Gone Fishing

This past weekend, Howard and I went to visit our daughter and son-in-law. It takes between nine and ten hours to drive there depending on how many coffee and potty breaks you take. It's a LONG ways away. Leaving the house and the boys behind, I didn't want to announce to the Internet as a whole that we were going so... after the fact, that's where I've been.




I went to teach my daughter to "fish" as in give a man (daughter) a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. I taught her how to paint while we painted their master bedroom. Above she's just starting to learn how to cut in along the trim. By the end of the room, she was moving along a lot more quickly and doing a fabulous job. A friend taught me how to paint twelve years ago. The ability has since saved me thousands of dollars painting our various homes. Either later this week or next, I'm going to start on the exterior trim and doors of our house and I'll be going back to Jessica's sometime soon to paint her main living areas.




The room started out boringly (yawn, yawn) beige. We think that it was primed, not even painted because it had scuff marks that wouldn't clean off and when you did wipe the walls, you wiped the paint right off. They sucked up the new paint like crazy. Even so, I bought too much. I may be painting something in our house this fabulous shade of Wild Orchid from Benjamin Moore.




We picked the color in March when Jessica was visiting using the 3 in 1 Color Tool to choose a shade of the complimentary color to the olive in her bedspread. The smallest throw cushion in front is a darker shade. The room looked gorgeous when done.

Howard and I had a wonderful time. While Jessica and I painted, he helped our son-in-law with mechanical and yard work. We took some time by ourselves, drove around the city, stopped at open houses to look at tiny houses with big price tags, and made a stop at Fabricland. We had a picnic in Field in the middle of the Rocky Mountains on the way there and another beside the river in Revelstoke on the way back and went for a walk along the edge. It was lovely spending time together. As you know...




... when travelling, I'm programmed to stop at all Fabricland stores (my husband calls it an obsession not an interest) to check out the discount section. At one, there was nothing I wanted and at the other, I bought the seven fabrics above. The bottom six are knits. There's at least five meters of each so I can experiment with design ideas. They were on sale for $1.00 a meter. You can see a detail of the top fabric below. It's a black, grey, gold with glitter, lace that was on sale for $2.50 a meter. I bought three meters planning to make a garment and use the scraps for bra cups. While we were there, I fit Jessica's sample bra and I'm ready to sew version two. Once I have that figured out, lace features in future bras AND... I'll be teaching her how to "fish" (sew) bras for herself.

It's interesting shopping the discount sections. At each store, I find fabrics now on sale for between $2.00 and $5.00 a meter that I previous saw on the floor for well over $10.00 or even $20.00 a meter. These aren't cheap fabrics. They are fabrics that did not sell out while on the floor and are now marked down. Works for me. The stack is now prewashed, folded, and ready to fit in the stash closet. I'm not sure where. It's looking far too stuffed. I really need to sew from it... a lot.

THANK YOU so much to everyone that commented on Friday's and Monday's postings. I so appreciate the feedback.

Towanda wrote - I am looking forward to seeing your results as you work with PMB. - and Loise K. wrote - I am also glad to read about your current success with PMB. I remember your struggles with it on the forum.

I'm thrilled that I understand the software better and am starting to know how to work with it such as knowing that shortening the slopes will create more of an angle to the shoulder. This is HUGE learning over where I was at before.... which was incredibly frustrated... so it's wonderful... however... that said, I have no intention of using PMB as a design or pattern making tool. Perhaps for really simple things but mainly I want it to create an accurate sloper to compare to commercial patterns as I described in Friday's posting.

Carol and Modiste Madness both wrote with suggestions for changing the shoulder slope. Thank you so much. I understand both. They sound doable only I'm going to start by changing it in the software and sewing another sloper to see what happens. In the end, I want that paper pattern for comparison's sake and creating the right angle in the software will benefit printing out slopers for varying garments and ease amounts. HOWEVER, I'm also going to try these methods and the one for narrowing shoulders that AnnR talked about on Stitcher's Guild recently because it's good to know the manual method as well. I might not always have, or have access to, the software.

The term fashionista received a mixed reaction just like it had mixed meanings on UrbanDictionary. Since the "audience" for the calling card is other sewists, it looks like that's not a good idea. When I was talking about this with my son last night, he suggested just using artist only I wanted to be more specific than that and I wanted a word that would create interest, lead to conversation, and be memorable in some way. I'm debating a phrase now, like a tag line, a short sentence below my name that will prompt curiosity.

Several people asked why I need any title at all. Debbie Cook summed that up best when she wrote - I don't think Fashionista fits at all but that could just be because I don't particularly like that term. But I'm wondering why you need any title? You're not in this as a business venture, right? You're not looking for clients. Why not just your name and contact info. I guess I'm missing something.

At the moment, I'm not in this as a business venture and I'm definitely not looking for clients as in people to sew for. That won't be happening - ever. If I'm completely honest, I am hopeful that at some point in time, way down the road, I will teach again both online and in real life. Not how to sew or how to fit, rather how to be creative within the "blank canvas" of your choice. That's part of the reason why I want a title or phrase. Either way though, I'd like my card to be part of building the reputation that I want to build and I'll use the same wording on my blog and website.

One reason for a title or phrase is so that people will make the connection between the card and me. If I'd just been to a sewing retreat where there were thirty or forty people - or to a sew expo where there were several hundred sewists - and had gathered a lot of information only to get home and look at a card with no identifying factors, I'd wonder who this was, what the card was for, and why I picked it up. While I'd like to think I'm unforgettable, reality is I'm not that so I'd like the card to continue to connect me with other creative sewists long past the time I hand it out. One thing that I am really enjoying about my return to fashion sewing is the interactive and supportive community that exists online and at workshops. While I'd eventually like to teach again, it may not happen. If it doesn't, I still want to be connected to this community. It's amazing. THANK YOU for the feedback. When I have some more ideas, I'll ask again.

Today is knitting. I considered skipping to stay home and sew especially as I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon only I'm reading Lyndsay Green's book You Could Live A Long Time: Are You Ready? and one of the things she talks about is how important it is to be part of a supportive community, both in person and online, as you age. In the book, she interviews forty people between the ages of 75 and 100 for their perspective on living well in Elderland. I'm only part way through the book and it's quite interesting.

While I cannot be someone I'm not, aging well could require me to behave somewhat differently, in particular in groups. They're not my best place. I'm more of a 1-1 person. Typically, a group finds me interesting for six, nine, maybe twelve months and then there's a shift. Suddenly, I'm a "lot of work" as was said a few weeks ago. In part, it's about expectations that others have of me that I will do things that I'm not willing to do such as serve on committees and in part, it's about my way of being. I'll keep reading. Perhaps she has some suggestions on eccentric loners functioning in a group. Either way - I'm off to knitting this morning. Have a great day.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - a safe trip to and from our daughter's house and a wonderful visit