An Older Little Wallhanging

I did this little wallhanging sometime in the early to mid 1990's. It's hand quilted and machine appliqued. The patterns came from.............

this book by Jeana Kimball, one of my favorite designers. I have several of her books and have always loved her style. The book is lying on some of the loose pieces I have inside - an article from a magazine showing different versions of the cover designs and photocopy enlargements of some of the patterns. How things have changed in a few short years - love, love, love the pc and scanner and what you can do with patterns in this day and age. A couple of these were also used on sweatshirts in my sweatshirt embellishing period. (Click to enlarge)

Fashion Friday

On this cold, winter morning in February, I thought you might like to look at a picture of some lovely ladies in their swimming attire. I am very confident that these outfits would have been the latest in style as the Pearce girls, Nelle and Nan, were always dressed very fashionably and their friends would be no exception. Nelle and Nan are on the left of the photo. The picture was probably taken at the Sionilli, the Pearce cottage up the Illinois River from Peoria. The fabric of the dresses looks as if it were still wet, giving a bit of the "wet t-shirt" look. My, how times have changed! I doubt if this style will ever return, don't you agree? (Click to enlarge)

Quilt Projects from the Past

Back in the very late 1980's and early 1990's, Red Wagon from Liberty, MO, published several books that had some really nice very primitive patterns. I thought they were so cute and did do a couple of wallhangings from them. These books are all by Red Wagon and most of them were published in 1991. Certainly have been buying books for a long, long time and have a lot of them. We quilters love our books - and fabric!This book called Snowbound was one I especially liked and I did the little piece that is on the bottom left of the cover page.

This was done about 20 years ago and is machine appliqued and hand quilted. There were a lot of patterns for primitive pieces done in the old homespun plaids and small prints. I still enjoy things like that but my interests went in other directions - got caught up in the batiks, orientals and bright colors. I can honestly say I really enjoy all styles of quilting and have done most of them. I think it's safe to say that one's interests do change over the years when it comes to the work you actually do. One thing for certain, the fabric has really changed over the last twenty years.

I still wish I could do it all but realize I have done a lot. There are some pretty good sized UFO's hidden away at my house, but many, many more pieces have been finished. I am taking some pictures of some of my older work and will post those for you to see. (Click to enlarge)

Not Much Quilting Right Now

Every once in a while, I find myself not doing as much in the way of quilting as I most generally do. It's no big deal, and I think it's fine to kind of just ease off and do some other things for a bit. This time of year is kind of blah but I actually am not all that bothered by it as I do have so many things I enjoy doing. I so love to work on the computer and to add to my blogs - and one of the things I have been doing from time to time is going through some of the old photo albums and pulling pictures to scan for future posts. Sometimes while I am working on a post, it will trigger the thought of something else or another photo. I really love doing this. A few posts ago, I put up a picture of some granny squares I was making. I have continued working on those. Originally I was going to just butt them together, but after adding a border of white around a couple of them I really do like the way it makes the colors just sing.

On another note, I bought a new crockpot sometime ago and just used it for the first time today. I followed a recipe I bought in a little cookbook on crockpots at Joann's the other day. It sounded so good. Chicken, sweet potatoes, and onions cooked all day - then thicken the liquid, add peach preserves and pour over the chicken, etc. It wasn't bad but it wasn't anything I would try again. Always kind of disappointing when it isn't great. Although I actually think it's not the food - I think it's the fact that I am getting old and things actually do not taste like they did before. Except for good old sweet stuff - that is absolutely delicious!! (Click to enlarge)

Some Sweet Little Old Things

This little baby who used all the things in the next photos was my husband, Ray, pictured above. If you have been to my other blog you will probably think you are seeing double.

I have already posted these pictures - only in an antique colorway - to Pieces of the Past but I want them here also. These were all used or worn by Ray when he was a baby. His mom, Clemie, saved all these things and passed them on to me. There are more little articles of clothing down in the basement - I especially can recall some little woolen pants. One day I will get them out and take photos of them also. I have these hanging below a shelf with the little baby dish, wagon and some other things on top.

Aren't the little long stockings cute? All babies were dressed in dresses back then - even the little boys. Clothing for little ones has certainly changed. Everything in this post is about 84 years old since Ray would have celebrated his 84th birthday a week from tomorrow on the last day of February except for Leap Year. Here is a little sweater and some mittens. Probably there was a bonnet that went with this at one time.

Another dress - a very long one. I don't think either of the dresses shows up in the first picture. I actually dressed Sherry in little dresses like this a lot when she was tiny. They were so hard to iron. What was I thinking? (Click to enlarge)

Fashion Friday

Let's go back to 1968 in Topeka, Kansas, when Sherry was a junior at Topeka High. Here she is looking very cute and wearing a dress that I made her for a special dance - maybe prom? Now that I look back, I hope she enjoyed wearing what I made her. I guess I always wanted to do something special and didn't think that she might have wanted something that had been "storebought". This has a blue underdress with a white eyelet overdress open in the back and trimmed with ruffles and a big blue bow. She wore white sandles and gloves and earrings. Mighty pretty girl, our daughter - and she still is! (Click to enlarge)

From One Thing to Another

I am like a flea sometimes - hopping from one project to another. About five years ago, I did a lot of crocheting and made a scad of long, skinny scarves that made up quickly and were fun to do working with the really cool yarn. All the girls got several scarves for Christmas and I think they are still wearing some of them. The picture above shows some of the scarves that I made.

I have that urge to crochet again so bought some bright yarns out at Michaels and have started doing some granny squares. Like eating potato chips.....the more I do the more I want to do. When, oh, when, will I quit wanting to do everything - everything, that is, except cleaning and cooking. I don't want the last thing I do on earth to be cleaning! I am making good headway on the little storybook challenge for our quilt show. And I am going to try and keep from starting anymore BOM's and will finish the two pretty ones that I have almost done. Behind two blocks on the Tisket a Tasket but those little blocks go pretty quickly when you finally get at them! Oh, me, oh my! How can a person ever be bored? End of lament. (Click to enlarge)