May Day

I am a day late and a dollar short, but I think it is important to note that yesterday was May Day.

The husband and I graduated from Washington College, in Chestertown, Maryland, which has the distinction of being the only college in the United States with George Washington’s permission to use his name. Washington donated 50 guineas toward the establishment of the college and agreed to serve on the Board of Visitors and Governors. Washington College is also well known for a slightly less noble tradition: May Day—a day students celebrate by taking off their clothing.

Yep, people go around naked. I did not participate, but I was there for four years and saw plenty of my friends in their birthday suits. And to this day, when the first of May rolls around, we alums note the fact, although I think fewer people are inclined to take their clothes off now to celebrate.

If you’d care to study up on some of the history, this video interview with the late Bennett Lamond, professor of English, is instructive:

My parents probably were not aware of this tradition when they sent me off to Maryland. I also lived on the college’s first co-ed floor when I was a sophomore. My friend Scott and his roommate, JP, lived right next door to us.

I wonder sometimes what George would think, but truly, those were some of the best years of my life.

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The peas are up!

The raspberries are leafing out:

I brought my mother-in-law’s gardening hat back from Maryland with me and have been wearing it when I am outside:

I have never been much of a hat person—too much hair, I think, which keeps me plenty warm—but I am trying to be better about sun exposure these days. And this hat is not too heavy. My mother-in-law was a Master Gardener. Perhaps I’ll absorb some of that knowledge from this hat by osmosis.

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I finished a batch of masks yesterday morning, then weeded for a few hours. As a reward for my hard work, I thought I might start a new bag project. I recently purchased some waxed canvas from Klum House, but as I think I mentioned, it has a much different hand to it than the waxed canvas I’ve been getting from AL Frances on Etsy. Rather than jump right in to a new bag project, I decided to make something small, first, to see how I liked the fabric. I made a zippered pouch that ended up being a mashup of a couple of different patterns: the Waxed Canvas Travel Bag from the Bernina website (sans embroidered monogram), and the Open Wide Zippered Pouch pattern from Noodlehead. Both patterns result in similar bags, differing only in the route they take to get there.

Once again, I was frustrated by the fact that I did not have the zipper length called for in the Bernina pattern, which was a 16”. I have 10”, 12”, 14”, 18”, 20”, and 22” metal zippers, but no 16” zippers. I used a 14” Tim Holtz zipper—which ended up being long enough—and two colors of the Klum House Waxed Canvas:

The interior is some of my precious Tim Holtz dictionary fabric from the stash:

I am glad I made a small bag, first, before jumping in and making a bigger bag. I am not sure I would use the Klum House canvas for a purse or tote. It just isn’t as substantial as the AL Frances canvas, even though both are listed as being 10 ounce canvas. Normally, if I were using a lighter fabric for a bag exterior, I would interface it to beef it up a bit, but waxed canvas doesn’t really lend itself to being interfaced. In that case, interfacing the lining can add some structure. This lining was interfaced with Woven Fuse (similar to Pellon SF101). That helps some. I need a bag that can take a beating, though.

I sewed the pouch on the Necchi industrial, but that was almost overkill. The Klum House canvas is light enough that I probably could have sewn most of the bag on my Janome. I wouldn’t try that with the other waxed canvas. The Klum House canvas is also “waxed” with a different formulation, a combination of petroleum jelly, mineral oil, and paraffin rather than beeswax. It feels a tad more oily to me.

Perhaps this sounds like I don’t like the Klum House canvas—I do, but I think it’s important to note that it behaves differently than the waxed canvas I am used to working with. I likely will stick to making small bags with it, although it occurred to me (at 3 o’clock in the morning) that it would also make nice bias binding for a bag like the Noodlehead Campfire Messenger Bag.

We rigged up the Coolaroo shade yesterday afternoon so we could sit on the porch, hanging it from a couple of hooks that hold my windchimes and the hummingbird feeders. The husband will hang it properly from the porch framing today, but I was happy to see that it did the job it was intended to do. Not only did it keep the porch cooler, but I appreciated the extra shade while I was cooking dinner in the kitchen.