milky white sky, raindrops, and sewing on violet silk

I am spending these days of rain and cold sewing by the window. This lovely shade of violet silk is Breanna's dress for the English Garden Dance to be held on March 1. I have sewn silk ribbon flowers on the sleeves and the covered buttons. Handmade buttonholes were sewn yesterday while listening to Miss Marple Mysteries on Great Radio Drama .

I am attempting to match a thread color with the ribbon that will be attached to the seam connecting the bodice and skirt.  This is the chart I am using to find the closest color match thread from my large stash of DMC colors.

Sewing brings Sunshine to cloudy days.

January 31 offerings

A woman's "best laid plans can oft go awry",  much like the mouse in Robert Burn's poem. As was this woman's case story for today, this last day in January. And I take comfort in the amazing truth that the Lord always directs my moments which lead into the orchestrating of my days. Since it is Friday after all I was planning on leaving early to make the weekly hour drive to Bible Study as I happen to do every Friday morning. I was carrying along the day's snack too,  freshly baked cream scones in a basket with a container of homemade whipped cream and a little jar of blueberry vanilla jam. The house host supplies the water and coffee, these nine women are coffee drinkers. But I wasn't feeling "up to par" today. Headachy, body achey, and tiredness. Not only did the thought of the drive weary me, but the thought of sharing this little bug with my dear friends was what led to making the final decision easier. 

Unfortunately, I was to pick up Breanna to bring her to my house for the weekend. We had some lovely plans. We are sewing a Sense and Sensibility era ball gown for her to attend her homeschool English Garden Dance in early March.

I have rested a bit and it has been doing me good. A pot of chili was made yesterday and a bowl of gooey Mac and Cheese is in the refrigerator alongside a few other leftovers, this will keep me from cooking...so I can rest my achy body. 

As the temperatures have taken a turn from the cold winter days I was loving, I still keep the thoughts and the sounds of this inviting season in my heart. And without any doubts whatsoever, winter will  awaken  once more, he is only taking a rest like me.

Ergo, as I am sitting on my living room couch, the sun streaming cozily through the bare windows I pleasantly enjoy these things of winter.  And I thought I would share them with you all my dear blogger friends.

 

Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Winter. 

The gifted violinist does a superb job with this beautiful piece, as do her accompanists. I especially love how the descriptions of winter are given in this video.

 And speaking of violins, as a graduation gift from college we were really wanting to buy Charlotte a new violin, one that was over the level of a student violin. She found herself the perfect violin and she is now immensely enjoying the richer tone as she practices hard for her Senior Recital, cresting the hill for her May graduation.

Edmund Blair Leighton's A Wintry Walk(1904)

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape — the loneliness of it; the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show."

                                                                                               - Andrew Wyeth

My hands are busy knitting on a project I have thought of creating for several years. I love it when the magnification of any given project  focuses and activates a new beginning as it did with this Memory Scrap Blanket, a free pattern on Ravelry.

Enjoy your weekend!

a variety of wrappings

 Autumn begins to be inferred

By millinery of the cloud

Or deeper color in the shawl

That wraps the everlasting hill.

                           ~Emily Dickinson

As I rode an hour's drive yesterday to do some necessaries in town, I beheld the initial "shawl" colors wrapping the trees alongside the road and I was greatly satisfied to see this predictable, yet not diminished, annual display of beautiful color. And even more importantly, I was truly thankful that I could be so totally satisfied in such an amazing pleasure that the Lord has given us at this time of year.

I have been occupied with harvesting a few things like the canning of pears and fermenting of peppers. Today I will go to the garden and snip some green leaves of turnips and kale to bring inside and gently cook, because fresh hardy greens are an autumn delight too in my home.

 I hope to put on my blog if not today at least by the weekend my entire blog reading list. I have enjoyed a recent jumpstart of some new homemaking type blogs and in the process a meeting new lady friends who blog.

On the sewing side, I finished the quilt that I made from my mother's nightgowns. The only part of this quilt that was not hand-sewn was the border, it was sewn on with my Janome machine. I do love any stitching done by needle, thread, thimble and my very own hands. Hand-quilting has a rhythm I especially find soothing. It now has a home on a twin bed I added to Charlotte's old bedroom for when the younger granddaughters  stay for the night.

The white-throated sparrow has returned from  the north to my neck of the woods and to hear its melodious song is pure magic. I sat outside yesterday as the late warm sunshine hued the scenery and I enjoyed it's song in the mighty oak tree.

little bits and a bit of reminiscing

Surroundings:

 Here in the living room I sit gazing at a "not live" Christmas tree that has been set in its stand since last night. It is naked of baubles, balls, ornaments and garland. Not even an angel or star is donning the top of this tree.

Yesterday I collected all Thanksgiving and autumn decor to carry upstairs to be stored in the awaiting bins in the attic.  After several trips up  and down two flights of stairs I thought I should at the least start bringing down some of the Christmas decorations as I was planning to begin decorating in earnest this coming weekend. The tree is always the first thing we bring down and decorate so I thought we could at least set it up with just the lights and I then could imagine it being as an evergreen tree natural -like for the next several days.

But this afternoon I am just not buying that far fetched idea. It frankly looks out of place and pitiful.  The weekend will be here soon enough I daresay.

Reading:

I had to get out the house rather early this morning as I had my annual eye appointment scheduled. I carried along a book to read while in the waiting room. I can remember, and it was not really that many years ago, that you could count on having magazines to read while you waited for any appointment be it doctor, hair, dentist, etc. I actually looked forward to the waiting room experiences because of these magazines. Do you remember this?

But this morning I grabbed my newest read. And it was an air of sybaritism I felt to have the opportunity to read in the early morning hours even if it was in the eye doctors waiting and examining room. I am finding the book, No One Gardens Alone, the biography of Elizabeth Lawrence. a very enjoyable  read. She lived in North Carolina and reading the historical parts of her life in regard to what was happening in the state I find interesting. I discovered this book as well as a book written by Lawrence, Through the Garden Gate, at a library book sale back in September.  I consider both of them excellent finds.

Hemming:

My husband bought a pair of dress slacks that are 2 1/2" too long in the hem. He was actually going to take them back! But he quickly took me up on the suggestion I made to hem them myself. (I thought this was rather odd since I have hemmed his pants many times). Today my memory is sparked from this humble task of the countless times I've hemmed mens' black dress pants in Christmas's past when I was an integral part of the costume execution team for the  production of "The Nutcracker" performed by Charlotte's dance group. It has been three years since she graduated and I realize how much more time I have on my hands now that I am not spending countless evenings and Saturdays sewing and altering costumes. But those were priceless, happy times that I feel very fortunate to have had the experience to be a part and there is truly no equal exchange for them.

 

   A 2011 photo of the basement where we ladies sewed.

thanksgiving weekend

 Adding two days to a weekend, specifically a holiday weekend, may sometimes direct the way in which you find yourselves spending the time. Of course, the people that surround you get a voice and certain circumstances can also play a major part in what you will in fact find yourself doing.

This year my husband and I were alone on these two days. My idea was we take the day after Thanksgiving and just relax, you know like actually take a no-work day.  However, he did not buy that scenario one little bit, he had  plans to accomplish much, many things on his to do list  both outside and across the street at the little cottage we are renovating. He mentioned going to the cottage to clean out the gutters  and since  I did not think it was a wise idea for him to be up on a ladder alone I went along. I sat in the red truck and sewed on my newest and most engaging project while he removed all the leaves and goo from the gutters.

Last winter I created a quilt, a "nap-sized" one, sewn with my father's pajama fabric I was left with when he came to live in my home before he died. I love bundling my legs in this soft quilt almost every morning  and it is the perfect quilt to wrap up in when you need that afternoon nap. It was pieced on the machine, but on long winter evenings and cold afternoons I looked forward to picking up my needle and thimble to spend hours hand quilting. What contentment. It is a simple design and it certainly has its share of mistakes, a true quilter would be appalled. But I had no intention of creating a masterpiece. My goal from start to finish was to merely use something that had great sentimental value and make it into something useful. Mission accomplished and I love it!

When we moved into our present home my sewing room had to be packed up  and all my stash of fabric, yarns, threads and UFOS (unfinished projects) came rising to the surface. I did rid myself of at least a box worth of things I knew that in my lifetime I would probably not get around to using. In this process I found the fabrics from my mother's sleeping gowns also. This quilt will be different in that I am actually creating it with a particular quilting design, using a 16 inch square block pattern called Fox and Geese. The cotton fabric I cut from her gowns are being pieced with a creamy white cotton fabric that I purchased. I have also decided to hand piece this quilt, hence I was able to sit in the truck and sew. Hand sewing has many attractions, but the best part is the portability.

I was able to do a bit of cleaning up and meal planning as I do have some family members coming Sunday afternoon and a lunch to prepare for my Bible Study ladies on Tuesday. Sadly, my daffodil and tulip bulbs have yet to be planted and the ironing pile is still waiting. 

march & april & may

 Due to the course of things and the months squeezing in terribly wonderful ways, my own remedy is to create one blog post to embrace the months of March, April and May. Here is my attempt at the highlights keeping in mind I do this as a means for my own form of posterity. And yes, I am posting this the last week of June, of course, though it was began in April!

MARCH

During one of Ivy's spring break days we spent a great deal of time in the woods and then came back to a snack of popcorn, cheese, and warm tea enjoyed outside. She loved borrowing my Canon Rebel camera to take pictures of me😊.

A small gathering of young ladies and mothers for an overnighter beginning with pizza on Friday and ending on Saturday afternoon with a high tea.

Some days in March were unbelievable cold, others were unbelievably warm. On those days of warm temperatures I could not resist taking a little time for tea and stitching on the quilt I began this winter. It is sewn using the fabric of my fathers' pajamas, the ones I inherited when he died in February 2011. During the move I found a bag of his pjs that I intended for creating a lap quilt. This was the winter to make it. I did the piecing on the sewing machine, but the true delight was in the hand stitching on cold winter evenings by the fire.

APRIL

                               Resurrection Sunday gathering

Drying dandelion blossoms for making salve and continuing with  a calendar of firsts journal.

 Embellishing with cast-on flowers and an initial for one of Violet's summer dresses.

And a pair of boots to keep the spring mud off my feet!

Practicality is the key.

MAY

A trip to Louisville to gather Charlotte and her things for coming home during the summer months. This was taken on the walking bridge between Kentucky and Indiana.

A decided place composed in the front lawn to plant a variety of zinnias, calendulas, and sunflowers one bright morning in order that I may enjoy composed moments when they bloom.

An evening watching Breanna dance...oh, how I loved those times of my life with my own children performing, and now I am watching my granddaughter's performance.

Last but not least, on the 29th Charlotte entered into the second decade of her life. Twenty candles were lit with family and friends gathered to celebrate. When she was born I remember thinking how old I would be when she turned twenty. She is twenty...but surely I am not that old!

cultivating appreciation

"Cultivate a sense of appreciation. Love your work, trust your work, keep in touch with today. Teach yourself to be practical, up-to-date and sensible. You cannot fail"

-Henry van Dyke

The chorus of the cicadas is loud and intensifying, rising up and dipping down, reminding me somewhat of labor pains...the rising and falling that is. I hear the breeze in the gentle tingling of the chimes and I see it in the movement of the cucumbers plant leaves. The wind stirring the ninety-three degree heat,

 I sat on the back porch, the porch I swept and straightened up after lunch, shaking the debris sprinkled cushions and fluffing the saggy pillows. I love summer afternoons when I am able to sit a spell outside, to read or perhaps sew a hem, such as the binding I am sewing on this 1920 apron, a pattern made from directions found in this book. I had finished my daily chore of ironing and thought a spell of rest and sewing before the preparations of supper began could be done outside. I brewed a teabag of Yorkshire Gold and laced it with unfiltered apple cider. 
The addition of a slice of chocolate-chip banana bread seemed sensible to me too!

Including beets in your diet and drinking unfiltered apple cider make an excellent tonic for gall bladder and liver health. It is good to treat these organs to a tonic from time to time and this is a simple and easy way to do so.

The finished apron being modeled by Theodora.

Relaxing

I drank a cup of ginger tea while on the glider, the old glider we found out in the woods years ago and dragged back to paint. It has been returned to gliding ever since, what it was created to do.The afternoon's sun was as a balm, affecting me in soul and body with its gift. Reminding me once again how each and every day is a gift to be enjoyed in its uniqueness.

 I have received many magazine subscriptions through the years and I have several containers of magazines to prove it. Let's just say I have a difficult time trashing old magazines. Currently, we receive magazine subscriptions to World, Our State, and Bee Culture; I have all but stopped the others except for one particular magazine, my personal favorite, Piecework. I love reading its informative articles  about the art and history of handiwork around the world.  

So on this day after my long walk, I was overjoyed to see the newest issue had been delivered right to my mailbox, and I had a moment to relax before beginning dinner.

An article on buttonholes especially piqued my interest since I actually do make my own buttonholes by hand and I would very much like to master this skill. This issue includes a buttonhole sampler you can make yourself. I am thinking perhaps I can convince my sewing group to take this on for a future project...

"I was thinking my stars that I'd learned to make nice buttonholes"

L. M.Alcott, Little Women

my day recorded on Happy Homemaker Monday

To purpose to blog on a more regular basis, I am happy for the inspiration that comes from participating in things such as Sandra's Happy Homemaker Monday. 

When you are a homemaker, Mondays  are not blue or hateful, they are welcomed as a wonderful beginning of a week of homemaking.

🌷The weather...

After two days of temperatures suited more for summer than late March,

          today spring is shouting in all her glory with 75 degrees, sunny with a soft breeze.

Rain is coming tomorrow with cooler temps back into the 50's. 

🌷My morning's feeling...

Back to lightweight robes in the morning, and bare feet. I wanted to open the windows in the kitchen first thing,  but the temps had cooled down during the night so there was still a spring-like chill in the air. 

🌷On the breakfast plate...

   * 1/2 of a grapefruit

   * a slice of buttered sourdough toast

    *1 butter-fried egg

🌷On the reading pile...

     I finished reading One of Ours by Willa Cather. I have yet to read anything by Cather that I have not enjoyed reading. I gave this novel a five-star on Goodreads.

     Daily I read several chapters of The Confession by St. Augustine, and I do believe this particular translation is an excellent one.

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom is our present family read- aloud book. 

And I have just begun reading The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West.

🌷On TV...

Sadly, the All Creatures Great and Small DVD's came to and end, and while I still hum the music in my mind from time to time, we we are on to the John Adams videos put out by HBO several years back. Reliving a part of our country's history.

🌷This Weeks Menu Plans...

Monday- Meat loaf/potatoes/peas 

Tuesday-Fish with slaw

Wednesday-Chicken/Rice/Broccoli Casserole

Thursday-Pasta dish of some sort

Friday-Homemade Pizza

🌷On my Camera...

I made this gardening apron many years ago and it works great when I am working in the garden. See the plaid binding around the pocket?  It's the simple things!

🌷 Today's Chores...

         *Vacuuming the kitchen

         *Two loads of Laundry, washed, folded and put away

🌷Around the House...

Two things I want to mention here. Firstly, I cut up raw whole chicken for preparing certain dishes.  I remember my mother doing this when I was a child (back in the "olden days" when one did not have the choice of buying chickens any other way but whole). I still buy boneless skinless chicken breasts for some of my meals, however.

And secondly, I do not use paper napkins. I have cloth napkins that we use for every meal. Usually,  the napkins...one for each person... are good for the day. We just fold them neatly and put them on the back of our chairs.  If company is coming I removed the napkins. They are tossed into the dirty laundry at the end of supper every evening.

🌷In my Potager...

* A few small pansies  planted in the fairy garden

*Weeding some of the beds that are flourishing with chickweed and garlic chives!

*Pulling out the wintering baskets of potted plants

*Turning the compost

🌷Relaxing...

          I took a 45 minute walk this morning.

"Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day..."

~Jane Austen

🌷Prayers/ Devotions...

This morning I prayed  a prayer understanding fully He will answer it according to His will, yet He does tell us to ask...Resurrection Sunday is less than two weeks away, and with the social distancing and the closing of  most church gatherings, I am praying specifically that the weather will be wonderfully warm and sunny so we can meet outside with fellow church members that are willing on that day.

My Resurrection Season Reading was about Christ Jesus drinking the full cup of God's wrath that I might drink the full cup of His salvation. 

"O my Father, if this cup cannot pass from me, but that I must drink it, Thy will be done."

Matthew 26:42

I

handmade gifts

 Mad last minute shopping frenzies in my opinion are a choice you make and as for me not a way in which I choose to spend the last days of Advent. I desire to be home making lists of cookies to bake, meals to prepare, planning how I am going to set my Christmas table, and getting the house ready for the arrival of family. And since I do like to make simple handmade gifts for the grandchildren if at all possible, these days leading up to Christmas may provide just the needed time to do so. I have been nursing a sore throat for several days, drinking mug after mug of herbal teas and taking elderberry syrup, therefore, sitting in my sunny sewing room to sew those gifts are delightful,  just before Rose and Ivy arrive tomorrow night and my days will look quite different.

A flannel nightgown for Ivy(31/2), an apron for Breanna(9), and I am just now ready to begin knitting red mittens for Gordon(23 months).

rainy day sewing

Awakened to much rain this Saturday morning, and from what "they say", it will be an incessant rain throughout the day. Ivy will turn three next month, so today appears to be an excellent day for spending time in my sewing room and concentrating on completing the quietly engaged book I began for her back in the summer. 

After one brief breach of focus to straighten the closet, I regained my momentum and spent several happy hours sewing until the already cloudy, dark day inched into even greater darkness outside my window and "hungry calls" were heard downstairs. I knew it was time to stop and begin supper.

“I am reminded that every day I have the chance to pick up a needle and some thread and add to the story. To stitch together something beautiful and unique, to patch a small scrap of fabric to the story..."
― Jerusalem Jackson Greer, A Homemade Year: The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting, and Coming Together

sugar plum fairy

"There was something in her movements that made you think she never walked but always danced".

Rilla of Ingleside

L.M. Montgomery

Another season of the Nutcracker has come and gone. And while I find myself humming the music from the Sugar Plum Fairy as I go about my day, still it feels like a dream that another year's production is finally over, and that this year I had the unsurpassed joy of watching Charlotte beautifully dance the part of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

She was sewn into the dress before every performance . This is done on a precautionary note with any dance that involves a cavalier lifting a dancer, there must not be any opportunity for his hand to get caught in  the back of her dress with any of the lifts.

Since I am privileged to be a part of the costume execution and coordination team, which basically means I rip apart, sew, and help with the fittings of the many costumes for all the dancers, I am back stage for some of the performances. The following pics were some I snapped prior to Saturday evening's performance. Not good photo quality at all, but I do appreciate the concentration in her face as she is gets alone to warm up before going on stage.

And after a full week of tiring late nights and then the culmination of four stage performances, all can truthfully say that is was worth every bit of hard work that putting on such a show like this entails.

what Miss Ivy wears

a brown polka-dotted jumper, for once in a while.

 Sewing little dresses and jumpers for Ivy is a pleasure for me, even if her day to day activity levels might benefit her wearing other clothing styles such as pants and shirts.

But I love seeing her run in little dresses.

.... of flora and needle

A family member gave me two little burlap bags last summer that she had received from attending a wedding; I was informed they were johnny-jump up seeds. I nonchalantly scattered the minuscule seeds in a little patch of back garden. And  then I waited all winter to be charmed with the happy faces of little pansy type faces springing up this spring. Nothing happened though I checked frequently.

But then this past Saturday I noticed this most unusual and stately plant growing here and there... and a faint memory was stirred. Could it be? I believe it is! I was tickled to discover a plant I have not had in my garden for many a year. 

Nigella... common and romantic name "love-in-a-mist".

 I have several plants here and there springing up, some this pleasing periwinkle color and others white with shades of blue at the center.
I just love surprises of this sort!

My needle has been engaged in smocking of late. I have planned two outfits for Ivy Elizabeth thus far. A mint green "watermelon" dress I found in my stash from when Charlotte was little. And a pretty floral romper which is in the process of being smocked with lavender threads to pull out the fabric's printed  lavender flowers.

During the winter months I would walk into my sunroom and the first thing my eyes would light upon were the African violets that welcome me in the sunroom. The purple African Violet was bought last winter, the two pink ones were birthday presents from Charlotte this past December.. Slow and steady, yet when they do bloom, what a thing of beauty!