Friday Night Sew-In: Saturday Morning Report, January 2011

Good morning FNSIers, I hope you all had a lovely evening.  After my fish and chips I headed to my sewing room, no, that's a lie, I took my sewing to my bedroom!  It was definitely an evening for being under a quilt or two.  Cosy in bed I made a few kanzashi (more pictures at Sashiko Started It) and other fabric flowers for brooches and then worked on my sampler quilt.  I have now joined twelve blocks together, quilted them and joined the backing pieces, so I'm over halfway through.  I might actually finish this quilt while it's still winter.
I was going to make an apron last night. This little nostalgic muse on aprons was posted by Heather:

I don't think our kids know what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few and because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons required less material. But along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.
From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, Grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables.
After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

Send this to those who would know (and love) the story about Grandma's aprons.

REMEMBER:
Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill
to thaw.

They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.

I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron - but love...

It reminded me what a great invention an apron is.  I have a plastic-coated pinny in Liberty's peacock feather design which is rather attractive but not very practical for everyday use as it is rigid and of no use other than as a protection for the clothes underneath.
I decided to make an apron using Jenny's January challenge method.
Thinking about this brought back some memories of Nanny who always wore a pinny.  I can recall being a very irritating grandchild and pulling the tapes of Nanny's pinny undone while she was busy at the sink.  I remember Nanny's pinny continuing to hang by the stove for a very long time after her death, almost as if she might walk into the kitchen and tie it on at any moment.
I bought a lovely Laura Ashley skirt from the local hospice shop yesterday, I didn't even have to try it on as I knew I would be cutting it up.  Anyway, I got it home and rashly thought I'd see if I could squeeze into it (I have lost a bit of weight recently but it is two sizes smaller than I've been wearing).  You know what's coming...it fits!  It's gorgeous, I've dropped two dress sizes and I'm not going to make an apron with it!

Here's another couple of pieces of good news to end this post.  In "The Works" (the bargain book and stationery shop) they have a crafting section, mainly card making and scrapbooking.  I bought these reels of ribbon, 2m on each reel, for £1 each.

Then I got a great surprise when the postman rang with a parcel - for once I wasn't expecting anything!  This lovely collection of fabrics was a giveaway prize from Patchwork and Quilting's "Inspirations" magazine.  It's for a picnic set but I might have other ideas.  Those strawberries certainly scream "summer" don't they?

Have a great weekend, I hope you have time to sew.