The Last Quit of 2013

My friend and her son lost their beloved dog to cancer this month. I made a small quilt based on my friend's favorite photograph of her son and their dog, Zorro.

I used fused applique, machine quilting, and a sheer net overlay to soften the image, the way our memory softens the harsh angles leaving us with the beloved ideal.

I hope that next year I get more quilts finished than started, lol. And I have read over 50 books this year but only blogged about a few.

My big accomplishments this year included having my quilt "I Will Lift My Voice Like a Trumpet" in two American Quilt Society shows, starting an etsy store, Rosemont Needle Arts, which I have been lax about promoting and adding to, and working harder on my blog. And I joined Esther Aliu's Yahoo group to make the Love Entwinned 1790s applique quilt.

We also have been preparing our retirement house with new doors, a new front window, programmable thermostat, LED light fixtures, insulation in attic and basement, and the purchase of a new refrigerator. Also a replaced garage door opener, painting of the family room, new drapes for the family room, and some other minor items. Next year: washer and dryer and water heater and landscaping issues. We also have fun researching ideas for the kitchen upgrade and flooring options. Somehow this table I got at bargain prices has to fit into the kitchen plan!

I hope your year has had its successes and accomplishments. And that 2014 brings exciting and new experiences, books to read, and quilts to make and success in all your endeavors!

Michigan 101: Winter Wonderland

Some decades ago the State of Michigan used the motto "Water Winter Wonderland." The state really is a wonderland of water, and well winter offers lots to do with skiing, snowmobiles, ice fishing, and cross country skiing.

Of course my husband and I consider winter activities to include a book, a quilt, and a cup of hot tea. And if we have a nice picture window, we look out and think, "SO GLAD to be inside!" One parsonage was in the woods, and the view could be quite nice in winter.

The shoveling part is not so nice, especially when no snow blower is provided. We lived for a time next to a parking lot and they plowed the snow into a huge pile next to our driveway.

They say in Michigan that if you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes and it will change. One spring it decided to snow when the tulips were just up!

My brother loves the outdoors, regardless of the weather. He takes wonderful photographs. The first photo is from Clear Springs near Montague, MI. The next is a Sandhill Crane at Kensington Metro Park outside of Metro Detroit.

Make no doubt about it, Michiganders know how to enjoy the Winter Wonderland.

St Nicholas And His Aeroplane

A Year With The Fairies by Anna M. Scott and illustrated by M. T. Ross, published in 1914

Jack Frost

Elfin pictures on the pane

Mean Jack Frost has come again;

Lace and ferns and vines and flowers,

Snow-capped peaks and fairy bowers.

Castles gleaming opalescent,

Rivers flowing iridescent;

Jewels set in filigree,

All in crystal fantasy.

Lady Winter clothed in ermine

On the North Wind gallops in,

Over crystal bridges bright,

Over carpets snowy white.

Winter Sports

On sleds of holly leaves they coast,

Of silver skates they proudly boast

And snowball fights with tiny forts--

These are their jolly winter sports.

Old Photos, Being a Trip Into the Past

I have been organizing old family photos, taking them from the 'magic stick' page albums and putting them into boxes. I plan to find some envelopes to protect individual photos. It is a real trip down memory lane. Plus I have photos from my husband's family as well. I upload pics to ancestry.com to preserve them. Here are some of my favorite family photos.

Barbara Reed Ramer

I was still a teenager when my Grandfather Ramer gave me this daguerreotype photograph. He was unsure if it was his mother or his grandmother, but I know from the dress style, and by comparing photo images, that it was his grandmother Barbara Reed Ramer. 













They lived in Milroy, PA where Joseph ran a lumber mill.

Their daughter Esther Mae was my Grampa Ramer's mother.

Lynne lost his mother and his grandmother when he was nine years old, and his grandfather had died before that. So he was taken in by his aunts and uncles. Gramps worked himself through college and seminary, then went into teaching. He fell in love with one of his students, a beautiful young blonde named Evelyn Adair Greenwood. They married when Evelyn was 17 and Lynne was 26.  

Evelyn's parents had come from England in 1911. Cropper Greenwood was born in Bacup, Lancashire and generations of his family all worked in the cotton mills. But Cropper worked in the quarry, where he apparently learned about engines. He became a chauffeur. He met Delia Victoria Smith, who was a domestic servant working in Manchester, England. Delia was from Irlam on Moss, her Irish father being a horse breeder; her mother was from Scotland. Below is Cropper Greenwood. He immigrated to America with a job working for 'a rich man' and sent passage for Delia to join him. They married the next month.

Evelyn and Lynne's oldest child was my mother, Joyce. Mom was the Jiggerbug Queen of the 'Projects', temporary war time housing for factory workers. Gramps worked as an engineer in an airplane factory during WWII.

Mom saw my dad on the bus and tried every way to get his attention. Well, she did and they married and a few years later I came along and then my brother.

Me at three years old

I grew up and married. Here is a photo of my mother-in-law when she was a teenager. She loved church camp at Gull Lake, MI and the summer this photo was taken she said she was 'dark as an Indian' and was asked by a Native American boy she met if she was an Indian.


Gary's father lost his father at age 13. His mother Loretta Valdora was a member of the UAW and supported the famous GM sit-down strike by bringing food to the striking workers.









Val/Etta/Girl (she went by many names over her life!) spent a winter at Vermillion Point, MI on Lake Superior taking care of the life saving station children.







Gary took this photo at Longwood Gardens outside of Philadelphia. It is such a beautiful photo because of the setting.

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen

In 1978 at Temple University I took an honors seminar on Jane Austen taught by Prof. Toby Olshin. I enrolled in the class because my first year at Temple, in a class on literary criticism, Prof. McFadden told us we should take three courses: the year long honors seminar on Austen, the honors seminar on James Joyce's Ulysses, and the course on John Milton. I took them all, and they were great classes but Olsen's Austen was the real life changer.

We read all of Jane's works, published and unpublished. Our small class of eight did a careful line-by-line reading. My textbooks are full of notes. The second semester covered her letters and juvenilia and her literary influences. I later bought an 1894 edition of Austen's complete works, including her letters. And later my husband gave me the Oxforn edition of her complete works.

Jane was not always the cultural phenomenon she is today. She had a modest following in her lifetime and some years afterwards. She pretty much fell off the radar then. Mark Twain disdained her! Her first rediscovery came a hundred years ago after her novels were republished, and a 1911 essay by A.C. Bradley brought Austen into the realm of academic study. With the rise of the Women's Movement, Jane's works were reevaluated and brought into new light.

Jane's second rediscovery came with movies based on her novels, and today she has Fan Fiction galore because we can't get enough of Jane. Darcy is a modern heartthrob!

I designed and made two quilts based on Pride and Prejudice, an applique and Redwork version. I wrote about them in a post some time ago. http://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2012/02/pride-and-prejudice-story-book-quilt.html

I have the patterns available on my Etsy store Rosemont Needle Arts.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/RosemontNeedleArts?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Prof. Olshin helped us gain a full understanding of the world Jane lived in. We studied Georgian material culture and visited Philadelphia Georgian houses. When puce gloves were worn by a character, we knew what color they were. She was a Freudian, and brought depth psychology into our understanding of the novels, including evaluating readers responses. We loved Jane for her social satire, her irony, her biting commentary that dissected society's foibles and skewed values.

Because I graduated in 1978, I had to audit the second half of the class in the fall semester. It does not appear on my transcript nor did I receive any credit or grade.

One member of our class went on to become an award winning singer songwriter! Julie Gold's song "From a Distance" won song of the year in 1991. When I knew her she was singing in venues like Kyber Pass in Philadelphia. http://juliegold.com/

Class member Vincent Schiavone's mom had created Aid for Friends, a meals-on-wheels program that provided cooked meals for shut-ins.  http://articles.philly.com/1994-03-02/food/25849942_1_food-aid-meals-food-assistance and http://www.aidforfriends.org/index.cfm?active=1

I wish I could remember the other class members.

Professor Olshin died in 1981 at age 41 after a long battle with cancer. Her obituary called her teaching style "dynamic". When a student poll gave her the highest marks for teaching, she said "I love to teach, I love students, and I love literature." The last time I saw her was in 1980. My husband and I were on the Temple campus walking and we ran into her. I have always credited her to be one of the most important teachers I have had the privilege to study under.

http://digital.library.temple.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p245801coll12/id/87213/rec/1

Christmas Handkerchiefs

The temperature has been under 20 degrees for over a week and will not reach freezing in the foreseeable future! The only way I stay sane is by keeping real busy. So I am thrilled that today Esther Aliu has the next floral corner pattern for Love Entwined!

Here are some Christmas handkerchiefs featuring poinsettias from my collection.

1961 Northern Ads

I have been going through my collection of stuff, trying to figure out what to do with it all. I found this stash of 1961 Family Circle ads for Northern toilet paper. So precious! Mom read a lot of magazines when I was growing up, and I have collected quite a number of 50s and 60s magazines over the years.