Sew and Ice

SEW

Stevie Wren wrote a post last December that inspired me to -get this - sew something! The Family Portrait Rag Dolls pictured on her post are amazing!

My sewing skills are limited to sewing buttons back on after I sneeze due to a major self induced disinterest in doing anything further mainly because threading a needle can be a two day project in itself and I tend to fall asleep while attempting cross-stitch.

But these dolls...amazing.

I toddled off to the book store and discovered that yes they do sell craft magazines. Thousands of them. I purchased the Sew Somerset/Winter 2009 and then took a trip ever to Joanne Fabrics for the supplies I needed: Computer printer fabric, muslin, thread and fiberfill.

I attempted to ask a question of the fabric cutting ladies. They were standing there doing nothing. I asked where I might find the computer printing fabric. They said I need to take a number. They're pretty strict. I asked one of them to just nod ever so slightly in the direction of the fabric and they complied.

I used my Mother's first communion picture for the doll, enlarging it first on paper and then printing the enlarged version on the fabric. My printer was in dire need of black ink and printed the picture in shades of green which I thought was pretty cool looking so I went with that. The doll is embellished with pearls; a button on her glove, necklace and flowers on her cape collar. I used peridot drops as leaves by the pearl flowers, a peridot bead on her veil, amazonite triangle beads for the bows on her shoes and a little bunch of flowers on her belt. I had all of the embellishments in my dusty ole craft box.

I plan to go over to Tarpon Springs later this week - one of the antique stores has a collection of vintage pictures I can use to make more of these dolls.

I don't know if I can get there from here!

ICE



My Northern buddies have been posting spectacular pictures of snow and ice on their blogs lately. Betsy's header and pictures in her margin are just one beautiful example. These reminded me of an adventure on ice I experienced with my sissy Janet. It was around 1962 0r 63, and we had had an ice storm of major proportions overnight.



We went to Catholic school, and things may have changed, but back then there was no such thing as a snow day. After all, we had God and the Blessed Virgin to keep us safe. We also wore our scapulars, various medals, a crucifix or two and oh yes, that little note in our pocket that said: I am a Catholic. In case of an emergency, please call a priest. So there we were, out in the weather, books in hand, uniforms on, lunch bags containing our "after morning Mass" toast.



My favorite was toast with butter and powdered sugar on it. There was some kind of chemical reaction that took place during the hour I was at mass - or maybe it was a miracle of some kind, but the toast became so tough I could barely bite through it. It still tasted good. So I kept taking it for breakfast. But I digress.



So, we managed to get down the stairs of our house - maybe we rolled down - I don't know. And then we were on our way. There was no traction anywhere - not the sidewalk, not the grass - none. So we're moving along making these little slidey steps with nothing to hold on to and nothing to brake against. Just slippety slide tiny steps. Me on the left and Janet on the right - the street side of the walk. We're making progress, three or four houses down, passing a driveway, slippetty sliding along when all of a sudden the wind picks up. Not hard, just a breeze really, coming in from our left. It starts blowing Janet right off the sidewalk and down the driveway - sideways. She's still standing, but has nothing to grab onto except maybe to hold her lunch a little tighter, but nothing else, so she keeps going, right in the middle of the street. (Very quiet street and no cars, so don't get all stressed here - but there could be a car so she's got to get out of the street!)



There's nothing I can do to help her as she's doing this slo-mo sideways slide. Except laugh of course, which we both did, but that only made it more difficult. There was no way for her to get back out of the street, and nothing I could do except continue on - me up on the sidewalk her in the street with those little mincy slippetty slidey steps all the rest of the way. Trying not to laugh. Mostly just trying not to kill ourselves in the process.



I don't remember a lot about the rest of the trip - I think the one street we had to cross was free of ice from the morning traffic. The rest of the way was an overland shortcut through a couple of back yards. The miracle is that neither of us ever fell - not once. If we did, we would've just had to lay there looking up at the sky waiting for the ice to melt while the other sister continued on her way to school. After all, if there aren't any snow days, there sure as heck aren't any hang out with your sister until the ice melts days. Those nuns were even more strict than the Joanne Fabric ladies.