SWAP

Sewing With A Purpose. This is a sewing contest held at the Stitcher's Guild Sewing Forum found here: http://artisanssquare.com/sg/index.php#6 You just click on the SWAP 2009 tab and I am entered under the title: Fourkid 2009 SWAP - Skirtin' The Issue .

Anyone can enter, you just sign up and say you will enter. I am doing it with no expectation of winning anything - although I understand if you finish the requirements within the time frame everyone does get a small prize. I entered because this year's parameters fit my needs very well, and I am always putting off sewing for myself. I need some new, everyday clothes! I have always been motivated by these types of events. I am very non-competitive against others, but I love a challenge to myself.

So from now until April 30, 2009, I will do updates on my progress, both here (under the SWAP title), and at the Stitcher's Guild Forum. The official rules are at the website noted above, but the gist of it is to complete 11 garments in the allotted time frame. Of the 11 pieces, 6 must be tops, 4 must be bottoms, and one outer garment. All individual pieces must be able to be worn with each of the other pieces. The pieces must reflect your everyday weekly lifestyle.

I have chosen to do 2 or 3 skirts and 1 or 2 jumpers. Either way it will end up as four bottom pieces (jumpers can count as a bottom piece as long as every top can be worn with it.) My colors for the skirts and/or jumpers will be navy, dk. brown, tan, and blue denim. For the 6 tops, I am still in limbo on most of them, but to get started I have chosen to use the pattern pictured above in the maroon cotton fabric also pictured. This is an OOP (out of print) pattern I found at a thrift store for 10 cents. The fabric I bought new at Jo-Ann's.

For my outer garment, I am tentatively planning to knit a shawl. I found some attractive and easy free patterns on the web and have wanted a shawl for some time.

This is my most likely choice to make as of now:

http://www.classiceliteyarns.com/pdf/RaveLaceShawl.pdf

Christmas sewing has pushed my personal projects to the back burner - but I am hoping to have this top done by Jan. 1, and all my other SWAP projects decided on, patterns ready, and most fabric in hand, also by Jan. 1.

Hoodie - Part 2

No, this isn't the Princess's hoodie - yet. This is our 2nd (and final) mock up cut from an old sheet and basted and pinned together. Before cutting into the more costly fleece, from which it is very hard to pick out wrong stitches, I wanted to check the fit. I have blended 3 sizes - extra small sleeves (they run very full), to small shoulders and then to medium at the hips. The first mock up had the shoulders droop way too much. So I took an inch from the length of the shoulder seam. This also pulled the sleeve up a bit shorter (which it needed). I think the shoulder seam is still a little long, but this is where it stays. The fleece should cover some of this up, and if I fiddle too much I will undoubtedly make a bigger mess than I am trying to fix. The bottom length is right where she wants it, so I will add an inch and a half hem allowance to the front and back pattern pieces. The mock up sleeves currently have no hem, so when properly done, they should be just about right. I am hoping to get the fleece version cut out tomorrow - but so far, none of this project has gone as I planned - we will see what the morning brings.

Sew Much Comfort

From their website:

Serving Those Who Serve Us
Sew Much Comfort provides adaptive clothing free of charge to support the unique needs of our injured service members from all branches of the military and national guard. The need for adaptive clothing continues to grow as American military members are injured serving their country. Each week, many wounded military members arrive in the States from Germany for extensive medical treatment for bullet and shrapnel wounds, burns, head and limb injuries and amputations, while tens of thousands are still in the recovery process. These medical conditions require large fixator, prosthetics and casts that are too bulky to fit under ordinary clothing or underwear. Sew Much Comfort is the only organization providing adaptive clothing in large volumes to attempt to meet those special needs. 

I am a volunteer sewist for this organization. They need more sewing vounteers, donations of goods or cash, and most importanly - if you know of any veterans that need their adaptive clothing, please refer them to the Sew Much Comfort website. You can link to it from the title of this blog entry, or from my "favorites" sidebar. I only know how to make the pants right now - but I just took a "working with knits" on-line class, in part, so that I can learn how to do more adaptations. 

Here is a 6 minute video (the address just below) that documents the care wounded veterans receive. The crew in this case is flying into Bagram air base in Iraq. #2 son has been to that base many times. He would pick up and deliver the night vision equipment (among other things) for repairs. 

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1407952648?bctid=1664436922

**side note - I once asked #2 son why the night vision equipment broke so often. Were they made of inferior parts or design? His reply - No, they are fine - they just don't work too well as a football! 

Singing

Singing.......definitely not my talent. I have other talents, so I don't feel to badly about not being able to carry a tune - except that I love to sing. My mother says I am always flat and a half beat behind - she is correct. My mother can sing and so can the Princess, but they don't like to sing like I do. I sing a lot. I can really ratchet up the volume too (I learned how to do that while working on a bus route to carry kids to church.) Only the family gets to hear the song of the Valkyrie, but it is legend. It does seem to get kids up out of bed in the morning, and the dog doesn't even howl - oops, we don't have a dog!

Back in the college years (and those bus route years) I was actually in a church choir and a college glee club! I had two really great friends (they would have to be!) that made sure they always stood next to me and we had a hidden signal (elbow in the ribs) whenever I flatted out. I even learned to do some songs pretty well. In college I sang in a Christmas special with all the combined school choirs. I sang the alto part of Handel's Messiah - the whole thing - and only got a few elbow-to-the-ribs during that entire performance. Granted my little voice was only one of about 300, but in practices it was only one of about 40. That could have created havoc.

Are you ready for the irony? My mother actually named me Patti Page! Really. Not even Patricia - but Patti - right there on my birth certificate. Such a cruel twist of fate - or was it hope? Well that hope was dashed at an early age. She knew by the time I was three I couldn't carry a tune. How you ask? (You did ask, right?) Because my grandfather had a state of the art sound system in his home and in the early years I was often asked to sing "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window" for any and all guests. It was blasted to every nook and cranny in his very large home. By the time I was five, such requests for the "doggie song" grew rare - they learned - I did not live up to my namesake.

Plus side to being Patti Page:
I was never anonymous - I was the first name every teacher knew on the first day of school.

Down side to being Patti Page:
I was never anonymous - I was the first name every teacher knew on the first day of school.

Biggest annoyance to being Patti (you don't need the "Page" for this part):
All those insistent teachers and rude "official people" that think I don't know my own legal first name. "No, I am not a Patricia; my name is Patti (with an "i"). Would you like to see my birth certificate?"

I e-mailed Patti Page a while back. I told her I had the same name as she did. (She wasn't actually born a "Patti" like me - I didn't say that to her, though.) She was very nice and wrote me back - though of course I didn't print it out before I lost my copy in a computer crash, oh well. I am on her mailing list for her maple syrup products, and I visit her website from time to time. I even have some of her CD's. I am not too keen on the "doggie song", but I love the Tennessee Waltz - that is probably my favorite of her songs. I don't have her Christmas CD - I probably need to get that one soon.

For me, heaven will be full of songs - fun, glorious, on-key, right pitch, correct timing, very loud songs!

(btw - since 1980, Dh has robbed me of my fame. I can no longer claim to be a "Page", but I do still get the snide remarks asking for my "legal" first name - "Are you sure you aren't Patricia?")

Thanksgiving - the Day After

We had 20 here for a great dinner, some jammin' time, and lots of conversation. We used the clubhouse to contain us all. It was a beautiful breezy day. My newly engaged niece (brother's daughter) brought her fiancee. The Princess had her best friend join us. And it came out that even though my dad did tell the forestry officer we were related to Daniel Boone* - that isn't true. I think that was part of some discussion he recently had concerning why he couldn't use the dogs to run panther in the Everglades. (He feels he should be able to do so - and the game warden seems to disagree!)

We had turkey, ham, stuffing, gravy, cranberry suace, macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, butternut squash, mashed potato, turnip, peas, green beans, rolls - and more. Dessert included apple pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate chip cookies and cake - and more. The Princess made this yummy punch.

After there was some jammin' time. The guitars came out and we heard songs, new and old. My brother is a songwriter and we always get some new ditties when he picks. His son and my #2 son join in.

We end the evening back at my folk's home with stories of family, while the youngers played Uno. It is sad to see everyone go separate directions - but so blessed that they all took the time to gather for one day a year.

*Note - but we are related to Daniel Webster, Zebulon Pike, Hannah Dustin, and George Washington. And our ancesters did arrive in Plymouth in 1621 - missed the Mayflower by a year!

Chalk Art

I just love being a "Grammy". Today Dh called me outside to see the evidence of the grandchildren's games (they live next door). I left off making the pumpkin dip, peanut butter pie, and the blueberry cake and joined him on our little street. This is so adorable (only a Grammy would be so impressed with chalk marks on the street.) The top picture is my favorite - do you see the person? It seems his legs shoot right out from his chin! And those hands and feet are circles. In the bottom picture, just to be sure you know that 10 is the last hopscotch box, it is labeled "end".

**disclaimer - we live on a dead end street in a closed off complex - so there is no traffic here.

God's Creation

The view outside my home two nights ago.