Houston Quilt Festival

I leave today to travel to Houston for the Quilt Festival. I'll be working with my friend Londa at her booth, #650. If you are there, drop by and see us!

What I Did on my Labor Day Weekend Vacation Part 1 or, The Incredible Shrinking UFOs

After having a very productive sew-a-thon over the Labor Day Weekend I spent most of the remaining week in Migraineville. Even though I was down & out with the worst migraine I have had in probably a year, I sewed some during the less painful moments. Here are 2 more completed UFOs.









Placemats: I need to invest in carbon dating for most of my UFOs and these placemats were no exception. The scrap of fabric was dated 1987 along the selvage. As I finish all these projects I sometimes shake my head and wonder (again), “What was I thinking?” There are 3 placemats in this project. What’s up with that? And, the colors do not now, nor did they ever, go with my kitchen colors. Hmmm.

One thing about I like about working on these UFO projects is the freedom to try out something new. If it doesn’t work out, it isn’t a very big deal. So for these placemats I used decorative thread to machine quilt a lot of the designs. What’s the big deal you ask? I am very late to the game with decorative thread. For some reason I have been unable to wrap my head around the fact that decorative threads can be used by anyone, not just embroidery machine operators. (I know. Sometimes that blonde hair really gets in my way!) So I picked up 3 different decorative threads to use on this project—just to see how they performed and looked.

The blue was Sulky 40 wt., red was Gutterman Topstitching thread 40 wt., and the tan was Coats & Clark 40 wt. rayon. I honestly don’t know very much about decorative threads. All 3 of these threads worked well in my Bernina. I did adjust the tension and used a topstitching needle. But they all worked well and look good.

I'm planning a separate post about the Pilgram couple.

Long Time No Post

I had a couple of rough weeks. I spent most of Labor Day Weekend and the next several days with a severe, debilitating migraine. Then I was behind at work and had to play catch up. I have several updates to post from that time period. But here is what I did this past week end.

This is KwikSew 3617 view A. (My photographer has not been very cooperative. My apologies for the photo.) The fabric is from my stash. It is a very soft, beautiful cotton knit, almost silky. It is too warm to wear a long-sleeve T, but this is going to be fabulous when it gets a little cooler.

The pattern went together easily. KwikSew has great directions. And yes, I will be making this again. It is basic enough that I could have it in several colors. I'll be checking the stash for other appropriate fabrics.

I Just Love Surprises!

I recently received a post card with a couple of coupons from Jo-Ann's. It was kinda clever. It had a picture of bolts of fabric on it. The copy said something like "Soon Wal-Mart won't carry fabric. But we do-It's in our name". I quit shopping at Jo-Ann's a couple of years ago because the store was always messy, dirty, unorganized and the employees were surly. I am blessed to have a decent Hancock's nearby and a couple of really nice LFSs. As I mentioned earlier, I visited Jo-Ann's as a last ditch effort to look for trim for my Chanel-style jacket. I returned to the store today to purchase the trim and was pleasantly surprised by the employees' helpfulness and the general state of the store.

This store has been cleaned up and completely reset. It is neat and tidy and well organized. The fabrics are typical chain store quality, but they had a nice inventory--and it wasn't all fleece. The fashion fabrics were on one side of the store, quilting fabrics along the back wall. Needlework (knitting, crocheting, cross-stitch, etc.) items were grouped together in multiple aisles. Other crafts were grouped together in a similar fashion. Unlike several years ago, there was plenty of stock even with the items that were on sale.

When I stepped up to the cutting table to have my trim measured and cut, I was a little short of what I need. The clerk volunteered that the trim I selected was carried in most stores. She suggested that I check other stores in the metro area, or if I could wait, they would receive more of this trim in a couple of weeks. Oh my goodness! Was this a Jo-Ann's employee actually being helpful?

At the check out counter I separated my goodies into 2 piles so I could use 2 different coupons. Again, the clerk here was helpful. She politely asked why I was splitting my purchase. When I explained the coupons she told me I could use both coupons on the same purchase--the register would figure out the discounts. Wow! Polite & helpful! I can't count how many times in the past I was told I couldn't combine multiple coupons on the same receipt; each coupon had to be a separate purchase.

I have criticized Jo-Ann's in the past for being a sub-par fabric & craft store. They seem to have found their footing and are looking good--at least in my neighborhood store. I hope every other Jo-Ann's shopper has the same pleasant experience I did.

Color Me Confident--Not!

Cindy's post at Mid-Life Meandering about the book Color Me Confident (CMC) captured my interest. You would think that with the many books I have read about wardrobe color and style it would be second nature to me and everything in my closet would be exactly right for me. It's not. In fact, I've been feeling unhappy about my appearance recently. So I splurged & purchased the book. It is very similar to Color Me Beautiful's Looking Your Best. (CMB) Which I found reassuring. In CMB I am a Cool Summer and in CMC I am Light & Cool. Both palettes are basically the same. I never felt quite comfortable with CMB's body type. I am a Curved Pear which comes close, but not exactly. I like CMC's body shape of Full Hourglass much better. It describes my body pretty good.

CMB classifies me as a Classic style which I always thought was correct (if only I actually worked in an office as opposed to at home.) But here is where I was really taken aback. According to CMC's style quiz I am definitely a Natural with only a little Classic tendency. I'm shocked. When I reviewed the list of "Famous Naturals" I really don’t (at least I didn't) think I dressed like Julia Roberts, Steffi Graf, Vanessa Redgrave or Kate Winslet. My impression of these women is that they dress very casually, often in jeans and t-shirts--not sloppy but very laid back. Oh gee! That describes how I've been dressing lately. It was like a slap in the face.

There isn't anything wrong with being a Natural. It's just not the image I want to project. I love beautiful, tailored clothing. Nothing makes my heart go pitter-patter more than a wool blazer. I love how beautifully tailored wool slacks lift my spirits and make me feel beautiful. When I looked at the style characteristics of the Classic style in CMC-it was much more in line with my goals. Timeless & elegant, smart & understated. This is how I want to look.

I've gone through some major personal changes over the last few years, all for the better. But somewhere along the way I lost my style. I believe I used to be much more of Classic style dresser. I'm sure of it. (But I think I'll ask my daughters for their opinion.) But no matter. I know where I want to go now and I will be reworking/sewing my wardrobe in that direction.

National Sewing Month!

It's National Sewing Month! Come on, everyone. Let's sew!

A Look Inside My Lull

There was a lull in sewing last week for a couple of reasons, the heat and poor sleep. I am at that peri-menopausal point where I have a really difficult time sleeping. I'm usually hot which is a problem because DH's heart medicine makes him cold. This combination usually finds me asleep on the couch in the cool bar basement or in the guest bed with the overhead fan on high. Plus, even if I'm comfortable temperature-wise, sometimes I can't get to sleep or I can't stay asleep or I wake up in the middle of the night unable to get back to sleep. The result is that I'm tired, sluggish and unmotivated to do much.

Add to the sleep issue hot & humid temperatures and I lost several days of sewing. We've had such great unseasonably cool weather that last couple of weeks that I was caught off guard when we had 2 days around 90 degrees with typical August humidity. Thinking I would just make it through was a mistake. Although my office was o.k. (It is in the basement.) my sewing studio was miserable. The weekend brought yard and house work.


But all was not lost. Wednesday I spent most of the day with my youngest daughter, Chef M. (Technically she's not a chef but she's working on it!) We met for coffee then hit the last day of the YMCA book fair. Books were $10 for any size box you could carry. Chef M. found some cookbooks along with some sci-fi novels for her SO. I found these items. The Stitch by Stitch book has a variety of knit, crochet, & sewing projects. I purchased it for the knitted lace baby blanket project. There is an interesting needlepoint/cross stitch Santa in the Holidays in Cross Stitch book. And the tailoring book is from Palmer/Pletsch, always a good resource.


Chef M and I hit the local Goodwill store also. In addition to be a talented cook, she also has the knack of finding great buys at thrift shops. I have lost count of the number of times I have commented and her clothes and her reply is she got it at Goodwill. I'm looking for a man's brown cardigan I can use in the needle felting project from the current issue of Sew Stylish. No luck that day, but I'll keep checking back.

I spent a lot of time this past week searching for the trim for my Chanel-style jacket I'm working on. Here is my fabric. The variegated cross yarn can be pulled out easily. So I tried braiding it, weaving it, crocheting it and knitting an I-cord. Nope. Didn't look right. So I purchased lots of samples of trims from a LFS. They were too wide, too narrow, too plain, too intricate. I tried black, white & black & white. I considered grosgrain ribbon, petersham, (I was amazed that the manager of the LFS did not know the difference between petersham and grosgrain ribbon. How sad.) satin ribbon, silk bias ribbon. I spent hours looking at trims on the Internet. Nothing really seemed right.
Then yesterday as really a last ditch effort I stopped in at Jo-Ann's and bought about 6 or 8 more samples of trim. Lo and behold, one of them looks really good, and I am trying out adding the variegated yarn from the fabric. I should have a sample by the middle of the week. I'm so excited!

Just need to make buttonholes and sew on the buttons of my Bells shirt and it will be finished. I hope to do that this evening.