Isn't She Lovely?

Good morning! I have to share with you this latest treasure that has crossed my path, I couldn't be more tickled! A friend has trusted me with the safekeeping of this Sunbonnet Sue quilt made in 1930 by her maternal grandmother. This was her grandmother's first and only quilt! She was part Cherokee and likely learned to stich from her mother. She was from Missouri, later moved to California where she married and gave birth to my friend's mother when she was forty years of age!

This treasure is hand appliqued and machine quilted. The pencil marks that she followed for the quilting are still visible. The background fabric is a coarse-weave muslin, the calicos used for the dresses contain some feed sacks along with some heavier twills and poplin-type fabrics, probably salvaged from worn out clothing at the time. It measures 62" X 80". Extremely typical of this time period is the bubble gum pink and bottle green solid fabrics used for the sashing and binding. It is backed with the same muslin as is in the background of each block. 

As you can see there are some dark threads shadowing behind, along with quilting lines; but, in my mind, that only makes this quilt all the more precious. Can you imagine this being your one and only quilt? All that applique in the form of hand embroidery must have done her in! I've made label to fully document the work of this quiltmaker with as much identification and pertinent information as my friend has been able to glean. Every quilt tells a story and this one couldn't be sweeter or any more lovely. 

    Life is Good!

Twelve, And Counting...

It's that time of year again.  As graduations approach our Quilt Ministry gets busy assembling quilt tops for our high school graduates, fourteen in this graduating class; which means, I have twelve more to go. We've done the same style over the last six years: twelve large, solid color, rectangles pieced together and then recut and sewn back together in a fashion that yields a quilt top measuring 50" X 66", looking like this:

We back each one of the quilts with fleece, in a coordinating color, onto which I embroider our church logo, (see how important it was for me to locate that dongle?!) before they're returned to church for tying and tagging; these will  be presented on Youth Sunday in mid-May. When we know of a student's college of choice, with enough lead time, we make every attempt to match their quilt with that school's colors. The reason for the use of solid colors and this piecing scheme is no accident. Right before we began the graduation quilt project a small truckload of fabric samples was donated to our Quilt Ministry, these samples consisted entirely of heavyweight broadcloth in every color and shade imaginable; they were roughly cut into rectangles approximately 14" X 24" inches. We began using those, trimming them to an even 13" X 23" for consistency, and went from there; our pattern was developed based on what we had available. On this, the sixth year of using up these sample pieces, we are making a dent in that stash but it continues to yield what we need, with leftovers, certainly this has proved to be a "loaves and fishes" donation!  Working on quilt tops of that dimension with only twenty four pieces is the exact opposite of my current WIP*. As I plug away on "Mountain Day" (Twelve pieces in each six inch block) I have discovered this to be the perfect Leader-Ender project as I stitch on other projects, with deadlines, that rank a bit higher on the priority list.

"Mountain Day" (currently measuring 60" X 60", to be 60" X 84" at completion)
Right now, at this stage, there are twelve hundred pieces in the top.

Twelve is the word of the day, which reminds me of a cute story that I heard from a friend: she was buying eggs in the grocery store and had opened the carton to wiggle each one as a way of determining if any were cracked and stuck to the bottom of the carton. She noticed a young boy quietly watching her as she fingered each egg in it's little individual compartment; when she paused and looked up at him in acknowledgement, he said: "there are twelve" she smiled, and he added: "in each box!"

Life is Good!

*WIP- Work In Progress

This Mom's, and Nana's, Observations...

Of course you already know that I am going to say something about time passing much too quickly... blah, blah, blah. Well, that's a given, lets go ahead and get that out of the way on this, my son's (the youngest, he's my baby) 33rd birthday! Here is Lynnleigh, his baby, at seven months. Jokingly, I had remarked about her being proud of this new sitting-up skill. No joke; she is so enamoured with sitting up, and the ability to do so on her own, that it actually interferes with her sleep! She and Gregory spent the last few nights here and I found, at naptime and bedtime, that she often sits herself up immediately after being put down and then cries pitifully because she's in that position! I got lucky with this picture, a quickly snapped photo (looking ever-so posed!) in the kitchen while I was making dinner earlier in the week. Her crawling has been halted in a similar fashion because all she wants to do is raise herself up onto her feet. With her hands planted on the floor in front of her, and her hind-end straight up in the air, she is the personification of a capital "A" (or inverted "V") and she cannot move. I tried to show her how to put her knees down on the floor, time after time, but she's not one bit interested in Nana's solution; right back up she goes!

Gregory is a little sponge, absorbing everything around himself and spouting back to us his own observations and experiences on the world in which he lives. These two commentaries kept us entertained, enjoy; I am posting here two personal status updates from Facebook:

e

Valuable information from Gregory to keep in mind before your next shopping trip; this will, undoubtedly, save you time and miles on your vehicle.
At WalMart you can buy dog food, cups and see the fishies.
At Lowe's you can buy better lawnmowers.
At Target you cany buy shoes, but... (this is important!) you need to pay first!

 e

With apologies to his Methodist grandparents, Gregory is showing his deep Lutheran roots; instead of being happy about our new television in the kitchen he is very concerned about where the old one went. At lunchtime today he said, hanging his head, that he is "very sad" that the old TV has been taken to Goodwill, he " really loved that one"!

e

Time is going to fly, we can't stop it or hold on to it or bottle it up to use it later; but, we can enjoy each phase and document the passing of time with photos and sweet stories of precious children growing up and exploring their world. We can be ever grateful that we're on this adventure called life right along with them! My daughter sent photos over the summer of Mason building and writing; of Lucy Ann painting at the easel... miraculous achievements for children who were, seemingly, only born a few days ago! 

I feel much closer to my own parents now. They've always reminded me about times long since gone with questions of  "remember when..." referring to occurences with my own children. To be honest, sadly, I don't recall most of those same things that they do; I guess I was just too preoccupied with being a Mom and getting it all done.  Now, I understand; grandparents were created for just this very thing, thanks be to God!

Life is Good!

Table With A View

I met Clara in 2002, she had recently moved to town to be closer to her daughter; she joined our church, and our Quilt Ministry. She was 84 at the time. We became quick friends and, eventually, I began picking her up at her apartment, and taking her back home, on Thursdays for our weekly quilting sessions at church; I enjoyed those times and I believe that Clara did too. I learned a lot from Clara, especially not to count on spring arriving and staying even though the daffodils might be blooming.  "No, she'd explain, we've not been through Blackberry winter (or Dogwood winter or Redbud winter) yet, there's more cold yet to come" she would caution. One time she invited me to visit her so that she could show me her quilt collection. She had prepared delicious little orange cookies and sweet tea for us to enjoy while she entertained me with wonderful stories about growing up in Tennessee, and about being a schoolteacher there. She told me all about her husband and how he was paid in quilts for some sort of job he did when they were newlyweds and about the adventures that she and her husband had enjoyed while searching out antiques from estate sales all over the East coast after he had retired. They bought, and ultimately sold, specific antiques to customers who would use them in their homes or places of business; she loved the hunt, and the travel. She told me about a day that they had driven to Maine to pick up a load of items and, as was her habit, she had asked the man  ahead of time, over the phone, if he happened to have any pieces of certain antique china pattern. This was her own personal request; she some pieces from that collection and she wanted to complete her place settings. He told her that he did and she asked if he would lay them back for her. When they arrived at this man's place they made short work of loading up the goods that they had driven up there for and Clara inquired about the china. The man looked pleased with himself and asked them to follow him; he walked back behind his barn and started off across a field, they kept right up with him. Clara told me that she was somewhat perplexed until she looked off in the distance and caught sight of the most beautiful ocean view extending beneath the bluff where they stood; and there, right in front of them, was a table spread with a cloth and set with all of the dishes she'd ever imagined in that pattern!  She could scarcely believe the sight before her. When she told me the story her eyes sparkled and her face beamed with joy. She wanted very much to communicate the very same joy to me that she'd felt on that day; at that was she most successful! We laughed together when she related how, her husband realized he'd just met a very skilled salesman and had little other choice but to buy every bit of that china right then and there!

Clara's health began to fail a few years back; she no longer joined us at quilting; and, over time, I didn't see her anymore at church for worship. She passed away early last Friday morning. When I received the phonecall from a friend at church informing me of Clara's death all I could think about was that story of the china being set out on a table with an ocean view and Clara's beaming, joy-filled face. I know that is how she looks now, in His kingdom, free from pain and suffering and joined together once again with her beloved husband; I imagine that they're sitting together at a table... one with an absolutely spectacular view!

Life is Good!