Memories of Holidays Past

My Grandmother had a Christmas Cactus.  It was older than I.  When she flew South to spend the winter with her son,  my Uncle , she tucked it into her purse and took it with her rather than chance its survival if left behind.  

It did bloom for her, but rarely at Christmas.  

HUNGARY - CIRCA 1965

Happy Holidays

And may 2012 be a kinder, gentler year.
ps -- neither of my two would ever permit themselves to be costumed.
source of illustration long lost.

'Tis the Season

Keeping holiday decorations very simple this year.  DH made this in-door ski-wreath for me.

Happy Thanksgiving

Didn't realize how long it's been since I posted.  As the prior post moaned, this has been "that year from hell".  And, there are still far too many items left on the To Do list -- not pleasant quilty ones either. 

It's a quiet holiday for me -- DH & his father would go up to northern Maine hunting during this long weekend.  So it's never been a big "turkey day" event. 

Watched the Macy's parade & remembered the cruise when one of the gals at my table worked with the floats the night before.  They have a huge crew working at NYC area warehouses getting the floats ready for the parade.  She was one of the volunteers for that.  Although that was a number of years ago & could be quite differently staffed by now.

I did put out the selected Xmas quilts -- have zillions of them.  When I was taking classes from quilters like Bonny Hunter, I often used Christmas colors so ... zillions.
I'll post photos of some in a future post.

Winter from Hell became Spring from Hell became Summer from Hell

Enough already!  Mother Nature owes us a break.  First the Blizzard, then the Quilt Melt/Rain Flooding and now the Hurricane.  Fortunately at this point I have much to be very very grateful for.

Virus Alert

I've been told that the link in Feb 16, 2011 post has a virus attached to it.  I have no idea how it became attached and can not find out how to remove it, nor will the original post delete.  Therefore, if you do read old posts, please do not use that link to the fabric store in Jonesport, Maine.  If you do wish to locate the store, please use Google.  My appologies to all -- original plans were to upgrade my tower this summer and hopefully that can be fixed then.  I have run Norton AntiVirus which comes up with nothing.

Read-a-Thon

I've been enjoying a marithon of Mark Schweizer's cozies featuring Hayden Konig, an organist-police chief in a small North Carolina mountain town.  There are 9 in the series; all delightful, with a touch of humor. 

Royal Clematis Purple

The clematis are in bloom.   This is the classic Jackmanii -- "the best known clematis of all time. "  Easy to grow,  @ a 130 year-old variety.  

I need this rich purple color for Granddaughter's quilt.  

But as so often happens, another "little" project has been inserted into the quilting lineup.

 

Summer Begins

Flowers, Anniversaries and Shooting Stars plus two Birthdays.  That's not a bite out of the heart, but a ring on it.  This banner fits above my kitchen entry-way bulletin board --where calendar and appointment cards are posted.  In keeping with the calendar format, the banners for this area are season related. 

Triple --Header Day

Two Chipmonks running across the patio, Groundhhog gorging on grass and a Deer grazing at the end of the woods.   Each took a turn having a meal in the back yard.

 

Today I didn't run to get the camera, this photo was taken a few years ago.  Today's deer was an adult.  If she had a baby with her, it stayed well hidden.

Tri and Goldie watched the chipmonks -- they aren't quite certain if the Chips are playmates or food "on the hoof" -- not that they are going to work for what comes in a tidy bowl at standard times, without fur or bones. 

Fictional Shop Name

Although the heroine is owner of an embroidery shop, there's a neighboring quilt shop named: Batty About Quilts.  Isn't that a great name for a quilt shop!

At Lights Out, Goldie and Tri felt curling up close was the best place.  The flowering shrubs withstood the brief moment of hail yesterday as well as the heavy rain. 

Need to hang my Summer banner -- have to get it out ; one of the few I didn't get a photo of yet.   

The Mt. Laurel is beautiful this year.  The faint red blooms are a red version of the laurel.  While I purchased the red one, the "parent" Mt. Laurel was on my In-Laws CT home.  Its blooms brings memories of them and that home.  Guess that ability puts the bush into the same catagory as a pass-down heritage quilt -- one that was used so it has good memories of family wrapped in it. 

First Summer Storm

Summer's first heat ended in a serious thunderstorm -- dark as night, a downpour.  Goldie and Tri vanished into their "safe place", under the bed, while I closed windows.   Fortunately we didn't lose power.  And I didn't hide under a quilt.  But enough with these weather extremes -- from blizzard to heat wave to thunder & lightening. 

Reading through Heat Wave

AC is running & I'm camped out close to it reading A Stitch Before Dying by Anne Canadeo, not the first by her that I have read & just as enjoyable as the others.  It's a knitting stitch, not a quilting stitch, but the knitting group is very much like a quilting group.  Other than the murder mystery, of course.

Goldie joins me -- his napping spot on the couch top is directly in front of the AC.  He steadfast refuses to even consider having a "lion cut".   

Have begun to collect purple FQs for Granddaughter's quilt.  Unfortunately purple doesn't seem to be an "in" color this season so it's slow going.  Need to check out some on-line sources. 

As I was laying on the couch last night, enjoying the AC and a good book on my Kindle, I caught a glimpse of Goldie who was also enjoying the AC by napping on the back of the couch. 





His tail was a fluff of spun cotton candy -- a childhood carnival treat, but vanilla not strawberry.  I wonder: Do carnivals operated by real-life gypsys still travel through New England in summer?  

I suspect that they don't -- the last time I was at the Durham Fair, the food booths were all run by local non-profit organizations & I think the games of chance were too.

  

Memorial Day memories

Going with my Grandmother to tidy the gravestones and plant geraniums in front of them -- and after she would pointed out those related to us in other plots.  

Marching as a Girl Scout in the local parade.

The flags placed by the Boy Scouts/VFW for military service. 

A visit from Grandfather's cousin.  He moved to Canada to enlist in WWI because he wanted to fly & US was too slow to enter the fight.  

The gold Stars in Grandmother's brother's window during WWII -- 2 of them for sons serving on the same sub. 

And, of course, the cookouts - standard fare made special by the day.

My special fare today is French toast soldiers with Vermont maple syrup and several bacon strips -- which Goldie didn't hesitate to remind me that I had to share. 



Bettycrocker.com

 A British term, "soldier" refers to toast cut into thin strips reminiscent of the formation of soldiers on parade. The toast is sliced like this so it can be dipped into the opening of a soft boiled egg which has had the top of its shell removed. 

Summer Bed Quilt

After waking up two nights in a row to toss off the winter quilt, its time for the summer quilt.

I don't make bed size quilts.  Saw this at a  $1 type store near my local grocery store several years ago, loved its blues and greens and the use of plaids, so I snatched it up.  Still love it.  The pattern is one of the many many Log Cabin variations.  Because its batting is so light (thin?) there's no warmth-making weight to it. 

canstockphoto.com

2011 is the Chinese Year of the Rabbit.  Here it's the Year of Paint The House.  The House will remain the same color -- gray.  Easy peasy, right?  Ha!  Not if you're a quilter & given dozens of gray paint chips!  Not if you're a scrapbooker & given dozens of gray paint chips!  And if you're both? 

Can we just put on the blindfold & play Spin the Paint Chips?

You Got Mail

Turned on the TV to get the weather forecast and You Got Mail, my favorite movie, was on, so I've loafed here watching it - again.  Not a DVD buyer, but this is one of the few I do have on DVD. 

In it Meg Ryan says: When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.  

Growing up reading The Bobbsey Twins, guess it's only natural then that I'm a cozy mystery reader. 














Note the change over the years, from the small @3" square books I read to Kindle.  Happy to see they are still "in print".  Movie Watching Bonus -- there's a quilt on her bed. 

un digestif

Un digestif, that after-dinner drink one's human servants may enjoy, becomes an after-dinner nap.   This is  not to be confused with the morning nap or the afternoon nap.

The heroine of the book I'm currently reading owns a cheese shop with a friend (accused of murder, falsely of course) owning the neighboring wine shop.  After a page or two I want crackers and cheese munchies.  

Maybe I'll enjoy un digestif on Sunday while waiting for Jesse Stone program.    

  

More Spring Colors



www.babylock.com -- Eleanor Burns



Green grass, blue skies, yellow daffodils. My scan of  the back cover of April's American Patchwork & Quilting (advertising baby lock machines), this Sawtooth Star in a Log Cabin setting -- an Elleanor Burns quilt. 





"The Wedding Shawl"

written by Sally Goldenbaum.  A very

Amazon.com

 enjoyable cozy series -- knitting not quilting but there is a cat, named Purl. 



Yesterday after serving breakfast to the feline VIPs, and as I was enjoying my morning muffin,  two bunnies hopped by.   Guess the grass is greener on the other side of the street. 


2008 source info lost














Thankfully they stayed away from the flower bed and so far Mr. Groundhog, who has been dining during the "cocktail hour",  has stayed out of it too.

Bookstores

Sometimes a memory just pops up & that happened to me today -- back in the pre-Kindle days, when DH & I got down to NYC, we would try to fit in a visit to Murder Ink, which opened in 1972 on West 87th Street.  As the name indicates, it focused on crime fiction. Unfortunately, it closed in 2006.

In You've Got Mail, my favorite movie -- books & romance, what more do you want? -- Meg Ryan's store focused on children's books.  

Sorry, a firm paw reminded me that it's Dinner Time and that both Meg Ryan and Murder Ink lacked a kitty.  Kitties with books and romance are best.

Currently Reading



Amazon.com

This is the second one about Charlie, a librarian, and his cat Diesel which I have read.  Looking forward to a third one.  Diesel wears a harness & goes to the library with Charlie, actually a retired librarian who is now a volunteer.  Can't imagine either Goldie or Tri wearing a harness.












The Measby Murder is the other book I've also recently finished.  It's set in an assisted living facility that's in a traditional English village.  As a birthday gift, the heroine is given a kitten.

Currently reading Murder Under Cover.  The heroine of this one is a

 rare book appraiser & restorer.  She also has a cat but he hasn't played a major role yet in this book.  He does have a cat quilt in his cat bed.

.

Delights of a Spring Morning

Between breakfast and the morning nap, there's serious work to be done:  The House Wren (I think that's what they are) has a nest sheltered under the patio roof.  One can hear the babies chirping for their breakfast.  Goldie and Tri, who feel like Godparents to the brood I'm sure, monitor with great intensity the parents' trips to seed scattered on the patio edge . 

I'm enjoying the lilacs which have begun to bloom, including a white one on that side.  It was planted in memory of one of my Grandmothers who had a white lilac; the standard ones are from my other Grandmother's garden. 

  This photo of the opposite side was taken a few years ago .  I enjoy this view while having my breakfast coffee.  Sadly, the birdhouse feeder, made by DH, disappeared a number of years ago.   It was there when I went to work and just not there when I came home.

My sping tulips now hang on the wall.  

Quick scrapbook project

A simple tag:

The motto was suggested by my therapist when I was recovering from the trick-knee fall.  It's a wonderful excuse for a day of loafing. 

An Ordinary Day

Yesterday and today's simple routine of meals, house tasks, favorite TV shows and quiet reading is a good counterpoint to a string of eventful days.  Friday's Royal Wedding was followed by a special family visit on Sunday. 

Tomorrow The View has Dick Van Dyke as a guest promoting his new book, My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business.



Amazon.com





For me the show's a personal classic -- along with Arthur Godfrey and I Love Lucy.

It's been added to my "Must Read" list -- a nice change from the cozy murder mystery.

Goldie feels he's just as graceful and light on his toes -- unless he wants breakfast and I'm sleeping in-- then he lands with tonnage.  At least he's not dragging the quilt with him. 

Today's Royal Beginning

Katherine was absolutely gorgeous, almost as beautiful as my daughter and daughter-in-law on their wedding days.  Her Prince almost as handsome as my Son on his -- although neither as handsome as DH on our day. 

My Corination Mug



Getting Ready

For tomorrow's Event.  While watching Kate & William, I will be enjoying my morning coffee from this mug:

In 1953 I had a British penpal.  She asked that I send her several pairs of nylons (apparently still very difficult to get or pricey in post-war England) and she sent me this mug -- which decades later became the start of my mug collection. 

Could we say that I, a Grandmother, am having breakfast with the Groom's Grandmother prior to the service? 

 The house sparrows are very busy doing a spring clean-up on their nest which is under the patio eves.  In the morning Tri and Goldie monitor their comings and goings.


DH's Birdhouse Quilt

 While they are selecting this twig or that one, I must chose colors for my "nest" -- I'm only changing the color of the doors, but some Marketing Wizard feels that paint names need to be changed annual so there's still sample chips to get and decisions to be made.  

Spring = Shedding

But can anyone explain why an indoor-only cat grows a winter coat that needs shedding?  Goldy enjoys a consistent moderate temperature year-around.  And if the night-time setting is too cool, he could try snuggling under the quilt.   

Unfortunately he doesn't tolerate enough brushing time to deal with the shedding.  His mother should have taught him the "100 brush strokes a night" rule. 

Simple Gratitudes for Easter

• Bird song at dawn
• One's children
• One's grandchildren
• Furry companions
• Happy memories 

 and One's home - leaks & all.



Too little time

Years ago I took a workshop making the Polish Easter eggs, Pisanki.  The most difficult part was actually blowing out the raw egg.  Those eggs are long gone, but I still have the pens which were used to apply the wax.

Phone interruption. Lost Web Site Info.

After the pattern is painted on with the melted wax, the egg is dipped in the lightest color, allowed to dry, painted again & dipped again,  and so and so ending with the darkest color.  If you don't know your color combinations you soon learn.   I like the one-color look of those above.  Once the coloring has been finished, the wax needs to be removed.  

Wouldn't they make an interesting Table Runner for this season -- egg shapes with appliqued design on them and then they are appliqued to the runner's ground (green for grass? and for spring)?

Joining in common quilter's wail: Too little time; too many ideas.

The other evening Dave Letterman said in his list of the 10 top tax tips that trolls are not dependents.  After coping with IRS's electronic whims this past weekend, while others in this household dined and dozed, I know that Cats should be declarable -- as Heads of Household, as they see themselves to be. 

Goldie's Doppelganger

He's an outdoor roamer, although in bad weather he will favor my neighbor with his indoor presence.  Some mornings he naps on my front step.  Yesterday morning he checked on the cat mint in my flower bed and, as Tri watched, he took the first-of-the-season roll in it.  Tri didn't make a sound, but even so you could just hear her shouting "Get off -- that's ours -- it has to grow a bit more before our human can cut some for us to enjoy."   

When I do bring some in for them, Goldie is very much the gentleman -- he lets Tri go first.  When done, they both enjoy a long drunken nap.   

While They nap

I read.  Just finished Time Enough to Die by Lillian Stewart Carl and have begun Arsnic and Old Paint by Halley Lind.  It's the 4th in this series, one I follow.
There's this "quote" at the beginning of Chapter 1: 
Craquelure: A web of fine lines indicating age, that results in greater beauty. 
In the book it refers to paintings, but I think it works just fine for humans. 

Smell the Roses, Blow out the Candles

  Tri enjoys flowers too.  Perhaps her more sensitive kitty nose picks up a rose smell mine doesn't (these commercial roses are not bred for scent).  I do know she enjoys tasting the leaves & have to wave her off, reminding her that she has her kitty grass to nibble.  

As aways a bouquet  reminds me of our visit to the morning flower market outside Amsterdam where such flowers are auctioned off and immediately loaded onto planes for flying to the buyers.   

Blue patterned  fabric purchased in Dutch fabric shop.

April Showers

send thoughts to
Gardening.

Although, as an aside, we've had enough ground soaking precipt that the showers are not quite as welcome this spring.

I made Easter egg table runners for the kids, but not for myself.  However, there is this small quilt -- the printed fabric has garden hats & trowels and pots of tulips on it.

The little bird figure on Gram's cutting board is holding on to her Easter Bonnet.

Quilt Room Views & Another Basket

My "ironing board" for blocks as they are constructed.   Scrapbook pages to-do are in the plastic "project" bags on the shelf below.   This ironing station was designed specifically for me so it fits my height.  

Behind it is my "project board" -- a 61"x36" bulletin board.  

  

On the opposite wall is the closet, which holds my fabric stash, a window and my quilt and scrapbooking books. 

The short chair is one my children had; it's basket holds CDs.  The taller chair, my Grandfather's highchair (he was a very small baby),  holds a basket of plastic templates.   



Buddies

Baskets, continued

This basket holds my 2010-11 quilt magazines.  After a year they are put in date order and placed in a storage drawer.  Several years ago I went through a decade of quilt magazines, clipped the articles / projects I wanted to keep and tossed the remains.   

This year I decided not to renew any magazines, quilting or scrapbooking.  There's so much now available on the Internet.  And if there's a special project or article I want,  that issue can be purchased at a local shop or on line.

There's no point in having a fabric or magazine stash if you can't find what you are looking for.  To be easily used, both need to be organized and managed -- which includes weeding out. 

Orphan Blocks

Orphan Blocks are quilt blocks left over from a project -- blocks that did not make it into a finished quilt for one or another reason.  Sometimes I do a "test" block using scraps in colors that won't be in the finished project. 

This is my basket of Orphan Blocks.  Some day they will make it into a scrappy baby quilt for the local Battered Women's Center.

I like baskets; another one holds 2010 quilt magazines while a 3rd one holds 2010 scrapbooking magazines.  With so much inspiration and information on the Internet, I am letting my magazine subscriptions expire.  If there's a special issue I want, I can pick it up at the local quilt shop. 

Dream quilts in Technicolor

If you dream about quilts, the dream has to be in color and this one was.  I was in the back seat of a station wagon, sitting between my Mom and a woman I did not know.  Another woman, also a stranger, was driving, but she was a quilter. 

In the front passenger seat was a pile of quilts & the cargo area was also full of quilts -- bright, colorful quilts in a simple square patch pattern. They were charity quilts. 

We were driving to a symphony at the Bushnell; haven't been there in decades and I'm a ballet fan, not a symphony person, so that was strange too.  

If I'm dreaming of quilts, guess It's time for the Coach-potato Lady of Blizzard 2011 to become Quilt Lady. 

Can a Senior Pout?



I know these are out there in the flower bed near the kitchen door --  but according to the forecast they will again be buried under that horrid 'S" word . 

Enough already Mother Nature! 

I want to put our the spring quilts and enjoy the spring flowers.  Maybe I'll live it  up and treat myself to a pot from the grocery store.  Sounds like a good plan to banish my weather pout. 

For today I'll rejoin the fur balls and curl up on the couch. 



Grumble and Sputter

Unlike my two "bossses' I didn't spend this morning having a post-breakfast nap.

I spent it working on the 2009 IRS return -- should be simple for a senior citizen who doesn't support Wall Street, right? Hah!  And I can't even claim those two snoozers as dependents.  Usually there's a quilt folded across the couch top that they can snooze on, but they seem to be "roughing it" ok.  After a mid-afternoon cup of coffee I'm joining them with my Kindle.  Enjoying a cozy mystery set in Glory, North Carolina. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Paddy O'Leary -- doll made by Cheryl Riello
http://users.rcn.com/criello/

Cheryl custom makes all her dolls, and frequently uses antique fabrics for their costumes.  Some hold mini quilts, made from early American reproduction fabric. These @23"x23" quilts are either hand-tied or hand-quilted.
 

A Delightful Kitty

Fictional, like Jim Quileram's Yum Yum and Koko in The Cat Who... series by Lilian Jackson Braun, but I really like Marmalade and her human, Biscuit, better.  Orange as Marmalade (by Fran Stewart) is the one I'm currently reading.  These continuously cold rainy days have created a certified couch potato here.  Must get up and about -- maybe sprinkle tacks on the couch? 

Everyones  back from Daytona Beach now -- looking fit and tan, good time had by all.  And they were lucky with only 1 day of rain for the week.  Waiting for the photos to be developed.   Maybe using http://www.blurb.com/  to create a scrapbook of the week would be the best approach for those photos.  you won't even need to develop the photos, just download from camera and upload to blurb. 

Sun and First Signs

  that Spring will actually arrive.  The sump-pump did its "thing" and water in the other area of the basement has been shop-vacumned up and
THE SUN IS OUT!   and temperature is actually above 40F.

I saw my first robin this noon -- actually two of them hunting worms in the back yard.  And the daffodils are poking up about 3 inches. 

Kitties have yet to spot the robins who want worms not sunflower seeds.

Winter from Hell Becomes Spring

from Hell as This

becomes this:

and this 

becomes this:

Do you really need 3 guesses about how I spent last night?  Gave up about 1:30am, had a comfort food snack of cocoa and crackers, tucked in with the kitties and read until I dozed off. 

Rain, Rain Go Away! is today's song -- And don't bother to come back.  There's still banks of snow from having the roof shoveled -- Aggggggggggggg...........