Faith, Folklore, and Friends

When the cold winter days force me to stay inside, I try to get caught up on my sewing projects. My Sunday School group, the Austin/Barger class, has a Relay for Life team to raise funds for the American Cancer Society.  All the money raised is used locally to help cancer patients.  Silent auctions have been successful for us in the past.   These are my current Works-In-Progress, with a little help from my SIL Charlotte, the bear queen.  All these bears are made from t-shirts; three from the Relay for Life event last year, an Auburn and UNA t-shirt.  The bears will get a ribbon around their neck and maybe some more embellishment later.   Last Friday night, there was a Woodmont Women gathering for fun and fellowship.  To get a head start on the Relay for Life event scheduled for May, we had several items for a silent auction.  My donation was an Alabama bear and Auburn bear.  We raised almost a thousand dollars on all the items, so we are off to a good start this year.

After all my flowers (students) got here tonight, raring to go, we talked about the quilt above.  This is just half of the quilt.  There are twelve different blocks made from half-square triangles.  Arrangements of these triangles seem to be limitless, at least for me.   Learning this basic technique will enable one to make dozens of different quilts. This string quilt is our next project.  They are my favorite quilts, and you may be tired of seeing them here by now.  This quilt is marked with a white pencil to show us where to put the stitches so there will be straight line. Marking quilts is one of my least favorite things to do, but it is extremely helpful for beginners.  There are lots of different markers that can be purchased today.  One of my favorites is slivers of soap, and I usually bring hotel soaps home to use for that purpose.  They wash out easily, too.  I have bought antique quilts at auctions that were marked with a pencil, and the lines remained after several

I write a lot about the nostalgic good ole days when women wore lovely dresses and sat on front porches, rocking the evening away; when men had honor and children had manners.  Unfortunately, there was a darker side. People died of things we can't imagine:  blood poisoning from a small cut, pneumonia, infection from a bad tooth, and childbirth.  I would have probably died when I was twenty and had appendicitis, and my sister would have died in childbirth instead of having an emergency Cesarean.  Fatal accidents were too common for those making a living by farming or cutting timber. When death came to these country folks, it was up to them to take care of their own.  The list above, taken from the Gravelly Springs General Mercantile ledger from March, 1880, tells the tale.  I don't know who these people were, but given enough time, all of our families' names would have probably shown up on a similar list.  

N othing in all creation is so like G od as Stillness.    ~Meister Eckhart Be still, and know that I am God:         I will be exalted among the nations,                   I will be exalted in the earth. ~Psalm 46:10

So, yesterday, I was at one of my favorite places in the world, the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library.  There is a history room upstairs that is full of hidden treasures if you can just be patient enough to find them. I found the list above from the Natchez Trace Genealogical Society's magazine.  It is part of an expansive list from the Gravelly Springs General Mercantile in 1880.  Lists like these just get my imagination going ninety miles an hour.   I love this one from the Pink Bruce family (I know some Bruces, possibly descendants of Pink and his lady).  I'm thinking the 25 yards of calico were for Easter dresses for Mrs. Bruce and her daughters.  Of course, they would have used them as their "Sunday" dresses until they were outgrown or worn out.  2 pairs of Speckticles??? Maybe the equivalent of the reading glasses you can buy off the rack now. The hat for $1.50 may have been a fancy one, since it was more expensive than a lantern, a bucket, and a broom. 

  This was always a welcome sight when we were standing in parched cotton fields, looking for a sign.  This meant that the sun was drawing water, and it was going to rain. Daddy entertained us with stories of deluges that he had witnessed, or heard about.  He recalled that once, it had rained so hard, that little fish that had fallen from the clouds were flopping all over the place.  We would believe anything. If a fish, or any other living thing, was sucked up by a tornado or waterspout, then fell thousands of feet to collide with the earth, would it really be flopping?  We lived more than 400 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, and over 600 from the Atlantic.  Peeps, that is a long way for a little creature to travel and still be able to move when it was reunited with the earth. It is true that sometimes frogs or fish are washed up from streams or sewers during flooding, but I don't think they fell from the sky and were still able to move about.  However, it was an entertai

Oh, God, give me grace for this day. Not for a lifetime, nor for next week. Nor for tomorrow, just for this day... So that for this one day, just this one day, I have the gift of grace That comes from your presence. ~Marjorie Holmes

Our quilting class last night started by showing some easy, colorful quilts that can be made from scraps.  The quilt in the photo above is a string quilt with a focus fabric. This quilt is made of half-square triangles done the easy way.  These are not the intricate Baltimore Albums or Double Wedding Ring quilts, but quilts that can be done in a weekend.  Both of these quilts could be made by a beginner with basic sewing skills. Violet was not able to come last night; she is having minor knee surgery this morning.  She is hoping she will be healed enough to make it next week. Tulip, Daisy, Rose, and I were able to finish the bird quilt enough for it to be taken off the frames.  We love looking at the back of the quilt for the first time when it is out of the frames.  The stitching makes a pattern of its own on the muslin we use for backing. All of us are excited about starting a new quilt next week.  So many projects....so little time! This class is made possible by

February 14-18 has been designated the Great Backyard Bird Count.  People who love birds are encouraged to count birds they see, and they can document them through an online application.  Having us count will give scientists and bird enthusiasts an idea of where the birds are. Bird populations are dynamic with wide distribution changes. There are way too many birds for just a few people to try to keep track of. I love watching birds and I keep food out for them, but I'm really not too good at identifying them. There are several bird identification books in my house that I use to identify our little visitors. Since her retirement, my friend, Steph, has become a bird expert.  Her yard, with all the feeders and bird baths, are a magnet to them.  She catches them in photos, sometimes, and shares them with us. This weekend, she had a flock of cedar waxwings stop by her place.  They were probably migrating north and won't be around for long.  Here are two of her p

Lamentations 3:22-23   Because of the Lord ’s great love we are not consumed,                        for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;                            great is your faithfulness.

    And I am so ready.  Won't be long now.

A garden is a grand teacher.  It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.   ~ Gertrude Jekyll Every year about this time, I get itchy to be outside, to dig in the dirt, to sow some seed. The products from all this work are wonderful, but the process is what I really love. I think I have always loved gardening. Even as a small child, I would walk barefoot behind Daddy's plow in the freshly tilled earth, looking for earthworms that had been disturbed. We couldn't wait to get the garden planted, and sometimes because of our impatience, we had to plant it again when we had a late frost. We planted the tomato plants (we called them slips) that Mama had grown in an old tub with a piece of glass on top to keep them warm. Surely, my mind is foggy here and there wasn't as many as I seem to remember. As a teacher, I totally support formal education, but there are many ways to learn without ente

Today's blog was written last year on Valentine's Day. Since that time, I have not found any greater example of love, so I'm repeating it. I have learned that it is easy to say, "I Love You" when it is convenient, but not so easy when it involves giving up your own wants and needs for someone else.     It was late September, 2001, and we were bombarded with fear and disbelief and images of burning buildings falling to the ground. He was sitting there, watching it again, when the phone rang. The doctor, with a voice that indicated he had done this many times before, told him that the stomach ache he had been experiencing was actually fourth stage colon cancer that had metastasized to his liver. The doctor instructed my little brother to find an oncologist and set up a course of treatment. The doctor told him that there was little possibility for long-term survival. He was living in Tennessee, alone, having been recently divorced. There were relat

Last night, I went to a painting party at Stephanie's house.  I have never attempted to paint before.    Not bad for my first time....Wait.  That is one of the paintings the instructor brought to use as an example.   The background was easy enough.  I chose to do a simple rooster, something that I could handle.  Maybe.   When Hub and I were very young, we lived on a farm and had animals.  One year, I found some really cheap baby chickens for sale in the ads in the back of a magazine.  We ordered them  and raised them to put in the freezer as fryers.  Well, no matter how much we fed them, those chickens just wouldn't get fat.  It was their nature, apparently, to remain petite, and I would guess that is why we got them at such a good price.  The rooster I painted reminded me of those skinny chickens. My daughter-in-law, Rachel, and her sister are artists.  I have several friends who paint well enough to sell their work.  They don't need to be worried

Our class continued this week, with all the students present and feeling fine.  We are quilting 'in the ditch' on this quilt, and some of my students are getting so good, they can't even see their stitches.    We finished sewing down the last of the binding on our first quilt.  It is done except for the label. On Sunday, before the church service started, I was talking to my friend, Barbara, when another lady walked up.  Barbara introduced me as "Wanda, the quilter."  The other lady was surprised.  She said, "I didn't know anyone did that anymore.  It is way too slow for most of us."  Well, it is slow, but that is not necessarily a negative thing.  I think the whole world would be a better place if we all slowed down and took time to work with our hands.  I told the lady that some of us were working to insure that quilting will never die. This class is made possible by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.  Thanks!

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.                     I do not give to you as the world gives.   Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.  ~John 14:27

In 1993, I spent the summer on Cape Cod doing some research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. It was the coldest summer of my life. I wish them well, but I'm certainly glad that I'm not there today.

It is cold and raining. It is a long time until spring break. I have a sinus infection and a bad knee and I'm out of bacon. Peeps, this would be a good day to run away from home.  Maybe we could take a train. We no longer have a passenger train here; we have to go to Birmingham or Memphis to get aboard.  Sometimes, it is worth the drive.     Taking the train means you don't have to find directions or parking places. You don't have to argue about who is going to drive. You just relax while the train rocks you to sleep. We rode this train in Skagway, Alaska, going over the mountain into Canada.  It was breathtakingly beautiful. Because I have promises to keep and many things to do before I sleep, I just can't run away today.  But soon, Peeps, soon. Not my photos; shared from Google images.

Y'all know it doesn't take much to get me excited.  Just look what came in the mail yesterday!! I love travel guides.  When we took our first trip out west, long before we had computers or iPhones, we had a box full of travel guides that I had sent for in the mail months before our vacation.  They were well worn by the time we started on our trip.  We kept all the guides in a metal file box.  On the trip, our baby boy, who was probably 8 or 9 then, sat in the front seat and proclaimed himself the 'Great Navigator".  We didn't even dream that one day we would travel with a GPS or with a phone small enough to hold in our hands that could access any information we needed.  Even so, I still love my travel guides.  I spend hours poring over them; I certainly do not want to miss anything. And what's not to love about Tennessee?  There is music from Memphis to Nashville to the mountains in the east.  There is the Mississippi delta and the Cumberland Plateau an

This is a rerun from last year.  I had already posted my blog for today before I remembered that it was Daddy's Birthday.   Former President Ronald Reagan was born this day in 1911.  I can remember the 'Reagan Years' well.  We were so proud of him.  Some say he was the most loved American president, but no one loved him more than my daddy did.   They had a special bond--my daddy was born on this day in 1915. The term 'yellow-dog democrat' refers to those voters that believe the Democratic Party is so superior, that it would be better to vote for a yellow dog than any Republican. I don't know what the Republican equivalent to that is, but I know my daddy would have had splinters pushed under his fingernails or faced a firing-squad before he would have voted for a Democrat. If someone really thought the Democratic candidate would be the better choice, well, you just learned to keep it a secret around Daddy. After he retired, Daddy loved helping Mama wit