Drive

We went for a ride over to Victoria on Vancouver Island early this week. I love the way the mixture of trees create such a variety of colour, the yellows of the maples and the deep greens of the cedars and spruce. This is the beginning of our Rainy Season and the higher you go, the whiter that 'rain' becomes -- the picture below is going up Number One Hwy to Duncan just past Goldstream Park climbing up the Malahat. Treacherous in winter but very pretty now.

Making Dinner Napkins - a picture tutorial

Cut yourself a "tool" to make a straight folded edge -- a piece of cardboard from a cereal box that is 1 inch wide and preferably longer than the fat quarter napkin - 20" inches or more if using the Canadian metric fat quarter (20" x 22") so cut to a 20" square.

Lay the cardboard tool along one side of the napkin and fold over the unfinished edge. The edge should just cover the tool -- now press the fabric so that it neatly comes over the tool, just covering it -- you have now created the first fold of your hem, it will be exactly 1", do this on all four sides of the cloth.

The corners should fold over as shown in the picture below, make sure the corners are squared up as perfectly as possible, if your fold over tends to overlap outside the edge of the hem at the corner, then your napkin is not cut square -- or your fabric is not woven square -- washing the fabric before cutting is a good idea because it helps the fabric to square itself up on the grainlines -- if you sew the napkin and it is not squared up on the grainlines, it will never fold squarely or look quite right if when it is folded on your table and the corners do not match up nicely -- but then thats just me, if you don't mind it a bit off square at it works for you, then, well, that's just fine.Now once you have all sides pressed, open each corner and snip off the little triangle, from each folded line, just as shown in the photo below.Now, fold over the corner with the snipped off bit, and line up the folds making sure that the "fold " exactly crosses the corner where the two pressed lines come together. You can use the iron or just finger press each edge down so that it will form a mitered corner. Now do all four corners this way, steam press to make good sharp folds.

Now fold under about 1/2 inch so that the raw edge of the fabric does not show. Press all around the napkin again, if well pressed, you may not need pins to hold the hem in place, but if you are unsure, use a couple of pins so that you do not loose the "hem".

Each corner should finish as shown above (a little blurry) then sew with a matching thread and a even straight stitch all around the napkin. If my explaination is not as clear as it could be, there are a number of other websites that are available to read through and quite probably explain something that I have miss out. After doing more than 40 of these napkins, I tend to not really think of each step along the way.

Check out About.com and search for cloth napkins, or just google, home made cloth napkins and you will find a variety of ideas and methods for sewing this simple but very useful project. Each napkin from cutting to finished sewing, takes me about 20 minutes -- so you are spending more time than money on this project. If you buy finished good quality napkins in a retail store, they will cost about $15, if you get good quality cotton at sale prices you can make 4 napkins (1 meter or 1 yard plus 4 inches) for about $2.50 and an hour and a half of your time.

Work?

Way back in February, a friend showed me a technique for creating dinner napkins. She was in the process of moving from a wonderfully huge house, including at studio space where she held quilt and sewing classes. She and her hubby had decided to move into a smaller condo in the downtown area of the big city and she was clearing her stash, sort of...
I am a "quick study" so it only took a few moments to catch onto her method and now, I have so far sewed about 42 napkins, with at least that many to go.

So using her many fat quarters, she was making EVERYDAY dinner napkins. They take a bit of time, the hem is fiddly if you want it too look just right, but they are so worth it! I discovered an assortment of last years christmas fabrics at a fabric outlet store and bought 18 meters! 3 meters of each colour that I liked. Now I am in the process of making dinner napkins for my friends to use at Christmas time. I actually don't give Christmas gifts. These in fact would be a waste if given at the tradition time -- so about a week or so before I will be delivering these to my friends and family. Not all of the napkins are Christmasy, though. I thought while I am on this "kick" I may as well go into my own stash and do some 'clear-out' so I am making a few everyday dinner napkins ---- for ME!

Please Note: The napkins are made using metric measurements (again sort of) In Canada, our fabrics are sold in meters and centimeters, though most of our fabrics are American produced. A meter of fabric is just about 40 inches - technically just a bit under that, but most every shop counts the fabric meter at 40 inches. Therefore a fat quarter here measures about 22" x 20". When I cut my fabric to make these napkins, they are based on that meter length, so from on meter I can get 4 napkins that measure 20 inches x 20 inches before the hem is done (18"x 18") finished. In order for this size napkin to be made using the "yardage system" you need 4 more inches on the length of a yard, or if you want to make 12 napkins the same you need an extra foot on three yards. I think it is more economical to purchase that extra 1/3 of a yard and wind up with napkins just that little bit larger, than to cut off the 3 inches of waste from the yard length and almost 5 inches from the width. So if you buy American fat quarters (18" x 20") you have no choice but to use an 18" square and finish at 16", but if you buy American yardage, get the extra 4 inches to call it a meter and you can wind up with a full 20" square...

Well, This World

A picture just for the sake of a picture... This is a portion of the former school grounds at Lavenham, Manitoba where my dad went to school in the 1920's.

There has not been much sewing going on so I don't have any in progress pictures. I have been trying my damnedest to get to making something using the sewing machine, but it seems there is nothing that is particularly inspiring (well, except for a quilt called the firewood quilt on another blog) But the effort preventing the start of that project is, is that I have two already layered quilts that need quilting, and I am trying to keep my "in progress" projects to a minimum. The other in progress project is my christmas list -- in the past few years I have kept christmas giving to a minimum partly because of finances and partly because of a growing disillusionment with the consumerism of gift giving -- the wal-marts of the world with their slogans at christmas encouraging you to buy just a little bit more, or you deserve more... Or even save on this so that you can spend more on that... Anyway, I still don't plan to do much in the way of shopping come Christmas, but I am already working on hand crafted gifts -- if I bought what I am making it would cost near to $60 for each person who I am doing these gifts for, but this way, it costs much less in actual money but much more -- about 4 to 5 hours of my time.



I bought wonderful little dresses last year for my four great-nieces, but this year I am going to make (I hope) dresses for them. I did get the fabric and the patterns, but like I say, I still have to get some other inprogress projects completed first... Whew!



Now not only is there sewing "on my plate" as the clique goes, but things working inside my head too. I had a dream last night that I signed up for some classes! Then in the dream, I WALKED to the school - forgot to bring some paperwork with me so WALKED home then WALKED back to the school to finish my registration for the classes! Now if you know me, I have not been very stable on my feet for most of this year due to health issues --- I wonder if this dream is not just about being inclined to take on something new, but that I will be ABLE to take on this something! I do believe my natural inclination to optimism has begun to take over the past few months of almost depression...

The Lone Prairie

This is REALLY flat land! When I was growing up in Manitoba, in school we were taught that the Canadian Prairies were called the bread basket of the world. As we drove through both the middle agricultural production areas of the provinces and the southern agri areas we saw the golden wheat at its maturity and the equipment used by the farmers to harvest not only wheat but many other crops. In some areas, where the ground itself was not so great for crops, there were many thousands of cattle, both for meat production and for milk. We saw, bison ranches in southern alberta and lamas or alpacas in southern Manitoba. Food on the hoof, was everywhere around us.

The prairie was not just prairie, but great expanses of water -- lakes and rivers, creeks and ponds -- how could any of these crops be grown without WATER? The fun part of water is the beaches, Grand Beach about 75 kms north of Winnipeg has been an attraction for many years. Manitoba's summer equivalent for those within an hours' drive to the hot winter resorts of Mexico and other summer climates. The white sand dunes are something special to me; I have photos of my parents at Grand Beach in the 1940's, and pictures of my sons building castles in the sand, and now a few shots of the beach today.

And a couple of BIG THINGS we saw along the way. The World's Largest Tomahawk in Cut Knife, Saskatchewan, where my grandfather's sister Rose lived. Because we were there on a weekday at the end of the summer season, there were no people about, Cut Knife is a very small village but their display was a wonderment and an unexpected treat. Surrounding the tomahawk, but set back a bit was some orginal buildings from the town area - a general store, an early settler's log cabin, a church and a school. Cut Knife is tucked away down a back road and is not a destination one would specifically head for, but if it is on your way or not too far out of your way, stop in for a bit of a picnic an to wander amongst the old buildings and history of the town...

Another, unexpected surprise, was the World's Largest Elk. This worlds largest was not on our list but there it was, in the town, or more like, the village of Onanole, Manitoba. Just as we came out of Riding Mountain National Parks (a mountain in Manitoba is quite a different concept from a Mountain in British Columbia) this Elk with a big blue sky backdrop came into view as we came down on #10 highway. The oddest things make your heart sing -- this was one of them!

What I learned on this Trip: I love the prairies, but now I love my home in the Fraser Valley even MORE!

Driving about the Canadian Prairies -part one

The best way for me to describe the past three weeks is to post pictures and a few words, the pictures say pretty much everything about the driving part -- not so much about the hotel parts...
Many small towns and some larger towns too, build and create sculptures around the town of things that represent their community, Burrowing Owls in Leader Saskatchewan was a favourite of ours.
My cousin's husband, who lives near Marquette Manitoba is carrying on a hobby started many years ago by his DAD. He collects bottles, every kind of bottle one can image, he houses his collection if a real log cabin that he bought from another farmer in the area. In a space of about 12 ft x 12 ft every inch has bottles, some on shelves some on display stands, some in boxes...

This is Sara the Camel, one of those town sculptures. Sara, represents the Sandilands area of Manitoba and she stands proudly in the town of Souris, Manitoba.

The quintessential prairie, about 20 kilometers west of Winnipeg, Manitoba, just off Rosser Road.

Some where on or near Hwy 2 in Southern Saskatchewan

Elk Island National Park off Hwy 16 in Alberta.

A couple of question about hotels...

First I have a rather strange question for those who may be so inclined to answer... Why is it that hotels seem to think that a bed needs to be so high that you need a step stool to climb up to it (well, I need a step stool - I am a fraction over 5 ft tall) Most hotel beds are as high as my hips or more...

Second question, why is it that hotels feel the need to have baby size toilets? Remember now, I am rather short as it is and I find the toilets low, what must a man who is 6 ft tall think or or even manage to get up off of those baby level toilets??

More pictures tomorrow, but no more weird questions...

Away for awhile

I shoulda said before -- I am on a bit of a holiday -- well, sort of my dream holiday. I am in search of big things! Maybe you have seen or heard of them -- towns in Canada tend to build a 'symbol' for the town, usually something odd... A giant hockey stick in Duncan BC, a giant perogy in Glenmore, AB, a giant goose, and others that I can't think of right now. I am off to discover them -- except the giant hockey stick, because I did see it years ago when I lived on Vancouver Island, so I don't need to do that again, but going east from Abbotsford, there are alot more of them!

And quilt shops, I must make a list of them -- along the towns on the Yellowhead Highway as that is the east bound route I plan -- and thrift shops, with no particular items in mind, I will hopefully not find too many treasures as the car is only a bitty one...

So, when I return, sometime in September I will get back to regular posts and perhaps have some pictures of giant things to show you...