The Journey

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Birthday "Me Pillow" begun

Just printed out the fabric squares for my next memory pillow. The printer isn't really very friendly with these. I will leave them to dry for at least a week, before I start to layer on the starch and build the pillow.

Man-tailored shirt made for a woman

I haven't put the buttons on, or ironed this yet, but finished the sewing on it today. I am still considering button color, gold or clear. Luckily, there's lots of time before we get to long sleeve weather... The chambray blue and tiny gold doves makes a nice fabric for this.

Unfortunately, I though the shoulders are right didn't measure everywhere before I made it, so it doesn't fit me. I will give it to someone who I hope will love it as much as I would have, should it have buttoned up...

Saturday, July 24, 2021

Trains, Fish and Lion King Padded/quilted Mittens

I've also completed these several weeks ago, though haven't mailed (I'm waiting on some sizing information for some other items) 3 sets of mittens for a friend. Her grandson tends to scratch up his face, so the mittens help keep him 'unscratched'.

Mittens in various stages of completion

Saturday, July 17, 2021

On to cutting strings and hand sewing on these Quilts Of Valor

Heart in Stars (more info in 'how to')

Hidden Patterns

Storm Chained (more info in 'How To')

Patriotic Snowman

Monday, July 12, 2021

Added Some Photo's to Ancestry.com

Took some time out from sewing to do a little research for a family member and put up 60 photos on the Ancestry.com media page for my account. So far, it's just for one side, but I will get the other's out there soon!

Added the photo's from my Shepard Side

Sunday, July 11, 2021

Sewing Machine is Fixed

My sewing machine went completely on the fritz, would not sew at all, in fact it was pulling the fabric backward through the feed dogs! Went upstairs to an old cheap Kenmore standby, to find that the machine is no longer a standby, the presser foot wont lower and sew. So my good machine had to go to the shop, and now that it's back, I am on to finishing the binding on these 4 quilts and then getting them into the mail. Luckily for me, it was just an adjustment, probably caused by trying to clear lint from the machine, which is made to trap but in no way release the lint...

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Back to Quilting Quilts of Valor




	Just like everyone else, Covid, all the hate and negative politics, including the destruction of life as we know it, life in general got to be a heavy load in late Feb/early march. I stopped sewing. I stopped a lot of things for a while. I guess I got to the point that I was thinking that just surviving life really wasn't enough, if living, if hope and joy are indeed gone, then why do any of us want to 'go on.' Sort of, 'what's the point,' I didn't answer the question, though I have moved past the conversation with myself - answerless.

Saturday, March 13, 2021

A Plain White Pair of Sneakers

	Saw a video on dressing up white deck shoes, so I thought I would try it. Couldn't find deck shoes, so I'm making some changes. I've cut out and glued on the fabric, waiting for the glue to dry. When it's dry I will trim, tack the fabric down, and eh voila, a new pair of shoes, like no one else's! Did you ever think about the name/word 'sneakers', and why these type of shoes are called sneakers?

Saturday, March 6, 2021

Figment Masks and Bag

Several weeks ago I stopped sewing, I stopped cold. It had little to nothing to do with the pandemic, more to do with immense sadness at the meanness and hate displayed by so many.

My sister likes Figment. We found a shirt, some socks and some bags at Epcot. I deconstructed one of the bags, just a 12x17" square bag with a drawstring across the top, and created several multi-layered masks and a purse to carry when we visit the parks, which we do several times weekly.

Sunday, February 7, 2021

Quilt Tops Moving Along

Saturday, January 9, 2021

Family Tree Uploaded

Another thing I've been working on pretty steadily has been my family tree. I was able to load a big chunk of it this week, to Ancestry, to help other researchers. Earlier attempts to upload it failed, but my leaving Frontier, and maybe updates to the website made it possible and easy to upload.

My 'file' on Family Tree Maker is 112K, but I have yet to link all the folks who are probably related. My last name isn't that common, and it probably related to anyone with it, as well as one of my Grandmother's. Of course, names like White, Smith, Jones... They are in there too, and without the supposition that they are related to any others with the same name... I usually spend an hour or so each day on finding information, which is why it's as big as it is.

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

New 2020 Blogger, Creating Photo Gallery Affects

I've been frustrated with the new blogger, unable to include photo's in the way I choose to display them, but without being a 'super coder' with lots of language skills and training, actually, being self-taught, I worked out how to put my photos in a display that works better for me, and maybe it will work for you. Below is a photo and the associated code for displaying that photo (you have to go to html view to see the code, that's the first icon on the bar above your post):

Here's that photo code again:

If you are looking for a nice random set of photo's, with little structure, or something more specific and ordered, you must first add your photo's to the page. Once loaded, I go to the html view and copy the code into notepad (it's in window accessories on most windows computers.) Once you've got the content into a text document, you can start playing. I do this outside of blogger, because if I mess up, I can go grab it again and start over. Please note, there wont always be the same code around the image code, but you will handle it the same way.

Here's that sample photo code again, and the place we begin for both methods of photo arrangement. First, find the "each image", they all start with <div Class... and end with </div> see how they are listed below:

For this first method, we will move to the first "</div>" and remove it. The following images we will remove the entire "<div class..." statement and end "</div>" all the way to the last image, where we leave the last "</div> in place

When done, your first image should have the "<div class.." statement, followed by "<a href..> and every other image should start with "<a href..." and end with </a>, except the last image, which ends with </a></div>.

The next method, uses the same first steps as the last, with a few added tags. For this, you don't need any "<div class..." statements or "</div>." Every image statement/code should begin with "<a href.." and end with "</a>." Here's what it will look like before you add any tagging:

And here's what it will look like when it's ready to be added to your page, on the HTML page. I choose to have 3 images across, you can decide which is best for your page, and make the changes to display it that way. This is very simple, you can make it far more complex, with borders, and spacing, but this basic information will get you started:

<tr><td>a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnUZZDmXnfH5gCKnaCl9Lam_fZFyEROUETHvnQ9JvWAfopARvHwK3ZL5gO-C4wEFojtNB1CweCIn50oYZS8hERrzsDl0GhkSnVVk9OizTTJBsMqPDMGPl6iFvXP6nWGsedoEy95wlS0Tw/s960/3+doll+houses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnUZZDmXnfH5gCKnaCl9Lam_fZFyEROUETHvnQ9JvWAfopARvHwK3ZL5gO-C4wEFojtNB1CweCIn50oYZS8hERrzsDl0GhkSnVVk9OizTTJBsMqPDMGPl6iFvXP6nWGsedoEy95wlS0Tw/s320/3+doll+houses.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr></table>

Monday, January 4, 2021

Creating some squares for a future quilt

Drawing the lines to sew around

Sewing around the lines drawn

Stack of sewn lines, I'm half-way

Finally, all the lines are sewn

Now begins the cutting of the lines

Blocks are now triangle squares

Squares still have a long way to go

Trimming every square...

Boxes are all trimmed to 3 1/2 or 4"

Saturday, January 2, 2021

Long Sleeved Shirts for Christmas

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Houses Don't Have to Be for Dolls!

This little house is a garage, built for cars and boys	This is the side view of the garage	The straps allow it to be carried
Interior view with ramp and storage box attached	Before the roof fabric was on	Folding the walls to attach the roof
These are the ramp and storage box	Putting the walls together with foam core	Affixing the ramp and storage box
The walls, one piece for three sides