Practical sewing

A lot of quilters I know feel it's beneath them to mend clothes or sew other than quilting. I have no such qualms. I started sewing making my own clothes, and I like to make practical things for my home and family. My husband needed some gaiters for his newfound hobby of snowshoeing. I made them like the gaiters I had had for downhill skiing. Well, they didn't stay over his boots, and so I had to add the lower part which also has elastic that goes under his boot, but isn't fastened in this picture. They were a big success and he didn't get any snow down his boots and come home with wet feet like he did on his first trek. Luckily I had some rip stop nylon that I had bought to make a kite with. (The kite had long been on the back burner after seeing some wonderful kites in Galveston on the Texas Gulf Coast.)

That got me sewing again after a rather long, dry, sewing spell while getting settled into a new home. After I came home from a quilting retreat in Arizona, I've been fired up, and have lots of completed things and have made quite a bit of progress on some long standing projects. It feels good to be inspired again.

Pillows R us

Guess I'm stuck on making pillow covers. This one was more of a necessity as the previous cover wore through. It was a salvaged "crinoline lady." I worked out in my sun(less)room as long as I could. With only one baseboard heater it wasn't getting very warm in there. The snow is starting to come down a little harder, and looks like a light dusting of powdered sugar.

The trouble with all this winter weather is that it is so conducive to baking, and then sitting back with a warm drink, enjoying the fruits of one's labor, which is where I'm off to right now.

My morning didn't start out right. I have my routine. I wake up early, turn on my computer, feed the cat, go back to the computer and get online. We have dialup (GROAN!) and so while the computer is getting online, I make coffee, so that by the time it's online my coffee is brewing and I can get on with reading emails, etc. So I'm into answering my email and think, surely the coffee is done by now, but NO, it hadn't even started. I thought I had forgotten to turn it on, but to my dismay, it just isn't working. Fortunately my husband had gone back to drinking a newer, milder, decaffeinated coffee so I didn't have to brave the dark, wind, and pelting corn snow to get the spare coffeemaker out of the camper. I hope this isn't a taste of things to come throughout the day.


I finally did finish one of my UFOs. I decided I had to do something with this burlap bag that a friend had come across in his landscaping work and saved for me. It's a little wonky, but finishing it lets me move on to something else. I started it in the spring of 2005, and then lost interest in it. I have also found a lot more UFOs that I had forgotten about. It's not good when they hide out for too long, and one's tastes change. Fortunately they aren't as personal as the burlap piece which would have been hard to donate and let someone else finish. I need to round them up and offer them up for adoption.

After a long, dry sewing spell, I ended 2006 with some things made. Finished a couple of pillow covers for the loveseat in my new sewing space, a sunny 12X24-foot room off our newly built garage. It's been a long process of gathering up everything craft related and moving it out there. I have waaaayyy too much stuff, and managed to weed out things that I know I'll never use.



After another, albeit briefer, snowstorm, we have sunshine. I had intended on taking a knitting class to learn to knit socks, but given our trend for snow this winter, I decided to wait for better weather. I avoid driving in snow as much as possible. I consider it a service to other drivers that are more capable of navigating the white stuff. We got an inch and a half, and our previous dumping hadn't melted yet.

I'm going to spend the day in my room after some needed housecleaning.

Happy New Year

Wow, hard to believe it's been almost a year since I posted. It was an eventful year for sure. We sold our little motel and retired! Got to see our names up on the big screen during the credits of Pixar's Cars.

My mother-in-law passed away this summer, which after many years of fighting myelodysplasia was not unexpected, but gave me yet another reminder to really live the moment.

The current moment in our neck of the woods is snow covered. But since we are retired and don't have to drive to work, have plenty of food, it's not a problem. I finally broke my sewing dry spell and made some pillow covers for a loveseat in my new sewing room, a large room which is part of the garage we built. I hope to make good use of that room in this new year.

Couldn't resist

After seeing Sophie's post, I couldn't resist knowing what inanimate object I am! I'm happy to know that I am malleable and easily adaptable to new situations. It seems there may be lots of new situations coming my way.


Oooh! Look at me! I'm a sock!


Random Object Quiz
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Well, I didn't do my Chapter 9 check-in. I did read through the chapter, but didn't feel that I had any blocks or creative U-turns. I plan to revisit this chapter in the future. I'm still consistently doing my morning pages 7 out of 7 days. And artist dates, well, I can't say that I did anything specific. Right now having time to work on any art is just the medicine I need, and I've managed to squeeze some in. I identified with a number of points Jane Ann brought up in her check-in as well as Suze's comments. I would have to say that having to do this book in a group has made me more accountable. Had I just decided to buy/read it I doubt I would have stuck with it as long or participated as much in the actual doing! I'm going to move on to Chapter 10, but there are likely a number of chapters I will be revisiting sometime in the future.

The computer ate my blogwork!

I posted this all once already! Arrgghhh! Anyway I guess we're on a Monday snow schedule. Last week we also had a bit of a blizzard on Monday. Yesterday it was 70 degrees, today, it snowed. We can sure use the moisture, but I could do without the extremes.

Chapter 8 Check-In

I did my morning pages 7 out of 7. I find them beneficial, though most of the time without tangible evidence of this.

This chapter didn't seem to be so much about time management in concrete terms, but the best advice I took from it is Filling the Form. I have a bad habit of not taking the smallest step, and therefore making the journey, unless I am assured that I can complete it. The journey is reward enough. I need to take the smallest of steps everyday, and before I know it, I will have completed something. Frequently I don't begin a task unless I can work until I finish, and so I'm guilty of putting obstacles in my own way...like I need to clean up, be caught up with everything else before I reward myself with creative work. And I know that without a creative outlet, I'm not the best of company!

I had written so much more, but this will have to do for now. I'm cooking dinner, but I did make time and get some sewing in today. I didn't finish quilting what I was working on, but I'm that much closer to being done!

Fours for me too

Four jobs you've had: medical assistant in a pediatric practice--and I still had kids, operating room technician, private scrub nurse for plastic surgeon, and motel owner/operator.

Four movies you could watch over and over: The Birdcage always cracks me up, Amelie for just the visual, Off the Map, Raiders of the Lost Ark, (only four?), E.T., Close Encounters, Star Wars...

Four places you've lived: Aschaffenburg, Germany; Sao Paulo, Brasil; Dobbs Ferry, NY; Beverly Hills, CA.

Four TV shows you love to watch: Lost, Grey's Anatomy, ER, and I just discovered two new shows, Bones and House

Four Places You've Been on Vacation: LA and TX Gulf coasts, Amsterdam, Paris, Genoa--we covered a lot of Europe the year we lived there.

Four Websites You Visit Every Day: About.com quilting forum, gmail, Route 66 News, bloglines and wherever that leads me.

Four Of Your Favorite Foods: Thai shrimp fried rice, authentic Italian anything, authentic Brazilian rice, beans, and a fried egg, Belgian chocolate

Four Places You'd Rather Be: in my bedroom sewing, in Brazil birdwatching, visiting my friend Rosie in Hawaii where she lives and I've never been, in a cafe in France.

Four Albums you can't live without: I like so many different kinds of music...but let's see right now I'm wearing out Coldplay X&Y if it were an album instead of a CD, Joni Mitchell's Miles of Aisles is always good, Allison Kraus and Union Station Live, and Keane.

Four People you'll pass this on to: Whoever hasn't done this yet in the Journal Quilts Challengers

Chapter 7 Check-in

I felt I needed this chapter, and may return to it when I
forget the lessons in it. (I'm older now, and expect to forget more!) Oh perfectionism...I was taught the other crafts in my life, counted cross-stitch, crochet, etc. by the same dictators that strictly mandate coloring inside the lines. I learned their lessons well, and was probably harsher on my work than they could ever be. I undid countless stitches, because I didn't have it exactly right, and that attitude followed into quilting, where I expected perfection without the learning curve! I'm learning to be kinder to my artist child. And yes, it is much easier not to risk trying than to try and fail or worse yet: "I'll look like an idiot." Aging has helped me be okay with appearing the idiot, as my children will attest to!

Like Sophie, I am more envious of other's situations. I so long to have my own home again, one that is not a public venue. I envy those who are already retired, as that is my goal now, though I know I am the envy of those that have 9-5 lives.

I did morning pages 6 out of 7 days. This is probably a long lasting habit. It was easy on vacation since I didn't have online access, and really needed to fill my early morning time with something.

Socks! A couple of years ago I treated myself when ordering some fabric online to a pair of Laurel Burch socks. I wore them for no reason at all. I still need to write my mantra and place it where I can easily remind myself of it. Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong. I have heretofore subscribed to the notion that being hard on myself was the key--and though it didn't work, it only reinforced my resolve to be harder still. Duh! Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results!

I had many artist dates. Walking on the beach picking up treasures has got to be one of my favorite pastimes! I have many trinkets to make into a windchime. Instead of buying a pair of socks, I treated myself to another pair of Crocs, which were on sale at a shop on the Strand in Galveston. Last summer I bought a pair of Airwalks which though they looked similar were a pale, cheaper version of my original Crocs. My feet need all the kindness I can afford to give them. I still want to make a collage!

My Christmas cactus is still going strong and has been blooming since Thanksgiving. Unlike my artist child which still needs coddling, it thrives with neglect. Of course in the summer, I can't get away with not watering my plants for the extended periods I do in the winter. Happy New Year everyone! 

Benign neglect

Boy, it's been a long time since I've blogged. We had company for Christmas and it was just busy, busy. Then as soon as they left we took off in our camper for the TX Gulf Coast. I forgot to water my plants for some time before I left and then was gone 10 days. They survived, as I tend to favor succulents, and this one thrived from the benign neglect by sending up a flower spike.

We came home to balmy weather in the 70s which was great since there was a lot of unloading and laundry to take care of. Then yesterday we had a blizzard! I'm not complaining about the much needed moisture, but wish our weather pendulum didn't have to swing to such extremes. The heat is on this morning, and besides baking a chicken tonight for dinner, I'm already contemplating what else to bake to warm it up in here.

I managed to do morning pages throughout most of our break. I enjoy them, and I feel they really do help me purge things I really don't need to drag around with me all day. Need to still do my Chapter 7 check-in and then get busy on my Journal Quilt. Had soooo many ideas that I didn't commit to paper, and now where have they gone?