Countdown - Day 137

My plan was to lose twenty-five pounds.  All of the changes that I am making are changes for a lifetime.  I need to be smarter about my food choices and smarter about my exercising.  I feel that these changes have been positive.  I'm happy with them.  But I have been stalled out.  I haven't been able to get past the seventeen pound mark for some now.  So when a friend suggested that we take the Body Fit Challenge at California Family Fitness, I was jazzed.  It would provide that jump-start that I need.  Today was the first day.  There are five of us in our group.  We have a personal trainer working with us.  We'll be together for eight weeks.  We worked with the exercise ball.  We did lunges.  We did sit-ups and planks.  We worked with weights.  It felt good.  I'm excited that I'll be working out with people, being encouraged and encouraging others.  This is just what I needed. 

Sew, a Needle Pulling Thread

The material that I bought for my new tablecloth was fraying so Tia and I decided that we would not wash it before serging it.  A couple days afterward, I washed the tablecloth.  It shrunk.  It shrunk so much that it didn't fit the table any more.  We went back to the fabric store and found another piece of material that matched the color scheme even better.  I hope little monkey wrenches like this don't always happen when you're working on a sewing project, but I have a feeling they do. 

I love the colors!

 
On Thursday, Tia and I pieced together the table runner and started cutting out the strips of material for the placemats.  Using her serger, we made napkins and a new tablecloth.  If I had my own serger, I'd probably have a napkin of the week!!  I loved how fast and easy it was.  A tablecloth and eight napkins were made in an hour.  Tia did some quilting on the table runner for me and taught me how to hand stitich the sashing that would go around the entire piece.  Hand stitching?  Me?  Um, I've sewn on buttons. And poked my fingers with the needle whenever I did so.  But Tia is a patient teacher.  She showed me how to do the stitch so that the thread was hidden.  We had a trip to Ashland, Oregon coming up on the weekend. I would have 4 1/2 hours up and 4 1/2 hours back to do the stitching.  I was actually excited. I was hoping I would be as good a student as Tia is a teacher.  But the idea that I might go from idea to finished product was almost making me giddy.  I was making something that no one else anywhere would have. 
We left for Ashland on Saturday morning.  I started doing my hand stitching after we had been on the road for an hour.  I was taking it slow and carefully.  I can proudly say that I did not poke myself once.  It wasn't as hard as I was expecting it to be.  It was actually relaxing.  Who would have thought?  As we were pulling into Ashland, I was putting in the last stitch.  I had finished!!!!!!  The table runner is beautiful.  More beautiful than I had envisioned.  I love it. 





A closer look



Even closer







The back

You Have to Think to Sew

My fabric. The tablecloth is on the bottom.

My sister-in-law Tia and I now have a standing "sewing date" on Thursdays.  Since learning to sew is best done with a project to work toward, I decided that I wanted new table linens: tablecloth, placemats, napkins and a table runner.  I was looking ahead; all of those things required only straight lines.  We went to the fabric store to chose the fabric.  I knew the color scheme that I wanted.  We started pulling out bolts of cloth and leaning them together to see how they fit.  I felt like I was being creative.  I said "Hmm." and "Well, maybe..."  or "Wait, how about this one!"  We found what we thought we wanted and then I saw a piece of material that was perfect for the tablecloth.  The only problem was that it didn't go with ANY of the other material.  We pulled out more bolts and leaned them together with the new material as a backdrop.  Did creative people always change their minds?  Was I making Tia crazy by adding too many bolts to the mix?  Tia assured me that this was normal and part of the process.  Finally we found the right combination.  It had all the right colors and the right amount of large pattern vs. small pattern.  
Since the material that I choose for the tablecloth was exactly the right size for my table, all that had to be done to it was to serge the edge.  Tia had brought her serger over and off I went.  Nervous, but excited.  Nervous that I was going to be The One Who Broke the Serger.  But excited that this part would be quick and easy.  Instant gratification.  In just a few short minutes I had a tablecloth. 
Next was "creating" the pattern for the placemats.  I had four different fabrics and I knew that I wanted all four to be involved somehow.  We played around with how it would look.  We changed our minds.  I looked on the internet for some placemat ideas.  I finally found one that I liked and we adapted it.  Actually I use "we" but I mean "Tia."  Tia has been sewing for so long, she can quickly convert lengths and measures.  I was left in the dust when the placemat I wanted to copy was 14x20 and I wanted it to be 12x18.  I'm see that I'm going to have to get better at adding 2 1/4 inches to 5 3/8 inches in my head.  Maybe I should get some flashcards for that. 
At the end of our session, I had a tablecloth and knew what the placemats would look like.