Category Archives: Hand work

Childhood Memories, Drawing, Hand work, Pixies Group, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs)

Traveling

Hello,
I am now home from our trip to see relatives in Iowa and Indiana. Everyone was very welcoming and we had a good time. In South Bend Eric and I went to the Zoo, the Studebaker Museum and the Oliver Mansion too. I loved  the tourtuses texture.   The shell looks like a topographical map to me.

 

 

 

 

When we were first married we had a Lark , but there were none of them in the    Studebaker  Museum. Lots of cool cars though.

 

 

The Oliver Mansion was built with money from the perfection of cold metal plows. It was a beautiful example of Victorian life. It was really forward looking too as it was built with electricity in mind, even though gas was the only power available at the time.

 

 

I was quite  impressed by  my cousin Casey’s hobby of building structures with individual blocks.     They are like lagos but no locking parts and no glues.     This castle was his  latest production.

 

 

 

Casey had Grandfather’s stuffed Alligator on the shelf along with lots of other old family stuff. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Casey  gave me lots of old family photos. I was flipping through them and came across one of my Mom and her brother Dale that gave me chills. Just before we left I started a piece called Day Dreaming and I had been looking for greens in my fancy fabric suit case. I came across this little old silk dress and decided to use it as the top for the person in my piece. What gave me the chills was it was the dress Mom was wearing in the photo and I did not know that it was one of her pieces of clothing. I am excited to get going on the project now with its new layer of meaning.   I feel confident that my Grandmother Ruth did the Embroidery work.
I had zoom meetings with QuEGs and Pixies this week and I am beginning to get back in the swing of things.

Progress Report: Enamel Beetles      It is 40″ w X 24″ t.  I  finished this work just before I left on my trip.

 

 

I added a beaded butterflies that I had purchased from a friend years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

Day Dreaming   Here is the lay out for the quilt   with the dress pinned down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tattered I am building texture on this work with the beading. I think it will be completed this week.

 

 

Circles This quilt is to the quilting stage now. I am doing zig-zag quilting lines inside the circles to add interest.

 

 

 

 

Knitting I am now working on the final color band. I hope to finish this work this week as well.

 

 

Daily Practice This piece gets only a few stitches every evening. As I try to knit five rows on the poncho during the news first.

 

 

Drawing    I did a little drawing this week just to keep my hand in the game.

 

 

 

 

 

Stitch work    A few weeks ago as a part of stitch club there was an assignment were one filled in areas with random stitching.  I thought this would be  a good project to take on the road as it did not require as much  presion as some things do.   This is how far I got.

 

Childhood Memories- Graduation June 1966

As the end of my senior year drew near, life became a cycle of tests and other activities. Tests are a natural part of the end of any school year, but they seemed more intense this year. At the beginning of May I participated in Musical Moods, for which I made simple costumes for Susan and myself out of printed towels. The flutes played “Quiet Village” while Susan and I on the side did simple hand motions like a Hawaiian dance, only we were seated on our knees. I still feel very calm when I hear that tune. After that it was one banquet after another. First was the Honor Society Banquet, at which the new junior members were charged with upholding academic principles during the coming year. This was followed by the Math Banquet and then the Thespian Banquet. Finally, the senior girls organized a Mother/Daughter Banquet. It was strange to go to the Student Center so often to be served as apposed to serving, which I had been doing for years. All three Grandparents and my cousin Danny came to town, because Mom was graduating from Ball State with her doctorate, too.

The Field House was closed so that a new floor could be installed, so the Senior Baccalaureate ceremony was held at South Side High School. I remember how hot it was and how we girls joked that we wanted to wear just our slips under our robes–but we didn’t, of course. Mom’s Ball State ceremony was on Sunday afternoon and it too was hot, but we were outside on the green and under a tree. The Graduates were in the sun. We were seated on the right side and could easily see Mom walk up the steps of the Art Building to the stage to receiver her degree. I was very proud of her. Monday evening was the Senior Banquet, the last one. My grandparents gave me a small portable tape recorder as a graduation gift. I was delighted and had Grandpa Howard tell me a bunch of war stories that evening. (I wish I knew what happened to that tape now.)

The final event was my Tuesday night graduation at Ball State’s Emens Auditorium. We rehearsed in the morning, and I brought Mike Coleman and Margaret home with me afterwards for pizza with the family. Then all the kids, Gene included, played games in the afternoon. (Gene had a bit of a graduation of his own, as he was moving from Storer Jr. High to Muncie Central in the fall.) Afer my friends left, Mom and I put on our robes and so did Dad. Gene wore his suit, and we took lots of photos. In the evening, I dressed in my robe again and left to play with the band before the ceremony. I felt the band sounded its best of the whole year at that performance. Even with 356 graduates, the ceremony seemed to fly by. When I got to the stage to get my diploma, I smiled–and felt proud as I walked back to my seat. Then time seemed to freeze until we all flipped our tassels. We filed out to “Pomp and Circumstance,” a piece I had played for two years, and I felt good. After the ceremony I took Danny with me to two graduation parties and had a great time. We ate cake and talked a lot. It was all a bit sad, too, as I knew I would never see some of these people again.

A summer of events was in front of me, but for folks like Terry, a gal I had seen daily for three years, it was off to work. Our paths only crossed one more time after that evening.

Stay safe

Carol

Childhood Memories, Curvie Cuts, Enamel Beetles, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Uncategorized

Receptions

Hello,
We are starting to feel a bit like fall around here.  More fungus in the yard as you can see.   Eric and I took a long walk this week and did some exploring in our local cemetery.

 

 

 

Oakwood is very old and full of beautiful stone work.  We walked all the way to the old entrance and this is a shot of the Chapel there.   

 

 

There were lots of hills too.

 

 

 

It has been a busy week, with two receptions and a Pixies meeting.   we shared our work hand had a good talk.  I enjoyed both receptions as well.   The first was on Friday in Homer for the Diva group. This shot is or Maureen and her work. The second  was    the Associated Artists reception  in the Manilas Library and was on Sunday. Fun to talk with fellow artists as I had not seen many of them in almost two years.   Glad things are getting a little closer to normal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Lap # 18 This work is 40″ X 56″. The colors sure are summery and peasant.

 

 

 

 

 

Enamel Beetles. I get excited when I can see the end of a project and this time I made a big error in my excitement. I did not measure the work to make sure it was square. I only discovered it when I went to measure for the size. So this morning I had to take the facings off two sides and trim it correctly.

Knitted Poncho I try to put in five rows of knitting every evening on this project. I only have the remainder of the turquoise ball and all the purple one to use up to finish the job.

New Hand Work We area going on a drive west to visit cousins and aunts so I need a new hand project. This is the start.

 

 

 

New Work – Black, Gray and Blue. This work went together very quickly. It is all layered up now too and I only need to decide about the quilting pattern to go forward.

 

 

 

New Project I want to do a piece using the poppies I created earlier so this it my start. I think I will add a figure on the left.

 

 

 

 

Lap # 19 I pulled the fabric and cut the connecting strips for this new project yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- Spring 1966

Spring proved to be a very busy time for Mom and me. She was working hard to finish up her desolation. She had enjoyed the field trips the three previous summers with Dr. Cooper to Hawaii, Alaska and Jamaica. I was surprised at her because she could not swim, but she had spent five weeks snorkeling and collecting plants and animals from the sea floor in Jamaica. My senior year she really had to buckle down and get things done. She developed a questionnaire for elementary kids about their science interests. When the results came back, I helped her a little with the coalition of the results. Spring meant studding the data and drawing conclusions and writing about them. It also meant a defense of her findings to the folks on her committee. She was very nervous about that.
I was busy with school, work and lots of events. In early April I went on a double date with Mike Ritter and another couple to Indianapolis to the Circus. I remember the parade at the beginning with horses and elephants, and the early act of trained Tigers. But by the end of that event I was not feeling too well. My stomach ached and I finally asked Mike to take me to the infumery so I could lay down. He went back to the show with my urging and that attendant looked me over and we talked. I nearly sat up and slapped him when he asked me it I was Pregnant. He backed away quickly and said “ I had to ask.” I do not remember much else but I do know we rushed the hour dive home with me in pain the whole time. By the thime wer got to Muncie, things were worse so they took me directly to Ball Memorial Hospital emergency room. Some one must have called my folks because I remember Dad being there and Dr Ball. After the Dr examined me I was told I’d need an emergency Appendectomy. I also got a scolding form Dr Ball for wearing a girdle at my age, and I never wore one again. My cousin Tracy had her appendix removed the previous year and later we compared scars. I was in the hospital for four days and on the way home in the car I realized all the leaves had come out and the world was green. For the second spring in a row I had missed the opening of the spring leaves. The appendix was not the end of my problems in the lower eudemon that spring. Shortly after returning to school my period started. But unlike the usual week, it went on and on. After 28 days I told Mom. It was really heavy by that time and I was going through a pad every two classes. I remember standing up from a math lesson and feeling a big clot move out of me. Dr Ball ended up giving me iron and birth control pills to get it under control. It was an awful experience. I celebrated my 18 Birthday in the middle of all of this. I went out with the gang and we had ice cream. I got lots of cards from them and many form the relatives too. I also was treated to Cake and Ice cream at home that year.
The next big event was the Junior/ Senior Ball. Keith and I went to this one together too. I don’t know who asked who to this event. I made my own dress this time and had fun doing so. It was light blue brocade cotton. I felt so glamorous. The dress later became the dress that I altered to become Lady Guinevere’s costume when we did “Robin Hood” while I was teaching at Onondaga Hill. The ball, called “Rapacity in Gold”, was not so not so golden. I ended up driving do to a little mix up and things just went down hill from there. It was very hot and Keith did not want to dance. We ended up having a fight that ended our relationship. I’m not sure if I drive him home, but I was home and putting the car in the garage by 12:30. All kinda crazy, and Graduation was still a month away.

As I mentioned we are going on a road trip next week so there will not be a post.

Stay safe and keep Creating
Carol

100 day Challenge, Bare Forest, Childhood Memories, Curvie Cuts, Enamel Beetles, Lap Quilts, Shows, Tattered Memories

Beginning of fall

Hello,
I have enjoyed a busy two weeks sense I posted last. On Monday last week I helped hang the new show at the Center for the Arts in Homer NY. It was great to see the gals in the group an to help with the set up.
This one is Noel’s contribution. She hand dyes most of the silk she uses in her work.

 

 

 

 

 

This is Donnas newest piece. I really like how she builds her one of a kind sculptures with found objects. This gal has wings made from Victorian curtain tie backs.

 

 

 

 

Cheri did a great job with this cheery piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are Mary’s ladies. I had to depart before the hanging was complete so that is why the wires are hanging down from the work here. The opening in a week from Friday.

I then got on the road and drove back north and picked up Nancy for our drive up to Mill Site Lake. Judy and I decided that we have been doing this for about 35 years.   This retreat was for years the sign that summer was over and school was starting.       Judy  got me started on a knitting project. I am working on creating a poncho.
Patti joined us on Tue and we had fun. Swimming, Kacking, and talking filled our time. We also did a lot of walking. It is always so peaceful there.

 

 

Liz and I did two color runs for our dyeing project this week. Turquoise to purple worked well.

 

 

But the yellow to raspberry one is not as strong. I do like all the colors though.

 

 

 

Progress Report: Granite and Silver This work is 45″ X 42.5″. I really like how the Silver Maple leaves look on the granite background. This work is based on a photo from Adirondack Life magazine.

 

This work is also my entry for the Associated Artist show at the Manlius Public Library.

 

Enamel Beetles I made more beetles this week. I think I am ready to start stitching them down.

 

 

100 Days Wed was day 100.  So I am done with making parts now. I will put it all away for a while and let my mind rest on this project before I begin to sew the parts together.

 

Bare Trees I thought it would be fun to do a forest with many layers of trees in lighter and lighter shades of machine drawing.

Tattered Memories This quilt is made up of cut away parts from Granite and Silver. I am embellishing it with lots of beading now.

Pillow I have three  New Pillows Mola’s that are just setting in a drawer  Have become  pillows where they will be seen. I am  stuffing  them with the trimmings of quilts.

 

 

Childhood Memories- culture and fun

For all the sadness I felt about Grandfather’s death I quickly got bach into the swing of things. I usually worked two nights a week at the Student Center and I seemed to fill most of the other evenings too. I went to the Movies a lot that spring.  I saw “Thunder Ball” and “The Great Race” as well as the foreign films on Sunday afternoons that Ball State offered. I remember seeing “Knife in the Water” and “ Unicorn in the Garden” there. Margaret and I went to the “Sleeping Beauty Ballet”, “Barefoot in the Park” and “ My Fair Lady” at Emerson auditorium. The Drama Department at Ball State put on “ Three Penny Opera”, “Fantasticks” and “Under Milk Wood”. It was great.
Gene and I decided to take Scuba Diving Lessons at the YMCA with Phil Ritter, Mike’s older brother. I enjoyed it and learned enough to certified as did Gene. I went on to help Phil teach classes while I was in collage too. I went along on many diving trips over the summers in lakes in Indiana. The visibility was limited and there was lots of mud, but it was still enjoyable. Sometimes we went water skiing on those trips too. The buddy system really works! One time in the fall Phil and I went diving in a spring fed pool. He wanted some polls that he knew were on the bottom as he wanted to put roll bars on a car he was going to enter in a race at the local track. We worked at getting them untangles and up from the bottom. As we neared the end of the process, I took a breathe and no air was left in my tank. We were down more than one G so I knew I could not shoot to the surface without doing damage to my lungs!   I frantically shingled to Phil that I had on air. He took a deep breath and passed me his regulator were I gratefully took two lungs full before returning the regular to him. We grabbed the last poll and sharing his air slowly rose to the surface. I never was so frighted diving again. Phis said it was probably due to the extra effort we were exerting to get the polls untangled and up to the top. I only remember on other outstanding event to do with diving and that was the time went diving under the ice. After descending through the cut in the ice we could see farther then usual do to the calm water under the frozen surface. When we got close to the bottom we really stirred up the mud however. We followed out old bubble trail   from the under  side of the ice back to our cut opening. It was really cold when we climbed out and I remember how cold the area around my lips was and the small patch of skin between the mask and the hood of my wet suit felt frozen.
The next big event in my senior year was the Senior Prom – “ From Lillepops to Roses” was the theme.   I worked on decorations  and  made big Lollipops.     I asked Keith to go with me. Jon Walters asked me on the Monday before the dance, but Keith had accepted by that time so I went with him. Keith wore a white jacket and a bow tie. I had a dress with a white short sleeve top and a long pink skirt. I gave him a carnation boutonniere and he gave me a wrist courage of white carnations, surrounded by baby pink rose buds and leaves of pink. We danced many dances and hug out with kids form band at the  dance. We left a little early to go to the Pizza King and got a table under the willow in the Willow Room. We ate Pizza and had a good time along with friends. I got home at 3 AM and stay up to help Gene warp his papers for delivery that morning. Then I crashed and slept until noon on Sat.  Then  I ran off to help dismantle stuff from the dance. That was a bit sad, but clean up is part of the progress.

Stay safe
Carol

100 day Challenge, Childhood Memories, Craow Calling, Daily Practice, Diva Meetings, Drawing, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Fallen, Hand work, Lap Quilts

Summer Travel

Hello-
I hope folks had a good Forth of July.  We sure had lots of fireworks in our area.   I enjoyed my trip to Ohio to see a lost cousin. She really showed us around her area and I enjoyed the covered bridges of her county. We saw the longest one in the country and it is also a double bridge as the long one  is on top of a gully with a smaller covered  foot bridge underneath it at tht bottom of the gully.

Liz ans I dyed on Monday. I will try to wash them out tomorrow. I also had two Zooms meetings- the QuEGs group and Pixies. In addition I had two live meetings. The Quilt Diva’s meant at Cheri’s house and we made lots of decisions about the up coming show in Sept.

The FAB group meant as well. Patti brought her little loom and she worked the whole meeting adding a few inches to her scarf. Sharon shared her new project with lots of little units that she will build to float on top of a quilt base.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Dark Side of the Moon 40″ w X 59″ l. This work in made mostly from kimono fabrics that Noel gave to me. It is a mixture of machine quilting and hand work.

 

 

 

 

 

The hand work is in the center of the metallic circles.

 

 

 

Calling Crows 36″ w X 52.5″ l. I drew all five of the bird panels. They are done with colored pencils and crayons. Again the silk is from Noel. I quilting flying crows in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fallen This work is an experiment. Sharon kindly talked me through the technique on the phone. I did not fully get it as she told me she would not have done what I did if it had been hers. But not knowing what to do never stopped me when it comes to quilting. It goes off to the washer now with the hope of lots of fraying so the cuts show up.

Smoldering  Sense California is again  experiencing wildfires, I am doing a new piece on this topic. It is the early aftermath that I am focusing on this time. This work is only about half pinned in place.

 

 

 

Butterfly-  lap quilt  I am still doing the thread painting of the Butterfly to be applied to the top when it is done.

 

 

100 Day Challenge I keep using the sports images from the news paper for my inspirations for this project. I did a few extra this week so I am showing work up to day 40 and we are only 38 days into the challenge. But I know that my week end will be a busy one and I do not like to play catch up.

 

 

Daily Practice I finished one more panel am I am ready to start a new one now.

 

 

Drawing I keep putting in time on this project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adolescence- Spring trip to Washington D C

The year I was a Jr in high school the family trip was to Washington D C. We started out early on a snowy morning and entered the Applications after a long day of driving. I was struck by how much iron was present in the mountains and how many pine trees there were. We had intended to stay in Shenandoah National Park, but found it was closed. So we drove farther east and camped on the side of the road. We got up to more snow that melted quickly as the day warmed up. Our first visit was to Mt Vernon. It was a big estate with rooms that I saw as smaller then I expected it was a very big complex  however.   No mention of a black presence in 1965. From there we went to Arlington National Cemetery were we visited the Thumb of the Unknown Solder. The guards looked smart in their matching pattern. Then we went of to check out the Eternal Flame at John Kennedy’s grave sight. The vast fields of white crosses sure brought home the costs of war to me. Everything is so close together that going to Lincoln Memorial was an easy next step. I was most impressed by the carving of Lincoln’s hands.  We then  went  along the reflecting pool up to the Washington Moment.   We climbed all 66 flights of stairs with 18 steps in each flight to get to the top. It only took Gene and I 16 min. to get to the bottom when we when down. Mom and Dad followed much more slowly. Our next stop was the Capital building. I found the Rotunda to be much bigger than I expected and both the House and Senate to be smaller. Mom remained to check out me that The Freedom Lady sculpture on the top as we walked away. We  started for the campground we got a little lost and went in circles around the building complex several times before heading home. Dad accidently ran a red light and there were four policemen on the corner. The did not stop us- Mom guessed that they saw the Indiana license plate and let it slide. We camped that night in a small camp ground called Prince Edward. I wonder if it is still there. Tuesday we got up and went back into Washington DC to do the Smithson. I enjoyed the special exhibit of “Animals in Art” a lot.   I did a drawing of  sculpture of a mother chimp cuddling her young one.    We saw lots of manufacturing equipment along with lots of old automobiles. In the Natural History Museum Mom and I spent two hours in the basement and only did about half. We did the ground level after lunch and saw a Blue Whale , the Hope Diamond,  Witch Dr Masks and a great collection of shrunken heads. By 4:30 we all had “museum feet” and pilled into the car and drove to the Air Port to watch plains take off and detox a bit. We rested  and then went to the National Archives building. The Constatation had a place of honor in the rotunda along with the other founding documents. We walked right up to them and could easily read them thought the glass. I was a surprised by how yellow the paper was and how faded the ink. One could purchase copies in a little kiosk near the door but we did not.   The day was full and we all slept well that night.

Stay safe

Carol

Childhood Memories, Curvie Cuts, Daily Practice, Dark Mystery, Drawing, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Lap Quilts, Saturday Afternoon, Sisterhood of the Scissors, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Busy Week

Hello,
This week had been exciting because I had two meetings where we meant face to face.    What a relief as we all get vaccinated and the governor  lifts the restrictions  of  Covid.    I did not realize how much one reads body language. And  in these meetings,  there was no talking over one another either. The first meeting was with the Quilt Diva’s. We meant in the Schweinfurth after picking up our work form the Members Show. We did business and then shared our work. Alice has been working with clay and these are her “obers” .

 

 

 

Barbara had a real nice piece. I brought home five works for other artists that live here in town and will distribute them all back to their owners by tomorrow. There was also a Pixies meeting on line and it was up lifting too.

 

 

 

The second meeting was with four of the FAB group here at my house. Again we all had a lot to say and enjoyed our selves. It is so nice to set out doors and enjoy each other and the garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I worked on the Textile Art Stitch Club project. This week she showed us how to add punch needle texture t our work. I also finished up my Blue Fox from the last assignment this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Saturday Afternoon This work is 36″ X 34″. I learned a lot about yarn applique doing this project. It is a skill I need to work at I think.  The project is an answer tot eht Picasso Challenge by the Sisterhood of the Scissors.

 

I used some of Grandmother Ruth’s hand made lace for part of this project.

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt # 13 This project is made up of many of my hand altered fabrics. I made the stencils earlier this winter and printed them with acrylic paint. This is the fabric of half of the stencils I printed at that time, so there will be another similar piece in the near future.

Green Base I got an idea for another leaf project and built this curvy cut base to support that idea.

 

 

 

 

 

Dark Side of the Moon( formerly Dark Magic) I decide that the old title was not the mood I wanted to set for this work. I am hand quilting around the featured woven sections of the kimono at this point. This will be a slow project as I am not a fast hand quilter.

 

 

Daily Practice This is gong smoothly. I think I will finish this strip in the next two days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Horsetails   After showing this work to the FAB group  and thinking about it, i decided it needed more.  So I took out some of the stitch work and added the sun to this piece.  I am now in the process of assembling it.

Drawings for Pixies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- Summer 1963
>
> Summer was always a busy time. I did attend summer school in the mornings, but the afternoons were mine. Mr Mc Daniel’s, the band teacher, also kept us busy. We did have practices and activities. It was so hot that many times we would play out on the front lawn of the school under the big oak trees. The  band  also marched in the 4th of July parade . It was a much smaller event then what I was familiar with from Grandview. We participated in the county fair and the band had a white elephant sale for that. Many of the kids manned the booth and we had fun afterward on the rides and such. There was also a Cake Walk that we ran one of the days. For that I baked a Cherry Cake- my favorite. The money we made went toward our summer field trip to Detroit. We left on a Friday morning and rode the bus to the city. We played a concert in a city park in a band shell that afternoon.    For that we did not wear our uniforms, but all dark shorts and white shirts.  I still remember being hot.   I went to dinner with a group of fellow band members and had my first commercial pizza. Someone persuaded me to try an Anchovy. That was a taste surprise. I shared a hotel room with three other gals and we talked late into the night and did not sleep much it seemed. Saturday morning we went to a rehearsal of the Detroit Sympathy. It was informative. In the afternoon we all went to see “How the West Was Won” on a wide screen movie theater. I really enjoyed the movie and purchased the record of the sound track when I got home. We then all piled into the bus and rode home. We sang a lot and it was quite late when we got back to Muncie. Grandmother and Grandfather Cocklin were visiting and we all went to church the next morning. I do not recall much else about that Sunday except we made homemade ice cream. Gene and I went off with the grandparents on Monday to Iowa for two weeks before Mon and Dad joined us. It was a great time. We got to see all three families of cousins and spent a lot of time with the Bells. Casey and Curt Dean were little boys with lots of energy and fun to play with. They only visited tow days and then went home with their mother Aunt Shirley. I did baby sit for Aunt Barbara one day out on their farm. I remember climbing the apple trees with cousins Timmy and Tom along with Gene. We also played space travel using their beds that were built into the wall under the slope of the roof. We pretended the Radiometer was our power source. That evening I went on my first date with cousin Danny. He was a year older and had a car. We added one of his friends and drove to Muscatine to the fair grounds. His buddy brought me French fries and we all rode the Ferris Wheel together. It was a good time. What I remember the most was the time spent with the Bell family. Tracy and Kelly came into Grandmothers one day and we played dress up in the play house. Then the girls stayed the night and we played with the ice skating paper dolls that grandmother had. One day out at the Bell farm we played war in the trees hoses. We loved the goldfish-carp in the house tank and we fed them oatmeal. The fish were about eight inches long. Cousin Russell got stung and I learned he was allergic. His Mom rushed him off to the Dr to get a shot I think. Another day we spent the day playing board games. I fell in love with Trade Winds- a game with little ships that had to collect barrels of rum, doubloons and gems stones. I asked for that game for Christmas, but Mom never found it. One afternoon Aunt Marce took all five of us off to Wild Cat Den State Park. We all had a great time running the trails and hiding from one another. We came home exhausted from that fun afternoon. One night the Bells took Gene and I to play miniature golf . It was a great time and Doug ended up with the best score. It was a great time with all my cousins.

Please stay safe and be Creative

Carol

Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, Dark Mystery, Drawing, Pixies Group, Poppy Field, Saturday Afternoon, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Quiet Week

Hello,

I has been a very ordinary and quiet week here.    Spring keeps showing the eye new views .   I have always loved Iris, but they do not grow in my garden as  it is too shaded.  These lovely ones are along our route and I look forward to seeing them in the spring. I had two Zoom meetings.  One with Social Art and one with the Pixies.  Both were enjoyable.

There was also a new Textile Artist Stitch Club assignment this week.  The teacher this time is Brook Harris and American fiber Artists.      This is my interpretation on the assignment thus far.  I drew rubber bands and then enlarged the image to get this shape before doing the stitch work.

 

 

Progress Report:   Saturday Afternoon    This work is part o f the Picasso/ Cubists  Challenge  with the Sisterhood of the Scissors.    I have finished the outlining of the parts of this work.   Then I finished the quilting yesterday  and now I am ready to face this work  and add the sleeve.

 

Horsetails     I am doing the hand work of adding the green  leaves on the steams now.    I am adding the leaves as it just did not feel complete.  I think I sometimes get seeing the end that I do not look as carefully as I should.     This will help the final piece I think.

 

 

 

Poppy Field  I did finish up the poppy flowers and I like the way they look, but I still think they do not have enough contrast with the background so I will order some   red orange roving and make more flowers. I may or may not use these on the work.  I will make that visual decision when I see how it looks.

 

 

 

 

 

Dark Mystery   The black Kimono that Noel gave me a part of just  called out to be used so I started this work.  I used several of the other pieces of silk she gave me too.  Guess I built a bit of confidence from doing Bonsai with only silk fabric.

 

 

 

New Fire     As I learn of the new fires in the west I am again inspired to do yet another fire quilt.  I have painted some fabric and pulled some other pieces so I feel that I can start soon.

 

Daily Practice    I started this strip this week.  That is the difficulty   of using  my wipe up rags.  They are usually the ends and leftovers of light colors, so they are unusual shapes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drawings  These are my works from this week.  I tried adding a wash with ink on the first one and was not real happy with the look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I tried adding dark with Plastic Crayon.  It works better and allows for better control of light to dark color application.  I can also go back in over the top of that product and build in more texture if I want.  So I think I will keep exploring with that material for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- The Minnahuni
Dad’s fist office mate at Ball State was a man named Frank Yahass. Frank was into canoeing in a big way and all his talk soon peaked Dad’s interest. He did his usual research and ended up purchasing one. We got a fiberglass square backed turquoise canoe in the spring. Dad also purchased a little five horse power motor to put on that square backing so we would not have to paddle all the time. Mom selected the name – Minnahuni from the Hawaiian word for Joker.  She did not know how to swim and saw all boats as taking a chance and she was sure we would tip over. As it turned out that never happened. We built our spring trip around the canoe and went to Georgia and the Okefenokee Swamp. It is just a National Wild Life Refuge so it is not well developed, but it sure was fun.  We also saw the origins of the Swanee River.  The water was lite brown  and were there was a bit of foam – it really looked like root beer. Mom said that the water was that color due to the large amount of decaying vegetable matter in the water.  It was that same rich brown in the swamp too.  The camp ground was in a pine forest where the needles of the trees were really long compared to what I remember from Yellowstone and they covered the forest floor like a big soft carpet. The first night we were visited by red skunks, and racoons. There were deer too that ate cereal out of your hands. The ranger at the dock warned us to be very careful launching our boat as there was a very big alligator that frequented the dock area. Mom was very glad that the dock had a great ladder to enter the boat and we did not dip our paddles too deep in that area to avoid the gator. We paddled out the narrow docking area and into the big lake like portion and turned east. Dad sat in the back, while Gene and I took turns sitting and paddling  in the front. Mom stayed low in the middle the whole time. We did not venture  far that first afternoon but really enjoyed our new toy. On the second day we left the lake area and went deep  into the swamp. Dad paid close attention to the map and we had a good time. Mom took lots of pictures and relaxed a bit too. We ate our picnic lunch among the Cyprus knees and saw a big turtle basking in the sun. I do not remember seeing many alligators, but that was fine with all of us. It was very quiet and we heard lots of bird calls. We did not see anyone else until we got back to the dock late in the afternoon. Gene and I were both really tired that evening and went to bed early. We walked the board walk in the swamp in the morning and saw more birds. After lunch we put the canoe back on top of the car top carrier and headed north.
We  then went to Oak Ridge Tenn. It was built as a part of the Manhattan Project. I recall visiting a museum like place and learning about how atomic energy could be used to create power plants. There was also information about how isotopes could be used in the human body , but my mind is a bit fuzzy on that.   The next day,  Dad drove hard and long on Saturday so we got home late that night. Got up on Easter Sunday morning and hunted for eggs. Sometimes it is hard to give up the pleasures of childhood. It was a great spring break.

Stay Safe

Carol
>

Childhood Memories, Coral Sea II, Daily Practice, Drawing, Horsetails, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Scrap Happy Quilts, Stencels, Twilight Crows

Quiet Spring

Hello,
This week I seem to have finished up lots of things. Clearing the decks is always a good thing in my mind.   It is like the raking I have done this week to clear out the gardens for new growth.   One needs to move on.

Yesterday Liz ands  I went to “Sew What”, a recycle sewing supplies shop in Auburn NY .   It felt great spending my money to up cycle materials that other sewers no longer needed.     I know that as a society we are generating far too much material that can easily end up on land fills  or polluting the water.  That is really only  a poor solution for our planet.    This resel/recycle shop is so much better!      Liz purchase two quilting hoops as they were so inexpensive and she did not know what would work best for her.    She also sorted through there button    bin to find some 50’s buttons to make a bracelet for herself.   As you can see I made a bigger purchase- but it is all stuff that I can and will use.  I used the pre wrapped bobbin thread today in my machine when I did the illustration  for Childhood.    They had a wide selection of sewing related materials, yarns and books.    It is a good resource and I will donate to it as I sort through my studio and support it by stopping and purchasing materials that I will use in my work.    We all need to take care of this world and recycling is one of the best ways we can all do our small part.

Pixies was the only group that meant this week. Susan challenged us to draw last week and these two are my answer to that. The Woman is my Mom.

 

 

These are my favorite red shoes.

 

 

 

Progress Report: Coral Sea II This work is 16 X 18. I enjoyed embellishing this work. The fish are made from fancy ribbons so they will not fray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twilight Crows This work is 40″ X 48″. I cut all the stencils in the past and just used them together in a different arrangement this time. Most of the other fabric are altered as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt # 10 This work is 37″ X 51″. I so enjoy just putting fabrics together to create a new unit. I always seem to make extra filler and I am challenging myself to use that as the starting off point for then next one.

 

 

Scrap Happy. I finished this scrap happy this week. I plan to pass it on to my granddaughter.

 

 

 

 

 

Poppy Fields I was frustrated by this work and Liz suggested that I stamp on it to build up the contrast. I am much happier with it now. I plan to push forward now.

 

New base I built this base of all silks. It proved to be a challenge to get them all strait. I plan to use it for a base for my next leaf exploration piece.

 

 

 

 

Horsetails This quilt is a result of a dream I had this week. I have no idea where it came from, but I am enjoying the process. I have not tried couching poplr fleece before.

 

 

 

Daily Practice I am done stitching all the units down now and moving on to the background. I am about one forth done with that step on this section.

 

Stencils   I cut and printed some new and stencils that I mixed with some other ones.  A fun way to build more complexity in my work.

 

Childhood Memories – Sophomore Year II
I was always good at sports and   loved the gym class that meant alternate days with the Health class. Indiana is a big basketball state and Muncie Central was a real sports  power house .They had won the state   Basketball championship several times and for  two years in a row before I attended. I was looking forward to playing basketball in high school, so when  the school  morning announcement   made no mention of girls  basketball try-outs, Iwas  baffled.  After  the second day announcement of boys try-outs, I went to the Principal’S office and asked. The Vice Principal told me that” We don’t do that, because its not “ Lady-Like”. When I asked Dad about this, because I knew he had coached girls ball, he just laughed. “ Carol,” Dad said, “ There is only one gym and if there is a girls team, that would cut the practice time for boys in half.” That realization made me quite angry. I also realized that the cards were stacked against me and there was little I could do. I sort of worked on the issue of girls sports with Miss Anderson and by the time I was a senior there was a girls Track team and I was on it. No threat to the boys with that sport. We had the hand me down uniforms from the boys team. I was the base for the relay team and we won several races. I do have one ribbon from that activity.    I took synchronized S swimming at the YMCA as my  fall Junior year  physical ed class and joined that team. I was glad that having  straight hair was popular as the class was just before lunch and my hair was dry by the time my first class started. There was no travel for the swimming team and we did only  two performances . Despite the lack of outside support, I did have fun. I can still do all the fun moves we learned like  the clam shell and star fish.
> Lunch was a full hour and I  often at in the Cafeteria .   Sometimes I spent some of my lunch hours playing Chess with the Chess Club  that met  in one corner of the big room. We were also allowed to leave campus at noon to eat in the community. I got in trouble financially with that in October . I went with a couple of other gals to the Woolworths counter and  where we ate lunch. The cost of one Woolwoth lunch was more then a whole weeks work of lunch from the school lunch room. I should have realized early on – but the social aspect of it captured me. The last week of Oct I had only 15  cents in my pocket. Just enough to purchase milk at school at three cents a box for the week. So I stopped going to lunch with the “in crowd” and carried peanut butter sandwiches that week. I needed to learn that lesson. Being downtown also presented other temptations. There were three bookstores in the downtown area and I used them to purchase many paper back books. I know I spent money on every copy of an Edger Rice Burrows book I could find. Charm bracelets were all the rage at this time and I often checked out jewelry stores for charms for my self and gifts for friends Birthdays. My friend Ann’s parents owned a jewelry store there too. I did go several times and looked at charms there, but found they were just a little bit more expensive than the other stores, so they did not get much business from me. I still have my three bracelets that include charms from all the states I had lived in and some of my interests,   another bracelet that is all gifts , and a third , witch was the last one I built and it is very eclectic with a small Opal, a cowboy, a part of scissors  and a graduation hat , among other things.

Please take good care of yourselves
> Carol

 

 

Childhood Memories, Daily Practice, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Scrap Happy Quilts, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Winter White

2 Comments

Hello,
Winter has made its self present in central New York. We get a fresh addition of snow every day and it is starting to build up. The new add on’s do keep it looking fresh however and white.    It is amazing how white, black  and a bit of gray can be so beautiful!  I have had a quiet but busy week. I did deliver the twin Scarp Happy quilt on Monday and promptly started another. Some how no face contact with folks is starting to diminish the joy of sharing. I have become acutely aware how important saying “Thank You” is.   I am still a little burnt by giving 21 quilts to the nursing home and having the guard tell me to drop them on the floor while he continued to play on his phone. He said my contact  was unavailable. I  still do not know if the woman I talked with  on the phone got the quilts or they went out in the trash. That was three weeks ago.  I know that everyone is busy and Covid complicates things, but I did leave my business card in all the bags, so one hopes they could find me if they wanted to.
I did get a great deal of joy in the mail this week with two different events. My Spoonflower order arrived and I am delighted with the results. I will have to feature it in a work soon. My second delight came in the form of a package from Robert of the Pixies group. It was a new hat! It make me smile from ear to ear every time I look at it. It sure made our Zoom meeting fun as we all had new toppers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Textile Artist Stitch Club assignment for this week  was from Valerie Goodwin. I have had several classes with her and find her to be a strong teacher. We made a map of our neighborhoods using Goolgel maps as our jumping off point. It was fun and I enjoyed doing the hand work.   The purple round objects are my trees as viewed from above.

Progress Report: Scarp Happy This work is going quickly as I already had a backing done from some time in the past.

 

 

 

 

 

Crow Fabric Collage I could not make the crow that I did last week work by its self, so I made a second one yesterday. I like to do things in odd numbered groups so I will make a third feature unit this week to mix with the two done ones.

 

 

 

Autumn Fall The base is all assembled and quilted so now I can add the Tyvec leaves on top. I am doing the vanes by machine first. It takes me about 12 min to do each one.   I am about half way done with the vain work.

 

 

 

 

Black base I am doing more hand work with the wool treads that Nancy gave me. This is a second piece of black fabric that I tried to discharge last summer so there are some slight color changes in the black.   I am exploring with my stitches.

Daily Practice Because I am using the  same wool and lots of old dyed lace this work is moving along a lot faster then I expected.  Wool needs bigger stitches and that fills thing in quickly.  Fun work however.

 

 

 

New Lap Quilt

I have pulled these fabrics for my next lap quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood/ Adolescents Memories Jr High
>
> My entry into Storer Jr High was different in many ways.
> I was just Carol McElhinney , one student among many  and my parents were not known in this community . Though Dad was in the Education department at Ball State Teachers collage, he was also new .   With time  his name became know and that short unanimity disappeared, that only   changed when I married Eric and changes my last name. Then I  did get out from under Dad’s big shadow. The middle school went from 7th grade to Freshman year and there were over 350 students in each grade level. This was a another big difference .My school records from Carroll followed me and I was placed in a low level home room with Mr Dillon. He was our teacher for Language Arts. I don’t recall much instruction , but I do remember lots of sustained silent reading with book reports to follow. The report was  a simple, title, author and short plot line. Since I had really started to understand how to decode the printed word over the summer, it was a real growing experience. By the end of the first semester ,Mr Dillon moved me a different home room. That was a math home room and since I did well with numbers, it worked well for me. My new English teacher was Mrs Middelton .  I had her for 9th grade too. I do remember one incident in her class very well. We were silently reading O Henry’s short story, “Ransom of the Red Chief.” I saw the story so vividly in my mind that I burst out laughing in the silent room. I got quiet embarrassed , settled down and started reading.   But again I got so lost in the story and soon  was laughing uncontrollably again. Mrs Middelton sent me to set in the hall for the rest of the period to finish the story and not distract anyone else. Years later when Eric and  I visited Storer on a teachers’s visitation day our paths crossed again. She recognized me and told Eric the story of that day. Later that spring, she hired Eric for a teaching job there.
> My school was about a mile from our house and across the creek that ran behind our home. There was  one foot bridge  near the school   and no road crossing the creek until one was a mile and a half from home.    I often rode my bike to school early as I had a job. I was the kid who opened and ran the school book store. I would go to the office and pick up the cash box and key to open the big display cabinet were a few simple school supplies were kept. Paper, note books, pencils, compasses, rules and such, were what the store  sold. After locking up I went to Math class first period. My seat was behind John Isenbarker, one of the popular Jocks. He was a quarter back for the football team and a center for the basketball team. When we were paired to do work together I Learned how lazy he was. I had too much self worth to let the “ big man on campus”, copy my homework so he sort of black balled me. It was a big enough school that I still survived.

Miss Fisher was the girls gym teacher and I really liked her. I  experienced the  big change in the rules of how girls played basketball. In eighth grade, girls played half court and I was a forward.    We never crossed the center line.  In ninth grade after the rules changed, it was full court like the boys played basketball ,and I was a guard. I remember a fierce competition between Jo Ann Walker and myself. Jo Ann was in Mr Dillon’s class so we had a bit of a history . She was scrappy, and taller then I was. I came home with many scratches on my arms after basketball games from her aggressive attitude. This was also about the time I realized that the world was stacked in favor of boys and men. I was quite upset and angry about this. Dad and I had several talks on that subject. In the end, I went away from those talks with Dad’s assurance that I could do what ever I wanted and I would have his support.

Take good care of your self

Carol

 

 

Childhood Memories, Mayan - Lead Dancer, Mayan- Water Dancer, Pixies Group, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts, Sisterhood of the Scissors, Squares a Dancing

Fresh Snow

Hello,
We had our first big snow over night. It is so lovely how the snow softens all the sharp edges of things and cleans up the world a bit. I did not have to do too much of the shoveling so I am sure I enjoyed it more then my Husband.
I had four Zoom meetings this week so I feel very full of inspiration. The QuEGs group meant on Tue. There were only three of us, but it was still enjoyable as Sue Ellen had lots of table runners to share. FAB meant yesterday and that was exciting as we added two new old friends to the mix. Then the Pixies meant in the afternoon yesterday. Good to talk with these Florida folks. They had rain while we got the cold version. Today the Sisterhood of the Scissors meant.
          I finished up Kathy’s Quilt on Monday and it got delivered yesterday. It went through some modifications from last week. This shot is of the finished work and Kathy.

 

 

 

 

Progress Report: Water Dancer This quilt is 20″w X 25″ l. I am quite pleased with how the water came out.

 

 

The strong graphic quality of these works sure make them eye catchers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lead Dancer I have moved on to the Lead Dancer piece now. This step of cutting and placing the parts,  always takes a lot longer then I think it will.

 

 

Bone Dancer While I was working on the Lead Dancer I got going on the drawing for this one too. I am still not real happy with it or I would have started the cutting of the fabric for it as well.   Time and thinking will help.

 

 

 

 

Scrap Quilts I only need to do the quilting on this work and it will be done. I am working on assembling two more scrap backs for the other two quilts in this series.

 

 

 

 

Squares a Dancing I just keep shuffling these squares about. I am not pleased with any solutions yet so I will keep playing until I do.

 

 

 

 

Old Mayan In my search for fabric for one project, I came across this old batik of a Mayan seated figure. I guess that really proves I have been in love with their style for a long time as I have no memory of when I did this piece. I started quilting it this week and will add it to the show of the other pieces if I get it done in time.

Christmas Gifts     I made three polar fleece comforters for the kids this week.  They are all boxed and wrapped now .  It has been the year of cover   gifts from  me.

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- 7th grade Science- the Rabbit
There was one other big event in Mom’s Science class. She was teaching us about how the body works for all mammals. She talk about how they all had common parts like lungs, hearts, livers and so on. The text book everything was drawn and so very clean. I’d helped Mom and Grandmother prepare Chickens for eating so I was a little more aware then some kids. She decided to dissect a rabbit so we could see and generalize from that experience. We were prepted and and she had us all come to the front of the class room and gather around her. First she anathematized the rabbit. One of the boys pulled the rabbits tail and out popped a little “raisin”. We all laughed, Mom quickly got control of the class and then she cut into the rabbits chest to the heart. She wanted us to see the heart mussel at work. I remember being surprise at how small it was, about the sise of a shooter marble, and how fast it was beating. We could easily see the blood being pushed into the arteries. Then she cut away more of the body to show more of the parts and she cut the heart out. In doing so there was a big surge of the artery and blood spurted out onto Bill Wilson’s arms. Now Bill was a bit of a bully and he always had to be at the front of everything, but he was not prepared for this to happen. Mom quickly sent him to the sink to wash off. With the rabbit now dead she went on with the digestion explaining and showing us the parts as she went. Bill went and sat in his desk for the rest of the lesson and he was never quite so pushy after that.
At home things were quiet in the evenings. One of our little rituals was nightly Reading. While Gene or I were in the bath tub cleaning up, the other child would set with mon on the floor outside the bathroom with the door ajar while she read to us. She read some of the books I had purchased from the book clubs in the earlier grades. I have very vivid memories of two books. The first was “Yellow Eyes.” That was a book about a mountain lion, all told from the cats point of view. The other book was “The Mystery at Thunderbolt House.” That book was about a family that had inherited a mansion in San Francisco in 1849. At the end of the summer after they moved, there was a big earth quake and fire. I found that story fascinating and I still have a copy of that book somewhere.
Not only was Dad gone, there were other changes too. Over the summer five houses were built in the meadow where the creek was. That made for more kids to play with- mostly boys. The big empty lot where we usually played baseball was sold and a pink marble Methodist church was being built there too. We did roam around in the basement structure for a few weeks before it got closed off. One of the boys in the new houses was Chris Moore. During the winter he and I spent a lot of time playing chess.

Stay Safe

Carol

Childhood Memories, Curvie Cuts, FAD (Fiber Art Dames), Fish Bones, Mayan Series- Fire Dancer, Mayan- Rabbit Dancer, Pixies Group, Scrap Happy Quilts, Squares a Dancing

Wild Temperatures

Hello,

This week has been one of wild temperature swings here. We where in the low 20 one day and had snow.    It was light and I liked how it stayed on the fallen leaves and pine needles.  Then the weather turned up and yesterday and today temperatures are set for nearly 70.       Our Indian Summer is set to last through Saturday. I sure enjoy it.
I spent a lot of time in Zoom meetings this week. There was a great meeting of Sisterhood of the Scissors. We are revising the 3X3 challenge of 2019. We were to make nine little quilts that could be put together or work independently.   I was the only person who followed through and did it last time.  I ended up uniting mine. I decided to challenge myself to doing this a second time. I will put that image in the Progress section.
The Pixies, FAB and QuEG’s meant too. I am bowed up by all the talk and support that they provide.

Progress Report:   Fish Bones  This quilt is 37″ X 29″.   I did free motion drawing for all the fish images on nylon netting that was trapped between two layers of wash away.

 

The curvy cut background adds a great feeling of movement I think.

 

 

 

Rabbit Dancer Mayan Series I finished the quilting of this work yesterday. I will add the binding and sleeve and it will be complete for next week.

Fire Dancer Mayan Series As I am nearly done with Rabbit Dancer I got busy and started the Fire Dancer this week.   I did the enlargement and the face base  is pinned in place at this point.

 

3 X 3 challenge II I built these nine patches and then realized that the smallest size of the units for the challenge is 12″ squares. These will only be 9″ when they are trimmed so I need to get creative and add to them to fit the challenge.

 

 

Ethel Scraps I keep adding the strips and leftovers together to created these big   unit pieces. I will cut them into 5″ squares today before I make any more units. I still do not see much of a dent in the box of per cut strips of Ethel’s that    I started with.  I am enjoying using them however.  I made a little personal rule to not begin assembling any blocks until I had made the 5″ squares for 21 days. Today is day 16 so I am getting close to moving onto the next step in this project.

Burn I got a little frustrated while I was working on this project because the machine kept freezing up on me while I was doing free motion work. I could sew for about a min and then it would stop and tell me to remove thread from under the bobbin. I did take the machine apart and use the bush in that area even though I could not see any threads. After the fifth time I just set the project aside and put the machine away. I will go to the Phaff dealer before I go forward with that machine. I got out the Bernia and have been using it for  work most of this week.

Squares A Dancing This is the latest group of seven. I only have enough squares for two full weeks at this point. I have 231 squares done. I may cheat a bit and cut some additional squares from some old jeans to make a third week for a total of 35 weeks. I will make decisions as I near the end.

 

 

Black Rocks I already mentioned all the Zoom time I had this  week. Well when the meetings are going on,  I stitch away .

 

 

 

 

Childhood Memories- Neighborhood Kids 2
Another Catholic family lived in the house just south of ours. I remember that they had a wonderful lilac hedge all around the back yard. It smelled heavenly in the spring. There were only two children in that family, Bill, who was older, and Jane who was a year younger then I.  Bill was a bit of a bully and I recall him throwing Walnuts at me in the fall. He was also the only person who teased me with a nickname. He called me “Carol Kay Cumber Cackle Hanney. ” Mom often said that she  gave  both Gene and I names that could not become nick names. Her name was Margaret and she got called Maggy, Peggy, Margo and even Liz. She did not like it at all. Bill’s nick name did not last too long as they moved away. Jane, Mickey and I often played in the Honeysuckle in the empty lot behind Jane’s house. The old bushes grew close together and arched creating a tunnel-like place that we could get into. One day Jane provided us with a thrill by bringing out one of her Dad’s Playboy Magazines. We felt safe viewing that under the bushes and got an eye full. One time I sort of stood up under there and disturbed a bees nest. I got 5 stings- two on my head and three on my hands before we got out from under the plants. Needless to say we did not go back there again. There was also a rusted swing set frame in the empty lot and we spent lots of time hanging upside down and swinging from our arms on it. There were lots of sticker bushes there as well , so we mostly had the lot to ourselves. I remember pulling those round stickers off my socks before I put them in the clothes hamper, because if one didn’t, they were still there when the socks came back from the laundry and much harder to remove.
Two older women lived in the house directly behind ours. They had a beautiful flower garden and a few vegetables.  A huge rhubarb plant was on the boarder between their house and ours. I had permission to pick and eat as much rhubarb as I wanted whenever I wanted. What a privilege. I did eat quite a bit. We would use the big leaves as hats and pretend to do fairy dances with them on. That part of eating the rhubarb  and dancing  disappeared as I grew older. but I still enjoy  raw  rhubarb  .
Behind the Lightning’s  house,  was a house with only one little girl in that family. Her father adored her. He took a pair of his wife’s cast off heels and cut them down to fit her feet. All the rest of us   girls envied her. We tried to trade some of our treasures for the shoes, but she was not having any of it. The next lot was also a basement home. A family with three little girls lived there. I got to babysit for them when I was in the sixth and seventh grades. I got an amazing 35 cents an  hour. They did not have a TV, but had a great radio instead. I would stay up after the girls were asleep and listen as I did not want to fall asleep on the job. I remember late one  night when I got a Spanish speaking station from Mexico. Dad explained about how radio signals could “ skip” so you could hear stations from far away, but he didn’t really think it was Mexico. I never heard it again even though I did try.

Keep Creating

Carol