Back from the Family Fold

Skip and I went to Sarnia on Wednesday to attend my sister, Valerie's funeral and visitation. Before we went to the funeral home, we stopped in at the cemetery to visit the family plot. It is a beautiful setting amid many trees. I've been visiting there since 1961. My mother, 

father,

 
brother, 

and adoptive mother are buried there. 

2022 will be added to Valerie's plaque and I guess, my name and dates will be added, when my time comes.

The sawdust on the plaques is from an oak tree that was cut down nearby. I'm guessing big limbs came down during a recent storm and there was damage to the tree trunks. The logs were about 16" in diameter so the trees must have been pretty old.

At the funeral home, we first just had the family there, then visitation started and we received many friends of Valerie and my nieces Ana, Rosa, and their families. A couple of my former colleagues from over 33 years ago even came to give their condolences and were able to meet and visit with Skip whom they felt they knew already from my many Facebook posts.

Afterwards, most of us went back to Rosa's for dinner which had been provided by a dear friend of Rosa and Darryl's - enough to feed the bunch of us - delicious pasta with a bolognese sauce and the best garlic bread I've ever tasted.

Normally Skip and I would stay in a hotel as we don't like to impose but we took Rosa up on her kind offer to spend the night at their place. I knew I wanted to soak in as much of the family togetherness as I could after our day of honouring Valerie. As crappy as the circumstances are that had us congregate, it really was a lovely time being together. 

The next morning (yesterday) we headed for home, giving Rosa and Darryl's son, Derek, a lift back to London en route. 

Back at home, we're both taking it pretty easy after the last few weeks of tragic family events. I'm somewhat numb at times, can't concentrate on stuff for any length of time,  and really don't feel like doing much but allowing myself to wallow in my grief as it washes over me. From my past experience, this works well for me and I know I'll be OK in good time. 

The kindness of my friends and family has been such a comfort, so appreciated, and very overwhelming. There have been phone calls, emails, messages, gifts, folks just checking in, etc. Yesterday afternoon, my neighbour came to the door with dinner for us - delicious chicken schnitzel and home made potato salad.

Today I finished up the stitching on the model I'm doing for Pansy Patch Quilts and Stitchery and took a bunch of photos for her to promote it at the Needlework Expo at the end of next month. She's dropping by tomorrow to pick up the triangular scissor case and fob that I stitched and finished for her. 

I made a couple of project bags early in the week for Joanne from Monday morning stitching. It was good therapy. Sharon wants me to make her one, too so I'll get that fabric tomorrow when she's in the neighbourhood. 

I have a couple of stitching projects of my own I putter away on during the Monday morning stitching sessions.

It's been a pretty emotional few weeks here and I'm glad that things are calming down. I'll be resuming normal activities very soon.

It's Been a Blur

A week and a half ago I had a lovely time at Marilyn's cottage on a lake north of Havelock. We had terrific weather and I got a lot of stitching done on the model I'm doing for Pansy Patch Quilts and Stitchery.

Stitching out on the deck with natural light makes 1 over 2 on 36ct very easy. The view from the deck is very inspiring.

I downloaded some movies on my laptop to watch there. We had a nice, relaxing evening that first night.

The next day, after another relaxing, productive day,  at about 5pm, I got a message from my niece, Rosa, that my sister, Valerie, collapsed while they were in London. She had been taken to the hospital at the university within minutes. There is no Wifi at the cottage and cellular signals are very weak. I jumped in the car and drove 10k until I could get full service on my phone and called Rosa who filled me in on more details. 

I went back to the cottage, quickly packed and drove back home to more reliable communications service. Then went to London to sit vigil at the hospital with my nieces, Ana and Rosa, and brother-in-law, Jaime. We were permitted to be with Valerie in the ICU 2 at a time and took turns over the next few days.

Long story short, after a week, Valerie was going to be moved out of ICU to a cardiac care unit that day for further recovery. We we all believed she was 'out of the woods' so I returned home and after visiting hours that night, the girls and Jaime returned to their homes.

The next morning, yesterday, I got a call that my sister had died. Even though she was so sick, her improvements last week had given us such hope that she would continue doing so. We are all  devastated. However, I am comforted that she is no longer suffering and will not face a long recovery - which would never be complete due to her other medical issues.

Tomorrow is the Celebration of Life for Skip's brother who died two weeks ago, after a very long illness, on the same day as the Rogers fiasco - another horror story. Then Skip and I will travel to the SW Ontario area for Valerie's visitation on Wednesday afternoon.

I am so sad. And numb. And sorry she had to go through so much health-wise in her life. 

She leaves behind a husband, 3 adult children, 8 grandchildren, 4 great-grandchildren, and me.

RIP dear sister. December 31, 1944 - July 22, 2022

Valerie ca. 1950

(I'm pretty sure our mother smocked the dress)

Muriel, George, Valerie and Geri 1959

Geri, George, and Valerie in Tampico MX, 1966

Valerie and Geri, May 1967

December 2017

Navy Checkerboard Project Bag

When I visited the US a few weeks ago I bought this navy and white jelly roll

and pack of white on white charm squares.

I knew exactly what I wanted to use them for - another checkerboard project bag!

I cut everything out on Saturday and yesterday started sewing everything together.

The coordinating white on white lining fabric was in my stash. I quartered a couple of the white on white charm squares for a fourth light colour. I needed at least 4 dark patterns and 4 light patterns.

The zipper pull was fashioned from my vast stash of beads and lobster claw closures. I use Beadalon 7-strand bead stringing wire which was recommended on a YouTube video. I purchased the wire at the local big box craft store. 

I had quite a struggle sewing the project bag together and actually melted the vinyl ($%^&*) with my iron while trying to press one of the strips before topstitching. I had to remove the seams above and below the vinyl, cut another piece of vinyl and resew everything. It actually only set me back about a half hour but quite a bit of bad language was involved.

I have the second William Morris checkerboard bag all cut out and ready to sew. Maybe next week.

Construction instructions are at the end of this post.

I hope to take some photos at some point and include them in these instructions.

I gave the socks I finished the other day to the person who gave me the yarn lo those many years ago (8? 10?). He was very pleased with them and would like me to knit him a couple more pairs. I suggested he find the sock yarn he wants and I can put his order in my rotation. I normally don't take knitting orders but he is very appreciative so I don't mind helping him out.

I have started another pair - hopefully for Skip - have turned the heel and have completed the gusset decreases. Now I'm on the home stretch to the toe - stocking stitch all the way.

The yarn is all crinkly because I frogged a whole sock to reuse the yarn. The original sock had quite an elaborate pattern that didn't really show up with the patterned yarn. The crinkling doesn't make any difference to the re-knit sock.

This morning we had a lovely stitching session at Judy's, under her gazebo beside her sparkling swimming pool. I got more done on my model for Lori at Pansy Patch Quilts and Stitchery. Sneak peaks are in my previous post. 

She's mailing me the fabric, pattern, and threads for a scissor case and scissor fob which I hope arrive before I head to Marilyn's cottage on Wednesday. I'm pretty confident I can get the Pumpkin Lane stitching done by the end of this week with stitching sessions before and during my cottage visit. Then I can whip up the two accessories.

PROJECT BAG INSTRUCTIONS. 

They're based on this tutorial with my addition of the vinyl window: 

1. Select at least 4 dark and 4 light jelly roll strips. You can also cut your own width of fabric 2.5" strips at least 21" long excluding the selvage. The width of a fat quarter would do.  Cut a piece of vinyl 14.5" x 6.5" and set vinyl aside. You will need a coordinating zipper at least 14" in length. I prefer using longer zippers (16") and trimming them down later.
2. Stack the darks and cut 8 stacks of 2.5" squares, then do the same for the lights.  (the bag measures 7 squares across and 9 squares down - for a total of 63 squares - 32 darks and 31 lights)
3. On a 17.5" x 22.5" piece of featherweight fusible interfacing and with a heat erasable pen, draw 9 rows and 7 columns of 2.5" squares.
4. On your ironing board with the glue side of your interfacing facing upwards, lay out the first few rows of dark squares in a checkerboard with darks in the corners. Ensure that there is no duplication in each row. On the next row, lay out the darks making sure pairs are not adjacent.
5. Continue laying out the next couple of rows of darks, making sure there is no vertical duplication. 
6. Lay out the lights between the darks in the same manner - avoiding duplication in the rows and columns. At this point there might be some duplicates touching corners but make sure no rows or columns have duplication in each row or column. 
7. Using a pressing sheet and hot iron, press these first 4 rows in place.
8. Continue steps 4 - 7 for the next 4 rows, then the last row. 

You should have all the rows and columns pressed onto the interfacing with darks in the 4 corners. Have a look your layout. If you want to change anything, it is easy to peel the squares from the interfacing and put in other places and re-press into place.

Now take your checkerboard and fold the first column so right sides are facing. With 1/4" seam, sew down the column on the wrong side along the fold of the interfacing. 

Do this for the rest of the vertical columns. Press the seams from the back to one side then turn over and press the front, making sure seams on the back are laying properly.

At this point, you will cut the top three rows off. They will be the strips above and below the zipper and below the vinyl. You now have a larger piece with vertical seams and 7 x 6 squares.

On the larger piece, fold the top row down onto the next row - right sides together. Sew the 1/4" seam along the edge of the interfacing. Repeat for the rest of the rows.

Now your large piece has all the vertical and horizontal seams stitched and inner squares each measure 2".

Now cut your lining to fit the four  pieces. Then cut fusible batting to fit each of the pieces with 3/8" margin on each side. The batting will give some body to the bag but the bulk will not be caught in the seams when assembling. Fuse the batting pieces to the backs of the checkerboard pieces.

Sandwich the vinyl between a checkerboard strip and its lining - right sides together. Sew and topstitch. Do this for the other strip on the other long edge of the vinyl. 

Taking the strip with the light squares on each edge, sew the centered zipper (determining if you want it to zip left to right or right to left) onto the remaining long, raw edge - do not sew the lining. Take the raw edge of the lining and press a 1/4" fold along the long edge. Lay it along the zipper tape, below the nylon teeth and above the stitched line. Pin in place. The zipper should now be between the wrong sides of the checkerboard strip and its corresponding lining. Topstitch on the right side, making sure you're catching the folded lining edge on the back.

Sandwich the other zipper tape between the top edge of the third strip and its corresponding lining - right sides together. Sew in place, then topstitch with right sides out.

You now have the front completed. 

Open the zipper. Holding the open edges of the zipper together, tack them in place 1/8" in from the raw edge. 

Place the back checkerboard piece - right sides together with the front. Lay the lining right sides together with the lining on the front. Trim edges.

Sew through all the layers across the top. Then sew across the bottom of the outer fabrics front and back, holding the lining out of the way. Holding the outer fabric out of the way, sew the bottoms of the linings together leaving a 5" gap in the centre for turning later. Sew down both sides through all the layers. Trim the corners at a 45 degree angle a few threads away from the actual corner.

Reaching into the opening you left in the bottom of the lining pieces, turn the bag right side out through the opening, carefully poking out the corners. 

Sew the opening closed in the bottom of the lining.

Press the edges of the bag. If the vinyl is crinkled, press the bag vinyl side down, from the back (through all the layers) with a warm (not hot) iron. This should smooth things out.

Add a zipper pull to the zipper tab.

A Gift of Sock Yarn

I finished the patterned blue socks last night. 

I will first offer them to the person who gave me the yarn. If he doesn't want them, I'll give them to Skip. I have wound another ball of sock yarn and am ready to cast on another pair.

I was invited to a friend's cottage for Monday - Wednesday of next week but it's scheduled to rain on Tuesday so we're trying to figure out an alternative plan. I am not ready at all to go tomorrow to Monday. Wednesday to Friday would work better for me but am not sure if my host can swing it. 

I have lots of stitching planned and the new sock. I want to download a bunch of movies on my laptop to watch up there as we don't have Wifi to stream Netflix or Prime. I also need to get the food I'm taking up and pack. 

Hopefully we can figure something out.

Back At It

I took a day off from stitching on Canada Day but got back at it yesterday. Today I completed the first house in the Pansy Patch Quilts and Stitching new series. I can't show you what I've stitched but I can show you the screenshot from Lori's IG.

The colours are very rich and autumnal. This is the next house I'll be doing. Lori is stitching the individual houses to make up as pillows and I'm stitching them all on one big piece of fabric.

I should be right on schedule completing the second house by the middle of this month. I'm also going to be stitching and finishing a scissor fob and triangular scissor case that she has designed based on another sampler she's creating by mid-August. Lori is working on getting me the threads and fabric for them.

I also finished the first of another pair of Fred's bed socks.

The yarn was given to me several years ago by a friend who thought he wanted to learn how to knit socks. For whatever reason he decided not to and passed the yarn on to me. The second sock is going to be a pretty close match except I had to start a couple of rows into the pattern from where I started the first sock. I doubt Skip will even notice the leg of one sock is 3/16" shorter than the other. I will start the heel in the same place so the feet should completely match.

My eyes are tired at night so I knit when I'm watching TV. I don't have to look down at my knitting anywhere nearly as much as if I were stitching.

These last few days have been quite busy with our anniversary dinner out, Canada Day tacos and Portuguese custard tarts at home with Skip and Sharon, and Mexican lunch yesterday with Lorna and John who were in the area picking up something purchased at an MG meetup. I haven't done much today except stitch and have a Zoom chat while stitching. I'm going to lie down. 

The fridge is full of leftovers so Skip should be able to find himself something to eat for supper.