Tonight was the meeting of the Sewing Guild and that gave Lynne and I a chance to catch up with each other. She was Almost unable to make it because of Court Duty-but they dismissed her just in time to let us go. We had a grand time enjoying the ride. It seems like that hour drive is always about 15 minutes when you get into some good sewing adventures to discuss and laugh at.
Tonight was a demonstration of soft puppets . I had not thought Originally that it would catch my interest- But - as usual I was bigtime Wrong. The lady named Mary Ann ??? (see- I remembered part of her name !) was a very special and talented person. She said that after 20 years of marriage that her DH walked in one day and said he wanted to become a ventriloquist - just out of the blue! So they went to a ventriloquist conference and while he was doing research she was being introduced to different puppets and something new was born for her. That year she piddled with some -she said not great , just average and took them the next year to the conference once again. She sold a couple , but met a lady in Florida who was a master puppeteer maker. They hit it off and she went to her house and stayed a week learning from her the craft. By that time the lady was in her 80's and looking to retire so it seemed that things just fell into place for her.
These are soft puppets and the way she brings them to life is unbelievable.She showed how she started making them by cutting foam pieces for the head-then she uses a flesh colored terry cloth that she orders. She uses a bleach bottle for the top cavity of the body and she misses no detail. I wish you could have seen them. There was a little old man, a little old lady, a blue ape, some type of mountain man - some well known creature called Peanut that is popular now - a airport inspector and even a little tree. (my favorite was the tree) She had a notebook full of pictures of ones that she has created and each one was perfect and we loved them all.
As far as they know she is the only person doing this in the US. But no wonder if you could have just seen the details.I was in awe of her ability.
Afterwards we had show and tell. The ladies in this group are all so very talented and it is so much fun to see what they have been working on. One gal home schooled her children and her daughter was graduating so instead of a normal paper diploma she had sewed her a banner diploma that was something Anybody would be proud of . She had also made a purse and she showed drapes she had made for her living room. Another gal had made the same purse in different colors and I loved it. But she had also made a family member a backpack and everybody liked it so much that she had to make more. One was for a family member who had a new baby and she wanted a larger back pack to carry the baby essentials and it was really lovely -and to top it off she had made her 3 year old a miniature backpack from the scrapes to match Mom. How cool is that.
Another had an elderly friend that had sent a quilt top that was hand sewn and she only wanted 20.00 for it. She also had sent quilt blocks with the Dutch Girl and the other was the star pattern -she just wanted 3.00 for each block. They were really pretty.
I found 3 books on the table that I could not live without and now I just need time to enjoy them . Afterwards refreshments were served and they were delish! The fruits were my favorites! Yummy! I was interested in their decaffeinated tea -with no sweetener. I did not realize it till Lynne brought it to my attention -so I tasted it and it was good! But if you wanted sweetener they had the small packs of artificial sweetener and they had made a liquid sugar in a syrup bottle and it did not take much and it was great.
Our drive home seemed like seconds as we shared what we had learned. Lynne is an excellent driver - even in the rain we had returning home. We even got to share some recipes.She had one jello recipe that caught my fancy. It was 1 pack of orange jello, 1 pack kof pineapple jello, carton of cottage cheese , nuts and pack of cool whip. , one container of drained pineapple bits and mandarin oranges , You took the cottage cheese and sprinkled on the two jellos then adding the cool whipand drained pineapples and drained mandarin oranges and nuts- then letting it sit .That one had me drooling.
Well, my eyeballs are begging for sleep once again - so Maybe I will have wonderful dreams of sewing
Love to all!
What a fab day!
ReplyDeleteRE your questions:
Where I live we get no snow.
But three hours south they do... and most of the South Island of New Zealand gets snow in winter.
When we lived in Palmerston North (nearly 3 years ago now) it got cold enough to snow on the hills surrounding the city. It was a freezing place to live in winter, I do not miss it at all. I do miss my girlfriends though.
Spiders... we have only a couple that are likely to bite you... and make you ill.
But you hardly ever see them.
We do not have bears or animals like that here... only deer, pig and goats in the wild.
NO SNAKES or nasties like that!
Get sharks in the water, but not usually where people swim.
That's about it!
HOpe you get a good night's sleep.
The worst things I can thing of is wasps... and stray dogs that roam!
What an exciting meeting. So much to learn with recipes and puppeteers and all the other stuff.
ReplyDeleteYour meeting sounded like so much fun. I am glad you are able to attend them. Your friend Lynne sounds pretty special.
ReplyDelete