Thanksgiving Weekend

I had a nice, long Thanksgiving weekend. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my brother's house; my parents didn't want to go out, so my sister and I took dinner over to them after we ate, and chatted with them briefly before heading home. Bob worked on Thanksgiving day, so I took dinner home to him, too. He had to work the entire weekend, actually. While I was out on Friday, I went by Boston Market and picked up turkey dinner for him; we're planning on doing a turkey dinner ourselves sometime between now and Christmas.

I've been sewing! I think I mentioned that my mother had asked me to hem a couple of pairs of jeans for her, and in the process of getting out the sewing machine I got interested in sewing again. I've made a couple of trips to the fabric store, and I made another one on Friday, which ended up being something of a mistake. I got some nice material, and got a good price--I had a 30% off everything coupon--but had to wait around about an hour and a half to do it.

Jo-Ann is about the only fabric store left in town, which I don't totally understand. When you want to get fabric cut there, you have to take a number and wait until you're called. When I got there, they were cutting for number 11, and I pulled number 65. They move pretty quickly depending, of course, on how much each person needs to have cut, but judging by the traffic every time I've been there, I would have thought the town could support a few more fabric stores. Of course, I haven't really paid attention except for the last few weeks, so the holiday season is probably busier than normal.

I'm making most of my Christmas gifts this year, so I don't want to talk about what I'm making, but I'm kind of excited about it. I'm also thinking about quilting again. I've never--and probably will never--made a full size quilt, but I enjoy playing around with it and have made a few miniature quilts before. I always remember a dress I made when I was in high school. I cut out squares of fabric and sewed enough of them together to make a piece of fabric that I cut a "maxi dress" out of. It had an elastic neckline and elastic cap sleeves, and a ruffle on the bottom. It probably would have been a large enough piece of fabric to actually have made a bed-sized quilt. But the dress was more fun.

I'm trying to get over the fact that sewing is so messy. My dining room is even more of a disaster than usual with a cutting board, rotary cutting board, pressing board, piles of fabric, thread, pins, etc., everywhere. I went to Target yesterday and bought a clear plastic storage box that I've put most of my new fabric in, and I've tried to organize notions and things in baskets. It's still mostly a mess, but it's a little better. I went out to my folks' house a couple of weeks ago, and ended up coming home with a big banker's box full of fabric, mostly cottons. My mom has a ton -- probably literally -- of fabric in the basement. Lots of it is doubleknits, which I don't have any use for, but I was glad to get the cotton. I just need to go through it and figure out what I can actually use.

Dinah and I spent most of Friday on the couch watching old James Bond movies. The Syfy Channel had a James Bond Festival or something, and we watched "From Russia With Love" and "Diamonds are Forever." I say "we," but of course, it was really only me. Dinah kept me company. I covered myself up with a big fleece throw, and she burrowed underneath it. It reminded me of the time we spent on the couch while I was recoving from my gall bladder surgery in March. I roused myself in the afternoon to go out and make the aforementioned trip to Jo-Ann.

On Saturday I got my hair cut and colored, and I've been sewing pretty much all day today. I made quite a bit of progress. I'm happy with it. While I was out yesterday, I discovered that the Borders store where I usually go is closing. Everything in the store was 30% off or more, so I grabbed a few Moleskine notebooks, some Christmas cards, and a beautiful book of French General sewing patterns. Lots of wonderful inspiration.

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