Brown Paper Packages

If you're looking for the February NewFO Linky Party, Click right here.

Yesterday I received the most delightful package in the mail from Sherry, who blogs over at Quilts, Fabric and Thread Tales.

She sent me the original patterns for the nursery rhyme characters in the Two Grandmothers (aka Rhymeland) quilt.

 She also included the patterns for another quilt series created by a contemporary of Ruby McKim, who created the pattern for the Rhymeland quilt.  Her contemporary, Eveline Foland, created another similar quilt series called Santa's Parade, which was also originally published in the Kansas City Star.  Santa's Parade is a redwork quilt.  I did a little searching and found a little bit of information about it on the internet.  You can see all the patterns at Q is for Quilter along with a little blurb about Eveline Foland.  I was hoping to find a good picture of the entire quilt made up.  The best I could come up with was this image from Quilts. Quilts. Quilts.

(image source)

Interestingly, she gives credit to another woman, but with copies of the original designs in my hot little hands, I happen to know that they are all signed by Eveline Foland.

One of the things I love most about quilting is being a part of a body of work with a rich historical and multicultural tradition.  I can recall how delighted I was when I first learned to quilt and discovered that all the quilt blocks had names!  I'll admit to being a terrible student of history growing up.  Perhaps it was because history was poorly taught...I don't know.  As an adult, I've become hungry to learn more about history, quilting history and otherwise.  Be sure to check out Sherry's blog.  This woman knows her quilt history.  Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with me, Sherry.  Also, Sherry knows I am a sucker for embroidered quilts, and so I'm adding this to my embroidered quilt to-do list.

Wanna see my list?

Don't laugh.  Okay, laugh if you must.  When I'm ready for a new project, I actually generate a number at random and then do whatever comes up.  It's like winning the lottery every time.  The list keeps getting longer.  Soon I will have as many embroidery patterns as I have quilt patterns, and believe me, that is a scary thought.  We may have to move to a larger house or build an addition onto this one.

So here's what I did yesterday.  I finished all the applique for my March doll quilt.  I can only give you a peek.  Next, I'll be doing the top-stitching.

This morning, I did some more work on my Quilting Snowlady.  I fixed her mouth and eyes.  I had considered using black instead of gold floss.  After realizing there was no other black on this particular block, I decided to use the darkest of the browns, and I took a triple wrap on my French knots to make them larger.  (It always makes me hold my breath when I take more than one wrap on a French knot.)

This morning I finished up the greenery on the tall tree and then added the red French knots.  I love how the red pops on this piece.  The rest of the colors are rather muted along with the tea-dyed muslin background.  The red really brightened it up...sort of like lemon zest brightens of the flavor of food.  (Love how my brain works.  Everything relates back to food.)  And I'm linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching.

So today I told Mike I wanted to do something because I'm bored.  He suggested right away we do something really exciting like buying a new vacuum.  This wasn't his original idea.  It was mine, and here's why:

This is the second day in a row I've walked into my sewing room to discover this.  I can't imagine how these birds are getting into the house, but I have some ideas about it.  The day before, the bird was still available for catch and release, and he didn't seem to badly ruffled by his experience.  Yesterday, the bird was nowhere in sight, which brings a whole new level of angst to this scene, but that will have to wait for another post.  (If you get my drift.)

Anyway, all of that to say that our house is on three levels.  Only two levels rate their own vacuum.  And that means that when a murder occurs in the lower level of the house, I have to drag our heavy vacuum down the stairs, and I'm tired of that.  I told Mike that we were getting another vacuum for these special occasions.  It doesn't need to be anything fancy, but it does need to suck up feathers.

Speaking of bird murderers...

Don't let that angelic pose fool you.  Mainly though, I wanted you to see Smitty snuggling with his security toy.  He is so funny with this thing.  He drags it all over the house like Linus's blanket.  To see this image, you'd never guess that therein lies the heart of a bird murdering psychopath.  You try to raise them up right, but sometimes it's hopeless.