Easter Cards Made, Mailed, and Received

Regifted?

Last summer, a friend, wanting to share the wealth, offered me some fabric that one of her friends had given her. Since I was one of the last to take her up on the offer, there wasn't a whole lot of left that I would use, but I did grab several pieces of lightweight, cotton upholstery fabric. Monday it dawned on me that I needed a wedding shower gift, and I needed to take it to church on Wednesday (if I wanted to avoid an extra 32-mile round trip) since I wouldn't be able to attend the shower on Saturday. I pulled out an apron pattern that I bought on sale for ninety-nine cents (I would never pay $12.95 for a pattern!), and started looking at the fabric I had on hand for something suitable. My stash consists largely of fat quarters, a few half-yards, remnants, and scraps, so there weren't many choices, and I needed two coordinating fabrics. Voila! The upholstery fabric! I prewashed the fabric, dried it, and then went to work. Here's the results -- a very nice apron, if I do say so myself!
Front detail -- the buttons are from my button jar. The color on this is truer-to-life than the full picture.Pocket detail (The pocket and flap are really straight -- it's just the way it was hanging. I didn't have a model handy -- sorry.)Back -- since the lining is also the plaid fabric, I placed a (very wrinkled) pillowcase behind the straps to improve visibility.
And the label inside the bib. (I wish my machine's monogram feature had variable sizes. This is a little large.)

Postcard #3

I've collected nearly thirty fat-quarters of cat fabric. (If you don't know what a fat quarter is, click here.) Maybe one day they'll turn into something, but for now, I just enjoy them and occasionally use a bit, like for this card.

Another Postcard

I put this card in the mail yesterday. It's going to my friend who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer as she is scheduled for surgery this week. Here's the quilt I made for her a couple of months ago.

Long Time, No Write, No Read

I didn't really intend to take a long break from blogging; it's just that I've had absolutely nothing for show and tell. Nothing. I've been hand-sewing the binding on the shirt quilt, and there's about 30" or so left to do. I should be able to finish it today or tomorrow. Over the weekend, I made nine postcards -- Easter, birthday, get-well -- trying to get most of April's events covered. Rather than dump them all into one post, I thought I'd string it out a bit so that I don't have to think about what to write!

This one is for someone in James' office. It will accompany a couple of my handmade bibs. It's a little hard to read the ribbon, but it says, "CONGRATULATIONS." Congratulations to me for finally posting something!

My Kind of Dentistry

I don't know of anyone who enjoys going to the dentist. For me, it's an unpleasant, but necessary, nuisance twice a year for cleanings. I take good care of my teeth, and it's been years (maybe 20+?) since I've had to do anything more. However, a cavity was found when I had my teeth cleaned a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday was the appointment for the filling. Here's the timeline:

• 12: 56 - Arrived for 1 p.m. appointment
• 1:00 - Escorted to "the chair"
• 1:01 - Dentist began working
• 1:17 - Dentist finished working
• 1:19 - Checked out at the desk
• 1:26 - Returned home.

Really now, if you must endure an unpleasant experience, then surely it should be made as brief as possible. Thank you, Dr. Pitts! (That really is his name, by-the-way.)

Finished Quilt Top

I didn't finish another quilt top (I'm still working on quilting the shirt quilt) but I did contribute to one that is going to a young, inured Marine. Here are pictures of the finished quilt top with my one block included. Since I forgot to take a picture of my block before I sent it, here it is: Impressive, huh?

Signs of Spring

After a few days of teasingly warm temperatures, followed by another cold and dreary weekend, it looks like spring truly may be just around the corner. Our yard doesn't get enough sun to grow many flowers, but I did (past tense) have one lone jonquil springing up. It looked so sad all by itself that I picked it and brought it inside. Since its little head was hanging down, I put it up on the shelf over the fireplace so that it could smile down at us. And up there, the cat won't eat it.

Good Shopping Day

I hit both grocery stores and all three drug stores this morning in my shopping rounds. Lists were short for each place. I saved 55% at Kroger, 71% at Publix, 74% at Walgreens, 75% at Rite Aid, and I guess I saved 100% (more or less) at CVS. There were two prescriptions to fill, paid for by insurance and our Health-care Spending Account, some OTC medicine that I paid for with Extra Bucks (nothing out-of-pocket), and when I scanned my CVS card, I got this free:Any day with chocolate is a good day, and free chocolate makes it a great day! In addition to my savings, I was able to buy three one-pound bags of rice for nine cents each, and they went into the give-away box for the food pantry.

Expired

Do you pay attention to product expiration dates? I pay attention. Whether or not to discard a product that is past its prime is considered on an item-by-item basis. Even food. It depends on what it is, how far gone the date is, and sometimes what it smells like! We haven't expired yet by consuming anything expired. Recently while cleaning the bathroom, I used up a bottle of bleach, rinsed the bottle, and smashed it up a bit for the recycling bin. That's when I noticed this: Yep, the bleach expired five months ago. Now really! How can bleach go bad? (Unless you mix it with ammonia, which is never, ever to be done. Trust me.)

Clothing doesn't expire, but if it did, my cotton, long-sleeved, favorite tee-shirt type Lands End nightgown is oh-so-close. Here's what it looks like: (It is very difficult to take a good picture of your own shoulder. Try it sometime just for fun.) There's another hole in the front, and what used to be a very pretty blue is sort of a faded, yech non-color. I must admit it is exceedingly soft and comfy, though. I was happy last week to find a replacement on clearance. And to sweeten the deal, I had a free shipping code.Ah, this one looks much better. I'm sure I'll get several years of wear from it, too.

Critter Getters

I could tell you this story without a picture, but it could conceivably end up being a 500-page book. So to make my storytelling a bit less cumbersome, here's the layout of my mother's house. I was there yesterday. I remember. We were just about to leave to go out for lunch. As I was coming out of the bathroom, I saw a squirrel run from the sliding glass doors where my mom was standing, across the den, and into the dining room. My first thought was, "What the....?!" and then my next thought was to close the hall door so that if the squirrel continued to run, she (yes, I'm sure of the gender as you will soon find out) wouldn't be able to go down the hall where the bedrooms are. Meanwhile, my mom followed the path of the squirrel, closing the door from the kitchen to the dining area behind her so that the squirrel couldn't leave that room. She also went across the room to open the front door so that the critter would have an escape hatch.

I kept hearing a loud chirping noise in the den so I went toward the glass doors to investigate and found a newborn baby squirrel. The umbilical cord was gone, but its little eyes weren't even open yet. Apparently its mama dropped it there, and there I left it.

I went into the living room to see how my mama was faring with shooing the squirrel mama outdoors. Mama didn't actually see the squirrel go out the front door, but we were both pretty sure that it was gone. I looked under the furniture and didn't see anything, so we closed the open front door before something else unwanted came in! As a precaution, we left the door from the dining room to the kitchen closed.

Well, my mom didn't know that she still had another squirrel in the house, so I showed her. She put on gloves and was going to pick it up, but I thought maybe she should scoop it up with something instead (it was very much alive). So, she scooped it up with a dustpan, and then we had the dilemma of what to do with it. She went out the sliding glass door, but she didn't just want to put the helpless little thing on the ground-level patio. So, she decided to go put it on the front porch that is rather high off the ground, and hope that the mama squirrel would hear its cries and come back for it.

At this point in time I asked how the squirrel had gotten into the house in the first place. I assumed that since Mama was standing by the sliding doors when I first saw her and the squirrel that it had come in that way. But it didn't. Mama had heard her dogs barking at something on the carport, so she opened the kitchen storm door to see what they were barking about. She didn't see anything, so she walked away. That door has a faulty pneumatic closer, and although the door will eventually close all the way, it takes a while. She thinks that the squirrel was under one of the cars and that when it saw the door hanging open behind her, it ran in to get away from the dogs.

So, we picked up where we left off and continued to get ready to go out to lunch. When we went out to the car, we discovered that her little dog had found the baby squirrel before its mama did. So brief a life, and so sad, but neither of us thought beforehand about that possibility. If the squirrel mama had been a better nest-builder the baby wouldn't have fallen out anyway. (At least that's what we surmised happened.) So, we went to lunch.

When we returned home and were sitting in the den, here came the squirrel mama to the sliding glass doors. She paced back and forth, peered inside, scratched at the door, then left. A few minutes later, she did it again. And again. She knew where she'd left that baby. I told Mama I was going to call her at 3 a.m. when I was having baby squirrel nightmares.

AWOL

So I've been AWOL for nearly a week. Actually, I think I could have gotten sick leave approved if I'd bothered to complete the paperwork. I'm not much into paperwork these days though.

I have the shirt quilt sandwiched together and I've begun the [machine] quilting. It's not visible in these pictures, but my dining room furniture is shoved against the wall in order to make enough floor space to work on this 7' x 7' quilt.

I started by laying the backing fabric on the floor and taping it down with painter's tape. Then I spread out the batting on top if it. I was thankful that Blinky decided to stay out of my way. She doesn't get many opportunities to be in the living room/dining room, so she took advantage of a little sofa time. I should have known that it wouldn't last. Anyway, after I laid the pieced-shirt-quilt-top on top of all this, I put pins around the outer edge, and then spent the better part of two days on my hands and knees (alternating with my behind when my knees complained) hand basting the layers together. We were keeping Caleb and Alexa Saturday afternoon, and I had to have the dining room table to feed their whole family and us on Saturday night; so, to keep from having to start over, I had to finish the basting in two days. Not to mention that I was not feeling well on Friday, and by Saturday I knew that I was sick. (Note to self: Do not do this again -- start basting a large quilt when sick and the dining room will be needed in two days. Dumb, dumb.) Anyway, that task is over and I've done a tad of quilting, which is just straight lines about 1.5" apart, on the diagonal. So far, so good.

It's Flimsy

The quilt for my mother, made from my late step-father's shirts, is coming along, and is now officially a "flimsy." According to Mr. Webster, when flimsy is used as a noun it means, "a lightweight paper used especially for multiple copies; also, a document printed on flimsy." Well, in the quilting world, a flimsy is a quilt top -- no stuffing, no backing, no binding yet. I chose the green companion fabric because I thought all the blues and grays would be boring otherwise. The green also coordinates with the backing fabric that I'm not revealing yet.

This quilt is by far the largest project I've ever attempted.

Yep, seven feet by seven feet. My desire is to make it fit a queen-sized bed so that Mama can use it that way if she chooses. And I use the word "attempted" because I still have miles to go before I sleep. Or rather before Mama can sleep under this quilt.

The Postman Always Rings Twice*

That* may be the movie title, but I believe that my postman only rang the bell once yesterday. He said that he had noticed all of my fabric postcards going in the mail, and he wondered if I ever made them to sell. I told him that I hadn't, but I would! He said that his wife's birthday was coming up in April, and he wanted a card with blue eyes on it, and possibly birthday fabric. Well, I'm no artist (I can't even draw stick people), but I told him I would see what I could do about blue eyes. My solution for any simple pattern I need is to look for clip art. I did that several months ago when I made the church postcards for our pastors. I found several useful pieces of black line clip art, and used them as a pattern for these eyes: Pretty cute, if I do say so myself!

The second card he wants is a birthday card for his daughter who has an October 31st birthday. He wanted it to have pumpkins. Well, I knew that I have never bought any pumpkin fabric since I don't like orange. But, I thought I might have a few scraps that, if memory serves, I fished out of the trash can at my local quilt store. (I'm not proud.) He mentioned that his daughter is seven, but I wasn't sure if he meant that she is now seven or will be seven in October. So here's what I came up with:
Now what do you think I should charge him for these cards?

Couple o' Cards

I actually made this card several months ago, but I sent it yesterday with "get well" wishes.I made this card to send as a "thank you" (obvious, huh?) for some friends who took us out for a steak dinner. Cow. Get it?

Wazzup with the Winter Weather Weirdness?!

Well... that's my front yard at about 1:30 p.m. on March 2nd. Normally in Atlanta, we'll have, on average, one measurable snowfall (meaning about .25") each winter. This is our third snowfall this season. I don't think we've had any snow for the past two or three years, so I guess the law of averages is catching up. Yesterday at this time it was about 55 degrees and sunny. I took a walk around the neighborhood and didn't even wear my coat. Here's our "measurable" amount.
I think a lot more than that has fallen, but the temperature is around 33 or 34 degrees, so the snow is melting even as it's falling. The bigger problem may come tomorrow when any remaining moisture on the roads will freeze, with temperatures in the upper twenties expected. It's pretty though, and I enjoy it as long as I'm not compelled to go outside.

What Can You Get for Twenty Dollars?

Without sales and coupons, this is what you get for $20 at the grocery store. With sales and coupons, this is what I got today for $20.

Darned If You Do

As a general rule, I don't darn socks. If one springs a leak, into the trash it goes. However, this morning I put on an almost brand new pair of knee socks, only to find a hole near the ankle. I doubt if I've worn these socks more than a half-dozen times. Since the hole wasn't in the normal wear spots (heel, toe) I have no idea how it got there. My cat may have been involved. Anyway, I decided to darn the socks. My first thought was to do them on the machine. However, because these are knee socks, and the hole was so far down, I couldn't get all the rest of the sock out of the way in order to get the damaged part under the needle. Darning by hand was the only solution.

Sock-darning used to be a regular past time for the thrifty housewife, and they used what they had on hand. Sometime back, my mother gave me this sock-darning gourd that was used by her paternal grandmother. (Mama even labeled the plastic bag so that when someone goes through my personal effects, they won't have to wonder.) This great-grandmother of mine lived until I was a teenager (or close to it) so I remember her quite well. The gourd was used inside the sock to isolate the area that needed darning, and to provide some shape as well.

Here's my holey sock with the gourd inside. And here is the start of my repair work. As a side note, I really like cold weather and have enjoyed the little bits of snow we've had this season. The one thing I don't enjoy are the dry, chapped hands that I live with every winter.

Finally, here's my mended sock. I could have done with a darker shade of blue, but I don't expect the darning and/or fashion police to inspect my hosiery. Anyone protesting can buy me a new pair of socks.

I have done some sewing lately, but for the life of me, I can't remember to take pictures before the item leaves my house. I made a birthday card for Phillip, a thank-you card for my nephew's girl friend who sent me a book, and I made (and mailed) a single quilt block in this pattern. A blogger I read is putting together a quilt for an injured Marine, and since I have several friends with Marine sons, I decided to make and send one. That's a first for me, especially since I consider myself a dabbler rather than a real quilter.

Finally, I made this birthday card for Emily. I already punched a hole in it and attached it to the ice cream scoop I'm giving her before I remember to make a picture. But at least I remembered!

Cruisin' the Clearance

My favorite kind of shopping is cruising the clearance racks. It is a rare day when I pay full price for anything. Yesterday I scored this long-sleeved, button-down, oh-so-soft cotton shirt for my husband. The price was marked down 90%!When is the last time you paid under $4 for a new dress shirt?

Gifted on Someone Else's Birthday

Yesterday was Phillip's birthday, but I got a gift in the mail from him (and Lystra). Yep, all this yummy Cadbury chocolate. I'm an addict, and even if there were a 12-step recovery program out there, I wouldn't sign up. This is the real Cadbury deal, made in the U.K. Since Cadbury has recently been purchased by Kraft Foods, it's anyone's guess whether this chocolate will continue to be made in the U.K.

Also in the package was a PT Cruiser. I've been driving mine for almost eight years, and I still love it every bit as much as when I first got it. It's the only time in my life when I've wanted a particular kind of car. Here's a picture I made a couple of weeks ago when we had the big snowfall. The one in the package is this model, in exactly the same shade of navy blue, and complete with its own surfboard. (I must admit that I don't have any immediate plans to go surfing, though.)

So that you can appreciate my new little car better, here is another photo with a AAA battery for size reference. My new cruiser is a mere 2.75" long.Thank you Phillip and Lystra! Chocolate and PT Cruisers always make me smile.