Wednesday 19 March 2014

Planning and Prep

I am getting ready for 4 days of sewing with friends next week. I am just starting to get soooo excited! Bit like Christmas, I think. DH and I went to the sewing room tonight and we laid out heaps of fabric and a variety of pattern ideas. Mostly my pattern ideas consist of magazine pictures or pattern line drawings - as to get them to fit I use my Wild Ginger software to draft my own.

We went through the possibilities and made some excellent decisions. That man is so helpful! Now I'm drafting patterns, cutting them out and bagging up the needed supplies. This should fill up my time between now and then. I plan to get a heap load of sewing done! It will be a no quilting zone. I need to get back to my roots. DH is getting a nice batik short sleeve shirt. He's a bit apprehensive about the pattern. Actually, he's apprehensive about all patterned fabric, on him.

I'm even auditioning wines for the event. There's a nice Chocolat Rouge currently in the running. Of course, if it makes the cut, I'll have to replace that empty bottle.  OOoh! Just remembered! There's a NSLC just across the street! Excellent.

Saturday 15 March 2014

Squirrel!

"Squirrel!" is what the Great P says when I get a new idea in the middle of the old idea. I am somewhat known to wander from one good thing to another. If I could only have someone follow me about and remember where I was.

When I taught I could always spot the child in my class (6 to 8 years old) who would be the one to know where I left my tea and what I was about to do before that loose tooth dropped out of current circulation. I could identify that child in the first week. We would have a quiet word. The best of them could cue me without any words passing between the two of us. I miss those days. The Great P is not a bad substitute, but 6 year olds never laughed at the teacher. They understood me. Wonderful!

As mentioned, the ducks are back. There is the wonderful pair of ducks we have every year, she with the limp and he with the watchful demeanour. Now, of course the other latecomers have joined in. There was a waiting queue lined up on the top of the garden shed roof this evening. These ducks fly away when we open the door. The regular pair just quack hello and shuffle over a bit to leave room for the new corn.

Lots of corn available. DH bought a 40 kg bag this week. Word on the pond is out. I understand it will attract pheasants as well. They look after the bugs in the garden. They also have a high cute factor.

There's a new house being built up the street. Two young men are working on site all the time. Remember the days when construction workers would whistle and call out naughty invitations when you went by? I did a lot of running when I was somewhat younger, and this was a problem at times. It was, until the day I realized that these poor men just wished they looked as good as I did. I let them know of my epiphany. We both felt better. They did back up a bit when I stopped, smiled and approached to tell them.

Squirrel! Well, back to those men. Don't you just want to hang out the window and tell them that you wished you looked half as good as they do? Their mothers should be proud.

I taught a class on my purse organizer today. What a lovely day with some lovely ladies! They were in fine humour and had good insight that will help me refine those instructions. All went well until we had to sew the sides together and add bias binding. Darn good thing it's the last step, as it is The Last Step regardless. It's a wrestle the first (and twentieth) time through, but it does get easier and it is doable. You try and make up to 10 layers of fabric turn a corner with a 1/4" sa! Yoda said it best with "There is no try, only do or do not.".

We all agreed wine was deserved and earned. It's really not a difficult project. We're just not used to those tiny seams and tight working conditions. However, everyone's organizer fit perfectly and was very flattering to their figure.

Wednesday 5 March 2014

Paging Dr. DuPuis!

On the bike today I watched a playlist on YouTube from Craftsy. It was a series of different quilters stash busting, each over a 2 minute silent video. Very intertaining! They seem to have other playlists. I like a quick little whatever when I'm biking. Sometimes the full classes are a bit too intense for my oxygen starved brain.

Just LOOK! at what I found this weekend! It's a vintage, but never used doctor's bag - still has the key to lock it up! This is my new handbag of choice. However it doesn't get to go just anywhere. For the first time ever I am considering if an outing is bag worthy, and using my previous bag (to the back) when it isn't. To the rescue - my bag organizer! I just pop it out and everything still goes with me. I have improved that pattern recently. Mostly I added better stabilizer so it stands proud and does't spit out my cards at will. If you look closely, I even have a prescription in there to be renewed!