I layed awake not being able to sleep last night excited to post new patterns.I tried to figure out where my love of patterns came from.Aside from designing clothes in Canada for 29 years until I got burnt out,I think it was my late mother.

Died too young at 34 Bernice (Bunny) Knight loved clothes and movie stars.My father always said she lived in a fantasy world.I’m glad she did for her short life span.She named me after Linda Darnell and Susan Hayward and designed curtain fabric at Bruck Mills in Cowansville Quebec.Everytime I see old bark fabric I think of her.When she was not in the hospital,she was sewing clothes for me and knitting those darn sweaters with kittens and skiers on them.Her friends all wore swishy crinolines had Betty Page bangs ,played canasta and ate nuclear coloured desserts.Lime green was always a favourite.

My favourite dress she ever made me was a royal blue jersey number with a high fur collar.The skirt was very full and when I danced THE TWIST with Jimmy Manson in Grade 5 my underpants showed.They said this is why we won the contest.:)

I wear black and I wear black and I wear black.
I started decades ago and I will never change.When I designed clothes, black was the first colour cut ,and usually the first one sold.I feel comfortable in it,and I like it and I don’t care how many people tell me I should wear colour I wont.

When my mother was home from the hospital she would make me a lot of red clothes.When I look at old pictures I look like an advertisement for a Valentines day present.Red plaid,red prints,red cotton,and yes red Velvet at Christmas.My almost white blonde hair had a flip and I had Betty page bangs.Oh the “brothel” look of it all hahaha.

When my grandmother looked after me I wore brown.A good thing I had to wear school uniforms during the week or my pet name would have been HERSHEY.
Mary Louise Deller Knight was a sewer also and worked that hand crank/turn table top Singer sewing machine until she died.Offers of a fancy new one from the Sears catalog went unheeded and she just kept on cranking with that scary bullet shape bobbin that kept popping out.

One Friday night she went down the street to the dry goods store called HASHIMS and bought 10 yards of sturdy brown corduroy.I was shuddering knowing who was going to be the benefactor of that.How lovely that brown corduroy jumper with the over size corduroy bow stuck at the empire waist center was.Oh Mary ,can you hear my gasps???

I fixed it though..Always the “avantgardeist” I marched up to Hashims and with my coin purse full of saved allowances and purchased a pair of lime green fake leather demi boots that looked much like Santa’s Elves shoes for $8.99.It was the latest in fashion and well lime green was a great foliage colour for the brown.Of course the vinyl of the boots was so coarse and tough every time I wore them my heels bled and..there you go again ..there is that red again.:)

Yesterday I was in a thrift shop and every time I go by someone I say “I’m sorry thanks so much for letting me by”
This man approached me and said,
“You are not from Northern California are you?”
I nodded and he said ” I knew it”
He said ,”I have only been wrong twice in my life and I knew you were not from the area as people are just so rude here .”
I am sure he was a little off in his assumption as I do know some nice people here.
I told him I was Canadian by birth and he told me that I looked like such a kind person and thanked me for being that way.He said he wished other people could be like that and my smile was worth a thousand words.

I was touched,people always say they recognize me by my smile.I really like people and say Good Morning to total strangers on the street.Someone might be having a bad day and you never know if that might make their troubles go away for a second.

I had a bad dream last night.I dreamed I was driving on Highway 7 back in Canada to go see my sons and this tunnel I was supposed to go through was barricaded with hay.All of a sudden these kids came out much like A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and tried to find drugs and valuable in my car.Being dirt poor of course I don’t have valuables and they told me to run for my life.

I ran and hid under a huge fir tree along with ten other people and after an hour I decided i was going to try and get help.No one else was doing anything.I popped my head out and one of the thugs saw me and was coming for me to kill me.I grabbed a pen out of my purse and was scribbling down Ange’s number and told the person next to me.
“Call my family and tell them how much I love them”
They grabbed my arm and I woke up and tears were streaming down my face.

I will never change how I am no matter how some people might think I am a little strange.
Happy valentines day and tell a stranger you love them today..
Pass it on.
I love you
Linda Seccaspina copyright 2008

I saw HIM in the hall running without a care,his collar jingling and stopping dead in his tracks when he saw me.We both spoke briefly and softly,myself with vocabulary,he with down trodden eyes and sucking himself as close as he could to the far wall as he could.

The smell gone and the floor bare in front of my door I thought how good most of the animals in this building are.They are just as unique as their owners.

We have HAPPY in unit number 2.Happy’s owner makes roulette wheels for a living and looks like Sting.Happy is HUGE lots of black and white fur and is happy ,laughing all the time and basically takes his owners for walks.He dances ,he prances and he is just HAPPY.But Happy has never been happy on my mat.

OMAR ( a mixed golden lab)in unit number 3 is my favourite.He was named after OMAR SHARIF and his owner (naked man) looks just like Mr Sharif and he got Omar at a shelter and says he is not sure how old he is maybe 5 6 7 or 8???.Omar takes teddy bears for walks,rips them apart and leaves heads and body parts in the hallway.When I first moved here I didn’t know it was Omar doing that and I thought we had a SEAN YOUNG/JAMES WOODS incident going on (look that one up on google).Omar has gained a bit of weight over the winter,and its all in his hind end and his derriere looks much like some of our fair hookers on the corners here..he sways as he walks.I would say he is bootylicious.Naked man says its because Omar has become fond and very passionate of bacon.Hmm he must be pretty regular,but he has never come near my mat.

OLIVE is a North Carolina dog as they call them and she lives in Number 7.They are not being bred anymore as they were basically a wild dog.She is pitch black with piercing yellow eyes just like something in a horror movie.
Olive is not sure of me and tried to jump on me.Once she even growled at me,but I told the owners not to worry as she is a hyper dog and I am hyper being Canadian and we will eventually sort things out.:)
Olive is very neat and precise and would never come near my mat.

BRADLEY is a Dandy Dinmont terrier and so cute.He is always walked on a short leash and the Asian woman that owns him is a fashionista and tries to keep him like some haute couture dog.This morning Bradley wagged his tail when he saw me put a new stuffed toy in front of Omar’s door (a Wells Fargo horse,thought we should shake it up a bit)Bradley wanted to take it with him on his walk.She told him no that he had toys at home..Probably some Dior squeak toy

THE CAT…I keep forgetting its name.I love it to death its so HUGE and beautiful.He is white and gold and brown.He sits in the halls while his owner showers sometimes.Yes this used to be an old cardboard factory and they had common shower rooms.Some of the tenants use them as they are very roomy.So KITTY sits in the middle of the hall and lays on her back and kind of waves to me.She loves to be petted and talked to.Every time I pet and talk to her I am reminded of why I cannot have animals as I run in wheezing with my lungs full of allergies for quite awhile.Kitty would never come near my Hello Kitty mat.

So today I decided I could not have an outdoor bristle mat as it reminded doggy of the outside.
So I found a neat mat at the salvage company today and I will write what it says on the mat.

THE DOG ..DAY 751
My captors continue to torment me with bizarre rubber squeek toys.They eat lavish meals in my presence while I am forced to subsist on dry cereal.The only thing that keeps me going is the hope of eventual escape…that and the satisfaction I get from occasionally ruining some piece of furniture.
I fear I may be going insane..

No wonder that poor dog pooped on my mat.
God love him
Linda Seccaspina copyright 2008

I would go to my hairdresser friend and she would backcomb the heck out of my hair and I would dress in something nice.I would get to school and of course THE IT GIRLS would come in ,run down to the bathroom giggling their heads off and throw off some ugly dress their mother made them wear and underneath would be some tight sheath or skirt.

How do you compete with that? Beauty,smarts and potatoe sack friendly bodies.

So every month became a contest for me.I would design an outfit and make it.When I think back some of them were downright horrendous.I mean they were so awful they would by pass the GLAMOUR MAGAZINE DO’S AND DON’TS.A black and white dress out of cotton broadcloth with crocodile shaped teeth hem trim.Do you know how long it took me to sew each triangle n that hem? I was goth before my time.

Granny dresses came into style.Of course you only saw them on American Bandstand or in fashion magazines.There was no way a floor length cotton number was going to be seen in Cowansville Quebec population 4500.So I told a few of my friends I was going to make one for the next dance.They were horrified and Judy Clough bet me 10 cents (big money in those times ladies and gentlemen)that I would never do it.

Of course I did it..Floral empire bodice and matching plain blue dress bottom.But what I was wearing under this dress makes me laugh.I had on my white go go boots.(I’m shaking my head in disbelief now) and I had also set my long hair in empty frozen juice cans and I wreaked of Florida oranges.No wonder people would barely come near me.But I did win the dime..:)

Terrorizing children 101
I am busy Ebay listing here and listening to THE VIEW while I type.Today they have all sorts of TV children’s bands on.I had kind of tuned it out until I heard Laurie Birkner’s name.I have seen a few things of hers out in thrift shop and been bypassing it.I guess I shouldn’t and went to check her out.

What I saw were a ton of parents in the audience with kids on their laps.It was the parents that were going nuts and clapping their hands while the kids look scared and comatose.So who is actually the original fan of these artists?Well I guess that would be the parents,and the parents in turn ,turn their kids on to it.

I was also a guilty parent and so were my parents.I remember my grandfather(mothers side) who worked for CNN (Canadian National Railroad)before he moved back to the States.He loved trains and wanted us to share his passion.He got all excited (much like those parents in the audience today) when my sister Robin uttered the word train at age 2.What did he do?
Grabbed her and walked the 2 blocks to the train station and held her up right in front of a 56 car freight train going through town at ear drum busting sound shouting ‘train train”.Of course the poor kid was terrorized for about 23 years and never went near a train for as long as I knew.

I was terrorized by doctors.My mother being in constant care of them exposed me to such hospital horrors in the thalidomide child era that I stay away from them.It seems that anyone in my family who got care from them died within 6 months and I am the last one standing and stand I shall without help until I am summoned to the last coral .

So what did I do? Yes I was a guilty parent too
HMMM I took my kids to see Santa and Santa was loud, chubby and I think drunk.Sky and Perry took one look at him and screamed and screamed in the Rideau Centre until I carried each one in each arm home.Then there are the pictures of Shamu the whale and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with my sons.Perry looks confident and happy and Sky looks like he wants to run as fast as his little legs could carry him.But mum was smiling and happy just like those parents in the audience today.I could go on with the Muppet’s that were 5 ft 9 instead of bring little the Monster Trucks that were so loud Ange and I had to carry two screaming terrorized children out of the arena.

I love mascots.I used to have a Mascot costume of a very large black and white sheepdog like in Peter Pan.
It was hot heavy and cost me 250.00 wholesale. But every year at Halloween I would march through the market area handing out flyers for my store and shaking little kids hands and doing little dances.I really think I should have worked at Disneyland.In fact one of my customers had a MASCOT FETISH with albums and albums of photos of mascots.I thought it was a big joke until I watched that episode about mascot killers on CSI.That man had a problem.:)

General rule about mascots: They should either entirely naked, or fully clothed. Emphasizing that sometimes they might take off clothes, and have a life outside of scaring small children at arenas, is just asking for trouble.

Mascots are the natural enemy of clowns.(Perry hates clowns ,smart guy) Clowns are used as a counter measure against the mascots. Mascots have the natural ability to scare children and damage brains, unlike the clown, who loves children a lot .
Mascots in college team up with cheerleader to create a better effect of distracting opposing players.Some famous mascots are..

Brutus the Browneye, the Ohio State University
Has special lazer to see how much mental support is left

Keggy the Keg, Dartmouth College
Gives the opposing players a strong urge for beer, diverting their attention completely

Elmo, Sesame Street
All players are attracted to fluffy stuffs, lethal effect in presence of cheerleaders, mild effect when alone

I think my favourite are those running hot dogs or the racing sausages ,the mascots of the Milwaukee Brewers.The Bratwurst (#1), Polish Sausage (#2) and the Italian Sausage (#3) made their debut out of the left field corner of County Stadium on selected Sundays throughout the season.They added the #4 the hot dog in 1990 and the Chorizio in 2007. I just want to emerge from the left field corner and sprint toward home to the roar of an enthusiastic crowd.

Of course I have experience being a filled meat item.In 1993 I had a huge fashion show where at intermission I came out dressed in a hot dog costume and one of my staff was the french fry packet and we tap danced out heart out to the background music of the DRIVE IN intermission theme song telling you to go to the snack bar.

And you know what? We never terrorized one child,they were to busy laughing at this ridiculous sight.Of course I cannot say the same about my dog costume.:)

Linda Seccaspina copyright 2008

Eliseo (nono) (Italian for grandpa) died Monday night.He had a stroke a few months back and never really recovered.I kept hoping he would hang on so I could see him again.I wanted to hug him one last time and thank him for the love he gave to my children.This summer we talked a lot when I was there and I would sit downstairs or talk to him on the porch and we would talk about The Young and the Restless and he would tell me the same stories he always did about the old country.But there were some new ones this summer, about he loved the raise his birds on top of the apartment building they owned on Paris Street in Sudbury and how beautiful Ramsay Lake was.

He did not look well and didn’t come over as much,and he just stood and looked at the trees sometimes giving a huge sigh.He was so frail and doctors just didn’t seem to care about helping him and we both used to talk about it the travesty of it all.It seems when you are 84 doctors just keep giving you prescriptions and passing you on to new specialists.

I never heard NONO complain once in his life and he came from a large family in Italy.He fought in WWII and got captured by the Germans and was in a concentration camp at Bergen Belsen.He had a ring that the boys brought to show and tell at school as it was made by a fellow bunk mate out of an old spoon and the date and location etched inside the ring..That is where I guess he learned to be frugal a lesson most of us should learn.We used to giggle about how frugal he was,but maybe he should have been giggling at us.:)When you are in situations like that you learn what is important and he knew what was important and that was family.

He married the lovely Ida and moved to Canada with Ida and his son Angelo.He worked hard doing terrazzo work and made the most incredible terrazzo floors that are still around in Sudbury Ontario today.He worked long hours and nothing meant more to him than his family.he loved talking to people and every one called him Leo.
He had this dashing hair that he still had in his old age and a smile and a wave for everyone.He taught Angelo at a young age how to do just about everything and was just so proud of his son.

Nono was everything to my sons.I can remember him helping Perry learn to walk and he used to laugh At Schuyleurs stories and tell them to eat lots of pasta so they would get big and strong.He talked to them in Italian and they would just smile and nod but they understood.They all made wine in the fall and everyone that came in was offered a glass of wine.

Being brought up on a farm you raise animals for eating purposes but one day something came into his life that changed all that and her name was Prissy.Prissy was this huge white turkey.She was enormous and used to chase everyone from the gas man to the delivery man out of the yard.

She followed him every where totally love struck with NONO.She cooed to him he cooed to her.All you had to do was look for her and NONO was just around the corner.One day the dog got too close to NONO and Prissy took him on.Feathers and fowl animal language filled the air but the dog ran off and Prissy went up to NONO and almost smiled seductively minus 50 or 60 feathers as she had run the competition off.Sadly Prissy died in our house fire but we sent her off wrapped as a Christmas present in the dead of winter down the Mississippi (Canadian one ) river on a raft.

Sure we had our disagreements and he didn’t see eye to eye with me sometimes,but he was there for me.When my sister died I sat in the basement crying my eyes out and he came down and told me she was not suffering anymore and to be happy about that.So now as I am crying my eyes out I will tell you the same thing,be happy for him he is not suffering anymore and he is at peace.

I love you NONO plain and simple and one day I hope we meet again so I can give you the biggest hug and you can offer me a glass of home made wine and we can talk and I can listen to your stories once again.
I love you
Linda

I was not a student,nor will I ever be.I did not care for school and school did not care for me.I knew what I wanted to be.My career of choice was to be a fashion designer and my Anne Jeffries paper dolls agreed with me.

Not content to just have Anne wear her standard issued clothes I created that paper woman one heck of a wardrobe.My mother was amused every day as she watched me while constantly listening and singing to the song ‘SEVEN LITTLE GIRLS SITTING IN THE BACK SEAT KISSING AND HUGGING WITH FRED” by the Avon’s as I traced and coloured clothes for her.

So Bunny,seeing her daughter had some minor talent entered me in my Brownies group Doll clothing contest.Even today I am a creator not a sewer.Of course I can sew,but Id rather just do the design work.So I had to design a dress for my Miss Revlon doll ( I had no clue then what she was but today EBay has educated me that I did in fact have a Miss Revlon doll hhahaha).I thought she should have a pale blue sheath dress with tons of white lace ruffles at the shoulders and around the hem and of course trimmed with silver sequins.I quickly sketched it for my Anne Jeffries paper dolls and my mother and I nodded in agreement.

One week went by,two weeks went by and nothing had been started.Mrs Wilson,the neighbour kept telling my mother that I was never going to finish it and I knew she was darn right.My mother got fed up and made the whole thing.

Never saying a word to anyone,I displayed my Miss Revlon doll with the fabulous outfit amongst a slew of dolls with pieces of fabric hanging from them.Their clothing was all badly made (well really well for 8 year olds :)and mine was so professionally done that I thought I was a shoe in.Here comes that brand new Betsy Wetsy doll prize!!!

Did I win? I think not.As they were going through each doll one by one and came to mine I heard Mrs Wilson say in a loud booming voice’
“Linda didn’t make that her mother did”

I thought I was going to sink into the ground,I think I actually did.From that day on, I always took on my responsibility and was truthful as one never knew when a new Betsy Wetsy doll was going to come up.:)
Linda Secaspina copyright 2008

Episode 5 of The (sewing ) patterns of my life
All week I have been trying to get over this flu.I believe it is called The Australian flu.Well it has OUT BACKED me I tell you.

I have grapes pineapple you name it in the fridge.What am I craving? A 3 Musketeers bar.Thankfully those are also in the fridge.

I lived on the American border for a good deal of my life.Twelve miles and a lot of blue sky separated us all.We used to to go to Richford Vermont all the time as drive in’s were forbidden the province of Quebec by the Catholic church until the 80’s.We shopped ,dined , did all that neat stuff much as my sons also do today.Got to love that American shopping.:)If you saw it on TV it was there and we didn’t have to wait until it hit the Canadian shelves.

Anytime when we went we had to dress up,people just did that in those days.All week my mother worked on a new dress for me doing a lot of smocking.Smocking to me is an art form and patience of the Gods.I don’t show patience when I sew.Its “MACHINE ON” SEW DARN IT ” “STOP” hahahaha.

So all week long they were playing this wonderful 3 MUSKETEERS candy candy bar commercial on the Rochester NY TV channel.If you are my age you can remember some gentle hands picked up that candy bar and snapped it carefully in half and showed you its wonderful soft chocolate nougat. It was marketed as the candy bar that was so big it could be shared with two friends. Okay,so I am not sharing.:)

Dressed that Saturday in this brand new pale pink dress my mother had so laboriously worked on we headed across the border.I was clutching my five American pennies in my hands and even told the American customs agent what I was going to buy.In those days people laughed and talked at the border.My father knew all of them by first names.They smiled and waved,my has time changed,sad to say.

It was hot that summer day my friends,very hot, in the high 90’s as a matter of fact and humidity was out of control.No air conditioners in those days and that Rexall drugstore was hot.
We sat at the counter and had a root beer float while my mother went to the A & P across the street.My dad needed his fix of Spice Bars.In those days that cake cost 29 cents.

We see my mother wave with her bags and so it was my signal to buy that 3 Musketeers bar and we would head home.Dad and Mum are loading up the trunk and I run for the back seat ,sit down as quick as I can and rip that wrapper of that bar.I do not think I need to tell you what that candy bar looked like after sitting in heat for a long while.You got it!!One huge brown melted mess.Did that stop me? Read on..

I hear the trunk slam down ,doors open, and all of a sudden this huge scream coming out of my mothers mouth as she looks at me.There was her young daughter sitting in the back seat blonde hair up in curls big chocolate face smile,and the pink dress covered with chocolate brown hand prints.The trip was silent on the way home.So was the Canadian customs agent.

Linda Seccaspina copyright 2008

Sick as a dog last week with the flu, I sat down for an hour and watched THE MARCH OF THE PENGUINS.I had no idea
that all the penguins of breeding age (five years old and over) leave the ocean to walk inland to their ancestral breeding grounds. That’s 70 miles folks one way.I walked 7 miles once and had the biggest respect for Lassie in Lassie Come Home they day after.

The penguins reminded me of my 70’s fashion era and my love for anything Diane Dufresne wore.She is a wonderful French Canadian chanteuse (in the vein of Edith Piaf)that dressed like Betsey Johnson on drugs.I crimped my long hair like hers and wore a bowler hat and huge white shirts and skirts.Just lots and lots of black and white.

Back to the penguins..
The penguins participate in a courtship that, if successful, results in the hatching of a chick. For the chick to survive, both parents must make multiple just gosh darn awful journeys between the ocean and the breeding grounds over the ensuing months.Cut to wonderful romantic music,the nuzzling of necks,just true romance that goes on for minutes.Isn’t this romantic I think to myself.End of music finds momma penguin flat on her stomach on the ice with her eyes looking like a deer caught in the headlights and Dad doing the yeti dance.OH NO !!!! (sound of breaks) Can’t Danielle Steele do anything about this?I’m not liking this at all.

I still have that crimping iron.It is pink and works better than anything new on the market.I used to also have a vintage Marcel curler that I found in a barn..I had to warm that up on my grandmothers wood stove and act fast and carefully try not to burn my hair off.

back to the penguins..
The narrator now tells us that some of the penguins don’t make this trip and they ‘just disappear”.
In fact the narrator tells us every time a penguin dies he has DISAPPEARED.I’m sorry but nothing JUST disappears..Do Hallmark cards say “I’m sorry for your loss,they have just disappeared??” I think not..Bad choice of word bucko!!!

Every time I used a crimping iron my grandmother would get hysterical and tell me to be careful.Mary Deller Knight had a perm once upon a time in the olden days when perms were under “those machines”.Mary Deller kept telling the hairdresser her hair hurt and no one listened.It was a sad day after that my friends.Mary’s hair fell out and grew back very thinly.
She tried every potion known to man and finally we had to make quarterly trips to Montreal to buy wigs.
And yes in her golden years those wigs were plopped on her head sideways backwards and any other position known to man.,

back to the penguins…
Why are these penguins not more careful with those eggs? All this walking and to screw up on an egg/foot transfer? Are they not more flexible than this??? Oh no….another egg bites the dust.
What’s this? Whats this?? 2000 Penguins all standing there and they let the platypus bird take the chick?
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU PEOPLE???? SNAP OUT OF IT!!!

All this walking makes me feel even worse and more tired than I was when I started watching it.I fall asleep dreaming of crimped hair and bowler hats.I dream about the HAPPY FEET penguins that smile dance and sing.I am dancing and singing with them (with my bowler hat on) when a huge platypus bird comes and swoops me up. Morgan Freeman the narrator says,
“and they just disappear”

I think not buddy,I weigh at least 100 times more than that bird and he isn’t carrying me anywhere.:)
Linda Seccaspina copyright 2008