Me, Myself and Memories

Updates from December, 2014 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Noreen 5:23 am on December 5, 2014 Permalink  

  Not a Clue 

  It tickles me when I am taken aback when I receive requests for sewing projects.  Dennis’ granddaughter, Amy, asked me to make a blanket for her son Oliver out of some of his baby clothes as a keepsake.  Long before anymore details were brought forward, I was thinking in the world of measurements, amount of fabric, etc., for this little bit of heaven from baby clothes.

  

  . . . and so Oliver’s quilt begins.

  Last week, Amy’s mother stopped by with the goodies.  It was a small plastic bag with pieces of fabric that had been cut out of clothing that ranged from sizes of newborn, three month, and six month clothing.  If I was lucky there were several from a size one.  When I had a chance to visit with Amy about this keepsake, I immediately looked for a chair to sit down on.  The keepsake blanket is anticipated being large enough to allow for Amy and Oliver to cuddle under.  Hello!  We are actually talking about a twin sized quilt.

  All the scraps of clothing are knit and a stabilizer will need to be added to the back to allow the fabric to be sewn without stretching out of control.  No problem.  When I began putting scraps into usable squares, I knew there was not enough for anyone to cuddle under.  Big problem.  Out came my fabric scrap bag.  Half of the squares will be Oliver’s clothing and I will add to that to make the project doable.

  This is an example of the innocence of young mothers, also known as not having a clue on how to get from point A to point Z.  I will forge on and hopefully in time to come there will be a finished product to share.

   
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  Noreen 5:59 am on November 26, 2014 Permalink  

  Stauffer Avenue is Prepared 

  

  Time has a way of slipping away. We are prepared to “click and ship.” The hardest part is getting the stubborn cardboard to cooperate and conform to the intended shape.

   
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  Noreen 2:53 am on November 14, 2014 Permalink  

  Endings 

  As I was working on attaching the binding to a sewing project, I couldn’t help but reflect that there would soon be an end to this particular project.  My least favorite part  in sewing, crocheting, or counted cross stitch is beginning a project. It’s the decision of what project I will tackle, and then picking out the fabrics or yarns it will take to begin.  Once I have gotten organized and put in the first several hours, it’s very relaxing to know that whenever I have a few minutes, I can poke out a few stitches.  Endings are not my favorite.

  Even with a good book, I hate to see the story line end.  So much groundwork is laid in the first several chapters,  it takes a while to roll with the story.  I am sure they could have pulled several more chapters out of their imagination if they had just tried. Endings are not my favorites.

  

  Working towards the end of a sewing
  project while reflecting on endings.

  As I began this bit of trivia while manning my sewing machine, I thought about several relationships in my life that have ended. Nothing takes more heart and effort than building a relationship with another human being. When I invest trust, energy, caring, compassion, forgiveness, and nurturing, I also look for an unspoken return of all of the above, or at least a dribble.  With me, it is not one strike and you are out.  My rule book has no scripted end game.  There are so many variables within each of our lives, it may just be that their cup is running over for a time and it may be my job to assist in mopping up the overflow until things clear up for them.  Relationships don’t survive being one sided.  In time, I am a believer that a relationship either grows or it dies, and then the end has come.

  As the sewing for the day was coming to an end, I was happy to reflect on Carrie and Kevin’s dad.  Our relationship did not survive a marriage, but we picked it up as a strong bond of friendship as we continued keeping up with each other.  We were fortunate that there was no need for an end between us. Priceless.

   
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  Noreen 2:51 am on November 11, 2014 Permalink  

  Re-Cap of 11/10/2014 

  The first thing I did when my feet hit the ground was to check on the condition of the lawn.  Yes!  It was still green and no sign of any snow.  As the day wore on, the skies looked quite ominous, as a damp mist could be felt against my face.  So far so good. Dennis is quite sure we are still in line for snow sometime during the night.  The amount of school closings told a different story for many parts north of us.

  Once a month, Dennis has his blood tested to make sure the Warfarin that thins his blood is remaining at a good level.  Heart disease is something you would never wish on your worst enemy, but there are great checks and balances to maintain a good level of health.

  Yesterday, as the attic cleaning was coming to an end, I decided to move my stash of quilted wall hangings into my sewing room. I am up and down the basement steps multiple times during the day for ease of access of what is stored there.  The walk-up attic cover is not the easiest item to get place back in the correct spot.  That being said, room was made on one of the many shelves.  It also gave me the option of deciding to send several as Christmas gifts. I plan on continuing to try different patterns and the stash could use a bit of thinning out.

  

  Many stitches are needed for the pattern to come into its own.

  After lunch I settled in to do some hand quilting at the dining room table. The metallic bias tape project went as far as it could via the sewing machine, and it was now time to secure all layers together.  It whiles away time and gives time for reflection.  Most importantly is the exercise of the hands and fingers.   After lunch is a great time to start stitching, as I will admit, it takes some time in the mornings and forenoons to limber up all that has tightened up during the night’s rest. Yes, that means I hang on to my coffee cup with two hands as I enjoy the first several cups. Move it or loose it, that is the prescription for arthritis.  Today it felt like the true changing of seasons. I know I will find many ways to stay agile and mobile.  Planning very far ahead is not what happens on Stauffer Avenue. We rather take each day the way it comes.

   
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  Noreen 3:16 am on November 6, 2014 Permalink  

  What a Great Gray Day 

  

  Metallic Bias Tape Project

  Though I usually prefer sunshine, this is a good day.  I had a long conversation with my physical therapist this morning.  I will be passing on any surgery for my back.  It’s official.  Mike said he would work with me for as many times as it takes to release the muscles, tendons, ham strings, etc. that have been knotted up by the lower back having literally slipped a cog.  I have a host of exercises to do at home to assist the lower lumber to behave itself in addition to a back brace.  I know I can do this!  I am still gaining mobility in the latest and greatest new shoulder and I am not going to give the body one more item (back surgery) to contend with.  Amen to that issue.

  This afternoon in the quiet of my sewing room, I have felt like Rumpelstiltskin.  I have had a pattern for some time using metallic bias tape on fabric, allowing for a stained glass appearance.  What better way to celebrate a new mind set, but to break out the fabrics. It is going to be a slow process, but then my sister, Elvera, knows I like to putz with the intricate.  Gray days and sunny days, I intend to have many good days this fall.

   
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  Noreen 6:16 am on October 9, 2014 Permalink  

  A Good Deed Done 

  Yesterday my day started early as I needed to be on the road before breakfast.   There was a task I had signed up for and wanted to do, so it was full speed ahead.

  A friend, Judy, is visually impaired to a huge degree from Macular Degeneration, but had the want of putting together a quilt for  her granddaughter’s graduation in the spring of 2015.  Oh, a quilt top, that didn’t sound too bad.  A second friend, Doreen, was right and ready to  help.  Admittedly, Doreen has never quilted, but she was determined to help.  With food items in tow we were ready to start the day at Judy’s.

  Over time, Judy had saved a pattern that was to be used for this time along with the fabric.  The fabric was 18 different patterned prints.  Judy can make out shades of color, but nothing definite.  The eyes felt like the ball in a “gone bad” pinball machine . . . where to focus first?

  We started with the zeal of new calves when they are let out of the barn after a long winter and they smell all that fresh air that is to be had.  The printed pattern was weird, really weird, but we plugged on.  After several hours we scrapped the pattern and made our own original design using the fabric.

  Doreen took verbal instructions like a trooper as she was either cutting, ironing, sewing or giving me the “deer in the headlight look.” Whatever I ask of her, she did.  At one time she said, “It sure seems silly to cut up all this fabric and then sew it back together.”  Bless her heart, I need to bring her into the quilting fold and get her hooked.

  I think at four in the afternoon I announced that I was really tired of hearing my own voice.  Working in the depths of my sewing room with just ghosts of my past keeping me company is a lot different than verbalizing every step of every one of the 35 nine inch wild print quilt blocks.  It’s a good thing laughter was a large portion of the long day.

  The end result was a completed twin sized quilt top with just a few scraps remaining of the original 18 fabrics.  The steps to complete the project will be at a time somewhere down the road.  After all, you add the batting in one piece to the back of the top . . .  add the backing of the quilt in one piece and it’s a quilt ready to be tied and hemmed. Getting the top of any quilt that is pieced with various colors and fabrics takes a huge amount of math to come up with something that will be used for comfort on a bed and not used as a component for one of Nicholas’ forts.

  Good job, Doreen, and thanks for all the hugs, Judy.

   
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  Noreen 4:08 am on September 6, 2014 Permalink  

  Amazing Helpers 

  I have shared many projects on this blog.  Some have been quite the challenge and some have been downright hair pulling.  It’s no secret that arthritis is my arch enemy.  New knees and new shoulders are not the usual and customary prizes at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box.  Hands and fingers are not immune, but have no easy solutions.  I do know the secret is to keep the hands and fingers moving to keep as much flexibility as possible.

  

  Tools to allow projects to remain enjoyable.

  I did take a class at The Old Alley Quilt Shop in the recent past on mitered corners for binding of quilts.  After a time the shop owner, Sharon, disappeared and came back with a pair of gloves.  I watched in awe as she owned the package and said, “Here, slip these on.”  She had watched me struggle to manipulate the bulk of fabric under the sewing machine needle to attach the binding. With the gloves on the gripper fingers amazed me as to the reaction of my actions.  I could actually move the layered fabric easily with slight pressure of my gloved hand on the fabric.  The rather stiff fingers were getting a huge break.

  In early days of quilting the worst part was contending with the weary hands of cutting yards and yards of fabric into pattern pieces with the Fiskars scissors.  The motion needed for the scissors over a long period of time warranted a break with ice packs. When I discovered the Fiskars Rotary Cutter, I could go on for hours and not suffer hand cramps.  New blades periodically is so worth it.

  I have previously posted I was working on a fall wall hanging and the work is progressing nicely.  With no preconceived end result, the project just keeps going.  A few buttons here and a few beads there and the challenge keeps the project fresh.  In time when I run out of buttons, beads or thread, I will deem it done.

  As long as I continue visiting my sewing room there is no chance for the fingers to let me down.  The amount of items that will be cranked out of that sewing room . . .  it’s anyone’s guess.

   
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  Noreen 3:36 am on September 3, 2014 Permalink  

  Needles and Threads Have No Limits 

  

  Beads and a button here and there . . . why not?

  I am so fortunate to have my mother Lena, my paternal Grandmother Laura, and my mother-in-law Esther, as resources for my love of needles and threads.  Talk about a lifelong passion that does not require a multitude of individuals to pull it all together. This is top dog with me.

  I can bounce from counted cross stitch, embroidery, crocheting, hand quilting and machine quilting.  Never will you find “boring” in my vocabulary.  Resting the eyes . . . oh yes.

  I happened upon a printed panel that won my heart during this season of the year.  I mulled it over many times before I took needle and thread to it.  I decided to do some quilting using beads.  I thought back to the days of harvesting pumpkins when the dew was still evident. So the project began, and I will keep you up to speed as I continue with it.

   
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  Noreen 3:57 am on August 16, 2014 Permalink  

  At Long Last 

  

  Overall Sam is coming into his own.

  After decades of being separated in my stashes of sewing projects, Overall Sam will finally meet up with Sun Bonnet Sue. These two iconic characters were popular in the 1950s.  My mom, Lena, made several baby quilts with these two images applied to white feed sack blocks using feed sack prints to complete each image.

  Here we are in 2014 and the popular feed sack prints are being reproduced for just such a project as Overall Sam. Darlene Zimmerman from Fairfax, Minnesota, has a great line of such prints like the one that will finish off Overall Sam’s quilt blocks.

  Just as Sun Bonnet Sue, Overall Sam is being done with Tri-Chem fabric paints.  Over the last several weeks I have been replacing tips in paint tubes to allow me to finish up this dynamic duo.  The ball point tips are fragile and Aunt Florence’s set of paints were just waiting for such a project as this.  Sun Bonnet Sue was painted in the 1960s and amazingly I got quite a few paints operational for allow for each of the twelve blocks of Overall Sam to be a bit different from the next, much like Sun Bonnet Sue.  Needless to say, I am being very careful to clean each and every tip when I am finished with it as they may be called into service for other projects now that I have dipped my toe into an additional option.

  

  Quilted Sun Bonnet Sue

  After all the painting is finished I will be taking the Overall Sam quilt top to the Old Alley Quilt shop in Sherburn, Minnesota, to have Sharon put the quilt on the long arm sewing machine for quilting.  In times past there would be a gathering of gals sitting around a quilt frame to do the sewing, but that portion of quilting is just about a lost art.  I can still manage a wall hanging for hand quilting, but the arthritis in the fingers says a definite “No” to the amount of stitching a full sized quilt mandates.  I know from past quilts that Sharon has done for me, Overall Sam will come into his own with pride.

  What really makes this special to me is that there will not be a time when someone would come across these printed blocks and discard them.  I know from experience that a finished quilt will find a great home compared to 12 blocks that need to have something done to them, but no one knows where to begin or what medium to use to finish the project.

  Oh yes, this project is quite the investment of hours and I do own the fact that my hands are not nearly as steady with the painting as they were fifty years ago.  I forgive myself for that, for the revisiting of memories of times past as I work at this is priceless.

   
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  Noreen 3:19 am on July 25, 2014 Permalink  

  To Pitch or to Save 

  To pitch or to save . . . that is the question?  The cleaning and organization of the sewing and craft area has continued and it has slowed down considerably as there are some tough decisions that need to be made.

  

  Aunt Florence’s Tri-Chem oil fabric paints

  As mother-in-law Esther Schafer did fabric painting, so also did my Aunt Florence from my mother’s side of the family. When Aunt Florence and Uncle Norman (the Reibe Uncle that played the concertina) visited, it was always a show and tell from Florence as she was quite crafty.  Norman was my Christian sponsor and we kept in fairly close contact while Orlin and I were farming.  Their daughter Judy came and spent time during a summer so I could help her with garment sewing projects. Carrie and Kevin were quite young and easily entertained while Judy and I sewed.

  In time to come after Norman had passed, Florence lived in an apartment in Litchfield and her fabric painting was a hobby that she spent a great deal of time on.  Many years ago on a cold New Year’s Day, Mom and I called on Florence for an afternoon coffee.  It never crossed my mind that when we left I would be leaving with all of her fabric painting supplies.  Florence could no longer enjoy the hobby and she passed it to me.  I had no idea if I would take up the painting but I excepted the gift that brought her so much joy.

  Here I am years later and the fabric oil paints have become one of the last items to be dealt with in the organization of my haven.  I went online and the company is still in existence that markets the fabric paints.  In reading about them online it is known that the oil paint remains in good stead, but the ball point tips may be dried out from nonuse or not being cleaned at the last time of use.  I dug into the supply of repair items and sure enough, if the tips are replaced, the paint is very use able.

  I had dabbled with fabric paints in the 1960s.  As late as this last spring a Tri-Chem painted quilt top I had done from that era was finished into a very lovely quilt, ready to be enjoyed.  The Sun Bonnet Sue painted top had been in storage long enough.  It needed to be finished so it could be enjoyed in time to come by someone that needed a bright quilt.

  So I have decided that I will spend the time getting the paint tubes ready for use by installing new tips, and who knows what will be produced from them?  Esther did dish towels with paints rather than embroidering everything.  Florence produced a variety of table linens and place mats and I have a finished quilt – all via the oil paints.  It is, for a sure, a “save.”

  My fall and winter calendar is going to need scheduling in order for me to split my time with oil paints, piecing quilts, quilted wall hanging, counted cross stitch, crocheting bookmarks and afghans and knitting dish rags.  Maybe I can con Dennis into helping out either with the sewing room or the domestic side of Stauffer Avenue.  Dennis already takes over the kitchen after our meals are finished and I don’t want to burn him out.  We will have to see.  Needless to say, I will not have a problem staying busy, and it will bring out the peace that passes all understanding.

  In life, please remember to give and have no memory of it, or take and remember it always.