Fashion Friday

On this Fashion Friday, I am posting a picture and Maggie and Leah, my grandmother and aunt, which was most likely taken sometime in the 1940's. Maggie is wearing a full length double breasted coat with a velvet collar topped with a pretty hat which features a nice big bow. Aunt Leah wears a light colored fingertip coat that sports three large buttons and a cute hat to complete her outfit. Aunt Leah never married and lived with my grandparents and later with just grandma after my grandfather passed away. I have always been a little sad that she didn't marry - she was a fun lady and I loved being around her. (Click to enlarge)

Valentine Exchange

Tuesday evening's guild meeting was cancelled because of a lot of snow. Several things that were going to be done at the meeting had to be put on hold until next month and a task we were going to do for our annual quilt show will now be done at a Sit and Sew next week. A group of about fourteen signed up to do a secret Valentine exchange which we will do in March. When I was working on mine, the first one I did turned out just a little whopperjawed but too pretty to toss away so I finished it. I learned a couple of things from this one. Instead of cutting everything out, layering and quilting, I found out it is much easier to cut them all bigger and trim to fit afterwards. You would think I would know that anyway! The second one I did is similar to this but different! Will post that one after the meeting next time. I'm pretty sure I know what I am going to do with this one. (Click to enlarge)

My Second Blog Book

This time I ordered a book of my Pieces of the Past blog from it's inception in July of 2009 until the end of the year. Again, I was very pleased with the outcome and it came very quickly. An added little bit of whimsy is the word "Rome" right beneath the cover picture of my mother, Nan Pearce. That, of course, is the name of the little town I grew up in. The various other names on the cover and back cover such as Paris and Greece, however, have no meaning! But Rome is good!

The pictures are not always where they actually should be, but at least they are there and so are the comments that were made. Not a lot of them, but I do enjoy it when someone leaves me a few words. These two pages contain pictures of both sides of my family - Dad's and Mom's.

A couple more pages - I find myself really enjoying looking back through them and I rather enjoy what I have written. I was the editor of the school paper one year and also the yearbook so I think I have always loved working in those areas. Doing the book on our family history and my cookbook was also a lot of fun. Maybe in the next life I will be the editor of a magazine like Martha Stewart or Oprah - do you think? Probably not.

If you haven't ever looked at my other blog of old family pictures and think you might like it, the link is http://piecesofthepast-funoldhag.blogspot.com/ I'd love to have you stop by. (Click to enlarge)

Story Book Challenge

Have pretty much figured out the little wallhanging I spoke of in an earlier post. This will be the applique featured in each of the blue blocks......this one is partially buttonhole stitched. I am so glad I did not go for the 120 little tiny circles (actually there would have been 135 counting the centers) and decided to go for this pattern. Coincidently this is called "Topeka Rose" so a shoutout to an old home town.

One of the three nursery rhymes - of course, Mary, Mary. This is not quite ready for applique yet and needs some tweaking. Want to find a different color for her arm since it doesn't show up well on the yellow. I really do pretty much like the colors, though. Am going with Little Bo Peep and Jack and Jill. They will follow along later. (Click to enlarge)

Fashion Friday

Standing in a favorite picture taking spot at the Pearce home on Behrends Avenue are Maggie and her eldest son, Harry. Maggie is wearing what I believe to be a housedress since it is quite plain and the fabric looks like cotton. It is hard to tell if it is a jumper and blouse since there are straps or if it is a dress. Harry is all dressed up - he is wearing knickers and high button shoes. A sweater, mittens and cap complete his outfit. Maggie is probably kind of chilly since it appears that there is snow on the ground. (Click to enlarge)

February ATC

The theme this month is At the Circus - Under the BigTop. So I went on the hunt for some clowns on the internet. Came up with some very neat pictures including the one above. He would have worked out well - then I happened to look up over my computer and .........

there is this guy. He's crude and scary (don't think the granddaughters liked him very much) but I'm kind of sentimental about him. Way back in 1962, my brother took up oil painting. I guess he figured I might be able to paint so he gave me a book, the paints, and canvas and I proceeded to have a go at it. Actually, it was lots of fun and I was able to do it pretty well but just to copy things. No originality on my part at all. However, this old clown has been hanging around our home ever since. I think it was Hannah who really was afraid of it and I would take it down and stick it behind something when she came. (I'm sure one of them will correct me if I'm wrong). The smell of the oil paint and turpentine was something I liked. One other note, the old duck decoy underneath the painting is one that I thought was carved by my dad, who was an avid duckhunter and had many beautiful old decoys. Decoys are art in themselves. Dad's were sold a long time ago and I have always wished I had one of them. This little one though, I found out, is not one of his but was done by a neighbor kid who is a little older than I am. I think he used to hunt with Dad some. Something has gnawed the end of the bill off, but I like it anyway. The head is on a swivel screw so it can look forward or backward.

So here is my ATC card for February - my scarey old clown! (Click to enlarge)

Storybook Challenge for Quilt Show

This is what I designed on my EQ5 last week. I will be doing Nursery Rhymes and these little girls (and maybe a fellow) will play the parts of the characters. I have patterns printed out for the appliques shown and also three others that I could use. One that I have figured out is Jack and Jill and I think I definitely want those little kids. The little girl seated needs a spider on her block! As for the applique on the blue - I am pretty sure that I will change out the flowers - I love the look of the little circles and don't mind doing them but there would be 120 to go around and they are pretty small so I will find another pretty flower and make it easier. The reason the color isn't all that great in the above picture is that I printed it in draft - but you can get the idea.

Kind of a strange picture, but these are the backgrounds I will use for the blocks and some of the fabrics. I am not going to buy any fabric for this little piece - I am sure I have more than enough to make dozens of them. A little bit of the Kaffee Fassett fabric will go into the clothes and the rest will be batiks. I am showing the left side of the book as blue but I think it will be black as in the pattern and will have lettering on it. Will keep you posted. (Click to enlarge)