Of Mattresses and Applique

rug in bedroom
Originally uploaded by ooh_food

Applique. How I do love thee, Applique! I used to look forward to "Bunty," on Mondays when I was a girl. "Bunty" was a schoolgirls' magazine/comic book. It was within those pages that I was first introduced to "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "Pocahontas" and other worthwhile reading material, as well as to the likes of "Uggy Muggy From Mars," which is, inexplicably, burned into my memory. Bunny Hill Designs Block of the Month inspires the same excited anticipation in me as "Bunty" did. I wait eagerly for the fifth of every month, and hold my breath to see what Anne S. has decided I'll be stitching, on and off for the rest of the month. I am her slave. Which is not like me. I like to blaze my own trail. I don't like to make quilts that anyone else can make. What's the point? I want what I spend hours doing to be unique. In the same way, I dislike cookie cutter houses. I want mine to be different. Cookie cutter children? Not in this family!

But I digress......

It may be that I like the discipline....I have to finish one block before the next one comes out. I need that. Anything to prevent me from constantly starting new projects, while those already underway languish in quilters' purgatory! [Was it a Freudian slip that I wrote quitters' purgatory there? And hastily corrected it!] Besides, I decide which fabrics and which colours to use, so it really will be unique!

The OC smiles indulgently. Isn't it nice that the little woman has a hobby, although, God knows, a little dusting wouldn't go astray around here. We'll be able to plant tomatoes on the book shelves soon, but it keeps her happy and off my case, so it can't be all bad.

Yes, I read minds too. Another of my fabled talents.....Now, where was I?

Ah yes. He who would like the dusting done is away for the week. My mission, in his absence, is to hunt down a new mattress set. And yes, I have made a start. Yesterday afternoon I visited two mattress stores. Customers were thin on the ground. Salesmen almost fell over themselves in their rush to my side. Not a good sales tactic, as such behaviour tends to make me want to turn and dash right back out. Better to leave me alone for a while, then sidle slyly over, so as to be available when I start to look confused. Available to spout a befuddling barrage of mattress information. More information about mattresses than a person could possibly store in her head, nine and a half percent percent of which actually registers with a brain cell in there. If you haven't been in the market for a mattress lately, let me tell you, it leads to befuddlement!

To my credit, I stood my ground and resisted the impulse to run. I listened, while most of the information washed harmlessly over my head. I even lay down obediently, and nodded sagely, if somewhat self consciously, from a reclining position at the finer points of traditional spring mattresses, and sleep numbers mattresses, and memory foam mattresses, and the dizzying variety of thicknesses and densities, the relative pros and cons of each explained to me in excruciating, mind numbing detail. Mattresses were pointed out to me that had the endorsement of the Chiropractic Association. Then there were the pillow tops, the bases, and of course, the prices. Oh my Lord, the prices!

"I only want to sleep on it!" I almost said, then thought better of it, not wanting to get into a discussion with Mr. Eager Salesman of other bed related activities. And it's true, we spend a large enough percentage of our lives sleeping, that it's probably wise to invest in something of substance and reliability. While being bamboozled with figures and statistics and prices, I made a concerted effort to look intelligent, and give the impression that I found it all fascinating. In spite of the fact that I was beginning to think my brain must be made from exactly the same high density foam about which the salesman was waxing so poetical.

I came home with a handful of business cards and a head swimming with information. The OC was very pleased when informed, last night on the telephone, of the progress made.

And now it's Tuesday, and I should sally forth again to do some further mattressy investigations. But first, I told myself, since I am being so virtuous, and loathe to venture out into the killer heat, I could do a little applique first, to bolster my resolve, as it were.

So, having made a start yesterday, I agonized for a while, today, over which fabric I should use for the flowers. Decision made [with difficulty,] I cut them out. Then I thought

"I really should go. Sooner out, sooner done."

But then I remembered that supper was ready, only to warm it up, so what's the hurry? A person could sew on at least one petal, just to see how it looks. Of course, that was so easily done, and looked so nice that a person thought she might as well sew on another. Then, there being only five petals to a flower, a person thought, if she did one more, she'd be more than half way to a finished flower.......Do you see where a person could go with this?

Exactly! All five petals are sewn on.



A person thinks they look gorgeous. So, sighing with satisfaction, she has now pushed herself away from the sewing table and is bravely heading out the door to go and look [God help us!] at more mattresses. Wish a person luck, please.......