A Couple of Projects Finished

Here's the sweater and pants I made at the sewing retreat. I always learn the hard way, and this sweater was no exception. I arrived at the retreat with the sweater knit but no stabilizing material, no walking foot, zip. After the first try-on, where the hem was nearly at my knees, the sleeves 8 inches too long, and the shoulders about the same, I borrowed some seam tape and tried again. Still no joy. So when I got home I unpicked the sleeves, took off inches from the shoulders, stabilized everything but the hem, and put it back together. As you can see, the hem is still wonky and needs to be fixed---somehow.

I also took a wide angle view to show my home dec work. I personally painted the bedroom, covered the headboard, and made the matching pillow. I like it!

ASG Sewing Retreat

I just spent a wonderful weekend at the Atlanta area ASG First Annual Sewing Retreat. We were in a beautiful state park which featured several cabins and a large meeting hall where we had ample room to set up all our machines, ironing boards, cutting boards, etc. There were about 25 attendees, which was small enough to get to know everyone fairly well and several very well. I arrived with 2 garments already cut out, which I managed to complete, and the patterns and fabric for two more--I was overly ambitious. But what a lot of fun, laughter, jokes, and above all, camaraderie we had. I'm looking forward to next year's retreat, already in the planning stages. We refer to ourselves as the "legacy" group, so should be assured a space!

Halloween 2009

I'm back from my trip to see the kids. I usually drive, although it's more expensive and takes a couple of days, but I count that as part of my vacation. I don't have a picture of the grandson (yet) but here's my little granddaughter! However, since I brought with me a DVD of "The Pink Panther" she decided on Halloween morning that's the character she wanted to be. So a quick trip by my son to Target, a pink sweatshirt and a couple of pairs of pink tights, and I whipped up a pink panther for her.

Another project

The upper cabinets between the kitchen and the den were removed today. Amazing how much this has lightened and brightened the space, but now the question is: should I keep going? We've left the opening to the studs. I may take that entire portion of the wall down because on the other side of that is the formal dining room, which has a large picture window. This will bring even more light into the room, but at the expense of "deformalizing" the dining room.

Sewing Machine Damaged, and in other news...

My sewing machine was damaged in the flood...at least the foot pedal. It's in the shop to be checked out. The shop owner just built a new location and is too busy to look at it for a while, and I'm leaving for my son's house on Tuesday, so it will be at least a couple of weeks before I can get back to the sewing room.

In other news, I am outraged by some recent news:

CNN) -- Arizona police are looking for an Iraqi man who they allege ran down his daughter and her friend because he believed his daughter had become "too Westernized."

Police say they're looking for Faleh Hassan Almaleki, who they say struck two people with a vehicle Tuesday.

Peoria, Arizona, police said Wednesday that Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, struck his 20-year-old daughter, Noor Faleh Almaleki, and her friend Amal Edan Khalaf with a vehicle he was driving in a parking lot Tuesday afternoon.
Faleh Hassan Almaleki was angry with his daughter "as she had become too 'Westernized' and was not living according to [the family's] traditional Iraq[i] values," Peoria police said in a statement released Wednesday.
Noor Faleh Almaleki is hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, according to the statement. Khalaf, 43, received injuries that are not life-threatening but is still in the hospital, police said.
Noor Faleh Almaleki lives with Khalaf, police said but did not elaborate on how the two women knew each other.
Faleh Hassan Almaleki was last seen in a gray or silver Jeep Grand Cherokee, police said.

And related:
http://libertyrules.wordpress.com/2007/01/27/a-mans-gotta-do-what-a-mans-gotta-do-islamic-version/

Drip, Drip

I was telling a girlfriend today that I've overbooked myself, as usual. I'm scheduled to do something every day, and I'm ignoring the fact that I'm now 67 years old and have way too big a house to take care of in my "free" time. The "drip, drip" of the title is referring to my basement. The big Ah-Ha! moment of my scheduling came when my basement flooded, not once but three times now. It exhausted me to clean all that up. Then I was determined to fix the problem myself (why call in a professional?) so I did fix the drain that was the first problem. Then I almost fixed the drip that caused the third flooding (not nearly as traumatic as the first two, but still managed to make it's way into the sewing room on the far side of the basement.) After ten more bags of rubber mulch and several more sheets of black plastic, I may have fixed the problem---except for that annoying drip...drip...drip. So meanwhile I've scheduled myself onto three tennis teams and have added ballroom dancing lessons and practice. At the lesson I met a woman who wants me to join her at actual dances...which means I need to sew something (actually several somethings) to wear dancing...which means a TNT pattern. I've only got a TNT pattern for pants and tee shirt, which was my life before all this crazy overscheduling.

Catching Up

As I mentioned in my last post, I returned from Texas late Thursday night and Sunday was a flood disaster. A poor traveller, I was still jetlagged by the time I had to stay up all Sunday night, bailing water. Yesterday I got four more inches of rain, but thanks to my extremely hard work putting plastic and mulch around the foundation of the house and keeping a very sharp eye on the patio drain, I kept all water out of the house. Today marks a week since the flood, and I am beginning to catch up with my normal life. I'm slowly working on one of the brick walls I am plastering, slowly catching up on normal housework and laundry, and slowly getting the sewing room back in order. Meanwhile my social life continues to improve, as I have added three tennis teams to play on and ballroom dancing practice, as well as playing cards twice a week and dinner out, usually once a week. I'm considering adding a yoga class so I can have a little stretch in those muscles I use for tennis and dancing. (Don't ask, "what muscles?") After the horror story with my house I am seriously considering just buying a condo next time. Then I can travel without worry. I might be on my way to becoming a Merry Widow...