National Thread the Needle Day…We Missed It!

July 25th was day! Of course, if you sew, any day is a "thread the needle day." But, do you know the second meaning? According to www.holidayinsights.com the phrase means to "either walk a fine or difficult line between two issues or things, or to do something difficult. M-m-m! I guess we do that every day in the search for world peace!

Sewing Tip of the Day
I've been working on my sewing book—writing about threading the needle, actually, and I just found a neat new tip in one of the sewing books that's long been on my bookshelves. When you must sew with a doubled thread in the needle, I've found that a good tug can break the thread right off the eye, or prolonged sewing causes the thread to shred and break there. When you must use doubled thread, as for attaching buttons by hand, try this neat trick to prevent the wear—cut two equal lengths of thread and thread them together as one through the eye—as if you were sewing with a single thread. Knot the ends together. Oh, and don't forget to wax those threads to help them adhere to each other. After waxing them together, place between two layers of paper towel and press with a warm iron to melt the wax into the thread.

National Sewing Month is Soon Upon Us!
September will soon arrive—a month to celebrate our love for sewing! What will you do to celebrate? I have two suggestions: you can start now to create an apron for the apron challenge at www.apronicity.com and you can join all those "lazies" at www.lazygirldesigns.com by joining the challenge to Make 2 Give 2! Check out these two creative options for expressing your love for sewing!

Apron Memories
My first sewing project for 4-H was a little printed gingham apron—completely made by hand. I learned to do the slipstitch to perfection on the the two side hems and the top and bottom hems. It was just a simple hemmed rectangle with a casing for the ribbon tie—but in my untrained, little-girl fingers, it seemed to take forever. With all the renewed interest in apron sewing these days, I've been thinking a lot of my grandmothers, who always wore aprons. Do you have any fond memories of your mother's or grandmothers' aprons—or any bits of wisdom that they dispensed? I'd love to hear your comments on this topic. At the end of the post, click on "Comments" to open a window and share your thoughts.


Special Offer for National Sewing Month...Free Shipping

Check out my patterns at www.joyofsewing.com
You'll find my popular totes, a few quilts, a great little jacket, and some fun placemats to sew for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Send an order with your personal check or money order (US funds only), and the shipping is free. Yes, you'll need to use snail mail to order. Print the order form on the website and fill it out, or just write one out on your own. Offer is valid for orders with postmarks through the end of September 2008 only!

Rockin' and a Rollin' with the Waves!
As I post this, we're tied up dockside at Kingston, WA, harbor, just inside the breakwater. We spent a long night in a heavy rainstorm and woke in the middle of the night to a windstorm rocking the boat and whistling overhead. It's been a long time since I've heard the wind whistling like that. We were glad to be in our cozy "stateroom" on the boat, instead of in a tent somewhere. We're staying here another night as more "weather" is due. Then we'll decide if it's time to work our way homeward. In my last post, I shared that a rainbow appeared over Poulsbo Bay—this is the best shot from that day.

Today Is "Just Because Day"
What will you do today, "just because?" Take a nap, go for walk somewhere new, clean up the sewing room? So many options!

It's also the anniversary of Mother Teresa's birth in 1910.

Tomorrow is Dream Day—in honor of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech given in 1963. What do you dream of? Dreams can't come true if you don't first birth them and speak them to give them a life.

Until next time,
Keep sewing and smiling!
"Peace is not something you wish for; it's something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away." Robert Fulghum