The Year of Do It

This year, my mantra has been "Do It". Let's face it, I'm not getting any younger, and I don't want my legacy to my children to be a pile of unfinished projects. But even beyond that, there are so many new things I want to try, new skills to conquer. I have recently taken up quilting again, after a 20 year hiatus, and found that I love free motion machine quilting!

So here are a few of the quilt projects I've completed.





Top, a wallhanging of my own design, based on The Sound of the Baskervilles club logo, center, a table topper convergence quilt, from Ricky Tims' book, and bottom, a 5 and Dime lap quilt I made for my daughter. My goal this year is to complete a quilt a month. Not a huge goal, but considering I set it in March, I think I'm off to a good start.

Another fun project I've been working on is dyeing yarn. No, I don't knit, but my daughter does, and the price of some hand dyed yarns seems outrageous to me. I have the skills. I've been fascinated with dyeing since high school, and have gotten quite good at silk. But this has been my first try at yarn. After about ten skeins, I feel that I've found my groove. Here is my favorite skein so far:


So, this year, I will continue to Do It, and hopefully by the end of the year, I will have several more completed projects to share. Today's plan is to get some silk ready to dye. But first, I'm afraid the housework is calling me to Do It. So we shall see which of the siren calls wins out.

Oatmeal

Just some general musings this morning as I have my bowl of oatmeal. Every time I eat oatmeal, I'm reminded of mornings on my grandparents' farm.

They lived on a small farm nestled between two hills. Woods Creek babbled joyfully through the middle of the farm, splitting the land pretty much in two. By the time I came along, there wasn't much farming going on. My grandfather was a retired logger and kept the neighbor's cows just to keep the fields clear. It was a tranquil setting and I loved going to spend the night at their house, which happened infrequently.

It was a tiny little house, really only three main rooms. On the front of the house was a larger room, which consisted of the living room/dining room area. The TV was in that room, but it wasn't on very often, other than for the news. Grandpa always watched the news.

The other half of the house was split in two, and consisted of the kitchen and my grandparents' bedroom. Off on the side were a small bathroom and a pantry. There were no cupboards or counter space in the kitchen. How my grandmother managed to cook for over 40 years in that house, I don't know. Her sink was half the size of mine, and she only had one. I have two. What a different lifestyle it was back then!

Anyway, back to oatmeal. I was an early riser, and so was my grandfather. The house was always so cold in the morning, because they heated the house with a woodstove, and that meant Grandpa had to get up early to light it. I would crawl out of bed, and he would snuggle me while the house got warm. He always smelled of wood smoke, snuff and sweat. Manly man-smells. And like a manly man, he didn't cook, except for oatmeal, which he called 'mush'. Good old fashioned Quaker Oats, with the man in the blue hat, smiling because he knew you were having a good breakfast. It didn't matter how much you begged. Grandpa would not even fix a bowl of the sugary cereal Grandma kept on hand for us kids. If you were hungry, you got mush. Then he'd sit down and turn on the radio for the morning news. Or as he would say, "Shall we see if the world blew up last night?" I never understood that phrase as a child, but realize now that he had a legitimate concern. It was the height of the Cold War, for heaven sakes!

So, as I sit today enjoying my 'mush', I think of Grandpa, and those cold morning spent safe in his arms. It's a good way to start the day.

Joining in

Everybody and their brother seems to have a blog these days. Except me, of course. But this changes all that, doesn't it?

What will I post here? Hmmm. I like to think I have a variety of interests that may appeal to others, but who knows? What do I like? Family, fiber, fashion, food, Sherlock Holmes and Fred Astaire, to start with. Things may branch out from there but there's a start.

Guess it's about time for a picture, right?



Okay, do you know what this is? It is the Washington State boxcar from the French Merci Train. What was the Merci Train, you ask? After WWII, America send tons of aid to the European countries. In gratitude for the medicine, food, supplies and support, the French people sent a train of 49 boxcars (one for each state in the nation) full of gifts to thank the citizens of the United States. You can read more about it here.

What is my interest in the Merci Train? One of the boxcars contained 49 fashion mannequins, made by several of the top French designers of the time. These mannequins have been in storage in the Brooklyn Museum, and haven't seen the light of day in over 60 years. It is my hopes that they will soon be taken out, restored and displayed. Here is a great article written by a friend of mine, complete with pictures of these incredible creations. Their companion mannequins, the Theatre de la Mode mannequins are on display at Maryhill Museum in Goldendale, WA, and are worth visiting, if they are not on tour. Right now, the TDLM mannequins can be viewed at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle. So there is your cultural lesson of the day.

Well, there it is. My first blog entry. I hope you enjoyed it!