We've Had a Touch of Winter, and That's Enough, Thank You

We've had a couple of days of brutal winds and dropping temperatures, then yesterday morning we got up to a glaze of ice on everything.  That's enough winter for me.  Thanks very much and all that, but it can be warm now.

 

It actually turned out to be not so bad yesterday.  Because of the ice, my husband took the pick-up truck to work, so that left me high and dry at home with no vehicle that I could drive.  The trusty old Saturn is at the shop, and DH's Mini-Cooper has standard transmission.  I, alas, have never learned to drive a stick, so I stayed home yesterday and did some laundry, did a bit of tidying, and baked cookies.  All in all, okay for a chilly day.

 

Today started out warm, but turned blustery and cold -- a perfect day to stitch the afternoon away.  I worked on the wookie quite a bit.  Here's how he looked last Sunday when I put him away:

 

I worked on him a little bit during the week, then made some good progress today.  Here's where we are now:

I'm putting a narrow border around him to give him a bit of a frame.  I'm about half finished with him.

 

I also worked on Salina Dunwoody last weekend.  The little dark blue line in the middle of the design is the start of the roof of a house.  I do like this piece and need to buckle down and get her off the WIP pile. 

 

I also did a spot of baking last weekend.

These are called Mini Chocolate-Cherry Bundt Cakes, and the recipe is from Food Network.  I saw it on the Pioneer Woman show; I love Ree's recipes because as a rule they don't require unusual ingredients that I have to order from Amazon because no grocery in three states carries them.  Her recipes use ingredients that I usually have or can get easily.  These turned out really well and they're not difficult to make.  The recipe should be here, if you've a mind to give them a go.  The recipe does call for a special mini bundt cake baking pan; I found mine on Amazon (where else!).

Wishing everyone the happiest of whatever holiday or holidays you celebrate -- and, as always, happy stitching!

Holy Clothespins, Batman!

After my dad passed away last spring, Mom made the decision to move to an independent living facility.  She's on a waiting list for a place, and in the meantime my sister and I are helping her clean out the house and get it ready to go on the market when the time comes.  It's difficult for all of us, of course; she and Dad built the house in 1961, and it's where my sister and I grew up.  So, not so easy.  But that's not what this post is about.

 

When I was home a few weeks ago, my sister and I were working in the basement when my sister came across a clothespin bag.  We have no idea how old it is or who it belonged to, my mom or my grandmother.  I don't remember seeing it as a child, so I wonder if it might have been my grandmother's.  If it was Mom's, I figure it's maybe mid-fifties vintage.  Mom and Dad were married in 1954, so if it's hers, she probably got it sometime after that.  Anyway, my sister loves vintage linens -- as do I -- and she decided that she would take this little bag home and try to clean it up.  Yesterday, she sent me some before and after pics.

 

This is one of the before pictures.  As you can see, it needed a LOT of cleaning!  It was, in a word, nasty, but still cute as it can be.  This is the front.

 

And the back.  It looks worse than the front.

 

And under the skirt on the front.  Ick.

Just a close-up of the pattern.  I think it looks very 50-ish or early 60-ish.

If you take another look at the picture of the back, you can see this spot near the lower left corner.

 

So my sis got to work.  The first mixture that she treated it with was just water with -- ready for this? -- Efferdent.  I kid you not.  Apparently Efferdent is good for lifting stains out of old linens.  I had never heard of such a thing.  She told me that she treated the bag several times with different mixtures; I think the Efferdent was only step one.  Finally she decided that it was as good as it was going to get.  And if you ask me, as good as it's going to get is pretty remarkable.  At some point along the way the red faded so the top of the "dress" is now kind of pinkish, but I think it's still adorable.  Take a look: 

 The stain on the bottom left wouldn't come out completely, but it still looks pretty darned good.  The bag's new home will be her sewing room.

I've been working on my quilt square, and the Wookie is looking more like a Wookie.  It's a pretty quick stitch -- large blocks of the same color, and no confetti.  He'll meet the design size requirement for the quilt block as he is, but I'm planning to stitch a border around him, just to make the picture a little larger and break up some of the white space on the block.

That's pretty much it from my little corner of the world.  Here's hoping that everyone has a good week -- happy stitching!