Something About Nothing

     My Mother and Grandmother were not really sewers or quilters although they had their moments of trying. Grandma told me she made quilts during her years as a stay-at-home mom living in a holler in West Virginia but it wasn't a skill she kept when she moved to the big city of Chicago during the 1950's.  After I made a few quilts in the late '70's, she decided to make one from patches of cloth she cut out from her polyester pants suits.       We affectionally called it "The Ugly Quilt." Grandma Marie raking the back yard in West Virginia      Unfortunately the quilt was not attached securely to the top of our car when we were moving one year and was blown away on the freeway, lost for all time.  I'm still very sad about losing that quilt, even if it was ugly, it was the only quilt I had from Grandma.  Grandma's real skills were in the kitchen.      She was a really good cook. ...

It's been almost 10 years since Mom passed away at the young age of 59.  Every moment I had with her is now precious.  One of those precious moments happened about a year and a half before she passed away.  Mom decided to teach my children to make fried apple pies just like their great-grandmother.  Four children ages 3, 3, 10 and 13, can do quite a number on a kitchen but Mom had the patience of a saint that day.  At least that is how I like to remember it.  After having them help her make the dough, Mom gave each child a space on the counter and a piece of dough to roll out and fill with apples.  Annie was the first to finish and Mom picked her up to show me and the camera the beautifully mangled pie.  I have cherished the look of pride in Annie's eyes about her first pie and the look of love in Mom's eyes over a beautiful granddaughter. I made this mini-quilt for a Quilting Arts Reader Challenge titled:  "Time Flies."  The idea was...

Today is a day when we reflect upon all that our Mother's have done for us and tell her how much we appreciate her and the sacrifices she has made in our behalf. Thank you Mom. I would not be the person I am today without you and all your love. I miss you.

I started looking through the photos on my computer hoping to find something to use in an upcoming quilt project when things quickly degraded to a trip down memory lane.   Boy I had some cute babies! Can you believe he was only about 6 weeks old?  I don't think he was very happy.  It was probably lunch time.  I really need to scan more of his photos.  I have so few on this hard drive. Next came this beauty.  Look at all that hair!  And those sweet cheeks! Apparently I couldn't resist them even then. . . I should have cropped myself out of the above photo - don't you love those big glasses and permed hair? Not a sweet memory! But this sure is. The twins were just as adorable as the older two. Another cheeky picture. And this one has a smile that melts my heart. J and his sister were great to "watch" the twins while I made dinner - of course it was after much "persuasion." J was okay as long as he was allowed control of the remote. B actually ended up do...

I'm thankful for my family and friends and the memory of many wonderful Thanksgiving's spent with them. Hope you have lots of extras.

One of the saddest parts of my Mother and Grandmother being gone is that they aren't here to tell me who these people are. . . I've inherited numerous photos, some are beautiful, some are funny, some are even out of focus.  I love them all because they represent a moment in time.  How can you not love a photo of a woman in the real fur coat standing by a plastic Santa Claus on a green lawn.  I have no idea who she is but she makes me smile.  I'm sure Mom or Grandma would know and they would have a funny story about the picture too. The black and white photo at the bottom looks like it might have been taken at one the apartments we lived in in Chicago, but I have no idea who the tall thin man is in front of it.  He seems very mysterious to me. The picture of the two boys buried at the top right was with a stack of photos that were taken in England.  My guess is they are siblings, cousins, neighbors or friends of my Au...

These are a couple of my favorite pictures of my Mom and my girls. I wish I had taken more pictures that day. It was Christmas Eve-Eve in 2000. We were making Fried Apple Pies. One of the best things my Grandmother made were her Fried Apple Pies and we loved carrying on the tradition with my Mom. We need to make some Fried Pies again soon. The really amazing thing about these pictures is that my oldest daughter was only 10 in these photos. The twins were 3. Where did all those years go?

I remember going to the Forest Preserves in the Chicago area when I was little. We seemed to always have a picnic for Memorial Day, Independance Day and Labor Day as well as any other occassion we could think of inbetween. This tradition was obviously started long before I was born because here is a picture of Mom when she was sweet 16 at a family picnic. (She is up front on the left) I say "Family Picnic" loosely because I don't recognize ANY of the other people! The woman standing could be my cousin MaryJo, but it's difficult to tell. Now that I look a little closer it's possible that the man on the right is my Grandmother's second husband, John. Perhaps this is mostly his family and that is why I don't recognize anyone. Despite really only knowing one person in the photo I love this photo. I love the sense of place that is preserved: the beautiful trees, the 1950's cars in the background, the people at the other tables, and the light and s...

Found this hanging on my sister's refrigerator while visiting with her and was very excited to use it as a flashback photo. Me, Mom, Sistah, her Dad and our Aunt in West Virginia.

This past week we've seen a lot of little children with cheeks I've wanted to kiss and squeeze. There is nothing cuter than a little child's cubby face and so when I ran across these pictures of my Mom as a small child I had the same reaction: Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn! That is the sound my mother would always make when she pinched my arm because she wanted to pinch a baby's rolls. Just look at those cute cheeks! Nnnnnnnnnnnn!

When I started paging through old pictures for today I came across a group of Mom pictures. . . And now I'm feeling sentamental and missing my Mommy. She's been gone 7 years now and somedays it feels like yesterday, other days it feels like an eternity. Love you Mom!

The grade school Band leader gave out discounted tickets for Lagoon , a local amusement park, which were only good this past Saturday. Lagoon is actually quite a large park and is quite entertaining if you are into that kind of thing. I suppose there was a time when I enjoyed amusement parks, but with each passing year I have found that rides just make me sick to my stomach. As a result the whole idea has lost it's appeal for me. As a result my younger children have not had the outings their older siblings had (although I am sure the older ones would beg to differ). When the tickets came home, I tried to think of everything I could to get out of the excursion - "I think I'm busy that Saturday. I may have to work." I didn't have to. "It's too expensive." They saved and pulled the money together to pay their own way. "It's going to rain." It didn't. It was a beautiful day. "I don't really want to go." But Mom you hav...

Some of my best teenage memories are from hanging with my friends, doing nothing in particular. I hope we all have great memories like these: Here is my Mom being goofy with her friends Bonnie and Hilberta in May 1959. Look at those great stripped leggings Mom is wearing! Mom wrote on the back of one of these photos that it was a Sunday afternoon. Bonnie, Mom and Gerry on Gerry's porch. Mom, Hilberta and Gerry. This is my favorite picture from the series. Bonnie, Hilberta and Mom leaning in the corn. Not sure what they are pointing at, but if my mother is anything like her granddaughters then they are not pointing at anything! The pointing and looking is all to make the photo look interesting. My how times do not change at all!

Where the week has gone I do not know, but it is Friday already and it's time for a Flashback! I dug into a couple of my "scrapbook" boxes today (read: pictures dumped into boxes in no particular order with the hopes of being organized someday) trying to get an idea of what photos I should start scanning. There are so many photos I am overwhelmed and having a hard time making a decision. However, you will be happy to know that I did make a decision and that decision is to let you, the reader, decide for me! I will give you some categories to choose from and you can cast your vote by posting a comment below. Okay? Ok. Thanks for your participation! So, shall I start with Really Old Photos (The term "really old" is subjective and so I appologize to those reading who do not think that 60 year old photos are "really old."): This is a photo of my Great Grandmother, Jocie, and two of her daughters, Della and Marie (my grandmother) and three of her ...