Sunday, April 26, 2015

Shame on Aunt Pitty Pat

Wow... its been several days since I have posted again. LOL where does the time go? I know setting in front of the TV watching KDramas... :) 
For Reals... I have been working out in the yard since the weather here in Ta Town has either been raining or at a nice sort of muggy 65-70 degrees. A lot of small trees sprouted up in the yard and I have been cutting them back. I am finally starting to see improvement with the growth and appearance. I can only working out there about 30 mins to an hour a day but its coming along nicely. 
Last night....  I spent a few hours with Bubba trying fix a clogged kitchen sink. We were unable to fix it last night so we will be starting on it again today after a parts run to the hardware shop. I am always trying to fix or repair my old farm house. Sometimes I wish I had a new fancy house but after watching my friend build a new house ... it seems like that was more of a pain in the neck.  
Speaking of Hardware store .... I love going in there because you can find fun and interesting stuff to put into your sewing studio... for example:


Nail a segment of sheetrock connector to the edge of your craft table and use S-hooks, Shower Curtain hooks, and binder rings to keep tools handy.  Idea found at Sew Many Ways


Hardware store - plastic corner protectors meant to protect your paint, 
can be used on the front of your sewing desk to catch tools and bobbins


A tool carousel
You can find these at Harbor Freight or at any Hardware shop.
Great for putting in bits and bobs in your sewing space.


A fun example of a tool carousel. 
After it was painted and embellished for a sewing room.


You can always find a tool pouch at the hardware shop. 
Great for storing your tools close by as you sit at your sewing machine. 


Plastic Paint Tray Liners 
An inexpensive way to separate and store your sewing and crafting projects.


An old picture frame.... some dowel rods and hooks 
and
 you have a great way to store your ribbons and papers.


Attach inexpensive 5-Pocket Waist Aprons on the wall 
(from hardware stores)
 to organize your craft supplies.


Conduit Pipe Paper Holder.
Find the tutorial at Sew Many Ways

Most of my images and ideas came from pins on Pinterest.. 
and a good deal of the pins were from Sew Many Ways blog... 
  
I have one final Idea that I love an want to do for myself....


A Mans rolling tool box...
Yes you see it right.. its a man tool box painted pink.
 I want to do this for myself to store all my bits and bobs.....
 isn't this awesome?
I am going to start watching 
Yard sales for the perfect box at a reasonable price ;)

Saturday, April 11, 2015

I am addicted....to Korean Dramas

I spend a good deal of my time watching them. Only draw back is you have to read subtitles and you have to read fast!!! I find its much easier to watch them on my Ipad vs the computer. I also like to watch other types of movies where I have to read subtitles. I wonder if its because my brain works faster than the actors can speak. Reading the subtitles keeps my brain from working faster.. anyone that knows me in person knows exactly what I am talking about... who knows but I love this medium of film. 
If you haven't watched one yet you should try one on
 Netflix or Hulu... 
you can even watch them for free at....
DramaFever
Below from Wikipedia is an excerpt of what Korean dramas are all about...
Korean drama (Hangul한국드라마RRhanguk deurama) or K-drama refers to televised dramas in the Korean language, made in South Korea, mostly in a miniseriesformat, with distinctive features that set it apart from regular Western television series or soap operas. Korean dramas can be set in contemporary times or in historical settings, the Korean word for the latter being sageuk (사극). Different genres apply to these two types, from romantic comedies and action series to fusion science fictiondramas.
South Korea started to broadcast television series in the 1960s. Today's mini deurama format of 12–24 episodes started in the 1990s, transforming traditional historical series to this format and creating the notion of "fusion sageuks". Korean dramas are usually shot within a very tight schedule, often a few hours before actual broadcast.Screenplays are flexible and may change anytime during production, depending on viewers' feedback, putting actors in a difficult position. Production companies often have financial issues.
Korean dramas are popular worldwide, partially due to the spread of the Korean wave, with streaming services that offer multiple language subtitles. Some of the most famous dramas have been broadcast via traditional television channels; for example, Dae Jang Geum (2003) was sold to 91 contrites.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

I am a Murderer!!


It's been a year ago this month that I retired from my job.... of 39 1/2 years. It's amazing.. it doesn't feel like a year has passed. When I retired .. I said to myself ..now you have all the time to do the things that you couldn't do when you were working. I lol and say yeah right!!! I know my retirement would be so different if I didn't have these health issues. I am learning to live and work with how things are... I have good days and I have bad days. Thankfully since retirement I am starting to have more middle of the road days. Not pain free but under control with Dr's care. 


When I retired... I told myself .....now..... you have the time to grow house plants that you love. I was unable to care for the ones that I had before and they died. There were to many Dr appointments and work. I became tired and forgetful. The poor plants were forgotten.  Now that I have time to care for them..... I shared on my Facebook page that I retired and did anyone have any house plants that they would share with me. I received one nice replay.
Below is the story of the little plant that I received though its long journey in the mail. 

*** I was thinking this morning about the little plant that I killed, I received it right after I returned home from Washington 6 months ago. The little plant had started out as a leaf..... that was rooted in water. Then Nancy put the little starter plant into soil so that it would get a good root ball for its journey to me. My little plant was rooted and was waiting on me to return home. As soon as I got home .. I contacted Nancy to let her know I was home. Nancy put the little root ball plant into a plastic bag with a moist paper towel.. for its journey in the mail to me. 
The plant arrived in a couple of days and it was very green and healthy. I had to put the plant back into water until I could get it into soil. That took me a few days before the plant was back in soil ... due to my foot being in a cast. LOL yes I broke my foot while in Washington. 
This funny spiky little plant came all the way from Flint Michigan. It was such an unusual looking plant. Everytime I looked at it I smiled. Now I have killed it.......
I don't know what happened..... Did I watered it enough or did I over watered it... I smile, laugh and cry, because Nancy told me its a crazy fast growing plant.... to me that means... almost indestructible. So I feel bad that I killed it after its long journey...... Nancy reassured me she would try and send another plant, if this one doesn't root from the remaining leaf. ***

Below is a photo of Nancys plant.. isn't it beautiful?


Sunday, April 5, 2015

Fun Times Together

I noticed that the smaller town East of mine has a quilt shop. It's been there for sometime, but I have never stopped and visited. There are several reasons why I have never stopped. One of the main reasons I know for sure is.... the parking lot is very small and its always full when I drive by.  I keep thinking every time I drive by, I should stop and shop. Sister in law and I had just visited JoAnn's in Ta Town. We were driving by the little fabric shop and I told her " I keep driving by and think to myself I should stop... but for some reason I never do". Of course she said we're here we should stop. 
Everyone that follows me on my blog knows about my bad luck.... I pulled in the almost empty lot void of one other car. SIL and I got out and started to go in, only to find the shop was closed. Of course I was disappointed. I didn't realize that the shop was closed on Tuesday.  We were talking about the shop being closed.... When we heard the driver to the other car say.... I'm going in because I am getting a UPS delivery. Your more than welcome to come inside and look around. It was the owner to the shop (She was awesome). We looked around and found some great fabrics. Yes we purchased 6 fat qts to make bags for the SIL's up coming trip to the beach.  I really liked the little shop... The shop was in an older home... Each room was mapped out into sections for her fabrics... There was a room for Christmas and Halloween, Civil War, Modern, batiks, Color matching ... etc..... The owner even told me if I developed my own patterns or sewed items I wanted to sell she would audition them and put them up in her shop for sale. She called this a sewing co-op.  She had a lot of nice handcrafted items for sale. I know I will be visiting this little shop again.. its about 5 miles from my house. (Side note to Nadine C... this little shop is almost as nice as Charlotte's.. Sew Natural)

A few days later SIL and I got together and made 3 of the 5 drawstring bags that we were making for her trip. We had a lot of fun sewing, pinning, and pressing. I really enjoyed the time we spent together making the bags.. but oh my I paid in pain for it later.  SIL was not at her best when we were sewing the bags... I was sewing and she was doing the other stuff like.. pressing and putting in the drawstrings. LOL I handed her the ribbon and got her a safety pin and off she started... LOL she handed me the bag after putting in the ribbons and all the ends were on one side... she could not understand why the bag would not chinch up.... The ribbons were pulled out and reinserted... again the bag would not chinch up...  ) Once I saw the problem.. I told her how to fix it.. she once again put the ribbons in to find that it still would not chinch up. I smiled at her and told her .. oopsie... you did it wrong again... by now she was flabbergasted at her mistake. I showed her how to do it.. her third try she got it right... NOW I should not just point out her mistake.. I should tell you I also made a mistake... it was on the third bag and I was starting to get tired and my neck and back was really starting hurt. I sewed the front section on and was going to put back to front and realized that I put the front section on upside down... so I ripped it out.. sewed it back on. After all the pieces were sewn together .. .. I discover that the front section was sewn on right the first time.. I then ripped out the bag to put the front section on correctly.... I HATE RIPPIN!! 

Here are photos of the three finished bags... Aren't they cute?






I was trying to take photos of the linings... 
Sorry about the bad background on these photos.. my deck needs to be refinished this summer.

Talk about my wavy quilt edges...

My mom called me and asked me how to fix my sisters wavy border on her quilt edges... This is what I shared with her...
The sister either cut the fabric on the bias..... and didn't pin her fabric enough.
She didn't use a walking foot...
Or she started her border strip at one end of the quilt and just went for it.... 

All of the above can be wrong....

What you have to do is measure your quilt at the following points...
Top
Middle
Bottom
Add those measurements and divide that by three.
The final result will be the length of your border strip.

Next fold your quilt into 4ths and fold your border into 4ths and pin your border on to the quilt at 4ths. You might have to ease and stretch your quilt just a bit.. 
You have to PIN PIN PIN your border to your quilt... 
Having done this your quilt border should now be straight. 
Also don't forget to remove your pins as you go...
Sewing over pins could cause your needle to break and put your eye out or throw your machine out of time...

You will find two really good and well written tutorials on how to attach your borders... from 

Here are some video links from Youtube that you can watch.
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx8jijuxhQg