The holidays are just around the corner! Are you ready? I wish I was! oh well, I can only do what I can do.

Busy Sewing weekend.

 

I was busy this weekend! I made 10 aprons, 9 for the craft show and one is a gift.  A couple are very simple. Some have pockets.  The 2 frilly black and teal are more show than functionality.

The two with the sunflowers are basically the same, except one has 2 pockets and the other 3 pockets. All are my own designs. If you want the pattern, send me an email!

I also made a dozen or so Fleece scarves in pink. This weekend, fleece scarves in green and a few in orange minky dots.  All for the Craft Fair. Its getting cold out there!

BTW, If you are on the east coast, Patuxent River Naval Air Station’s annual craft fair is the first Saturday in December. It is one of the largest crafter events in the National Capital Region.

 This shows the 3 pockets accross the front...

Quick Look At the Wedding Veil

Here is the veil I made from the pattern I posted this summer. Thought maybe you’d like to see it used. Doesn’t this picture remind you of Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music? Love it!

Hurricane Sandy

The weather is starting to get bad.  Hurricane Sandy is due to strike almost head on here.  It is raining now with a heavy breeze.  After midnight, the fun is supposed to start and they say it will stop sometime Tuesday.  Bathtubs are full of water.  Jugs of liquids ready for drinking.  Doggie has food and water.  Let us hope the winds stay out of the north.  If they start, blowing from the south crosses your fingers – we have HUGE trees out back.  I hope they remain standing.

If the power decides to go out, I have knitting to do and a bunch of patterns to cut out.  If the power stays on, I am working from home.  Then I will play.

I am cooking up a batch of crabapple hot pepper jelly.  I used sugar for this batch because when I made the grape jelly I used Stevia and it never cleared up.  Tastes great but looks ugly.

I think I will make pizza for dinner.  A good comfort food.

Autumn 2012

Can you believe that October is almost over?  It is supposed to get up to 80 degrees later this week.  Where is the fall weather?  I guess the weather will go from summer to winter in a matter of days.

The leaves are beautiful here on the east coast.  If I were to design fabric, I would have all of the colors of the trees in it.  Actually, I would have four separate distinct fabrics.  One of the fall colors.  One of the spring colors - all of different shades of the new leaves.  One of the spring flowers in all of the different vibrant shades of the first blooms.  And one with all of the different shades of mature leaves.  Have you every just sat and looked at the different colors?  Amazing!

I have started to knit!  It really came back quickly.  I can now knit on the bus, even in the darkness of the morning!

December first is the largest local craft fair.  It is down at the Navy base.  I have participated for 3 years now.  The first year I sold a lot, so last year I expanded my inventory (and worked pretty darned hard too).  I sold nothing last year, which was very disappointing.  This year, I have everything from last year and more that I have been working on though out the year.  I hope sales improve this year, although the economy has not improved any.

Knitting?

September just flew by, here it is October! I had my first knitting lesson yesterday. How fun! Things came back to me rather quickly. My Grandmother was a knitter extraordinaire. She knitted clothing for herself, clothing for her kids and grand kids. She knitted little animals and nursery rhyme figures. Every Christmas was very special because Grandma would knit everyone something. We would often get sweaters made from variegated yarns, and they really stood out. Not really what a kid wanted, but still they were very well made and we knew they were made with love.

Grandma taught the "girls" to knit. 2 of my sisters and I would knit at night after lights out and compare out work the next morning. I don't think we every made anything but it was fun.

The knitting lesson yesterday was with a wonderful woman I met at my favorite thrift store. She is retired with children my age. We struck up a conversation one day and one thing lead to another and I have had my first knitting lesson is 40 years. I hope to join Sally's group that knits hats for the needy children in the county.

I am adding a new skill as another creative outlet. I did a little web cruising last night and found lots of free knitting patterns. I might just stick to hats and scarves for now. Once I get a few more stitch types down, I may try my hand at designing something else. I know with the grandbaby being in Minnesota now, she will need warm hats, scarves, and mittens.

More later this month!

What Have I Been Up To?

The granddaughter turns two soon. Look at what I created for her!

We purchased Mega Blocks kitchen set for our granddaughters 2^nd birthday.  So she is stylish while playing in her new kitchen, I created a couple aprons for her.
The first is a Peanuts Halloween themed apron…

The next is a girly girl apron…

Front...

Back...

The fabric and trims are from Grammie’s sewing stash that I inherited.

The wedding was beautiful! What a joyful occasion – The bride was beautiful; the groom handsome, the wedding party was amazing. The event went off without a hitch! Wish I could claim responsibility for the event (LOL). 

My Daughter managed everything so well; we only had to write the checks. Now she does do event organization for a non-profit, but this was done remotely 1300 miles away, and did I mention she was working and taking care of the baby and dogs? I am impressed! 

She decorated the wine glasses she gave to her bridesmaids. They looked great, even though the glue I brought was 2 – part and I only brought one part L . I took the crystals off and wiped them down, but they need more work. My Daughter was able to clean them up, re-fix the jewels and they looked spectacular.

The creative side for me has been back burner. I designed a couple of quilt blocks and laid out some apron patterns in my journal when I was not busy visiting with everyone. 

I plan to take three sewing machines in for service sometime in the next couple of weeks – my mom’s 2 and my first machine. I hope that they comeback good as new! 

I hope to have more time for crafting/sewing as the summer winds down. The garden has not produced as much as it normally does. We've been in semi-drought. I hope I yields enough hot peppers that I can dry for my special spice creation. And tomatoes for the salsa!

Living a Saint Powered Life

The wedding is a week away! I cannot believe it is here already.  We will be traveling about 1600 miles, towing a trailer filled with furniture and boxes. We want to travel straight through, but we will see how the first 12-18 hours of the drive are. There is a shower on Sunday morning that I would like to go to, but safety first on the drive.

I have plans for doing some hand sewing on the drive (no, not while I am driving, silly!). I need to string beads for the bottom of the blusher veil. (got asked if I could add them). I have other little things to do – making yoyos for future projects, reading, getting some work in, and maybe some crocheting or drawing if the roads are smooth enough.

My current Saint is not joining us on the drive. I think it would be hard for him to travel that far in the back of the Jeep. He has gone with me to Greensboro a few times, which is about 5 hours away. I would stop every few hours to let him walk around and do his business. Towards the end of the drive, he would refuse to jump up into the Jeep. He weighs too much for me to lift him, so it just became a matter of wills. He is so stubborn!  He would finally learn that I am more stubborn than he is (LOL!)

Do not know if I will have the time to blog again before the wedding. I am going to take pictures of the beautiful bride, the new house,  and all of the wonderful guests.  I am also going to see firsthand how the portfolios are working and how well the quilt is holding up. Most of all we get to see the grand daughter, family, and friends.

Regards until the next time!

Living a Saint Powered Life

Weeded the garden on Sunday. The weeds were thicker than the grass outside the gate! Peppers are coming in well. Tomatoes are slow this year and something is attacking them. I guess I need to spray. L

Designed another couple of quilts in Visio. I love being able to use it for designing.  Fun fun fun! Okay, geeky fun! Attached are pictures.

The Saint is a Velcro Saint. He sticks to me! The heat doesn’t bother him too much but he is constantly shedding! I brush and brush… I swear he shouldn’t have any fur left by the looks of the piles I brush out!

Here is my latest design. My youngest said he wanted an orange and blue quilt. His favorite colors. Can you tell we are from Denver? (Denver Bronco's colors!)  I used VISIO instead of a quilt pattern or quilting software. I think it turned out alright as a drawing, lets hope it looks good as a quilt! The number 23 has special meaning to him. His birthday, and it was his number for all sports, all the way through college. So, what do you think?  Orange on blue or blue on orange? Brighter blue?

Coloring Portfolios

Hi!  I finished the coloring portfolios!  Yippee!  Last Friday night I was using my Singer Geni to finish up on the portfolios.  Ugh!  The poor machine needs a good cleaning and tune up.  After hours spent rethreading after thread breaking every couple of inches.  I tried different thread, a new needle, and adjusting the tension over and over again, I just gave up and brought out the Brother.  So now, I have three sewing machines that need to go to the shop.  While I am at it, I think the sergers need help too.  Back to the portfolios...  I think they turned out ok, considering the horrendous mess the sewing machines caused.  Still stuck with the fisher price primary colors.  Next one will be done a little different. I found some better stabilizer.  Moreover, I hope the machines cooperate!  I have attached photos of the outsides and insides of both portfolios.

Awesome Podcasts I listen to - try them out!

Thought maybe I would share some of the podcasters that I listen to. Some are wonderful, others are struggling. I subscribe to podcasts on my ZUNE, so I don't get quite the variety of iTunes. I don't know, I just can not get going with ipods. When I bought my Zune, it just stomped on anything anyone else had to offer... 120GB of storage was the biggest thing that sold me on my Zune. I have movies (30 or so), thousands of songs, and 35 audio podcasts I listen to and 4 vodcasts (video). I can also put thousands of picture on the Zune.

These are the Sewing, Crafty, Quilty podcasts I listen to:

Crafty Pod 2.0 by Sister Diane - Wonderfully done.
GreenStitch by Anne Kenlon - green green green crafting, sewing, etc.
iMake  - coming from the island of Guernsey.
Katie' Quilting Corner - young newby quilter adventures
Quilted Cupcake - Not only quilting, but all sorts of crafting too
Quilting For The Rest of  Us by Sandy Hasenauer - well done, informative and fun.
Sew Forth Now by Lori V. - very good podcast, but she is a very busy mom so her shows don't come out often enough for me!

There was a podcast called Sew Stich Create by BryLynn. She started SeamedUp and I think is podcasting with some of the other founders - Please make your podcasts available outside of iTunes! Thanks!

Have you checked out podio books - way cool serialized books.

Have feedback? Feel free to contact me - SaintPoweredLife@gmail.com

Been a busy week, even with the Fourth of July off! I created and finished the fisher price primary color themed lined toy tote. Look for pattern at the end of this post. I cut and laid out the coloring / drawing portfolios for granddaughter and daughter. The portfolios are using the same fisher price primary color theme. The portfolios on the left hand side will have elastic for holding individual crayons, pencils, markers, or pens. I will sew strips of elastic at 1-inch intervals. The right side will have a piece of elastic to hold drawing paper or pads. I also have some clear plastic sheet that I might use on the back or in place of the paper holder. I will make it into a clear pocket for holding sharpeners, rulers, erasers, and what not. I will finish them off with a Velcro or snap closure. I am going to put a couple of scruffy yoyo flowers on the front – in primary colors. Should look cute! The fabric for both projects is a heavy canvas / duck cloth that I‘ve had in my stash for a long time. Actually, everything came from my stash - Elastic, clear plastic sheet, interfacing, thread… Wow!

Fisher Price Themed Toy Tote
July 2,2012 By Saint Powered Life Contact me at SaintPoweredLife@gmail.com

I made this tote over the weekend. I used red for the body of the tote, blue for the handles and green for the binding. I planned to embroider my granddaughter’s name on yellow, but my machine was on strike.
2 Yards heavy canvas or duck cloth, smaller amounts for handles and if you want pockets, (contrasting colors)
2 yards of appropriate material for liner
Fusible interface or stabilizer (heavy weight – 2 yards)
Coordinating thread
1 inch quilt binding – coordinating or contrasting color - 1 pack (3 yards)

Directions: Determine the dimensions of the tote. Mine was about 40”by 15”. The bottom was square so all sides were the same measurements. You can make the tote larger, smaller, and/or rectangular. My bottom piece was 15 by 15, yours will be whatever width you choose, or the two widths if you are rectangular. The handles I made were of contrasting color and measured about 4” by 10”. Mark the fabric with the dimensions, making sure to add seam allowances. Mark contrasting fabric for handles. Cut. Mark fusible stabilizer with the same measurements a as fabric. Cut Mark lining fabric the same way. Do not use stabilizer on the lining. Cut. Iron the stabilizer to the main fabric pieces. Sew lining side’s together right sides facing each other. Press seams open. Sew lining sides to  bottom lining piece. Press seams open. Sew main fabric right sides together. Press seams open. Sew sides to bottom. Press seams open. Hem handle ends at about an inch. Trim close to the stitching. Sew handles, right sides together. Iron seams open and trim to stitching to remove bulk. Turn handles right side out. Iron flat. I added extra stitching down each side to ensure strength after I turned the handles. . At this point, you have the basic tote, two handles, and the liner. You can add pockets wherever you choose. Add them before working the lining in. Also. Attach the handles before the lining. so they do not show. I attached the handles to the exterior of the tote so one side had one handle attached and the opposite side had a handle. Make sure that you sew the handles about 1.5 inches from the top of the tote – reserve this space for the binding. Now you have the handles and possibly pockets attached. Feel free to add other embellishments or embroidery. Make sure lining is wrong side out. Drop lining into tote. It should fit nicely inside. Pin lining and binding to the tote making a sandwich. (One side of binding, tote, lining,  binding). Sew about a quarter inch from the outer edge of the binding making sure that you catch all of the layers. After you have attached the binding – you are done! Use it for toys, laundry, or any other idea you might have.

Here are pictures of my toy tote and lining. Please let me know how your's turns out and what type of modifications you made.

While the yard baked this past couple of days, I have been cool inside sewing away.  I made five baby flannel blankets for a soon to be new baby in the family.  Mailed them off - Mark it DONE!  Finished grandbaby’s quilt.  Mailed it off today - Mark it DONE!  Finished hubby's couch quilt.  Mailed it off today - Mark it DONE!



I was using my Mom's Singer Genie machine for the construction of the quilt tops.  Switched to her Singer 2010 to quilt them because the walking foot fit the 2010.  The machine has some issues.  I remember Mom telling me several years ago that the 2010 would continue sewing and you had to unplug it to stop.  The first couple of times I started and stopped sewing, it worked fine.  Then I stopped at a crucial point and it did not.  That is when I remembered that it continues to sew.  LOL!  I just said "Thanks Mom!" and got good at pulling the plug.  After I finished the second quilt, I noticed that the 2010 machine was also skipping stitches.  Back to the Genie to fix what I could.  Boy did I learn a lot on these two quilts.



I go back to the real work life next week.  I think I will try to find a 40’s or 50’s dress pattern I have stashed away and try to sew it up this weekend.  I know I have plenty of fabric to choose from – from my stash or from the five or six huge boxes of my mom’s stash my siblings sent me in the past couple of months.  If only I could use it all.  My Sister said I should have started on it 10 years ago – LOL!



More later…

Finished 2 quilt tops over the weekend. Will quilt purple first. They look pretty cool for not knowing anything about quilting. LOL!

Quilts and Thread Drawing

Finished piecing Hubby's quilt top. Gotta find a nice lemony yellow for the border. Started on the Grand Baby's Purple quilt. I have no formal training so I'm just stumbling along doing squares. They seem to go together alright and look fine.  I took some advice from the podcasters I listen to and also did some cutting up of fabric that I had laying around waiting to become something. Now it is neatly cut into strips and squares. I am sure they will tell me what they want to become. LOL!

Next adventure is going to be doing some thread drawing and painting.  I draw and I want to transfer some of my drawings to fabric. I have some that I think might look cool if I can do what I have in mind. I think some of the shows I enter might find my thread drawings a unique way of expression. Who knows, maybe a blue ribbon is hiding in some fabric over there?!

Bridal Veil Pattern and Instructions!

I just finished the Bridal veil for the most beautiful Bride - my daughter! It wasn't hard to make the veil and it looks like it cost a good chunk of change. Here are the pattern and construction instructions:

Bridal Veil

Supply list:

6 yards of tulle in 108 inch width

60 inches of ribbon

A tiara or comb to attach veil to

Beads, ribbon, pearls, etc. to attach to curved edge of veil

Dental Floss

Erasable Marking Pencil

Needle

Scissors

Sewing machine

Straight Pins (T-Pins work best)

Super Glue

1. Buy tulle in 108 inch widths.  I bought 6 yards for 2 tiers in the back and the blusher. If the bride wants more tiers, increase the yardage. Consult with the bride as to how much weight she wants to carry on her head (some brides are unaware that the veil can be heavy when embellished). You will need to know how tall the bride is and long the dress train is. This will be the length of the longest tier.  Very rough estimate!  The next tier will be about a foot, maybe 18 inches less than the long tier.
2. To round the bottom of the tiers: Lay out tulle on floor (carpet works best).  Find the middle fold and then the 2 edges.  You will want to keep the tulle folded in half giving you the width of 54 inches.  Make sure the edges are even. Add straight pins down the sides of the tulle squaring up the fabric as you go down the edges and fold side. I pushed the pins through the carpet and pad to the floor. I also counted the pins as I put them in so I could be sure to locate all of the pins when I was finished.
3. Make this tool to create simple rounded edges for the bottom of each tier:

1. Cut a length of ribbon about 60 inches in length
2. Tie ribbon onto the marking pen
3. measure the width of the fabric with the ribbon/pen. and place a knot at the point the ribbon hits the edge of the fabric. Put a straight pin into the knot.

4. Now you have the tulle laid out so it is straight and square and you have the tool to make the rounded edge.
5. Use the tool you created to measure from the bottom edge of the fabric up to the ribbon knot on the folded edge of the tulle. (approximately 54 inches up). Press the pin/knot into the edge of the tulle at this point.

a.     If you measure on the two free edges of the tulle, your veil will not have the correct curve on the bottom.

b.    What you want is to have the arc create a rounded edge that looks like this when you unfold the width of the fabric

6. Okay, Now to mark the arc:

a.     Carefully mark the arc with the erasable fabric pencil keeping the ribbon taunt.  It should mark the fabric cutting line. It will look something like this

7. Detach the ribbon pin and pencil.
8. Cut along the arc you just made, being careful to not cut the carpet
9. Measure on the fold edge from the arc edge up to the length you determined correct in step 1.
10. Repeat steps 3 – 9 for the shorter veil – cut 12 – 18 inches shorter than first viel.
11. Repeat steps 3 – 9 for blusher. Blusher length will measure from wherever the tiara or comb is attached, over the head, to about 2 inches below elbow.
12. Now to gather the top of each veil:
1. Use dental floss as thread and sew along the top (un-curved) portion of each veil.  I use about 6-10 stitches to the inch.
2. Collect gathers to the width of the comb or tiara. Tie off thread, Machine sew over gathers with a close zigzag stitch.
3. Repeat for next tier.
4. Repeat for the blusher
5. Machine sew the all three tiers together.
13. Make sure to have the bride present for the fitting and have her fix her hair similar to what she plans for her wedding day. Properly place the comb or tiara on head so you can see what direction to attach the fabric. It will be different for different hair styles and the brides comfort.
14. Attach the veils to comb or tiara. Use dental floss and / or super glue.
15. Have bride verify that the veil appears correct to her.
16. Attach trim to the bottom of each veil. Sometimes the trim looks good on all layers, sometimes just on the rear layers, sometimes you will not want the veil to have any trim because the dress is elaborately trimmed with pearls or sequence.

Have fun!

A Saint Powered Life

Spring!

The garden is planted. The lawn is cut. Need to wash the critter... tomorrow! Time to kick back and enjoy some downtime - Sorting through Mom's sewing stash. It arrived in 17 (SEVENTEEN) boxes. (thank you sister for packing it all up for me).  Working through each box. Sad, I miss my mom! But also am seeing a side of her I knew was there, somewhere. She was so busy taking care of Dad that she had no time for her.

How it came to be a Saint Powered Life

It started with our first Saints in the early 80's as puppies.  The Saints lived their lives, playing and guarding the three kids as they grew, going on all sorts of adventures.  The male saint was quite large, weighing in at about 225lbs. The female about 100 lbs. lighter.  Our house was tiny (750 sq. feet), but we always had room for more friends and family.

The Rocky Mountains were a special adventure for Saints and kids.  Georgetown was our destination when on most adventures.  Grammie and Pumpa's house in Georgetown was very old and very special.  Not all Saints and kids were allowed to spend the night at the Grammie’s Georgetown house.

When the Saints were 2.5 and 3, they had a family of 13 puppies.  We had puppies all over the place!  15 Saints (oh my!).  We managed to place all the wonderful puppies in great homes where they would have happy families.

When the first Saint reached 5 years old, he died from a nasty mean devil-neighbor's poison.  We were all devastated.  His wife was very sad.  She did not know where he went.  The mommy of all of those puppies lived with us to the ripe old age of 12 (for a giant breed, that is OLD!).

It was lonely without our Saints.  We moved to a bigger house, added a couple of "rescued" kids to the mix and started wondering if there was another puppy out there needing a home.  In the mid-nineties a Saint puppy chose us to be her new housemates, Oh it was a joy to have a puppy again!  She was so much fun!

The kids were much older now and really loved having a puppy to care for.

After a while, jobs took us to the east coast.  Our Saint made the drive cross-country while the kids flew.  When our Saint was about five, the kids found her in her safe place, where she had died peacefully in her sleep.  Sadness.

We debated for a long while about bringing a new puppy into our home.  The kids were all in school, doing a million other sports and activities.  It seems unfair to a puppy to have all their humans gone for most of the day.

I finally found a wonderful organization called Saint Rescue.  We adopted a female who they thought was about three.  She was a wonderful Saint, but had issues from her former life (why else would she have gone into rescue?)  We worked hard to overcome all problems and in no time, she was comfortable with visitors.  She loved her new human forever home.

When she was about eight, Rescue needed foster homes.  We brought our Saint to meet two other Saints who lived in a kennel on the eastern Chesapeake shore.  They were nice doggies that came into Rescue because their owners could not care for them.  I did not know it, but this pair was very sick when I took them in.  They had all sorts of worms and bacterial infections.  (They pooped and puked all over).  I spent over a thousand dollars on vet bills for the three dogs to get healthy.  (Although the specific branch of Saint Rescue said that all vet bills would be reimbursed - they never reimbursed any expenses!)  This pair of Saints only stayed a few weeks before they went to their new forever home.

We waited a few more months and were asked to foster another Saint.  Silly me for saying yes!  We went back to the eastern shore with our current Saint and tried to pick up the latest rescue.  The dog nipped at my now adult son.  We did not take that dog home!  They brought out another Saint that needed a foster home.  OMG!  He was gorgeous!  He had nothing but love for us!  So back home we went.  Our old lady Saint and this new male rescue who was about 2.

Our female was starting to show her age.  She slipped a disk in her back somewhere along the line.  Steroids were the only remedy.  She would go on a treatment, do wonderfully, then degrade, and need more steroids.  We kept this up until the steroids did not work.

Now we only have our male rescue.  He is HUGE.  He weighs in at about 185lbs and is strong as an ox. He loves when our daughter brings her boxer dogs up for a visit.  He also loves that the grand daughter is up off the floor and will play with him.  Okay, he likes it when she washes his food in his water bowl and gives him hugs and kisses!

Amid all of this Saintly love, I feel the urge to be creative. So I sew, draw, paint, crochet, and other crafty things. Oh and I also grow a salsa garden every year, grapes and raspberries too. I am an avid in composter and recycler too.

That's all for now. I have a lawn to cut and weeds to whack down!