Quilts, Quilts, Quilts

July 2012

I am currently working on three, yes, three, quilts.  One I started when I was in Florida this past winter, I suppose at this point it could be considered a "UFP", (Unfinished Project), but I have not yet put it into the drawer of past and lost projects.  It still has hopes of being finished.  I pieced it all by hand from a kit of black and white 5.5 inch squares that I purchased in a quilt shop in Florida.  It was my first attempt at hand piecing and I found that I really enjoyed that process.  It is all pieced except for the borders.

The second quilt is one I started for my ten year old granddaughter, Abby.  It is supposed to be part of a makeover of her bedroom.  The bedroom makeover has not begun because she has not chosen a paint color and she is reluctant to give up anything in her room!  The makeover might have to wait until she is a little bit older and can make some decisions!  So, that quilt is still in the stage of making the individual blocks.

The third quilt, and probably the one that will be finished first, is for a dear friend's husband.  He fell off of a ladder at the end of April and sustained many injuries including traumatic brain injury.  He has been in the hospital and rehab ever since.  The quilt is going to be part of a fund raising benefit for the family and will be made up of signed squares that people will make a donation to sign.  The benefit is in August and even though I do not have any signed squares back, I hope to at least get the top pieced together before the benefit.

And...if you go to "My Craft Projects" page, you will see a couple of "crafty" projects I have worked on when I was tired of looking at quilts!

THOUGHTS ON MY LAST YEAR OF 50 SOMETHING:

So, on my Facebook page today I was notified that it is my friend's birthday.  Well, I did already know this, but it reminded me.  Her post to her Facebook page comments "The beginning of the last year of 50 something".  Wow.  Now, I began my last year of 50 something back in April, but somehow having it put that way brings it all home.  I do not know how I got here!  How any of us got here. My generation’s motto was “Don’t Trust Anyone Over 30”.  I guess I have been untrustworthy for quite some time now!

Back in the day, we all wanted to change the world.  You know, I think that happened! Many of us individually would say that our dream had died, that we got busy with family and careers and “just life” and never made a difference.  I disagree.  I think that we baby boomers have changed the world.  Mostly for the better, sometimes not.  I think the way we changed things was to just not accept the status quo, we insisted on better. Right now, I will focus on the changes for women and girls.

From the preamble to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972:
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational programs or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

In my opinion, in large part because of Title IX,  girls today have a whole host of sports and educational opportunities they can  choose to participate in at school and college.  Most of these opportunities were not readily available when I graduated high school in 1970. 

The career expectation for girls was that they would be secretaries, teachers, nurses or housewives. NOT principals, doctors or executives.  And if you did have a career, you were expected to give it up when you had children.  You didn’t hear of girls aspiring to be doctors, lawyers, or politicians.  Today’s girls would be appalled if they were told  to limit their career aspirations. They have been raised to believe they can pursue any goal or career path that their talents and interests can take them. Did you know that Luci Baines Johnson, the daughter of President Lyndon Johnson, was refused readmission to Georgetown University's school of nursing after her marriage: in 1966, the school did not permit married women to be students. ( I read this Here )  Amazing, huh?

It would not have even occurred to me to run for any political office.  According to my Google search there were 11 women in Congress in 1970.  Today’s Congress has 91 women.  Still not great when you consider how many seats there are.  But, certainly progress.  We have had a woman serve as Speaker of the House, our current Secretary of State is a woman, In the last presidential election a  woman was the Republican nominee for Vice President, and currently a woman is one of the leading candidates for the Republican nomination to run for President.  NONE of that would have even been a possibility in 1970. 
And what about women in sports!  According to the National Federation of High School Associations, in 1971-72, the first year of the NFHS survey and the first year of Title IX, 294,015 girls participated in high school sports nation-wide, just 7 percent of the total. By 2003-04, girls' participation was up to 2,865,299, or 41.5 percent of the total.  And I don’t even want to get into what the sports that were offered to us were like!  Look up the rules for girls basketball in 1970, you will be amazed (for example, you could only dribble 3 times) Before Title IX, there were few, if any college athletic scholarships for girls. Today athletic scholarships for women are readily available; we have professional women’s sports teams (How much did we all enjoy the Women’s World Cup Games this year!) 

What makes me a little bit sad is that the young girls today have no idea how much things have changed.  I try to tell them, show them pictures of the “sports teams” when I was in high school, but their eyes kind of glaze over.  I tell them of the educational opportunities they have that we didn’t have, or that they take for granted that we had to fight for.  My daughters and granddaughters have all played soccer as they grew up, they have had multiple sports playing opportunities in high school, my youngest daughter received an athletic scholarship that helped pay for college. That sure wouldn’t have happened in 1970!  But, then again, I guess that insisting that things would be equal and easier for our children and grandchildren was what it was all about.  The fact that they take the equality (well, we’re getting there anyhow) for granted might be a good thing.  To them, that is just the way it is!

So,  I guess maybe we did change the world!

Gardening Update

Forever with a Hosta and Delphinium

So, here it is the middle of May and we have had so much rain that getting out into the garden to do anything has been a challenge.  I have moved a few perennials around and they are doing well.   We put up a small shed last year and I have divided some of my "Forever's"  and planted them at the back of the shed.   I am not sure what the real name of these plants are, but they grow forever and I got the "Forever" name from one of my friends.  In fact, all of the Forever's that I have around my house came from one plant that was here when I moved into our house, over 30 years ago!  I guess they do live forever!

Chinese Forget Me Nots

One of last year's experiments that has turned out really well is "Chinese Forget Me Nots".  Although they look like traditional Forget Me Nots, unlike the traditional ones, these bloom all summer rather than only in the spring.  They are not a "perennial" but they do reseed and I have  LOT of them to prove this!

This weekend looks like it is going to be nice, so I will attempt to get some of the annual flowers in.  Over the years I have put in a lot of perennials so I don't usually think I need many annuals,  I will fill in for some color though with marigolds and zinnias for sure and I am certain I will find several other plants that I will not be able to live without.  Then it will be a matter of finding a place for them!  I always buy more than I need and spend more money than I plan.  For some reason it all works out though!

Remembering My Mom

I was once told by a very wise woman that over your lifetime you think that your life changes, you get married, have children, work, but that things REALLY don’t change until you lose your mother.  She was right.

My mom died 17 years ago today, and things have not really been the same since.  Nobody ever loves you as unconditionally as your mother does. Her death also changed the whole dynamics of our family.  Mom was the one who pretty much bound the family together. She was the birthday cake maker, the celebration planner, the one whose house we went “home” to for family gatherings .  Since she died, it has been harder and harder to get all of the branches of our family together.

My mom and I had the usual “growing up” arguments.  I seldom raised my voice to my mother, because you just didn’t do that back when I grew up, the consequences were dire.  I know I “sassed back” though, and did a lot of eye rolling and door slamming.  Like most teenagers, I didn’t think my mother knew anything about anything.   My dad was busy working two jobs and really wasn’t home much.  The raising of me and my three brothers was pretty much left to mom.  She was the mom, cook, cleaning lady, nurse, friend, teacher, disciplinarian, the planner, shopper..well she was everything for us!  My dad worked and my mother managed.

There wasn’t a lot of money when we were growing up.  There wasn’t much left over after paying bills and buying groceries for “extras”  What we did have was a mom who was always there for us.  My mother  once told me a story about when my dad was in the service.  I’m not sure where they were stationed at the time, it was payday, but until my dad returned from work she had no access to that money.  She said the only thing left in the house for food was some flour and a little bit of milk.  She made biscuits and fed them to me.  She said she was so hungry that day.  I asked “why didn’t you eat some of the biscuits?”  Her answer: “well you were hungry and I wanted you to have them, you will understand when you have kids”  And, she is right, I do.  I understood a lot once I had kids of my own.

My mom faced tragedy in her life, her father died at a young age from a brain tumor, and years and years later my brother Craig, her youngest child, died of the same illness.  I can only imagine the grief she suffered. I know that when Craig was diagnosed, she knew more than any of us what was coming, and what to expect.  She was there for him and his wife throughout his illness.  Her grief was devastating when he died, but even through all of that she remained concerned about her other children and how we were coping with it all. 

Once I was married my mom became my best friend.  She was who I called when I needed to know almost anything about raising a family or managing a household. When I had children, she was the one I called if they were sick, if I needed a babysitter, if the kids were “challenging” me, if I just needed to vent.  We shopped together, crafted together, cried together. 

My mom didn’t have a lot of money, the best clothes, the biggest house, the perfect children, but, she always gave people the benefit of the doubt, she didn’t talk about people behind their backs, she loved her family more than anything and she always put us first, never herself .  My mom was a classy lady.  I love you and miss you mom, wish you were here!

Quilting

My mother was a quilter, and when she died in 1994, she left an unfinished quilt top. It broke my heart to think that it would go unfinished so I decided to learn the art of quilting so that I could complete the quilt.  Not wanting to ruin the quilt that she started, I began to learn the process before attempting to finish her work in progress. My first quilts were not very good!  I got a lot of satisfaction from working on them, but when I look back at them now I think “oh my, that was obviously a beginners quilt”!   I have come a long way over the years and I would now consider myself an “intermediate” quilter.

 My favorite part of quilting is designing the quilt, choosing the fabrics, cutting them into squares and triangles and then piecing the blocks together. For the design, I often begin with a pattern from a magazine or a purchased pattern, but my finished quilt does not usually look anything like the pattern I started with.   Once I get to the actual quilting, it kind of becomes “work” to me. It can literally take months or years to handquilt a piece and machine quilting can be very difficult to do on a home sewing machine, especially if the quilt is very big. There are services that you can send a finished quilt top out to for quilting, but it is expensive and somehow I feel like I should finish what I started. Because of the time involved, my favorite type of quilt to make is a wall hanging or lap size quilt. I think I need the “instant gratification” of seeing my finished work. A bed sized quilt can literally take months, or even years to complete.  I lose patience and interest if the process takes too long. 

 

A quilt I made for Emma several years ago

I like to give quilts as gifts to friends and family, and I especially like making quilts for my granddaughters.  I have been told that they are taking up an awful lot of room at their house though, so I have slowed down on that process.  I think my youngest granddaughter will need a new quilt soon though!  The hope is always that they will keep and cherish the quilts and the thought and work and love that went into them.

So, I continue to learn and try new techniques.  Oh, and my mother’s quilt top?  Still not finished.  I really need to get to that someday…

Spring Gardening

It has been a very long winter here.  I am anxious to get out into my gardens, but the snow is still hanging around, so today I started some seeds indoors.

I planted basil, both Genovese and Summerlong, I have no idea what the difference is, but we will see.  I had great success with basil last year, I had a great crop all summer and even dried some for use this winter.  I also planted Rosemary, although I am not expecting great results.  I tried that last year and most of the seeds didn't even germinate, and the ones that did never did grow much.  I figure at less than $2.00 a packet it was worth one more try.

In the flower category, I planted Dahlia seeds.  Yes, seeds.  I never even knew you could grow dahlias from seed until last year.  I tried it and had great success.  I had beautiful, plentifully flowering dahlias until frost.  My plan was to save the roots to replant this year, but my procrastination got in the way of that.  Last year I also started zinnia's inside.  I did buy some seeds, but I think I might just plant them outside when it gets warm enough, I've been told starting them inside doesn't give you that much of a headstart with zinnia's and I don't have a whole lot of room for growing inside.  I started marigolds inside last year also, but again, I don't think it is worth the space.

For the starter containers I used the little greenhouse things that you can buy at the gardening stores.  Last year I used the little pellets but I found that the seedlings soon outgrow the size of the pellets and you need to transplant to a bigger container.  This year I started with the bigger containers.  I used the biodegradable containers that you can just plop in the ground when it gets warm enough to transplant outside.

Here is a picture of one of my gardens from last year: