Somehow, I managed to win an early registration for convention this year. I've chosen my classes and emailed them to the registrar, and made my hotel reservation. I need to reserve a sewing machine for my first class- this will be my first machine class at a convention!- and make flight reservations.
I'm looking forward to a week in Frisco, Texas!
Monday, April 15, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
SAGA Regional Retreat
I've just returned home from three days of sewing with friends old and new at the first-ever Smocking Arts Guild regional sewing retreat. It was held at a convention center in State College, PA. As one attendee put it "equally inconvenient for everyone", the center was not too bad. At first, we were dismayed by the fact that the rooms had outside doorways, but they were covered and it was just a short walk to a door into an inner hall.
My two fellow chapter members and I had a wonderful time. I took all hand classes, while they also took some machine technique classes. Friday was tough- breakfast at 8am, classes from 9-noon, 1:30-4:30, and 6-9 with breaks for meals.
I really enjoyed my classes. I had a baby daygown class all day Friday where we learned how to measure and adapt a daygown pattern to accomodate tucks of several types, lace and pleats. I finally managed to do a decent featherstitch! Jeannie Baumeister, our teacher, kept telling me that if I do it fifteen minutes a day for two weeks, I should have it mastered. Now that I have the rhythm and sequence of the stitch down, I'll try that and see how it goes.
On Saturday my class focused on a sweet little sachet adapted from a pattern printed in a 1914 magazine in an article about quick homemade Christmas gifts that Jeannie had found. You can see her blog post about it here. She surprised us with a packet of dried rose petals from her own rosebushes to fill the sachet when it's finished.
This morning was my final class, Italian Hemstitch taught by Claudia Newton. Things learned: some linens are easier to draw threads from than others, left-handed instructions are wonderful things to have, and scissor-action tweezers are easier on the hands than normal ones. The project for this class is an embroidered guest towel. I never have guests, and I'm not fond of linen towels, so this will likely end up being just a show piece.
I'm having a bit of trouble getting out of stitching mode and back into cleaning-up-after-the-cats mode. Can't think why!
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Ah, March. How I love you. The robins are back, there are plants poking hesitant new growth up out of the still cold soil.
I have a lot of sewing to do this month, not the least of which are some cute little sewing caddies our new Pittsburgh web-based SAGA chapter is donating as table favors.
Last week I submitted my artisan points for verification, which means I'll also be working on not one, but TWO artisan project submissions. The Smocking category is fairly small- a couple of pleating samples and a smocked sample. The Fine Hand Sewing category has 14 different bits to be submitted, though, so I'll be hand-stitching like a mad thing. I'd like to get them in the mail by mid-April so I have plenty of time to re-do anything that needs tweaking.
My husband's younger half-sister is getting married (finally!) in May, and we'll be making a trip over to the UK for the wedding. I'm really excited about that! The wedding will be in Gloucestershire, but I suspect we'll do a bit of traveling to see some UK based friends, as well. I wouldn't mind catching up with my friend Dylan- it's been ages since I've seen him. A visit with another friend, Misty, is a must- I was in her wedding, and she is one of my best friends Evar!
I have a lot of sewing to do this month, not the least of which are some cute little sewing caddies our new Pittsburgh web-based SAGA chapter is donating as table favors.
Last week I submitted my artisan points for verification, which means I'll also be working on not one, but TWO artisan project submissions. The Smocking category is fairly small- a couple of pleating samples and a smocked sample. The Fine Hand Sewing category has 14 different bits to be submitted, though, so I'll be hand-stitching like a mad thing. I'd like to get them in the mail by mid-April so I have plenty of time to re-do anything that needs tweaking.
My husband's younger half-sister is getting married (finally!) in May, and we'll be making a trip over to the UK for the wedding. I'm really excited about that! The wedding will be in Gloucestershire, but I suspect we'll do a bit of traveling to see some UK based friends, as well. I wouldn't mind catching up with my friend Dylan- it's been ages since I've seen him. A visit with another friend, Misty, is a must- I was in her wedding, and she is one of my best friends Evar!
Monday, February 11, 2013
Small Oddity
A few weeks ago I tried to post a comment on a blog I've been following for a couple of years now. I've commented there before with no problems. I typed the comment, hit 'post' and the comment disappeared. "Huh", I thought, and tried again. Then it happened again with another blog.
I figured it was a Blogger thing. They have them sometimes. When it hadn't cleared up in a few days, I contacted the blog owner to make sure I'd not been turfed off her pages, and I hadn't. I did notice that I was no longer listed as a follower, though...
Fast forward to today. It happened again, with yet a different blog. It seems that when I cleared my cookies and cache in December, it also cleared off all my Blogger Following settings. I can understand it clearing my Blogger login, but the blogs I've followed? That's just weird.
Anyway. Fixed now. I post this mostly so if anyone who reads this has had or runs into this problem, they know a possible fix.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Progress?
Sadly, I have not ventured into the sewing room for more than a few minutes in the past week.
My husband's dust allergy has been rather active, so instead I've been vacuuming and dusting and spritzing things with allergen control spray, then mopping and wiping down.
Ohh. We Interrupt this Post for the Arrival of my Shiny New iPad..... (love air miles)
Right- two days later. The new iPad is shiny and white and so light I'm afraid it will float away if I don't keep a good grip on it. I'll have to procure a nifty case/lid/thingy for it at some point in the next few days. I installed Google Chrome on it, so now I can do tabbed browsing- something I really missed about Safari on the iPad. Games and music will be ported in gradually, as well, but for now I'm working with my Gen1 nd mostly admiring the new device.
Back to the sewing room. I ordered and retrieved some of these. One bench, one each of the storage cube units, and a few drawers to put in them. I'll be having Some Fun putting them together over the next few days. I'm also thinking about paint colors. The other sewing room is a very pale green
(I think its this color: http://tinyurl.com/asnkqv9) but I'm not sure I want that same color in the other room as well. Maybe a pale peach or yellow. I tend to buy paints that are as close to white as I can find, but I might do an accent wall in an actual color. We'll see.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Small successes
Over the past week I managed to achieve things!
First up was a couple hours of work in the sewing room. I'm cataloging my books and magazines, and this week I went through my Inspirations, Australian Smocking and Embroidery and Sew Beautiful collections. They're now in labeled magazine folders in order. This is one of those tasks that takes longer than it should because it's impossible for me to just sort the things: I have to stop and thumb through some of the issues.
I got most of the Holiday decorations dragged back to the basement, and cleared off a metal shelving unit that has been taking up space in our front room. Homes have been found for the things that were cluttering it up, and the shelf unit itself has gone up to the sewing room where it can be more useful.
I've stitched about another inch of Palestrina stitch on my Flip-Flop Needlebook case, but am stuck now because I have to add a new thread. I can't remember the process, so I have to experiment.
My daughter-in-law sent me home with a jacket which had lost about half its hem. I got that put back together for her last night, then realized the jacket was missing a button. I checked with her this morning and she said she hadn't been able to find it at home, so I toddled off to Joann's to find replacements. I wanted to use one of the funky La Mode Brocade designs, but it only comes in one size and I need two, so that was out. The experience made me wish I lived much closer to Britex, where they have an entire room full of button designs. Bet I could have found multiple sizes of cool buttons there! It's entirely possible that DiL would be just as happy that I had to choose something more subtle. She's not a funky or flashy gal.
After finishing that bit of mending I started on a more long-term project: making a plarn shopping tote. Last night I smoothed out blue plastic bags, cut them into loops and joined them to make a decent-sized ball of plarn. Sometime this week I'll start crocheting that into a bag using this pattern: http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2010/how-tuesday-how-to-make-plarn-crochet-an-eco-friendly-tote-b/
It's been a while since I've done any crochet, so I suspect this to take a while as a 15-20 minute at a time project. [The plastic has been deemed to be too noisy to be a tv project.]
First up was a couple hours of work in the sewing room. I'm cataloging my books and magazines, and this week I went through my Inspirations, Australian Smocking and Embroidery and Sew Beautiful collections. They're now in labeled magazine folders in order. This is one of those tasks that takes longer than it should because it's impossible for me to just sort the things: I have to stop and thumb through some of the issues.
I got most of the Holiday decorations dragged back to the basement, and cleared off a metal shelving unit that has been taking up space in our front room. Homes have been found for the things that were cluttering it up, and the shelf unit itself has gone up to the sewing room where it can be more useful.
I've stitched about another inch of Palestrina stitch on my Flip-Flop Needlebook case, but am stuck now because I have to add a new thread. I can't remember the process, so I have to experiment.
My daughter-in-law sent me home with a jacket which had lost about half its hem. I got that put back together for her last night, then realized the jacket was missing a button. I checked with her this morning and she said she hadn't been able to find it at home, so I toddled off to Joann's to find replacements. I wanted to use one of the funky La Mode Brocade designs, but it only comes in one size and I need two, so that was out. The experience made me wish I lived much closer to Britex, where they have an entire room full of button designs. Bet I could have found multiple sizes of cool buttons there! It's entirely possible that DiL would be just as happy that I had to choose something more subtle. She's not a funky or flashy gal.
After finishing that bit of mending I started on a more long-term project: making a plarn shopping tote. Last night I smoothed out blue plastic bags, cut them into loops and joined them to make a decent-sized ball of plarn. Sometime this week I'll start crocheting that into a bag using this pattern: http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2010/how-tuesday-how-to-make-plarn-crochet-an-eco-friendly-tote-b/
It's been a while since I've done any crochet, so I suspect this to take a while as a 15-20 minute at a time project. [The plastic has been deemed to be too noisy to be a tv project.]
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