Darned Good Inspiration At My Fingertips

During those cold days when I could not find my better, black gloves, I wore my old blue ones. They are cheap Poundshop 'Magic' gloves. I think I bought them one day when a visiting grandchild had cold hands. They fit either hand - but unfortunately the tips of the index fingers have worn through, and the thumbs are wearing thin. 

At first I thought I would just darn the fingertips, then it occurred to me - if I left them 'open' I would be able to unlock my phone and use it without removing my gloves. So I strengthened the thumbs, but stitched round the edge of the top of the fingers. Success!

Unlike the youngsters I know who type phone messages with their thumbs, I am very old fashioned and use my right index finger, for typing and biometric access. As both gloves have holey fingers, I don't need to worry when I put them on. You can probably buy access gloves like this premade on the internet somewhere. 

Winter Wonderland

Just after Christmas, I was going out in my car. It was completely frosted up. I sat in the driver's seat, and marvelled at the morning sun shining through the patterns on the windscreen. Isn't this lovely? I cleared it all away, then drove safely to the Supermarket. I decided my much delayed December TwoByTwo should be a snowflake pattern. I had some lovely deep blue satiny lining fabric on hand [I'd made Nick a Magician's Waistcoat] So I found some silver thread - thick and thin, beads and sequins, and some ice-blue embroidery floss.
I couched the thick threads into a 6 pointed star then added other stitches plus beads and sequins to give sparkle.
There are many types of snowflakes - mine are stellar dendrites, which means they are star shaped with tree like branches. 

I had started working on them before the snow came at the weekend. I went out to the bin on Monday and realised how cute my footprints were. I stomped around for a while making pretty patterns.

How crazy am I? But sometimes nature is amazing, isn't it? 
I could have used my embroidery machine, as I bought a set of snowflake patterns when I made my neighbour's Elsa dress three years ago ... The snowflake shapes were machined, but then over three hundred beads and sequins stitched on.  
But our TwoByTwo is strictly a hand sewn 'slow stitching' enterprise.
And as we are producing the patches two at a time, we will be finished double-quick!

Thank You Christine!

I met my best friend Chris in town last week, we had a cuppa and a chat. She gave my Christmas gift - another lovely Painted Bear calendar. I get so much pleasure from this gift, all through the year. The January picture is a good reminder to stop prevaricating!

I'm really looking forward to church this morning, Bob will be preaching on our "Verse for the Year" Romans 15:13 - all about overflowing with hope. 

They Once Were Lost, But Now They're Found

I freely admit to putting up lots of decorations at Christmas. And that means that regular everyday things get moved to unfamiliar places.  Extra foodstuffs mean the fridge and freezer get cluttered too. It is not surprising that somethings get misplaced during the festive season. 

It started with my gloves. I was going out to church and looked in my coat pockets and bags for these. I found just one. I hoped I hadn't lost the other, I am fond of them, they are smart. I put the solitary glove on top of a basket of Christmas cards. On Tuesday I was in the bedroom, and picked up the glove, resting on top of my library books ...hang on, I thought, I saw this in a basket on the coffee table earlier. Yes, for a whole week the two gloves had been languishing in plain sight, in separate rooms. They are happily reunited, and in the 'hat, scarf, glove basket' where they belong.

Then the eight 'everyday' mugs went missing. I have a dozen John Lewis Christmas Mugs, which I have been collecting since 2008 - enough for all the family to have one. At the start of Advent I put the everyday mugs away, and got out my JL ones. Last week I packed away the Xmas ones - 

then realised I could not find the others anywhere. I looked in the loft, in the sideboard, in the kitchen cupboards, even out in the old garage. It was three days before I found them - in the basket with the summer BBQ stuff! What on earth was I thinking to put them in there? The final lost items were the weirdest of the lot. 

Prior to going to Manchester I prepared a tray of Pigs In Blankets.

These were to accompany the Roast Chicken. Except it was a disrupted morning, I'd halved the chipolatas and wrapped them in bacon, and put them on the tray, all ready for the freezer. The doorbell went. A delivery guy, something to be signed for...as he left, Bob came home, and then we had lunch. Around 2pm, I said "where did I put those pigs in blankets?" A serious hunt ensued - but there was no sign of them anywhere. Then I found them - in the bottom of the garage freezer. I'd been so sure the doorbell rang before I put them away. Off to Manchester, Christmas, return ... and a decision not to roast the chicken. "We can serve the PIBs with the Christmas Pie instead". I said. And then I forgot. Jean mentioned putting her leftover PIBs in a cassoulet. Neither of us could remember where ours were, or whether we had in fact eaten them. At last I tracked them down - in the very shallow top drawer of the freezer - relocated when I was putting other foods away.

Finally there were the nuts I purchased as Christmas gifts at the showground. I'd hidden them and forgot where. They were delivered somewhat belatedly! The gloves are found, the mugs and  PIBs are found, and the nuts are rediscovered. I suspect I may be losing my marbles though..

Dry January?

Just before I went shopping on Tuesday, I nipped to the bathroom. As I dried my hands I observed that the blue towel was so thin you could hold it up to the window and see daylight, and the edges were faded and almost fraying. The nametag, sewn in place by my MIL in 1974 when Bob went up to Oxford was fading too.

I succumbed to a sale bargain in Sainsbury's! Most of my towels are blue or white, so I treated myself to this gorgeous habitat/Morris "Tulip" handtowel, half price in the sale, just £5. It is thick, and soft, and rather lovely imho. In January, my hands will be properly dry.

52 years is not bad going for a towel though, is it?

Angel Delight!

Among my boxes and bags of Christmas stuff being put away is a black binbag full of white strips. It is being very carefully labelled . I knew a woman once who wrapped all the Christmas presents in November and hid them in four knotted black bin bags at the back of the garage, without telling her husband. Yes, he did put them out for the refuse collection. Oops!

Bob is aware of this bag. It is a set of new wings for our Tableau Angel. In early December, we were walking through Dereham, and I noticed a stunning window display in the BigC charity shop. This is a Norfolk based charity, established 45 years ago, who do some great work, supporting people affected by cancer [patients and their families]

The display was an angel, in a fabulous cream silk gown with wings and a halo, and all beautifully lit up. I went straight into the shop and asked what would happen to her wings after Christmas. The manager asked why I was interested, and I showed her a picture of our tableau, and explained I was interested in getting better wings for the angel. She took my details, and left a message at the end of the year on our answerphone saying the display had been taken down, and the wings were packed up and ready to be collected! 

I went in with the girls on Saturday and she gave them to me. She was so pleased that we'd raised so much for the Hospice...and glad the wings were going to a good home, and not filling up her tiny store room. I made a donation to BigC and came home very happy. 

At last I can dispense with that curtain track/net curtain arrangement for something properly wing-like! Maybe I should think about upgrading the seraph's robe too [perhaps adding some lace trim?] That task can wait till November...

Zipping Along...

 
This is how a zip [zipper] works. Such a simple idea, developed at the start of the 20th century by Gideon Sundbach, a Swedish-American engineer. We have been using them on our clothes, boots, furniture and purses ever since. In 1937, French fashion designers raved about the use of zips in men's trousers, and declared the zip had beaten the button in "The Battle of The Fly".

Zips are splendid, when they work properly. They save time, they help in the process of teaching small children to dress themselves, and they reduce time spent fumbling with buttons. But when they go wrong...Here is the one I removed from Rosie's jacket last Friday night. As she zipped it up, the coil of nylon teeth came completely adrift. "Can you fix it? Should we chuck it?" asked Liz.

I checked the Great Stash, and I did have a nylon open ended zipper of the correct length, but it was navy. I carefully unpicked the damaged zip, pinned the replacement in place, and then tacked it carefully. It is a Mountain Warehouse coat, with lots of inner layers and flaps etc. It took ages to get it all correctly aligned. I went to bed at 10.30, and got up early.

My sewing machine, with its walking foot made short work on stitching it down. One line of stitches close to the edge, another strengthening line 5mm in. It all went smoothly. I was a bit bothered about not having a matching colour zip, but the family liked the contrast and it was declared "a statement zip". Best of all, it was done without buying a new one and Rosie was only briefly without the jacket. They have all gone back to London now, term starts on Monday. 
This was my first sewing project of the year, definitely a Restoration, and in keeping with my #word365. Now back to that overdue-two-by-two!