Last week, I was at Leslie’s house to help with Christmas baking. During the madness, we actually had to look up some recipes on my blog. Honestly, I have not been very diligent about keeping my blog up to date. But, the simple act of using one of my old posts motivated me to get at least a Reader’s Digest version of 2022 posted… BEFORE 2023 gets here.
So, now that the 50th anniversary posts are complete, I will try to get this past year condensed into a few posts. Whether or not anyone in the family ever reads it or not is anyone’s guess. I have at least tried to be a little more diligent at keeping a record going for our children and grandchildren.
This post is about some of the things I managed to do in my sewing rooms. No, that isn’t a typo; sewing rooms…. plural. The sewing machines have moved several times during the year. Half of my things were at Scott’s house because the quilting machine was too long to fit in the guest room of the townhouse. After I found a welder to shorten the long arm frame, all of my sewing things were moved into the master bedroom at the townhouse. Then, when we decided to move into a 55+ community, everything was packed up and moved to our new home. Whew! Hopefully, that’s the last time I have to move Millie!
Here are some things I worked on while we still lived in the Central Texas area. First, I managed to finish all of the blue work embroidery that Mom and I started YEARS ago. Plus, I had an extra embroidered panel of a Sun Bonnet Sue and Sam that I had embroidered when Seth was a baby… 20 years ago! Done, done, and done. I also added a couple of pictures of the red work quilt I finished at the end of 2021. Just because I wanted all of these quilts posted together.
I have always enjoyed doing hand embroidery. My grandmother, Minnie Veach, taught me several stitches when I was young. Over time, I taught myself more stitches and improved my skill. My mother and I had bought the blue and red work kits at the same time. We would both take our little embroidery bags to doctor appointments, on trips, to bee meetings, or anywhere we had time to kill. Mom passed away before we finished our blocks. These quilts are very precious to me because they are a tangible reminder of time we spent together, doing something we both loved. The two blue quilts went to family members and I kept the red work. I think that would have made Mom happy.
Eventually, Mom bought a sewing and embroidery machine combo from a local quilt shop, owned and operated by her friend Gayle. As a new owner, Mom took a rather extensive class, during which she embroidered several quilt blocks. When she put the blocks together into a quilt top, her intention was to use her embroidery machine to actually do the quilting as well. I think that project must have been a bit much for her to tackle because she never got around to it.
Sadly, this quilt top remained unfinished for years. She had intend to gift it to my daughter, Leslie because she was the first person to tell Mom that she liked the quilt top. I finally tackled the beast and quilted it with my long arm. There were enough pieces of fabric to make a matching wall hanging and pillow cases. The quilt is amazingly heavy and I was really worried about how smoothly it would quilt. Luckily, I used an expensive, high quality batting and the quilting looks amazing. This thing was a true labor of love in many ways.
There wasn’t a lot of sewing going on from April until August. We had made the decision to move into a 55+ community I found in Weatherford. That meant I needed to start purging things. I decided to go through my scraps and pre-cut them into standard sizes: 2 1/2 inch squares and strips, charm squares and fat quarter sized. The bits and pieces left over were cut into small chunks and I used them to make dog beds for the local animal shelter.
While I was sorting through fabric, I found a fun little bag pattern that used fat quarters. My daughter-in-law, Jamie, is often contributing to my fabric stash by purchasing dozens of fat quarters she sees on sale because, “they are just too cute and a really great price!” Therefore, she received one of the first bags I made. They are super cute and so quick to go together.
Once the fabric had been purged, boxed, and labeled, I started ripping up old tee shirts to make pull/chew toys for the shelter as well. With just a little time and effort, I kept several pounds of fabric and tee shirts from ending up in the landfill.
The middle of 2022 was a crazy whirlwind. In May, Ron and I, with an AMAZING amount of help from our grandson, Seth, started packing our possessions and placing them in a storage unit. We were notified that a unit in the 55+ community would be available in August. We had already reserved a cruise to Alaska in June, so we knew we needed to have the majority of our things packed up before we left. I know that God guided every step of the way in our move. I will write more about that in another post. But, the move, cruise, and a case of COVID put a halt to any sewing until September. At that time, I needed to bust my chops and get Christmas gifts made.
While on the cruise, I found a fun quilt pattern in a quilt shop in Sitka. I decided to buy fabric from Alaska that had a specific memory of each individual family on the cruise attached to it. For myself, I selected the fabric that was designed to be used specifically with the pattern. It was a panel with images of different sites in the town of Sitka. Since that was my favorite stop, I couldn’t pass it up.
For our oldest, Ryan, and his family, I found fabric with images of various sea life on it. Whale spotting seemed to be a favorite activity for their twins. Besides, the seas and oceans are a great source of peace and enjoyment for their family.
For Scott and Molly, I found fabric that had been commissioned by the National Parks service. They asked a local Alaskan artist to design a fabric that depicted travel posters and post cards of the many parks in Alaska. Since Scott has always had a love for our National parks, and Molly loves to travel, I knew that fabric was perfect for them.
For Leslie, I picked a fabric that had images of beautiful eagles in flight. One of the things she and I did onboard as we sailed up the inside passage was watch those magnificent birds soar high above the ship. The colors in the quilt also remind me of her home. Her girls both picked this quilt as their favorite so I think it was the right choice.
Our daughter, Rebecca, who has had a very difficult few years rebuilding her life after her marriage fell apart, wasn’t able to be on the cruise with us. I knew Alaska fabric wouldn’t mean very much to her. I wanted to give her something that had a strong connection to family. I was digging through fabric, looking for something that spoke to me, and came across a box of small quilt squares that Mom had made. They were made of beautiful fabrics; but, were strange little blocks. I couldn’t figure out how they were supposed to go together. Plus, I couldn’t find a pattern for them in any of Mom’s quilt books. After shuffling them around a while on my design board, I figured our how to take a part of each block off and sew it in a different location. It was almost as if Mom was guiding me. I rummaged around and found more coordinating fabric and was able to get a quilt put together that represents Rebecca rebuilding her life. These were left over blocks, that could have easily stayed buried in my closet. But, with a little “rebuilding” they became a lovely quilt.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures of all of the quilts in their finished stage. But, my kids have them in their possession and now they have my record of why I gave them the ones they received.
I am hopeful that my sewing efforts in 2023 include mastering Mom’s stupid embroidery machine. But, If I do, you can be sure that I will NOT be making a bunch of quilt blocks!
