Since we moved here a few years ago my reference library of quilt books has been stored in boxes in the basement. My old bookcases were in very bad shape from having been moved twice and, frankly, they were functional at best. The old bookcases would have looked out of place wherever I had put them in our new house. So I put that problem in the back of my mind and left the bookcases in the garage and my books packed away in the basement.

From time-to-time I have rummaged through the boxes of books to find a specific title. Whatever book I retrieved, it never seemed to make it back into the basement. Just like seeing an old friend, I didn’t want to loose track of it again. And so, in my sewing room, there were mounting piles of books with no place live.

Almost a year ago I accompanied my daughter-in-law to a new “big box” furniture store that had opened in the City and it was there that I found the solution to my problem. Ikea specializes in inexpensive storage solutions and it was there that I found the perfect bookcase for my books.

I knew the exact place in my house where it would fit. There is a long empty wall behind the door in the bedroom that is too narrow for a piece of furniture. It has looked bare and empty—until now. The bookcase is only 11 inches deep, it has glass doors to protect the books, it has height extensions to provide storage and display space from floor to ceiling and, best of all, it fits, as if custom-made for that spot.

I waited and I waited for my rebate check from Pres. Bush before buying the bookcases and to do my part in stimulating our nation’s economy. Finally! Last month our rebate check arrived and the bookcases were finally mine.

I cannot tell you how much fun it was unpacking each of those boxes and finding long-lost friends. Each book was new again. The process was extremely slow because I could not resist at least thumbing through the pages of every book before putting it on the shelf.

When I began quilting many years ago I found my best quilting resource was quilt history books with lots of pictures of antique quilts in them. I have thumbed through all of my books numerous times and it seems that each time through I have seen or learned something new.

From my quilt books I have learned history—both about quilts and our culture. I have learned design problem solving and effective use of color and fabric. I have read about the lives of women who went this way before me and who left a part of themselves in their quilts and their words.

I am inspired again—working on new ideas and getting much less sleep these days.

Below is a quote that I love from one of the older books in my collection. The book is The Standard Book of Quiltmaking and Collecting by Margaret Ickis.

Margaret quotes “one great grandmother back in Ohio” who said: ‘It took me more than twenty years, nearly twenty-five, I reckon,’ she told me softly, ‘in the evenings after supper when the children were all put to bed. My whole life is in that quilt. It scares me sometimes when I look at it. All my joys and all my sorrows are stitched into those little pieces. When I was proud of the boys and when I was downright provoked and angry with them. When the girls annoyed me or when they gave me a warm feeling around my heart. And John too. He was stitched into that quilt and all the thirty years we were married. Sometimes I loved him and sometimes I sat there hating him as I pieced the patches together. So they are all in that quilt, my hopes and fears, my joys and sorrows, my loves and hates. I tremble sometimes when I remember what that quilt knows about me.’”

Amen.

On a raining afternoon in July my friend, Linda, and I chanced upon a most wonderful and charming restaurant that was serving afternoon tea. We had been told there were good antique shops in the small town of Holly, Michigan, and we had taken a detour to investigate. It certainly was a great place for antiquing—more on that in another post—and by late afternoon our pocketbooks were almost empty and we were ready to rest.

On a side street, Battle Alley, just off the Holly’s historic downtown area we spotted this view and decided to investigate. There we found the Historic Holly Hotel that is now a restaurant only with a sign announcing a Victorian Afternoon Tea. It was the perfect opportunity to rest our feet and get out of the rain. Stepping inside we knew that we had just found a treasure.

We ordered their three course afternoon tea and waited to see what came. We were not disappointed.

Our first course consisted of a Cinnamon Scone, a Cranberry Muffin, Dessert Cream and Herbed Nuts. It was all delicious. The Herbed Nuts were especially interesting with a coating that combined the flavors of cinnamon, sugar, and cumin (yes–cumin). They were surprisingly good.

Next, our main course consisted of Herbed Chicken with Peach/Mango Chutney, an open-faced Cucumber Sandwich with Diced Red Pepper, and a Lawash (rollup) made from a spinach tortilla spread with a cream cheese and pimento and generously topped with crispy onions, bacon and leaf lettuce. How could it get any better we wondered? And then it did….

Our dessert course was served on a flat metal tray that held a Shortbread Cookie topped with Mango/Pineapple Salsa, a decadent deep dark Chocolate Truffle, and Kafir (sweet lemon variety) Lemon Cheesecake. Oh my!

Diana, our server, was friendly, eagar to answer any request, and most generous with her time and explanations about the Hotel and it’s history. It was a perfect visit. Long will memories of a delightful day of antiquing in Holly Michigan and afternoon tea at the Historic Holly Hotel stay with me.

The grasses that grew so profusely in the fields during our wet spring are now very dry and they are home to billions and billions, and probably more than that, of grasshoppers. A mild winter (temperature-wise), with a deep snow pack that protected grasshopper eggs, has resulted in a grasshopper plague here of epic proportions. A month ago they were tiny and a minor annoyance. When walking from the house to our garden/orchard, that is some distance away, tiny white specks (baby grasshoppers) flew with every step in the dry vegetation.

Time has passed and the grasshoppers have flourished. Munching away on every available plant they have grown into positive monsters. Today, one or two steps along the path toward the garden sends a shower of the hopping demons in every direction. They don’t plan ahead (or look before they leap) and likely as not they fly into you as away.

In defense of our garden/orchard we have learned that they do not like to be wet and so we keep that area of our yard well watered. We soak the garden early in the morning and late in the afternoon which has protected our produce to some degree.

A flock of starlings has made note of our watering schedule and they arrive early in the morning and feast on the grasshoppers who have been caught unawares in the garden area. Water and cool temperatures hamper the quick reactions of grasshoppers, making them an easy meal for the birds.

  A few mornings ago, after a huge breakfast on the back porch, one of our outdoor cats, Queeny the great hunter, noticed the flock of birds in the garden and crept toward them for a bit of sport. I was working inside the house with all of the windows open. I had noticed the starlings busy at their breakfast in the garden and was half-listening to their excited chatter among themselves.

Suddenly there was a great outcry from the garden and I looked up just in time to see Queeny sprinting toward the house with a look of terror on her face. A large group of the feasting starlings was giving chase. I had to laugh, it is not often you see the tables turned and the hunter being hunted.

Meanwhile, we are combating the grasshoppers as best we can, trying mightily to save the trees and berry bushes by making them as unappealing as possible to the hopping monsters. Our vegetable garden is thriving on so much water and we are soon to have fresh tomatoes, yellow crookneck squash, onions, cucumbers, and beets on our table in spite of those nasty insects.

At the moment, we are longing for cooler weather because with it the grasshoppers will be gone!

P.S. I have heard your pleas for the Christmas quilt pattern and I greatly appreciate your support. I am still considering it’s feasibilty and the format for possible publication. If I do publish it may be next spring. That will give me maximum exposure and it will give me time to finish the quilt. I will keep you posted.

Okay everybody I hear that you are anxious about being able to have the pattern for An Old Fashioned Christmas. In answer to your questions I am going to be completely honest.

When I first started to publish books and patterns there were only a few designers who were working with applique. A new book or pattern received exposure to the market for at least a year, or even longer, thus the costs associated with producing a new work was relatively easily recovered.

In recent years the quilt market has become flooded with books and patterns—a large percentage of them are for applique quilts. The life-span of a new design these days is six months at best. (And this is a Christmas quilt which shortens it’s life span even more.) With such a short time of good exposure it is difficult to recoup the cost of producing a well-presented publication. The cost to produce a pattern/book has continued to rise over the years making it more expensive than ever to put out a quality publication.

It is a quirk of mine that I am unable to cut corners and simply throw together a batch of patterns and publish them in an unprofessional format. If it is worthy of publication, it is worth doing well.

So there you have it, I am not trying to keep from sharing the Christmas quilt patterns with you. I have to be sensible about business and at this point I am uncertain about the financial risk of publishing this design. The patterns are not easy and they are not meant to be made in a day. How much of a market is there for them really?

This past weekend my sisters and I got together for our annual weekend retreat. This year I got to have it at my house. We are all separated by many miles. With all of our busy schedules we don’t seem to find many opportunities to get together.

Many times when friends or family get together for a few days, by the end of the prescribed time everyone is ready to part ways. It is not that way with my sisters, the more time we spend together the more I can see where weakness in one sister is a strength in another. When working together we all merge beautifully into a complete whole. And we all like each other! Family is a miraculous unit in many ways.

One of my sisters loves to garden and she would have happily spent all day working in our very large yard—but she was not allowed. Another sister is a worker bee when it comes to cleaning up and she always had meals cleaned up and tidied away before I got around to thinking about it. Another sister climbed up on a high stool to replace light bulbs that I would never attempt, and so on.

Because I am so well supplied with raw materials for being creative with fabric, we all got started stitching on a wool applique project of our own creating. Our mother would have been proud to see her daughters in the same room together busily working on a sewing project. It was her favorite way to spend free time and those skills were her gift to us.

Of the four sisters who were here (one sister could not make it), my wool piece was the least creative. Before they got here, I had decided to make a covering for a specific antique table that was inherited from my husband’s family. As you can see, I have lots of stitching yet to do to finish!

It was a lovely time and I don’t like to think about waiting a full year to spend time with them again. We belong together.

I have just returned from Michigan where I spent the weekend with like-minded quilters working on their own versions of An Old Fashioned Christmas quilt. It was lovely.

The facility was luxurious and the staff very accommodating. (It is going to take some adjusting to sleeping in a “regular” bed again. The beds were “just right” and the pillows were oh-so-soft. It felt just like what I would imagine sleeping on a cloud might be.)

The food was excellent and plentiful. Our dinners were prepared by our Amish friend, Sarah; she prepared enough food for hungry construction workers. I can’t get over how she can cook as good as everybody’s grandma should, she is only thirty years old, and she does it all on a wood stove…..

My friend Linda, who organized the retreat, thought of everything to pamper and spoil us—goodie bags, a field trip to a local quilt store and more treats and snacks than we could possibly consume. We stitched from early morning til late evening. We began with the Pincushion/Tree Ornament on Thursday evening (which everyone completed). The next day we began with basic applique instructions while working on this 8″ circling doves block.

Before the end of the retreat on Sunday several students had finished their first block and had moved on to another. It was a great get-away and a perfect retreat from the fast pace of everyday life.

Shown above are two special grandchildren and a very special blanket. Some time ago this very special blanket, named “Ho Ho”, developed two penny-sized holes in it. It’s owner, the little girl shown above, had heard that her Grandma Jeana could sew. And so one day she had a “great idea” and she asked if I could fix her blanket for her. 

Since both sides of the blanket were very important, the repair had to be good on both sides. I used a photocopier to reduce the preprinted flowers on the blanket and then appliqued identical flowers on both sides of the blanket (with fabric the little girl had chosen). I finished off the appliqued posies by quilting circles inside each flower to bind both sides of the flower patches together. That was over a year ago and, as you can see from this recent photo, the blanket and it’s patches have held up well.

 

 During a recent visit this same little girl brought along her favorite baby pillow. It has been much used and loved since her birth over four years ago and it was in much worse shape than the special blanket. The front side of this flannel pillow, shown above, was in good shape, but the back, which was one solid piece of the yellow fabric was thread bare and breaking apart.

This called for drastic measures to protect what remained of the pillow back and to distribute future wear on this pillow to a more stable surface.

I began again with a photocopy of the motifs from the yellow fabric (shown above) and made a much larger pattern that would cover the entire back side of the pillow. Said granddaugter helped by keeping me company, choosing the fabric, and coloring and decorating the pattern page with fabric scraps she had cut from the fabric she had chosen.

 

After the applique block was complete, I constructed an additional backing square with scalloped edges to frame and to fit behind the applique square. I then attached them both, by hand, to the fragile back of the pillow. Two lines of hand stitching, on the outside edges of the pillow, where it is more stable, hold both of the new backing layers in place. The scalloped edge is loose and it stands out from the pillow surface. Hopefully the appliques and the scalloped frame will receive most of the future wear and the pillow will be spared. And here, drum roll please, is the finished result.

 

  

Many years ago a kind neighbor, with three little boys, shared her recipe for Fruit Punch Concentrate with me. My neighbor was frugal and, I believe, ahead of times in her approach to healthy eating. Not that this is necessarily a healthy drink, but the ratio of real fruit juice content is considerably higher than commercially prepared fruit punch and the cost per serving considerably lower. And, it tastes good!

From time-to-time I make this drink in the summertime. It makes a gallon of concentrate, so a thirsty season is a good time to make it. The concentrate keeps for a month in the refrigerator.

Fruit Punch Concentrate

46 oz. can of pineapple juice

12 oz can of frozen orange juice concentrate

5 lb. bag of granulated sugar

5 pkgs Cherry Kool-Aid powder (unsweetened)

5 pkgs Lemonade Kool-Aid powder (unsweetened)

Combine all ingredients (in order listed) in a 4 qt. pan saucepan and place on medium-low heat. Stir continuously to combine the ingredients and to melt the sugar. When the concentrate is no longer “gritty” (from the undissolved sugar) on the bottom, remove from heat and pour into a large storage container. (I use a jar with a wide mouth opening for easy measuring.) During this process my saucepan does not even get hot on the top edges. The sugar dissolves quickly and the concentrate is only gently heated to melt the sugar.

To make punch, measure five parts water to one part of concentrate. For example: Add five cups of water to one cup of concentrate.

Enjoy!

Summer has arrived in my corner of the world. The nights are still cool for sleeping and the days are sunny with temperatures in the mid-to-high 90’s. Our garden and our small orchard are doing well—so far (gophers and deer took their toll last year—but that is another story).

Our valley is mostly agriculture with many fields of alfalfa and a few fields of grazing cattle, horses, and sheep. Many of the livestock have been moved to the mountains for summer grazing but a few herds are still here in the valley.

Irrigation sprinklers are a constant and cooling sight along country roads. During the spring and early summer the sprinklers run constantly because the irrigation water is unlimited with the overflow run off from the mountains. Later in the summer the water supply will be controlled, but for now it is plentiful and being used liberally. Last week, on my way to the grocery store, I saw this surprising sight.

 

At first I thought that an irrigation pipe must have just burst because the water was not being directed by a sprinkler and because the sheep were gathered around and inside the water spray. Later, the next day when it still spraying full blast and the sheep were still lounging around and in the spray, I realized that the farmer had opened up the irrigation valve and was letting it spray on purpose. He was providing a cooling dip for his sheep, water to drink, and irrigation for part of his field all at the same time. Lucky sheep!

 

When I was in my teens I spent time every summer making school clothes, for myself and my younger sisters. I enjoyed the process and preferred it to other household chores that were the alternative to sewing. I made some clothing again when our daughter was little, but it was not until last month that I sewed any clothing in many years.

I made this dress for our oldest granddaughter. There is a big lavender bow in the back that is not shown in the picture. Isn’t she beautiful?

Apparently I am not the only one who does not sew clothing much any more. When we went to the store, there were only a few patterns to choose from and the one my granddaughter chose was very simple—no zipper, buttons, pockets, etc. That was great, I thought I had gotten off easy.

 However, there was some trouble when the beautiful princess tried on her new dress. It seems that the one and only way to get into this outfit is arms first (held high over her head), head second, and then down to fit into place.

I would add a zipper next time!