I Think I've Turned a Corner!

Yesterday I felt like I had sort of "turned a corner", or at least a little corner. I did go upstairs to my sewing room and start organizing things I got from my mother's house that I wanted for my sewing room and cleaning up in there so I can get started with my hobby again. I had a lot of things to wash and the denim quilt above was one thing I washed and put it outside on my screened-in porch to air dry.

After my mother died and my brother and two sisters and I started talking about the things we wanted to keep of hers, the quilt pictured above was the first thing that came to my mind. This quilt is about 45 years old. I really didn't know what kind of shape it was in or even if it was finished but it is finished. There are places that have worn or frayed or stitches have come loose, etc. and it is very primitive in design but the reason I love this old quilt and wanted it so badly is because of the good memories it brings to me.

I think I was about 15 years old when my mother and I worked on this quilt together. It was her idea. She just wanted to cut up old jeans of ours into these little squares and do some sort of design on each square, then join them together into a quilt. I hadn't done any kind of sewing much at that time. I did take what they called home economics in high school and hated it but I think this was after we worked on this quilt. My mother at that time owned a Merle Norman Cosmetics store and we would work on this quilt there when times were slack. I just have such fond memories of doing this with my mother. Then she put it together. I think she must have zigzagged around each square and then crocheted them all together. I don't know when she had time to do this because she worked all day and had four children at the time, the youngest being probably around two years old. She was just amazing at the things she accomplished!

Here's a close-up of one of the squares that I did. You can see how childish my stitches were but I was so proud of those stitches and that design. We made up all of our designs. We didn't have a pattern of any kind. This was all made up in our minds and we just used whatever scraps of materials that we could find. I remember my mother praising everything that I did. She was building self esteem and love of sewing with me as well as a bond.

Here's one of her blocks. There is one little place by the 3 on the right that's frayed from just age but you can see the difference in her stitches and mine above. I wonder how she chose the time, 3 o'clock? Maybe because that's when I got out of school and rode the school bus to her place of business every afternoon to help her until closing time? This quilt is full of memories and I love it.

Still Counting!

Here are some wooden spools that I found at my mother's house. I was really amazed at how many I found. I knew she had some but thought just a few. There are around 45!! (I seem to be counting things lately - Barbies last night and wooden spools today! ha!)

Last night as my husband and I were watching a movie, I took the thread off all 45 spools! Then right before I went to bed, I googled wooden spool crafts and found all kinds of things you can do with them, some I would do and some I wouldn't dare.

But I think they look pretty just sitting in this old bowl of my mother's on her old tea cart. What do you think? Any ideas?

Twuly, Twuly, Twuly Outwageous

Here she is - Barbie!! This morning I got up and went in the attic of our garage to get some empty boxes to use to pack things for the LAST DAY at my mother's house. As I was looking around, I saw this box labeled on top - BARBIES. I was in a hurry and didn't have time to check and see if there really were Barbie dolls in there and decided I would check when I got home.

When I got home tonight, I went upstairs in the garage and brought that box down. In the box were 22 Barbies, 2 Barbie little sisters, 5 Kens, and four dolls called Jem dolls.

Both of my girls just absolutely loved playing with Barbies but my oldest daughter especially loved those Jem dolls. One was blonde, one had purple hair, one had hot pink hair, and one had bright blue hair. They were in a band and the one song I remember was a song that said they were truly, truly, truly outrageous. Erin substituted a W sound for all R sounds at that age so she would sing that song as twuly outwageous and it was SO cute!

Now that I'm through at my mother's, I'm wanting to go through boxes up in our garage and see what I can find.

Pictured above is the only Barbie that was completely dressed right down to her little white high heel shoes.

Here's a close-up of the Barbie above. I wanted you to see that she has on heart earrings!

Lullabies - Another Memory Found

I found yet another fond memory of my childhood as I was going through my mother's things - a lullaby. The dictionary defines a lullaby as a slow, quiet song sung to children to make them go to sleep.

All my life, this song has been in my head and I knew my mother must have sung it to me. So one day when I was visiting her after she moved down here (which was about five years ago), I sang the lyrics to her and asked her if she sang that song to me. She said she did. I asked her if she remembered who sang it and where the song came from and she said she couldn't remember that.

So. . . . what did I do? I googled it and came up with ALL the lyrics. I only remember two paragraphs of the words to this song. The information I got said it was written by Patsy Cline. Probably a lot of people recorded and sang it. It's called:

That's How Much I Love You

If I had a nickel, you know what I would do

I'd spend it all on candy, and give it all to you

I'd spend it all on candy, and give it all to you

'Cause that's how much I love you, baby That's how much I love you.

If you were a horsefly, and me an old grey mare

I'd stand and let you bite me, and wouldn't move a hair

I'd stand and let you bite me, and wouldn't move a hair

'Cause that's how much I love you, baby That's how much I love you.

Now I need to find it on uTube and see how many versions I can find to listen to!

I have sung it to Paige in the past but I need to remember to keep singing it to her and pass it along.

Nostalgia

Today I spent the day with my mother. We watched church TV, ate lunch, and then I asked if I could look through her crocheting things. I am looking for a particular type pattern.

As we were looking through her crocheting things, we found a card from a craft club she belonged to when she was a young woman. It cost $1 a month to belong and they would send a kit for you to do of different kinds of crafts.

On this particular card (part of which is pictured above), there was a list of about 300 people who won gifts by entering some sort of sweepstakes with them and there were drawings of the prizes possible to win. This picture of a hair dryer was one of the prizes. When I saw it, I just burst out laughing. I had a hair dryer like this when I was a teenager. I remember it well. I would wash, rinse and comb the tangles out of my hair, then roll it on rollers and sit under this hair dryer. It was really a cool thing to own one of these hair dryers! ha!

My mother and I had the best laugh over this. I just wonder if any of you out there remember this hair dryer?

Dear Old Auburn!

I took this photo when we went to the AU/LSU basketball game a few weeks ago. I love it. It reminds me of my college days and what a good time I had. I just love seeing these "kids" together having a good time "up on the roof"!

When I was old enough to go to college, I didn't want to go. I was too scared to go. I had never been much of anywhere but where I grew up and I was too insecure to go to college. My daddy told me I was going whether I liked it or not! I was so mad at him for that but now I am so thankful he did that. It made a big change in my life.

Dear Old Auburn I love you and always will! I was just thinking of you today for some reason.