Lots of Lost Time

OK, so the sugar experiment lasted about a month.  I lost 5 lbs.  Woo.  I went back to adding sugar to things, but far less than before.  I cut out some of my bigger sugary habits, and I have been able to maintain the 5 lb. loss.  So, overall, not too bad.

Emma celebrated her 17th birthday, low key, as is her style.  She had a couple friends over and she had cake.


Later, we went out for sushi dinner as a family.






Sorry, no pictures of me.  I had the camera.

I volunteered to take on keeping the uniform locker tidy and repairing the uniforms for the school.  If it takes more than sewing hems or replacing buttons, it goes to Goodwill.  Skirts and sweaters with holes or beyond repair sometimes get delivered to crafters that turn them into doll clothes.

Kelly spent several weeks building a gorgeous deck!  After taking the deck boards off the old deck, he discovered that it was rotten all the way to the ground...it was a complete tear-out.  We decided to build it bigger (why not?) and have a finished deck that is twice the size of the original.



It is structurally sound...



Hosted a desperately unsuccessful Ithra event with a grand total of 13 students.  Several students were also instructors, and many classes had only one student.  Lesson learned:  pull the plug sooner and make clear parameters that if the coordinators send more than two of their members into the hospital, it's better to cancel the event than to spend that kind of time, energy and money on a failure.  Ugh!

I did, however, learn how to do Brocade Card Weaving.  This was an interesting technique to learn, but I chose a rather complex pattern.  I also had to double-up the brocade yarns, and you have to take extra care to prevent the threads twisting, so it slows the process down.



Camille's birthday was a low-key affair.  We celebrated with Chinese food...however, I didn't get any photos.  I also spent the weekend away, so she didn't have a party.  In fact, plans fell apart for several weekends following, so she's going to have to have a do-over at some point.

That weekend, I went to the quilt retreat!  I packed up a bunch of fabrics and spent two days cutting and sewing...
  


A week later, I was making beads!

  

  

Cammie and I went and "clowned" around in Fremont.  This is a statue of JP Patches, just outside the Geocaching Headquarters.  Of course, we were having a Munzee date, capping some of the hundreds of virtuals in the area.  Of course, we had to go visit the troll, too.

Cammie's Girl Scout troop is making pies to sell as a fundraiser.  They used pre-made crust, but they spent time cutting and seasoning all the fruit, filling the pies, and freezing them for delivery.

A couple weeks into October, we discovered that the wood around the garage was warped and cracking.  It turned out that it was all rotten.  So was the wood behind it and all down the right side.  After careful inspection, the handyman determined that it was poorly/improperly installed flashing around the garage, so the water was leaking behind the vinyl siding and the weather wrap.  He tore into it and said he'd be back to fix it.

On the 11th of November, the handyman finally came back to work on it.  He tore into it a bunch more and said he'd be back the next day...noooooope.  We'll see when he'll *actually* come back.

October 24th:  a hard day for the people in the Northwest when a student brought a gun to school and shot several friends and a couple cousins at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.  A sad and scary day.  We are several miles south of this area, so we weren't directly affected; they did not have a school lock down, but they did notify the parents of the incident.  The grade school wisely opted not to mention it to the students, but let parents talk to their kids about it in their own way.  Most of the high schoolers had gotten word via their cell phones, so they knew what had happened.  Emma was very calm about the whole situation, recognizing the assailant as a disturbed young man and said that she wasn't worried or fearful.  We had longer discussions about the situation and I deeply admire her maturity and wisdom.

That same day, we went to our school's Halloween carnival.  We had spent hours making costumes (and this is, of course, the Royal "we"), so we loaded up and went into town again and let the kids loose in the school, playing games and earning prizes.

    
Kids dressed as Zelda, Link, and L (from right to left)

The food table was pizza, burgers and home made sweets.  Some of the cupcakes were really clever!


A few days later, on Oct. 27th, I woke up with a backache.  It was over my left hip, but didn't seem too bad.  By 10 a.m., it was getting pretty painful.  By noon, I was in tears.  I went into the walk-in clinic (which has a blessedly short wait), and saw a doctor who suggested that it was probably the sacroiliac joint, though he didn't order any blood work or X-rays.  He prescribed some vicodin and said I need to take my anti-infammatories and alternate ice and heat.  After three days, I was out of vicodin, but I had made an appointment with a doctor--my GP wasn't available, but I could see someone else, and I said OK.  I get in and she tells me that she can write another prescription for vicodin, but I would need to see my regular doc if I needed more after 3 more days.  I said that I wanted to get an appointment with my doctor, and she said that my doc wouldn't be available until November 17th...nearly three weeks later.  Absurd.  I wrote a letter to the clinic telling them that this is unacceptable practice.  I haven't heard anything back, which is frustrating, so I may have to go in and talk to them personally.

I hoped this would be gone in a day or two, but it was the beginning of 9 long days of laying on the couch.  I couldn't drive, I had trouble sleeping, I couldn't even stand long enough to take a shower.  It was agony.  Now, 17 days later, the pain is almost completely gone, and the numbness in my left thigh is greatly reduced.  Will this return?  I hope not, but it's possible.

Laying flat on my back (or on my side) for so long, I had a limit on what I could do, creatively.  I couldn't sit up or stand, so sewing, cutting, or many other things were impossible.  I decided that if I sat up a bit, I could knit, so I pulled out a couple balls of wool that I received as a gift from the Baroness of Aquaterra and with Cammie's assistance, wound them up and cast on a scarf.  I pulled it out three times because I was unsatisfied with the pattern I chose, but it kept my mind occupied in between naps.  I may pull it apart again and do a completely different project.



I'd like to do something like this, but I don't have a pattern.



Ben worked on his engineering badge for scouts by assembling this hydraulics kit that Kelly picked up.  They had a great time working on it together, and then Ben had fun picking objects up with the tool.



On Monday night, I was happy that I was healthy and strong enough to go with Kelly and the rest of Gang Green to the second leg of the Sounders game against Dallas.  40,000 of our friends saw them have a 0-0 tie.  This combined with the 1-1 tie in Dallas gives Seattle the win.  WHY?  Because an away goal is weighted slightly heavier than a home goal.  If we also had a 1-1 tie at home, it would have been completely balanced and we would have had to go into overtime.  SO...we go to the next level of the Western Conference finals, and we have to play LA Galaxy twice.  After that, the winners of the Western and Eastern conferences play for the MLS cup.


This last couple of days have been a flurry of activity, and in my spare minutes, I was looking at photos of looms.  There are a few on Craigslist that are selling very cheap; I saw THIS one for $50, and if I had a pick up truck and a spare room, I would have driven down there to get it, even though I don't have enough weaving experience...I'm not ready for a big floor loom.  Someday.  I want to start weaving on a rigid heddle loom, like a Kromski Harp loom (I have my eye on a 32" loom).  I'm also working towards having a warp-weighted loom to attempt to weave on.  I have the loom pretty much ready to go, but I need to set it up and give it a shot, but not until after Thanksgiving.

The carpet is getting replaced before the holiday...I'm so excited!  The carpet is SO GROSS!  We will be replacing all the carpet eventually, and I'd like to do it myself, but I'd like to start in a small room that won't be seen...like my closet.  If I can get that to look OK, then I'll try in larger areas.  But for starters, and in the most public rooms, I'd rather have a professional do it, and the downstairs is going to be done in a couple weeks!

The next six weeks are going to be VERY busy.  I have a large quilt commission, a smaller quilt job, and a large quilt restoration...and all to be done before Christmas.  Now that I can finally stand again, I can get started.  I'm going to be running myself ragged...I only hope that I stay healthy.

8th-11th days of Christmas

On the 8th day...Bekah came over and she helped measure me for a body block.  "What's that?"  You say?  It's a pattern for making clothes!  You measure the usual stuff--the waist, bust, shoulders and torso length, then you also measure your side seam (from waist to armpit) and your shoulder rise, and you map it all out on a piece of paper like this:


Many thanks to Mistress Laurellen from the Renaissance Tailor for this image.  I took her class several years ago and no only is she an excellent teacher, she makes the most AH-MAZING clothes!  She sells some things on her web site, too.

Bekah helped me draw it out on cheap fabric, cut it out, sew it together, fit it some more, and eventually come up with a fabric pattern that I can use to make garments from.

So, what am I doing this for?  Well, I'm glad you asked!  It's for a 12th Night Tudor gown.  Not a chemise.  Not a kirtle.  Not a doublet or a pair of bodies (aka a "bodice").  Not a corset...no. (Never again!)  It's for a gown.  What's the difference?  Let me walk you through the layers.

The corset, you probably guessed.  It's the foundation garment.  Unlike the Victorian corset, the point of this piece is not to look SKINNY or curvy, but to look flat.  Tubular.  Totally.  Like, Ohmygod!

(This is not me...I borrowed this image from Tudortalkandcatwalk.com to show both the very nicely made corset, the lightweight chemise underneath, and the Spanish farthingale (hoop skirt) that gave the Tudor fashions their silhouette.  Apparently, they make and sell these things on their web site, so if you're in the market...there you go.  Many thanks to tudortalkandcatwalk!)

A chemise is the underdress.  It's loose and made of a lightweight linen using rectangular construction.  This is the part that will be touching your skin, absorbing body oils and sweat and will be washed the most.  The outer layers are often more delicate and can't tolerate the abuse of frequent washing.  Corsets, for example, are filled with metal, wood and/or reeds for rigidity.  In the case of the nobility, the gowns and jackets were often made with lace, gold and jewels that would have to be removed for washing and then sewn back on.  Time consuming and laborious, and delicate things like lace could be damaged in the removal, so best not do it unless it's absolutely necessary.  The chemise is usually a long-sleeved garment that reaches the knees or thereabouts and can be heavily embroidered, though more often, it was plain.  Some people like to make them full-length, but from what I've been able to gather, it's not typical for the chemise to be that long on women.  Makes sense...just more stuff to get in the way when you're trying to pee.

A kirtle is a sleeveless (usually) dress that can be one or two pieces--that is a long, straight gown or a bodice with a skirt sewn to it.  The straight kirtle might also serve as a maternity gown--I made one when I was pregnant and it was roomy and comfortable.

Here's a fancier two-piece kirtle with side lacing and trim around the neckline.  It has a straight placket in the front and is heavily gathered around the rest of the dress.  On a warm day, or if you were a working-class woman, this might be all you need.  After all, you need to roll your sleeves up to wash clothes in the river, work in the kitchen or rake hay in the fields.  Throw an apron over the top and you're good to go!


Now, the GOWN, which is the one I'm making, is the layer that goes over the kirtle that has sleeves.  For the upper-class woman, like this portrait of Katherine of Aragon shows in 1502, the sleeves were long and bell-shaped...perfect for doing absolutely nothing!  They also appear to be lined with white fur, although it could be velvet.  The gal in gold even has the skirt turned up in the back to prove that it's FULLY LINED and isn't just a strip along the edge.  Show-off.  The gal in the red-orange has a green kirtle under the orange dress.  All three are wearing a black partlet under the gown.  At some point, the partlet turns into a layer that goes over the gown, like a sweater.


Or she might have worn some tight-fitting sleeves and the turned-back cuffs, like this one...love the details of the construction on this bodice, including the square armpit seams...


But the working class woman kept things simple, close to the body and able to roll up out of the way. Over-sleeves were even tied on so they could be removed completely. Not sure what's going on with short arms and her enormous hands, though.

Now you can't stop staring at them, can you?  Creepy, isn't it?  That cat is seriously ticked off, too.

So on the 9th day, I mostly just sat around.  Kidding.  I pulled out the green linen, took a big breath, and cut into it.  I only made the body part of the gown, sewed the pieces together in the green linen as well as the lining, and set it aside.  More fitting would be done the next morning.

I also put together most of a newsletter for the quilt guild.  Darn helium hands.  At least I foisted off the majority of the work (taking notes, attending meetings) on another guild member, so I can do all the work from home in my spare time...like at 1:30 in the morning when I can't sleep.  6:30 is going to show up awfully early tomorrow.  Sigh.

So on the 10th day of Christmas, I got a visit from my friend, Rachel.  She's renting Omi's house with her husband, John (and seeing a couple of ghosts now and again...but that's a longer story).  Rachel helped do the final fitting on the gown bodice and helped with the sleeve pattern.  I hadn't made a really successful pattern, but she showed me a couple tricks and now I've got it!  Boo-yah!  I might even write a paper on how it was done and submit it to the Barony's newsletter.  I got the sleeves sewn on to the bodice and then cut the pieces for the skirt.  (I only have about a half-yard left of the fabric, which might not be enough for more than a small tunic for Ben.  Maybe I'll make a short-sleeved tunic for him.)

Here it is hanging out, letting the fabric settle before hemming it to length.  Rachel recommended that I hang it so that if the fabric was going to stretch from gravity, it would get it all out of the way before I hemmed it and started wearing it.  Then I wouldn't have the surprise of having it grow in length and drag in the mud or get in the way as I trip over it all day.  Gooooooood thinkin'!  I also need to add hooks and eyes up the front of the dress, hem up the cuffs, and then it will be DONE!  I may add some decorative touches to it later, but it's meant to be a working woman's outfit, which many of them weren't decorated heavily.

On the 11th day, I forgot about the A&S gathering at the cafe, but I finally got out the door 90 minutes late.  By the time I got there, they were already breaking up and heading home.  I said hello to a couple people who were only there a minute or two before heading out, but chatted with Rachel for about 30 minutes discussing what we'd like to see happen with the costumer's guild--both locally and at Kingdom.  The Kingdom office mostly fell apart from lack of volunteers, which I totally understand.  If I were free of Ithra, I might be willing to take this on--at least the guild challenges part.  Finding judges and setting up contests would be fun, but not running the whole guild.  I need to train up my replacement for Ithra and move on, I think.  As much as I love doing what I do, I think it's time.

So...when I got home, I took the weaving project apart that I was working on with the 6-hole cards and reduced it to a 4-hole card project.  I have the wrong kind of loom for the 6-hole cards.  Someday...but not now.  I started weaving the Tiwaz trim (a letter in the Runic alphabet, and also a symbol for the god, Tyr) for my friend, Tyrssen.  The letter is sideways, but looks very much like an arrow, pointing up.  It's a really straight-forward pattern; 4 turns forward and 4 back, so it's chugging right along.  I should have it done in just a couple days.

Tomorrow is the 12th Day of Christmas.  The kids go back to school.  I'll take the tree down and put the decorations away.  I'll also do some laundry, clean beads and maybe do a little weaving.  Not a really exciting day, but given that I'm not going to get much sleep tonight, I'm not surprised.

Soon...packing for 12th Night!

Time to FLY

Went to a pumpkin patch with the Girl Scouts.  We went through two small corn mazes and then picked out pumpkins.  We ran a little long on time, so it was frustrating to have to race to get back into town in time for one girl's soccer practice (we were late), but getting this many kids organized and herded into cars was very difficult.  We had a talk with them about getting going faster for the next field trip.  

Ben loved posing in this cardboard cut out of a truck.  He made me take pictures of him from each pumpkin and window on this thing.  Each cut out had a different goofy face, but this was my favorite!  He's so sweet!

We got home from the pumpkin patch with three pumpkins--I offered one to Emma to carve and she said, "No, thanks."  Well, I couldn't just leave the pumpkin uncarved, but I needed to get dinner underway, so I suggested to Bekah that she carve it, and maybe she could carve Rex Velvet into it. She looked online and found a picture of his logo, and she set to work carving it.  It looks pretty cool!  She then cleaned three pumpkins worth of seeds, which I soaked and roasted the next day.  I'm thinking maybe next year I can plant some pumpkins--I love the idea of gardening and landscaping, but I don't really care for it.  Maybe I should have married a gardener...

I made a few cakes for the Halloween carnival.  These cupcakes were heavily frosted to make a cupcake cake.  I made one for the cake decorating contest, but somehow it ended up being donated to the cake walk instead.  Either they donated ALL the non-winning cakes, or someone put it on the wrong table.  In the end, it didn't really matter--apparently a few 7th grade boys won it on the cake walk and devoured it.  At least it was well appreciated!

This one was the Graveyard cake.  I wanted to make some cool-looking headstones, but had trouble finding cookies that were the right shape and size.  I got some cheap Mother something...you know those cookies that come in bags with the animal shapes but they're covered in that awful frosting and sprinkles?  Same brand, but they're chocolate fudge cookies.  Like Oreos, but rectangular and with fudge in the middle.  They're not bad.  I opened them up, scraped the fudge out and stuck them in the cake.  I wish I had had a fine-hole type of cake decorating tool so I could carefully write RIP and dates on the headstones, but I didn't...I just used frosting and a toothpick.  It didn't work that well, so I won't try that again.  Maybe I'll try a ziplock with a pin-hole poked in it.  

Pumpkin patch cake--chocolate & chocolate.  This frosting was originally vanilla cream cheese frosting, but I needed brown...I didn't have any brown food coloring--amazingly enough since everyone has some of that, right?  I thought about going to the store to get more, but figured I could just add some chocolate syrup to make this the flavor & color I needed.  I poured a bunch of syrup in there, and it was just vaguely tan.  Almost a grey-tan.  Gross looking, really.  Then I got out the Dutch cocoa and started dumping that in.  I got it all over the place and eventually, it got brown...and thick.  Added a few tablespoons of milk to loosen it up again.  What a pain.  It still tasted good.  Probably would have been easier to just go to the store.  Ah well.

I also made a set of cupcakes and decorated 12 of them with white frosting, M&Ms and chocolate jimmies, and the other 12 with white frosting and candy pumpkins.

At 6:00, we headed over to the school for the carnival.  Each classroom had games set up in them, which are easy enough for the little kids to play, and tickets are earned for winning games.  Those tickets can be redeemed for prizes in the prize room.  Ben had already picked out the prizes he wanted, so when he won enough tickets for those two things, he was done playing games and wanted to spend the rest of the time playing in the inflatable bouncy houses.  

Ben standing in line for the carnival games, practicing his winking.  He was frustrating when I was trying to get him ready to go--he didn't want to wear the coat that it took me more than an hour of shopping and five stores to find.  It's a little big, which was a problem I figured he'd grow into, but he wasn't convinced that it was the right fabric/cut/style/etc.  He was delighted that I found him a button-up shirt for his ensemble, and that several people recognized who he was.  

Although we dropped her off with her friend after school, Emma came to the carnival for a little while.  She wasn't wearing her big, fancy get-up, but elected to wear the more comfortable outfit that we assembled last year.  She said she didn't want to wear something so fussy and didn't want to wear the big wig and risk messing it up, so she packed the simpler costume.  Her friend decided to wear a pretty dress and the big blue wig.  They ran into their friend, Bryce, and hung out with him while they waited for Miss E's mom to finish volunteering in one of the classrooms.  Today they planned on going to the anime convention and will meet up with Emma's new friend, Miss S.  I haven't met this new friend, but I met her other friend, another Miss E, who has a prosthetic left arm.  Sometimes she wears her Hook hand, and sometimes she wears the "Creepy Mannequin Hand."  She seems like a very funny kid and they two girls have a great time together at school.

I made a costume from an old sweatshirt from a second hand store and some black fabric I had lying around.  I made a collar and created a Ringleader jacket.  I also bought a white button up shirt and a top hat, and I wore my black pants and made a ribbon bow tie from scrap fabric.  I think I spent about $10 on the entire outfit.  I didn't win the adult costume contest (again), but I got lots of compliments at the carnival.  That was great!  It turned out the prize for the contest was a whopping $5 gift card.  Woo.  

I am frustrated still with the level of cleanliness in the house.  It seems no matter how much cleaning I do, it gets trashed in a matter of hours and no amount of bribing, cajoling, punishing, manipulating, threatening, scheduling or pleasantly asking can get anyone to help me out around the house, so for a long time, I just gave up.  I clean for three or four hours, breaking my back getting it tidy, and I go to the store and return to the front room torn apart, books and coats dropped wherever they happen to land, and debris littered everywhere.  I have to create a better battle plan.  Not sure how well it'll work, but I'm going to try the FLY lady plan for a while.  The first couple of days, you just have to make sure the kitchen sink is clean.  I can do that.  However, on that first day, I went into Ben's room and boxed up over 200 books that he no longer needs (a dozen or so came from Cammie's room, too).  I posted a note on my FB page and found a home for them all with my friend, Elizabeth.  She has a toddler so she could take all the young kids books away and promised to find a home for anything she couldn't use.  EXCELLENT!  Three boxes of junk we don't need!

This week's "cleaning zone" is the master bedroom, so I did a little bit of tidying in there.  I emptied the recycle bin, pushed the drawer back under the cabinet (it broke off the track some time ago, so it just lays on the floor under the cabinet and we slide it out when we need something), and organized Kelly's dresser drawers a little.  There are a bunch of mysterious things in the bedroom that aren't mine, they're not being used but I don't know what to do with them, and they're too valuable to throw away.  One of them is some kind of pedal system for a flight simulator game.  I saw something similar on eBay that is listed for $150.  I don't like to list things on eBay, though.  Maybe we could put it on Craigslist. My next goal in there is to put away all the summer clothes in the closet and pull out all the warmer winter clothes.

I may not be perfectly successful with the FLY lady thing, but it's worth getting something started.  It suggested putting post it notes everywhere reminding me what I'm doing and positive affirmation stuff, but I don't like the idea of having post it notes everywhere, which to me looks like more clutter.  Modification is key, I think.  I'm also supposed to come up with a mantra or something I can say to myself while I clean, meditate, or while I'm sitting in the car.  She had just said, "I love you" to herself.  I've tried thinking of something that is a message of positive affirmation without sounding really corny, but I haven't come up with anything yet.

I'll take suggestions.

New stuff

Spent the weekend in Bham for the Ithra.  Godith allowed me to stay at her place in her newly retro-fitted home, where she spent a bit of money updating all the insulation and ventilation systems in the 100 year old part of the house.  The newer part of the house (about 20 years) doesn't need as much work, which includes the master bedroom and rec room.  Although we had originally slated to hold the session at a local historical home, we ended up having to cancel that location to avoid the extraordinary expense and we had it at Godith's instead.

I ended up teaching three classes this weekend--I had signed up to teach one, then was asked to co-teach a second, then an instructor ended up being scheduled to work (after she had already been given the weekend off), so I took over her class.  My classes I taught were card weaving (with Miss Bek), Pattern Drafting (the class I took over), and Dyeing Wool with Kool Aid.


We had some issues with the looms we provided for the card weaving class. It was a small piece of 1 x 2 pine and two small c-clamps.  It didn't have enough clearance for the cards to turn well and it was too lightweight to use effectively--especially for new students.  I talked with another artisan who gave me a good idea to try, then went to work building this very simple solution out of scraps of wood in my garage.  Four holes drilled in the base, two holes drilled in each of the four 1 x 1 blocks, and four nuts & bolts.  I would prefer to use wing nuts, but I didn't find any that would fit in our collection of bits in the garage, and figured this was just a prototype.  It works!  I figure with the parts--although I have to price them out at the store since the web sites for these hardware stores SUCK (you search for 4" bolts and you get hinges, eye bolts, and other weird things)--the cost for each loom would be under $5.  It took about an hour to make this, and only took that long because I was hunting around for parts, having problems with the drill press.

The pattern drafting class was a first time for me and I just threw the handout together with a bunch of links, images and a few patterns.  I got copies of the other instructor's handouts which is mostly text, so they compliment each other pretty well.  There were three students and they seemed to enjoy the class, made a body block based on their measurements, and sewed together a tiny dress sized for an American Girl doll.  I taught more than just how to make patterns and measure, but also taught each of them to sew a running stitch (boy, it was painful watching them do their stitches...I just couldn't stand it anymore), taught one student how to find 10% (apparently the Seattle public school system was unsatisfactory), and we had a fun, relaxing time.  One student also bribed me with chocolate wine, a large chocolate bar, and a chocolate candle for allowing her to register at the last minute.

The last class was a small one with only two students--we dyed yarn with kool aid.  Then the hostess and my bursar came over and jumped in on the class as well, bringing wool roving to use in the kool aid to see what would happen.

On Monday morning, we had to go to see the surgeon (or his nurse, as it turned out) and the dieticians about Ben's button and how to use the feeding tube.  But on the way to drop the girls off, my car started overheating.  The fact that there was snow and ice on the car in the morning and I only drove 5 miles meant there was something seriously wrong with the minivan.  I made it to the school parking lot and turned the car off, then called Kelly to have him drive us to our appointments (he had planned on coming anyway, so there was nothing lost there).  Afterwards, I drove it another couple of miles to the shop to have it looked at.  A couple hours later, they call with the results--water pump, thermostat, bad tires, and much more.  $2000 more.  Wow.  Happy birthday to me.

We used Ben's button for the first time last night for an overnight feed.  There were some issues with getting the pump to work properly and it wasn't supposed to beep when it's done, but it woke him up at 6:30 this morning.  It was fairly sensitive for disconnecting this morning and he wanted to do it himself.  Then there was the cleaning up the parts and I'm not really sure how many times we can use the parts before they need to be disposed--I think it's a week.  It was a lot of information to process in a single sitting, but there is a set of directions that came with it...I'll have to investigate it further.  But at least he can take baths and go swimming and do karate and do all the normal things that kids love to do.

The neighbor's house, which has been empty for more than two years, is finally getting emptied of all the trash left behind (box springs, old clothes, etc.).  It was put up for auction on the courthouse steps, which means that it has had all the liens cleared from it and it will soon be put on the market (no one in their right mind would pay the amount that was owed on it with all the back taxes, overdue mortgage payments, etc.).  It'll be nice to have a family living in it again rather than just watching it rot in place.

November!

Yes, I've been away.  I've been mass-busy.  (Is that a word?)  Totally.  Maybe it's "mas busy", like Spanglish?  Probably.

A week or so ago, I was considering hanging up the "closed" sign for my business because I wasn't getting any new calls, no new tops to work on, and no prospects on the horizon.  I'm a member of three guilds, I've offered gift certificates as prizes, I've talked to a lot of people, but to little avail.  Then, just when I swore I was done, I got six customers asking for work to be done.  Six.

One of them is a lovely lady by the name of Violet.  She gave me this top to work up for her daughter. She said I could pretty much do anything stipple-wise, and I asked if I could do something fun...she agreed.  I was able to do more of my favorite swirly Dr. Seuss feathers, which echoed the design on the fabrics. The colors for this are much prettier than in this picture.  There are purples, blues, olive green and yellow...it's really striking!  It's also enormous!  It was 108" square--that's 9 feet wide!  My frame is only 10 feet wide, but the machine's needle doesn't reach the last 4" on either side, so it was almost the maximum I could have on the frame.  The biggest I ever did was 114" wide, and I had to quilt most of it, then move it over and finish the last foot or so on the other side that I couldn't reach.

I also finally got one of the winners of the Christmas gift card to bring me a piece to work on.  This is just a simple stipple around the mooses, zig-zagging in the border, and some fun stitching in the stars.  I assume it might be a test-piece to see if I do good work before giving me something more valuable.  It would be nice to have another customer on the regular roster.

Michele gave me three tablerunners to work on, too.  The most urgent was this leafy tablerunner.  I had fun filling in the background with holly leaves and quilting stems and veins onto the red leaves. 

Two of them were identical--this is one of them, which she requested to have holly quilted on.  The second one needs a backing fabric added to it.  I went to buy a piece to put on the back, but I miscalculated how much I needed, so I need to go back and get something else.  It's an odd color of green, so I only found one piece of fabric that matched well enough.  Maybe I'll try to find yellow or red instead.

I also got a couple calls from people who are getting ready to bring me things--one is my sister's neighbor, another gave me some work a while back and she's got 7 antique quilt tops from her grandmother that she wants finished, and another gal who was given a personal reference from Sharon.  I've got a few things underway!

In addition, I made a pair of costumes for the girls to dress up as St. Margaret Ward, the woman who was tortured and killed for helping a priest escape prison by using a rope she smuggled in to him (hence the rope in the picture).  Those were posted in the previous post, so rather than duplicate efforts with the details, you can scroll down to see the pictures of the parts.  Here's Miss O in her costume on Nov. 1st.  Her dad was surprisingly impressed.  He's known me for a dozen years and he's still surprised.  And this isn't even my best effort--I didn't have time to add the lacing on the front of the doublet and it could have had all kinds of bling added, but I went simple.  It is, after all, just a costume.  She may be able to wear it next year, but if she doesn't, then we're not out a lot of money.  The fabrics were things I pulled out of my stash.  The floral was free from Omi's closet and I wasn't sure what I would do with it, but this was absolutely perfect!  The greenish skirt was some broadcloth that I had sitting around and there was plenty to make two matching skirts for the girls, and may still have enough left over to make a tunic or two.

I needed to get it to her before Halloween, so we met up last Sunday to hand it over.  We had lunch at a burger place about half-way between our houses (35 minutes north of me, and about the same south of her).  The girls were really happy to see each other, and Cammie immediately changed into her skirt, a gift from Sharon, that matches Miss O's. 

Earlier that day, Cammie had a soccer game and I snapped this picture with my phone.  It takes some good pictures sometimes...and she's very photogenic.  :)

I made costumes for myself and Kelly--I decided we should be dressed as Brett Maverick and Mrs. Annabelle Bransford.  I actually wanted to do this last year, but ran out of time, energy, momentum, etc.  I got patterns for the vest and dress  from the local fabric store, but had a lot of trouble finding *just* the right fabric for the vest.  I wanted to get something heavier than quilt-weight cotton; something more like upholstery weight, twill, denim, or something similar.  I didn't like the colors (or price) of the upholstery stuff, the twill was all plain (yawn), and other fabrics just didn't seem right.  After searching for more than half an hour, I finally wandered over to the quilt fabrics and found this Civil War reproduction, which worked just perfectly.  I was concerned about the weight of the fabric, but after I lined it with muslin, it worked just fine.  Not wanting to take all the time to make the vest and find it doesn't fit or won't button properly over the girth, I sewed the front up (didn't get around to putting the buttons on) and left it open on the side, so it ties under the arms.  Then I went out and got some additional pieces for Kelly--a simple shirt (didn't have time to make him a lucky shirt) and tweed pants from a second-hand store.  The pants were NEW with tags on them still.  The shirt was not new, but it still looked new.  Add a little ribbon from the ribbon box, and a creative shave, and presto!  He's back in the mid-19th century.  In all, I think I spent about $25 for his costume. 

Mine was made with a cranberry taffeta and some little trim.  I originally was going to make a saloon girl/burlesque costume, but I decided to go a little more conservative.  I can always shorten it and add more fringe and fancy dancy stuff later, but for the school party, I decided to go less racy.  The vest and skirt are separate, and I was sewing the costume until just minutes before we left for the carnival.  Had I given myself a few extra days, I would have made a bustle for the back and an underdress.  I did make bloomers and a petticoat, but had some trouble with lacing it up the back.  Mostly because I didn't have time to sew lots of hooks and eyes, didn't have a zipper, and really didn't want to add velcro...I'll have to make a few adjustments and maybe I can wear it again next year.

Ben chose to be Zorro.  I gave him a costume catalog that had come in the mail and said to look through it and decide what he wanted to be.  This was what he picked out.  I was able to find the costume online cheaper--minus the hat and sword.  Those I found at a costume shop a couple weeks ago for *really* cheap.  I think the sword was $1.50.

The kids also spent some time disemboweling gourds.  I helped cut the lids out, then allowed them to pull the guts out, placing all the seeds into one bowl and all the slime into the another.  I then washed and baked the seeds as part of Ben's pumpkin project for school.  Cammie chose to carve a cat in the moonlight from the pumpkin carving kit that we bought a few years ago.  The difficulty with these paper kits is that they suggest that you tape the pattern onto the pumpkin.  Tape doesn't stick to pumpkins...did you know?  Especially wet, slimy pumpkins.  We were able to get the pattern transferred on there and she used the mini saw to cut out the cat (rather than the moon).

Ben chose a more unique design--Jack from Nightmare before Christmas.  I had to free-hand it since there was no pattern for it in the kit.  It turned out rather well, I think.  We placed them on the porch and things went well until the day after Halloween, when we found Jack Splat in our driveway.  Really, he was more Humpty Dumpty--cracked in a few places, not scrambled pumpkin in the road.  A couple days later, the cat-in-moonlight pumpkin suffered a similar fate.  Both of these hallowed out gourds will end up in the compost bin by tomorrow. 

The Annual Sugar Beggary Festival went swimmingly, as usual.  Each kid collected around 6 pounds of candy.  Emma and a few teens toured the neighborhood together with their mom, while I went around with Cammie, Ben, Miss J. and her sister, Miss S. and their mom, my girl scout co-leader. 

It was a cool but dry night and we all had a great time.  I hear from several other friends that Halloween in their neighborhoods is a bust.  Sad to see such a fun tradition dying, but it is alive and well here!