Yep! I am finally at my Edmond home awaiting dates with my good friends. I have already visited Helen Enox (a very fine fabric store), the Bernina store where I dropped off the machine I recently purchased from a lady on Ebay, and then to Oklahoma Quiltworks to use my 20% off my entire purchase with my birthday coupon.
I have been here only 3 hours, and I have already purchased 13 1/2 yards of fabric.
That is BOUND to happen when one lives so far away from fabric stores. When you finally get to a town that has them, you just cannot wait!
PLUS, my doctor said I was supposed to stop occasionally when driving long distances and walk around for five minutes. I figured a fabric store was as good a place as any to do some walking
How gorgeous is the fabric that girl is holding around her body!? I would, for sure, have to buy that one if I ever found it.
I'm having dinner tonight with my good friend, Margaret, who lives close to me in Edmond.
Phylly is going to beg Roger to let her come over for dinner out tomorrow night and then a slumber party after. I can't get too excited because he will probably threaten to run away from home if she leaves.
Cross your fingers for us!!!
I hope to go visit my Mother-in-Law next week. Jerry wants me to wait until he comes up, but I don't know if I will. One can never count on Jerry's EXACT moment, hour or even day of arrival anywhere.
My daughter said she would take me out to dinner for my birthday -- now past -- when I got up here. I am looking forward to seeing her and catching up on grandchild news.
Hey Robert and Deanna! We must get together at least one night while we are in town. Call me.
I better get. I need to put things away that my husband doesn't notice are "out" when he comes here without me. He has been here twice since I was here last.
Has anyone missed me? I doubt it, lol. Honestly, how many new SFD blouses does a reader REALLY care to see? I may stop photographing them. No, I won't do that, but I may quit showing them to you unless I do something really different.
For the last several days, I've been in kind of a fog. We are STILL waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the construction crew of Father-Son-Grandson to finish UNdoing and REdoing the siding job on our house. I haven't shown you the completed back patio.
Do you know WHY I haven't shown you the completed patio?
Because it ISN'T COMPLETE!!!
Father-Son (no Grandson, and we are THRILLED about that) showed up today to finish the posts on the patio. AGAIN, the caps didn't fit; and AGAIN, they had to go somewhere to remake them.
Just in case someone may care, I will show you pics of the completed and UNcompleted pink flower-black dot blouse. (Sounds like Father-Son-Grandson crew!) I explain what happened in the video. Here it is as it was BEFORE I cut all the buttons off. I changed the buttons from PINK to BLACK because of the Godet Sleeve I chose to put on this blouse.
I LOVE that fabric. Since I screwed this blouse up with the "too big" buttons -- which I think are 7/8", not 3/4" -- I ordered more of this fabric. I will make another blouse when it arrives. Since I can wear this one after I fix it, I will find a different pattern for the next one.
Yesterday, I went out into my upstairs office area closet to find a coat hanger. There was no hanger there, so I had to go into the upstairs guest room to look in that closet. When I looked inside that closet, I saw the prettiest roses pop out of the folds between the garments in the closet. I pulled the rose-attired garment out completely to see what it was, and low and behold, it was the cutest revamped sweatshirt that I did many years ago. When I put the bias tape on the neckline, the neckline bulged out like a turtle shell. I hated it, and I was frustrated, so the sweatshirt went into hiding. I decided to take it OUT of hiding to see if I could fix it with all of my new wonder-skills.
Check it out. Isn't it cute? Remember those days when everyone was turning sweatshirts into jackets? Well, this was my failed attempt at it. It took me 4 to 6 hours to fix it sufficiently. I even added a bust dart that goes down into the sleeve. The shoulder slope is WAY off, but it is a sweatshirt, after all.
About those gorgeous roses. I made a quilt with those roses years ago. I called it "Roses in My Window" or something like that. I gave it to Jerry's Mom who, of course, doesn't have the slightest idea it even exists now. I need to bring it back home. I may -- just maybe -- have a picture of that quilt. Hold on.....
This is a HORRID picture! I just now took a picture of a tiny picture in an album I have because a lot of my photos have disappeared from my computer. Jerry backed them up on a "Book", and I think new backups erased old backups.
The border of this quilt is all black with black thread. The roses are bright red, like on my sweatshirt. I WISH I had made the window panes WHITE instead of green, but I was trying to be all matchy. I need to make another one of these because it is really pretty in real life. Next time, the window will be WHITE -- like a real window. Duh! Who ever saw a GREEN window? I made some of the roses come OUT OF THE WINDOW. I guess this window is not only green, it doesn't have any glass in it either.
I thought, at first, that I was going to have to throw away the pink flower/black dot blouse because of my button screw-up, so I made ANOTHER blouse with the same pattern. I used a large print for this one, and I'm afraid it looks like I was attacked by giant moths that had flown out of a blender! I almost threw this one out, but then decided not to because I had really cute buttons for it.
The reason I bought this giant moth/butterfly fabric was for the colors. I have a lot of tan/beige/brown slacks, and I don't have any prints that match them. I am always looking for prints with browns in them, and this print had them all.
So here it is, ready or not:
Do you like the way I whited out my innumerable chins in the pic on the right???
These sleeves are the SAME. Glenda's "Godet" inset. I love it, and it made my blouse have something the others don't. You can leave it open or close it.
And I told you I made a video today. I am going to put the link here, but I warn you: It is all the same info as above, and I doubt it is very ear-worthy.
And I just remembered, I made THREE videos the other day for Martha showing how to change your SFD pattern to make it have princess seams. So these are for Martha:
I am all caught up. I have to go exercise on the Eliptical before my veins stop pumping blood to my ankles. As of this Friday, my surgery recovery weeks are over, and I am heading NORTH to see my friends, my house and my dear Mother-in-Law.
I made some new videos because Martha asked me to. She wanted me to show how I turned my Sure-fit Designs™ blouse into a princess seam design.
The videos are being uploaded at a snail's pace to You Tube. It will be either Midnight tonight, or tomorrow before I can show them to you -- and I'm betting on tomorrow.
My friend, Deanna, sent me an email today with a picture in it that I HAVE to show you. This is the kind of extreme braininess that has made America what it is today -- in MY opinion -- and please always remember, EVERYTHING in this blog is MY opinion.
And as the email pointed out, this sad breed of American tends to be VERY fertile -- always on Federal assistance of every kind -- and I can promise you that IF they could shuffle their uncovered butts to a voting booth, they voted for Obama.
Does this mean I'm a racist? NO!
Does this mean I don't care for this young man? NO!
Does this mean I would NOT help this guy LEARN how to work and dress and become prosperous without the Government if I had the opportunity? NO!
All it means is this is what so many young people have become. They don't have the slightest clue who God is or why they were born or why they are alive.
I WOULD DEARLY LOVE to tell them! I'm sure that would be against SOME law, however.
I know God had a beautiful plan for this person's life, and having his pants dragging the ground was NOT it!
Jerry went down to the back porch. I have to hurry down to swing with him. He has figured out how to get the TV on without running upstairs every five minutes to use the controls.
TOMORROW, I will show you what I did to make my new blouse even MORE DARLINGER than it already was, and I'll post my videos.
Here I am, 63 plus 3 days old, and I am at a loss for words for my blog today.
I am NEVER at a loss for words -- EVER! Is this something that happens when you cross over the threshold of 63? Or did I just eat too much for supper?
I KNOW what it is!
I worked my tail feathers off all day long at the store! Up and down, and up and down from my desk -- a thousand times -- and walking into the room where I build packets and then down the hall to the copier -- and then rushing back to the room where I build packets and then down the hall to the copier -- and all of it over and over and over..... Maybe that's why I'm not so "talkative" tonight. I've got to go back tomorrow and Friday and do it some more. I feel like Phylly, except I don't have 3 little kids waiting for me when I get home at night.
I am making a princess style blouse from my SFD blueprint. I haven't done that before, so I hope it looks nice. I want to do something splashy and fun with this top, but I am so tired, those words make me want to get in the Jacuzzi and work a puzzle on my Iphone.
All is well with my legs. They sure do feel a WHOLE LOT BETTER when someone isn't poking needles in them and cutting little slices here and there into them. Tomorrow is Thursday and that means I can quit wearing the strangle-stocking on my right leg. Next Thursday, the left one comes off. YAY!
Time to watch some episodes of Downton Abby. Love to see the clothes on the ladies in those old timey programs. And the hats! I can't imagine having to wear a hat and gloves as everyday casual wear. They dress up in evening gowns and pearls for dinner at night!
I had a lot of nice phone conversations today, including a call from my Boo Bear in Alaska and a Skype session with Phylly. Thank you, Deanna, for the sweet E-card. John and Hollie were on their way to church. I was so thrilled to hear that. They have been having a hard time finding a married couple to pal around with. I suggested to Hollie that they visit some churches and join in some of the activities.
Jerry gave me the BEST birthday present in the whole world. He gave me HIMSELF all day long.
He started the day by making my breakfast. Then he came upstairs and fixed my broken white board marker holder tray. Then I gave him a haircut which he really needed. Then we went to town for dinner and groceries.
We went to my new favorite place, Wendy's. They have a salad I really like that has blueberries, strawberries, chicken, almonds and other stuff. I also ordered a baked potato and put my own butter on it.
Yep. I actually brought some real butter with me. I won't eat that plastic stuff.
I love it when Jerry goes with me to buy groceries these days. It is a big job, and when it is 100 degrees outside, it is a HUGE job!
After all the groceries were put away, he asked me what else I would like him to do. I told him he could go to work if he wanted to. He said, "No!, I am spending this whole day with you."
So, I decided we could come upstairs and watch an old movie. We started to watch two different ones, and they were both super-boring and horrible. We ended up watching part of the new TV series we are into called Downton Abby.
Last night, I managed to download a horrible bug onto one of my laptops. I was TRYING to download Google Chrome, and I ended up erasing Internet Explorer forever, NOT getting Google Chrome, and the computer has a nasty virus of some kind.
I uninstalled everything with yesterday's date. Then Jerry worked on it for hours last night. He thought he had it all cleared up, but today, it was back to the nasty virus again. He is working on it again now.
WHAT a hassle! I need some R A I D!
Time to watch some more Downton Abby.
Another birthday bites the dust. Hope to be able to visit with friends and Jerry's Mom real soon.
Thank goodness, I have had the last surgical procedure on my legs -- for now, anyway. I have to go back in 6 weeks and 6 months for more prods and pokes, if needed. After my post-op on Monday, I hope the doctor will release me to travel. I noticed in my mountain of paperwork from his office that I'm not supposed to travel for two weeks. And for SIX weeks, I'm not supposed to travel over an hour without stopping to walk around somewhere. That should be real easy on a busy highway with no towns around.
I can hear the people driving by as they see me walking around in circles on the shoulder of I-35.
"Look at that lady, George! Wonder why she has those strange socks on, and why she is walking around in circles?"
"I don't KNOW, and I don't CARE! Mind your own business, Mabel!"
I spent many hours today looking for one certain picture of my grandsons. There were SO MANY pictures in SO MANY boxes. I finally put several boxes up on the bed, got up on the bed with some pillows behind my back, and I went though a zillion pictures. I decided to get rid of a whole bunch of them today.
The ones of people I don't even know didn't seem that important.
The duplicate and triplicate pics of my grandbabies no longer seemed necessary.
The itty bitty black and whites from Jerry's grandmother's stash that I couldn't even make out with contacts AND glasses on.
Pics of people that we used to do things with, but we don't anymore and haven't for 20 or more years, and I am QUITE CERTAIN they don't have any pictures of me.
Pictures of miscellaneous babies of miscellaneous people who we probably never knew.
Here they are -- on the floor where I tossed them -- awaiting their final resting place at the City Dump.
Do you see the little stash on top of the nightstand? Jerry told me once that he never remembers his Dad ever holding him -- hugging him -- or saying anything nice to him. He has also told me several times about how his Dad ran over him with a hay trailer when he was two years old. I guess Jerry was sitting in the trailer. The trailer went over a bump and Jerry went flying out and hit the ground and rolled UNDER the trailer. Then his Dad continued to drive -- not knowing -- and the wheel of the trailer went right over Jerry's head.
Well GUESS what I found????????????????
That is Jerry's Dad. Looks like a pretty normal guy back then. Jerry says he can still remember how bad his head hurt. Poor baby!!!
After I got tired of going through a thousand pictures, I decided to come upstairs and finish hemming some new slacks Jerry bought several weeks ago. I don't know why I hate doing that. It isn't hard. It isn't fun though. I did one pair while Jerry was out of town. I had them BASTED with yellow thread. I wanted him to try them on to be sure they were perfect before I put the actual hem in them.
I asked Jerry to come up before he went to work this morning to try on the basted pair of pants. I TOLD him they were just basted but, OF COURSE, his selective hearing was turned off. He put the pants on and he stood in front of the 3-way mirror. He said they looked great. He took them off and gave them to me.
Then, GUESS WHAT HE SAID? He said it so sweet too. "Joy, is that the best thread match you could find for that hem?"
I took a picture for you. I can't believe he actually thought this was how I was going to leave these pants.
When he got home tonight, I was kidding him about it.
He said, "I thought it was strange that with $20,000.00 worth of sewing equipment and supplies, you couldn't make a hem look better than that."
I laughed and laughed. I do have just a LITTLE BIT of thread to choose from. This is only part of it:
Gotta go. Time to get the achy legs up. Both of them are sore tonight.
I'm having dinner tonight with my good friend, Margaret, who lives close to me in Edmond.
