Remember my dress for the wedding?

I know I know I am a crappy blogger photographer and who just rushes off shots so she can go onto the next thing.

That said I did promise you all a while ago a picture of the dress I wore to my son's wedding (Marfy sort of burgundy dupioni ).

Well just now my most excellent daughter-in-law sent me this picture, of me dancing with one of my son's very best high school buddies.

I had asked Maddie if she thought I should let me hair go natural (that would be greying) and she sent this along with a note that I would maintain my "spark and energy" even in grey and white.

This kid's a real catch.

So this is my wedding dress project picture, in action:

I had a real good time at that wedding. Real good.

Drive by

Yes I have been sewing my brains out, but because friends and family read my blog I can't show you what until after Christmas.

Speaking of which I also hope to finish a dress for my daughter today, a Christmas party emergency number. We will get shots of that.

On an aside the current issue of Collette's Seamworks ezine came into my mailbox today. I was struck by some of the photos, but this one in particular which is a wonderful illustration of what a difference dart placement makes. I am brewing a review of Indie patterns soon, but this is a case of why remembering the basics in execution is worth the thought:

A hope post

A few months ago I got a call long distance from my son Ben who is doing some work on windmills in Texas.

Driving across the job site he saw a small, sick, starved dog on the side of the road. He was at work but stopped anyway and picked her up. He couldn't keep driving.

He called me to ask me to get on the phone for him to find a no kill shelter in his part of Texas.

That took some doing. In fact every place I called, and he was working the car phone while he drove, they told us that they would have to put down any sick animal he brought in.

But they don't know my Benny.

In the end he located somehow a woman who was running a private rescue for sick and mangey dogs who told him sorry no room left, so many needy animals.

Ben went over there anyway and with a donation and offer to volunteer he persuaded her to take in the pup. He kept in touch and helped when he could.

Now months later here are shots of that little dog. Happy, fit and now placed in a forever home in Colorado. They call her Dreamy.

This little story reminds me that bothering to help and not giving up are principles to live by.

You never know, you just never know, we all need to remember that.

My Ben and the dog he found.

Chairs and learning styles

Well here is the dad's lazy boy done.

My part in this project was much of the disassembly, cutting, sewing and moaning.  My husband did the hard part, the putting it back together, stapling and not giving up.

The spouse like puzzles and likes detail. This is after all a man who buys crabs and spends five hours cooking them and squeezing out the meat to make a crab quiche like he hasn't even heard of a can opener.

Here he is in action picking up where I left off with the chair:

And below here he is doing the test elevation in recovery mode. It was a huge job, particularly for our first ever upholstery job:

   
And here is the final chair, with the weird eyeball fabric I thought at the time would update it:

Now I can absolutely say that if I did not have my husband's persistence this would not have ever been finished. Once I got into taking it all apart my own personal reaction was, you have to be kidding, this is waaay too much trouble.

I am not a fussy sewer. I can be careful and precise when I sew but it is not something I like to repeat too often.

I like variety, the challenge of a new pattern, trying to figure something out. My mind is so often on to the next project before I finish the current one.

I am a garment sewer entirely. I like that there are two sleeves and one collar. I would not enjoy 50 sleeves and 25 collars one after the other. It is beyond me how quilters can do 524 pieces the same. In fact one of my sisters, who is a meticulous quilter and I should add also great at upholstery, and I once tried to make a quilt together for our parents. I did my squares and sent them to her. She sent them back to me.

"Haven't you heard of a 1/4" seam allowance?"

I eyeballed it. Got it done didn't I?

Well not really.

I operate more on enthusiasm than a system.

It has taken me a long time to understand this is just part of my style and to go with it try to make the most of it, rather than trying to meet other expectations.

This orientation is why I am always a SWAP drop out, and probably why I nixed my one Chanel jacket project.

I am careful if I can do it once and say "Cool" but not if I have to do it over and over again.

Does this make sense to you?

What kind of sewer are you? What kind of projects do you enjoy most? 

What kind of sewing have you accepted you don't enjoy and stopped doing it?

What guilts have you given up?

This matters.

Grainline Linden top

A while ago I promised a photo of my Grainline Linden top and here it is.

There are few things you need to know about this pattern. 

First there is a lot of ease in it. 

Probably designed for sweatshirt fabric or as a layer, although this loose bamboo knit version was great for a home day for me. I made a 12 which fit my measurements exactly and this is the fit. 

In a class I am doing for beginners with this pattern students tried on samples and most of the younger women are making a 4 when their measurements are more 8-10. 

Consider that.

As you can see the neckband is quite narrow, fine, but for beginners I am having them it twice as wide because getting used to stretching a neckband with your hands to fit the neckline first out is hard and I want them to have a success.

Also it should be noted that this is a raglan T shirt, something that we haven't seen too much of lately. Raglans are really the most comfortable sleeve shape, good if you have sloped shoulders, and easiest to put on children, and those with mobility issues. Worth remembering. I always sew raglans for babies.

Not too much else to say except this picture is taken on my daughter's back deck and you can see the state of the landscape around here.

I am also confirming my status as the sewer with the least staged pictures on the internet, notice the sock feet. In Canada we take our shoes off the minute we get in a house and Canadian homes usually have entries full of random piles of shoes. It is considered sort of rude to leave your shoes on even in the summer. A by product of all the slush, snow and salt we would otherwise track in I guess much of the year.

I am wearing some Barb pants by Stylearc in this shot too if you are interested. As well as about 20 extra pounds I see, proving that those second helpings (I have the appetite of a 14 year old boy, although I do understand I am not a 14 year old boy) do take residence.

Going to do something about that some day.

Now off the finish the chair project. Have to get that in the out basket today or else.

Flypaper thoughts Fall edition

• OK I admit it
• We are into fall
• No going back until we go through the ice and snow thing
• Went with my husband overnight to a job site he had to check up on in the country
• "If you go for a walk, stay on the roads"
• There's the bears
• Of course the coyotes
• And it is hunting season
• In rural Nova Scotia that means stay inside
• The hunters apparently are not able to distinguish a tall woman in a shocking pink jacket from a deer
• Something I am sure the bears and coyotes can do
• In case you think I am one of those bloggers who talks about sewing but doesn't actually do it
• That is not the case
• The spouse has taken over supervision of the late-father-in-law's chair
• You know the sturdy model A Lazy boy the FIL sat in for 40 years
• The one I have been trying to drag to the curb ever since I inherited it
• Apparently everyone's favourite most comfortable chair
• This thing has 87 parts and each part has 9000 staples
• I had plans to sew silk pants this weekend
• Instead I have been working for a foreman who says things like
• "You sewed the curved piece to the straight piece instead of the straight piece to the curved piece"
• I am not enjoying this
• I have been trying to sneak the 87 parts to the curb
• Nothing doing
• Laugh of the weekend was "Now we know how we can do this we can do this again if we want another colour"
• Yes well
• The next wife can do that
• This one is about to down tools
• Reminds me of someone who I used to work with
• He was a genius, someone you stood in awe of
• He had doing absolutely nothing down to a fine art
• It actually takes a lot of effort and brains to never do anything at work for an entire career
• How many of us could actually do that?
• So easy to slip up and forget and complete an action item
• So easy to make the call at least out of boredom
• It takes a tremendous amount of self-control to never lift a finger for decades
• Whenever you cornered this guy with a task he would say
• "I would rather stick needles in my eyes than do that"
• I realize now he was speaking of upholstery 
• Hunting season makes me think of a woman I knew in Newfoundland
• Her husband was RCMP in the middle of nowhere
• Which no offense covers a fair amount of that province
• Every fall they would go the pair of them into the woods
• To hunt moose
• "I cut her in half and tie one half of the moose to me and the other half to Joan and we haul her out"
• The rest of the time Joan sold embroidery machines
• When I am gone no one in the family will have known folks like that
• Best the kids are going to do is one day know someone who keeps five urban chickens and blogs about it
• Yes I am aware of the irony 
• Speaking of hunting
• Which is worse you think?
• The sight of mouse poop behind the bed or the sight of a nice little mouse in a trap
• Who can blame them it's getting cold outside
• Those crack canine operators around here are falling down on the job
• Least they could have done is wake up
• I mean I can cut cheese up ten miles away and they hear it
• You know silk pants would have been pretty nice this weekend
• It's getting cold outside

Lobster pots in a yard in rural Nova Scotia

Remembrance day

I have mixed feelings about this day of memories of war. In Canada we call it Remembrance day which is about those who fell rather than veterans in general like in the U.S.

I have so much trouble with all the young men who have died for causes now forgotten, but they need remembering.

They were someone's child, that's what I keep thinking.

Here is a picture of my maternal grandfather and three of his brothers who went off to WWI. Another brother, the one who didn't want to join up, was killed and not in this picture, my grandfather is second from the left looking at the picture.

My strongest memory of war occurred in a fabric store.

It was a long time ago and I was standing at the table waiting for something to be cut. They had a radio running in the background and interrupted the music to say that Bagdad had been bombed.

I remember an older woman, a quilter by the looks of her fabrics, picking up her bolts and slamming them onto the cutting table:

"Stupid men," she said. "It's going to be the women and children who suffer most."

Last week at my granddaughter's school they showed this music video by the Ennis sisters from St. John's Newfoundland.

This says it all.