Department of "well, duh!"

On Sat, 16 Jan 2021 23:20:49 -0500, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Jan 2021 05:43:12 +0700, John B.
wrote:

You are probably just wearing the wrong type of pants. Try "plus-4's".
or "Knickers" I think they are called in the U.S., and your problems
will go away :-)

I think mine are plus sixes -- but they don't go at all well with four
pairs of tights, three shirts under a jacket, and three pairs of thick
socks.

I strongly recommend "insulated underwear". I once changed the starter
on a fishing boat, at anchor off the coast of Maine in sub zero
weather with nothing on but a cambric work shirt, dungarees and
insulated underwear :-)
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Sat, 16 Jan 2021 23:21:37 -0500, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Sat, 16 Jan 2021 11:27:26 +0700, John B.
wrote:

Why not
https://www.amazon.com/bicycle-pant-...cle+pant+clips

Clips don't work.

I think that they were invented when cuffs on pants were in fashion,
and wonder why they are still around now that nothing stops them from
sliding down.

Bicycle clips are sold in needlwork shops -- I gather that they do
work for keeping quilts-in-progress rolled up.

Don't they use "quilting frames" any more. I vaguely remember at a
State Fair once seeing some ladies demonstrating how to make quilts
and they something similar to a "sweater drying" frame except much
larger.

Hah! After writing that, I paged down some more and found a
twelve-pack of quilt clips!
--
Cheers,

John B.

On 1/16/2021 11:21 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:


Clips don't work.

I think that they were invented when cuffs on pants were in fashion,
and wonder why they are still around now that nothing stops them from
sliding down.

Hmm. I never thought of that. Seems likely!


--
- Frank Krygowski

On Sun, 17 Jan 2021 13:12:55 +0700, John B.
wrote:

Don't they use "quilting frames" any more. I vaguely remember at a
State Fair once seeing some ladies demonstrating how to make quilts
and they something similar to a "sweater drying" frame except much
larger.

I used to have one of those, and felt a bit guilty using it for a toy
when my great-great grandmothers had to make do with much-inferior
frames for serious work.

I wonder what I did with it?

I used it as a large embroidery hoop, but I did make a quilt out of a
patchwork door curtain; even though I used large stitches and stitched
only along the edges of the blocks, it took a long and tedious time;
no wonder that when quilts were serious bed covering, they held
"quilting parties", so that several women could work at the same time,
and they had somebody to talk to while they were sewing. Or at least
so I gather from old books.

The quilt clips are for machine quilting, when you roll the quilt from
both sides toward the part you want to quilt, to make it fit through
the throat of a sewing machine.

I saw a quilting frame set up at Lowery's once, with a rail on which a
sewing machine could slide back and forth to quilt a strip all the way
across. I presumed at the time that such things were sold to people
who quilt quilts that other people have pieced. I don't recall how
patterns were made; I think maybe the machine could be moved for and
aft as well as back and forth.

I thought that sewing machines with extra-wide throats were "long-arm
machines", but Wikipedia says that "long arm" refers to a machine a
step bigger than the quilting frame I saw at Lowery's, with the
sewing-machine head on a small cherry-picker arm.

I couldn't find a name for a sewing machine with an extra-large
throat.

I did find a picture of one, for sale for thousands of dollars.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

On Mon, 18 Jan 2021 20:59:40 -0500, Joy Beeson
wrote:


On Sun, 17 Jan 2021 13:12:55 +0700, John B.
wrote:

Don't they use "quilting frames" any more. I vaguely remember at a
State Fair once seeing some ladies demonstrating how to make quilts
and they something similar to a "sweater drying" frame except much
larger.

I used to have one of those, and felt a bit guilty using it for a toy
when my great-great grandmothers had to make do with much-inferior
frames for serious work.

I wonder what I did with it?

I used it as a large embroidery hoop, but I did make a quilt out of a
patchwork door curtain; even though I used large stitches and stitched
only along the edges of the blocks, it took a long and tedious time;
no wonder that when quilts were serious bed covering, they held
"quilting parties", so that several women could work at the same time,
and they had somebody to talk to while they were sewing. Or at least
so I gather from old books.

The quilt clips are for machine quilting, when you roll the quilt from
both sides toward the part you want to quilt, to make it fit through
the throat of a sewing machine.

I saw a quilting frame set up at Lowery's once, with a rail on which a
sewing machine could slide back and forth to quilt a strip all the way
across. I presumed at the time that such things were sold to people
who quilt quilts that other people have pieced. I don't recall how
patterns were made; I think maybe the machine could be moved for and
aft as well as back and forth.

I thought that sewing machines with extra-wide throats were "long-arm
machines", but Wikipedia says that "long arm" refers to a machine a
step bigger than the quilting frame I saw at Lowery's, with the
sewing-machine head on a small cherry-picker arm.

I couldn't find a name for a sewing machine with an extra-large
throat.

I did find a picture of one, for sale for thousands of dollars.

My mother was a 4H Agent for quite a few years and I think I remember
that "some of the girls" did some quilt making as some sort of a
project.

I wonder, is the 4H still alive and well? At the time it seemed like a
good idea, teach the girls how to cook and sew and the boys how to
raise beef critters but now I suspect that life on the farm is
somewhat different :-(
--
Cheers,

John B.

On 1/18/2021 9:13 PM, John B. wrote:
On Mon, 18 Jan 2021 20:59:40 -0500, Joy Beeson wrote:

I did make a quilt out of a
patchwork door curtain; even though I used large stitches and stitched
only along the edges of the blocks, it took a long and tedious time;
no wonder that when quilts were serious bed covering, they held
"quilting parties", so that several women could work at the same time,
and they had somebody to talk to while they were sewing. Or at least
so I gather from old books...

My mother was a 4H Agent for quite a few years and I think I remember
that "some of the girls" did some quilt making as some sort of a
project.

Regarding that sort of teamwork:

It's an aspect of society that seems to have sadly diminished. I've
greatly enjoyed the times I've been part of a team to fence in a garden,
build a treehouse, remodel a room or a house, make sausage, etc. But it
seems those opportunities are few and far between these days. Now we
just hire someone, and they do it while we watch - or watch TV. I miss
working with others.

I think maybe I'll become Amish.


--
- Frank Krygowski

On Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:49:36 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 1/18/2021 9:13 PM, John B. wrote:
On Mon, 18 Jan 2021 20:59:40 -0500, Joy Beeson wrote:

I did make a quilt out of a
patchwork door curtain; even though I used large stitches and stitched
only along the edges of the blocks, it took a long and tedious time;
no wonder that when quilts were serious bed covering, they held
"quilting parties", so that several women could work at the same time,
and they had somebody to talk to while they were sewing. Or at least
so I gather from old books...

My mother was a 4H Agent for quite a few years and I think I remember
that "some of the girls" did some quilt making as some sort of a
project.

Regarding that sort of teamwork:

It's an aspect of society that seems to have sadly diminished. I've
greatly enjoyed the times I've been part of a team to fence in a garden,
build a treehouse, remodel a room or a house, make sausage, etc. But it
seems those opportunities are few and far between these days. Now we
just hire someone, and they do it while we watch - or watch TV. I miss
working with others.

I think maybe I'll become Amish.

Along that line, I wonder how many can use a hammer to drive nails,
successfully, any more :-)
Or know that the face of a nailing hammer isn't flat, for that matter
:-)
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Tue, 19 Jan 2021 09:13:13 +0700, John B.
wrote:

I wonder, is the 4H still alive and well? At the time it seemed like a
good idea, teach the girls how to cook and sew and the boys how to
raise beef critters but now I suspect that life on the farm is
somewhat different :-(

My sisters took boy's 4-H, and there were boys in my girl's 4-H club.

I took cooking and sewing. I remember trying to make smaller cookies
while using exactly the same amount of dough. I *think* that I
realized that in order to make them smaller, you have to make them
smaller soon enough to get three more-or-less matching cookies to
exhibit.

(The instructions read that one must measure out exactly the same
amount of dough every single time to make the cookies uniform. I did
not see the contradiction with "these cookies are too big".)

In those days, starting over with a fresh batch of ingredients would
never have occurred to me. Might have occured to a bystander who
wanted more rejected cookies, though.

We were well off by 1940's standards, but waste was a cardinal sin.
I still feel that inanimate objects have rights.

--
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGESEW/
The above message is a Usenet post.

On Fri, 22 Jan 2021 13:34:28 -0500, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Tue, 19 Jan 2021 09:13:13 +0700, John B.
wrote:

I wonder, is the 4H still alive and well? At the time it seemed like a
good idea, teach the girls how to cook and sew and the boys how to
raise beef critters but now I suspect that life on the farm is
somewhat different :-(

My sisters took boy's 4-H, and there were boys in my girl's 4-H club.

I took cooking and sewing. I remember trying to make smaller cookies
while using exactly the same amount of dough. I *think* that I
realized that in order to make them smaller, you have to make them
smaller soon enough to get three more-or-less matching cookies to
exhibit.

(The instructions read that one must measure out exactly the same
amount of dough every single time to make the cookies uniform. I did
not see the contradiction with "these cookies are too big".)

In those days, starting over with a fresh batch of ingredients would
never have occurred to me. Might have occured to a bystander who
wanted more rejected cookies, though.

We were well off by 1940's standards, but waste was a cardinal sin.
I still feel that inanimate objects have rights.

"Waste a cardinal sin"... I remember my folks bought an innerspring
mattress for their bed and I remember how they bragged about it and
told friends how comfortable it was... and stored the old mattress in
the attic "in case we might need it some time"

And as a small child I wore girl's underpants as all my mother's older
sisters had girl children and "one didn't throw good clothes away just
because they were outgrown". You passed them on to "someone that needs
them".

But I will admit that my wife of 49 years still has clothes that she
probably couldn't get into if her life depended on it and when I say
something like, "If it doesn't fit Throw it Away!" she says something
like. "But, it's still good" and hides it away in the closet :-)
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Sat, 16 Jan 2021 13:30:27 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

BTW, it seems that when the pins have failed, it's been by bending
enough to pop loose. Last year, to prevent pins rusting, I bought a pack
of brass pins. Turns out their metal is thicker and much more resistant
to bending. I've not had one pop loose yet.

The downside is the thicker pin is much harder to push through denim.
But I think it would be fine for sweat pants fabric.

I came home with both pins today -- switching to brass did the trick.

I noticed that I frequently grabbed where the pin is when lifting my
right ankle over the saddle; that's probably how the steel pin got
bent.

One side of the old-jail steps was clear, and I did three laps before
going on to the courthouse. There is a doormat at the top of the
steps; I had thought that that door was nailed shut. It does have
hinges, but no sign of a knob or any other way to open it from the
outside.

So what does an emergency exit need with a doormat? Come St.
Patrick's day, I can go into the museum and ask, if California has an
unprecedented attack of common sense and doesn't spread the new
strains around. (Alas, New York is even crazier.)

I climbed the east steps of the courthouse six times instead of three
because I couldn't get to the sourth steps without passing too close
to the protesters. The were very polite, simply standing silent and
motionless, holding signs that said "pray for an end to abortion". I'm
praying that they somehow avoid the trap that the temperance movement
fell for.

But it's soooo tempting, and looks soooo quick and soooo easy . . .
and would lead, if successful, to aborting all children who are
inconvenient to the state. Any mother who objects is obviously in
need of a guardian to make decisions for her.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/