Patty's Potato Chip

Day 296: Yesterday, the Potato Chip Quilt arrived at its final destination, taking my sister-of-the-heart Patty quite by surprise. Oh, I'd baited her with a tracking number so that she could follow a Mystery Box as it travelled across the country, but had given her no clues as to what it contained. The third member of our triumvirate was in on the secret, keeping her lips zipped as tightly as mine. I wanted her to share in the suspense and the moment of revelation. Now both of my "sisters" have quilts I hand-stitched, although Mousie's was pieced by her grandmother about seventy years years ago.

Quilting is one of the ways I've kept sane through the pandemic. When I finish the one currently on the frame about two weeks from now, it will be the seventh one I've made since covid protocols became a new way of life. Of those seven, one was quilted with the sewing machine and one was tied, using buttons at the anchor points, but the other five were all hand-quilted to make the puff pattern visible on the back side (photo, right). This stitching helps stabilize the batting, although modern batts don't tend to lump like the cotton ones of yesteryear. I find hand-quilting very relaxing, even meditative, and I am grateful to the friend who gave me her old quilting frame which has made the job even more enjoyable. As much as I love piecing the bright colours and arranging them, I am truly in my métier when doing hand-stitchery. One hand remains above the quilt, the other beneath it, driving the needle straight down or straight up, striving to keep my stitches uniform and aligned. As my mother often said, "A thing worth doing is worth doing well," and I try to live by her philosophy. Even so, my hand-work is far less meticulous than that of my great-grandmother who, although I barely knew her, has served to inspire me in the art of quilting.

Elegant Mousetrap

Day 120: A semi-surprise Valentine's gift from one of my two sisters-of-the-heart arrived in yesterday's mail, "semi" because my other sister-of-the-heart accidentally let the cat...mouse...out of the bag because hers arrived a day earlier. That said, although I knew the package contained L. A. Burdick's wonderfully delicious chocolate mice, I did not know they had been confined in wooden box wrapped with a red ribbon and sealed with a wax imprint. Talk about building a better mousetrap! This eminently elegant device had captured nine, three each of three different species. All are feather-light ganache at their hearts, flavoured either with orange juice, port wine or espresso/kirsch. The sister who inadvertently revealed the surprise goes by the nickname of Goldfinch. And for the gift itself, I thank the other sister...Mousie! (Hmmmm...wonder if anybody makes chocolate crows?)

Mitts For A Mouse

Day 144: A couple of weeks ago, one of my sisters-of-the-heart asked me to make some fingerless gloves for her. A check of my knitting books yielded nothing, so I designed them to her specifications, based loosely on a simple mitten pattern. There were a few details to work out, particularly in regard to the number of stitches which could be worked in a decorative motif across the back of the hand while leaving the palm unpatterned. I chose a honeycomb, a four-stitch repeat worked over 24 stitches. Per Mousie's request, I made the cuffs extra-long and used a soft-textured, neutral grey yarn. The pattern will be filed away for future reference.