Estate Sale Tribute

Estate Sale Tribute

On Saturday my daughter and I went to an Estate sale.  The sudden passing of a woman created the need to sale the items of her many hobbies.  She had stated she wanted her things to go to people who also had the passion for the crafts. The adult daughter and her friends worked very hard on the best way to sort, price and display the sale. I think they did a terrific job.

Customers had been respectfully waiting for the ‘open for business’ call at 9 a.m. We had arrived at 8:30.  We all went straight the areas of our interest. The woman was definitely a quilter by the look of her fabric sash. All the fabric had been sorted by color and her Batiks rivaled a shop.  Her paper scrapbook supplies (my daughter’s interest) and unique cake pans were also impressive.

We all expressed our sympathies to the family. We thanked them for sharing their mother’s passion with us who also have a passion for crafts.

Wool and Sheep Show

I went with my daughter to the Sheep & Wool show in Maryland today.  My daughter is a terrific knitter, I am not.  There were exhibits of dog herding sheep, farm equipment auction, sheep shearing demos, and sheep in their pens to be petted.  There were lots of vendors selling wool – in roving, yarn and by the oz.  In natural colors and a rainbow of colors. They sold patterns, buttons, pins (jewelry), needles, spinning wheels, and everything else you cannot even image.

My granddaughter (14) and her friend went to see the dogs do their thing and then to the barns to pet the sheep. They phoned to ask about our progress only to hear we had barely put a dent at the vendor’s barns.  A funnel cake, another dog show, and sheep shearing demonstration and we were finally ready to call it a day.

My daughter brought two shawl patterns and some yarn. I hope to become the precipitant of one of those shawls. It is too bad I do not knit but I am better at quilting. All I bought was a bag of candied nuts.

What I did on Spring Break

My granddaughter (14) was on Spring Break last week. Her idea of vacation is to sleep ‘til noon, go to a movie, and have sleep overs with friends.  The adults in her life had different ideas. She had a class project to work on. Mom said to clean up the yard after the dogs, and Nana said it’s time to learn to sew.

I (Nana) had some fabric to make a quilt for donation.  I had pre- cut the fabric and a simple strip quilt would be ideal to work on her sewing skills. And she could get some volunteer time to her credit.

She has a little experience on the sewing machine so most of the time she kept a straight seam line. The blocks were made and then came the lesson on joining the blocks and rows. The last border was sewn on and she finally could have lunch! Two whole hours. But like most teens she secretly liked the finished top.

I am quilting and finishing the 45” X 50” quilt which will be donated to the local hospital Chemo clinic. She did by the way see a movie and have a sleep over during the week.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. In the mid-Atlantic it is just another snow day. 9 inches fell during the night and everything is closed until we can dig our way out again. We really hope this is the last snow storm.

I last wrote of not being able to accomplish much sewing but the last 3 weeks have been nothing but sewing.  I completed a baby quilt and two small wall hanging  (26” X 22”) challenge quilts completed. I belong to the Mason Dixon Quilt Professionals Network. Every two years we have a challenge which is often exhibited at major shows. This challenge theme is US Modern Era – 1914 – 2014. I choose space exploration as I have an Uncle who worked on the Saturn rocket engines. The second quilt I made had to do with Television. I created a Television with many iconic show titles on the ‘screen’. This project was fun but hard to make the choice of which titles to include. There were so many to choose from.  If you have chance to see our exhibit I’m sure you will enjoy it.

Educational Weekend

What a wonderful weekend I had.  I had been invited to join two talent longarm quilters in our area to join them at a longarm quilt conference.  Classes were offered for all levels of experience, which is good because I am not at the same level as these two ladies.  After registering on the first morning we were chatting with other students. One of our group asked a young woman (any woman than my 60 + is younger but as it happened she is my daughter’s age) where she is from to which she replied “Australia”.  We asked if she had come just for this event, which she replied “yes”.  Well we decided Catherine would not be by herself this weekend and we dragged her along with us. 

We spent a long evening at Seafood Restaurant learning about Australia. She learn probably more about America and us than she wanted. We all learn a lot in our classes and look forward to applying those lessons on our longarm machines.  Catherine had plans to stay one more day and travel the return trip on Tuesday.  I have heard she has been delayed as the flights have been cancelled by the winter storm.

I hope that we will meet again, maybe at quilting event somewhere. My husband would not mind taking a trip to Australia even if it’s to a quilt show.

Rummage Sale

 

The ladies society for the local hospital hosts a rummage sale each year. The proceeds funds various health related items in our hospital and county. The event is free or one can buy the ‘early bird’ ticket for a small fee, which allows entry one hour before the official opening. This event has taken place for 76 years. Each year it seems larger than the last. It currently is held at the Equestrian Center which has a huge arena and several barns.  The large arena hosts the electronics, furniture, kitchen ware, linens, and vintage items. Everyone attends; people do come from an hour or more away.

Of course my husband had a list of tools he wanted to look for. I did not have a list; my job was to limit the number of items my husband would want to bring home.  I was wandering in the vintage area and saw 2 treadle sewing machines. One was a Singer which had a sold sticker on it. The other was a Pfaff.  The Pfaff stand and table looked to be in very good condition but the wood cover was locked so we could not see the machine itself. The key was missing and no could open it with any tools available there; this is likely why it had not yet been sold.

I took a leap of faith and said I would take it as is. The outer appearance looked in such good condition I could only hope the machine would be also.  I paid the $50. and we loaded it in the van.

My husband has placed it in the basement for the time being. He found a tool to open the cover without damaging the wood cover.  My faith was rewarded. The machine can be a treadle; but the machine and cover can be lifted out of the table to be portable. The machine has a hand crank in its portable mode. I did an internet search and the serial number places the machine to have been made in Mannheim Germany in 1905. In the coming months we will clean and polish and place it in a place of honor in our home.

Quilt Show with Husband

My husband and I took a long weekend away from home and work. We went to Colonial Williamsburg to rest and see some friends. We slept late and had dinner out each night. We enjoyed a walk thru Colonial Williamsburg although it was very cold. An agreement was made that I would get one day for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show in Hampton (30 minutes south of Williamsburg). On Friday of the show we bought admittance tickets. My DH is no stranger around my quilting world; in fact he has made a few quilted items himself. Lately he has been making placemats as retirement gifts for coworkers (they must be retired military like him). We looked at the quilt exhibits but he began to get excited at the vendors area. I had a couple of small items I wanted to purchase at the vendors area and did so but my DH came out the winner of the buying game. Every time we came across patriotic fabric he had to look. He compared the bolts with his mental inventory of his own sash. At the first booth purchased he was taken back a little by the prices. But by the third booth purchase he just whipped out the credit card and picked up his yards of fabric. He returned home with more than a dozen yards of patriotic fabric to add to his sash and enjoyed the show very much.

Sewing Room Continues

My husband made me a design wall. All these years I would lay blocks on the guest bed or on the floor. He bought foam insulation board from the home supply store. It comes in 4’ x 8’ sizes. I choose a finished size of 4’ x 5’. We cut the board to size and covered it with batting and duct-taped the overlap on the back. DH made a wood fame, like picture frame, for it. The frame made it easier to hang on the wall. If you should try this remember to hang it into the studs in the walls. The room is taking shape and feels like a true studio now. Fabric is back on the shelves and my sewing machine is plugged in and running. I wonder if my quilts will now look better because of the new look in the room.

Sewing Room Reorganizing

Painting the sewing room was the first step in updating it. For many years I have had make shift selves in the closet of my sewing room. You know the left over chip board bookcase and / or the wire ‘cubbies cubes’. We decided to change that. Measurements were taken of my closet and we discussed the befits of readymade vs. custom made (D. H.) selves. On a Sunday afternoon, we drove an hour to the nearest Ikea store and bought bookcases to place inside the closet. One case is really deep- 15” and 30 ½” wide, I love it. The total width of the closet would not allow 2 of this unit. The width is enough but due to the height of the case (70”) one would not be able to put in the closet – it had to do with angles. So the answer was 1 large and 2 (10” depth) smaller cases. While the combined width is the same as 2 large cases, placing the small cases into the closet was possible. Anyway the result is wonderful. I have lots of selves. I even had room in the closet to tuck in a ‘CD’ tower to use for fat quarters. I have organized my fabrics into appropriate groups and placed them on selves. Some groups need further sorting but it’s good for now. I found fabric that I can pre-cut into squares for future quilts thus thinning the amount of fabric. More room on the selves means I can buy more fabric to replace it. What fun.

New Era in Communications

I just bought an IPhone. Now, I am of an age that I can remember party lines. If you picked up the phone you needed to check if someone was already talking before you could dial a number. Times have changed and it is for the better. Recently it became time for our family to update our phones.

So we went into town and shopped for the best deals. One stop was at the local Best Buy. A nice young salesperson, Betsy, helped us and we made our decision, IPhones.  Now I can check my email on the phone and a lot of other stuff too. There is a learning curve but not difficult. In fact it is somewhat easier than my previous phone.  I know I like the larger numbers, it’s a lot easier to read.

By the way, Betsy’s mom is a quilter too.

Life is Good!

On Tuesday a friend of mine, Renelda Peldunas Harter, and I gave quilt demonstration. We both have blocks featured in "Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Vol. 5".

We drove about 45 minutes  to Windchester, Virginia to the "Scrappy Apple" quilt shop. We each had prepared a talk about our blocks and the piecing techniques and etc. I bought my laptop computer to show color options if someone wonder how the block would look in an another color. I had print outs of placement layouts. We were ready.

I must admit I hadn't heard anything from locals  as to their attendance. I feared that no one would come. Renelda admitted her own thoughts of maybe 4 or so showing up. We arrived a few minutes early to set up a felt board and unpack our visual aids. Image our surprise that there were 6 ladies seated and waiting for us! In all we had 15 ladies attend our talk and demonstration. Questions were evidence of serious interest. The morning was very successful for ourselves, the audience and the shop. Gleefully we treated ourselves to lunch afterward. On that day, life was good!

Mastering the Art of French Quilting...hum Cooking

My husband and I are empty nesters. It is common for us to
eat dinner on a tray in front of the television. The last two nights we watched
the movie “Julie & Julia”. Half last night and the second half tonight, the
reason for this is not important.

Watching this movie makes one hungry! So tonight I cooked fish,
not in the French way of sauté with butter but with a little bit of spray ‘Pam’.
We have to watch our cholesterol. I did however drizzle a little garlic
flavored olive oil over the top of the cooked fish. It was pretty good and made
us feel very gourmet'.

Dinner is over and the kitchen clean. He is off to the
basement to finish something. I went to my sewing room to press a few quilt
blocks I made today. I thought about the
movie and Julia Child’s passion for cooking.
Quilters are passionate too.
Quilting is our French cooking. If planned correctly, cut and sewn
accurately the quilt will be a feast for the eyes.

Bon' Appetite'

What I did on my summer vacation

What a hot summer we have had, not as hot as the south and mid west, so there is a bright side. A quilting friend of mine as a pool; so along with another quilting friend we try to swim each morning for an hour. Actually we tread water and tell ourselves we are toning our muscles – we know we are not losing weight!

We seldom meet but 2 or 3 times a week due to schedule conflicts, appointments or teaching commitments, etc. We talk about quilting or family. Mostly the water feels good and it is away to connect and give support if needed. Our swimming will come to an end at the end of this month. One of us will have knee surgery and we will shift our activities to the indoor.
Hope your summer has been a memorable one.