Today I am sitting at the dining table sewing a blanket stitch around each of the hearts on Amelie's baby quilt, Amelie being the first and newborn baby of Sophie and Simon who own our local deli. As you can see from the photo, this isn't fancy embroidery; it's quite utilitarian. I wouldn't be doing it except that I want to be sure the hearts stay on the quilt despite repeated washing and drying as well as tiny fingers' prying. As I wrote my friend Karen the other day, this is the first time I've done a blanket stitch since I was in Brownies back in 1947 or so! I can remember precisely the project we were doing. It was a sit-upon for an upcoming after-school hike and cookout. The sit-upons were made of oilcloth stuffed with a folded Sunday newspaper and stitched together with the blanket stitch. My oilcloth was sort of a tan simulated leather pattern and the embroidery floss I used was dark brown. In fact, I wasn't sure I could remember how to do the stitch, simple as it is, but almost 60 years on, it came right back to me.
The other reason I'm sitting in the sun is that we don't see much of it these days, rain or shine. In fact, today the sun came up a little after 8:30 and will set by 3:30. According to my fingers that's only 7 hours of daylight. Fortunately, today is the second sunny day we've had. Don is out playing in this beautiful clear weather. Rain is predicted for tomorrow. Today the high is to be 42 but tomorrow it should get up to 51 at least. There are compensations.
Tonight is the Friends of Cognac Christmas party. We Comrie members will be picked up at our medical centre at 6:40 for the coach ride to Pitcairngreen Village Hall where there will be wine, a generous buffet, carol singing, a Christmas Quiz, a raffle (to raise money for showing the visitors from Cognac around when they come next April), and Christingle gifts to be distributed by Pere Noel. We have been hearing for months about what a wonderful party it always is, so we are looking forward to it with great anticipation. In preparation we have all wrapped a present to bring--men bring gifts for men, and women, for women. It will be nice to have a coach to bring us home so that we can enjoy the food and wine without a concern about driving home on these country roads in too "festive" a mood. I'll give you a report tomorrow.
Yesterday after lunch, Don and I spent the afternoon running errands in Crieff. We are trying to find me a new winter robe but had no luck in Perth. The one shop we thought might have a selection in Crieff had the same sort of stock we saw in Perth. I'm looking for a long, velour zip-up-the-front robe but all they have are either short velour zip-ups or short terry bathrobes. So no joy on that search.
I wanted to get Don a putting cup to use on our living room carpet to practice putting but the golf shop in the town square didn't have what we were looking for so I bought him a new pair of winter golf gloves since a seam has just split in one of the existing ones. He said he doesn't really need a putting cup around here anyway as he's out on the course putting into the real thing. Good point.
Next we stopped at The Artery art gallery to take back my remaining quilt which hasn't sold in 2 years. They actually had taken it to the St. Andrews shop this summer but it didn't sell there either. They will have it in the Crieff shop to pick up anytime after today. In the spring, I will take some newer and smaller art quilts to them to see if we can get some lower-priced items on their walls that will sell. They think the St. Andrews shop might be the best bet given that more American tourists are likely to stop in and Americans are more used to fiber art and the prices they should fetch.
On the way back up the hill to the carpark, we stopped in at Delvino's deli which has been open only about a month in the place where a Chinese restaurant used to be. It's a small place with a fairly limited menu but it is very attractively decorated inside and we hear great things about the food. They have quite a limited range of both freshly prepared and packaged deli items but they do have pizza! Don's eyes lit up at that thought, so my guess is we'll be trying them out sometime soon.
Next stop was Snip, Tuck, and Sew where I picked up another ball of yarn to finish off one of the scarves I've been working on. Strangely, each scarf I've made has used only one ball, but this particular one needed one and 3/4.
Don's golf shoes are wearing out after 3 years and so we went to the pro shop at the Crieff Golf Course to see what they had on offer. He found a nice pair of Ecco golf shoes at 30% off that fit him perfectly. So I bought him those for him.
Two final stops remained. The first of those was HouseProud Hardware which has an amazing selection of all sorts of things for the home. We were after a plunger and a snow shovel, the sort of things one normally doesn't think about until they're needed. We decided to think about them ahead of time just this once. I also wanted to pick up suet balls, peanuts, and bulk birdseed to feed our wild birds. The second stop was at the Handy Shop greengrocer for 2 baking potatoes for our dinner. The sunlight was nearly gone by the time we got back to Comrie.
We stopped at the post office so Don could mail a letter and I could buy our supply of Christmas cards to send locally. Getting the cards ready will be my task for tomorrow afternoon, perfect for a rainy afternoon activity.
Don made us wonderful ribeye steaks for dinner. Mmmm. Wish you could have been here!
No comments:
Post a Comment