Forgotten Memories

March 11, 2010

This can become addictive. (Gracie get your paws off the keyboard. I am using the computer now.) Gracie the cat likes to sit on the keyboard and hit the keys. If this blogs becomes more entertaining it may be her at the keyboard and not me. Smokey just watches he doesn't get on the computer.

I feed a stray cat in the apartment complex (don't tell anyone or I will get in trouble). I have a flower pot on my patio that does not have a plant in it, just dirt. Stray cat likes to curl up and sleep in that flower pot. I put a rug on the patio but she prefers the flower pot with the dirt.

I have been reading some of the blogs and I am delighted to learn that a lot of our young women are into sewing. That makes me so happy. I don't remember when I learned to sew because I was so young. I learned on an old Singer pedal machine. My mother loaned that to my sister-in-law. After she had had the machine for a long time I called her for no particular reason and asked if she was still using the machine. Always listen to the little voices that tell you to do things. She said no and that she had taken the machine to the dump that day. I immediately rushed out the door to the dump where she had taken the machine - it was already gone. Obviously there was someone at the dump that was smarter than my sister-in-law. This machine was in pristine condition with all attachments. I made it a point to never loan her anything again.

Back to what I was saying about sewing. When you sew you get a real sense of accomplishment and pride from creating something. I think it makes us closer to our pioneer relatives who sewed for themselves and their families. They sewed at night by candle light and the light from an oil lamp. They sewed by hand and later by machine. They usually did this after working a full day of real labor. They never tossed away a piece of fabric. They saved the little pieces for quilts. You would not believe the little pieces of fabric I have saved - never made a quilt in my life. I started several but never finished one, but one day if I decide to I have the little pieces of fabric.

My mother made quilts. When she was trying a new pattern and she could not get it to go together correctly she would go to my father. Imagine walking in and here is this big man sitting in the middle of the floor with quilt pieces trying each until he figured out how they went together. Oh, and my father had no patience as a general rule but with the quilt pieces he had the patience of Job.

It took me 3 years of begging to get my mother to agree to make a wedding ring quilt for my queen size bed. Of course I wanted it to be the size of a bedspread not a normal quilt. That is how I got my navy blue and peach wedding ring quilt - a lot of begging. After she had finished putting the pieces together I went out to help her do the actual quilting. She had put the quilting frame up in the living room because the quilt was so big. It took several weeks of working on the quilting to get it finished. While working on it one day she told me that a lady had knocked on the door asking for directions. When she saw what my mother was working on the lady offered to buy it from her. She told my mother to name her price. Thank goodness my mother said "No, this quilt is for my daughter." I still have it and it is beautiful.