SOB

The annual SOB Brunch on Pensacola Beach was held yesterday.  Brunch turned into an all day and into the evening affair.  A good time was had by all.  One of my friends told me that she is still recouperating on her sofa today.

Cajun Stitchery was open bright and early this morning and we've been busy taking care of orders and simply enjoying the embroidery process.  Many orders were delivered yesterday at the SOB Brunch.  The girls laugh at me because when I get someplace, such as the SOB Brunch, I go right to business taking orders and delivering orders.  I do that so that we can finish the business and get down to the fun stuff.  Although it's all fun stuff for me.

The anticipated surprise baby shower was simply all of the presents put on a table and the next time I saw it, the presents were gone.  There was no pomp or ceremony lost on that one. 

Today I've just been going through orders making sure everything has been delivered and figuring out the next order to fill.  One order in particular was very special to me.  You know, I do this all of the time and have for years, when I get an order that I want to be absolutely perfect, that's when all of the mistakes happen.  In this case I was going along embroidering a bag.  Everything was going just fine.  I ran out of bobbin thread.  That's no big deal.  The bag that I was embroidering was heavy and covered the place where the bobbin is located.  Very carefully, I got a new bobbin, moved everything around with my hands, and felt to put the new bobbin in place.  I continued to embroider.  Clanka, clanka, clanka.  Uh oh, we were having problems.  Because this bag was so heavy and I was using my fast frames, I did not want to mess up the placement but I needed to get under the embroidery.  George came and helped me unscrew the arms.  Wouldn't you know that I hadn't put the bobbin in very securely and it fell out and the thread was a tangled mess.  We took the arm off two or three times to rectify the situation.  Finally, old Boudreaux started purring like a kitten once again.  Isn't that always the case, when you want something to turn out just right, something always happens.  All is well.

Il fait froid, cher.  In fact, it's getting down into the 20's tonight.  Burrr.  So, bundle up everyone.

Cajun Corner Vol. 2, No. 33

Cajun Corner – Vol. 2, No. 33 – August 27, 2010


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

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Don’t forget to visit our catalog at www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery and www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.

Splash Party was a huge success!! Did it rain? Oh, yes, it rained. The place was packed and we all had a wonderful time. Grown men and women were acting like children. Can you even imagine what it would have been like if the sun was shining and there was no rain? We still have some caps available for sale. We sold out of the pink visors. If the sun had been shining, I’m sure we would have sold out of all the caps and visors.

I just cannot get over how fast this week has flown by. I totally missed posting on the blog for Wednesday.

The next big event for Cajun Stitchery is the Pensacola Beach Arts & Wine Festival the first weekend in October. Yes, we have registered and will be in the Paddy O’Leary’s parking lot next to the SOB’s booth. Just like last year. I’ve been spending a lot of time upstairs in my Crafting Department this week. If a messy desk is a sign of genius, I’m there. What a mess! I’m sitting at the big computer, the desktop with my trusty Doris the Singer. An L is formed with my regular sewing machine and serger. Then a U is formed with the portable cutting table that George made me. Then an O is formed with my bookcase. Yep, I sure did seal myself up in this thing.

The Crafting Department, which used to be known as our study, has a great view of the park across the street through our sliding glass doors. I love to open the blinds and just watch the people walking and kids playing. Someday I would love to see a craft festival in that park. Every one of our neighbors seems to have such special gifts to offer. This is a quaint neighborhood, very eclectic with wonderful neighbors. We have gardeners, chefs, hairdressers, teachers, caregivers, military and civilian, and a whole array of gifted people. We have young people, as well as older people.

On the ceiling above Doris is a sign that my dear friend, Courtney, gave me a few years ago. The sign simply says “Create.” This is the creation part of Cajun Stitchery. I cut out paper and play with patterns and designs. There have been some truly weird things created up here, as well as a lot of beautiful things.

While I’m in the Crafting Department, George decided to clean the embroidery room downstairs. Uh oh. Don’t throw out my stuff, dear. He brought up a box of fabric scraps to the Crafting Department. Not having much room left in here, I had him put the box on the floor. Before long, I looked in the box and what do you know, little Polly, the Manx is curled up inside the box, fast asleep. What a precious sight that was! After awhile, I looked over and Tigger, the orange and white Tom cat, had squeezed himself into the box.

While looking at some templates for the bottle apron, I got the idea of, what would that look like if I sewed the sides and bottom? We now have a new style cell phone pouch. In fact, I listed one last night on Etsy. These are simple pouches. They are not as detailed or ornate as the mermaid pouches, but I like them. These will definitely be an item at the Art & Wine Festival.

My goal, and I suppose the goal of all crafters and seamstresses, is to use all the stuff that I have, down to the mere scraps. Then, envisioning that this could ever happen, I would be out of everything and have to go shopping to replenish with new stuff. That’s what I’m trying to do. This is probably not possible. I’ve been trying to do this all of my life. I just get more and more and more stuff.

One day I was contemplating the birthday of one of my Nereid sisters and an idea popped in my head for a design. This year my Nereids all get pillowcases for their birthdays. Anyway, I digitized the design and earlier this week stitched it out. It is the most beautiful design. Alas, I cannot post pictures on the internet because it’s a surprise and we have not yet celebrated her birthday this year. When we do, I will post these pictures everywhere. It’s just gorgeous.

The Nereids have several birthdays coming up and I need to get busy with designs and ideas. George told me the other day that my Nereids all have beautiful embroidered pillowcases. Customers order and we embroider beautiful embroidered pillowcases. But our pillowcases are threadbare. We need to come up with a Henshall design and embroider something for ourselves. You know the old saying that a mechanic’s car never works and a carpenter’s home is always in disrepair. This embroiderer needs to do something for us.

I found a sign language font. Seriously, I did. We were embroidering some pillowcases for a friend of my Aunt Philo’s and I sent a hand towel with the signs for L and U as the lagniappe. OMG! She was surprised. Now I think she is coming up with a million ideas for sign language embroidery. It’s amazing the things you can find on the internet. I put the photograph of her towel on the Cajun Stitchery Facebook page. I need to post it on the blog.

Last night George and I were outside in the garden, harvesting and tending to the garden. It was just turning dusk and we realized how comfortable it was outside. I think it was the first day this summer that we weren’t seriously attacked by mosquitoes and heat. We sat outside for awhile and realized that fall is approaching and we will be able to sit outside more and more. We love doing that; sitting on the deck with a glass of wine as the sun goes down and just loving the environment. As the temperature cools, we will even light the chiminea. Another of life’s simple pleasures.

Speaking of the garden, we are still harvesting bell peppers, carrots and beans but haven’t even begun our fall planting. I’m thinking onions, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, garlic, and celery. Our tomato plants are still lush and beautiful. As the temperatures cool, maybe we can get some tomatoes. Last year we picked the cherry tomatoes well into December. Sassy still has some fruit and I sure hope it ripens this fall. I’d plant brussel sprouts but they don’t seem to do well for us. Maybe we’ll throw in some cabbage, too. Squash doesn’t seem to work well for us, either, but we did get some cucumbers this year and maybe we should just keep trying.

Until last night, I’ve been a slacker this week with the Etsy store. I need to get back into the swing of at least listing one item a day.

I need to find some ice blue thread. The embroidery room has 5 shades of blue and one of the shades if very close but I’m trying to match at bedspread. So, I ordered a couple of shades of ice blue thread from my usual wholesale thread company. Then I ordered some rose, burgundy, navy, and by the time I was finished I spent more than $100 on embroidery thread. I don’t expect the order to arrive until probably last next week but we are going to have thread coming out of our ying yang.

Speaking of ordering, George has embroidered some beautiful caps for the Arts & Wine Festival and ordered 2 dozen more caps which came in the other day. He will be working on his caps downstairs after he finishes his clean up project in the embroidery room. Then he is going to start working on a Cajun Stitchery banner for our booth at the festival. I cannot wait to see the finished banner.

I embroidered monograms for every letter of the alphabet this week on 2 ½ inch, red ribbon. I was going to make luggage tags with the monograms but, in the end, I didn’t like the luggage tags. I love the monograms on the ribbon but it just looked too big for a luggage tag. Now what am I going to do with the rest of the alphabet?

My son, Hank, wants me to make him a cell phone pouch with the Gators insignia. I explained that I cannot because the insignia is licensed, but I can make him a cell phone pouch with a gator on it, but not the official insignia. That licensing thing seems to be difficult for people to understand. There is a fine line between what I can and cannot embroider.

It is football season and I need to make more fleur de lis and gator items. What is your favorite football team? Let me know and you may just find a variance of the mascot on some of our items.

Christmas is coming and customers are starting to do their Christmas shopping at Cajun Stitchery. Get this out of the way as soon as you can. For all who have businesses out there, remember that we also sell gift baskets.

Always remember that we are just a call or email away at cajunstitchery@yahoo.com or 850-261-2462 and place your order.

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A long time ago, Boudreaux and Thibodeaux decided to go out west. They were in a covered wagon but somehow got separated from the wagon train. Boudreaux was in the front driving while Thibodeaux was relaxing in the back. All of a sudden, Boudreaux heard a yell from Thibodeaux in the back: "Hey, Boudreaux, there's Indians on horses back here chasing us." Boudreaux said, "Thibodeaux, how big are they?" Holding his finger and thumb about 2 inches apart, Thibodeaux said, "Mais, Boudreaux, they only about this big." "That's okay, Thibodeaux," Boudreaux said. "Tell me when dey get bigger." About ten minutes later, Boudreaux yelled out, "Hey, Thibodeaux, how big are those Indians?" "Mais, Boudreaux, dey are about tree feet tall." Boudreaux yelled back, "That's still okay, Thibodeaux, but tell me when dey get bigger." Ten minutes after that, Boudreaux cried out again, "Thibodeaux, how big are those Indians now." "Mais, Boudreaux, dey as big as you and me!!" "Well, shoot 'em!" screamed Boudreaux, "shoot 'em!" "Mais, Boudreaux, I can't," said Thibodeaux, holding his finger and thumb about 2 inches apart. "I've known 'em since they was dis big!"

ΘΘΘΘΘ

French phrase of the week: pain de maïs cornbread. pain perdu French toast.

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From: http://www.home-remedies-for-you.com/remedy/Asthma.html

Wow! There are tons of home remedies for asthma:

Asthma treatment using Honey

Honey is one of the most common home remedies for asthma. It is said that if a jug of honey is held under the nose of an asthma patient and he inhales the air that comes into contact with it, he starts breathing easier and deeper.

Asthma treatment using Figs

Among fruits, figs have proved very valuable in asthma. They give comfort to the patient by draining off the phlegm. Three or four dry figs should be cleaned thoroughly with warm water and soaked overnight.

Asthma treatment using Lemon

Lemon is another fruit found beneficial in the treatment of asthma. The juice of one lemon, diluted in a glass of water and taken with meals, will bring good results

Asthma treatment using Indian Gooseberry

Indian gooseberry has also proved valuable in asthma. Five grams of gooseberry mixed with one tablespoon of honey forms an effective medicinal tonic for the treatment of this disease. It should be taken every morning

Asthma treatment using Bitter Gourd Roots

The roots of the bitter gourd plant have been used in folk medicine for asthma since ancient times. A teaspoon of the root paste, mixed with an equal amount of honey or juice of the holy basil leaves, given once every night for a month, acts as an excellent medicine for this disease.

Asthma treatment using Drumstick Leaves

A soup prepared from drumstick leaves, and taken once daily, has been found beneficial in the treatment of asthma. This soup is prepared by adding a handful of leaves to 180ml of water and boiling it for five minutes. After being allowed to cool, a little salt, pepper, and lime juice may be added to this soup.

Asthma treatment using Ginger

A teaspoon of fresh ginger juice, mixed with a cup of fenugreek decoction and honey to taste, acts as an excellent expectorant in cases of asthma. The decoction of fenugreek can be made by mixing one tablespoon of fenugreek seeds in a cupful of water. This remedy should be taken once in the morning and once in the evening.

Asthma treatment using Garlic

Garlic is another effective home remedy for asthma. Ten garlic cloves, boiled in 30 ml of milk, make an excellent medicine for the early stages of asthma. This mixture should he taken once daily by the patient. Steaming ginger tea with two minced garlic cloves in it, can also help to keep the problem under control, and should be taken in the morning and evening.

Asthma treatment using Bishop's Weed

The herb bishop's weed has been found valuable in asthma. Half a teaspoon of bishop's weed should be mixed in a glass of buttermilk and taken twice daily. It is an effective remedy for relieving difficult expectoration caused by dried-up phlegm. A hot poultice of the seeds should be used for dry fomentation to the chest twice daily. The patient can also inhale steam twice a day from boiling water mixed with carom seeds. It will dilate the bronchial passages.

Asthma treatment using Safflower

Safflower seeds are beneficial in the treatment of bronchial asthma. Half a teaspoon of powder of the dry seeds, mixed with a tablespoon of honey, can be taken once or twice a day in treating this disease. This acts as an expectorant and reduces the spasms by liquefying the tenacious sputum. An infusion of five grams of flowers mixed with one tablespoon of honey, taken once daily, is also useful in this disease.

Please let me know if there is something that you would like to see in the weekly email. You may always call me at (850) 261-2462 or email me at cajunstitchery@yahoo.com.

If you are not a subscriber and would like to receive Cajun Corner weekly, please email cajunstitchery@yahoo.com and let me know to put you on our email list.

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.

SALE OF THE WEEK (Good through Thursday, September 2, 2010)

SALE: Short Sleeve Denim Shirt sizes S-XL with first name or initials embroidered for $25.00

Sierra Pacific - #0211

Short Sleeve Denim

Catalog page: 17

6.5 oz. 100% cotton. Button down collar. Double needle stitching with 2-ply back yoke. Wood-style buttons with spare. Left chest pocket and locker loop. No back pleat.

Splash is over; Arts & Wine is next

Despite the rain, the Splash Party was a huge success. Not a lot of kids joined us, though.  I'm sure that's because of the rain.  But the place was packed.  Have you ever seen grown men acting like children?  They all did at the Splash Party.  It was hilarious.  I had the best seat at the party.  I sat in the tiki bar selling hats and tickets.  It was amazing to see all of the different types of super soakers.  Since I was near the water sources, those guys kept coming by to reload their soakers.  When the dunking booth opened, I could hardly keep up with those tickets. This was definitely a successful party with such delightful, fun loving people.  We still have a few caps and visors left if anyone would like one.  Just call or email me and you too can have your own Splash Party cap/visor.  Sorry but the pink visors sold out early.  We have some great black visors, though.

The next big event on our calendar is the Arts & Wine Festival the first weekend in October.  We have a little over a month to get ready.  There is so much to do.  Remember last year our booth looked like it was simply an extention of the SOB booth?  This year, I want to have embroidered banners saying Cajun Stitchery. 

One of the items we are going to sell this year is going to be luggage tags.  I love making them.  Yesterday I began embroidery on ribbon.  I'm putting a monogram of each letter of the alphabet on ribbon and then plan to make each monogram into a luggage tag for the Festival. 

I think we will also have wine bottle aprons.  If you have read this blog for awhile, you might know my fascination with wine bottle aprons.  They are adorable and everyone seems to want one -- excect me.  Maybe one day I'll make one that thrills me.  But everyone likes them and I love to embroider.

The poor Etsy store.  I think the last thing I listed on Etsy was the cool, aqua ballcap on Friday.  I've decided that I need to start limiting the different items that I list to about 5 different categories, rather than one of this and one of that.  I know that there will be handkerchiefs, scarves, cell phone holders, and I have to decide on a couple of other items. 

So much to do; so much to say; but the phone is ringing and the emails are coming in, and this little Cajun girl needs to get to work.

C'est tout, mes amis.

July 13, 2009

We've been busy at Cajun Stitchery today. Patches, patches, and more patches. I had designed the patch that we're working on a few months ago but it never worked out really well. The design was fine. I just couldn't seem to make a patch that made me happy. I was, and am, convinced that patches can be made on the embroidery machine to look as good as Merrow machine patches. That was my quest.

First of all, unless the patch or item is digitized for free standing lace (FSL), you cannot simply sew the design onto Solvy stabilizer and think that will work. We did that. Once the Solvy dissolves you have a wad of thread and nothing more. I'll skip to the chase of all of the fabulous ideas that we thought of and tried that did not work.

Finally, we came to the applique conclusion. A patch is merely an applique with a Solvy stabilizer, rather than a fabric stabilizer. We have made countless attempts hooping the Solvy, placing a piece of fabric over the Solvy, not hooped, stitching the first round of underlay stitches, removing the hoop, trimming the fabric, replacing the hoop, and finishing the design. Solvy isn't strong enough for this and requires at least 2 or 3 layers to hold it taunt in the hoop. With 2 or 3 layers of Solvy, in the end, when you wash the Solvy off, you get one sticky, gummy mess. Even when I put them in the washer to get all of the Solvy off, they come out of the washer gooey and out of the dryer tacky and stuck to whatever was in the dryer with it. Not only that but I never could get close enough to the underlay stitches when trimming and there always was, at least some fabric showing that just could not be trimmed enough.

We tried cutting circles of fabric the size of the applique and then when the first round of underlay stitched out, we would glue our fabric circle inside. Just never could get the thing centered correctly. There was always something poking out the sides. In addition, to get the thickness of the patch that I wanted required several layers of fabric. Then it became a test of getting all layers perfectly centered. Frankly, we never could get one perfect.

We did some tiny U.S. flag patches 1"x2" that turned out really cute and nice. With the flags the entire patch was stitched and the fabric was placed underneath just for stability when the Solvy was washed out. We were able to cut the fabric imperfectly and/or to place it imperfectly just for holding everything together. Even with the flags, the Solvy caused them to be tacky and gooey. The flags did turn out well.

We tried a bookmark with an eagle design and completely stitched, but the bookmark did not turn out as well as the little flag. The stitches weren't as dense and when the Solvy washed away, so did a lot of the stitching, even with the underlay of fabric.

As I've mentioned before, I then talked with a friend of mine who suggested that I use Aqua Magic rather than Solvy and told me about a great pair of scissors that trip closer. The scissors are shaped to go over the hoop and trim. They are Havel's Ultimate Embroidery Scissors. I order both the Aqua Magic and the scissors (both left handed, for me, and right handed, for George).

We picked up the quest again. We hooped the Aqua Magic, which is more of a fiber-type stabilizer, much more stable than the Solvy, and began with a piece of fabric over the stabilizer, then the underlay stitching for the outline was done. After the underlay, we removed the hoop and trimmed with the new scissors, and finished the design. Oh my, not close enough. Then we decided that a bit of minor digitizing was needed and I took the design to the computer and enlarged the length of the satin stitches. We tried again. Same method. This worked much better but there were still little pokies sticking out the side. Then we tried the cut the circles and glue in the middle of the stabilizer theory. That still didn't work, even though George used all of his wonderful measuring techniques to hit dead center. We played around with all of these theories and tried a multitude of different fabric and thicknesses.

Then we decided to wash away the Aqua Magic on the one's we had done and see how they turned out and if that helped. No sticky, gooey anything. The stuff washed away, like it was supposed to but did not leave any residue. I'm sold on Aqua Magic now. The patches came out a bit curled, distorted, and wrinkles. George got out the old trusty ironing board and steam iron and began ironing them. Except for the pokies sticking out, the patches looked really nice. Then he tried simply steam ironing a patch with Aqua Magic -- it worked. Don't even need to put in the washer. We did have to pick a few tiny pieces of stabilizer off, but that really wasn't even worth mentioning. As a lark, he did the steam iron on a row of patches we had one with the Solvy. They all stuck to the fabric he placed over the patches and we had a heck of a time ripping them off. Even at that, not all of the Solvy was removed.

We had even solved the thickness issue and put 2 sheets of canvas to get, what I consider, a good patch thickness.

Finally, we were looking at the satin stitch outline on the computer and came up with the brilliant idea of moving the underlay stitches closer to the inner stitches of the satin stitch outline, thus giving us more leeway for trimming. It worked!!!!!! The little nudge on the underlay allowed us to trim as we had been but since the underlay itself was moved further from the edge of the stitching, so was the trimming. The pokies are gone and we have one beautiful SOB patch.

Tomorrow we begin manufacturing the SOB patches.

July 11, 2009

It's Saturday afternoon. The display tablecloth is done and looks beautiful. The orange VDL bowling team shirts are done and look great.

We had 19 shirts, some t-shirts and some woven. The color scheme, bright orange with black embroidery, was chosen by the team. Since the bowling team consists of deaf/blind, elderly individuals, they felt the colors would allow them to see the shirts. The embroidery allows them to see through touch. We did the embroidery large and dense to assist the members in seeing and feeling the designs. My only concern is when washed, they may curl a bit. This is another benefit of embroidery -- the blind can see it.

We had a time finding orange in both t-shirts and woven. Although the catalog photographs of the colors of each appeared to me to be identical colors, as you can see, once received, they are a bit off. However, there is no mistaking that they are all orange.

This project was definitely a labor of love for me.

Now to determine the lagniappes for each of these projects. At Cajun Stitchery, every order receives a lagniappe.

Next project is the patches. The particular patches that we are doing are for a group of wonderful women on Pensacola Beach. We are called "Sisters of the Beach", the SOB's. The design has already been done and I've made a few patches but I'm not satisfied with the outcome. After consulting with a friend of mine in the industry, I've decided to change the wash away stabilizer to Aqua Magic. The design is a simple applique with the stabilizer as the bottom fabric. The trick is to trim the patch fabric so that it's not too close and thus frays on the inside of the patch; and, not to far where the satin stitch doesn't completely cover the fabric. So, I'm off on another project.