Our niece, Olivia,
is getting married next Sunday. So last
Tuesday, I started making her a set of six placemats. I got the
backgrounds done that afternoon, and then used my Sizzix eclips2 to cut the freezer
paper templates for the appliqués.
I found the petal
shape I wanted in the eCAL program’s Fall Activities folder – the football, to
be precise. I deleted the laces on it,
elongated it, told the program to fill the page... ironed a couple of pieces of
freezer paper together, pressed it onto the cutting mat, and sent it through
the cutter. Presto, I had a pile of
petal templates.
I found the leaves
I wanted in the Spring folder – connected to a flower. I removed the flower... filled the page... cut...
and then just had to trim off the stem.
The materials I
have run through that machine never want to stick well to the cutting
mat. 🙄
I got some spray adhesive to make the mat more
sticky, but first I have to scrub it – and that sounds quite a lot like
housework. Next time, next time.
In
case you’re wondering why I didn’t just cut the fabric shapes I wanted, rather than the templates, well, I have
used the eclips2 to cut fabric appliqué shapes, but then I had to do a
satin-stitched edge, unless I wanted to turn it all under by hand, which I didn’t.
I prefer it turned under with the
freezer-paper-and-starch method. I could
resize the shape I’m cutting from freezer paper, making it large enough to cut
the fabric with a 1/4” allowance for turning under... but that wasn’t going to
work this time, since I’m using oodles of oddly-shaped odds and ends for the
appliqués. Well... I suppose with a
whole lot of fiddling, I could make it work... maybe just
sending one scrap through at a time... but I’d probably wind up running the
shape off the edge of the fabric, and destroy all the scraps I want to
use! And this is supposed to save
time, not waste it.
Cutting
the freezer paper templates with the eclips2, ironing them to fabric, and
cutting the fabric with scissors worked, and the templates were perfectly cut,
into the bargain. That’s the important part. The template edge will be the appliqué edge.
Larry’s tooth that lost a filling a while back
finally broke off that day. He plans to
do something about his teeth – after Christmas.
He has no more live teeth; they’ve all had root canals at one time or
another, and several have broken too many times to be repaired further.
Wednesday, I began
starching the seam allowances around the petals, leaves, and stems, and ironing
the edges under. Well, actually, I
ironed the edges over, since the appliqué
pieces were upside down.
I had 156 pieces to
appliqué. They were not yet all cut out, because I needed to reuse a few
of the freezer-paper templates. I had a new little paintbrush with a
rubber grip and fine bristles to use for painting on the starch – compliments
of a friend on an online quilting group. And I had silk
embroidery thread with which to appliqué, too, from the same lady. Thank
you, Marianne!
And then it was
time for church, and I was very glad to take a break from all that tedious
work.
When we got home, we
ate a late supper, and then I finished starching and ironing the rest of the
appliqué pieces.
Thursday morning,
October 4th, I got up, took a bath, washed my hair, trotted out to
the kitchen to make some coffee, fed the cats, gave Teensy his medicine,
gathered up my laptop, and returned to the bathroom to dry and curl my hair and
read the funnies, the news, and my email, not necessarily in that order.
I did not hear an
email from Victoria when it arrived, despite the fact that I have my laptop set
to play Gomer exclaiming, “ShaZAM!!!” every time Victoria writes.
24 minutes after
that email arrived, I belated found it.
It had a picture –
and NEWS.
Here’s the news:
“Violet Faith, 8
lbs., 4 oz., 20.5” long, arrived at 8:38 a.m.”
Kurt and
Victoria have another baby girl!
“Baby is eating like a pro and a happy little camper
already,” wrote Victoria a little later that afternoon. “I woke up at 2 a.m., and we got here at 4
a.m.”
So our baby now has two little babies of her
own! Everything went well, and we are very thankful.
It was cold and
windy that day. Wind gusts of 50 mph had blown through during the night,
breaking several more branches in our maple tree. It had gotten up to 93°
Wednesday; but Thursday the high was only 48°.
I saw mouse tracks
in the cupboard – the cold generally brings them in – so I set a bunch of mouse
traps. We promptly caught three mice.
I dumped the mice
outdoors... reset the traps... went to wash my hands – and there was a big
black cricket in the sink! Aarrgghh. I like nature, but not in my house!!!
That afternoon, UPS
brought a heavy box – knit fabrics that I purchased from a quilting friend.
My plan was to use the fabric for one or two more rag-shag rugs... but some of this fabric is much too fine, and much too pretty, to use for rugs.
I will be using the soft, pale-yellow knit with the pretty little diaper-pin
design for something soon, I’ll betcha. 😉
In fact, I am now committed to make something with it, because I told
Victoria about it, and promised to
make something!
We went
to visit them at the hospital in Norfolk that night after Larry got home from
work. When we got there, some of Kurt’s
family was there, along with Lydia and her family. Lydia had been taking care of little Carolyn
that day, and she brought her, too.
Carolyn then went home with Kurt later.
Carolyn was pleased
to see us. She says something on the
order of ‘Boppa’ for ‘Grandpa’. She loves her grandpas and
great-grandpas!
We gave the baby a
soft, thick, furry off-white coat with attached mittens, along with some
handmade baby soap I got in a boutique in Creede, Colorado. The coat came from England; I got it for one
of Victoria’s dolls several years ago. We
gave her the doll in a new-baby size for her birthday, and a suitcase full of clothes
with it. She never used the coat; it’s
still new.
I bought it new on
eBay. As I hunted for clothes in Newborn
size one night, I couldn’t understand why no one from the United States was
selling any baby clothes! – and then, after ordering a cartload of things, I finally
realized, Oh. I’m on the England eBay site. Didn’t even know there was such a thing.
Larry and I ate at
Culver’s Restaurant in Norfolk after leaving the hospital. He got roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy,
and green beans. I got a chicken bacon
bleu salad. We polished off the meal
with one of their famous custard Sundaes – Larry got caramel; I got strawberry
shortcake.
Friday, Hester sent
a video of Baby Keira trying her best to reach a nearby book. The baby is sure if she could just throw her
leg over with enough gusto, she could propel herself right on over, and get
that book. She
weighs about 13 pounds now.
The Schwan man
arrived that afternoon with two big bags of frozen things I’d ordered. The freezer is empty no more!
Andrew and Hester
invited us for supper that night. Hester
fixed Brie and Pear Sandwiches, along with a citrus salad with Acini di pepe (pearl pasta). For dessert, we had pumpkin walnut muffins (yes,
she made them) with ice cream. She sent
us home with a bag of muffins – and a canvas picture on an easel for my
birthday, which was the next day, October 6th. The picture was one I’d taken of the peach
blossoms on our tree.
Victoria sent some pictures of Carolyn holding
Baby Violet. Little Carolyn looks totally delighted
with that new baby sister.
Later that night,
Hester sent us a text: “I meant to give
you coffee with dessert. 😒”
I wrote back reassuringly,
“Well, you’re saved: we had a Thermos in the Jeep, and drank a cup or two
on the way home!”
Larry didn’t see
the message until morning, whereupon he replied, “I was sleepy all night.”
Hester responded
with this: 😄 🙃 🙃
Late Friday night, I
finished stitching down the appliqués on the placemats.
“Tell me,” I wrote
to several friends and relations (à la Rabbit, of Winnie-the-Pooh), “would you
like them better as placemats, as I’ve been intending, or all put together as a
table topper or throw?”
They look pretty,
side by side, don’t they?
I once made a tall
pile of 12” nine-patch blocks in the intention of making potholders for friends
for Christmas. But... I made them all the same – that is, each potholder
had the same five fabrics in shades of forest green and burgundy, and I put the
squares together so that the colors ran in diagonals. When I was done
with a whole raft of those blocks, I made the error of laying them out on my
bed. Ooooo... they were way too pretty to make into
potholders.
So Hester wound up
with a forest green and burgundy quilt with a small pile of matching toss
pillows for Christmas that year.
I started over with
the potholders, this time making sure to choose fabric that I wouldn’t
want to make into a quilt when they were done. 😉
Saturday dawned – October
6th, my 58th birthday.
Victoria,
getting ready to head home from the hospital with her baby, who wrote a Happy
Birthday note to me.
“Thanks!”
I wrote back to her. “A beautiful new
granddaughter is a very good birthday gift.”
“She even
made it early (meaning, the gift was
early; not the baby), which sets a
record for me getting your gift to you on time, haha,” responded Victoria.
It was 48°, with a
wind chill of 43°. Looks like it’s about time to put away the summer
clothes and haul out the winter ones!
I cut a backing for
the placemats, found some batting, loaded my quilting frame, and got on with
the quilting.
Dorcas posted a
clip of little Trevor singing Happy Birthday.
She wrote, “Sometimes
he goes to the dryer, because there’s a part where he can see himself, and he’ll
sing to himself and laugh.”
When he wants
something, he says, “Wease (please) good job!” And
his newest words are “goodness sakes.” 😅
I decided to go
with placemats as I’d originally intended, since a) there wasn’t
enough of the fabric I would’ve needed for sashing and borders in order to make
it big enough for a throw, and b) I’m running out of time.
While I quilt, over
there in the corner is the usual Cat-In-A-Box.
Several
friends wrote to protest my turning these pieces into placemats. Some mentioned spaghetti with red sauce...
other spoke of gravy, beets, and grape juice.
Maybe I
should tuck a bottle of Resolve into the box with the placemats?
The lady
who gave me the paintbrushes and the silk thread, in a box packed full of other
nice things, replied, “Do you think they might think Resolve is for settling
arguments?!”
Haha!
I could put a sticky note on the side of the bottle, advising them of
such. “In case of argument, please give each other a healthy squirt of this.”
After we got home
from church last night, Larry took daughter-in-law Amy her birthday gift while
I fixed supper – chicken casserole.
Since it was from Schwan’s, ‘fixing it’ entailed turning on the oven,
getting the box out of the freezer, removing the film, putting the box on a
cooking sheet, sliding it in to the oven, and setting the timer.
Larry came back with a gift for me: body
wash, lotion, truffles, Nutella, orange marmalade, and two kitchen towels with
crocheted tops Amy had made, for hanging on the oven handle.
Here’s Lydia and
little Malinda, taken at the hospital Thursday night when we were visiting
Victoria and Baby Violet.
Larry took Teensy
to the vet this afternoon, as my arm isn’t quite well enough to manage the
job. The kitty needed another blood test
to see how he’s doing with his medicine.
Larry was driving
the VW Touareg. Last I knew, it was
running quite badly. I hoped it wouldn’t
stall out somewhere and leave him stranded.
When
I was a teenager, I had a friend who named her car ‘Jonah’ --- because it didn’t
want to go.
Half an hour later,
Larry brought Teensy home again. He’s
back up to 10 pounds, from a sad, skinny 7 pounds a couple of months ago! This is very good news. However, his thyroid numbers are still not
where they should be, so the vet is going to double his medication. The tablets will be 5 mgs instead of 2.5 mgs.
Time to
get back to the quilting machine!
,,,>^..^<,,, Sarah Lynn ,,,>^..^<,,,
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