Obtaining Knowledge

May has come... pretty, bright, and cool! We have already had some coldness; and it's May! Some parts of the area further North from us; have even had snow! Ahem, May.... anyone seeing the theme I'm going for?
So last month one of my DD's and I went to the Salt Lake City Library book sale. It really is a cool event. Of course as you probably can tell; they sell some of their used books; and also books that have been donated for the sale. I did pretty good, didn't go crazy buying tons of books; this time! I did manage to get my hands on a copy of Sandra Betzina's book "Power Sewing, Step by Step". All for the low, low price of $1.00, or 100 pennies, 10 dimes, 20 nickles; you get the drift! Oh, I did forget 2-fifty cent pieces, or 4-quarters!  All hard back books are $1 and the paper backs are 50 cents.  I've started reading it and I must say; she sure has lots to share. Great information is just that; great! So, I'm reading along and one of the last things she says in the pretesting a pattern section is; "A pattern that doesn't progress past a pretest doesn't count as a failure." (quote taken from Sandra Betzina's book Power Sewing; step by step. Giving credit where credit is due!!!) Can I tell you that this made me feel great! Sooo; all of you seamstress's out there, basically she is giving you permission to toss that pretest UFO.  If you are using old stash fabric to pretest a new (or new to you) pattern and your not crazy about part of it, length, shape, fit, style on you.... toss it! She also says; (and I'm paraphrasing here) that when you pretest a pattern; to not worry about being a perfectionist. Unless your planning on wearing the pretest; (and of course you can if your happy with the outcome) don't bother putting in both sleeve's, or cutting out facings, collars, pockets and you know trims etc. Your the expert here. You know what does and doesn't look good on you. It makes no sense at all to continue if what you finish is not what you wanted or like.  Also; if you try on said test item and you find it's not at all to your liking, you can of course continue adjustments to see if there is something that can be done to make it to your liking. If of course that doesn't work; you can move on... sewing time to me; should be enjoyable time.
Back to the work at hand! I've moved back into my sewing room.... carpet was installed on Tuesday, by that night I had most of the furniture (i.e.; odds and ends of such) moved back into the room... it's the fabric and various other items I need to get moving on! I still haven't put my machine back into the table. I will take a finish picture later! I have been sorting out a few things so that I'm not keeping superfluous items! This way, there is less to mess up and less to clean~
Have a great week.... My sewing room looks like a whole new world! Thanks to my DD (you know who you are! ;) ) and my DH for telling me to go get carpet!!! Back to the finishing points!

Making Lemons Into Lemonaid

Spring has finally come I suspect! If by looking at all the lovely flowers is a way to tell; I think we made it! Our tree's are leafing out and the birds are going nuts with the "chirping" (always the chirping"!!!). Don't get me wrong I love birds, just sometimes it feels like they are thinking the louder I chirp the better mate I will get! I'm thinking that a girl bird is thinking; Not Him, He is Way Too Loud! LoL

O.K. since last I posted I've been working on a quilt for one of the niece's that is going to be married soon; and cleaning up after the basement got flooded. We were very Blessed, a few things (very few) got ruined; but mostly it was cleaning and drying things out. Every Spring/Summer/early Fall we have the use of secondary water; this is for non-drinking, to be used to water gardens, grass, etc. Anyway long story short one of these taps was left on so when the  outside water was turned on this tap was open full blast. The ground got soaked and overflowed the sidewalk; taking it right down our basement steps and into the basement. The drain couldn't keep up with the water that was coming in; thus a flooded basement! 

So, I decided that since we had to take out all my odds/ends of stuff from the sewing room anyway why not paint! Oh, and while we are at it; let's update the baseboards (which we have been working on thru out the house). DD came last Monday and using me as her helper; (I'm a terrible painter!) we cut in and then painted the walls, then trim (the stuff that was already there, not the baseboards, yeah, we didn't do that until after the painting was done!), then after she picked up the two little grands from school.... we did a second coat! She is sooo totally fast! She needs to go into business! Soooo;

Pictures!!!So these are just the outer area's of the room... I still have furniture etc; in the center waiting to be moved back out of the room.... sooo tomorrow the carpet comes! Yes!!! 

                                                                               

I will take pictures of the completed room after carpet/furniture has been moved 

back into the room. I have decided to rearrange the furniture, hopefully it will be

more comfortable and more conducive to sewing. When I told my DD that I was 

going to rearrange things; she laughed and told me that she is soooo my daughter!

Oh, I've also been helping with a cause that is near and dear to my heart. One of our

fellow Stake members (someone who goes to our Church) was diagnosed with Angioimmunoblastic T-cell Lymphoma. Which is a very rare, but aggressive cancer, accounting for 1 % of all Lymphoma cancers. Anyway, he has gone thru 7 rounds of chemo treatments (since last Fall). And will be needing a Stem Cell Transplant soon. Brother Brian Stettler is a wonderful man, husband, father and church member!  A bunch of neighbors, church members and friends are putting together a huge garage sale fundraiser on May 18, 2013. It will be held at the Layton, Utah K-Mart parking lot (2010 North Main Street Layton, Utah). 7:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. 

Anyone from this area who would like to come we welcome one and all. There are all sorts of things

available. Come support a wonderful cause. All money will be donated to the family. Any other monetary contributions; can be made at American First Credit Union; in Brian K or Nancy Stettler's name. Also if you want you can go to this facebook account (I don't do facebook; so I don't know what it's called! LoL)   www.facebook.com/brianstettler2013 

I will try to remember to take some pictures to show you on that day.

Thanks... 

Happy sewing! 

Remember to take a break from sewing every 25-30 minutes or so; get up and move around, better for your back, legs, shoulders etc. Try doing some stretches... it couldn't hurt.

Family Flies; When Their Having Fun

Hey I know your thinking where oh where has Jean been. Good question! Mostly I have had the Winter blog writing blues; But I'm back now and have a really important subject!
Those of you who don't know Google Reader will be closing down in July if you don't know about it; go here to check it out!
 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9934604/Google-Reader-petition-hits-100000-signatures.html

The last I saw (when I signed the petition)  they still need lots more signatures! Like a little over 5,000
which in the world of blogs isn't so much! It would make it sooo much easier if we could all work together and let them know we would like them to stick around! :)

Tell you friends; Facebook it (if you Facebook, tweet; etc....) get the word out!

O.K. now back to our semi-regularly scheduled blog post!

Things seem to be changing everywhere. Always something new. I sure would hate it to loose all the blog friends that I've come to read/love because Google Reader isn't around anymore!

I've been working on clearing out some of the odds and ends projects that have been cluttering my sewing room lately (let's face it, for months!!!). My last post    (  Ready and Willing; Just Not Able  )
I was working on a dress that had sat in the UFO pile for quite some time. In this post I mentioned that I was going to change the sleeve from a cute little extended shoulder to a cap sleeve. Ahem, what was I thinking?  When you have things in the UFO pile for soooo long, sometimes we forget what we were about to do! No understatement here! Too funny, so I cut the sleeve out (the cap sleeve) and sewed it to the dress!  BBBBBBBBBBBAP! WRONG!!!  I need one of those really noisy buzzers they have on game shows! Again what was I thinking!!! Apparently I wasn't thinking at all about the end result! It was a laugh that's for sure! Since the dress it's self had a bit of an extended shoulder already.... and then I put a cap sleeve on it! Well, you get the picture! Sad to say I didn't until I looked at it b/4 trying it on. Let's just say that was a terrific waste of sewing time! Back to square one I believe! I think I will remake the extended shoulder so it's a bit longer and call it good! So I can move on!!!

So I had this cute pattern from this book;

 And since I had a cute print in the fabric stash plus so many people I know from Church are having babies... like a dozen babies in the past year or more. I thought I should make something cute to share. Of course it's always more fun to sew for girls then boys.... (sorry mom's of boys!) well, at least some of the time's, at least there are tons of cute patterns out there for girls... many more for girls than boys. And I have a lot of girl patterns. Heavy sigh!
So, I made 4! Yep you read right! 4 of those cute little hats. I figured that since I was at it, I may as well put some in the gift stash! I also have a dozen receiving blankets cut out. They are a self binding receiving blanket from  this tutorial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqwdNqMZ8Ro
All it takes is 30 inches square of one fabric and 40 inches square of another. Cute, cute, cute!
We are managing to get healthy again, DH is spent some time skiing this winter, and enjoying every minute of it. We had a wonderful visit from our son and family a couple weeks ago. So, I will leave you with this cute picture of DH and one of the grands playing airplane!

They had a great time... you can see how matted down the grass is from all the snow we had; which melted just before they got here! It figures; they came to go skiing with our DIL's family.

Watch for the notions sales, nothing like getting thread, needles etc... on sale. Oh, and patterns too!

Ready and Willing; Just Not Able

So much for me getting right to blogging and sewing this year! DH and I have been sick since well, my last post pretty much! I finally gave in a few weeks back and went to the dr.'s. Bronchial Asma? Who Knew? Any way, after much medicine and much coughing (still coughing and mom, I feel your pain!) we are on the mend. Now if the terrible air quality would get better, things would move along a bit quicker.  DH and I went on a drive on Saturday to get outta all the bad air. We went onto the other side of the mountain where it's much more clear.... matter of fact the air there was wonderful!
So, although I've been feeling poorly I did get a few things worked on... no major projects, just some UFO's that I've been meaning to finish. I put a new zipper in a fleece vest, I took in the sides of a dress that I bought at the local thrift shop for $6. I still need to do a fine tuning... yeah, I tried it on and there were a couple little bumps at the hips...  My two oldest daughters gave me a cute corduroy skirt for my birthday in November... which was a bit shorter then I like to wear, so I brought down the hem and added a light weight black lace to the hem. I wore that yesterday to Church and felt much more comfortable in it. Going thru the UFO basket I found a dress that had been cut out without sleeves... the extra fabric was still with it so I managed to get some sleeves cut out for that dress. I go in bursts... I get a few things done and then get tired. So, that's probably why I haven't done much else. Oh, I did managed to get my pattern pieces cut out for the Burda 7128 dress. Maybe if I can get the UFO dress done and outta the way, I can get to the Burda dress b/4 Summer! LoL....
I've been doing a lot of blog hopping.... mostly enjoying other people's hard work.... and chomping at the bit to get back to some actual sewing! More to come.... hopefully soon! :)
Here is a picture of the UFO I'm working on.... I stopped working on it because I decided that it needed sleeves...  I like a bit more of a sleeve than what they have here....



This is the dress that was in the UFO pile.
So I took the sleeve from the pattern below;



Blue dress view... and it's all cut out. Now to get to some actual sewing! I have a cute short sleeve jacket my parents brought back from Thailand to wear with it. It should be great for Spring/Summer/and even maybe into Fall.... since the colors are sorta Fallish. So, I suppose I did get some sewing done... or at least sewing related things done. I may make this dress again (well... when it does get done) and try just making the sleeve they have a bit longer... we shall see! That was my plan all along, right now, with it being sooo cold... I hate to think of sewing dresses with shorter sleeves... it just makes me shiver! If you know what I mean.... it's been in the teen's as far as degree's around here for week's. If not colder! It's 10 degree's outside right now! Yeah for good working heaters/furnaces!
Don't forget to clean out your sewing machine.... dust, lint, threads... they all seem to collect under the needle plate and jam things up. It's a new year... time to clean things up!

Merry Christmas To All and To All A Good Night!

Being as this is now the ......day after Christmas, I hope that that means everyone has had a wonderful day with family and friends and that now you are recuperating! I stayed up wayyyy to late on Christmas Eve. sewing and watching sweet Christmas shows and just enjoying. So having stayed up late the night before, last night also being a late night I was somewhat lagging b/4 bed last night! I tumbled into bed and slept and slept. Now that I'm refreshed.... I'm ready to go again! 

DH has off until next week sometime and we plan on playing a bit..... you know the drill, movies, puzzles, left overs... pie.... sewing, more pie, hmmmm playing with the grands... and did I say pie? I never made it to the cookie making... but I promised DH I would b/4 New Years... (although, he did say that he wasn't really worried at all about not having any cookies!.... Mostly, cause there is ..... hmmmm

pie! LoL...) I only made 2 pumpkin... but it's nice to have it around... although, he finished off the last piece of 1 pie just a bit ago! Lots of other fun treats... that I need to try to stay away from! 

We had a wonderful Christmas time, spent with family and visiting on the phone with the ones that are not close at hand. Sharing our evening meal with some family and a friend who had no where else to go.  Last night we went over to one of our DD's house all the intentions in the world to watch the new BatMan movie.... (I still haven't seen it, and don't feel like I missed anything.... sorry for you who love it!). DD and I played with her new Brother sewing/embroidery machine! What's not to like? We learned all sorts of fun things and she ended up making a cute Butterfly patch as her first testing of the machine. Things to learn and play with. 

While DH is off skiing I'm planning on my own "playing" down in the sewing room.... plans are the best when laid out to sew!!!! 

So, enjoy the time off that you may have... and for those of you who have to go back to work! Enjoy that too.... you have a job! Many do not. We must above all count our blessings! 

Actual Sewing Post Coming

Stay tuned, actual sewing related post..... soon! :)  Hard to believe... I know, but things just get complicated sometimes. I wanted to Sew Burda pattern 116  from 08/2011 which you can see here!
http://allisoncsewinggallery.blogspot.com  on her 2012 07 post.  But after borrowing it from a good neighbor.... reality came knocking at the door and I just couldn't even trace out the pattern! I'm spoiled, I've used the Big 4 patterns for sooo many years that actually tracing out from the ohhhh soo many lines from Burda's patterns.... it about made me dizzy! LoL... you win some you loose some I suppose. Now I guess I will just have to see if I can find something similar in either one of the Burda patterns (that are in envelopes) or some other company! I really did want to make it with a 3/4 length sleeve anyway!

I did find this pattern though, which I plan on making in from view A; with 3/4 length sleeves. Maybe a tad bit shorter also... I will need to make it shorter in the waist as I'm very short waisted. Such is life!


I will have to go back to the fabric store and see if I can find something similar as I mentioned above!
Back again... hopefully sooner rather than later!
Oh, and we cut our Christmas tree yesterday... it took us far shorter time wise than in years past.  Funny story, I will have to relate later when I have a bit more time. We were home and back to our left over's by.... 6:15 p.m. Friday evening!

Keep your scissors sharp!

Happy Thanks Giving Every One

 So many of the people in our Nation and around the world have had trials, disappointments, hardships of all sorts, some people have been morning losses of loved ones or even homes or jobs. Today is a day to reflect on the past and strive to move forward. As hard as these trials can be, we truly need to work hard to over come these things. And the way we can help is too look around us and see what we can do! You may know of someone who needs a helping hand, words of encouragement and love can do a lot for those who have suffered from any type of trial.... whether it be getting a bad grade on a mid term.... or losing a home. Everyone can use words of love! Maybe someone just cut you off on the road somewhere... try to put yourself into their shoes... they may not of even realized that they did this to you. Turn the other cheek, maybe shake your head... instead of your fist! Share a smile, a hand shake or even put what you can into a donation pot. I know a few of us.... (o.k., maybe just me) have a hard time trying to decide whether the person pan handling at the side of the road is doing it professionally or really needs help. (Can you tell I've seen way too many shows like 60 Minutes! LoL)  To be honest, I guess that's not for me to decide! If you don't want to feel like maybe that person is going to take advantage... maybe help out through a local Church, halfway house, non-profit organization etc. There are a lot of ways to help... United Way from what I understand is a great organization also.... the Red Cross does good work all over the place. Oh, and if you can't help out with a donation of money (let's be honest, this can be a very wallet stretching time of year) volunteer to help with your time. Granted this also is hard sometimes this time of year. But.... then again, what about helping kids read at school or some other volunteering during the rest of the year! It doesn't have to happen like.... TODAY! 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that while your counting your blessings today... please make sure and see if you could maybe answer someone else's prayers! Be good to your self, your family, your friends and your neighbors... you never know when you may be the person who needs to be uplifted or helped; whether it be financially, mentally, physically or Spiritually. 

Take care and God Bless You and Your Family During This Wonderful Season of the Year And all the rest of the year too!

Oh, and don't get caught with an empty bobbin! :)