Happy Mother's Day, Mama

A card just won't do, Mama.

Instead of writing about how much I love you (and I do), seems like a good idea to review four really important lessons you taught me. Took years to understand most of them. Probably don't have it all quite right even now.

Never chew gum "off the property."
I always thought you hated the sound of gum being snapped, but it wasn't about the gum, was it? It was about showing the world our best, about having respect for ourselves and others. You taught us there was a time and place for everything.

Say "Thank you."
Yes, you taught us basic manners. Beyond that, you taught us to be truly grateful for things and to express that gratitude. Long before it became fashionable, you knew that gratitude changes everything.

Pick up your feet when you walk.
You always did hate the sound of dragging feet, but that wasn't the whole story. Picking up our feet pretty much guarantees that we step lightly on the earth. We trust that the ground will be beneath them when we put them down again. You taught us to let go, again and again, in ways big and small, our whole lives long. Turns out, there aren't many skills more important for life.

Home is where you are.
We grew up hundreds (sometimes thousands) of miles from your home, mostly in a town where you barely knew a soul. But you gave us an unshakeable sense of home. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, your love is there. That has given us the freedom to see the world, knowing home is always right there waiting. Not always in the same place, because you have moved through the years, too. But always, always home.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom. I love you.

When Life Gives You Grapes, Make Raisins

We hoped to show you another project for green living today but didn't get it finished in time. Aunt Grace is flying in from California this afternoon, and Mom's in a spin, getting ready.

Aunt Grace is my grandfather's sister, the only surviving sibling in that family, and one of our favorite people in the world. Look up the word indomitable in the dictionary and you'll find her picture. 

Years ago the women of our family went to the national quilt show in Paducah, KY. Grace flew from CA to Iowa and then drove to KY, arriving well after dark. I flew from Minneapolis to Kansas City, then Mom, her sister Donna, my sister Deb, and a couple friends-who-became-family drove to KY together. Moments after we got there, Mom realized she'd given Grace the wrong hotel name/address. Worse yet, the hotel Grace was looking for no longer existed. We panicked a bit. I got a phone book and started calling every hotel in town, explaining the situation and asking them to watch for an elderly lady who was confused and concerned.

Yeah. Don't know who I was describing, but it wasn't Grace. About 11 pm, we heard someone beating on the door of our room, yelling, "You can run, but you can't hide!"

When Grace got to the address she'd been given and discovered nothing but a demolition site, she found a gas station with a phone and called my dad. He told her where we were, she got directions from the gas station guys and drove herself over there. In a strange city. In the dark. She was 76 at the time and had had a mastectomy about a week before the trip. Still had drains in place, even.

That was nothing for Grace. When she was a young woman, her husband came home with a pick-up bed filled with grapes he'd gotten from some farmer for a couple dollars. She didn't miss a beat. Just pulled out a ladder and crawled up onto the roof of her house. Spread screens all over and laid out the grapes to dry into raisins.

When I grow up, I'm gonna be like Grace.

Meantime, I cleaned out my pantry on Sunday. Among other things, it was chock-full-o'empty containers. You know, old cookie tins and wide-mouthed jars—things that could be really cute and useful if only I did something with them other than stuff them into the back of the pantry.

Here's what I did with a tin that once held ginger cookies from World Market.



It took three or four coats of spray paint to cover the original wild markings, but it worked eventually. I used Aileen's Jewel It glue to apply the rick rack. (It should hold through hand washing.) A little small-g-grace for the pantry. 

See you Friday. We'll try to get that green project done by then. It's majorly cute.

Going Sleeveless

This cute little reusable sleeve is going to cut our carbon footprints. Just a tiny bit, mind you, but every little bit helps.

Out early the other morning, Mom and Debbie and I stopped for coffee and bagel on a whim (read no travel mugs with us). Of course, the paper cups were too hot to handle, so we reached for cardboard sleeves. As soon as we picked them up, Mom and I looked at each other and laughed.

Using the cardboard sleeve as a pattern, we made one for each of our purses.


We sandwiched Insul-Bright (an heat-insulating batting) between two layers of fabric and stitched them up. Added Velcro and some trim, and we were done. Now we won't throw away cardboard coffee sleeves, even when we have to use paper cups.


Stay tuned. We've got a couple more projects for green living up our sleeves. If everything goes well, we'll show you the latest on Wednesday.

Super Easy Placemats

Mom and I have been on kind of a placemat kick since we figured out the ones she uses most of the time are about 30 years old. She has some fabric in the stash that's been waiting to become placemats for almost 10 years. It's time. It's really time.

We played with some heavy interfacing/stabilizer a couple of weeks ago, working on the projects for the book proposal. I got the bright idea that we could use it for placemats. Turns out we can. 

We made one this afternoon. Super easy and we love the way it turned out.

Even if you don't sew a lot, you can make these guys. All it takes is a bit of measuring, some pressing, and a couple lines of  stitching.

 

Start with:

*heavy-duty interfacing and stabilizer (we like Timtex but other brands work, too)

*fabric (two 16 x 21 inch pieces for the foundation and two 3 x 45 inches pieces for the border)

*fusible web (we like Wonder-Under)

Cut a 15 x 20-inch piece of the Timtex. Cut two pieces of fabric, each slightly larger than the Timtex.

Now cut Wonder Under to fit the fabric. Iron the Wonder-Under to the back of the fabric. Remove the paper backing and iron the fabric to the Timtex. Repeat on the other side.

 You'll end up with a sandwich of fabric/Timtex/fabric. 

Cut two strips of border fabric, each 3 inches by 45 inches. Press under 1/4 inch on each long edge, then press the strip in half lengthwise. Cut 3/4-inch strips of Wonder-Under and press one to each side of each strip.

Press a finished strip to the top and bottom of the placemat and trim the edges. Stitch the border in place, close to the folded edge.

Fold under 3/8 of an inch or so on one end of a strip. Slide the placemat under the folded edge and then sandwich the strip around it. Press in place.


Stitch. Repeat on the other side.

That's it. You've made a darling placemat in no time flat. Now. . .about that napkin. We're all thinking green these days. Cloth napkins are inexpensive and easy to make, and they can be used practically endlessly. 


One yard of fabric will make four napkins. I got this piece on sale for $4.00 a yard, and it took less than an hour to finish all four. All I did was press under 1/4 inch all the way around and then press that under again, to make a double-folded hem. Then I stitched around the edges. (Straight lines are not my best thing, so I use a small zig-zag stitch. Worked great.)