Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Turnip disaster, draft excluder, making of a quilt

When turnips are seedlings, slugs like to nip off all the leaves, killing the plant. Then when turnips grow bigger, slugs can't be bothered with the leaves and turn their attention to the root. I learned that this winter with the remainder of my turnips left in the ground; about half of them had been completely mined out by slugs. Rather disgusting to pull up a nice fat turnip only to see a slimy invertibrate poking out of a huge hole. And that's after the cabbage root flies got to them. Sigh.

I sewed a quick draft excluder for our front door; that door can let in a terrible draft in winter. It actually works! I basically sewed a big tube and a small tube; I stuffed the small tube with brown rice then put it in the big tube, which I filled up with polyester stuffing. The rice makes the excluder a bit more sturdy. Dried beans or lentils could work, too.

I've been piecing together a small quilt for Franklin's bed made from old wool jackets and coats. At the moment the quilt top measures 40"x49". I can't decide if I want to piece together the smaller scraps and make a border (adding another 4-8 inches all around) or to finish it this size. I certainly have lots of scraps left. It's not in the least professional-looking, but it's warm and fuzzy. Each of the jackets I paid £1 for (love that shop!), and all of them are at least 80% wool.

This quilt needs a backing however. I've been on the lookout for thinner wool items, like skirts or trousers and while I have a couple things, it's not enough. As this is for a not-quite-fully-potty-trained toddler, I'm sticking to wool as it repels water and also doesn't hold odors like other materials. Plus it's warm!

1 comment:

Gilbrides said...

You are so amazing! I bet that's a wonderful quilt you've made and that Franklin will LOVE it! James has a quilt that his mom made from all of his old t-shirts and has a flannel backing and it's been our favorite! Hope it's the same for Franklin! I hope he'll treasure this quilt for years to come!