Tuesday, September 17, 2013

In the Pink

I am teaching these two quilts below at Happiness is Quilting in a couple of weeks and I'm thinking, both are PINK!
Pink fabrics were so plentiful in the 1800's you can hardly find a scrappy antique quilt that doesn't have pink as the setting or at least in the blocks.
Personally. I love pink. Somehow double pinks just 'set off' the other colors.
It is a happy color, don't you think?
 
Both quilts are in Lizzie's Legacy. The first, I called The Lounge Quilt as an illustration for the journals entries of one chapter. It's a comfortable quilt, very utilitarian as Lizzie would have intended, to serve as a bedcover for guests.
 
 
The second quilt is a perfect baby quilt, a cradle quilt as Lizzie called quilts for the babies.
I named the quilt Twist and Spin for all the many references in her journals to endless hours and days spent at the spinning wheel.
Look at how different the pinks are.

 
A few of my antique quilts with pink fabrics.
 

 
I barely turned to grab the camera....

Molly says, "YES, antique quilts for me!"
 
I'm working on baby quilts now. NOT pink for my granddaughter that is
due in November, but purple!
So many choices for patterns, tons of fabrics in the stash, what to make???
I'll post what I make at a later date.
 
Come sew with me!
 
I need to get organized, don't laugh too hard, and have my calendar available with speaking and teaching engagements here on the blog. One step at a time. Mom's house is nearly cleaned out and that is a good thing.  What is not so good is that much of it is HERE. I had a hard time letting things go in the estate sale and now face an even harder time finding a place for what I've brought home.
The house is getting smaller and smaller. Too much furniture, too much fabric, and not enough room.
Just need a new house!
 
Until next time ~
Betsy
 

Monday, September 9, 2013

Sewing Circles

 
Found this very sweet OLD needle card at my Mom's.  Mom didn't like to sew. I feel sure her mother made her a sewing kit of sorts to take with her when she stayed with my dad wherever he was stationed during WWII. Mom did have to sew on patches, stripes, etc. on Dad's uniforms and buttons if necessary, maybe even hem a skirt if there was no one else to do it.
I found letters, written in later years, from several of the friends Mother and Daddy made during the war. I felt a little funny reading the intimate expressions of love, bonding the women together. One dear letter expressed how thankful Celia and Jimmy were that they met my parents when stationed in Peyote, Texas near Wink. If you have never heard of either tiny town in far West Texas don't feel left out. Mother called it "the jumping off place" because it was one, so far away from home, and two, because it was in the middle of nowhere.
For the women who arrived that weren't from Texas, it was a miserable place to be. HOT. Dry. Dust storms. Rattle snakes. The base's nickname (or real, I don't know) was Rattle Snake Bomber Base. Base housing was for officers and a few others; most found housing where they could in Wink. Tiny homes filled with love and fear, the uncertainty of what might happen next.
Celia wrote to mom many years later, " Don't know what we would have done if you and Max hadn't taken us in and shown us what to do." Celia and Jimmy were from Tennessee. Another dear couple was from Pennsylvania, Ester and Danny. Mother often talked of how homesick Ester was. Texas was SO different from 'home'.  For these women, war brought them together, bonds were built that endured until they have all gradually passed away. Christmas cards and random notes of family joys and sorrows were kept in Mom's desk.
 
Did these women have a sewing circle? If they did, Mom crocheted. Mom may have gotten this pincushion while staying in Wink. The fabric is from the early 40's. How cute is this! 
The Sewing Circle.
Mom didn't drive, Ester did. She took Mom to the store. They all liked to cook and shared recipes. And they laughed, cried and talked. Sounds a lot like my stitch group.
Friendships...
Lizzie (my great-great grandmother) enjoyed her "quiltings" as a way to gather with friends and relatives. Mother's parents owned a grocery store in the1920's through the 1940's where at the top of the stairs a quilting frame was always set with a quilt and the women who stopped in would pause in the day's routine to take a few stitches and "visit awhile".
Mom had her tightly knit group of friends to pass the time when the men away.
Thank goodness some things don't change with time.
Whether called a sewing circle, or a stitch group, gathering with friends and enjoying their company is one of  the delights of my month.
...Friendships
 
Lately, I've been preoccupied with clearing out my parents home. It took me 3 months to prepare. Several of my stitching friends helped some in prep and at the sale. Estate sale was Labor Day weekend. What a big, emotionally draining job for me. I did not hire someone to run the sale, but am very grateful for the help of husband, family and dear, dear friends. I found the answer to the question, when is a house not a home?  NOW. It is even more difficult to go over there now than when I was working daily, sifting through 72 years of collecting STUFF. It is now just a house, no longer their home. How sad is that? If you have lived through this particular trauma, you have my utmost respect and if you haven't, you may eventually. Nothing ends neatly. I was so ready for a fresh start this month, but have to catalogue the remaining items for donation and contact an organization to take the leftovers away. More sad business.
 
My son, Matt, had surgery Friday to reconstruct his nose after last year being hit with a baseball, (he was pitching and the batter hit a line drive to his face.)  Surgery went well with total reconstruction of septum and nose. Managing the pain is the biggest challenge at present, that, and me having to wash his hair! Can't get the nose wet, but have to clean the incision behind his ear where they took bone to construct his nose. That was interesting, need a salon's shampoo station set up! He is 26, 6'3" and has much longer hair than I do!
I sewed a little yesterday while his girlfriend was here, hadn't sewn in ages, wanted to sew more. It felt good, maybe can do some today, and...
 
Maybe Matt will go with me to stitch group on Friday! There's a thought!
 
Until next time ~
Betsy