Handcrafted Christmas: Gingham Hearts for the Kitchen

My sister and I joined forces this Christmas in making gifts for our mom. She tackled a set of placemats and napkins, while I worked on an apron, an oven mitt, and two pot holders. An apron seemed an obvious choice, since my mom has a penchant for getting dinner on her clothes while cooking! And our current oven mitt and pot holders were in such a sad state of disrepair that they certainly needed replacing.

The fabric was a gingham cotton that mom had purchased several years ago and stashed for a rainy day. Here is my contribution:

For the apron, I used Simplicity 4282. I must say, I am quite fed up with this pattern. Part of this was my fault, since I used a fairly lightweight fabric. Even so, I think I will risk designing an apron myself next time I want one!

Not having a pattern for an oven mitt, I simply devised my own by tracing our oven mitt and revising it. The pot holders were squares, which were simple. I used double layers of cotton batting for extra heat resistance.

And even with these projects, we still have about five yards of fabric left. Hmm...

Handcrafted Christmas: The "French" Bag

I was having the hardest time figuring out what to give to my sister for Christmas, when she placed the answer in my hands -- literally. My sister is both a student and teacher of the French language. About a year ago my mom found a thrifted navy blue dress covered in yellow French words, but Tiffany could never decide what to do with it. Eventually she decided to get rid of it, and offered it to me.

This is what happened to the dress:

Now that she has received it, I can post pictures of it!

I used the same pattern that I used for my Blue Linen Bag, but I made the larger size. Since the dress fabric was a very flimsy rayon, I used medium-weight non-fusible interfacing for the interlining, and added lightweight fusible interfacing to my lining. The lining, trim, and handles are the backside of the polyester shantung at JoAnn's -- it was a one yard scrap in my stash just waiting for a project like this!

This is definitely a "floppy" bag, despite my interfacing attempts -- but my sister loves it! Happily, I was able to keep her out of the sewing room for a whole day so that I could finish the bag. And she had just been commenting on how she wanted a bag like mine...

Perfect, Oui?

Words of Wisdom From Writers

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one.

~Baltasar Gracián

Cheddar Potato Soup

On Wednesday I tried a new soup recipe out of Cooking Light's Low-Fat Low-Calorie Quick and Easy Cookbook. Although the title of the book sounds decidedly modern and unromantic, their recipe for Cheddar Potato Soup is a delightful representation of all things creamy and delicious. There was very little of the soup left at the White Elephant gift party we attended on Wednesday, even with a doubled recipe. This is a simple recipe that is perfect for winter.


Ingredients: (which I've altered to make more "fattening," since I abhor the low-fat craze)

32 oz. chicken broth

5 cups shredded potato (I substituted frozen french fries, which I cubed)

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground pepper

2 TBSP all-purpose flour

1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk

1 cup (4 oz.) shredded Cheddar cheese

1/3 cup chopped green onion (for garnish)

Instructions:

1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a Dutch oven: bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes.

2. Combine flour and milk in a small bowl, stirring until smooth. Add to potato mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until thickened.

3. Pour half of potato mixture into container of an electric blender; cover and process until smooth, stopping once to scrape down sides. [NOTE: the next step is to blend the other half of the potato mixture; however, I chose to leave some of the potato chunks in the soup for some texture -- which is why I chose cubed french fries instead of shredded potato. If you want potato chunks, just add the blended mixture back into your pot. If you want creamy soup, repeat the procedure with remaining half of potato mixture.]

4. Return mixture to Dutch oven. Add cheese; cook over medium heat, stirring unti lcheese melts. Ladle soup into individual bowls; sprinkle each serving evenly with green onion.

Yield: 7 (1 cup) servings.

Enjoy!

Gone, but not quite forgotten

This past weekend our family drove up to Floyd, Virginia -- a small community in southwestern Virginia that is inhabited partly by farmers and partly by people with a definite artsy flair. While in our room (yes, Floyd has a newly built hotel with all of ten rooms and five suites!), I glanced out the window and discovered an old cemetery at the back of the hotel.

I must confess that I am a lover of old cemeteries. If given the opportunity, I would stop at every country church that even hints of old limestone markers and plenty of moss and lichen. I enjoy tracing family histories through adjoining headstones, and imagining what these people were like as I read their epitaphs.

Consequently, the next morning I dressed early so that I might go out and explore. The fog and mist of the previous day still lingered over the town, casting the perfect atmosphere for a graveyard prowl. While the little cemetery behind the hotel did not provide much in the way of family connections, there was more than enough moss, fungi, and undergrowth to delight me.

I could not even read the earliest stones, and many of them had fallen into disrepair:

I could not find a single tombstone with a date past the 1880's. This stone captured my interest and my imagination. I wonder who Emmazetta was, and why she died at the age of 26? Did she die in childbirth, or of the dread disease of consumption?

A confident reminder that the grave was not the final destination of the loved one lying there:

A clean, white headstone marked the grave of Abner Lester, Jr., a colonel in the 54th regiment of the Virginia Infantry:

This lovely stone marked the grave of Isabell, a baby who died at only a year and a half old:

The little babe is gone to rest,

To dwell with God, forever blest.

Its infant tongue will always praise

A Saviour's love, redeeming grace.

Although there is undeniable charm in these overgrown, forgotten cemeteries, I feel a pang of regret that in most cases the only ones left to remember them are people like me -- people who respect their memory, but who are drawn out of curiosity rather than familial love. I know that those who lie in the cemetery are past caring whether their earthly resting places are neglected or not, but there is still a sense of loss.

Cemeteries are often associated with death, and understandably so -- but each of the people there lived, for however brief a time. And it is in their lives, not their death, that the true story lies.

Whither Must I Wander?

I was unfamiliar with Robert Louis Stevenson's Songs of Travel until I heard the musical settings composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams (who is certainly my favorite English composer, and perhaps my favorite overall, as well). Of all of them, my favorite is certainly "Whither Must I Wander?" I typically prefer happy songs, but the melancholy beauty of Stevenson's poetry combined with Vaughan William's music is so poignant and breathtaking that it hurts--hurts in a way that does not make you want to avoid the pain, but rather embrace it.


Whither Must I Wander?
Home no more home to me, whither must I wander?
Hunger my driver, I go where I must.
Cold blows the winter wind over hill and heather:
Thick drives the rain and my roof is in the dust.
Loved of wise men was the shade of my roof-tree,
The true word of welcome was spoken in the door -
Dear days of old with the faces in the firelight,
Kind folks of old, you come again no more.

Home was home then, my dear, full of kindly faces,
Home was home then, my dear, happy for the child.
Fire and the windows bright glittered on the moorland;
Song, tuneful song, built a palace in the wild.
Now when day dawns on the brow of the moorland,
Lone stands the house, and the chimney-stone is cold.
Lone let it stand, now the friends are all departed,
The kind hearts, the true hearts, that loved the place of old.

Spring shall come, come again, calling up the moorfowl,
Spring shall bring the sun and the rain, bring the bees and flowers;
Red shall the heather bloom over hill and valley,
Soft flow the stream through the even-flowing hours.
Fair the day shine as it shone on my childhood -
Fair shine the day on the house with open door;
Birds come and cry there and twitter in the chimney -
But I go for ever and come again no more.


If you would like to hear a clip of the musical setting, you can listen to it on Amazon -- Vaughan Williams: Songs of Travel. I particularly like this album, sung by Roderick Williams. His voice is clear and deep, perfect for the tone of the poem.

This song reminds me of how much I have to be grateful for -- my chimney stone is not cold, nor is my roof lying in the dust. And best of all, my home is full of kindly faces. I find it difficult to even fathom what it would be like to lose those things.

The Attack of the Handbag Virus

A friend at church has recently been experimenting with making bags of various types, and she has been showing me her projects. Deciding that it might be a good way to use up some scraps, I purchased a bag pattern from Simplicity during a $.99 pattern sale. What I didn't realize was that bag-making is an extremely addictive craft -- as if I needed one more addictive craft! Here is the first result of my new addiction:

The pattern I used is Simplicity 9949. I was extremely happy with how easy it was to assemble. Of course, I had to change a few details, just to spice things up! I added a lining to both the outer pockets and the interior of the bag, eliminated the top zipper and used a loop and button instead, and used non-fusible interfacing for the body because I was using a medium-weight linen. Oh, I also added a cardboard liner for the bottom and covered it with fabric.

One of my favorite details about this bag (besides the six handy pockets on the outside!) is the fabric flower, which I made using the instructions that I found on Blair Peter's Wise Craft blog through a google search.

Did I mention that I like pockets? And top-stitching? And blue-and-white linen? And handbags? Well, I do -- just in case you were wondering! The fabric is courtesy of a lady in our church, (although it was given to me in the form of a skirt!). I am finding that having a reputation as a crafter comes in handy.

Now I have to go look through my scraps for more potential handbags...

A Vintage-Style Christmas

Perhaps the title of this post is a bit too ambitious, since I could hardly claim that we decorate for Christmas in vintage style -- but we do have a few treasures packed away in the Christmas boxes that evoke the charm of yesteryear.

I had never really noticed this box of glittered ornaments before, but I discovered it as we decorated this year:

I love the understated beauty of these metallic treasures, with their frosty Christmas greetings: