READY, SET, QUILT

Grandson's quilt is started

First... I have the idea... Jackson is getting to big for his crib, he needs a twin size quilt.

Second... I should coordinate with his brother's quilt. They share a room.

Third... Review Joshua's quilt design and amounts of fabric needed.

Forth... Go shopping. Buy some luscious fabric. Head home to the quilt studio.

Finally... Time to have fun. Cut, sew, cut again and sew again.

Repeat until the two different blocks are formed.

Put together in a pleasing combination and make enough for a twin size bed.

We'll worry about borders and quilting later.

I've gone into quilt mode and I'm in the grove.

SUNDAY STROLL

SIT AND REST A SPELL

Feel free to sit with me on the bench and just listen. The water gurgles, the wind sings and the uni-verse joins in with its "one song". We each add our voice and harmonies. The dissonance we hear up close gets blended into the great chorus of atoms, comets, planets, suns and galaxies. If we could hear what God hears what must it sound like.

Don't forget to join other Sunday Strollers who join up over at

The Quiet Country House

video by Flutemaker

HOW MAY I SERVE

One of the nicest gifts I ever gave myself was to become a Hospice Volunteer. Nothing beats the feeling of being helpful and the sense of fulfillment that comes unbidden, but so sweet.

Hospice provides support and care to patients at the end of their life. This is for patients who have chosen to stop aggressive, curative care in exchange for palliative or "comfort" care. That's not to say they are doomed. If they rally and grow in strength the hospice care is redirected back to to the more traditional care.

In Hospice the patient and the family are treated as a unit of care considering their physical, psychosocial and spiritual needs in an effort to provide dignity and comfort in the end stage of life. And so there are nurses, aides, social workers, grief councilors, chaplains and friendly volunteers for patients who would like to be visited.

As a volunteer I spend time with the patients and act as a sitter sometimes when their primary caregiver needs to get out and run errands, shop or just have a little time for themselves. I listen to wonderful life stories. I get to encourage patients and caregivers in whatever way seems hopeful and kind. For patients who live alone I might run errands, do light housework or if they are able, take them out for a breath of fresh air. I don't poke, prod or invade their privacy. I am just a friendly presence.

Here is a wonderful reflection that was given as a handout during my training. It tells a wonderful hopeful story. The author is Henry Van Dyke

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says: "There she is gone!"

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: "Here she comes!"

And that is dying.

picture 'Angel light ' by Flutemaker

STROLLING ON THE MOUNTAIN

"The cities are for money but the high-up hills are purely for the soul." Louis L'Amour

View from Chuck and Carol's patio across the cove. What a treat to visit and marvel at what God has laid out before us.

Can you see the out crop of great rock across the way. It is a bit of raw mountain that has not been eroded away or grown over with vegetation. The Appalachian Mountains are ancient and worn down to a soft nurturing presence.


Flutemaker headed down a hill as our friends gave us a tour of one of their wonderful treasures. A watercoarse has been created around a great outcropping of rock.



The fall of water as it heads downhill.

Here I come across the stream, headed for the cave that is formed by the overhang of the boulder.

The wall of the shelter.

Looking out from inside. This is a protected area where certainly native americans have found shelter.

Stacked rocks

Erosion. Love the tree and the look of support it gives the rocks. Look at the roots getting their toe hold on the rock that hold it.

Carol as we head back up the hill.

The dogs explore the boulder farther up the hill.

Chuck does a little custodian work. We don't always own the land. Generally it owns us.

Back at the top.


Stroll on over to the Quiet Country House to see who else is strolling.

SUNDAY STROLL Anthropomorphism

I swear when I stepped outside this morning the table and chairs were quieting down from some waking up activity. They remember their ancestors, the trees, who sleep through the winter and they follow that tradition. Of course, they no longer have to worry about sap rising or sinking and their roots are long gone, Ah, but their memories keep them in season.
I think all the morning exercises roused the grill and we may have to comfort it by grilling some vegies here soon.Out in the yard the horseshoes are rattling against the backboard wondering when the picnics are going to start. Nothing better to stir up the earth energies than iron sailing through the air to grab onto the ringing pole.
The Firepit has seen some activity during the winter, but a big blaze and a drumming circle with songs around the the fire gives life and love to this circle. It can't happen soon enough.



(You may have to enlarge this picture to see the buds that were set last fall.)
The Dogwood stretches and the sap stirs. Spring will come again. The zero temperature last week and the 60' today get everything pumping and moving. She sings to the earth and the earth and her creatures listens

Here come the Buttercups, Daffidils to some of you. They are rushing to beat the other early risers. We'll soon see who wins.

The Wild Onions are flaunting their growth and joining nature in rejoicing and praise to the fullfillment of God's promise of heaven on earth. May all the people say Amen

Be sure to stroll on over to the Quiet Country House for more strolling and visiting.

I'VE BEEN TAGGED

OK, I’ve been tagged by Ruth at Musings of an Everyday Woman
Here are the rules:
–Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird.
Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog
Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
So, here goes, probably way more than you want to know:
7 Facts about myself:

1. I'm a Master Gardener twice. Once in Michigan and now in Tennessee.

2. I am a Tai Chi student and have shared what I learned at a local community center, but choose not to call myself a teacher of Tai Chi, I remain a student and am content with that.

3. I'm not a big time traveler but have spent time in an alternative reality call San Francisco at a Tai Chi family reunion of sorts. The students of Mr. Lui and their students from all over the country gather to celebrate his life and his teachings. I have one of his quotes at the top of the sidebar of this blog.

4. Flutemaker has also made dulcimers. He plays the Lap Dulcimer and I play at the Hammered Dulcimer. When I get around to practicing I can do pretty well, but the instrument goes quickly out of tune and I get quickly rusty.

5. We had a voice coach at church once and she said if you can laugh you can sing. Didn't know that and thought I couldn't carry a tune. But, boy can I laugh! and now I am an alto in the church choir. Won't do any solos any time soon - but I'm having fun.

6. We are cat people and we have two, Ki Ki and Gee Gee.

7. I've retired from being a stay at home mom and that means now Flutemaker does the dishes. Couldn't figure how a homemaker could retire, but this works out just fine.

Being new to blogging I don't really know a lot of folks to tag, but if you stop by and read this and haven't been tagged somewhere else, you're it!

MY QUILTING MUSE, Grandma Laura Belk

Here sits my grandma with her young friend who had come to visit at Christmas.

My mother once told me how proud my grandmother would have been to know how much I enjoy quilting. I hope somehow she is indeed aware of my interest and might even be my ’muse’ when it comes to creating new projects and picking out colors. I certainly thank her out loud from time to time and ask for her help.
This Butterfly Quilt was a wedding gift to Flutemaker and me back in 1960. Grandma cut out the design from a picture she had drawn on a piece of cardboard. She decided how she wanted it to lay on the square of white fabric (on point)and how to place the colors for the best look.
The style of curved pieces are similar to the wedding ring design. After sewing all the butterflies together she appliqued them to the white squares and sandwiched top and bottom with batting and quilted it closely. I love it still. What a gift of love, time and effort.



Laura Ethel Masters Belk was a simple country woman born into a time and place of pioneer life and culture. She was born in Overton Co. Tennessee around 1878 or so. Grandma was shy and didn’t marry until she was in her thirties. My Dad fondly remembered her combing her long auburn hair and twisting it around her head like a crown. She never had electricity or indoor plumbing until Grandpa died and she came to Michigan to live half the time with us and the other part of the year with her other son and family.
She was a quilter back when it was a necessity, a way to use material one more time and insure warm cozy bed covers. The fabrics were from shirt tails, dress remnants, flour sacks and home spun clothes. Sometimes old covers were refreshed with new tops. Many of her designs were known favorites shared with family and friends. Sometimes she created her own patterns. The quilt above was much more colorful when she made it, but it has faded until the only colors left are the colorfast blue and green. The other fabrics were inexpensive plaids that just didn't have what it takes to live forever.

I am a legacy quilter. Perhaps I would have been drawn to quilting anyway, but with a grandmother and a mother both enjoying the creative process with fabric and needlework I think I was destined to love the feel of fabric, to admire the placement of color and design and thrill to the realization of it all coming together as Art, Craft and Heritage.
My grandmother, mother and their friends gathered around a quilt frame hung from the ceiling in our basement. The Grandmother's Flower Garden above is one such quilt. I have been known to sit nearby reading a book and listening to the chit chat. My little brother would build forts under the quilt and deploy miniature soldiers in various situations. On rare occasions I would also sit at the frame to add a few stitches. It would not surprise me to learn Mother or Grandma would replace my toe catchers with smaller neater stitches when I wasn’t there.

Here is a wonderful old pattern called Dresden Plate. All of her quilts are just barely covering my queen size bed. It is obvious to me beds way back then were much smaller and more cuddle size. There was only a fireplace and wood cook stove in the cabins of Grandma's time. The beds were in the living room/workroom/parlor where the fireplace gave light and warmth.

Here is a close-up of the Dresden Plate. I hope you can see the W in the corner. Grandma made this quilt in the cabin before Grandpa died around 1950. The W is for Willie, my Dad. She also had quilts with P on them that she made for Uncle Palo.

This last quilt is one I put together for my Dad who told me the homespun plaids that I had in the Nine patch blocks reminded him of the shirts that his mother had made for him when he was still at home. I was thrilled to be working with fabrics that helped my grandmother care for her family. Grandma died in 1971 at 93 years old. I hope there is a quilting bee and a frame for the dear ladies to gather around and create to their hearts content.

SUNDAY STROLL

Time travel with me back to yesterday and a Road Trip to Chattanooga and a visit to the Aquarium there. I googled the exhibits and found this description.

The Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga is a large, very popular public exhibition facility chronicling the course of the Tennessee River from its origins in the Cove Forests of the Great Smokey Mountains of Eastern Tennessee down through the mountains, middle reaches, swamps and lakes to its final passage into the Gulf of Mexico. The Tennessee Aquarium also displays exhibits of the ‘Rivers of the World,’ beautifully crafted naturalistic enclosures with a variety of foreign wildlife. It sports one of the best public collections of both North American and foreign turtles in the U.S.A. & is a popular tour site for turtle enthusiasts.

We will start our tour at the top where you see the glass skylights.

The exhibits are interactive as you can see.


The first room on our visit was a mountain stream home to a family of otters. They choose to keep moving and so any pictures of them were blurs of activity. Next came the swamp and bog region of river life and the alligators were more than happy to pose as sun lovers ontheir logs.



The rivers are truly alive with strange and wonderful life.



The edges and banks of our waterways are filled with more life. There were an amazing variety of turtles to be seen.



After descending to the deep waters of our rivers and seeing the teeming marine life there we visited the delta lands before heading next door to the second aquarium and the ocean journey. Here you see the second building and the pedestrian bridge across the Tennessee River.

Once again we start at the top of the building up in the skylight area and the tropical areas of the ocean habitat of the world. Here you see a little ray in the interactive ray and shark petting pool .

The butterfly garden was next and here a couple are at the fruit bar.

A beautiful orange, don't you think.

Mon is trying to entice her daughter to extend a finger of friendship to this beauty, but little sweetie doesn't think so.

Who knew that after the butterflies we would head into the icy sea of penguin life. They also drew a large crowd as they romped and played.

We end our picture tour at the reef of many colors.

To stroll with someone else go to The Quiet Country House