Granna Mur and Lessons Learned

Maggie Ola on right (ca 03-05)

When I was a kid, my great-grandmother was old, mean, and (to me) color blind.  She had a wicked cane that she poked you with (or if you were a particularly annoying male of the family, outright popped you with) and she loved to antagonize my grandfather, which in turn upset my grandmother (her daughter).  She saw things that weren't there, like flowers in the trees or squirrels on the hood of the moving car.  She crocheted like crazy and even made some quilts.  It seemed that her favorite things involved polyester, orange, pink, gold, and olive.  My favorite quilt (long since missing, and greatly missed) was a Southern Belle.  I spent hours picking out my favorite calico patches from thing.  I think it inspired my love of scrappy quilts.  That was lesson one:  scrappy is beautiful.

Holding daughter Sue, 1920

When I was a young adult, it was cool that Granna Mur was still around because, with my daughter, five generations were represented.  She still had the wicked cane, weird colors, and was old.  Interacting with her and my grandmother was a lesson in patience that I'm glad to have learned.  That's number two.

Granna Mur ca ?

Now that she's gone, and I'm (cough, cough) slightly more mature, it scares me that if I had a cane, I would probably be poking people and pink and orange is one of my favorite color combos.  With a healthy dose of olive.  That's lesson three:  what goes around comes around.  On the right I think she is about my age, but I don't know the date.

She made this crazy quilt in the 50s.  As the story goes, she had a brand spanking new sewing machine that did all sorts of almost unheard of stitches.  So she did what any of us would, she made a crazy quilt. 

 

The quilt is a mixture of machine stitches and some very good hand stitches.  It is lined with some really heavy olive green satin.  It isn't as ornate as a 100 year old quilt, but it's hers, and now mine, and it inspires me.  I didn't even know it existed until a couple of years ago, long after my own love of crazy quilting emerged.  I guess that means I've come full circle.  Lesson four:  follow the beat of your own drummer, and remember, it's not always a completely new beat.
Maybe I'll start collecting canes...

Moving Right Along

Somewhere I miscounted. In my head, I mean. I'm usually pretty good at counting things physically, but my poor brain gets confused when I don't have the things in front of me. I thought that this was my 7th block, but now I find it's my eighth. Woo-hoo!! Check out the awesome lace I added. I got it from a lot of vintage lace on etsy from ChildhoodMemories. You'll be seeing more of that purchase, if I can manage to make myself cut into them. The pink and green venice laces are from my stash and more of the stuff that I dyed.

It's not quite finished, but that's ok.  I need to find some 1/8th inch white velvet ribbon to trim out the costume my daughter is wearing in the picture.  It was her Halloween ice skater costume years ago.  I had sewn fur around the neck, wrists, and waist and made her a little organza skirt.  For the block, I gathered a piece of organza ribbon for the skirt.  I also tatted the lace and corner pieces for the picture in black to emphasize the Halloween theme.

The Virgin Mary applique is a copy of a prayer card from my grandfather's affects.  Don't you love printer fabric?

The red carnation is the flower of Spain, in honor of my husband's roots.  I ripped it out twice before I finally made one I could live with. 

I have the patches sewn on the ninth block, but I'm not sure when I'll finish it.  I'm getting the pain of embroiderer's elbow (much like tennis elbow, but without the sweating) and I think I should take a break.  Next week is spring break and I've been threatened to get a paper pieced butterfly pattern together for a new class OR ELSE.

Key to My Heart

Block 7!  Woo-hoo!!  I am going to have to take a break from the crazy quilt pretty soon so I can work on some more quilt patterns.  I hope to start selling them on etsy to get Lisa off my back drum up some business.  I really enjoy teaching classes, but I haven't had one since June.  Wow.  Time flies when you have no control over your life children.



Speaking of children, here is one of the little darlings who holds the key to my heart (get it?  There is a lock and key in the block under her).  The picture is about 9 years old because she was 5 at the time.  She is holding my baby doll, Mary, who was originally my dad's and is 70 years old.  Mary is wearing one of my baby outfits.  I spent a lot of time thinking about how to frame the picture.  I really like the wisteria tree I ended up with.  Embellishing this picture makes me want to go back and add more to my son's.  Ideas?  You probably can't tell, but I also picked out the headband in this picture with pink satin floss. 

The peacock is borrowed from Jenny Hart over at Sublime Stitching.  I hope to get one of her books soon.  She has a lot of vintage designs with a modern twist that appeal to me, like the birds and cameo.  Besides, you can't go wrong with a girl from Texas. 

Have a great weekend!