Chocolate & Roses

Chocolate & Roses 

She sauntered the isles of a fabric outlet. Looking for drapery material for the family room something caught her eye. “Hmm, red roses on a chocolate background. How irresistibly charming,” smiled the Lady-of-the-house. “It will go nicely with our red check sofa,” she reasoned, feeling more rationally headed at that moment than the Man-of-the-house would recognize. 

The fabric was a discount remnant. The yardage was sold as-is. There was plenty on the bolt for the possibility of making a few accessories. “Still, one mustn’t act on impulse. I’ll sleep on it.” 


This done, she returned in the morning with milk chocolate and red roses still tantalizing her imagination, and made her purchase.

Now she had her work cut out for her. The project consisted of making one wide panel per window - to be swept up to one side. It was a simple Colonial style. 


Yet, no project fit the description of simple if it meant setting up the sewing machine. It always seemed that as soon as the machine was threaded and its temperamental tension was adjusted, bobbin wound, a few seams under way, with the usual set backs due to the necessary use of the seam ripper, it was time to put dinner on the table. “I’ll return to it when I can,” she reassured herself. “Tomorrow is another day.”  


This was how she managed to complete so many things in her life; a couple unhurried steps one day and a couple unhurried ones the next. Even if finding time meant once a week at her machine, eventually a project was completed.

A day after her homemade drapes were hung something looked odd. She figured out what it was and with chagrin said to her adult daughter, “Look, that window’s drape is a bit longer than this one. How on earth did that happen?” 

 “Mom, I wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t pointed it out,” her daughter told her, calmly.

The Man of the house was just as calm. He had the last word. He laughed quietly to himself and said, “No one’ll notice.” It was the same masculine opinion the Lady-of-the-house was used to hearing upon completion of other projects - for she was given to consulting him. 

You see, it wasn’t uncommon that after all her careful sewing, imperfections were noticed in the final product by the Lady-of-the-house. As time passed, however, imperfections became less glaring. More time and they weren’t glaring at all.  Her conclusion?

Anything worth doing for Mother Culture 

is worth doing imperfectly.

She made this one of her mottos. If a project ministers to the feminine soul, satisfies a desire for gift giving, if it adds a little touch of beauty to the home (such as sprucing up a twelve-year-old sofa) it is very worth doing – even if the end result is somewhat “homemade” and imperfect. 

Decorating this post is a rose bag, made from leftover fabric, a gift to her daughter for carrying cello music. 

The blue book bag was made for a friend. The Lady-of-the house lined both bags with a soft plaid and semi-secretive lace.

While ironing fabric for piecing her pillow she was met with a surprise. She read -Wuthering Heights  - in the margin and her fancy was tickled once more. 


She likes this fabric so much that she hopes to use it again with the blue stripe for a different pillow.

Do you see the brown piping at the base of the ruffle? Adding this to a seam with gathers was a challenge. But the puckers where the piping overlaps itself is an imperfection that is no longer glaring. The Man-of-the-house is right. No one will notice.

Perhaps she decided to her make her ruffled pillow after being impressed with this painting by George Goodwin Kilburne. 

I don't know how this post's fonts got jumbled. 

Until we meet again,

Karen Andreola

Spring is Sprouting

Spring is Sprouting 

It isn’t spring until you can plant your foot upon twelve daises. Folklore

The side entrance to our house has a place for boots and a coat closet painted Colonial yellow. It serves as a narrow mudroom. Those who enter are greeted with a welcome in cross-stitch.

The welcome was designed in period style reminiscent of a Pennsylvania Dutch Frakur. Like the old folk-art paper frakurs the cross-stitch uses primary colors, tulips, birds, and a large central heart bearing an inscription.

Over the years our family has had seasonal opportunities for hospitality. I would be happy to tell you, sometime, about our series of home classes and the different ways we opened our home. Food was always part of the welcome. 

Whether it was our Shakespeare plays, a speech class, our Beautiful Girlhood get-togethers, or a ladies’ brunch, the kettle was set to boil and platters were arrayed with refreshment. I was reflecting upon those happy, hard-working home school years when friends shared food with us - along with food-for-the-mind and heart. It was my custom to serve tea sandwiches with alfalfa sprouts. Larger sandwiches may accommodate lettuce. But little sandwiches fare better with sprouts.

 Earlier this month I was impatient for spring. I couldn’t wait for spring to start sprouting all the bulbs I had buried. Then I realized it had been some years since I’d taken a few minutes out of my day to make sprouts -inside the house. All in one shopping spree I acquired a pot of faux daffodils for my kitchen windowsill and a sprouting kit.

The kit comes with three plastic lids for different size seeds and for consecutive stages of rinsing. A few teaspoons of alfalfa sprouts are soaked for a few hours and then rinsed twice a day for several days. The instructions recommend keeping the bottle in a slanted position for draining.

After a couple of days of sprouting in a shaded part of the kitchen the sprouts are given a window seat. Leaflets emerge and chlorophyll mysteriously is produced all in one or two days. Using a lid with larger holes, sprouts are rinsed of their casings.

Sprouting can be a healthy edible science experiment for young children. They will enjoy remembering to “make” their sprouts. Wrapping the jar with black paper before the day your sprouts do their sun bathing more dramatically demonstrates chlorophyll production for children.  

I like to sprout lentils, too, for a fresh, crunchy green salad. Goat cheese and/or cream cheese with chives and cucumber make a traditional tea sandwich. A pinch of sprouts adds a dainty springtime interest. (Click to enlarge and you’ll see Tom Kitten on the teacup.)  

Outside my crocus and daffodils are sprouting and my chives are reviving. Very soon the dairy cows in Lancaster County will have luscious green grass to graze upon. I’ve read that milk production in mid-spring (from grass-fed cows) is highest in vitamins A and D than any other time of year. This is one blessing of small farms and green pastures. Isn’t Chlorophyll a wonder?  

Dean’s farm photograph was taken from the window of the passenger car of a train. The Strasburg railroad cars are pulled by a renovated steam engine. There is nothing more thrilling in William’s eyes, than riding on a real “Thomas.”   

 Thank you for visiting,

Karen Andreola

A Little Dabbling for Down the Road

A Little Dabbling for Down the Road

The Pink Stripe is Finished

Someday, I’ll know who the recipient will be - someday down the road. But today it is being saved in Grandma’s Someday Box.

Do you see the sleeves? Don’t they look like little scarves with a bit of ribbing? If you can knit a washcloth or a scarf, in light of the circumstances, you can knit a sweater. Really.

Knit the back and front panels like little scarves decreasing for the neck. Seam the shoulders and attach the sleeves. Fold and seam some more. I referred to Nici McNally’s instructions for finishing. For the first time my seams appear seamless.

Edging the sweater is the tricky part. Nici McNally shares a tip on her DVD for picking up stitches. By following this tip my ribbed edging now lays smoothly.

The finished sweater, with its tiny Beatrix Potter character buttons, rests on a pieced quilt top (above).

The Story of a Toddler Quilt

I’ve since added fabric yo-yos to the quilt top.  They are the same yo-yos pictured in November’s post. I had first cut out hearts to appliqué onto each square but changed my mind. I remembered my lonely pile of yo-yos. “I wonder how well the colors will match,” I thought.

Digging them out of the closet and counting them, I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Not only were the colors in harmony, the pile had the exact number of yo-yos; one per square, no more no less. 

Five years previously I made those yo-yos. I was dabbling for the fun of it (and in my initial yo-yo craze) unconcerned where they’d end up. This year the yo-yos met their destiny. You might be surprised at what a little dabbling will amount to down the road. 

Because the quilt was only tufted and because they yo-yos were pre-crafted, the project was accomplished in a month of Sundays. That’s all. I tied extra strands of cotton crochet thread to each tuft, to make a sort of decorative fringe that will go fuzzy when washed.

Approximately How Far - Down the Road?

It is good to have an idea of how much time a project will require, especially if it is for an upcoming gift. But when a new interest to dabble occupies you, the amount of time required to complete a project should be secondary.

Some days I dabble. More often I plan. Even when I’ve planned carefully I might have a false start. Have you ever had one? When it comes to knitting I humor myself by calling a false start: “an elaborate gauge.” The blue stripe came to a halt two years ago when I realized, after nearly finishing the back piece, that baby William was already too big for it.

Young children grow fast. I’ve been keeping the stitches “on hold” on a piece of contrasting yarn because I borrowed the needles for the pink stripe. I’ll need to pick up the blue stripe soon because another little boy will be joining us not too far down the road.

A Minute for Cute

I’ve been told that the expected “little boy” is motionless in the womb all night but wakes each morning (and starts kicking) as soon as he hears his big brother’s talkative ramble. Three-year-old William stretched out his arms toward his mother’s stomach, cupped his little hands palms up and said, “You can come out now.”

“He’ll come when he’s ready,” his mother told him.

 A Patient Teacher

Letters in my mailbox reveal: all that is separating my readers from learning to knit is an hour of leisure and a good teacher. I found the teacher. All you need to do is find the leisure. After sitting through a number of instructional knitting DVDs I chose one put together by Nici McNally. 

(My green toddler socks, knit with self-striping yarn, are meant to dress up the photograph – taken on our attic steps.) 

Mrs. McNally is not a hired actress. She genuinely loves to knit and enjoys sharing her skill. She demonstrates each step in clear, colorful close-up photography. The DVD is not preoccupied with the razzmatazz of distracting entertainment. With Mrs. McNally you can take your time to peacefully focus on your knitting. Pause the DVD at her suggestion. “Press play when you are ready,” she says as she guides you pleasantly all along the way.  

Happy Dabbling,

Karen Andreola