A Busy Weekend (moving on from sadness)

We have been having a very rough time around here.  Within one week, my baby and my gramma passed.    I know the word is "miscarriage," but that word just makes me sick.  It's this bull-twinky word that has very few emotions attached to it, while the actual experience of it was the most emotional and painful thing I've ever had to go through.  Maybe I just never paid attention when people talked about it, but I felt like I was slapped upside the head.  I just wasn't prepared for how bad it was.   This was supposed to be a home birth, as my other two were born in the hospital here.  I was so looking forward to this experience.  It's really been devastating.  I feel like I am starting to move on, and staying busy with sewing is helping a lot.  Megan (Lucy&Norman) was brave enough to blog about hers.  Thanks to her post for giving me the push to post mine.  It just isn't talked about, and I think it should be. 
        I know that gramma passed on in order to take care of my baby.  The timing of it makes me believe that, and saying that makes me feel better about everything.

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       My husband, knowing I needed some time by myself, let me have most of the weekend out in the sewing shed.  I haven't really finished anything in a long, long time, so this weekend felt great.  I don't know about you guys, but my stack of "quilt tops" has been growing and the quilting just hasn't been happening.

I never finished my step-mom's birthday gift(mid-June), an electric heating pad thingie cover.  I ended up making two, since I had an ugly cover on mine.  I had an Arcadia honey bun roll and just started messing around.  I haven't free-motion quilted in forever, and it felt so good.  I'm keeping the swirly circles/log cabin.  My step mom is getting the strips with meandering.  I backed them both in some Amy Butler home dec.

  I just love how they came out.  I am a little bummed that it's the middle of summer and I'm just going to have to put mine away in a drawer until it's colder.  Oh well.  I could almost sew a strap into them and they would be nice bags...

Also, a friend of mine from high school is having her second baby.  I just couldn't go to the baby shower.  So I spent that time quilting this.   It's definitely not perfect.  I still feel awkward sometimes with the free motion stuff.  You can really tell the "groove" spots and the "awkward" spots on the quilt.  Okay, maybe I'm the only one who can see that...   I really do feel more comfortable doing it after a glass of wine.  I can't piece at all with alcohol involved, but I sure do quilt better :)

Also, I will be raffling off one of my featherweight machines, to benefit the opening of the Santa Barbara Birth Center.  They want to open by the end of the year, and I think I can raise a decent amount of money by having a raffle for one of my machines.  I will do the raffle some time in August, so stay tuned......
:)

Hand Crank- FOUND

Hand Crank- front
Originally uploaded by oversewn
Yay for Craigslist! I called about this hand crank the day after it was posted, and found out the woman selling it lives 5 houses away from me. I mean - I had to buy it - wouldn't have been neighborly not to, right? :) haha

It's so amazingly perfect. You would never think it's date is January 9, 1947. So awesome. I've been on the search for a hand crank Singer since I started collecting. They seem to be a little harder to come by, so when I saw one on CL, I had to jump. I paid $20 more than I wanted to, but I knew if my husband saw it's condition, he would be stoked - and he was :) It's so rare that he is pleased with a sewing machine purchase, but he thought it was super cool!

I am excited to teach my almost 4 year old son to sew on this one. I have a Necchi toy chain stitch machine, but this one is more usable I think.

So much for not buying machines........

Feeling Better!!! YAY!!!!!

Oh my goodness!!  That was such a terrible first trimester!  I am so very thankful to be feeling better.  My mind does not do well when my body is sick.  Thanks for the positive comments.  It really is so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, huh? 
Busy weekend here.  So glad to be back in the sewing shed, even if it is just for cleaning and purging.  I have too much stuff.  I haven't bought fabric or any sewing machines since finding out we are having a third kid.  Baby steps, pun intended!  It feels really nice.  Sometimes I go a little crazy with things and buy what I want.  But there really is NO satisfaction out of this.  I think I have tried to teach myself this lesson about 457 times, but yet still don't have it figured out. 
I forget about the enjoyment of finishing things, how good it feels to pull a finished quilt out of the dryer, or dressing the kids in something homemade, or polishing up a dirty old sewing machine.  The instant gratification of buying just can't come close.   Maybe I just have an aversion to hard work- very possible.......

Anywhoooo, I cleaned, oiled and q-tipped a featherweight all weekend.  It was a nice weekend here, and I just laid it out on the picnic table and cleaned away.  It so fun to see the FW's get cleaned up.  When buying one off ebay, you will most likely end up with one that has been sitting somewhere funky for a reeeeeal loooong time.  They all smell terrible inside the case.  I have yet to figure out anything other than airing them out in the sunshine.  Old oil on the machines turns into a yellowy film on all the shiny parts, so they just look so blah until you get busy.  I like to use a silicone spray/ degreaser to clean parts.  I try just soap and water first, and that can get a lot of the funk off.  But for the really gooked on stuff, you have to go for some chemicals.  Not my fave, but you can't beat that shine! 

This one could have used some Turtle wax, but I have never tried that on a machine before, and I really wanted to get this one out in the mail.  I'm doing a trade with an East Coast amigo.  I'm really excited just to have one less thing in my shed!  And I really hope the recipient likes it!!

I also gave up on trying to pick out buttons to put on this dress.  Snaps are great if you hate buttonholes!!  It's been finished for months, probably February sometime.  Just sitting in the shed, collecting dust.  I love how it came out.  The reverse fabric was not intentional.  I can't even remember how I screwed it up, I just know that I did!.  And I ran out of fabric, so I threw in the extra solid.  I went with it and I love the reverse of this fabric.  It's a Kokka waffle weave and super soft.  I used Kona, school bus(I think), for the other panel and top.  Hopefully it will fit the girl soon!  I made a size 2 and my girl is an avg. sized 15 month old.  Maybe it will be her birthday dress?

I just love how great the Oliver & S patterns are- I mean look at that hem- I DID THAT!  It looks so compicated, but the patterns are so rad and Liesl explains things so well. 

Creativity has left the building

I don't want to abandon my little blog, but......I'm 7 weeks pregnant and feeling awful.  We planned on having only 2 kids, and here I am with a 3rd on the way, and my youngest just turned one in March.  Aaaahhhh!!!!
Most of my sewing was done during nap-time.  I am now taking naps myself, which I have NEVER done.  Strange days around here.  It's hard because I really felt like I was getting more done, and almost had lift-off for my little sewing business.  Now it feels as if "I" am going to get put off for a few more years.  I love my kids more than anything and am so grateful to be able to stay home with them, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy "my time."  It is so hard to find balance, whether home with kids, or at work with kids. 

I am well aware of the emotional rollercoaster I am on.  Please bear with me.  I feel like if I do abandon the blog, I should at least wait until the baby is here, right? :)

My poor, poor sewing shed had been shut for the past week.  I'm hoping I will start feeling better soon, as today was the first day breakfast stayed put! 

I miss sewing........