Thursday, August 28, 2014

Back to Sewing

Well, it's been on again, off again with my sewing; but it's on because I need some positive "therapy".

I have Fibromyalgia and Sjogren's Syndrome both of which are Autoimmune illnesses.  Both have a lot of overlapping symptoms which include overwhelming fatigue, and constant all over pain in my joints and muscles.  In addition to the pain and fatigue, Sjogren's also causes dryness in your eyes, ears, nose, skin, mouth and even some internal organs.  Though I do have all of the above the worst of the dryness is the mouth which is sometimes dry and burning, and the eyes which feel like I got sandpaper in them. Today was a really bad day with yet another flare up so that even my hair hurt, and all sounds were amplified.  So, I went for my Physical Therapy, spent time in the warm water pool, picked up my meds, and after dinner went into my sewing room for some Sewing therapy.

Had to bring my sewing machine in the other day because the screw holding the needle in broke off and there was no way that it could be replaced.  So, today I cut out a few projects, and put everything that I needed together.  So, perhaps this weekend I'll pull out the machine I picked up at a garage sale for $10, and finish some projects.

Having everything together before you start sewing a project is like having all the ingredients together before you start a recipe.  You don't want to find out you are missing a key ingredient when you are halfway through a recipe and you have to run to the store.  The same with sewing.  Even though you can easily set aside a sewing project until you get the necessary "ingredient",  your momentum is lost.  So, a project that might have been completed that day, may languish for days, weeks or months before you start again.

So, tonight I'm sitting with two heat packs and trying to relax my muscles, then will take my muscle relaxers and hope they kick in and give me some relaxing sleep.  Looking forward to getting back my sewing momentum and posting what I've been doing.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Placing a Value on Your Sewing

This post started because I saw an article on Sew Mama Sew on Placing a Value on your Quilts .  After reading it and following all the links on the subject, I knew I wanted to keep this for future reference.

I am just finishing a quilt for my DIL's friends' son.  It's a TShirt quilt using his shirts from his 10 years as a cub and boy scout.  He just got his Eagle Scout award and this is his remembrance of his scouting journey.  Now, we had not discussed costs and I was unsure of what to charge.  I have quilted in the past; but only made it for special people: a quilt for my son from the shorts I made him the year he went to college.  A double wedding ring quilt I made with my sister Alice for my Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary.  And last year, the quilt I made for my granddaughter using 4" squares of knit fabric that I had machine appliquéd letters, numbers, and her name.


The first articles are on the subject of how We are Sew worth it.
The following articles are from Hunters Design Studio
Sew Worth it  and this

What's it Worth?and then this…

What's it Worth? A Bigger Picture 

and an invoice
The invoice in MS Word is here (you have to do the math and type it in) >> Sew Worth It – Word InvoiceTemplate
The invoice in MS Excel is here (does some math for you) >> Sew Worth It – Excel Invoice Template
And Molly Sparkles tells us that No Value Does Not Equal Free
And yet another article on The Worth of a Quilt by Quilts of a Feather detailing how she priced one of her beautiful quilts.  
Don't know if it will help me for this time, but it certainly is something to consider for the next time.  

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

This would be a fun girls project to do.  
http://chewynoodles.blogspot.com/2011/09/wrap-bracelet-tutorial.html

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