This has been a tough week. Lots of expenses have come due, which I can pay, but the bank account is shrinking. I might have a class in October, but it is still not firm and on my calendar. All summer I have been thinking that I am spiraling downwards, out of control. But that is not true. I am in control and making very tough decisions about our future. So instead of seeing a plane in a death spiral, I am trying to picture a butterfly in flight. They say positive self talk works. And it’s free.

The Kid’s Dad (TKD) came by last week and said the “D word” – divorce. We have been legally separated since May 2005 so this was not a big blow. I divorced him emotionally last summer after the last bout of lying. You can’t have a marriage without trust. I didn’t ask for a divorce then as I am trying to keep the kid’s lives as balanced as possible and I have no idea what he will want to do with the house. Living in this house keeps us in our neighborhood and the kids staying at their same schools with their friends, etc… I see it as a really anchor for them. But if he wants to sell it I can’t buy it from him. I can make the mortgage, which I have been doing for the last 2 plus years. We are going to meet at the end of September with our individual versions of the “Divorce Wish List”. I will know more then.

In the meantime, I found this really funny magnet at Ephemera. I can’t buy it as I don’t want the kids to see it, but it did make me smile.

 

For many years, my pattern companies of choice were not the big three. Kwik Sew, Stretch and Sew, all of the wonderful, creative independent pattern designers like Purrfection (now Dana Marie), MacPhee Workshop, Sewing Workshop, etc… Most of the time using these patterns, I would fall into the L/XL category. That seems reasonable given a 44DD bust and the rest of the body that goes with it.

Lately, I have been looking at the Big 3 when sewing for S. Some of these patterns are pretty cute. Yesterday after talking about the wadder with the Gorgeous Fabrics floral, I decided to see if I could recut it into Simplicity 4020, View C. According to my sister, my upper arms can be shown in public and I will make a pair of brown pants to go with, soon.

Turns out that JoAnn’s is having a sale on Simplicity patterns for 99 cents. That fits my budget to a T (what does that mean – to a T?). Anyhow, I check the pattern back with my measurements. OMG! I am a size 22! In real life I am a 14/16. I love being the “little girl” at Lane Bryant’s. This is just wrong. It really threw me for a loop. Blood drained from my face right there at the pattern table. After my heart stopped racing, I realized that it is only a number. I bought the pattern, and am searching for the larger size range of Simplicity 3789, a really cute blouse pattern with cup size adjustments built in. And for 99 cents a pattern, I can label myself with any number they want.

I promised photos of the tops that I made for S. They are cute and fit her well, but she doesn’t wear them.

The first top was Butterick 4404 . This is sadly out of print. We made version A and it came out great. The front is a mock wrap and it is not too low for a 13 year old. Why won’t she wear this one? According to her, it is too pink and she will not wear pink. The fabric is a coral tie dye interlock from Fabric.com purchased many years ago. This was made as a muslin, so what the heck, except that it does fit and looks good. (The shirt I tried to make out of this fabric was a wadder from Ottobre Woman. Sigh. Clothes are clothes. I guess I am not trying for fashion, just for coverage.) I did trace the sleeve and will make more of these, just not in fabric containing pink tones. In fact, if you look at the “Next Big Project” post, there is a bolt of floral pique in camo colors under my cutting table. I think that would look cute in this pattern.

The next shirt was made from Simplicity 4020. We made the short sleeved version out of some really pretty fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics, BFL374. The fabric was $8.00 a yard which is expensive if one is not earning a living which is where I am right now. The pattern only took 1 yard, but shipping was the same as the fabric. Yikes! So, what did I do? I bought three yards with the intention of making a shirt for me as well. I tried to make Kwik Sew 3360 . Darn another wadder. The fabric is very stretchy and the pattern calls for a simple turned and topstitched edge along the wrap. I was going to try and bind the edges, but one of the big aqua flowers landed right where you would not want one. And these flowers are BIG! I should have cut it out in a single layer, but I was playing with fate, and she won…

Happily, the shirt for S. did turn out. But she doesn’t wear it. I am afraid to ask. I am hoping that she is saving it for school.

I seem to be driven to write when I have a photo to post. One of my motivations for starting a blog was to use my digital camera more. But let’s face it, much of life does not need to be documented with a picture.

I have been working on the Yellow Brick Road (YBR) quilt. Sewing, then slicing and dicing then sewing some more. The YBR quilt is very scrappy and I want to randomly put this quilt together. Random is really hard for humans, easy for gas molecules, but not for people. To facilitate randomness, I have been putting the quilt pieces in paper bags and then randomly pulling out the fabric. I have been known to edit, but not much. At this time I have about half of the blocks done. This is a big quilt, queen size, so there are a lot of blocks. I am not sure how I will put the top together as it will be much bigger than my design wall. Guess it really doesn’t matter if I am going for a random look.

I am so glad that I picked batiks for this project. They handle so well and don’t get wrinkled as easily as other cottons after being in the paper bags, plus there is no right and wrong side. Not to mention the change of colors and patterns across the fabric that can look totally different depending on where the fabric is cut. What is not to like?

I also need to get back to garment sewing. My last two projects for me were wadders which took the wind out of my sails. The two tops I made for my daughter came out great. She chooses not to wear them, but they are cute. I need to dig them out of her drawer and snap a photo. I have a short sleeved t shirt cut out of aqua slinky from Fabric.com. The t shirt pattern I like to use is from Great Copy Pullovers and A-shaped Skirt. I have really tweaked this pattern to fit, but have not made it in slinky. I had enough slinky knit left over to cut out a cami for S. Back to the machine.

Every year, at fair time, I promise myself that I will be more thoughtful about what to submit. But every year, it is a mad dash to get the projects in. For such a slap dash effort, the results are in and they rightly reflect the effort.

My blouse got a big orange ribbon, an honorable mention. I always think the bigger the ribbon, the better I did, but that was not the case this time. The judges were hash. The best of show in sewing was an apron. Not a fancy apron, but it must have been well executed because it beat out the beautiful Dickens inspired wool coat and skirt. So, the big orange ribbon was awarded by the superintendent for the crafts, as she thought my blouse deserved it. I don’t have a big orange ribbon, so this will complement some of the blue ribbons that I did really earn.

Both of my little quilt projects got second place in their class. I didn’t expect anything in quilting, so this was a nice surprise. Below is a picture of my table runner – the bright, batik sunflower runner. Tomorrow, we go back to the fair to watch the rodeo. There is just something about men in chaps… Yee Ha!

I picked up the exhibitor’s handbook month’s ago, but never looked at it until today. Guess what? Quilts are due in today, sewing tomorrow. I put two items in for quilting, a table runner and a table topper. No time to get pictures of them.

I will also put in the blouse I made from Kwik Sew 3511 , View C. It’s nice, a little too fitted for me, but I tried to do a good job on it. The stripes match on the collar in the back (but not in the front) and on the sleeves. Since is was an uneven stripe, I just made the stripes move across the front.

I usually get just a participation award in quilting, but some kind of ribbon in sewing because there are a lot less entries in the sewing category.

Okay, no photo this time. We all know what flowering broccoli looks like. Why would I let a really nice group of broccoli plants go to seed? Because there were bugs in the broccoli.

I have to confess, I knew that there were bugs in the broccoli. Whatever it was, it was very small, it was deep in the inner most part of the broccoli flower. I washed it. Really well. With the sprayer. I put it in the refrigerator (sometimes creatures will emerge from the cold). Then I chopped it up, cooked it and feed it to the kids. My son ate it like it was good. No comments. No complaints. And he is a picky eater. My daughter noticed. I tried to pass these small things off as broccoli flowers, but she didn’t buy it. However, she did eat it. So did I.

That is why the broccoli was left to bolt, because of my guilt. What kind of mother would knowingly feed her kids bugs/bug eggs?

So, I will ask you, generous readers, what kind of creature could have laid eggs in my broccoli (my guess is that we were eating eggs)? And how does one prevent this? I still have the plants and can take a deeper look if you need more information.

Now that the Bento Box quilt is done, I can move onto the next BIG project. I have been quilting since 1995 and have never made a bed quilt. That is the next BIG project. Last summer I purchased a set of fat quarters from Holly Taylor’s Summer Nights Northern Lights fabrics from Hancock’s of Paducah. They are all batiks in lovely greens, tans, blues, violets, magentas, turquoise and navy blues. My dad gave me a gift certificate last year and I was able to purchase enough fabric for the borders and some pillow shams.

I am going to use Terry Atkinson’s Yellow Brick Road pattern. Her patterns are so well written and I want the fabric to be the main focus, not the piecing. I started cutting last night and it goes fast. The fun part is that there is nothing left of the fat quarter after you get through cutting. No scraps at all! Well back to cutting…

Sometimes it really costs to work as a free-lancer. At times you have all of the freedom in the world, but no pay check coming in. I have not had a training class since May and there is nothing on the calendar for the fall. Most of my classes are arranged at least 4 weeks in advance so August is definitely empty.

Before you think I am crazy to do this, I should explain that I make as much in one week’s time as many people do in a month. Plus I really enjoy the work. It doesn’t feel like work, it is a joy. I don’t know many people that can say that about their work. It is such a departure from my everyday life. When I work, I get to dress up in business clothes, go to the airport (usually) and fly away. When I am home, I wear mom clothes and drive kids to and fro. I have been doing this since 1999.

But when the world shifted in 2005 and The Kid’s Dad (TKD) was asked to leave the home, making a solid income became very important. I have custody of the kids and we live in the “family home” which I pay the mortgage on and maintain. Yikes! That anxiety that I feel on a daily basis is real. So, I started to sub for the local school district as an aide in between my classes. The only problem is that school is out for the summer and a paycheck for subbing won’t be arriving until about November. It seems that no one needs a sub until October.

What to do? I took a close look at my finances and decided that I could last until October. If there are no classes on the calendar by then (and a class can be on the calendar for January and I would be ecstatic), I will have to go back to working a real job. Probably a full time aide at an elementary school. That would keep me on the kid’s schedule. Doesn’t pay great, but the hours work and it would be steady income.

And then there is the unpaid work. This is what me and the kids worked on last weekend. We ended up with fourteen 39 gallon trash bags of hedge trimmings. I have to do this every year or the hedge will push the fence down.

 

 

I scored a really cute feed sack on eBay awhile back. It looks just like all of those pop flower prints that are so popular now. It would make a cute summer purse. But I didn’t want to ruin the fabric with a purse pattern that I didn’t like. Purses need to be functional, easy to carry and fit my stuff.

My first purse of the summer was the X Bag. (Be careful putting X Bag in Goggle, you get all kinds of interesting hits). I made it out of denim and a piece of home dec fabric that I found years ago at a yard sale. The handles were long enough, and the design was cute, but… It was too floppy (even after I put a fabric covered piece of foam core in the bottom) and with just a Velcro tab for closure, it seemed too vulnerable.

Last week I finished making the Towne Purse by Lazy Girl Designs. This bag has a zipper on the top. It also stands up by itself due to the quilting and Baggy Bottom insert. The outside pocket is great for keys. Next time I will make the flap longer. I really like how the bag has finished edges on the inside and the zipper application was slick. I changed the pocket sized to fit my stuff.

The worse part of making this purse was bagging the bottom. My Pfaff was having a very hard time sewing through all of the layers. Next time I make this bag, I will cut out the batting where the corners will be sewn. And I will make the handles longer.

In summary, great bag for me. Just needs some minor changes to make it sew up easier and work better as my purse. My next bag will use that cute feed sack along with some black and white fabrics.