Welcome 2018!

Hello everyone!  It's been a whole year since I've blogged, and I'm really ashamed of myself for falling down on the job. I have no excuse, except that we watch our grandson all day and granddaughter after school, so we are pretty busy.  We also get them up and the older one off to school so we have fairly long days. Plus, having a two year old around means that not much gets done.

I have sewn quite a bit over the last year, and hope to sew even more in 2018. There is a wonderful blog called Goodbye Valentino that is hosting a ready to wear fast for the whole year. I've signed up, so no clothes buying for me this year.  I don't have serious plans, other than the following.

1. Charity sewing: Tote bags for a women's shelter, I hope to make six over the next few days.
2. At least one knit top to coordinate with an awful-to-make skirt I just finished and will blog about soon. 
3. Finish two quilts, and maybe start (and finish) another. Mr CS and I have decided that we just don't have enough quilts around here. 
4. A wardrobe for a short cruise to come in May-June. 
5. A nice dress for the SAGA convention in September. I'm now on the Board of Directors so that gives me an extra incentive to look nice. 

Back in 2016 I purchased a Pfaff 4.0 Coverlock during a Black Friday sale, and have spent quite a bit of time learning its capabilities. Last October I took a three day "Serger Boot Camp" which gave me so much confidence in threading and using it. During the class we used Babylock 8 thread sergers, quite a bit more advanced than my 5 thread Pfaff, but the class was still valuable. We learned a great deal about which stitches to use for different applications. Of course Babylocks are a breeze to thread with the air threading system, and now the newest model even threads the needles. But at a price tag of over $10,000, I think I can thread my own serger. 

I plan to document some of the clothes I made last year, along with my new items. Stay tuned and Happy Stitching!