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As previously posted, the power outage interrupted my previous sewing momentum.  After being home finally after a week in a hotel and getting food restocked and some resumption of normal life, my sewing mojo somewhat disappeared.

This past Monday I traveled to Richmond for a state government committee meeting in the late afternoon getting caught up in heavy duty rain, driving through areas where roadwork slowed down traffic to a crawl along with the rain; coming up on a wreck which slowed traffic some more and getting caught in a heavy evening commute, my usual 2.5 to 3 hour trip took me 4 hours.  By the time I got checked into the hotel, I was too tired to go to Hancock's Fabric as is my habit or even Short Pump Mall.  I went to dinner and then returned to my room to do some work that needed my attention via the computer.

Tuesday's business meeting went well but long.  After a quick trip to Nordstroms, I drove back to Roanoke without all the travel woes I had traveling to Richmond.

The rest of the week was pretty hectic work week and my sewing mojo was just gone.  Thursday night was my ASG meeting and after not attending since February, it was nice to have dinner with ladies who like to sew and I got to sit and talk with our guest speaker, Mary Ray.  I was prepared to think this was going to be more about quilting and she does incorporate quilting into her garments; I was delighted to see the garments she has made and some were made using quilting techniques, but the garments are far from the boxy shaped jackets with lots of piece work and the like.  Many of her garments are showcased in Threads magazine which was nice to see them up close and personal.  I walked away from the meeting feeling my sewing mojo to be on the rise. I even purchased her skirt pattern.

With all of that said, I spent about an hour in my sewing room yesterday.  I attached the lining to the skirt and  now only have a few more steps to take to finally complete this simple skirt.  I have begun the process of looking at fabric stash and thinking on to the next few projects; that for me is a clue that I am going to resume my sewing time once again.

Work, work and work

Where I work we held a strategic planning session with senior staff and some of the board members.  This began with brunch on Sunday and extended into the early evening, followed by dinner.  Monday we completed the session and was back to work.  Wednesday and Thursday I have been in seminars.  I was able to serge finish the edges of both skirts on Saturday.  This will give me a jumpstart for this weekend.  I am so looking forward to this weekend when I can sew my skirts.

I have taken the opportunity to view some Flickr photos of what many of you have been working on.  Always inspiring.    I am about to make two shoe purchases soon and will be seeking fabric to go with both. 

I hope to share more later.

Wednesday before the Governor's committee

This past Wednesday I had to make a presentation to a Governor's committee on workforce development.  Normally I wear a suit or a jacket and dress combo for this type of presentation.  With the extreme hot weather we have been experiencing, never knowing if the a/c will be working appropriately at the place where you are speaking and just anxiousness about presenting, can cause me a "power surge", I chose to wear my recently completed KS top and Loes Hinse skirt. 

The knit is wrinkle free, so after two hours of driving, I step out of the car just as fresh as when I got in it.  If a/c is rather cool, I have short sleeves to keep my shoulders comfy.  The outfit makes me feel stylish and self confident thus reducing my anxiety over speaking to this group of strangers. 

All in all, it turned out well, mission accomplished.  Glad I wore it and proud that I made it.

An Award

I normally try to keep my blog focused on sewing related postings. However, I received an award at our agency's annual event last Tuesday night. I am truly proud of my career accomplishments and to be recognized by those I work with and supervise was a great honor. Thus I decided to share this with my sewing friends as well.

I have been fortunate to work with some great people throughout my career. Most of all I believe in the work we do with people with disabilities and disadvantaging conditions. I was truly honored to have my career efforts recognized.

Back from Richmond

I spent the last two days in Richmond on business. Our meetings yesterday started at 10:00 which meant I and my staff person had to leave at 7AM to make the meeting. We broke for lunch and dinner with business wrapping up around 7:00 PM. Hotel check-in and a drink at the bar before hitting the rack. I took my new Vogue Patterns magazine with me but I never opened it.

Today's meetings started at 7:30 and ended at 1:30, travel back home another three hours. Whew, I feel tired. My employee and I like to sew but this trip did not allow for shopping at all. This was probably a good thing.

I will say that I have been designing new fall clothes in my head. Soon I will be taking a week off from work and plan to sew several items. I am ready to start my fall and winter garment sewing now.

After the wadder disaster with the blouse, I sort of lost my sewing mojo. I am now past this and plan to finish up my blue skirt this weekend.

Back to work

Well yesterday proved to be such a great vacation day. I completed the Simplicity top to wear with the McCall's skirt. I was able to also cut out this McCall's blouse pattern. I am going to make View A with View D sleeves.

My original thought that this would be an overblouse to wear over the aqua top. I am not sure that this will work or not as the Simplicity top is really rather full in the shoulder area. The sleeves are dropped sleeves and there are pleats in the front at the shoulder and gathers at the back. However, I think that the blouse will work on its own. We will see.

The fabric is similar in weight to the skirt fabric and it does have some stretch. To my way of thinking, I feel like the weight of the fabric makes it more of a jacket style than blouse. Yet I was drawn to this pattern for this fabric. We will see. As Carolyn-Diary of a Sewing Fanatic-says sewing is a journey.

So I am able to face the day and return to work today having accomplished my sewing goals for yesterday.

What you see previously is what you see now!

I was amazed to see that I had not posted since Monday. Not sure why I should be amazed, it has been one of those weeks! Work has consumed me.

Yesterday, my boss, another staff member and I traveled to Richmond, VA which is over 2.5 hours drive, normally. We attended a very productive meeting with several staff from a state government agency. We then had lunch and then visited our sister agency leaving Richmond around 3:30; arriving back in Roanoke around 6:15 and then I drove myself home. I left home at 6:30 AM to meet my boss for the ride to Richmond. 12 hour day is a long day.

Earlier this week my work days included late hours as well. So no sewing going on here. So the photo of my dress from Monday is the way the dress is on Friday. I hope to get some sewing in tomorrow as Sunday is Mother's day and a trip to Danville again. Monday, I again travel to Richmond and will stay overnight as this is a two day business trip.

Simplicity dress

Well work has been hectic; as I noted previously it is budget season. This afternoon I met with finance and CEO to review my department's budget. It was not as painful as previous years and I will only have to make minor cuts at this time. As with many companies and particularly non-profit agencies, we are being challenged to do more with less. We had some major funding cuts from some state agencies earlier this year requiring us to make some cutbacks in my business segment. To have my budget approved with just a few tweaks made my day much better.

With a little more spring in my step and an energy boost, after dinner with DH, I finished cutting out the Simplicity dress pattern. I cut out the skirt portion plus skirt lining on Monday and now the top part is cut. I am planning to underline the bodice front and back as I find the fabric I am using a little sheer. But I have to say that the feel and the ease of cutting this fabric was a pleasant experience.

I am looking forward to sewing the dress this weekend.

On to the next project

Now that I have put aside the Vogue jacket, I want to make something from the February BWOF issue. There are so many things to choose from. My key favorites are: the knit top/dress, this jacket, this simple top and this dress.

I still want to make a jacket for my skirt. However with the warming trend we have had lately (though I see from the weather channel we are heading for colder spell again) I am leaning more and more toward sleeveless top with cardigan to go with the skirt to transition into spring.

Again this week I have worked late hours and taking time to exercise as I know this helps me physically as well as mentally with stress that by the time I get home, I just don't have energy to actually do anything in my sewing room. The good news is this weekend is wide open for sewing opportunities.

My day has started early. I have a breakfast meeting and seminar to attend today. Our ASG meeting is tonight so I get to be around some other sewists. Later.

Saturday Morning-10/18/08

It's early Saturday, house is quiet, I'm on my first cup of coffee.

I have been to the Burda site looking at previews of Nov. BWOF, clicking on patterns, responding to some emails from my cyber sewing friends. Given the week I have just completed, this feels like bliss!

Computer locked up on me earlier this week after upgrading my Norton Antivirus and getting all the Windows update. I could operate in Safe Mode, but when going back to "Normal", darn thing was locked up tighter than tight. So unplug, load it up and take it to CC the next day for them to check it out. This caused computer withdrawal syndrome. Thankfully it was not a major issue and got it back the same day. I then have to remember what goes where in putting all back together.

Work has been hectic. We are an agency that must go through an accreditation review every three years and Monday the reviewers arrive. So the last minute, get everything together syndrome kicked into high gear and yesterday the office was a buzz. Since I worked late most evenings last week, I left work at the appointed 4:30 official closing time. Did the grocery shopping with DH's assistance, had pizza and then returned home to spend time in sewing room.

The room looked and still somewhat looks like a hurricane aftermath. I had two embroidery projects going on, pattern fitting project and a dress with snaps that for the life of me I have had difficulty getting the darn snaps to line up.

One project is now complete. The snaps are finally on the dress and hopefully I will take some photos of me wearing it. I need to find the right belt to wear with it or some sort of scarf if I don't wear a belt, it just needs something. Fit is good and I like the dress but it is just not complete.

This weekend my sewing plans are to cut out the McCall's blouse pattern, finish pin fitting Butterick jacket pattern and cut that fabric, and pin fit the McCall's dress pattern. Meanwhile I will continue my lace embroidery project.

Time for second cup of jo' and off to CURVES to reduce my stress!

Business Travel again

No sewing during the work week as I am traveling once again. I will be traveling to Hagerstown, MD tomorrow and will return to big R on Friday. There was no opportunity for sewing this evening. I spent most of my time packing and then fixing a quick dinner for DH and me.

I googled fabric shops for the area and found a JoAnn's and two quilting stores. Not sure that I would get the opportunity to shop anyway. Never hurts to check out the potential resources however.

I have some ideas shaping up for several new sewing projects. I also want to do some embroidery projects for gifts for Christmas! Gosh, did I just say Christmas. Tomorrow is October! I don't hardly remember the summer. More later.

What I wore 9-29-08

I felt ready for fall this morning as the temperature was a nice 57 degrees. I decided I wanted to wear brown and teal. I recently purchased Chanel eye shadow with colors of brown, teal, off white and pale yellow. This is what I pulled from the closet to wear today.

The jacket is a paisley print with browns and teals. This is a Simplicity pattern, from one of their retro jacket patterns. The skirt is a faux suede and is from another Simplicity pattern with several skirt lengths and styles. The knit top is the Kwik Sew twisted knot pattern.

I got numerous compliments on the jacket. I was surprised that no one recalled that I had this jacket last year; nonetheless, I appreciated the compliments. The skirt felt a little loose but that is easy to remedy if necessary.

Traveling

I leave for DC this AM. I spent most of Monday evening packing and then putting the rest together this morning. I always pack sewing magazines and fiction books to take to help me get to sleep or when I get some down time. I can do this when I am driving not flying. I have not flown in over a year or two. I truly hate it these days. I was never a good flyer in the first place; now I am clueless as to what one can and cannot carry on a plane. My last few times I did fly, I was pulled to have my luggage opened and items viewed. It is simply a hassle, yet I am one to admit I want to feel secure when flying.

So since I will not be able to go into my sewing room, fondle fabric, pick up a pattern or do any of the things one normally does when going into their sewing sanctum; I will have sewing mags with me. I will access the Internet and such in between meetings on the hill and training sessions. I always want to feel like I am at home though away.

I am hoping to squeeze a side trip to G Street. I am staying on Pennsylvania Avenue so will have to determine where I am compared to G Street in Rockville. Those little GPS units do come in handy if one finds time. I have to admit my last trip to DC using a GPS unit, I found myself lost and in DC at 12th &D and I was suppose to be in Arlington. Go figure!!!