Sewing Class at last

Last night I listened to the ASG Webinar on Serging. The best tip was to release the tension, take the threads off the stitch finger, and separate the threads when it is necessary to rethread one of the loopers or the needle. Then you don't need to rethread the other looper or needle. I'm going to try this because I need to put a different color thread on my serger tomorrow. I wish I had a serger with an automatic threading system, but I don't really use it enough yet to justify the cost. Maybe for my 65th birthday!

I bought my Brother Quattro at the Quilt Festival in Houston in November 2008 and now I am finally getting to take the Introductory Classes at Sew Contempo. This is because the classes were always during the week, and I was always traveling during the week. Most of the material I knew already but I did pick up a few pointers. Apparently one problem with my embroidery tension may have been caused by the bobbin thread not getting into the tension all the way. They suggest you hold the bobbin down while you thread it. Also I never saw the Make an Applique function before. That might be useful for my embroidery for my ASG Wearables garment. The women in the class were really nice, but I knew a lot more about computers than the instructor did.

I cut out a skirt this morning from the Simplicity Pattern2287 taking 7" off from the top. Simplicity responded to my email suggesting I draw a hip line 9" down and then fold out the amount I needed to shorten the skirt, but it would really require me to redraw the whole line of the seam. I decided I could use the extra inches in the waist and took the length out from the top. I'll work on it more after Sydney leaves on Friday. I'm looking forward to spending the day playing with my grand daughter tomorrow.

I also need to prepare for the Saturday ASG group program. I saw one of the patterns today for the Snap Happy II bag, but it just looked like the same bag in a different shape. They sewed strips or "strings" on a foundation and then cut out the bag in a cosmetic bag size case. I think I can figure this out just from the pictures of the envelope I saw on the Internet.

I'm re-reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet for the Book Club I'm leading next week, but I'm also reading South of Broad by Pat Conroy and I'm enjoying that a whole lot.

Another recruiter sent me a job description for a job at BP. Do I really want to go back to work? Some days yes, some days no. I am enjoying having time to sew and read and have lunch with my friends.