A Project Revealed

On March 27, I made a quilt block that looked like this:

In fact, I made quite a few blocks in this pattern, albeit with different fabrics. Well, the pink and white small blocks stayed the same, but the larger blocks were varied. Because I happily give my quilts away, when my sister Nancy expressed interest, I said I would be delighted to make something for her. Although she is an excellent seamstress, both she and Carol are more accomplished than I, she actually has to work for a living, leaving little to no time for sewing. She sent me a photograph of her preferred colors, and I went shopping.

After making about fifteen or so of the above block, I decided I did not like it as a whole. The idea was solid, the overall picture not so much. How about some pinwheels? Good idea Gail. I went to work making pinwheels using the technique I learned from the video and things began to take shape. I then arranged them to my liking, followed by sewing the blocks into row,s and the rows into what you see below. My next dilemma was finding a backing material which adds so much to a quilt. Digging through my fabrics I found a lovely light pink striped fabric from my estate sale find. Not wide enough? I can fix that. Once it was sandwiched, I used another method I learned online, clamping it to my table, pinning it all together. Because it should be super tight, you leave the pins open until unclamping. I used a whole lot of pins!

What I love so much about the pinwheel pattern is that by putting them side by side you then get another pinwheel with four different colors! Love those patterns within patterns!

Here's what I did with the earlier block which looked just fine when not combined with 25 others of the same ilk.

The quilting went better than any I've finished to date...here's what it looks like a little closer:

I was so excited to send it to her in Tennessee that I did not even wash it first, something I always do because it makes it look all the nicer. Now that it is in her possession, having received it Friday afternoon, I can share it with you.

So, I was pretty pleased with my efforts until this morning when I received a text message from Matt--they visited a quilt gallery in Japan, and oh my, oh my! The skill those quilters possess puts my humble efforts to shame! Not only were the quilts they saw hand quilted, but hand pieced as well! Definitely a lost art. He told me the ladies were delighted when he said his Mom made quilts and he even went so far as to show them one from Camera Crazy--how about that? I do love hand quilting, but oh my goodness it takes SO long. Having spent more than a month quilting a small throw, I am bound and determined to improve my machine quilting skills.

At the moment the only thing I have going for me is a pretty good eye for color..the rest, I hope will come with practice like I did with my photography. At least with quilting I have some background skills unlike photography which I knew nothing about. I can still remember Matt showing me how to access menus on my first baby Panasonic which launched my business. For eight solid years I took photographs EVERY single day looking to improve. Crazy, right?

I still take tons of photographs, just not every single thing I see! That said, I still spot things that I will stop my car, wherever I am to photograph. The latest was this huge bloom which I presume is in the lily family. Driving along Pershing I spotted it and drove around the block to find a spot to park. The bud was so sturdy it almost looked like plastic.

Unlike other lilies I'm familiar with this one grows on a bush...really such a lovely shade of yellow.

And while we are on the subject of yellow, let's have one more look for the season at the goldfinch who have now moved on for the year.

Aren't they something?

The other morning, Thursday or Friday I made my way over to Sweetbriar hoping the owls would be out early. Arriving around 7:30, there was one of the owlets perching in golden morning light.

Needless to say I was ecstatic! Not only is it difficult to spot the owlets but most of the time the lighting is just plain wrong as it was on Saturday, around lunch time when one of my spies, called saying she was amongst many looking up at the two owlets! I hopped in the car and flew over. I tried every angle I could to get the shot and finally came away with this.

The fluffiness of their chest feathers just kills me!

In other news, the amaryllises are blooming in so many yards...not mine but others are kind enough to share. Our neighbor Wanda has about fifty or so blooming....

I do love the red, but I'm pretty partial to the two tone as well. There's that contrast thing we've been talking about.

I hope you are still reading because I have some exciting news to share. Our niece Katie, posted on fb about how some messages are hidden from you. Following the directions, I, indeed, found it to be true. Some old ones from folks photography related, and one dated last November from a woman who said she was our Grandpa Stahl's granddaughter. Say what? Immediately I responded to her message, and she did as well. Giving her my phone number, I asked that she call me, and call me she did, yesterday afternoon. Having worked on her family genealogy for a long time, she found our Mother's obituary, and then began her search for me. To make a long story short, here's the connection; her Grandmother married my Grandfather after he and Lottie, (remember her?), divorced. Joelle lives in North Carolina now, but there was a time when she lived very close to "her" grandparents, spending most weekends at their farm in Missouri, as she did when she went to college nearby. When my Mother's parents divorced, by all accounts, she was devastated, and although we, as a family, went to visit him, I knew him not at all. Imagine how great it was to hear tales about him from Joelle. It really is astonishing how the internet has changed our world, don't you agree?

Always looking to improve my skill sets,

Gail

Friends

Because we got married young, and because we were parents young, both Bruce and I have not had as much time for friends as young people today. They spend much of their early adulthood hanging out with friends, whereas we spent that time with our children. I think too, because I have so many sisters, there was little time left for other women in my life. That said, I do have friends, but mostly they are newish. Well sort of...

I've been away from my computer because I've been out and about with friends, sometimes planned, sometimes not. Thursday afternoon Sue, a woman who grew up on Nancy Street with Bruce, invited me to an open house at a space on Orange Avenue where she has a little booth.

They've just painted it this bright green which, naturally, I was all for. Formerly this space was "Guitar Den" owned by the father of one of Bill's first bandmates. His wife Renee, took it over after the soaring rent forced her to close her downtown store.  The band was called Blunder, an early winner at Boone High School's Battle of the Bands. The year was maybe 1993? My, those were the days! Bill used to practice alone incessantly, joining the other two boys in our garage as their band practice space. Our neighbors at the time were thrilled when we moved to this new house! Who could blame them? Did I mention the other two boys were also named William? I was all for the band being called Triple Bill, however, they would have none of that!

Sorry for the nostalgia trip! In the above pictured space there are lots of little indoor booths if you will, with all sorts of interesting things. I found Sue right off, and with pride, she showed off her space. Here's a link to her blog if you like old things: http://suebees-karensue.blogspot.com/. Ignore the music! I've noticed people who do "vintage" blogs seem to always have music. Anyway, as I was talking to Sue, her daughter, and Renee, who should I see but Jeanette! Oh how I adore Jeanette, one of the coolest ladies I've ever had the privilege to know. Naturally I couldn't remember how long we'd known each other but she could.

The year was 1984, the place was Brookwood Hospital, now defunct as we knew it, but am I ever glad it was there back then. Not only did I meet Jeanette there, I also met my dear, dear friend Karen Hirsch there. Both of these ladies have added so much to my life.

So, where were we? Oh yes, Jeanette has a space there as well. We immediately retreated to her little corner, talking as fast as we could to catch up with one another. She's the kind of friend who I see infrequently, but when i do, we can't stop talking. She's a wise woman; I always take something away from our conversations. We somehow got on the topic of making the bed, a hot topic if ever there were one! We discussed how many young people think it's unnecessary, which we find crazy. Here's how she puts it--order follows order. If you find your life in chaos, check out your home environment for clues as to why. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Here's the two things I purchased from my friends:

Mr. and Mrs. Claus from Sue, and the spice grinder from Jeanette. It was a pleasant evening made even more so by the unexpected Jeanette sighting!

Another invitation from Sue for the following night was for a wine party for a good cause. A donation was taken at the door with the raffle ticket winner claiming the pot for their favorite charity. My number was one off! Although I'd been to this annual event once before a few years ago, I didn't expect to know many of the ladies. Silly me! Here's Sue's sister, Sherrie on the right, and and old high school friend, Phyllis:

Sherrie still remembers a time when Cris, Bruce's brother, tackled her like a boy when the neighborhood was playing football in the street! Speaking of which, do children play anymore? I'm not so sure. While having my nails cleaned up, Rudi, my most excellent manicurist, was chatting a bit about her children.

I asked her what the girls wanted for Christmas. The 5 year old wants an "Easy Bake Oven", however add just three years, and daughter number two wants a LAPTOP! Miss Naiveté was speechless. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, because really, when have you ever known me to be speechless? I don't know why it so took me by surprise, everyone else has their face in a screen, why not an eight year old girl?

On Sunday the market was slow. Super slow. The highlight was a visit from Bill and Melanie. Here's a first--Bill smiling in a picture. Apparently, he can't quit smiling these days:

This makes his mother happy. Very, very happy.

I'm unsure about the time frame exactly, but sometime this year I received an email from another old friend, Karen Howard. We knew each other well from church back in the 80's. Turns out one of her sons sent her the link to my blog. How he found it, I'll never know. She began reading the blog. She liked the blog. She sent me an email letting me know she was a regular. How nice is that? Both she and her husband Jim retired from the school system and built a new home and life in Murphy, NC. From reading the blog she knew I had some interest in genealogy so when she and Jim were heading down here for a visit, she asked about getting together. Absolutely!

They arrived yesterday morning before 10 and we visited around some baby blueberry muffins and hot tea. I'm always up for hot tea and as it turns out, they were as well. Jim left for some fun errands and after Karen perused the Loveland documents, as well as Oscar's diary (she's jealous!), we headed to my computer. Luckily, Karen is a Mac user and knows a lot more about it than I do. Hours and hours later, during which time we had some homemade chicken noodle soup for lunch, we had made some discoveries. Using her account with Ancestry.com, we worked on my father's family which proved fascinating. Looking at the actual census sheets from 1920 and seeing my dad listed as a 5 year old was so cool. Apparently an uncle lived with them. Going back a bit further we found out that my grandfather's mother was a widow at 40. Searching and searching turned up who we think might possibly be his father, Reese Price, a coal miner from Wales. Neither of us can remember how we made this assumption but for now that's who we think my great grandfather was. Or should I have said is? Anyway, it's time consuming stuff, explaining why Jim did not come to pick her up until 5:30, by which time I needed to cover the plants for the expected freeze.

The genealogy stuff was cool, but what was really cool, is that we picked up as if it hadn't been nearly 20 years since last we met. I love that. It seems as if when you click with another person, you click. The explanation for that is a mystery to me, however, I'm glad that's how it can work out.

Taking no chances, I covered every single one of the new plants, using about anything I could find! Not surprising, or at least to a skeptic like me, the temperature only dipped to about 35 degrees. Oh well, I'll take a non-freeze over a freeze any day. Those new windows in the sun room are showing their stuff this morning!