Saturday, June 2, 2012

Cajun Corner - Vol. 4, No. 21


Cajun Corner – Vol. 4, No. 21 – June 1, 2012



Bon Jour!  Welcome to Cajun Stitchery’s weekly email and welcome to our family.



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Our cat, Tigger, is still hanging in there.  He is losing weight and drooling but otherwise seems to be acting normal.  I’m brewing him some more thyme as I type.  I’m just not ready to let go.

This week two of my first cousins on the Theaux side called.  They were helping one of Loretta’s daughters move to Pensacola.  Yes, that means I have family living in town.  Sadly, I haven’t had the opportunity to meet her yet.  Nevertheless, Loretta and Liz came to the house for a visit and, as with all of the Theaux’s, we had a ball.  Our parents, Mama and her 7 siblings all lived in Lafayette and knew all of their cousins and relatives well.  However, when that generation got married and began their families, it seems many of them left to the four corners of the United States.  Thus, their children did not get the opportunity to meet their cousins and extended relatives, or at least, get to know them well.  All of Audrey’s girls look alike.  George had met Loretta before and kept calling Liz, Loretta.  However, George seems to think we all look similar and have definite inherited traits.

The following day I decided that we all need to get to know each other.  I created a “Group” on Facebook called “Family of Laurent and Flavie Theaux” and that group has been buzzing ever since.  The whole family has not joined us yet but the ones that are on there can’t stop talking – that, indeed, is a family trait.  Family photos are popping up all of the time.  We’ve only been up for a day or two, but so far the family is having a great time.  So, if you are part of this family and not involved in the group, let me know and I’ll get you there.

Last night I attended a baby shower for the daughter of a dear friend.  I love making baby blankets for these occasions.  The exact spelling of the baby’s name has not been decided.  In fact, I’m not sure the parents are sure what the baby’s name is going to be.  So, I felt it was best not to personalize the blanket.  This blanket was made a bit different from most of my blankets.  I used a lot of appliqué, a lot of quilting/stippling, and continuous hooping.  The baby is a girl but the mama did not want pink.  I used a sea foam green cotton fabric for the back and front of the blanket.  Then I located the center and appliquéd “Beach Babe”.  From there I used chalk to mark off five inch squares throughout the blanket.  Every third square had a letter of the alphabet appliquéd.  The square was appliquéd.  Then the letter was appliquéd over the square.  The thread color was a bright coral.  The various appliquéd fabrics were animal print, white, coral, and a teal.  I used a very soft cutaway stabilizer.  Since the family lives in Sarasota, I didn’t want to make a heavy blanket.  The soft stabilizer was the only batting used.  After the appliqués were done, I pinned the back to the front and starting in the middle embroidered a beautiful quilting design with white thread in each of the squares without appliqué.  This gave that wonderful quilt/trapunto feel and look.  Then I digitized an edge design of two rows of satin stitching and in between the rows the word “BABY”.  The row of satin stitching directly on the edge was the coral thread.  The inner row of satin stitching was a sea foam green thread; and the word “BABY” was in white thread.  Following the chalk lines, I embroidered this design all the way around the blanket.  When that was finished, I cut the edges along the outside of the coral satin stitches making them the edge of the blanket.  After that there were a few trims and clean up and voila, the blanket was finished.  It took a couple of weeks, working every day on it, but it was finished in time for the baby shower last night.  I think everyone liked it.

Aspartame!!  If you have received an email about Aspartame, the sweet poison, it is probably false.  I did receive such an email and checked it out via Snopes.  http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp.   Whether or not this is true or false, I do agree that artificial sweeteners are probably not good for you.  Having spent many years researching class action lawsuits, I am personally very hesitant about believing anything the FDA says.  When it comes to “all natural”, please remember that there are “all natural” poisons out there, too.  Let us not forget that arsenic and strychnine  are natural occurring substances, as is nightshade, poison ivy, poison oak, etc.

We did the names on the robes for Confetti Couture this week, as well.  Five of the children robes came in last week, and five more this week, plus two adult robes.  They were for a birthday party for a 9 year old girl.  I had the pleasure of meeting and working with the owner of Confetti Couture, Megan, and she is a very delightful young lady.  In addition to all of the events that Confetti Couture coordinates, she also sews children clothing.  She is quite the little multi-talented entrepreneur.  If you need help with any special events like birthday parties, weddings, anniversary parties, etc., you will do yourself a favor by contacting Megan at Confetti Coutures.  www.confetticoutureevents.com.

I haven’t begun practicing on the cutwork with the boring needle yet.  This week I did learn how to use the boring needle on our new Amaya machine.  Now I just need to do some cutwork digitizing.  Right now I need more practice on the continuous hooping and getting those stitches where they belong.

Something that I did this week was to embroider a 12.5 inch monogram.  The monogram was 12.5 inches tall but 15 inches wide.  I found that the largest monogram that I can do with the new, fancy, large hoop that I have is about 15 inches by 15 inches.   Of course, once I get really good at multi-hooping and lining up those stitches perfectly, then the sky is the limit on size.

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Did you know?



Kidney bean or common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). The toxic compound phytohaemagglutinin, a lectin, is present in many varieties of common bean but is especially concentrated in red kidney beans. The lectin has a number of effects on cell metabolism; it induces mitosis, and affects the cell membrane in regard to transport and permeability to proteins. It agglutinates most mammalian red blood cell types. The primary symptoms of phytohaemagglutinin poisoning are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Onset is from 1 to 3 hours after consumption of improperly prepared beans, and symptoms typically resolve within a few hours.[8] Consumption of as few as four or five raw kidney beans may be sufficient to trigger symptoms. Phytohaemagglutinin can be deactivated by cooking beans at 100 °C (212 °F) for ten minutes. However, for dry beans the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also recommends an initial soak of at least 5 hours in water; the soaking water should be discarded.[8] The ten minutes at 100 °C (212 °F) is required to degrade the toxin, and is much shorter than the hours required to fully cook the beans themselves. However, lower cooking temperatures may have the paradoxical effect of potentiating the toxic effect of haemagglutinin. Beans cooked at 80 °C (176 °F) are reported to be up five times as toxic as raw beans.[8] Outbreaks of poisoning have been associated with the use of slow cookers, the low cooking temperatures of which may be unable to degrade the toxin.
Found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_poisonous_plants



When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.



Found at:  http://www.coolfunnyquotes.com/

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C’est tout, mes amis



Peggy Henshall

Cajun Stitchery

(850) 261-2462

cajunstitchery@yahoo.com



P.S.  You are always welcome to stop by and look at all of the catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.
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