meguey

For Thanksgiving, we went up to my sister's farm for a really lovely, relaxed, happy family meal. All the kids got along great, there was masses of food, everything was dandy. But. As I was clearing things off chairs to set the table, I came across a little puffy pink blanket. I gave it a flick to open it out and fold it properly, and there it was: a beautiful 1930's Dresden plate crib quilt.
( Alas that is not the whole story. )

I'm working on a huge genealogy project with my uncle. His parents, my paternal grandparents, recently died, and I cleaned out their house. I'm the one in me generation that is really interested in family history, so I wound up with boxes and boxes of things too potentially or obviously important to toss. There are two things that are really important to me today.

The first is my grandmother's wedding album, in which she recorded the names of her maternal grandparents, which I had never seen before last night, when I turned that page. She also recorded all her wedding gifts, and some of them I recognize as things I now have, not knowing what they were. Two hammered aluminum trays come to mind, and a few cut-glass dishes. But what I wish I had, knowing or not, was the 'summer quilt, gift of the Applegate family'. They were married in June, 1940 - once upon a time, there was a beautiful late-1930's quilt made as a wedding gift to my grandparents. What did it look like? What happened to it? I will probably never know.

The second is a table runner made by my great-grandmother.



It's 15" x 50", and in perfect condition. It's a lovely soft orange, and I plan on backing it with something similar to the towel in the picture, so the work shows well. I have a full-sized table cloth in the same pattern, possibly made by my great-aunt instead, and listed as a wedding gift, but in unbleached linen. In my heart of hearts, I'd love to use the table cloth at dinner this afternoon at my sister's house, along with my grandmother's silver which my sister has, but I don't think I dare put it on the table with four kids, two of them under 4 years old. How did people use their beautiful things in ages past? I know there were just as many gravy drips and juice spills, so was there some secret cleaning knowledge now lost? Did the lovely things just sit in cupboards? I don't think so. Maybe the needleworkers of the past were just braver and less worried about ruining a family heirloom. Maybe I'll bring the tablecloth, and see how brave I get.

What are you using (or not) for this year's feast that connects you with your past?

The question was: how's your holiday shopping going? Planning on going out on Black Friday?
My answer: Mine's mostly finished already. I tend to pick things up through the year, so it's not a big time or money stress right when I want to be focusing on fun stuff instead.

Just a little bit ago, I posted very briefly about my senior thesis "on looking at quilting as a way to find non-dominant voices in American history."

Rebecca said:
What a fascinating topic. What led you to that subject?

So, since she asked,

Lately I've been spending a ridiculously huge amount of time scanning old family slides and old family photos. Slides from my mom's family, back to 1956, and photos from my father's family, back to the Civil War. I wish any of them had any needlework showing. I think there's a tumbling blocks wall paper in one 1940s shot, and a bit of handwork in one of the older tin-types. I know they knitted, as I have some of the things my grandmother made. I have astonishing needlework by my great grandmother (which really I should post about separately). I have pictures of the quilts my aunt made my sister and I as children, and my great-aunt is a master quilter with lots of ribbons to show for it. I find myself wanting to make a series of quilts appropriate to the various eras I see in the photos, and I wish I had actual family quilts to go from. Alas.

It's still a little tentative, but 'outlook favorable' that we are over the flu. No fever since Friday, coughs going down steadily, appetites coming back - it's back to school and work tomorrow, my ducks!

While we've been tending sick kids, both my husband and I have started *huge* digital projects (he's writing on the lap-top, I'm scanning hundreds of old family photos from the Civil War to 1987). It's completely got my old genealogy itch going again. A couple of years ago, before Tovey was born, I did masses of work with Rootsweb and Ancestry.com, and then I downloaded a bad GED file from someone, and lost masses of work. It was too depressing to pick right up again, and I've learned better skills/habits since. Also, the technology has advanced again, and now there are even better on-line data system (hello Geni!) I am eying. Of course, most of them are still ultimately subscription based. And the software I bought 6 years ago will not run on our latest CPU. Really, if it's not printed out, there are times when it's not actually recorded.

I have tons of writing on old 3" disks for circa MACs 1995, including my senior thesis on looking at quilting as a way to find non-dominant voices in American history. Luckily, I do have a paper copy of that kicking around somewhere - maybe I should have it scanned back in to text, and then I could edit it, lay it out properly, send it to Lulu.com, and have an actual bound copy. That's not really such a wild idea, actually. Great. I just talked myself into another huge project. *eye roll*

Maybe tomorrow I'll sew instead of sit at the computer (within easy reach of both bedrooms, no matter how softly they might call me). That would be nice.

Every year our guild makes quilts for Project Linus. Over the course of the year, various orphaned blocks, fabric sales rep samples, left-overs from making class kits, donations, etc, wind up in a big square tub marked 'Guild Fabric". In the fall, we have a meeting to process as much as possible from the tub into quilts. What doesn't get done that night gets taken home by eager/gullible/ambitious/generous guild members to make more. Here's what I came home with on Monday:



Going clock-wise from lower left:
A 'big block', but I don't know which one yet
Something sweet and artsy and tween/teen with mermaids
A cheerful 4-patch
A hip log cabin
The ones in the middle are waiting for a green from my stash, and then I think they'll be a streak-of-lightning, or something else really simple.

And that's my plan for this month.

Anyone else nervous about H1N1? I've been worrying about it for months - vaccinate the kids or don't, isolate ourselves or don't, assume it's all going to be ok or don't - and it was really getting to me. My kids are 13, 9, and 3, and therefore right in the age bracket most susceptible. Worry, worry, fret, fret.

Well, worry no more! It may not be H1N1, but we've got you fevers, your chills, your sore throats, and your delicate stomachs! Tovey came down with 102.8 fever yesterday, Elliot's at 99.7 and chills today - I'm keeping Sebastian home from 7th grade as a precautionary measure tomorrow. Let's just hope that what ever it is, H1N1 or not, it moves quick, and spares at least one parent at a time, so we can all recover soon.

Ok, so I'm *tremendously* glad that my dentist appointment today went so well. She's a great dentist, even doing breath coaching to help with the novicane injections. I was pouring a lot of energy into that tooth just needing a big filling, not a root canal and crown, and that's exactly what she did, without a word from me. So Happy about that.

However.

This thing where the novicane is wearing off, and she had to do a really deep filling because it was really big? My whole face Hurts! Pain in my jaw, radiating to my temple and neck. I know it's just the muscle stress of having an hour-long dental procedur, but yikes! Time to go down a handful of arnica and find a good book to read by the fire till I feel better. Maybe I'll design a couple more quilts.

It's two weeks till my next S&D meeting, and I'm in desperate need of some dark blue denim. Our challenge this week is to make a piece using discharge dying, also known as bleaching. I've made a stack (well, three) test blocks. I've used different techniques for each test so far, and I think I'm on the right track for what I want.


My vision says there could be a cool new thing here for me, and I just have to try. Thank goodness it's warm and dry enough to do the bleaching outside. That way I can take some good pictures, too. See you later, and wish me luck!

A week ago, I got a referral from a seamstress friend to do a quilt repair. The client had a small quilt, about 4'x5', that was in tatters in places. She wanted it fixed, but didn't want to spend a lot of money on it. ( Details inside )

They get to stay home by the fire today, while I get to run around in the drizzling damp. Lucky cats.


No, we did not get that tiny camp chair just for her, but she thinks we did.

As of 12:58 PM yesterday afternoon, that is, when my oldest turned 13. It's kind of great and kind of scary. He's the best kid ever, along with his brothers. I'm looking forward to what this year brings.

Got something to ask...ask away

The problem with LJ: We all think we are so close, but some of us don't know much about one another. So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away. Bonus points if you share a little known fact about yourself to me also!

Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

1) Where do you live right now? Do you like it? Where would you be living right now if you could chose another place?

2) I have an image of you in my mind, if I have not already seen a picture of you, but I may be wrong. Post a written description or photo of yourself *optional*

3) Tell me Who Do You Love! Are you married/in a long term relationship? If so, how long? Do you have children? How many children?

4) What do you "do for a living"? Are you happy doing it? If you could do anything else, what would it be? (this is the adult version of "what do you want to be when you grow up?" question)

5) List five of your Favorite Things.

6) List three (or more if you chose to do so) of your favorite hobbies.

7) How long have you had your LJ? What does your LJ name mean, and why did you chose it for yourself?

8) Tell me what you consider your best personality trait, and what you consider your worst

9) Got pets? What animal meant the most to you, of ones you've had?

10) Did you vote in your most recent state or local election?

I'm supposed to be quilting a top for an acquaintance. The design of the piecing is fine, three different sizes of pieced stars, appliqued on a dark blue mini-dot background. The stars are already quilted, really nicely. What's left to me to do is the Most Tedious part: long lines of hand-quilting, radiating from a central point, evenly spaced apart and adding new rows as needed to maintain a reasonably close quilting. It's So Boring! Plus, it's really hard to quilt slightly skewed lines on the grid formed by the mini-dots. She asked me to do it when I was pregnant with Tovey - who turns four in December. I'm half-way done, but I'm also so sick of it I want to hand it back - "Here, I got it a bunch further, now it's back to you!" *Sigh* Why is it that I have projects I want to do, like my oldest son's Buggy Stars, and instead I have this thing in the frame? It's a perfect example of when a design that's beautiful in theory (and it really is!) is just dull beyond bearing in execution.

The top is now complete! I took it to show+tell at my guild last week, and I was surprised to find myself shaking a bit when I showed it - I guess I'm more proud/nervous about it than I thought! I am now wrestling with how to quilt it: I have ideas for the X-wings, because they are big open patches of fabric, but the PP blocks are a whole different kettle of fish. Ideas? Oh, and the whole thing is now 60"x78".

My entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival is really quite recent. I thought about other quilts, and even took some out to look at, but this one is the one. This quilt started as a challenge to my guild from a local independent clothing design house, to make quilts using their (mostly rayon) scraps. I was late in getting started, due to a)joining the guild late in the challenge and b)not getting fabric until July 16th, for a challenge due in August. There's a tag on the side just for Mermaid, if you want to see the progress.

This quilt is filled with new things I'd never tried - faux chenile in the sea-weed on the lower left, seriously padded applique on the figure, the needle-lace shiksa mirror, and this is the most surface texture of any quilt I've made so far. It's also filled with things I've loved and had kicking around my studio for years, like the fish bead, the bit of coral-colored velvet ribbon, and the blue-green cut-glass beads in the upper right.


Lastly, this quilt is full of my grandparents and great-grandparents. My great-grandmother made the lace doily that became the anenome at the lower center. My great-grandfather and both great-grandmother's button collections are represented in the mermaid's tail. All the little metal findings came from my grandfather's work in the aeornautics division of Bendix Corp. I know exceeedingly little about his working life, and he died only two years ago. I'm glad to have these bits of what was common-place to him turn into the unexpeced on my quilt.

A quilt festival for bloggers??! Rock on! I'm entering my mermaid quilt. Or my Ace of Wands quilt. Or maybe my Windmills quilt. Hmm.

I finished the S&D project! Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.


The angles of the yellow were off from what I intended - cheap compass, I blame you!
Next time I'll trace around a plate like my great grandmother would have. I got a little
puckering in the purple stripe, so I might go back and re-do that. I think I was rushing it a bit.

( I also finished the binding challenge from last month's guild meeting. )