{"id":14673,"date":"2011-06-02T00:56:20","date_gmt":"2011-06-02T04:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/?p=14673"},"modified":"2013-01-19T22:51:35","modified_gmt":"2013-01-20T03:51:35","slug":"my-back-porch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/02\/my-back-porch\/","title":{"rendered":"My Back Porch"},"content":{"rendered":"

“People in, say, Georgia aren’t sitting on the front porch singing anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re inside in the air-conditioning, watching cable like everybody else.”\u00c2\u00a0 Charles Reagan Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Hummmph!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t know who this guy is or if he has done a statistically accurate survey on this topic,\u00c2\u00a0 but I do know that here in central\u00c2\u00a0Florida,\u00c2\u00a0my family spends a lot of time on our back porch.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t often sing, but that’s\u00c2\u00a0out of consideration for\u00c2\u00a0the wildlife and any neighbors within hearing\u00c2\u00a0distance.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0However, that’s not to say we\u00c2\u00a0never escape to the air conditioned house to watch cable like his folks in Georgia.<\/p>\n

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We spend a great deal of\u00c2\u00a0time\u00c2\u00a0out there\u00c2\u00a0enjoying a variety of pleasant activities.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I\u00c2\u00a0often smock or do handwork while my dear husband and I watch college football game\u00c2\u00a0re-runs, each of us\u00c2\u00a0in our\u00c2\u00a0personal rocking chair.\u00c2\u00a0 We are regular American Gothic grandparents.<\/p>\n

Here, the grandchildren have tea parties, play with the doll house,\u00c2\u00a0build with\u00c2\u00a0blocks or do art work on\u00c2\u00a0a table in place for that purpose.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Being on the porch\u00c2\u00a0together is good family time.\u00c2\u00a0 It gives me a nice, \u00c2\u00a0cozy feeling.<\/p>\n

What a shame that every home does not\u00c2\u00a0have a big porch.\u00c2\u00a0 The very word\u00c2\u00a0 evokes any number of pleasant images.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve searched the thesaurus but the suggested synonyms, i.e.\u00c2\u00a0balcony, deck, portico, stoop,\u00c2\u00a0veranda, are architecturally inaccurate.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Nor can they\u00c2\u00a0conjure up warm visions of\u00c2\u00a0 family and friends enjoying one another’s company, children playing while adults relax with glasses of sweet tea,\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0grandmother smocking\u00c2\u00a0a baby dress…. list goes on and on.\u00c2\u00a0 Nothing BAD is\u00c2\u00a0supposed to happen on\u00c2\u00a0the porch.\u00c2\u00a0But who knows what might happen on a balcony or stoop.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t want to think about it.<\/p>\n

Of course, there was that unfortunate incident when our black Lab puppies, Jacob and Esau,\u00c2\u00a0ate\u00c2\u00a0my\u00c2\u00a0antique wicker love seat, but that was an isolated fluke\/catastrophe that I have chosen to forget.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Mostly.<\/p>\n

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This is not a great picture. Why did I center the exercise bike?<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\u00c2\u00a0I don’t know who Charles Holley is either, but\u00c2\u00a0his statement I like:\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 “My vision is to see a nice neighborhood with children playing on the street and people on porches, with smiles on their faces.”\u00c2\u00a0 Charles Holley<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Our back\u00c2\u00a0porch looks over the swimming pool and we\u00c2\u00a0do smile as we watch our children and grandchildren splashing there\u00c2\u00a0in the Florida sunshine.\u00c2\u00a0Well, I smile–Bob is usually in the water in the midst of\u00c2\u00a0 the action.<\/p>\n

At one end\u00c2\u00a0of our back porch\u00c2\u00a0is\u00c2\u00a0this sitting area and a work table for the grandchildren’s \u00c2\u00a0arts and crafts.<\/p>\n

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At the other end, near the kitchen, are porch toys, the little tea party table and a doll house.\u00c2\u00a0 Also, an\u00c2\u00a0old\u00c2\u00a0picnic table that Bob put together when he was 12 is our preferred dining spot for\u00c2\u00a0cookouts.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0We eat there because everyone can be seated on the wooden benches\u00c2\u00a0in their wet bathing suits.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve neglected this busy center of family\u00c2\u00a0activity for some time now.\u00c2\u00a0 The start of my mini makeover is this\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0quick machine embroidered sunflower\u00c2\u00a0pillow. It began its life as a tea towel from one of my favorite sites, www.allaboutblanks.com<\/a> and was easily re-purposed as a pillow cover.<\/p>\n

In February, when I taught at Sewing at the Beach in Myrtle Beach, All About Blanks had a market there.\u00c2\u00a0 Their display of\u00c2\u00a0products and the samples they had made up were a wealth of inspiration. \u00c2\u00a0Several of these checkered hem towels\u00c2\u00a0 in a variety of colors\u00c2\u00a0came home with me.<\/p>\n

The sunflower embroidery design is from Babylock’s Jacket Backs <\/em>collection.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The jumbo buttons at the bottom \u00c2\u00a0begged to be included.\u00c2\u00a0 The large designs in this\u00c2\u00a0Babylock\u00c2\u00a0collection are\u00c2\u00a0 great for pillows. I plan to make\u00c2\u00a0one for\u00c2\u00a0Independence Day using a whimsical flag\u00c2\u00a0 made up of lady bugs, strawberries, flowers and other patterns.<\/p>\n

A dishtowel pillow\u00c2\u00a0would make a quick and easy little gift for anyone. My Aunt Aileen lives in a nursing home and might enjoy a seasonal decorative\u00c2\u00a0pillow for her bed or the chair in her room.<\/p>\n

I might make one each for Laurel and Robert to put on their beds here at our house. On their beds at home, there are so many stuffed animals that making the bed is\u00c2\u00a0akin to\u00c2\u00a0moving\u00c2\u00a0a herd of cattle from one pasture to another. In fact, there are so many that for more than a month Laurel chose to sleep on a\u00c2\u00a0quilt on the floor, because there was not room in the bed for her, all\u00c2\u00a0of the\u00c2\u00a0animals and her almost life size Minnie Mouse!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I’m certain that\u00c2\u00a0my darling DIL\u00c2\u00a0wouldn’t want more bed decor.\u00c2\u00a0 Alastair is too\u00c2\u00a0young for decorative bed pillows but his day will come.<\/p>\n

This also would be a good beginner sewing project for children—a little measuring, straight stitching, hand sewing on the buttons. Hummmmmm….<\/p>\n

I have a lot of ideas for these\u00c2\u00a0versatile, stylish\u00c2\u00a0towels. What I don’t have is a lot of time. I wonder how many will end up as pillows and how many will end up in\u00c2\u00a0my kitchen towel drawer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“People in, say, Georgia aren’t sitting on the front porch singing anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re inside in the air-conditioning, watching cable like everybody else.”\u00c2\u00a0 Charles Reagan Wilson   Hummmph!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t know who this guy is or if he has done a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[35,19,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14673"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14673"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25645,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14673\/revisions\/25645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}