With all the rain we’ve had, I was taking a chance when I hung the freshly washed quilt on the line outside. I was hoping that the trees that form a canopy overhead would save it from any serious raindrops.
As I walked past the quilt, I noticed it for the first time in ages. Sure I’ve seen it on my bed many times, but I hadn’t paid much attention to it. Here, in a different location, I saw it with new eyes. I thought of all the strips of fabric I had cut to their exact lengths, and the way I sorted them out.
The name log cabin quilt is a bit misleading. You don’t have to live in a log cabin to use it. The name is more about how the squares are made.
Each of the strips is meant to look like a log. The “logs” are sewn together to make it look like a log cabin being built. It was a great way to use up small scraps that might otherwise have been thrown out.
I only sorted the pieces very roughly by colour, but other than that, it was just a matter of using up scraps.
Partway through making up the squares, it suddenly hit me how MANY “logs” I had to put together to make the quilt the size I wanted, but eventually it came together.
At last, at last, at last! I’ve finished the fish placemats after working on them for weeks. After sewing strips together to represent the pebbly ocean floor and the sea, I had to cut out shapes for seaweed, rocks, various kinds of imaginary fish, and a few turtles thrown into the mix.
These all had to be ironed on with “Heat and Bond” and then sewn into place with a small blanket stitch.
Then the batting and backing were put on and the quilting began.
Today I finished the binding around the edges.
There is a set of four, with a darker ocean floor, and a set of six with a lighter floor.
Don’t look too closely. There are mistakes all over the place, but after the first blob of gravy drops on the placemats, that won’t matter anymore.
People are not the only ones who put on a pound or two over the holidays. It happens to our pets, too.
This morning the Captain took Emma, our field cocker spaniel, to a nearby farm to hunt for ducks. This photo is from yesterday, when we were just out for a walk. Ducks were everywhere.
Ruby, the springer spaniel, was upset that she didn’t get to go. Nearly 12 years old, she’s almost completely deaf now, but she still knew she was being left behind. She felt better after I gave her a little treat and pulled her doggie bed right beside me by the laptop.
Last night when the Captain was getting things ready for this morning’s outing, he hauled out the little neoprene vest I made for Emma a couple of years ago.
“You’d better try it on her,” I said. “She’s put on a couple of pounds.” (After all, it’s just after Christmas).
Sure enough, it was VERY snug.
“You can’t have her wear that. She won’t be able to breathe.”
I looked high and low and luckily found a piece of left over neoprene (from the old wet suit that I had used to make the vest).
I cut a 1 1/2 inch strip the length of Emma’s suit. It didn’t take long to cut the suit and sew in the strip. With a zigzag stitch and the piece butted up to the edges it was easy to insert a strip. No need to overlap neoprene to make a seam. Just laying the edges snugly side by side and zigzagging them together works fine.
You can see the post I did about the original vest a couple of years
My mother-in-law had a box of my novels delivered to her place while I was away in Montana. When I got home, I got the Captain to collect it and bring it home.
I was looking for scraps of paper to start a fire in the woodstove and noticed some tissue paper on the box of books. Might as well burn that. It would be perfect for starting the kindling.
That evening, m-i-l phoned and said she had sent two camisoles over for me to fix for her.
“Oh? I didn’t see any camisoles,” I told her.
“They were wrapped in tissue paper.”
A heat wave swept over me, hotter than the fire I had made with the tissue paper. Could I really have burned those camisoles? Wouldn’t I have noticed that something was inside the paper? I looked all over the house for camisoles wrapped in tissue paper and finally phoned m-i-l back.
“I must have made a fire with them when I was burning papers. But I don’t know how I wouldn’t have noticed them.”
“Well … they’re very thin …,” she said. “But don’t worry about it.”
About a week later, my m-i-l phoned. “Guess what I found? Wrapped in tissue paper between two blouses in my dresser drawer.”
We both laughed with relief. She’s nearly 97 and is allowed to have a senior moment now and then. But my laughing stopped short when I realized, Oh no. Now I still have to do the sewing repairs.
“Okay, well bring them over when you come for supper next time. DON’T wrap them in tissue paper. Just throw them into a plastic bag. Then I won’t try to make a fire with them.”
And that is what she did. She put them in a plastic bag and I had them in my hand the day she came over for supper. I was very busy getting the meal on the table and putting food away into the fridge.
The next day, the cursed camisoles were nowhere to be found.
I searched the house thoroughly three times from top to bottom. No camisoles anywhere and I had no excuse to have a senior moment.
Two days ago, I took my m-i-l shopping, and bought her two new camisoles.
This morning, the Captain was making a sandwich and called out to me, “ANNELI! Guess what I found.”
“No idea. What?”
“I was looking for lettuce to put on my sandwich, and you know how you always wrap it in a paper towel and put it in a plastic bag? Well, just come and see.”
One bag has lettuce in it, and the other has … you guessed it … two camisoles.
And as much as I was relieved to find the cursed things, the next thought that popped into my mind was, Arrrgh…. Now I have to repair them after all.
I have decided to do that, and then quietly put them into m-i-l’s Christmas stocking (wrapped in tissue paper, the way she likes it).
wordsfromanneli 