Fun with Texture Magic

Played quickly with Texture Magic this morning. I selected this wonderful oriental print that I currently have available HERE because it had easy stitching lines to follow to stitch the fabric to this 'miracle' fabric. There is no indication on the package of the type of fiber it is (no surprise) - but it is slick, and sure feels like acetate or nylon or some mixtre to me. See on the site triangle to the side my stitching pattern following the print. Then - white side up, I just held my steam iron right over it and WALA - it shrank up amazingly - creating the bubbled area you see in the middle of the photo. THEN - from the right side of the fabric - the cotton print - I pressed it - squishing the textue flat - and I still like it as well. In clothing - as embellishment - I figure it would end up smooshed flat anyway.
This 1/2 yard piece will become the front and back yoke and perhaps cuffs or something on a new Creative Sweatshirt Jacket. For now - as I'm PLENTY busy packing, playing with new notions, etc. this is all the time I have to play.
Wanted to share this though - amazing stuff!

Peripety and Gleanings from Esther

Whenver possible, Thursday evenings is my 'school', Beth Moore is my teacher, and the course could be called 'A Survey of Womanhood's Trials and My Solutions" - a study of a book (The Bible) penned by God. I work very hard at doing my 'homework' every morning for my Quiet Time with the Lord. The current Bible Study I and many are studying is Esther by Beth Moore - and last night, I learned a new wonderful word: Peripety. Peripety is a sudden turn of events that reverses the exepcted outcome. It is the hinge in a sudden change. What I love about Beth as a teacher is how she makes it apply - to everything in life. As a woman, she especially does that well for other women.
Applying all this all the way from our current national scene of $ woes - exacerbated by what I see as very pompous 'representatives' in Washington -to how I conduct my own life and business - I come up with these conclusions:
1. My job is to just do my job - to live my life. Honorably. That means as a woman, a wife, a mother, a Grandma, and as a business owner. I need to just pursue a walk with God that is 'so close that the spotlights of this world - be they for me or against me - are eclipsed by His enormous shadow cast on my path'. Quoted Beth there ...
2. If I can do that - and I'm convinced I can only even TRY with the help of God's power as shown to me in the life of Christ - then I can realize that I don't have to be the hinge!!!! As so many other women, I've tried it all - as the 'enabler,' the 'helicopter parent', the one who thinks I have to fix everything. Identify? I am only responsible for what God asks me to do - not how this thing (life) works out. Though, as a Christian, I have faith that God is constantly at work working it all out anyway. What He asks me to do is just to 'do my job' - in a way that honors Him - NOT me!

A quote on my basement stairway 'to creativity' says it all...
" "Don't feel totally, personally, irrevocably responsible for everything.
That's My job! "
God

New Products for Embellishing

Whewww!!!! I'm hard at work - madly at work putting together my NEW presentation for at shows - and then later this year (remember,I have a wedding to prepare for which has me diverted in a fun way!) a new DVD as well - on Creative Embellishments. It has been fun digging through all these wonderful clothes I have (and no place to wear them as I work from home!) though. What I've realized is that the ones I've done more recently are more under-stated in embelllishment - and that is also the direction my Creative Sweatshirt Jackets have gone - understated. Perhaps it is my age - but I think rather it is a growing sense of style and what is good and not any longer that mentality of 'machine dealer wanting to sell feet and stuff'' that I had when I had my retail storefront.

ANYWAY - in preparation, and conversation with new sewing friends (thank you Kathy S.!), I learned about a new product - Texture Magic and had my mind refreshed on an old favorite - Seams Great for use with the newly re-tooled Spinster.

Texture Magic is by Superior Threads and is a package of 18" x 47" 'fabric' that you stitch (stitching pattern will create design) onto fabric, and then steam over top of the Texture Magic and it then shrinks up - causing the real fabric to pucker in a wonderful way! Scroll down to March 6 post to read and see more about this amazing product. Here is a picture from the Blog by Superior Threads..... Way too cool, eh?

OF COURSE, I immediately searched my sources, and found this to be so new that I ordered - oodles of packages - direct from Superior. It should be here on Friday!

Can't wait to play.

The other tool I'm anxious to re-acquaint myself with is the Spinster. The developer shared that they have had manufacturing problems, but worked through it all and with a new mold, it is even a more superior tool. This is a 'drill' type gadget that lets you twist cords, threads, yarns, etc. together and then back on themselves to create a wondeful cord. You can make it into a piped cording by invisibly tacking it to a folded edge of the product I used miles of to finish seams before I invested in a serger WAY back in the early 80's. That product is SEAMS GREAT. I found it hiding at my supplier, so added it to my website as well. Comes in white and black only now - but at least it is still available. I also used it to create serger piping by folding this lightweight knit binding over a tiny cord . then doing a rolled hem edge over it with my serger. Here is a photo of that embellishment on an old class sample - a lovely UltraSuede stencilled vest.

Wedding Gown Update

I'm on schedule - having completed the muslin for a fitting. In doing so, I've established a flattering angled/curved empire line that goes under her bust and then slopes down to the center back. (Want to have lots of typical bridal covered buttons at the back). I added 1 1/4" to the top pieces and 1 1/4" to the skirt pieces at this line for plenty of fine refining room. I also laid out all the pieces on the lace to see if I have enough if the skirt is this big - and yes, but BARELY so. There wouldn't be any extra lace at all for 'matching' motifs on this all-over lace gown, so I still think I'll end up reducing the fullness of each skirt piece to give me more lace yardage for the top. I DO have enough of the border to work with though for straps and the bodice top edge, in addition to clipping it and making it go along the entire hem edge. Yea!

The pink batiste has arrived as well. Thanks, Farmhouse Fabrics www.farmhousefabrics.com. The pink is the palest ever, and will underline the silk taffeta to create ever so slight of a shimmer of pink/coral to the overall effect.

Stay Tuned...

Ramblings for Early March

Hmmmm...... Have you ever notice all the crud around the edges of the carpet in women's dressing rooms??? That really bugs me! Stores...VACUUM your dressing rooms!!
And - while you're in there, take notice to see if the bottom of those full length mirrors are tilted OUT, towards you. If so - that is one dirty trick to make you look slimmer, taller than reality. Consider yourself warned.

New GREAT Book: My dear daughter brought this one to my attention - though I'd seen the author on one of the talk shows and did know what she was referring to. Eat This Not That . I don't ever even run to the grocery store these days without it! For example: Breyers All Natural Chocolate Chip Ice Cream can save you 150 calories and 11 grams of fat over Haagen Daz Mint Chip . Triscuits - Original over Wheat Thins - Reduced Fat. It even helped us fine Stretch Island Fruit Co smooshed fruit in the roll-up type of snack thing that my grandson loves. I know, I know - we could all read the labels, and we sure do in my house after my hubby's heart attack 3 years ago. But, this book makes it simple, simple with photos of each product TO grab on the left instead of those on the right. WalMart had it for under $14 - and a regular $25 book.

I'm in the Esther Beth Moore Bible Study at church right now, and what a blessing it is! From my study yesterday... I write some of what Beth says in first person to myself in my journal, and here from 3-4: "I desire to sit on YOUR side rather than serving myself all the way to meaninglessness. I am called to a purposeful life. I need to always ask myself: Is this a critical moment? A make or break moment? If I make a man-ward vs God-ward decision - will I be left out of a divine loop that would eventually mean everything to me?" She helped me really see that a war is being waged in the heavenly realm and great witnesses in heaven are cheering me on in my decisions. All this from 'for such a time as this" quote from Esther 4:14 where Mordecai sends the message to Esther that she really MUST go talk to King Xerxes and convince him to NOT kill all the Jews.

Beth's study on Daniel really impacted me in ways hard to describe. It makes it so crystal clear how our world has gone so totally askew...we continue to break the first commandment: Have NO other Gods before me. We do that when we insist on someone to get us out of any fix we get ourselves into...whether it be a greedy mortgage we insisted on, or as a company asking the government to save us, or asking the government to pay our medical bills, or when - even as a top government official - we cheat on our taxes! When anything and everything is more important to us than God is - then we have it all wrong, and deserve the trouble we get ourselves into!
Check out Beth's studies wherever you are. She makes the Bible SO revelant to our daily lives - you just can't believe it until you hear her. You can also access many of her products, DVD, CD, and even downloads online at her site: http://www.lproof.org/default.asp

Again - to me, Gov. Huckabee is the only one singing the right song - just "Do The Right Thing"!!!!! Though I often agree with Rush Limbaugh, and I believe his intent is good, he has put himself in that 'God' seat. At least in my humble opinion. I'll listen to him, I just don't make him into the God he wants to portray himself as.

For Huckabee, and for me - that 'right thing' is clearly defined in God's Word, the Holy Bible. In these days of doom and gloom, I trust in the fact, I depend on the fact that God - as revealed in the Bible, and demonstrated to me in an eartly way in the person of Jesus Christ - is all I need for my joy and my security!

Ohh - and I just have to share this poignant tale I received on the internet yesterday...regarding abortion. As a God-made mommy through adoption of 2 infants 27 and 30 years ago, I am unabashadly pro-life. Believe me, it would NOT have mattered if the child offered to us was the product of a rape, or born to a prisoner........none of that mattered then, nor would it now. As our birth announcements said - our children grew IN our hearts, not under mine.
Here is that story - and it matters not whether it is true or not, the principle of valuing LIFE above all else is the same.

A worried woman went to her gynecologist and said: 'Doctor, I have a serious problem and desperately need your help! My baby is not even 1 yr. old and I'm pregnant again. I don't want kids so close together.' So the doctor said: 'Ok, and what do you want me to do?' She said: 'I want you to end my pregnancy, and I'm counting on your help with this.'The doctor thought for a little, and after some silence he said to the lady: 'I think I have a better solution for your problem. It's less dangerous for you too.' She smiled, thinking that the doctor was going to accept her request. Then he continued: 'You see, in order for you not to have to take care of 2 babies at the same time, let's kill the one in your arms. This way, you could rest some before the other one is born. If we're going to kill one of them, it doesn't matter which one it is. There would be no risk for your body if you chose the one in your arms. The lady was horrified and said: 'No doctor! How terrible! It's a crime to kill a child!'I agree', the doctor replied. 'But you seemed to be ok with it, so I thought maybe that was the best solution. The doctor smiled, realizing that he had made his point. He convinced the mom that there is no difference in killing a child that's already been born and one that's still in the womb. The crime is the same! If you agree, please forward. Together we can help save precious lives! AMEN

If you are a woman who fell for the lie of an abortion as a 'solution', you need to know that God loves you ANYWAY! You will see your baby in heaven again some day. All you need to do to insure that is to ask His forgiveness and claim Jesus as the Lord of your life. Go to any Bible believing church and be transparent. There is help for you. If I can even help lead you to the forgiveness God has for you, please email me!