45” fabric ???

Whatever happened to 44” – 45” wide fabric? I’ve put in some sewing time this week and had the occasion to follow directions that called for a cut of fabric that measured 41-1/2” of fabric across the width. I had to cut into part of the selvage to get 41-1/2” of fabric in that cut!

Now, this was “Quilt Shop” fabric. As opposed to “Big Box Store” fabric, which tends to be not as generous in their widths. Altho, some of the big box stores are carrying some high-end fabric and things are getting better on that front.

Being a quilter, I generally take big pieces of fabric and cut them into small pieces and then sew those small pieces into big pieces. I usually buy a little more fabric than my design calls for. And if sewing something created by others, I generally buy a little more, too. Doesn’t hurt to “feed the stash”. Plus, most times, I buy Fat Quarters. So, I really don’t concern myself with width of fabric. I buy what fabric grabs my heart, my senses.

Unless I am designing a pattern. Then, I am concerned with fabric width and that’s another story.

I wondered if other fabrics in my stash came close to being 44'” – 45” wide. Well, after measuring several fabrics from my stash – I did not have any that measured 44” wide. None at 43”. None at 42. I lucked out to find 41-1/2” wide fabric! That’s not anywhere near 44” – 45”! Karamba!

I went to simplicity.com to see if the newer patterns compensated for these narrower fabrics.

Nope, they were still using 45” as a “buyable” width. Even if you could buy 45” wide fabric, that width would include the selvage.

I went into EQ to see on what fabric widths they were basing their “yardage to buy”.

EQ had a 44” wide option. But, NOT a 45”. They must have measured their fabric, too! They also have 42” wide as an option. I use the 42” width for determining fabric yardage in EQ.

Now, why would a pattern company such as Simplicity still hold onto the notion that there is 45” wide “usable” fabric in the width? Never was. If fabric were 45”, that would include the selvage – selvage is NOT usable. With clothing patterns, you follow their directions to place your pattern pieces on the fabric and generally they don’t give you much “wiggle room”. And if that wide sleeve butts up against another pattern piece on a narrower width of fabric (less than 45”), you WILL have to piece that sleeve in the underarm area. Been there, done that.

I don’t think I have any 44” wide usable fabric. Do you?

Cold Winter

Around this time of year, the temperature in my hometown is the envy of my northern friends.  They all wish they could be here to enjoy the balmy breezes of South Florida.  Well, this year my temps are on par with a northern winter!  37, 41, 44 – those are not numbers we usually see on our thermometers in South Florida.

It is supposed to get up into the 70’s tomorrow (Thursday).  Now, that’s more like it.  BUT, then another cold front is supposed to come through for the weekend.  Well, at least we don’t have to get out the snow shovel !

Medical Insurance World Gone Mad

I was catching up on some reading and ran across a very interesting article in the AARP magazine.  A woman has ALS and uses an iPod Touch that has an app (Proloquo2go) that can interpret her slurred speech.  Medicare will pay thousands of dollars for a device that will interpret her speech, but will not pay a couple of hundred for the iPod Touch which is compact and works just as well for the purpose.

Reason?  Medicare says it cannot cover the cost of iPods and other handheld devices because they are designed for the public and not for a specific medical purpose.  What an amazingly stupid reason!

Is Medicare afraid that along with using the iPod Touch for her infirmity, she might just use it to read a book, take notes, listen to music and keep track of her medication?  Heavens, she just might download a free app or two and play a game to while away the time. The medically approved (more expensive) device does only one thing.

Is Medicare afraid to save some money?

Here’s the URL for the full article - http://tinyurl.com/yedm5v6

Then, in this morning’s paper, I read an interesting letter to the editor.  It seems a woman went to her podiatrist to have a tiny spur on one of her toes removed.  Doctor said it would take 5 minutes.  BUT, first she had to

• see a heart doctor and get an EKG
• get a very detailed blood test
• get a chest x-ray

3 separate doctors – thousands of dollars, paid by insurance – just for a 5-minute procedure?  How many of those kinds of procedures are done daily?  To the tune of what kind of money?

She decided to live with the spur.

I guess all those things have to be done that way – it’s called “covering your butt”.  Let’s see – I think we have the lawyers to thank for that …  Nothing funny, here.

Credit Card Shenanigans

Two years ago, my DH did a little Christmas Shopping at Sears.  He wanted to charge an item on his Sears card but the clerk suggested he sign up for a new Sears Citibank Gold Master Card and would get 20% off his first purchase.  DH thought that was a good deal and signed up.  The clerk also said that this new  Sears Citibank Gold Master Card would eventually be replacing the old Sears card.  So, he now had 2 Sears charge cards!

We have never used that Sears Gold Master Card since then and in fact, when we got a new card in the mail this past July, we did not activate it and we cut it up and threw it away.

Then yesterday, we got a letter in the mail from Sears Credit Card Services and it said “Due to this challenging business and economic climate, the cost of doing business has dramatically increased.  As a result, we are making rate and fee changes …”

Sears is now going to charge $45 a year as a “membership fee” for that Sears Citibank Gold Master Card.  $45 for what – to have the privilege of buying something and charging it on their card?  I don’t think so.

So, we called today to cancel the card.  BUT, our credit score will probably be affected by the canceling of a credit card. 

How are the credit card companies getting away with this?  Cancel a card and they subtract points from your credit score?

Didn’t those banks get money from the government?  Why do they now need to charge service fees for their cards?  Aren’t the current percentage rates they are now charging enough to cover their expenses and then some?

The $20 savings that DH had on that initial purchase sure wasn’t the bargain he thought it was.  He signed up for that credit card in good faith.

Oh, boy, people … be careful out there!

Lifetime and SciFi changes to SyFy

When I’m sewing stuff that doesn’t require much concentration, I like to watch a movie in my sewing room.  I’ve always enjoyed the movies on Lifetime (cable channel) while I sewed.  The movies themselves don’t require much concentration.  But, now Lifetime is no longer running movies on weekdays.  They’ve got “lovely” programs such as 2 hours of “Wife Swap” in the time slot that used to have movies.

Evidently, people are watching that dreadful “Wife Swap”, otherwise they wouldn’t be airing it two hours in a row!

Then, SciFi (cable channel) changes its name to SyFy.  (Grandson calls it “Siffee”)  What’s up with that?  How much did they pay for that name change?  What a waste of money.

And I don’t think that SciFi is much of a science fiction movie channel anymore.  (Guess that’s why they changed the name)  They seem to run more horror movies than science fiction movies.  Since when is “horror” to be considered science fiction?

And all of those whacky new programs that SciFi keeps spewing out.  Another waste of time and money with programs that appeal to the short attention span of 14 year old boys.

At my age, I am no longer a demographic group that “they” would be interested in.  But, hey … I still spend money and I think I spend way more than any 14 year old boy spends!  Start running some programs that require some intelligence to follow.

Thank goodness for podcasts from NPR (National Public Radio).  I find myself listening to more and more podcasts.  I subscribe to “Fresh Air” and “The Diane Rehm Show”.

And I get quilting podcasts through my iPod Touch and iTunes.  I subscribe to Annie Smith, Alex Anderson and Bonnie McCaffery.

What do you like to listen to/watch while you sew?

Crystal Light Deception

Did they think we wouldn’t notice?

Container on left is an old one, on right the new one.
Old – makes 12 quarts.  New – makes 10 quarts.
Old – 6 tubs in container.  New 5 tubs in container.
Old – 3.2 oz. of powder.  New 2.5 oz. of powder

Both containers are the same size and you would never notice the size of the tubs unless you had an old tub and a new, side by side.

The new tub on the right is just a smidge taller so that 5 tubs fill the container to the level that 6 tubs did.

Oh, the price?  Price is the same.  Less product for the same amount of money.  And they wonder why we get angry!  The food industry has been doing this for years.

Gotta hand it to KraftFoods, they are giving us “Great New Taste”.  Hoo Boy …

Daylight Saving Time - Yuck

I just realized that on Sunday March 8, we will be turning our clocks ahead, again. Ooh, this nonsense has got to stop. Those wonderful congressman in DC think we need to save daylight. If they could figure out how they could save money, then I’d be interested.

I found a website that is dedicated to ending Daylight Saving Time --http://www.standardtime.com/ They have links to contacting your congressman to let him/her know your feelings on DST. I will be doing that. They also have a petition you can sign. I did that.

I read an article today about politicians twittering and it mentioned Senator John McCain. I went to his twitter feed and read about the omnibus bill and all the pork attached to it. Is this what those politicians do for us? $1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa? $1.4 million for genetic improvements of switchgrass? Those are a couple of the items I found interesting. The whole list sounds like a bunch of hogwash. Here’s the link to Sen. McCain’s statement about the omnibus appropriation.

I went to wikipedia and found out that an “Omnibus bill is a single document that is accepted in a single vote by a legislature but contains amendments to a number of other laws or even many entirely new laws. An example of these are the Omnibus spending bills regularly used by the American Congress to group together the budgets of all departments in one year.”

So, this happens every year. With all kinds of pork. I don’t think my household budget would allow for this kind of tinkering.

Politicians don’t know how to save money. What makes them think they can save daylight?