Making skirts

https://www.facebook.com/groups/SewForKidsVolunteers/?ref=bookmarks

https://sewforkids.wordpress.com/

 With both my quilting and embroidery machines down for the count, I had to find something to do to keep me busy until I leave to babysit my dad in Colorado on Friday.  My mom and sister's family are going to Canada for a family reunion and my dad is staying behind to get a new pacemaker put in.  I volunteered to come out with my little guy to watch over my dad and we are going to have lots of fun!

 I joined a group called Sew for Kids and we are making skirts for girls on a Native American Reservation in South Dakota.  I know, where do I find these things?  Well, a long time ago, I used to make baby hats for them and now I have a friend I met through quilting who makes dresses, skirts, and other things for them.  The have a very high suicide rate, unemployment rate and domestic abuse rate on the reservation.  Hopefully this small gesture of love will let these kids know there are people who love and care about them.

The first two skirts were made using the pattern I posted yesterday.  It's the fat quarter skirt pattern.  I wasn't too happy with how much fabric is gathered around the waist.  There's 45 inches of fabric all gathered up there so last night I thought about how I could change it up to make it less bulky.  The green skirt is one I came up with today.  I have two more cut out and in stages of being finished.  I will post a tutorial later this week as I sew the other two together.  I like this one much better.

I'm not a sewist.  I do things non-traditionally, so don't expect it to be perfect :)  When my mom first taught me to sew, I made a pair of shorts.  I sewed the leg holes together like 5 times.  I remember crying because I just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.  I seam ripped them and folded them and sewed them and every time the legs were sewn shut.  Every time I kept folding them back the same way.  I finally threw them down and came back the next day and figured it out.  But, I buy my clothes at the thrift store now :)

But, I'm having fun sewing these simple skirts and using up a little bit of fabric too.  Maybe you could join us and make a skirt and send it off to a little girl who could twirl around and around!

Train Museum

http://www.dailyrepublic.com/news/features-local/dads-get-home-brews-for-their-special-day-at-railway-museum/

my son works at the Western Railway Museum and was mentioned in today's local newspaper.  They had a special event yesterday for Father's Day and he helped make the day fun for the kids by engaging them in science.  He taught them some physics by helping them build cars and then launching them off tracks to see how far they would fly.

I love it!

Needing something new to do

Now that my quilting machine and embroidery machine are both broken, I need something new to do.  I have a friend who sews clothing for kids at Pine Ridge Reservation.  I asked her what patterns she uses and she sent me links for some skirts and hats and mittens.

https://sewforkids.wordpress.com/patterns-and-guidelines/patterns-felt-board/

http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2012/08/quick-and-easy-fat-quarter-skirt.html

http://www.simplesimonandco.com/2014/07/skirting-issue-ucreate.html/

http://www.fleecefun.com/hats-all-sizes.html

http://www.fleecefun.com/free-mitten-pattern.html

Now I have something to work on until my machines get fixed.  Surely better than cleaning the house.  I've done loads and loads of laundry and dishes and shampooed the carpets and while it is fun to make things neat, there isn't anything to show for the work I've done.  Entropy always wins and after a day, the laundry is back and the dishes reappear and the carpet gets dirty again.  At least when you sew, you have something to show for your time spent.

More Dog Bags

 Before my machine decided it needed a vacation, I made 12 more dog designs.  10 are chihuahua and 2 are pit bull.  It died in the middle of one of the pit bull designs and the needle got stuck in the down position while stitching.  Luckily, I was able to get the needle unstuck and save the design and it looked good enough to still use, even though it wasn't finished stitching.  To someone who didn't know better, you would think it was supposed to look like this.

Most of the rest of the bags are the long hair chihuahua design in different color ways.  

If it isn't one thing...

Last night my embroidery machine decided to break down on me.  Now I might just have to clean my house!  No quilting machine, no embroidery machine, I feel so lost.

I took my machine into the shop and the repair guy said it would be next week before he got a chance to look at it.  Don't they understand that I need my machine?  I was willing to stand there while he worked on it.  But I guess that's not how things work.  Oh, well.  Patience is a virtue I guess.

Comcast scholarship

 My son got a $1000 scholarship from Comcast and today was the presentation.  I love going to these things, mostly for the free food and people watching.

 So many people from all walks of life.

 There were lots of dignitaries there (senators and assembly people) to support the kids.

 They had sandwiches and different kinds of salads and drinks.  I was very under dressed for the occasion.  I thought it was going to be really hot outside, but it only got to about 80 degrees, which is really cool for summer in Sacramento.

 There were about 50 kids there receiving scholarships.  They said they gave away 200 scholarships this year, so maybe they had another event somewhere else.  Some of these kids came from Southern California.

 Each one got called up and had their picture taken with their senator or assembly person.

 My son has gotten a lot of use out of his suit.

 He sure makes his mom proud :)

 The speaker was a lady from Good Day Sacramento.  I was very impressed at how well she pronounced everyone's names.  I've been that person, having to say names I've never seen before and pretty much butchered them all.  She was great.  You could tell she had read many strange names before.

 Here he is with the top executives from Comcast and our State Senator, Lois Wolk.  She only stayed while they read the names of students from her area then went back to the capitol building, probably to vote on something.

 They told him he looked like he would be someone who would hire and fire them one day.

 They all looked like they were having fun giving away money.

 Then they had a drawing for laptop computers.  They gave away 20 computers, so the kids had a fairly good chance of winning.  My son's name got drawn and he was pretty happy to win a new laptop.  He already got a new macbook pro, so will probably give this one to his little brother.

 He said he might take some of the programs off it first.

 Nice to know my cable bill is going to do good things every month.  We sure do pay enough.

Carla and Bonnie

I was surprised to see my friend Carla on Bonnie Hunter's Facebook page today.  She saw her in Auburn and is showing off her hand crank machine.  So fun to have good friends who are almost as crazy as I am about always keeping busy making things.

top graduates

http://www.dailyrepublic.com/projects/graduation-2015-projects/vanden-high-school-questions/

Here's an article about the top 12 students from my high school.  Mostly for my parents to read because my son is in there :)

It's funny what the kids say they will be doing in 10 years.  When we went to my husband's 10 year high school reunion, the senior class president got up to make a speech.  He said he was working as the manager of a very famous restaurant and right now they were having a sale on hamburgers, 2 for $1.  Yep, he was still working at McDonald's.  Probably not where he envisioned himself being 10 years after high school.

One of his other friends was a nobody in high school.  He had very few friends and got picked on a lot.  When the popular girls found out he was in medical school, suddenly he became one of the most popular guys at the reunion.  Everyone wanted to talk to Henry!  I laughed so much!  Of course, he was smart enough to realize they only wanted to talk to him because they realized he was going to be rich one day.

I'm reading a book now called The Best Yes, by Lisa Terkeurst and in it she talks about setting a course for the path you want to be on.  If you have a destination in mind, it makes the path much easier to plan.  I have lots of goals I want to accomplish, but some days do nothing about getting to them.  I want a clean house, but make no efforts to remove the junk that has piled up, or even go out and get more junk to add to the pile.  With a broken quilting machine, I keep getting more and more fabric that just gets added to the pile, with the hope of one day catching up.  I need to come up with a better plan while my machine is broken, which may include other projects to use up some of the non quilting fabrics.

I also want to be a runner.  Stop laughing!  Every time I run, I feel like I'm going to die!  Or, I wet my pants.  That just comes with having 4 kids.  But there are other old people who run.  And people who have had more kids than me who run.  Surely if I really want to run, I could do it.

I think about running.  I have running shoes.  I even own a pair of running shorts.  I just need to go out and try to run...every day.  I bet by the end of the summer I could run down to the mailbox :)  At least it's a start.  Maybe, one day, I will run a marathon.  Or, a 5K

with a broken machine, still doing things

 I've been doing a lot of embroidery this past week for my local Chihuahua rescue group.  I made 10 bags with chihuahua designs on them.  These take about 2 1/2 hours to stitch out.

 These two designs take about an hour to stitch out.  Long hair...

 and short hair.

 I also made 57 bandanas for dogs of all different sizes.

Each one takes such a small amount of fabric and I have so much scrap fabric and can't make quilts right now that making these little bandanas is satisfying the need to create something.

I dropped off all of these donations to my local rescue group today and hope they are able to use them to raise some money for saving a few more dogs.

Graduation party

 My son's girlfriend's family had a graduation party for her and for my son on Sunday.  I have to admit it was a little strange having someone give a party for my son, but they have been dating for 5 years and he practically lives at their house.  It was just a surprise to see his name on the invitation.  I told her mom that we aren't 'party people' and the only birthday party I can remember is for my oldest daughter when she was 3.

 I said, you don't give a party for an expected occasion.  We expect our kids to graduate from high school, so why throw a party for something like that.  She said that they had hoped their daughter would graduate and didn't necessarily expect it to happen.

 After talking to her nephews for most of the party time, I understood what she meant.  They both have autism.  The older one can talk your ear off, but most of his stories aren't true.  He lives a very social life in his mind.  The younger one would interrupt conversations to make strange voices to get your attention.

 So, I guess their accomplishments are something to celebrate!  She is going to Fullerton State to study dance and he is going to UC Davis to study computer science and Statistics and music.

 My son got lots of gifts from her family and we went 50/50 on a mac computer for her with her parents.  I said it was payback for all the steak he's eaten at their house.  I don't usually buy steak and they eat it at least once a week.  He's probably eaten 20 cows.

When did this kid grow up?