More Bowls And A Piper J5

 I made a second Orange Clothesline Bowl.
Only differentiated by the amount of Satsumas left in the house!

 These two - the stripey one with handles and the solid orange were destined to my mail carrier as she goes above and beyond to accurately and kindly deliver our mail. I needed a gift for her and I may have gone overboard. Her favorite color is orange. I think this set was my best ever in the clothesline obsession.

I meant to make two bowls in graduated sizes but my organic way of designing had other ideas. Once the rope is under my presser foot, anything can happen.

 I came up with a new finish -  little confetti dots for a design detail.
By the second one, it looked more like confetti.

I also tried out a leather accent piece, to hide the end joins. Riveting, yes? lol

If you're interested, the second bowl is now listed in my etsy store: RunningWithHandmade.




Here's the Piper J5. It will have it's maiden voyage in about a month. Still fiddling with weird small stuff. The engine cowling is rubbing behind the propeller housing, for instance.

We had a 60' sunny break from all our drizzle so it seemed like a great day to run up the engine. A trip up and down the runway to get some oil into the cylinders and flash the neighbors.

It doesn't sound as good as the Stearman big round engine but it was a fine sound on Saturday.







***Update on pkg debacle. Well - it's MLK day and a holiday. Maybe some news on Tuesday....or at least more excuses.

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.

Mulino OPA Blueberry Pancake Breakfast

 Welcome to the annual Oregon Pilot's Association Blueberry Pancake Breakfast,

You don't need to be a pilot to enjoy my neighbor's Blueberry syrup on giant hotcakes.
Or eggs and ham (for me) with plenty of hot coffee and friends and neighbors to chat with.

I don't know if this FB event page is the right year or not, but this event is held annually on the third weekend in July.


I came after finishing my work morning (11am) so most of the planes had high-tailed it out already.

This is a Piper J-5 which is what our project plane will look like. We took some close-ups of some weird fastenings and enjoyed ourselves talking airplane.

This field isn't far from our field. We have flown in our plane in the past, but this year we drove. It's literally Take off, gain a bit of altitude, circle and turn, and land. One minute in the air, twenty minutes to drive.

And look what I spied at one of the vendors.
Sewing and airplanes! Doesn't everyone know this?

My garage sale find of the weekend. Oregon artist, unsigned. Watercolor. One buck.

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!