Cajun Corner – Vol.
6, No. 13 – May 17, 2014
Bon
Jour! Welcome to Cajun
Stitchery’s weekly email and welcome to our family.
ΘΘΘΘΘ
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Spring has brought beautiful weather to our area,
along with all of the plants and flowers; but this year we have encountered
some surprises, too. Early this Spring
George bought a half whiskey barrel to put in the front yard. He was going to plant a papyrus plant in the
barrel, which he did. Since he also took
apart our raised garden and rebuilt it, he used some of the soil from the
garden in the barrel. The papyrus began
growing happily as did several other plants that we thought were weeds. Many of them were weeds except we recognized
some Johnny Jump Ups. So, we left those
alone. Then we recognized a tomato
plant. We let that plant grow, as well.
Then a familiar looking plant began growing. It was an eggplant plant. I guess there were lots of seeds still in the
garden soil that decided to grow. The
papyrus is very happy and getting tall.
The Johnny Jump Ups are a beautiful purple, green and gold. The eggplant is growing but hasn’t had a
flower yet. The tomato has flowers and
now is sporting some small fruit. How
about that for simply planting a papyrus in a half barrel?
Of course, the new garden has shallots, lettuce,
carrots, radishes, and lots of plants.
The shallots are almost ready to harvest but the rest are still growing. He planted pots of all kinds of peppers and
more tomatoes.
The gladiolas seem to travel and we have a few
gladiola patches here and there in the yard.
The gladiolas that have bloomed are a shade between red and orange, more
like a deep coral. They are beautiful.
The roses are blooming, as are the gardenias,
bottle brush and jasmine. The yard has a
wonderful fragrance. The hydrangeas are
turning a beautiful blue and the bushes are covered in these flowers.
We are enjoying sitting outside with the
fragrances and colors. It is so
soothing.
It turns out that the blackberries are not
blackberries at all. They are
dewberries. They look and taste exactly
like blackberries but have less seeds.
They are also bountiful this year.
The blueberries are not ripe yet but we will have a nice harvest when
they do ripen.
Everyday is a joy to sit outside, especially in
the mornings, with a hot cup of coffee and enjoying nature.
Sometimes I will list items on Etsy that I really
never expect to sell. Sometimes it is
something funny; sometimes beautiful; and sometimes very expensive. When it comes to really fine embroidery with
lots of stitches and very time consuming, the price tends to get high. Sometimes it is just difficult to price
items. Nevertheless, I had a beautiful
white handkerchief listed. It has a hefty
lace border and is very elegant. I
listed it several months ago for $60. I
knew it would never sell but I wanted to show what we can do, as well as get
people to visit the store to see what kind of hanky would cost $60. As it turned out, a few weeks ago a gentleman
made an appointment to come over and look at ladies handkerchiefs for a special
occasion for his daughter. He bought the
lace handkerchief for $45. I gave him a
discount because he really liked the hanky and he was a nice guy. Rather than take the handkerchief off of
Etsy, I made another one. It sold last
week for $60. I was pleasantly surprised,
again. Maybe there is hope for the $90
hanky that is listed on Etsy.
Lately I’ve been working on my continuous
embroidery skills. Continuous embroidery
is where you hoop a design and stitch it.
The design is too large for the hoop, so, after the first hooping, you
re-hoop to stitch the continuation of the design. I’m working on some beautiful edges.
It started when I purchased the European pillows
from my friend, Pandora de Balthazar.
They needed pillowcases and I didn’t have any that fit. So, I made a set. Pillowcases are easy to make. The edges of the pillowcases needed to be
finished and such special pillows deserved some special pillowcases. I used some heirloom designs and a bit of
creativity and voila we had pillowcases.
They were so beautiful that I took photos and posted them on
FaceBook. Almost immediately we got an
order.
Another project with the continuous embroidery is
a scarf that I finished this past week.
It is just a poly blend kind of fabric but the embroidered edges and
ends are gorgeous. Again, it is done in
white on white. I figured out the cost
and listed it in our Etsy Store today for $150.00.
Lots of embroidery has been created lately. Beautiful baby bibs, pillows, and patches,
but I’ll save that for another issue. In
the meantime . . .
HAVE A GREAT MEMORIAL DAY
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Cajun Stitchery
(850) 261-2462
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all of the catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.
