This and that

This may not be an entirely appropriate post for December, given that most people are showing off pretty party outfits, Christmas gifts they’re making, but I have pictures, and if I don’t post this now …

Leftovers of linen from my pink tunic got cut up into kitchen towels.

What’s more appropriate than linen for tea towels?  And then I discovered that I had some printed fabric with watermelons that I could use for appliques.  Then came the (seemingly) endless discussions with myself on how to deal with the appliques – to fuse or not to fuse – to stitch by machine or by hand – I can take the decision process to extremes and drag out the getting done for a very, very long time, even for something as simple as a few tea towels from scraps.  After all – once I decide and actually do, I’ll be stuck with the results – forever.  Oh, for heaven’s sake – it’s only tea towels!  And why do I have to justify to myself – or to anyone else, for that matter – how I choose to stick on appliques to tea towels?  I did them by hand.

That made for the neatest looking back side.  Besides, it also gave me the opportunity to practise small neat stitches.

And then there was the case of the ugly old pillow slip.  I came across it when I was sorting out my mother’s things.  A linen pillow slip for a square pillow that was not in any way still suited for display in the living room.  It was so worn that there were holes in the linen, and the embroidery was all but rubbed off.  Garbage.  But I couldn’t throw it away.  The embroidery was probably done by my grandmother, or more likely my great grandmother (because I don’t remember my grandmother being particularly good with a needle, or even picking up a needle, for that matter).  Add to that, the fact, that when fleeing for their lives, someone in the family actually thought to throw this pillow slip into their suitcase.  It was probably in sad shape even then.  It’s a family heirloom – if you can call it that.  I took it apart.  Found another piece of equally sad linen in my mother’s stuff that should probably have been thrown out.  Backed both with some fusible interfacing to keep the fabric from falling apart in the places where it was threatening to produce more holes.  Patched the existing holes.

Front

Back

Then cut it, sewed it up and now I have a bag to hold my plastic bags that hangs in the kitchen.  It may not be the most beautiful thing in the world, but for my lifetime it will continue to be of some use, as well as a reminder of people who came before me.