You CAN go home again.........

Yes, you can go home again. It's never quite the same as when you were growing up, but if the people you knew and loved are still there, well, you can go home. I may live in Minnesota but Iowa is my home state, Lehigh was my home town, and when I found the little town of Henderson, it reminded me of my home town. I like small towns. Like the people, the conversation, the farmhouses, tractors in the field, the whole deal. And so going home to do a quilt program for the Lehigh Women's Club was like going home for me. There are still women in the group who remember my Grandma Golda quite well. She was active in the Women's Club as well as playing the piano at church every Sunday for 50 years! I don't get nervous when I do a quilt prgram there because they all know me and most of my family. And I still have family in town.......like my cousin, Patty, in the photo below. Before the Women's Club meeting started she brought out a couple of recent quilts that she had made and she really wanted me to see this one.

Patty helped me with the quilt show in the Lehigh Library last summer so to thank her, I sent her a pack of Christmas fabrics (go here and you can see them) and this is the quilt she made with those fabrics and others from her stash. Nice, huh?

The women gathered for the meeting...........

and President Jane took care of business and then I began sharing my quilts, stories, poems and songs. I'm working it all into a program that I can take to women's groups, especially church groups as the old quilts and the old hymns that I sing acapella, go "hand-in-hand". I love to tell the story of how my grandma played piano so my sister Judy and I could sing at church or for baby showers, etc. And I always share how fortunate I was to have the same music teacher from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. Her name was Mrs. Parr and she was a wonderful music and voice teacher. Maybe one day, I'll figure out how to do a video and can share a song or two and read a poem here on my blog.

I brought lots of quilts to share and my mother came along, as did my niece, Sue Ellen and mom, Sandy (yes, my sister-in-laws name is Sandy, so it does get confusing sometimes). Here's Sue Ellen sharing a quilt that Grandma Mary gave her. My mom picked it up at an auction for $1.00 and Sue Ellen loved it.

When the program was over I encouraged all the ladies to get a closer look at the quilts that I brought.

That's my cousin, Sharon, in the photo above as she studies the "puzzle quilt" as I call it. Everyone is always intrigued when they learn how the quilt is made. I took some pictures of the steps to make the quilt and I will try to get a tutorial up later in June.

Sue Ellen was a very good helper and you can see her placing my various penny rugs on the table for everyone to see. Cousin Patty is laughing because she has just said that with her Irish heritage she is going to run off with the Shamrock penny rug. LOL!
Following the meeting there was time for visiting and a bit of a snack. I really enjoyed doing the program and everyone enjoyed seeing the quilts. One member said she wasn't really a quilter but she "sure enjoyed hearing me sing the old hymns". Now that would make my dad and my grandma really happy.

I have more to share about the Iowa trip and other stuff from the past week but that's it for tonight.....except for these last two photos.......

I shared this quilt at the program and it was made by my mother in 1970 when our daughter was born. I took this photo outside one day last week and it's not really very good but it's the best I could do. My mom loves to embroider and she made the blocks then hand-quilted the crib quilt and sent it off to us in Japan where we were stationed when Steve was in the Air Force. During the time we were there, she sent me a good sized box full of all her embroidery patterns which I traced and then mailed back to her. I still have all the ones that I traced! I am amazed that they survived the trip through the mail. As much as I love fabric and do enjoy quilting, I really love to embroider and do handwork. My mom is the same way.

I also took a photo of the "Puzzle Quilt" and it looked lovely blowing in the wind. This is one that my dad bought at auction in about 1999 and then my folks gave it to me for Christmas. It was bought at auction in Dayton, Iowa, and is a youth size quilt. My dad just loved this quilt and I realized this past year that perhaps it reminded him of his mother because in my Grandma's things, there were just a couple of quilts that she had made and one of them is a large version of this quilt!!

Time to turn out the lights!

Sandi

Blowin' in the Wind!

Yesterday afternoon I took a break from cleaning chores and decided to go outside and hang some quilts on the line and take pictures. It was overcast when I gathered my stuff together and sunny by the time I got outside. Not great for taking pictures. And that breeze I was lovin' so much from inside the house, turned out to be a little too breezy when hanging quilts and taking pictures. I hung the name quilt that I wanted to tell you about and the wind would just not calm down so that I could get a good picture!

Thar she blows!! The wind just kept whipping the quilt back and forth and I decided that was fine because it probably needed to aired out anyway.

This was the best picture I could get so I will have to try again another day or take a picture inside.

Now to the story behind this piece. A few weeks ago, my dad's favorite cousin Shirley told me she had a family name quilt that she was going to give me. No one in her family wanted it, in part because it wasn't made by my Aunt Elsie, her mother. Instead this was a celebration quilt. And before I go any further, I know it's not really a quilt because it doesn't have batting and isn't quilted. It's easier to call it a quilt although it was probably a bedcover based on the shape. In the upper left corner the words "Birthday Greetings" has been embroidered and on another block (mid-quilt) is the date March 26 and 1930. There are many local last names that I recognise. I have never seen anything quite like it. I love the embroidery on the piece and am so glad that Shirley "gifted" me with this as I will happily add it to my treasures.

Shirley gave it to my mom to give it to me so the first time I saw it was the night of the quilt program that I did for the Women's Club in Lehigh, IA almost two weeks ago. And yes, there are more pictures and stories to share. I'll post a couple of times during the day Friday and again on Saturday just to try and catch up! Now if I just had a magic wand that would get the laundry done, and provide meals, oh, and walk the dog.....well, then I would be able to get caught up on my quilting/bloggy stuff in no time. Actually, I have a magic wand that was given to me at a training session when I worked at a computer company years ago. It didn't make the work go away then and it's not going to work now!!

More later today........

Sandi