No Left Turn, No Right Turn, What Do You Do?

Tonight I was supposed to go to a meeting at 7:00 at Barnes and Noble, but I showed up at Borders. Apparently, I'm a complete idiot.

Fortunately, I never let an opportunity to browse craft magazines go by. I saw the magazine Sew Simple which billed itself as "basic skills for successful sewing." I thought, "yeah, right," when I picked it up. But I opened right up to a section on making gathers. It explains why you would gather fabric, what it does for you and the fabric, and then it gives two methods for making gathers, one for making short gathers and another if you're making, say, a dust ruffle. That was it, I was sold!

Upon further examination, I was right to buy this. Under the techniques section, they discuss sergers, rotary cutters, and machine quilting. Fashion focuses on sprucing up a camisole, making a broomstick skirt, and rescuing items by remaking them. There's a home section that had some decorative items like pillows, blankets, and curtains. The final section is called "extras" and has a variety of items like pin cushions, journal covers, and a purse. The projects seem simple but worthwhile, attractive. Most importantly the directions are very thorough which makes me think I could actually tackle them. I will give a full report when I manage to make one.

And for $4 each, I bought a couple of calendars: Extraordinary Chickens so we can keep track of our comings and goings--the dude did not see the humor that I saw in that one. I also got a copy of Pattern-a-Day Cross Stitch calendar. Even if I only end up keeping a quarter of the patterns, I will come out ahead.