Skirting The Issue

These three skirts have been ready to hem for a few months.  They were cut out and sewn together for the two younger girls.

Everyone needs a nice, basic skirt, but the navy and black ones are more for winter!  Thankfully, winter comes again every year.

Night Wear

My mother always kept her daughters (seven of us) in nightgowns.  I do not think I ever wore sweats to bed!  We got new flannel nightgowns each Christmas.  When I was in high school, I began sewing my own, as well as gowns for my younger sisters.  One year our family Christmas photo featured everyone in candy cane-striped nightgowns and when I was a freshman, two of my beribboned creations were worn in the high school production of Little Mary Sunshine (I wore my sister's blue one).

This nightgown was begun by my second daughter when she was in ninth grade.  She picked the smooth broadcloth fabric to learn to stitch up her own project.  By the time the ruffle was sewn onto the bottom (three years later), she was too tall and it was promptly passed down to her younger sister.

The elastic in the sleeves was a little tight, so it was removed after it was inserted.  The gown is getting plenty of wear!

Those Damp Curtains!

We have two showers in our house that require narrow curtains across the openings.  They get used a lot and the hems get orange over time.  It is probably some kind of mildew and it doesn't fully launder out.  Yes, I have washed the curtains!

Each time these have been replaced, I have purchased a single fabric curtain and cut it in half.  A new hem at the side of each narrow curtain is required, but somehow this is an ordeal!  For one thing, it is often hard to remember to buy a curtain when they are in stock (Back-to-School is a bad time to hunt for anything) and then the package seems to get shuffled and buried in one of those everloving piles.

Today I found the curtain and did the necessary cutting and stitching.  It only took a few minutes -- longer to press out the creases than to stitch -- and the two youngest boys each took one to a bathroom in a race to get them hung.

"What should I do with the old one?" one boy wanted to know, as he showed me the orange stains.

"Toss it!" I said with glee.

Wild Horses and the Log Cabin

At long last, the Wild Horses quilt is finished, bound, and delivered to its intended recipient!

This quilt was begun more than a year ago, as a Christmas gift to a generous and thoughtful neighbor.  Each of the fabrics, with the exception of the horse fabric I purchased for the borders, came from my stash.  Sadly, the horse print didn't look good with the Log Cabin pieced design in the quilt's center.  I lost faith in the project (they always seem to go through an "Ugly Phase," anyway) and put it away; it went into the closet and surfaced every few weeks -- or months -- and so did my uneasy feelings and guilt.  What we are after is quilts, not guilts!

I put the quilt on the frame this Christmas break and everyone in the family helped, out of love for our neighbor.  My husband discovered he is actually pretty good at it; he contributed a lot to the completion of the project. Our youngest son pointed out what he had done and told me, "I am very proud of these stitches."  Within a week, all the quilting was completed.

Having a quilt on the frame provides time to talk.  I am sequestered, but with my body facing the room; my hands are occupied, but I am free to give attention to anyone who wants some.  We shared a few movies (my teenage daughter appreciated that), but mostly we spent time together.  And the quilt turned out beautifully.

The galloping horse fabric was pieced and put on the back of the quilt.  I found a different horse print that worked better for the border.  The neighbor, always appreciative of our efforts, was delighted to receive it.  This UFO found its rightful home at last.

Trailing in the Kitchen

My neighbor and her husband invited my husband and me to go four-wheeling with them last summer.  They had taken their trailer to a remote area, a couple of hours from home.  They served us some wonderful meals and showed us a great time.  I wanted to thank them for their generosity, but somehow my good desires -- and the supplies for my gifts of gratitude -- got bogged down in the clutter of everyday living.

One of the bags for their tent got ripped on the outing, and I offered to repair it.  At the store I found the best approximation of color and strength to match the bag.  The repair was finally completed with a patch on the inside and a reinforced addition to the exterior of the bag.  I hope that it will prove at least as strong as new!

The other gift was a set for my neighbor's trailer kitchen.  She recently made new curtains and a new bedspread for the trailer and I chose some fabrics that coordinated with the renovation.  Though I wish I had bound the potholders with a more intense hue, I like how they turned out.  They have a mylar layer in between the layers of batting that gives a satisfyingly crinkly sound!

Improving By Degrees

One of the most expensive UFOs in my life (other than the ongoing house remodel, of course), is my college degree.  This adventure was begun more than two decades ago and there are still a few classes that need to be completed.  I am enrolled in an online program, but time has elapsed and my eight-year window of opportunity is about to close.  This degree needs to be completed this year.

In January, about the time this blog began, I signed up for a class.  At first I worked on it vigorously, but the next paper is something that I want to get perfect and it isn't there yet.

I am reminded of a friend in a quilt class whose motto was Finish.  She was a beginner who joined a quilt guild and she noticed that many of the experienced quilters were so obsessive about perfection that they "picked everything out and redid" until it was exactly right -- which meant they often got burnt out and did not finish.

But she did.  My friend took to heart the admonition to "consider each project a practice for the next one."  She did her best, but she accepted that she was learning and she finished -- about a quilt a week, at that point!  After only a few months, she had lots of completed quilts, which she used to decorate her house and give as gifts.

I need to take lessons.  Perfect or not, I just need to Finish.

The Most Expensive Free Thing

I know there is no free lunch.  But there are some things that could be considered "free" -- stuff that other people already have used and are getting rid of.  Sometimes, these cost a lot.

The top items on my personal list (before yesterday) included Jacques, the Red-Eared Slider that someone gave us when she got married.  The pet came with a tank, but the tank needed a stand.  We purchased a dresser.  The tortoise had been kept for some time in room-temperature water and needed a warm place to get dry and bask.  We altered his arrangements and purchased the things he would need.  He had skin peeling from around his eyes, so we bought and applied the appropriate medication.  He died seven days after arriving at our house.

Then there was the 100-year-old piano with marijuana leaves carved onto the front.  It had been home to a family or two of mice and had been up to its neck in floodwater before being
loaded into a one-way rental trailer and hauled down to us.  The piano was a free gift, but we paid for the trailer.  The veneer was peeling, the varnish was cracked, the strings were rusted and the whole thing weighed a ton.  When it came into our house, we took it down to the unfinished basement, which took a toll on my husband's back.   He said it was not coming out the way it came in.  We moved before a door was installed in the basement, so the thing left in pieces.

The current winner is the set of six green occasional chairs that a tenant left behind when they moved from the office they were renting from my husband.  Nobody else at the office wanted them and we needed some seating.  They were a little worn but were in pretty good condition.  The 80's green upholstery clashes with the dark spruce carpeting in the front room, but we have used them for a few years.  They were not what I would have chosen, but...they were free.

This week, while my husband was away in Japan, I decided to surprise him by updating the chairs.  This seemed like a simple project and my next-door neighbor is a professional, who could give me some tips.  I purchased several yards of a beautiful, neutral fabric (expensive but doable at half-price) and decided to get to work.

It turned out that the neighbor was also out of the country.  The days wore on, and I finally decided to embark on my own, but the wood looked a bit shabby.  Hardware store stain, brushes and sandpaper were about $10 and it promised to be a quick phase of the project.  I brought the chairs out to the porch, wiped on the stain and left them to dry while I took the kids on an errand, but not before I brushed up against the finish.  One favorite sweater ruined.

Note to those over 40:  Always put on your glasses and read the fine print, especially the parts that are bolded and in capital letters.

When we returned home, it had begun to rain.  The wood was still tacky, so we brought the chairs inside to protect them as they dried.  Three of the chairs went into my husband's home office, off the entrance, where they would be out of the way; the other three went into the front room.  We had not stained the bottoms of the legs and they were not dripping onto the porch, so we did not consider what might happen to the carpeting.

There is a reason it is called stain.

Fortunately, the front room carpet is dark enough that the spots are not too noticeable, but the places where I frantically scrubbed the spot remover show damage to the nap.  The beautiful and expensive, sand-colored, molded carpet in my husband's office now has about a dozen indelible marks from the bottoms of the chairs.  So the cost of the refinish has to include a recarpeting job.

The wind had picked up before the rain started, so there was a layer of debris in the finish.  We had a hectic activity planned for the evening and my daughter avoided the chairs in front of the hall closet, but when she put on her shoes she sat on the piano stool I had also touched up and stained the entire rear end area of her pants.  I also had another brush with the chairs.  One pair of comfortable jeans and one nearly-new skirt, ruined.

I spent two hours in the basement this morning, wiping on a new layer of stain so yesterday's layer could be wiped off.  The warm, dry weather (to complete the stain drying process) starts two or three days from now, but my husband comes home tomorrow.  The wood finish looks shabby again; I think a gel stain might have been a better option, for it promises to cover and dry.  And the upholstering has not even begun.

I think this project will surprise my husband, all right.

This is one battle I did not win.