That Sleeve Had It In For Me

This afternoon while awaiting a call from the mechanic saying that my brakes were fixed (goodbye, $600) and I could walk over to pick up the van, I went downstairs to sew up the last dress I cut out months ago so I can let myself cut out more things.  I got the shoulders sewed together just fine but then I tried to sew in the sleeves.  I diverged from the directions in that instead of sewing the side seams and the sleeve seam, then easing the sleeve into the armhole I sewed the sleeve on flat intending to sew up the side seams and sleeve seams all in one go.  Do you think the sleeve would behave?  No, of course not.  I pinned it in place, easing in the excess, sewed it, and had a raft of puckers.  I picked out the seam, repinned it, resewed it, and got even more puckers.  Arrgh.  So I ripped the seam again, sewed a row of basting stitches, gathered the sleeve cap, then pinned it in place and sewed it.  Much better.  There's a pucker or two but they're in the underarm and I'm leaving them.  AND I have another sleeve to sew in.











The yellow iris is still blooming and the poppy buds aren't open yet.  Aunt B commented the other day that they look like lions.  They do!  Now I can't look at them without seeing lion muzzles.










There are flowers on the bell pepper plant.  Here's hoping we get to pick more than one pepper this year.




 
It's almost impossible to see but there are tiny green grass shoots in the spot where I piled in all that topsoil and sprinkled on grass seed last week.  Maybe one of these days it'll blend into the lawn.


I have to show you my yummy lunch.  It's a flour tortilla spread with homemade roasted red pepper hummus with some cucumber spears tucked inside.  On the side I had some jicama and baby carrots, with half of a huge orange for dessert.  Last week I was eating the same thing when OJ stopped over and asked for a bite of burrito.  Evidently he cadges bites of meat, bean, and cheese burritos that Mom and Dad get at the farmer's market so the hummus burrito was a huge disappointment.  He tried two bites and made a shocked face both times.  Guess cold hummus is an acquired taste--especially when you're expecting warm meat and cheese.  Sorry, dude.

June 7--Nicolas Poussin, The Finding of Moses.  Clea looked out over the river.  She sat in the shade watching the boats and barges moving up and down river, fishing and carrying cargo.  She watched a shape moved by a wake.  It looked like a basket and she could see shapes moving.  Oh great, she thought, someone set a litter of kittens adrift.  The basket bobbed into a reed bed and stuck.  She heard the mewing of the kittens and felt such anger toward whoever was so cruel to dispose of unwanted kittens in that way.  The basket was close enough that she could just reach it but when she looked inside she got a shock.  There was a baby in the basket.  Who throws away a baby?

Today was a gorgeous day, the kind of day that made me glad I got to take a couple walks.  If only they hadn't been on either side of taking the van in to be fixed.  Brakes are expensive, also really important.  Driving home I realized the first time I touched the brakes just how bad they had been.  Good thing I pay attention to stuff like that.  Time to hit the hay.
--Barbara