San Francisco Sports

Although my job is to be 'Executive Assistant' to the CEO I also took on recruitment fairly early on and so now could legitimately call myself a part-time recruiter. My sister does this as a profession and was once bought a brand new Mulberry handbag by one of the recruitment companies she worked with. I hadn't expected to be quite so handsomely courted but I did find myself offered tickets to the baseball last week, and so along I went.

AT&T Park is just around the corner from where we lived when we first moved here and the crowds on match days (which are about 4 days every fortnight) are something every native San Franciscan learns to avoid while still slurping mother's milk. For this match the SF Giants were playing the NY Mets and there is something of a historical rivalry. It was still very friendly though and I found myself in a sunlit stadium just in time for the game.

The seats were very good and I watched, bemused, as all the pre-match preamble went on. There were bagpipes. There was the presentation of two of those ginormous cheques to charities. There was a big cheer for Firefighters. And then a man from a local church came out and sang the National Anthem. Now this was none of your British operatic warbling - it was more like a soulful baptist sort of thing - and the crowd all stood up and duly assumed the position.

Look at all those arms on chests. Amazing. I had always thought it was a Hollywood thing or possibly something WWE promoted to get people to buy Jack Swagger's t-shirt.

But no, they actually do stand there with their hand on their heart. Amazing. Anyway, after that they suddenly started to "play ball" and off we went.

It was at this point that I began to wish I had brought an American with me. Baseball, it seems, is a lot like teenagers and television. They like to be in front of it, but they're more likely to be looking at their phones or talking to a friend than watching what is going on. I had NO idea at all about what was happening. I thought the sides swapped when three people went out. But I couldn't spot people going out and it seemed like they were changing sides every couple of minutes on a collective whim. In fact it was a lot like the Mad Hatter's Tea Party where they all had to randomly move to a new place at the table when the butter knife got crumbs on.

I stuck it out for half an hour but then politely made my farewells. I was the richer in terms of experience and more importantly, from a handbag point of view, to the sum of one black hoodie with the company that invited me in small letters on the front and "San Francisco" written large on the back. Printed though, not machine embroidered. Machine embroidered freebies are my goal for the next rung up the recruitment ladder that has that Mulberry handbag waiting for me at the top.

My Own Machine Embroidery Machine!

My birthday vouchers plus some of my hard earned spondoolix means I now have a Brother SE400 which has all the bells and whistles of your average sewing machine but ALSO does a load of machine embroidery. The hoop I have is only about 4" square but that's enough for me for now.

A friend has just had a baby so I decided to make her some bibs but I knew your average baby material wasn't going to suffice. A beloved pair of jeans that has gone paper thin around the cheeks from much use had been put away so I could use the denim for some future project. This is the project that caused me to finally cut into them. I carefully read the manual and was finally ready to try some designs out on a scrap piece.

I am really glad I got the Madeira sample pack of stabilisers as the booklet that comes with it explains exactly which is best for each type of fabric and embroidery, including freehand and hand. I went with a cut-away black and repositionable spray glue for the denim. I had lots of fun fooling about and after a while had this.

If you want to see a video of it in action you will find one here.

Having had a good fiddle about I was ready to go on my bibs and not so much time later I had these two!

The "Hey baby!" uses one of the built in fonts and then the heart is another standard design and I just varied the size of each. On the back I used some standard quilting cotton.

The binding is some red and white hearts I used on my Lucy Boston blocks. I also added plastic poppers allowing it to be fastened in two positions. I saw with my niece's bibs that velcro only gets stuck to other stuff in the washing machine.

There are either 4 or 5 fonts and about 80 built in patterns. I used some of the fonts to make this label for my Hand Pieced Mini Quilt, which is finally finished bar washing.

The label fabric is one lovely Rachel from My Life in Knitwear sent me. I didn't spray the glue well enough to get it evenly stuck down on the stabilisor, hence the puckering. Still looks pretty good though! Here it is on the back of the quilt.

You can also see how I did the border of this one - effectively using more hexagons as a kind of 'binding'. I am pretty happy with how this turned out.

The quilting/embroidery uses sashiko thread and the concentric circles are a very japanese design. It has actually ended up about an inch under the minimum size but I hope no one will complain about that! And having finished that one I have signed up for the Simply Mini Swap on Instagram so another mini will be entering my life soon. My Partner has been quite vague about what she likes so the field is open and I like to use these minis to try new techniques. In this one it was the use of colour but I have a feeling I might use paper piecing (not EPP) for the next so I can get lots of straight lines and angles connecting sharply. We will see!

A Different Approach to Hexagons

I have always avoided Y seams (those angled seams you get such as when you join three hexagons together). At some point in the last month though I seem to have decided the time had come, and so I started cutting out fabric for a runner to go along the top of my chest of drawers.

I started with the trusty free online Hexagon Calculator to work out how many I'd need of which size. Then I drew one and made a cardboard template. My template showed both the outer edge AND the line I was going to sew along. I know you can buy things like this but making your own means it's available to you the instant you want it. Having cut out my hexagons and drawn the sewing lines on the wrong side, I was ready to go!

It was slow work but I've finished the assembly and am now ready to move on to making the sandwich and quilting it!

Last weekend I was once again cat sitting and Luna was on fine form.

Pooch had given me some Godiva chocolates for my birthday and Luna adored the ribbon from the box. Once she'd done with playing we both had a lie down on the sofa.

This was on my birthday, before Pooch and I went out for dinner, and it really was a perfect way to spend an afternoon. Having a zizz with a cat similarly sleeping on top of you on a lazy afternoon with some nonsense on the telly is really my idea of perfection. I *so* want a cat of my own!

Diamante Delight

I have a fairly good collection of diamante or costume jewellery dating back a century or so. I first started acquiring necklaces for £2 or £3 a time during my A-levels when an antique shop next to the bus stop I got off at when coming back from school started regularly displaying it in its window. Back then I bought pretty much anything they got that was old and sparkly. Now I'm a bit more discerning.

One of those side-effects of working is that they do pay you, so having a fair whack of disposable income for the first time in 18 months I've started occasionally looking at ebay to see what's out there. And I've made two purchases.

I prefer silver metal but this one caught my eye as, in colour, it resembles another one I wear quite frequently (I collect to wear, not to preserve) and it was a design I hadn't seen before. That upside down horseshoe shape and the triple baguettes where the chain attaches made me think of Art Deco and Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers in Top Hat. Ah, to be Ginger Rogers in that film. Her grace of movement, those dresses, the settings, the romance....ahhhhh. Anyway. The second were being sold as a set but are mismatched and the necklace is actually slightly broken with half the clasp being missing.

Often jewellery like this is sold as being for repair or repurposing because it can break quite easily. Catches and clasps are usually quite easy to repair with some wire or, as a last resort, glue. I haven't done that yet with this necklace but I did wear the brooch and bracelet when we went out for my birthday dinner last night. Actually they paled into insignificance when compared with my most blingy accessory.

Yesterday was my 37th birthday and, since it just so happens that it falls on one of America's biggest celebrations, Pooch and I ventured out for dinner and fireworks. Fog managed to dull the fireworks but not the flashing of my headwear!

Latest on my Lucy Boston

As last reported in May, I now have 40+ Patchwork of the Crosses blocks so I have started on the bits between them. There are various ways of arranging them but I have chosen this one:

(Image from this article.)

For every block I therefore need 24 white honeycombs and 16 red squares, and for my 4-squares marked '2' in the diagram, I am going to use a 2" square of white. So for 40 blocks, I need 960 white honeycombs and 640 red squares. And that's not counting any kind of border. Wow. Here is one I've added the extra white pieces to and am adding the red squares in.

It's astonishing that, just as I think the main job is done, it turns out I need even more pieces than the block took to join it to the next one. Amazing!

Two Little Dresses for Africa #LDFA

Jan at 'Sew and Sow Farm' is hosting a sewing drive to make these Little Dresses for Africa.

The pattern couldn't be simpler and you can even use an old pillowcase for the job. I would say it took me 2.5 hours start to finish to make these.

That includes using a couple of the fancy stitches on my machine for the bias along the bottom edge.

The purple fabric is one I brought back from Japan with me and the flowery one is something I got from Scrap. I hope they'll both do the job! Jan has got her Sponsors to offer some amazing prizes so if you have time to add to the total number of dresses, the deadline is 5th July.

My First SF Quilters Guild Meeting

When I first arrived in San Francisco I made it to two different knitting groups in one week, and then never returned to either. The people at both were very nice, it's just that I'm really not knitting much in this climate. It seems a bit too warm for it. At the same time I did discover that there was a SF Quilters Guild that met in Richmond (in the north west of the SF main area) once a month and I determined to go. Last week was the first meeting I'd been able to attend.

The Guild have monthly meetings with a general section and then a speaker and then also a day the following Saturday where they either do a community project or have a teacher come in. My luck was in when the speaker at this meeting was Susan Else, someone I had not heard of before but am now very happy to have come into contact with. I would definitely encourage you to go and look at the gallery on her website as her work is very impressive and she had brought some along to show us.

Aren't the pieces amazing? There were lots more and she also talked about how she makes them and her inspiration for each.

The people at the meeting were absolutely lovely and the President gave a very funny introduction and update at the beginning. I had had to sign in as a Guest when I arrived and during her intro she read out my name and asked me to stand up and everyone welcomed me - it was so sweet! Then later during the break (when there was tea and cake) people kept coming up to me to welcome me to the meeting and have a chat - I could tell this was something I wanted to come to regularly! So I am now a fully paid up member and will be going back next month and maybe even showing something in the Show'n'Tell!

The Opposite of Body Dismorphia

As I was eating my breakfast this morning I perused the BBC News app, as is my wont, and read an interesting article on Body Dismorphic Disorder. I first read about it probably 10+ years ago in an edition of National Geographic and have occasionally pondered it since then because I think I have a version of it. Not because I think I'm ugly or unattractive (because actually I think I'm pretty feckin awesome and desirable) but because I constantly forget that I am not thin any more. I'm not saying I'm fat, but I'm overweight and a stone or two over where I'd ideally like to be. I'm a UK size 14 which is a US 10 and I look in a full length mirror everyday when I get dressed and I see all of me so it's not that I don't know what I look like. It's just that I keep forgetting and have a self-image of when I was about 22. So when I see myself in photos with legs more Oak than Willow, and chins more plural than single, I get a big shock.

Another National Geographic article - this one a mere 3+ years ago - remarked how our current historical era is in danger of being misrepresented in visual records because photographs are now so easy to take and delete that we instantly discard any that don't show us looking as beautiful and happy as possible. Will our future selves look back on the early 21st Century and think "Their economy was shot, they were fighting innumerable religious wars, their climate was burning up and yet they all look so darn perky. They must have been really stupid."? I thought of this once again when taking a selfie, having just been woken up from a nap by a kick to the face.

Darling Luna, having decided to nap not so much along side me as on top of me, was having a sleepy stretch when she raised me from my slumbers. I so enjoyed my week of evenings and weekend afternoons with her! Kicks and all. The point though is that when I initially took this photo, it was from a lower angle and there were chins present. Being a pro at this sort of thing I simply deleted that one and raised my phone somewhat. Problem solved.

Speaking of solving problems - our final piece of flatpack furniture, which had arrived with a broken piece, was completed yesterday by my fair and very attractive hands. I finally have somewhere to store my fabric and the small craft bits which have been piled on the floor under my sewing table since we moved in - happy day.

More reasons to be cheerful, were more to be needed, come from work where I was offered a permanent contract this week. I'd initially been on a one month trial and it has been going so well that my permanent one is at 30% more money than we originally discussed and I will have Options - something my stockmarket dabbling Dad tells me is a very good thing if the company ever goes public. The increase is partly because I am awesome (I did say early on in this post that I have a pretty high opinion of myself) and partly because I am now looking after the company's recruitment so I've suddenly got all these recruitment people wanting to connect with me on LinkedIn. I am continuing to enjoy working there, not least because on Friday they took us all to a theme park called Great America - all paid for including the queue jumping wristbands. There was a 'Snoopy Planet' area and...

So exciting! I went on a wooden rollercoaster called Grizzly which was horrendous - I am not built for such excitement - and after that consoled myself with a go on the carousel.

And who sits on a horse when there are fish-eating cats to be chosen? Awesome sauce!

Stitch Fix - Nothing To Do With Fixing Your Stitching

Having recently started a new job (which is going really well btw although I am starting to use a lot more text speak from using three different messaging systems with various groups of staff) I quickly realised my personal style had somewhat lost its way. 

The closest I've come to describing my style is to mutter "something of the Sue Pollard" and leave it at that. After 18 months of housewifery in three different countries my 'work' wardrobe was straggly, to say the least, and I do not enjoy shopping for clothes in shops so I  found myself googling "online personal stylist". An thus, my relationship with Stitch Fix began.

The name, naturally, caught my attention, as I thought perhaps my search history and google had colluded and concluded that there was no point showing me stylists and was taking me to some new sewing product instead. But no. It is an online personal stylist who looks at the information you provide (their questions plus optional links to your Pinterest, LinkedIn etc) and sends you five items in your size as often or infrequently as you want and where you can send back whatever you don't like in a prepaid return envelope. Your only risk is $20 which you pay upfront to be 'styled' and if you keep any of the items that is redeemed against their cost. If you keep all five items they knock 25% off the total price. It almost sounded too good to be true but I looked at reviews and saw more and more fashion and normal blogs praising it and thought "Well, OK then." I scheduled my first box to arrive on the 15th - tomorrow - which is when I get paid, but it actually arrived early so I have the swag already. These are my five items. 

1.  Skinny Jeans - $150ish

(You get one of these little cards with each item showing you two styling options - day and night kind of thing.)

I gulped a bit when I saw this as I have one pair which were on sale for £15 in Dorothy Perkins and which give me a muffin top and aren't terribly comfortable. Plus I would never try on a pair of jeans in a shop that cost $150 because who pays that much for jeans? You can get them on sale for £15. But...I tried them on they were really comfortable. To the extent that I just kept them on for the rest of the day. The fit and length were great and when I mentioned all this to my fashionista sister she she that was the difference between £15 sale jeans and $150 good jeans. Not something I would buy more than once a year but a definite KEEP. 

2. Zip Back Blouse - $50ish (I haven't got the prices handy but remember them roughly)

I have always been rather disdainful of exposed zips. To me it smacks of cheap tailoring methods since it's much easier to make them with the zip out than with it 'properly' covered. I have therefore never tried on a single item with an exposed zip and have even curled my top lip somewhat when seeing someone wearing something with one. More fool me. Maybe. I don't see myself going in for them in a big way but then this is why this service has proved so popular - it takes your style profile (or lack thereof) and tugs at the edges to push you where you haven't been up til now but where they think you'll look fiiiiine. It's a lovely red too and looks great with the jeans. It's a KEEP. 

3. Racer Back Tank - $35ish

By now you may be predicting I am about to start with 'I have never tried on a racer back top before but...' and you would be part right. I have tried on one before, but not liked it. Ditto with this one. I have pretty broad shoulders anyway - sleeve seams on t-shirts rarely sit where they should - but also the blue on this was a bit too electric plus you need to fiddle with your bra straps to go racer back. So based on the colour and back, it's a NO. 

4. Polka Dot Tank - $50ish

As someone who rarely meets a polka dot she doesn't like, I had high hopes for this. Navy with white dots at the top and then a stripe in a good red at the bottom. Sounds good?

Pooch took this photo and told me my face looked like a wrestler. I assume he was thinking of this. 

Back to the top - I tend to avoid things that make me look like I have an Equator. What looked and sounded perfection on paper has let me down because of my quintessentially english pear-shape. That red stripe - just NO. Those are the skinny jeans btw. 

5. Asymmetrical Zip Cardigan - can't remember the price

San Francisco is, on the whole, a fairly warm kind of place. You don't need big heavy coats but sometimes you could do with something snuggly when out first or last thing. Enter this cardigan. It clearly has a tried and tested pedigree at Stitch Fix since I've seen blog posts elsewhere going back a year or so which have featured it as being in a box. Unnecessary seams (by which I mean you can do these things with just a front, back and sleeves in four pieces but this has more pieces than that) add shaping and style while the thick jersey cotton is snuggly but not hot. Plus if you leave it open it's a waterfall cardigan which looks good too. 

I discovered the pockets and knew it was all over - KEEP. 

For me to keep three out of five items was, for me, a complete win. I'll send back the other two tomorrow by just dropping the prepaid bag in a postbox and I'm going to schedule another box for when I next get paid. If you feel like giving it a try click on one of the links in this post and I get something like $20 credit with them, admittedly, but do it anyway because it is a very cool service, especially if you're like me and not keen on clothes shopping in real shops. 

So now ty for reading and I'll brb.

lol ;)

Cat Sitting

This week I have been leaving work and getting a cab straight to an area of SF called Potrero Hills. A friend lives there and I have been looking after her cat while she's been away. This is Luna.

Isn't she sweet? She was a rescue cat and has got a number of scars on her face around her nose and eyebrows where the fur doesn't grow anymore - poor little thing. However, she is now living the life of riley with hot and cold running cat food and everything else taken care of.

When I arrive she is either on the bed or on the back of the sofa so we have a good stroking session before I get a drink and refresh her water and food.

However, once she's had enough strokes we start to play. I took some EPP to the house to do in the evenings and Luna loves the white thread against the dark brown sofa.

It has basically put an end to my sewing since I am worried she will put her paw on the needle!

Having access to a cat for a whole week is such a treat!

Amazing Swaps!

I do love a good swap. You have to be prepared to take a punt that the person you are receiving from will put in as much effort as you do. With these two swaps I know they both put in that little bit extra - such amazing packages!

The first was a swap I ran myself for the English Paper Patchwork swap group on Flickr. Liza blew me away with her amazing parcel - not only an EPP pouch but a paper pieced one too!

Plus the extras - am I not extremely lucky?! The duck is a tape measure - so adorable and much harder to lose than the usual flat ones.

The second was from Cynde and was only supposed to be for a thread catcher. Look what she sent!

A full set of sewing accessories and a marking pen and a cotton+steel charm pack - how generous is that?!

Didn't I tell you I got properly spoilt on both parcels!?

How Was Your Day Dear?

Prior to today my only experience of working in a commercial environment was my Dad's solicitor firm. My business surroundings since then have been charities - not-for-profit organisations with Members who needed servicing and usually a magazine published monthly and maybe a small finance department.

Today, I entered the world of San Franciscan Tech Start-Ups.

In my old work environment you were given a second hand computer when you arrived. It would be a desktop with a big, heavy hard drive under the desk. There were "office" laptops and if you needed one you had to sign it out. If you were lucky one of the newer ones was available, otherwise you ended up with one like a breeze block. Only the CEO had their own laptop, and that would be a generic thing not a Sony or Mac. Now as I sat down at my new desk my boss was trying to wipe the Mac Book Air given to my predecessor, who only used it for two weeks. "It's not working" she said "so just take one of those." Gesturing behind her she pointed to a stack of brand new Mac Books still in their wrappers. The lady to my left noticed the stack and said "Oh, I need a new one too." "Ok." said my boss "Go ahead and take one."

"You'll need a notepad too." said my boss. OK, I said, expecting a stationary cupboard. In my previous job, when someone left, the used pages of their notepads were torn out and the unused portion left for the new person to use.

She handed me my A5 Moleskin notepad with the company logo embossed, not just printed, on the front - individually shrink wrapped.

"What would you like for lunch?" my boss asked me. "Oh is it it office lunch today?" I asked with trepidation - remembering the set-lunch-A that 'catering' used to provide at my old work. "On Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays you use this link to order whatever you want from local places and a company picks it all up and delivers it here for you." I looked at the link - it was restaurant type food. "On Wednesdays and Thursdays we order a load of stuff from local places so we might have Mexican or Chinese - tomorrow is Mexican." My head whirls slightly as I realise I'll never have to buy lunch for as long as I work here. Looking at the kitchen I can see a huge fridge full of every kind of juice and soda and on all the shelves are endless (mostly) healthy snacks - including two different dried fruits covered in chocolate. 

It's not quite Google, but there are exercise balls to sit on in lieu of chairs,(should you wish) several designer chairs for cuddling up in with just you and your laptop, plus an actual freaking hammock. 

Tomorrow there's a free company happy hour in a nearby bar. I am truly working for a tech start-up.