robynsewsthisandthat

Ha! Just a little glitch in my learning curve. I thought that I had scheduled this post to publish on Sunday…..I don’t know what I did wrong. Better late than never?!

I have been enjoying following the Sunday Sevens Weekly Blog Series created by Natalie from Threads & Bobbins. I have been ‘meeting’ more and more new friends around the world.  I also have been enjoying the opportunity to open my eyes to my every day life and capture things that I normally take for granted but am looking at differently now as I have the chance to share these with all of you. This really is fun and I hope you enjoy my offerings from my week.

I have been quite busy this week. I love to share my sewing knowledge with others. I teach classes at our city’s park & recreation. I do not consider myself an expert sewist. I just love to share what I am passionate about. This week started a 5 week Summer Camp series where I am teaching 3 mornings per week and I have 2 evening classes as well. There are up to 6 kids in each camp session and 3 or 4 in my evening classes.

On top of all of that I have been working on some projects for myself. Last year, I wore out a pair of shorts that I absolutely loved. You know the pair. They fit just right. They are so comfortable. So, I took them apart (at least half of them) to make a pattern from them. I kept the other half in tack so I could have a visual of how they were suppose to go back together. I have made 3 new pair from my pattern. 2 of them I made this week.

1 –  A rayon pair.

2 – And a denim pair.

3 – The fur baby loves his little corner of my sewing room.

4 – On my way in to teach classes one morning I caught a glimpse of Carter’s Mountain from the 3rd floor of the parking garage. We have some gorgeous views in this area.

5 – Ok, so I didn’t take this photo. My daughter took it in our backyard and forwarded it to me while I was working at the fabric store on Wednesday. It was too cute not to share. The fawn is only a few weeks old.

6 – Here’s a elevator shot of the historic downtown mall. I love working downtown. Both the fabric store and the recreation center that I teach at are located here.

7 – I found a box of tiles at our local Habitat Store that I think will work perfectly in finishing my kitchen remodel. I purchased 110 of these tiles from Italy for 25 cents a piece. I am planning to get back into the many remodeling projects we have once I finish all of my Summer Camps.

That’s it for my week. The hubs and I are off to Columbia, MD this weekend for our first Track and Field event of the Summer. He told me the other day that I am just 7/10th’s 0f a meter from All American status in the shot put for my age bracket. I will be throwing discus and shot put on Sunday, my birthday. Achieving All American would be a fun way to celebrate. Wish me luck.

I enjoy following Thimberlina and Natalie’s Sunday Sevens. I only hope that everyone enjoys checking out what’s going on in my world.

I had a pretty hectic week and found it to be a challenge to try to record it all. I guess this can be par for the course.

We went to Pennsylvania for a celebration of my neice’s high school graduation. It is about a 6 hour drive and we decided to stay over night on the way up. We found a place that served ice cream in Bethel, PA named Kauffman’s. They also have miniature golf and serve bar-b-q. I liked the chicken statue. He had a fence around him to help keep him contained.

Have you ever had a baked potato explode in the oven? I have heard of it happening if you don’t poke through the skins before putting them in the oven. I had poked many holes in the potatoes a few hours before they were to go into the oven as I had to leave to teach one of my sewing classes. The hubby was to just put them into the oven in time to coordinate the rest of dinner when I got home. I don’t know what happened. It was rather funny. The next morning I just used my kitchen brush to sweep all the mess to the bottom of the oven and used my portable vacuum to clean the mess up.

My potted basil has been trying to flower and I have been pinching back the blossoms until I was ready to make some pesto from these plants. We finally did that and applied it to a spatchcock chicken that we fixed on the grill. I love pesto (made from basil). My 2 little plants were enough for that meal but, I have no more basil to make more. Thank goodness for the farmer’s markets.

Several months ago I entered a give away offered on Celina’s blog Petit a Petit and Family. I was the lucky recipient of both the books from her give away. I am really excited to get started on some projects for my grandchildren. I love the simple style of these designers.

This is my 11 year old dog, Sebastian. He is what we call a designer mutt. He is half cocker spaniel and half poodle or a cock-a-poo. He doesn’t shed and his hair grows. I have to cut his hair every couple of months because I am too cheap to pay someone else to do it. It has been so hot here already this summer (today is officially Summer) that he was very appreciative of his ordeal. (Cut and bath – all in one day)

The remnants of Tropical Storm Bill arrived in our area and with our unstable air it created several thunderstorms that contained heavy downpours. 2 storms, back to back gave us almost 1 1/2 inches of rain in less than an hour and overnight we got about another 1/4″. That’s a lot of rain.

I hope that you all have had a great week. And that you have enjoyed a peek into mine. I have a lot of new schedules coming up this week. Another hectic week.

I have been following Thimberlina for a while now. She really cracks me up with all of her cleverness. She seems to have so much fun. I have really begun to enjoy her posts of Sunday Seven which is the brainchild of Natalie of Threads and Bobbins. So, I started following her too. (Isn’t this how it all starts?) At any rate, I kind of got hooked. To play this game you have to collect 7 photos from your week and post them on Sunday. Not exactly a blog post but, I think this may actually help me to become a better blogger or at least have me sitting down and writing on a regular basis. It’s got to be a good thing. Right?

So here goes…late to the game but, giving it my all!

1…just a bit of self indulgence.

2…this is the time of year for Mulberries. These bushes/trees are all along the sidewalks. They are terribly messy to step on. The birds and other wildlife love them. Yes, I live in a small city and we have wildlife. Maybe I should plant some mulberry in my yard so the deer will leave my day lilies alone.

3…time for Water Aerobics. We are lucky enough to live only a couple of houses from this members-only pool. The club is 80-some years old and has a recently renovated Olympic size pool, tennis courts, volley ball and club house with a ballroom.

4…I had my daughter pick me up from work so we could swing by the Wednesday in the Park Farmer’s Market. Lots of fresh veggies and we enjoyed a hand fashioned Popsicle.

5…out with the old kitchen counters..

and in with the new..

6…our yard desperately needs some love. My back can only handle but so much weeding and my hubby is into his second bout of poison ivy this season. I am allergic to tons of other stuff EXCEPT poison ivy. So, I am tackling this yard while paying attention to keeping my back healthy. As we are now into super summer heat, I can really only tolerate an hour or so very early in the morning. I think it’s a good strategy.

7…we participate in throwing events of Masters Track and Field Competitions. Hubby was on Track & Field team in high school so, he is enjoying this. I never did any of this in school. (I was into writing and boys) In order to spend more time with the Mister I decided to give it a whirl. We practice on the weekends when ever we can find the fields empty. It’s actually kind of fun and at my age there is not a tremendous amount of competition. So at the meets, I usually win a ribbon. I am also trying to improve my distances each year. So far, I have only competed in Shot Put and Discus. This year I will add throwing the Hammer. I also have a Javelin and a Weight. They are planned in next year’s goals.

That’s it for me. A somewhat exciting week. As I am checking my calendar I see that next week will include more adventures. I promise to stay with this. I hope you all enjoyed a peek into my side of the world as much as I enjoy peering into yours. Have a great week.

I love to shop for fabric. It is actually therapy for me, as it is for so many others.

I used to work a regular 40 hour per week job. It was a stressful job full of deadlines and grumpy coworkers and even more grumpy bosses. When I left work, I went home to a houseful of rambunctious children. And I was taking night classes at the community college a couple of nights per week. Yes, I lived a stressful life!

I started seeking out places that I could escape to. Just for a lunch hour. Where I could feel at peace and do a little day dreaming. At first I tried a walk around the block. It really wasn’t relaxing as there were only a few sidewalks and lots of cement mixer trucks or gasoline tankers flying up the road.

Eventually, I found a nearby fabric store. It was full of beautiful fabrics and it was full of smiling, laughing, creative people. I would just go and browse and feel the fabric and dream of dresses and skirts. Of course, I found many pieces that I just had to purchase. Just a yard or two. And so my stash began to grow….

Once I have gotten my fabric home, how did I care for it? I used to just fold it up and put it on a shelf until I was inspired by a perfect pattern. Then I would have to wash and dry the fabric before I could begin working on my project. Wait! You do know to wash your fabric first to minimize potential shrinking, right? I usually lost my momentum after this because if I was going to wash my fabric, I really should wash a load or two of the household laundry that was piling up (my mother’s voice in my head). After all that I was no longer inspired to start working on my project.

Now, I wash my fabric as soon as I get home, or very shortly after. I always wash and dry my fabric as I intend to care for my finished garment. I am referring to fabric for garments here. Once it’s washed and dried, I iron it.

I love to iron. There I’ve said it. I always have. What is it about ironing that so many people hate? I just don’t understand. Anyway, I digress.

When I pull my fabric from the washer the cut ends are usually a bit tangled but, after it comes out of the dryer it is usually ten times worse and needed to have all those tangled threads trimmed as I am ironing.

strings from unfinished fabric

I saw on the internet some people who had mention in a few places about running a zigzag stitch along those cut edges before washing it. Or if you have a serger then you could just zip it through before washing. So, I tried it.

finish the raw edges

And you know what? It’s a miracle. There is no “it’s better”. It’s simply “perfect”. I had wasted so much time in the past. I have learned this lesson well. Every piece of fabric that comes into my home now has it’s cut edges serged first and then it’s washed and dried and yes, ironed.

How do you prepare your fabrics for your projects?

Nice and neat and easy.