Broke, don't work

It's been that kind of week so far. (This title is typical of the notes I'd get attached to non-working machinery when I worked as a Biomed Tech in a lab. So very helpful.)

Bleh

I've been down with a cold (confirmed through testing) caught from one--or both--of the two chorus events from the past weekend. Thanks to sleeping to nearly noon for the past three days, and providing a daylong lap for Girl Cat today, I'm feeling much better and will probably be 100% for the chorus's final gig on Friday.

Here's a video of a song from our Saturday gig. I'm the one who looks like either the Good Angel or the Bad Angel on our director's shoulder throughout most of it. It's a song unique to our chorus called "Have a Texas Christmas". Enjoy!

Massive Time Suck

This happened Monday:

Look at that poor, taped-together power cord on my old laptop!

My old laptop hasn't been playing nicely for years, crashing frequently and taking 5-7 attempts to reboot successfully each time. I've frequently been denied access to websites (or their features) because my favorite browser was no longer supported by my Operating System (or some variation thereof). So I plugged these two into an outlet for the long haul, introduced them to each other via our wifi, then left for a chorus performance that evening.

Chorus top

Finally got the video of our Competition set, so I grabbed some screen shots. This is the top I made from a small faux-wrap dress and a black tablecloth. The black didn't show as true as I'd've liked, but we didn't get dinged for our appearance so I'll take that as a win.

Yes, I'm on the same riser level as the brunettes with the bobs on both sides of the picture. I'm that tall.

Selfish Sewing

10/31 Addition: this was sent to me recently--a group photo of some of the Austin Harmony Chorus who gathered for an outdoor, masked, and distanced get-together. It was at this event that I distributed the bulk of the masks. We gave them a try-out, singing some songs together (despite only having 3 parts in attendance), and we're feeling hopeful this'll be a viable rehearsal option.

I fly out again to Oregon in 2 days. I've been home for most of October, but it wasn't until yesterday that I had the chance to do some sewing just for me, some selfish sewing.

The Austin Harmony Chorus had been playing around with the idea of socially-distanced outdoor rehearsals, but before that idea could realistically advance, we needed Singers' Masks. Guess who volunteered to make some?

Zoom--the Rest of the Story

The Austin Harmony Chorus is stumbling along, trying to keep the forward-motion energy without actually singing together. We still hold virtual rehearsals, but it's a challenge.

Last weekend the Management Team met for the monthly business meeting, to which I was invited because I'm peripherally involved in the finance side of things, while not officially on The Team. On the face of it, I'm all business (yep, I zoom in my sewing room, but usually with something on the design wall).

Below camera, however, this is how I'm keeping my hands busy.

Ugh! It's been only a month since I took off the needle plate and cleaned out the lint!! Lots of masks went into the making of this. It's the thread causing the lint, not the fabrics--I went through a LOT of green thread.

Cutting down mask scraps into the Scrap User's System, triangles, and strings.

The Management Team members know me, and know that I keep my hands busy. In past years I've bound quilts, made earrings, stripped copper out of small motors, all in the dining room of whomever was hosting that month. They'll hardly be surprised that I'm cleaning and cutting off-camera while still paying close attention to the business at hand.

There's also been the realization that this is a pretty good way to hold a meeting! We may never go back to butts-in-seats meetings again.

Clear the Decks

There's a new project in town: face masks! While sewing these past few days, I'd been idly wondering if there might be a need for home-sewn face masks to fill the rapidly expanding void of PPE available to our hospitals and civilians. It seems there is!

So today I put the finishing touches on my Shoo-Fly Leader-Ender project, bringing it to the point where it could be put away for a while, yet picked up again easily. That meant sewing the last of the 520 posts to the last of the 520 sashings, and sewing those to the last of the 130 blocks.

I'm trying to drink more water--every cup of coffee gets followed by an H2O chaser.

Most of this had been done earlier this week, and was collecting on the ironing board.

It took most of the afternoon, but I can now set these aside with the knowledge that they'll be easy to put together when Project Face Mask is done.

Looks are deceiving: there really are 65 blocks in each stack. I counted them again to be sure! The blue border fabric is thicker than the white, which is probably why that stack looks so much taller.

This weekend I'll be playing with three mask patterns and several types of fabrics, wearing the results to determine how breathable they are. Several members of Austin Harmony Chorus are banding together to find where in our community masks are most needed, get them made, and get them delivered. It's amazing how fast this project came together!

I'll be sharing my results here too. Stay tuned!

Dancin' Queen

This was me this weekend, making more of these costumes:

This is a project into which I threw myself willingly. I have the construction experience, having sewn with patterns since I was a little girl (starting with Barbie Doll clothes, from which I learned many lessons due to my mistakes!)

QR Luggage tags

This is the project that had me chained to needles and threads of various forms right up through the evening before I had to pack and leave for a 4-day Sweet Adelines event, inspired by this post on the Elaine Adair Pieces blog:

Hard to see, but there's a plastic sleeve into which I slipped the business card.

The business card is blank on the back, so personal info can be written in.

Our chorus participates every year in a judged competition for the choruses in Sweet Adelines Region 10 (most of Texas and the Gulf Coast states up to Florida). This is an opportunity to show the Region (and ourselves) how much we've worked and (hopefully) improved over the past 12 months. The Competition weekend is our traditional time to show appreciation to one another through Secret Sister gifts and section gifts (from members to Section Leaders and vice-versa).

Food, glorious food

Hubby took to the road early this morning, travelling half the continent on two of the shortest days of the year on his new motorcycle. He's off visiting family; I'm at home enjoying my own company. The clowder is completely confused. There's still a biped in the house, but they don't know how to act. It's not the right biped. They hover, they perch, they pace, but they don't nag, which usually starts in the middle of the afternoon.

"The Loud isn't here. Will we starve?"