Aunt Jane of Kentucky...

by Eliza Calvert Hall , the the story of a Southern quilter

My Grandma S gave me this book when I was 11 or 12. This is my original copy dated 1906. It's now available online through Harvard Edu here. I'm sure you'll enjoy the chapter entitled " Aunt Janes Album".

Here's an exerpt from it...

"How much piecin' a quilt is like livin' a life. Many a time I've set and listened to Parson Page preachin' about predestination and free will and I said to myself, if I could just get up there in the pulpit with one of my quilts, I could make life a heap plainer than Parson's making it with his big words. "You see, to make a quilt, you start out with just so much calico. You'll go to the store and pick it out, n' buy it, but the neighbors give you a piece here and a piece there and you'll find you'll have a piece left over every time you cut out a dress and you just take whatever happens to come. That's predestination. "But when it comes to cutting the quilt, why, you're free to choose your own pattern. You give the same kind of pieces to two persons and one'll make a nice patch quilt and the other one'll make a wild goose chase. There'll be two quilts made of the same kind of pieces, but just as different as can be. That's the way of living. "The Lord sends us the pieces, we can cut 'em out and put them together pretty much to suit ourselves. There's a heap more in the cutting out and the sewing than there is in the calico." –Eliza Calvert Hall, 1898

While fishing around for info on Eliza, I found this sweet poem....

A Treasure

by Mildred Hatfield

It's more than a coverlet, More than a spread, This beautiful quilt That graces my bed.
It's laughter and sorrow, It's pleasure and pain, It's small bits and pieces Of sunshine and rain.
It's a bright panorama Of scraps of my life- It's moments of glory, It's moments of strife.
It's a story I cherish Of days that have been, It's a door I can open To live them again.
Yes, it's more than a cover, This much-treasured quilt, It's parts pieced together Of the life I have built.

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Felon cooling off

the begininings of spring

Giveaway Teaser and O.T. Tang Update

Ohhhhhhh....

laaaaaaa

laahhhhhhhhh..... Don't you just love this pattern using this Laurel Birch fabric??? I love it too but can't see myself getting around to it. Maybe you can..... I have the pattern and fabric for the basics of this quilt and will be offering a giveaway sometime before the month of February is through.... stay tuned....

I have been busy but can't tell you doing what.... this is the kind of stuff that scares me.... the passage of time vs what I have to show for it.... January gone already....

Here is the Butthead.with kidney stones...

Mr Tang (now better known as Fang because he's bitten EVERYONE inc vet AND hubby) is still aliitle insecure.... even with his purple coat on of which I thought I had the gammet on.... obviously it's not that hard to cook up a pattern for a dog coat. Again... I almost made my fortune but was alittle tooo late once again... LOL.... Mr Tang now has a new notation on his chart..."Owner must apply muzzle before exam". I guess he does look like one of those mutts that would nail you given the chance.

Mr T is sitting pretty here ...the surgery was $524...additional outgo per month.....$17.99 for 5# bag of Royal Canin SO, can of SO $2.25 ..... Cha.Cha.....freaking ching....... his best bet is to stop biting the hand that feeds him. We have 2 other dogs that have to go on eating as normal... have I mentioned before that I must have a hole in my head to have 3 dogs???

I was hoping to use this for the Creatve Cues word "Track" but I don't think this will fly. However these stitches sure look like a track to me. This was some pretty serious surgery that I really shouldn't be making fun of... after all, he's my little butthead kid that I'd probably spend even more $ on if I had too. (Fingers crossed) If by chance any one knows anyone who is going through this with their dog... please see here.... Very good info.......that can maybe help someone out.

There have been a few glorious days of sun

and blue skies beyond imagination...

There was a sad deer who passed through our yard this week. See the weird rope attached to his foot???

It looked like the rope could have been a trap of sorts but we couldn't tell...... there was no way we could have done anything to help him and he hasn't been back as far as we know. Life sure didn't hold much good for him.

Holding a Heeling Kind of Stance

I can't do any better than this for the 3 Creative Studios Cue #2. It's been a week in which all our "heels" have been pointed up... praying for hope... and miracles...
in gratitude for what we have and in faith that God will take care of what we can't. My heels are always up...especially now for those who need it most in Haiti..
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My sewing machine is on the fritz, my camera battery is dead, our little guy Tang has a $500 surgery this Thursday, my truck is still broke down, I have no printer ink and didn't get the hours that I'd hoped for at work this week. But guess what? My heels are up and I have tons more to be grateful for, just ask Tang...

" Faith is just fear that has said it's prayers". We're all good here...

Nature Crafts - Lessons Learned- and a few laughs along the Way

I have a love of indigenous craft... especially for the things created by the Ojibway/Chippewa Indians of the area here. I've always been fond of Native American ideology and spirit, perhaps stemming from my own diluted heritage. I'm not into geneology but the story is told that my great, great, great grandmother married an Indian man... she stayed in the cabin, he lived outside, never setting foot indoors. ( How perfect is that? )


Anyway, I've always thought I'd love to try to do some native bead, quill or birch work....and wow, did I ever score for materials this summer. A couple months back I saw what I thought was a big cat in the driveway. Close inspection proved to be the tresspass of a porcupine. It's not that I'm anti-varmint.. but there's thousands of acres for them to roam.... just not our acres. It lumbered itself up a 40' pine and took residence sure to come down to cause probable grief..

My little pups wouldn't stand a chance if this happened to them. Out comes Daniel "Boone" to the rescue. Now, D's not the best shot, nor is a porky quick to die. In death they cling to a tree branch as if glued. 8 shots ( including 1 reload) and a slow period of rigor to release the claws and the thump of his corpse falling to the ground was a celebration. At one point the wait was so long that I imagined his rotting carcus being stuck 40' above ground for the duration of the summer.. Phew !!!

After positive death was determined, I brought out the pliers and proceeded to pulling a sack full of quills from his hide. His body dumped up the road in a ditch, dogs out of emminent danger, I was now thinking... wow, what can I make with these ??? Well, first I had to wash them... they're hollow on the inside and there was a minute amount of "scalp" attached...( BTW, I am not a woos or of fragile stomach) and I soaked them all in bleach. I drained them of solution and transferred to paper towel to drain... The odor of quills is indescribable.. a piney, woody, wild, musky stench !!! The crafting appeal was fast waning and as I tranferred them yet again to the storage bag, I was poked so many times during the process that I'd thought I developed Turets Syndrome. Visions of quill baskets and intricate designs flew right the heck out the window!
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Now my birch bark experience was more pleasant ( but not by much).... D brought home a load of firewood that included some fine specimens. I played with the bark, peeling it down, separating it's paper like layers as if I was picking at a scab and as such, highly addictive. What pretty papers and pliable surfaces I gleaned from it 5 hours later.... Pretty until I took the needle and thread to it. The bark tore through as tho' knifed. Guess I peeled it too thin to use... alas what pretty note paper, not all lost. I played with it long enough to know that even time and skill enhancement would not cure the lack of creative satisfaction I felt. I was not born to make anything resembling the beautiful basket of quill and birch below nor the gorgeous beaded pouch.

The point is... obviously, I am not Native American nor am I Mrs Boone and after my experiences , I can take a few more things off my list and out of my closet of craft exploration. When will I learn that I don't have to try crafts that I admire?

(I had originally wrote this a month or so back and am bringing it out of edit mode because of another porky encounter this morning.... subtitled Porky on the Porch. At least I was smart enough to not go running for the pliers this time.)

All photos taken from Yahoo image files

PS. Tophat ? When you come up here I have a bag full of quills and birch bark for you to take home and try your hand at.

In the "Dog House"

Smiley boy Tang

Studious Tasha sans underbite

Couch potato Felon ( arrggghhhh, 120 lbs of slobbering pooch)

Everybody got haircuts and baths this week whether they liked it or not.

Chatting it up for the Week...

Looks like today is a good day to post the happenings of my week... so here goes.....

I've been mulling over some ideas for Aprils Take It Further Challenge... (see theme and color there). I wrote a couple pages of "thoughts" and pulled some fabrics that go with the palette (or pretty darn close) and came up with this pile. It's hard working with the colors this time but I can honor my "South of the Equator" friends even though Spring is here and I'm itching for the color of it, just another pose of the Challenge. I can actually see these colors as a sizzling July, sun drenched, kind of day to suit this hemisphere. As in the past, I'm using paint chips to act as my color guide and this is the first time I've been short of one, the vanilla-esque color shown... I didn't have anything close so my eye will have to replicate it. No telling where this will go...

First thoughts that jumped out (and I mean way out) about how I see change was that any change has to happen with me. I can't wait or hope for anyone else to do it to make my world right. Ironically, that's been one of my personal challenges to deal with these past couple years.... learning how to let go, let live, and let God. I'm thinking that I can use this piece to cement one of the things I've made my "truth", these realizations about change that will take me to this next place in my life... pretty profound and catalytic, eh??? All I could seem to think of was this, "Man In the Mirror".... by Michael Jackson... video here.......and..... lyrics here. .... pretty well sums up my thoughts vicariously. So I'm looking at "reflection" and a "mirror" to use as my muse . Maybe a hand mirror with infinite reflections of myself to symbolize the "million" changes I've been through thus far???

I'm wanting to work on the back/construction of the Geronimo blocks too, wanting to use this kind of look which fits with this months colors... hhhmmm.... could I accomplish 2 in 1 somehow....? I best not push it for now but the idea did pass through me...

Ya never know what you'll find at St Vincents.... yesterday I stopped in after work... lo and behold.... 10 cents a piece... I'll take them.... vintage button hole twists. A couple Birds and Blooms and BHG Garden & Patio mags....$5 and some cents and I'm enthused for the week.

What 20 cents would buy back when, huh?

I've been trying to pretty up some on my days off... trying not to loose my whole "citified persona" up here in the woods. "I am what I am" and they say you should never forget where you come from.....both bad or good !!! My dear friend Mary Anne made these for me about 20 years ago. She macramed the most awesome bottles and plant hangers... a resurgence to be anticipated. If you really love something , it will come back to style again.

And this is my head... while I was photographing the earrings, I thought I would let you know that I'm GONNA DO IT..... Well at least really try and see how it goes..... GRAY or GREY.... (either way I claim it) ... I figure the sun is coming which 'll help me out with the natural highlighting, but here it is ( the best pic I could get by myself). I have a back up box of L'oreal Preference just in case I freak out, (unlike like the box of Marlboro Lights of which I am NOT ready to give up just yet).

Speaking of hair.. a few posts back I mentioned it was "Spring Do" time. I ensconced myself in the bathroom for 2 1/2 hours, towels rolled up around the base of the washer and dryer so the hair wouldn't float under and unmercifully sheared my 2 Lhasas of their winter coats. Tash and Tang are really happy about it no matter how they look.

I asked them to smile and this is the best they could do under the circumstances. Per a bad experience, I had to take them to the town vet for their nail trimming but my hair work saved a few dollars anyway.

Thank goodness Felon, the "Big Boy" doesn't need shearing.

Although we got 4" of snow this AM ,again..... Arggghhhhh, these are pics from yesterday.... The Trout ( Steelhead) are running in the Huron River. This is a view from 5 miles (as the crow flies) inland from Lake Superior. Big Eriks Bridge Campground is full of fisherman trying their luck. I thought this was the coolest campsite with the TeePee.

The snow is melting off the mountains in a big way now and heading towards their goal of filling up the largest fresh water lake in the world.

There's green peeking out in the forest...

and the Maple trees are putting out the sap that will become "sugar in a bottle".

Everythings feeling good to be getting into a schedule of sorts. I love my job but I love the time I get to dream and create,having fun with my camera and playing with fabric and threads too.

Till the next time, Jane