A little sewing

Hello, everyone.

Last week, before the storm hit, there was a little bit of sewing accomplished.

DH had said he wants to have another mask. (This brings him to three.) I thought I'd make one for myself, too, and the piece cut from the cranes fabric turned out to be large enough for two. These are all a larger size than the pattern called for, the flowers at 9.5" wide and the others at 9.75", I think. I underlined all of them with some gray voile that has been lying around the sewing space for years. 

If travel to Spain ever opens up--the news media seem determined to panic-monger their way into no one ever being allowed to travel ever again!--I will get to decide which one or two masks gets to go with me. 

The plan is, use common sense and courtesy. This works out to carrying a mask and if the people in an area are wearing them, pull it out of the pocket and put it on. (That's the courtesy part.) There is also the abiding thought that perhaps this is not the year to really try to stay in the group bunk houses (albergues) and where there is a pensión or similar, stay there instead. (That is the common-sense part.) I remember that the county west of ours, even before masks became a "thing" in our area, was very much into wearing them to contain germs during the current outbreak of "stuff." It is my thought that if a village or town is wearing the masks, even if there isn't a law requiring it, courtesy recommends the rule of St. Augustine: "when in Rome, I do as the Romans do."

Pretty doggie

Hello, everyone.

It has been busy around the old homestead this past week, with both canine and youthful visitors. Very little embroidery work was done, very little walking-with-camera was done, and to cap it off we had the edge of a hurricane this weekend.

The happy hostess of the canine houseguests. 

The reaction of the baby Caribbean Tree Cacti to the almost nonstop rain during the night and off and on all day. They had to be picked up from their pan, the water dumped, and then be put back. The pan was moved farther from the edge of the porch, too.

Hoping to resume more usual activity levels in a few days!

A new idea for fidgets

Hello, everyone.

As anyone who has searched the internet for "fidget mat" or "dementia fidget" has seen, a lot of people know someone who would profit from having one of these things.

The trend of fidget devices visible online seems to be going for more and more complexity--almost more of a manual dexterity exercise device. (These are fabric ones, mostly, but you can see images of "hard goods" made of wood and having mechanical things on the surface. Those probably are more for manual dexterity than simple fidgeting IMHO.) The many things being put onto the face of the fabric fidget often seems to obscure the ground fabric altogether. 

I was talking to someone about fidgets a little while back and we agreed that some of the really popular additions (zippers) don't seem to be as desired by actual Alzheimers patients or other dementia patients we have known. As she said, "Mom just wanted to rub her fingers over the surface." I suspect that while some people really like opening and closing a zipper, many are more interested in rubbing their fingers over the texture of the ground fabric.

Also having a very large and busy fidget means taking a lot more time with choosing objects and attachments. If one wishes to make a bunch of fidgets, and doesn't actually know the peoples' interests and hobbies at the time of making, it becomes more difficult.

Thus a new, simpler model that can be made fairly quickly and has lots of finger-rubbing space:

The front: fur, with a small ring that can be turned if the person wants to. It doesn't require a lot of space to use, and can be held in the lap with ease.

The back. I was playing with scraps in the sewing room here. It's more of a colorful bonus than the star of the show.

The fur in the front was quilted to the patched back before the ring was sewn down on its ribbon.

It goes together easily, and it's small enough that a visitor can pick it up and bring it over to their friend without having to fold it for transport. 

Just for pretty

Hello, everyone.

While doing things in the yard this morning, before the day's heat hit, I found some pretty and some cheerful things to photograph. (Yay for having the phone in my pocket!)

First, the cheerful ones:

The tiny white dots are Green Lacewing eggs. They're a cheerful sight because the larvae, and also the adults of this insect love, love, love to eat aphids. Possibly also mites! 

And the plumeria blossoms are "just for pretty!" I have been giving a spritz of the avocado tonic from Gary's Best Gardening to various other plants on the way by, so to speak. The plumeria has rewarded me by going into blooming mode. (Link goes to Mr. Matsuo's Youtube video on avocado care. Very interesting!) The native pepper plant has also done that--many tiny white blooms followed by incandescently hot oblong peppers. 

The pillow is finished

Hello, everyone.

The pillow is finished. (Unless I decide it needs a ribbon added, that is!)

Perhaps it does need some ribbon. Little bows scattered around? A big one at the bottom? No, that won't fit really. Maybe it can be played with a little.

At any rate, the round pillow form and the "spare" tree block have found a purpose. And for a bonus, it's actually an envelope back pillow cover, so I could conceivable make more round pillow covers and change them with the seasons.

A new sewing project under way

Hello, everyone.

I have begun a new sewing project--well, it uses a previously sewn orphan block, so it might be called stash usage instead.

This "chenille" Christmas tree block was made by mistake when I was at the Jingle All The Way class at A Block Away. (Selected the wrong size in the pattern choice screen. Oops. there are a LOT of items in that set of patterns, it's important to read the size and check the book before starting to sew it out.) As there isn't any place for the small chenille tree in the quilt, and none of the bonus projects seems to have a spot for it either, the block has languished in my sewing studio. 

I noticed a round pillow form, likewise languishing in disuse, tucked into the tub of "things" and after some mental experimentation concluded that the tree block needed to be a round block to make it look nice. And as the pillow form is 14 inches, there will be a surrounding gathered bit to connect the tree block fabric to the side seams of the pillow. Whether to put a bit of piping in is still up in the air.

This required a nice round circle to be made on the block for trimming. Also for seaming, of course!

Enter my Janome circle sewing guide.

 

Above right, the cute little gizmo almost ready to do its thing. The black bit sticking up is the protective cover on the *sharp* tack point. This is the trick that makes the fabric go in a pretty circle with no divots or bobbles in the line.

Above left, the tack cover was removed and the tree was centered on the tack. I placed the tack cover GENTLY on the point as I'm not fond of bleeding on the work. 

Left, the back of the package, showing where it goes on the machine. 

This worked out very well.

I gathered the border strip in the usual way with a row of long-ish stitches and gentle pulling. It's currently in the process of being basted onto the seam line y'all see in the top left photo. After the basting (hand basting, don't faint, sometimes it's the only way) is done, I will stitch the ruffle down, make the two parts for an envelope closure on the back, and assemble the pillow. 

A new flower in the garden

Hello, everyone.

Before we were living here, the people who did live here planted a lot of flowers...shrubs, bigger shrubs, and a leaning, viney sort of thing.

The leaning, viney sort of thing sprouted back up about a year after the flower beds were cleaned up and the bulbs moved to pots. 

We didn't know what to make of it.  It came up in the middle of the native (chile pequin) pepper we have there, and we didn't want to destroy the pepper to get this other oddity out. Thus it continued to grow.

It has now commenced to flowering.

This striking trumpet shaped blossom is 5 to 6 inches across...times 2.54 is around 15 cm. for my metric-zone readers. 

Digging around on the interwebs gives me the name Allamanda. It is a tropical vine, climbs by leaning, so it needs to be tied to a support, and is said to have a scent. We will probably tie it to the pergola column and grid overhead so it can bloom without being in the way.

It's the same color of yellow as the esperanza bush that is also blooming right now, in the very teeth of the 100⁰F weather. 

You might wonder why we have a chile pequin pepper growing in the flower bed. It attracts the mockingbirds, who sing beautifully and are entertaining when they chase animals and people away from their favorite berry bushes. Also if you pick the ripe tiny peppers before the birds get them, you can dry them or make (scaldingly hot) pepper sauce.

A pretty butterfly

Hello, everyone.

On this, the anniversary of our nation's Declaration of Independence, a lighter post:

DH saw a new butterfly flying around the yard. When she perched in the palapa, he caught this photo.

DD tells us that she is a Mexican Blue-wing. She's certainly a pretty little creature!

Happy Fourth of July to all.