May, 1959




47 years ago today, I became a wife. Starry eyed and all of 18 years old. What did I know?? That I was in love. That's about it...LOL. Back then, Memorial Day was May 30th...period. As it happened, that year May 30th was the last Sat. in May. And the only date the church was available til August. And so we married on Memorial Day. Years later Memorial Day was changed to fall on the last weekend in May, period. Other things changed too. The marriage lasted 36 years, not all of them happy. We ended it, and divorced in 1996. We have been able to stay friends, and altho he has remarried, we are able to attend events in our children's lives with out difficulty or pain. Made it much easier for the kids. Do I wish things were different, at times, yes. But for the most part, I've made my peace with it. Regrets? I've had a few, *VBS*, but then, too few to mention. Life goes on. And so do I, *VBS* Have a wonderful May 30th, I'm off to spend the day with DD# 1, and help her get her garden planted.

Another day, another quilt top. Right in the middle of every thing I have to finish.Really good friends of my DD#1 , have just taken home a newborn, to be adopted, their 3rd child. She is named Kailie, and of course she needs a quilt. I whipped up this top,40" X 45", in the past day and a half. I need to get it pinned into the frame and tied. Kailie has a big brother, Nick, age 4, and Rose, who just turned one. After a very long wait for a child, L & A has gotten all three in just 4 years. Rose and kailie are from the same Mom. I think their cup runneth over...*VBS* And of course I have an extra soft spot for adopted children......go figure..*S* 

A close up of one block. It's just three 2.5" X 6,5" strips sewn together. A 2.5" X 6.5" strip gets sewn acorss the top of one block, and the bottom of the next. You get rectangles and the staggered set. It's a block I saw in Webshot photos, used for donation quilts. 

Tribute to Laura, my Laura Ingalls Wilder quilt. I know you have seen it before..*S* But I'm here to say it has been away, gone on a trip that lasted 4 years. When I sold my house, this bedroom set(from my marriage) stayed with the house. The kids buying the house requested that I leave some of the furniture, and I did. A queen size bed, 2 night stands, a tallboy dresser and one with a mirror. That's alot of bedroom furniture to take into a senior apartment. Since I no longer needed the queen size quilt, my DD#1 took it home with her. But now I have a new queen size bed(still no headboard tho) and she brought my beloved Laura quilt back to me. For you Prim gals, I'm not sure if this is Prim, but it definitely inplies vintage in my opinion. I'm not sure if this could have been made back in Laura Ingalls time, but I'd like to think so..*S* 

In my opinon, what really makes this 9 patch work, is the fabric I used for the setting blocks. It's the kind that drives us crazy, as it is directional. I happened upon a bolt of it at Knit-Kits in Mpls, MN, while buying fabric for my shop. It was in their "clearance" section, and I fell in love with it on sight. Now you have to remember that this was the early 1990's, and what was "hot" was Debbie Mumm, and Hoffman florals. The whole reproduction craze was barely lukewarm..believe it or not, I actually got the bolt for $1.88 a yard. A real steal! 

I wish I still had yards and yards of this one...*VBS* But I don't... 

Friday's Block, like Friday's child is loving and giving. And is one of my favorite orphan blocks. I picked this one up in an antique shop quite a few years ago. The block pattern is an album patch variation. It would be hard to write our name in the center of this one. The block is just under 15". The seams aren't quarter inch, but close. It's hand pieced and by someone with alot of experience. If you look at the navy squares,you can see that the "bits" she added to make the square big enough, aren't the same fabric as the squares.I believe I counted 5 or 6 different prints, all the same shade of navy, just a different print. A scrapbag block for sure..*VBS* And for all you clever gals who guessed I would be making a top from these orphan squares, you are correct! I've made orphan block quilts before, but from my own orphaned blocks. Those that you don't love and didn't use....much like making a sampler except nothing matches or is the same as anything else...LOL. It's the road less taken, and the less than beautiful sister..*VBS* And I like it like that!!

On the back side, I put a pin in each square that has been pieced to get what was needed before she cut her square. None of the HST are pieced, and none of the 5 center squares are pieced. This is a 25 patch block. 12 of the squares are pieced to make them big enough. A few years back, making a top from feedsack and other Depression era scraps, I honored this tradition, adding a tiny bit more to a corner, or where ever it was needed to get a 2.5" sq. from my scrap. It's both humbling and liberating. And feels like a connection to the women who made quilts before us. It's almost like a humility block in quilts from yesteryear..*S* 

What I wanted you to see on this square, from the lower right corner of the block, is that she needed to use 3 scraps to get her 3" square. One other corner also has 3 pieces. 

In my opinion, this block is from a very experinced quilter. Just look at the SIZE of those tiny running stitches that she pieced the block together with! 

Another day, another one of these old beauties. This set of blocks, from a friend locally, are in pretty good shape to use just as they are. I have several blue ones, and 3 red ones I think. I did know the name of this block pattern once upon a time, but have forgotten what it's called. All of the blocks have fabric of about the same vintage. Gotta love this old blue, and then.....circles too! How wonderful is that???*VBS* 

And here's the back side. Not sure if it makes sense that I keep showing you gals the reverse side of these or not. I do think seeing them while they are still blocks, might help show you why the seams in older quilts fray or open with use. These old quilters just didn't believe in our quarter inch seam allowance. You could get more pieced cut from your scraps if you allowed for a narrower seam. 

Quilts On Main....1989-1996. Another piece pulled from my scrapbag of memory and things that "were". I know this isn't a very good picture. And I do have a better one somewhere, of me on the railing. But this will give you an idea of my little "shop around the corner". We bought this house in 1989. It was just across the side yard from where we lived. I opened it as a business in May. When DH left the marriage, community,job, and family, I moved across the yard and into the "back" of the house. There was one downstairs bedroom, a bath, and kitchen. The rest of the downstairs was "shop". Two of my sons moved with me. Both were out of school, but not out on their own as yet. They had the 2 upstairs bedrooms and landing. It worked ok, but I was glad in August of 1994 for them to be out on their own. I lived in this house/business until 1996, and then ended the business and took a paying job..*S*. I continued to live in the house, without the Quilts on Main sign, until August of 2002. I was turning 62, tired of shoveling snow and mowing grass. The market was very strong and the house sold in 2 days. I took a senior apartment, but after 2 years of struggling to "fit" into a one bedroom, I moved to the small townhouse where I live today. And I gained an attached gargage...*VBS* 

The front of the shop, and a quilt from the "Around the Twist" class. That's my pal Betsy on the right, way back when. The quilt belongs to Cheryl, on the left. It's basted and ready for hand quilting. 

Winter into spring challenge blocks.... 

A corner of the shop and the summer into autumn challege blocks. 

I'm loving photographing these blocks, what I didn't realize is that I get a whole new perspective seeing the block on my computer screen. For example, I didn't realize this was a T block until this morning. I was seeing an album patch. My brain was not taking in the extra thing happening at the out side. Like you brain did a random search and but up what it knew to be familiar...LOL This block came from a friend, and it was in the batch as the first small one I showed you. The cactus basket one. I think the blue fabric outdates the time of it's piecing by quite a few years. What's amazing is how strong the fabric still is,a hundred or almost, years later. Some of you have wanted to know where these blocks came from. Some have come from friends, some were in a box of "stuff" from a yard sale, and some have been picked up one by one, as I saw them in an antique shop. Solo blocks haven't been priced out of reach...at least not the last time I look. From a dollar up... 

On this block the seams are still narrow, again, probably pieced on a treadle machine. Only the 2 large triangles closest to the camera are pieced to get a big triangle. She used a 2.5" square, and added a triangle on 2 of the sides..pretty clever. Looking at this side, you can see tht if you had an album patch block, you could acchieve a T block by adding this type of lattice to each block...I find that very clever also. 

About Finn....

Yesterday Ann, of Ann's Quilts and flowers,http://ann-sewsalot.blogspot.com/commented that she loves to read my blog, and wonders what I am like in person...*S* So, I'm taking a break from the mystery blocks to tell her.I don't like having my picture taken, but this is my favorite picture of me. It was taken in New Mexico a few years back. The hair is grayer now, I'm a bit "fluffier", but the smile is the same. I smile alot. I don't necessarily think of myself as a happy person, but I'm more of the "glass half full, than half empty. I tend to look for the best of the situation, and am willing to be happy with what there is. I often refer to my mindset as being "boxcar children". It was a favorite book as a child. It's very much about making do, being happy with what you have, taking care of yourself and your place in the world. Actually, at this age, I'd be happy to walk away from that mindset, but it seems to be a part of me. I seem to have a happy, goofy, mostly carefree way of looking at life. I don't take it very seriously.

I'd rather play with the scraps of fabric on the floor or in the wastebasket than what is in your pile of yardages. Making something from almost nothing is what appeals to me. I don't have anything to prove, it's what gives me the greatest pleasure. Except one never quite gets to the stash usage that way...and I've gotta get to THAT!!

I have blue eyes, and was a blond child. I'm the oldest of 3 girls, with my first sister a whoppin' 7 years younger than me. The baby of the family is 11 years my junior. Wasn't much opportunity for "growing up like sisters do". I got alot of the "mommy" role thrust upon me. It didn't make me happy. School was just school, nothing special. I wasn't the most popular, not even close, I'm really fairly shy. I wasn't the least popular either. I belonged to some organizations, but nothing that I truly loved. I didn't date much in high school, only once or twice...it was the 1950's. I hung out with girlfriends. Only one boy in my class of 155 kids had his own car. He was killed in it less than 5 years after graduation. I went on to college, telling my Dad I was majoring in Elem. Education, when in reality, I was majoring in Fine and Applied Arts. In Oct. of my first year, having just turned 18, on Oct. 8th, I met my future husband. So much for college..*G*

He was my age, 18 going on 19, and we married in May of 1959. It began a journey that lasted about 36 years. We "did" the Air Force thing, and then he finished college. I worked. He got a teaching job, I worked. In 1967, after 9 years of marriage, we applied for and adopted our first child, a daughter. We were living in Michigan. In 1969, we added a little boy. By 1972, we moved back to WI, taking a job in Administration. In 1973, we added second daughter, and 1974, a second son. 1976 found us adding our last child, another boy. Like most, I suppose, I wasn't the world best mother, but not the worst either. Life and marriage have their ups and downs. Two more job moves brought us to the part of WI where I was born. Not the same town, about 40 miles away.

The kids grew up, completed their schooling, went out on their own, and began to marry and have families. DH and I decided in 1994, that neither of us was happy enough to stay together. He moved to southern WI, I stayed here. It was not what I expected nor where I thought I'd be at this age....mid 50's. But life continues...*S* We were divorced in 1996.

You either sit and stew about it, or you get on with your life. I chose the latter. All of this, the above story, helped make me who I am. I still smile alot, and laugh easily. I don't take much very seriously, except cruelity to animals and small children. I don't think life is a joke, but it's hard to tell some days. We are such insignificant specks of sand in God's eye, that I find it hard to get hung up in the "haves" and "have-nots".

I'm not really very good at anything Ann, I can do quite alot of different things, some of them quite well. I can't sing worth a darn, I don't really care much for cooking, I have "authority" anxiety and try to everything as correctly as possible so I don't get into any trouble, I detest snakes but am ok with spiders and bats, I love stories and adore being read to, I like sunsets but am not enough of a morning person to have seen many sunrises, I try to keep promises and gradually am learning not to make quite as many as I used to...LOL. I'm having to learn that NO is a complete sentence. I'm honest, I play fair, I don't take more than my share, and almost EVERYONE can go first, ahead of me. I don't mind at all..*VBS*I'm pretty easy to get along with, I know I am kind and feel that I am a generous person. Giving is easier than receiving.

I'm a perimeter person and don't like being in the middle of anything, group, resturant, classroom, etc. I'm an observer rather than a participant in most things. I do talk alot....... who knew????.... I seem to have alot to say. Words are my friends. Viewing favorites have included Northern Exposure, all of Star Trek,TNG only, M.A.S.H., C.S.I.(the original),and more recently Desperate Housewives(???) and Grey's Anatomy.I like PBS. I prefer to be "taught" or shown something, rather than entertained. I'm not fond of "fluff", I need a storyline or moral, or a new view of the world.

I've been a waitress, secretary, pie chef, surgial tech, sold Artex liquid paints, worked in a daycare, cleaned houses for money, been a receptionist, worked as a nurse's aide, and in Emergency room and O.B. I've been an election inspector, and a jill of almost all trades . Most of it before children. I never did finish college, but have about 3 or 3.5 yrs completed. Still in Fine Arts..*VBG*

I've sewed, self taught, since I was 16, making clothes for myself, my sisters and my mom. I've done everything from coats to pre-folded diapers. Quilting came into my life in the 1970's along with that 5th child. I like traditional patterns, and am a piecer rather than an appliquer. I began before rotary cutter, and leaned to hand quilt almost as soon as I learned to piece. I learned in a hoop, and mostly I still quilt in a hoop. I love green, but haven't made a green quilt. In my stash I probably have more green than any other color, but red and blue come in second and third. I'm not fond of pink, but I'm learning to like it.

I have no family in the area where I live, one sister in MN and one in AZ. My kids are mostly 1.5 to 4 hrs away. Luckily I have some very good girl friends here, who have helped me through the past 12+ years. That's how long I've been single again..*VBS* Almost all of them are quilters, two of them I helped get started. I no longer belong to any guilds or quilt groups.There are some with 20 to 40 milies of here, but for now I'm choosing not to join them.

I love blogging, and was thrilled last summer to follow Bonnie, into blogland. I was equally thrilled to be invited to join the Quilt Mavericks. I'm not always so sure I "fit"here, but I'm gonna keep taking Tonya's word for it.

Sunday's Selection...another piece from the Past, and my scrap bag of possibilities. I seriously wonder if this block was a childs practice block. It's a block gone wrong for sure. At the left side it measures 15" plus. At the right, it measures just under 13". It reminds me of a very old quilt I saw in a book, down with bear paw blocks. Maybe be 20 or 24 blocks and of them all, only ONE had the "claws" in the correct position. Didn't stop the quiltmaker from putting it together as a quilt tho....LOL. Soooo? Have you begun to guess what Finn is up to???? 

This old blue is such fun, with it's lightening bolts. But my favorite is the piece with the circles. I have a decades long love affair with circles, dots and even some polka dot wanna-be's...*VBS*. The circle fabric is extremely thin, almost an organza or lawn. I think it would have been for a summer dress or blouse. 

Unlike yesterdays block, this one is hand pieced. The seams are tiny, which is typical of our forebears, but in this case, aren't consistant. 

"Come Watson, the game's a foot", was heard as S. Holmes dashed out the door. Whatever can be this new mystery?? And what are the clues?? We'll have to follow along and see if we can figure this out......one thing's for sure.....that Finn is at it again....heheheheheheh 

I've made today pictures bigger than I normally do, so the detail shows more.The block is actually about 7" square. I know some of you gals like Sio have background in old fabrics or dating quilts. My guess is that the black if probably 19th century...late 1800's into early 1900's. There were several blocks "with" this one, and all have similar fabric. I'm guessing from the same scrapbag. 

My belief is that this was pieced on a treadle machine, by a not very experinced quilter. No regard as to how the seams "lay"... my biggest clue. Both bigger triangles and 1 of the 2 side rectangles were "pieced together" to get a big enough scrap to use. A familiar sight in old blocks and one we accept. Why are we so reluctant to use this idea ourselves?

Well, that was a pretty good senior moment this morning, wasn't it? I told you I was curious about the "wash immediately", which I did, and then I didn't tell you how it turned out...dahhh! Our rain has turned to sunshine, and here is an outdoor shot of the finish friday quilt. As you can see, there isn't much wrinkle or pucker. I stuffed it into the washer on Perma Press, added my regular laundry soap(Please do not attempt this with the best of the best), set it for 4 minuted and let it go. It washed, wrinsed, spun and finished. And trust me, the washer in my little townhouse wouldn't be my first choice. It is one of those that works up to down instead of side to side..boy, oh boy, what it does to pants legs and fabric yardage!! Anyway, I shook it out, and then tossed it into the the dryer with 3 dryer sheets, on Perma Press and set it for 50 minutes. It came out just like you saw it this a.m. and in this full length picture A year or twos worth of dust and fingerprints gone, any chalk or blue pencil lines gone. All fresh and clean and looking pretty good for a scrappy utility quilt. But in the scheme of thing, I DON'T aggitate the fine hand quilting ones, just let them sit, use my arms to push up and down a few times, and spin them out. With the perle cotton there is much less chance of thread breaking.