My Sister’s Favorite Post…and a “Pickle Report…”

By the time you read this, my mom and I will be on the road as we visit my younger sister and celebrate her birthday. I have written some blog posts ahead of time so you will have something to read while I am gone. (I’ll still check in though…)

Before I start, I just have to say… LINDA, THOSE PICKLES WERE AWESOME! I was going to take a picture of them on my burger, and have some “Fancy Schmancy” plate all decked out like a layout in a food magazine, but decided this would show better how much my hubby and I enjoyed them…

Yep, every last cuke, onion and pepper…GONE! They were delicious, crispy and sweet. My hubby had them on his plate, his burger, on his potatoes and in his salad. This was the first thing out of his mouth, “These are GOOD!” So thanks for sharing that recipe Linda… If you missed the post with the recipe you can find it by clicking Refrigerator Pickles and a Duck in a Wedding Dress.

I was talking to my older sister on the phone the other day and she shared with me what post has been her all time favorite. She’s the “decorator extraordinaire” sister so I thought it would be of a project I had done, but no, it wasn’t. It was actually my second post I wrote, back last August 2nd, 2014. It was the one about the big blow up slide that I repaired. So in honor of my sister, who unfortunately won’t be able to be in our little “sister visit” and because I’m trying to do laundry, pack, and make a few things for my hubby while I’m gone, I’m going to pull this post out of the archives and share it again. I started my blog on August 1st of last year and said in my very first post, it would be about sewing for dolls and such, and then WHAM…my very second post was on something WAY bigger than doll clothes. But I had to agree with her, it has been one of my all time favorite posts too. I hope you don’t mind it again…

Here is “My Biggest Alterations Job Yet!”

Yesterday I was on the computer when I heard my hubby come in the front door and it sounded like he was dragging something inside. I kept on with my computer work and forgot about the noise I’d heard. It was quite a while before I went into my sewing room, but when I did, it looked like he had deposited a huge parachute on the floor…
“What’s this????” I asked.
“Oh, it’s one of those blow up slides with a pool…” he said with a grin.
“And what’s it doing in my sewing room?” I asked with not so big of a grin.
This time with a smile… “Oh, I told them at church you could probably fix it. It’s something for the kids to play on for VBS (Vacation Bible School) next week. There are a few tears at the seams where it’s leaking, and I know how you love a good project!!!”

Not to be beaten by a blow up slide and pool thingy…and knowing that it was unusable the way it was, I rummaged through my threads and found the Sun Guard thread I had used when I replaced all the screens in our (bargain $300) pop-up camper. (…another story…)

We decided it was too big of a job to do inside, so my darling hubby set up a card table outside in the backyard, carried out my sewing machine, and set up a sewing area for me. He turned on the air pump to blow up this monster, so we could determine what was the best way to tackle this huge undertaking.

Well, to cut to the chase, there were S-E-V-E-N areas that needed fixing… and they were major leaks. Someone before me had tried to GLUE the thing back together, but that didn’t work too well….actually NOT at all. I had 2 small scraps of the blue material that were about 8” x 3” which were pretty ratty looking. I threaded up my machine with a denim/jeans needle and my hubby was deemed the “holder” of the monster, as it was very heavy. It was pretty tricky to get it under the feed dogs of my machine and stitch up the areas that were leaking. We probably had to blow it up and then let the air out 7 or 8 times so we could see if what I had sewn, repaired the leak or not. It’s not my finest work to say the least, but after about 2 hours we got it all patched.

Most of the patching had to be done on the outside… like taking the two edges, holding them together, stitching them together and then folding and stitching a piece of the patch fabric around the rough edges. It worked… and we were so proud! We then huffed and puffed getting all the air out of it and rolled it up and put it in a large plastic tub. Hallelujah!!

This should be the end of my story, but NO…
My hubby carried the tub to the garage and plopped it in front of his workbench… You’ll never believe this, but as he dropped the tub down, it happened to catch a crowbar, which ripped a new 4” tear in the backside. UGH!

He almost cried as he came back out to tell me what had happened. Actually after we both had a moment of groans, we laughed…I sat up my sewing machine, again on the card table, this time, just outside the garage and proceeded to fix that one final rip! I told him, “Maybe we should wrap it all in bubble wrap to protect it until Monday when it will be set up!”

Okay, do I win the prize for the largest alteration? If not, tell me your story…

See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne