Catching Up with Life

Second Post of the Day

I have been unable to do my usual daily routine for almost a week now. And, I have not been as able to stay in touch via social media during that time, either. Today is a day of starting to catch up with life and possibly even doing a few more parts of my usual routine.

First, Breyer News

Breyer has announced a few guest horses for BreyerFest, some of whom have been Breyer models in the past. Hobbyists are cautioned that there will not be a model available for any of these horses. (All pictures are screenshots taken from the BreyerFest blog.)

Danash's Northern Tempest

Paddyngton's Mark of Distinction

Rain, a Pryor Mountain Mustang and daughter of Cloud

Biloxi, a Pryor Mountain Mustang and barn mate of Rain

In other Breyer news, their shipping department, CCG, continues to struggle and be the subject of many, many frustrated posts all across social media platforms. I share in that frustration.

I have made three orders since the first of the year - the Stablemate Brilliance set, Vintage Club Inferno, and Prague, the first release in the 2025 Exotic Destinations Series. I've had to send emails about each delayed order and I even called Breyer once only to get an answering machine. I left a message that was never returned, and the emails have only gotten an acknowledgment of having been received coupled with the remark that Breyer "would respond to your case as soon as possible."

Those Brilliance Stablemates have arrived as has Inferno, but there is no sign of Prague. There is still no shipping notice and the order is still marked "Unfulfilled" in my account.

Let's hope Breyer and CCG get this straightened out. It truly is a mess of gigantic proportions.

One last piece of Breyer news. 

Maddox is still available. I don't remember when he was first offered, but it was before my surgery last Thursday, so he's been up for a week at least. I almost went ahead and ordered him this morning but 1) I was leery about having another shipping problem to resolve, and 2) if I were to order him, I would no longer be able to check his sales progress.

Moving on to the Sewing Room!

With Kalamazoo only a little over three weeks away, time is short for preparing clothing to sell.  Not only did I write blog posts ahead of my surgery, I also cut out garments I'd like to have on hand to sell at the event.

I buy many of my fabrics in bulk so I had to first do some measuring and cutting off the bolt before I could begin pinning patterns to the fabric and cutting them out.

Usually fabric is either 42 - 44" or 56 - 60" wide but my white cotton is double folded on the bolt. It is 108" wide and with that double fold, I simply cannot use it unless I cut smaller pieces off the bolt and then open the second fold so that I only have a single folded piece of fabric to use. It takes time, but the fabric is cheaper bought that way. 

Normally I don't mind the extra time to cut things out, but last week I was feeling the pressure of the time lost to surgery as well as having to make those extra cuts in the cotton.

Still, I got three chemises cut out, marked and ready to sew as soon as I feel up to bending over the sewing machine. I also cut out a couple of pockets from some red wool and stacked those on top of the chemises in my prep cart.

Will I get to those projects today? I hope so. I love to sew and I sew almost every day. I am under a lifting restriction but I don't think my iron will be a problem. (I use my iron a lot - the key to really nice end products is ironing before, while, and after you complete the piece.)

Wish me luck - getting into the sewing room would be a huge step towards normalcy for me!

An Unusual & Meaningful Sewing Project

Frequently I get asked to take on sewing projects for other people. 

Fixing Pony Pal Mila's favorite stuffie for the umpteenth time? Her smile when I am finished is always worth it!

A fitting with a bride - she wasn't happy with the closure of her dress and asked if I could fix it.

Repairing Pony Pal Kate's mermaid tail so she could wear it again. (Apparently mermaid tails keep your legs really warm while you are sleeping. Maybe I should make one for myself and see if that's true.)

A very disgruntled Pepper trying on a coat that I was making for Kathy's guide dog, Nacho. They had a holiday event to attend and she wanted him to look festive.

She is a very patient girl, but was she ever glad when I finished and took it off her!

From the "I'm in charge of costuming for a musical and I hear you sew; will you make these costumes for me?" to the "My pants need to be hemmed, will you hem them for me?" I turn most of those requests down. I simply do not have the time. (My most unusual sewing request came at an 18th century event. "Do you make loincloths?" Um, no. Just no.)

But there are times I agree to help - and recently I got a request that I really wanted to do. A very young child with cancer was losing her hair due to chemo. Her head was cold, winter is coming, and things were rather rough. Her aunt, a blog reader, reached out to me, sent some pictures of a hat she'd bought the child, and asked if there was a way to line it to make it warmer and more comfortable for her niece. She also told me she knew I was busy and would understand if I could not take the project on.

This mom of 6, grandmother of 16, and sister of a cancer survivor (Leslie) was not going to say no. I wanted to alter that hat for that little girl.

The aunt explained that she wasn't sure it could be lined and I agreed - the problem with lining the hat would be that that would take away some of the stretchiness and could affect the fit. She was willing to take the risk and I was willing to try, and the hat arrived last week.

I started by tracing both sides of the hat onto paper, adding seam allowances and a longer than needed hem length (to allow for adjustability and errors), and then cut two pieces out of white fleece. Fleece doesn't fray, it stretches, and it is soft and warm - perfect for what I hoped to do.

I pinned the two pieces together and then stitched them together up one side, over the top, and then down the other, leaving the bottom open.

Flipping the hat inside out, I slipped the lining over it, matching the side seams, and pinning the hem all around the bottom. It was a good thing I'd cut the length longer than I'd thought I needed - it was perfect as is.

Next I began hand stitching the hem of the lining securely to the hat using small stitches and hiding them within the yarn so they could not be seen.

When that was finished, I flipped the hat back to right side out, slipping my hands up into it and smoothing out any folds or wrinkles. There was still stretchability even with the lining intact and so I think the hat will fit just fine.

The hat goes out in today's mail and a little girl will have a warm and comfy hat (cute, too!) to wear while she undergoes chemo.

Thanks, Auntie A, for letting me do this project for your niece. You said prayers would be welcome so I send mine on her behalf. And blog readers, if you want to pray, think good thoughts, send karma, etc. please do. Auntie A says that would be welcome.

Time is Flying!

 And the heat continues.

As predicted, it got up to 97 yesterday and that made for another hibernation day.

Craig and I walk the dogs around 9:00 every morning. Normally we don't run into too many people at that time and have the neighborhood park to ourselves. But with this heat, lots of people are exercising their dogs or walking and jogging earlier than usual.

Yesterday morning we ran into our next door neighbor, Nan, down at the pavilion watching a pair of Great Egrets who were fishing in the lake.

Nan and Bob love the dogs and even come out of their home to pet them when they see the dogs out in our back yard. Tammo loves them right back and has been known to ignore our calls and gallop over to their home when he sees them appear. Needless to say, he was delighted to see Nan at the park!

Hibernation due to the heat means I am getting a lot of sewing for the Feast completed. 

Last week I got a new, updated pattern for pinner aprons that better reflects current historical research. I love how it stitched up.

18th century bib aprons did not tie around the neck like modern aprons; they were pinned to the bodice with steel straight pins at each top corner of the bib.

After selling 18th century block prints for 30 years, Leslie's supplier in India knows her well and once in a while sends her something new that he is trying.

In July he sent her this new block print fabric to try. Leslie passed the fabric on to me and I am working on a men's voyageur shirt to see how it looks when made into a garment. So far I really like how it is turning out.

After this shirt, I need to make one more men's shirt and then I will move on to new shirts for Ian and Lukas. They've grown enough that their original shirts from two years ago are getting a little small.

Lukas doesn't really care about fit - he loves his voyageur shirt so much that he wears it to church and to school.

I hope he likes the next one just as much. (I may use the elephant block print for his shirt.)

There are just 39 days until Feast. I waffle between feeling like I am in good shape and then feeling overwhelmed with all I want to accomplish. Timeline-wise, I should have the men's shirts, boys shirt, and two bed gowns completed by September 14. I'd like to make Mila a new dress, too, which puts me at September 18. 

That's two weeks before set-up on the grounds begin, so I should be okay sewing-wise. Then, there's finding time for the 100 blackened beeswax ornaments I need to make... 

Yeesh!!  Time is flying!

Sewing Up a Storm, a Real Storm, and the Legacy Video

During the night we had a terrible thunderstorm with lightning cracking right overhead. Pepper moved up from her usual position by our feet and cuddled between Craig and me, seeking our touch. (That's very unusual for a Seeing Eye Dog - they are trained to tolerate storms and usually she does, but this one was a doozy.) Tammo got off his bed and curled up on the floor next to Craig - clearly both dogs were bothered by the storm.

I was, too. Normally storms don't bother me, but I lay there wide awake and thinking of Abby. Listening to the loud noises outside. Watching the constant bright flashes of light through the blinds. It was a rough night and no doubt I will take a nap today. (Most likely Pepper and Tammo will, too.)

I am spending most of my time in the sewing room preparing for The Feast of the Hunters' Moon. I've been productive, so productive that I needed to run up to Leslie's farm and get more block print fabric.

I have a Facebook page for my business, and I posted the following finished items yesterday. Within twenty minutes, I had a sale.

This block print bed gown was purchased by Brooke, the leader of the Feast sewing circle and Leslie's successor as director of the Feast. She sews all her period clothing by hand and is a better sewist than me.

To say I was surprised is an understatement but as Leslie pointed out, with the Feast just seven weeks away, Brooke  has so much to do, she doesn't have time to sew any clothes for herself. 

A red hip length cloak with single faced silk ribbons. (Yes, real silk! LOL) Why single faced silk ribbon instead of double faced? Because it is historically accurate - silk is slippery, and double faced silk ribbon does not stay tied shut like single faced silk ribbon does. 18th century folks knew that and wanted their cloaks to stay tied shut so they used single faced ribbon. (Your history lesson of the day. Haha!)

A men's voyageur shirt. Again, I used hand blocked fabric and often there is evidence of that hand blocking. Look at the two blue bands. You can see a vertical line down each of them. That's a place where the printer did not align the wooden print blocks quite true. Look at the top red band carefully and you can see not one but two small misalignments.

Blocking errors were common during the 18th century so this fabric, misalignments and all, is very true to the time period.

A woman's apron made from osnaburg, a very heavy, unbleached type of muslin. The drawstrings are twill tape.

A second osnaburg apron. Aprons sell well, so I try to have four on hand at every event - two from osnaburg, and two from bleached white muslin. (I also sell pinner aprons but I haven't begun those yet and will share more about what they are when I finish them.)

Finally, just when I think I have nothing more to share about the wedding, I discover that that is not true.

Mountain Mama Jessica has put together two wedding videos - one that was so our family could all enjoy the day's memories, and then this one that's posted here. Her purpose for the second one? She made it for Craig and me to show us our family legacy.

I'd wondered why she'd kept filming us throughout the day, but I sure am glad she did. The ending made me tear up. Thanks, Jessica. I love it and I love you. xoxoy

(By their own admission, my kids "sure can have fun together." Yep, they sure can!)

The August give away will be announced soon. Stay 'tooned!

Trinity's Gifts

Granddaughter Trinity has been a horse lover all her life. In fact, when she first got a social media account, she called herself "Horsey Reader" to indicate two of the things that she loved most.

Trinity & Abby together in the old barn.

And with Sultanna and a very young Two Socks.

Trinity visited with Abby, Two Socks, and the herd many, many times, and when she learned that Abby had died, she decided to make me a very special gift. She gave it to me while we were in Utah for the wedding.

At first I thought the glass in the frame had shattered in transit, giving it that spiderwebbed appearance.

But it hadn't. Trinity (who also sews) had taken thin, silver metallic thread and hand stitched a ray pattern right onto the picture! Isn't that cool? And she'd used what is my favorite picture of Abby and me!

But Trinity wasn't done gifting me. Harking back to the "Reader" part of her early social media name, she gave me this magnet.

It's an illustration from one of the Little House on the Prairie books, a series that Trin, her Aunt Lisa, and other family members (including me) all love. She got Lisa a magnet, too.

Books too good to put down so you bring them to the dinner table, even at a family gathering!

The two gifts are sitting right behind me on the shelf behind my desk where I usually photograph new models.  Both have great meaning to me and I like having them nearby. I may hang the picture in my office or sewing room and put the magnet on the fridge in the future, but for now, they aren't going anywhere.

Sweet reminders not only of a horse I loved, but of a thoughtful girl I love even more. Thanks, sweetie.

Lots to Do!

First, an update on Sultanna this morning.

No foal yet, and her udder hasn't changed much. She foaled Two Socks on Easter morning; maybe she is waiting for Mother's Day??  (Honestly, that would be pretty cool!)

I'm all unpacked from Midwest Mini Mayhem and just have to heft those tubs up onto the high shelves in the closet. I am still in physical therapy for my shoulder so I may ask Craig to do that for me. It's always nice to wrap up a really good show and settle back into normal, still smiling as you do.

The show may be over, but I spent yesterday working on more haversacks for Midwest Mini Mayhem. They were short three more champs and reserve pouches, and luckily I had fabric left from making the others.

Those are done, and I will pack them up and send them out to their winners this afternoon.

I'm also thinking ahead to next year. I had some of this fabric in stock from another project and cut and stitched some Stablemate haversacks to see how they looked.

Oh, I liked them a lot. Wouldn't they be nice for next year's show champs and reserves? 

I went ahead and made three of each up and I'll show them to Kerri, Shannon, and Kerry (MMM show holders.) If they don't want them, I will sell them in Horsiemama's Mercantile.

An order of new fabric for haversacks arrived recently, and before I'd even opened the package, I'd received an email from the company apologizing and saying that an error had been made, defective fabric had been sent, and that they would replace it for free right away.

They weren't kidding! 

Legs were cut off of some of these horses.

And these poor horses were cut in half!

I'd ordered a Stablemate scale print and got the 1:6 (Marx Thunderbolt) scale.

Not sure what to make of this defective piece and why there is so much white fabric rather than printed fabric.

The replacement order is scheduled to arrive on Monday; in the meantime, I am working at making new haversacks - between Indy Blooms and Midwest Mini Mayhem, I have very few left in stock. 

My next show is Marilou Mol's in August, so I have some time, but The Feast of the Hunters' Moon is also approaching and I have to get back to my 18th century sewing, too.

Lisa, Leslie, and me in our 18th century riding habits at The Feast.

Lots to do, but it's a good lots to do.

The May Give Away is coming - stay 'tooned!

December & Winter Come Rushing In!

Goodness! December is starting off with a bang! My notes for today's post look like this:

-  meteorological Winter

- Christmas tree

- Garrett

- visiting Abby

- alterations

- advent calendar

This could be a very long post!

Meteorological Winter

Happy first day of winter! That is, if you follow meteorological seasons instead of astronomical ones. 

I find they make much more sense since meteorological seasons begin on the first of the month rather than on dates that vary from year to year on an astronomical seasonal calendar.

Our Christmas Tree

For the first time ever since we became parents, Craig and I will not have any of our kids home for Christmas this year. That is going to be hard for us. Teacher Daughter Lisa and Local Son Curt live here in town, so we will get together before Christmas to exchange gifts, but our actual Christmas Day will be a very quiet one.

We've decided we will do a more minimal decor than we usually do, including not putting up a real tree but instead, doing a tabletop artificial tree.

I'd bought a white one from Amazon, but when we "fluffed the branches" as the directions said, four of them fell off the minute we touched them. We've ordered another tree and will return this one.

Garrett

Breyer announced yesterday that the winter animal web special was Garrett, a piebald colored buck on the deer mold.

Garrett is available only to Collectors Club members who are in good standing. 1,000 names will be drawn on December 5 along with a wait list.

I'm a little on the fence about him, but I did put my name in for the drawing. If my name is drawn, I'll buy him and enjoy him; if not, I won't be too disappointed. (The Collectors Club November newsletter came out yesterday, too.)

Visiting Abby

I had a lovely visit with my girl yesterday. Her head went up when she saw my car arrive, and as I began walking to the gate, she started that lovely low nickering that she always does when she sees me. 

She "talked" to me all the way up to the gate, and my heart melted. (It melts a lot around Abby.)

Abby was a bit sheepish when I told her that Betz had painted her portrait. 

Bold Two Socks held her head high with delight and offered to give out hoofographs if anyone wanted them.

I spent a little time with each horse before I left, all of us enjoying the sunshine and mild temperatures.

Alterations

It continued to be a busy day - I got two orders for haversacks that need to be cut out, pinned, and sewn, and then a friend called me and asked if I would alter the mother-of-the-groom dress that she had bought online for her son's wedding. I will do that kind of sewing occasionally for a friend, but altering a wedding dress and other bridal party clothing makes me very nervous.

The expectation is so very high and often the nerves of those involved in the wedding can fray. 

But, she's a friend. So, I went over to her home and we did a fitting. I told her that I needed more fabric to work with than the small piece she had, and it will be a week for that to get here before I can even begin. Time is already short - she needs the alterations completed by December 21.

I'm feeling pressure, but I am also glad that I can do this for her.

The Advent Calendar

I love doing a "daily" something every year in December. It's fun and it helps me celebrate the holiday. I've done a Christmas Card of the Day (2021, 2022), The Twelve Days of Horsey Christmas (2020), and an advent calendar (also in 2020). Breyer came out with a new advent calendar for 2023, and that is this year's daily surprise!

The front of the outer box.

The back of the outer box is a bit of a spoiler as it shows all the pieces you will be getting.

I slid the inner box out and the numbered boxes were on one side

 

while the backside is a scene of a barn in winter.

Mini Whinny sized fencing was in the first box. It has some nice side connectors so the pieces can be put together and then stand well.

I assembled them and then set them out in front of the scene. My plan is to recreate the picture on the front of the box.

Door two will be opened tomorrow. I'm hoping to find the first horse of the set.

Stay 'tooned!