Positive and Negative...............and etc

Postitive and Negative

Positive and Negative
My birthday was this month.  Several of my quilting friends bought me fabric from the Three Sisters line Double Chocolat.  It is much too pretty to let lie in a box stacked on a shelf.  I also have fabric from the Chocolat (not misspelled) line.  And there is the fabric from other 3 Sisters fabric designs in my stash.  I decided that I would make toppers for my twin beds, one in positive and one in negative.  I am going to use the nine patch technique making a positive and a negative at the same time.   I have designed a quilt.  I actually designed this quilt when I had EQ6 - now I have EQ7.  It has been a long time ago.  I made several changes to the original, one thing making it smaller and added a little design element to it.  This does not show you much but come back next week and see how it is progressing. 

The quilt you see peeking through, I still have two blocks to make, then I will start putting it together.  This was my project when I went quilting with my friends.

Hall's
I am a "sort of" collector of Hall's teapots.  My sister has lots of them.  I primarily collect a certain pattern, but that pattern (crocus) is very hard to find.  Now and then I will find another teapot, usually when I am traveling and I will pick it up.  This is part of a built-in in my kitchen.  On the bottom shelf are two Hall's pots.  They are actually for coffee.  The middle jar is a pretzel jar.  The handles are pretzels.  The middle shelf are all Hall's teapots.  The black/white/red chickens are very old.  They belonged to a friend who lives in Idaho.  They were her mothers, she thought I would enjoy them, and I do.  On the top shelf are  blown glass chickens.  They were a gift from my brother and a one-person teapot (Hall's).   I also have bowls and a refrigerator dish and a salt shaker with the crocus pattern.  All of the pieces were bought in different cities except for two, they were bought in Cedar Rapids, IA.  On the shelf is a black, blue and yellow chicken.  My sister sent me that for my birthday.  She is so cute, her name is Henrietta. 

Weather 
A quick line about the weather.  I complained so about the rain and the cold.  We have had absolutely gorgeous weather for the last few days.  It is 8:30 p.m. and it is 57 degrees.  The temperatures have been hovering between 65 & 75 for the last few days.  I love it...........

Hope all is well on your end.

Where is the Sunshine and Sulphur, LA and a Little Bit of Quilting

Where is the sunshine?  Rain, rain go away, go away up north.  Up north, they need it.  As of January 15th we have had 11.02" of rain - normal is 2.63" of rain.  Our temperatures are cold.  Now I know it is not near as cold as it could be, but I live in the deep south, it should be a little warm, and it is cold and has been cold for days.  On January 15th it was 42/38 and normal is 61/42.  I like it cool enough to wear a sweater or a jacket.  Actually, I do not like hot weather.  I hate to complain about the cold.  I like to save my complaints for summer when it is miserable hot. 

hand dyes

Quilting.........  During the month of December, everybody and his dog was having quilting supply sales.  I found these wonderful hand dyes on the net.  The colors are super.  Now what do I do with them?  That will take some thought.

Hope all is well with you..............

"Moonbeam"

I lived in California about 3 months less than 30 years.  During that time we had a governor they called "moonbeam."  Now there was a reason they called him "moonbeam."  The good people of California, they must be all new and didn't know about "moonbeam" voted him back into office.  He has signed 876 new laws.  Tell me people in California, are you allowed to go to the bathroom by yourselves? 
And they wonder why people are leaving California in droves.  Do you think "moonbeam" has something to do with it?   I am sure that California is going to have a lot of new residents, I wonder where they will be from, but I bet they will vote their favorite governor back into office and "moonbeam" will have the opportunity to sign another 876 laws into existence.  Let's see what freedom are you going to lose next?  Do you care????

A Little History and a Book Review

Olive Filena Andrews b. 1833

Awhile back, I mentioned that I would now and then write about my genealogy and post some old pictures.  This lady is my great great grandmother.  She was Olive Filena Andrews Graham.  She was born in Ashtabula Co., OH in 1833.  She died at Jones Co., IA in 1888.  She was married Oct 1852 to James Thomas Graham.  She was the mother of 5 daughters and 3 sons.  One of her daughters had a very small write up in the Linesville, PA newspaper.  It said - Miss Hattie Graham of Linesville, has just finished a quilt called the "Old Maid's Patience" containing 10,080 pieces. 

Now if you think about it, they were lucky if their bed was a full sized bed.  Bed's were very small.  Those pieces in that quilt had to be very tiny.  I have tried to find a picture of an Old Maid's Patience quilt without luck.  I did find one somewhere along the line, but it could not be the same quilt.  The pieces were much too large for a quilt with these very small pieces.  If anyone finds one I would love to see it.

I made a quilt some time ago and named it "Hattie's Inspiration."  It has a lot of pieces but not near the number that Hattie put into her quilt.  You can find "Hattie's Inspiration" in the right column in the gallery section. 

A Book Review

Many of you are familiar with "Why Quilts Matter."  On their site they have a review of  the book "Quilts in Everyday Life 1855-1955  A 100-Year Photographic History by Janet E. Finley.  The review is very well done .  You can check it out on their site http://whyquiltsmatter.org/welcome/quilts-in-everyday-life-by-janet-finley/

Happy New Year

Happy New Year - I hope it is a terrific year for everyone. 

It is a very gloomy day in southwest Louisiana.  It has been raining, and raining, and raining.  We have flood warnings.  I hope that is not a bad sign.  To make things better and to bring some sunshine into my day, I bought a pair of shoes.  Now aren't these jazzy???  They should cheer anybody's day. 

I am still quilting on my quilt.   I have been dragging my feet.  Of course, I cannot just sit and do it.  My back just will not allow me to sit for long periods of time, and I wish I could use that for an excuse, I just have not got it done.  But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and I just might finish that up today. 

I want to show you what I have been working on the last several weeks.  As you all know I have returned to crocheting.   I am a creature of habit.  My tv is rarely on until about 8:00 at night.  At that time I sit down, turn on the tv and pick up the crocheting.  I crochet for about 2 hours and then I retire to bed.  It is a boring life and nothing much changes.  This is the yarn that I purchased in Anchorage, AK.  These pictures really don't do it justice.  It is by Ella Rae.  They put out the most gorgeous yarns.  I took these pictures close up so they are blurry but I wanted you to see the pattern.  I am not sure it shows as great as it really looks. 

The pattern stitch is very easy.  It is a row of single crochet, a row of double crochet , a row of single crochet and etc.  Instead of putting your needle into a loop you go under both loops.  It gives it that ridge.  This is folded in half and again in half.  I still have about 10 rows of each, single and double, to go to finish a rectangle.  This eventually will end up being a shrug.  That is my intentions.  I will show you when it is finished. 

George (sit down long arm sewing machine) is calling.  He is saying that I am never going to get this quilt finished unless I make an effort.   The explanation of George above is for those that don't know what/who George is (he is not my boy friend).  George is my buddy.  He does a super job and would do an even better job if this was my talent.  I think I could live to be a hundred and never ever be great at this.

My mother, she had a little saying for everything in life.  She would say "can't never did anything".  Think about that, that is a true statement.  She would also say "there is no such word as can't."   I have had that echo through my brain over and over again.  And she was very good at saying, "practice makes perfect."  I thank my mother today, for any talents that I do possess, for it was she who taught me and insisted that I do it right. 

Again,  Happy New Year.................