Outdoor Kitchen

My plan was to have a productive day, crossing many items off my To Do list. My travels are over for a bit, and although I'm taking a sabbatical from teaching this summer, I am giving myself just two weeks in which to whip this house into shape. Then it's back to the studio!

Well.........the best laid plans of mice and men...........you know the rest. Our power went out about 2 and stayed out for over five hours. How soon we forget how much we rely on electricity. With temps in the mid 90's, we missed our A/C. Couldn't do laundry, couldn't run the dishwasher, couldn't dry my hair, and on and on. But an afternoon of inconvenience was nothing compared to the 10 days we went without power following hurricane Hugo or what the Gulf Coast residents endured, and are enduring, following Katrina.

Since then, we've kept emergency supplies on hand. We're never without lots of batteries and water, and propane along with an extra tank, is always at the ready. We use our grill almost daily, but today also used the side burner for stir-fry fresh veggies. The snow peas, onions and spinach came from our garden; other things were fresh from the farmer's market at the bottom of our hill. The veggies were delish with the pork tenderloin my husband had prepared last evening. We enjoyed a lovely dinner and were very relieved when electricity was restored!

The Kindness of Strangers

While driving home from the NC Quilt Symposium recently, I decided to treat myself to a short shopping adventure at the Shelby (NC) Dollar Tree "Where everything's a dollar!" I was back in my car in less than five minutes. I settled in, then decided I wanted a CD from the back seat (Michael Hedges, Live on the Double Planet - wicked cool!). Got out to go around and instantly realized I'd locked myself out! Big Trouble! My purse, cell phone, AAA card, extra key - every single thing was locked in my car, which was running with the A/C going full blast! Not to panic, but it was late on a very hot Sunday of Memorial Day weekend!

Stranger #1: A wonderful gentlemen very kindly called the Shelby Police Department and requested a squad car. I did not get his name, but judging from the cap he was wearing, he's a Carolina fan.

Stranger #2: Officer M. N. Bannen, a member of the Shelby Police, pulled up within 15 minutes. Although skeptical that he could unlock my car, he was patiently persistant. Success! Yeah! I was finally on my way home once again.

This experience made me realize just how easily a situation like this can occur. It also reconfirmed my belief that most people are basically kind. I was blessed to meet two of them that Sunday afternoon. Thanks, guys!

May we all pay it forward.

Keeper of the Cloth

I received a call recently from a woman who, while dismantling the old family homestead, had discovered several quilt tops made by her 93-year old mother. Not having a huge amount of space in her own home, she was not able to keep the quilts but was having difficulty letting them go. Neither a stitcher nor a quiltmaker, she wanted them to go to someone who would keep them and take care of them. I assured her I would do so, sight unseen.


The quilts pictured below, are made mostly with 1940's era fabrics. Most are quite utilitarian but were created with love and care. They are a study in extreme frugality and a testament to the ability to make something useful from nothing. Clothing scraps, feed sacks, shirting fabrics and perhaps mill ends (after all, North Carolina was once a huge textile manufacturing state) were used in each quilt top. In several places, small scraps were pieced together in order to make up for a fabric shortage.



It's always been my nature to rescue things, especially textiles. As a quiltmaker, I feel a certain responsibility to honor that which was created by another's hand. I am a "keeper of the cloth."

Can someone tell me the name of this quilt pattern? It's similar to Dresden Plate or Wagon Wheel, and yet very different. This is one of the quilts given to me recently.

Several of the utilitarian quilts with which I was recently entrusted.

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." This quiltmaker lived this old adage, as evidenced by her piecing of the windowpane check fabric!

Waste not......I so admire those quilters who came before us, especially those without great purchasing power. Using whatever materials they could salvage, they managed to satisfy their creative yearnings by making quilts while providing "cover" for their families.

Note the economy piecing and coping strips used in this block. I think Roberta Horton, author of The Fabric Makes the Quilt and other great books on quilting, would love this!

Small strips, added to bring this block up to size, indicate the frugality of this quilter.

I love the English Cottage Garden feel of this fabric. Wouldn't you love to have yards and yards of it?

PEACE in Any Language

My wish for this day: Peace! It is the same in any language. Here are just a few examples:

Paz, Vrede, Damal, Mier, Paix, Loeke, Pace

Memory Garden

A beautiful Peace rose, planted in memory of my father, greeted me this morning. I would plant them everywhere if I thought it would bring an end to violence in this world.