Retirement Week One: Part Two

 So, our patio door was just about worn out, the glass was coming loose from the frame, and the sliding wheels were almost impossible to slide. 

SO about a month ago we got a bunch of estimates, and selected the Window Barn from over in Wellman to come and replace the door for us. They called on Wednesday night and said our door has arrived, can we come tomorrow? Yes you can! I cleared the area, emptied the cook book shelves and removed the old vertical blinds.

Two young fellas came and got the old one out in no time. It was a little chilly, about 40degrees.

The outside looking in.....

And in almost no time at all they had the new one in.

They spent some time making sure it was level and straight, I think they did a great job.

This new door slides with one finger! And we got the built in blinds, so I don't have those annoying old blinds anymore! I love this new door!

Those little blinds inside the door are pretty nifty-Keeps the sun out very well.

And while I had the shelves emptied, I sorted through the cook books, I'm sure Hubs doesn't need all of them!

I just needed one recipe out of one of the books, 

Or it might be this one...I'm not sure, but the rest are boxed up waiting for the annual garage sale day in June.

Then a Gal I hadn't heard from in YEARS gave me a call and asked if I could hem a prom dress....dang it I swore I wasn't going to sew for others, but I also hate seeing the girls at prom with ill fitting dresses, so I said OK.

It's a pretty dress and thank goodness it only needs about 3.5 inches taken off. But look how uneven the lining hems are!

The dress itself went along very well. I marked and serged off the correct amount then turned under a small hem.

It looks very good!, But that lining! I serged it off and started hemming it and it started to run, like panty hose runs. I about had a heart attack! I sewed the run together to keep it from going further, but it was not pretty!

In the end it looks great from the outside, but the inside.......I don't like it.

It looks like it's hanging OK, but that horrible lining fabric is giving me nightmares! Anyways, it's done and gone to its home and I think I can say NO next time!

It's been crazy weather-hot, then cold, then hot then freezing. Poor plants don't know weather to bloom or not.

I had to go to Target for some Easter candy for the kids, and while I was there I thought I'd pick up a few groceries too. 

Look at this tiny package of asparagus, $3.19!

I'll go over to my Aldi's.....Much better!

I ran over to the quilt shop in Amana to pick up the new All Iowa Shop Hop magazine.  Time to think about if we're going to go on a little road trip or not this year.

I also got a quilt top finished 

This cute dog panel has been on the shelf since last year. Time to get it going.

I made easy 4 patches to go with the panel 10 1/2" squares. 

The layout was messing with me, I struggle with controlled scrappy squares. 

But I got it done and added the borders, a little 20" black border and a 5" dog blue print border.

Pretty cute. It's pretty good sized, about 70" X 80". 

I'm thinking about sending it to the long armer.....kind of expensive, but really nice work....I dunno.

Oh and we got a new kitty!

Here's Iris, she just came out from under the bed in Bob's room.

Darling Daughter's Hubs said the cat had to go-she was so upset, my poor girl, she loves her pets so much,  I couldn't let the cat go to the pound, so she's happily settling in here. She's just a youngster and very curious. She loves to prowl around at night and pushes thing to the floor-like Q tips and hair brushes and stacks of fabric! Iris is a pretty little thing, and we already scheduled an appointment  before the appointment to get spayed.

This Little Beauty Named Lyric

 Sew, I picked up this little beauty on October 25. I've been holding off on this post to tell about it because I wanted to run her through her paces.

 This is Baby Lock Lyric. I'm really enjoying the list of things she'll do! She has a nice slim free arm, she also has a nice big extension table and a just right sized free arm tool box insert.  Auto thread cutter, needle threader-and that threader hasn't missed threading the needle yet!- and a good looking stitch, so far on all of them I've tried out!

 She has 5 built in alphabets and can sew them really well. I also needed to have the needle up/down selection, auto tension, and easy to drop feed dogs. The tension is actually called manual in the literature, but it automatically adjusts when you change stitches, but you can also adjust it with the display screen. Good looking blanket stitch and it adjusts size without loosing the nice stitching quality. SO many decorative stitches! I doubt I'll ever use them all, but it's fun to have some and they came with it:-)

 I dropped the feed dogs to test out the free motion quilting ability. It took me a little bit to get the sweet spot for a great looking stitch. I had to manually adjust the tension all the way to the top!

 The stiches look great on the front and the back!

 Here's the cute baby quilt I just finished for a lady at our church. She named the baby Gwendolyn.....
yeah, well Gwennie it is!

 I also put in a bigger needle and did this jean mending job.

 These are a lady from work's sons jeans.

 Lyric sewed though those pocket corners without any hesitation!

 And sewed that thick crotch seam-that's like 6 layers of denim total-without a bit of trouble!

 Good looking patch job!

 These were Carhart jeans, the color is kind of funky in this picture, but again, Lyric sewed it lik eit was nothing.

SO all in all, Lyric passes the tests! I am a little unhappy with having to adjust the tension before free motion quilting looks good, but it does look good when I adjust it all the way to 8. It has a lot more room between the needle and the right side of the machine too, I fit that baby quilt though there like nobody's business! So nice!

It uses the plastic class15 bobbins-the same as my little ol' Brother machine and my old workhorse Baby Lock. The bobbins wind easily and threading the machine is really easy-no crazy loops to find! AND it comes with a walking foot as well as a whole slew of other feet. SO now I better get busy and sew something!

Sewing For Others...the Excuse

I know, I don't really need an excuse to go to Hancock's to fondle the fabric.

 But I did need to pick up a zipper for a jacket for a guy at work. So of course I had to look-and fondle-the fabric. Look at all the fleece!! My goodness, they must have spent their whole;e buying budget on fleece!!

 It's everywhere! And a lot of other pretty fabric too. but really all I needed was a zipper...then how come my bill was $28?

Well at least I did complete the zipper installation!

 I finally figured out how to keep the sweatshirt knit lining from bunching up when I sew in the zipper. I just basted a row of stiching as close as I could to the edge before ripping out the broken zipper.

Worked like a charm!

S.F.O.

That's Sewing For Others...haha!
So I got swamped with a bunch of New Year repairs this week!

Hemmed  A pair of jeans...

Shortened some sleeves....

Patched a pair of jeans...

And did what I could for a pair of wool suit trousers that were just plain worn through in the seat...

Maybe that will hold until they get a new suit.
And one more sleeve shortening project.

I'm not sure how I'm going to do this sleeve. It's fleece on one side and water resistant, ply something or other on the top side with elastic in the fleece side and not on the top side. 
Deep sigh, it's break time I think!!