Notions, books and thimbles make great souvenirs

At the end of a long day configuring SAP systems, I often did not want to go back to my hotel room and just eat room-service meals in front of the TV.  I did not want to hang out at a hotel bar and watch sports with my fellow travelers either, so I usually went to the Yellow Pages and tore out the page that listed fabric stores in whatever city I happened to be in.  Then I would check to see which stores were reasonably close to the hotel and go and take a walk around the stores.  I've been to fabric stores all over the country.  I think my favorites were Pacific Fabrics on the West Coast and G Street Fabrics on the East Coast.   I believed in traveling as light as possible so I did not purchase yards of fabric to bring home, but often I would buy a notion or a sewing magazine or book to read.  So although I do have a "small" fabric stash, I have a large notions tool kit and sewing library. 

Now I am trying out the various "tools" in my sewing toolkit.  Today I was playing with my Perfect Pleater that I am pretty sure I bought at the Clotilde booth at the Quilt Festival years ago.  I haven't figured out just what I want to pleat yet, but I will pleat a small bit of fabric and put it into my Fabric Manipulation sampler.  Have you pleated anything with this notion?

I also bought a ruffler foot for my sewing machine.  I tried using that foot when I made the outfit for my granddaughter that is pictured in an earlier post.  It made nice pleats but I found it was easier to just run basting stitches and pull the threads up to make the gathered strips the correct size for the top and pants. When I  used the Ruffler foot, it made beautiful ruffles but they were never the right length. What have you done with your ruffler foot?

I did use my "Quick Turn" tube-turning tool when I made my Snap Happy bags.  It would have been impossible to turn the little tubes without it.  I'm thinking of sewing up some tubes and weaving them for part of my fabric manipulation challenge.  I have no meetings this week so I will have time to play and sew and work on my to-do list.

My sister in California said she will send my sister in Colorado the baked potato bags so I am off the hook for that project.  It's my birthday this week, so I hope she sends me one also (Hint Hint).  She bought a new sewing machine this year and now she has an excuse to use it.

I'll write about my sewing book and souvenir thimble collections another day.  It's 1 a.m. and I really ought to go to sleep.

Wonderful Wearables Group

Yesterday was the Wonderful Wearables Group down in Webster.  Those ladies really know how to sew.  For the Texture Magic Challenge, Sara made a purse and the flap was texturized.  Penny used her texturized fabric to make a water bottle holder she uses on her walks.  Another lady texturized some decorator weight fabric with a flower spray and used the  flower part on the side of a purse.  I worked on sewing the Texture Magic to my fabric, but haven't shrunk it yet. .The next mini-challenge is to use one of the fabric manipulation techniques that Penny demonstrated a few meetings back to make something. I have had the Lazy Girl Designs Town and Country purse pattern for a long time. Perhaps I will combine the fabric manipulation challenge with the Texture Magic challenge and put both into the purse.

Lou told us about her ASG trip to New York City.  It sounded great.  I need to get my daughter  who lives in NYC to do fabric shopping for me!  Too bad she is not a sewer. 

I have to decide if I want to go to the Linda Lee workshop.  I hear it is filling up fast and is limited to 25 students.  It costs $65 for the workshop and $75 for the fabric kit to make the Plaza Jacket and I don't think I would ever wear the Plaza Jacket.  Perhaps I'll just go on Saturday to the lectures.  They are not until Sept so I have some time to think about those.

Lorianne helped me figure out where to put the buttons on my blouse so I am still working on it.  I also decided to shorten the sleeves.  I still need to topstitch all around.  Maybe I'll finish it by the next meeting.

The next major challenge will be to make an outfit for the Stitch in Time Fashion Show at the Quilt Festival.  Perhaps I can make a nice outfit for Rosh Hashannah and then enter it into the fashion show.  Lorianne said that if you submit an outfit, you are in.  The other show coming up is the Cotton Patch show.  I think if you set a goal to finish something for these shows, you might actually accomplish it.  If you don't have a goal, time goes by and nothing gets finished.

Care of Textiles

I found this interesting pamphlet on the Textile Museum  web site.
http://www.textilemuseum.org/care/brochures/guidelines.htm