Xmas ornaments 11-23-07

Santa with a Button Beard

Whenever I go to the desert to have Thanksgiving with Corky, his parents and grandparents I take the materials to make Xmas ornaments. This goes along with their family tradition of exchanging handmade ornaments at the family celebration in Sacramento early in December. I come up with a design, figure out how to make it, gather all the materials and equipment needed and, after T'giving dinner, help the Poodle Mommy and G'ma each make one ornament. This year I stayed home for T'giving, so I sent all the necessary stuff with Corky and parents when they went out on Tuesday. It is difficult to judge how much time will be required to complete the project, sometimes I have made it so complicated that it takes up too much of the weekend. This year I sewed and turned the fabric Santas ahead of time so they could just stuff and sew the opening closed, then sew on buttons and beads. I tried gluing the buttons on, but I failed gluing in kindergarten and haven't gotten any better in the ensuing years. But I sent a hot glue gun and a bottle of Fabric-Tac in case they would want to try one of those methods.

I don't celebrate the holiday anymore. Since my husband died I just don't have the same interest or enthusiasm. I went through the motions for quite a few years and finally just stopped trying. I get disgusted with all the advertisements urging people to buy, buy, buy. It seems that is what the holiday is all about these days. I suppose I am turning into a curmudgeon in my mature years. However, I do miss hand making ornaments, so this gives me just a little taste each year. I cleaned out my handmade ornament box this year and donated most of them to Visions Art Quilt Gallery for the Xmas tree they are auctioning off as part of an event that will feature a number of trees from different nonprofit groups. If I'm not going to use them it seemed like someone else should enjoy them.

A Day of Thanks & Turkeys 11-22-07

Yes, I am thankful, especially for the community I have discovered on the Internet. Although I have written vacation blogs for several years, I wasn't sure that I could do a daily blog. I'm still not sure! But I am still trying and I hope I will have something of interest for you throughout this coming year.

In the early 1990s I worked in a fabric/needlework shop, which has been my only retail experience. I enjoyed it, but didn't ever bring very much money home! One learning experience was discovering that customers will buy a pattern, but they want to make it with the same fabrics shown in the pattern picture. Naturally that fabric was long out-of-print. One pattern we carried was from a company that made everything from hearts and I thought this little turkey (about 3-1/2" square, made of three hearts and a shape like a butternut squash) was especially nice, but it wasn't flying off the shelves. So, I choose fabrics available in the shop and made up a bunch of turkeys. The customers were attracted, but most wanted to buy the turkeys already made - not a chance. We made up little kits and sold them with the pattern, which we reordered many times. It still mystifies me that anyone would want to make a duplicate of another person's work, but I know from subsequent experience that it is true of the vast majority of quiltmakers. I made many more turkeys because I was invited to Thanksgiving dinner with a large family and wanted to have a little something for everyone - even the guys - and also for my friendship group. But I used different fabrics for the hearts and then mixed and matched so each was unique. And each one has a pin back. I wonder where all of those little gobblers are today! These two were left over, so when I go out for Thanksgiving dinner I always wear one - usually pinned to my hatband. I have stayed home today, but wore one of these turkey pins anyway.

Another bird 11-21-07

This little yellow bird was a block for a group quilt. She has a flapping wing - she probably needs it to keep from falling on her nose.

Views front & back 11-20-07

One more look at the views from Mary's house.

This is the view from the front door. It is morning, so the sun hasn't quite reached the bottom of the oak trees.

On a cloudy day this is the view directly opposite out the back windows, two stories up, at the oak which was trimmed this year. It was so huge that there was danger that a falling limb or trunk would hit the house. I was sad to hear that the green was gone, but I must admit the grey trunks are very attractive.

When I am there I feel that we are very remote in the oak/madrone forest, but there is a house visible not far away and several others close by. Still, I am a suburban dweller with the houses very close in my neighborhood and not very many mature trees.

Rice fields 11-19-07

The fog was lurking all the way home on I-5, but I did take a few pictures of the young rice fields. They are so VERY green at this stage, in great contrast to the generally grey/brown of everything else and the foggy morning accentuates this. The fields are wet, but not flooded yet.

View to the East 11-18-07

Here is a nice healthy madrone which grows at the east corner of the property. All of the bark is not red and peeling, as you can see on the heavy limb in the center. I took this picture just at the right time of the afternoon when the sun was almost ready to dip below the hill to the southwest. The afternoon light really makes the bark glow.