It's been a while since I posted. Things have been happening around. It has actually been kind of busy. This is one of the 20 door hangers I did for the February party at the nursing home. I made 40 of the 80 door prizes.

Valentines Day was a big event here. Our oldest and his girlfriend stopped by on their way to the midwinter formal. She is such a sweet girl.

That was also our daughter's 14th birthday. She was 14 on the 14th. So much celebration was happening here.

I altered a dress for a girl and then began projects for March's party at the nursing home. So far I have made these 10 travel tissue covers. These are made with the men in mind. I am going to do some fancy ones with trim for the women. I will put packs of travel tissues in them before I give them to the lady who plans the parties. I am planning on making 20 and then maybe some type of bag with candy in it. I was thinking of making like 20 drawstring bags and filling them with those candy chocolate coins. I also found a really nice clover pin pattern. I could do 20 of those for St. Patrick's Day. I will decide after I finish these tissue covers.

I pulled out a pattern I bought a few years ago to make the General a revolutionary soldier costume and will attempt to finish it in the coming months.

Can you believe February is almost over? Time is just flying by.

Sew Long for Now!

I finished the table runner that I was playing with.

I tried to pull together the blocks with the background fabric by using the same material I used in the corner of the blocks for the backing. I had a fun time quilting it. I decided to machine quilt it and since I had been watching some episodes of Sewing with Nancy by using my DVR I wanted to try an idea I saw. On a recent rerun they showed the lady making the quilts and she quilts them square by square and then puts them together with the connecting pieces. She quilts her's using what she called a wobble stitch. It's just a small elongated zig zag. I loved the look of that. It really blended well when stitching "in the ditch."

I have some things to finish by this weekend for the nursing home party next week, plus it's Captain Kitty's 14th birthday this weekend.

Sew Long for Now!

I decided to make a quilted table runner out of the romantic material I used in the cloth hearts. I am not sure of the fabrics I chose. I like them, but looking at the picture they do look a little busy. Hmmm. Oh well I am either going to use red or a tea dyed muslin as the connecting strips. This should be interesting.

Sew Long for Now!

I finished 20 of these hearts for the nursing home's February party. I filled each heart with Hershey kisses. Now I am sidetracked with a Valentine's tabletopper I am working on. I have one block completed and three more in stages. I hope to finish it by this weekend so I can make more door prizes for the party. I was thinking also of some sweet redwork stuffed little hanging ornaments...hmmm. So many choices and so little time. I was also thinking I need a black denim skirt. I really like the grey denim one I just made. In all the boxes of stash in my house (and there are over 10 32 gallon rubber maid boxes) there is not one yard of black denim, sigh I guess I will just have to go fabric shopping (insert evil grin)!

Sew Long for Now!

I spent some time today cutting out hearts. I have been pondering in my mind how to help out our nursing home ministery since I can't attend the monthly parties they throw for the residents. I have decided to make some of the 80+ door prizes they give to the residents. Out of my stash I pulled some Valentines looking fabric. One more femine for the ladies and one more masculine for the men. I am making heart shaped baskets and will fill them with candies. I am also pondering making some small stuffed hearts with something about 2 Cor. on them. The children and I will do some baking to send also. Red velvet cake or cupcakes sounds good.

Sew Long for Now.

My skirt is finished. I cut it out and then serged the raw edges yesterday. I also marked and made the four pleats yesterday. Today I made the casing, adjusted the length, added the lining and put it all together and hemmed it. It is a fairly heavy weight denim that should keep me nice and warm.

I have been doing all manner of other things the past several days. Shopping, taking children to music lessons and 4H, getting the oil changed in the car, shopping, shipping packages, shopping, paying bills, lessons, shopping, cooking. For some one who hates to leave home I sure do spend a lot of time away from home. I have a little plaque in front of me that reads "For Everything There Is A Season." I have to keep reminding myself that this too shall pass. Life will settle down into a routine someday soon and the running will slow down.

Yesterday afternoon our little bee keeper came running in the house all excited. He and a friend had found the skull of a small animal in the woods across from our home. It is now proudly displayed in a glass box his sister gave him, right up on his dresser with his models. Today he came home with some more of the bones to the animal.

This is what is laying on my kitchen counter right now. Boys, you gotta love them.

Sew Long for Now!

It's been a week since I last updated. I have only cut out a skirt and lining to sew in that department. I have been working on knitting squares for an throw and crocheting squares for a throw. The colors in this picture are not showing up the way they actually look in real life. The General had a new computer built for me last week and he hasn't been able to load of my software back on it. This is my very own computer. Our old one is going into the family room for the rest of the family to use. This one will be just for my sewing and working. That man spoils me.

Speaking of spoiling me, he really has lately. He gets up every Saturday morning and cooks me breakfast and then cooks supper on Saturday evenings. He is such a blessing. I thank God every day for bringing this man into my life. I don't deserve how good he treats me.

My aunt passed away last week and was laid to rest today. I drove up to my folks today and attended the funeral with them. My family is a little complicated, but this lady had a large part in shaping my life in my early years. You see she was our nanny growing up. When the last child started school she married my uncle and stayed in the family by becoming my aunt. I was raised in a conservative religion and my aunt was Pentecostal. They laugh and tell of how she took me to church with her on Wednesday nights and how much I loved it because her church had an organ, music, and the people clapped their hands. Quite a difference from our church were we didn't even have Sunday School.

Oh, my oldest son marched with the VMI band and the Corp in the inaugural parade today. He has had so many wonderful opportunities at school there.

I hope to get my skirt sewn up this week and get some more sewing done. I have lots of ideas floating around in my head. They seem to center on quilts though. I wonder if these frigid temperatures have that effect on me?

Sew Long for Now!

Day In My Life

It's January 14th. Every month on the fourteenth I like to join in reading and leaving a post about a day in the life of women bloggers around the globe. This is sponsored by Little Jenny Wren.

The clock turned over to the 14th at midnight and found me working. I got off at 1:30 a.m. Before going to bed I spent 40 minutes going through e-mails and trying to reply to them all. I am very behind on things like this because with my new schedule I haven't got the hang of where to fit everything in. I will work it out though! About 2:20 a.m. I went to bed.

I woke up at 10:30. I really wasn't wanting to get up, I wanted to get "just 5 more minutes sleep." Today is one of my two days off from work this week. Since it is Wednesday though I knew I needed to get up and get going with other tasks. I got up and went to check on the children to see that they were working their way through the lists I had left them on the frig. Every night I post a list for the next days school lessons and chores on the frig. The children get up and do what they can on their own and I check what they have done and help them with other lessons when I get up. They were dilligently working through their lessons. I just received a rice cooker and wanted to wash it out so I could use it with supper this evening. I am hestitant to get small appliances because they seem more work then the time they bost in saving you.

After washing up the rice cooker and balancing our bank account, I made smoothies and did Devotions with the children. Then I took a shower and went off to get dressed and start a load of laundry. The children dusted the living room when I was doing this.

Sunlight on the "new" piano in our living room. Some one gave us this 1916 piano. It works, we do need to get it tuned after it had been left sitting unplayed for years. We are letting it set a few weeks because it on a wooden floor and then we will have the man come tune it.

While I was in my room I got together supplies to make cards with the children during art lessons because we have are behind send our thank you cards out for Christmas.

While I read out loud about the Flemish Baroque period they worked on making their Thank You cards. When I finished I made a couple for The General and I to send

A few samples. The one on the left was made by Captain Kitty, the middle one by me, and the one on the right by our little bee keeper. I checked the mornings lessons. Then I puttered a few minutes while getting ready for our afternoon read aloud.

One of the jobs I did was add water to the fountain our little bee keeper gave me for Christmas. It is a lovely fountain that I have put in the living room. I love the way it looks at night when it is dark and the light in the fountain shines. It is very soothing.

We are reading a book by G. A. Henty during read aloud called With Cortez in Mexico. About 3:15 p.m. The General came home. We spent a few minutes talking while he worked on putting a new baking element in the stove. Ours broke last week and I have not been able to use the oven until the new part came in. Then I was off to take Captain Kitty to her violin lessons. Before I left I set up the rice cooker and turned it on.

When we got home from violin lessons I checked the cooker and the rice was done. I had chicken marinating and I cooked that up while CK got out the salad that was already prepared in the frig and helped me set the table. Over supper everyone declared the rice cooker a keeper. Our little bee keeper who usually refuses to eat rice because he hates the sticky way it tastes when I cook it on the stove ate three helpings! It cooked the rice to perfection. I see this appliance being used a lot.

CK and I cleaned up from supper and then The General and I dropped them off at church for Awana and Junior High. The General took me to show me where our little bee keeper went to 4-H. He had been taking him, but I will be taking him now. Then we went to Sam's and did some grocery shopping. We went back to the church to pick up the children and then home to unload the groceries. Everyone had a snack and began to get ready for bed. While the boys were going to bed CK came in to where I was about to get on the computer and wanted to talk about all that happened tonight in JH. We spent some time talking and then I sent her off to bed. I am amazingly getting to blog this on the day it actually happend! Usually, I don't. I will be off in a few minutes to bed. Tomorrow I have the day off from my paying job, but my real job never ends and I will be here doing that as usual!

View off my front porch at sunset.

Sew Long for Now!

I spent some time the past two days embroidering warm-up pants for a basketball team. I had done pants for them last year and they ask me to do the pants for the new team members. It's a fun job. I plan to work on a skirt for me soon. I have some grey denim that I would like to make into a new skirt.

Most of this week has been spent catching up. My house work has suffered so much over the past several months. Each day this week we have worked deep cleaning a room in the house. To me this is such satisfying work. Monday we cleaned the kitchen and I rearranged how I had some items on the counters to make the flow a bit better. The General liked the new spot I put his coffee maker. Tuesday we cleaned the livingroom including pulling all the movies off the shelves and dusting them. The bee keeper volunteered to put them back alphabetically. Wednesday we cleaned the bathroom and stairwell. I cleaned out the medicine cabnet and culled it of out of date supplies. Today I finally got to clean the sewing room. I moved some things on the shelves around so I can reach often used things more easily. Tomorrow I plan on cleaning my bedroom and switching the General and my dressers around. I will also have to move my 1925 Singer Treadle sewing machine in the livingroom to a different spot tomorrow. We have been given a 1916 upright piano and the General is going to pick it up tomorrow. I think it was made by Grinnell Brothers. It is an upright and still plays. It needs tuning, but we need to put in place and let it sit a few weeks before we have that done.

I can't express the satisfaction I have from being able to take care of my home myself these days. I love to keep our little home neat and tidy. I even enjoyed cooking supper tonight. I don't often get to cook these days. Off to bed.

Sew Long for Now!

Has it really been that long since I blogged? Life here has been so hectic. Thankfully though a few changes have been for the better. We are no longer delivering papers. I had my first day off from work since March 2007 on December 31, 2008. It felt so nice to be able to sleep more than 3 hours in a row and to spend the day sewing. I spent quite a few days last week sewing and completed my daughter's dress that she wore to the Vintage Ball. This is my version of the 1910 Tea Dress pattern sold by Sensibility Patterns at Sensibility.com

She picked out the material and ask for a few alterations to the pattern such as the material meeting in the front and the length of the overskirts. I wasn't able to attend, but she was escorted by two fine looking gentlemen.

Her father and older brother. I don't know what setting I was using on this camera, but it distorted the picture terribly. They really are not as wide as the picture makes them look! I hope to be able to get on a more regular schedule sewing, blogging, and living now.

Sew Long for Now!

Sunday December 14, 2008 started with me taking calls for the company I work for. I was already working when the clock turned over at midnight to a new day. I finished my shift at 1:30 a.m. and layed down for a nap before I had to go deliver the papers. At 3:30 a.m. the alarm went off and I got up and headed out in the chilly morning to deliver the Sunday newspaper to 189 customers. I finished at 6:15 a.m. and went home to take another nap before heading to Sunday School.

When I got up at 8:30 a.m. it was to two children who did not feel well so we decided to go to Sunday School only this morning. My Sunday School was great as always with a very timely lesson on America being similar to Sampson and the people of his culture. We are letting sin creep in our lives through materialism, morals, music, movies, etc and accepting it so that we no longer stand apart. We also have lots of great fellowship in our class. After Sunday School we came home and all went back to bed for another nap.

The children and I got up right before the General got home from work. When he came in we spent some time sitting and discussing our day. Then the General wanted to get some things cleared out of the basement and off the verendah since tomorrow the garbage collection runs. We spent some time doing that and they continued when I had to go to work at 5 p.m.

At 7:00 p.m. I got my first break and went out to join the family for supper. Then it was back to the telephone. I also worked on knitting between calls. Earlier this week I had addressed Christmas cards between calls. This job is not taxing and working at home allows me time to see more of my family than if I had to commute. I also can work on small things when I am not taking calls. And my family pops in and out to talk to me between calls. At 9:15 p.m. when I got my second break everyone except the General was in bed. I straightened up the kitchen, set-up the General's coffee for the next morning, and packed his lunch for tomorrow's work while on this longer break. At midnight, the end of the this day by the clock, I got my last break and went out to a very quiet house with all snug in their beds. My day didn't end for another hour and one-half.

The day wasn't too bad. I would prefer to get my sleep in one straight stretch, but I make it.

Sew Long for Now!

I have worked the past several nights on embroidering stockings for some friends. I embroidered 7 for them. She picked a really cute theme, all the girls in the family got red stockings with their names embroidered in red and the boys got green with their names embroidered in green. It's been hard sewing between 1:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., but I have got some things accomplished. This too shall pass.

Sew Long for Now!

I guess I should title this post something like making it or I'm still alive. I have been working so much these past few weeks that I have had no time for sewing or posting. It really bothers me, but I know that there is an end in sight. At the end of December I will no longer be delivering newspapers. After breaking the sliding door's handle on the van twice in a month the General told me to put in my resignation from the paper route. He said it was just too much for me to be doing. I really wanted to try to pay off some debt as quick as possible, but I didn't argue because I am exhausted to say the least. I miss sewing. I ended up with tons of ideas of gifts to make for Christmas, but no time to do any. I have had calls from customers to sew for them and have had to turn them down. Captain Kitty and I did go to Joann's today and buy material to make her a dress for the vintage ball. We are using a pattern from Sense and Sensibility. We have to start on it next week so hopefully I will be able to get back into sewing and posting.

Sew Long for Now!

I finally finished piecing the table topper. I wasn't quite happy with the way it turned out though. I had some problem with some of the material having more stretch in it, even though it was all 100% cotton. I continually ripped it apart trying to get everything lined up, I just wish a couple of places would have lined up better. Now I have to pick up some batting and then layer it and machine quilt it. Wonder if I can get that done by next Thursday?

Sew Long for Now!

I finally finished knitting a pair of hand warmers I saw the pattern for on Simple Green Frugal blog. They were easy to knit. I think I should have added a couple of stitches because the part around the top is a bit tight and hard to type in. Now, if I can get my brother's table topper done by Thanksgiving.

Sew Long for Now!

I wanted to participate in the day in my life this month to show that life does not always go smooth and sometimes we have to do different things for a season. Right now my life is not in the place either my husband nor I want it to be. We are both committed to doing what we have to and get our life straight and back where we want it to be.

A few years ago some bad financial descisions were made. They snowballed out of control until 20 months ago I had to take on a part-time job. It was the first time in 14 years I had worked outside the home. As things got worse I took on a second part-time job. This summer we hit rock bottom and we cut everything down to the bare bones. God truly blessed us and has given us opportunity to work and fix things. It's hard though. Sometimes I get sad. I know though that I am not in this alone. God is watching over me and my family is all working together to get our life back on the path we should be. I just want to encourage other women that sometimes we go through periods we have to do things we don't want to, but to keep striving and have a goal. Keep praying and God will bless your efforts.

Friday I got up at 3:30. It was hard to get up as I had just gone to bed at 11:30. I pushed myself to get dressed and washed my face with cold water to wake myself up. Captain Kitty was helping with the paper routes today so I got her up and we were off.

It was drizziling. Thankfully, it didn't rain hard until after we got home at 7:00. I ate some breakfast and went back to bed.

At 10 a.m. I woke up and could not go back to sleep. Our little bee keeper was already up. I got dressed (again) and ran out to Sam's. I needed to pick up the General's prescription and a few items. When I got hom CK was also up. We ate lunch and I had to work on some paper work for the routes before starting my other job. We don't do school work on Fridays because that is one of the General's days off. Right now though he has taken on a part-time job in addition to his regular job and he was at work this day. The children now help do the housework I can't get done during the week on Fridays. I have such great children!

Before I went to my full-time job the General called and our eldest ask him if he would come pick him up from college to come home for the night. The General ask me what I thought. I told him it would be great! Then I walked the long commute to my full-time job, down the hall to my sewing room/office.

I love my new job. I work from home for a company taking calls and putting in orders on the computer for customers. I get to walk out of my "office" and join my family during the evening for my breaks and supper. It is an upbeat job and I just find it fun.

When my eldest got home he came in and hugged me and then the boys went off to work on the truck that had some broken parts.

During my supper break we all got to eat together and then our eldest went out to the movies with some friends. The youngest two went off to watch a movie. The General was watching some other show. I went back to work.

At 10:30 I got off work and went out to spend some time with the General and unwind before going to bed. Everyone else had already gone to bed. At 11:30 I went back to bed to repeat the day again tomorrow.

Pictures courtesy of our little bee keeper because I didn't have time to take any.

Sew Long for Now!

I haven't fallen off the planet. I have just taken a full-time job and am still delivering my two paper routes. I have been working 12 or more hours 5 days a week and 3 or more two days a week. At the end of November I will be giving up one paper route and then hopefully by the end of December I will give up the second one. I have squeezed a little sewing in some of my days. I am almost finished piecing my table topper for my brother. I have also been knitting a little. I have so many sewing projects running through my mind. I can't wait to find time to do them. I try to read a few of my favorite blogs every day, but some days I just don't even make it to my e-mail. The good thing is the new job is at home. I work taking calls for a company out of my sewing room. I will love not having to leave the house and being able to be around still for my family. Hopefully, I will have pictures to share this weekend!

Sew Long for Now!

I have been altering pants for a customer. I don't know if I do it "by the book." I taught myself how to by taking things apart paying attention to how they were made. I thought some one else might be able to use the technique I use if they have never been taught.

The first thing I do is to have the person try on the pants and then pin them with safety pins holding the fabric where it needs taking in. I put as many safety pins in as needed to check the fit on the rear and front and the hang of the legs. I saw a tailor and a home dec designer both pin on the outside of things on tv shows, that's what gave me the idea.

Next, I turn the garmet inside out and mark the fabric where the safety pin is. I mark both sides of the fabric. Then I remove the safety pins. By the way, the reason I use safety pins is that you don't have to worry about the person getting stuck when taking the garmet off. You also don't have to worry about the pins falling out and not knowing where you pinned after the person has left. The next step is to take apart any waistband and the hem. The two pairs of pants I have been altering have drawstring waistbands with elastic in the back. I took a seam ripper and took apart the waistband a few inches on both sides of the seam. I then took the elastic and pulled it out of the seam. I used a safety pin and attached it to the pull string to keep it from sliding in the casing and getting lost. I took the seam ripper and took out the hem. I did this on both legs.

Once I have marked the position the safety pins were in with chalk and removed any thing blocking me making a straight seam up the side I pin the two layers together with straight pins and take a ruler and mark my sewing line down the length of the pants. Then I sew from top to bottom, with this pair remembering to hold the pull string out of the way so it will not get caught in the seam. After I check the seam I take the pants to the serger and serge 1/4 inch away from the straight sewn seam. This cuts off the excess that needs to be removed and finishes the edge for a more professional look. If you don't have a serger you could either pink the edge or cut off the excess to within 1/2 inch of the seam and then do a 1/4 inch zigzag.

I like to tuck my serger threads under when I put the waistband and hem back in. On this pair I tucked in under and sewed over it when I re-attached the elastic to the side seam in the waistband. Next I sewed the waistband back down where I had taken the seaming out to sew the side up. Last I put the hem back in the pants.

That gives you a pair of altered pants that look like they came from the store that way. On this pair I took one inch out at the waist on each side and two inches starting at the hips down the legs on each side.

Sew Long for Now!

On Friday I had to deliver 1745 papers. It was a special promotion. It took us 8 hours. I was suppose to deliver 1945. They called me Thursday night to say they lowered my amount by 200 papers. That was great, but I was still soar and tired afterwards. I did not get anything else except supper done on Friday.

I did work on some sewing on Sunday after church. I sewed out a design I had digitized for some one and started piecing the table topper. I am quite far and hope to get it finished this week. I had a call this morning from the digitize customer and she wants some changes and I have three pair of pants to alter for some one. These are all things I do in my spare time. I still have a household to run and lessons to do with the children plus deliver the papers everyday. Life is so rich and full.

Sew Long for Now!

Yesterday I pressed out my pairs of strips that I had sewn together. Today I finished sewing the sets together. I have five sets of 8 strips. Tomorrow I hope to cut the triangles out and begin to piece together the topper. I worked on digitizing a design today. Tomorrow I hope to sew it out and see if it needs any tweeking. I also need to hem a pair of my daughter's jeans and alter two pair of pants and hem one for a customer.

Sew Long for Now!