Mending pictures

Seven year old and her mom were here part of the weekend.

She had mending that needed done for her oldest's husband.

It was not normal, sew on a button mending.

It was a brand new pair of pants that had gotten caught on a nail (on his chair at work) and a coat  side seam. So a MAJOR hole in the seat of pants and a side seam of a lined coat totally come undone.

I also patched a hole in a quilt not too long ago, and thought to take a before picture in case I ever needed to show someone.

This technique is not the only one, I am sure. But it is the way our alteration shop lady has taught me. If you remember, most of the time when I take something in to her, she tells me I could fix it myself. If it needs her heavy denim machine or involves youngest's thick letter jacket, then she takes it. Some other things I just insist she take. But after the first couple patch things, with her explaining to me what she did, I started doing those myself.

First here is the quilt. It is the first hole (it is in the lower border) on one of the quilts I have made. This is one of a pair of (beloved) Brown Bear quilts. The hole was only in the top of the quilt, it was not all the way through it.

I put this quilt on the floor and then stood on the kitchen table right above it to get this shot. You are seeing the rug that it under our kitchen table and one of the hall runners, behind the quilt.

Some of the fabric was actually missing from the quilt which required a patch. And I could not put a patch behind the hole because the batting and backing were still intact. So the patch needed to on top of the hole. (Normally I put the patch behind things, as you will see in the pants pictures below).

This picture is from the back of the quilt. I used blue thread in the top of my machine and white in the bobbin. It is rarely perfect when one does this, you can see blue thread from the back and white thread from the front, but it helps.

PANTS - I save the pieces we cut off pant hems to use as patches. I have a variety of colors. I do not use any adhesive.

These are size 34 x 34 men's pants to give you can idea of how huge this tear was. I left all the rawness of the tear intact and just sewed over it. So there were a lot of dangling threads that I left on the tear. My experience is if I start cutting all that off, then I end up with a much larger hole. You can see that my fingers found two other places where the nail had torn away part of the pants fabric, but not left a hole. But the fraying there would have eventually caused a hole. My fingers found these places, I did not see them with a naked eye at first. 

I use pinking shears on the edges of the patch so it does not fray over time. I do the sewing from the front, I can't see where the edges of the patch are exactly. I start in the middle and keep feeling with my fingers until I have worked my way to the edges. 

The coat would not have show in pictures. It was a black coat with black lining. The side seam had come all the way open from the arm pit to the hem. I opened the side seam of the lining. I pulled the top layer through the hole so I had turned the whole thing inside out. Then I resewed the side seam and also zigzagged it to reinforce. I then turned the coat back to right side out, and machine sewed the lining. I had to sew the lining from the right side of the lining. But I sewed very close to the edge so it is not readily obvious.

Photo shopping update

Update on Shutterfly.

I first ordered matte finish 4X6 with $20 coupon. Was not pleased with clarity. But I was not sure of the quality of the photos, to start, because they were mostly taken by other people. These were photos of seven year old and a lot of them were taken by her family.

Middle ordered a poster for youngest and it had nice clarity.

My husband said perhaps the matte was the problem with the photos.

Middle got another $20 coupon.

I had to order A LOT of photos to hit $20.

I ordered glossy finish this second time. I ordered a lot of the same photos I had ordered in matte. So we could compare side by side.

The clarity of the glossies was better.

I will put a note in comments about this later. My husband is going to compare, photo to photo, later, and he has the best eye.

ADDED LATER - my husband said the matte is better. I was looking at different pictures (ours) than the original order (theirs) when I thought the glossies were better. He said the detail on the matte was actually better, when he compared, picture to picture, with the original order.

I got shutterfly photos for free, both times. I paid shipping, both times. It was much less expensive (total bill) than local shop because of $20 coupons.

I had to wait longer to get them. But the wait did not matter.

We will have to be extremely careful putting them in album so they do not have fingerprints all over them. (They wear white gloves at photo labs.)

I do not know how I feel about matte and glossy in same album.

So if we have a coupon for free prints, maybe Shutterfly does make sense, with coupon. But it is a lot of "if, than and buts". It is not a straight comparison.

So, now we are just looking at cost. If we wait for shutterfly coupon, pictures will be cheaper.

But my husband reminded me of one other thing. The Shutterfly coupons are just for 4X6 and sometimes that does not crop well, depending on picture. Our local shop will still print square or odd sizes (remember we work with a lot of old photos in our albums).

And I just remembered to add - I check every picture on shutterfly orders and adjust cropping. I do not like their auto crop. I upload all the photos, making sure I have enough for my $20 coupon, and then I go thru and adjust cropping.

Finding things I can listen to without looking very much, sewing at my machine, free/hand weight work, Pilates, hand stitching

Netflix has quite a bit of Agatha Christie's Poirot available. Beloved character for me.  That is from Masterpiece/Mystery. David Suchet and Hugh Frasier did such a good job. Philip Jackson and Pauline Moran too. There are 70 of them, I think Netflix has them all.  I read all of them (book form) long ago. I have seen most of them. Perfect for doing something, listening and just looking up every once in a while.

Wiki
"Agatha Christie's Poirot is a British television drama that aired on ITV from 8 January 1989 to 13 November 2013. David Suchet stars as the eponymous detective, Agatha Christie's fictional Hercule Poirot. Initially produced by LWT, the series was later produced by ITV Studios. In the United States, PBS and A&E have aired it as Poirot.

"At the programme's conclusion, which finished with Curtain, based on the final Poirot novel,[1] every major literary work by Christie that featured the title character had been adapted."

Oldest got us hooked on Shark Tank. It is on CNBC and ABC. Entrepreneurs pitch investment ideas to a panel of business people. So someone has a fledgling business and wants a millionaire to help them with connections, ideas and money. Really clever products and services are featured.  I have quite a few things bookmarked (future gift ideas) on my iPad, that were shown. Actually very interesting show. Some people are so smart. Other people hang in to an idea beyond all reason. It is very interesting to watch. And I have learned if you are every really stuck for a gift idea, go to Bed Bath and Beyond and just wander.

Oldest also got us hooked on Would I Lie to You? Also BBC; we have only been able to find it on Youtube. Really, really funny. I have a link that he sent me to find all of them. As soon as I verify it is a regular link and not tied to our personal accounts, I will put it in comments.

Photo processing hunt

Someone and I were talking about where to have pictures developed.

I just looked, it was JSP, here, in comments.

I am helping my close friend with an album for the seven year old.

It started because Middle had 50 free prints available from Shutterfly.

I was not at all confident of the quality of their prints, so I did not want to order for our albums. (Yes, we are photo snobs).

I wanted to put the 50 freebies to good use. Like a project.

To be honest, our friends have lower photo standards. And I have a lot of pictures of the seven year old in my digital photo files. So I texted my friend asking if seven year old had an album and mentioning the 50 free prints.

She was game. And she ordered 250 Shutterfly prints. Different pictures, same kid, from her phone. We are making an album for seven year old.

Over the weekend I found more pictures of the seven year old.

And it occurred to me it (this album) was a good opportunity to order prints from other stores in my area. To try other, cheaper systems.

My first attempt was Walgreens until I discovered I could only get glossy from my local store. Glossy is a fingerprint nightmare. I only do matte. I did not want to get into mail order at this time. So I rejected Walgreens for now.

Next I tried Walmart. Website said matte was available for in store pick up. I submitted my order online and then refused it at the store (which they let me do). The finish was not glossy, but was also not matte. I had made the online selections that said slow download (most pixels possible and pictures intact) but that was not what the order had. The pixels were very funny and heads were chopped.  The lady at the in store photo lab said the software says one thing and does another. It was not me, it was them. So they are out too. But they also have mail order available which she said was higher quality.

Target and CVS only had glossy available for in store, same day pick up. Both have mail order with higher quality available, I think, it is all sort of running together now.

So, I did not find a printed locally, option that pleased me.

Yes, all these places are cheaper, but they are not doing what I want. So, cheaper doesn't really get me anywhere, but unhappy with their pictures.

If anyone thinks of other larger chains for me to try, I would appreciate a note in comments.

What I want - matte, 4x6, ability to see how the machine will crop and the ability to adjust that cropping, easily. Slow download with the most pixels possible.

Most of the time I would be okay with mail order. But this week, I honestly wanted pictures in my hands, to compare. Mail order experiment involves shipping cost, so a couple to compare is not easily, cheaply done.

Electricity

We have a power strip at each end of our couch in the living room. They are plugged in behind the couch, set so they are peeking out of the corners. They are always there, available. They are in constant use.

There is a two plug socket built/set into the floor in front of the couch. If we had little kids here, it would stay covered. Currently it is uncovered and available for use. It is handy.

I have a power strip next to my bed.

The kids have electrical sockets right next to their night stands.

We have charger cords set in key places all over the house. Middle's boy comes without his phone charger and uses mine, because there are three available. In my car, next to the elephant by the backdoor, in the living room. When our friends stay, they use my husband's charger, always plugged in the same spot in the kitchen.

An extension cord lives in my travel case. If I got somewhere without it, we would have to go buy one.

iPad and phone for me. iPad, phone and lap top for everyone else at my house. If we have 2-3 of us gathered in one space, in the house or traveling, we require a lot of plugs.

We have two TV's, a DVD player and a wide variety of gaming systems all set together in the living room. Cord heaven. Lots of plugs in use.

We have lots of Amish neighbors. Their plug useage is much, much smaller. Cell phone charger and probably a freezer. (I honestly do not know about refrigerators). Maybe a washing machine. All run by generator, not on the grid. (They cook on a wood stove and hang wet laundry on a line and sweep the floor with a broom).

When our power goes out, which very rarely happens, I am at a loss. Everything I go to do requires power. Eventually I find something that can be done and I settle in, maybe with one of the battery lanterns, with cards or a game or cleaning out a drawer. It feels like a lost time, not a found time. I am just marking time until the power returns.

Grid dependent, yes.