Last week I began work as a Tax Preparer and all around helper for my friend Debbie who is a CPA. I'll be working at least two days a week until tax season heats up. So I have been learning a new programs for the job. I also have been watching YouTube Videos on XHTML and CSS for designing web pages. The New Boston is the web site. I'm not sure why, just curiosity.
Sewing wise I've been watching Leah Day's Quilt Along video's on Free Motion Quilting to prepare for quilting Sean's quilt. I was practicing using the Fisher Price toy that you write on and then move a leaver and the writing disappears. It's very useful for practicing stippling. I also watched Patsy Thompson:s Videos. I'm going to make a practice baby quilt for the blanket project to try out free-motion quilting before I work on Sean's
quilt. Perhaps I'll get to that tomorrow.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
A New Year
My grand kids left on New Year's Eve and I miss them. Sydney and I only got a few minutes to sew on paper because we were so busy. She loves to try out all the fancy stitches on my sewing machine. I have to remember to put in a new needle into my sewing machine after the paper sewing work. I never even got a chance to work with Sean on the sewing spools. I'll have to wait for another trip. I did get to watch a lot of Thomas the Train and Bob the Builder on T.V. though.
I've been thinking about what I would like to work on sewing-wise this year. Today I am working on getting the backing together for Sean's quilt. I'm not used to working with such large pieces of fabric. I also want to sew the fabric I bought at Mood's into garments. Yesterday I bought the new ASG Simplicity Pattern 2938 on Senior Citizens Day at Hancock Fabrics. I am planning to attend the national conference in August, and I want to enter the Creativity Content and have something to wear on "Wear Your ASG Pattern" day. I figure if I start in January, I may have something done by August. I also want to make something for Sean with the Transportation Appliques I bought at Keepsake Quilting when we went to New England. He really is into moving cars, trucks, airplanes, and trains right now. I gave Sydney my large Snap Happy Bag for her tablet, so I will make some more for me. I also want to do more with my embroidery machine. I didn't do much with it last year for some reason. I need to make new pillows for my couch, mine are literally worn out. Well this list will keep me busy for awhile.
I am also working on building up my stamina so I can get more done. We bought an XBox 360 with Kinect for Hanukkah and I am working on just getting through the warm-up workouts on the Your Shape 2012 disk. The first day I burned 25 calories, the second day 40 calories. I'm working up to 100 calories and then I'll start trying the workouts. I tried to learn one of the dances on the Dance Central disk, but I couldn't get the hang of it yet. This is a long-term goal for this year. I'm hoping by getting more exercise, I'll lose weight. I think I've been on a diet all my life, and I never seem to get anywhere. The Biggest Loser is my motivation.
I've been thinking about what I would like to work on sewing-wise this year. Today I am working on getting the backing together for Sean's quilt. I'm not used to working with such large pieces of fabric. I also want to sew the fabric I bought at Mood's into garments. Yesterday I bought the new ASG Simplicity Pattern 2938 on Senior Citizens Day at Hancock Fabrics. I am planning to attend the national conference in August, and I want to enter the Creativity Content and have something to wear on "Wear Your ASG Pattern" day. I figure if I start in January, I may have something done by August. I also want to make something for Sean with the Transportation Appliques I bought at Keepsake Quilting when we went to New England. He really is into moving cars, trucks, airplanes, and trains right now. I gave Sydney my large Snap Happy Bag for her tablet, so I will make some more for me. I also want to do more with my embroidery machine. I didn't do much with it last year for some reason. I need to make new pillows for my couch, mine are literally worn out. Well this list will keep me busy for awhile.
I am also working on building up my stamina so I can get more done. We bought an XBox 360 with Kinect for Hanukkah and I am working on just getting through the warm-up workouts on the Your Shape 2012 disk. The first day I burned 25 calories, the second day 40 calories. I'm working up to 100 calories and then I'll start trying the workouts. I tried to learn one of the dances on the Dance Central disk, but I couldn't get the hang of it yet. This is a long-term goal for this year. I'm hoping by getting more exercise, I'll lose weight. I think I've been on a diet all my life, and I never seem to get anywhere. The Biggest Loser is my motivation.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Cleaning the Sewing Room
My beautiful grandson (3) and my wonderful granddaughter (7) are coming tomorrow for a week and the sewing room is also the guest room. Behind the book shelves holding my sewing books is a Murphy Bed that come down out of the wall for sleeping. . . I have put all the fabrics into plastic bins which I covered with a Hanukkah tablecloth to make a side table. I have closed the machines, put up the ironing board and unplugged everything. I emptied the Chest of Drawers so my son can put the clothes in it, and I've tried to make space in the closet to hang up some clothes next to my oaktag block patterns.. I have put my hundreds of threads into storage boxes. I have the Stabilizer in boxes and paper bags. I have little scraps and ribbons in baskets. I have tried to find all the pins in the rug and picked them up so there will be no pins in feet.
I hope Sydney and I will get a chance to knit and sew, and that Sean will string my empty thread spools on yarn and we can use some art supplies to make Grandma some new refrigerator art. I have gone through thousands of papers and shredded or tossed out many. I didn't finish all the paperwork though. Can one ever finish disposing of paperwork? Tomorrow (Christmas Day) they fly in on United's Reindeer and I am so excited.
Everyone should have company so they have an excuse to organize and clean up their sewing rooms.
I hope Sydney and I will get a chance to knit and sew, and that Sean will string my empty thread spools on yarn and we can use some art supplies to make Grandma some new refrigerator art. I have gone through thousands of papers and shredded or tossed out many. I didn't finish all the paperwork though. Can one ever finish disposing of paperwork? Tomorrow (Christmas Day) they fly in on United's Reindeer and I am so excited.
Everyone should have company so they have an excuse to organize and clean up their sewing rooms.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
A Wonderful Week of Parties and Fun
This past week was really wonderful. First on Saturday Night, we hosted the Pre-Chanukah Chanukah Party for our Chavurah. It was a Pot Luck and I made Latkes from scratch. I decided I didn't need the electric fry pan and returned it before the party. I sort of followed the recipe from the Shiska in the Kitchen blog Yukon-gold-latkes/but I used regular Russet potatoes and added some additional spices. There was not one Latke left. We got a nice bottle of wine from the Gift Exchange.
On Sunday, I attended the Houston Chapter of the American Sewing Guild Annual Meeting. It was a Mad Hatter Tea Party. The hats that people wore were absolutely wonderful. There was a $1000 challenge where the members were to find an item advertised for at least $1000 and try to recreate it. The winner was a facinator hat and the runner up was a tote bag. There were fur jackets, purses, and other terrific items. There were about 100 people who came which was wonderful because the weather was very threatening. At the meeting I was elected Secretary of the Chapter Advisory Board.
On Monday, I attended the holiday party and gift exchange for the ASG Wearables Neighborhood Group in Webster. For the gift exchange I received a little kit of embroidery tools from Sulky which I had almost purchased at the Quilt Festival. You can see it here:
Sulky Embroidery Toolkit.
On Wednesday I had lunch with friends at Berryhill in Sugarland. Then I went to JoAnn's to buy fabric for the back of my quilt top and batting. In the evening, the Warwick Towers had its annual party. There were three open units to tour. In the penthouse unit there was a centuries old Royal Chinese Robe displayed in a plexiglass case. The owner told us that they knew it was a Royal Robe because the dragon that was embroidered on the robe had five fingers. If it was only nobility owned and not royal it would have had four fingers. The wall with the robe encased slid open and inside was a wide screen TV. At one of the other units that was open, I discovered that the woman who lived in it was a quilter! She had a whole room set up as quilting room with a design wall and a peg board for her tools. The closet was filled with sliding baskets that held her fabric stash. The buffet dinner had 10 appetizers, 5 main dishes, about 20 different desserts, wine, coffee with liqueurs, and each bite was absolutely delicious. It was almost impossible to even take just one bite of everything.
On Thursday I made two Chanukah Pillowcases to be presents for the grand kids to use when they are here and then they can take them home with them.
On Friday evening we went to the Family Bingo Center with a group of friends. It was a lot of fun, but no one in our group won anything.
On Saturday morning, we had the annual pot luck and gift exchange for the Inside the Loop Group neighborhood group of ASG. For my gift I received Fabric Organizers that can help me clean up my stash of Fabric. You can see them here:Fabric Organizers.Then we went out to dinner with good friends for wonderful TexMex food at Pappasitos. The food is always delicious but the restaurants are always very noisy.
Today, Sunday, we went to a local Veteran's Center with people from our Synagogue and played bingo with the Vets. I convinced Dave to donate two bags of books to the vets so we now have more room for his ever-growing book collection. Thus it was a busy and wonderful week.
On Sunday, I attended the Houston Chapter of the American Sewing Guild Annual Meeting. It was a Mad Hatter Tea Party. The hats that people wore were absolutely wonderful. There was a $1000 challenge where the members were to find an item advertised for at least $1000 and try to recreate it. The winner was a facinator hat and the runner up was a tote bag. There were fur jackets, purses, and other terrific items. There were about 100 people who came which was wonderful because the weather was very threatening. At the meeting I was elected Secretary of the Chapter Advisory Board.
On Monday, I attended the holiday party and gift exchange for the ASG Wearables Neighborhood Group in Webster. For the gift exchange I received a little kit of embroidery tools from Sulky which I had almost purchased at the Quilt Festival. You can see it here:
Sulky Embroidery Toolkit.
On Wednesday I had lunch with friends at Berryhill in Sugarland. Then I went to JoAnn's to buy fabric for the back of my quilt top and batting. In the evening, the Warwick Towers had its annual party. There were three open units to tour. In the penthouse unit there was a centuries old Royal Chinese Robe displayed in a plexiglass case. The owner told us that they knew it was a Royal Robe because the dragon that was embroidered on the robe had five fingers. If it was only nobility owned and not royal it would have had four fingers. The wall with the robe encased slid open and inside was a wide screen TV. At one of the other units that was open, I discovered that the woman who lived in it was a quilter! She had a whole room set up as quilting room with a design wall and a peg board for her tools. The closet was filled with sliding baskets that held her fabric stash. The buffet dinner had 10 appetizers, 5 main dishes, about 20 different desserts, wine, coffee with liqueurs, and each bite was absolutely delicious. It was almost impossible to even take just one bite of everything.
On Thursday I made two Chanukah Pillowcases to be presents for the grand kids to use when they are here and then they can take them home with them.
On Friday evening we went to the Family Bingo Center with a group of friends. It was a lot of fun, but no one in our group won anything.
On Saturday morning, we had the annual pot luck and gift exchange for the Inside the Loop Group neighborhood group of ASG. For my gift I received Fabric Organizers that can help me clean up my stash of Fabric. You can see them here:Fabric Organizers.Then we went out to dinner with good friends for wonderful TexMex food at Pappasitos. The food is always delicious but the restaurants are always very noisy.
Today, Sunday, we went to a local Veteran's Center with people from our Synagogue and played bingo with the Vets. I convinced Dave to donate two bags of books to the vets so we now have more room for his ever-growing book collection. Thus it was a busy and wonderful week.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Holiday Parties and Pillowcases!
The Holiday season is starting with a lot of parties for me this year. It is nice NOT to be on the road and to be able to attend the parties. Next Saturday we are sponsoring an early Hanukah party with our chavurah (group of friends) from our Synagogue. I've been out shopping for lots of paper goods, decorations, tablecloths, etc. for the party. I'm making latkes and realized I needed to buy an electric fry pan to cook them it, so Dave and I got one at Target today. My major problem is where am I going to put it after the party. We got a "grinch" gift for the Hanukah gift exchange today also.
My condo is having its annual open house and holiday buffet on the seventh. One of the units that will be open is a penthouse so that will be spectacular. The Buffet is always gourmet delicious. As usual, my husband will be on the road so I asked my "other husband" to come with me. No, I am not polygamous, he is just a good friend and his wife and my husband don't object. Some year Dave will get to come to the event with me. I know he would really enjoy it.
My two ASG groups are also having holiday parties with gift exchanges. I went to Joann's and found some notions to which I'll add some fabric from my stash for my gifts. I also bought some Hanukkah fabric there. My grand kids are coming for the end of Hanukkah (Christmas week) and I'm thinking of making them pillow cases with the Hanukkah fabric. At least they won't outgrow the pillowcases! I have to think small as everything will go back with them to California. If I have time and enough fabric, I'll make some pillowcases for my New Jersey Grandkids too! Maybe I'll make some for my Houston great niece and nephew. Oh no! I'll have to open a pillowcase factory in the next two weeks!
My condo is having its annual open house and holiday buffet on the seventh. One of the units that will be open is a penthouse so that will be spectacular. The Buffet is always gourmet delicious. As usual, my husband will be on the road so I asked my "other husband" to come with me. No, I am not polygamous, he is just a good friend and his wife and my husband don't object. Some year Dave will get to come to the event with me. I know he would really enjoy it.
My two ASG groups are also having holiday parties with gift exchanges. I went to Joann's and found some notions to which I'll add some fabric from my stash for my gifts. I also bought some Hanukkah fabric there. My grand kids are coming for the end of Hanukkah (Christmas week) and I'm thinking of making them pillow cases with the Hanukkah fabric. At least they won't outgrow the pillowcases! I have to think small as everything will go back with them to California. If I have time and enough fabric, I'll make some pillowcases for my New Jersey Grandkids too! Maybe I'll make some for my Houston great niece and nephew. Oh no! I'll have to open a pillowcase factory in the next two weeks!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
KISS website
A reader asked for the website to buy a Kut It Sew Straight laser light. It is http://www.econceptmall.com.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Catching Up
I haven't posted a blog in awhile. I have been to three ASG meetings and attended the International Quilt Festival in Houston on three separate days. The Quilt Festival, as usual, was awesome. On Thursday, I looked at the prize winning quilts and then walked around the vendors before doing my stint as a volunteer at the ASG booth. On Friday I brought two friends who had never been to the Quilt Festival before. They soon learned to believe me when I said to think" Art Show and Shopping Mall" rather than bedspreads! We spent about two hours looking at quilts, a half-hour at lunch, and an hour shopping. On Sunday I went back to continuing exploring the vendors. Although my friends didn't sew, one bought jewelry and one got a massage! I didn't buy much this year because I had bought fabric in NYC at Mood, and I had taken three pattern making workshops and I have an ever growing stash of fabric. I did buy some embroidery thread, some water soluble sticky stabilizer, and a gadget call KISS which stands for Kut it Sew Straight. It is a laser light that shine on your cutting mat so you can put a rotary cutter or scissor on top and cut a straight line. My two ASG neighborhood groups had Show and Tells from the Quilt Festival as their meetings, so I had something to show as no one else had purchased that gadget.
Today I attended my first ASG Chapter Advisory Board meeting. I was getting to see what I have to look forward to next year. I'm about to finish my red rayon jacket. I have a lot of Holiday Parties coming up to wear it at. I had to lift the shoulders, re-fit the sleeves, and shorten the bottom points. Thank goodness for the help I got at the Wearables group or I would have just given up.
It's almost Thanksgiving, and I'm thankful for all of my sewing friends.
Today I attended my first ASG Chapter Advisory Board meeting. I was getting to see what I have to look forward to next year. I'm about to finish my red rayon jacket. I have a lot of Holiday Parties coming up to wear it at. I had to lift the shoulders, re-fit the sleeves, and shorten the bottom points. Thank goodness for the help I got at the Wearables group or I would have just given up.
It's almost Thanksgiving, and I'm thankful for all of my sewing friends.
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