2012 – Page 6 – a hippie with a minivan

Update on the braided table runner…

I am loving how this table runner is coming together!

After I had bought the fabric and was putting it together I thought that I had made a mistake with the choice I made but once I brought the colours together in a different way, I knew that it would turn out pretty and it is even better than I would have imagined it would be.

The top is now finished and I have sandwiched it with the batting and the backing and “all” I need to do now is to quilt them together and then finish the edges. I have the “all” in quotations because though I know I will like it when it is finished, actually putting the needle down and figuring out how I am going to quilt it is the hard part.

There are some definite mistakes in it but I don’t think it all that bad for a first try at the design with no pattern or instructions. I also think the overall look of it can make the mistakes seem quite minimal…

Kitchen Trick: Choosing Lemons

Yesterday, when I was at the grocery store an older woman stood next to me as I choose my lemons. She asked me what I was looking for as I took each lemon in my had and felt the skin with my thumb. I shared my secret with her and I though that I would share it with all of you also.

This is a trick that my step-dad Miguel taught me years and years ago.

When choosing a lemon you want a fruit that is heavy and firm. That is a given, as it is in most fruits and vegetables. But what you are really looking for when picking up a lemon is a peel that is completely smooth with little, or better yet, no bumps at all.

Smoother lemons often have a thinner skin and will yield more juice, But what is really great is that the smoother the lemon’s skin, the less seeds it will have and often it will have no seeds at all. Isn’t that amazing… no need to pick out the seeds when squeezing fresh lemon juice into your favourite recipe.

Do you love lemons as much as I do?

What a day…

Yesterday I left my house just after 7am to grab the ferry and head over to the northern shore of the St-Laurent river. My mom was waiting for me at her house so that we could both head to the cabin to pack her things up. My uncle and her have been fighting and because it is his property she has decided that it is time to move out completely.

I’ll miss the place but then again, we can still go as anyone in the family is welcome there and we hope to be out of the province at one point soon also.

When we were leaving her place I asked her if she would like to take my car. Hers is not in the best of shape and is really on its last miles. She just had work done on it but I am still not that comfortable in it. She declined my offer and we headed out to the cabin in her car.

We got to the cabin about 30 min later, lit a fire, heated some water for tea over the wood fire, and started packing. By lunchtime we were both hungry and headed to the village for lunch. As we pulled in the parking lot we smelled gas, we had noticed it at the cabin also, but it happens at times when my uncle fills his chain saw and some spills out and we had checked under the can quickly but had seen nothing. This time though, not only was there a small but trailing from behind the car was a 2 inch line of gas.

There are no garages open on weekends anywhere around so we knew that we would have to call a tow truck. My mom started stressing out. The gas was only leaking when the car was running so we went and ate lunch any way and decided that we would head back to the cabin and finish what we could before calling a truck to bring us home.

We spent the rest of the afternoon packing and then when we both couldn’t look at doing another box again (and there was not much left to do) we decided to head home. We went and parked in the village church’s parking lot to be able to be easily found and we called the tow truck. It was cold out and they said that we would have about an hour to wait and because we couldn’t keep the car running (and we were not appropriately dressed) we were freezing. We finally got a call and the guy was looking for us. The Village is tiny. There is one intersection and the church it pretty big, it wouldn’t be hard to find us. When I explained in more detail we realized that he got the call inverted and he was 30 min away at our destination. He told us he was turning around. About 15 min later his partner arrived who was luckily just ending a call closer to us. Of course, the guy didn’t have the details of the call so he was riding with his girlfriend which meant that we had to squeeze into the cab with them. The whole ride was awkward.

We should have taken my car…

Finally we got home and had a glass of wine to leave behind some of the stress of the day and then I helped make supper and I headed home. Though it wasn’t a particularly physically active day, it was a stressful one and by the time I got home I was falling asleep.

It feels like the end of an era…

Daughter

I am still in wonder at times when I think that I have a daughter. After three boys, I never thought that it would happen.

I have trouble seeing myself in my boys. They have some of my traits and Xavier is starting to look a bit like me at the same age, but mostly I see Simon or even the male members of my family when I see them. Wilhelmina however, I see me…

This is a picture that my mom and grandmother found while doing some gardening outside. It was actually in one of the potted plans that used to be in the house but has been outdoors for a while now. My mom had never seen the picture and my grandmother didn’t know why it was there, but there is was.

I see the picture and I see Wilhelmina… I was about 4 years old in this…

At the moment, Wilhelmina has been obsessed with wearing this dress. It is a dress that I wore often as a child and have held on to it for all my life so that one day, my little girl may wear it. And now she is.

There is something very special about seeing myself so much in one of my children. I truly love having a little girl.

In the sewing room…

Each evening I head downstairs to bed with Wilhelmina. When she doesn’t nap (which is most days now) she falls asleep within minutes. Usually I would stay in bed with her, watching a show or movie on the IPad, reading, playing a game or something like that while cuddled next to my little girl in my warm and comfortable bed. However, I really want to sew and because Willa doesn’t nap in the day and loves to “help” out in the sewing room when I am there, I haven’t been able to spend much time in the sewing room during the day. That means that once she is asleep I need to make the decision to get back out of bed and head upstairs again. Sometimes I don’t make it but when I do it is so worth it.

I have finally finished the four corners of Wilhelmina’s quilt and I have 4 more pieces to design, and make, before I can piece the quilt together. Then I need to finish it and quilt it.

This is not the best picture as it is quite large and my sewing room isn’t that big either but you can get the idea of what it is looking like now…

Of course I am also working on another project… well actually two other projects but that are nearly identical…

There is no real plan and quite a bit of trial and error, but I have been working with this fabric “jelly roll” that I found at the new Walmart in our town. I know… it’s Walmart… but the only other store that we had before was Zellers and that has been closed for nearly a year, so not having to drive 45 min to get certain things we need has been quite nice. Anyway, I found this fabric…

and it is now becoming a table runner… (well two table runners) which at present look like this… it is a work in progress, and things have gone wrong, and what it will look like has changed in my mind quite often, but that is the fun part of making a design from scratch…

It may be a lot easier to stay in bed, but I am loving what I have to show for the work that I do when I did get up to sew.

Of course, once I am in front of my machine, I am completely in my element and content and then I have to force myself to go back to bed at one point.