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.

ΘΘΘΘΘ

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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.

In-The-Hoop Pot Holders

It dawned on me recently that our annual Arts & Wine Festival on the beach is just a few months away.  It is usually the first weekend in October.  I found some tutorials on making potholders in-the-hoop but they just don't seem big enough.  I'm on a quest for the perfect embroidered potholder done completely in-the-hoop.

Potholders were probably the very first item that Mama taught me to sew when I was a little girl.  She would lay a piece of fabric down and then we would use our scrap material, neatly layered over the fabric until we felt it was thick enough.  Finally, we would lay another piece of fabric on top of the layers and start machine quilting.  Anything is fine.  The point is to sew around to hold all of those little scrap pieces in place.  We would sew straight lines across, usually at one inch intervals; then up and down.  After the quilting was done, we trimmed the edges to make them straight, sewed around the edges and finally, add bias tape around the edges.  Potholders are great beginner projects for children.

A few decades down the road from those early days and I'm still making potholders.  The embroidery machine is funny about how many layers of fabric it will stitch.  I am working on that.  I started off hooping some plastic.  The heavy plastic is sturdy and after the satin stitches are applied, you can pull the item away from the plastic with a clean edge.  I sew a single stitch line around the shape of the potholder.  Then I apply 2 layers of fabric.  Put that back in the machine and sew another line around the shape.  Take the hoop off the machine and trim the excess fabric.  This is just like an applique.  Then put the hoop back into the machine and stitch the middle design.  Depending on the size of the middle design, you may want additional quilting.  This is the time to stitch the stipple.  Then take the hoop off the machine and add a couple of layers of fabric to the bottom.  I just pin the fabric to the plastic but make sure the pins are far away from the path of the needle.  Put the hoop back in the machine and sew another outline.  Take the hoop out and trim the edges.  Then I take 2 pieces of fabric, folded in half and pin them so that the folded edges meet in the middle on the back of the potholder.  Pin in place and sew another outline and trim.  Finish with your satin stitch.  The reason for the folded pieces is to put your hand inside, creating a mitt.


Yep, that's a lot of trimming and putting the hoop in and out of the machine.  You can save time and effort by not doing the "mitt" and just pin all of your layers of fabric on the bottom before the quilting and let the machine run to the end.  I'm still working on more layers of fabric.  Yes, I know I could and should probably use batting.  In fact, the machine doesn't have a problem with batting at all and I would get the thickness much easier.  Let's face it, I'm stubborn and I want to use up that scrap fabric.  Anyway, I'm still perfecting the process and hope to have lots of beautiful potholders on sale at the Arts & Wine Festival this year.

C'est tout, mes amis

Casserole Carrier

Last weekend, when I spent so much time at Krewe Den, one of the ladies brought her appetizer in a casserole carrier.  I have made casserole carriers before but pretty much forgotten about them.  Her casserole carrier was for a rectangular casserole dish and had dowels as handles.  It was really cute.  All of this is to say that I decided that I wanted to make a casserole carrier. 

You know that I believe you can find anything on the internet if you just put in the right search criteria.  Sure enough I found instructions for making a casserole carrier on the Baby Lock website.  I took some tear away stabilizer and measured out and drew my pattern.  Then I cut out the pattern.  I went into the infamous stash of fabric that consumes our home and chose a fabric for the outer layer and another fabric for the inner layer.  I used a low loft poly batting.  I cut the pattern from each of these materials. 

The really cool thing about this pattern is that it included a pocket on one side to hold the spoon.  I would never have thought of that but what a nifty idea.

The perplexing thing about this pattern is that it has the batting but didn't require quilting.  It seems to me that when you wash it, all of the batting could clump together. 

The pattern actually said to cut it out and then sew on the spoon pocket and do your embroidery to the outer layer of fabric, and then put it together.  I changed the directions a bit.  George laughs because I can never follow directions without finding a different way of doing it.  I put all three layers together.  The right side of the outer fabric with the right side of the lining fabric, with the batting on top.  I then sewed all the way around, except for the curves by the handle.  I turned the entire thing right side out and pressed the seams.  Then I simply quilted by starting in one corner sewing diagnonally through all 3 layers, and then at even intervals sewed perpendicularly (is that a word?) until the entire surface was sewn with diagonal lines.  Then I did the same thing in the opposite direction and voila -- guilted fabric.  I then sewed the pocket onto the quilted fabric.  My theory being that the pocket sewn onto the quilted fabric would be much more secure than sewn onto one ply fabric.  Then I did the embroidery on the front.  I sewed a piece of Velcro to close the pocket and 6 inch strips of Velcro to close the side flaps.  It was almost done. 

The only thing remaining was putting in the dowels and sewing the curves.  Oops! When I quilted, I sewed the area where the dowels go closed.  Out with the stitch ripper.  I took out all of the quilting stitches to line up even with the bottom curve for the handle.  Then I started to put a dowel in.  Oops!  The curve didn't allow enough room to get the other end of the dowel in and since the fabric was quilted, I couldn't make the dowel go into the body of the carrier long enough to get the entire dowel in there.  I took out a few stitches on either end where the dowel would go.  Then I inserted the dowels and did my hand stitching around the curve and to finish off the edges where the dowel was inserted.

Voila!  That was not hard to do.  The only problems came from my deciding to quilt the fabric.  I may make some more.  I would still quilt the fabric but I would leave an opening on the end to insert the dowel.  If I make another one, I would probably make the spoon holder larger. 

I used the carrier last night.  The instructions said that it would carry a 13" x 9" casserole dish.  The quilting probably reduced the length of the carrier a bit but I was not able to close the Velcro strips on my 13" casserole dish.  I was able to close the Velcro on a smaller casserole dish.  Don't get me wrong the carrier carried my 13" casserole dish; I just couldn't close it with the Velcro.  This carrier really would carry a 12" casserole dish that was perhaps 2" tall.  The width was fine.

All in all it was an enjoyable project that I may do again.

C'est tout, mes amis:>)