New Bag

I bought this pattern back when I first arrived in New Hampshire, in July I think. It is Japanese. I know it is Japanese because when I researched her name, Etsuko Furuya, everything is in Japanese with a remote reference to Japan. But when I bought this pattern, I did not realize I was getting one that was completely written in Japanese, not English.

I have several books, I probably should say that I have maybe 20 or so books, that are all written in Japanese and Chinese, on different needle arts, stored away in boxes between Oregon and here in New Hampshire.





What I love about these books and patterns is the fact that their drawings are really comprehensive. And there are references to numbers which are typically in metrics so I can usually translate quite well. Of course, it helps to have a good knowledge of sewing and construction.


For months I have been looking at bags in stores. My bag is very big. I got it at Fabric Depot. It was a display model I made. It is big enough for a new mother to hold all the necessities for the baby. Big enough for a traveling quilter to hold her project, fabrics, rulers, a small cutting mat, tools, everything. Big enough for a knitter to hold her needles, books, yarns, project, tools. It is just a big bag. I loved it because I could carry to work all of my things, My lunch, my personal tools, things I wanted to give to people, books, anything I wanted to carry to and from work. Often I would bring projects home to work on because it was time-consuming hand work that was best done at home. So it was perfect for me. But here, Pretty much I just have my wallet and occasionally a small knitting project when I am going somewhere where I am sitting for a time with nothing to do. I never go anywhere with nothing to do with my hands.


I bought this beautiful decorator weight toile at Fabric Fix, this wonderful little store that sells fabric for ridiculously low prices because they get them from back rooms in NY and what you see is what there is and there are no repeats. So I think I paid three dollars a yard. I got two yards of this one. That is all they had. I fused to the back of this a medium weight canvas. This gave the fabric a great sturdy weight that is almost leather-like and will give it a life span of probably ten to fifteen years. I do the same thing with my kimono silks in order to give the silk a good hand for this same use but on a smaller scale. I found that fusing canvas to a fabric rather than an iron-on interfacing really changes the hand and it doesn't collapse like an interfacing does, even the stiffest interfacing. When I passed this concept on to customers at Fabric Depot in Oregon, always they would ask if they should fuse the canvas to the lining instead of the outer fabric. I could never figure out why that was an issue. If you were making a leather bag, would you put the leather inside and the lining outside the bag? So I would explain the mechanics. Still, I could see the hesitancy. It's OK. To me, it is the difference between and $300 bag and a $35 dollar bag.

I love toile. I love choosing the scenes. You can see the baker bringing out what looks like a gateau, a cake of some sort. I say that it must be a cake because the couple is dancing and so there must be a celebration. There are never any accounts of what the stories are behind the scenery. Sometimes they don't make any sense. There is supposed to be some velcro to keep the flap closed but I really loathe the stuff so I have no closure right now. I am yet to decide what I will do.

When the bag was done, I measured out two layers of cardboard and made a sleeve for these which I inserted into the bottom of the bag. I love a good solid bottom. For my own personal taste, I never did like sagging bags. And although you could barely see it in the directions, the designer did put in bias binding. I had some left from the apron I made for my niece at Christmas which was just the right color, I think.

So, voila! A new bag.

It is a beautiful bag, is it not?

Shoot Me

I was at Mom and Linda's house today. Suzanne picked me up. We were going out for lunch, the four of us. Suz and I were making Mom's bed and we came across the things she wears on her head at night when she sleeps to keep her hair in order. A hair net. That's what it is called. I put this one on and had Suz take a picture. Now if anyone, anyone, sees me wearing one of these when I get old, please I beg you........... shoot me.

Talk about getting it wrong

I do not like little bugs. Flies, small beetles. Anything that can get in my ears when I am sleeping. But I do love beautiful insect like this.

It is beautiful, isn't it. A true work of art.



So I get this email from my sister Suzanne yesterday asking me if I have a cutting board. She was given one for Christmas and thought I might like the one she has.

Now, because my brain is always in the sewing mode, I think she is talking about the cutting board that I have on my cutting table. I write back that I currently have one, but save the one she has because I go through them often. And because I don't have much room here, I suggest we could keep it at Linda's.

Then she tells me, after three or four emails, that it is a kitchen board...........

I felt so stupid.

I immediately write back. I would love to have it as I don't have a cutting board here. We haven't found my board in storage and I am using this piece of wold that comes from a craft store that you would normally decoupage.

Poor Suzanne must think I am getting really senile.

Andy

I was just watching the news and at the end, they did the usual end of the year showing of photographs of people who passed during the year. I saw Andy Rooney's picture and I was confused. I knew that he stopped broadcasting on "60 Minutes", because he felt it was time to retire. That was in October. It was my sister's birthday on the 2nd. I remember that night because I said to myself that "Now there is someone I am going to miss!" But I heard nothing of him since.

I was watching this realing of people on television and at first I thought they were showing some of the great names in film and TV. There were some faces that I was sure were still alive. Then as the images were going past, slowly it was coming to me that these people are no longer with us. So I looked up Andy.

There it was. He died November 4th. He entertained me until he passed. I just sat here and cried..... I am still crying.

He said things so many people wanted to say and couldn't. And when he was admonished for his opinions, he apologized in ways you could barely understand the apology, but they were accepted. It is one of the great things I adored about him. And I loved his face. I often thought how I would love to cook for him and his wife. I could see him loading his fork full of food and woofing it down, appreciating every bite. I would love to have heard the sound of his voice at the dinner table.

Whenever I have a hero, I always want to cook for that person. I just love feeding people. He has written books. I guess now I will have to get the books and keep his words with me that way. The snickers and laughter.

Didn't happen

To my dear baby sister Linda :

You gave me three cookies for Christmas from Van Otis Chocolate. For those who are not familiar with Van Otis, they have been making chocolates locally for generations. If you want to make my mother happy, give her a box of Van Otis, then take her picture. She looks best with melted chocolate at the corners of her mouth. All of us do. It means we have just indulged in nirvana.

These three cookies are made from the original Oreo cookie dipped in Van Otis chocolate and simply wrapped in thin tin foil. Nothing grandiose about it. Understated. Deadly. Now I have not eaten chocolate in, well, since the 23rd, I had a piece of Suzanne's chocolate poof. It was wonderful. I have decided to remove chocolate from my plate. I gave two of these cookies away at our family's Christmas gathering. One to George, and one to PJ. I think I mentioned him. My nephew whom I haven't seen in many years. So I came home with only one. And it has been sitting, occasionally noticed on my beautiful country table in the middle of the kitchen. I just now ate it. I had to cut it into tiny pieces as my teeth do not allow me to bite into hard things. So I was quite delicate about the affair.

So now what am I supposed to do? My whole body is screaming ADDICTION!!!! I guess I have to be - god I hate this word - grateful. Grateful that I only had one in the house rather than a whole box. I am rolling my eyes and I imagine you, the reader are snickering right now.

So what didn't happen?

I didn't get my driver's license. We could not go in the morning. George forgot that he had a contractor coming over to check on the heating system in his house. Make sure everything is working properly before the bad weather hits. OK. No problem. We arrived at the DMV, the Department of Motor Vehicles at 1:15. I thought there would be plenty of time. Lots of people there, big line. I realize I needed to fill out a form and was able to get that while waiting in line. Finally, at the counter, I find out I needed another form of ID like a proof of residency. I had two ID's, my picture ID from Oregon and my birth certificate. Not enough. Need a bill or something with my current address on it. Se we headed home for this. I just took the book I keep all the bills to be paid in. We went back, stood in line, came to the counter. Great, she said. No, I believe she said, perfect. Then... the bomb drops.

"You are Pauline Messier? And Lareau? You are married? Do you have your marriage certificate?" No. That's in Oregon. We need your marriage certificate.

So we went to City Hall to get a duplicate and decided to go back tomorrow morning at 8:00 when they open. It was too late by that time. They close at 4:00 and there were so many people waiting that our chances of going through the testing process was very slim. My anxiety which was already sky high just got out of control. George is wonderful. He is so calm with such a great sense of humor that he just stabilized me. OK. Tomorrow. It's OK.

More study time. I will forget it all by tomorrow morning.

I'm sailing!!! I'm Sailing!!!

Remember the movie with Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfus called "What About Bob?" when near the end they strapped Bill to the mast and took him out onto the water and he yelled out "I"m sailing!! I'm sailing!!"

Well, George took me out driving this morning. I have not driven in over six years. I have been putting it off for awhile. Fear. What if I fail? I gave up my license when I was going through the "great depression" in Oregon. Public transportation was abundant in Portland. Driving was dangerous in my condition.

I spent hours reading and trying to remember the details of the driver's manual yesterday. I was able to get the manual online. Thank you Denise. It is very very wordy. And at one point I called George to ask him why I had to know all this stuff about tractor trailers and motorcycles. He said I had to just skip over those parts because they didn't apply to me. I should have asked him earlier. Anyway, the manual is over 100 pages. I don't know. How can I retain all those details.

So he came this morning and we went out driving. We began in the parking lot of St. Augustin's school in Goffstown. Then we went down all these country roads so I could get used to peripheral
vision, speed limits, awareness. Then we went to Hannaford's to practice head in parking. Then we went to busier streets, to Staples to get printer ink. More practice in parking. He was in complete control to the point that, even when I was out of the car, he got just a tad testy on when it was good to walk from the car to the store!! I actually understood. I was so focused on driving I was not paying attention to the fact that the man in the car next to us had pulled out of his space despite the fact that he was about to run me over. George said, when you are learning to drive, you notice these things. But once you are experienced you don't want to turn into an "a______" like him.

Then it was time to come home and practice parallel parking. It took two tries but I understood the "seeing". I was always good at parallel parking.

At one point, driving this beautiful road through New Boston I exclaimed "I'm sailing!!"..

George laughed. He has every confidence in me. Now somehow between now and the test which we hope will be tomorrow morning, I have to believe in that confidence.

Tonight, when all the things I want to do today are done, I will re-read the manual. I have to get up at 8:00 in the morning. Anxiety. Relax. Breathe. Anxiety.

Christmas

My Christmas cake. I think it weighed about five pounds. I found a recipe very close to my traditional chocolate cake recipe that I have been using for my family and friends' cakes for decades. My personal cook book is in storage in Oregon. And as many hundreds of times as I have made that cake, I could not for the life of me remember the recipe. I just don't remember things. I have to write everything down. For a cake this big, I increased the recipe by a half.




I am also dealing with an oven that runs 75 degrees hot. But... if you set it at 275 to get 350, it heats to 275. But if you set it then at 350, it heats to over 400 degrees. So I practiced on a package of brownies which I then gave to neighbors. Then I spent hours working the temperature knob to get the oven as close to 350 degrees as possible. Also I had to take into consideration the fact that I was dealing with large cake pans and extra batter. So, needless to say, getting this cake to work was really up to kharmic energy.

But look. I got a fantastic cake. I then made a double batch of frosting and voila. Christmas cake.

I got all my gifts into a bag. I made sure my camera was in my pocketbook. In another bag I put a bunch of magazines and a sweater I fixed for Linda. And these I had to handle while also bringing down the stairs the cake. All I could think of was dropping the cake. When George called that he was on his way to pick me up I told him I would need help when i got out the door because I would be balancing the cake. When we got to Linda's house, I realized I forgot my pocketbook. At first I thought, oh well. Then I quickly realized that it had my camera in it. Merde!!

So~~

That is all that I got for pictures for Christmas. I didn't get any pictures of the ornaments I made because I made them, wrapped them and sent them out or packaged them for the family. I made pin cushions for my sisters Suzanne and Linda and did I get pictures? I spent 99% of my life creating all of these garments and all of these beautiful things and never took pictures. I have been trying to break that habit for the past three years or more and I just have to be better. My sister Denis is constantly on me for not taking pictures and I am a constant disappointment.

I did take pictures of this apron I designed. My niece Melanie asked for an apron for Christmas. Of course, the task was given to me and I was happy about that. Aprons are pretty popular but it is very very rare that I see one that I like. There are some wonderful pieces out there, but they are more ornate than practical. I wanted something practical. And Melanie is not a foo foo person herself. I was sure she was not looking for something with frills and cutesy fabrics. She, I was sure, was looking for something heavy, washable, and a fabric that stains could easily be removed from.



I went to this store nearby called Fabric Fix where you could buy fabrics inexpensively. I found two folds of decorator weight toile. One red based and one green based. Perfect. I made hers out of the red. I created the pattern myself. It is an ample fit. It covers the entire bodice not just the center of the breast. The neck strap is adjustable using 1" D-rings. It wraps around completely to the back and the straps come round to the front to tie. I made a 1/2" bias binding to completely cover the raw edges using 2 & 1/4 " bias strips. I made enough to make the straps as well. This way, it is completely finished instead of having rolled edges. It has more substance.






When you put it on, you are surrounded with it. It is long enough to go down to just below the knees. Melanie was thrilled as she claims to be a sloppy cook in the kitchen. It is totally washable and I told her that if she gets any stains, just give the stain a spray of Simple Green and throw in the wash. After it is dried, you don't even have to iron. The weight of the fabric will hold its own.

The perfect apron! She tried it on and loved it. Yes!! So who wants one?

I did not get pictures of the wonderful spread of food my sister Linda put together. All these hor d'heurves, a cheese fondu, a full table of wonderful things. Suzanne made a buche using whipped cream and chocolate wafers that was absolutely wonderful. I didn't eat my own cake. I ate hers. The tree, under which were a hundred gifts. Suzanne was there with her husband John, Melanie and her son Hyrum, Mom, Linda, and George and I and a surprise guest, PJ, my brother Phil's son. I haven't seen him since he was just a boy and now he is in college, 28 years old, deep voice and all grown up. A great personality and a joy to be with. My first Christmas with NH family in eight years. Everyone was happy and healthy and it was a nice warm evening. We celebrated on the 23rd this year as Linda had to work on Christmas day. Linda's a nurse and has a schedule.

No matter. What is important is being with them. My favorite time of year.

I didn't get to make my Christmas cards this year, so I will be creating New Year's cards this week. A looking forward card, a wishing well for the new year. That will be great. I never buy. I always make. It makes every occasion more personal.

I am worried though. I sent my sister Denise her gift on Monday and the post office said it would be there by Thursday. It is now Saturday and it still has not arrived. I am uncomfortable.