Confessions of a Grandma

The YMCA is less than a mile from my house.  It's a busy, busy place and parking is sometimes a problem.  It only makes sense to ride my bike there.   I was looking for a basket to attach to my bike.  I can strap my yoga mat to my back, but sometimes I want to take extra things like a towel and my wallet and my house keys.  I also thought carting books to and from the library would be easier in a basket than packed up on my back. Then I remembered that I had some upholstery fabric samples.  I got out my sewing machine and made my own bike basket. It works for me. ************** Of course I did purchase some material at the quilt show last weekend.  I am making a wall hanging, not a bed sized quilt.  My Florida bedroom furniture is oriental style.  I think this will look nice hanging on the bedroom wall. The red material is for the backing.  I have not decided yet whether I will fold that around to the front for the binding as well or use another color

I was in the mood for some sewing and I had some fabric stashed away.  Go figure.  (from Pinterest: No, doctor, it is not a hoarding disorder.  It's my fabric stash. ) As the machine hummed along, I considered how much I love my NECCHI. It has a cutting and edge stitch capability that gives a nice finished edge to seams. It does buttonholes with no guessing. And it makes it so much easier to put the buttons on neatly. Of curse the cutting step generates a great deal of lint and that requires a good cleaning after its use. You can see that the dust and lint could build up quickly and cause a problem. I did not have to figure out how to do this on my own,  Mike taught me how to clean, oil, and lubricate my sewing machine.  He had a job in high school helping to maintain industrial sewing machines in a dress factory.  (Have I mentioned lately, How much I miss that man?) And the finished jacket:

There!  I finally figured out the picture thing all by myself. I have not been arrested, convicted, and sentenced to a chain gang.  I am looking for my real hair because I am pretty sure that my real hair does not have all that grey in it.  Stupid trick of the light!  I finished a small quilt this past week.  I am thinking that it is time to sign up for a class at a local quilt shop.  I want to how to do the fancy machine quilting. I don't see one of those huge set up programed to do the quilting from a computer program in my future.  Maybe if Mike agrees to give up the garage and turn it into a craft room.  Like that could happen! I did sign up for an on-line Craftsy course in pants fitting.  I have altered blouse patterns on my own with some help from books and magazines, but I need more help for pants.  I have not done clothes sewing for a while now.   I so miss the ThreadNeedle shop and its fashion fabric selection. I was able to get out and pick iris, peonies, an

The past two Sundays have been iffy weather-wise, and with Mike not being up for adventure because of foot pain or the medication for foot pain, I have had to amuse myself.  If it is going to be rainy, out comes the sewing machine.  I put together another quilt top.  The top is the easy part, especially since this material has all those blocks built in so I cut big pieces.  Even here in FL, I am building up scrap piles of fabric.  I made a couple of fabric bins to organize a closet.        I did not bring too much of my card making/paper crafting supplies with me, but I was inspired by a project on The Paper Boutique to make this lap book out of file folders and patterned papers.  I plan to use it for my medical insurance and prescriptions and all kinds of relevant personal information that I like to have in one spot.   It folds up.  I still have to come up with some kind of closure.     At least I am never bored.  I may be boring, but never bored.

Last weekend I spent some time sewing pillowcases.  I am ready to do the quilting on my latest quilt, but I needed a break before tackling that job. An easy project!    Here is how it is done--at least how it is done by me.   Three pieces of material are needed: Main color enough to make a back that is 18.75 x 35.35" and a front that is 18.75 x 24.75" Contrast color a piece that is 18.75x8" Trim 18.75x2.5" I had to improvise to get the back measurement, but that worked out okay.  This is not rocket science. Fold the trim strip in half and align it with the narrow edge of the top piece.  Place the contrast piece under this with the right side up, aligned along the wrong side of the top.  Pin and stitch through four layers.   Pull up the contrast piece.  Press over the top edge, fold to cover the stitching on the trim.  Top stitch the contrast piece to the top piece.  The extra length on the bottom is meant to be a flap that

  Here is a quick way to use fabric scraps.  I found the basic directions on a site called All Free Sewing.   The pillow: Cut a 9.5” by 6.25” rectangle. Fold it in half lengthwise. Stitch round the edge, leaving a one inch gap for turning. Trim and turn. Use a knitting needle or a pencil to poke out the corners. Fill with dry rice. Tip: A funnel made from the cut off top of a plastic water bottle works well because the rice will flow more freely than through a typical kitchen funnel. Hand sew the gap closed. Tip: A few drops of essential oil really make this more pleasant to use. The pillow cover: Cut an 11” by 6.25” rectangle. Tip: This is a lot easier to do with fabric that has clear right and wrong sides.  Hem the raw edges on the 6.25 sides.   With right side facing, fold as follows:  and  Sew the sides using a quarter inch seam. Turn out one pocket and insert the completed pillow. Turn the other pocket to close. How easy is that?

There just was nothing going on today.  I started poking though my fabric scraps and this is what I came up with. It’s a fish, if you can’t see it.  Here it is draped over a pillow, but I think that I will put it on a stretcher and use it for a wall hanging. I could have done some garden weeding, but it was kind of hot today and it is supposed to be in the 90’s tomorrow.  It has been a hot summer by Vermont standards.  Still, I haven’t had my bathing suit on since last winter.  Life has gotten a bit topsy-turvey. I also finished Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson.  If you enjoy laughing at serious panic attacks, social anxiety, and marital arguments , this is a really funny book .  Be warned that I  really do have quite a sick sense of humor.

Here is a quilted place mat that I made this past spring: I use it on the bedside table of the guest room: I have also use scraps of material from other sewing projects to piece together and quilt some pot holders.  This has been the some sum total of my quilting experience to date.  I didn’t really know what I was doing, I just wanted to use up scraps. Was I daunted by my lack of education and experience when I for some reason took it into my head to attempt a larger quilt project?    No, no, just plunge ahead full speed.  Make it up as you go along. Here we are in progress.  Since I took this picture I have added a plain narrow border and then a wider print border.  I have cut the backing and the batting and pinned everything together.  I think it’s way too big to quilt on a regular sewing machine and I had not previously considered the possibility of hand quilting. Now I know why it is fairly common to find quilt tops, unfinished, for sale at yard sales and flea markets.

I sewed this tunic on Sunday afternoon.  I may save it for next halloween and dress up like a tomato. Actually, I have made a couple of this Kwik Sew pattern.  Easy and quick--comfy and casual. Yesterday, the temperature reached 86 degrees -- one degree shy of the record set in 2002.  I remember that heat spell of April, 2002.  I was teaching and experiencing hot flashes.  The PTO bought fans for all the classrooms at our school.  The next week was a vacation week and I (foolishly) went out and bought garden plants and (worse yet) planted them.  Of course by the following weekend the temperature dropped and it started snowing.  All my plants were killed.  I'm not falling for the tease of some warm weather this time.  It was in the 40's this morning, so not much chance of that anyway. Freak warm days like yesterday always mean the local paper will feature lots of picutes of sunbathing co-eds.  Our own little version of the Sports Illustrated swim suit edition.  Or evidence

The purse organizers are supposed to make it easy to swap out bags.  I made this one because I just got tired of everything rolling around in my cloth bag.  This helps. Our haunting of the thrift stores has slowed down considerably.  I did find about six yards of this denim material for $1.99 though.  How could I walk away?  I made a couple of pillow covers and decorated them with felt.  I have plenty of material left over, but no plans for it yet. I am giving this bottle of Florida wine as a thank-you gift to the friends who were instrumental in our finding our winter home--ribbon (which I just noticed I have to trim), shells, and beads wrap it up. If idle hands are the devil's workshop, I think I must be dancing with angels lately.

It's nice to own rather than rent until something doesn't work and there's no property manager to call. I tried the dishwasher for the first time and...nothing.  Water filled the bottom and then didn't drain.  The motor whirred and whined and got smokin' hot.  The dishes remained dry and dirty. Fortunately, Mike will always try to fix things himself if involves plumbing, mechanical or electrical tinkering.  More importantly, he's good at it.  He has the ability to look at these things and figure out how they should work, then problem solve what's not working and how to get it to do what some design engineer intended.   He did some research on line, never having fixed a dishwasher before, then took off the foot plate and reached underneath.  It took him a few trips back and forth to the computer, but he got it running like new.  Voila!  We have a working dishwasher. Mike is not so confident with projects involving wood, but I really wanted this Sauder