Third appointment, tote bags, courthouse step blocks, and a show

Well I made my third appointment for last week. I met my new stylist, and I like her very much! I am having some hair issues - we will leave it at that - so I need to go back and see her again this upcoming week. Meanwhile, I forgot I needed to get more tote bags made - duh! I always need tote bags! LOL! I worked on cutting up the fabric Wanda had sent me and with some others I already had cut out, I sewed together 7 regular sized bags and three drum head bags. The regular bags finish at around 15 x 15 and the drum head bags are around 18 x 18 inches.

I did get three more courthouse step blocks made.

My nephew had a show that was local, so I drove myself to the show. I was there about 2:30 for load in although they had gotten there early and already had the trailer almost unloaded. The venue had a tent and tables set up for merch so that saved us some work

Michael was the headliner and didn't go on stage until 8:15 so I had time to kill. I worked on fixing the comforter. I don't know how many areas I fixed, but I took out 11 of the safety pins I had used to mark damaged areas. As I would fix those areas, I seemed to find at least one or two more places that needed some TLC. Pretty much I am going over it with looking closely at every square inch. It is hard to know how much more places need fixed, but it was a good project to work on while I sat at the merch booth.

The crowd was sparce - maybe 125 - but the band put on a great show.

It was the pizza fest so afterward someone gave us a pizza. After being there since 2:30, by 10:30 everyone was a bit hungry.

I got to bed at 11:45 pm. This morning mom and baby were grooming themselves in my backyard. Baby is almost as big as mom!

If I go anywhere today it will be to get that comforter in the mail otherwise, I have to get projects finished! My worktable is in a very messy state right now full of partially done projects!

Onward I go!

Second of three appointments done

I had my doctor's appointment with my kinesiologist/chiropractor/functional nutritionist. He says I throw him some real curveballs. I been having a problem with itching especially the tops of my ears. He checked me out and recommended a couple more supplements to take. I do feel so much better with the TLC I have been getting from Doc and it is worth every penny I pay. I have a bunch of small containers I use to put together what I need to take in the morning and evening. It makes it easier to do this once a week rather than as I need them. Here is my container of supplements and my evening supplements. The container is fairly full right now but there are two supplements that are almost gone and I don't need to continue taking those once they are gone.

I made a stop at Menard's since it is on the way home and picked up that container for my supplements and a few smaller ones. I must have spent 45 minutes opening the new bottles of supplements and combining the new bottles with the old of the same supplement. Then I needed to mark the lids for the new ones with the amounts to take per day. All that killed probably an hour! Here are my morning pills all ready to go.

I bought some of these smaller containers for myself and for work. They were very inexpensive and stack nicely. I now have a place for my smaller binder clips.

At work we have an area for paper plates, cutlery, condiments, staplers, tape, etc. Well, the table was dirty! I cleaned everything up this morning. I used three of the smaller containers for spoons, forks, and condiments. I even labeled the containers! LOL!! It looks much better and it's cleaner!

I have a big list for the weekend: hair appointment, finish the leather jacket, fix the comforter, mow, work a show, and protest. I am going to be busy! Have a great holiday weekend!

Worked on the Wick sampler

I have been trying to get the border done on the Wick sampler. I only had one more repeat of the daisies and I decided to take a break from the jacket and work on the border. All I have left to stitch is the stems on the left side and the bottom.

After I get the stems done, I can start the fun stuff of adding little motifs that relate to the Wick series. I have this dog that I copied off a sampler my sister was stitching.  This will be Good Dog.

and I need to figure out where I can stick the license plate number from John's beloved 1969 Mustang.

I will be adding more as images come to me.

Big progress on the jacket, cross stitch present, and more flowers

I was tired when I got home from work, but I persevered and started working on the jacket. First, the cuffs had to come off

I needed to fix the seam that went from the side of the jacket to the cuff. As you can see here the seam had come apart.

Before I fixed that I had to reinforce the other sleeve seam, a faux flat felt seam, where the thread was gone and where the seam was coming apart at the elbow. So I ripped open the seam and topstitched the faux flat felt seam.

While I was at it, I topstitched the sleeve faux flat felt seam as some of the stitching was missing.

The seam was sewn back together and reinforced where I didn't have to take it apart all the way from the side to the cuff. After I finished one side, I repeated the process on the other side.

After I reinforced the stitching on the back yoke and by the pocket on the front, I got the lining positioned for stitching. I used small binder clips to hold the lining in place. When I worked at the shop, I used binder clips all the time when constructing leather jackets. This was way before the expensive plastic clips that are sold now. Binder clips do a great job and they are inexpensive - just saying!

The lining is attached! I also had put a piece of lining fabric in the armpit of the lining and attached that to the armpit of the jacket to help keep the lining in place.

The cuffs are in rough shape. They are torn, stiff, and some of the leather is gone.

I took them out to the garage and sprayed them down with that conditioner.  It will be easier to repair them if the leather is softer.

I have used a lot of that conditioner, and it has made an incredible difference on making the leather soft and pliable again! You can see how much I have used on this jacket. It is not greasy at all.

I think I have figured out how to repair the cuffs. It all came to me this morning in the shower; that is where I do my best thinking! There is also a tear on both sleeves in this area, so an intentional looking patch will be sewn to reinforce this spot.  Thank goodness I had that piece of brown leather in my stash!  At the shop the place was overflowing with containers of scraps of fabric, Ultrasuede, and leather.  We were allowed to take anything that was going to the trash.  I can't tell you how many times I have gone into the scraps of  Ultrasuede and leather over the last 22 years to fix or repair something!

I forgot to post the picture of the two cross stitch pieces I sent my sister for her birthday so here they are.

And finally, my African violet has two more flowers!

River map, another zig zag top, and a groundhog

I got the headlight fixed in the car - Yeah! One appointment done, two to go. Here is a map of the Cuyahoga River and where the venue is located that the band played at on Sunday. You can see the river is not straight! It is a lot of navigating to get around those bends.

For some reason I have a lot of different projects going on at the same time. Usually, I am pretty much monogamous. Here are more of the half and half blocks that were sorted out by my helpers a couple weeks ago.

I dug thru my fabrics to see if I still had any of those fabrics so I could make more blocks. Here is what I found. They are smaller pieces, so I will just cut them up into 3 inch strips and piece whatever I have into the half and half blocks.

There was a big groundhog having an afternoon snack. I was watering the plants when I saw him. There are more that live in the field behind our building.

What a weekend

I had a quilt I wanted to make so I dropped everything else and worked on it Friday and part of Saturday. Wanda had sent me these stripes

Here are the blocks I have made so far and the strips for more blocks. I was hard to stop working on this!

I have to leave at 3:00 on Saturday to head over to my brother's house. The band had a show in South Euclid. The load in and out was a pain. We had to drag everything up and over a mulched area with curbs on both sides and it was on a slope. Here is the merch booth. The stage lighting was so bad I couldn't even take a picture.

I got to bed at 11:45 P.M. and was up at 7:15 A.M. I needed to make a few tote bags before we headed to the next gig. There was only one bag left.  Yes, we had a gig on Sunday in Cleveland. Michael's girlfriend gave me a three yard piece of fabric that I was able to cut quickly into 5 bags. It was plenty to get us thru the gig on Sunday.

The venue was right on the Cuyahoga River in an area call The Flats. There were people kayaking

Here is the water taxi

There were all kinds of boats and bridges with a wonderful cool breeze

We got there kind of early - we had left my brother's house at 11:20, and two bands played before us. They were both really good.

We set up a merch table next to the stage and thank goodness I got to sit under the beer tent. Even though there was a wonderful breeze, that sun was hot.

The band put on a great show and the crowd loved it. As they were playing this ship went by. The one of the guys on the ship was either recording or taking a picture as the band played and we all were waving at them and they waved back. It was a huge ship!  The pictures just don't give the sense of how big this ship was!

We got back to my brother's around 5:00. I made three stops on my way home to pick up groceries so by the time I got home it was 6:30! I put all the cold stuff away, got something to eat and was in bed by 7:45. I was tired as it had been a long couple of days! I did get a second application of conditioner on the leather jacket. It will be dry by the time I get home so I will have to stop everything else and try to get some work done on it.

I have three appointments after work this week - one headlight needs replaced on the car, my kinesiologist/chiropractor/nutritionist appointment, and the hair needs some serious TLC!  It's going to be a busy week.  Oh, and I need to mow too.  LOL!!