Grandma’s Kitchen BOW #5 of 25

This week the Grandma’s Kitchen block is called Glasses and Cups by Pat Sloan. Each week when Pat posts the block of the week she tells a short story about memories of her grandparents and the participants of the BOW do the same. This week’s subject is glasses and cups and here is my story.

Coming from the hills of East Tennessee a lot of people in my family used some type of tobacco product, whether it was chewing tobacco, cigarettes, and/or snuff (powdered tobacco). This was way before all the dangers associated with tobacco was common knowledge. At this time snuff came in clear glasses with a tin top. When empty they made the perfect water/milk glasses. They fit your hand just right and were easy to wash. We always had a good supply in the cabinet.

Local gas stations would give glasses with the purchase of $1 of gasoline. Gas was around twenty cents a gallon and $1 would almost fill the tank. Everyone that had a car would buy gas at the station that gave the glasses until they had a complete set. Anyone that had a set of these glasses would save them for Sunday dinner or when company came over to eat.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

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Moda Blockheads BOW #21 of 48

It’s Wednesday again and time for another Blockheads block. This is my version of Jo Morton’s Flying Geese Variation. I really enjoyed working on this block and any block that I don’t need to ‘pick and grin’ is a good one for me. As usual I changed the color placement around a little but either design makes a great block.

You can see more of Jo Morton’s beautiful work click on the link. To see more variations of the Blockheads click here Moda Fabrics.

Thank you so much for reading my blog.

 

Elm Street Quilts OMG – July – Success!

My July OMG with Elm Street Quilts OMG (One Monthly Goal) was to complete the piecing of the Stars and Stripes quilt kit I purchased on sale from Craftsy. I am happy to say that I completed this goal. I changed the pattern a little by adding the white inner border as I thought it separated the blue border from the stars. I am very happy with the result.

This is the first quilt kit I have purchased and I was pleased with the fabrics and the pattern. The quilt measured 88″ x 106″ so it is plenty big enough for my queen size bed.

 

Grandma’s Kitchen BOW #4 of 25

Pat Sloan’s Grandma’s Kitchen Challenge BOW for this week in called Half a Modern.

In this challenge we share a story as it relates to the block. All of my grandparents were as far from modern as could be so I will just share a story.

My Mammaw and Pappaw on my daddy’s side were very loving and wonderful…..to everyone except each other. 🙂 They could not live apart but they also could not live together. My daddy finally decided to built Mammaw a little house ‘within hollering distance’ from Pappaw. This worked out very well for everyone. Mammaw would cook breakfast and holler for Pappaw to come and eat. At dinner, the noon meal was called dinner and evening meal was called supper, Pappaw would cook and holler for Mammaw to come and eat.

On wash day Pappaw would carry water for the wringer washer and bring his clothes to be washed. Mammaw would wash all the clothes and hang them on the line to dry. Pappaw would then take the dry clothes off the line at drop them off at Mammaw’s for ironing.

I remember one Sunday after church Mammaw was hoeing weeds from the garden and I was picking up the weeds and throwing them into the chicken coop. All of a sudden Pappaw started singing as loud as possible, “Oh what a shame it is to work on Sunday” along with a few other verses that fit in the theme. Of course, this did not sit very well with Mammaw but I could see the twinkle in her eyes.

This set up continued until Mammaw died in 1957. Pappaw lived until 1968. They were so much entertainment to me and the cousins. We still talk about the arguments they would have and the way they would take care of each other.

 

Moda Blockheads – BOW #20

Moda Blockheads BOW #20 is called Devil’s Claws by Betsy Chutchian. It is a lovely block and easy to do, but I’m sorry to say that I did not do it justice. By not following the very clear directions I will lose some of my points when I join the block to my others. This is what happens when I get distracted. I WILL be redoing this one.

The instructions to this block and all previous blocks are on the Moda Fabrics Blog site.

 

A Very Special Quilt, part 2 – The Rest of the Story

Vintage Tulip Baby Quilt

My ‘copy’ of Tulip Quilt

Back of my Tulip Quilt

Yesterday I told you the story about my vintage tulip quilt from my Aunt Mary. I loved this quilt so much, not only because I think it is beautiful and all the memories that go with it, but because my Aunt Mary made it. I have made many reproductions of this quilt by tracing the tulips to make my own pattern. I made my first grandson, Joey, one like it with a few modifications in 1992.

The second picture is the last tulip quilt I made. It is hand quilted around the tulips as I wanted it to be soft and cuddly. The third picture is the back of my quilt.

I cannot look at Aunt Mary’s quilt without seeing her sitting at her machine in front of the window just sewing the day away. She had an outside building that housed her wringer washer and a small heating stove that she called her wash house. There was a cellar under the shed where she kept her homemade jars of fruits and vegetables. It was yesterday’s version of a ‘she-shed’. 🙂 Hooks were mounted on the shed’s ceiling with ropes attached. The ropes were also attached to her quilting frame and she could pull the frame up to the ceiling to get it out of the way when she wasn’t quilting and lowered when needed. In the winter we started a fire in the stove to warm up the shed and then quilt and/or wash clothes. Aunt Mary would put a big pot of pinto beans on the stove and by supper time we were ready.

I find it funny now when I get tired of moving my junk off my cutting table when I get ready to sew. Just think if I still had to carry water to fill up the washer, start a fire in the stove (after chopping the wood), pull the quilting frame down, and then start quilting. I am blessed.

Thank you for reading my story.

 

A Very Special Vintage Baby Quilt

If this quilt was discovered at a Goodwill shop most people would walk by, if it even made it onto the sales floor. It is over 50 years old, lots of stains, and even a small hole or two, but if I could only keep one quilt from my vast collection, this would be THE ONE. It came to me from my dear Aunt Mary Daugherty. Aunt Mary was the person who took the time to teach me to sew by letting me operate the petal on her petal powered machine before I was big enough to see the top of the machine if I stood on the floor. This taught me how to control the petal to keep the machine going smoothly. She would sit me in her lap to watch how she would feed the fabric through and eventually  let me actually sew scraps together under her close supervision.

Aunt Mary was a very accomplished seamstress. She would let me pick out a dress I liked from the Sears and Roebuck Catalog and she would make it for me, usually out of beautiful flour sack fabrics. Back then flour and feed came in calico or gingham cotton fabrics that I thought was the prettiest fabric ever made.

As much as Aunt Mary loved her sewing machine all of her quilting was done by hand. When her only child married and was pregnant she made all the layette including many quilts as the old houses in East Tennessee were cold and drafty in the winter. One of the quilts was the tulip quilt pictured above. She was so proud of it because it was the first quilt she had ever quilted on the sewing machine. When I had my first son, John, in 1968 she gave the quilt to me and as you can see it was well used and loved by all three of my children. When they outgrew it I boxed it up and kept it through many moves, even from Tennessee to Florida in 1981.

I will complete the ‘rest of the story’ as Paul Harvey used to say, in tomorrow’s post.

Thank you all for reading my long story.

Sami On Guard Duty

We have a family of rabbits turning our back yard into a rabbit sanctuary. Sami has a hard time with sharing anything, but especially her back yard. That is part of her domain, along with the whole house and the car. When we go outside for a potty break I go out first and do a rabbit patrol to make sure they scatter before Sami decides they need exercise and chases them.

She is pretty patient with them as long as she is just looking down on them from her upstairs bedroom but she goes on meltdown when she thinks they might get too close to her sunning chair.

I picked this old chair up at a yard sale for $8 and replaced the webbing with fabric. I also made a cute cushion from outdoor fabric but Sami refuses to sit on the chair with the cushion, so away it goes. Can you tell she is the queen?

Sometimes the rabbits play under the chair and Sami has what us Southerners call a ‘hissy fit’. I go out and relocate them to another part of the yard and all is well in Sami Land again.

Just to let you know that I am not the only Sami Slave, my friend makes me walk to the street from my cul de sac when she picks me up for a lunch date– so she doesn’t have to see Sami’s sad face in the window.  🙂

When I leave this earthly world I want to come back as a pampered pet.

July OMG Progress Update

All my blocks completed                                        What finished project will be.

My Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal (OMG) for July was to complete the piecing of the Stars and Stripes quilt. I purchased this as a kit from Craftsy. I am happy to say that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The pattern called for 120 blocks of 16  2″ squares of assorted red and white fabrics and 64 blue and white star blocks. These star blocks have 256 flying geese. I have finished all the blocks and this is the most time consuming part of the project. Now I will begin working on joining all the blocks into rows and add the borders. Whew, it as been a time consuming project but I have enjoyed seeing it come together. The cutting was a little boring and I ended up with a blister but it was worth it.

I will post the finished quilt top soon.

Thank you so much for reading.

 

Grandma’s Kitchen BOW-Block 3 of 25

Pat Sloan’s Grandma’s Kitchen Challenge block #3 is called Key Holder. We are supposed to post our blocks and write about a memory that the block’s name inspires. I have no memories of keys associated with either set of grandparents. Neither my dad’s parents nor my mother’s grandparents (they raised my mother after her mother died when she was 11 months old) had keys. Neither drove a car or locked their houses.

My great-grandpa Neal worked in the coal mines and he would walk to the railroad track and catch what was called a ‘man car’ to take him to the mines each day to work. He was paid in ‘script’ that could only be spent at the Company Commissary (store) or the Company Doctor. The Commissary had a large box truck that would run a regular route (their day was Thursdays) that was stocked with supplies from the store. The miner’s families could buy supplies from what was called the Rolling Store with script. The doctor made house calls when needed.

My Pappaw on my dad’s side worked at the rock quarry and he walked to work each day. One of my earliest memories of him was that I could hear him walking home from work because he would be singing at the top of his voice. I couldn’t wait for him to come in sight so I could run out and meet him.

I came from a long line of God fearing, hard working people and I couldn’t be happier about it.

Thanks for reading.