Dearest Donations

It was a hot day yesterday. It reached 93°F here at the Three Cats Ranch. We're generally around ten degrees cooler than in the valley, and so you know it was even hotter in the lowlands. We're expecting a little cooler weather today and through the remainder of the week. The kitties spent most of their day cooling their tummy furs on the concrete in the shade of the house.

And this naughty little girl...we had trouble getting her in the house last night. Her curfew has been moved back to earlier in the afternoon now.

As I mentioned yesterday, I had just two more chests I wanted to go through in order to complete our clean-out of the downstairs. This is my mother's cedar chest. My brother had it for a while after she passed away, but he offered it to me, and shipped it from Southern California to Oregon. It came to me all crated up in wood. The shippers did an excellent job of getting to me in good condition. 

I think during the 1940's, these were every young woman's dream. Lane seemed to be the one to have. 

If that little "brand" wasn't enough to tell you who manufactured it, there was this sign in the top for good measure.

And much the same way we register product warranties online these days, if my mom did all the things mentioned on this sticker, she was entitled to a $100 moth insurance policy. I always think it's a good idea to insure one's moths.

Inside was an envelope containing the actual insurance policy.

This is the postmark on the envelope. It was 1943, and it cost just 3¢ to mail a letter in those days. My mom would have been 21 then. She and my dad married on June 4th, 1944.

I'll tell you about my own hope chest in just a second, but I wanted to tell you first about this Lane handkerchief box I have. Around the time I graduated high school during the 14th Century (1972), the Lane company advertised free handkerchief boxes to graduating senior girls. Probably I read about it in Seventeen magazine or something. For whatever reason, they didn't do it the year I graduated, and I dearly wanted one. 

After Mike and I were married, and we were already living in Phoenix by then, my mother went to a furniture store in San Diego that was offering the handkerchief boxes. She explained that I'd missed out when I graduated. The next time they came to visit us, she brought this handkerchief box.

 

Inside...sure enough...the Lane insignia.

It's just one of the things I have to remember her by, and it reminds me what an advocate she was for her kids. Driving to San Diego to get a handkerchief box for me? All in a day's work for her.

Okay, but here's my hope chest. My dad's military service had him serving in far-flung places. This chest came from Taiwan. He was there on R&R from Vietnam, and he bought this for me and had it shipped home. It's made of camphor wood. Camphor has the same moth deterring properties as cedar. Also, it's a very fragrant wood. It made everything in my hope chest smell good.

Here's the label inside...Taiwan built.

This is the carving on the top.

This one is on the side.

It has an interesting lock mechanism. Below are the lock and key.

The key was inserted at a 90° angle on the right side, then rotated up to fit through the notches on top.

Then you push to the left to open it.

My mother's cedar chest had lots of stuff from my grandmother still. A few quilts. Two were pretty well tattered. I'm not going to restore those, and so those will go to Goodwill. I couldn't part with the other three. Also, I went through all her crocheted doilies. I decided to keep those since I might want to make a quilt from them someday. Most of the dresser scarves were donated unless I thought I could use them in my Vintage Linens quilt. I found about half a dozen I wanted to keep. The rest...all to Goodwill.

The most precious things were in my own cedar chest. This was a crewel embroidery piece I stitched while I was pregnant with Erik. It gave me something to do while I waited for the nine months to pass. I was very excited to become a mom.

I made these little latch hook wall-hangings to hang in the nursery.

I made this next one while I was pregnant with Matthew. My pregnancy with him was so fraught with anxiety, and it gave me something to do. His birth was a scheduled C-section, and I knew we were having a boy. I could stitch everything except the weight. I took the piece with me to the hospital and finished it there after he was born.

This next one was from a little needlepoint kit. I used to find in them in stores. I'd done several of them, but this is the only one I kept. It was hanging in the nursery too. It's about 5 x 5 inches.

Also, I found this one. It was probably a gift at a baby shower. I don't remember who KAK was, but she was probably a co-worker.

It was hard to give up some of that stuff. I couldn't part with the baby shoes or my wedding dress. I'm saving my wedding dress to donate to a group called Little Angel Gowns. They use wedding dress donations to make burial gowns for deceased infants. They only accept donations at certain times of the year, and I've signed up to receive notifications from them. When the time comes, I'll donate my dress to them.

Okay, so that was a nostalgic trip down memory lane. I emptied one of the chests entirely, and my mother's chest is about 2/3 empty. From there, I went to work cutting one of the newly-found dresser scarves to use in the 6th Vintage Linen quilt block. Sadie was my helper cat for that. She helped by taking a nap and staying out of the way.

I cut this one a little larger and "peakier" to try to capture as much of the embroidery as possible.

When it was all finished, it looked like this. The sharp angle at the top point meant it ended up positioned higher among the fabric strips than the others I've done.

When I lay them out together, it seems less noticeable to me. I can always sew a strip to the sides where they are uneven. I have an idea to set these with sashings and to use some of the smaller embroidery motifs as cornerstones. When it's all sewn together, I don't think it will matter that some are a little off center.

Next up on my list of WIPs is to make another block for the Shop Hop quilt. The next one will be from Forget-Me-Knots quilt shop in Bandon, Oregon. We were in Bandon for the Circles in the Sand event at Face Rock. While there, we saw the nearby Coquille Lighthouse...

and so I chose this lighthouse fabric for my regional print.

Now I've traced out the name for my quilt block, and that's where I'll start this morning.

So the back of my Jeep is packed to the gills again with more donation boxes. I'll be making (hopefully) my final trip the Goodwill for a while. It was hard to part with some of that stuff yesterday, but the alternative was putting it back into the chest for my kids to deal with after I'm gone. Might as well lighten the load now. Aside from that, I'll need to water the flower pots today and then I'll get back to my sewing. 

Oh yes, and I almost forgot. We're erected deer deterrent devices in the tomato and flower pots. I don't know if this will work, but they're kind of fun to watch spinning in the wind.

Okay...off I go. Time to get a start on the day. I hope you have a good day planned for yourself.