One more . . . .

I did a little research on a lady recently. (Thank you Google!) Her name was Nora Lydia Pries, she was born in 1898. 

 Nora and William Brandt

She  married  William Carl Brandt and had 4 sons according to the 1940 census in Illinois. At that time her boys were: Leroy 18,  Floyd 8, Wayne 6, and Delmar was one year old. They lived on Second street in St. Peters, Illinois.

In my search I found that her husband died in 1952 at the Jefferson Barracks Veterans Hospital. He was born August 11, 1892, this making him only 59 when he died. She was widowed at the age of 54. Nora died on July 13, 1982, at the age of 84.

Further in my  search, I am pretty sure she married some years later to a Mr. Washington. In her son Leroy's obituary in 1968, it listed his mother as Nora Washington. Leroy was injured in World War II and lost the use of both legs. I found quite a military story about Leroy on line. 

I could search further, but then this is not my family. Nor am I related any way to this lady. Why does she intrigue me?

Because I bought her sewing machine this week. 

You see, her name was on one of the boxes in the side storage area. There is even a spool of Singer sewing thread. I've never seen that before.

It's a true Martha Washington cabinet with the badge to prove it!

The cabinet is not perfect, but it's been around for a long time. How long I'm not sure, my guess is the 20's or 30's. 

The White Rotary machine is in great shape. It sews well. It will be better when the blacksmith gets around to degreasing it and freshening it up, along with some oil.  The White company was incorporated in 1876.

It has the most unique plug that I have ever seen. 

I had originally planned on looking at this machine for  my sister.  She wanted the cabinet. If not for her, a friend in Australia (who also lives part time in the states) was interested. But when we got there, I was once against intrigued with the cabinet, the machine, and the history. 

Did I mention that this is now my 18th machine?  Who says I don't have a problem?

Two quilts go to new homes

Did you ever do something just gave you that warm fuzzy feeling?  Well I recently did.

A lady in our community passed away on New Years Eve. Leona was 95 years young. I say that because she was a quilt piecer who was still sewing right up to the time of her death. I had the privilege of knowing her for about 45 years. The blacksmith knew her even longer. His parents and Leona and her husband were not only neighbors but friends. Their kids grew up together, went to school together, and ran around together. 

In 1993, the year we moved into this house, I won one of her quilts at our church picnic. It is queen size with a lone star in the middle and log cabin blocks around it. I used it for several years. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was reorganizing my quilts and decided it was time to pass it on. One of Leona's grandsons is in our neighborhood. I asked his wife Jennifer if Brian had any of his grandmother's quilts. She told me just one. 

I invited them over and gave it to Brian. I explained it had been gently used but well loved and taken care of. I also had two matching pillows. 

In my stash I also had a quilt my son Jeremy won in his senior year of high school, 1996. It was given away at his high school project graduation. He really didn't seem to be interested in keeping it, so together we devised a plan. 

This quilt was also made by Leona. Jeremy and his classmates, including Leona's grand daughter Tami, signed the blocks.  So I sent her a Facebook message and asked if she would like a quilt her grandmother had pieced. Of course she said yes. I didn't tell her what the quilt was until she arrived.

In the center of this picture you will see Tami's signature.

Top right, you can see my son Jeremy's name.

The Blair Oaks class of 1996. Which reminds me, this year will be their 20th class reunion. (Not that I'm old enough to have a son that age!)

Here is a picture of the entire quilt. 

Giving away something that has meaning to these two grand kids made me feel good. 

Life is good.

My dear Patti quilt.

It's been a long time coming. According to my blog, I was sewing blocks for this in 2008. I finally finished piecing it in 2012. It was then put into the "quilt" cabinet and forgotten about. That is until several months ago, August I think, to be exact. I then put it into my frame to hand quilt. Although I had several offers to help, I wanted this to be just my quilt. 

There is a famous quilt named Dear Jane. It was completed in 1863 by Jane Stickle. You can read all about it here.

I decided I wanted to use up some of my scraps so I made my version. It was so much fun to make. It is 221 four inch blocks. Most all of them are paper pieced. A lot of the patterns came from books by Carol Doak. I love her patterns. It was just as much fun to quilt. Every block was different. So if I didn't like quilting the one I was on, I knew the next one would be different. 

Most of the time when I finished a particular block, I'd post it on Instagram or Facebook with a little caption. I had so many followers. They were always encouraging me to stitch on.

I won't share all 221 with you but let me show you a few. the comments under them are what I would post on Instagram.

This one is could possibly be my favorite block. The red print on the outside came out of my great grand father Ben Hammer's general store in Stanton, Missouri. 

No the fabric wasn't rotten, in fact it was in excellent shape. The fabric was vintage 36 inches wide. 

 "What was I thinking? "

You can tell this wind blown girl was in Missouri today!

Quilted on November 15,

 Just finished this heart. Today my heart goes out to those that lost their lives in Paris. 

Oh my gosh, look at the next block I get to do! ‪

A traditional old block with bright modern fabrics.

MEOW  someone's trapped. 

Garfield is saying @mccranies needs to come home to collect her Garfield lamp, Garfield alarm clock, stuffed Garfields and much more from the closet!

Let the good times roll!

Roll on ~ ~ ~ time for the next roll of blocks!

It's not smooth sailing tonight, it's been two weeks since I've hand quilted. Stiff, cold, clumsy fingers! 

My thread catcher matches!

Embroidery work by my friend Peggy, so I put it in a block.

Not only do I have a 4 inch block in the quilt, but I had made a 

quilt charm

 using the same fabrics.

Day before Thanksgiving, I really should be making pies, but this is so much more fun!

A quarter for reference.

21 pieces in this 4 inch square

 This flower pot fell over so I quilted it that way! 

Elephant charged with QWI. (Quilting while intoxicated)

That is just a light touching on all the blocks. If you encouraged me along, I thank you. It was so much fun making this quilt.

Patti

The "almost" birthday present.

We drove 102 miles in the early morning hours to go to an auction. There was nothing there the blacksmith really wanted for himself. But there was something I wanted. 

 THIS

We arrived an hour after the sale started, so it was was kind of hard to look through everything. However this Iman Action service had a great set up. You could sit in a nice heated building and see just what they were selling via televisions all throughout the room. If only they would have given me a paddle with my number, then I would've  felt like I was at a Sotheby's auction. 

Just to show you a few things that were auctioned. 

This bow tie quilt went for $120.

 Sold for $110

 Sold for $75

 Sold for $50

 Sold for $95

 Lone Star Sold for $85

 Flower garden with hole sold for $40

 Appliqued sold for $85

School house sold for $90

 I didn't get this price.

 I didn't get this price either. 

 Sold for $40

 Sold for $125

 Log Cabin sold for $50

 Coverlets sold for $20 each

 I wanted this Noah's ark rug but when we left, they were no where close to selling it.

This wall hanging was actually a rug too, again we left before it sold.

Well what did we get?  2 hamburgers.  Not the beautiful oak hall tree. As we walked out the door, the blacksmith said "sorry I didn't get it bought for your birthday". It went for $300 above what we were willing to pay.

But Life is still good!  It was a fun day.