me a hard copy. She brought me a copy. It must have been printed on a dot matrix printer because it was just as bad. I tried every thing in the book to get it to work. Finally, after 2 hours of working I had it ready to digitize and when I went to save it my computer did some wierd thing and deleted it! It was gone! So I spent another 2 hours redoing it and went to save it and my computer went wacko and bam it was gone. I tried something else and an hour later I went to save it and poof it disappeared. My 16 yo thought he could make it work, but, the computer magician showed him. My husband tried to help me on the phone, no use. I decided to scan the picture and print it out using my printer. I then went and got the children's markers and colored in the picture, it was really bad quality. I then scanned that picture. Presto chango I got it to work and digitized it. 7 hours I worked on this. Now I can't charge for that 7 hours of time, but, I will charge a little more than usual. I refuse to look at it any more. I will sew it out tomorrow to make sure it is ok. She also gave me another picture to digitize and the quality is just as bad. I hope I can use the copy/color trick and maybe not have to spend so many hours trying to do that one.

Sew Long for Now!

The reserve signs are finished and delivered! Last night as I was putting the tassel on I got to the last side of the last one and was an inch short on tassel! Eeck it was 8:00 and JoAnn's was closed. I had to put it aside until this morning and run over there and buy some tassel to finish up. I finished the bride's slip today also. I have been working on 3 digitizing projects. Tomorrow I am starting on the 4 shirts I have to embroidery and the bridesmaid dresses.

Sew Long for Now.

Here it is Saturday night and I am still working on the reserved signs. I have gotten them all embroidered and all hemmed. I only have to clip the threads and put the tassel on. Tomorrow afternoon I am setting a goal to finish this.

I have had a few interruptions this week. Our TV was in the shop and they told us two weeks ago that they would fix it. They called this week and said that they no longer make the parts for it and can't fix it. Now you wonder why people who don't have cable care about a TV. We do get a few local channels, especially PBS. And of course we all know every Saturday afternoon there are sewing shows on PBS. Our old TV was a 54 inch projection kind. Some one had given it to us. We had gotten spoiled and did not want to go back to a 20 inch, but, couldn't afford another one that big. So General Gorgeous and I spent one whole day going to every store in the valley that sold TV's comparing them and checking prices. Finally, at Walmart we found a 30 inch wide screen HD ready that we could afford. Guess what I found out about HD TV's! You get more channels, even with just an antenna. Thursday night I turned it on as I was about to do some ironing and I found a station with Sewing with Nancy on it! At 10:30 at night! The picture is really good also. So I am very happy we bought the new TV.

Sew Long for Now.

I have been working on the reserved signs for church. I thought I would add a picture of one that is complete. It takes 2 hours or more to complete one. Such a long time for such a small piece of work! I have 16 of them to do. Right now I am trying to embroidery all of them with the words. They are identical on the backside. My goal is to finish them by the end of the week so that I can begin the work on the bridesmaid gowns and brides slip. Of course there are other projects waiting in the works.















Sew long for now!

The basketball teams jackets are done! On to finish embroidering the reserved signs!

Sew Long for Now.

I am sewing, sewing, sewing. Oops I mean I am embroidering, embroidering, embroidering. I have 9 jackets for a youth basketball team to embroider their team emblem and names. I have 5 done. I have 16 reserved signs to embroidery and make for church. I have 5 embroidered. I alterated a pair of pants for a young man about to be married. I should be cutting out my gown, but, alas I am going cropping tonight at church with my daughter and some ladies. I am slowly, oh so slowly working on another pair of socks.

Remember, when you forget to mail in your vehicle registration renewal (or to do it online) when you go into the DMV take your knitting, or a book, or something! 1 1/2 hours of wasted time! Believe me people watching at the DMV is disgusting. What is it with perfectly lovely young ladies who insist on wearing jeans cut too low and too tight. It makes their butts look big and square. It is not attractive. It ain't even sexy. And young ladies that might otherwise be lovely with men's clothes on! Ladies, listen, look in a mirror. I am not claiming to be the best dressed lady in the universe, but, I don't dress like a boy and I try to be neat in my appearance. The guys were dressed better than the girls there. Also, why are all the clerks at the DMV female? Why doesn't a man work there?

Well, that's enough ranting for today. Sew Long for Now.

I have been absent due to painting, rearranging, and decluttering. The heavy stuff has now been done. I am down to hanging a few things and making curtains. I am searching high and low for material for curtains, a chair seat, and new comforter for our room. The walls are dark green and I have the Lane cedar chest I got for high school graduation in there. It has a padded top that is a cream background with a red and gold flower theme on it. I would like to find something with red and gold in it and maybe a dash of green. For the sewing room I have the material, I just have to make them then I will move the curtains in that room to the oldest son's room. The other room I need material for is our youngest son. His room is a medium green. I want something boy looking without being babyish. I would like it to have black, blue, and green in it. His bed is black and his bedding is blue.

I cut out a pattern for a gown for me on Sunday night. Simplicity 4891. I have been embroidering the reserved signs. My sewing room is filling up with work to do. I have to be diligent to get it done.

Sew Long for Now.

Today is Captain Kitty's birthday! She had a nice day. Cake, flowers and presents.



Happy Birthday Sweetie!















I also cut out 16 pieces of fabric to make reserved signs for the church. They want them embroidered on both sides and fringe added. I finished one of the aprons I cut out last night.





















Isn't it just beautiful. It looks so Spring! The next one I make will have purple bias.

Sew Long for Now.

This evening I let out some pants for a customer. Since I have so much work to do for customers I decided to try doing a little customer work and a little fun work each day. After I did that I cut out four of the cutest aprons. They are a simple bib type apron, but, the material is so SPRING! The material is covered in purple and yellow pansies. It has just enough hint of gold to set it off. I want to trim them in bias. I think I will get some purple and some yellow. One I will be sending to a friend who loves yellow and I will trim that one in yellow. I think I will trim 2 in yellow and 2 in purple.

Sew Long for Now.

Sadly, I didn't make it to the ASG meeting. I have battled a terrible cold. Now, I can breath out my nose, but, my ears feel full, like they have water in them or something. Robert keeps saying I have a sinus infection and I need to go to the doctors...I really would prefer to get over this without a visit to the doctor.

I have not done any sewing since being sick. I did finish up the socks I was knitting. I started a new pair.

We went into remodel mode here. We are moving 4 rooms around and decluttering a 5th. This weekend they moved my sewing room into our oldest son's room. They then painted and carpeted the old sewing room/office and moved our bedroom in there. This week we are painting and carpeting our old room and moving our youngest son in there. After that we will paint and carpet our youngest son's old room and it will be our oldest son's room. After all this we need to declutter the laundry area because all this stuff is being stored there.

It also snowed here yesterday.
This was the view from our front porch this morning.

Sew Long for Now!

This last one is of the fun fur necklaces.

Another picture.

Well, I got something from the children and have been sick. I do have some pictures of what I did on Super Bowl Sunday. We had our Sunday School class over to watch the game. The men watched, the children played, and the women crafted. We made necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. I forgot to take a picture of the earrings I made. I will have to get one of those later. I am praying I will feel better by Thursday. I want to go the the ASG meeting. It will be a trunk show of quilts!