In Anticipation of the Stash Bash

Our ASG chapter is having a stash bash in conjunction with our Annual Meeting in October. I'm planning on (hopefully) selling off a bunch of my stash (like 50%, I hope!). I've gone through all my fabric, pulling out what I want to sell, and reorganizing what's left. I have about 80 pieces of fabric to sell. When I look at the boxes and boxes of fabric that I acquired during that really dark time of my life, I am truly saddened. That fabric brings me no joy. I will be so glad to get it out of my life. It's almost like chains holding me down. I told my friend, Aline, that I didn't want any of the fabric back. If it didn't sell, I just didn't want to bring it back into my life. She gave me the name of a charity I could donate it to. I really hope I sell a lot of it. Ninety per cent of it is really quality stuff. I know that there are people who would love to have it. I just hope they come to the stash bash and buy it. 

Here are pictures of the mess created while sorting, culling, and reorganizing the sewing studio.

Tubs & tubs of fabric. Aagh!

Now what happened to the inventory cards on these?

The paperwork to organize it all!

The mess before the calm.

A Friday Fabric Field Trip

I don't know where this week went, but I didn't accomplish much in the sewing studio. I did go fabric shopping though. 


A friend emailed me Thursday and invited me to go to Jackman's Fabrics on Friday. Big sale! We went to the location in Fairview Heights IL. I had never been there and fell in love. The store is laid out differently than the Missouri store I usually shop at. I don't understand why simply arranging the store differently would make such a big difference, but it did. So with the help of my friend, Aline, here is what I came home with. 

I am going to use these fabrics to make the book cover shown below. I had the 3 fabrics on the left in my stash. No clue where I got them or when. I didn't really care for the brown piece at the bottom. I know that it "goes" with the blue and the oriental print, but it just didn't sit right with me. So I found the brown (upper right) and the "light" fabric (lower right). With the 2 additional fabrics, I liked the original brown better and will use it in the book cover. 

So this project is pretty "quilty" for me, the die-hard I-don't-quilt seamstress. But, we made some of these Friendship Triangles at a recent ASG neighborhood meeting. I was really taken with them--to the point that I purchased the book. I want to make a cover for my Bible. So now that I have a good mix of fabrics I will be starting this after I finish my blue rayon slacks. 

I also purchased these 2 coordinating fabrics for a future project. 

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

And my final purchase opens up a real can of worms. 

 I saw these Calendar Quilts hanging on the wall and fell in love with them. I asked my friend, Aline, if she thought I could do these. She was so realistic. She told me that, yes, I could do them, but I would need to learn to machine quilt, whether it was free form or follow a pattern. The designs are appliqued and most of them are fairly simple. A couple are more complex, but they are all so lovely I couldn't resist. This long-range project will teach me new skills and I'm excited about that. 


So that's my shopping trip. It was wonderful!

In Lieu of Working…

I know. I'm supposed to be slaving away at work right now, but hey, every girl deserves a break, right?

So have you seen these mug rugs? They are just way too cute! Two thoughts—

1. I have no desire to become a "Quilter", but this is doable.
2. I can finally throw away the coffee-stained, broken plastic canvas mug rugs currently residing on my table that I've had for 10+ years.

The bad thing is these will be in line after the navy pants, the ASG Neighborhood Challenge project due in July, the 2 flower girl dresses,  2 jr. bridesmaid dresses and my own mother-of-the-groom dress for my son's August wedding.

On 2nd thought, surely I can squeeze 1 or 2 of these out before fall.

ASG Neighborhood Meeting 09/14/10

I had a great time at our ASG neighborhood meeting Tuesday night. After almost a year I am beginning to feel like I belong here. (Good thing since I am co-leader.) My co-leader surprised me by announcing that she will not continue next year. (No comment how much we talk, my co-leader & me. It's one of my pet peeves.) Laura has been a co-leader for 10+ years. No one volunteered but there are still a few months left in the year for someone to step up. 


We spent most of the meeting ironing out all the details for the Chapter Annual Meeting & Tea. Our group is in charge of hosting it in November. I feel like the whole planning process has been a scene from The Three Stooges. I thought all the major decisions had been made, but apparently not so. Tuesday night we discussed things I thought were decided months ago. Grrrr. Drives me crazy. I really dislike doing things at the last minute and that is what is going to happen here. I can read the writing on the wall. 


I really didn't mean to turn this into a rant, but as long as I'm venting—it also drives me crazy how some women just talk irregardless of who else is talking and what is being discussed. There are a couple women in our neighborhood who do this. I am going to find some way to nicely tackle this issue. It is so rude!


OK. Enough ranting. I really did have a great time. There was sharing and laughing and camaraderie. I know Dr. Ron would be happy to see me attending and participating in this group. I took my Loes Hinse jacket for show-and-tell. I wonder about timing Riley's kimono dress so I can take it in next month. Hmmm. Have to think about that. 

Fashion Show

Our ASG Chapter had a luncheon and fashion show of member garments yesterday. The Chapter does this about every other year. I have never attended in the past. This year not only did I attend but I modeled not one, but two garments I made. The Threads circular vest and a creative  sweatshirt jacket. The afternoon was fun. I rode to the event with a couple of ladies in my neighborhood group. It is entertaining to listen to other women talk about their lives. Plus, I always come away with good feelings about my husband, my life, my kids…Listening to other people reminds me how good I have it! 


So back to the fashion show—There were lots of really interesting garments and other items. One thing I really like (and suggested we do in our neighborhood group) was the 1 yard Challenge. One neighborhood group picked a fabric and each member had 1 yard to create something. Several ladies made vests; there were several bags of various sizes; a set of placemats & napkins. I thought it was a very cool idea. 


Another neighborhood group did a mystery quilt challenge. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but each lady ended up with a quilt of the same design, but very different because they used their own fabrics. All looked really nice; some were outstanding!


I think the most intriguing garment was a jacket made from a shower curtain. A shower curtain? Yes. And it was beautiful! A lady found this beautiful embroidered shower curtain at the resale shop for $1.00 and cut it up to make a soft, feminine jacket. It was lovely.


The kids, of course, were all really cute. 


There must be a back story to one lady's entries. She entered her 2 wedding gowns. She had 2 ceremonies so she had 2 gowns. Don't get that. And the other puzzling thing was both gowns were short and beige, almost light brown. Another part of the story was that both gowns incorporated the same fabric. Fabric she bought extraordinarily cheap-one gown cost $20 and the other one $14. Yeah for her, I think. 


All in all, it was a fun afternoon.

Ready for the Runway!

I just finished the 2nd garment for the upcoming fashion show hosted by ASG-St. Louis. I will be modeling these 2 garments.

(I am going to add a hook & eye
closure to the front of the circle vest. ) 

Hot Pink Sweatshirt Jacket

I am pretty pleased with how both garments turned out. 




The sweatshirt jacket is from the Genesis Too pattern from Londa's Creative Threads. Londa asked me to participate in filming her latest DVD, Creative Jacket Journey. I was thrilled to be asked and spent 3 wonderful, sewing-filled days in her studio. On the last day, she received a shipment of duppioni silk and I absolutely fell in love with the hot pink. The photo didn't capture the true color of the silk. It is a bright, hot pink, bordering on magenta. It is gorgeous! So I paired it with this interesting cotton batik print, added some bright blue silk duppioni for a  little contrast and "plopped" it all on a navy sweatshirt base. I am really happy with the results. Here is a picture of the back. 

A Busy Little Beaver

I worked hard all weekend and finished up one garment for the upcoming fashion sew for our ASG chapter. This is it. 

It is a circular vest from Threads #146. The fabric is from my friend, Londa. The fabric isn't double cloth. It is just woven to have 2 distinct sides. I bound the edges and the armholes with black French bias strips. The armholes are a bit tight and after the fashion sew I am going to remove the binding and make them bigger. 
Also, the fabric is a bit stiff and doesn't allow for the vest to look "closed". I am going to add a small black hook & eye so if I want to "close" it, I can. The Chef suggested using a great button for the closure. A great idea, but I don't want to draw that much attention to my mid-life midriff. 

ASG National Convention

I was lucky enough to attend the ASG national convention in Atlanta recently. I worked for my friend, Londa, in her booth so I wasn't able to take any classes but I did participate in the fashion show and I attended the "gala" Saturday night to honor Shirley Adams. 


I'm going to be brutally honest here. I was really disappointed overall. Maybe taking classes vs. being a vendor would change my mind, but for the cost of attending this convention…well, let's just say it's pretty pricey. 


The best part of the convention is that is held entirely in a hotel. (In this case, the Atlanta Hilton.) So the accommodations, both convention facilities and hotel rooms, were really nice. It also helped me personally that the snack bar in the lobby served Starbucks. Another good thing was the food, mostly. Friday's breakfast and lunch were not so good, but after that the food was great, especially the desserts. The Chef would have been pleased with the presentation of the desserts. 


Vendors: I don't have an exact count, but there were only about 40-50 vendors at the expo portion. And, they weren't big national companies or people. In my opinion the 2 biggest people there were Louise Cutting and Linda Lee. Oh yes, Peggy Sagers was there also. Mostly it was mom-and-pop businesses, which is absolutely great. But I thought that the sewing machine companies would have big booths. Also, I thought the Big 4 pattern companies would be there. What a great place to promote your stuff. Hardly any fabric for sale. Louise Cutting and SewKeyse had fabric, along with some smaller local shops. 


Overall, the expo is much smaller than Puyallup. I've never been to the Novi show but I've heard that it is as big as Puyallup so this ASG would be smaller than it also. 


Evening activities: On Friday night was the big fashion show. It was fun. Some of the clothes were amazing. Amazing not so much from the technical construction side, but the beading, the hand weaving, the putting together of different fabrics--that was amazing. I modeled the Genesis Too jacket I made with Londa for her new DVD, Creative Jacket Journey. Londa modeled the Worthy jacket from the DVD. Somehow, the ladies lining us up for the show switched Londa and me in line and the commentator read the wrong description for my jacket. What do you do when you're on the runway, under the spotlight and the description doesn't match the article of clothing? Just keep smiling and walking and smiling. My only other complaint about the fashion show was the lady doing the commentary. It seemed to me that she hadn't even read the script. She stumbled through almost all the garment descriptions. I heard this complaint from some other fashion show participants as well. 


On Saturday night was the big "Gala" honoring Shirley Adams of The Sewing Connection. I hardly think "gala" describes the night. It was dinner and then Shirley talked about her company. (I found that interesting because had never heard her story.) There was a slide show but it wasn't accompanied with any talking or even any background music. Kinda weird. Then the night was over. That was it. I was expecting a big hoopla. 


The show was pretty good sales-wise for Londa. But if I was just a plain attendee, I would hope that the classes were fabulous. I have to admit that if I have the opportunity to attend this convention as an attendee, I will go. I think the caliber of teachers is pretty good and I would be very selective about the classes I signed up for, but I believe it is possible to get some great training there. 


I also want to put a plug in for Gail K Fabrics in Atlanta. Oh my gosh! A garment sewers heaven. The fabric is stacked floor to ceiling, literally! They had all price ranges from less than $10 to $100+ for bridal fabrics and great suit woolens. We spent about 2 hours there. Londa bought this absolutely fabulous red stretch velvet with a burnout design. It will be her New Year's Eve ballroom dancing gown. And she also bought this weird furry stuff to tickle her creative side. I was pretty restrained. I bought only 1 piece of tapestry-grey & pink-to make a jacket. 

On Hold

I put my creative sweatshirt jacket on hold for this week for a couple of reasons.  I had to do some charity sewing for my neighborhood ASG group. The other reason--I sewed the front band & collar on the wrong side. Now I have to rip out 2 very long rows of stitching. 


We visited a local assisted living/nursing home for our monthly ASG Neighborhood meeting. We took "almost finished" walker bags to distribute to the residents. I say "almost finished" because we left off the buttons and buttonholes and allowed the ladies to choose their buttons. A couple of the members had their sewing machines along and we did buttonholes and buttons right there. 


I don't really like visiting nursing homes. I'm much better with children than elderly people, but I had a good time. We had about 20 women (and 1 man) participate. One lady told us about how she would see a dress in a store and draw a picture for her mother and her mother would make her that dress. Pretty impressive! Another lady taught home ec at a high school. Another lady used to make rugs from Prairie Points. We even had a couple of questions about sewing machines and sergers. 

4th of July Sewing Marathon

I made it a goal to sew, sew, sew this weekend and boy did I! 

I made a laptop computer case from the quilting fabric I purchased in Cincinnati. (More about that later.) Then I made the Biased About Jackets from Fashion in Harmony. And I am well on my way to creating another Creative Sweatshirt Jacket.


Sunday morning when I walked into my sewing studio I realized I had lots of piles of stuff sitting around. Time to do a little picking up and reorganizing. I spent a couple hours Sunday and Monday on the task and the room looks much better--less chaotic. I feel better with all my projects in bags, lined up and ready to go. I'm not completely finished, however, there are still a couple piles of patterns to be filed and papers to be sorted through. But it is 99% better than before. 


I plan to finish my sweatshirt jacket in 2 more evenings of sewing. Then I need to make some walker bags for a nursing home my ASG Neighborhood group will be visiting on the 13th.  

A New Year in ASG

I co-chaired my first ASG neighborhood group meeting Tuesday night. It was lots of fun.

Our neighborhood group will be hosting the Chapter Annual Meeting & Tea in November this year. We kicked around some ideas for table favors; several people volunteered to check out locations. We still need a theme. But it was good.

Our program was to share your favorite sewing book and/or DVD. I offered Sandra Betzina's Fabric Savvy and also Londa's Refined Embellishment DVD. One lady shared that her favorite book is Sewing 911. She said she found it more & more relevant in these economic times when you have to repair and restyle clothes more. I will check it out.