Tag: Embroidery

Choir again, surgery scheduled, and a new embroidery machine!

How’s that for an odd title? Fairly descriptive though. Wednesday was choir practice, the first one I attended since Christmas. It was wonderful. Life is always better after choir practice! My director is amazing. She plays the piece we will be singing on her piano while recording it. She then adds a synthesizer voice (instrument) to the piano track for each part (soprano, alto, etc.). Each person gets an email specific to the part we sing as a MP3 file along with a scan of the score. It lets me practice ahead of time and get comfortable with what the others have been doing in my absence. We are doing two gospel songs, one baroque piece, two “regular” choral pieces plus the Hallelujah Chorus. Pretty fun!

Thursday I went to the ophthalmologist for a consultation about cataract surgery. Yes, I need it, and yes, he can do it. My left eye is scheduled for 16 April and the right eye is scheduled for 14 May due to the doctor’s vacation in the middle. I am soooo ready for it. It will be back to no glasses for distance and readers for close work, but I am fine with that. The surgery center is in Cedar Rapids, 60+ miles away, so we are just going to stay in the motorhome for a few days at a campground not far away. They want you there at obscene times of the morning! More medical stuff too – dermatologist appointment to look at spots on my hand, and trying to schedule an allergist which is proving more complicated than it should be. The referral nurse at the clinic scheduled me with an ENT, not an allergist, so I am going to have to work it myself.

I have started the sewing for my new granddaughter. One crib sheet is finished, and I should have the second one done tomorrow. The delay is because today I bought a new embroidery machine, a Bernina 500. I was just wasting my big professional 12 needle machine, so I decided to buy a domestic single needle machine. It takes up hardly any space, and it is portable to take to workshops and such, something I was never able to do with my multi-needle. I am really excited about it. I am unpacking it tonight, and hopefully I can get a burp cloth embroidered.

Too much going on to post!

Well the house in Utah has sold, and we have bought a house in Iowa. The prices in the Salt Lake City area are quite high compared to Iowa, so we were able to get a really nice new construction place with better features than the one we sold. About the same size, but with granite countertops, a three car garage, quality appliances, and just all-around better construction. Of course this means getting a 5 bedroom, 2 living areas, and a huge sewing room packed and moved. Anyone who has done can agree it is a terrible job, but it is done as of 2 days ago. I have had hardly any time to do anything fun, but I did get some sewing done. Here is the baby quilt for my niece’s upcoming baby.

I like the Irish Chain design. She wanted something understated, and she likes grays and whites. The white is a bright white Moda and the gray is Moda Grunge which is shot with streaks of white. I used a pale icy blue for the quilting. I am particularly proud of my binding on this one.

I also got a bit of embroidery done on some burp cloths.

We are currently living at the KOA in Salt Lake City. Remarkably quiet and pretty nice. We much prefer staying in our travel trailer to staying in a hotel, and we need to stay here until after the Hamilton show we have tickets to on Wednesday. Then it will be off to Iowa.

Oh, and we did take a trip to Kodachrome Basin State Park a couple of weeks ago. I will do a separate post for that.

Spring has definitely come

It has decided to rain and rain and rain here. We blew past the average rain for March, and there is a lot of snow in the mountains. Today is dry with puffy white clouds and a brilliant blue sky. It sets off the snow covered peaks in a very picturesque manner. My daffodils have decided to riot, the yard is a brilliant green (I bet we don’t need to water for at least a month!), and the mulch is fully down in the back yard flower beds. I still need to buy another 10-20 sacks for the front flower bed, but I will wait until tomorrow.

We have just been busy doing regular “stuff.” We ordered a new Samsung gas range/electric oven combo. Since we don’t have a gas line, we first had to find the right contractor for that job. Hopefully we will have both the gas line and the range installed in a couple of weeks. Kevin has been doing taxes, and it is a huge job. We have income from Utah, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Income from the pensions, farm, oil, and the wind mills do not have any state tax taken out before it comes to us so it is painful. This is also the first full year we have both been retired, and we discovered we hadn’t had enough federal withheld either. Sigh. We have corrected that so hopefully it won’t be so bad next time. I did get some embroidery done for my daughter/grandson. 

Isn’t that fox adorable? Everyone loves my burp cloths. I use high quality prefolded cloth diapers, and they are the most popular baby present I make. The fabric is cotton and the thread is polyester so they can be washed in hot water with bleach. I do not believe in giving impractical gifts!

I have also been informed I am now to make Clay’s baptism gown. My daughter picked out a tailored style with a romper and a detachable skirt. Poor baby is being baptized in July in Iowa – think HOT. The detachable skirt will only be used for the service, and then he can be a lot cooler. I will use some heirloom techniques on it, especially pintucks which I think are very appropriate for a boy. Probably a Victorian embroidery of trinity crosses and a lot of entredeaux too. It will be a blast. Here is a picture of the romper; I will just wing the long skirt. I am using the version shown in blue and white, but I won’t be adding the faux overall straps. Oh, and there might be some religious embroidery where the chest buttons are. I will decide that later. I am also making the entire outfit out of a white broadcloth.

I almost forgot the other thing I made. I altered some high quality queen bed sheets to be 6 inches shorter so they fit the “short queen” bed in the travel trailer. We had sheets we bought at an RV supply house, but they weren’t very nice sheets. We put the altered ones on the bed, and they fit great except that I need to make them narrower. I forgot the sheets are made to fit very deep mattresses, and ours is only 8″ tall. I should be able to get that done before we leave.