Friday May 18, 2012
I'm so proud of my youngest daughter I could burst! She's an amazing young lady and this year she is graduating from high school. I'm hoping to make her graduation party a day she will always remember with a grin on her face. I'm lucky to have more than one sewing machine, so I can leave my embroidery machine embroidering their schools "Blue Hawk" on future can wraps while I sew other things. I think it will make neat party favors.
Last year as graduation gifts for her friends that graduated , we embroidered the Blue Hawk on pillow covers and supplied a fabric marking pen for them to have all of their friends sign their "autograph pillow".
There is a line drawing of most mascots some where on school websites. Remember to ask permission first to use the line art but if you have embroidery software you can digitize the art work and have an embroidery design that they all will appreciate... and very unique gifts and party favors. There is also an abundance of free downloadable designs online. You may find one that is so close to the mascot that no one would be the wiser!
Wednesday May 16, 2012
I told everyone about our town hall adventures in my other post. Monday night we had a town board meeting and everyone could see the changes that have been made already. The changes caused many more people to step forward and volunteer for next weekends work detail. The positive feed back is contagious and really bringing everyone together. It's exciting!
Last weekend, as we cleaned up, we found many partial bottles of water and partial cans of soda. It happens when everyone is busy and not sure where they set their drink down as they were working or the drink gets warm from sitting around. I'm hoping I will find time this week to put together a pile of can and bottle wraps. I could even let residents take them home as a "prize" for all their hard work... or we could collect them at the end of the day for our next work event. I have plenty of scraps so I can make them all different but can I make 100 of them in one week? Maybe if I use mass production sewing methods. Maybe I can have a sewing bee to make them before our next work date.
The up-coming weekends weather report is showing our planned work day as one of the warmest days we have had yet so I'm thinking some cool neck scarves would also be a good idea. With the summer ahead of us and plenty of work to keep us busy, those scarves are not going to go to waste! If only there were more hours in a day and more people who sewed. We've already talked about a sewing bee to make new curtains for the town hall but we are waiting to find out if there are any fire proof regulations. It makes me wonder if we could get a group of people together to sew the things we could use as a work crew. It's definitely something I will bring up at our next organizational meeting. It would be a great way to get the machines going... Maybe I'm dreaming but no one thought our little town would ever band together... who knows what else can be achieved when a group of people have a common interest.
Monday May 14, 2012
I've become very involved with my local community. Our town hall is something everyone has complained about for years and I got tired of hearing the complaints so I decided we should band together and do something to improve it. Ideally we will replace the building but for now we are doing some MUCH needed maintenance thanks to everyone coming together and some generous financial donations. This past weekend we all got together to power wash the building and then we started scraping the little bit of paint that was left on the window trim. From there we used wood putty and caulk to seam the trim work. Next week we will be washing all the windows ... inside and out.. and then painting all the trim work on the building.
I wish I had thought of it before last weekends work party but I know what I will be working on for next weekends work crew... bucket liners and nail pouches. When you are doing that kind of work, you never have enough hands. Work buckets that have liners with pockets will be perfect for the window clean crew. Nail pouches will be handy for anyone on a ladder or even at ground level, to have a handy spot to carry things while keeping their hands free.
Friday May 11, 2012
Last week I hinted that I had something on the cutting table that I would be sharing soon... that time is now. I found these round straw kind of woven placemats at a number of stores ... When I saw them I saw a round handbag... in a fabric we can't find any other way. I admit to getting a few odd looks as I bent the placemats to reshape them and held one up to my side to see what the size would be like... but I liked what I was seeing so I bought them. Once I got home I really started experimenting and I like what I came up. I'm sharing the free directions this week. The lining aspect of this pocketbook makes it possible to have inside pockets to hold your cell phone or other important devices. I put a pocket in both lining sections so I have a spot for everything... I know how I end up over stuffing a handbag!
