Becoming Nana

Everything they say about it is true...being a grandmother is pretty great. I'm new at this, since December 10th, but so far I'm quite smitten with that little bundle of joy, that warm little loaf of bread. Tiny Esther is just perfect, and she loves to be snuggled and she hardly cries, and it's all just delightful. I've been blessed to have visited with her for 3 out of her 5 weeks of life, and I'm missing her like crazy now that I'm home.

 She slept through her first bath, and then
promptly pooped in her clean towel! 

Tiny delicate perfect fingers... 

...and toes!

These first few weeks have been pretty challenging for Abby and Dave; Esther's been a champion sleeper, pooper, eater and all-around A+ newborn. But her entrance into this world was anything but smooth. Abby had a long labor, and 5.5 hours of pushing, only to have an emergency situation at the very end with a ruptured umbilical cord and hemorrhaging. The midwife literally saved her life. She's had to be diligent about fluid intake and rest because of this trauma and all the demands of labor, delivery, postpartum care and breastfeeding. The emotional toll on Dave has been rough as well, as he stood helplessly watching as his wife began to lose consciousness and his baby's life was in danger. We all thank God daily for sparing Abby and Esther's lives, and bringing them home to be cared for, safe and sound. Dave's doctor/nurse parents are so wonderful and cared for Abby, too, checking her blood pressure and watching over her very carefully those first few days.

Because of all this, I couldn't wait to get out to Seattle and do whatever was needed for them...it was pure joy to tiptoe into their room early each morning when Dave texted my cue, and take Esther for some Nana time. We sat together and sang, prayed and chatted about life for a few hours while Mama and Daddy slept. Then I'd change her diaper, place her in her mother's arms for a feeding, make breakfast, and do some laundry. When Abby got Esther back to sleep, she'd get up for a few minutes and I'd change her sheets and make their bed so she'd have a fresh place to spend the day - total bed rest for over a week, midwife's orders! I spent long hours sitting with Abby and Esther on her bed just talking, rubbing her feet, watching Jimmy Fallon videos and just having a lovely, restful time getting to know the baby. I put away lots of baby gifts, re-arranged the abundant food from friends in the frig, went to the grocery store and brought lattes and pastries back from the local coffee shop. I even walked Butter a few times...but she was a turd most of the time. She even had the nerve to strain her ACL (can that even happen to dogs???) on a run with Dave, and we had to send her to Bestemor's house in Anacortes to recover without being all up in the middle of Abby's recovery. Bestemor and Farfar...that's Norwegian for Grandma and Grandpa Stalsbroten. :)

I took a red-eye December 23rd, staying a few more days than planned because Abby just wasn't up and around yet, and arrived home in time to hit the ground running on Christmas Eve. My family here made sure to have all our traditions in place, taking over all my 'duties' to make it special. I just love them all. My husband and youngest daughter and I were able to return to Seattle to celebrate Esther's dedication to God at church last week. If course, they are in love, too. J-Nasty and The Guvnah, apparently. We'll see. 

                   

I sewed a dress for Esther's church dedication service, made from pieces of three wedding dresses: Abby's, Dave's mom's, and mine. It was a special weekend with the extended family and so great to see that Abby was up and around and almost back to her old self. Esther is a much loved baby, with a wonderful heritage of family. She is named after her paternal great-grandmother, who was an incredible woman, missionary and overcomer. 

Everyone commented about what a superwoman Abby was through that lengthy childbirth experience. She did it all without any drugs, and even endured a life-threatening situation like a champ. I am so, so proud of her, of the amazing woman she has become, and I admire her greatly. She has been so faithful to take care of herself, so she can take care of her baby, and has obeyed midwives' orders religiously. She is a great mom already! And it is sheer joy to see what a loving father and husband Dave is. I feel full to overflowing when I see how God has taken care of my family in so many ways.

Nana, Mama and Esther

Restoring a Family Heirloom

My great-great Aunt Susie Frazier was a fixture in Howard County, Maryland. She first lived in a house in Ellicott City and then later, she built a ranch house on family land a few miles away, in the middle of some tobacco fields which she rented to local farmers. This was apparently the main source of her income; she had never married. My memories of her were limited to the few times we visited her when she was very, very old (at least as I recall) and the ugly dresses she made for me that my mother made me wear at least once. Her house smelled like you would imagine an old lady's house would smell, she had an old pump organ that we were not allowed to touch and there was nothing to do. We endured these few visits with my mother, because apparently, my mom was one of her favorite grand-nieces (maybe her only?). Mom spent many happy memories as a child at her home when she lived 'in town'. Aunt Sue spoiled her, preferring my mother over her rambunctious little brother, Bucky. Mom has repeated the story many times over how Aunt Sue kept a chamber pot in the house for her, so she wouldn't have to go outside to use the toilet. Apparently that was a big deal, because she didn't do that for the brothers or their male cousins.

                                           
              

What made Aunt Sue particularly well-known was her skill as a seamstress. She supplemented her land-lease income by fashioning and altering clothing for local residents. She even sewed for the governor's family! I remember a quilt on my bed as a child that Aunt Sue made...I remember admiring the little tiny scraps of fabric and choosing my favorites. One scrap in particular reminded me of little cherries; it was my favorite and I made a game of trying to find it among so many others. Why I had so much time to lay under the covers and look at fabric, I'll never know, but it intrigued me. It must have caught on, because now, I LOVE fabric and have way too much of it stashed in my attic!

My mother recently gave me one of Aunt Sue's creations, a yo-yo spread, named because of the shape of the pieces, I suppose. In researching the famous toy yo-yo, it was so named in the 1920s and gained popularity thereafter, although other cultures played with a similar toy. I think this spread was made in the 1930s or 40s, so this makes sense. 

The offending repair

It needed some work. Over the years, of course little care was taken - it was tossed atop many a bed, and summarily bounced on, sent through the wash, hung out in the sun to dry, etc. The all-cotton fibers have taken a beating, and the connecting stitches have come undone in several places. There was also a hasty repair about 20 years ago, that incorporated some very bright fabric; um, it doesn't work. 

 

So, I've got it spread out on my dining room table, where I can enjoy the kaleidoscope of color and pattern while I work on it. I've had to discard a few yo-yo's that were beyond hope, absolutely threadbare. But 90 percent of it is salvageable and beautiful. I've calculated there are almost 3,000 yo-yos. It has taken me at least 15 minutes to trace, cut, needle a running stitch around the perimeter, pull the gathers in to form a smaller circle, iron it flat, and sew ONE circle/yo-yo in place! Giving Aunt Sue credit for  being an expert, and getting much faster at it than I, I figured it took her 300-450 hours to complete this project. And let me tell you, 30 minutes of sewing something very small by hand is exhausting. Although I've hit the 50 mark and wearing multi-focal contact lenses, my eyes were screaming at me for a break after a while. (I seem to remember some very thick spectacles in my memory of Aunt Sue, now that I think about it!) But I cannot imagine her working on this for more than an hour at a time. If she worked at it 9 hours a day, it would have taken her ten weeks of full time work. Certainly it filled a year of after-dinner stitching to the sounds of Fibber McGee and Molly, and The Lone Ranger on the Philco radio. Sounds kinda nice, doesn't it?

I've also been inspired to try making one of my own. It's taken some trial and error, lots of error, and I've temporarily given up while I repair the real thing, but it's been a fun project learning how to do this. I have found very thin cotton to work best. 

The general steps are as follows:

1. Create a 3" circle pattern from lightweight cardboard (like a cereal box).
2. Trace onto several layers of fabric; cut many at a time (but, I'm not trying to cut all 3,000 circles at once!).
3. Stack alike fabrics together.
4. Using a quilting needle, sew a running stitch around the perimeter of the circle, about 1/4" from the edge, with a knot in the end of the thread.
5. Without knotting or cutting the end of the thread, pull it so that it gathers the circle around a finger. Knot it off after it is gathered and pulled tightly, creating the "yo-yo."
6. Press with a hot iron, to flatten.
7. After arranging the colors and designs, sew the yo-yos together at four points, creating a 'square' of 16 (8 of each pattern). 
8. After sewing 169 squares of 16 each, stitch them together in an appealing pattern to make a bedspread that will fit a queen size bed. 

Among the hundreds of faded vintage fabrics, I have found the ugly gray dress...still searching for the elusive cherries. So many pretty fabrics. I'm really thankful I have this treasure.

The backside (see that ugly gray gingham?)

Getting "The Townhouse" Ready

My youngest will be a sophomore at App State this fall. They don't guarantee housing for anything but freshman, so she and her buddies had to find another place to rent. They found this amazing townhouse, so we've been having lots of fun this summer preparing for it. Lots of shopping, sewing, stapling, gathering. They need a wedding shower to pull it all together! But for now, it's just some extra stuff that all the moms have gathered - a chair here, a blender there..

But Jessie's bedroom has gotten a little more special attention. I LOVE doing this kind of stuff, and she happens to be one of those people overwhelmed by all the choices and leaves a lot of it to me. I love it when a "client" can't decide what to do and asks me to make the decisions!

So shopping we went: the first trip was an epic fail that ended in tears (I know, #firstworldproblems) and halfway through the second outing, her countenance began to wane. After wandering through hundreds of bolts of fabric, she was losing heart. Then I saw it: a lovely bolt of linen that hit the spot. She proclaimed, "Let's get it" and we were off. It was the launching point to gather a few other pieces to add some color.

In the end, we had a padded headboard with a matching bedskirt, and three accent pillows. Pinterest is brimming with ideas for these things and she had seen several things she liked. The challenge was to zoom in on just one idea. I am a fan of starting with neutrals, and leaving some latitude for changing little things (like pillows) if you want to bring in a different color scheme. My decorating mantra is to spend the big money on things you can live with forever (like a neutral couch) and change up your accent pieces periodically.

We made the headboard so that it can hang on the wall - lightweight, with some mounting pieces on the back. I called my husband and his power tools in to make the big cuts, but everything else can be done with a pair of scissors and a staple gun. Very little skill is needed.

The bedskirt did require some skill; design, measuring, sewing. The pillows are simple sewing.




A few tips:

• Use lightweight 1/4" plywood for the headboard base
• I used last year's XL twin foam mattress pad from the dorm bed as the padding for the headboard - recycle!
• Make a pattern for the shape of the headboard out of a cut-up paper bag, wrapping paper or newspaper
• Measure twice; cut once!
• Cut the foam pad and the fabric a bit bigger than the frame of the headboard and then pull tightly around to the back and staple the cheese out of it!
• Re-cycle old pillows that you are through with for your new pillow forms. Down-filled ones are my favorite and are expensive new...but I have tons of pillows around the house I don't use anymore, so they are perfect for recovering.

We've really had a great summer together that started with two weeks at the beach, lots of hun-cal-fro-yo, playing "Draw Something" on our new iPhones, taking swim aerobics with seniors (citizens, that is...), learning new recipes, planning for The Townhouse, and just being girls together. 

 I just love her. :)

Is there a seamstress in the house?

I learned to sew at a young age. I have fond memories of sitting on my grandma's lap while she pieced together tiny bits of fabric to make Barbie clothes for me. She bounced me along while she pumped the treadle with her feet on that old Singer, and I watched as the stitches magically appeared. My mother also sewed, and supervised and advised as I experimented with my own designs. Sewing, as well as child care and cooking, were required courses for girls the three years I was at Arbutus Junior High School (the boys were busy in welding, carpentry and auto mechanics). And then one of my first jobs was in a commercial drapery shop, where I learned even more practical wisdom about working with large pieces of fabric, using the presser foot to sew a straight line, how to use buckram to make pleats, and putting my math skills to work to measure accurately. So, by the time I was 16, I was a fairly experienced seamstress. I took all this for granted, until I was about 30 and noticed how difficult it was to find a fabric store. I realized that not many people sew anymore. I've been asked repeatedly to teach sewing. What I usually say is that I'll show them how to use their machine, and a few basics, but the best way to learn is to just start doing it. Gaining confidence around the terminology, a pattern, your machine, a pair of good shears...cannot be taught. You must just dive in.

I feel a little melancholy when I think about this skill that has been so useful for centuries, just slowly dying out. I feel it must be one of those tragic collateral damage losses from the women's liberation movement...you know, throwing the baby out with the bathwater and all. How did we ever buy into the lie that homemaking skills were an insult to our intelligence? It's an art form that has suffered greatly in the last 30 years. I am on a mission to bring it all back. I am not alone...Martha Stewart has become a wealthy lady by inspiring excellent homemakers. And what are the hottest topics on Pinterest? Cooking, home interiors, DIY projects.

It's just so much fun to take a plain bolt of fabric, cut it and transform it into something beautiful and custom. When my children were babies, I loved making darling little outfits for them. I've altered much of my wardrobe and those pieces end up being the ones I wear most because they fit properly. I have adjusted waistlines (in and out!) on my husband's dress pants over and over again, altered my sons' suits and repeatedly repaired their blue jeans. Most recently, I've worked on my daughter's wedding gown. I don't know what I would do if I had to pay someone to make custom window treatments...I know how much I get paid to do this! And it's such a great way to make a house your home. What would I do without my ability to sew?

Here are some examples of window treatments (and general interior design) I have done recently...

So this post is dedicated to the generations of women in my family that carried the tradition of sewing...Grandma, Aunt Sue, Aunt Annie, Mom...I have taught my daughters the basics (and sons actually...although I try to keep one of them away from my sewing machine as he broke it once trying to make a costume with seat belt webbing!) and 

I hope that they fill their homes with 

beautiful handmade things.