Friday, March 1, 2019

Four days on the run


    
It will be mighty fine to move through my day at my own pace this fine Friday. The sun is blazing, and I could go take a picture of it, but it’s cold. It will be forty though, and that is good news.

Today I have another set of towels to finish and a new color to begin weaving. I have a new shirt to modify (why do I know more about proper garment finishing than the people who sell them!). Well, not a new new shirt. I bought it early in January and have worn it and its twin almost constantly. This morning’s choice has a front pouch pocket. Its twin has two side pockets that drop out the bottom under the weight of even a tissue. Needs fixed!

So, I’ll do all that today. But first, another fine development this week.

I put my hand into a bottom file drawer folder and saw something I did not know I had. It is labeled Family Tree Maker restore disc. The postmark is 2012, and it came from California, the location of the infamous third party supplier to Ancestry.com. To jog memories a trifle more, these are the two entities I dealt with, briefly, when I upgraded to Windows 10, leaving behind QuickBooks (oh, well!) and Ancestry.com, or more precisely, Family Tree.

It would cost me many dollars of upgrade money and more brainpower than I retain. Don’t say, Oh, you can do it, Joanne. No, I can’t. But I texted Jim, the computer guru, and he thinks he can do something with a Windows 7 program on a Windows 10 computer. All the data to populate the program is right there in a file I scroll past daily. I am no longer interested in upgrading it, only looking at the information in it.

Wish us luck! Then I will reinvolve myself with 23 and Me and attempt contacting second and third cousins who may have sat on the steps late at night, listening to the grown-up’s gossip. And one of them may remember the elusive little floating bit, why did Mamie Hogue marry George Marion Lytle?

Ruth and I made our mostly annual trip to Lake Farmpark's annual quilt show yesterday. We perused the show and had lunch. Then we planned our next "new restaurant" expedition, and had a long hug and came home.

So, a couple of my top picks from yesterday’s quilt show. And another personal milestone: I walked the entire show (slowly!) for three hours!


I made one of these quilts, years ago. It's folded in a chest at Beth's house. The pattern is cut from folded paper, like the snow flakes we made for decoration, years ago. Then all the raw edges are needle slipped under and felled down. Then set the blocks. Then...


I don't know the back story of Karen Eckmeier, and her quilts being here. I do admire this kind of work; thousands of bitty pieces, put together. Incredible work!


This quilt is a Dresden Plate. I've made one of these, too. It may even be in the chest at Beth's house. My sister and I have similar stories of baby sitting and felling the blocks. I was attracted to this by the border, little Dresden plate bits.


This quilt's simplicity attracted me. Well, I fall for iris, too. And the matching blue jacket of somebody. I see all of these quilts meet my quilt rule of ending. Build it to the edge, bind it and go home. The first picture has a quilt to the left, the Best of Show, that is an example of quilts that don't attract me. Border after border! As lovely and intricate as that BoS is, it's just too busy, visually, for me.


This quilt is amusing. Its title is Dinner for Eight. Well done, you.





36 comments:

  1. The last quilt makes me think of the old PacMan game my daughter used to play.

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  2. I remember needle slipped, but not "felled down." What does that mean? Those appliqued quilts are so beautiful, but I do not have the patience to do all of that hand work. Three hours on your feet is a feat.

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    1. It means stitching each of those applied pieces to the fabric backing, with tiny, invisible stitches. It may have a different name; that's what my mother and grandmother called it. My mother's stitches were perfect, of course, as are my sister's. Mine are decent.

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  3. I love to look at work such as this, but as for doing it, nah. My mother was the quilter, the seamstress. I have trouble with a button or a hem.

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  4. Such beautiful work and all so different. It’s one of the things I love about quilts.

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  5. It's a cute little quilt too. I like the one at the top...right, and not the one on the left. Too fussy. What a really nice trip and visit that was. Enjoy the towels. I do.

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  6. I went to that show for many years. It is rather fun. My mother did several needle turn quilts, but I do patchwork, mostly. I have done applique when our family were each doing a block for a quilt for a first child or a wedding.

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  7. Hari om
    Congrats on the walking of the quilts...and thanks for showing them to us! All best for some recoup of the ancestrals. YAM xx

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  8. The quilts are exquisite. I really am fascinated by Karen Eckmeier quilt. Something like that takes so much patience.

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  9. I love a good quilt show and those are beautiful! Good luck on your computer family tree project!

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  10. Wish I had more patience for quilting. Can't imagine walking for 3 hours not even very slowly.

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    1. Tired and sore when I went to bed last night, but just fine today!

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  11. Beautiful quilts and well done on staying vertical for three hours! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger :)

    Good luck to Jim for retrieval of your info.

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  12. How wonderful it is that creativity works in your family from generation to generation.

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  13. I love those quilts, and congrats to you for your 3 hours of walking.

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  14. What lovely quilts and what work(wo)manship! And good for you - all that exercise!

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  15. I am in complete awe of a good quilter. Or hell- even a decent quilter. I did know a woman who made quilts that were so freaking perfect that they just didn't seem to have any soul.
    These quilts do though, for sure.

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  16. I'm sure you will let us know if 23andme turns up any new relatives. The combination of the genetic tracing and sperm banks have family trees sprouting new branches.

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  17. I liked all the quilts. Good for you for walking the entire show too! What progress!

    betty

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  18. I really like that last one.

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  19. How I love American quilts Joanne - you folk over there have such skill.

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  20. I love a nice quilt show. The very first quilt I made was a Dresden Plate. My grandmother was a prize wining quilter so she helped me make it.
    If there is a quick and easy way to get FTM to transfer to Windows 10 I'd sure like to know it too. I too have one of those elusive discs stuffed in the cupboard drawer.

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  21. Crabs! I love crabs. :) The top quilt is my favorite. I'll have to look up why the 'Dresden Plate' is so named...is there a porcelain connection?

    Three hours walking around is a tremendous achievement! My big wins since the injury in Sept. are: being able to cross the street during the alloted time given by the green light & standing with little difficulty on the bus.

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  22. Thank you for the slow walk through those amazing quilts. Quilt shows always bring joy and awe! Women, Quilts, nothing speaks more to my heart...My great Granny made one on a wagon going to Oklahoma I think, I still have it, it is thread bare in some places but is as it is.

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  23. love the dresden plate quilt and the iris will look great on anyone's bed. and yay for you, did the whole show on your feet. my sister does the genealogy for our family. she's had trouble tracing back out father's line, can only get a few generations back but she was telling me today that she thinks she has figured out who the last guy was she hasn't been able to trace and where he came from and about when and what family...back to Scotland, probably the illegitimate son of the last direct line head of the McNab clan who had no legitimate children and so the leadership shifted over to a nephew but this was also the time period after the last Jacobite uprising when England broke up the clans and deported or killed thousands of Scots. she's put this together from various clues, can't document it but hey, works for me. our DNA results are mostly English, Scottish, and Irish.

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  24. Good luck getting the computer fixed. I hope it goes well and then we can hear about the latest 23 and Me updates.

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  25. I have built my family tree twice (not in all that much depth) but I lost both.

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  26. I love the two quilts in the first picture, especially the BoS, on the left, the one you don't like. I'm not so interested in my family tree as some people are in theirs. What I know is enough for me.

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  27. I have a very old American quilt that lives in a trunk, and is never used. I would love to buy more to use regularly. I must say, I do like the one on the left in the first photo.

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  28. Oh man, those quilts are stunning.

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  29. I have never quilted but I love those quilt shows, I get quite emotional looking at the beautiful work, the patience and skill. My mother was a fabulous embroiderer, I am a fairly decent knitter so know all the labour involved.

    I agree with you on busy quilts, I particularly loved the Dresden one.

    XO
    WWW

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  30. All quilts, even rather ugly ones, fascinate me. I always want to know why each quilter has chosen these particular materials and combined them just this way.

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  31. Some wonderful quilts there. I love the one with the iris.

    Re the new shirt that needs modifying, Jenny is always rejecting garments in shops because they're so poorly made. Mind you, that may often be because they were made by resentful sweatshop labour in some distant third world country.

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  32. I like the leafy appliqué work on the top right quilt and also the darker colors. My mother made quilts and braided rugs when she was first married. Once the house was decorated she stopped. It was a way to have what she wanted; she never did it as a hobby. She continued to sew and knit because it was cheaper than buying comparable quality.

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  33. Those quilts are amazing! My mom used to make the quilt tops and then have someone else quilt them. Sadly I don't have any of them!

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