I love old stuff

Today Ray and I went out for lunch to one of our favorite BBQ places in St. Pete. After a wonderful, relaxing lunch we drove over to an antique shop just to putter around for a while. We had such a good time looking around and seeing things we had never seen before.

 Have you ever seen one of these before?

 

From everything I can find on the Internet this is a dime collector. It is made by the B & R Manufacturing Co. in New York, around the 30's and 40's.  It will hold $5, but I only had $3.70 so I need to get more dimes.

 

 

 

 

This iron works like the Oliso iron. It has this peg that pops out to keep it up off the ironing surface. It gets REALLY hot.

 

Maybe this will help me get back in the sewing room. :)

Diane

The Lord is good

The last visit we had in Arkansas with Ray's dad was the last we will ever have with him, here on earth. Just one day after we arrived home from seeing him we got the call he probably wouldn't make it through the night. As hard as it was, there was just no way to get Ray back to his dad. No flights in time and not enough hours left to drive it again.
Ray was ok with that. Well as ok as he could be. He had a great last visit with his dad. They got to spend time talking and remembering good times. Wain was never a demonstrative person, but he shared that he respected Ray and the man he has become. What more can a son want than the love and respect of their father? Maybe some more time. So Ray is glad he got to spend his father's last week of life with him.
While we were there I got to see and hear such beautiful moments. A son helping his ailing father get ready for bed. The father pat the son's arm and say, Ray, I sure am glad your here. A father and son embrace both saying they love each other and always will.
The Lord is good.

My FIL had many varied interest. Just one was needlework. He quilted, crocheted, cross stitched, needlepoint and more. Years ago he made all of his children an afghan for Christmas. A few months ago on one of our visits he said he had a large stack of afghans and he wanted each of his grand daughters to have one. Since I was there I went ahead and picked my daughter's but decided to put it away until he gave the rest of the girls theirs. He has five grandsons and I didn't want them to feel left out so I asked his wife if I could take a few of his shirts to make some small quilts for the boys. Now I am going through all of my quilt books looking for ideas and patterns.

He was also an avid Honda motorcycle rider until he was in his late 60's.

Breath of spring? Long hard winter.

If anyone would have told me 31 years ago I would miss it I would have told them they were nuts.

Just about every time we went to Arkansas we stayed with Ray's daddy. Wain was a talker and had an amazing memory. He was the best story teller and had a story for every occasion. I didn't alway understand my father-in-law. He had a different kind of humor.
Every morning that we woke in his house over these years he greeted me with the same smile and said "Good morning sunshine. You look like the breath of spring." Now if he ended there I would have felt live down to my toes. But no, there was more. Then he would add," Well really you look like the end of a long hard winter."

Now as a child of 18 to hear your FIL say that to you it kind of trips you up. Kind of gets you right in your low self esteem.
My FIL said that to me for the last time last week. We were there and the first morning we woke he smiled and said it. I laughed with him and truly was glad to hear it. Then I said to him. You know Wain one day I'm gonna miss hearing you say that to me.
That was the last time. The next morning he was in distress and never came out. Wain passed away last night at 8:30 pm.
Why is it just when you start to understand some people and how and why they tick the time is up?

Diane

Jubilee Quilts, random thoughts and turtles

I never want to leave again!
My back is killing me from too much car time. We did stop and spend the night about half way this time, but still.
While on the way we did a fast (30 minutes) stop at a small little shop just about 30 minutes from my father-in-law's house. I picked up a couple of charm packs. I am not sure why except they made me happy and that was enough at the time. I also spied this cute little turtle pincushion pattern by Heather Bailey. How cute is that??

Henrietta Turtle

Coming home we had plans to stop at another shop but I decided I just wanted to keep going and get home.

Now for random thoughts and questions.
I have been seeing a lot about Jubilee quilts all over the blog world. Is this just something random someone thought of and others jumped on the band wagon or have people always celebrated like this and I have never paid attention?
I have been thinking about my next birthday. It will be my 50th and I am just starting to come to terms with that number. I don't understand my qualms with it, since it is just a number, and I feel terrific for the shape I'm in. You know the round shape causes great issues with people. Doctors and Insurance companies don't like round. Round makes it hard to put on your shoes, which in turn makes it hard to go for a nice long walk to change your shape to a new shape. But I got off track didn't I?
Ahem....
I have been thinking about making a Jubilee quilt. I don't know if I want to make one of my own design or if I want to use one of the beautiful patterns I already own.
Have you seen Nana Girl's jubilee? It is going to be beautiful! Karen is so nice and talented. She also has a great eye for color. I loved looking at her quilts when she did a show and tell at the retreat. BEAUTIFUL work!
Bonnie Hunter  has a jubilee quilt in the works.
The Colorado Lady has one she is working on.
Lori over at Humble Quilts, and Tammy over at Treadleworks by Tammy,  Barb at Fun with Barb, and Julie at JulieKQuilts just to name a few.
I am not usually one to do stuff just because someone else is doing it, but since I have been avoiding even looking at the number 50 much less saying it and putting it in the same sentence with the words "I'm turning", maybe a Jubilee quilt will help me not pay so much attention. Maybe it can come and go and I will concentrate so much on the quilt I won't notice...so much...maybe?

I'm headed to the sewing room..
Diane

On the road again

I may never get to stay home for more than four days in a row again.
My plan was to do all the big house cleaning jobs so I could play all weekend in my sewing room. Plans changed when we got a call about Ray's dad. So we are off.

Maybe I should change the name of the blog to Dyed thinking of Quilting.

Diane