Project Dress a Girl

For the past couple of years, I have made dresses for Project Dress a Girl Around the World, in part thanks to the campaign launched by Mari, of the vlog Mari Sews for Curves. Last year I was very prolific, cranking out 30 dresses. This September I only eeked out seven dresses for the cause. Every little effort helps...

After I finished those dresses and shipped them off, I got back to work on my Fall capsule wardrobe. In addition to the Love Notions Arlington turtleneck I finished, I made a Sinclair Patterns Harper cardigan in a mauve and cream tribal knit from Olga's Closet. I love the quality of their fabrics, but there always seems to be an issue with shipping with each order. Don't know if I'll order from them again. Truth be told, I probably never need to buy fabric again (who am I kidding? Y'all know I will 🤣) Anywho...my sweet Baboo is gone hunting, so I am free to sew all day (aside from throwing the ball for the dog... priorities...) Guess I'd best be getting to it. Have a blessed day!

 

I'm Sewing...

 I've been sewing...I swear! Actually I've been doing a lot of cutting and prep work, but have minimal completed projects. I am to remedy that this week. I cut out 6 Project Dress a Girl dresses and a black and white striped Love Notions Arlington turtleneck sweater, as well as a nice thick camel colored ponte for a pair of fall leggings. My Sweetheart will be heading out to hunting camp next week, so it will be sewing 24/7 for a couple of weeks! I took in the free motion quilting summit put on by Mary go Round quilts this past weekend and am excited to get working on some quilt UFOs. I just finished the last of the Pendleton wool selvage crochet rugs last night, so I'll be giving my hands a break from crochet for a few days. Oh, and then there's the diamond paintings! Gotta finish those up too. Lastly, sad to hear of David McCallum's passing. From Ilya Kuryakun to Duckie...he was a great entertainer. RIP...

Meet Ruby! (Or alternative title "Whoops, I Did it Again!)

 I had to go into "town" (I refer to LaPine loosely) yesterday and decided to pop into St. Vinnie's to see what the daily 50% off sale was. Bonus! Crafts were on sale, so I had to take a look. There was an older man with his daughter perusing the crafts and he turned around and exclaimed "ooh, Glitter!" That man is my people! The glitter was in a basket at my feet, so I handed it to him. We got into a discussion about, what else, sewing. I have a Singer 301 in a cabinet that I've been thinking of rehoming and so I offered it to him, but he is moving into a travel trailer. I will find the right person to pass her on to. She was given to me and she needs a little work. I've bought the parts, but truly I would rather spend my time sewing than working on the machines. Plus I have no space to put that machine (it's living in the garage right now) Anywho, St. Vinnie's had a half dozen sewing machines in the craft section, which have been there awhile. In the breezeway between the main part of the store and the furniture, there were three machines sitting on the floor. One was a Viking 5710 for $35.00. I opened it up and checked it out at the power station. Light came on, needle moved with the foot pedal so I took her home for $17.50. Upon getting home and getting to know her, I realized she was stuck in reverse! 😮 A quick Internet search found the fix, so with a hairdryer and some sewing oil, I soon had her purring like a kitten! While I was inside I gave her a good cleaning and oiling, so she is all ready for a sewing marathon! (Which will happen later today...I'm hosting my neighbors for coffee this morning) Without further ado...meet Ruby!

She is a gorgeous burgundy color with a cream extension table. The accessory tray is cream also under the sewing arm. All the feet and a ton of bobbins were included and the foot pedal is massive! All of this fits in a sturdy case. I think she may become my travel machine. I love Lil' Kenny, but I think Ruby might be better, especially with the extension table. I'll report back after we work together on a few projects! Much love, Mary

 

Good Morning.…

 Wow! It's been a busy couple of weeks and I haven't had time to post. My sister in law came for a visit, which was fabulous! Then I had a week of ASG meetings, babies and getting ready for my trip to Moses Lake to see my sister, brother in law and niece. It had been a really long time since we had been together and the time flew by! We had so much fun, just hanging out, eating good food and enjoying each other. Can't wait to be together again! Now that I am back home, I have several projects in the works and my Sweetheart has gone to the ranch for a few weeks, so I have time to get things done. And what am I doing?

Watching YouTube with a cat on my lap! Time to go make the doughnuts! Much love, Mary 

Achh! Computers!!!

 I actually sewed something this week and wrote a blog post! But...I took pictures on my phone and started the post there. Finished the post on my tablet, adding a link to the pattern...what could possibly go wrong? Whatever I did, my blog was a hot mess for about 12 hours! I could not get it to format right; the post itself was in a skinny little column and where in the world did my cute little header image that I created go? It was driving me crazy last night, so I had to go jump on the desktop to fix it (the device I created all the backgrounds and widgets 😂) Too many devices you say? I had one more tweak in the theme to get things back the way they were.,.pray for me that I don't muck it up again! Oh by the way...the top I made was the Closet Core Marine Breton top. I'll try to add the pictures from my phone...much love...Mary

p.s. I couldn't add the pictures from my phone. I emailed them to myself and then saved them on my tablet to upload them to this post. Some tech nerd's head is exploding right now! 🤣

A New Project

A new project is in the works and I couldn’t be more excited! I’ve been away from my sewing, spending precious time with my sister in law ( and love). More to come…much love…Mary

A Project Finished!

Just a simple table runner and placemats made out of a jelly roll I recently picked up at Jo Ann Fabrics. Now on to planning a fall capsule. Standby dear Readers…much love, Mary

Upgrade!

 One of the other crafting rabbit holes I have fell into lately is diamond painting. The first couple of paintings, I did at the far end of our dining table, which was fine, because I could watch the critters out the window and listen to an audiobook, podcasts or music, but I couldn’t see the tv.  As I started doing more diamond painting, I moved a folding table to the window seat in the living room and could watch TV while I crafted, but all my supplies were out on the table and the cats found that highly offensive, knocking them off every chance they got. I don’t regularly peruse Craigslist every day, but yesterday I needed to go to Sunriver and thought…maybe I’ll check to see if there are any garage sales happening on my way or anything in the freebie section I might score. This drafting table had been posted for free the day before and I thought it would be the perfect setup! My sweetheart took me to Bend to pick it up (I think he just didn’t want me driving his truck 🤣) and then we swung into Sunriver on the way back to pick up my library holds. Our library has been going through an almost year long renovation, and while we had a temporary library location, someone drove their car through it, hence now the closest branch is Sunriver. It did speed up our renovation project, so our new and improved library will be opening ahead of schedule in September!

In sewing news, the placemats and table runner are almost finished. They will be quilted today, and then I will start planning a capsule wardrobe for Fall. Our next ASG meeting is about creating a capsule wardrobe, so I thought it would be nice to start thinking about it. I’m usually a “sew the next shiny thing” type sewist, and somehow my closet is somewhat cohesive, but sewing items that actually work together might work 😉. It’s only taken 50 years to have that epiphany!  Well, I better disturb the cat, feed the dog and get me some coffee. (You see where I stand in the rankings?) 

Have a blessed day!

Work in Process

Since the blog is getting a reboot, I thought it was a good time to give the blog a fresh look. It's been a minute since I've dealt with technology, so standby while I tweak things a bit! Much love... Mary 

I'm Back in the Saddle Again...

 Or something like that if I actually rode horses! 😁 I'm trying to make blogging a habit again, so I added this page to my desktop to prompt me and making mental notes about what I want to express. It's been a relatively busy week for me. Nothing too earthshaking, but some excursions out into the world and a little bit of work around here. My friend's hotwater heater went, so that caused some angst (and a whole lot of work) She still went to our ASG picnic with me. I recently connected with an ASG group here in central Oregon and have really enjoyed spending time with my new sewing buddies! Pictures were taken (not on my phone), but I don't have any to share today. We took a group picture with "Maddie's Hair". Let me explain...my friend's 3 year old great granddaughter is battling leukemia. She was determined that she wouldn't lose her beautiful curls during chemo, but of course she did. A friend gave her a wonderful book about her hair "going on vacation" and coming back one day after the vacation is over. When her Mother asked her where her hair was going on vacation, Maddie said "with Grand Mom-Mom" (my friend). When she told me that, I immediately went online to find a hair piece that could be taken "on vacation". Creagh takes pictures of the hair wherever she goes, and it makes Maddie happy to see all the places her hair gets to go with Grand Mom-Mom! Cancer sucks! 'nuff said!

I've been sewing a bit. I'm currently working on some placemats and a table runner. I really need to make some pants! I spilled blackberry milkshake on my favorite Pietra pants last night, so that may get me motivated if the stains don't come out! I've been painting and diamond painting a bit too. What can I say...crafting ADD...it's a thing!

Today we are running to town to pick up some wheels for Tom's Jeep he's building and hit Costco (gotta make those trips to town count!) Then we are going to sand on the VW bug. This project was my brainstorm, but I've kind of been whiffing my part lately, so I need to help (Crafting ADD...🤣) And since I don't have a picture of the bug at the ready., here's a picture of our bus we are fixing up (another Tom & Mary production!):

Has it Really Been Over 2 Years?

 Wow! I was reading my blogger feed and recently one of the bloggers I followed back in the day has resurfaced.  In responding to her post, I checked on my blog because I needed the url to identify myself. 2 years since I last posted! Over 2 years! We were in the midst of covid vaccines and isolation...ugh! Certainly things have improved! So is Mary still Sewfast? Yes and no...I still sew and am pretty efficient about it. Being retired,  there isn't that urgency to get things done so I have something new to wear to work or a job for hire. I limit who I sew for these days and try to do so with more intention.  I don't feel a tremendous urge to buy fabric like I used to (say what???), but i think that may be due in part that i have a well curated stash that i can shop day or night. There is a bittersweet joy in discovering a beautiful fabric in your stash that has been languishing for years and hasn't been sewn into a much loved garment. I hope to remedy that problem.  Patterns are another issue.  I have many, some are too small now, and probably could make anything I wanted between the patterns and my Burda collection.  I also am in 2 subscription services and am enjoying a new pattern every month. Closet Core patterns fit me really well, once I nail down the right size to make (I'm looking at you Nicks dress and top! I eventually settled on size 10, and anyone who knows me IRL knows that ship sailed a long time ago 🤣) I recently joined the Cashmerette club and am really digging their vibe right now. Itch to Stitch is starting their weekly summer sale this week...sigh. Love Kennis too!

Well, you may be wondering what I've been up to these last few years (or not...) We have spent winters at our friend's ranch for the last 3 years since I retired.  We kinda work, but not really.  It's our home away from home...we lost our 2 pomeranians during the covid years and were dogless for quite awhile.  Tom wasn't sure we would have another dog again. I wasn't really feeling that, but I did have to grieve for a long time and still miss Jo and Sam to this day.  I was so bad, I left their little nose sprints on the window where they watched out the driveway.  Did not even think of the optics of it, but some friends stayed at our house while we were at the ranch and Janice cheerfully texted me "I washed your windows for you!" It was a good thing, because then I could start to move forward,  but I thought "Man! She must think I am really a crappy housekeeper!" 🤔 Anywho...I am happy to report we do have another dog in our life now. Blue is a charcoal lab that needed us as much as we needed him, and it's worked out beautifully! Here is a picture of Blue to end this post, because we all like blog posts with pictures. I will try to not make it another 2 years before I check in again!

He seems pretty content...don't you think?