this and that

I have a couple of "relics" to share with you again! I have been doing some rearranging of storage and closets,thanks to spaces opened up by the transfer of Brita boxes from here to her own home. During that process, I have come across some things that I made in years past.

This rug was my own design, it was made with a latchhook and hundreds (thousands?) of pieces of yarn cut about 3" long. I used to buy the canvas and yarn packs from the Lee Wards store that was in Columbia Heights in the late 70's. That was the first store I remember going to that would qualify as a "craft" store, and I thought it was heaven! Michael's bought out Lee Wards back in the mid- 90's, so it is no more. :-(

This next little gem is a reflection of my period of counted cross stitch obsession. This particular project must have been an omen of my cross-over to quilting! I learned to do counted cross stitch in the summer of 1976 when we lived in Tom's Place, CA. Bob's cousin, Sandy, showed me the way when we visited a little shop in Bishop to buy supplies for her needlepoint project. That got me hooked for a good long time, I liked the fact that it was relatively inexpensive and very portable, which fit well with our lifestyle at the time.

When I pulled this picture out of the storage box, I had to sit down and think for a bit about the memories that it brought back. This was done in 1986 during a very rough time, and completing it felt like I was finally pulling out of the crap and was able to create something pretty again. Do you have memories like that tied to things you made? To the casual observer, it probably looks like any old stitchery, definitely 80's (would look good with the harvest gold and avocado green appliances!), not very remarkable. I actually remember thinking that putting these stylized quilt blocks together was symbolic of putting the pieces of my life back together. It's good to have this reminder of the past.

Last weekend we visited my parents and I found our bed made up with this pretty antique quilt.

Really quite nicely stitched, but I don't know who made it. It was so soft and comfy. I'm glad I had the chance to sleep under it!

Just finished listening to Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, quite the story! Very long and detailed, describing life in medieval England. There is a TV mini-series that would be fun to watch now, after spending all this time (32 CD's about 1 hr each) absorbed in that world and the characters. Now I have no recorded book to listen to in the car so I will have to get to the library!

2 more oldies

Sharing a few more of the old-time quilts that I have hanging around here. I just had a thought about the way I amshowing these in contrast to the lives of the women who made them. This would be so strange to them, since some of them were not living at the time of the development of home computersand this world wide web stuff. My mother being the exception, and she is one of my readers and knows her way around the keyboard. In fact, we were just talking on the phone about getting her a new computer since hers is so slow that she sews while waiting for things to load! But for women of my grandmothers' era and great-grandmothers, do you think they would be pleased? Surprised? I bet they would wonder what all the fuss is about for these simple quilts that they made out of whatever was on hand. Like this crazy quilt, which I think came from my Grandma Herbert's home and was maybe made by her mom?

It is a mixture of fabrics, a few of them disintegrating.

Some unusual shapes and sizes thrown in the blocks, mostly wools but some other things including velvet. All outlined in a feather stitch by hand.

I think that my Grandma Irvine made this little doll quilt. The squares are about 1 1/2".

A simple pattern of repeating colors across the diagonal. But what really caught my eye was the

use of a couple other shades of a color when needed:

And the little orange square with a seam running across it to put together enough fabric for the size needed.

I think we worry way too much about matching colors perfectly and cutting perfectly and sewing perfectly. The imperfection of this doll quilt makes it no less loveable, and I'm sure it made not one whit of difference to the little girls and their dolls. I need to remember that.

We had such a fun BBQ at Molly's house last night, even more fun because we had some out-of-town family there, too. By a serendipitous turn of events, we got to see Jarry, Mary and Spencer (my brother, sister-in-law and nephew) in the city from the North Shore and northern Iowa. The cousins paused for a picture--

And Kevin, father of son-in-law, Ben, was visiting from Big Sur, so we got to share in his introduction to everything you ever wanted to know about Minnesota but were afraid to ask.

Even though we were smiling in this picture, the 3 of us on the left were covering up our sadness over being defeated by our offspring in a best out of 3 Backyard Tip Cup tournament! Yes, there was alcohol involved. Spencer expressed shock and awe over competing against his parents and aunt and uncle in such a special game! The competition was close, and I know the only way those younguns won was because we taught them everything we know! Ahh, the glory days of summer!

more old stuff

Not sure I want to classify this one as an antique yet, since it was a wedding gift for us! That would put us on the list as endangered!

May 16, 1975. Entirely cross-stitched and hand quilted by my mom and grandma (Sally and Nora), at least that's who I remember making it. It has had some wear, the batting feels very thin and some of the embroidery floss has loosened in spots.

This picture of the border makes it look as though there has been some color bleeding, but I didn't see that when I was looking at it so maybe it's just an odd reflection. I think this was made from a kit purchased from the Lee Wards catalog. This shows the stitches more clearly:

The quilting is a cross-hatch design over the center and a scalloped wreath along the border. Very precious to us, it was used many years on our bed and now is safely stored.

Very happy to report that phase one of the craft closet cleanout has been accomplished, even though it took 2 fans blowing on me to keep my sanity intact! We have had a hot humid spell this week, and because this work was done on the upper floor of the house, even with the AC set lower than normal it doesn't cool up there as well. Making several trips to the basement (28 steps down and 28 steps up) to relocate some of my things wasn't nearly as dreadful as usual because it was nicely chilled down there!

My reward for sticking with the job was popcorn for supper at the local movie theater! There weren't a lot of compelling movies to choose from, but we settled on Salt, which turned out to be the female version of the Bourne movies.

The ending is perfectly set for a sequel, so we can expect more from Angelina Super Spy, I think. In fact, I would bet on it!

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"Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces." -------Judith Viorst

well aged

I have been unearthing many things with my closet excavation. Some things I had forgotten about, some things that need to go to a new home, some things I had been looking for. Like this good old gem of a quilt:

It was made by my Grandma Irvine for me, I think around the time of my HS graduation (1971). It is all hand-pieced and hand-quilted, and I did really appreciate it and it is very well used. I had it on my dorm bed in Brookings, and it hung on the wall in an apartment in Crystal. It was much brighter then. A few blocks are very tattered.

My Grandma Irvine, (Mormor in Swedish, denoting mother's mother) was a wonderful woman. I don't remember ever seeing her angry or upset. She kept butterscotch oatmeal cookies in a coffee can and she let us eat them for breakfast when we stayed overnight. She read stories to us from the Little Golden books, and I remember the 3 Little Kittens and Tuffy the Tugboat. She had one of those upside-down cloth dolls that you could flip from one doll to the other by reversing the skirt. She collected salt and pepper shakers, and my favorite was the little cup of coffee and pie on a plate, which I got to keep. She always did embroidery, quilting, crochet, etc., and let us learn how to make things with her. You can see another example of her handwork on my sister's blog. And root beer floats were the special treat when staying overnight! Her name was Nora, and the name lives on with my niece, Nora. She was a special grandma, I wish everyone could have a grandma like her, I think the world would be a better place!

On to quilt #2, which I do not know the history of. It is even more faded, looks like it is made of various shirtings with pink fabric in the pinwheels.

It, too, was entirely made by hand. There are even seams in some of the white blocks to put enough fabric together. I guess this must have been made by someone in my family, but we do not know the name nor time period. This should make me more diligent in putting labels on the backs of the quilts I make! I would love to know the story behind this, but even though I don't, it is still a treasure to me.