A Great Sewing Tip for Newbies - the Black Widow

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Yesterday we had our sewing meeting. The teacher, our dear friend who took a much-needed vacation, had left and put me in charge. HA! But fortunately, with instructions that turned out to be a lot of sitting around a table with friends, just cutting and taping!

She buys patterns then makes them last a long time by transferring them to poster board, labeled, and hanging them, so they last forever with re-use. We had a pattern that she wanted transferred to paper, in all the sizes so she could help us make whatever size we needed.

The bodice pattern came in 10 sizes, from 8 to 26, and each size had an option of B, C, or D cup. So with 30 patterns to cut out all together - poster board was out of the question. Instead we were given copies to tape together and cut out.

I wish I'd have remembered my camera for you to see the mad chaos that ensued with hands speeding along, "Oooops! I need tape again!" and paper flying everywhere, but you'll have to just see some of the aftermath that I took this morning.





I did buy my own poster board so I can have a permanent pattern for myself. I imagine I will be needing to make several bodices over the years, and this pattern is a good basic one to elaborate on.

Here's half of the stuff we cart back and forth to the sewing meeting every Tuesday morning.





While loading up for sewing, Michael had to UNLOAD again the van, which is always in a perpetual state of gobs of stuff going in and out of it. We had these bags of lawn clippings in there for a day and a half. Michael was loading them into the wheelbarrow to haul them down to the compost pile when he noticed he'd been picking up a black widow spider along with them! Bad news.





I knew there was a reason for this tiny little bat!





Oops. Didn't quite get a dead on shot...





Isn't this photo sweet? One of my friends at sewing meeting misses her dad very much. She often wears his old shirts of which she kept a few after he passed a couple of years ago. She had a small photo of her mom and dad from 1955 which she hopes to put into an 8 by 10. So I took it home, since I am blessed with a very nice camera, and took a close-up for cropping and sending in. It would be better with some touchups, but I ran out of time yesterday.





All of our herb seeds are coming up now. These are the last of the ones we are starting in peat pots. The seeds were so tiny I did not want to direct sow and lose in all the weeds. So we have German Chamomile, Greek Oregano, Summer Savory, Winter Savory, Caribe Cilantro, Lemon Balm, Lemon Catnip, Broadleaf Sage, Anise, and Fernleaf Dill. I really wanted licorice, but it was out of stock everywhere I shopped for seed. Here's the dill.





Our indoor/outdoor lettuce experiment. We hoped the trays would grow indoors, but even though this house is very bright, it's still not enough for growing without the plants stretching for the windows. So they are outside now. These are my two that are doing the best, can't think of what they are called.





And most of the rest.





And some leftover celery that I have no idea what will happen, but we're going to keep watering it and see.





And this salad is so good in the summer. Healthy, light, refreshing, sweet, and makes a meal if need be. I know you've all made this before, but I thought I put out a reminder in case you'd not made it in a while.





Jello Waldorf Salad

1 large tart apple
1.5 cups chopped celery
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Mix them up in a bowl, and pour over them one large box of prepared, quick-set orange or peach jello; just enough to cover. Chill and enjoy.

Now that it's gone, I've got to make something else.

Faith

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October 22, 2008 ~ Back porch project.

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Building the back porch took some turns we did not expect. At first I was going to repeat what was done on our front porch when my dad came and helped during the summer. I figured continuity would be best. Later, we simply did not do it that way, as it was not worth the trouble to me. But we started out by preparing to attach the porch to the cinder block wall that runs underneath the outer walls. To do so we needed to get underneath the house, get rid of any spiders, and then drill holes through the cinder blocks and affix a support board inside...

Always be prepared. ;) Spiders are only your friends...



...when they are not crawling up your pant leg...



...or in your hair.



GOING IN!




WITH a spider stick, of course.



But it was only good for gathering cobwebs, as we didn't find any spiders. We still set off the bug bomb for low areas. You can't use a regular bug bomb or it will just spray straight up and drip down from the ceiling. There is a special type made for crawl spaces. Make sure you use those.

It was pretty clean in there.



We got out and began sawing the threaded rods to use for securing an inner board through the walls to an outer board, or ledger, that the porch itself would rest on and be affixed to on the outside of the house.




And then we began setting up to saw the boards we would need for the framing. We don't have a workshop or garage or anything, so we make do with what we have. We used some of the boards as a table, laying them across the trailer. It worked well, despite being on a slight slope.



We let the fogger do its job, and we took a little time to cover that table frame. The one that had blown over in the wind and shattered. We cut a cheap Dollar Store vinyl table cloth in a circle and tucked it around a scrap piece of wood we cut for the top. Nice enough to sit at and enjoy a cold drink and a book while the BBQ is heating up.



And that was one day of work.

Yours,
Faith
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