Valentine's Weekend

My husband has been cooking up a surprise for this weekend for Valentine's Day. Well, it was a fun weekend. Friday, I received some beautiful roses at work. Then, yesterday (Valentine's Day) we went to a local Bed and Breakfast called The Ben Maddox House and had a wonderful dinner, spent the night, and had an even better breakfast this morning. The owner is from Ireland and provided great hospitality and was interesting to talk to. Also, a great cook I might add!

Yesterday I had to go into work to work on grades a little bit. I took these pictures right before I left. As soon as I left, then cat knocked my flowers on the floor and some of them broke :-(









































This afternoon we decided to go for a drive. The mountains have been just beautiful lately and I wanted to really enjoy the view today. I'm so fortunatate that I get to see this on my way to work each morning. (Of course, that makes up for all the days when you cant even see the mountains at all due to the smog!)


This was taken on the road from Lindsay to Visalia

We took the back road to a small foothills town called SpringVille. Believe it or not, the name of the road was Yokhol Valley Road! (I thought that was the funniest thing when I moved here from the SF BAy Area, that there was actually a town called Yokhol where the local Yokhols really do live!)

























And, I even got some sewing done this weekend. I cut out this Loes Hinse New York Dress yesterday morning and sewed it up when we got back from our drive. This is a super fast dress to make. I did the whole thing on my serger and did the sleeve hems, bottom hem, and neck edge on the cover stitch machine. I have more details about what I did on my review at P.R.
I have more pictures here.

Blouse #2

Yesterday I finished another version of BWOF 2-2007 #108.  OK, first of all, please excuse the hat hair. It was cold here this morning and I was wearing a hat. I didn't fix my hair to take these pictures! That being said, I basically made this blouse the same as the last, but this time just did a few fit adjustments.  I let out the sideseams a bit and this eliminated the pulling across the bust.  I also made the elastic in the arms about 1/2" longer, so they are a little more comfortable too.  I'm not sure I'm so happy with how high the collar is on this pattern.

 This fabric has a little more body that the one I used on the first version, and so the collar really stands up high.  I'm not sure if that is just the cut of the collar, or if I need to lower the neckline a little bit.  The one on the model looks like it lies down flat.  Since this blouse only has a partial stand, you can't make the blouse using just the stand and not the collar unless you design a new band.  You can, however, use binding around the neck instead of a collar for a different look.  I've made a few more adjustments on the pattern now, so I'd like to make this again in a long sleeve to see how the adjustments work out.

I'm not sure what to do about the collar.  I think I need to lower the neckline by about 1/4 inch all the way around and that might help.

UGANDA UPDATE

Many of you know I have been planning a trip to Uganda.  I am scheduled to go at the end of next month, but now I'm not sure if I will be able to go or not.  One of the vaccines you have to take to go to Uganda is the Yellow Fever vaccine.  It is a live vaccine.  I have rheumatoid arthritis and have to take chemotherapy drugs in order to keep the disease from progressing.  You cannot take a live vaccine when you are taking immuno-suppresant drugs like methotrexate and rituxan.  You can, however, stop taking the drugs, and then get the vaccine after a certain waiting period, and then resume medications after another waiting period.  According to the CDC, I would have to wait 3 months.  According to the local travel health clinic, I would only have to wait 4 weeks, and therefore, be eligible to go because of when I stopped taking medications.  Of course, they are looking at selling me almost $700 worth of vaccines and medications for this trip, so of course they are going to tell me it is safe to go!  Anyway, I have a visit scheduled with my doctor tomorrow afternoon to discuss this and hopefully come to an appropriate decision.  If I do not get to go in March, I'm hoping to go this summer.  I really want to go, but not at the price of compromising my health.

I'm a Marilyn?

Sometimes these online quizzes are fun:

You are a Marilyn -- "I am affectionate and skeptical."


Marilyns are responsible, trustworthy, and value loyalty to family, friends, groups, and causes. Their personalities range broadly from reserved and timid to outspoken and confrontative.


How to Get Along with Me
* Be direct and clear
* Listen to me carefully
* Don't judge me for my anxiety
* Work things through with me
* Reassure me that everything is OK between us
* Laugh and make jokes with me
* Gently push me toward new experiences
* Try not to overreact to my overreacting.




What I Like About Being a Marilyn
* being committed and faithful to family and friends
* being responsible and hardworking
* being compassionate toward others
* having intellect and wit
* being a nonconformist
* confronting danger bravely
* being direct and assertive




What's Hard About Being a Marilyn
* the constant push and pull involved in trying to make up my mind
* procrastinating because of fear of failure; having little confidence in myself
* fearing being abandoned or taken advantage of
* exhausting myself by worrying and scanning for danger
* wishing I had a rule book at work so I could do everything right
* being too critical of myself when I haven't lived up to my expectations




Marilyns as Children Often
* are friendly, likable, and dependable, and/or sarcastic, bossy, and stubborn
* are anxious and hypervigilant; anticipate danger
* form a team of "us against them" with a best friend or parent
* look to groups or authorities to protect them and/or question authority and rebel
* are neglected or abused, come from unpredictable or alcoholic families, and/or take on the fearfulness of an overly anxious parent




Marilyns as Parents
* are often loving, nurturing, and have a strong sense of duty
* are sometimes reluctant to give their children independence
* worry more than most that their children will get hurt
* sometimes have trouble saying no and setting boundaries

You can take the quiz at Hello Quizzy

Another BWOF coming up

Thanks for all of the compliments on the white blouse. I am cutting out another one, this time out of a Japanese print I bought in Hawaii a couple of years ago. Since I got so many comments about the sleeves, I think I will be using the same sleeves on this version as well.







And check this out. My good friend, Maureen, takes awesome photographs and you can see some great pix of the town where I teach. I'm also a celebrity on her blog today. We have been friends for a long time (uh, we must have been infants to have been friends for so long LOL!)and have compared notes on everything from raising kids, food, theology, and politics to life in general. I know I could talk to her about anything and not have to worry about being judged in any way. Her husband is a pretty great guy too.

OK, gotta go, now, American Idol's on.

BWOF 2-07 blouse finished

Version one of this blouse is finished!  I'm pleased with the result (wearing it now) but can still see a few tweaks that I would like to make.    I think it looks great on, but every time I look at the pictures, all I can see is wrinkles and draglines!  I wore the blouse all day and it's very comfortable, even though I usually don't like anything on my arms like elastic.  I think the next time I make it, I will put a band at the bottom of the sleeve rather than doing the casing and elastic.

 
I'm very happy with the fit in the back, so I don't think I need to change anything there.


 I messed up on the button holes because I marked them on the band, lengthened the band, and didn't adjust the buttonholes.  Normally this wouldn't matter because I ALWAYS mark the top and bottom buttonhole and then use the simflex to mark the others.  For some weird reason, I didn't do that this time.  I got 3 buttonholes made out of 6 (now 7) before I discovered my mistake.  Fortunately, I was able to correct it without too much noticeability, but next time I will make sure I do it right.  Also, next time I am going to add 1/2" to each side seam at the bust.  I haven't decided yet whether to add just to the front, or to the front and back.  I'm trying to evaluate whether the side seam needs to move or not.  

I'd like to make this again right away, and have some asian print cotton that I would like to use.  I have some beautiful fabric that I want to make the longer sleeved version with, but want to get the fit a little better in the front first...

You can see more pictures here.  Next time I will also take pictures of the front pieces, since it has an unusual dart seam.

The other day, someone had posted a link to Wordle on her blog.  (Sorry, I thought I knew which blog this came from, but when I went back to check, I couldn't find it.)  That was

 too much fun to play with and this is what I made using words from my blog.  It was pretty fun, and it could really be a time sucker if you're like me and want to try every combination possible!  I don't know why it copies small.  Even though I saved it as a PDF and converted it to a  JPG,  it saves small on the blog, even though it is bigger on my computer.

And, I couldn't resist not putting this as a parting shot on my blog today.

Oh, and BTW, is anyone else having this problem?  I used to be able to adjust the size of pictures in the compose mode of blogger by just clicking and dragging.  Now I can't seem to do that anymore.

Apology

If you have ever emailed me, or if I have ever emailed you, you probably got hit with some kind of malware today.  I got an email with the return address from myself and apparently it hit every address that has ever been in my email account.  I do not know where this came from, and I'm trying to check out both of my computers to find it.   I usually use a Mac, and I'm hoping the virus is not on this computer.  I also have a PC that I sometimes use (and my daughter has been using lately) so I'm assuming the virus is on that machine.  I do have NOrton, and am  currrently running other spyware programs on it to see if I can find anything.

Did any of you who got the email from me have it send out to your address book as well?  I'm just trying to figure out where this thing came from.  I did not even open the email before it started hitting all of my contacts.  arghhhhh!

I'm so sorry if this has hit your machine.

What Was I Thinking?

I had a great idea that I was going to re-do my blog. I've seen so many cool blog backgrounds out there and wanted to really update the look of my blog. I found some great websites with lots of blog templates. Evening after evening I have worked on this. Not only have I not found a template that I am totally happy with, I have lost a lot of my information. My entire blog roll for example! Well, good thing I have it on bloglines, and I was intending on updating it on my blog - but not totally recreating it. Yes, I did save my blog before I made all the changes, but where does it save to? How do you bring back some of the information? I have not been in the mood now to spend even more hours looking up how to do all of this. After all, do I want to spend what little free time I have fooling around with my blog or sewing? Again, what was I thinking?

I'm not a big football fan, so I'm really glad we did not get invited to a superbowl party. I have no problem with Andy (or anyone else for that matter) spending the day watching football, I just don't want to have to do it. If we get invited to a party, it is rude to say "I'm not coming; I'd rather stay home and do something else." Also, Andy likes to listen to the game on the radio since they KNOW you can't see what's going on on the radio, so the commentators give a better description of the game. So, I'm hoping that I can do some sewing tomorrow while Andy is listening to the game.

Carolyn posted on her blog about how she is doing toward her resolutions and asked how we are all doing. Well, when I looked on the side bar of my blog to check my resolutions, I realized that that was one of the things that I lost from my blog. Fortuntately, I just looked back at my first post of the year, and there it was. It is now back in the sidebar where it belongs.

So, how am I doing? Well, so far this year I have made 2 pair of pants and am almost finished with my blouse. My first resolution is to make only things that I love. I haven't worn the first pair of pants yet, and the second pair I have worn twice. The fit is OK, but not exactly what I'm looking for yet. So, I'd have to say I'm not loving these yet. But, resolution #2 is to get a great pair of pants, and I'm definitely working on this goal with several muslins and two finished pair of pants. Each one gets closer to what I'm looking for.

Resolution #3 is to get a great white shirt, and that is exactly what I am working on now.

#5 is to sew more BWOF than last year, and the blouse is a BWOF.

#6, more TNTs. Both pair of pants were from the same pattern and I'm planning on making several versions of this white blouse I am working on now.

#4 is more out than in. When I finish my blouse, I will have put out on 6 yards. The only fabric that has come in is what Birgitte and I got in LA, so that's 5 and 1/2.

#7 - to make a vintage pattern. I don't plan on doing that until spring.
So, yes! I would have to say I am getting a great start on my sewing goals.

Oh, and for those of you who have not seen yet, I got my hair cut short. I'm liking it.

Under Construction

Sorry - You will probably see my blog being mixed up and a mess over the next couple of days as I update my blog.

Dog and cat eat

And I thought my dog and cat were fun to watch!

Neck Bias Binding.

The bias binding was a little tricky to sew, and on my muslin, it did not come out at all.  You make a bias strip the length of the neckline and fold it in half lengthwise.  The band and collar are sewn together onto the neckline, and the bias band is sewn into that same seam.  The bias band is then folded over the seam allowance and stitched down.  On my muslin, I didn't have enough width on the bias strip to cover the seam allowance.  This time, I trimmed the seam allowance to 1/4" before attaching the bias strip.  Now I had more than enough width.  I only wanted to stitch about 1/4 inch away from the seam edge, so the bias strip looks like it is stitched right down the middle.  It is on the  inside, and the edge is folded, so I'm not worrying about tacking that down any further.  It lies flat and is a finished edge, and all the raw edges of the seam allowances are enclosed.  It gives a smooth finish on the outside as well.

You could also finish this traditionally, by sewing only the upper collar and band to the neck edge and then turning under the edge of the under collar and either slip stitching it or stitching in the ditich to enclose the neck seam allowance.  This is the first time I've done the bias band and I do like it because it also gives a bit of support to the collar.

Thanks for asking!

Awards

I'm very flattered to be nominated for The Kreativ Blog award by Diana and Charlene.  Also, a month or so ago I was nominated for a couple of awards from Birgitta, which I never posted on my blog.  It's always nice to be recognized and don't we all love it?  I mean, if we never got any comments, would we blog as much or as detailed as we do?  I'm so appreciative that all of you take the time to read my blog.  Also, I really appreciate all of you who share your skills, talents, tips, tricks, and more on your blogs.  I have learned so much and improved my own skills tremendously from what I have learned from all of you.

As for nominating other blogs, I know a lot of you have already been nominated, but I will have to take a little time and think about this one :-)

BWOF blouse progress

Today after work I got to do a little sewing. I sewed the front bands, collar and made the sleeves. The collar is unusual but beautifully pieced together. The bands and collar are sewn to the neck edge and finished with a bias strip.

This collar was a little tricky, because the band sits inside the collar and has a tight curve.  THen both pieces are sewn as one onto the neck edge.  I caught the back fabric in the neck edge 3 times and had to unstitch it.      Other than that, I'm really happy with how this is turning out.

I finished one sleeve, but still need to finishe the other one. The hem is just turned up and zigzagged. I used an overcast stitch instead of a zigzag. There is also a casing for the elastic, which is made of self fabric and stitched on.


All I have left to do now is add the elastic to the other sleeve and set both of them in. Next, I'll make the buttonholes, sew on the buttons, and be finished - yay!