Another Letter From Josette

My Dear Sister,
I asked Maman to let me write to you again because I wanted to know if Perrine and Cherie can come on the visit with me. Cherie very much wants to go to Sheep and Wool because maybe some of her relatives will be there and she has not seen them in a very long time. It would be nice for her to have a little visit. Perrine also wants to come, she does not like to be separated from Cherie; they are very good friends and play together all the time. And I don not trust grandpa to feed them and take care of them while I am gone. They are so small he might forget. Maman said she thought you would say yes because sometimes you babysit a friends cat so you are used to small animals.
We have narrowed the fabric for my traveling dress down to the nautical print with the anchors and little red stars or the yellow with the Scottie dogs. I like the Scottie dogs the best but Maman likes the anchors. I am going to let Maman pick because she reminded me that Christmas is not so very far away and I think I may have said I would do some not very nice things in my last letter to you. I am very sorry I said those things and I am trying to be good as much as I can. If I am very good we will buy the fabric for my holiday clothes when we visit you. I am also going to have a new coat and hat this year and perhaps we can find fabric for that too.
I am getting more excited everyday!
Love,
Josette

Josettes Packing Adventure

Melissa asked Josette to go to New York with me and she is really excited. Even though we aren't leaving for a week she's already looking through her clothes for what she wants to take with her. This is a little letter she is writing to Melissa:

Ma Cherie big Sister

Maman says that with a wardrobe as big as this I must have something to wear. I don't know about that; after Paris I think New York is the second most fashionable city on earth and I want to look my very best.


I don't think I'll need my fur hat or corduroy cape, but maybe I'll bring my white bonnet. I look really cute in it!


I'll just pull myself up and over here.....


I'll bring the pink dress for any tea parties and my green dress for the zoo. Maman say we are going to stuffy museums but I know if I cry and stamp my feet she will give in and take me to the zoo, and Central Park and to as many toy stores as I want.

Whats in here? Oh Maman HELP!



It pretty apparent to me that Maman is going to have to spend the next ten days sewing for me, I really don't have much to wear at all. Although my Japanese kimono robe I got from Santa is quite nice, and the two dresses, nothing else is fit to wear! I promise to post pictures of my new suit for the train as soon as Maman makes it. I am so excited to come and see you! I don't know if I can sleep for the next week!
Love your little sister Josette

Tuesdays Tutorial

Well I'm a day late. I made this pillow yesterday but didn't get a chance to post it til today. It's finished except the buttons on the back. The tutorial was from Cluck cluck Sew and the link is here: http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2009/10/tutorial-scrap-buster-fall-pillow.html Rather than make mine with cotton I used all wool. The leaves and trunk are from wool scraps from rug hooking, and the back and front are from bigger pieces in my wool stash. Because the wool has all been felted, I didn't have to use the fusible webbing to hold the leaves in place; I just pinned them down and when I liked the arrangement I just took them to the machine and sewed. It's a pretty nice pillow. I'd like to make it again with green leaves and pears and a partridge for Christmas.

Halloween Quilt

So I made this quilt top a long time ago, at least 5 years ago, maybe longer. It's the only Halloween quilt I've ever made. I never really could bring myself to make one because I see it as being a minor holiday and I've always concentrated my efforts on Thanksgiving and Christmas. But a friend of mine was downsizing and gave me a whole ton of fabric and there was a stack of Halloween prints and so this quilt happened. I made the top, layered and basted it and then stopped working on it. I don't remember why, it's not really that big, only 45 inches by 56 inches and I could have it quilted in a couple of days. Siobhan said it's an ugly quilt, but I am so into finishing projects lately, and when I went to the bin of UFO's and pulled this out, I just thought it's just the time to finish it up. I actually like it, even if Sio doesn't, and even if chances are good it won't get used in this house I can see myself putting it out sometime in the future. We won't always be here, so I think I'll finish it up and then store it away til some other time. I was originally going to quilt bats in the black triangles, I even made a template for one and I'm pretty sure the quilt top was marked but the lines have faded. I'll have to look and see if I still have the bat template.

Siobhan and I took a really nice bike ride the other day. We rode from here up to Cricket Creek. The forest preserve has been putting in the new Salt Creek bike trail; they had the ribbon cutting ceremony earlier this month, but I had no idea it ran through south part of Cricket Creek. It ends up being a nice ride from here, because instead of following the trail up across Lake street and then on down to the next forest preserve, we can turn off and ride our bikes around the retention ponds and then head back down one of the residential streets which will take us back to our street. I'd say it's probably not quite a 2 mile ride and a lot of it is through prairie and forest. We saw a huge praying mantis on the trail and Sio had to stop and look. It was pretty cool, but I didn't have the camera so we didn't get any pics. I need to remember to bring it with me everywhere!