Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Pocatello hike #2

I had another great hike this morning! I went the same way as I did on Monday. Up Sandy Lane on the trail to Kinport Peak. Today I gave myself a couple hours which was both good and bad. The good was having time to go much further and enjoying the beautiful outdoors. The bad was that by the time I was on my way back down the morning frost was gone and the trail got a bit muddy. In some places it was down right slick! Like a giant muddy slip and slide :) I did stay upright and made it down in one piece with several good chuckles, mud and I have always had a good relationship.



The temperature was much better today, just around the freezing mark and a little overcast.



That spot on the trail, high up in the picture, with the snow on it was very, very steep! Sure don't get trails like that in Chicagoland.





Overlooking Pocatello.



Kinport Peak



BlueJay on a juniper bush.



The road to Kinport Peak






High up over Pocatello.



Nature at work producing beautiful colors!





- Posted by Steph from my iPad

Location:Pocatello, ID

Monday, March 25, 2013

Pocatello Hike up Sandy lane to Kinport Peak

Early this morning I went for a sunrise hike. It was a bit cold out, just hovering around 20 degrees. I stayed nice and toasty while hiking!

The trail head is just a 15 minute uphill walk from my mother-in-laws house on the west bench of Pocatello.



The view up from my MIL's house. I just decided I wanted to go there, and google maps showed there was an access road. So, off I went!



At the end of the paved road was this sign and one next to it saying these were public lands. Basically no motorized vehicles, although there was plenty of signs of dirt bikes and 4 wheelers.



This trailhead was letter 'B' Sandy Lane



The sunrise was beautiful on the winter grasses.



Up, up, up. Oh what a workout on my legs and butt! Chicago area just doesn't have these kind of hills!



Very pretty and very peaceful.



After 30 mins of what felt like straight up things leveled off a little and were just slightly up!



Me... And yes, a sweaty head and red face from all the up!



I miss hills!



I love the texture and colors of nature!

Luckily my body is getting strong enough and neither the up or the down were an issue on my knee. I was wondering how they would feel after this hike and they are no worse than any other day! Yippee!! I am here for 5 more days so will hopefully get out for a couple more hikes.

- Posted by Steph from my iPad

Location:Pocatello, ID

Sunday, March 24, 2013

M-I-L oil paintings some of my favorite ones

A splendid Sunday at my mother in laws! Slept in late all cuddled up with my hubby and started my day with a great trip to the gym with my sister in law Brooke.

A wonderful afternoon relaxing and then off for a Sunday dinner with all of the family.

My mother in law Kathy is a wonderful oil painter. Her and one of her sisters go paint twice a week with an elderly aunt. She has been going twice a week now for over 4 years.

These are some of my favorites.





















- Posted by Steph from my iPad

Location:Pocatello, Idaho

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Idaho bound!

My hubby and I taking a little "spring break" for ourselves. We are off to Idaho to visit with my in-laws for a week.



My daughter will meet up with us on Thursday for a long weekend away. We plan on having a family get together/ bridal shower for her on Friday and Saturday we take my niece, who is a junior bridesmaid, to pick out her dress.

In the meantime I am so looking forward to several days of relaxation and some nice long walks! No work, no wedding sewing, no worries for just a week will be quite rejuvenating to my spirit!



Early morning sunlight at the airport.



My love!



Flight essentials....



Just in case! ( really just for the extra legroom :)

- Posted by Steph from my iPad

Monday, March 18, 2013

Progress on Cynthia Guffey Jacket J5054

This weekend I had some time in my sewing room to work on my Cynthia Guffey Jacket. I finalized construction on the lining and sewed it to the front and neckline facings. I started on the hand sewing which included whip stitching the slots closed for the collar slot. Sounds confusing but not really when you look at the picture.



The rest of the work consists of hand sewing the lining to the jacket at the hemlines. This I saved to do in the evening when we have some family TV time. I was originally thinking of doing some topstitching but after auditioning several different threads on a sample I decide against it. I thought it was just too much with this fabric!



The rest of my time in the sewing room tis weekend was working on wedding projects. I'm currently in the middle of making the bridal shower favors. I was even able to get my darling hubby to help me cut out some of the bizzillion pieces! (Although, I don't think he was very happy about it! I sure did appreciate the help!!)


- Posted by Steph from my iPad

Location:Town Center Dr,Newport News,United States

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Cynthia Guffey Jacket J5054 and the ever changing fabric!

On a plane and have a couple hours to kill. Perfect time to give a jacket update.


Almost done.... No hems, lining and needs a real good pressing!


Over the past couple of weekends I have been working on a new jacket. I am in the midst of losing weight and have now lost over 30 lbs. This means that my work wardrobe has been drastically reduced due to clothes being so big one me. At first I was reluctant to sew a complicated sewing project for myself since I still plan on losing another 30 or so lbs. As I was contemplating what to do, sew or clothes shopping??? I decided to peruse my pattern stash and came across several Jacket patterns from Cynthia Guffey. I took a class with her back in November that w a half day fitting class with about 20 women of various sizes and shapes. Cynthia had made up samples of the patterns for us to try on and with a single size most jackets fit the majority of women. Ahaaa moment! This was a pattern for a loose fitting jacket tailored for my shape that will continue to look good as my shape changes.

Sewing a good project for me is just what I needed to get back my sewing mojo and give me a break from wedding sewing.

I have worked on this jacket in several day long sessions. Day 1, cut out pattern, cut out fashion fabric, interfacing and lining. Stay stitched edges, applied fusible knit interfacing and transferred tailor tacks. That took me like 7 hours. Lots of pieces!



Silk thread used for tailor tacks and other marks.



Tons of little pieces for the collar and 3 pieced sleeves.



Fusible knit interfacing fused to all fashion fabric pieces.


Day 2, construction of jacket. About 5 hours.



Upper front, the tab goes under the front left for a hidden button and the flap can either be left down, as in picture, or looped through slots in collar. Very cool detail.



The back, cut on bias. Hem is only pressed and falling down in the picture.

Day 3, construction of lining, this was a quick day only took a couple hours.


Next up is to do my hand sewing. I have some areas to whip stitch, and I want to hand take the facing and hem before sewing in the lining.

The fabric, lining, interfacing and thread are all from my stash! No new purchases! It's like getting a jacket for free.... (Or at least I like to think that way!)

The fabric is a piece I picked up from the Vogue Fabrics outlet in downtown Chicago. If memory serves me correctly it is a remnant from Jones New York and is a twill fabric with metallics. Super nice to work with! The back of the jacket is cut on the bias which worked great with the large stripes on the border of the fabric. The only thing was that the bias grain lines reflects the light off the metallic threads different,y depending on angle of viewing and the lighting. Which I really love but was a bit tricky in cutting out. I used a with nap layout and used blue painters tape to mark the back of every single piece!



The ever changing fabric. I took all 4 of these pics at the same time with the same camera settings. The fabric sure does change depending on the view and the light!

- Posted by Steph from my iPad

Location:Coming to you from 30'000 feet... And my hotel room.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Beaded wedding purse- Something Blue & Something Old!

I finally finished my daughters 25 th birthday gift. Only slightly late.... A least she knew I was working on it :)

I made her a hand beaded wedding purse for her upcoming wedding this summer. She really loved the piece I was working on so I decided to make it into a purse. This did double duty! She now has a wedding purse that satisfy's 'something blue and something old'!

The blue is the beading and the lining. The old is the rest of the outer fabric. I have had this fabric in my stash for over 20 years and before that it belonged to one of my grandmothers. When my grandmother passed away I received all of her sewing stash and this creamy brocade flower piece was in it. On the front with blue beading I did a sort of crazy patch piecework on the back I did a single piece and added hand beading to several of the flowers to really make it special.

Last night I finally finished hand sewing in the lining and gave it to my daughter. She is delighted with it! Always nice to make something special for the people we love.

























- Posted by Steph from my iPad

Location:Lisle, IL