Summer lily

I was really surprised to find this gorgeous lily blooming in my garden today! I think they usually bloom in the spring, but I admit I'm a haphazard gardener and planted these bulbs really late.

In my working life, I lived in a Condo in Southern California and dreamed about an yard with room enough for a beautiful English flower garden and a bountiful vegetable garden, like in the magazines. Now that I'm not working, and have a large yard, I am just not motivated. I wish I was!

At least the previous owners had the property well-landscaped, and my husband really does like doing the yard work.

Nothing quilt-related to show, but I have been working on a few things. I just wanted to share this beautiful lily!

Louise

Made with love

I found this sweet little wall-hanging, priced at $3.00, while browsing at Salvation Army.

It's well done and hand quilted, and the fabrics are just yummy.

It has a very small hand printed label on the back that says "Made for Leish Love, Mom 2005".

Of course, I had to bring it home with me. However, I didn't walk away thinking what a good bargain I got.

I walked away wondering.....How did this charming little quilt that was made with love by "Mom" end up in a thrift store? And...why did the thrift store think it was only worth $3.00? A nice Fat Quarter costs nearly that!

I'll make a place for this gem, and I'll appreciate it for all the work (and love) that "Mom" put into it. When I look at the label, I'll think of my own Mom, who I lost nearly two years ago.

Louise

Hanging up laundry

I discovered Carol's blog recently and found it interesting. Carol shares her old family photos and writes stories about the people in them. Although I'd like the focus of my blog to be on quilts, I think it would be fun to occasionally share some of my old family photos.





This is one of my favorite photos, and I don't even know who she is! Her face is obscured and she just doesn't look familiar to me. Her clothes are from the 1920's or 1930's, so she could be a friend of my Grandma who was born in 1901. The original is a tiny snapshot that was in with my Grandma's photos.

I love casual photos like this, that provide an unstaged glimpse into the past. I imagine that this woman was just routinely hanging up her laundry when someone got the camera and snapped her picture.

I think I'll get a larger copy made of this one, put it in an old frame, and hang it in my laundry room. It would fit in perfectly there. I have vintage knick-knacks above the cabinets, and some old aprons all pressed and ready to hang.

My next post will be more quilt-related. I've been working on things, but have nothing finished to show off.

Louise

p.s. This blog entry took over two hours, to get everything how I wanted it. I'm sure it was only my imagination, but it sure seemed like I would have it all good and then everything would change on me! I'm also frustrated that this photo won't enlarge when you click on it. See the next blog entry if you want to enlarge the photo. I have so much to learn!

Hanging up laundry, post script

On this draft, the photo does enlarge when you click on it. I won't even try to understand the mechanics behind Blogger!

Louise

Christmas Lights

I've started Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt called "Christmas Lights", featured in Quiltmaker Magazine. Step #1 is finished, and I couldn't resist doing at least one block each from Step #2, from the hint given here:

http://www.quiltmaker.com/patterns/details.html?idx=7734 .

I'll be getting the actual magazine soon to see the entire step #2.

I've shown my version below. Everything came from my stash, and it's very scrappy.

I absolutely love Bonnie Hunter's quilts, and you can see most of them on her website: http://www.quiltville.com/. Bonnie is very creative and generous, and offers dozens of quilt patterns for free on her website. If you love scrappy or traditional quilts, and you haven't discovered Bonnie's site yet, you are in for a real treat. I only wish I had the time to make all her patterns!

I haven't listed all my UFOs on the side like I've seen on other blogs. Honestly I don't think there would be enough room for that! I may choose about 15 or so to list, but I'll have to figure out how to do that first. I also want to figure out how to post my signature in a script-like form.

Louise

A beautiful day

We had a great side trip to Indiana, and I did manage to find all the headstones on my list.

Some were very hard to read, erosion having taken it's toll.

The two smaller tilted headstones above belong to a set of ggg-grandparents who died in the 1860's/1870's.

The headstones on the left, for a different set of ggg-grandparents who died in the 1870's/1880's, were easier to read but were broken into pieces.

Fortunately, in the 1950's some ladies from a DAR chapter made the effort to transcribe all these headstone inscriptions and record them in a book, which I found on the web a few years ago. I'll have to rely on the DAR's interpretation for a few of these!

I'm so glad that I had the chance to visit this area to see where my ancestors actually lived and worked. It truly gave me a whole different perspective on their lives.

Looking at the dark sepia photographs, I imagined that their environment was dreary and dark. In reality, however, the sun was shining and the sky was blue, with a gentle breeze blowing, and the countryside sparkled with color and life! This area was beautiful to me when I visited a week ago, and it was probably beautiful to them over 150 years ago. They lived hard lives, but I like to think that they had joy and contentment in their lives as well.

We looked for the old farmhouse referred to in my previous blog entry, but didn't find one with those exact characteristics. A local librarian told us that most of the old farmhouses in that specific area were gone. Over time, many of the small farms were bought up, replaced by a few much larger farms.

This trip was really an adventure for me, on many levels.

Louise

Strolling through the graveyard on a fine summer day....

DH and I will be traveling over the next 10 days, & as a side trip we'll be spending a day or so in rural Indiana. My objective is to find and photograph the headstones of my gg-grandparents and their parents. I already know what two cemeteries to look in, thanks to delving on the internet.

Some people think cemeteries are spooky or morbid, but I find them very peaceful. The residents are at rest now, I feel.

If we have time, we'll drive around the area. I want to get a feel for the place they lived, and I want to look at old farmhouses in search of this house, which was owned by my gg-grandfather around 1895. Both photos are probably of the same house, taken from different angles.

The close up below is of John Mason and Sarah Watson Mason, my gg grandparents. I don't know much about them, other than what I obtained through research. Sarah was born in Indiana in 1840 and married at age 18. She had 10 children that I know of, with 5 of those dying as children. She died in 1899 of heart disease at the age of 58.

I've heard the expression "the good old days", but life was really tough for women like Sarah! They had no electricity and had to work very hard to keep food on the table. If their kids were seriously ill, there wasn't much they could do to help them. Most of the property belonged to their husbands. If a woman had a kind and respectful husband, that would make all the difference in her quality of life. Sarah would have thought I had the life of a princess!

On the other hand, however, Sarah's neighbors and relatives lived the same way, so I suppose it's all relative. I don't know that I could live her life, though...I'm just too spoiled, sitting here in my air conditioned home with plenty of food in the cupboards.

I like the way they have all their plants lined up on the porch. I wonder what they were growing? Maybe tomatoes, maybe herbs? I think there might be some parsley in one of those cans, and perhaps some dill to use in canning.

The bow ties above are my take-along handsewing project. I've been working on it for about 10 years, only when I travel, and I have blocks made in New England, Hawaii, and even New Zealand. There are probably about 50 completed blocks, and some day I'll put them together. Then I'll start on a handsewing project that is a little more challenging. As you can see, these are in 1900 reproductions, which are my favorites along with Civil War and 1930's.

I found the faux tapestry bag at a thrift store. It's not old, but to me it looks old and is just perfect to store all the pieces in.

Well, time to get off the computer....thunder and lightening approaching fast!

Louise

p.s. I learned today to be really careful with the delete button on my blog entries, when I'm anywhere near a photo. The photos just disappear if I delete too much and it's such a pain to reload them!