Didn't I Just Write?

Seems like I just wrote on Friday or Saturday but there's nothing on my blog (that I can find) since Frog Jump. I know I wrote so where did it go? I even remember that I picked green for my color. Hmmmm. Something's fishy here. But I will write just a little of what I think I wrote so you can stay informed and I won't overburden you with a full repeat in the event that the mysterious blog (that I know I wrote) should suddenly appear out of thin air.

Let's see... I sewed more aprons (2 or 3) and one of these days I will master the art of sewing straight seams! Then Friday was the big day with my sewing. I took my sewing machine over to Kathleen's and she helped me make sense of the instructions and illustrations, and yippee! I made one of the placemats!!! It took me roughly 2.5 hours to make it. That's just about my limit of sewing per day. If I sew longer than that my back really acts up on me. Anyway, these placemats are going to look beautiful around my sister's table. These will be for my oldest sister. My other sister will get a set using the green fabrics I picked out when I picked out and bought these that I'm working on now. I was going to go ahead and buy the fabric for the green set at the same time but then I thought about the expense and I also questioned my ability to sew something so pretty and complicated looking. They really do look quite difficult to make. And they are so elegant looking. But the secret I'll take to my grave is that it was the easiest thing in the world to do. (Okay, almost that easy.) And now that I've made one I shouldn't have any problem making the rest of them. The pattern instructions even make sense to me now that Kathleen went over them with me. The only thing even somewhat difficult is paying attention to what step I'm doing and which fabric I'm using at any given time. (I alternate between the two.) My sisters will never guess that they were easy to make. They look so complicated and so beautiful. You just have to keep track of what step you're on. Last week I had used a ruler, cutting board, and rotary cutter to cut both fabrics into 2" strips and rectangles. And what you do is you sew a layer and press out the seam, then sew the next layer and press out the seam, and you do that until you use up all the fabric strips and rectangles for each placemat. Nothing hard about it. I think the most difficult part was cutting the fabric into all the little pieces. They look so elegant. I have the placemat I made Friday stashed away in the spare room and I keep going in there just to look at it. I just can't believe I sewed something that beautiful. Lots of nice clean, geometric shapes that are quilted as you sew on each layer and then when you've got it all put together, you do a little more quilting and then front and back both look beautiful.

Hubby's kids came up Friday and stayed until today. It was so nice of them to come since they came up to help hubby with a few chores that he can no longer do. Over the course of our marriage (38 years this year) Michael and I have done everything together. He did the most and then I was there to assist him and to fetch and carry for him. But now that he's just weeks away from being 79 he can't do many of the things we used to do together. We started out with him doing the heavy stuff. Then as he got older, I started doing more of the heavy stuff that he couldn't do (and I still could). But then a strange thing happened. I started getting older too. It's become very difficult for me to do what I used to be able to do. My mind still thinks I'm 30 but my body is screaming 63! How could I possibly have gotten that old all of a sudden? And the sad part for me is that I just started finding things more difficult. I've got a lot more deterioration to go!. Anyway John got my car fixed and he and Chris also worked on the fence that was sagging in the back yard. It was a fun weekend. They left this morning about 9:00 to return to their home in San Francisco. Hubby hasn't been sleeping well the past few days so he went back to bed after they left and slept for several hours. I crashed on the couch for about an hour myself. Then I remembered the apron I had cut out Thursday evening. So I got up and sewed it together. It looks pretty good. Don't know how I'll possibly make all those hot pads (pot holders) for each one. I'm thinking now that I might just give away the aprons without the hot pads. They are so hard to make and all that I've made so far are embarrassing. Not good at all. Granted the last 2 I did was a big improvement over those I did in the beginning. But I still don't feel that they are good enough to give away as a Christmas gift. And since my aprons and placemats, really all the sewing I am doing right now are for Christmas gifts. (Although I'm thinking that I have enough fabric left over to make myself 2 placemats.)

I finished my green socks on Saturday. Yea!!! Now all I have to do is seal the toes with the Kitchener stitch. Yes, that pain-in-the-rear Kitchener stitch. Don't know when I'll attempt that because I intend on working solely on these placemats until I have them done. And by then I will have gone shopping and purchased the fabric for the other placemats (the green ones) and more fabric for more aprons!!! I figure 4 more aprons and I will have enough. I want to make one for my blogging friend Ginny and surprise her with one in the mail. I figure any aprons I have left over after Christmas can either be stored and given away in the future as gifts of some kind, or I can keep a couple and take the rest down to church and donate them to the kitchen.

I guess this is going to be it for tonight. It is already after 1:00AM. Where did the time go? So, well, I'll post this and head on in to bed. I'd sure like to know what happened to the other blog I wrote. I know it was there. I saw it. I remember making it green. Am I losing my mind? No, I don't think I have enough mind left to lose. Until next time...