Mending, Un-decorating, Firewood, Dilly Bits, and Vintage Photos

 I don't know how many denim quilts I have whacked and sewn into being - dozens and dozens!

My very first one was for my daughter, Amber. I used her very favorite flannel sheet made in Israel for the squares along with soft denim.. She has it still today and I mended it earlier this year.

The second one was 12 inch squares and made for my son, Benjamin. I backed it with red flannel - something I regretted and and never did again. You can't use it for picnics because it picks up everything! You know, I have no idea if he still has this quilt because I have purposely never asked him. He moved from home and lived several years in California and with all his moves, it's entirely understandable if he no longer has that quilt. It was HUGE. It fit his double bottom bunk like a bedspread. I used red yarn to tie it together as we would do our out loud reading after lunch back in our homeschooling days.

Leah brought me the quilt I made for her who knows when?

It had been well loved and much used and it was an honor to mend it up like new for her.

The backing was a white sheet and I had wrapped it over for the binding. That had frayed and I rebound it with soft denim strips from a curtain a friend had given me years ago.

Saturday we will gather together and celebrate Nita's life on her 69th birthday.

I wanted to mend this in time to take it to Leah that day.

A tangible symbol of my love for her.

I am both anticipating and dreading this day....if that makes any sense at all.

Transitioning between seasons is not pretty and my house is slowly becoming a mess.

I'm mostly in the sewing room right now and separating the fall from the sunflowers as I will be getting the latter out come June or July. I'll be going room by room until I have a blank canvas to decorate with Christmas, I am wanting to do each room a bit differently this year. We will see if that plays out.

As soon as I got up this morning I put a pot roast in the crockpot.

It made for a very good November day meal.

I don't remember the last time we bought firewood.

Normally - through the year - Louis Dean would spot wood at the curb around here and pick it up.

Then our big old elm tree died and we had that wood.

At nearly 86 - Louis Dean's day of man handling firewood may be past. I may be surprised but for now I ordered some and it arrived today from Red's Firewood.

Now we wait for cold weather to arrive - and I think it is coming.

Right now we still have the attic fan on and that means we can't use the fireplace.

This afternoon I made Dilly Bits!

I know Charlie loves these so I will be taking a bag of them to him on Saturday,

Now for the vintage photos......our cousin Pam is making a collage for her mother and ran across this picture of Mother and all four of us siblings.

Summer saw it on Facebook and said she was two months old when this picture was made.

I was 15 and not allowed to be at the house where Mother and my siblings lived due to my stepfather Clayton. So perhaps we were with Cousin Joyce which is why she had the picture that I have never seen before. I am still moved when I see pictures of Nita....and I am profoundly grateful for every one of them. If I was 15 - then Deanie was 12 and Nita 10 and Lonnie 8 years old.

This vintage photo was taken in a photo booth and I was 17.

You want to know the secret to why I am not smiling?

When I was 9 years old, I rode a bicycle loaned to me by my stepfather and I fell and chipped my front tooth. In time, Mother took me to have a root canal but once I was out of pain, I didn't finish treatment, My tooth 'died' and I had to have it pulled when I was 15 - after the time the first photo was taken and this one. I eventually was able to purchase a 'bridge' of one tooth later but for a year or so I never smiled because I was so self conscience. My teeth were so bad that I had the top ones pulled when I was 18 years old so I have worn dentures most of my life, 

I will close with this pic of Tarzan down at the ranch.

He can't believe I'm gone and is waiting for me to feed him!

I miss that cat!