company & curtains

Well, last week I worked on the curtains for the living room and dining room sliding doors. It ended up being one of the bigger projects that I’ve ever attempted, and I’m glad its done. Each of the panels are 81″ long by 90″ wide, unpleated and hemmed, and there are four of them. My huge cutting table was a help in laying out and cutting them, but to put them together with the insulated lining I had to bring the whole mess upstairs and pin them together on the kitchen floor. They are pretty heavy all finished, but they will certainly insulate those sliding doors nicely in the colder months. Of course they took way longer than I planned.  I hung them up on Friday, but after looking at them all evening I decided that they needed to come down, and the pleats taken out and re-spaced.  Saturday I did just that, and they fit much better and I’m happy with the finished product:       And a closeup:    . 

Justin came on Monday and was here until yesterday morning. I got his christmas-present-coat all laid out and luckily I have just enough wool to make it. He solved my computer issues, and walked me through setting up my emusic account (  a mother’s day gift from Ryan ). Now, I need to figure out what I’m going to play all of this accumulating music on. 
A bit after he left I drove to Portland to pick up my friend Julie, who will be here for a couple days. After leaving the airport, we headed over to Fabric Depot, and browsed most of the store for a couple of unhurried hours before heading back here. Since they were having a sale, I managed to choose this cotton for the dress that I mentioned the other day.  I think it will be a subtle but interesting print to make the dress out of without being a solid color. We’ll drive Julie into Seattle on Saturday or Sunday, and stay for a few days. 
So, we’re off to do a couple of crafty-type things, then go for a walk on the beach.

Read Full Post »

again with the fabric.

 Last weekend Ryan came out, actually, he rode the train to Longview and we picked him up. It was an excuse to get a bunch of insulation for the garage/shop, so we combined the two. It also made sense in the fact that I needed to drive my car to Tacoma / Fife on Monday for a service, and the other closest place is Portland. So, he rode back to Seattle with me, and Richard in the truck, as we were picking up the granite, as well as the large mirror ( 42 x 60″ ) for the bathroom – and more insulation. It is a big garage and shop that we need to get way more efficient. 
Anywhoo, over the weekend, I altered a couple of vintage suits for Ryan; we watched ‘The Astronaut Farmer’ which was great, and just relaxed.

Saturday we went to the caucus. 
In a word: BEDLAM
No one had much clue as to how it worked, and our precinct was made up of about 25 or so. It was a huge turnout, of over 300 ( it seemed like double that to me ) and more than just a little frustrating in the chaotic nature of what was going on. And Loud.  Interesting thing is, Ryan went with us, and there were maybe two people younger than he is. I felt like I was lots younger than the bulk of the group, and would put the average age at around 70.  Maybe all of those newly minted voters had to mind the store. I don’t know, but it seemed odd, even though I know that the demographic here is a lot of retired folks. There is a large elementary school – where were those parents? They can’t all be republicans, or not understand that attendence was mandatory for your vote to count, could they? We laft after about an hour and a half, when things seemed to kind of stall, with our group counting and recounting ( don’t ask me why they had to count nearly a dozen times ???) Funny thing though, today when I got the mail, and the current edition of our local Chinook Observer this picture was what I saw, filling half a page on the second section. (you can click through a slide show at the top of the page, and we are in the 11th photo – which was the one in the paper ) I can say I did my part, and so far, my candidate is coming out well. 

Monday we drove to Seattle. We went to a good breakfast Tuesday morning at http://skilletstreetfood.com/ which was down by the old Sears on First Ave.  It was time for Richard to see what that was all about, so we met up with Justin there. yum – great food, and for cheap!  We are fans. Left there and went to Pacific Fabrics over on 4th to pick up my fabric. They looked at me as though I were someone from the moon. It turns out, they had sent it to Puyallup ( someone must have decided that was the closest location to me here at the coast ). Since we were going near there on the way back ( the car had to be picked up in Fife ) it seemed like no big thing. However, while I was in town, I took advantage of 40% off coupons from Joann’s and Mom and I went there with my half yard ‘sample’ and I picked out the coordinating suede and the lining that will make up the balance of the curtains.
I have only ‘Special Ordered” fabric a couple times for myself. Done it hundreds of times for others while I worked at the fabric store. I really understand the process. That said, when I went to pick up my fabric, produced my reciept, and the clerk went to the back to collect it. She brought it out and one look told me that it was not my fabric.  “I’m sorry, you know that there is no return on Special Orders” was her first reply. Yeah, I know. But. 
But. thats. not. my. fabric.
I explained the whole process to her, and how we had all checked the color / style number against the mfg. website. She suggested that maybe it was a different dyelot. The colors are just — wrong. Shit. I had fussed about the contrast / coordinating color, bought ten yards of it, and now it wouldn’t match.  I am very proud of myself for not launching into a huge fuss ( like customers sometimes do ), but, I went to the truck where Richard was waiting, to get my big 1/2 yard sample. “Where’s your fabric, sweetie?” I couldn’t answer, other than ‘they don’t have My fabric’.  I took it into the store, heart pounding, and was greeted by a very nervous clerk – that made two of us. She saw my sample, and said “Oh, dear” , then said maybe it was rolled on the tube inside out. Seemed like a stretch to me, but what have I got to lose?  I own it, right? Clerk removes tape, unrolls the cloth, and we see that they really did order My fabric.  
I can breathe again. All is right. Clerk is happy, and we part company, each with our own story to tell. 

Now I get to make the curtains.

Read Full Post »

once again…….

I’ve been on ‘the hunt’  for a few days now. Fabric – specifically, the living room curtain fabric. I bought a half a yard last week when we were in Portland and brought it home to stare at for a few days before I was sure it was what I wanted. Monday I called the store to order it only to find that all but one and a half yards were gone. Gone! Just like that. You’d think I’d know better after nearly ten years of working at a fabric store, that sometimes you need to act quickly, but I thought a week was quick enough. Guess not this time.
Well, that made me want it even more. The store did call the mfg. and said it was back ordered, and it would be 12 weeks – with a minimum order of 25 yards.  No can do – I only need 10.  So, I began the hunt in earnest, calling several places, waiting for call backs; looking on the mfg. website – along with dozens of others. This morning I got a call back from Pacific Fabrics saying that they could order ( the mfg had 12 yards or so left ) and I think it is a done deal that in a few weeks I will have my ten yards.  (now I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it really is the one that I think I’m ordering and something’s not getting confused ) 
Once that arrives, then I’ll get the rest of the supplies to complete the curtains, waiting for the 40% off sale at Fabric Depot at the beginning of a month. 
  
I finished my client’s rack of clothes (36 items) on Saturday, and FedEx came and picked them up yesterday. Whew! I am so relieved to have them gone.
 
Yesterday we worked on putting up curtain rods in our room, and hung some sheer drapes in there. Also gone are the vertical blinds from the top of the stairs, the guest room and the bathroom. This makes me very happy. In the guest room we hung a cable type rod that I had used in the Santee house several years ago, and as a bonus I still had the drapes, which only took a new hem to make fit.   I have the linen for a bathroom curtain in my stash.  Richard has finished doing a mock up of the vanity top, everything looks like the right fit, and has faxed the info to two granite companies in Seattle. Now I will continue with removing the wallpaper in the bathroom and paint.  
I keep going back and forth between ‘furring out’ a new wall over top of the existing stone fireplace, and chiseling the cheesy rock off. Currently I think I will try chiseling it off. If that doesn’t work, then we’ll cover the whole thing with new wall. No matter what, it will be a messy event. 
We now have new neighbors in the little red log house next door. They arrived yesterday with a u-haul truck. Not sure if they’ll live there or if its a vacation place.  I hope that they are nicer than the other couple ones who visit periodically, and only want to talk to tell us to cut more trees down to enhance their views.  

Lastly, I saw this and was really amused:
 It was on Yahoo’s home page and is in South Carolina.

Read Full Post »

Its all about fabric.

Fabric is what I think about. Most of the time, in some form or another. When I shop, I feel the need to touch everything – is it smooth, soft, the right texture for its intended use? Color – why did ‘they’ choose that particular shade? 
Currently I am thinking about drapes for the living room. I wake up in the night figuring yardage, and re-figuring it.  I have decided on what I want, now I need to figure all of the various yardages ( main fabric, accent fabric, lining, header tape ).  Drapes are a big thing to me, as you will be looking at them everyday for many years. I am also pondering the bathroom curtain and shower curtain for when we remove the sliding glass shower doors.
Over the weekend I once again rearranged my sewing room. Moved and re-stacked the boxes of fabric in there, and cleared out some other stuff. As a result, I now have a wall of boxes, mostly full of fabric, and fairly well sorted and marked. One single row seven boxes high and fourteen boxes long, nearly to the ceiling ( just about covering the blue floral foil wallpaper in there). This is what 98 boxes of fabric look like:   Well, mostly – I couldn’t quite get it all in the shot. There is more floor space in there now, and it will be better until the cutting table is built.
On Sunday we made a journey into the Portland area. Richard wanted to go to some high performance swap meet, so I dropped him off there and I proceeded to Fabric Depot. I picked him up a couple hours later, and we hit the Mill End Store on the way out of town ( do they ever have a wonderful selection of wool! ). So I got my fill of fabric shopping in one day. Lots to think about, and decisions to make. We drove home logging a bit over 350 miles for the day – bleh – too much car time. On the way there we took a new route, that winds through some mountainous area between Astoria and Portland. At one point we came upon a sign that read : Wildlife info tune radio to 530. I didn’t understand until we came around a bend and were smack in the middle of a herd of about 40 or so elk. We had to wait for some of them to finish crossing the road, or part enough so that we could drive through. (Sunny the whole time was having a major bark attack. ) It was an amazing sight. 
I know I should have been finishing my client’s clothes, but with the weather break that we’ve had the past couple days, I felt the need to help Richard outside some. Yesterday was spent working a burn pile, and cutting up trees and the like.
Today I will sew – there’s still a lot of her stuff to get done. 
Then I can move on to projects for several family members that I have promised out.

Read Full Post »