Hello,
I keep seeing and hearing signs of spring. There are lots of Robins around now. It is great to walk and hear all the songs.   I am not adjusting to time change very well.  Having trouble getting to sleep at night and over sleeping in the morning.  I hope this settles soon.
This week has been quiet as the Diva meeting got canceled due to the fact that Kendell, where we meet was closed to visitors. This pandemic is having an impact.

Progress Report: Bags This project is done now. I made 19 grocery bags for Elizabeth for her project. I am sure folks with use and enjoy them, They all took about 25 min a piece to finish.

 

 

 

 

Beyond This is my second work where I am completing Regina’s start. She really made it easy as she just gave me the fabric with the circular print on it. I did the wavy cut insertions and I am now adding the pink circles on top with free motion stitching to hold them in place. It is a fun project for me.

Talisman Pouches I saw an article in Quilting Arts that suggested this technique. I have done most of them before so I saved some felt- the base and went to work. They both need lots of embellishment.

Cowls I just keep working away on these. I have pulled yarn for two more and then I will stop. I will pass them forward to my friends.

 

 

I”m in  real blue themed thing at the moment.

 

 

 

 

Drawing  I am challenging myself to do a bit of non objective drawing due to Barbara’s influence.  It is fun and colorful

 

 

New Work This too is one of the pieces of fabric that Regina gave me. I think it was to be used with the first one- but I am not going that way. I have fused down a lot of cut ways from my class with Betty Busby from last summer for this project. I will do hand work on this too. I seem to have piled up a lot of that sort of thing lately.

 

Birds    I am all set now to do two Warblers for my next bird piece.

 

Childhood Memories – Carroll Yard
The yard played a role in my life in the house in Carroll. Out front and to far south of the lot was a large triple trunk-ed Mulberry Tree. Gene and I had great fun climbing experiences in that tree . We enjoyed the fruit when it was ripe too. Dad teased us about our climbing by saying” If you fall out, be sure to land on your head- then you will not do any permanent damage.”
Along the southern boarder between our yard and the Feltons’s was a wonderful hedge of Lilac bushes. One could walk out the kitchen door and onto a little poach and smell them in spring. They remain one of my favorite flowers and we have lilac bushes in our yard today.
The back yard had three terraces. It also supported 5 black walnut trees in that part of the yard . On the second terrace was a log cabin/play house we inherited from the Annabergs. The logs were small about 4″ wide and cut in half nailed to a frame. It was about 5 feet square with a door opening on the north side and big open windows on the other three. One could climb to the roof using the window openings. We defended it form “invisible “ invaders in the form of Indians, Pirates and Spanish Conquistadors.
On the next terrace level was the one that surrounded the patio outside the basement door. One climbed four steps from the patio to the ground level and there was the T close lines. My assignment was to take the clothing out of the washer and hang them on the lines before I waked to school. I recall taking frozen clothes down from the lines after I got home too. I knew about freeze dried long before I herd the term in advertising.
On the last terrace layer was Dad’s vegetable garden with as strawberry bed running along the back. The house behind us was owned by two sisters, Edith and Helen. Their huge Rhubarb patch was along the boarder line between our lot and theirs. I was given free rain to eat as much rhubarb as I wanted. It was a great “bitter” treat in the spring.
All along the north side of the property was a white picket fence that Dad built. I remember helping Mom paint it. At Thanksgiving the first year we lived there when we went to Grandmother Esters’s house for the feast. In the morning before we ate Dad, Mom , Gene and I went out into the big pasture and Dad dug up about 75 small cedar trees. Gene and I held open grain bags that Mom placed the trees inside. We took them back to Carroll and planted them along the picket fence on our side . It made a great hedge by the time we move away. I did the same type of thing for our home in Muncie, Indiana. Grandpa did not miss the trees at all.
The only other bit of landscaping I recall was the planting of a Blue Spruce outside my window on the north corner of the house. For several years Robins built a nest just a my window level and I could watch the eggs hatch and see them feed the young. Beyond the tree was a light post and steps that descended to the drive. The face of each step had a row of bricks placed vortically along the front edge.
Keep Creating
Carol