Knit Knotted Scarves

 Pencil Girl sent this photo to me this morning from her 4-H sewing group.
They made these awesome scarves made from old tshirts.

 I immediately replied with "Off with their heads!"
lol
I try not to show faces - especially if I didn't ask permission beforehand. I also rarely post photos of me. Nor do I name people when I post faces. All part of my internet confusion game.

Anyway - aren't these nifty? They cut one inch strips from the bottom of tshirts and knotted them together with a pattern from Linda Lee. Kind of like a big macrame project.

 I also finished this week my (stupid*%$#@&##) hedgehog bags. They have a front zippered pocket with vinyl so you can see inside. I sell them as Lipsense bags in my RunningWithHandmade etsy shop.

I was chatting with another sewing blogger about how someone should make (and photograph) all the ways you can make zipper ends for toiletry pouches for a quick look at BEFORE you sew.

I picked the wrong way - which worked on the first bag. However, the next ones rebelled.
Which started to  make me very grumpy until I sat down with my seam ripper and made them right. 

So, there!

 Hubs is dorking around in the hangar. Making everything onto rolling stock (if it didn't roll before), re-painting walls, generally being crazy. But, both planes do fit inside.

That J-5 (orange) is so almost ready to start it's engine and take it's maiden voyage.

 I made four rope bowls for gifts this last two weeks. Two sewing peoples guilted me into sorting my scrap bin(s) and afterwards, it was a quick grab of the ziploc bag to utilize small scraps in the color I wanted.

 One went to Finland, Two to the UK (with second winging it's way to Ireland), and the final one to my CreativeGirl friend.  I discovered, I had been remiss in making her an orange one (her favorite color). I have one more to make (later, much later) as a gift to another sewing friend. We'll maybe call her MarineGirl.

 We had some 34' nights recently - a little early, so I made haste and cleaned off my back patio, throwing the houseplants into the garage. That frost was a little too close for comfort.

This frog is a particularly ugly lumpy brownish green color - not the cute spring green of my other frogs.

My dear daughter, is on a fall camping trip from Seattle down Highway 101 to Yosimite. She stopped off for a very quick 21 minute visit, hauling our Christmas Present!

 How perfect it is. Got the mountains, the fly fisherman, the river, the floatplane. All etched on ceramic tile and then hand-glazed. One of a kind perfectness. Might be the best gift ever.

This from my daughter who lives in Alaska.
This photo was taken recently on the way to Seward. I just love this picture of the mountains with their dusting of fresh snow and the reflection in the water.

I'm planning to make note cards from this image.

Linking to the 2017 Elm Street Quilts BAG IT event.

A Week Off

I sewed every day.

We are hiding inside because of near 100' heat all week and smoke from the wild fires trapped in the Willamette valley.

I knew it would be hot when I started  my vacation time. Perfect for doing my liver cleanse and sewing. My biggest plan was to sew in the cooler mornings and list items for sale in my etsy shops in the hotter (damp & sticky) afternoons.

  We still don't have the (orange) Piper J-5 airplane flying. Hubby is still dorking around on this and that. But look, They both fit inside the hangar. Our other airplane is a Stearman biplane.

 I had a little time before my hair appointment to take photos of the dahlia fields.
1:30pm and my iphone still takes awesome photos.

Yes, I managed to get my hair cut (not since october!) and I got in on someone else's cancellation to the dentist as well.

I usually set up my dental appt about 9 months out and hope for the best. My work schedule changes so frequently, I finally make it on the fourth cancellation. My dentist's crew know where I work and they will try and fit me in until an appointment 'sticks'.

Somehow, I don't think you should try this with your hairdresser. I needed a haircut back in April and here it is - September. Six inches gone.

I tried out some online selling places and was successful with my old Riccar. So nice to see it go to a good home. And clean out my garage a little. This machine does an awesome straight stitch but I have two others that do the same. I might still sell my Singer Stylist as I have my grandma's old Singer 301.
Not right now. The stylist sits in a nice cabinet with I put in the bedroom for a place to set down stuff.

So - what did I sew? A new pair of work shorts with all the topstitching and pockets. A lot of lipsense bags and a custom order of a doTERRA essential oil bag. I also finished two UFO's and working on a third.

I also listed a crazy amount of stuff for etsy but there is still a mountain in my garage that needs to be listed as well.

How did my liver cleanse go? Well - I'm finishing it up now. Basically, it was an elimination diet of anything with allergens and five days of being a vegetarian. No chocolate (sugar) and no coffee.

I failed.
On the chocolate.

I made it to Saturday -- about 10 days in and caved.

I disliked being vegetarian. Mostly because I can't eat beans (legumes - big allergen) and I can only tolerate rice once or twice a month. A lot of my allergens, I can tolerate in small doses but the effects accumulate and I can get really non-functonal fast. I can eat some nuts but they don't really get digested with my small intestine not behaving well.

There's a surprising amount of protein in dark leafy greens - which I juice. Each glass of green juice probably contains at least 8 grams of protein and I drank green juice 2 -3 times a day.

I was also taking  a product based on pea protein and I was reacting to that as well.

However, all the extra B-vitamins? Tremendous mental acuity and focus.
I didn't peter out around 2 or 3pm. I was good at the beginning about eating more to keep (chocolate) cravings at bay but slacked off if I got the wee bit busy.

If I do this again, and I will, I will skip the product and go straight to a liver cleanse without pea protein.

I had high hopes this cleanse would clear up some skin issues (yet another symptom of not getting enough nutrients because of my small intestine). Some cleared but the rest are still there. Less stress (no daily smack-down) helped.

My eyes seem to be clearer. Rested.

  My niece recently moved back to the area from living in Singapore, so I went and visited on Saturday. So much fun to see my practice grand-kids! The girls still remembered me and had to show me e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.

I stopped at Ikea on my way and this button rug continues to taunt me. If I had a place for a white rug. I get so tempted to just buy it and stash it but I don't need more clutter.

I also took care of some clutter piles around the house. Bundles dropped with good intentions.

I cleaned the inside of my car after living out of it the past year, or so.

And I got my laser printer back printing after a year. It stopped working when we had a power outage and it took a year in the time-out closet for me to get up the time to sit down and uninstall and reinstall, fingers crossed, and it worked. Big smile.

Boring Sewing

On Sunday, I surprised myself with energy to complete several "must do" projects around the house. Usually, on laundry day, I spend some much needed time recovering from the work week, getting myself in shape to go another week at work.
Especially after the last two weeks of copious amounts of overtime.

I finished voting (Oregon is a  Vote-By-Mail state ). Wrote four thank-you letters, readied my Halloween care packages, paid bills - cleaning off my kitchen island counter in the process.

I re-strung my Duette honeycomb blind (hunter douglas) - Thank You Youtube! After 26 years, the strings are starting to give up the ghost due to reefing on the strings and the dratted UV sunlight.

 I couldn't find the 9mm cord locally. I had to order online - found a seller in Florida who included a recipe for Pumpkin bread staple to her packing slip (sweet).


I then made chocolate chip cookies on my cleared off island. I wrapped several bundles for the freezer to go into the aforesaid care packages.

And I sewed.

I did some fun sewing right off the bat - playing with black & white patchwork to make some boring hotpads be spectacular. Then I did the chore sewing.

No photos because swearing was involved. I sewed together some 1/2 inch felt strips to go under the windshield of the Piper J-5. Didn't have to be awesome sewing because a flange seal goes over the top.

The problem lay with the copious amount of spary adhesive used by the hubby and the hissy fit  my sewing machine pitched. That adhesive gummed up everything,. The needle, the thread, me.

My intention was to sew two parallel lines for durability but my sanity won out when I told my hubs that one line of stitching was all he was gonna get.

I printed shipping labels for my packages (four!) and also wrote some other letters (8!).

Between  my split shift on Monday, I finished putting together my care packages.
I was sending trail mix to the nephews and needed halloween chocolate eyeballs to make eyeball stew.


DS camped near Mt. Jefferson this weekend and got these photos for me.

Fresh snow on Mt. Jefferson

Mt. Jefferson

DD is now in Latvia, having given Estonia her best. This is The Armoury Bar.

Faux Wonder Clips and Strap Sewing

 I succumbed to the cheapness of China and bought 50 faux wonder clips for $4.52 (free shipping).

I think wonder clips are the best sewing gift ever and I have given my fair share.
However, these are purple. And pink. And green. And blue.

They are the same exact size as wonder clips but are a little harder to squeeze open.

My sewing this weekend consisted of making two straps for the J-5 Cub (airplane). Hubby wanted to strap down the rear seat and keep the back of the seat from flying forward.
 

He first wanted me to toss my sewing room for my stash of leather.

After seeing me stumble home after another 12-hr split shift, he relented and found his stash of dark blue vinyl that the Stearman seats were made of.

 This is the seat - outside the airplane.

It was in the  plane when we were measuring to make a template. (Can you say awkward?)

To make straps out of leather or vinyl, you cut a larger piece than needed - on the fold-  from the template measurement. Vinyl and/or leather edges don't fray so you can leave the raw edges exposed.

You get out your old yucky glue stick that seemed to work and glue your vinyl together - wrong sides together. The first reason for the glue is to keep the layers from shifting while sewing. The second reason is that vinyl and leather stretch. Two layers glued and sewn together are stronger.

Then you chalk your template on. I use my Sewline Chalk pencil.
See if your machine will sew your vinyl fine or do you need to get out the teflon foot or other tricks. Generally, I rarely have any trouble sewing on faux leather/vinyl. The glue (inside) keeps the layers from shifting. I also am using my IDT feed (walking foot) on my pfaff.
Then I top-stitch just inside my chalk line and another top-stitch line parallel to that - 1/8 - 3/16" in. I'm not gonna sweat the evenness - these are hidden in the plane.

Clip your threads. Cut out close to your outer top-stitch line. Not on the chalk line. Invariably, your first top-stitch line isn't parallel to the chalk line on the curves - which is why you trim to the sewing line.
Color the edges with your black sharpie. (Why is vinyl always adhered to something white?)
Ta da!

Oh Wait!
 We have to figure out snaps. These are heavy duty snaps. One end has a screw end to go into wood and the other is flush with the fabric.
I found my leather working tools ( $8.00 score at a garage sale!) and punched a hole in the doubled up vinyl scrap to test my snap.
Then  went to work on the straps in the pictures above and below.


These were all done with hubby coming into the house, going out of the house, hollering for me to come out, test the template, go back inside, go back outside, are the snaps the right direction,  inside, outside, inside, outside.

Yeah.

Snaps are easy once you do the first one and figure out how much hammer strength you need to squish them together. My normal everyday snaps are put on with hand-held squeezy pliers.

 I'm not working overtime next week (hallelujah!).
I expect I will be sewing something.

With fabric only.

J-5 Luggage Compartment

This was my little contribution to sewing last weekend and this weekend.
I need tiny projects right now.

This is the luggage compartment behind the second seat in the J-5 airplane.
It measures 11" wide x 25" long x 12" deep.
Tiny.

The Stearman holds more!



This is where it sits at the back of the cockpit. See that canvas at center left in the photo?

The stearman fuselage is right behind the orange-painted J-5 frame.

That stick in center right is for the back seat pilot.
The stick is connected to control rods which run underneath the luggage compartment which control different flying surfaces at the tail area.


Last Sunday, I installed snaps and grommets to hold the compartment in it's place.
Semi-permanent installation.


Hubby didn't think it was secure enough. Today, I added a few more grommets.
This is heavy canvas so I did not need to add re-enforcing tape under the grommet.
If it was lighter weight fabric, I would.

Underneath the snaps, I did add reinforcement as the pulling exerts stress on any fabric. The grommets are for tie-straps which take on the stress.

Once you cut your tiny hole, insert the grommet and then place the 'washer' part over the center portion. The grommet tool has a recess part at the end that fits the rounded washer part. Place over the grommet and pound away with your hammer. I did it on a metal vise on the work bench. You can also place a scrap of wood underneath so as not to mar the brassy finish.

Here, you can see the saggy bottom. 
Easy fix: Cut a piece of foam core and cover with airplane fabric.

Hubby picked a brown-background and laughed.
We all know this is where the extra oil can and rags go.

Only he and I will know this fabric is there.
See that yellow biplane in the center? That's similar to  our Stearman biplane.

There you have it. A special place to hold airplane stuff.

When hubby was re-storing the Stearman, he ordered a luggage compartment from Dusters & Sprayers which is where you order Stearman parts.
Theirs was a  heavy canvas cut into a square with a zipper running diagonally down it. He paid a buttload of money for this square piece of canvas too.  Authentic Stearman Luggage compartment - haha. (I think it was over $140)That one was designed so that by the time you tie-stripped it to the fuselage, you created a 'basket' where anything you put into the luggage compartment rolled to the bottom center.

I took one look at the price and told hubby I would make one so we could at least get a travel suitcase in it. Our baggage weight for the Stearman is 60#, i.e. about 20 pounds per person plus space for several quarts of oil, rags, plus other plane stuff. I wanted to maximize the space.


I created a rectangular 'box' out of cordova canvas that ended up with multiple pockets around the side - map compartment, 7-up 2-liter bottle (Mixer), oil bottles secured with room for two travel suitcases in the rectangular part.
For the bottom, I used foam-core and covered it with the same navy blue cordova. When you lift the foam-core out, you can un-zip (diagonally!) and inspect the control rods and various other wires & cables.

{{The luggage compartment I made is similar to one now being sold on ebay for $380.  I utilized RCT fabrics in Portland and paid $120 for the Stearman cockpit cover materials (around $450 to buy that custom-made) and used some of the  same fabrics for the luggage compartment - less than $50.}}

So, sometimes, it is cheaper to sew your own!

For our little J-5, the canvas bag came with the project. Much easier to play with.
So cute with the airplane fabric bottom.

Writing To The World

Our J-5 might be painted Cruiser Orange

I started working full time again - in management. If my poor blog  has been relegated to the back burner, just think about my sewing. Well, actually, I am sewing --weird stuff. Like the luggage compartment for our J-5 Cub. That's our little airplane project. This plane will enable us to fly in the winter months in Oregon and not cost near as much as the big round engine of the Stearman biplane.

This last weekend I attended the Quilt Expo here in Portland with Pencil Girl and then came home to hubby's request of affixing the luggage compartment into the frame of the J-5.
It needed snaps and grommets - not a tall order, but impressive to hubby. Kinda like a Ta-Da! wave your magic wand moment.

I'm also commuting. Something I have NOT done in over thirty years.
In an attempt to stay calm and read the stop and goes for what they are, my mind has started up on some pretty random thoughts.

I haven't talked about Postcrossing on this blog before.  Crafty Tokyo Mama introduced me to this modern version of penpals last Spring. I've now sent 43 postcards out and received 40.

Postcrossing involves you registering on their site. You will be given names and addresses to send postcards to. When those people receive your card, they register it on the site. Meanwhile, random people in random countries are sending you postcards.

I wasn't sure I would like the randomness of it all but now I just love it. It's thrilling to see how long a postcard to the Ukraine can take. It's astounding that every one writes near-perfect English with near-perfect penmanship. More amazingly, I'm re-learning how to write legibly!

I received one postcard from China with a complete tiny story written on her card.
Other people have looked at my profile and included airplane stamps, drawings, sewing related, or flower related.

The other night, I found Writing To The World on facebook. A 5 year old from the UK is writing to someone in every UN country. It's too amazing. Here's his letter to someone in Guatemala. Go take a peek. He's written to almost 200 countries.

On Wednesdays, Thursday & Fridays, I go out into the field for (what we call) stand-ups. I often go in early which means?
Yes, you guessed it, I get to come home early. One of those bright spots!

Laundry Day

 My Sunday turned out to be dry and warm .  Our Indian Summer continues.
This plane flew in to visit. My husband bought a project just like this one so they were talking J-5 stuff.

Photos to share:

Fall colors in this bed. We had some 'almost frosts' which toasted the hostas in the foreground. The others are still going strong with one re-blooming.

 Garden Nasturciums came back from the almost frost with a vengeance.

 Dahlias still going strong.

 Blueberry plants all turning color. The next wind will make the leaves disappear.

 Rusty with his marrow bone. He can see me in the garden and the guys in the hangar. All of his peoples must remain in his view.

 The million dollar question? Will my butternut squash ripen in time???

 The almost frost nailed half of the leaves. If they can make it until Thanksgiving, that's when we get a good frost around here. Please ripen. I want butternut squash soup for Thanksgiving dinner.

 My pajama pants I sewed last sunday (raining). Very comfortable cotton knit.

 Pocket detail. I made adjustments to my PJ pattern to include this pocket. No bulky seam layers with just a single layer to add to the front piece to make the pocket. All sewing done with my serger and coverstitch machines.

Made  two small apple pies for hubby today. Trying to talk him into flying today. Definitely our last chance before weather turns warm again in the spring.

But we just paid bills - including those high property taxes we get for living in Canbyland.
Avgas is pricey.

Slow cooking a roast this afternoon and maybe I will work on my Japanese sewing projects.
During lunch at work, I am doing yoga on Tuesday and Thursdays (Lilia's Yoga and you DVD) and reading and sewing the other two lunch hours. Sometimes I go for a walk if it's not too windy (hello hair) or rainy.  Trying my best to take breaks and not succeeding.
The stress at work has plateaued and it is what it is. Especially through Christmas.

The being two steps behind at work is actually helpful to me sticking to eating well and taking care of myself. I am not making poor food choices as often -because I cannot afford to deal with the reactions. Working six days a week forces me to be vigilant about my health and in a weird twisted way, 50 hrs/wk is good for me.
Being busy takes away the focus on how sick I am. There's a lot to be said to just 'ignoring' my auto-immune issues and moving forward.

I promised myself I would get a better attitude about this work situation on or before Nov. 1 and having a deadline to find something positive in it (or else!) caused me to come up with positives.

I am learning new programs constantly and my efficiency at work is at an all-time high.
On laundry day, I make sure my laundry is done for the week (duh) and also something like soup or a chicken has been cooked for easy meals for the week.

I took advantage of the dry day today to pull my tomato plants for the year and spread lime on the garden soil. I also turned over the big weeds. I plan to spread some compost this fall also but not today. Putting the garden to bed.

My liquid vitamin B complex has come through in more regulated energy throughout the day - especially at the nap-time hour. I utilize more of the vitamins in this liquid form.

My voodoo-hippee doctor is now offering Saturday hours of which I am taking advantage of to keep my energy paths open and flowing positively. This is all part of taking care of myself.   'cause when I am feeling good, I tend to be a positive person. The negativity is directly related to not feeling well or not dealing with overwhelming stress well.

The safety issues with my older parents have all been accomplished and they are good to go until we re-assess in the Springtime.

Thanksgiving is around the corner and I'm having it at my house as this is less stressful in my family dynamics. The plus side? We get all the turkey smells lingering at my house. Feel good smells.