Good Monday Morning

It has been a busy weekend. First I want to show you the pictures of two project bags I made Thursday night. I have put my embroidery I am working on in both of them. I have three different projects going now!


This next picture is a cat that I am embroidering. I saw these two cats over at Buttonberry's Blog that their mother and aunt had embroidered in the 70's! I feel in love with them and emailed them and asked their permission to print one of the cats out and make a pattern to trace and embroidery. I got a very nice email back saying it would be fine for me to do that. So below are two pictures of the start of the cat I am doing. Isn't he fantastic? Pop over to their blog and look at the original cats! That are outstanding. And I love the way the two ladies each took different approaches to how they did them.


This next picture is a quilt that my 86 year old friend hand embroidered. She bought a kit and embroidered all the squares herself. The she got me to sew the squares together for her as she was worried she would not be able to match up the embroidery correctly. She then hand quilted it in rows. So guess who gets to put those rows together? You got it, me! I started on it Friday night since my husband is on nights. I didn't get to work on it Saturday as the kids and I went shopping and visiting. I mentioned that we were going to be going school shopping in my last post. I will tell you about the visiting in a minute. I hope to get this quilt finished in the next couple of days and get it back to my friend so she can put the binding on it.

So I told you we went visiting. As you know from a previous post my Aunt Vivian lives a short distance from Mobile, which is where we went school shopping. I had planned for us to go by and visit with her anyway, but the phone call I got from her on Friday afternoon definitely made me go by. She called to tell me that her great grandson, who was only 4 years old, had drowned in a pond. He lived with his parents and sister in Georgia where his father is stationed in the Air Force. They brought his body back to Mobile for the funeral. It is so sad. The funeral will be tomorrow. I had never met her grandson nor great grandson. She was so sad and I just wanted to go hug her. So the kids and I went over. Her son, Tim, who is the little boy's grandfather, lives right next door to Aunt Vivian. So we went over to his house, also, and met the parent's of the little boy and visited there for quiet awhile. They showed me lots of pictures of the little boy, Matthew, and told me all about him. He was such a beautiful little boy.
When we first got to Aunt Vivian's my cousin, Tim, and his family wasn't home so while I sat and visited with my aunt and my cousin, Gayle, my uncle took the kids outside and showed them some things. My kids have never been out into the country and seen different animals. My uncle doesn't have as many animals as he used to as he is now 80 years old and can't take care of so many, but he had lots of things of interest to teach them! They really enjoyed it.
First of all were the bees. My aunt and uncle have bees and they sell the honey. They sent us home with several jars! I will have to put a picture of the honey on here soon. Below is a picture of one of the bee boxes that my daughter took.

This is my daughter Tara with my aunt and uncles horse. Her name is Barbie and their great granddaughter rides her. She is a small horse and very cute!

This is one of my uncle's goats. I don't remember what Tara told me his name is. She will tell me that I should have asked her his name to put in the post! So when I find out from her I will put it in. She always wants to know the names of all animals. I'm surprised she didn't ask if all Uncle Juniors bees had names!

Here Tara is on a limb of a big old tree in the back yard. I just love the way the branches are so big and low to the ground. I wish she would have taken a picture of the whole tree.

These are two of my Aunt Vivian's great grand daughters. Shelby is on the left and Gabriel is on the right. Aren't they adorable? Tara and her friend, Tiffanie, who had gone with us, had so much fun playing with these two beauties!

This is my cousin's son, Josh, and my Aunt Vivian. It was not his son who died.

This is my Uncle Junior and my daughter, Tara. In case I forgot to mention this. Uncle Junior is my mom's brother and he is married to Aunt Vivian who is my dad's sister!

This is my Aunt Vivian and my cousin Tim.

Green Fairy Wall Hanging

Yeah! It's Friday! Don't know if this is a good thing or not because tomorrow I get to take my two kids to go school shopping! We have to drive 70 miles to the nearest large town as they really do not have what the kids need here in our small town. When the kids were really little I could get most everything here. But now that Keith is 6 foot and has to have khaki pants and wears such a big shoe we have to go somewhere else to find them. And of course Tara cannot just wear regular school pants she has to have name brand ones! So off we will go. I always feel sorry for Keith as he hates going into the girly stores with Tara and me looking for Tara's clothes. I think we will hit the book store first and he can get the books he wants and sit on a bench in the mall and read while we shop! Or he could probably stay in the book store while we shop. Now I know this may sound crazy, after all the boy is 6 foot and about 200 pounds, but I worry about leaving him alone in a store! He is after all still only 14. Of course he does have his cell phone to call me should he need me. I have always been a very over protective mother. My kids have told me this on more than one occasion. I can't help it. It's in my blood!
The good thing about going school shopping is I get to go to the fabric store while I am there!!! That's my favorite part. Of course my kids don't care for going there. Oh well, they will have to endure since I have to endure all the other shopping. I hate shopping for clothes.
Below are two pictures of my Green Fairy Wall Hanging. One of the whole thing and one of a close up of just the fairy. If you remember from a few posts back I made a hussif with a photo of myself in the Green Fairy costume. I was in a play about Rumplestiltskin when I was 7 years old.
Hope y'all have a great weekend!

ANOTHER GIVEAWAY

I love giveaways! Aren't they so much fun! Sue Daley is having a lovely giveaway. Pop on over to her site and register to win!
http://suedaleydesigns.typepad.com/my_weblog/

QUILT GIVE AWAY!!!

Hop on over to the old red barn for the quilt give away! It is a beautiful quilt!
http://oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/

Family Heirlooms

I had a great day Saturday! I went up to visit with my Great Aunt Doodle. Her name is really Annie Lou, but we have always called her Aunt Doodle. She lives just 10 miles from me. You may remember her from one of my previous post. She is the one who makes the porcelain dolls in my great grandfathers old home. Her daughter, Peggy, had told me that Aunt Doodle had an old family Bible and I really wanted to take a look at it. So I asked Aunt Doodle if I could see it and take pictures. She was happy to oblige. She is the sweetest person. Below is a picture of the front of the Bible.
I could not find a date as to when it was printed, but I know it had to have belonged to my great great great grandparents as the first entries written in it are their names and birth dates and their children's names and birth dates. The pages were very brittle and so we did not look at all the pages only the ones with writing on them. I took lots of pictures of them. Below is one of the pictures. On the left side of the page you will see the information that I am sure my great great great grandmother wrote. They had such lovely handwriting back then and you can tell it is written with a quill pen and ink. On the right side of the page is births that my great great grandmother must have written as they are the names and dates of her children, plus one that we believe was a niece or nephew.
Below is a picture of my great grandparents, Lily and George Dumas. This was a picture hanging on the wall in one of Aunt Doodle's bedrooms and I took a picture of the picture. It is the best picture I have seen of the two of them! Notice his white hair. My Aunt Doodle has snow white hair just like his and so does one of my uncles. My great grandmother had died in 1958 before I was even born. But my great grandfather lived until 1972. I can only remember meeting him one time and that was when I was 7 years old. My brother had died and he came to my Aunts house where we were staying. I can remember my daddy taking me over to where he was sitting on the couch and introducing me and the one thing that I was amazed at was how white his hair was and how thick! I don't remember ever seeing him again, but that one memory has stuck with me all these years. People tell me my dad talks a lot like him. My dad tends to mumble when he talks and it is hard to understand him at times and they said Big Daddy talked the same way. We all called my great grandfather Big Daddy. I think my dad and his siblings called him that as they lived for a while with my great grandparents and maybe this was how they distinguished between their daddy and grandfather.
This was another photo that was in the same bedroom in Aunt Doodle's house. It is of her brother, James Franklin Dumas. He died at the age of 23 shortly after coming home from WWII. He was in the Navy and the ship he was on sank. Everyone tells me that he was in some really cold water for a long time and developed lung problems that he never completely healed of. I have never been able to find out what the name of the ship was that he was on. I am still trying. My Aunt Doodle was very young at the time as was my father and his siblings and therefore probably never knew the ships name. I think he was a very handsome young man.
Next Aunt Doodle showed me some beautiful things that were made by her and her mother. Below is a coverlet that my great grandmother made. It is made out of fertilizer sacks. There are four of them sewn together. The material is sort of a cross between muslin and canvas. It is a nice fabric. She drew the peacocks on the squares and embroidered them! I think it is awesome!
Here is a close up of one of the peacocks!
This is a basket quilt made by my great grandmother. Some of the baskets are hand pieced and some are machine pieced. The whole thing is hand quilted. It is lumpy in places as the old cotton batting they used tended to wad up some when washed. My Aunt Doodle said she remembered her mama having dresses made out of some of the materials.
Below are closeups of two of the baskets. I think they are beautiful!

This is a quilt that Aunt Doodle made. It is a queen size with 20 blocks. She hand appliqued the ducks and embroidered the cat tails and water. She also hand quilted it. Her quilting stitches are so small and precise! It is a beautiful quilt!
Notice the quilting on the border. She drew ducks, cat tails, waves, and clouds! It is truly amazing!
Here is a close up of one of the ducks and cat tails she quilted.
I think this was my favorite duck, although it is hard to choose! The photo turned sideways when I uploaded it, but maybe you can tell what it looks like anyway.
This is another quilt Aunt Doodle made. It is a dogwood quilt. I just fell in love with it and had to have the pattern! She lent me the pattern for it and the duck quilt to copy. I am not sure how many squares are in this quilt. There has to be at least 40. I didn't think to count and was unable to get the whole quilt in the picture. I am gonna have to call Aunt Doodle and ask her.
Here is a closeup of one of the dogwood blocks. Once again she did beautiful hand quilting.
This was one of two very old jars on a dresser in the bedroom where the dogwood quilt was.
This is what was inside the jar. It is a lock of Aunt Doodle's hair from when she was 2 years old! She said she had gotten bitten by a red bug on her head and had scratched at it so that it caused a bad sore that got badly infected on her head. So they had to cut off her hair. She had blonde curly hair and she said when it grew back it was straight and then got darker.
For the ones who don't know what red bugs are they are tiny tiny insects that you can't really see. You can get them a lot of times if you are out in the woods. And of course back when Aunt Doodle was young there were lots of woods where she lived. I got some once when I was out picking plums and did not even know it until that night when I started itching. I was still thinking it was mosquito bites until I showed them to my dad and he said it was red bugs and told me to put alcohol on them. They make you feel really sick.

Well, that is all I was able to take pictures of as my battery in my camera went dead. But I continued to look at some of the things in Aunt Doodle's house and told her I would have to take more pictures next time. She has a beautiful cathedral window quilt she had made. She has a beautiful crewel embroidery piece hanging on one wall of two Japanese ladies. Plus there are lots and lots of more beautiful things throughout her house she has made. I told her I knew where I got my love of handwork from! She is like me and likes to do a wide variety of handwork. I hope you have enjoyed my visit with Aunt Doodle. I really need to get up there to see her more. I usually always find out a little more family history while I am there.

I HAVE BEEN AWARDED!

I have been awarded! Imagine my surprise when I went to Arlette's blog (http://mousechirpy-polkadotpineapple.blogspot.com/) and found that I had been awarded with the Arte y Pico award! Arlette is a very talented lady! I love all the creations she makes and have learned a lot about making flowers, yo-yo's and pincushions. Please visit her blog and look at all the wonderful things she has made. Thank you so much, Arlette, for the award!

These are the rules according to Arlette:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.

4.The award winner and one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. To show these rules.

Here is the link to where this award originated Arte Y Pico.

Here are the fantastic blogs that I have chosen for this award!

1. Kelly of http://www.colorfuldayz.com/

2. Miss Sandy of http://quillcottage.blogspot.com/

3. Lily of http://blockaday.com/

4. Corry of http://dutch-blue.blogspot.com/

5. Joanna of http://appliquetoday.blogspot.com/

These ladies all have great blogs and I really enjoy reading them and seeing all the wonderful things they are making. Check them all out for some inspiration!

Small Hussif

Below is the small hussif I told you about in my previous post. This is the one I like to carry around with me with my needlework projects in. The picture below is of the front. The pocket that covers the whole front is created with one of the very first cross-stitch pieces I ever did. I was 21 when I started cross-stitching. I had decided I wasn't going to cross-stitch as I was afraid it would give me headaches and I had suffered with headaches so much. But a friend of mine was always cross-stitching when I would go visit her and watching her gave me the cross-stitching bug and so I had to go out and buy a book and thread! That started years of cross-stitching for me! I don't do much cross-stitch anymore. I like to embroidery more today, but I still have all my cross-stitch books just in case!! This is a picture of the back. Once again the cross-stitch piece forms a large pocket across the back. And once again it is another of my first cross-stitch pieces.
This is the end which shows the closure. I sewed in two pieces of ribbon on it and put snaps on them, then sewed buttons on the outside as decoration.
This is the inside. In the upper left corner is a pin cushion, next to it is a little pocket for my thimble. Under the pin cushion is my needle book. The cover of it is the ATC I did of my Mama. Beside that I made a pocket using that same vintage fabric that I used in the pincushion I made this past weekend. On the upper right are little ribbons hooked with snaps to put bobbins of thread on. Below them are little pockets to put my embroidery thread in or anything else I choose to. I made these pocket with some fabric I had saved from making Amber and I outfits alike when she was 3 years old. That was 17 years ago! Time sure flies! I used to love making Amber and I outfits alike. Before my daughter Tara was born I made Amber and I several outfits to match. I knew I would be tired with the new baby and would not feel like sewing. I will have to see if I can dig out some old pictures of the two of us matching and post them. Just so you won't think I neglected Tara, I did make all three of us dresses to match after she was a few months old and I made Tara and Amber lots of dresses to match. It was so fun dressing them alike!
This is the inside of my hussif with the needle book open and some of my supplies in it. You can see my thimble sticking out of it's little pocket. I love the leather coin thimbles. I have never been able to use the regular hard silver thimbles. I like something that really conforms to my finger and doesn't really feel like it is there.