Reminiscing

For reasons I don't quite fathom, it seems that this weekend always brings to mind, memories of my early years. 

The other day, I was looking for a traditional pattern that I might use and begin a new quilt.  My source for traditional patterns are quilt pamphlets that i have saved for quite a few years.  When I had young children and my Mother and I shared the joy of first child/first grandchild we both like to make things for that baby.  It was also around that time that I began to learn about and regularly work on making a quilt or two a year.  My Mother would find in shops or 2nd hand stores old (even then they were old) quilting pamphlets.

Some of these were reprinted from the 1930's and 40's or even as late as the 50's, some of them are the original issue.  Many of these were even reprinted in the mid to late 1980's so you may have seen some of them -- I do have alot of them along with the first year or two of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine.   I don't really keep magazines now, but somehow I have become attached to this old stash of pamphlets and magazines.  They are so familiar they are dear friends of mine.

This pattern, Clay's Choice is one that I keep coming back to.  I am not likely to make it using the template method of cutting the pieces, but I think I will create a scrappy set of these blocks -- I have a dresser that I actually use in my dining room and it is in need or a bright runner across the top, so perhaps this is my next project == a short summer project, possibly with the aim of hand quilting it while sitting in my swing in the backyard and remembering the days when I would sit with my Mom on her backyard swing with baby Neil sleeping between us or while he unsteadily sat on a small quilt on the grass doing what babies do.

Zip Up Headphones, Simply Made at Home.

Every once in a while an idea comes along that is so obvious and so simple you say, Why didn't I think of that?  Well, I didn't think of it, but I am going to pass along the home made version of this idea and if you don't find yourself making this for yourself--you could be making it for your teenagers or your other half or your dad or just anyone who picks up their earphones and has to spend 5 minutes or longer untangling them before you plug 'em into your music device...

Just browsing across the internet, looking for stuff I came across this particular product  - they call them zip up headphones...

(thats my husbands wrinkledy chin)

As I worked out a homemade version, I took pictures as I went -- now this is so very easy, it barely needs an explaination, but I will give you my little system for putting them together.  If you can thread a needle and make a running stitch you have all the expertise you need to make these for yourself...

My photos are not so great today cause it is dark and rainy and cloudy which makes the inside lights look really yellow...  Anyway, any questions, leave a comment at the end.  I love this idea and I think that anyone who can sew this together deserves to have one, so my homemade version has no restrictions or copyrights or rules.  I don't know if there is a copyright or restrictions on this idea, so for now, I say it is a free idea until someone sends me a nasty letter...  I think they would be a bit tedious to go making dozens to sell, but hey, you never know, someone out there may have the time and inclination...

Anyway, Go get a needle and thread and hunt up a really long zipper -- 42" will cover the job from one end to the other, but 22" will work okay too.  Or any zipper in between, but 22" is about as short as you can go without leaving too much out to tangle itself...  Oh, Zippers aren't cheap -- unless you find them at the second hand store, or you have an old hoodie that you want to carefully take the zipper out of -- but if you use a jacket zipper, you might have to do some extra stitching at the bottom so that the zipper pull doesn't go all the way down and come undun and all your stitching will be for naught...

Here is the second set of zip-up headphones that I made compared to another pair that doesn't have the zip-up treatment. (the zipper is stiff enough to keep the ends from twisting and knotting)

To start this little project -- It should take you less than an hour --- first, lay out your headphones on a table or on your lap, make sure they are straight and together -- no knots.  Next, get your zipper and unzip it for about 6 inches.  Thread your needle, use a regular sewing needle, not too big but not tiny either, tie a knot at the end and sort of hem the rough edge in. Working on one side of the two halfs of the Zipper, fold over the top bit of the zipper and sort of wrap it around one headphone wire right up near the ear piece, sew the fabric so it goes around the wire.  This is a bit of a tricky manouver but fiddle with it and you will get it.  Now if you can see in the photo below once you have the zipper fabric wrapped and sew just below the earpiece it is quite easy to continue covering the wire with the zipper fabric part. 

Sew along the wire, make sure your don't nick the wire with your needle, you just want the wire encased in that bit of folded over fabric -- also keep the fold clear of the zipper teeth, cause you want to be able to easily slide the zipper up and down later.

When you get to where the two wires join, stop at this point and secure your thread and knot on the inside of the fold over.  Now, start the same thing with the other ear phone and wire -- you need to make sure that the teeth of your zipper are facing, if you twist it, you will end up with a problem and you won't be able to close up the zipper.

This photo shows pretty clearly how the wires fit in the fold over that you are stitching.

When you get to the "Y" joint, bring together the two sides of the fabric and making sure to keep the wire inside what is now a tube, sew all the way to the bottom of the zipper.  Finish off the bottom by folding under the ends and making it look neat.

You got this, just by looking at it, RIGHT?

Let me know if you didn't, I am so excited by this idea, I had to put it out to my readers TODAY!

Oh and to see the stitching a bit better just clik on each picture and the photo will open larger for you, then just clik on your back button to get back to these sorta instructions...

CH-CH-CHanges

Learning little bits all the time, so I had to go explore some of the background stuff that allows each blog to look just a bit different from everyone else.  So this is the 'easy' design that I have put onto my blog now. 

Any Opinions?  Any Suggestions?  or just How's it look to you?

Within Steps of My Front Door

There comes a Time...

I KNOW!
A quilt is an heirloom.  Or is it?  I guess it depends on the kind of person one is.  There are those who treasure and keep the quilts or other things that they have inherited from grandmas or aunts.  Then there are those who collect heirlooms, purchased from various sources, and last there are the ones who create these heirlooms.  I have to say I am a little bit of each.  I have a few things that have been passed along to me from grandmothers and aunts.  And I do care about them and enjoy looking at them, especially the things that I can remember the exact spot that they were placed in my gramma's home, or my aunt's home, or even in my mother's home. 

Now, I make quilts, and other things like afghans and scarfs and drawings, and dabbled a bit with beads and paper crafts -- I rarely think of these as ever being heirlooms.  I give away most of it and then it is up to the reciever to think of it in anyway they like.

Some things I make quite a few years ago.  There comes a time when something that I have kept for a long time has either lost its "shine" or just plain has become not so important, no matter what it was...

I made a small quilt many years ago -- about 1975, I think.  I bought a scrap pack of fabric -- Winnipeg where I lived had/has many sewing factories and with some of them you could buy a bag about the size of a zip lock large freezer bag of scraps from the factory -- I would buy an bag now and then and experiment with various blocks and rarely actually finished a quilt, but I did that time.  I wanted a blanket to lay on the floor so my son would have a bit of a soft spot to land in his attempts to walk.  This little quilt was not used often and then was put into a storage trunk, which over the years gradually filled with my favourite, "don't give away quilts".

I was looking through that trunk awhile back and decided that it was time to make space in it, so I pulled out 4 small quilts and decided that I will use them for whatever purpose comes up next.  Well, the sit up, crawl, stand up and walk quilt was top of the pile -- it has a new life.  Now don't be shocked and don't give me guff about its new life -- yes it is hand quilted and yes it was made 35 years ago, but I think I really like the new job this quilt has...

AH, yes, it has become a dog bed blanket!  I would be shocked at using a quilt, especially a hand quilted one for a DOG!   But its my quilt and my dog, and they go together...   I could not bring myself to cutting up this quilt to either make a fat round teddy bear as is often the fate of old quilts.  It just seems that after all these years this little quilt wanted to be used as it was meant to be used...  If the corners get chewed and the colours fade from too many washings, this quilt I think will be happy to take up its life with a purpose again, rather than laying hidden in a box for another 35 years.

Patriotic Salvage Mystery -- early prep

To make some of the prep work for the mystery quilt on the upcoming long weekend a bit easier, I thought I would give you some ideas of how to choose your fabrics.

The 3 fabrics you see just above will be what I plan to use.  These are fairly old fabrics from my stash, they are not quite the RED And WHITE of the Canadian Flag, but this is what I have.  In this case the dark brick red is going to be my main, or background fabric, with the pink and very light polka dot as the two contrast fabrics.

Here are a few more variations of fabric choices.  As you can see you do need to choose three fabrics for this project, each fabric should be quite a high contrast from the other two.  Choose either the light or the dark for your main or background; with the middle or medium fabric as your "important" contrast.

Your secondary contrast will be using the least amount of fabric, say in the above choices, the blue is the secondary contrast, so you will use less than a fat quarter, the white may be your background and will use the most fabric, probably about 3/4 of a meter, and the burgundy is your first contrast and will use about 1/3 to 1/2 meter.

This last choice of fabrics might be an interesting christmas choice. So keep in mind that as long as you have three strongly contrasting fabrics they should work very well in this project.  Just because it is called Patriotic Salvage, doesn't mean you have to go with these colours -- perhaps dark blue, mauve and a very light yellow -- wouldn't that be a pretty one. 
Also for those wanting to make this a scrappy adventure I would suggest that for the maximum effect o this pattern that you should stick with not just the choice of light to dark, but if you choose as your background say light blues, you should stick to perhaps a variety of light blues all very closely related, the same goes for the other contrast fabrics, if one is a red contrast, make sure that you use a number of similar reds in the positions called for.

I would also like you to consider fabric for to  border  this top.  It is planned to have a single border, and you will need about 1/2 meter of fabric for it...  You might want to use the same fabric as your main background fabric, or something that co ordinates but that is completely different.  The border will have a interesting technique and will be the last step of the project and does require, two more supply items that I hope you can gather from your stash --- some worsted weight yarn about 2 meters or less in length, any brand, can be acrylic or even cotton, but should be a green, light or dark or in between, then you will need some felt -- as little as 8" square and it can be real wool felt or just the synthetic felt that kids use, try to match it fairly closely to your green yarn.    

Pearl updated

The first few days of a new puppy in the house is totally facinating and we of course are still "in love" with her...

I suspect that the two or three night time wake-ups soon will become an irritant, but it does come with being a new puppy owner.

On the third day, it appears that she is paper trained, the corner in the room with layers of newspaper is where she heads several times a day, she had caught onto it by midday yesterday and we have had no 'accidents' since...

We went for our first adventure out onto our neighboorhood street and she was much intimidated by the cars and trucks that went past. She stuck real close to our legs -- sometimes making it difficult to take a step for fear of squishing a puppy. She found a few spots along the way to get a sniff of her surroundings and I am sure signals that told her another dog has been this way.

There is so much to look at, sniff and explore --- but really this is not a doggie blog so I will try to keep Pearls appearences on the blog to a minimum, but GEE. She is just so darn Cute...

Introducing.....

Pearl.

We have been waiting for this little girl for a few weeks.  Her full name is Pearl Hefty Barker -- an excellent name for a dog.  She is a Border Collie from Likely, BC.   She has three smaller brothers and she doesn't seem to be missing them one little bit...

We have been thinking on and studying what sort of little buddy to add to our home for quite some time now.  I knew the right little girl would come along.

And she seems to be quick of mind...

By the end of her first day HOME she was pawing at the back door to be let out to do her 'business'...  The Breeder did say she has been paper trained, but we haven't even set down any paper for her.   The first day, may be just luck, do you think?

The name Pearl is a family name that has sort of dissappeared, so we thought we would bring it back in this little girl.

Pearl is what the word Margaret means in Greek, or so it says on a number of baby name lists -- My Mom's name was Margaret.

Pearl is the title of one of my favourite albums... Janis Joplin recorded a set of songs that were released just after her death in 1970/71 and it has always been part of my music collection.  And finally, Pearl was the name of one of my Grandmother's sisters -- they called her Pearly and though she has been 'gone' a long time the name is revived and we hope that our Pearl can live up to her "gem" of a name.

So there you go, Introducing Pearl

Glad to be HOME

Well, Las Vegas really is something...

But

While it was interesting, it is not a place for me...

Most of the time, it was like being a fish out of water.  I like quiet days and peaceful nights -- The ROAR never stops on "The Strip".

I get up out of my bed at home early every morning, even when I have nothing particular that has to be done, I very much love to hear the birds in the morning -- There are no birds twittering and tweeting at 4am on the Vegas Strip, but there are sultry women leaning on a gangsta's arm at a gaming table, or standing at a bar and swaying slightly and you wonder if a slight breeze may topple her over.  

Now don't get me wrong, there is alot of WONDER in the sights along the Vegas strip -- in particular I learned the reason for the high prices on designer goods -- my favourite part of the whole experience was walking in the shopping mall at Caesar's Palace. 

Purses, and shoes and jewellery, dresses and the art of it all!  MUHMMMMM... Beauty is there to behold, lovely to look at and lovely to hold.   With enough $$$$ in my pocket I could easily succomb to making these extravagant purchases, which to many others are not extravagant but just part of the necessities of life...

When you take the time to really look you can understand why a little bag like this Fendi, costs so much.  The design is just a touch neater, nicely proportioned and excudes SPECIAL... Then you look at the pattern, and the workmanship the stitching, that had to be done by hand, not by a machine and you come to understand why this deserves its price tag...

Tiffany and Co.  window...

the display design is even special!  Just set yourself along a forest trail and think of the peace and beauty that you experience on that quiet green trail.  Look for the Jewels in amongst the ferns in the rainforest.  Watch closely for the butterfly flitting just above the slugs sliming their way beneath the dead leaf litter on the forest floor.  Then.  Look up --- see the sparkle in a piece of rough bark on a tree rising to the sun shiny canopy?  Oh, hey, look there, a sparkly pearl dangling from a cedar branch...  Do you see that in this window display?  I did.  I had a real hard time pulling myself away.  The thought crossed my mind while looking at this.  Who wouldn't want to capture those diamonds and pearls, just out of reach?

Everything is BIG.

When you get outside and walk along the sidewalk between hotels, you experience the day life -- not quite so well disquised as the nighttime frenzied hopelessness that peeks out between the cracks.  The daytime streetlife, while filled with tourists shopping at places like the M&M store or at the Coke Store, also has the desperate street hawkers, trying to make a buck by selling something that you definately don't need.  I almost fell for a collection of stick on "gems" to decorate my finger nails -- ONLY $30!  And I long ago stopped putting coloured enamel on my finger nails...  Damn those sales people do have a knack...  Lucky me, though, not quite good enough -- or was it my Son, saying Come ON, Mom, we're waiting!  Lets Go!  Thanks to my Son, I am saved that 30 dollars...

There is so much to say about Las Vegas, and I am sure that those who live their barely notice the Trap of the Strip, they go about their daily lives just the the majority of people anywhere else, go get groceries once a week, take the kids to school or to the park, figure out if they can buy shoes now or wait til next month...  At least I hope thats the way it is!

That Touristy Part of Vegas is not for me.  I am so happy to be Home...

Bright Lights, Big City

Yes, Bright Lights and the big city...

I am going on an adventure!  A big adventure to me -- but it seems EVERYBODY else has already been.

I am a city girl, who thinks about living in the country. I dream about a babbling brook in the back yard with a winding pathway between really big cedar, pine and spruce.  I have dreams about walking the dog (I don't even have a dog) along these quiet out of the way trails, that I don't have to leave my yard to get to...  WAKE UP!  Since I don't have my own yard like that, I make do with local parks and trails and dream about a handsome border collie walking along with me...  Right now, it is usually my husband who walks with me and he even barks on occasion, but he is getting too old to chase squirrels or jump for a frisbee...  Maybe I should get a dog??  Well, thats off topic, now...

SO,  Now I have planned and paid for a BIG CITY holiday?  Why, is it because I am influenced by outside sources?  Probably!  My son being that main outside source -- he has been to this big city 5 times!  Okay so my first time to a really big American city.  Am I looking forward to it?  I love new things and this is going to be many new things, so YEPPERS, I am looking forward to it!  What to expect?  They tell me lots of walking -- I'm not so good at walking, but I will cover as much ground as I can without making myself so tired I can't sleep.  Did you ever get that tired?  I have done it a few times...

We will be staying at the big pyramid, THE LUXOR, but there are other things to see.  At one time a few years back I yearned to go to the Mandalay -- I was "into" watching PBR (Professional Bull Riding) and the season finals were at that hotel a few times -- well, I never quite got there, and now I never even see PBR on the sports channel, maybe it is still on, I just don't look for it...

There are SO MANY things, events and sights, shows and even tours out to the grand canyon, that it is almost overwhelming, so, because it is the first time, I am trying not to have expectations and have actually not planned or bought any extra event tickets.  I can go again, if I want, or need.  So I consider this to be an exploratory adventure, mostly to find out if it is worth my time and effort to go again.  

Perhaps because I dream about trees and rivers, trails and beaches, mountains and mossy wooded nooks, I may find that a drive along the Oregon coast would suit me better, or a weekend trip to ride the ferry at Boswell, BC will be as much fun as I can stand?  Sitting on a bench at Pentiction, BC or Parksville on Vancouver Island may be what I really prefer -- but hey, its always nice to know that for sure, so don't look for blog updates here, til next weekend when I am home again.

See you again, in a week!

PS. Did I say, this all happening in Las Vegas, Nevada...

Reading

Mostly I read blogs.

But I bought a real actual book yesterday.  I was just browsing through the bookstore at the mall -- actually I was at the mall to get in some walking indoors, cause it was raining outside.  I read a few lines from this book or from that book, then i picked up a book that I could not put back on the shelf.  It was so funny, to me anyway, that it caused tears to run -- how often do we get to laugh that hard?

So, I bought the book -- Sh*t My Dad Says, by Justin Halpern  this book comes from a series of comments by the author's father that he posted on Twitter.  So of course, I had to google the author and the Twitter bit...  check out http://shitmydadsays.tumblr.com/ to see a compilation of the tweets.  I continued reading this book during the afternoon, yesterday -- my husband was quite irritated, I was too happy, I guess -- he went upstairs to watch the Blue Jays play with the Rays, hitting and running after a ball in a big green field somewhere at the centre of the universe aka Toronto.  Oh, for those who object to swearing, there is too much of it in this book for you to read, so don't bother to check out the web link above, you'll just get mad at me for sending you there...

I also found a web page announcing a pilot for TV of this book (Sh*t My Dad Says) is being made with William Shatner as the Dad -- sure hope to see it come to fruition - hoping that it stands up to the quality writing of the book...

And on more reading.  A Canadian Blogger, from the big TO aka Toronto, writing about an experiment of being a '50's housewife.  Quite a challenge considering she is too young to have even be the daughter of a 50's housewife...  Just being old enough to be the granddaughter of one...  Facinating reading though from a younger persons perspective and the effort it takes to avoid some of the 'conveniences' of today.   My own experience was as the child of a 50's housewife so I do see a few things differently and the fact that I grew up 'countrified' made a huge difference in the food experience.  Where the city cook used cans and odd combinations, too much sugar and city conveniences, being on a farm, things were more plain -- sugar was not in abundance because it meant a trip to town to get it...  Check out Jen But Never Jenn at
http://www.jenbutneverjenn.com/2010/05/welcome-to-50s-housewife-experiment.html

I think I will go and do some sewing, it is supposed to get warm this afternoon so I can go and sit on my back yard deck and read some more Sh*t My Dad Says -- this book reminds me of my brother, though.