August Update...and My New Mission from God

Random shot of downtown Mobile at night - police patrol on horseback! Very cool.


We also went to the Journey concert at The Wharf in Orange Beach with friends, and this is in the ladies' restroom at a cigar bar - love it!


Since Drew had a job as a waiter all summer (thank you, God), we didn't take a big vacation, but did do a deep sea fishing trip out of Orange Beach. This is Drew and his girlfriend, Camille...


and this is Camille's sad face when the guide told her she couldn't keep her triggerfish because it wasn't big enough.


I love that you can tell these are brothers, and not just by their haircuts and faces. I took them to Academy to get fishing shirts, and they chose the same style.


Here's the entire haul - yum!


Also, Lucas turned 15 and wanted to take friends to Owa, so there he is just above the camera with legs flying around. I loved that place, but wait for the trees to mature or the weather to cool off one, because it is HOT! Nobody passed out, though, and the rides rival Six Flags over Georgia.


And now, the piece de resistance! This is the Silken Straw Summer Sweater that I found yarn for last year during our Grand Canyon trip when we stopped in Flagstaff at a fiber festival. It took me 5 months to do it, but I finished it this weekend. Let's have a look...what a beautiful fabric it makes!


But a wee bit snugger than I was hoping for. Oh well, everybody on Ravelry says it grows, so I'm optimistic.


Well yessiree, they were right! Ignore the mad face, I just make that a lot now that I'm 50. I do wish it wasn't that long, but I'll make it work with better bottoms...because Lucas said it looked "bad" with these pants.


So here's the unblocked neckline, and I visited Heidi at Mobile Yarn because it said to line the neck and arms with I-cord, but I couldn't do it, so she showed me a crab stitch, which is single crochet going backwards (to the right). That finishes it neatly and keeps the opening from growing like the length does.


And here's that after blocking - what a difference!


So yeah, it perfectly matches Dean's most-hated pair of pants I own, so I'll wear these out to dinner with the ladies at some point.


And it's perfect with my CVS leggings! Now to find some leggings I can wear with it in public, since I stopped in Target tonight to get an appropriate camisole, as it is indeed see-through. And I have to be more careful with my blocking, as one side sags more than the other to the point that it looks asymmetric on purpose.


We break for an artistic potato chip dropped in the sand during Dean's birthday beach cookout at Fort McRae near Pensacola.


And these are 7 of those ugly dolls that my MIL made in 2 weeks - yes, mine took me a month, and she made 7 in 2 weeks.


Okay, if you're still here, then I'll tell you about my mission from God. I had a patient who was waiting in the hospital almost 3 months for a heart transplant, and her mom said she could use a smile. I immediately thought about Lucas's videos, but they're a little violent, so I figured we could make a happy video instead, which also would mean starting a new YouTube channel to put it on. I asked for her favorite song, and enlisted Lucas to film my office staff dancing to it (Bruno Mars 24K Magic, if you can believe that). We did it in one take with no prior planning, and only one person knew the words, so that was rough, but I was happy with our effort. The evening after we filmed it I had to drive across the Bayway to go to a work function, and I got this sudden feeling that my patient wasn't going to make it. I mean I even started crying, but then it occurred to me that other kids might be stuck in the hospital and might like to see their own doctors dancing and being silly. This whole plan unfolded over the next 30 minutes or so, and I realized we could even film dances to encourage sedentary kids to get up and dance while they're watching the videos on their phones, and the patients could even request certain songs or doctors, etc.

So that was a very weird thing, but I texted Lucas that I'd pay him extra to get the thing edited and uploaded before he went to bed so I could send it to my patient's mom that night. The next day at 10 AM, a doctor from the hospital called to tell me my patient's heart stopped, but they were working on her. That's when I knew that God put that whole plan in my head. She ended up living with the help of machines for another week before she died. And that's all I have to say about that.

So we've made 4 videos with a 5th one due out next week, and this is the biggest one so far that we filmed at the hospital. Pretty good work for a 15-year-old with an iPhone camera, I think, and his editing is superb! Feel free to share it with anybody who could use a smile.

I LOVE THIS TOP!

Sorry for shouting, but I MEAN it - this is my favorite thing ever! (You'd get the typical spazzy open-mouth grin here, but I'm trying to channel Alabama Chanin's models, who are usually very serious...and barefooted.)


This is showing you my boo-boo at the bottom of the side seam where I took too shallow a seam allowance and my felling didn't catch both layers...whatever, I'll go back and fix that.


And make a serious swayback adjustment, plus using a size larger, though I don't really think it looks THAT bad. All the pictures I've looked at from women who've sewn these tops show them fitting rather snugly.


And also my neckline stretched a bit, and I forgot to stretch the binding slightly when sewing it on. It's a lot easier to do that on the machine than while you're handstitching, but I did better with the armholes. I just love the neckline of this thing and how it fits. This is going to ROCK as a Mardi Gras dress pattern!


Unless I make the corset instead....


So of course I had to go buy the first book that has the corset pattern.


Plus I picked up more button craft thread at Joann, and found out that Hancock has it too, just in fewer colors. So dark green and dark blue are the only colors besides red in the whole town, plus a few shades of brown - what gives? I also found out that they don't carry cotton jersey, but fortunately I have some sort of cotton jersey with rayon that I bought at All About Sewing in pink and blue, so those are up on the cutting table next. Oh, and here's a close-up of the neckline stitched by accident with single strand thread, and the armhole stitched with double thread - makes a big difference.


Uh, also a lot harder to fix screw-ups when using double-stranded thread, because you can't just unthread the needle and pull out a couple of stitches. You have to either cut it and knot it then start over with new thread, or if you get very lucky you can go backwards through the same hole - which I was able to do once (because the Lord is my seamstress - see my revised Psalm 23 on sidebar). Also, I just googled "the Lord is my seamstress" and my blog post was the very first entry - get out!

If You Give a Club Some Sailboats

If you give a club some sailboats, they'll want to meet up together in a quiet bay.

You'll tell them not to run over the nice man with his son in the tiny sailboat with the blue sail, because the man's wife is a famous sewer who has connections to Sandra Betzina.

They will ask what there is to do there, and you'll suggest they have wine and cheese and spend the night. This will remind them that there's a basketball game on, so you'll have to get them a TV to watch the Kentucky upset (but how nice for West Virginia to win after 51 years).

When they wake up, they'll ask you what the dinghies are for, and you'll tell them to putter over to a little island for brunch. (Most likely it's brunch. But it could be that they're an odd boating cult sacrificing a goat to hold off the rain. Then we'd have to call this "If You Give a Cult a Goat." Or maybe someone is a famous sewer and is doing a little demo on plackets..."Do you see?")

They'll ask you what they should do next, and you'll remind them that you gave them sailboats, so they should do just that.


And I didn't make it to the church on the beach that I was going to visit because I got up too late, but God smiled at me anyway. That's what I think when the sun shines through a tiny hole in the clouds like that, or when a tiny bird poses for a picture next to me.


Now why did I spend an hour making this sound like a children's book - I've got jeans to finish!

The Lord IS My Seamstress!!!

Well I know you're sick of hearing about the dress, but I had to sew the zipper seam up completely because I had left a tiny spot open wondering how to get rid of the pucker. So I decided last night to use the iron and finish the dang thing, but I needed to remove some basting I put in first. So I rip some stitches out then unzip it to get to the inside seam, and....you guessed it, the zipper pull came right off! Yes, I cut off the bottom of that zipper but I had some stitching that was stopping the zipper pull, only I didn't realize it was the stitching I ripped out.

It was a humbling moment. My first thought was, "Not again!" My next thought was that God did not want me to wear that dress. But something said maybe this is how to solve the dang pucker problem without ripping out a whole seam. I tried for a few minutes to get the pull back on the teeth with no success. Then I was nearing desperation and I figured I'd throw it under the machine and finish the seam up while the zipper was undone.

I did this, and what do you know - that pucker is so much better now! Then I tried about 5 minutes and got that zipper pull threaded right back on the teeth, and hand-stitched the rest of the seam closed. SUCCESS! That dress is now ready for wearing. So the lesson is if God gives you lemons, then maybe you should get some sugar and a pitcher and get busy!

Psalm 23 for Sewers

I put the zipper in last night, and near the bottom it got a little willy-nilly before I got control of it again, so I figured it'd be all buckled up when I pulled it out, but miraculously it was fine. I said, "The Lord is my seamstress!" (Yeah, I talk to God - see The Cruel Shorts post from 9/14/09) Well that started me thinking, and here's what I've worked out over the past 18 hours. The punctuation and capitalization are from the NIV.

The Lord is my seamstress, I shall not rip.
He makes my darts lie down without bubbling,
he leads my zipper foot close to the coils,
he restores my confidence.
He guides me in paths of good fabric selection
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of stretchy knits,
I will fear no wavy seams,
for you are with me;
your Brother PC-420 and your walking foot,
they comfort me.

You provide a tall cutting table before me
in the presence of my backache.
You anoint my sewing machine with oil;
my bobbin overflows.
Surely sewing mojo and an automatic needle threader will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will sew in the house of the Lord
forever.

Didn't Make it to Church

I didn't make it in to my usual church today. Do you think I missed anything? By the way, there were 4 dolphins who joined me in the congregation at the dock. I caught 3 in this picture - the 3rd one is far to the left. And the squawking pelican took away a little bit from the mourning doves - I think the choir director needs to work on that. But the sermon was most excellent - we had the Big Guy himself in the pulpit, wouldn't you say?

Need a Lift?

You can only watch your child go through a stomach virus for so many days before you lose it. Lucas is on his 6th day, and I'll spare you the gory details. Suffice it to say that immediately after eating his grilled cheese tonight, Lucas ran to the bathroom, whereupon Drew stated, "Now the wailing starts." Get the picture?

But I get ahead of myself. After wiping a tushy for the 5th time today (1st time was at 5:30AM, thank you very much), I was a bit snippy with everyone and so left the house in search of dinner and a breather. Despair was setting in, because I love Foosackly's but these kids don't, so what are you gonna get at a drive-thru? Then it hit me - MILO'S!!! Now these kids DO love Milo's when they can get it, which ain't much because Dean HATES Milo's. I think it's more the principle of it than the taste that he abhors, but my principle was the one buying dinner tonight, so I headed that way.

Now open up some car windows and get some Milo's and turn this song on and you'll get right, as Daddy used to say. This has been my favorite song for the past 3 months; just go down to "Play the song" and select how you want to play it, should you accept this mission. And I don't say that lightly, as this is a RELIGIOUS song and NOT for the faint of heart. No, you won't hear "Jesus" in it, but "mercy" and "grace" do make appearances and the name of it is "For Your Glory," for Heaven's sake! Ahhh.....a religious pun.....go girl!!! So, Scott and Dean (I know you're reading this), you should avoid this; but Mother and Tracey, do check it out. It's rocking and I've picked it out on the piano and you should hear Lucas sing it! Plus you can also dance to it - always important.

Needless to say, I walked back into the house a new woman, ready for more stomach cramps and wailing and skipping my Sunday school teaching gig to take somebody to the doctor tomorrow! Rock on!!!!