Owners Sought For "Special Quilt" Lost In Tornado

Owners Sought For "Special Quilt" Lost In Tornado: The Piedmont Service Center is looking to find the owner of very special looking quilt, lost in the deadly tornado that hit the area in May 2011.

Dear Patti

I finally finished my version of the "Dear Jane" quilt. I worked on it off and on for about four years.  I'd get tired of it, or find something else more urgent and this would get pushed to the back. 


My original intent was to use up a big rubber tote of scraps that I had acquired.  In the end, I didn't even put a dent in that tub.  It seemed the more I dug for fabric, the more it fluffed the fabric and that made it grow. 


The "Dear Jane" quilt was made in 1863 by Jane A. Stickle.   The quilt always fascinated me.  Her's had 225  blocks, mine has 221, and I didn't even count all the piano keys in the border.  


You can read more about the Dear Jane quilt here.


As of now, my intentions are to hand quilt this next winter.  I'm not against machine quilting, and that would be much easier.  But hand quilted, I think, would really add to the value of it.

Friday night dinner out!

Our friend Tom asked us out to dinner Friday night.  I was excited for several reasons, dinner with a good friend, a chance to eat someone else's cooking, and to see friends.  One friend I didn't get to see was Deanna. 

St. Andrews Church

This is her church.  She works there.  It's a beautiful church.  Trust me, it's not black and white.  It's just that  I forgot to check the settings on my camera after I took it out of my purse. 

As we walked into the hall the men were all busy with frying.  Had Deanna not had her husband Jim off galvanting around the country, he probably would have been frying fish too.

The meal was delicious!  Tom, our gracious host, said it was a meal fit for us "mackerel snappers".  It consisted of fried fish fillets, baked potatoes (the best ones I've ever had), french fries, slaw, meatless spaghetti, cornbread complete with maple syrup, baked beans (the blacksmith said they were really good, and he normally doesn't eat baked beans) and many kinds of desserts consisting of cakes and pies.


After we stuffed ourselves, visited with several friends, saw our bus driver from high school (over 44 years ago), we made our way to Tom's house.  There we saw a lot of eye candy.  I was treated to see most all of Phyllis' beautiful quilts.  I wish I had taken my camera inside.  She made a yo-yo quilt that is out of this world!!!  Next time I will ask him if I can take a picture. 


Thanks Tom for dinner.  Next time it's on us!

Spring has almost sprung.

It's the first week of March.  Temperatures have been way above normal.  Today it reached 74 degrees.  Normal would be in the low 50's.

Lettuce, radishes, peas, and onions are in the ground.  In the dining room are 48 little containers of tomato, pepper, and brussels sprout seeds.  Some are even poking their heads up.

Potatoes were planted today.  We had some child labor involved.  It's always a joy!

But poor Bentley could do nothing but watch.  He has 7 more days to wear his Elizabethan collar. 

Phyllis' quilt

If you go back to my January 1st post titled New Beginning's you will read about how I  became the quilter for Phyllis' quilt. 

This quilt was absolutely a joy to quilt.  I put way more quilting in it than necessary, as that is what Phyllis did to hers.

The only part that wasn't fun to quilt was the flame block! 


My hubby isn't only a talented blacksmith, he's a template design maker.   He made the template that I used in the solid yellow block.

The back is always fun to look at.  So much detail in this one!

I spent a lot of quiet time quilting.  Time I could reminisce and pray.  I felt Phyllis was looking down on me. 


In the end I know she was . . . look at how much thread I finished with.  Just enough!


Rest in peace Phyllis.

Blacksmiths!!!

Today's post can be found here!

My poor Bentley

Yesterday we had 70+ temperature!  The blacksmith and Bentley went walking behind the house in the woods.  Lizzie and I were in the yard when Bentley came home first. He was acting strange.  He kept pushing against me and eventually went into the garage and walked in  circles.  That's when I saw it. 

Hanging down was a huge piece of raw skin.  I yelled for the blacksmith.  Immediately he said he needed to be seen by the Vet. 

I went in the house to call, and was told to bring him up right away.  The Vet's office is only 5 miles away.

The blacksmith left with Bentley and was back home in no time. It seemed Bentley would have to stay over night.  They would have to put him out to clean and stitch the wound.

The night was long without my dog. And then a storm hit at 3 AM.  Bentley hates storms, was he scared too?  We had two different rounds of hail.  The weather radio went off at least 7 times.  It was at that point the blacksmith told me if I didn't unplug it he was flushing it down the toilet. 

When I left for work at 7:30 there were still hail remains from 3 hours earlier. It was 47 degrees. 

When I returned home, this is what greeted me.  His hip is completely shaved.  He is now sporting a collar and lots of stitches.  They also gave him several shots for infections.

For 10-14 long days he must wear this collar, until the stitches are removed by the vet.

How he hurt himself we don't know.  It was a short walk that they took and as usual Bentley was off exploring not far away. 

It's going to be a long 10 days!