The 2007 Graduation Class of GRHE

(Lt. Col. Cool is the only guy without a jacket)

Friends

It has been another big weekend here. I did get some sewing in though. I have almost completed a black toile and solid black bag for a lady. I just have to put on the handles and some buttons. I altered 7 pair of pants for the minor league baseball team. Friday was Lt. Col. Cool's graduation. We spent the afternoon seeing the new Pirates movie. Graduation that evening was a very nice event. There was 13 graduates. We had family come down from Northern VA, the Shenadoah Valley, and Stuart. It was a wonderful ceremony. Afterwards we went to Cracker Barrel for a late supper. Saturday we went to a friends farm for a cookout. Sunday was church and we still have family here. Today I have to get caught up on laundry and some paper work. The guys are working and will be home this evening for a cookout. Just a few more weeks and Lt. Col. Cool will be headed off for the Summer Transition at VMI.

Sew Long for Now!

With the help of my three great children I got the garden in today. We planted 36 tomato plants. We also planted 12 Habeneros, 4 crook neck squash, 4 green bell peppers, 4 red bell peppers, 4 eggplant, 8 cucumber mounds, and three rows of green lake beans. It doesn't sound like much because I live in the city and that is all the room we have.
Here is a cute yellow moth who came to sample the water we used after putting in the plants. I don't know if I will get any sewing done today. I will try to mend two pieces I have for a lady and maybe put together a bag I am making for another lady.

Sew Long for Now!

So far today I have hemmed a pair of tuxedo pants. I hung out two loads of laundry. I helped Capt. Chaos do science and math. I need to do some more sewing, but I need to go do English with him and make a sour cream pound cake. Oh, and I better get in that laundry.

Sew Long for Now!

We had a busy week! The General took the week off for vacation. We did our version of spring cleaning. We moved around people in bedrooms at our home. We have five bedrooms. They are rather small. My sewing room was in one in the back of the basement. Since Lt. Col. Cool is headed off to college in a month or so I wanted my sewing room more accessible. We moved him in the sewing room, Capt. Chaos in to Lt. Col.'s room, Capt. Kitty into Chaos' room, and my sewing room into Kitty's. The family told me that I had to stop doing this. I have done this every spring for several years. Wednesday was Awana awards night. Captain Kitty got a special award for the finishing her book, finishing the review, and saying 32 verses, 32 questions with four answers each in one hour. Both Capt. Kitty and Capt. Chaos got clubber of the year in their respective groups. I am so happy for them, mostly because they have memorized so much of God's word! I included pictures of both them at the event. Our oldest dog passed away, Lady was 14 years old. She was a good dog, but she has been having problems the last several years so we were not devasted by something we did not expect. Friday night Kitty and Chaos went to the Awana all nighter and Saturday I sold some homeschool books at our groups yearly used book sale. So many other things happened also. I felt like I was caught up in a tornado and going around and around rapidly. Oh, I forgot one of the most important things, Capt. Chaos was baptized Sunday morning. All our children have now been baptized. I did not get much sewing done with all the moving around of furniture and things. I did get three pair of pants shortened this morning for the baseball team. This week is Lt. Col. Cool's graduation. I also really need to get my garden in. I have tons of sewing to do. Wish me well!

Sew Long for Now.

We have had an exciting last couple of days around here. The General and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary. Lt. Col. Cool turned 18. (I am now officially the mother of an adult, do I look any different?) Last, but thankfully for my family not least, we celebrated Mother's Day. It's been fun! I saw Randi's post about aprons and wanted to participate. I love my aprons!


This is a picture of some of Capt. Kitty and my aprons hanging up in the kitchen. I attached four hooks on the side of the cabinet to hold just them. I wear aprons almost all the time.

This is my clothespin apron. It has three big pockets stuffed full of clothespins. I put it on when I am hanging out the clothes and bringing them in. It is such a wonderful way to keep up with the pins.
Just for fun, the General's BBQ apron I made him. Here even the men wear aprons, manly type of course!

Sew Long for Now!

The soft yellow and greens of a baby blanket. I have another to embroidery today. I mended the cover of a bed for an RV. I fixed another pair of pants for the minor baseball team. I have more to do, but we have been busy with outside activities. Yesterday we helped at our monthly nursing home in the morning, then Lt. Col. Cool's singing school sang at a nursing home, next both singing school groups sang at a local mall, as the children split up and went off with friends for the afternoon I went shopping. I left the house at 10:30 and got home at 7:00. I did not like that. I felt like coming home and hiding out all day. I am definitely a home body and do not like the "thrill of life."

Sew Long for Now!

4 a.m. wisdom from Lt. Col. Cool, "Stupid questions require stupid answers."

Sewing Shreds

based upon the film,

“How to Make an American Quilt”

No life is a perfect sheet

Made of one continuous piece of fabric.

It is a collection of scraps

Picked up from the floor,

Cut to the appropriate size,

And sewn into the quilt.

Not all stitches are straight.

Not all patches are square.

We must “learn the art of sewing

Shreds together And seeing beauty in a

Multiplicity of patches.

Rae Douglass

8-9-98

America has become a throw away society. We have let our lives become so busy that we don't know how to make things last any more. We have also accepted cheap consumer items in the market place so they don't last. I started realizing my part in this a few years ago. My first endeavor in mending items was socks. I still haven't learned a good way to mend socks. I ask an elderly lady who grew up in Switzerland some ideas in mending. She is great at it. When she was younger they learned how to mend. She gave me some ideas and I need to learn more. My next foray into mending was t-shirts. The General wears t-shirts working at his maintanence job and doing odd jobs around here. He gets lots of holes in them. T-shirts can be purchased inexpensively, but why throw a good shirt just because it has a hole near the bottom. The lady I ask gave me great advice and I am getting better at mending t-shirts. You almost can't tell I fixed them. Over the years I have tried to mend jeans. Jeans are not so easy. Especially since my guys seem to rip them at the belt loop or corner of the back pocket. This pair pictured has a hole where the belt loop was caught on something and it ripped. I will remove the bottom of the belt loop. Then stabilizer is important. You can get iron on patches, but they don't stay. If I have some denim around I use it as stabilizer, if not I use a blue or gray material. They key to mending or even hemming jeans is the right color thread. Blue thread doesn't work. Grey works best. Sometimes if the denim has more blue in it I will use a blue in the bobbin and grey on the top. If you look at jeans you will notice they are a blend of colors. With a hole, I stitch around the outside first to secure the hole from distorting. Next I sew back and forth across the hole from side to side and then do the same from top to bottom. On this pair I will then change to a dark gold thread and reattach the belt loop with a tight zig zag. Mending takes a little time and it would be easier to chuck the jeans and go to Walmart and get a new pair for $10, but is it really better? I keep thinking about the old saying, "Waste not, want not."

Sew long for now!

Quote from Lt. Col. Cool at 4 a.m. this morning, "If necessity is the mother of invention, then boredom is the father."

I am working on repairing the flags that got ripped during the recent high winds we have had here.

I don't do well with heat. Yesterday when our city broke it's record high temp our a/c went on the fritz. Today's forecast is another record breaking day. Sigh...and just where is that weather forecaster from? He said 90 was very very warm and it may even get hot? I melt around 76.

Sew Long for Now!

Zippers, most people are afraid of them or hate them. I have a beautiful friend who showed me years ago how to put them in and I am no longer afraid. In our fast paced world zippers are one thing that you just can't hurry through putting in. I have found a zipper foot essential. I have also found basting a HUGE time saver. You can manipulate hard places easier with a hand needle and have the zipper ready to sew in. Another wonderful mentor to me once said that when zippers are on sale she buys them in the longest length she can get. That way in future you don't have to worry about have the exact length. You can cut off a zipper at the bottom after making a bar tack across to keep the pull from coming off.

I learned some new things about zippers this weekend. I have put zippers in coats and jackets before, but never a reversable jacket. The lady who ask me to do this didn't tell me it was reversable. She told me she purchased the zipper already and it was in the bag. It was a normal 22 inch zipper. A jacket needs a seperating zipper to open up on the front. I spotted that right away and told her I was going to purchase a seperating zipper and I would add it to my fee. I measured the coat and the original zipper that was in it. It was 24 inch. I spent one week going to several different stores trying to find a light pink 24 inch seperating zipper. Impossible. I couldn't even find seperating zippers in some stores. I finally found a brown one, thankfully her jacket was pink and brown. Oh, and I never found a seperating zipper with the double sided pull for the reversable part. Thankfully, she was ok with that.

You know I try to patronize my local shops. It makes me sad because we are loosing our local Hancocks. That's where I found the zipper. I see why a lot of people are going to internet buying for their sewing needs. I just can't buy material this way yet. I need and love to feel it.

Sew Long for Now.

I love people who plan ahead! Yesterday I embroidered a name on a stocking for next Christmas.

Sew Long for Now!

Quote from the General, "Sleep is over rated."

Can you tell it's the end of the school year where you are? We don't actually follow the public school calendar here. We continue in the summer. What else is there to do on a sweltering summer afternoon if you can't go to the pool or lake? With a child graduating this year, it has thrown more to be done on our plate. I have sewn this week, but, I have also bought paper and envelopes and printed graduation announcements. I am in the process of addresses these now. We also have taken a paper route. The children and I are delivering the paper in the mornings. It's amazing how cool it is to work with your children, even if I do have to get up at 3:45 a.m. to do it. We laugh and cut up and get really silly. Then we come home to eat breakfast and read our favorite comics outloud. I finished five capes and put a zipper in a pair of pants for one lady. I altered and repaired four pair of pants for our local minor league baseball team. I hear they have a few more pants to do before Monday morning when they leave for an away game. I ripped a zipper out of a jacket and was going to put another one in, but she sent the zipper and it is not a seperating zipper. I think she would have a hard time putting that jacket on!

This coming week may be worse than last. We have our spring concert for singing school and some more things to do that I know of, but can't remember just what. Hmmm, I am glad I have a big wall calendar in the kitchen!

Sew Long for Now!

Has it been that long since I visited here? Life just sort of catches up with you doesn't it. I have been sewing. Not as much as I would like, but some. I have finished 3 1/2 capes now. I love this pink one. The fabrics are so luxurious. I made a cute apron for a birthday present and forgot to take a picture of it! It was blue with little white and red flowers on it. I put large red rick rack on it. Lt. Col. Cool is going to go to VMI after all and so we have been sending in financial aid forms. We also spent a lot of time last week getting photos together for the yearbook and a power point presentation they will do at the graduation ceremony. It's cold and windy here today. It seems strange to watch snow flurries fly in the middle of April.

Sew Long for Now!

Here is a picture of the crosses in front of our church on Resurrection Sunday.

Sew Long for Now!

I have been quiet this week. I had some housework to get caught up on from my marathon sewing. I am working on the capes again. I completed this red one yesterday. Oops, I see a thread that needs clipping! The wind has been gusting around here some this week. 40 mph. It ripped two of the flags. They took them down and I repaired them. I also sewed button holes in these two to give them vents so the air could blow through them and hopefully not rip them again. These two are in front of a building and they get air flow from two directions which cause them to get battered. I have quite a few more capes to do. I need to delay them today. I have an apron cut out that I want to sew up to give to a friend for her birthday. I also have two jackets that need zippers put in. I think I will do that first since it has gotten a bit chilly again around here.
Sew Long for Now!

Friday I spent most of the day in bed. I was having some issues with my bp and pounding in my head so the doctor put me on medication. I just felt drained. Saturday we had planned to celebrate the General's birthday and go out of town. We went to The Tank Museum in Danville, Virginia. It was pretty interesting. Of course my military history buffs loved it. We also enjoyed playing around with some of the exhibits. Here the troops are.

Even the General got in on the fun. It was a nice fun family day. We had good conversation and a lot of horse play. We went out to eat and just enjoyed being together.

This morning we had an inspiring church service. We had communion today. After the service began when we were praying the lights went down in the sanctuary. When the prayer finished and they came up, as the congregation lifted their heads we were awed by the scene that met us. Up at the front of the sanctuary was a table and around it sat the 12 disciples. Who ever ask the people to play the parts did a great job. They looked similar to the DaVinci painting of the last supper. Actually, the whole scene did, props and all. Then as the drama of the last supper was portrayed we joined and had communion when Jesus gave the bread and cup to his disciples we partook also. It was just awesome!

Sew Long for Now!

The flags are done and delivered. 60 hours of sewing in one week. Next, clean the sewing room!

Sew Long for Now.

HiHo, HiHo, it's off to sew I go! LOL, These 16 flags are becoming my life. I must admit that I do serve an awesome God! I was thinking all morning how I just might not be able to get them done by Tuesday evening and maybe I should call the church to see what time the bucket truck was coming to put them up Wednesday and maybe it would be in the afternoon to give me a few more hours. Then I got a call from the church and the bucket truck will not be there until Thursday at noon! What an answer to prayer. I hung the sample out and Captain Kitty said that while she was walking the puppy today a lady ask her where I got it. She proudly told me that she told the lady her Momma made it! How sweet she can be.

Captain Cool, who was promoted to Major and as of today will be a Lt. Colonel has not heard from the AFA yet, but VMI has accepted him. The life of a high school senior!

Sew Long for Now!