in over my head

More Peas...

More blanching...

Collars, Facings, Buttonholes AND Sleeves????  I'm definitely in over my head.

Send. 

Wine. 

Quick!

Warning!

... if you're going to hang laundry on the line, do it before you wash it!

Ah, the fresh spring air...

This is one day's worth of pollen!

Probably time to refill the wiper fluid

Ah, the fresh spring air... make sure you close your vents!

This might make you cringe... but these are all allergy meds!  Hubby's on the left, the kids' on the right, we've done raw honey for 5 years but it just wasn't doing much of anything by itself sadly, we even switched the type of honey (meaning the type of plants the bees were on), and so far I've only allowed myself the eye drops in the front, but I'm going to have to admit defeat.  Considering that we don't really take meds for anything in our family, this is pretty shocking, I know.  I will say however, these are not all taken at the same time, lots of them are trial and error with little notes scribbled on the side LOL, and it will be over with in a short 3-4 weeks for me, 6-8 weeks for the kids, but hubby will have it most of the summer as well since he also has grass sensitivities.  I personally think our state may be a biological  weapon (as in pollen) testing ground... it's all a conspiracy theory!

When I can see through my yellow pollen stained eyes, I see this, and I keep telling myself it's all worth it - right?!!

Carolina Jessamine 

these surprise me every year, they pop up so fast

Yes, I'm sort of taking the day off today.  No gardening, no lifting, but I did finish my first article of clothing for myself, a "simple wrap skirt" - not so simple!  I really have a lot to learn about pattern sizing.  This was too small, I was able to sort of fix it by tying it in the back instead of the side, and adding a button halfway down the leg to compensate for the lack of extra fabric in the wrap, but next time I will know those sizes are serious!  Which means I'm a size 14.  What the heck is with the discrepancies between commercially made/dept store clothing and patternmakers?  I'm a consistent 8/10 in the conglomerate world yet I have to make clothes almost twice that size when I make them myself?  This weekend I'm going to actually take my real measurements and write them down and actually use them next time instead of guessing.  

Well, here it is anyways:

Of course I'm sporting my typical Marsha Brady style fabric.  Although I guess I'm more of a Jan Brady, Marsha was way more put together than I am :)  Now I can finally say I made something to wear!

Here's me waving bye-bye...

This was taken when I returned from running errands this morning and is from opening the storm door!  Needless to say, I'm having to use the indoor dryer for laundry today.

Why do gardeners and outdoor people have to suffer through this allergy stuff?  I think the indoor video gamer types should be stuck with it all instead.

Learning a new skill...

I finally got around to it!  My previous 2 forays into the sewing world were post #1 where I tried to clean and make peace with a 20 year old machine with a little whiskey for courage, and #2 where I did my first project of Christmas gift bags.  Other than that, I knew nothing other than the basic how-to on sewing a straight line.  I've put this off until I could have an organized area to learn in, and knocked out a few other things on my "to-do" list that had more priority.  Yesterday was my chance...

Why quilting?  Why not? I have always loved the look of the 30's & 40's style quilts but do not decorate that way in my house.  I am a huge fan of mid-century modern and scandinavian style and it occurred to me (lightbulb!) that a quilt can by any style I want, not just country or folk.  (Which I do love, by the way!)  The creativity here is the hook!  

I am normally a fan of getting used or library books, but for my first foray into this world, I used a gift card and splurged on a new, nice spiral bound "Quilting 101" type book.  It has the latest basic techniques and takes you step-by-step through 4 basic beginner style quilts.  I tend to want to "do it all" right away, but I know with my low patience level I needed to start small and figure out the basics.

The biggest challenge was figuring out what to do with all this "stuff" I had purchased, meaning all the cutting and measuring, oops probably not in that order :)  By the 2nd set of squares I was getting the hang of it.  For those of you put off by the "random and abstract" concept of knitting, this is the complete opposite I've found.  It's all math and geometry and it's easy to visualize the final product during the process.  Loch my little math whiz was pretty interested in this part of it.  I want to thank Mama Pea & APG for telling me the basic sizes of cutting mat and grid ruler I would need, you were exactly right - they worked for everything I needed without having to spend extra $$ on stuff I wasn't familiar with yet, and for any newbies, these supplies aren't cheap - use coupons and use the sales for everything, they usually go on sale every other week at a fabric store, and if you have a local Craigslist, check there since this seems like one of those things where people with lots of $$ buy everything and never do it so they sell it, kind of like a treadmill, hahaha!

For my first quilt, I channeled my inner Marsha Brady and went for a nice retro floral print and peach, and the border and binding chose a dark fabric to hide my beginner stitchery!

 Here's the blocks after cutting, just laid out into the pattern that will be the quilt top.  This is a basic style called a "single patch" quilt.  Already at this stage my head was spinning with possibilities of adding other colors and shapes, I had to remind myself to slow down and start easy with something I won't end up in tears over.  If you want to see tears and have a laugh at my expense, see the post of my first time learning to knit :)

This was the not-fun part, but only because of my machine.  Hubby saw that I was ready to sew on that thing and disappeared to a buddy's house to go build "an obstacle course" for their mountain bikes.  Even the kids disappeared into their room!  I had to disassemble the shuttle 15 times to dig thread out, had to completely remove the stop-motion knob in order to wind a bobbin, and Mama Pea, check out your pink duct tape!  I had to use that as a 1/4" guide since my machine has no markings smaller than 5/8"!  But all in all, the machine DID sew the quilt top, and my sanity is still intact.

Above, after sewing the squares into strips... so that's how they do it, I didn't even know that!  Below, the finished quilt top:

Today I will move on to the next lessons on the actual border, quilting, backing and binding...


The reason I was able to get this all done yesterday is that I finally got my seed order put in Friday evening and was able to tackle and do our taxes yesterday morning, the two big things that have been weighing on my mind.


Taxes already, you say?  You betcha, thanks to hubby being deployed for the past year in a combat zone, our taxable income according to the government indicates we should be living in a cardboard box under the freeway - so that means refund time!  I don't waste time when it comes to getting money, and after some bills are paid, I'm hoping to stimulate the economy by getting a new sewing machine!

Sewing Machine - We're going to try and work things out

I had a nice afternoon with my machine! We got to know each other a bit, I told it I would try my hardest to understand it, as long as it would just give me a sign that it still wants to be with me!

We only broke 2 needles!

But together we hemmed a stack of jeans that have been waiting for a year! I know some of you will cringe, but I absolutely love ripped up worn out hems dragging on the ground (how 90's grunge of me!), so I always keep the factory hem at the bottom!

Now here's the cool part: both needles were broken on the first pair. After that first pair, instead of stomping off mad, I pleaded with my machine, put some safety glasses on, and learned how to quickly lift the presser foot up as I hopped over the side seams - woohoo, we rolled right through the other pairs! I know that my machine isn't designed really for so much thick denim, but it's over now! I rarely even do this so I'm looking at least a year into the future before I need to sew jeans again.

After realizing that the feed plate thingy wasn't jammed full of thread this time, the bobbin didn't freak out on me through the whole ordeal, I had an epiphany: I'm going to learn to sew on this machine! When I was so frustrated, I thought "if only I had a better machine"... but then I knew NOTHING about sewing machines. Now that I have been reading about and pricing them I pay attention to things a little more. I dug out the manual, and was surprised to learn my machine actually has plenty of stitches, does embroidery, and I still have a baggie full of the feet, etc that came with it. I also took note that the $99 I spent on it in 1992 (wow, that's 19 years ago!) is probably the same thing I would be buying for $250 now.

It was then that I took a break and checked the blog for comments, and overwhelmingly, y'all are telling me what I already suspected, that I should continue to save my $$ for something better than another entry level machine and I realized I should really try harder with this one, at least then when I do make the purchase I will know better the functions I need/like. This may be futile, but after this afternoon I owe it to the old Monkey Ward Yugo to give it another go! Plus, I really do like that it is STURDY, those plastic new light machines are going to take awhile to grow on me, I don't know why I'm so terrified I'll break them, must be jeans flashbacks!

So, much to the kids' dismay, when they got off the school bus today we headed to the fabric store (I want to add that JoAnn Fabrics here is terrible, understaffed and rude every time I go there - if you are in the local area drive the extra distance to Hancock), and I picked up a few things to get me started - more machine needles, for one! I almost fell over the first time I learned what a cutting mat was and saw the prices, but today they were 40% off on rotary cutters and mats so I bought the largest mat I could afford, along with a rotary cutter. I think I got a pretty basic cutter, but since I don't even know how to use it yet it will do for awhile! I did purchase my first pair of dedicated scissors last month, I used my last pair to cut everything from paper to tomato stems, yep, there I said it! These should really be locked up from myself LOL.

I'm not sure what my first project will be, but you can be sure it won't involve denim! Probably an apron or something of that nature, I have a few patterns and several yards of fabric bought on sale a few weeks ago. I also have picked up a few library books and am learning all kinds of stuff - like what interfacing and bias tape are... now that I know how basic that stuff is that I didn't know what they were, can you tell what a beginner I am?

I rented the kids a movie to keep them occupied this evening, and sitting on makeshift sewing table are screwdrivers, canned air and a lint brush, and I'm going to sit down when I'm done blogging and give my Yugo a spa day and hopefully turn her into a good impression of a Subaru, wish me luck!

Sound like an exciting Friday night? You betcha! And if things take a turn for the worse, I'm going to hit the bottle of bourbon I bought for making pound cake! See, I'm prepared either way!

Beginners' Basic Sewing Notions

P.S. Overheard in the car today on the way to the fabric store-

Finn: "where are we going?"

Loch: "the dumb sewing store"

Finn: "why?"

Loch: "mommy thinks she can fix that thing, but I bet she won't remember to fill up the gas can"

Me: "I'm done mowing the lawn for this year, we don't need gas"

Loch: "dontcha need it for the sewing machine?"

(LOL! I thought to myself that if that thing had a gas engine, I bet men would sew!)