Summer has arrived

Last week I was wearing a hoodie to ward off the chill and now the AC is cranked up. I really miss having the windows open, but the humidity here is down right cruel. Walking has to be done in the early am or it is just too hot for outdoor exercise later in the day.
  My mileage for May has been very good--89.57 miles logged on the pedometer. That does not include walking back and forth in the house (where did I put my glasses? what did I do with my purse?) and errands that are close by that I was able to walk to instead of driving, plus I rode bikes with my granddaughter a couple of times while she's been here. We went to the Holiday Inn Express this past weekend and swam in the heated pool, but I'm sure the gyro plate I had at the restaurant totally wiped out those gains! Of course the eatery was in walking distance so we opted for that mode of travel.

  I did find the photos of my deconstructed screen print fabric and downloaded them this morning. It's okay but looks a little unfinished to me. Really needs something added. I'm sure I will find the time soon, although I do need to beat the dollar bushes this summer. Waiting tables sounds good right now, but I have zero experience with that and I am pushing 60. With all the weird stuff going on around here, I may have to conquer those fears and jump into unknown territories soon.

Whazzup

Just now realized how long it has been since my last post. Sewing has been reduced to a very slow crawl, in comparison to all the last few months of constant garment construction. I do have many photos to share, but haven't been inspired to organize and post. ???  Guess I need a little distance from the memory of all that labor before I can look at those white dresses again. They really turned out beautifully and I got lots of positive feedback from their people. Soon I'll post new sewing stuff with lots of construction photos.
  Last week I was inspired to do some screen printing. The dyed screens had been laying in the basement for months and I was a bit worried if they would work very well. Especially since we have had so much wet weather here and the basement floor stays wet during rainy periods. Anyway, I pulled some prints onto cotton fabric which had been treated with soda ash solution. Turned out very nice. I may go back and put some other surface treatment on it but for right now it's fine. I did take photos but can't remember if they are downloaded into my files.
  Also there's a few new art quilts in progress. And I have updated my walking sketchbook a little. Taking off a little time to air out my brain, but I will very soon need to beat the bushes for income. Put that freshly aired brain to good use! 

photo used for a trading card

  My grand daughter is here for a few more days. She just graduated from high school and we are chillin' for a bit. The walking continues and my mileage for May is GREAT, plus we had a little bike ride last evening, since the weather was very nice, and we needed to work off some of the massive amount of food consumed earlier in the day.

Slip

This is the slip that will be worn under the second graduation dress. It is constructed from two layers of silk crepe de chine from Thai Silks. The straps are made with some of the vintage lace provided by the graduate's generous grandmother, with ribbon run through the openings in the beading. Of course it looks much nicer on the graduate. My dress form leans in a most unattractive manner.

Will it never end?

The rain seems to have stopped for a while, but the flooding from up river is causing lots of problems for many residents here. Creeks and streams are backing up due to snow melt and the long rainy spring in the entire Eastern US. But you most likely know that if you have watched a news report in the last few weeks. And Osama bin Laden is still dead.
   The sewing has slowed down, and I'm looking forward to a little break. Just a tiny one, because I hate it when things slow waaay down and I'm broke all summer. What I really want is a decent part time job that I can go to, work at, leave it behind at the end of the shift, and get paid on a regular basis. Dream on.

 I have plenty of photos of the things I've put together these last few months, but need to get them organized and ready for more posts on dress construction. That will have to wait til later this week.  But for now here is a photo of the first dress ready to be pressed. Notice my fab cordless iron. It's a Maytag, purchased at the quilt show many years ago. I use it only for pressing these dresses as there's no cord to wrinkle up the parts I just finished unwrinkling. I hate it when that happens!

Mileage

Okay no photos today but my walking mileage for April was very good and I need a little bragging right now. The total for the past month is 89.64 miles and I'm sure I have actually walked more than that with errands where I did not wear my pedometer. Plus today I feel all pure and holy because I walked to the diagnostic center to get a follow up mammogram and that was 3.36 miles round trip. And I'm fine. The new technologies of imaging found a weird spot last fall and it turned out to be nothing unusual. WHEW!! I am probably in better shape than I have been in my entire life and no doubt will be run over by a delivery truck one day while walking for my health.
  Now back to the grindstone..................

And STILL sewing!!

Arrrggghhh----so busy I haven't time to post. But soon I will have something new and wonderful with photos of what I've been up to.

Bizzy (and photo of clematis)

I've been working on the other graduation dress and will start on the third one this week. In addition, I have made progress on the carnival costumes, and am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on that project. The carnival stuff is interesting and I've been making these suits for over ten years except for a few of them. One of the "kings" went to Prince Charles' tailor one year, at least that's what I heard. It got held up in customs and arrived at a very late hour (or so I was told). Looked pretty good in the photos and I'd really like to know what the invoice on that adventure was.
  I have been taking photos of the progress on the graduation dress, but for some reason I haven't on the carnival costume. Maybe I should. When time allows, I will post updates on the dresses. The first one is completed--well--there are a couple of snaps and some pressing left to do, but it is finished and the graduate and her mother really love it.
  Soon I will be working on a lovely wedding dress for a friend's daughter. She wants a vintagey type dress and I have some nice lace and some ideas on how to put it together with a very nice piece of cotton/silk lawn from Thai Silks.

  Not much time for art, although I did get some stitching done today on an art quilt that I started in a workshop led by my friend, Vanessa, a few weeks ago. It is from a photo I took in 2007 in Southern California at Crystal Cove. I have many great pictures from that trip. One of them was the subject of my entry into the last chapter of the Journal Quilt Project at the Houston quilt show. Ahh the good old days.... 
  On the personal front, things are not so great. My granddaughter is in trouble, my dear little grandson has disappeared with his mentally unstable mother, and the marriage counselor fired us today.
Good thing I have work to keep me busy.