Peonie project takes backseat to more pressing things
By Mary Roder
Date Modified: 10/08/2009 10:21 AM
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This column originally appeared in the Nov. 6, 2008 edition of Agri News
The first project I planned for this fall was to plant peonies.
I have the bulbs and my plan, but the flower garden is staying too wet for me to work there. I worked in short spurts to pull out the plants that are past their prime. My flowers stayed pretty until the week after several of our "away" children were home to visit.
Then it was as if they felt their job was done. Most of the flowers froze during the next week or just dropped dead. The broken jug water feature also gave up the ghost. Since my husband insists the vegetable garden fulfills his need to plant and weed, everything that happens in the flowerbeds is up to me. While waiting for the right time to work with the flowers, I set foot in my sewing room for the first time since spring took me outdoors.
It seems when I find a project for my sewing room, suddenly several more projects are tossed my way and I live there for a while. I was trying to fashion corn bags for a tailgate toss game my husband made for each of our children.
As usual, his project morph into jobs for me, hence the corn bags. Each game takes eight bags, so I am now making 56 corn bags. I really can't complain because the idea of making the games was mine in the first place. It kept him occupied and happy. I just couldn't think about the fact it also meant work for me.
Husband is helping where he can. He shells and clean the field corn I'm using.
I had just finished making the last bag (the stuffing and closing were still ahead) when I got a message from one of the grandchildren. She wants to be St. Mary Magdalene for a school prayer service. I suppose I can make a very simple oblong garment with opening for her arms and her head.
Basically, it doesn't have to be any more complicated than a very large corn bag would be. If we stuff it with the little girl, belt it in with a shawl, she will be a very pretty St. Mary Magdalene.
An older grandaugther knew I was spending time in the sewing room and didn't think I would mind removing the elastic and hemming a pair of sweatpants for her boyfriend. The job would have been simplier if she hadn't already tried to do it herself.
She had one leg chopped up a bit trying to get the elastic out with a scissors rather than pulling threads. He needs the britches before Mary Magdalene needs her gown, so that chore will get priority handling.
All my sewing projects are put on hold temporarily this weekend. We are taking a few days off to visit family in Wichita, Kans.
I hope I will have a box of corn bags stuffed and ready for the final stiching riding beside me in the car. The final closing must be done by hand. I can do that while visiting with my husband, enjoying some good music and sightseeing during the eight-hour drive down and back.
We plan to take in both college and high school volleyball games to watch granddaughters play. We plan to have fun attending an author's big book event and banquet at the university. A grandson will be bowling for the Special Olympics and for the first time Grandma and Grandpa will be there to cheer him on.
Those events -- plus a nice visit with an aunt and my grandson, a member of the working world since his graduation from college this spring -- will keep me too busy to sew once we arrive.
The Mary Magdalene project and the peony bulbs will be waiting for attention when we return home. Then I must start on some quilted Christmas gifts for each of our seven offspring. The sewing machine will continue to hum for another month. When the peonies are safely in the ground and the last Christmas gift has been sewn, my computer will be put to work.
What I promise to pull out of my computer is a story for another time.