Janel Was Here

My second Singer got fixed!

The motor went out, and it's been sitting downstairs for more than a year, waiting for me to find time to look at it. But I really don't know what I'm doing with motors anyway!
However I found a nice lady who works on sewing machines, knows what she's doing, and fixed the whole thing right as rain for $43.
I'm so tickled to have this one back and working again!
Our friends gave this to me, complete with all the dozens of attachments that came with it (including a ruffler, which came standard!) and all the pattern cams. It's got all metal gears inside and is "ENTIRELY MADE IN AMERICA" as the manual boasts!

Singer 403

Kettle Tias Nachos Chips: Share the Love

Kettle Tias, rather new to the shelf, and Ed brought me home a bag to try (knowing my devotion to nachos)

I wrote the company a fangirl email thus:

LOVE the Kettle Tias nacho flavor.
I was SO mad when they quit making Natural Doritos after only a short while. For a while there it was like Doritos had come back, then they stopped. That was a bummer.

Your Kettle Tias are about 80% as good as Natural Doritos which is far better than most brands.
PLEASE don't stop making them! Finally we have something good to use for our homemade nachos!
THANK YOU!!!!

And they just sent me an adorable thank you note, with coupons.
I think I should up the love level to 95% :-)

Check out the products here,
http://www.kettlebrand.com/our_products/tias_/

After all, what did Doritos ever do for me? They never sent me a thank-you note, only stopped making their stupid product just when I'd decided I loved it.
That phone call to Lay's a few years ago was quite interesting. She told me they'd stopped making Natural Doritos simply because of lack of interest. Not enough people bought them. I whined, "But what about me? Why can't you keep on making them for me?"
Seriously, if they had warned me they were going to stop, I would have bought... like... at least as many cases as I could fit into my van.
Anyway, she told me they had had a line of potato chips with less salt, which had been sold in the regular potato chip aisle (I wouldn't have seen it, I only shop in the natural aisle) but they'd stopped making that, too, because nobody bought it. She had a line or two to share about the perversity of the American public, who SAY they want to eat healthier, but in actuality don't care enough even to buy Lay's potato chips with less salt, even though they tasted every bit as good and were marketed right next to the regular kind.

Oops, Embarrassment

So I'm standing in the local library, right? Right in the middle. About ten feet away from the librarian, and looking around in puzzlement because they just rearranged everything. Again.

Because our library isn't that strict about noise level, instead of walking over and whispering, I just sang out my question-- "Hey! Where's the shelf for the adult videos?"

Wait! No, no, no! Not that. I meant, you know, the not-juvenile ones! The regular section! The DVDs!

FEATURE FILMS, was the term I was looking for.

The American History of Feedsacks

I’ve been reading some articles on the history of using cotton feed sacks for everyday cloth. Pretty interesting aspect of our domestic history.

Initially these bags were plain unbleached cotton with product brands printed on them. In order for women to use these bags they first had to remove the label….
In spite of their efforts the entire brand label didn’t always get removed and sometimes it didn’t seem worth the bother especially for making undergarments. As a result there are some amusing stories regarding feedsack underwear. “One young girl was out walking with her beau when she tripped and fell. Oh, how embarrassed she was when her betrothed noticed her underdrawers imprinted with ‘southern best’! Another story was about a woman who made her husband’s drawers from a flour sack and left the words ‘self rising’ on the cloth.”

http://www.womenfolk.com/quilting_history/feedsacks.htm
Here’s one with better pictures of the fabric designs! Some are really beautiful!

http://www.quilthistory.com/feedsacks.htm
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/rugs-and-textiles/feedsack-fabric
http://www.rickrack.com/wordpress/?s=feed+sack&paged=2
More samples of the lovely patterns.

http://fuzzylizzie.com/feedsack.html
This page has more about the history, and shows a pattern book full of ideas for sewing things using the cotton bags!

Image of a feed sack dress from the Smithsonian:

It's All So Much Cuter in Stereo!!

French Braid quilt pattern

I was walking by as a lady was making this design, and she explained it to me.
Basically, a center square, then a strip the same width sewn to one side of it, then another strip with a little square, and repeat as long as you want. It's okay that the sections have jagged edges, they'll be trimmed.
Isn't this a fun idea?