Of beeps and cats, slipcovers and courtesy

Oh dear God, save me from beeping things!

Have you seen that commercial on TV? I think it is about a car battery or a car, but it shows a guy on a ladder caught between beeping smoke alarms. Well, that was my night. I awoke about 1 a.m. to a kind of weak beeping noise (does that sound like the old lady in Christmas Vacation 'What's that squeaking sound?').

Could it be the door alarm?

Earlier in the evening, yesterday, a young man had come to the house after dark and knocked (rather forcefully) on our front door. I'm a rural Midwesterner by birth and my Mama raised me to answer doors, phones, and questions with dispatch and courtesy. My instincts kicked in and I arose, but it was after dark. For some perverse reason I turned on the porch light and then peeked out of the window. When I saw a stranger, I turned off the light and went back to my chair. It was rude. He could have hurt himself in the dark (although he made his way up to the door by the street light's glow). Still it bothered me. It was discourteous and I could have made him angry. Maybe he returned.... And those are the thoughts that sprang to mind when I heard the beeping sound.

It could be the door alarms. It could be the security system. It could be my husband's breathing machine telling me he was in distress. It could be the smoke detector.... At 1:15 a.m. I prowled through the house. Nope, nope, nope. Nope. None of the usual suspects. Back to bed and up again at 2:15 a.m. By 3:15 the beeping was getting stronger and seemed more like a whistle. And then I realized it was the low battery warning on an overhead lift contraption we have in our bedroom. Since my husband has ALS and since the disease will eventually make his body totally turn on him, not allowing him to move even a toe, the system will eventually be my best friend. Right now it stands guard over us from a far wall until it is needed. And as I remember this happening once before with the only solution to buy and replace the batteries, I knew it would be a long beeping night. And no my dear husband didn't awake. He slept blissfully through it all. 

I certainly didn't need the beeping sound nor the sleepless night. My pillow turned hard as a rock and I couldn't get comfortable. The blankets were too few or too many. I flipped them on and off. I rolled to the left, rolled to the right, sat up and then flopped on my stomach. I finally flipped back, giving up and staring at the dark ceiling.



Marcel and Bernie in happier times



Except while waiting for the next beep, I started redecorating the living room and came to the conclusion now that our last pet -- dear Marcel -- has died, I can have furniture with upholstery unsnagged by cat claws! Its been more than 30 years since I've lived in a cat-less house and the concept is new to me and dare I say engaging. I'll miss furry hugs, whisker tickles, and his body snuggled next to mine on the couch, but maybe a house without cat hair might be novel.

Marcel died peacefully after a stroke and several weeks (maybe months) of feeding him with a spoon and straw and cleaning up after him as he lay motionless on a towel. I carried him from room to room, and we watched movies together (I think he got quite addicted to Downton Abbey). His final moments were on our porch, soaking up the warmth of a sunbeam. His struggles are over and he looked quite peaceful and free of pain.

But back to my beeping night of redecorating thoughts. I had seen a house on an episode of Foyle's War. Doesn't everyone get their inspiration from old British movies?

It was a cheerful yellow, white trim and bright touches of color from the orange family -- burnt orange, I think. I'm thinking I would like to live in a house with those colors. It seems cheerful and soothing at the same time. Bright. Maybe kind of traditional in flavor? It would work well with my beloved Jacobean designs? So this morning I saw this wonderful little chair in this cheerful bright room and all of my genes that are looking for home are shouting at me "This is it, this is home...." (See photo above).

So, now that I have never made slipcovers or reupholstered furniture, I am contemplating jumping in with both feet. I've made pillows of course. And the back and seat of my chair and loveseat are loose pillows. But I'm not sure about the frame.... Any tips or suggestions?

Wait, wait! I hear that beeping sound again. That damn lift! No wait. There's a chorus of beeps. A harmony of chirps. Listen. Ahhhhh a good beeping sound. The coffemaker is telling me that the morning elixer is prepared.

Happy Saturday everyone and may all of your beeps be happy ones.

Little Projects Carry Big Impact



Several pillows I have made plus the
blue ribbon embroidery pillow that I dream of making, Note
the angel pillow in the foreground. It is the prototype using
 Linda Goodmon Emery's design. 



It seemed that my family, even extended family, was complete before I was born. I came late, born four years after my cousins; seven years after my brother. An after thought always trying to catch up. One of those change-of-life surprises that was too little to do whatever the other kids were doing.

Two female cousins, Deb and Mary,  both four years older than me, had fun playing house with me when I was a baby and endured me trailing after them for the next decade or so.

Then we all graduated, married, went our separate ways and raised our kids. Sadly the next generation of cousins are all strangers to one another. And my generation had become separated until about ten years ago when the three of us discovered each other on email and began corresponding. The timing couldn't have been better. Suddenly age didn't matter and we were all empty nesters facing similar challenges.

We emailed daily and thought of ourselves as angels -- we saved each other from the trials of our lives. Just days after connecting with another cousin, Mary's older sister and sharing a bond that the years had prohibited in the past, she died. The three of us leaned heavily on each other to survive the shock and loss.

Death, relocations, illness, husbands, kids and more. When Mary was diagnosed with colon cancer we were all devastated, but tried to be supportive and encouraging via email.

Emailing, using words,  wasn't enough and one day while sewing, I decided to make us each a small angel pillow. I cut 8-1/2-inch squares from a cotton muslin fabric and drew a primitive angel shape in the middle -- just a triangle with a circle on top and a line for a halo. And of course the angel wings. I added batting and backing and stitched the outline and then some background filler. It was intended to be primitive, unpretentious, a symbol of a simpler life.

At the time I made them, I only knew the old-fashioned way to sew trapunto. So I cut a slit in the back of the angel and added some stuffing until the angel had a satisfactory plumpness. After stitching that slit shut, I sewed this square to the pillow back and made a pillow form to put inside of it. The back was made of two halves that overlapped so it would be easy to take the cover off and put it on the pillow form.

Mary took her pillow with her to the hospital.

The day of her surgery, I lit a candle. Prayed, paced, wished I wasn't hundreds of miles away. And tried to have a normal day -- laundry, cooking, cleaning and writing. Her daughter had promised to call as soon as they had something to report. The phone rang and her daughter was crying. I was crying and then she said, "No, no, I'm crying because I'm happy. No cancer. They found NO CANCER!"

That's been about seven years ago. Our angel pillows have gotten us through several major life crisis since then. Someone wiser than I noted that life is a series of crisis and events and should be expected. They are part of the journey. But nowhere is it written that we must face life alone. 

I've made a few angel pillows for friends and other family members as they face tough decisions or life events. I won't say the pillows have magical powers, but so far they have a high rate of good results. Maybe its the love with which they are made, the prayers said over each stitch, or maybe just the good wishes I send with each pillow. Of course it could be none of the above.

Free pattern for personal use.

But, I'm a firm believer that little gifts can make strong ripples in the universe of friends. Recently Mary emailed her news -- I have a pollup that must be removed. We're dusting off our angel pillows.

Life and its tests and challenges never stop, do they? Maybe, just maybe a little soft pillow will cushion the blows a little. I've been feeling the need to make some small projects and the pillows were at the top of my list. I have a few ideas I want to try -- include a sachet inside so they are scented. Maybe some lavender? Also I'd use Karen MacTavish's technique for trapunto and I'd like to practice my machine quilting.

I come from blue collar roots where everything must have a purpose and work is what is valued. So to practice my quilting or any technique, I must be making a useable object. Thus the pillows are excellent practice pieces for all kinds of techniques. A friend who is a master knitter said that knitting children's items is how she 'practiced' new techniques. They are small, take less yarn and give her a chance to practice, practice, practice. The pillows are along the same idea -- nothing goes to waste and they are a great way to use up small pieces of fabric or scraps of trims, mismatched buttons -- whatever you feel like using. Even a good way to practice your painting.

If you need a pattern for this little angel, I drew upon Linda Goodmon Emery's "A Treasury of Quilting Designs." Or here's a free angel pattern with a little heart, too.

A book recently sent to me from AQS offers alot of perfect quilting patterns for small pillows as well as other projects that are nature inspired. Quilting Designs from Nature by Lone J. Minkkinen is a delightful combination of a main element surrounded by easy to machine quilt motifs, drawn in such a way that they can be stitched without lifting the needle. And it is downloadable as well as in print.

I realize I have been not added to this blog in far too long. I hope to pick up where I left off. There are a few glitches in the downloads, etc. I guess the technology used here is out of date and won't accept new, so I'm not sure what that will mean.

Daily, I try to post comments and sites that inspire me on the Subversive Stitchers facebook page. So please drop by and chime right in! The more the merrier!