Has it actually been over a week since I was last able to blog? February has been such a hectic strange month here. This past week I spent a lot of time on lessons, cleaning, painting, and visiting that I got hardly any sewing done. I did finish hemming and altering a dress skirt for some one. I am in the midst of altering a pair of dress pants. My biggest problem lies in the above picture. This is my mending stack. Picture middle age lady with greying hair standing on ends. LOL. Maybe this week I will get it to come down.

Sew Long for Now!

I know the flylady tells you to get dressed down to shoes that tie to start your day. When I do that some one finds a reason for me to leave the house. I needed to get some things done so I kept my p.j.'s on today. I washed three loads of laundry, mopped my kitchen floor, cleaned my bathroom mirror, cut Captain Chaos' hair, fixed a pair of pants that were ripped for some one, and have been altering a skirt and pair of pants for another person. I also finished a section of FPU (Financial Peace University), a Dave Ramsey program we are taking online. Oh how good it feels to get something accomplished!

Sew Long For Now!

So much has happened in the past week. We spent four days with out power. We had a bad wind storm on Sunday and the power went out. We used our kerosene heater and two kerosene lamps we had. The one above was my Grandma's. She used it, my parents used it, and now we use it. We camped in our livingroom. It wasn't too bad. The worse thing...my treadle sewing machine's belt is broken so with no electricity I couldn't sew. Don't worry I have been knitting and crocheting.

My husband got a bad absessed tooth. They couldn't get the infection out, it only got worse. Yesterday he had to have the tooth pulled. I have spent several days going back and forth to the dentist with him.

Today is our only daughter's 13th birthday. I now have two teenagers. I just don't feel that old. What did we do. Shopping of course. I took her to buy a new Bible she wanted. Then we told her she could not wear make-up until she was 13. She and I went shopping for make-up and a lighted mirror. I showed her how to apply it. I probably am not the best resource though, I never wear make-up. I have, but only rarely. The rest of her present will happen over the next several weeks. We are helping her paint her room and I am making her new curtains.

Sew Long for Now!

I spent yesterday's sewing time working on digitizing two designs. This is the one I sewed out. It is a patch for a 4-H club. I need to sew it on heavier material. It was fun working on this. I also digitized a design that a quilt guild will be using in the center of their ribbons that they give at quilt shows. I will sew that one out today. The other plan today is to work on some alterations I need to do and go to Alpine and get some stabilizer to use with more of those uniforms.

Sew Long for Now!

This program has been rudely interrupted by a computer crash. Last Friday we had ice and lots of power surges. On the last surge our computer dumped. We have spent hours and days getting the programs back up and running and recovering our files. I have done a lot of embroidery lately. I did a cute blanket for a baby shower. It was an adoption shower. They gave the lady a shower when the adoption was final. I finished 5 Christmas stockings last night. In February! Talk about being organized for next Christmas, if I could be so good. I have two items to digitize next, more embroidery, and some alterations. Life is good.

Sew Long for Now!

The uniforms are done! I spent the rest of Friday mending and hemming. There is nothing like the feeling of accomplishment you get when your mending pile starts to shrink. Now if my ironing pile would do the same!

Sew Long for Now!

Have you ever had one of those days? One where everything you try to do just goes from bad to worse? Last week was not a good week so I set my mind that this week I was going to accomplish some things. It was looking like it was not to be. I am embroidering these Taekwonda uniforms. I just have to put the name and city on the backs. It is a flat place they go, doesn't sound too hard. Well,...they are made out of this very very heavy canvas material. You can't hoop it. I tried hooping cut away stabilizer and then using spray adhesive to hold the material in place on the hoop. Nope. The material is so heavy that it drags to the sides and will not hold down. I tried pinning the material to the stabilizer to hold it steady. That just caused the stabilizer to get pulled out of the hoop by the weight. I was so upset last night because I had tried on three different ones these methods and each messed up so I had three different uniforms that needed to have the embroidery ripped out. Finally, I drove over to my favorite sewing shop and talked to them. Hoop it all stabilizer-duh-why didn't I think of that. I didn't hoop the stabilizer and cut out the section with a pin like you usually do. I pulled all the protective covering off and stuck it to the bottom of the hoop. Then I pushed the material down bonding it with the stabilizer. It worked. Now to finish ripping out the booboos I made and redo those uniforms.

Sew Long for Now!

Last week I felt bad all week. I wasn't sick, just very very tired. The only sewing I got done was making five napkins for us. Our old ones are getting in bad shape and so I am using what cotton scraps I find to make us new ones. Great way to use up those scraps of fabric.

Sew Long for Now!

Good evening! Berta the first picture is for you. This is the sweater I wore the skirt with. I wore a white button up shirt. My sil gave me a gift card for Christmas and I found this sweater on mark down after New Year. I chose the burnt orange because I did a little reading a few years ago on colors trying to improve my wardrobe. I need a lot more help, but I did come to the conclusion that I am a fall or sunset. I used to wear a lot of blacks and blues and they didn't do me any favors. My peach complexion, brown with red (and grey) highlighted hair, and brown eyes makes me look better in these earthy tones.
I finished one of the most unusual requests I have had in a while tonight. This is the golf bag I sewed up. The pocket you see pulled away at the seam on the side that is top on the picture. By the time I recieved it the nylon was in shreds. Yesterday I put an ample amount of fray check on it and let it dry over night. I could not take the bag apart due to the way it was constructed. I could not put the seam back because of the shredding. What I did was to fold under the sealed edges and hand sew them making the pocket about an inch smaller on one side and then tapering it back into the seam on the bottom. I sewed a running stitch down the torn part. Next I ran a running stitch back up that, but opposite of the first line of stitching so that all gaps were sealed. Last I took small whip stitches along the side to be sure that nothing would fall out. The bag belongs to one of my son's teenage friends and he is going back to college tomorrow. His mother didn't want him to spend the money on a new bag, but she didn't want him to duct tape and look shabby either. I think it turned out nice and I don't think he will be embarrased to be seen on the golf course with it.
Last here is a picture of our cat who is a big baby...well...being a big baby! After my busy day sewing yesterday I went in to find him laying like this on our bed! He is so funny!

Sew Long for Now!

Here is a picture of the new skirt I made. I couldn't get a good picture of what makes this different, but there are four darts on the front that are 14 inches long each. I enjoyed wearing this skirt to our monthly ASG meeting last night. I did decide that the next one I make will have more material around and deeper darts. Of course that means re-figuring the darts. I think the next one will be black. I can never have too many black skirts for some reason. I attached the waistband my own way, but with the ability to remove it. We did not go over the way to attach the waistband at our neighborhood meeting, we will do that next month. It felt so nice to be able to sew for myself this week. Lessons with the children went well. I have been very blessed this week. Today I have spent the day sewing for others. I had two bags to embroidery, two shirts to mend, three pair of pants to hem, and one golf bag to mend. I have everything except the golf bag and one pair of pants done. The golf bag has to wait until tomorrow because it is made of nylon and the part that has tore is shredding. I coated the edge with no fray and will let it dry over night before I attempt to hand sew the seam back. I have to hand sew it, it will not fit on the machine! The one pair of pants is a pair of nylon athletic pants. I have to remove the zippers out of both legs before I can cut them to length and hem. I will not be replacing the zippers, but sewing the legs shut. It has been a good productive day!

Sew Long for Now!

I finally found time today to sew. I made a cup glove and found an embroidery to put on my new bag. I also found some print material in my stash that I want to line the bag with. It is inching it's way along.

Sew Long for Now!

Our mail today held a copy of this quarters newsletters from our homeschool group. I didn't have time to read them before, so I took them to violin lessons to read while Captain Kitty worked. Our group has a newsletter published by the youth. Captain Kitty is on the staff. This issue was about recipes and favorite memories from the kitchen, especially culinary disasters. I read the newsletter to see what CK had written. A poem on the last page especially caught my attention. I could not find a name as to who had written it. It seemed appropriate to the content of the issue and I thought they found it in a book to go along with the newsletter. I thought to myself that CK would really like the poem and I wanted to mention it to her to be sure she read it. On the way home I began to talk about this poem. She starting laughting at me. The poem that I thought they copied from a "professional" book of poetry was written by my daughter. She was a little miffed they didn't put her name on it. I told her I wanted to put it on my blog for others to enjoy.

Snowed In

On a cold winter's morning,

When you've nothing else to do,

The clouds have snowed you in,

And no one can get through.

You should turn on your oven,

Or gather round the fire,

You should bake, cook, or sing,

To raise your spirits higher.

By Captain Kitty age 12

On the sewing front: I went to one of the neighborhood meetings of our ASG last night. It is called the designer club. We are working on making the perfect skirt pattern. Below you will see a shot of my muslin. I can't wait to sew this skirt up. I only wear skirts. Sometimes I will wear a dress or jumper, but I am most comfortable in skirts. The way you make this and the darts really make a difference in the fit and look. I think when I finish one it will be much more tailored looking and make me look thinner. It is also way easy to do!

Sew Long for Now!

Some suede laying on my work table awaiting ideas and inspiration for a new bag. Hmmm. Should it have embroidery? Should it have some material with a print included? What should be the shape? How many pockets? Should it have a stiff interfacing, or a thin one?

Sew Long for Now!

I look around at friends blogs and see the reflections and meditations for the past year and the new year. 2007 was not my best year. Neither was 2006. Here is 2008 and it finally dawns on me that man's time frames don't matter. As another Christmas season ends and the hectic pace of life doing seamstress work for others slows down I chose not to be upset that I hadn't done all the little things I wanted to with my children. I decided that what does it matter if we bake Christmas cookies in January. My children had ask to make gingerbread houses and I never got around to even getting the supplies. I found kits marked down this past weekend and told them that they got to make New Year's houses. They thoroughly enjoyed spending New Years Eve afternoon building their masterpieces. On New Year's Day they began to eat them as we watched the Rose Parade hoping to catch a glimpse of their older brother who was playing in the VMI Regimental Band. We have plans for January that include baking those cookies and making snowflakes to hang around the house. Life goes on. How I chose to view it is my choice.

I started out the New Year by cleaning the sewing room. Oh, how much easier it is to be creative in a clean place.

Sew Long for Now!

Keeping Christmas

by Henry van Dyke

It is a good thing to observe Christmas day. The mere marking of times and seasons, when men agree to stop work and make merry together, is a wise and wholesome custom. It helps one to feel the supremacy of the common life over the individual life. It reminds a man to set his own little watch, now and then, by the great clock of humanity which runs on sun time.
But there is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and that is keeping Christmas.
Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world; to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground; to see that your fellowmen are just as real as you are, and try to look behind their faces to their hearts hungry for you; to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life; to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness -- are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.
Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and desires of little children; to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you, and ask yourself whether you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear in their hearts; to try to understand what those who live in the same house with you really want, without waiting for them to tell you; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open -- are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.
Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world -- stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death -- and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas.

And if you can keep it for a day, why not always? But you can never keep it alone.

Sew Long for Now!

5 Days until Christmas! I am oh so happy to be finishing up sewing for others and gifts to give! Below you will see one of the tea towels I embroidered for an Awana leader for Capt. Chaos. I have embroidered 10 tea towels for teacher gifts this week.

I also embroidered four cup gloves for our pastors. These go on those to go coffee cups like Starbucks. I am getting them Starbucks gift cards also. I will put these around an empty cup and put the gift cards in them.

I embroidered some altar clothes for another lady to give her priest. I still have two sweat shirts to embroidery and a coat to hem. If I have time I will make the table runner for my Momma, if not I will make one and give it to her for Mother's Day. Off to sew some more!

Sew Long for Now!

Ahhhh! All my little elves are home now. We went to VMI today and picked up Lt.Col. Cool. It is so nice to have them all here. Of course no sewing was done today. I did make gifts for Sunday School teachers Saturday and I will have to post a picture later. I am off on this chilly night to finish the pot of potato soup I am making for supper.

Sew Long for Now!

For you Linda, a picture of my new curtains. The material had a border on both ends and I choose to use it as the bottom of the curtain. I finished hemming a pair of pants and embroidering a saying on cloth for some one to frame for a Christmas gift yesterday. Today I am working on gifts for my children's Sunday School teachers. According to Capt. Chaos, 10 days until Christmas!

Sew Long for Now!

Yesterday I decided our bedroom needed cleaning. I am embarrased to say how long it has been since I gave it a good cleaning. While working on it I saw the material I bought in October to make a curtain for our window. I decided to finally finish that project. The curtain was easy to sew. Nothing fancy, just a rectangle with a rod pocket. Now the bedroom looks so complete with the new curtain and cleaned. I took a break from other sewing. Today I must make myself get some done. Twelve Days until Christmas, my presents are not all finished. Are yours?

Sew Long for Now!

The soldier costumes for the ballet are done. They took a lot longer than I anticipated. I forgot to take a picture of them before they were picked up yesterday. Now, onto the stack of sewing for other customers I have here. I also have Christmas sewing to do. Oh, yea there is only 2 weeks until Christmas. I wonder if I can get it all done? Sometimes I feel like the cat in the picture (Orion is his name). Trying to reach forward, but something blocking my way. I can do it if I back up and take another way around! I am trying to type with that cat laying across my lap and arms now. It is very hard you know. He has been very loving lately.

Sew Long for Now!