I am amused.

I just went through my reading list and noticed that one of my acquaintances hasn't updated her blog

since Feb.  Hmm, I thought, she updates about like I do.  So I checked, and see that I haven't posted for nearly a year!

In that year, I have putzed around in the sewing Rooms.  A good friend has been offering to help me get the things organized for ages now, and I finally took her up on it.  I think we've put in about 5 6-8 hour sessions: We donated 6 bags of fabrics, notions and Other Junk to the bi-annual Women's Auxilliary Salvation Army Fabric Fair, 4 boxes of beads, threads and assorted crafty bits to the local Creative Reuse shop, a box of books to a resale shop, and at least 10 bags of crap that was too yucky to donate.   We spent 6 hours on Friday up there and cleared 2 boxes of patterns to donation or recycling, and separated about 8 boxes of various sizes into like containers.  Seriously.  Why do I have 14 pincushions? I won't need to buy embroidery needles for the rest of my life, even if I live to be 100.  Today, my husband assembled the Cricut station I bought in January of 2024 and it is waiting for me to put All The Things on it, and possibly  use it?  Maybe?  I also decided to donate my spinning wheel to Contemporary Crafts, where they have displays of and lessons in all sorts of arts and crafts.  My floor loom lives there already, so her little sister will be joining her. 

    Besides encouragement and "being my legs" from Gail, I also got a bit of encouragement from a random post of facebook that boiled down to, rather than just ask if something sparks joy, ask if it is something you really need or have an inclination to do.  Will you make it? When?  Can you finish it?  If any of those answers is no or errrrr, maybe?  it's probably time to pass it along. 

  I bought a wheelchair!  My stamina has been declining these past few months. How much was driven home to me when my daughter and her honey came to visit and we all went to the zoo. There were no scooters available when we entered, so I decided to just give walking a try.  I made it to the first exhibit: probably 450 steps.  We had noticed people heading back toward the entrance as we progressed, so the Hubby went back to the entrance to see if he could score one for me.  He did, and the difference was absolutely amazing! Rather than concentrating on how many more steps to the next bench or exhibit, I was able to just wheel along and enjoy what we saw.    The following week we went to a local mobility aid store and picked out a wheelchair- I decided a chair would probably be easier to transport and to navigate in buildings than a scooter.  We found one that is supposed to handle all terrains, is battery powered, folds up nicely to about the size of a decent suitcase, and is not screaming lime green.  The following Friday we went to the Aviary and. I tested it out on cobblestones (ow, but doable), gravel, grass, crackly sidewalk and basic asphalt, as well as tiled indoor floors.  It's great! 

   However, I am still trying to get at least 2000 steps per day in, to increase to 3000 as soon as 2000 isn't difficult. I'm currently hitting between 1700-2200.

I'm sure there is more.l 

With luck, another update this MONTH rather than next year!

K

Nearly August

 

I keep forgetting about this thing....

I need to update my profile.  I no longer have cats, as Loki passed on due to complications of old age about two years ago, now.  He was just shy of 22 years old. His sister crossed the rainbow bridge about 18 months earlier. She developed feline squamous cell carcinoma in her mouth and jaw.  I still miss them both every day.  

Still have a husband, for which I am grateful.  We celebrated 20 years in December, and pretty much continue to like each other. I find that is helpful in a marriage.  😊

My mobility sucks: I use a cane now when out and about, and occasionally I need to drag out my walker. Boy, do those make me feel OLD!  I still go to the gym at least twice a week, though, and have managed to lose about 25 pounds since Christmas,  Many pounds to go to get to a weight that will make my doctor happy, but I'm thrilled. I walked in to a Target, grabbed a pair of 24 jeans off the rack and They Fit! In fact, they are a tad loose. 

The sewing room is still a Pit, although I don't despair of it any more.  I hired a friend to help me get things sorted up there and that has helped a lot.  We usually only spend an hour and a half doing things, but even that has made a big difference. I can work up there on my own without having to walk back and forth so much, but if i need to go from one room to the other I no longer have to navigate through boxes and bins and unidentified lying objects.  I might even be able to whip out my sewing machine next week. That would be a good thing as I have "a few" projects to work on.  I have decided to purge a bunch of said projects: I am really never going to work on, much less complete, a large number of them. (Last time I cataloged, I had at least 50. The breed when you aren't looking.)

My daughter just moved into a new home and we'll be going to visit her soon.  Haven't seen her for a while due to her work schedule and my not wanting to sit in the car for x hours. We'll probably also drop in for a visit with my ex (yeah, we're still friends) and maybe check out some of my old haunts from when the kids were small.  Or not- we don't really have plans other than to connect with the girl-child. We haven't been anywhere for a couple of years; just haven't felt an inclination to travel.     

Brace yourself.....

 There has been progress made in the sewing rooms!

A bookcase and file cabinet have been moved back under the north windows. They are both still empty because we noticed the joints need gluing and clamping and we haven't got around to it yet. Possibly tomorrow...  

The sewing table has been cleared oof extraneous junk. Said junk has been either put where it belongs or as close as we can get it.  a Friend was scheduled to come help me clear the ironing surface on Monday, but the Mr has developed something suspiciously akin to norovirus, so we are canceling all visitors until at least Friday.  I will what I can on my own. When I have worn myself out with that I have several premie baby gowns to stitch.  I also have a new file cabinet which is slated to hold my Smocking Arts Newsletters and all of my SAGA stitches programs. These are currently (mostly) in three different areas, which makes it irritatingly slow to find what I need. I think there will be room in the lower drawer for all of my half-done convention projects, too.

Time for sleep, so I can get up in the morning and do things!

2024 in Review

 

  This will be quick!

I only started a couple of projects, although I purchased three kits from Mary Corbet. I've lost one already, but it will turn up,

We had new windows installed in the entire house This required getting all furniture moved away from the windows so the crew had room to unpack and install the new ones. My sewing rooms still have All The Things scootched to the sides of the room. I am slowly getting them put back together, decluttering, organizing, and rearranging things as I go. It's a slow process, but I can already see improvement. 

In August, the Mr and I traveled to Illinois for my high school reunion. 50th. I don't know how I can be out of high school for 50 years when I'm only 40. Right?   We also hunted down my brother, with whom I had lost contact.  He's in the early stages of Altzheimers and tends to lose a phone a week. Since he keeps all his contacts in his phones, he forgets how to get hold of me.  Time for a letter, methinks.

Sept, October and November were months.  In December, we celebrated 20 years of marriage. 

Roll on, 2025

K

still here...

 you may h ave noticed that I don't blog much these days.  The posts would get very repetitive.

Having days that are very samey if fine with me, but makes for uninteresting reading.

Actual. new things:

   They have finally finished doing all the random street work around our neighborhood.  Six blocks south and 5 blocks west is another story...those will be ongoing for a while.  So, even though we don't get woken at 6am by tractors revving up for the day, we stilll can't get there from here easily.

We had replacement windows installed in every one of our 33 windows.  After 14 years of literally being able to feel the wind come through our patio door joints, we decided it was time to do something permanent about it.  After all, plastic sheetinng taped down with Frog Tape isn't very fashionable even if it mostly works.  Our cooling bill has already gone down, which, in this heat, is saying something!

My smocking guild chapter is having a three day retreat this week.  I'm heading to the hotel tomorrow so I don't have to get up and drag my husband out at the crack of rush hour on Monday.  I'll be working on that same reticule that has been mentioned before.  With some intensive work, I should be able to have it done by Wednesday afternoon, or at least close to done.  We'll also be doing some group work on our charity gowns for the SAGA wee-care program.  

Lest I forget to mention it: the Great Window Replacement Project of 2024 required all furniture and things to be moved away from the window.  This means I was forced to spend several days shoving boxes and bags around in The Rooms.  There is clear floor!  Not much is actually organized, of course, but I can see my way clear to doing that.  First step will be putting the curtains back up as they're currently in the middle of the north room floor. I did manage to throw away a lot of "why?" items, get my scissor collection mostly in one place and fold a lot of fabric neatly into bins.  Patterns will likely be sold- I seriously do not need 120 child-sized patterns, many of which are so similar that I can likely alter just one basic pattern to produce any of them. 

Look!  Carpet!

   Clearing things away from the windows has also given me complete access two 1.75 of the guest room walls.  I may finally paint in there before we hang the curtains back up. 

Time for beddy-byes.  The Hubby is on new medication that makes him a bit dizzy and I might have to drive him to a massage appointment at 9am.  I am not good with any am earlier than 11. 

-K

January 1/3

 

  That would be 1/3 of the way through,  not third day of.  

  I signed up for Karen Brown's JustGetItDoneQuilts declutter challenge again this year.  I'm currently 9 days behind, so things proceeding as normal, there!  A commitment I had for tomorrow has been cancelled due to covid, so I'm going to use that time to catch up on at least the first 4 days (day one and day two I had done in December of '23, so shouldn't have to spend much time on those).  

Days 4, 5 and 6 may well take me several hours each. Patterns, archives and books.  i went through books last year and managed to pull three to offload.  They are still sitting in a box upstairs, I've decided on three books I can definitely add to them, and might be able to let go of a few more that are for things I'm likely not going to get around to.  Bobbin Lace, for one. I have a kit from Lacis and three books that I acquired in 2012, and have not touched since except to dust them,  Another is tambour work. I bought a hoop, hooks and at least one book in '13 or '14, and they have been languishing on the shelf above the bobbin lace stuff. Time to set them free!  I know the basics of both, but know I'm not very likely to put in as much practice time as needed to become skilled.

Patterns:  I have three large boxes of various brands.  Many are old Children's Corner garments that are now out of print.  A good deal of them will be offered in facebook destash groups.  All the littles I sew for now range from a kid's 6 to a woman's 14.  I also have many many other patterns that are scattered around in various shelves, bags or boxes. Most are for me. I think they might be easier to work with if they're in the same general area. 

  I'm exhausted just thinking about this process, and that's only from the first week!  Scissors and cutters, and pins and clips are two other groups that will take multiple sessions just to locate and centralize without even starting to declutter them.  

  I am blessed to have So Much Stuff---but it would be nice if I was also complementarily blessed with a tidy-and-organized gene.  

That's as far as I got with my cutting table last year. Three times that much was cleared off and put away where it belongs. (I'll never find it again)  

  I've started to get some sewjo back again, so will really work to make the rooms usable again.  There are materials for two quilts by Crabapple Hill Designs  whispering to me from pretty boxes as well as a metric shedload of dresses and daygowns.  I've sworn myself to a fabric fast until I've cleared out at least one bin of fabric by turning into wearable items. 

Enough for today.  The hubby has online gaming tonight, so I'm going to go do all the noisy kitchen chores before they get started.

May your sewing rooms be ever uncluttered!

-K

slow progress

 

There still isn't a lot of stitching going on around here, but I have been thinking about it more. I'm going to count that as a win!  Quite a few thing have been herded from various rooms in the house and corralled in a box to take to Kitten Scoop (my favorite rescue) over the weekend. Getting the last of the Cat Things given away is going to be bittersweet. I won't need them again, and the cats and kittens at the Scoop will certainly enjoy them, but I'll miss the occasional surprise reminders of my furbies. 

I was scrolling through my photos yesterday and discovered that it has been five years since I started Christmas dresses for two of my great-nieces.  (I now have 5 great-nieces and one great nephew on that branch of the family.)   I should check to see if there is enough fabric to make their current sizes....  I think the only thing I've finished in those five years is a bonnet with snail-shirred lace trim, and I have a hardanger bookmark 3/4 done. (somewhere. if I find it, I'll finish it up)

  I'm passing my collection of Tudor and Renaissance patterns and books along to the mother of the poor dressless girls.  They do a few Renfaire visits each summer and all enjoy dressing up for them, so I know they'll get another round of use.  I've discovered I don't mind relinquishing things to a new home nearly as much as i do just donating it to a thrift or re-use shop.  

One thing that has gone very well this year is my fabric "diet".  So far, only 1/2 yard of fusible interfacing has made it's way to the Rooms of Doom. (We will not mention the notions or silk ribbon, m'kay?).  

I hope holiday preparations are going smoothly for everyone, no matter how or what you celebrate. Our decorating plans, such as they were, got postponed when Dearly Beloved dropped a king-size mattress on his foot. The toes are all sprained, so no ladders for him for another week. The offending mattress is currently lurking half in the guest bedroom, half in the hallway, plotting its next attack and being a general nuisance by its continued presence.  I suspect it's unhappy about being dumped. 

-K

Not so Stitchy

 

Once again, I've lagged off from blogging.   Partly it's because I haven't done much worth blogging about.  I'm still vaguely attempting to clear out the sewing room enough that I can work up there...but this is much like saying one is "going fishing" when all one really does is pick up a stick and poke it at the water occasionally.  There is so much stuff up there that it sucks the motivation out of me the minute I park my chair.

My chair? you may wonder...  Last spring the arthritis in my knees got bad enough that climbing the stairs was so painful as to be nearly impossible, so we had a stairlift installed all the way up to the sewing room.  This made is a 4-flight run with 4 u-bends.  It was spendy.  I love it, and it's the only reason I've been to the 3rd floor sewing room at all in the past 15 months.

Gardening has been pretty much out of the question because i can only stand for about 10 minutes, and when I bend, my right knee does this weird and uncomfortable shifting thing that makes me think I'm going to fall.  Don't even think I can get down on my hands and knees!!  (I have, once, about two weeks ago to plug in a lamp.  I still have the bruises and swelling) 

  I had a three week course of hyaluronic acid solution injections, but it doesn't seem to have helped much. I also got these sort of monster-looking knee braces that are difficult to put on and which I can't drive in, so they don't get worn often.  I should wear them more, at least around the house.  The few times I have worn them I felt as if it was easier to walk, and I was definitely more stable on my feet. 

I do hope to do more sewing soon, or at least some sewing.  A friend has offered to help me in the sewing room - I mostly need someone to be legs for me and take things from point A to Point N - so I may take her up on that.  I bought kits to make 12 Days of Christmas ornaments a couple of years ago and would like to get that project at least started this year.  

Nearly June

 

I really don't publish much.   

Some of that is because I haven't been doing much; my fibromyalgia has been acting up a lot lately and to add to that, I started new medication that apparently did not play well.  I'm hoping I can get on a lower dose or different type of hormone replacement, but until then I am just not taking the current one. (Dr Approved)

What have I been up to, when I'm up to anything, you may ask.

Well- I was contacted in April, I think, by a gentleman who was clearing out his late wife's stash and wondered if I would like to come and see what our smocking group could use.  Oh.... there was a LOT of stuff.  Two 10x10 bedrooms and part of the garage were absolutely crammed full, and that was after they had removed two pickup truck loads.   I've been going through several bins and boxes of thread, fabric, floss, magazines and books.,and patterns.  And more fabric... I called in reinforcements from our chapter, and she also acquired two SUV loads of fabric which she distributed to Dress A Girl and a couple other organizations. I think she still has unsorted boxes as well.  Obviously, I was not thinking straight at the time.  It isn't as if I don't have enough of my own stash to worry about organizing and using up....   Consequently, not a lot has been achieved in my own sewing room, which is still littered with patterns, boxes of threads and notions, small piles of fabric, and possibly a small car or bus.  Every time I go up there to find something I am reminded that I really really need to get back to work up there so I can use it as a sewing room rather than a hoarder's sewing annex.  *sigh*. There's really a lot. 

I've done a bit of hand stitching on a smocked sampler, have started a new project from Mary Corbet (Little Blooms), and wound innumerable skeins of floss onto bobbins. There has been a little bit of gardening and yardwork now that the fibro is backing off a bit. I spend about a half hour a day learning Dutch on Duolingo.  Mostly, there has been reading. I think I'm reading about a book every day: I've gone through the Dan Padanova  Wolf Lake Mystery Series and am on book 5 of the Thomas Shepherd mysteries.  The Raven Song and The Raven Spell by Luanne G Smith snuck in there somehow, and various quilting, sewing and cooking cozies as well as some instruction booklets and magazines.  Oh, yes, I'm also researching information on shell edge hems and writing an instruction leaflet as I'll likely be teaching the group on the 8th.  

  I suppose if you add in the reading and the weekly laundry and housework, I have been doing things. I'm not sure anyone wants to read about me starting to fold my tshirts differently so that I can fit more in a drawer, or the Quest For Jeans That Fit which my husband solved for me.  I have no idea why he can find jeans in my size online looking at the Same Site that I was just on and they didn't have them, but hey, I'll take em how I can get em.  (Apparently I no longer wear the size I thought I did, so we had to order two more pair in a smaller [yay] size.  The others are in the mountain of mending and alterations which I will get to as soon as I can find my sewing machine.). I'm working some very slow general decluttering into the mix, as well. 

Until Halloween... (probably), take care!

Decluttering Update

 

As expected, this 21-Day Decluttering challenge is taking me far more than 21 days. 

I missed a few days due to aches and pains, and also discovered that doing this according to her categories wasn't going to work well for me because I have everything everywhere in my sewing rooms.

 I started with clearing off the alleged cutting table.  I got it down to just three small piles before calling it quits one night.  The next day, I got those three piles where they belongs, then picked a box off the floor and started sorting the contents into their various homes.  This is working!  I've emptied three boxes of mixed stuff and cleared out at least 10 sq feet of carpet!  I have a large box for donations that is now half full, and can actually see most of the cutting table.  

                                                   A second load plopped onto the cutting mat.

One of the things Karen (Brown) mentions in her decluttering videos is that a sewing room works best if you have a work triangle of sewing station, ironing station and cutting station, and none of these should be more than 12' from the others. My sewing station is in a different room....soooo, once I get a little further along with putting things away I will be moving my sewing cabinet in to the north room where the cutting and ironing tables live.  I'd like to put it all in the south room because of the better lighting, but I just do not feel like moving an entire wall's worth of Elna shelves and their contents. I sew most at night anyway,

Am I thrilled with this decluttering journey?  No.  It's slow going, and I'd like it to be done now, please.

Am I satisfied with my progress?  You bet!  I've been spending at least an hour every-other day up there unearthing treasures and getting things stored in logical and tidy manners.  I've found at least 6 kits that have been "lost" in there for months and months (and years...), and two I forgot I bought.  I have a solid plan for moving forward.  It is well.

de-cluttering?

 

   This year I am taking part, again, in Just Get It Done Quilts' 21 day declutter challenge.

Now, I am fully aware that this is going to take me at least three rounds of 21 days because I've been hoarding so much crap in my sewing rooms.  There is literally not a flat surface that isn't piled with stuff...except for my sewing machine cabinet, which currently has only my machine and a few tools sitting on it. 

   I've started in the North room. My cutting table and ironing table are (allegedly) both in here along with my Cricut and my Scan n Cut and my serger and a bunch of bins of fabric. 

These were taken on Jan 29, and some progress has been made.  Not enough, but at this point any progress is a good thing.  Many of the cardboard boxes are empty, ready to hold like objects as I discover them so I can then put them where they belong- things like scissors, pins, marking pens, measuring tools and other notions. 

  You can see a glimpse of the South room through the doorway.  It's in better shape as I did quite a bit of purging in there before Halloween and haven't been up there much to mess it up again. 😼  Hubby and I moved my loom to the garage, wrapped up in moving blankets and plastic.  I still want to sell it, but nobody seems interested in buying it at the moment. 

  I still have a vision of the wall in the lower photo lined with nice white cabinets that will hold my fabric and my serger when not in use (but with a space to sew with it). I thought that might happen this year, but I needed to have a stairlift installed in able to get up to this floor. A 3 flight, heavy-duty stairlift that goes around 3 curves is surprisingly expensive. (if you're thinking about $5000, you're too low.). When I'm upstairs, the chair parks where the loom used to be, so I still don't actually have more room, it just looks more open.  

My chapter of the smocking guild has been working on a group project called "Just Pin It", which is a sampler of various smocking designs meant to be framed and used as a place to keep our convention pins and the like.  I am spectacularly behind on this project.  I think this is month four, and I'm still working on month one.  Maybe I can catch up before the meeting on Jan 12th!  (ha. fat chance)

I have the borders done and have started the bargello unit ( top center) twice.  I decided I don't like the colors I was using, so went out with a friend and we picks out new ones that I liked better but will still coordinate with the borders so that I don't have to pull those out and re-smock them.  This project was designed by Carol Kick and is available to members of The Smocking Arts Guild on their website. 

Halfway Through the Year

   It's  July 1, and the beginning of the second half of the year already.  It's also my son's 42nd birthday.

I still find it hard to believe I have a son that old, until I try to climb all the flights of steps up to my sewing room.  We've decided to install a stairlift, and I'm excited about that. Less strain getting up the stairs. might mean I start stitching more!

  My smocking chapter's little retreat went well.  Most of us finished the baby bonnet (not me) and almost everyone had a finished Verdun blouse by the end of the second day. (not me. ) I had inadvertantly left the house without my pattern. One of the other ladies traced a copy out for me, but it turned out to be too small, and since I didn't have the original multi-size pattern with the grading lines on it I wasn't able to fix the problem.  I have since traced off a new, enlarged pattern and will see about getting that finished before our next meeting on the 14th.   The drawn thread bag was a bit of a debacle- I couldn't figure out how to do one of the stitches, and was having a really difficult time explaining the process to others, so one of the other members took over for me.  Most of the ladies have finished their bags in spite of my lousy teaching efforts. (not me)

We start another big project at the next meeting; a stitch along from Smocking Arts Guild of America called "Just Pin It".  This is a sampler that has several portions smocked with various stitches and some blank ones where we can display the different pins we collect at conventions and such.  I believe you can get to the page of stitch alongs without signing in, but might not be able to open the actual pdf. 

I watched the lightning bugs rise from the lawn this evening.  They came out around 9pm, and it was still pretty light out so the display wasn't as "good" as previous years.  Lightning bugs might be my favorite part of summer.     The water department has parked one of their big diggers in front of our house again, which means my least favorite part of the year "construction time" is about to rev up again.  I can not tell you how glad I will be for this lead remediation work to be finished in our neighborhood!

Enjoy your Fourth!  I'll be grilling something and attempting to avoid the mosquitos.

A long Friday

 

I had to get up very early (for me) today as the washing machine repairman was expected at around 8 am.  

He appeared at 7:59 and was out the door by 8:30, and my machine now has a shiny new belt and a clean drum.  Gosh, just can't wait to do some laundry!  (sarcasm)

I located some 32 ct linen at a local needlework shop- after searching the internets to no avail , I finally manage to find some within driving distance. The shop is only open from 10-2 4 days a week, so wasn't high on my radar but I phoned them on the off chance they might have linen in stock.  I suspect that as well as my fabric, I'll return home with some beads and fancy threads. Bee Hive Needle Arts specializes in counted canvas, so they carry threads and ribbons from all the best places.  I'd visit more often, but our schedules usually conflict with their opening hours, and it's a half-hour drive or so away; with the lead pipe remediation going on in Pittsburgh it can take an hour!  

  Progress is being made on the things I'll need for the upcoming retreat.  My muslin is all washed and ready for me to cut out a Verdun woven t-shirt.  The pattern has been glued and taped together, so that's ready to go as well, although I'll be tracing my size on to swedish pattern paper.  It's easier to work with than printer paper.   I haven't figured out what sort of fabric I want to make the Actual Shirt from yet.  

   The previously mentioned linen has been found, so I can make up kits for the little drawn thread bag. I suppose I should pull together the sewing supplies I'll need, too, just in case something has disappeared in the black hole that is my sewing room. 

   Speaking of that, if you were a length of pleated linen with about 4" of smocking done on it, where would you hide?  I took a class at convention last year for a pleatwork tunic. I've located the extra fabric from the kit, but can't find the actual tunic and instructions from the class.  It's here somewhere; I probably put it somewhere safe.  Perhaps I'll check the suitcase I used...

Still here!

 

It seems I've taken a bit of a blog vacation.  With Covid still rampaging around Pittsburgh, nothing much has been happening that is worth blogging about.  The man and I mostly hunkered down at home with a few masked forays to a local diner that we felt fairly comfortable about.  I've been going to the gym twice a week most weeks since I started up again in February, after taking off a month during a fairly high-numbers period. 

I've done a bit of re-organizing in the sewing room.  Unfortunately, it has just been enough to reveal exactly how much needs to be done.  I try to spend an hour a day up there, but arthritis in my knees has been preventing me from climbing the stairs every day.   

My age and physical condition have become those which encourage downsizing, so the husband and I have been looking at properties that are either all on one floor or that have a finished basement area that could be reached by installing a lift/elevator. One house we looked at was quite nice (although older than the hubby would like, having been built in the year I was born).  When we came to the basement door, I looked down those stairs, said, "Nope. That's not going to happen", and turned around. They were quite steep and narrow.  We'll probably go back to planning to build a home in a newer development.

Other than the sorting, nothing constructive has been happening in the sewing room.  I made a bonnet a while ago while participating in a sew-along from my Facebook Smocking Arts group.  That turned out well!  Of course, I can't find a photo of it to post.  It was completely hand-stitched, so I did it in the dining room. 😺

My chapter of the Smocking Arts Guild has planned a three day mini-retreat at an area hotel, and I'm looking forward to that.  We plan to make a small hemstitched bag, a joined lace bonnet and start work on a woven t-shirt.  The pattern is Verdun, from Liesl and Co,  and we'll (allegedly) be arriving with a muslin that we can work on together so we each get a perfect fit.  It will be my first foray into adjusting a pattern properly, so I'm excited.    

Don't Linger, 2021

 

Here we are on the brink of another new year. 

Remember last year, when we were sure that the Covid protocols would soon be a think of the past and that 2021 would be a great year?  So do I.  Perhaps 2022 actually will be better.

Things that got accomplished this year:

     We had a fence built across the back property line.  I am enjoying the increased privacy it gives us, and still planning some sort of floral display for it.  The area gets a lot of shade during the summer because there is a maple tree and a linden tree between in and most of the sun.  I've been looking at shade-loving perennial ground covers that don't need to be mowed as well as flowers.

   I hired someone to pull the weeds from all the garden beds in the yard.  This is a project that has been weighing on me for two years.  I feel that I should be able to do it myself, but... I can't get on my hands and knees to pull weeds, I can't bend for long, weather that is too hot or too cold will trigger a fibro flare, and I'm highly allergic to poison ivy. Given all that, I gave in and hired someone.  The beds all look pretty good now, and are ready for me to poke some bulbs in here and there. 

    We installed two 4x8' galvanized metal raised beds.  Three square meters of soil was not enough to fill one, so between that and my health being somewhat iffy, not much got planted.  I'm already looking through the seed catalogs for delicious things to plant. 

   My husband gifted me with a Viking/Husqvarna Sapphire 85 in October.  I have named her Sofia (pronounce soFYEah) and installed her in the north sewing room. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the room is in disarray, so I've not done much with her than turn her on, hook her to the web and read through some information on the JoyOS that comes with her.    

   Of course, projects in the sewing room, otherwise known as The Pit of Despair, are mounting up like snow in Tahoe.  Besides masks, I've also got a couple more dresses and two quilts lined up.  Quilts.  I saw one I fell in love with on CatPatches, ordered the pattern, started collecting fabrics (it takes about a thousand yards) and promptly became overwhelmed when I read the instructions.  It has no deadline, so that's all right.  It's called Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage, and is available from Crabapple Hill designs.  The other quilt is also from Meg Hawkey at Crabapple Hill.  It's a block of the month in a halloween theme.  I've purchased the base fabric, several black and white prints for the paper piecing and the Black Cat block instructions.   I'm very good at collecting supplies.  This also doesn't have a deadline. 

Not Quite Spring Enough

 

   It's been chilly here in the wilds of urban Pittsburgh, so nothing has been planted in my new raised beds.

Tomorrow I plan to sprinkle some seeds on the soil on the north/alley side of the new fence, just to keep the weeds down.  When the overnight temps have warmed up a bit more I'll plant some heuchera and some small variety hostas back there interspersed with vinca and some impatiens for color.  I have lily of the valley and some snowdrops to go in there, too.  People walk their dogs along that alleyway, and I don't really want to plant much that takes a lot of work to maintain, but I want it to look nice.  

There has been progress made in the sewing rooms!  Hubby carried my unused desk down to my "
office" for me and cleared up about 10 square feet of floor space.  I spent a few hours vacuuming and  putting various bits of clutter away in their proper places.  The room still looks like the remains of a tornado strike, but the basic idea of what it's supposed to look like is emerging.  (We shall not speak of what the other room looks like,  I literally can't get in to it because I shoved a couple of things into the doorway so Hubby could get through with the desk.)

  My smocking chapter is gearing up for a little midweek retreat and I've been spending time pulling threads in linen to make nicely edged fabric blanks for our project.  I'd bought a yard from one of the big-name fabric and craft stores that took me nearly 4 hours to pull 3 threads! Four HOURS!  The linen threads were not tightly spun and kept fraying and breaking, so I had to dig around to find the loose end about every two inches.  The other yardage I had came from linen-store.com and it took me less than 45 minutes to do the first two thread pulls.  I ordered more so I can replace the Bad Linen.  I did come up with one handy thing: using a fine crochet hook to grab broken threads is a lot easier than trying to pry the thread up with a needle.  

Garden Day

 

The past two days were sunny and mild, so the ground is thawed out enough to be workable.  This afternoon I'll be attempting to de-root some new crown vetch growth in the front-side bed that took me days to weed last fall.  If that doesn't wear me out I'll do a bit of rototilling in the back yard.  Phil put together one of the new galvanized steel raised beds I've bought to replace the breaking and rotting wooden ones.  The new beds are a foot deep as compared to the 6" of the previous ones: I may have to buy some new soil to fill them up as the existing soil has compacted a bit.  Tilling will fluff it up some, but not enough.  

The trees here are greening up nicely.  My forsythia have tiny buds ready to bloom, and the lilac has also started to produce some buds.  I'm looking forward to seeing that lilac bloom this year.  (I do wish we had a window or two on the east side of the house!) I pretty much missed it last year as I forgot I had it! 

Once the rest of the weeds have been cleared from that bed I'll be adding some tulip and crocs bulbs, sprinkling alyssum  and wildflower seed in an attempt to crowd out the weeds, and planting a few leeks, scallions and basil just to make things interesting. 

The mint bed, which is supposed to have several varieties of herb, is a mess.  I've been contemplating moving the blue hydrangea from a shady corner of the yard into the center area.  It will get more sun and be more visible there.  It certainly isn't too happy where it's currently planted! 

A New Fence

 

We've been having a landscapey week.

   After several years of dithering, we've gotten around to having a fence put up along the back property line.  Someone has been yanking out the little ornamental fence we'd installed and cutting through the yard, so it was time to get something more robust.

   I chose a shadow box style as it will still let light and the breeze through but provide a good deal of privacy.  I asked for a full-slat spacing; once about half the boards were up I realized that was far too wide.

   The next day the guys had to remove all the slats and respace them before they finished the rest of the fence. 

  One of our contractors (M) was a landscaper for years and suggested we level the soil in the yard rather than vary the fence slat length. That would, of course, be the more long-term solution to the problem of our crooked yard, but I thought it would be too time-consuming and expensive.  

   I ordered two tons of soil.  (For reference, one ton is about 20 cubic feet; the new garden beds  -that silver thing in the image above- are 18cf each.)  On Thursday, The Hubby did a lot of wheelbarrowing and dumped about a ton of the pile along the fence line and raked it out a bit, then used most of the rest to fill one of my new garden beds after I rototilled the existing soil.  On Friday, M spread the fence line smooth and graded it nicely while J built the gate, then the two of them installed the gate.  I think it looks quite nice, but as you can see by the space between the ground and the fence, I'm going to need to order another couple tons of soil! 

I've been wanting to level out the area between the garage and the higher portion of the yard since we moved here. I guess it is now That Time. It means learning how to install a French Drain, and of course,YouTube makes that look really simple.  I do not believe it. 

 

   I'm pondering whether to make a sort of rustic corduroy pathway from railroad ties or 4x4s to run over the drain from the gate to the back porch, or whether to use large stepping stones with a gravel fill and densely planted Roman Chamomile. 

   Today, we're getting a nice soaking rain that should help to settle and sprout the grass seed

First sign of Spring?

 

I was sitting at my dining room table reading when suddenly I heard a "chip!  Chip!!" outside the window. 

"That sounds like a robin", I thought, so I got up to look.

Sure enough, there was a robin in the flower bed.  He currently seems to be having a territory war with a mockingbird. I feel like doing a Sybil Ludington and racing around the neighborhood yelling "the redbreasts are coming, the redbreasts are coming", but Covid precautions make that a little irresponsible.  Instead, I shall sit here enjoying the continuing "chip"s of the harbinger in my garden. 

 When did I post last?

I can't remember. I guess I'll have to look it up.

What's been going on since then?  Mostly Covid  😓 and Covid-related sewing, like masks, although I've not gotten too far along with those.  I have fabric for about 1000, but motivation to just pet the fabric.  (I have some REALLY good fabric!)

I haven't seen my kids since last Thanksgiving, haven't seen my smocking pals since June, except for one lunch meeting with my chapter VP last month; masked and distanced. 

I lost my best buddy, Kali, 2 weeks ago to Feline Squamous Cell Carcinoma.  She was diagnosed in early September, and gone in November.  I miss her.  

The Christmas dresses I started for my +2 nieces are still in bits up in the sewing room.  I have a week to finish them for this year!  There's pleeeenty of time, right?  I'm also still working on a silk reticule, a lace baby bonnet, a christening gown that was for a baby born 18 month ago who got cheated out of his baptism by The Plague but is now expecting a sibling, so there are now TWO garments to make.  The older one will get a button-on suit rather than a gown, as he's likely to be 2 years old by the time they can schedule a ceremony.  I'm guessing it will be a double-do, so the baby will get a gown.  I'm really hoping we don't have to wait til these kids are 7 and 5 to get them baptized!

If I have readers, I hope you are well and chugging along during the restrictions without a lot of problems.  

-K