Cajun Corner – Vol. 3, No. 4 – January 28, 2011

Cajun Corner – Vol. 3, No. 4 – January 28, 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.

Our trip to the Saenger in Mobile was so much fun. The bus was packed with 54 crazed, Mardi Gras decorated people. We had fun from the time we stepped on the bus until we returned home. God bless our little bus driver. The bus dropped us off right at the front door to the Saenger. As it happened a gentleman was playing a trumpet across the street for tips. When we departed the bus, the trumpeter joined us and played all of the Mardi Gras tunes, including When The Saints Go Marching In. We sang and danced and had a great time. Once we got to our seats in the Saenger, Beausoleil was playing. Who could sit with that kind of music? We were up and dancing. The security guard asked us to dance to the side of the seated audience so we wouldn’t disturb their view. We complied. Before long the whole audience was up and dancing. I noticed the security guard just sat down and enjoyed the show. We were overwhelming. Marcia Ball was actually the main attraction. I had never heard her music before and was very impressed. We danced through her set, as well. When the show closed, we entered our bus which picked us up at the front door, and partied all the way home. There were a few people who fell asleep on the return trip. They must have been tired because I think we were louder going home than we were going to Mobile. I would make this trip again in a heartbeat. It was just a wonderful evening.

Most of last weekend was spent digitizing the logo for the Krewe of Bad Habits. I had some concerns about whether I was a good enough digitizer to do a good job for them because their logo is fairly detailed with the King, Queen, and Jack of hearts in the center. By the end of the weekend I was able to sit back and give a critical eye to the simulated embroidered design. It is beautiful. On Monday I stitched it out. It stitched out perfectly, although it took a few hours to stitch.

I had digitized everything except the lettering. The lettering was done freehand. It’s pretty much a piece of cake to do lettering when there is a font involved. In those instances I can pick the font and type in what I want, give the program a few parameters and with a click of a button, voila, it’s done. Freehand lettering requires actual digitizing, as though it was a piece of art, stitch-by-stitch. With art detail, depending on the amount of detail and the size of the design, you can fudge a bit on the detail, since there is a point where a tiny thread sized detail isn’t going to show whether it is digitized or not. That is not necessarily the case with lettering. You have to read the lettering when it’s done. Tiny lettering is the worse. Many digitizers have to hire more experienced digitizers to do the tiny lettering. I’ve digitized some lettering before but this lettering is extremely thin. Think of it this way. An embroidery machine needle is 1mm wide. If you have a line 1 mm wide, then how do you zig zag for a satin stitch? All you can do is a straight line.

Photographs of the artwork were sent to the krewe, along with an explanation about the lettering. I haven’t heard back whether they like the digitized design or not. Everyone who has walked into this house has raved about it. I’m so proud of the stitch out that I have it on my kitchen table. I gave the krewe the option to hire a digitizer specializing in lettering. In the meantime, I’ve taken a crash course on digitizing lettering and, by golly; I think I’ve got it now. There are a few little things to iron out but I think I was worried unnecessarily. Finalizing, the lettering is my goal for this weekend. In between parties, that is.

Tonight is the Mystic Krewe of Nereids annual Moon pie Party at the Sandshaker on Pensacola Beach. It starts at 7 p.m. If you are local, please come and join us. The money earned from the raffles is going locally to help breast cancer patients and breast cancer research. I have a list of things that I don’t want to forget to bring tonight and it’s so absurd that I giggled after I wrote my list:

Tuxedo jacket

Top Hat

Flashy scepter

Hair lights

Tambourine

Light Stick

We will obviously have a great time tonight!

Tomorrow the Mystic Krewe of Nereids will be entering the Junkanoo’s 3rd Annual Chili Cook-off at the Sandshaker on Pensacola Beach from 1p.m. to 4p.m. You may recall that last year we were going to enter the chili cook-off but after the Moon pie Party some of the girls were a bit inebriated and came to rest at Krewe Den, got hungry and ate our entry. This year we have a failsafe method. Cowboy Carl (authentic cowboy, direct from Texas) is cooking the chili and delivering it directly to the Shaker on Saturday for the cook-off. You won’t want to miss Cowboy Carl’s Cowgirl Chili. We are certain that we are going to be the winners this year.

Oh yes, I also embroidered the aprons which will be given as prizes for the chili cook-off.

Yesterday, I had to take some time for us. If you are a true Mardi Gras person, then you know all about sequins. Our tux jackets have loads of sequins, including the sleeve cuffs. Those sequins snag on everything and we always end up with lost sequins or threads hanging. After awhile it looks tattered. So, I made new cuffs for George and me with the new Mylar embroidery. If for no other reason, you need to come to the Moon pie Party to see the new cuffs. George and I love them. They are every bit as sparkly as the sequin – without the snag problem.

Oh, there’s something else that I made this week. It’s top secret because it’s a gift that will be given tonight. This was another one of those stitch outs that we put on the kitchen table and just stared at – it’s beautiful.

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The following Boudreaux joke was sent to us by Paulette Provost:

Boudreaux, an 80-year-old South Louisiana Cajun, goes to the doctor

for his every year check-up.

The doctor is amazed at what good shape he is in and asks, "How you

stay in such great physical condition, Boudreaux?"

"I stay in the swamp and I hunt and fish every day" says the old Cajun,

and, that's why I'm in such good shape. "I'm up well before daylight and out

hunting or fishing all day. I have a beer for breakfast and at lunch and

wid my supper. And I have a shot of hooch before bed time. And I say my

prayers every night. And all is well wid me"

"Well", says the doctor, "I'm sure dem prayers helps, but there's got to be

more to it. How old was your father when he died?"

"Who said Pop is dead?"

The doctor is amazed. "You mean you're 80 years old and your father's still

alive? How old he is?"

"Pop be 100 next month," say Boudreaux. "In fact, he hunted with

me this morning, and then we went to a "beer joint" for a while and had

a few beers and that's why he's still alive. He's a tough Cajun man

And he hunts and fishes every day, too.

"Well, the doctor says, that's great, but I'm sure there's more to it than

that. How about your father's father? How old was he when he died?"

"Who said my Paw Paw's dead?"

Stunned, the doctor asks, "You mean you're 80 years old, your father is

100 and your grandfather's still living? Incredible! How old he is?"

"We tink 'bout 118." says the old Cajun. He likes his beer too, but he

wont touch the hard stuff."

The doctor is getting frustrated at this point, "So, I guess your

grandfather went hunting and fishing with you'll this morning too?"

"No, Paw Paw couldn't go this time. He's getting married today."

At this point the doctor is close to losing it. "Getting married! Why would

a 118-year-old man want to get married?"

Boudreaux looked down at the floor and mumbled "Who said he wanted to?"

Did you know:

Natchitoches, Louisiana, is the oldest city in the Louisiana Purchase Territory, and was founded in 1714.

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French Phrase of the Week: Le Parti de Tarte de lune (Moon Pie Party)

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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.

SALE OF THE WEEK (Good through Thursday, February 3, 2011)

Cobbler Apron with name or initials -- $20.00

Toppers Cobbler Apron

• 7.5 oz. 65% polyester/35% cotton twill

• Two front pockets

• 19" x 28"

Colors: Black, navy, royal blue

All People Smile In The Same Language

Happy Monday, everyone.  As you know, Cajun Stitchery offers service with a smile.  I love smiles and I know the power of a smile.  This morning I ran across a quote, "All people smile in the same language," Proverb.  I love that quote.  So, I digitized it and put it in stitches -- the medium that I understad:>)

It was kind of an odd weekend.  The sleep schedule remains an issue and I've slept on and off all weekend but this morning I awoke at 6 a.m. and feel very rested.  I certainly hope that's  a good sign.

A couple of our customers purchased several items in the last couple of weeks and I happened to mention to each of them that it's as though they are trying to win the customer of the year award.  Both of them liked that and have re-ordered.  Hmmmm.  Maybe we should have a customer of the year award, but then I'd feel bad for all of our good customers who didn't win.

This weekend I began working on the scarves that I've been talking about for awhile.  None of the scarves are finished but when they are, they will be listed on Etsy.

Also, this weekend the camellia napkins, all 12 of them, were completed.  They really turned out nice and will be delivered on Wednesday.

The Hookers napkins were so much fun, especially creating the design.  They are completed and should be mailed today.

In our stash of stock designs a leopard print font jumped out at me.  I played around with it and did some stitching and there are some very interested people out there.  I need to do more with the leopard font.

The new tricot fabric, black with the white dots, has perplexed me.  I like the fabric a lot.  The problem is that when I embroider the lace designs on it, it just doesn't look right to me.  After staring at it for quite awhile I realized the problem.  Differing from the white fabric with the black dots, the tricot fabric has tiny dots fairly close together, compared to the white fabric with the black dots.  The lace has tiny stitches.  There is too much tiny going on.  Not to mention that black makes things look smaller.  That fabric is going to require something solid.  That poses another problem because the fabric is so lightweight that it won't hold heavy designs well.  I'm working on it and have a few ideas.

A lady friend of mine told me sometime ago that she doesn't like the generic t-shirts.  It doesn't look feminine and she doesn't like the neckline.  It's so tight.  I agree.  The problem is that women's t-shirts are so much more expensive than men's or generic.  That's a pet peeve.  The polo shirts, for instance, can be exactly the same for men and women with the one difference of the direction of the buttons, but women's polo shirts are more expensive than men's.  Why is that?  There isn't any more difficulty in making one than the other.  Anyway, I took a design that I've looked at for awhile and embroidered onto an old t-shirt and my vision was correct.  The design was a beautiful feminine neckline.  How do I explain this?  It's the neckline of a blouse.  Anyway, once embroidered onto the old t-shirt, I cut away the excess and voila, the shirt has a new, very feminine neckline.  It won't ravel because of the embroidery.  I need to play with this idea some more.  Pictures will be later.  This isn't the type of thing that you would hire Cajun Stitchery to do.  The embroidery and re-doing the shirt would be more expensive than the shirt is worth.  But if you like to sew or embroider, this would definitely be a really cool way of changing the look of your old generic t-shirts.  And it's so easy.  Even if you don't have an embroidery machine, this can be done by creating your own necklines on your shirt, cutting and hemming.  Always add some bling, if not embroidery, then beads, rhinestones or sequins.  Feel free to email me questions and we can work through the problems together.

C'est toute, mes amis