Listen Up Kids, This is Why You Should Stay in School

I come from a business family. I think if you have a head for business, you probably have a head for numbers. I wasn't cut from the same cloth. My father was an accountant, my sisters and brother all involved in business careers. None of my dad's math skills was passed on to me. Math and phonics were my worst subjects in school. I would sit and daydream while the teachers were droning on and on. Well, didn't that come back to bite me in the rear. You see, as a teenager I sat there in class and thought, when will I ever need to know this outside of the classroom. Well, here is an example of maybe a geometry problem.

I saw a simple fabric bucket on the internet. I immediately thought this would be a quick, fun gift for so many people. Well, the pattern was not an online pattern, I couldn't download it. The pattern was only available through mail order and the pattern was out of stock. Rats, I really wanted to make a few over the weekend. How hard can one little bucket be? I mean, after all, it is a rectangle and a circle. Sweet. I can do it. Well, 4 days later and countless redo's I finally had a bucket to give to my boss. My goal was to complete 4 bucket over the weekend. I completed one bucket in 4 days. I decided to use a 7 inch basket from Ikea that I got from quilt retreat as my inspiration. I wanted my bucket to be 7 inches high. Useful as a little sewing trash can. I started out with my measurements plus additional inches to account for trimming. I somehow forgot to trim extra fabric under the embroidery so the basket ended up to be 9 inches tall. I don't think it's very useful. I think I re-cut the bottom of the bucket four to five times to make it fit. The lining was recut and re-sewn at least three times to make it fit.

My husband would die if he knew that I gave this bucket to my boss. He wouldn't think the embroidery design is an appropriate thing to put on there. Well, my boss had a good laugh. She told me that at the last board meeting she was at, she was called "Barbie" since she is always so put together.

So kiddos, pay attention in math class. I'm a fine example of needing math skills to complete simple projects. As you can see, engineering was not in my future.

The Year of the UFO

I decided that I needed to have a New Year's sewing resolution. I cemented my thought process by telling my husband (possible mistake). I told him that I really needed to start using my fabric. I'm sure most of you are confused. Why wouldn't I be using my fabric? Well, it's like giving away a family pet or something. My fabric has been with me a long time. There are some cotton prints that I just haven't had the perfect project to use on them. But, the realization is that I need to make headway in my sewing room. There (hopefully) will always be more wonderful fabrics at the fabric stores. I need to pry the fabric from my hands and use it for craft projects and garments. A couple of years ago I put myself on a 6 month no-buy. This isn't necessarily a no-buy year, just a year to try to work with what I have.

Well, I let Jeff know of my resolution on January 1st. On January 2nd, I found myself at the fabric stores. Let's see, I went to Hobby Lobby, Joann's, Hancock Fabrics, Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Yes the Home Depot was for supplies for a sewing project. Fabric and notions at every stop. I purchased some Alencon lace at Joann's. It was in their red tag section for 50% off. Now mind you, it's not great quality like true french Alencon, but hey, for $3.00 it was a steal. I was standing at the cutting table waiting for it to be measured when a lady came up to me and asked what I was going to do with the lace. I told her I didn't know. I had a daughter getting married and maybe I could use it for something. She said she picked it up and put it back since she didn't have a plan for it. Well, that just increased my score knowing someone else wanted it.

At Hobby Lobby, I wanted to see if they had any fabric that would work with a sock monkey design. Yes, I have sock monkey fabric but I'm getting hives just thinking about cutting it. I left there with the dotted fabric. Oh and a box of Milk Duds.

I then went to Hancock's. Lauren and I had seen this wonderful vintage sewing fabric. It has old McCall's children's patterns on it. She asked if I could make her a quilt out of it. Well, I still have her queen size quilt (labeled UFO) waiting to be finished. This fabric is forbidden fabric. It's forbidden because it is not on clearance and it's not on sale. I ended up buying 3 yards of one print of the forbidden fabric. On January 3, I went back to Hancock's and purchased 4 companion fabrics to the forbidden fabric. These are also forbidden fabric, not on clearance, not on sale. I only bought a 1/2 yard of each so I'll need to go back. I guess my 2010 resolutions are going so well. Busted with 24 hours.

Christmas Eve 2009

We are like every other family, we have developed Christmas traditions and have held these for many, many years. I started some things to help me with my sadness and loneliness when I moved away from my family. I also needed to come up with ideas to keep the girls busy on Christmas Eve to tire them out. We do not open any gifts until Christmas morning. Christmas Eve night is family time only, no presents.

We go to Christmas Eve mass then we make our way to dinner. It can be kind of hard to find a restaurant open on Christmas Eve. We used to go to Olive Garden but haven't been there since the German restaurant opened up. I think we have been going to Old Bavarian for over 12-13 years now. Last night, Christina, the owner, came up to use twice and said she knew it was Christmas since we were here. We do go to Old Bavarian at other times throughout the year but it may be just Jeff and I that go, not the entire family. Jeff's aunt was able to be with us this year. She has always been a trouper no matter what we come up with.

After dinner, we used to bring the girls home to change out of their clothes. We all used to put on pajamas and our winter coats then drive around town to see the Christmas lights. We would make a thermos of hot chocolate to bring with us. It is very calming to drive around the city with Christmas music on and not to many cars out. When Arlene is with us, she also changes into her pajamas. This year, we didn't go home to change we just went right away after dinner. As we drive around there is lot's of laughter. I don't know if it's the togetherness or the multitude of beers that were had at the Old Bavarian.

The evening comes to a close. The lighting displays were spectacular this year. I may just have to go back for a second viewing. We drive Arlene home. Now we can put the cookies out for Santa and all change into our jammies. It was a beautiful evening spent with family. I go to bed thinking about how one baby changed the world.

My Neighbor Gifts

After making Jodi's gift bags, I can't say that I was gun-ho to make more. But as time was getting closer, I wasn't any closer to coming up with anything unusual so I decided to steal my sister's idea. Luckily, I only had five bags to do. Well actually six, my husband asked for one more after I finished these so off to Hobby Lobby tomorrow for another bag. The ribbon is a little gawdy but that is what was close by and I didn't want to rummage in the basement.

In my gift bags, I added the two containers of pancake mix that Jodi used, the old-fashioned mix and the cinnamon mix. I put in a bottle of pure maple syrup, Door County Christmas coffee sample pack and some English breakfast tea. Whew, another year done. I hope my sister let's me know what she is going to do for her neighbors sooner next year!

My Tote Bag Mini Tutorial

When I started to work on the tote bags for my neighbors, I decided that I would take a couple of pictures. I was telling my sister Jodi what went into making the bags and I think it was a little confusing since she doesn't sew or embroider. It may look easy and quick but not necessarily so. With machine embroidery, I do like how you can embellish so many things. I hate the prep work involved with embroidery. I also hate sitting and babysitting the machine. Yes, some projects I can walk away or sit at one of the other machines and sew while the D1 is embroidering. But there are many projects that you have to be watching the needle at all times. Any time I have something turned inside out like the tote bag or onsies, I stay at the machine. Anytime I am embroidering on something thick or strange, like the tote bags, pet mesh, an insulated lunch bag, I stay at the machine.

The first thing that I need to do is to make my center of the tote bag. I want the center of my design to be about 4 inches below the top of the bag. I also want the design to be centered between the handles. I am using a water soluble marker. With the tote bags, I will be turning them inside out. It makes the job a little easier because you can see the fabric that you don't want to embroider and keep it out of the way. I am using a hoopless technique with the bags. This means that I won't be placing the tote in the middle of the hoop. I will put my stabilizer in the hoop then tighten the screw. A few reasons to go hoopless is so you don't get hoop burn on your project. I also don't want to hoop something thick as I might break or stretch out the hoop.

Because I won't be hooping the bag, I do need to do a few things to make sure that the tote bag is stable while it is stitching out. I also don't want it to shift away from the markings and cause my designs to be off center. After my stabilizer is hooped and marked, I spray some Sulky KK2000 on the stabilizer. This is a temporary adhesive. I also try to put straight pins in as long as I feel that the pins will be totally out of the way of the needle. The final stabilizing technique I employ is the use of the fix or basting stitch. This stitch will baste around your design perimeter. Ok, now that that is all done, time to do the stitch out.

The thing I wanted to show everyone is why I need to stay there. You can see that there isn't a lot of room and I have the back of the tote bag to keep out of the way. If you aren't paying attention and this fabric gets in the way of your design, it can be a bear to pick out. The needle is moving at a rapid pace and can put down hundreds of stitches in a minutes time.

Taylor's Gift

This year I wanted to make sure that all three girls got something handmade. Taylor was a little bit of a challenge but I decided to make her a knitting roll up. This was very quick to whip up. I think it took about an hour to make. The only problem I had was finding the double bias binding in blue. I think it comes in white and black so I bought the white. In case anyone in interested in making a knitting needle roll-up, here is the site that I found the directions on. http://tostetoes.com/knittingroll.htm

The Polenske Family Tree

Jeff and I have had 31 Christmases together as a married couple and not one of them has involved an artificial tree. In fact, there have only been maybe three years that we bought our tree from a tree lot. Our tradition has been to get everyone dressed warm and put on the Santa hats then drive out to a tree farm. This year, we drove up to Sobieski, Wisconsin. This tree farm was just an beautiful, idyllic place. I felt somehow back in time when Christmases were simpler. This was just a tree farm but I just kept thinking about some of the wonderful old black and white Christmas movies while I was walking through the property. I think we'll hit this farm again next year. The trees were well taken care of. We spotted a tree about 30 seconds into the drive on the property. Taylor refused to let us stop the truck and look at it. She said that this was too easy and we had to spend more time looking for a tree. There have been a few times when we have been out at a farm for 2 hours trying to find the perfect tree. I had found several that fit our criteria. I look for a grinch type of tree, very tall and narrow. This year's adventure took less than one hour.