My skin is becoming very thin.

Now as I age and still need to sew for therapy, I've had to adapt. I find that pins will pierce my skin much easier. I have found these wondefully helpful little clips to use instead of pins. for many years, a pin prick here or there was never noticed, now I need to run to get a bandaid to prevent ruining my project. The bandaids are kept with my sewing supplies.

New Sewn purse for ME

I used a tapestry for the outside, open weave so I had to bind the seams before assembly. A Beautiful Green printed silk for the insdide. I just love it. ONE OF A KIND.

FORCEPS for turning and stuffing!

I'm not sure where I got these forceps, maybe a drugstore or thrift store. They have become my must-haves for turning my small sewing items and then to stuff in the batting as well.

I grab inside the very end of sewn item and holding it with foceps, simply pull it through turning the fabric as I go.

Works great for little items especially.

Then I grab a bit of fiberfill, sometimes twisting it slightly fo form a little ball at one end to grab on to and put it way into the sewn item.

I keep putting the fiberfill in in this way so that it is firmly packed.

So much easier than with my clumsy old arthritic hands. HAPPY SEWING........♥

Sewing tips for "Older Adults" and/or vision impaired

I was not ready to give up on sewing but threading my machine was difficult. This is the solution that I came up with. many years ago, OXmoor house sent me this freebie with a mailing.

With a black marker, I colored one corner:

I have used this numerous times to thread my machine by putting this behind my needle on the blacked side if using light thread and on the darker side to see dark thread I am able to see the hole in the needle clearly.

then after inserting the thread, I use the long tweezers to pull the thread through to the back.

I don't remember where I got the tweezers but they are now my must haves for sewing.

I hope this is helpful to someone. ♥

I found these in my files today and hope to share them with anyone that may need them, they are needed in this Covid crunch that we are in.

Feeling very Martha-ish Today!

I was in the process of making a lemon blueberry loaf cake to have with our "first coffee" in the AM. Realizing that I was out of lemon zest ....ekk.... a key ingredient. Drive to small corner store, none. Hannaford, none. so I bought a bag of lemons. I had a lemon zester from a few years ago. So in an instant, I had the needed amount for the cake. With the cake now out of the oven and cooling, I turned to the remaining 7 lemons. NOW the MARTHA section. After zesting all the lemons, I had a small amount to dry at 200 degrees for 20 minutes in the oven. now after drying and slightly crumbling, these 7 lemons yielded a "scant" 2 tablespoons of zested lemons.

Proceding to the zested lemons, I rolled them and juiced them, including the 2 from the original reason for buying the lemons origially.

This procedure yielded "Almost 2 cups of lemon juive to freeze in small containers for DIY lemon aid. I really think Martha goes to the store and buys her lemon zest in a glass container like I normally would.

On Amazon for $6.78 ($4.52 an ounce) Did I mention that the bag of lemons cost $3.99 and all of that physical work and the cost of the oven for 30 minutes. I WILL FIND LEMON ZEST AT A STORE SOON OR ODER IT ON AMAZON.

I found my old blog today

Great memories.........so much has changed. We have moved and are making it on Social Security. It was a long struggle to get to this place but we are finally able to "Age in Place" peacefully. We were so worried about losing our home and being homeless. Our health was deteriorating because of injuries and age related arthritis. WE were still trying to work and keep it. My Daughter still is not speaking to Me because we sold her inheritance! She said there were so many memories at the house. WE wish that we could have kept it and were praying for a lottery win...lol.

We love this home, 10 minutes from I95. 25 minutes from a major hospital, 15 minutes to a small one. 15 minutes to major grocery store and shopping. In Rangeley it was an hour away on bad roads. Two hours to Home Depot and Sam's Club - one way. That works for the young people, they love the privacy and quiet. We have a lovely Screen room so the black flies in the spring and the mosquitos in the summer are not a bother. Two bathrooms!! Washer and dryer not in the basement. Large master bedroom on the same level with a private handicapped shower bathroom. Perfect. And did I mention a pantry and lots of kitchen storage, no basement shelves to deal with. A craft/sewing/home office/exercise room. Quiet little town - bird feeders and flowers.