Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 24 – December 27, 2014

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 24 – December 27, 2014

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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit us at www.cajunstitchery.com, www.flickr.com/photos/cajunstitchery, and, www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.   We are also on Twitter and Facebook.  

Visit our on-line catalogs at:

http://www.my-catalogs.com/cajunstitchery

and www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.

Christmas has come and gone and we are headed toward New Years.

Technically, we are closed this coming week.  The problem is that instead of a week of rest and relaxation, it is now filled with all sorts of things to do.  Some things are pretty mundane, like catching up on our end of the year bookkeeping, getting our annual beach pass and giving the studio a good ceiling to floor cleaning.  While others are a bit more fun, like redecorating for Mardi Gras.  Ah, and then there are some left over orders that didn't need to be finished for Christmas but need to be completed nevertheless.  And, the Etsy Store needs a new 2015 make over taking out the old and putting in the new.

Turning to my trusted Pinterest site, I was looking for ideas on decorating for Mardi Gras.  The Christmas tree is already up, so I'm thinking of replacing the Christmas ornaments with Mardi Gras ornaments.  Our cute Christmas door decor needs to be replaced with something purple, green and gold.  You get the picture.  Ideas are flooding my brain.  Not to mention that I actually do not have any Mardi Gras ornaments and before I can make some, I need to create them.  Basically, it is all just a color change.  Changing the red to purple.  The green and gold can stay from Christmas.  Nativity and Santa/elf designs change to fleur de lis and jester designs.  Throw in some shiny Mardi Gras beads and we should be done.  Easier said that done.

A few months back I took a real good look at our Etsy store and realized there are items in there that have never sold and have sat on the shelves for several years.  Most of the stuff is, well, adorable.  I guess the person who really wants these items never got a chance to see them.  The items in question have been in a "sale" category on Etsy for about a month.  Whatever has not been purchased in the Sale category by January 1, 2015, comes off of Etsy permanently.

This brings me to the realization that I need more merchandise in the Etsy store to replace the removed items.  You know how they say, "you've come a long way, baby"?  Looking at those earlier items, yes, we have come a long way.  There were some good ideas and some bad.  Some items just look cheap and others look nice.  The handkerchiefs stay but the older hankies are going.  Bridal hankies will stay but most non-bridal will go.  Of course, the "You have a booger" handkerchief will stay because we continue to get orders for it.  The "Mom" handkerchiefs now in the shop will go but I think we will replace them with nicer "Mom" handkerchiefs.

Scarves are staying.  I have a dilemma about the scarves.  Some sold but not many.  I'm not sure if it was the price or style.  The scarves in the "Sale" category are going away.  The scarves in the "Accessories" category are going to stay and more may be added.  It seems people are more interested in monograms than other designs.  So, we will keep the pretty chiffon scarves for the monograms.  The lap scarves will stay, only because I do occasionally get inquiries about them.

I'm not sure why the ball caps weren't big sellers.  They are all adorable and reasonably priced.  Nevertheless, they are going away.  Perhaps in the future the ball caps may re-appear for weddings with "Mr." and "Mrs." on them but right now I'm over the ball caps.  There just doesn't seem to be any interest.

Enough about Etsy.  I've had a set of fonts for quite some time but never stitched them out.  I guess the reason is because I put them together for a sampler and the stitch count was so high, I just never had the time or inclination to stitch them out until this past week.  The details in these letters are exquisite.  Each letter is about two inches tall and perfect for hand towels and that sort of thing.

Every once in awhile we get a customer who wants a custom patch.  Such is the case with this patch, "Man shall not live by bread alone".  It turns out that our customer is a chef turned minister.  I think he has a cooking ministry.  He is performing a wedding today and wanted to wear his chef attire but the clothing had the logo from his past employer and he wanted patches to cover up the logo.  

It is the week between Christmas and New Years and look at our garden.  We have swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, green onions, and carrots.

Then we have our special gardening projects.  George planted the root end of a bunch of celery we purchased and by golly it is growing.

Here's a picture of the cilantro.

And broccoli.

In the same vein as the celery, George planted the root end of some romaine lettuce.  Yep, it is growing.

 Have a Happy New Year :)

Cajun Stitchery

(850) 261-2462

cajunstitchery@yahoo.com

Cajun Corner - Vol. 5, No. 47

 

 

 

 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 5, No. 47 – September 21, 2013

 

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

 

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit us at www.cajunstitchery.com, www.flickr.com/photos/cajunstitchery, and, www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.   We are also on Twitter and Facebook. 

Visit our on-line catalogs at:

http://www.imprintit.biz/cgi-bin/cobrand/site.w?location=olc/catalog-home.w&top=catalog&frasmes=no&target=main&sponsor=000699

and www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.

Our sweet neighbor, Ms Joyce, passed away today.  A week ago this past Friday she fell and broke/cracked her hip, pelvis, femur, and some vertebras.  Tests at the hospital revealed her bones were so thin from cancer they were opaque and would just crumble should the doctors attempt to insert hardware.  She returned home in agony.  She stopped eating early in the week and went to sleep.  God bless Covenant Hospice.  The family was called in and the nurses took over.  By Wednesday the family was told Ms. Joyce would pass away Thursday morning.  She lingered until this morning.   Frankly, I don’t know who suffered more, Ms. Joyce or the family waiting and waiting.   Perhaps it is unkind to say that someone should pass on.  I certainly don’t mean to be unkind.  She suffered and suffered over the past several years.  This was just the icing on the cake.  I began this week praying to God to heal her.  I ended this week praying that God take her and cease the misery for her and her family.  I have many fond memories of Ms. Joyce.  It always brings a smile to face when I hear her name mentioned.  Love you, Ms. Joyce.

George has embroidered several of the flower sack mermaid towels this week.  They are $15 each.  They would make a great Christmas present.

After Nancy and I both learned the truth about Santa Claus, each Christmas Mama would fill a large bag with our Christmas presents.  One was green and the other bag was red.  She decorated the fabric bags with our names and bells.  They were very pretty.  We always decorated the house the weekend after Thanksgiving and that included the tree.  Mama would put the bags under the tree.  As she bought us presents, she would wrap the presents and put them in the bag.  Of course, we could not open the bags until Christmas morning after midnight mass.  It was so exciting to watch the bags increase in size as Christmas neared.

One year I made George a Christmas bag or Santa Sack with an elf embroidered on the front.  I don’t know what happened to the bag but it was adorable.  The laundry bags that we sell would be a perfect size to decorate and turn into Christmas Bags or Santa Sacks.  The name could be embroidered on the front and the purchaser could finish embellishing the bag with glitter, bells, or whatever they like.

Have a wonderful week

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. 

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Thank you Bob for the following:

The school teacher was late for school and was driving too fast. The light ahead turned yellow, she thought she could make it and raced forward. It turned red just before she entered the intersection. Unfortunately, a policeman saw her run through the red light and he wrote her a ticket. The school teacher hadn't had a ticket in a long time. She thought she would ask the judge if she could go to traffic school and keep the ticket off her record. "I have a good driving record; I am a school teacher and I would like to request that I be granted permission to go to traffic school," she asked the judge. "So you are a school teacher," the judge said with a smile. "I have been waiting for this for years." "I will allow you to go to traffic school if you write 500 times I ran a red light and I promise to never do it again."

Thank you Patrice for the following:

A man was driving down the road and ran out of gas. Just at that moment, a bee flew in his window.
The bee said, 'What seems to be the problem?'

'I'm out of gas,' the man replied.

The bee told the man to wait right there and flew away. Minutes later, the man watched as an entire swarm of bees flew to his car and into his gas tank. After a few minutes, the bees flew out.

'Try it now,' said one bee.

The man turned the ignition key and the car started right up. 'Wow!' the man exclaimed, 'what did you put in my gas tank'?
The bee answered,
BP (bee pee).

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.

Christmas Stocking Tutorial

Since I wrote on Friday about creating the in-the-hoop design for the Christmas Elf Stocking I have been embellishing and making more.  This post is about these stockings. 

I started out digitizing a basic stocking shape with the curly toe.  The top was left open.  I used a single stitch outline.  My plan was to hoop some tear away stabilizer in one of my largest hoops.  Then I would lay the fabric on top of the stabilizer, unhooped with the fold of the fabric across the top of the stocking, and let the first round of stitches outline the stocking.  The next thing that stitched would be whatever design that was going to be on the front of the stocking.  I chose a single color ornament design.  Then I would lay the next layer of fabric over the first layer, fold of the fabric across the top of the stocking, and let the outline stitch again.  Everything worked as planned.  I was able to pull the fabric away from the tear away stabilizer, trim the fabric around the stocking stitching and turn the stocking right side out.  It looked nice but was a bit small, and I noticed that I had not attached a loop for hanging the stocking.

Back to the drawing board.  I have a regular, red and white, fuzzy stocking that I bought as a standard for comparison purposes.  Through the next few tweaks with the digitizing program, I was able to enlarge the stocking to fit the hoop.  The hoop that I'm using is actual 16 1/2" x 11", but I cannot use all of that space because the corners are rounded.  The stocking ends up about 8" wide and 12" or 13" long because it's being made inside out.  Measuring the elf stocking against the standard stocking shows that the final is only slightly smaller than the standard.   The design was finalized and there were 3 stockings constructed during the tweaking phase. 

Since I had more of the golden colored fabric, I made two more stockings in the final design, one with candles and a poinsettia and one with candy canes.  They turned out very nice.  That is pretty much where I was when I last wrote.  I realized that I would need to figure out how to make a cuff and embellishments.

That is what I've been working on this weekend.  I had used all of the golden fabric but I did have scrap pieces remaining.  I thought if I could make a row of small, one inch, designs, on the folded golden fabric pieces, fold at the bottom, I could attach the row of designs to the top of the stocking.  It worked perfectly.  By placing the right side of the cuff to the wrong side of the stocking, I sewed around the top edge.  Then I placed the loop at the seam, loop side inside the stocking, and stitched loop and cuff straight up to finish off the cuff.  The cuff was then folded outside the stocking and it was done.  It looked very nice.  I have since thought that if I need to make the stocking longer, I could simply make the cuff longer and fold the cuff outside at a higher place.  I haven't tried that yet.





Once all of the cuffs were done, the stockings looked real cute but still needed something.  So, I got out my rhinestones and began applying them on the stockings.  They turned out adorable.  The only one that I didn't put rhinestones on was the candy cane stocking.  I would be concerned if a child swallowed a loose rhinestone.  I'm still thinking that there should be something on the toe of the stocking.  Maybe a little jingle bell, but I'm not sure at this point.









Today, I was looking around in my studio and found a piece of black satin fabric.  Since so many people around here love fleur de lis, I thought I would make a stocking in black satin with a gold fleur de lis.  I only had enough black satin for the outside of the stocking.  Instead of having a double layer of fabric with the fold at the top, I used a double layer of gold jersey with the fold at the top and then laid the black satin on top of the gold jersey and folding the top down a few inchs.  The outline and design were stitched and then a second layer of the black satin, folded at the top a few inches, with a double layer of gold jersey on top of that.  Then the design finished.  This worked out beautifully.  In fact, at this time I realized that using the double layer of jersey gave the stocking a bit of thickness that was lacking in the other stockings.  I used some of the scrap black satin fabric to make the cuff.  This cuff was made with a 2 inch fleur de lis design making the cuff larger.  Once all of the sewing was done, I filled in the fleur de lis outline with gold rhinestones.  The lining of gold jersey adds an pleasing touch. 



Tomorrow I have orders to fill.  This weekend was my time to play with the stocking design.  Hopefully, I'll be able to make more stockings before the Arts & Wine Festival in October.  Now that all of the designing and digitizing is done, these stockings are a lot of fun to make.



C'est tout, mes amis.

Cajun Corner, Vol. 3, No. 33

Cajun Corner – Vol. 3, No. 33 – August 19, 2011

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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit our catalog at www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery and www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.   We are also on Twitter and Facebook.

When Nancy and I were pre-teens and teenagers Mama made two great big bags for our Christmas presents.  She probably used about two yards of fabric for each one.  One was green and one was red.  She got some iron on letters and ironed “Nancy” on one and “Peggy” on the other.  She closed the big bags with cording that slipped through an opening at the top of the bags and she attached bells to the cording.  They were very cute and very practical.

We always opened our Christmas presents after midnight mass.  Nancy would open her bag and I would open mine.  After the presents were opened, we would have breakfast and then everyone would go to bed.

Mama was very practical but very creative.  I made a bag like this for George a few years back.  Of course, I embroidered his name and a cute elf on it.  Not only are these bags practical but also environmentally friendly Not even Mama realized that she was a conservationist.  They are environmentally friendly because the presents were not wrapped.  Newspaper was wadded up inside to hide the shapes of the presents but, as Mama used to say, “Santa doesn’t wrap presents.”  If anyone ever wants one of these bags, let me know.

The topic is Christmas and I’m talking about Christmas because I’m preparing for the 4^th Annual Pensacola Beach Arts & Wine Festival.  I began making Christmas stockings.  We’ll let’s back up.  I began considering making Christmas stockings.  I have a red fuzzy Christmas stocking that I purchased sometime ago at the store and used that as my standard.  I digitized a stocking with a curly elf toe.  Then I stitched it out.  It was much smaller than the store bought and although it would make a cute little stocking; it wasn’t what I had in mind.  See the photographs attached.  The first one had the ornaments.  I could get my hand in but it could be a tight fit if someone had large hands.  I then widened it.  See the photo with the snowflakes and the little Eskimo.  That worked well but I wanted it longer.  Then I increased the length and widened the top a bit.   So far my final is the one with the candles.  It’s not quite as big as the standard stocking but it is a nice size.  Then I did the one with the elf and the candy canes.  I fell in love with that one.  These stocking are not finished because I need to put a cuff on the top and I’m working on that. 

Since I was digitizing, stitching and thinking about stockings, I realized that over the years stockings have become larger and larger.  I’ve seen stockings that hang from a mantle and go all the way to the floor.  What is the point of that other than novelty?  When I was growing up, we did not have a fireplace or mantle.  I don’t recall actually having a stocking; we had the bags.  We did have stockings for our boys when they were growing up and would put little things in the stockings, such as little toys or lotto tickets or candy and treats or little novelty type stuff.  I don’t think the stockings were intended to encapsulate all of the presents.  Maybe historically they were, but not since the tradition of putting the presents under the tree.  I must admit, though, that Christmas stockings in general are pretty.  My ultimate decision was that it probably doesn’t matter how large the stocking is anymore.  So, I’m sticking with the final size that I created.

Last weekend George and I celebrated our 41^st wedding anniversary.  Our plan was to have lunch in Perdido with George’s sister, Kathie, on Saturday noon.  Come home and then go to Pensacola Beach to celebrate our friend, Amy’s, birthday.  It rained while we were having lunch in Perdido and followed us home.  We decided that we really didn’t feel like driving in the rain to Pensacola Beach.  So, we stayed home.  On Sunday, we planned to take the Pensacola Historical Trolley.  The owner is one of my friends on Facebook.  I messaged him on Facebook to ask if they were going to be having the tour.  No answer.  I went to his website that said that they have the tour 7 days at week at 11:00 a. m.  It did suggest that you make reservations.  I called on the phone and got a voice mail.  So, we went to the Visitor’s Center and looked around while we were waiting for the trolley.  11:00 came and went and no trolley.  We waited until 11:30 or so and left.  We decided to just drive around and take in the sights and actually ended up in Gulf Shores.  Then my phone rang.  It was the guy at the trolley company.  They had a group that reserved the trolley for a special tour that morning.  At least he did call back.  So, it appeared that most of our plans did not come to fruition but we enjoyed each other’s company.

I messaged a friend of mine on Facebook who is into scrapbooking and asked her about the tiny appliqués.  She told me that scrap bookers love that kind of stuff.  So, I’m going to have a basket or bowl or something at the festival with a bunch of tiny appliqués.  We’ll see how they sell.

There are so many ideas going through my head about the festival and things I want to make and ways I want to decorate the tent.  At one point I was worried that I would not have enough stuff.  That was only a fleeting thought because I am bulging at the seams with stuff.  If anyone has any old fishing nets, I’ll be glad to take them off of your hands.  I think I want to have a theme to our tent this year.

A couple of friends made an appointment with me for today.  We spent almost 3 hours taking orders and letting them look at Cajun Stitchery’s wares.  It was so much fun.  I’m always open for this.  Just make an appointment and I’ll set aside some time and pull out all of our stuff and just give a grand display.  Of course, I’ll serve coffee, water, wine, or whatever you like.  We can even look at designs on the computer.  Enjoy it all while sitting at my kitchen table.

We still have our shipment of XL Fruit of the Loom, Adult, short sleeve, tee shirts in a variety of colors.  I chose XL because that tends to be the size most often ordered.  Of course, I can get you whatever size you like.  The colors that we have are:  athletic heather, black, forest green, Kelly, khaki, J. Navy, pacific blue, royal blue, true red, and white.  Tee shirts make great gifts and everyone can use them.  So, if you are planning for Christmas, think about giving a tee shirt with a name or monogram embroidered.  Of course, we can embroider anything you like.  Just remember the old saying that the sweetest sound is your own name.  Give a tee to someone with their nickname or special term of endearment embroidered on it.  So what, if you don’t have the entire logo digitized; get a tee with the name of your company anyway.  (If there are enough responses for other sizes, I might get that size next time.)

SALE:  In stock XL Fruit of the Loom, Adult, short sleeve, tee shirts with a name or monogram for $10.00 plus shipping/sales tax.  Sale is good until we run out of stock.  See above paragraph for available colors.

I should be ordering towels in the next month or two.  If anyone needs towels, let me know.

Don’t forget the upcoming Mystic Krewe of Nereid’s annual Splash Party.  The Splash Party will be held on Sunday, August 28^th, beginning at 2:00 p.m., at Paradise Bar & Grill on Pensacola Beach.  Mark your calendars.  It’s going to be a real S-P-L-A-S-H.

Speaking of the Splash party tonight is our krewe’s monthly meeting.  My friend from Alabama is going to drop by and pick me up and we are going to spend the night on the beach.  Our meeting will be a working meeting and we will be preparing everything for the Splash Extravaganza.  Don’t miss this event.  It is family oriented, so bring the kids.   Dress up like mermaids and bring your water blasters.

As planned, this past Tuesday I was on local radio station, 1620.  I had prepared a cheat sheet, just in case I became so flustered that I couldn’t think of what I was to say.  The whole thing lasted about 30 seconds.  The cheat sheet should always be with me.  That was one handy little thing to have.

CHRISTMAS is around the corner.  Unbelievable, I know.  Get that Christmas shopping done now and enjoy the holidays.

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. 

Cajun French Phrase of the Week:

Cracher en l'air ca va tomber sur le nez= if you do evil it will come back to hit you in the face or what goes around comes around

Taken from:  http://www.acadian-roots.com/cajun-names.html

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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.