A Faithful Companion

January 10, 1999 to November 11, 2013

Stoic, intensely curious, smart and quirky, that's what Sam was.  Cool, hip, unconcerned with anyone except his pack, sort of the Maynard G. Krebs of the dogworld.  Loyal and sensitive.  We had almost fourteen years together.  Mr. Lucky and I have had a tough few weeks making this decision and yes, we are sad, sad sad today, but we know it was the right thing to do.  Not tragic, by any means, in light of so much human suffering in places like the Phillippines but we've been touched and moved by this unconventional dog. 
Sam came into our lives right after I stopped working in the corporate world.  I scarcely knew a thing about dogs and thought every dog just needed the right training to become Lassie.  Now I've learned so much more.  Each dog comes with his own personality, some of it breed related and some of it individual traits.  This picture sums up the difference

Sam, one cool guy, Snowy, my friend's dog,  always eager to please.

Sam made me find out what he needed to make the two of us happy......and that was exercise.  Our first time in a dogpark I saw that all he wanted to do when he was young was run and hunt, just what basenjis are bred to do in their native Africa.  Two visits a day in cooler weather resulted in tired dog, happy owner.  Because of his love for dogparks we have met the most wonderful friends over the last dozen plus years and visited dogparks in many states.  Sam didn't have any need for strangers fawning over him but we loved the social life that came from those visits.

Florida dogpark gang, two legged and four

Sam was highly attuned to me in particular and followed me room to room throughout the day, but often at a distance.  He also followed the sunshine in each room which explains why he loved spending winters in Florida for more than ten years.

On the Florida sewing room carpet

He was never a cuddler but liked having me rub his belly after a meal....and climbing into our bed at 6am to snuggle.

Our friends and family let us bring Sam into their homes for years and we are so grateful to all of them for that kindness.  
We were uncertain when we very suddenly brought home a new dog who had been left at the dogpark almost three years ago.  But Sam was remarkably adaptable and by day three Sam and Lucky were playing hard.  In the years that followed, Lucky was the instigator but Sam was the one who got injured and never retaliated or held a grudge.  Our one dog home suddenly became a two dog house.  Despite their personality differences, we've all been happy together over these years.

In April, 2013

But we've seen Sam decline quickly this past year.  For the first time, he was confused and upset when we returned to our Florida condo last November.  He was virtually deaf and getting cataracts.  When we returned to Maryland this spring we noticed him drinking huge quantities of water and having other problems.  Things had continued to deteriorate all summer and fall and so we had to have that difficult conversation with our vet about two weeks ago. 

Lake Roland and Robert E. Lee Park, home of Sam's favorite runs and hunts

Mr. Lucky was leaving for a trip to CA to see his father so I had six days home alone with the two guys.  We took walks in the woods each day, had plenty of treats for Sam and kept the heating pad in his dogbed turned up.  Hard thing to do but so relieved that we have such a wonderful vet and kind friends who understand because they've suffered this same loss.  Plenty of tears here, laughs at funny memories and happiness knowing that Sam had an absolutely wonderful life.  

Use It or Lose it

My sewing room and supplies merger is almost complete, hooray.  I did not realize how much time an outside project would take up last month and so my sewing time was minimal.  Mr.Lucky and I had two lovely long weekend trips and a few day hikes and bike rides as well.  When I did take the time to walk into my sewing space, I just couldn't concentrate on a new garment project so I enjoyed some autumn decorating instead.  For the last ten years we would have been closing up our home to make the move to Florida for six plus months.  This year I got to add some new seasonal home dec items and also use up some of my enormous stash of supplies.  
Here are the two wreaths I made with ribbons from the wonderful Offray ribbon outlet. 

Eighteen inches of ribbons cut and tied around a straw wreath.  Add some strips of tulle and pumpkin/gourd floral picks.

A large wire wreath base tied with six inch pieces of ribbon and fabric strips.

I'm happy with the results and enjoyed combining the colors and textures.  Next year I think I'll try some fabric pumpkins for the mantel.

Two wreaths, why not two new autumnal pillows.  I used more of those orange ribbons and did ribbon weaving for one of the pillows.  Simply cut a piece of interfacing, place it sticky side up on a pinnable surface (I used a piece of cardboard) then place strips down in a warp and weft pattern.  Iron the interfacing into place to hold the ribbons flat, creating the new "fabric."  Sew up as any ordinary pillow.  I only used two ribbons for mine so the whole project was very quick.

Ribbons pinned onto the left and top edges then woven into a large piece.

Even easier, buy a remnant at the 50% off Red Dot fabrics at Joann's and sew it into another pillow for the other corner of the family room sofa.

I had planned on starting the Chanel jacket sew along that is taking place in the blogging world.  But too many life events have gotten in the way of that plan.  It was nice to have these small projects to at least give me some creative time.  And a winter jacket project will be just the thing to keep me warm for the next seasonal change.
In the meantime, here are some pics from that wonderful family wedding.

My aunt and uncle, cousins and their children

Mr. Lucky enjoying dinner with some more family members.

Fabric Challenge for the Sewing Guild

Way back in May I picked up the pile of "challenge fabric" for the Northern Virginia chapter of the American Sewing Guild.  Now, months later the 80 plus people who accepted this challenge showed off their entries at the October  chapter annual meeting and what a bunch of creative people.  About a dozen people explained their stories.  We laughed and smiled in recognition.  Some people hated the fabric design and wanted to mask it, others like me loved it and wanted to enhance the images.  All of us had a blast and are so grateful to our outgoing president, Tina, and her wonderful board for bringing this fun project to us.  I think the special part was that there were no rules.....just a yard of fabric that showed up in the mail and let you have your way with it.  

Here are some of the pics.....and the back story on my version.

Just a sample of the many challenge items

Very cool fabric combining into a marvelous travel bag.

Textured pillow with curved tucks

The challenge fabric is the piping and the bag for these lovely pajamas

Some people needed what's inside this project.

Never thought I would want to re-cover an umbrella but I love this one.

Here's the way to hide a print you don't like.

One of the funniest stories was from a woman who did not notice that the mailing envelope had arrived at her house for several days.  Guess who "opened" it first?  The dog......  She held up a picture of the 1 yard piece with several two inches chunks torn out of the middle and she explained that there were chew marks everywhere else.  As we all gasped and wondered what she would do with that hot mess of fabric....this is what she pulled out of her carrying bag.....

Braided fabric dog chew toy

Sorry for the fuzzy picture but isn't it great....Shari colored over the print with colored markers and changed it entirely

Hmmmm, as for my entry.  You know how sometimes you envision the sewing project result when you start?  And then when you finish, it's not that's it's bad, it just doesn't look like what you imagined.  Well, that's exactly what happened to me.  I knew back in May when I saw the fabric that I would make a Magic Pencil skirt Magic Pencil SKirt  from it and do some kind of embellishment.  Then I saw Gail Yellin's tasteful bead embellishment in the April Threads issue and at the Baltimore Sewing expo and I knew that would be perfect.  My friend Cathy sent me a great beading site and I ordered a dozen Swarovski sew on beads to place in the water area along the lower hem area of the skirt.  I was going to use Gail's interfaced shaped fabric "hole" with the beads inside.  Of course, since I had months to do this, I waited until the last week of my very busy October.  
So in my hurry, I placed the seven selected crystals in place, used a small template and traced the shape onto the sticky side of interfacing.  I used a short stitch and cut out the center, turned and ironed the interfacing to the wrong side.  Then I went to stitch the bead.....and discovered that all seven holes were too big to support the sew-on bead nicely.  Ah ha, that was the missing part of the directions.  To keep the bead stable, either make sure the edges are close to the shaped fabric hole or use a three sided bead as many of Gail's were.  Me, I was in a quandary.  I ended up sewing multiple beaded guide wires to hold the beads in place....not what I had envisioned but it still gave a watery glitter to the bottom of my skirt. 

 And as one friend noted, it looked like they were crabs in the water.  No, I wasn't trying for that look but lessons learned and still a fun process.  I'll pack it up and wear it in Florida when we visit in May and then take off those beads and repurpose them somewhere.

Relieved to be done and glad to have a day with sewing friends.

It's good to be back blogging after a very busy month.  I've been too busy to even read my blog reader and feel disconnected from this great community.  I'm eager to catch up and see what you've been sewing.

Tying the Knot Over and Over Again

My sewing efforts last week and yesterday have resulted in four more pieced kimono scarves, one for me and three for gifts.  It's been nice to take a break from outside obligations and assemble these  small pieces of colorful fabric into a useful and attractive accessory.  
Yes, I've been up to my neck in appointments and meetings and other obligations but did make time for some personal fun as well.  Mr. Lucky and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary on Thursday.  

Much has changed in those 26 years, virtually all for the better, but we did laugh over the trend on our celebrations themselves.  Sixteen years ago for our tenth anniversary we did a big blow out trip, our first with a group.  We had two days in Paris on our own then went to Dijon where we met up with 13 other participants and two group leaders for an amazing walking trip through Burgundy.  After that astonishing week we crossed back over to England and spent four more days on own hiking the South Downs.  Fast forward sixteen more years, early retirements (probably too early in light of the economy) and this year's celebration was quite different albeit just as much fun.  We attended a free King Arthur Flour King Arthur Flour traveling baking demo and got wonderful tips for pie crust, scones and whole grain breads, a dough scraper along with coupons and 

Bonnie the baker showed us how to make that ginormous apple pie on the table.

I won a fabulous door prize from one of their co-sponsors, Dansko Shoes, another employee-owned company.  I already own two pairs of Dansko and now have a year to pick out any pair from their catalog.  Lucky, lucky me.  

I'm liking almost any selection on this page.

Then I surprised Mr. Lucky with a Groupon to use go-cart racing at a local family entertainment place.  He loved it and I just laughed as I kept spinning out on the "slick track."  Another Groupon for dinner that night and it was a truly fun day.  
But since I am showing you how that dress (from J. C. Penney's, on clearance, with a coupon) looked 26 years ago, I should finish the story of how it looks today.  The basement sewing clean out has been continuing for months now.  That dress has been balled up and moved from one Rubbermaid bin to another over time so this summer I thought it was use it or lose it.  I've been loving making fabric flowers and thought I'd cut up the base of the dress, thinking it was poly satin, and cut it into flower shapes whose petals I could curl with a flame.  Whoops, it's not poly satin whatsoever, it was acetate satin. As one science teacher noted, acetate Burns with a rapid flame and melts when burning.May melt and pull away from small flames without igniting. Melted area may drip off the clothing  Wow, glad I stayed away from the candles at our evening wedding.  So my lovely, romantic pillow idea was abandoned and I merely saved the embellished lace to use in some later project.  

Satin acetate, not satin poly

The dress may be gone or de-constructed, but the marriage goes on....and so do my many sewing project ideas.  

Giveaway Winners and Vintage Machine Update

Lucky picked the three winners in the blogaversary giveaway:  
Marianne, you've won the two fitting books,

Sueann, the two Claire Schaefer patterns are yours and 

Lucky picked the winners....and apologizes if he didn't pick your name.

Carolyn, you won the collection of Vogue patterns. 

Congrats to the three of you.  If you'll email me janem1960 at gmail.com and give me your mailing address I'll ship the packages out this weekend.

Thanks, everyone, for entering, for reading and for being a part of this enjoyable community of creative people.  

I've had a busy couple of days with several appts. and meetings that have kept me out of my sewing space.  But I did grab a moment today to catch up and see that Ed is hard at work on my sewing machine repairs.  It's fascinating to read his blog  Ed blogging about my Singer 500  as he disassembles and then reassembles these grand machines....sort of like watching surgery take place.  I've never been a particularly mechanical person so I have respect and appreciation for people who understand how things actually work....and can fix them.  In such a disposable world, isn't it wonderful that something old can be repaired and brought back to perform its intended function.