Simple Saturday (Pinning It Down)

Saturday was a day to remember. Not because we went anywhere special or did something exciting but because we were all together at home with nothing planned to do. At all. As is the custom, Paul asked after breakfast  "So what is the plan for the day?" Turned out, there was no where we had to go or nothing that needed to be done so we each gravitated to our own thing.

Paul worked out a training program on his computer for the Fire Department and Athena was playing something and I, feeling a little crafty, headed down to the classroom. I have had the following project in mind for a while and this seemed like the perfect time to do it. My mother used to travel with the kids at her high school back when she was still teaching and she brought me these pretty tea towels from some of her trips. Pretty? Yes. Practical? Not so much. They are thin and not very absorbent. So I took an old bath towel and got to work on a dish draining cloth. We do have a dishwasher but the knives, wood and wine glasses are hand washed and I needed something to set the wet dishes on.

First I cut two pieces of the towel, one for each tea towel, roughly an inch smaller on each side of the tea towel.

Next, I turned over the edge on all sides and pinned it in place.

 Then I stitched the towels together one at 5/8 seam allowance and the other at 1/4 or so.

I top stitched it once horizontally and once vertically just to keep it together. That's it. So simple and so practical and now I get to see those pretty towels without fear of staining them.

Thanks again Mom for these little souvenirs.

Of course, hearing the sewing machine, Athena came down to join me in some crafting of her own. She thinks that I should put this penguin and the flower on Pinterest so that other children can make them.

Then she asked me if she could sew a 'stuffed up animal" and while she did I made her her very own sewing box from an old pencil box. Easy as pie.

I just glued some wool felt in the bottom and padded the top part with fibre-fill. The glue in of the fibre fill didn't work out as nicely as I planned but ... oh well.

Then I filled it up with everything she would need for her projects. She was well pleased.

 (Pretty good blanket stitch for an 8 year old. No?)

The creativity didn't stop there. We made a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and some buttermilk blueberry muffins. Daddy grilled steak for supper. My tenderloin with blue cheese of course.

The day could not have gone any better. We read a few chapters of Little House on the Prairie, I finished knitting my slippers and Athena went outside to play with a friend and then she watched a video. We were all tucked in bed early. Perfectly magical day.

Pinning it Down with Sarah.