The Blankie

Brombeere likes to sew, there's no doubt about that. Over the years that I've known her she's sewn clothes, blankets, placemats, table runners, wall hangings, doll clothes; all kinds of stuff.  Kids and grandkids provide an excellent excuse to sew.  And so she does.  Initially it was a great way to save money.  Now, if she had a hobby, we would have to say it was sewing. 

Christmas is the busiest time of year, many of the gifts she gives are things she's sewn.  It's not uncommon at all for her to start a Christmas project weeks or even months ahead of Christmas.  This year she decided she wanted to make a camping blanket for Moosbeere (among other gift projects) so she began in June gathering ideas for patterns, material, and designs.  Once she settled on a design she started going through her stash of cloth and thread to see what material she already had and what she needed to get.  It was actually a few weeks later, after picking the pattern and assembling all the cloth, that she actually began sewing.

This quilt was going to be a block quilt so each block had to be sewn.  This blanket was also going to be big enough for a king-sized bed.  So there were quite a few blocks to make.  64 blocks in total.  Then each block has some boarder between them.  Then, once all the individual blocks were done, they all had to be sewn together.  It was a few months after she first began sewing before she had the whole top done.

This quilt was to have a rugged, outdoor theme to it, suitable for camping. This blankie was intended to be a camp quilt so, in addition to a rugged design, it also needed to be of sturdy material.

As the sewing continued, it began to take shape and started looking more and more like a quilt.

Then, around all those blocks, there was a boarder.

At last, with the top all done, it was time to put it on her quilting frames for tying it all together.  

Years ago Brombeere found some pretty nice quilting frames at a yard sale.  All the piece were there but what was real nice was that they fit together on a rack when they weren't in use.  That has turned out to be a pretty nice way to keep track of all the pieces in between uses.  Of course, teh long, cross pieces are anothr matter.  But still ...  And it had been a while since Brombeere had done a quit large enough that she needed them.  

Part of putting a quilt on the frame is putting the different layers together, the top, the batting, and the underside of the quilt.

So it took a while to lay out the top and trim it.

Then she had to lay out the batting and trim it to the top.

Then she needed to attach the bottom of the quilt, which had already been trimmed to fit the other pieces, to the frames. Some frames are made with wood soft enough that you can attach the fabric using thumb tacks.  That holds the material in place while you're tying it.

Alas, the frames Brombeere has are made of hardwood.   Pretty darn hard to get a thumb tack into it.  So years ago she had drilled a series of holes in the boards and now she just sews the material to the frames.  And that's what she did with this one.

That took a while.  But eventually it was done and everything was ready to lay the three layers of fabric together on the frames, ready to start tying.

Getting all three layers together on the frame proved to be a bit challenging, mostly because of the size of the quilt.

Brombeere needed a little more help than I could provide.  So she called Himbeere and they came over.  With four of us to hold the frames while Brombeere put the three layers together we were able to get it done.  The weight of all the cloth kept pulling the frame stands so they would tip over.  So we had to have extra people to hold them upright.  But we were finally able get it done.

Then there was just a little bit more work to make sure all the layers of fabric were laying smooth and wrinkle free, and sufficiently square on the frames, thoroughly pinned together to keep in place. 

It was at this point that Brombeere was able to roll the blanket on the frames so that the entire blanket wasn't out open.  That makes it easier to reach out into the middle of the blanket while doing the tying. Then the slow step of tying it all, individual stiches to hold it all in place during its years of use, rolling it as she went so that the area she was working on was out where she could reach.

It's tying a blanket that everyone usually thinks of when they think of making quilts.  Many people, me included, have memories of playing under the blanket while all the ladies, usually moms, aunts, and grandmas, gathered around the blanket to tie it.  The old fashion "quilting bees", all the hand stitching around quilting frames.  Sometimes the kids under the blanket were actually helping, pushing needles back up to the ladies on the top side.  But usually they were just playing and listening to all the talking among the ladies.  You could learn a lot listening in on such conversation.  It was a great social occasion.

Anyway, once she was done tying while it was on the frame there was still a little detail work to do. So it came off the frame and then began the finish work.

She decided it needed a little more stitching but she would be able to do that with it off the frames.  So she spread it out over the piano bench and across the floor, and put in the extra stitches.

Then she took it back to her machine and did the finish edging.

And at 4:15 pm on November 5th (a Friday) Brombeere pronounced it "done".  And it was.

So we played in it, snuggled in it ...

... curled up in it, and generally enjoyed this marvelous blanket.  And it was good.

So now, seven weeks before Christmas, it was done.  Of course, because it's a Christmas present, I can't really post this until after it's been given and opened.  I wouldn't want to spoil any surprise.  That would be bad form.  So when you're reading this, Merry Christmas!

It Happened Again!

A while back, we had an engagement happen at our house.  And now it has happened again! The other day Stachelbeere and his friend were here visiting.  While they were here they went for a drive. He took her on a drive to show her the places where he grew up, the house, the town, the school, all the places he'd played and worked while growing up.  Then, after they got back, they spent some quiet time, away from the crowd that had accumulated at our house, downstairs in the family room.

The boy had a plan.  He'd enlisted his mother's help to provide them with some uninterrupted quiet time. He had put together a playlist of music they both liked and then they danced.  It was simple but nice.  Then, after some time dancing and talking, in the quiet of the family room, he popped the question and she said yes! 

A little later, when everyone at the house was gathered together, the happy couple announced they had gotten engaged.  Of course, they were peppered with questions like When is the wedding? Where will you get married? Where will you live?  All the things that everyone is curious about and wants to know but to which it's too soon to have any answers.  So everyone will have to patiently wait while plans develop.  But for today, we are happy for them. It's an exciting time!

As with the last one, we had seen this coming.  Still, it's so marvelous when it happens. So we get to welcome another wonderful person into our life to stay. I like that. I really like that.

The Wall

A few years ago Moosbeere was visiting and noticed a crack in the stonework on the front of our house.  Being as interested in construction as he is, he got looking at it closely and came to the conclusion that the south wall of our basement had not had sufficient support put it in, particularly around the windows, to hold the weight of the house above it and so had settled, cracking the stonework.  The solution, he said, was simple - just jack up the floor boards above the wall and add some additional support in the way of an additional 2"x4" to both sides of both windows on the south wall.  That may seem like a simple idea to someone with a masters degree and several years of experience in commercial construction but to me it was a little more than I wanted to tackle on my own.  We also didn't have the money to hire it done at that point so it had to wait. After a year or two, the damage began to extend beyond the crack in the stonework. The windows in the basement began to move and crack as well.  Pretty soon, in the winter, the cold midwestern air could come in and and make our basement pretty cold, even after we filled the openings and covered the windows with stuff to slow the airflow and provide a little extra insulation. That began to add a little urgency to the project.

Fortunately, we were able to come up with the money to make the repairs this year. We began talking to a friend, who runs a small construction company, about doing the work back in the summer, back when the pandemic was still fairly new. The economy was just beginning to loosen back up. While the shutdown was in place his company's work had really dropped off but as things began to open back up he suddenly found he was very busy. He asked us if we had any kind of time frame to get the work done and we said we were just hoping to get it done before it got cold again. He said that shouldn't be a problem. In early fall we ordered new windows, we actually decided to replace all four windows in our basement. They weren't all damaged but we wanted them all to match. And they were all pretty old anyway. The work of adding the additional support to the wall was going to be done around replacing the windows. So during the weeks we were waiting we began cleaning out the basement, partly because we needed to be able to get to the wall, and partly because we wanted to start using the basement as living space again, instead of just storage space. After all, we had already started working in that direction by redoing the bedroom in the basement.

Finally, after a production delay because of the pandemic, the windows were ready and the work could start.  It had gotten a little farther into the winter than we'd hoped but there wasn't much to do - we had to wait on the windows.  

So the drapes came down and the paneling came off, exposing the inside of the wall.

They had a nifty little jack that raised up a section of the wall at a time. So, beginning at the west end of the area, where the sag was the worse, they jacked the wall up ...

... and stuck in an extra support.

That process was repeated a few times along the south wall until additional support had been added all along the wall.

They had measured the sag all along the wall before they began but as they worked, jacking and adding support as they went, the sag began to go away, until when they got to the east end of the wall the sag was nearly gone even without adding any that last, final support. Still, they put that last board in anyway.

Then, the next day, the window people came and install the new windows. They had engaged a local window company for that. In this shot (above), they were half done with the first window, the right side is the new window while the left side is the old window. Quite the contrast.

On the south wall, there are two windows but they actually count as two windows each. So, really, there were six windows being put in, those along the south wall and two more along the east wall. That's every window in the basement. It went fairly quick but it still took most of the day before he had them all in. He had to come back the next day to do just a little more work and put some trim on. But soon enough the new windows were in and we were ready to put the wall back together.

We had taken paneling off but decided we wanted to put drywall back instead. A much nicer look than the ugly paneling. And it's a little better for insulation as well. Not much, but a little. So up it went. 

Once the new walls were up and painted we also wanted to make some changes to the lights. For the whole the room, running the whole length of the house from west to east, the only ceiling lights were two florescent light panels in the suspended ceiling, both down on the east end of the room. They have always seemed oddly placed as well.  At least to me. They weren't in line with each other, they were offset from each other, in different rows of the ceiling tiles. And they didn't put out a whole lot of light, either. So we moved the first one closer to the east wall and the second one row farther to the west, more to the center of the whole, long room. And also we put them in the same row. Then we also added a third light, again in the same row as the other two, down on the west end of the room, in the family room area. Boy, did that ever brighten up that end of the room!

All that also required rewiring the switches. It worked out well because there were two switches that didn't do anything, they didn't control any lights in the basement. Maybe at one time, way back in the past, before we ever owned the house, they might have. But for the whole time we've lived here they did nothing.  

It actually worked out very well. Now each light is on its own switch and you can have as many of them on or off as you want. If Brombeere is going to be sewing in her space on the east end of the room, we can leave the rest of the basement dark. Likewise, if we're going to be watching TV or something in the west end of the room, we don't have to light up the whole basement. And we replaced the old lights with new ones, much more energy efficient and much brighter. Saves electricity, right? A much nicer arrangement, I think.

Once the new windows were in, framed, and all the painting done, along with the changes to the ceiling lights, we were finally ready to begin putting back all the furniture.

Brombeere rearranged her sewing area some, she added a little extra space and changed the layout of the table, cabinets, and other furniture.  She likes the new layout much better.  it's more roomy and easier to work in.  The downside is that by the time all this work was done, most of her Christmas sewing was pretty much one.  But, wow, is she ever ready for the next sewing project.  And the whole of the basement looks way better, is much more livable.  

In fact, since we put the new TV down there, it has actually become our preferred space for watching TV, on those occasions that we do watch TV.  Pretty nice!

The Perfect Storm

Three things came together this year to create a very happy girl.  The first thing was Brombeere's love of sewing.  Brombeere has long enjoyed sewing; she is happiest when she's sewing things for others, whether with her machine or handwork. In fact, the vast majority of things she sews she gives away.  She's been this way for as long as I've known her. 

Brombeere began this year with an old Pfaff sewing machine that she has had for a very long time. Brombeere got this machine when the local high school decided to replace their stable of sewing machines, used for their home skills classes, and sold them all to whomever was interested. Unfortunately, Pfaff, the company (founded in Germany in 1862) that made the machine, quit making this model of machine over twenty years ago. That was part of why the high school decided to replace them. Gradually, parts became harder and harder to find until a few years ago, the shop that Brombeere usually takes her machine to when it needs attention, told her they weren't going to be able to get parts much longer. They could keep fixing it as long as they could get whatever part was needed but eventually she was going to need a part that was no longer available.  So she began watching "the market", so she could replace her machine.  Last October she found a machine she liked at a price she liked.  Remember, this is the girl who seldom pays full price for anything, she's really good at catching things she wants on sale.

And so it was that Brombeere got a new sewing machine.  And this one actually was brand, spanking new!  A brand new Janome machine.  I'd never heard of that brand before but that's beside the point.  The day it was delivered, she was pretty excited to get it in the house and unpacked.  

Of course, as soon as it was out of the box she had to start playing with it, trying out the fancy stitches it could do and getting to know it.  Technology had changed quite a bit since she last bought a machine and it didn't take her long to decide she was going to like this new toy! One thing she noticed pretty quick was that she could see her bobbin thread; no more learning it was empty by noticing the lack of thread running through the needle as she sewed merrily along!  Happiness! One comment she's made several times as she got sewing with her new machine was that she hadn't realized just how hard it had become to sew with her old machine until she got the new one and found how easy it was to sew with; it quickly brought back all the joy of sewing she hadn't even realized had gradually been lost as her old machine slowly wore out. So that was the first element of the perfect storm: a new machine.  

The second element in the perfect storm was that Brombeere had retired.  She'd been a teacher for 20 years.  Anyone who knows a teacher who loves teaching (and Brombeere loves teaching) knows that it can be a very time consuming occupation.  Suddenly, Brombeere was released from that demand on her time.  That's all the more time for sewing!  Yay! More happiness!

The last element was Christmas - what a perfect excuse to go wild with sewing projects! And, oh how Brombeere loves to sew for her family.  Some people do Christmas baking, Brombeere does Christmas sewing.  Few things give her as much pleasure as pouring over sources looking for ideas of things to sew for her family. It used to be magazines and pattern books at the fabric store.  Now days its Pinterest and other social media where people post their ideas for all to see. She'll see something and think how, with just a few little tweaks and changes, this or that would just perfect for so-and-so.  And thus cool ideas are born and turn into a project.  She's always buying fabric, sometimes for specific projects, other times because it catches her fancy.  Most projects require multiple trips to the fabric store but she's tickled when she can put together a whole project from her "stash".  She has gradually organized her stash into to several cabinets in the basement.  I find it amazing that she knows what's in them, and can usually find whatever she's looking for in just a matter of minutes. 

And so these three elements came together this year to create the perfect conditions for Brombeere to spend a whole lot of time doing something she really loves to do.  That's good for the soul, good for her soul in particular, and especially in this year that has been so crazy with the pandemic and everything else that has been going on to make life a challenge for her and the people she loves. 

Anyway, our family room, in the basement, is a huge room that goes from one end of the house to the other.  On one end we have made an inviting space to be a second living room; couches, end tables, lamps, a TV, and the whole deal.   

Very comfortable and inviting. 

On the other end, Brombeere has arranged cabinets, bins, shelves, and a nice, big, sturdy table to create a "sewing room".  She has turned it into a very nice space for her hobby, sewing.  Everything she has collected over the years is all conveniently arranged to make it very easy to reach and work on whatever project she's got going at the moment.  

There's even a little space in the corner, out of her way, for me to be so I can hang out with her while she works.  I like that part.  

The space in the middle, right now at least, is more or less open and gets used as a play area for grandkids.  It also gets drawn into sewing projects as needed.

This is her ideal space for Brombeere's sewing, her happy place. However, this year, because of some other work we've been doing in the basement (which is a whole 'nother story), she had to move her sewing upstairs to the kitchen table for a couple of weeks. 

Not quite as convenient but still workable.  Actually, it didn't slow her down hardly at all.  So in the lead-up to Christmas, Brombeere has been busily sewing on one project after another.

Whether at her machine or not, she has been designing, cutting, sewing, stitching, and finishing project after project.

This has been a very busy girl.  And the stuff she's turned out has been amazing.

Her biggest project was a big blanket, which turned out very well ...

... very comfortable

She did a couple of pillows, each designed and tailored with the recipient in mind.

And quite a few pillow cases.  It always amazes me how she can turn this ...

Into this.  Most of the grandkids got pillow cases, also custom done with each of them in mind.

         

She made some pot holders, that can double as trivets for hot stuff.

She was trying a new stitch on her machine for these.  I thought they turned out very well.

She made another pillow, not a big, thick fluffy one, but flatter, it could be a wall hanging or on the couch.  Very versatile.

Some placemats ...

And a big table runner.  This she adapted, from a design she saw, into a very unique, beautiful item, again with the recipient in mind.

All kinds of stuff she's turned out in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  Again, since so many of these are Christmas gifts, this won't be posted until after Christmas.  

There was just one tool that showed up in the midst of all her sewing that I wasn't quite sure how it was used as a sewing tool. Nevertheless, this has been an amazing season of handmade happiness!  Merry Christmas!