A Little Spot of Ground

This little town I live in is in the middle of nowhere. It is exactly the type of village I always thought I would never find myself living in. I grew up in a city and loved it. Here there is only the elevator and a scattering of houses existing side by side with the railroad track. Years ago those tracks carried passenger trains and evenings at dusk we could see the brightly lit cars with people going somewhere. Now those trains are a thing of the past and only grain and work trains fly past.

I find myself feeling lonesome at times for the hustle and bustle of a city but mostly for the people going about their busy lives. My husband is somewhat of a workaholic, being years past the normal age of retirement, but still walking across the street to work every day. This is good for him, as he wants it, but for me it brings aloneness too often. In nice weather I seldom see him until almost dark. My sons are all grown and busy and even the grandchildren, now grown, have busy lives of their own...and this is as it should be.

I have friends and often drive to town to visit and sit and sew with them but a person can't do that every day. I remember ny mother in law telling me years ago how her garden made her happy. Now I certainly do not have a green thumb and know little about gardening but in my front yard is a small spot of ground that I have claimed for a flower garden. Last year I planted bulbs and enjoyed the tulips, daffodils and early crocus this spring. Now as I walk along the side walk I see the two red plants Dennis and Michele gave me for Mother's Day and the beautiful hanging basket of lavender petunias that came from Mike. I have added flowers of yellows, purples, and whites. On the porch are barrels filled with dark purple flowers and greenery.

This afternoon, feeling somewhat alone, I spent a couple of hours sitting on the ground pulling weeds. Oh, the violets and weeds will return and they have almost sprouted up at the end where I started but I had a lovely afternoon. My little spot of ground will never be worthy of a picture or praise but my mother in law was right....it is a joy!

Our Golden Girls

Sitting at my computer this morning, reading email, I happened to glance out the window and saw our Golden Girls across the road where my husband Leon was working at the grain elevator. I must get a picture of the three of them together but above is one of the youngest, Morgan, who is two,  taken in AL at the beach this spring. The legs and feet belong to my middle son, Gary.

The oldest Golden actually belongs to Brad my oldest grandson who received her as a gift after the loss of the family black lab years ago. Brad, now grown and off on his own, left Carmela with his brother and sister and parents and she is now the family dog. Carmela is now getting older and has slowed down considerably. She still rides up to work at the second elevator every day in the back of Dennis's pickup but she now has to be helped into the bed of the truck, not able to leap up herself. Every night finds her beside Brian's bed where she guards his sleep. On weekends, when there is no formal work to be done, she walks up to Galesvilles to visit me and I find her at my back door hoping I will supply a treat. I call her our gentle giant as she is a big dog but gentle as a lamb. Even the thought of losing her, which I know we will before many more years, brings me to tears. I will miss that dog terribly!

The middle girl is our Maizey, who is now three and still somewhat of a pup. She came to us after we lost our Penny at the age of 12. My husband  Leon said no more dogs. It is too hard to lose them. Knowing him well, I waited a year and then was lucky enough to find Miss Maizey. He complained and growled around the house for about 2 days and then fell in love with her as I knew he would. She now goes to work every day with him and is in the pickup if he even mentions a "ride". The other day he waited for her to jump up into the bed of the truck and she stood patiently waiting beside the door until he figured out that she prefered to ride inside the  truck with him and not outside. Of course he opened the door and in she jumped.

So now, all three Golden Girls are outside in the sunshine, Carmela lying in the sun watching the younger two ones frolicking and jumping around. All three have their summer haircuts, done by Brad, to keep them cool and cut down on fleas and ticks (these dogs all spend time in the woods) and he has left a tuff of hair at the ends of their tails, making them resemble three lions. Sometimes I have to check the color of their collars to be sure which is which at a distance. As soon as coffee time at the elevator is over and the guys head home the dogs will also  follow but they will be back and of course I keep that jar of treats full for the next visit!

The Annies

March 7th already. Where does the time go? Last Saturday the Annies met. I had promised to explain some on my groups so I guess that's as good a place to start as any. The Annies started out as AAA, Addicted Attic Annies. Now where did that come from? I have no idea. You know how it is when a bunch of quilters get together and ideas start to flow? I think it had something to do with being addicted to old fabrics (repos) often found in attics. However it started, it is now simply the Annies.

We are a group of Civil War fanatics gathered from the membership of several small groups with the common love for doing swaps and using exclusively Civil War fabrics. Some belong to the larger local guild and some don't. But...get us together at the once a month gathering and time flies as we have show and tell and swap blocks and ideas. We started out serving coffee and tea but now do a full brunch each time. So now the recipes are also swapped. Well, what is better than good food and quilts?

Here are a couple of quilts from last Saturday's Show and Tell.....

There were oooooh and ahhhs when Joan showed us this top. Knowing her limitless stash I doubt there are two pinwheels alike in this quilt. And Joan does her own quilting so this will soon be quilted and bound.

Carol's wallhanging got us into all kinds of trouble. We already were starting a new swap this month but when we saw this, the hands went up, "Oh why not. It's an easy block. We can do two can't we?" It's kind of an inside joke that when someone brings a book to share we automatically raise our hands and soon we have a book order going. Or a fabric order or a second swap going.....

Before we know it, it is after noon and time to head on our way home. We scurry out the door but know that the first Saturday of the month will soon come again and the Annies will be together again!

February 26...A Quilty Weekend

My favorite type of weekend....Quilty !

Friday I drove the 20 miles to Champaign and met with friends to "sit and stitch". This is an informal bunch who try to get together every Friday, Illinois weather and family events permitting, and sew, gab, and perhaps do some shopping later in the day.

Many take their machines but some prefer to do hand work such as binding. We arrange tables in a sort of a square circle so we are officially a sewing circle? Most have one of those little Gem machines so we have electrical cords snaking all over the room and fabric is flying.

My friend Gail was working on the binding of a baby quilt (upper right) to be sent to England for a new baby, born very early, but now at last home with family. The blocks came from a swap we did in local guild several years ago. I think I have a pile of those blocks somewhere but don't they make a cute baby quilt? Maybe when I dig into the "closet from hell" I can find mine?

Saturday was the date for the Land of Lincoln Quilt Guild, our regional state guild. We met in Decatur and had a fine day. Breakfast snacks at nine followed by the board and business meetings, then a catered lunch and finally a nice program. One of the highlights is always "show and tell". I seldom have much to show but yesterday I took the completed top of the flag quilt (upper left) which I finished on Friday. Now, I realize a top is not a finished quilt but it is now at the point I can turn it over to Sue, one of our more than capable long-arm quilters.

I bought the pattern at another LLQA meeting about a year ago and after showing it to my Annie's (Civil War) group we decided to do it as a swap. We bought a common background and drew names for which sets of three alike blocks we would do for each other. Each swapper did her own star section. I did my star section like the pattern showed using a light background but when I put it with the rest of the quilt, it looked awful. So, I got a bottle of fabric dye and tried that...still awful. I knew I would never be happy with it the way it was so I redid the section using the common background. Thank goodness we had purchased enough!

Today, Sunday will be catch up day for me here on my corner. I have two sets of minutes to write and send out, two pages of recipes to be written for newsletters, and my house is a bit of a mess. Oh by the way, I have committed myself to doing the Farmer's Wife quilt...insanity? There is a blog doing this and four of us have been bitten by the bug........

February 18...Time to Quilt

It's been a while since I last wrote in this blog. Every morning, with my first cup of coffee, I write to my quilting group, the OddOnes (another story for another day) and they hear much more than they ever wanted to know abut my life here on the corner. It seemed redundant to repeat the same so I have decided to dedicate this blog to my obsession, quilting. Being the ripe old age of 72 and already possessing more fabric, patterns, kits, and ideas than I could possibly ever finish I have dedicated this year of 2012 to finishing a few on my older projects. Now I know myself too well to believe that I will not start any new ones but at least I am going to try to combine the new and the old.

Located in my quilt room is the "closet from hell". In this same closet are three humongous tubs filled with kits, numerous BOMs, sets of swap blocks, fabric packs for projects, unfinished tops, unfinished everything you could think of. On top of the tubs is even more. One is in peril merely opening the closet doors. I opened said same doors and pulled out an unfinished quilt started about 12 years ago. I started doing it in thirds and had the center finished, the first third partially quilted and the last third pieced only. It combines both piecing and applique.This will be my first project to finish. I surely was a novice back them because there are some glaring errors. I had to laugh at myself when I noted I had quilted the first two thirds clear up to the edge. Now, how did I think I would join those two pieces? Obviously there will be some unquilting happening. I'm making progress but will say I would not do another quilt this way. I honestly don't enjoy hand quilting except on small pieces. Evey day I am thankful for the wonderful long arm quilters we have nearby, without whom I would never have finished quilts. Someday in the not too distant future I may be able to post a pic of this quilt...finished at last.

The quilt top above is one from a swap in my Annie's group, a Civil War bunch who meet once a month and do swaps using only Civil War fabrics. I took these blocks to a recent retreat and got the top together. Oh how I love these retreat...what motivation from stitching with friends.

Today, give yourself the gift of time to spend quilting or doing whatever your passion is.......

School Dayz

It's that time of year again and yesterday as I glanced out my bedroom window early in the morning I saw the yellow school bus go by on the road just outside town. What memories that sight conjured up for me and what realizations of how times have changed, at least in my household.

All three of my boys rode one of those yellow buses, and mostly with less than enthusiasm. How busy were those mornings trying to get three active boys up, dressed, and fed, ready to go before 7 am. We live at the end of the bus line and for some reason were always first on in the mornings an last off after school. Perhaps because one of the school board member's children was at the other end of the line? As soon as my oldest was 16 and had the cherished driver's license the bus stopped no more in front of my house.

But, before too many years, in the flash of an eye, or so it seems, the grandkids were starting school. Both Moms worked so Granny Care developed. Five eager (?) faces would appear at my house just before 7 am for breakfast. I like to cook and it was such fun to do a good breakfast for the little ones. I had a third grader, a second grader, a first grade and two in kindergarten. They would gather around my dining room table eagerly anticipating bacon or sausage plus eggs or whatever the fare of the morning would be. They still tell the story of passing the plate of bacon by shoving it across the table.... unfortunately the plate fell off the other side of the table and the dog had a good breakfast that day. Some days if we were very organized, we had time for a
story. Soon they would line up outside to wait for that yellow bus. I can picture that still.

Today, one granddaughter is off to college almost 4 hours away, living in a dorm, the other will remain at home and study at the local junior college. The oldest grandson has graduated from the University of Illinois and has a wonderful job. The other two boys work in our family business so I see them more often. It's amazing but they still come to Gran's house looking for food. I guess some things never change!

There Aint no Flies on Me...

First I guess I should appologize to all bug lovers for all my unkind thoughts about wishing to cause the death of such critters but they simply give me the shivers. If they would stay outside where they belong we could co-exist but when they enter my space, they are doomed if I can possibly arrange it. Oh I know they have value and are part of the chain of life but not mine! So sorry bug lovers but.......

Isn't that an old song? "There Aint no Flies on me?" Somewhere down deep in the recesses of my mind. I can hear that tune.....

Well, maybe not on me, but for some strange reason my house has been full of flies the last few days. They are on every window in the house....hundreds of them. I can swat 20-30 at a time and go back an hour later and there are more. These are not the attic type flies (big ones) but normal sized house fly looking ones and not the kind that buzz you when you are trying to take a short nap ...they seem to be trying to escape and I sure wish they would do so. This is a new experience here in G'ville.

This has truly been a strange year for buggy things which I must admit I do not like.

Earlier this spring my house was inundated with little ants. They came from nowhere, even in the bathrooms and bedrooms. Now I have been known (in the far distant past, of course) to have done a little snacking in the bedroom but surely never in a bathroom. So... what attracted these little critters here? I heard it was all the rain with wet conditions awakening them from the ground. Well maybe, because one day they were suddenly gone.

First it was ants earlier in the spring and now flies....wonder what is next?

Well, I should never have asked what is next after the ants and the mysterious flies. What was next came in the form of a very large, very black, and very hairy looking spider which greeted me as I entered the van to head to my Monday afternoon volunteer job at church. Now I'm usually pretty good at killing these things but with tissues in hand I struck and missed. It dropped to the floor and I was unable to get it as it crawled under the floor mat. I ran into the house for Raid but only had some for the darn ants. I pulled the mat out of the car and sprayed almost a whole can in the direction it had taken. I briefly saw it emerge and slide down where the brake pedal enters the van. Now what could I do? I had to get to church as Pam, who works with me on Mondays, was missing today and I was the only worker. OK be brave...I made it there with no further sightings. I sprayed the heck out of the van again when I left it and carefully checked all surfaces when getting back into it. I bought a BIG can of Raid at the local IGA and really saturated all areas again when I got home. If that thing lives it will be a miracle but I won't ask again what is next.........