As a little girl I would sit and sew. I would cut and sew by hand clothes for my dolls. My mother, my Grandmother and my great grandmother all sewed. I remember them making baby clothes for my brother before he was born. They would make pretty little dresses for me as well. Some that I remember best were the ones that my great Aunt Warren smocked.
When I was old enough I learned to use the sewing machine and made clothes for myself and even some for my mother. Christmas I would find scraps and put together aprons without patterns. I made some clothes for my boys when they were very young.
Recently my sewing machine has set unused. I had used it only for repairs.
My mother who is now 93 is not as nimble as she once was. Her range of motion has become limited from lack of use or maybe atrophy. Helping her into coats for the winter has become more and more difficult. My daughter in law, Melissa and I decided that a cape would do the trick. I had a wool one that was too heavy for her and another that was not warm enough, so we put our heads together to figure out what we could do.
Drawing from my past experience of fabricating doll clothes and aprons without a pattern, we came up with a plan. We purchased two throws one a flat weave and the other a fuzzy white throw. I ended up sewing these together. After doing so I realized it would have been smarter to sew the neck opening first, then turn it and after that sew the two together. But I did it backwards, so I had to figure out what to do with the neck opening. I started to bind it with the smoother fabric but this did not work out as nice as I would have liked. I cut out additional fabric, sewing it together with my machine. Then reversing it to make a neat finish. I pinned this getting out my needle and thread, I whipped around the edge of the new lining making it look finished. As I was doing this I thought about little Leigh years ago making up clothes for her dolls as the grown Leigh was making up a good warm wrap for her Mother. Little Leigh would have thought that was nice. Now to take the warm Shawl to Mother and try it out. It is Blue with white fuzzy interior and trim. Mother's favorite color and I must say not bad looking. With her beautiful blue eyes she looked beautiful. You could see her lovely spirit shining though.
Friday, December 12, 2014
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Scoots the Cat
Lewis and I rescued a tiny kitten teetering near the edge of a swimming pool where another tiny kitten had just drown. He threw a towel over this baby and brought him inside. There was no doubt this tiny bundle of fur was going home with us. That was over thirteen years ago.
We lived off the Chesapeake Bay and I thought that schooner would be a fine name for him. However, this did not stick. While training him to stay off of tables and kitchen cabinets I often said scoot...so in time Scoots became his name. Scoots' mother was a feral cat, who haunted one son's back deck realizing that they left dry foot out for their cat. She was a beautiful cat, but so weary of people.
Scoots was an inside, outside cat, who loved playing tiger in the grass in my flower garden. One time he disappeared for over a day only to be discovered on top of a neighbors porch roof across the street from our house.
When we got Scoots we had two dogs, a beautiful pale golden retriever named Samantha and a handsome Shetland sheep dog named Sheppie. Scoots grew up accepting these dogs as family. One night I caught Scoots rubbing up against Samantha purring. Shep on the other hand felt it was his duty to keep Scoots out of my bedroom at night. That presented a challenge for Scoots, and he would wait and watch for a chance to slip past Shep and either curl up on the bottom of my bed at night, or find what he considered as a prime seat in my power chair after I had gotten into bed. He always seemed to come in at night usually to spend the entire night and go out in the morning with the dogs to do his business.
When I moved from Saluda VA to Kilmarnock across the river he adapted well. My yard was fenced in by a six foot privacy fence. This I thought would keep him in the yard. I was so wrong. It was not long before he had figured out that he could leap up an get over the fence. He even took to walking the top board around the fence until he found just the spot to climb over.
When my mother came to live with me, we brought over her beautiful long haired black cat Jinks or as he became know as "Little Kitty," nothing as further than the truth as he was a great big cat. We brought him in and went on a trip leaving plenty of dry food and water and having my daughter in law, Melissa stop by to make sure that they had enough food, etc. When we returned from our trip they were fast friends, and there was no sign of a struggle. They had come to terms somehow.
Recently I had noticed that Scoots had gotten thinner. He also was old especially for an indoor/ outdoor cat. As much as we loved him he was not a cat that could be picked up and carried to the vets. So I watched him and I worried about him. He became more and more lovey and even let us scratch his head.
He began to want to be let out during the night, and recently he was in and out several times during the night. yesterday he napped on my bed along with our current pups Dachshunds, Tinker, Oscar and Buddy, almost cuddling up with them. I thought that a little unusual. Last night he vomited and when Lewis let him out he felt that that was the last time that he would see him. I worried about him as well. There was no knocking on my window or meowing to come in last night with was no cat wanting in this morning. Lewis went looking for him and there was no cat to be found. This evening if he does not come to meet my car in the driveway, as has become his habit, I will know that Scoots is no longer with us. He has been a great cat, who has enjoyed being a cat in every sense. Scoots did come home that evening, but a few months later Scoots showed up after being missing in the morning with a badly mangled leg. I called my daughter in law, Melissa and we called the vet who came in after hours. It was obvious that he was badly mangled and had been that way for a while. It broke my heart but I did what was necessary so he would not suffer and let him go. It is not the easiest thing to let go of an animal that you have raised and loved. But if you truly love that animal you will let go when it is best for the animal. Unfortunately over the years I have had to make that terrible decision as to what is best for the animal and not holding on to your old friend for selfish reasons. In love we let them go.
We lived off the Chesapeake Bay and I thought that schooner would be a fine name for him. However, this did not stick. While training him to stay off of tables and kitchen cabinets I often said scoot...so in time Scoots became his name. Scoots' mother was a feral cat, who haunted one son's back deck realizing that they left dry foot out for their cat. She was a beautiful cat, but so weary of people.
Scoots was an inside, outside cat, who loved playing tiger in the grass in my flower garden. One time he disappeared for over a day only to be discovered on top of a neighbors porch roof across the street from our house.
When we got Scoots we had two dogs, a beautiful pale golden retriever named Samantha and a handsome Shetland sheep dog named Sheppie. Scoots grew up accepting these dogs as family. One night I caught Scoots rubbing up against Samantha purring. Shep on the other hand felt it was his duty to keep Scoots out of my bedroom at night. That presented a challenge for Scoots, and he would wait and watch for a chance to slip past Shep and either curl up on the bottom of my bed at night, or find what he considered as a prime seat in my power chair after I had gotten into bed. He always seemed to come in at night usually to spend the entire night and go out in the morning with the dogs to do his business.
When I moved from Saluda VA to Kilmarnock across the river he adapted well. My yard was fenced in by a six foot privacy fence. This I thought would keep him in the yard. I was so wrong. It was not long before he had figured out that he could leap up an get over the fence. He even took to walking the top board around the fence until he found just the spot to climb over.
When my mother came to live with me, we brought over her beautiful long haired black cat Jinks or as he became know as "Little Kitty," nothing as further than the truth as he was a great big cat. We brought him in and went on a trip leaving plenty of dry food and water and having my daughter in law, Melissa stop by to make sure that they had enough food, etc. When we returned from our trip they were fast friends, and there was no sign of a struggle. They had come to terms somehow.
Recently I had noticed that Scoots had gotten thinner. He also was old especially for an indoor/ outdoor cat. As much as we loved him he was not a cat that could be picked up and carried to the vets. So I watched him and I worried about him. He became more and more lovey and even let us scratch his head.
He began to want to be let out during the night, and recently he was in and out several times during the night. yesterday he napped on my bed along with our current pups Dachshunds, Tinker, Oscar and Buddy, almost cuddling up with them. I thought that a little unusual. Last night he vomited and when Lewis let him out he felt that that was the last time that he would see him. I worried about him as well. There was no knocking on my window or meowing to come in last night with was no cat wanting in this morning. Lewis went looking for him and there was no cat to be found. This evening if he does not come to meet my car in the driveway, as has become his habit, I will know that Scoots is no longer with us. He has been a great cat, who has enjoyed being a cat in every sense. Scoots did come home that evening, but a few months later Scoots showed up after being missing in the morning with a badly mangled leg. I called my daughter in law, Melissa and we called the vet who came in after hours. It was obvious that he was badly mangled and had been that way for a while. It broke my heart but I did what was necessary so he would not suffer and let him go. It is not the easiest thing to let go of an animal that you have raised and loved. But if you truly love that animal you will let go when it is best for the animal. Unfortunately over the years I have had to make that terrible decision as to what is best for the animal and not holding on to your old friend for selfish reasons. In love we let them go.
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