Nov. 22, 2009 - Lafayette Hat Part II-Soon Available at CW Historic Stores
Friday we went to Colonial Williamsburg for the grand opening of the Coffeehouse, which I'll blog about later. One of our favorite parts of the day involved some unexpected news involving my son's Lafayette hat!
Now that I had the French American Alliance cockade made, my son wanted to return to the store where the hat shaper formed his Lafayette hat to his precise specifications a few weeks ago. As soon as we walked into the shop, the lady who shaped his hat welcomed my son by name! I was impressed that she not only remembered my son but also remembered his name. I explained that we needed her help tucking the cockade behind the lacing like the CW Lafayette wears his. The problem was that the lacing was too tight. Also we thought the lacing should go over the top of the brim. Additionally, my son wanted a button at the base of the lacing, like Lafayette. We discussed the possible options to make it happen.
She said that the other day Lafayette himself walked into the store and she asked him if she could look at his hat. (This is getting contagious. There is another CW employee who has been analyzing the Lafayette costume because of all of our questions!) She explained to Lafayette about my son's visit to the shop a few week's ago to have the hat shaped exactly like his. When she told us that Lafayette knew exactly who she was talking about, we laughed. I can only imagine how that conversation went. (Wherever we go in America, people know my son!)
The lady said that Lafayette's cockade didn't look anything like the one I had made. Instead his was black and more of a T shape. Hmmmm, I told her that he must not have been dressed as Lafayette then. My son explained if he's not Lafayette, he's Mann Page. She seemed a bit confused. I told her that I modeled the cockade after a picture I took during Prelude to Victory when he stood a few feet from me. Even though I have the picture on the computer and I can enlarge it, I cannot see the black on black. I was not able to figure out the precise shape of the black backgound of the cockade, nor was I able to tell precisely how the lacing went. However, I thought I got a fair representation of the white part of the cockade, which is more circular shaped instead of T shaped. She was thinking of threading a new set of lacing into the same holes in the front of the brim. I told her I thought that the lacing actually goes over the brim and ties somehow in the back. During all this discourse, my husband pulled up some Prelude to Victory pictures of Lafayette in his camera. After enlarging one, he handed me the camera and I handed it to her. In fact, my husband found several pictures this way and we showed them to her. Ah...she saw what I was talking about. There was white in the cockade and it was circular shaped. She had not seen that particular cockade.
Finally, she had a recommendation and showed it to my son. He talked her into setting the lacing over the brim of the hat and they had a plan. After the lacing was redone to accomodate the button and cockade, she put some special pins into the cockade to hold it securely in place. She also gave him extras, in case they would be needed in the future. The entire fee for this was quite small, which my son paid for. He tried to tip her but she wouldn't take it. She was definitely worth far more than the tiny fee he paid for this service. All he really paid for was the lacing. We already had the button. We were profoundly grateful for all of her patience and help. She was wonderful to work with, listening to my son and being certain of his exact specifications. She told my son to come back for future visits. Also she told him that they are going to start carrying these Lafayette hats in the store, because of him! How exciting! Leave it to my son to start something!
Now I am about to start my son's Lafayette coat. The one he has is falling apart and not accurate. I've agonized for weeks over how I am going to do the buff facings. This afternoon my son and I analyzed pictures together while he tried to explain how the facings work. Finally I got it! It is all one piece of wool. I'll use felt since it's cheaper and washable. The outside is blue and the inside is buff. Those millions of buttons actually have a purpose. The general can keep his coat in a buttoned yet opened position in summer. In winter he can button the entire coat closed. How clever! Now my son can be even warmer this winter.
We are planning to go to the Grand Illumination. I'm afraid I am going to be too cold. Last year it was in the 30's during this CW outdoor Christmas event in the evening. The Grand Illumination showcases special fireworks, music and entertainment. Some people have told me it could be 82 degrees. Hmmmm, yes, but there is no guarantee. It's the possible 32 degrees that worries me. My son really wants to wear this Lafayette costume and I want him to stay warm. Therefore I am going to try my hardest to crank this out while getting our unit celebration put together. Hmmmm, Thanksgiving is around the corner too. And my husband will want to put up the Christmas decorations, not that I know where any will go in this new house. And I am getting a new stove and refrigerator today. Talk about a new learning curve for roasting a turkey. Then after the unit celebration there are the lesson plans and studying for lessons. I'd best get to work figuring out this coat!
The trick will be two things. First I have to size down a man's small pattern for my son. Second I have to figure out the extensions for the button closure in front. The cuffs though are still confusing me. I am going to do what the milliner and tailor have told me to do all along. I am going to use muslin (or scrap broadcloth from past costumes) to make a prototype, which I can cut down, pin and fit to my son's body, basically creating a custom pattern just for him. Theoretically, at that point I can merely whip out the Lafayette coat on the sewing machine. I am excited now that my son helped me figure out some key elements! Stay tuned!
Oh, I also figured out the new flounce on my son's shirt is wrong. In the meantime it makes him happier since it works better than that cravat he was using to fill up the blank space due to the wrong kind of vest. Well I can only do one thing at a time. I'd best get to work!
Nov. 20, 2009 - 10 years old!
We had another birthday today! B is 10 years old! Here are a few pictures of my cutie pie.
Brand new. How 'bout that hair!:
8 months:
3 years old, camping in Yosemite:
Age 3 years:
6 years old:
7 years old:
Ten years old! Getting a Build a Bear puppy whom he named Dusty:
Nov. 19, 2009 - Lafayette Hat
In researching the Lafayette hat that my son would like to have, I stumbled upon the history of the French American Alliance Cockade, one of the distinctive features of the Lafayette hat. Traditionally the British had black cockades in their hats, which the American colonists wore too. When America declared independence from England, they continued to wear the black cockade. The French on the other hand, wore a white cockade. When Rochambeau arrived in America with his French army, he told them to take a bit of black fabric and sew it onto their white cockade to represent the alliance. When General Washington discovered this, he had his men take a bit of white fabric to sew onto their black cockades. (As far as I know, the web site linked above is historically accurate. However, I will ask about the veracity of this story when the opportunity presents itself.)
The last time we were at Colonial Williamsburg, my son used his birthday money to purchase a Lafayette hat which is a differently shaped triangle from the traditional tricorn. In fact, the one store that had these hats were not perfectly shaped. When he found out he could have one made, he took the hat shaper up on this opportunity. The lady was extremely nice and patient as my son told her exactly how he wanted it shaped. She started with a black wool hat with the brim flat. She formed the sides exactly the way he wanted and strung the lacing exactly where she thought it would be best. He liked her recommendation on the lacing. Then she took it to the back to do something with it for about 30 minutes, at which time he was told to return to pick it up.
She also gave him further instructions on how to finish shaping it. I had meant to take pictures of that process, which included spraying water on it and bending it some more in the appropriate places and situating it with weight to let it take shape. However, the day after he got the hat, I shopped for fabric for early 20th Century (Y4U1) Unit Celebration Costumes as well as fabric and patterns for his Lafayette costume upgrade (that will keep him warmer this winter). While I was gone he worked on the hat. By the time I got home, I found the hat on the stair railing with a little sign that said, "Ta da!" It looked great!
The next step was the French American Alliance cockade. We looked through all the cockades for sale at CW, but none were for the alliance. We were trying to remember precisely what it looked like, so we looked on the front cover of our weekly schedule that had General Washington's picture. Alas, it showed the side of his hat that does not have a cockade. I decided to buy a black cockade to see how it was made and compare it to the pictures I had taken of Lafayette on previous visits to CW.
When I was on my costume shopping trip, I bought black and white ribbon in three sizes. I wasn't sure exactly which combination I would need. I bought a roll of each to have enough to experiment with. The other night I settled down with the rolls of ribbon, needle and threads and analyzed pictures of the Lafayette hat. The one best photo I have clearly shows the white part of the cockade, but the black background blends into the black hat and can barely be seen. Therefore I played with various combinations until I got the right look.
This afternoon I made the actual cockade. This was not as easy as it appeared. (Nothing in this costume is as easy to make as it appears.) The white part of the cockade is merely an accordian fold, which I quickly discovered is a bear to do with grosgrain ribbon which is a tad bit slippery. I made several today before finally settling on a final look.
In analyzing the photo of the CW Lafayette, we confirmed what we had thought. The cockade slips behind the lacing. When I finished the cockade, I confidently grabbed my son's Lafayette hat to slip the French American Alliance Cockade behind the lacing, but it's impossible. It's too small a space and the lacing is too tight. My son's plan is to take the button from the original cockade we had purchased and take it to the store where the hat was shaped. He would like to buy some more lacing and see if the hat shaping lady can sew new lacing onto the hat for the cockade to slip behind it. This is not easy to do because the hat has a solid brim. She uses an awl to poke a hole for the lacing. In the meantime, we are using a corsage pin that came with the orignial cockade to secure the alliance cockade from behind through the lacing. Ta da!
Tonight, I used the flounce of a historic shirt pattern I had purchased on my costume shopping trip. I added the flounce to the shirt my son already has. This is a temporary fix until I make a new shirt for him. He is outgrowing the one he wears now. It is funny that he even wanted this flounce. When I orignally purchased the shirt with the ruffled sleeves that he wears now, it was for his French Musketeer costume. At the time, he did not appreciate the ruffled sleeves, despite my telling him it was not only historic but French. Since then, he has come to realize that. Now he wants more ruffles so that he will be more historically accurate! I must admit, his costume has seemed severely lacking without a flounce around the neck. He begged me to make a quick ruffle to add on to the neck of his shirt right before our last visit to CW. I told him it's not as easy as he thinks and I needed a pattern, because it is curley-cue shaped. He wasn't aware of that. Now that I have a pattern for a historic shirt with a flounce, I worked on that when everyone went to bed tonight (the only time I seem to find to sew). I have everything hanging on the hanger, ready for the next time he wears it. I had a bit of trouble with the hem of the bias edge. Also, it still isn't right, because the vest isn't right. Well, I think the vest needs to wait. I need to finish the unit celebration costumes, then make the Lafayette coat out of a heavier fabric to keep my son warm this winter. Last weekend I sewed my son's Y4U1 costume and now I am having doubts over my ability to make another Lafayette coat correctly. We'll see. At least I think he will be thrilled to see the flounce on his shirt in the morning. That's what counts...right?
Nov. 15, 2009 - Baptized!
Our youngest got baptized today! She is 7 years old, and she decided to follow Jesus in August. Almost right away she asked about being baptized all on her own. So when our church announced the first baptism day since then, we signed her up. She went to a class to make sure she understood that it wasn't being baptized that saves you, only Jesus can do that. But it is an outward symbol of becoming a Christian, and obedience to God. So here are a couple of pictures.
Going down....
Coming up, a new beginning!
Nov. 16, 2009 - Airplanes in the Great War...and Lafayette?
The most interesting aspect of World War I in our recent studies, was about the continued development of air flight and the Red Baron. Although I've been to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum twice before, I didn't realize until the other day that there is a gallery about the airplane in WWI. The opening displays were of none other than the Red Baron himself. In one window was the classic Red Baron pizza box amongst other items. In this window was one of my favorite imaginative dogs...Snoopy.
It was interesting reading about the Red Baron. Then we got to see some old movies from the 30's, about the dog fights in WWI. Did you know there is a Carey Grant movie and a Fred Astaire movie where each represent WWI pilots? We learned that these early war aviators were called knights of their era, which was romanticized by the movie industry.
After the movies, we got to see the real war, showcasing the development of the airplane during the hopeless war.
My husband enjoyed reading about individuals like Billy Mitchell, whom he read about in his PFE, in preparation for his numerous promotion tests in the military. At the time he studied and reviewed USAF history year after year after year, he kept telling me he wasn't retaining much information. However, while we were here, he kept telling us about a few individuals before he read their placards.
We all found interesting things to see. My son saw a video clip of an elderly man who was one of the WWI flying aces. My son also had fun seeing many of the things he had read about in history and researched for a writing project.
To my surprise, I found aviators who were influcnced by my favorite historical figure, forming the Lafayette Escadrille. These guys obviously knew their history! If you don't know who Lafayette is, or how he could inspire others, here is a synopsis of his life.
We read about some of the pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille. Like Lafayette who joined our fight for liberty in 1777, years before the country of France officially lent support, the American pilots also lent themselves to France during WWI in 1914, before the country of America got involved in 1918.
Here's one of their kepi's...
Everything in this WWI exhibit was interesting. Most things I expected to see. However, Lafayette took me by surprise. It made me feel good to know that some Americans living in France knew their American history. This was definitely the most fun part of the day for me.
Nov. 16, 2009 - Visiting The Wright Flyer
Since we now live near Washington DC, we took advantage of a field trip opportunity in light of our recent studies of the Wright Brothers. The Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum have an excellent exhibit on the Wright Brothers, including the infamous 1903 Wright Flyer. If you cannot go to Washington DC to see this interesting display, you can read the on-line exhibit, which includes activities.
There are numerous hands on activities and terrific life sized displays. When you first walk in, you feel as though you are in front of the Wright brothers' home in Dayton, Ohio. Then you work your way into the amazingly methodical development they undertook for the first sustained flight. Eventually you can imagine yourself on the beach at Kitty Hawk, watching the first manned flight. We originally took a whirlwind tour of this after sightseeing in Washington DC last summer, then we went through about 2/3s of the exhibit a month ago. The museum closed about the time we reached their work in WWI. Sunday when we arrived, we went directly to where we left off, to the WWI part of the exhibit. We only had a few hours, and wanted to see the wind tunnel downstairs, as well as the "Airplanes in the Great War" exhibit. After reading about the Wrights in WWI, we were overwhelmed with the wealth of displays on the Wrights we still had not seen. There's never enough time in a museum. We decided to make use of our time by pushing on to the other exhibits.
Last month many things from the exhibit impressed me. The methodical resourcefulness and ingenuity of Orville and Wilbur Wright was quite impressive, considering their trade was in bicycles. In fact, it is amazing how they used their knowledge of bicycles in the development of the airplane.
The concepts the Wright brothers worked with were available in a hands on gallery called the "How Things Fly" exhibit. Anything hands on is always a thrill for my son. Over the years I have strongly impressed on my children that when we go to a museum and there is a hands-on activity, they cannot participate unless they read the information to understand the point of the activity. Now my son doesn't need to read as much as he used to, because he walks in with a wealth of information already stored in his head.
We quickly located the wind tunnel...
When I was in elementary school, I read a biography on the Wright brothers and was fascinated by their wind tunnel. I've been anxious to see one of these up close. However this wind tunnel wasn't anything like I expected. Horrors...there was math involved! The concepts did not come easily to me. My son, however, understood everything and had a blast figuring out all the procedures. Basically he was doing something with this part of the wind tunnel...
...which is explained and illustrated here...
Then he moved on to other aspects of the mechanics of flight.
Getting lost in the concepts of physics, which was never a strength of mine (geology is easier) I kept reading and trying to understand the concepts.
Eventually I realized there were two main groups of people doing the activities. One group were the kids who aimlessly went through, making the machines move without reading anything. The other group were the adults, trying to contain themselves while waiting for my son to finish his analysis of the activity. I have a feeling these adults are engineers. They were like kids in a candy shop.
Throughout the day, there are demonstrations in this gallery. We got to see one which was down to earth and understandable. The demonstrator did a terrific job working with the children to allow them to help and showing them the props. After that we left. This hands-on gallery was my son's favorite part of the day. I asked him how much he understood and learned there. He matter of factly said that he already knew all that stuff! He did? He said he had learned it in his science curriculum, but now he got to experience it, which was fun for him. Wow! If only the doctors could see him now. He was born a preemie and the doctors used to worry about his educational development. No problem there. I think he gets an A+ for the day. He's always been the type to pretty much teach himself. Interestingly though, he's been coming to me more lately, to hear my ideas about things, which surprises me. In hindsight, I admit some of the concepts are sinking in. My husband said when he was outside of the office at work today, he'd watch the planes from Reagan National, working out the concepts we had read about in the acitivity center. I noticed a few planes from Dulles in the sky this afternoon, when I was out to do errands. However applying the physics we studied about didn't occur to me until my husband mentioned it. My mind was more on languages, writing and the history surrounding the plane. Now that I think about it, I can imagine how the physics allows the plane to work. The displays must be pretty good if I can understand the basic ideas!
Nov. 15, 2009 - Autumn in Washington DC
After lunch today we drove into Washington DC for a bit of sight seeing. Stay tuned! In the meantime, I thought I'd share some of the pictures I took. This is our first autumn in the area and the first time for the kids and I to see the colors in our nation's capital (my husband sees it five days a week). We were in a hurry to get to one of the museums, after parking at Union Station. I took a few pictures while driving, so they aren't as clear as they could be.
The Washington Monument coming into view...
The Washington Monument against a stunning blue sky after several days of Tropical Depression Ida's rain and wind...
By the time we left the museum, it was dusk. As we approached the US Capitol, we could see the beginning of the illumination of the beautiful architecture, set against the sunset sky.
As we walked by the capitol, we were surprised to hear church bells from nearby ringing out a chorus from "In the Good Old Summertime." We were struck by two things. One, it isn't summer anymore! We had a good laugh about that. Second, we had seen that movie the other night. I had a desire to break out into song and dance, a la Judy Garland. However, I restrained myself. Recognizing the tune but not placing it, my daughter asked what the tune was. When I told her, she still couldn't quite figure it out. Ah, my chance to be Judy Garland. As I started singing the tune, my husband hurriedly had us cross a busy intersection and the bells finished their tune. We were wondering which church was playing the tune and why that tune? At least it was an Indian Summer type of day.
Nov. 10, 2009 - Remembering our Veterans
For weeks I had been thinking we'd go to Colonial Williamsburg to celebrate Veteran's Day. There will be a parade for all veterans, cannon volleys, speeches from historic speakers and fife and drums. I knew it would be a special treat for my husband, who retired last winter after serving 24 years in the USAF. However he works for a private company now. Even though they are based at the Pentagon, he has to work. I keep forgetting he doesn't necessarily get Federal holidays off anymore. I think reality hit my husband this afternoon, when he asked if we could watch a Veteran's Day movie. I explained that we've recently watched the last of all of our WWI movies. "Sgt York" is the traditional Veterans' Day movie for us. I'm going to have to think of something meaningful to remember this important day for him.
In the meantime, the significance of the day means more to the kids and me, now that we have completed our studies of World War I. We've read about the trench warfare, the endless wait for battle that gained little, and the frightening new technology in weaponry, airplanes and chemical warfare. We've watched the utter hopelessness in "All Quiet on the Western Front." Told from the viewpoint of a German soldier, it revealed the agony of the war itself for the soldiers of every nation. Even though "Anne of Green Gables" is based on a series of Victorian books for girls, the third part of the trilogy is about WWI. The second part of the movie shows the horrors of the front lines and trenches of the Western Front, while Anne works as a Red Cross worker while looking for her husband, a Canadian doctor who has been conscripted by the German army. Anne returns to England with an orphan baby and her best friend's husband, who lost his arm due to an infested wound from battle. Swept up into intrigue and espionage, Anne returns to France with hidden jewels to help the Underground. We see the end of the war...the armistice. In graphic cinematography of the movies, we experienced the horrible trenches, the exploding bombs, the wounded soldiers waiting for hope, the dead waiting to be buried.
The most poignant of all the WWI movies, was the end of "All Quiet on the Western Front." As the war ended, the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour, we see the results of the final shot, encapsulating the theme of the movie. Also in school, we've pondered the depth of meaning in the poem, "In Flanders Field."
In years past, I remember my husband being called out in the middle of the night to arrive on base with his duffel bag to fly around on a plane...exercises. Keeping that duffel bag packed, my husband placed it in a readily handy location. How many times did I stumble upon it...wondering? How many times did I walk into the downstairs powder room and found a ghostly gas mask staring up at me from a cleaning solution in the sink, in preparation for the next exercise or deployment? How many times did we cancel family vacations, events or activities so he could be on call, available at a moments notice? How many "buckets" was he put into, waiting for deployment to the Middle East? How many times did we hold our breaths, trying to prepare for his times away? Assignments stateside and to Korea were many. The deployments to the war zones strangely eluded him...and it made us feel guilty...fully aware of the families who sacrificed as their loved ones did go to the war zone. My husband's career field engaged him in safer zones, in support of those overseas, working long hours as needed for the mission. Our sacrifice was easy, as compared to those who sacrificed the most.
To all those who did go to the war zone, thank you. You sacrificed so we could keep our freedoms at home. Your life is different because of the sacrifice. Your family's life is different because of the sacrifice. Serving wasn't easy. Serving was dangerous. Serving gave us freedom. We salute you.
Nov. 9, 2009 - "Mom, You're Just Not a Gadget Gal"
A few months ago, my son intently looked at me and seriously said, "Mom, you're just not a gadget gal." With my husband's retirement from the USAF and a move from San Antonio, Texas (where I lived most of my life) to the Washington DC area brought about sudden crash courses in my learning how to use....
....a lap top where the keys must be spaced differently from what I was used to. My fingers usually fly when I type and I rarely made mistakes until I used the lap top. Now I was making nothing but mistakes. I was making a gazillion typos, bringing up other web pages, and closing down my page by the mere attempts of striking the keys. Then there was a "ghost" feature that mysteriously appeared while I was typing. I accidentally found a setting to get rid of that ghost and my fingers have finally learned to fly on a lap top!
...a cell phone which I rarely used in San Antonio. With the move across country I finally learned how to plug in phone numbers so that I could keep in touch with my parents, our real estate agents in San Antonio and Virginia, etc, etc, etc. Then we moved into our house and my phone basically sits in my purse. When a friend of my son's came over, I had to ask the boys how to put in the phone number for the friend's mom. What can I say...I forget things I don't use all the time.
...a GPS, which I've dubbed Lee because describing him takes a lot of adverbs while we are on the go. He likes to drive us through downtown Washington DC. However I've learned to reroute him so he will take me out and about via easier routes. Interesting-lee, he gets lost once we reach our own neighborhood. I'm glad I have that much of the area figured out!
...television cable which in Northern Virginia apparently requires numerous mega monster electrical cables and three remote controls. That's crazy! I still haven't figured out how to use the VCR or DVD or any other doo-dad on the machine. My husband says I'll never figure it out. Hmmmm, that sounds like a challenge.
... the telephone answering machine which is now more complicated than a simple push of the button.
...learning a new phone number took me months. Numbers aren't as friendly to me as letters. I tried to give someone my phone number the other day. He thought he remembered the prefix, which was wrong, but since he put the wrong number in my head, for the life of me I could not remember the correct number.
...the clock on my nightstand is beyond comprehension. I purchased it when we moved into this house because my husband gets up at 4:30am to get ready to arrive at work by 6am. 4:30am is too early for me! I want to wake up at 6am. However I couldn't figure out how to set the alarm, so my son set it up for me. Now my husband turns my alarm off on Friday nights and sets it up again on Sunday night.
...and now a new sewing machine which the moving company recently paid for! I have been busily sewing window treatments, Year 4 Unit 1 costumes, and researching and gathering supplies for new colonial costumes. I want to make my daugter's dress more historic. My son wants me to make a warmer and more accurate Lafayette costume for winter and a gentry outfit for summer. I've not had much time for sewing, due to lesson planning and studying. We've also been sight seeing, either at historic places or at Lowes, my husband's favorite store. When he runs out of projects, he takes me shopping. I can't complain. I'm thankful my husband is perking up the house. Alas, my sewing sits on the table during the hours we are at Lowes. The few times I get to sew, I optimistically think I'm going to be extremely productive, but something always happens.
I've been sewing on a piece of silk and the tension has been too tight. I thought it was due to the flimsy fabric. Tonight I finally took a look at how to fix that. I'm not great at figuring out tension. Remember I'm not a gadget gal. It appeared that the top tension was too tight, so I decreased the tension but it didn't make any difference, not even at a 1. I tried a piece of cotton and had the same problem. Oh dear, my new machine is broken. I resorted to my old machine which is broken from the move, but at least the tension still works. As I sewed on my silk, the tension problem kept nagging me. I finally sat at the computer to do some googling.
Specifically I googled, "Pfaff Expression 2.0 tension". Oh, no. I found a lot of comments about the exact same problem I had experienced. They users all sold their Pfaffs and purchased other machines. I felt awful. I looked through my google search and found another forum (not Pfaff), where the thread was about the Pfaff Expression and opinions of it. Everyone loved it! One lady had a thread gunking problem. She took her machine to the Pfaff dealer and found out she was doing two things wrong. One, she was threading her machine with the presser foot down. Hmmm, I thread the machine with the presser foot up, so that's not the problem. Second, when she inserted the bobbin, she didn't listen for the click when she moved the thread around to different parts of the chamber. Hmmmm, this could be my problem. I've always suspected that I was not putting in the bobbin correctly. The thread was always flowing too freely from the base of the machine. However the insertion method is completely different from any I have worked with and is quite intricate. I went to the machine, took out the bobbin, moved the thead around the different parts of the chamber until I heard the click. "Click!" Do you know how wonderful that sound is????? I've never heard that before! I finished threading, replaced the cover, and started sewing. Eureka! The seam was gorgeous!!!!!!
Since Pfaff users sometimes find my blog for information, I wanted to be sure I posted this little tip. Also it will make great reference for me. Since I'm not a gadget gal, I might forget if I am ever away from sewing for months at a time!
Nov. 3, 2009 - Pumpkin Stuff
Over a month ago we started seeing pumpkins galore being sold. We've never seen anything like that in Texas! In San Antonio, I used to either buy our pumpkin the last week of October or buy it early and store it in the refrigerator. It is so warm in Texas, the pumpkins go bad quickly. Last year we managed to grow a pumpkin in our garden, which I needed to harvest when we returned home from our Virginia vacation in mid August. That was stored in the refrigerator for the end of October and barely made it. This year I hesitated to buy a pumpkin early. How do they fare in Virginia? I let the kids each choose one and had them set them on the front porch. They survived! Now what to do with them?
We don't do Halloween. We have no interest in Halloween costumes. No interest in trick or treating. No interest in fall festivals. However the kids do want to do something quietly at home. I thought I'd put the kids to work to hollow out one of the pumpkins so I could bake a beef stew in it. Then I had also planned to make a pumpkin cheesecake. The other pumpkin they could carve and we could watch a movie.
Well, I was gone from the house most of the day, trying to find things for our Year 4 Unit 1 costumes and for a warmer Lafayette costume for my son. By the time I got home, the pumpkins were spoken for. The family had done their traditional gospel pumpkin, with a lot of help from their dad. I think my son drew the symbols and my husband cut them out. Hmmmm, I think this is the first year my husband did the pumpkin with the kids. Usually I do it with them, but my husband wants window treatments and the kids want costumes for their unit celebration and Colonial Williamsburg, so my husband was happy to give me a pumpkin break this year. ;)
Then they wanted to do a Colonial Williamsburg pumpkin. This year CW provided several pumpkin carving patterns at their web site. My son wanted to do all of them. I couldn't afford that many pumpkins, so he had to choose one. Actually my daughter chose one, the Governor's Palace. Here is my son carving it, while my daughter picks out the seeds. My husband likes roasted pumpkin seeds.
Here it is. I am impressed. This was my son's first pumpkin to carve and he did it entirely himself. He had a bit of trouble with the intricacy of the pattern, so he said he improved a few parts. Can you imagine me shaking me head? He reminds me of Patrick Henry. If I could go back in time, I'd love to meet Patrick Henry's mother and ask her specifically what her son was like as a child. I have a feeling we would share a lot in common.
It was a bit late to start a stew and there were no more pumpkins to bake it in. The family decided they wanted snack food. Earlier in the day my husband had gone to the store and bought the cupcakes and candy corn. He went back out and bought snack food.
Then we settled down to "Arsenic and Old Lace." I'm a huge Cary Grant fan and my husband is a Theodore Roosevelt fan. It's a hilarious movie and sort of where we draw the line at the end of the month. =) For me anyway, if I watch anything more intense than this, I'll have nightmares. I've had enough bad dreams this month as it is. Since we recently studied WWI and the Bolshevik Revolution and watched movies about it, I've had quite a few sleepless nights. "Arsenic and Old Lace" was a fun movie to lighten the mood from our recent studies! That's why I like Cary Grant. He can be sophisticated, yet hilarious, at the same time!
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