Sunday Stuff

Hi friends.

We have actually had a whole day WITHOUT rain down here in Southern OK!  What a treat.  It is so cool for this time of year.

I started the day going to Hagee church twice and Sunday School once.  Hagee's sermon was about depression over the situation in America today and other things.  Nice to know I am not the ONLY one who has been depressed the last several years over our sad government that no longer honors God.

I pray and hope that our next president is a Christian, and not only a Christian, but someone who actually LOVES America, honors her flag, and KNOWS the Constitution.  I really like Dr. Ben Carson, but I'm not sure how far he will go.  There are so many people running, I can't keep track of them all!  I think even Donald Trump is in there somewhere!

That reminds me, I bought his audio book.  I need to listen to it as soon as I finish my post.

I made some yellow pants today.  Pants go together really fast if the fit is right.  I put pockets in them, and that takes a lot longer.  The hardest part for me is the waistband.  I have to take a weird tuck in the center back of it to make it bend into my back, and I have to put elastic around the bandless top while on my body, and then TRY to draw a line around the bottom of the elastic the whole way around my waist.  NOT EASY even with a 3-way mirror.  Hope that makes sense.

I'll have to show the sway back tuck and the waist check sometime.

Surely, I'm not the only one out there with a sway back.

I am starting a new quilt.  It is TOTALLY DIFFERENT than anything I've made before.  I need some more fabric, and the bridge I have to cross to get to the nearest fabric store is UNDER WATER and the road is closed.  Have no idea when it will be open again!  Thank God, the rain has quit for a few days.

Going to work tomorrow to see how our new girl is doing.  The one who quit didn't even show up for her last day.  What a disappointment.  You just don't KNOW people anymore.  I didn't think she was that kind of employee.  Seems like God knows a lot better than I do who needs to stay and who needs to go.  I really like the new girl.  I'll tell you about her SHOCKING life story sometime.  She is only 23 years old and has been through soooooooooooooo much.

Gonna listen to Ben's book.

Have a MARVELOUS week in the sunshine!

Hugs, Joy

Fringe Tutorial (For Those Who Asked)

I just HAPPENED to take pics as I was doing the fringe.

I wanted to be sure I could remember MYSELF what I did.

FIRST, I sewed a 1/4" stitching line the whole length of the crosswise grain cut piece which I cut at 2 1/2" wide.  I did that so I would know WHERE TO STOP cutting the strips and not cut the entire way through the other side.

Here you can see where I sewed the whole length of the strip with white thread and a short stitch.

Then I got my 1/4" quilting ruler, and I used it to cut 1/4" wide strips UP TO the stitching line.  Sometimes, I went a tiny bit through it, but that didn't matter since knit does not ravel.  I tried to go just TO it though.

THENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN,

OF COURSE!,

I applied the Steam-a-Seam 2 LITE 1/4" tape to the entire bottom of the blouse, and I ironed the fringe to the SAS.

Then I sewed the strips to the bottom of the blouse sewing just a smidgen over the white stay stitch I had sewn earlier.  I just added one strip after the other.  I did not sew the strips to each other.

Then I went back to the sewing machine to finish.

I flipped the fringe to the inside.  (Sorry, no pic.)  The fringe was down flat with the sewn edge flipped to the back side of the hem area, and I sewed all around the blouse bottom.

It took longer to do the fringe than to complete the rest of the blouse, but it was worth it.

I love it!

I think I'll do another one.

Hugs, Joy

A HIGH Compliment! and So Much To Show You

I started to talk to you on Memorial Day about all my new creations, but then I decided that was too sacred of a day to talk about my sewing adventures.

Honestly, what the men and women of America have suffered for our freedom and the right to act as horrible as some Americans act is just shocking and unbelievable.  I can't go on, or I will be in tears, and I won't want to show you anything but wounded vets that sacrificed so much and FOR WHAT!?  (Referring to the current administration, of course.)

So, WHERE shall I start.

How about the Spider Mum top.  Remember it?

I got this fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics, which means it is NICE fabric.  I had some fabric left over that I didn't want to waste, and Phylly suggested that I make a scarf with it.

So, I did.

Here, I am modeling all the ways I could think of to wear the scarf.  I never can remember very many.

As a BELT:

Just tied in a KNOT:

 WRAPPED around my neck which won't really work because it just flops around in the back.  But it is pretty, I think.

 Here, I made a loop on one side and pulled the other side through, which makes it hang longer.

THANKS PHYLLY for that great idea!

I finished the black and white outfit and, of course, jewelry to go with it.  Not sure if I like the necklace and earrings, or just the earrings.

 Here I am in JUST the earrings:

 Here I am in the earrings AND the necklace:

 Here I am showing you more of the skirt:

Here is the back that has colored marker on it that WILL NOT COME OUT!  I put everything in my house on that mark, and it won't budge.  It is WASHABLE marker -- supposedly!  It is at the center back at the TOP of the collar.  Hopefully, nobody will see it.  I bet the lady sitting behind me in church will see it though!

Here is a closeup of the jewelry:

And here is the picture that PROVES Phylly was right.  I had 3 out of 4 vote for print sleeve caps.  Phylly said, "NO!, NO!, NO!, make them both black."  But she was slow to respond, and I had already taken the advice of the other 3.  What do you all think???

And I'm not done yet!!!

I made another outfit, and this is the one that received the HIGH compliment.  Terry came over this morning to tell me about her trip to England, and I was wearing this.  Later in the day I mentioned to her that I had just made it to go with my pants.

She said, "Really!?"  "I thought you bought that at a store somewhere?"

Now, my mother would have considered that a terrible insult, but I am NOT my mother in about three million ways.  I consider that a very nice compliment!

This is my FRINGE blouse.  I don't know if you have been out shopping lately, but there is fringe on EVERYTHING, including jewelry.  I bought a blouse from Belk that has fringe on the bottom.  I decided to make a new Sure-fit Designs blueprint for KNIT fabric, and this is what I came up with:

When I got the blouse out of my closet this morning, I noticed that the OTHER purple pants I made a few weeks ago also match this top perfect.  K E W L !!!

Here it is with a rubber band wrapped around inside the blouse.  I like it this way too.

And that is all -- except for some jewelry I've made.  Let me see if I can find some of that.

Here is a bracelet I made to go with one of the pretty blouses I bought on my shopping spree with Terry.

I love the blouse.  

Gotta go.  Been sitting in this chair way too long!!!

Hugs, Joy

Rainy Days and High Water

Hi friends!

It's a good thing God put instructions for building the Ark in the Bible, because we may need one!

It rains almost every single day down here lately.  The lake is up so high that you cannot get a boat under the bridge anymore.  Jerry and I just took a drive to go check it out.  Shocking how high the water is after years of a drought and areas of the lake being dry enough to walk across.  The water may come up over the main highway out of town going East.  We hear it has happened before, but that was over 20 years ago.

Doug and Terry keep their boat at a dock down at the marina.  The bridge to the marina is totally under water, and the only way Doug and Terry can get to their boat is to swim or have another boat take them to it.  The marina and the Cafe are closed, of course, and that is terrible on Memorial Day weekend.  I feel sorry for the owners and the employees.  We have issues at our store but it will NEVER be under water!!!

I have pictures to show you, but they are upstairs and I'm not going up there.  I'm already in my bed keeping warm.  Jackie and Josie are absolutely SOAKING WET.  It has been raining all day, and at times POURING.  It is a good thing they are half golden retriever, and they love water.

Doug and Terry are in England with our preacher and his wife.  They are with Andrew Wommack for graduation ceremonies at his bible college there.  There are meetings also that Doug and Terry manage the tape tables at.  They are really dedicated to our church.  They had to pay their own way there and back.  I hope they have a really good time.

I'm working on a NEW STYLE I made up with my Sure-fit Designs.

It will either be WONDERFUL or AWFUL.

I will let you know how it turns out.

I'm trying to do something with fringe since it seems to be all the rage right now.

Peggy actually made something with fringe in one of her new videos.  Think I'll go back and check that out.

Mine is knit with a wild print.  I'm making pants to go with it.

Be back soon -- maybe tomorrow.

Hugs, Joy



 

How to Draw a Sure-fit Designs Blueprint

Anne asked me to please show how to make a Sure-fit Designs blueprint from beginning to end.

I had to chuckle at the request because my ATTEMPT at doing that would be so poor compared to all the amazing videos Glenda Sparling has already done.  And they are FREE - FREE - FREE!

I have put 3 links below to "How to Draw the Bodice Front" that were done by Glenda several years back.  Doesn't matter that they were done back then.  You still do the blueprints just the same.

Part 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UuQzKPF2Zc


Part 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uU9_IkQFb4

Part 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjRtpyQxxs4

I highly recommend -- IF you are interested in SFD, or IF you have already purchased it, that you SUBSCRIBE to Glenda's channel.  You will see a place to subscribe under each of the videos above when you open them to watch.  If you click on her channel, you will see dozens of videos.  I have watched ALL OF THEM!  I have watched some of them several times.

After you watch those videos, you should be well-prepared to dive into SFD.

If you have any other questions, I will sure try to answer them, but usually, I will send you to Glenda.  She helped me for a long time before I felt confident.  I understood how to do the blueprint.  I just wasn't good at the EXTRA little tweaks I had to do.

I am a student helping students.  Glenda is the TEACHER.

She has videos on tweaks now.  She didn't have nearly as many videos when I began my SFD adventure.

Hope this helps!

Hugs, Joy

Diamond Delight by Terry and a New Video by Me

Good Sunday evening.  It has been a lonely, quiet day around here.  I had one of those nights elderly people have when you wake up at two o'clock, and then you can't go back to sleep until five o'clock.  Terry and Doug had invited me to go to church with them, but I sure wasn't waking up early after a night like that.  They always go to the early service.  I did wake up in time to watch Pastor Hagee on GETV.org.  He preached about a FRESH annointing.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, yes!  I sure do need one of those.  I want to be FIRST in line!

Now, YESTERDAY was a different story.  LOTS of excitement around here, and I am going to SHOW YOU!

Terry and I have been SO, SO, SO EXCITED about her new quilt for her Master Bedroom.

You may recall this quilt that she made for a friend several months ago:

You can see that she quilted this one with a ROSE pattern pantograph.

It was very nice, and I love the colors in it, of course.

Terry liked the pattern so much, she decided to make one for herself.

It was QUITE the challenge because she had to make her own templates for it.  Then she had to figure out how many miles of fabric to buy for a King Size comforter.  She bought a LOT of fabric!  She said there is a ton of waste in this pattern to come up with the diamond blocks.

Terry finally got the quilt top put on the longarm last week.  She came over three different times to work on it, and was able to get it done about 8:00 last night.  We were jumping around like school girls because it turned out so GORGEOUS.

I told Terry she HAD to name it.

She said, "How about "Dazzling Diamonds"."

I said, "How about "Diamond Delight"?"

She liked Diamond Delight the best, so that is the name of this pretty new quilt.

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE's Diamond Delight:

 This is the back, and it is a brownish-gold color -- NOT green.  Isn't it luscious?

She has the binding ready to apply, but she said she was going to rest today.  I told her she BETTER get her bedroom cleaned up so I can come get a picture of this ON THE BED.

Before Terry came over to finish her quilt top, I made a new sleeve video.  I have many Youtube videos out there, but the one I made on how to gather sleeve caps is the MOST popular and gets the most comments. Mostly, "THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!" comments.

So, now, several years later, thanks to Louise Cutting's tip, I know an even better way to ease the sleeve cap, so I made a new video. PLUS, my new camera takes much clearer videos, and you can see what I am doing so much better.

Here's my new sleeve "How To" video for those of you who sew:

For the lady who asked me about the Kai scissors I own and what size they are, I took a picture:

I tied a yellow ribbon around them because I took them to a Palmer/Pletsch class one time, and I wanted to be sure they followed me back home!

That's all for today.  Be back soon.

Hugs, Joy

Video Regarding Commercial vs SFD and P&P

I made this video for Carol Ann, but it is pretty general.  Those of you who sew may find it helpful. 

Then again you may not, lol.

Here it is:

Come back tomorrow.

I made a new video with a NEW WAY to put sleeves in!

  

ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND! 

Terry will be here in a bit to finish her gorgeous quilt.  I hope to get a video of it too.

Hugs, Joy