Almost the New Year

Hello out there! Is anyone reading? Oh well, I suppose this is just for my enjoyment
anyway.
So many things happening around here. I wrote a few years back that our beloved Golden
Retriever Jamie passed away at the age of 13 years. We missed her so much. I found
myself looking for her in every room. And wondering why she didn't take care of the
little bits of food I had dropped on the floor. Well, here after 3 1/2 years we have a  new
little family member. Her name is Abby. She was born September 28th, and we met 3
weeks later.

 And of course came back a few times to visit before taking her home, the Friday b/4 Thanksgiving.
What a blessing she is to have in our home. A LOT OF WORK OF COURSE!  But a total Blessing too!

And of the family is making her very welcome! The grands are having a blast! Outside and inside.... she loves to give kisses and play chase.This picture makes it look like our grandson Cameron doesn't like what she is doing... but, by the time she was done kissing him he was laughing up a storm!  She is now 12 weeks old. She had her first Christmas with us. I need to get photo's of her playing with her dog cousin Ruby! They were outside running to their hearts content! It's so much fun watching them. Ruby's legs are a bit shorter then Abby's and so she makes some quick turns that Abby can't always keep up with. But, she is holding her own. They were both pretty tired by the time Ruby went home. If Ruby was anything like Abby she slept pretty good last night! 

Sewing has gone by the way side for a while, there have been too many times going to the back yard to take Abby out. She is training us pretty well! But she is doing better and better. 

One thing that is sewing related that I have been doing is teaching my great-niece to sew. She has mastered the art of threading a sewing machine.... two to be exact! She made herself a pillowcase for her body pillow. Ellie is 7 years old this past fall and she is a very avid student! It's cute to see how excited she gets with each new thing she learns. She received a sewing machine for Christmas this year so now is excited to continue on. Her mom thought she would have to teach her how to use it. But after teaching her how to use the self threading aspect of the machine away she went! She had it threaded b/4 my niece knew what was going on. Ellie was so excited to open the machine that she had to call me and tell me what she got. Of course, I knew b/4 she did what she was getting. Such joy is fun to be a part of. 

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope that you will all have the joy that my great-niece has each and every day of the new year! 

Catch Up and not the Red kind you may put on your Fries

Seams that I'm always trying to play some sort of catch up.... whether on the blog or at home or just my sewing in general. But, then again such is life sometimes.

Here is a picture of the completed over-alls for my great nephew. Sorry, I need to find out how to rotate the pictures. Always something new to learn. Hope you can see the cute buttons. They are little doggie bones and puppy dogs.

The pattern McCall's 3736;


Is pretty self explanatory, the only problem I had was with the button holes. All of a sudden my machine decided to bock at making them for these cover-alls. I know not why.... so I pulled out my hand dandy no fail oldie but goodie Singer machine and sure enough I had no problem what-so-ever making all 4 button holes. Now mind you these buttons I have had in the stash for a good many, many years.... (they were some I bought while I still worked at Hancock Fabrics....) I bought them on a sidewalk sale. For all of maybe 90 cents. I figured with the little puppy dogs on the fabric, they would
be perfect for this gift. Oh, as I was working on putting in the snap tape..... ahem, don't make the same mistake that I made. I put the top snap tape in correctly facing down so they would snap into the bottom snap tape.... yeah, well when I turned over the pants to put in the bottom tape, I faced them down also.... yep, me and my seam ripper got to be good friends! It was late, I was tired. Enough said! Hopefully I only make that mistake once! It will be something I hope I remember. It was the last thing I had to do.... lets just say I was not happy!!!!! Oh well. On to the next project!
Now I need to work on something for my great niece due sometime in November I believe. I may make another little jacket/fleece sweater with embroidery, similar to the one I made last Fall. So many cute patterns so little time.
Between these projects and trying to get my daughters quilt machine quilted I've been camping, sewing with my friend Karma, tending the garden and various other Summer activities. O.K., reading, I've been reading..... out in the backyard under the apple tree's! Best shade in town! Hope your summer has been fun. Enjoy it while you can. Oh, and when you sharpen those scissors.... try not to cut yourself with them! Enough said! :(

Celebrating Our Nations Birthday

                   Happy Birthday America

Special Post: Cameo/Silhouette Give Away

Just a quick post to let you know that over at Craftaholicsanonymous  http://www.craftaholicsanonymous.net/cameo-giveaway-silhouette-june-promo
there is a fantastic giveaway going on! A Cameo and Silhouette giveaway;
so go check it out!

Still Alive And Kicking

Well, I had a post back in May that the computer ate... so here I am starting all over again.

So in the past oh year I suppose I've been working on these blocks 5 inch black and red and white or mixture there of in the middle and anything goes on either side.  Would you believe I've made over 360 of these! Yep, now just to decide how to lay them out. I may end up using sashing around some of the pieces blocks.... I will probably lay them out into 4 square settings. It will all depend what kind of design I decide on. 

Also my DH and I have been attending a few meetings for a Pioneer Trek we are going on in July at Martins Cove in Wyoming. This will be the 2nd time we are there together this time as a Ma and Pa, where in the past we were there as cooks. I also went one time without DH. So, I'm in the process of re-figuring my pioneer clothing, taking in under the bust of one of my dresses. I'm adding some elastic so it fits a bit better.... better than the sack look it's had in the past. Of course I wore an apron over it so that helped the appearance in the past, but I felt it needed a revamp. I will probably have to post pictures later as I don't have any of us together in pioneer clothing. If you would like to read more about what Martins Cove, Wyoming please go check out Wikipedia's entry: 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin's_Cove

It's birthday's, Father's Day month around here... DD's birthday was the 2nd week of June and then DH turned 60 last week and we had a family party on Friday for him. We bar-b-qued outside with the grands helping out by hitting the birthday boy with silly string and also blowing party blowers to add to the fun. Home made strawberry shortcake was on the menu as always, since this is the birthday boys favorite birthday dessert. He will eat angle food cake with strawberries on it but much rather prefers home made short cake. 

As a special surprise since it was his 60th, our youngest daughter made an extra effort to secure letters from friends and family with special messages for the birthday boy. Stories about him were forthcoming and really fun to see his face light up when he read stories from friends thought long lost!  She found friends that we had while in the Navy and they shared different stories with her. One friend sent a picture of DH in his Yokosuka Seahawks Football uniform. These were all great reads.

One more thing, I finally got DD's the youngest quilt put together the old quilt top from her great gramma, Nana. Still need to machine quilt it. I'm not fantastic at machine quilting so it won't be anything amazing. But hopefully it will help keep it together.

Have a Wonderful July 4th! God Bless America!!!

What To Do When Clothing Has Gone Wrong or Needs Mending

I'm a child of the 50's and 60's, so all my life I heard the adage Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it do, or Do Without! I heard it; it doesn't mean that I heard it all the time from family... It's just something I heard. Things were somewhat tight growing up, so we went to Good Will now and again, I learned to sew in Junior High ( I mean really sew, Barbie Clothes don't really count cause I mostly tied them together with sashes to keep them on Barbie). So, my grandma's sewed for me, mom sewed for me... once; when I had an accident with a knife blade... requiring 90 stitches, mom told me that if I didn't cry she would make me a Barbie outfit! I yelled a little but I didn't cry. Which is a big thing for me cause, well as my family and friends know, if you even say the work cry to me; the tear ducts decide it 's time to do their thing! Lol.  O.K., back to what I was getting too. My mom is a really creative person, she once took a class in metal work; and made a clock out of tin cans that she cut.... it was amazing! Hmmm, wonder if she has any pictures of it because she no longer has it. I digress again.... sorry. So I basically learned that if you had an article of clothing you were not happy with; you fix it so you are. Change buttons, shorten, fix sleeves etc. Make it do.
Remember how our folks would say, Hang Up Your Clothes, Money Doesn't Grow On Trees ( which to me is funny cause we all know that money is made of paper and where does paper come from.... ahhhh Trees!). They said it because they wanted your clothes to last. One way to help make your clothes last; is to take care of them.
 Wash them in a manner that will preserve them, it you are using hot water on a 100% cotton item.... let me tell you right here; IT'S GONNA SHRINK!   So, if a label or your common sense tells you something is delicate; treat it as such. Delicate items need to either be hand washed and left on a towel to dry (flat), or washed on delicate in the washer with cool water and then dried flat. Drying can be really hard on clothes. Have you ever noticed that when you go to empty the lint trap on the dryer how much lint there is? Well... it's gotta come from somewhere, and that somewhere is from your clothes. Bit by bit the fibers loosen and some of that fluff or the thickness of the cloth the more it is dried in a dryer. So, if you want to help them last a bit longer, don't over-dry your items.  If you have an item that gets a stain do something about it as soon as you can. The sooner the better. If you wait a long time before you try to get rid of a stain; well, sometimes it just makes it worse.  Case in point. A friend called the other day; her daughter is getting married in a couple of weeks. Apparently my friend has recently started taking in Foster Children. The foster child that they have in their home has some problems from what I understand. Now your probably asking what has this got to do with her daughters wedding... I'm getting to that. Apparently said foster child was upset and urinated on the wedding dress; which was in a cloth bag and they didn't know it until they brought the dress out to have a look at it this past week. My friends daughter was very, very upset but my friend is a sweet and lovely person and calmed her down. Back to the phone call; it went like this; Jean, how do you get urine stain out of a wedding dress? I asked her what the fabric was and she told me it was a  cream colored polyester.  One thing we know is you can not use regular bleach on it. I had her soak the dress in the bath tub cool water and vinegar... cause the smell was far from pleasant from what I understand. She soaked it and then rinsed and then soaked it some more. The stain and the smell is now gone. Hopefully in not so many months and it will just be one of those things that people laugh about. I'm thinking it's still a bit early for that right now.
Buttons:
Most clothes that have buttons on them usually come with at least 1 replacement button. Put it in a place that you won't loose it. Sewing it to the clothing item is a great idea or if you are not so inclined to do that, at least put it some place you can find it. I have an old quart and 1/2 canning jar that I keep my loose buttons in. Some of them are real prizes. I have a few metal buttons from off of a coat I had when I was a kid. Lots of memories in that jar. So, now that you know where the extra buttons are what do you do when you loose a button from say; off your favorite blouse? Do you throw it into the mending pile? You know the one; the one that is in the bottom of your closet that sees the light of day maybe once every two years when your out of all your favorite things. Yeah, I know how that is. I have 4 kids; it's hard to remember to get those things mended when you are trying to keep up mending for 6 people. There were a few times when my kids would grow out of things b/4 I got to it! It's alright as long as they fit the next child down.... but if it's going from a boy to a girl, Hmmmm Not So Much! So, it's good if you pick one day a month to do nothing but mend!  If you don't have mending to do... GREAT! Do something else. Anyway, put buttons back on as quickly as you loose them, that way the item of clothing won't be outta style when you are done putting the button back on.
Mending:
Mending clothes can be a challenge. They very seldom tear on a seam or somewhere it's not going to show. Sometimes you need to be creative.... (remember that word, because you will need it to keep yourself from getting upset with someone who has just stepped on your maxi dress and torn a hole in it). Mind you sometimes they do tear on a seam or someplace where all you have to do is unpick a seam allowance and then add a touch more to cover up the tear. I have found more than once that  "Wonder Under" is the best investment in the world when it comes to fixing tears  or disguising small holes.  Say you have a hole the size of a penny, you cut a piece of Wonder Under out maybe double the size of the hole; also cut a piece of fabric out that is similar size to the Wonder Under. Now this part is important because you don't want the glue part of the Wonder Under to show through the hole.  Cut away the center of the Wonder Under the same size as the hole but leave the paper backing still on it. Following the instructions for the product iron it onto the front of the piece of fabric. Let it cool, remove the backing paper and place to cover hole. Once again following the product instructions iron the piece of Wonder Under to your clothing item. Done and Done!!! It should hold up just fine for usual wear and tear (yeah I know that is one of those words we really don't want to read right now... but you understand what I mean). Granted if you are mending a wedding dress... there are better way than this for this type of hole, mending. Like I said, sometimes you need to be CREATIVE.  If you can't find a piece of fabric that matches the clothing item perfectly.... use that creativity. I have removed extra fabric from seam allowances to use for this sort of mending. We know it's going to match because as many times as this item has been washed.... the rest of the item has been too. So, they will be the same shade no matter what.
For the mending I did for my SIL I used some creativeness, he was missing button on a sport coat, down the front he had 2 broken buttons and only 1 that was not broken of the larger size. I needed 3 altogether. His coat had a couple of replacement buttons; only 1 large and 2 small (for the sleeves). I found 2 buttons that would "pass" as a match to go on the front, but the sleeve buttons just would not match with the newer buttons I found in my button jar. So, that meant I had to find enough buttons in the jar to look alright with the others. Digging I found enough buttons to go on the sleeves from an old shirt (I always cut off old buttons; you never really know when they may come in handy) and sewed them on. He was tickled as could be that I was able to fix it so he could wear it again. I also replaced a couple of buttons on another jacket that happened to have the extra buttons sewn into one of the pockets. So, check; you never know where the manufacturer will be putting them.
My DH has a problem with a brand of blue jeans we buy him; the way they are sewn the extra fabric creates a small hole near the bottom of zipper. What I do to fix this (because I have done it often) I find an old small piece of denim (I save old jeans to make quilts with, so I have plenty to match up a hole with.) I find thread that is a near match to the fabric and after either using Wonder Under or using a spray adhesive (that I use for quilting) I adhere the patch piece to the under side of the jeans and let it set for a few minutes.  I put my sewing machine on a straight stitch somewhat of a longer stitch; then I go back and forth in the same direction as the grain of the jeans until I have filled that hole area and the area around the edges and low and behold it blends right in. There have been a few times when I've done this and put them on the bed for my DH to put away....(because I've trained him to put away his own clothes after I wash/dry and iron things for him) and he hasn't even noticed it was the same pair!
I like a good Challenge; and if I have time it works a whole lot better (less stress that way), but that isn't always the case. I have replaced bodices that someone has managed to stain.... by simply turning
the fabric inside out and re-hemming. You know the fabric color will match and a lot of times although the fabric has a good (outside) and bad (inside) they may not be noticeably different. If all else fails, you can always try for a color match and a re-do. Really though, I don't do that sort of thing unless it's for something extra special, due to the fact that it may cost more than it's worth.
Years ago I was cleaning out my MIL's sewing room. They were in the process of moving into a smaller home. We came across some pamphlets that had to do with re-making clothing from other clothing. It was an old  Extension Service pamphlet. It was from around the late 40's early 50's and had some interesting pictures of how they used these older clothes to make things for children. It was only recently that I passed it onto one of my neighbors. I think that the old adage I mentioned above, needs to have or Pass It On added to it. Cause sometimes we just need to pass it onto someone else that can get use outta what we can no longer use.
You may want to check in your area to see if there is a clothing swap available. When your kids or you for that matter have clothing of good shape that no one in your family or acquaintance can use  it's stands to reason that someone somewhere may be able to use them. Or vice versa... maybe someone has something you could use. Lets try to keep these items out of the land fill. I spent the better part of a hour or so yesterday cutting up some old shirts of my hubbies and mine so that I can use the material for quilts. Still good material, some of it at least. But not good enough for the shirt to be passed onto someone else. Too many weak parts in the shirts.
Well, that should be enough for this post. I hope that you have learned something in this post that you can use. Questions.... ask away! Like I said, I love a good challenge! Have a Wonderful Easter!

Always Something Fun To Make

Time sure can go by quickly. I could almost assure you that it was just two weeks ago that I made my last post. But, looking back at the date of it assured myself that it wasn't. So, lets see; I finished the prom dress for a girl in our ward at church. (picture to follow). When I made it I mentioned last post that it came from 3 patterns. After we got so far into the dress and K. tried it on; she was a bit cold (it was cold outside so that didn't help) and asked if it would be to much trouble to put sleeves on it. It was a bit of trouble; but I wanted her to be comfortable. Hind sight I could have told her no or asked her when we started if she wanted sleeves. It would have been much simpler to do that to begin with. But, thats not what we did... my picture isn't wanting to show up. Probably because I downloaded it wrong. I will see what I can do to fix that.

O.K., so I managed to learn a few things and figured out how to store/retrieve and crop the photo; since I don't have her permission to post her face. As they say, learn something new every day. If you look closely (and you will have too because her hair is in the way in the picture), you can see at the top of the bodice there is about a 1 1/2 band I put on because she didn't feel as modest as she would like. No problem. It was after I put that on and had straps pinned on that she decided she wanted sleeves. All in all it was an education to sew this dress. All in all, now that the dress is done, it took 3 dress patterns, a bit of fudging here and there... lots of unpicking to get it done.   But, in the end, she told her mom that she felt like a princess; so that's all that matters! Apparently she was doing a lot of twirling too... nothing like a full skirt to help a girl twirl. To bad kids don't learn to waltz she would have been the bell of the ball!  Full disclosure here; they borrowed a full slip to put under it to make it nice and fluffy and full. I did have to take up the slip a good 2 inches because K. is no taller than me. I stand at around 5' 4" tall. Her date from what I understand was around 6'. I get that!!! My dear hubby is 6' 1".  Oh, just so you know.... I don't waltz either! Lol...

 I started a pair of baby cover-alls for my nieces soon to be baby boy. I've been trying hard to use just the fabrics in my stash for things. This way I won't be as bad as the lady I read about on another blog;
check it out here;   http://weddingdressblue.wordpress.com/2014/04/06/my-parents-acquaintances-boyfriends-mothers-stash/    It was soo sweet of the gentleman to share his mother's fabric stash with strangers. Then again, I'm sure he was just happy to be rid of it all. My MIL practically gave me all of her stash when I helped her and my FIL move to a newer home years ago. A lot of her stash was clothing type fabric, fabric that she still had from sewing for clients. She had one women she sewed for who she is assuming didn't know how to read;  because when she told her that she needed to buy what it said for the blouse in her size or skirt, dress etc. She always came with twice as much as she needed. When MIL tried to give the extra fabric back to her; she told her to keep it. I did donate some of that to the local D.I. because it was the satiny fabrics they used in the 80's and early 90's.

And I've been cutting out various squares for a sometime quilt. Sizes are pretty different; 2, 2 1/2, 3 1/2, 4, and also some 5 inch squares also some 4 3/8 inch triangles. All this of course gave me more scraps for my string quilt scrap basket. I needed  more variety there... it was getting kind of boring as far as colors in my basket. Nice to see some things checked off the to-do list. But then it always seems I've got more to add to it.




The little boy coveralls I'm making are from McCall's 3736, which is of course is no longer available (when do I buy new  patterns...lol), but it is available on the web... here is a picture of it. It's view E that I'm making. The green background with little puppy dogs will line the bodice, be the pocket (as you can see) and will also be at the cuff of the pants (I haven't gotten that done yet).

I have some cute little buttons of dog bones and puppies to put on. The buttons I bought on a close out years ago while working at Hancock Fabrics. The card the buttons are on says Trena's Trinkets.

Trena Hegdahi for Westwater. 

The tag says that they were originally up for sale in 1997 for $2.99, but I bought them for 1/2 off plus another 20% off since I worked there. So I paid approx. $1.20 for them. Always fun to dig thru my stash of stuff and use what I have. I hope my niece likes them. I will also be putting a cute little cuff on some oneies of the green and maybe a little applique of a puppy.... overkill? I will decide when I get that far I guess.  I will try to remember to take a pic. before I give them to her.
Don't forget to check out your stash... you never know what goodies will be lurking there. LoL...

So Quick Like Pulling off a Bandage

Keeping myself busy never seems to be a problem. Last week I spent a day with my friend Karma. We each worked on our own project and just visited and gabbed. It was great! I've been working on string quilt blocks and she was working on some English Paper Piecing blocks... her blocks are sooo cute.... and small. Like 3 x 3 inch blocks. I think the entire wall hanging will be like 12 x 12 inches
when finished. Hearts and sun bonnet sues if I remember correctly. I will have to take a picture and post it when she is done.
My SIL's birthday was the 1st of the month. I asked what he wanted and he told our daughter to ask if I would do some mending for him. Buttons replaced, holes mended etc. Oh, and he had a bike jersey that needed mending also. Too funny, really. On Sunday I gave him an empty basket to put his mending in (he didn't think it would be big enough!). Monday I got started right away on the mending of most everything but his bike jersey. After a while I got to working on the jersey, found something to make a patch out of that had the same type of stretch the jersey did. I'm mending away, thinking that I was doing an o.k. job, when I decided to stop and make us dinner. After dinner I spread out the jersey to trim threads and see what else needed to be done. The stitching for the label was actually woven right into the jersey.... ahem, but it was weird. Yes, the label was unreadable. I turned the jersey over and found that I had stitched the patch on the outside because SIL had folded it up insideout! Soooo after dinner I took out all of the stitching/mending I had done on it and waited until the next day to start all over! It did look good when it was done... but it took a lot longer then it should have.  I got everything all done and returned it all to our SIL, and then he said.... I forgot to add something to the pile! He has a favorite tie that apparently the grands were playing tug a way with (that couldn't be my grandkids!!!!! Anyway I told him that now that I had mended everything this would be on the clock! Double time and a half! Just kidding. But, it's not high on the priority list so he will get it when he gets it!
Next up, I cut out all of the pieces for the school dance dress I'm making.... a bit of slice and dice! More later.... Have a Great St. Patrick's Day on Monday!

Finally Some Accomplishments or Finishes

One of my nieces was due to have a baby girl the end of February and since I was sick when the baby shower happened I didn't want to go and spread my germies to everyone. So, I stayed home. She delivered her daughter Hadlee (after a very tough 27 hours of labor.... and then had to go c-section! Ouch!). So, this is what I made her... it's taken from this Leisure Arts booklet #3351
 
The one for the little girls is pictured in the in-set. I changed things a tad bit; as per usual... mostly I just changed up the colors of the embroidery because the fleece was much lighter and then I did not blanket stitch around all the edges. To me it was a bit toooo, much! Here is a picture of it.

And here is the outfit I bought (that I could have; should

have made, but at the time I thought I was in a hurry and didn't 

know I wouldn't make it to the shower)... my thoughts on that....

Plan Ahead!!! 

Don't you just love those cute little shoes!!! 

Alright, and one more accomplishment or Finish. Well, let's 

say near Finish.... I still need to put a hem in this dress... then

it's on it's way to Oregon! Yeahhhhh. I hope my little grand

likes her gramma made dress! So I showed in my last 

post, the pattern I used for this dress. I added a bit of a Peter Pan 

collar, and some patch pockets. The pockets because this grand loves

pockets. What girl doesn't? The collar because it needed a bit more

bright!  

Oh, one more thing I used gross grain ribbon for the ties because #1, I wanted 

less bulk for the ties and I used gross grain because they will hold a tie better

than a satin ribbon. If you use satin, you just about may as well tie that bow

in a knot! Cause it's going to come undone! 

I have one more Finish... but I haven't gotten a picture of it yet. I finished my

niece's (another one) quilt. I added a border and put a back onto it and did some

machine quilting for her. I delivered it last night and forgot to take pictures of it

before I put it in to her mom's hands. We had a girl's night out last night at my SIL's 

new home with my daughters, a bunch of the girl cousins several aunts and a few

other female family members. It was fun, got home and too bed around 1:a.m. but 

we talked our heads off.... and munched and vegged out royal. So, I may have

to put off posting a picture of the quilt until I receive one from the recipient. 

So, I feel good that I have accomplished so much in the last couple of months. Oh,

and also did a bit of a re-do for a friend/neighbor/church member. I think I mentioned 

that I was to re-do the elastic in the sleeves in her daughters blessing dress. I got that

done also and returned it. Now; onto the school dance dress! Should prove interesting,

she wants it more modest then the pattern picture shows... I will be taking the skirt;

from Simplicity 3878 http://www.sewingpatterns.com/sub_item.php?item_num=3878SIM

part of the bodice from view D of that same pattern (she likes the waistband part), but she

likes the height of the bodice of Simplicity 1910   http://www.sewingpatterns.com/sub_item.php?item_num=1910SIM but not the corset look in the back... (plus she wants it higher in back) so I'm 

using an old Simplicity pattern 8888   http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bridal-Gown-Simplicity-Pattern-8888-Size-10-12-14-/251419064243?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a89be77b3

for the back (check out view D). Oh, and one more thing, we are putting a tad bit of a little

sleeve on it. Not much just a little rushing type thing. Did you get all that? LoL...

Should be fun. 

 I will keep you posted! 

Make sure you keep your machine oiled! 

Oops.... and did I tell you, I'm also teaching a gal from Church to sew! She is almost done with

it. Just needs to do the hem. I should be able

to stay outta trouble for a little bit don't you think? 

Just One Word Can Make All The Difference

A New Year always makes me think of new patterns, designs, refashions, adventures... So many things to learn.  Where to start, where to start?
I'm not much into making resolutions, trial and error seems to be my motto. And as they say.... If It Ain't Broke... I try different and new things because I'm interested in them. I do have a tendency to get somewhat impatient when I find a method isn't up to my liking; I don't always stick to the directions, instructions etc... I guess I am a bit of a non-follower. But, what works for me will not always work for someone else. There have been times where I've tried to explain how I've done something and people end up just scratching there heads. It makes sense to me; guess it's a good thing that I'm not a pattern maker. LoL... I get a picture in my mind and go with it. I have a very vivid imagination, I suppose that helps. So, this year some of the blogs I've been reading are talking about having a Key Word this year... I believe it's Bonnie Hunter's blog   http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/01/whats-your-word.html
that she decided her Key Word or Word for the year is going to be Finish! Have several projects going; but; get at least one done before starting another new project. Go check out her post it's great!

 Now she does have me thinking, she talked about how her mom was/is always the one that takes up the slack when things start to fall thru... that seems to be in my families blood also. I learned long ago while working with the youth at our Church that sometimes, you need to let them  Fall!  It's the only way they will learn, if your to have a Roast Beef dinner and the youth are in charge of making sure the Roast Beef is there, let them BE IN CHARGE! If they fail, then you will have plenty of potato's and gravy and lots of veggies and salad. And they will learn. Next time, there will be Roast Beef. You can bet on it! It's also not the end of the world if a mistake is made. We all need to think about what's the most important thing here; a Roast Beef Dinner or the kids learning a valuable lesson.
 Soo, I'm going to do more of that, letting go and not picking up the slack.  I work with the YSA's now (young single adults ages 18-30) and we shall see if we eat Roast Beef, or just potato's and gravy.
I need to do that with sewing too, I have a tendency to jump in to the rescue at times (sometimes I'm asked, sometimes I volunteer) and then I get myself into more work then time in a week. Guess I need to work on that. Maybe more sharing how things could be fixed instead of doing it for the person.
Just a thought. So, now I need a word.... how about ENJOY,
The moment!
The process!
The learning!
The feeling of satisfaction in a job well done and finished!
The end result!
The next project!

Well, I hope your year will be fruitful and fun, and that if you want, you find a WORD that works for you!
Get you scissors sharpened... or make sure your rotary cutter has a good blade;  it looks like a start of something good! Jean