Blueberries & Sewing

I sewed this yesterday amidst dripping sweat.

We're in a heatwave with high humidity.



I picked the blueberries today and then netted the blueberries (bridal netting).
The birds were giving me the Alfred Hitchcock stink eye.


This caused more sweat so I had to go buy a fan.
A trip to the store to buy a single item. 





Back to sewing.

Train To Canbyland

This conductor started his train in 1978.

He started shearing in 1981.
The train takes up two sides of a large city lot.

Bucket Bag

My nephews birthday is today- in Minnesota - two hours ahead of us.
He's 12 and when I asked what he wanted for his birthday, he gave me the list.

The list of stuff I have no idea where to get whatever it is that he wanted.
The list which I probably  cannot afford.
The list that got put somewhere special.
Alternatives?


I was at my local Thriftway and next to all of their wonderful alternative foods is the bulk bins of food, including candies you can't find just anywhere.

Including the gargantuan jawbreaker in the pocket above.

 I needed to sew something to hold the baker's dozen of different candies.
I used a free craftsy class, taught by Kirstin Link, of our own SewMamaSew fame.
The class is called Bag Making Basics, Drawstring Bag & Bucket Bag.

The outside is Oregon State University fabric in orange plaid. Just to remind him where his mom and cousin graduated from.
The pocket on the outside was made from Ikea basic black. You can sew the divider lines anyhow; I chose to make three pockets.

Oops, something fell out.

It was made to fit  into the priority padded flat-rate envelope (best thing since sliced bread) which I can send domestically for under six bucks. I feel so challenged by what I can stuff into these envelopes. (free at usps.com)



Inside lining is from a thrifted plaid shirt. Kinda cements that Halloween feel.




I commiserate with my friend in Japan who moved to Kyoto recently and is slowly putting her sewing room back to rights. I spent more time figuring out where the fleece interlining was, the dang rotary cutter, and the stinkin' iron!
Sewing things went into boxes and were marked but they are in a new place now in a pretty sewing room and I don't know where anything is. It took longer to find my tools than to sew up this project.
This was an easy project which I needed in order to get my feet wet sewing after all that overtime of last year and the remodeling homestretch this spring on the bedroom floors.

Pencil Girl's Buttonhole Tutorial

Pencil Girl was teaching a class and it appears the old-fashioned way of making buttonholes (the four-step buttonhole) is no longer relevant (lol). The Modern One-step is the way to go.






This is my new Pfaff Quilter's Expression 4.0.

This is the lovely buttonhole foot sensamatic thingamajig. It's stored on board behind the presser foot. Most modern computerized machines will have something like this.

It needs it's plug put inside a spot where you can't see, but it went in and the machine 'jumped' so I guess it was in the correct place.

Measure your button. In millimeters please. This white button is about 25 mm.
(aka 1inch).
New machine is on the metric bandwagon.




You will need to line up the red arrow on the white foot with the cut-out notch on the buttonhole slider.
Follow your manual's directions.
In this case, the buttonhole starts by going backwards in a tiny zigzag and then makes a cloesly-spaced wider zigzag over the stabilizing line.

{{So it is important to follow my mom's instructions by making a sample first!}}

Here is my machine making that tiny zigzag backwards.
The machine is set for operation #32 - buttonhole, pre-set width at 4.0 and 0.5 for tightness (length always confuses me).


Ta-Da!    -- a 4.0mm wide one-step buttonhole.
Kinda scrawny.


Here's one that might be the number one reason for me buying this machine. . .  9mm wide.
Bit beefier.


Watch out for my double buttonhole 'movie'. Holding the camera (smartypants phone), watching machine and pressing buttons did not mix well at about mid-time through.



Here's my sampler.
From right to left:
*4mm wide single.
*9mm wide single
*button covering boo-boo double
*9mm double
*9mm rounded-end buttonhole.

I can see from the fabric that a bit of stabilizer/interfacing scrap is needed to keep the fabric from being grabbed.

Most sliders have notches at either end for adding a cord to zigzag over to help stabilize the buttonhole. I usually grab a long double strand of thread and loop around notch at back end and line the threads up under front notch. When buttonhole is done, you pull the strands tight and knot off.


***The four-step is down one side, bar tack at end, up the other side, bar tack the end. Nothing special but you did have to watch the length of those sides.
My mom's old singer had a buttonholer attachment. You selected the cam that fit your button, whether it was a regular buttonhole or  a key-hole buttonhole. The cam in the buttonhole did the buttonhole in one-step. Very easy to go 'round twice too.

Raspberry Jelly

Young Eagle Flights: June 22, 2013 Aurora, Oregon Airport

Kids ages 8-17 years can snag a free flight Saturday, June 22, at the Aurora Airport (Oregon). Entry is at the blue gate.
Flights are offered between 9am - 2pm.

Young Eagle Flights introduce kids to the joys of flying. Experienced pilots volunteer their time and aircraft for this wonderful experience.

 The event is  sponsored by Bruce Bennett at Aurora Aviation - 22785 Airport Rd NE, Aurora, OR 97002 -- blue gate.

The flights are free and require consent forms.

The young eagle rides are part of a larger Aurora Airport Open House.
I would advise getting there early to schedule a flight. Then you will have time to see what else is on display at the airport.

More information is at the EAA website, (Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA))
or by calling either Tom Sampson 503-332-6343 or Martha Sampson at 503-593-5328.
Email: youngeagles@eaa105.org

The Young Eagle Program was created in 1992 to educate  children about aviation. To date, hundreds of thousands of youths nationwide have flown free. This is a grass roots educational opportunity to make general aviation part of the next generation.

Saturday, June 22, 2013 at the Aurora Airport.




 "High Flight"

 Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
 And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
 Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
 of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
 You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
 High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
 I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
 My eager craft through footless halls of air....

 Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
 I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
 Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
 And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
 The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
 - Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.



***On the sectional map  image above, see if you can find Aurora Airport, Dietz (Pvt)(Me!), Canby, Skydive Oregon.

Half Century

1. Snail
2. Dahlia(Need to plant soon!)
3. Frog
 4. Airplane news article
5. Dirty sock
6. Angry birds duct tape
7. Kitty from India
8. Target bubble gum
9. DOR bandaid holder 
10. Paper airplane 
11. Musical note Emery board
12. Spam pencil  -( yes,Minnesota spam)
13. Nephew-knitted ring/ finger guard
14. Finger Print kit



15. Pacman bandaids 
 16 Mr bubble (still pink bottle)
17. Bath scrubber
18. Strawberry hand towel 
19. McMinnville fly-in t-shirt
20. Minnesota twins Straw Hat
21. Apple-- hand squeezer thing
22. Flag
23. Tissues for purse
24. Toothbrush



25. Mustache on a stick 
26. Empty box
27. SpongeBob SquarePants
28. People magazine with Kate's baby bump
 29. Ladybug spatula
30.. pier1 imports hand operated flashlight (pink piggy)
31. Adam Spanish-immersion school mug 
32. Jalapeno pepper seeds


33. Somebody's underwear elastic 
34. A macrame plant hanger 
 35. Small artwork of beach scene; magnets on backside
36. Cup cover with tea infuser fishy
37. Minnesota Twins water measurer - for the garden.



38. 11 dirty socks -make two into sock monkeys to return to Minnesota. 
49. Captain Underpants number 6
50. Lots of notes/cards (even one from the kitty) and oodles of tissue paper.


My birthday was in may and I'm just getting around to photographing the fifty wrapped presents my Minnesota sis sent me.

One of my best birthdays ever.

Ahhhh. . . The Land of No Overtime

I was emailing Pencil Girl about sewing. As in - what do I sew? There is a roomful of stuff to sew with but how do you buckle down and just do it?

She actually asked about buttonholes: "Do you have a fancy buttonhole feature on your new machine?  I have a four-step buttonhole process that I demonstrated when I was teaching.  However, all the students have a buttonhole foot that you put the button in to measure and the machine makes the buttonhole in one step.  No one knew how to do it.  Have you made a buttonhole with your new machine?  How do you do it?"

Which made me want to go make buttonholes.

In today's mail, I received my Katherine Tilton Vogue pattern V8793. A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for a Craftsy class taught by the Tilton sisters on Sewing the Ultimate T-shirt.
The class was on sale for $9.99 and included home delivery of a paper pattern. I'll let you know how it goes.

The trouble is, there is so much I want to do. Then there's the stuff I need to do.

Like finish planting my garden. Weed the bed on the garage side - the one infested with garter snakes. I've also decided to grow my own kale. Baby kale leaves have to taste better than giant ones - right?
Finish figuring out how to creatively store ten more boxes than what my new sewing room wants to take in - neatly.
And discovering almost twenty boxes of stuff to sell - that I've been stockpiling while trapped in that overtime. I'm working on getting the etsy store back up and running. I have already had sales and those need to be 'found', packed up and sent on their way.


I found this at an estate sale today:

A very pretty sewing chest. The kind that stands next to your sofa.
No-- I did not plunk down $150.

Even though the drawers were brimming with vintage goodies.

But I did put in a low-ball offer. Just in case.

It's not like I have any extra space in my new sewing room. . . . .

The funky ants made their way onto my work apron panel - courtesy of my new sewing machine.
I do have the covers off and the machines re-threaded.

Ready.

Just do it. I've seen that somewhere.

Nancy's Kale Chips

This is my fourth bunch of kale I have brought home from the store this year.

With really good intentions.





Challenged by Nancy, this bunch did not end up on the compost pile.

Start with dry leaves and squoosh the leaves off the center rib. Discard the ribs.

Drizzle olive oil onto leaves and season lavishly with special salt or whatever you have on hand.



Roast in a 275' oven for a bit more than 20 minutes. Until it's crispy-crackely.



For some reason I had a phobia about making these kale chips which was irrational as these were very easy to make.

What do they taste like?

My husband asks me that when he sees what I have juiced.

The juice tastes like eating your veggies.

There's no magic to make veggies taste like anything else but what is in there.

Kale chips are delicate- not the best candidate for scooping roasted jalapeno pepper hummis.

They taste like crunchy salty kale.

Good, once a while.



Why bother?
Kale has a lot of vitamins that are really healthy --for people who are trying to hang onto healthy.
"One cup of chopped kale contains 33 calories and 9% of the daily value of calcium, 206% of vitamin A, 134% of vitamin C, and a whopping 684% of vitamin K. It is also a good source of minerals copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus."

Balloon On The Runway

Heard the familiar propane burner this morning.

One lonely balloon landing on our runway.





The ground crew was already waiting to help pack up the balloon.
Big heavy rose festival cloud cover this am.
Might not rain - dealing with a tiny bit of humidity that makes Oregonians cringe.

Some other random morning photos: