2/18/13

The birthday weekend

Thank you so much for your kind birthday wishes.  I had a wonderful weekend.  But, I am glad that every day is not my birthday. 

On Friday, I spent most of the day, working on my shirt.  And, working and working and working.  I was surprised at how long it took.  I’ll try to review it tomorrow, because there were problems with the pattern that a more experienced garment maker wouldn’t have thought about, but they puzzled me and caused me to rip more than one seam. 

I pulled out Ken Moore and we spent the day getting re-acquainted.

  100_4852

I forget how well we get along.

After about 7 hours, my topstitching got kind of shoddy.  On Friday night, Rob came home and informed me that he was taking me to dinner…no questions asked.  That sounded better than the chicken I was thawing, so out we went.   

On Saturday morning, I took off a cuff and put it back on again and took some stitching out of the yoke and put it back and then I was ready for buttonholes. Ken is a Griest straight stitch and I don’t have a buttonhole attachment, so I used my white Featherweight, Alba and a Singer buttonhole attachment. (My buttonhole attachments make better buttonholes than any more modern machine I own.)

Buttonholes went in perfect and then an hour and a half sewing on the 11 buttons by hand. Anyway, it looks good. A bit too slim, so after our big dinner that night, I was not really breathing.

A little before lunch, Rob took me to the hardware store and I tried to weigh down the back end of his truck with stuff for my garden, and then he and I went to lunch.  Saturday afternoon, we rested and got ready for dinner that night.

We had dinner with our friends LD and J.  You’ll recognize LD, but I’m not sure you’ve seen J before.  She’s been my quilting mentor and taught me many lessons about consistent seam allowance, neatness on the back of the quilt top and tight bindings. 

photo

We had a lovely dinner with lots of laughter and talking and then we went back to LD’s and had brownies that Sydney made and ice cream and candles, and they sang happy birthday to me…I cannot tell you how many years it’s been since anybody sang happy birthday to me.  I rarely let people get that close.

On Sunday, I cooked and cleaned, and then went out and worked in the yard, and then back in to finish a few things I had started.  I managed to clean house through all the brutal parts of War Horse, and believe me, that took control not to pay attention to. 

Sydney did not think that I deserved a three day celebration.  Poo on her.  It was wonderful to answer questions with “doesn’t matter to me”, and if they persisted, “I’m not answering questions today”. 

I know that she is afraid because tomorrow, we are back to the doctor to see if we can schedule the surgery.  She isn’t expressing it like that, but I know that’s what is up. 

Be well.  Have a wonderful Monday.  Let’s go make some money! 

Lane

7 comments:

Peter Lappin said...

The shirt looks great, Lane. I look forward to reading your review!

andsewon said...

Shirt looks great on you Lane! What a lovely picture!!! Aren't good pals just icing on our birthday cakes!!!! I do understand Sydney being afraid. Any surgery minor or major is like that for me too!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a great birthday weekend. I have one friend who celebrates for the entire month of her birthday. Hope all goes well with Sydney's appointment. Thanks for sharing.
cindy

Carla said...

LOL.. I try to celebrate for week.

Of course it helps that my daughters birthday is the 2nd and mines the 5th so we celebrate together. Can't believe it's almost here. eek

qltmom9 said...

Glad your day was happy~
Schedule the surgery to GET IT OVER as soon as possible...less time to think about it for her.
Love the color of the shirt!
Oooo...I wish you could show me how to use the buttonholer!
Lucy~

mssewcrazy said...

The shirt looks very nice-great color. I was gifted a ken more rotary like that,had to get new cord and foot control and gave it some lube and oil and got it to stitching nicely. You must really like it if you used it to sew the shirt. I haven't sewn anything on the one here yet so just wondering what you thought of it.

lw said...

Your new shirt is a good color for you, and it looks good in the photo. I am also surprised by the amount of time it takes to sew shirts or blouses-- tons of details. It's a good thing to enjoy the whole process and not just wearing the results.

I'll keep a good thought for Sydney. The reality is rarely as scary as we imagine it. When I was 10, the doctor sent me to the hospital to have treatments for asthma that involved having a machine force oxygen and inhalant medicine into my lungs, and I was scared to death that if they set it wrong they would blow up my lungs like a balloon until they popped. I tried everything I could think of to talk my mother out of doing it. I still remember how scared I was, until they put the mouthpiece in my hand and I realized I could take it off if it hurt. It turned out to be pleasant; I remember watching my fingernails turn from white back to pink whenever I got the treatment.