It's another wonderful Wednesday. The weather has been so cool that yesterday I had to close the windows and put on my warm, fuzzy socks. This morning the windows are closed because George is cleaning the windows and screens outside. Since this cool weather has appeared, I cannot keep the man indoors.
I have to renew my driver's license this month and all of a sudden the Dept. of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles wants all kinds of original or certified documents, including birth certificate, social security card, marriage certificate, plus 2 documents showing your residential address. Good gosh! I guess they are checking for aliens. Hope I still have this stuff. We used to have to bring 2 pieces of mail sent to you at your address and we always brought a couple of bills. Nowadays our bills are paid online and we do not receive paper billing. I think I'll bring the mail that the Dept. of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles sent me in the mail.
I also have to pay for and get my new vehicle registration and tag. The price on this bill is almost the value of the car. Next month we get to pay property taxes. Oh joy! I know the economy is down but I wonder if the governments of the people, by the people, and for the people realize that the people are drained. Shouldn't they go to all of those banks and big businesses that they bailed out and get money from those deep pockets?
Enough of my rantings and ravings. Have you ever noticed that when it is September, it feels like Christmas is far away, but when it turns into October, all of a sudden Christmas is upon us and we need to get things done? Last week was September, we were preparing for the festival and Christmas seemed so far away. We are probably more aware than most about the seasons because the business requires us to stay aware of holidays and such. This one week has brought on the realization of just how close we are to halloween, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Oh, and don't forget the elections in November -- just a month away. In fact, I believe you can start voting early this week.
Ever since we started selling napkins, I've wanted to have a beautiful table setting for every season/holiday. Last year I finally embroidered some nice napkins and a runner for us for Christmas -- in January. Now I'm working on Halloween. Yesterday, I made 8 napkins for Halloween. I had some orange print broadcloth purchased sometime ago when it was on sale. Perfect! I re-digitized part of the little witch that was embroidered on one of our tea towels (and sold this past weekend) and embroidered her on each of the napkins. The edges are serged. They look stiff now because they still have the sizing in them, but once washed, they will be very soft. All of my personal napkins are made from broadcloth. It's just my preference, but I like those the best. Our Christmas napkins are the store bought, hotel quality napkins that we sell. Did you know that there are different sized napkins for different occasions? A dinner napkins should be 20" square. A cocktail napkin should be 10" square. I believe a lunch napkin is about 15" square.
Napkins are easy to make. I cut 20" squares of broadcloth and serge the edges. Any nice hem would work. Weave the serger tails into the serged hem and voila! You have a dinner napkin. Use different prints and even different fabrics to achieve a new look for every occasion. Embellish with lace or stitching for something unique and beautiful. One of our wholesale stores sells napkins made from organza, poplin and satin, as well as cotton, broadcloth and polyesther. Experiment. Most of all, enjoy the process.
Of course, if you don't want to make your own napkins, call me. We love making napkins at Cajun Stitchery. Either way, please, please, please stop using paper napkins.
Halloween napkins are done. Now I'm designing a Halloween runner for the table. I have a piece of nice, black satin that I would like to use. Maybe I'll trim it in the orange print fabric. I'm not sure yet. I wanted to have the little witch design on either end of the runner with a larger haunted house design embroidered in the center. The haunted house design that I had in mind turned out to be about the same size as the witch and it just didn't excite me. I have a design that I plan to stitch out with pumpkins and candy corn that I think will end up being the center for the runner. The colors are much lighter and brighter (oranges, yellows, and white) and will contrast better with the black satin than a dark haunted house. The little witch on either end will either have her black attire changed to orange or she will be appliqued onto the orange print fabric. A black witch on black satin isn't going to stand out very well.
Yesterday, I also did another project for us. I embroidered a couple more of our own pillowcases. The design is two tigers. I did the first one in an orange-gold color and the second in black. They really stitched out well and we are very pleased with them. This design would look nice on just about any solid color. The size is about 5 or 6" wide, so, it's a good size design.
We have lots of projects coming up and make sure you check back for Christmas gifts and decorations.
C'est toute, mes amis.
No comments:
Post a Comment