.Thursday, 01-11-24

You can guess what this image is.   I took it about ten years ago and saved it in black and white.  Think it would make an interesting art quilt with squares, triangles, and lines.  Sometime in the future maybe. 

I am not doing anything very interesting these days, but I did have lunch today with my friend Carol at our new favorite restaurant - Japanese.  Pictures tomorrow. 

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Things are pretty dull these days! 07-02-20

I keep hearing the phrase, "We are all in the same boat."  But some of us are in their own boat by themselves!   With only KoKo, the world's cutest Yorkie, for company I seem to spin my wheels more than I usually do.  I just don't seem to have any drive, any interest in creating, or any incentive to finish what I start.   I know I am not the only one who feels this way and I have no suggestions on what to do about it.  So, I plug away - reading, walking, eating, browsing Facebook, and doing a bit of sewing.   Once a week I go for lunch to the home of a couple who are isolating.   She makes a soup and I take a salad.  So, I must go to the farmer's market in my mask to find makings for the salad.   Besides the delicious food and interesting conversation I also enjoy seeing the actual faces of my friends.  Have you noticed that people don't seem to be "real" when you can't see their faces.  Maybe those face shields are a good idea, so you can see if someone is smiling or frowning or crying or.... whatever.  

I will keep blogging.  Writing whatever comes to my head.  And sending good thoughts your way that you are being more successful than I at this isolation situation.  

And I will keep posting pictures of quilts as I can.  

Love, Del & KoKo

Thursday Thoughts 04-30-20

Here are a few more "treasures" I cannot part with.  Maybe I should title this "Thursday Treasures" rather than Thursday Thoughts!   I imagine these items are at least 100 years old and have belonged in my family for all those years. 

Once upon a time restaurants served butter on individual tiny plates called butter pats.  They are about 2 1/2" in diameter and generally held just one pat (a TBLS) of butter.  These are from a diner or some such establishment, although sets of fine china could also include these little plates.  I did not realize until a few years ago that the pat on the left and the Spencer's cream pot have the same black and red pattern. They may or may not have been acquired together.  The pat on the right is a very common pattern from those days. 

This little pot with the name Spencer's, which was my maiden name, was used to serve cream for coffee or tea.  I have always supposed that Spencer's Restaurant was in Portland, Oregon, where I spent my early years, but I don't know.  All through my 81 years it has held toothpicks, in my mother's cabinet and in mine.  I do have a male Spencer cousin and I spoke to him about this one time, but he didn't seem very interested and I have no contact with any of his children.  So I suppose this will appear at the Salvation Army store when I have used it for the last time.  I hope a Spencer finds it and enjoys it.  

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Thursday Thoughts 04-09-20

It is citrus time in Southern California and there are many neighbors willing to share their abundant crop.  One lady posted on Next Door that she would deliver oranges to anyone who wanted them.  I said yes and she dropped a bag of eight of the best oranges I have ever eaten.  But I am not a connoisseur of oranges because if I eat too many I develop a rash.  But, OMG, these were perfection.  I didn't juice them, but ate them over the sink with the juice running down my chin.  Sooo good.  

Then this image appeared on Facebook and I had to laugh.  I am frequently amused by the things from my past, and sometimes present, that younger people do not recognize. 

This was an irreverent post with some raunchy answers.

But in my cupboard I have this.....

Not exactly like the antique they show, but it works the same way.  And it was my mother's.  I was dismissive of it after my first visit to California when I was about 4 years old.  My aunt had a "mechanical" squeezer that I cannot find an image of to show you.  But it had a crank that was pushed down after putting a half an orange on the cone shape and closing the lid.  It seemed very modern and efficient to me and I was thrilled to be allowed to push the crank with some help from Aunt Vernice.  It was the wrong time of year to pick oranges off of trees, but it was fascinating to think of it.  

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Thursday Thoughts 04-02-20

Here are some treasures that dwell on the bottom of the kitchen utensil drawer.  I don't use any of them any more, but they don't take up much room and I will probably keep them until I die. They are just there. Can you guess what they are?

On the top is a spoon holder that goes on the side of a pot, the spoon fits in the spring looking thing.  On the left are two keys to open flat cans (like sardines) and a bottle opener from Lucky Lager beer which is "age dated", for whatever that is worth.   On the right are tools to get things out of tall, skinny bottles;  a spear for something like olives, a spring loaded fork for removing heavier items like sausages, a spoon from Tupperware, circa 1962. I'm sure there is a "church key" somewhere in the house, maybe in a tackle box.  This is the kind with which I am most familiar (picture from Wikipedia) and I am surprised that they are still available on a lot of sites.   

All this old stuff I just hang onto.  I'm certainly not in the mood to clean out drawers and closets, or the garage.  Doesn't fit with my idea of isolation.  Sewing and reading are better. 

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Thursday Thoughts 03-26-20

Another old thing that I treasure and use several times a week.  This was my mother's grater, the only one I think she ever had.  I took it as part of my inheritence once she died.  It is still sharp enough for whatever I need it to cut, which is amazing since it must be over 75 years old.  It takes up almost no room in the front of the knife drawer.  I sent my old box grater to the second hand store for someone else to struggle with.  

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Thursday Thoughts 03-19-20

I haven't done "Thursday Thoughts" before.  Thursday Threads, but that isn't apropos of this subject.  I suppose that all the talk about downsizing, cleaning out, culling, etc., has made me think lately of the things in my life that I save and treasure.  I am a confirmed pack rat and hate to dispose of anything that I might someday use or that I just keep because I like it.  I know quilters who are always trying to use up their "stash" and I don't understand that.  My fabric library is a treasure and if I use it up, I won't have it anymore!!  Of course, I do use fabric from the library, but not with the thought that I will use it all up.  Horrors!

But some things I use almost every day are things that I have had for over fifty years.  I'll take some pictures now and then to share with you.  I won't show my ratty towels - why do people buy new towels every year?  Why to do they have to match the bathroom?   Some of mine are from the early 70s and they are perfectly okay to dry off my body.  Or KoKo's. Or my car.  

Here is a pot that was old when I acquired it.  I worked at the Los Angeles County Department of Communications in 1959 and moved from my grandmother's house to a furnished apartment in Pasadena.   I had become friends with my boss Alice Lieb who was the head of communications.  She was ANCIENT, probably in her late 40s, and she was newly divorced (rather shocking then) and moving.  She kindly gave me some pots and pans, they weren't supplied with the apartment.  One is a 2 quart Revereware copper bottom stainless steel pot.   While she owned it the handle had come off and someone welded it back on.  For all these years it has been my "primary" pot for just about everything.  I have larger and smaller pieces, but this one seems to be the one that is most versatile.  I couldn't live without it!!  It is something over 60 years old!  

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