Obviously I'm not Julie

One of the reasons I thought a blog would be good to help me get going and finish some of my unfinished sewing, knitting and quilting projects was because of the movie "Julie and Julia". Did you see it?  Meryl Streep fantastic as Julia Child and Amy Adams was good as Julie (her last name escapes me).   Also Stanley Tucci and Jane Lynch and the actor playing Julie's husband were very important to the show..  Julie loved to cook and she loves to write.  She starts a blog about cooking.  She has Julia Child's book on French cuisine.  She decided to cook everything in the book in one year.  Apparently Julie, the blogger, actually did that.!  Amazing to me.

Well,  I had hoped to be all done with my unfinished things in 15 months. Sewing an item a week and knitting an item per month.  Oh, no no no, it's not going to happen.  Wait, I'm not giving up.  But I auditioned for a musical and was cast AND I took up the viola AND I am making costumes for the show.  Thankfully only some of them.  We have a cast of 74 needing 3-4 costume changes each. Yikes.

I do know I've mentioned this before. Sorry, but I've been feeling a bit guilty about not finishing the red blouse yet.  I have worked on it and I think it'll be nice when done.

Here are three sailor pants for the show and I made another pair like the ones on the left.

I made this today before my viola lesson.  It's a pouch to hold my shoulder rest.  Doesn't fit in the case because the case is meant to hold only the viola and bow.  There are cases now that are rectangular and hold much more.  It is movie film fabric.

There's the shoulder rest.  It's rather ungainly, but how wonderful when playing one's viola.




This movie film fabric was a piece left over from another project.  Want to see?

Aack!  The color is way off, It's actually black and white not beige and black.  It's a pillowcase. I made  it for a friend of mine who is an old movie buff.  I love the silver screen as well.

That is all for now but there could be more exciting news any day. Hey, did any of you see "The River of No Return"  with Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum?

I will return. See you later.

Checking in

Yes, I'm just checking in.  No important Blog news as I am still working on my red blouse and my knitted hoodie.  Meanwhile I've been rehearing for Les Miserables.  Also sewing  for the show and taking care of the garden.  Oh, and Monday I started my viola lessons.  I needed to learn how to hold the bow and how to hold the viola.  I'm also working on reading viola music which is written in Alto Clef.

See that interesting clef?  On the left before the 4/4 
time ?  I am learning it, but I'm not to this page yet.

This is my rented used viola.  I like it.  Do you see the white stripe there?  That's the horse hair of the bow..  My teacher explained they are from the tails of Arabian horses.








This is the case.   Just so you know. :D

Here are some photos I like.  Some I took, some I didn't.

 Footprints
Wright's Beach. 
Photo by Alex

Sand Sculpture with Shells
Wright's Beach
    By Alex.

At Shell Beach
by me








I will close for now and continue dreaming of the coast.  Sewing updates soon. But for now, it's  . .  . .

Bye bye.

A Confession

A good Saturday morning to you.  It's good in spite of my having to make a confession.  Although I have been knitting daily on my Knitting Project #1, I haven't done very much at all on my Sewing Project #2 since my last post.  There it is. My goal of a sewing project a week has stalled in the 2nd week.  NEVER fear!  I am determined to do these remaining 66 projects in 15 months.

My friend, Helen, has taken possession of the Valentine scrub top and in February, I expect to see a photo of them both.  

Have you ever heard of the Cloud Appreciation Society?  No, really, there is one.  There are members from all over the world. It was started by a British man. I've belonged for about a year.  Once in awhile they send an email.  In it there are beautiful photos of clouds.  Here are some from them and then I'm adding some of my own.

This is a very cool fish cloud.  I didn't take this. I don't know who did. It's from the CAS.

Fire breathing cloud dragon?  Again not mine. I wish I could give the photographers credit, but I don't know who they are.

This is one I took.  I call it 'Cloud with a Claw". Can you think of a better name?

From my window, early morning with some vapor trails.  What a gift from God!




And here is one more.  I took this one on a recent trip with my grandson to Oregon.  This is near Astoria, a bit south.  When I look at it, I think of how clouds are so immense that they make the huge rocks and cliffs look tiny.

Have a lovely weekend.  More about 'finishing the unfinished' next time. Ci vediamo presto. (See you soon.)

It Had to Happen

Suddenly from somewhere deep in my head the vision of another unfinished project surfaced. So numerically speaking, I'm back where I started with 66 projects to go.  But who the heck is speaking numerically?  Because I have one completed project and 66 to go, not zero completed projects.

A lime green fleece vest is in my future.  The pieces have been pinned in place.  I did that sometime before June, but it went no further.


                                                                    
I have been working on my red blouse. Speaking about a red blouse, I'm very fond of Antonio Carlos Jobim.  Do you know the name?  Were you cognizant in the 60's?  I loved Brazilian jazz/ samba.  I still do.
What's she talking about now? You ask.  Still Antonio. The second cut on his 'Wave' album is 'The Red Blouse.'     I have his albums Wave and Tide.  I had no clue how to attach the MP3 to my blog so I went to Youtube.  Alas, no Antonio playing The Red Blouse, so this is the one I picked.  Normally it's an instrumental,   I like this one anyway. I hope you enjoy it too.      The Red Blouse by Nos Quatro
Do check out Carlos on Youtube, he's there. Or you could listen to samples. here.


My aqua hoodie is coming along nicely.  No photo yet.  It excites me to do something new to me and have it work out.  So putting the sleeve stitches on to scrap yarn, casting on new stitches and  then going on with just the body of the sweater just made my day.  I am trying hard to finish this by August 1st, but as I started the blog on July 9th, I have until August 9th to finish.  We will see.


Quiet little drum roll here.  Presenting . . . . .In person . . . . . that 35 pound bundle of fun . . . . . . 
                                   Sophie Louisa Marie 

Oh, believe me she is a bundle of fun.    She's just darn cute when she's asleep.

        
This her more vibrant self. You might want to mute this, I'm loud.

More stuff as soon as I can manage. Hope your day is sparkling.

Oops

As I started to work on Sewing Project #2, I realized that the pattern I posted here was not actually the one I cut out for this red blouse.  So here is the correct one.  Again my close-up photos are not very clear.

I'm making the short-sleeved top like the two in front, but no skirt or slacks.

I have also been sewing for the theatre as I mention.  Doing repair work, taking out old stitching and making some cravats.  You know in the early 1800's in France men wore cravats rather than ties.    The costume coordinator plans to have some group sewing days. We'll see what happens.

Brocade and satin cravats, white breeches, a ruffled shirt and other such things. Enough for now.

And what about the garden? Garden? Yes, just a couple of photos.  It's because veggies and flowers are so wonderful.

A hellebore.

A daylily

My first bell pepper.

My raised bed all fenced in and veggies growing.





Thank you for visiting.  Please come again.  You never know what might be waiting.

One down. Sixty-five to go.

Well, howdy.  And hooray for me!  I finally finished one of my projects.  It's the Valentine scrub top.  How I wanted some great photos, but  I live alone so there was no one but me to take me modeling it.  That didn't work out very well.  I'd hoped to show it with red pants and with black.  Red looked best.  You'll have to take my word on that.

  

So here it is all done.

This is the pattern I used.  I used to have a large bust and regular scrub patterns don't have darts.  So I ended up looking like a chubby RN with shoulder pads like a football player under my top.  This pattern has three different necklines.  I often chose the square as it was so different from regular scrubs.  There were no pocket with the pattern so I cut large patch pockets and added them.  A nurse has to have her tools handy.

A bit of history on my next sewing project.  In 2005, I bought a beautiful pair of shoes. Josef Seibel. Red

                                                                                                                

They are pretty.  Don't you like that black stitching?  I didn't wear them though.  Are you crazy? You ask.  Well,  I didn't have anything to wear them with.  Sooooooo,  I took my shoes to the fabric store.  It's true.  The shop salesperson thought I was strange.  Or different.  She smiled indulgently at me.  So I found this fabric. 

 See the red is almost the same shade and it has some tiny black flowers there.

This the pattern.  I really tried to get a better shot, but when I used the flash it  completely whited-out the envelope.  Perhaps you can  click on it and it will be easier to see.

So for some reason I've had endless troubles with posting today.  Photos not working out as I'd hoped,  trouble placing photos on the page and aligning the text where I wanted it.  I don't know why as I'd not had these problems  before.

Ah, well.  It okay now because I'm done for today.  With posting, but not with my projects.  I need to do some knitting and work on the theatre sewing too.

Come back a see me a few days.  There might be more.  Rowing at 0500 tomorrow and no rehearsal for me until Saturday.  Ciao.

Finished my first week of rowing

Yes, it's true.  I did manage to do all three of this week's lessons..  Big deal you say?  Wait a minute.  Two of those were at 5AM and 50 miles away.  Tuesday morning it was very chilly.  The wind off the river was cold a rather nice change from 95 degrees during the day.  Today not so much wind and we really rowed for a long ways down the river.  Eight row people and a coxswain (instructor) in each boat.  And another coach in a launch watching our technique from a distance.

Just before dawn. Waiting on the dock.  Waiting to be assigned a position.  What a lovely start to the day.

Notice how choppy the water is?  That was Tuesday with all the wind.  Today the water was smooth, but I was too busy rowing. seat 2 in the bow, to get a photo. But I did take one after we got ashore.

We carried it out in the dark, but thank goodness it was light when we had to put it back.  You should see us lifting it out of the river.  Maybe I can get a photo of that on Saturday.  

My class is a mixed group. Young working people and retirees, fit folks getting fitter and not so fit and chubby,. ( This would be me.)  Our instructor is wonderful, informative, caring, and positive.


THE CHALLENGE:   I have been working on my knitting and sewing projects this week and making progress.  I'll have the scrub top done by next post and I've already picked out which one to do next.  The knit hoodie will easily take me the full month to finish.

Here are a couple of finished items from my past so you can see that I do get things done.

Going to church on Easter in their "Little House on the Prairie" dresses.   I used a Hollie Hobbie pattern which had a knee-length or long version.  I just shortened the long one to make it more like Laura's and Mary's.

Ninja Boy AKA my grandson.  His mom is the little one in yellow above.  Making costumes is lots of fun.  That's one of the reasons I volunteered to help at the theatre.



I love to knit socks.  Here's a pair knitted with Noro Kureyon.   I am mad about this yarn  How I love hand knit socks,  the fit is excellent and they look so cool when wearing Birkenstocks.



I close for this time, but I will be back.  To quote a song from Heart, "That's a promise and a threat." Bye