Wistful Wednesday : 1961

I found this old photo from 1961

I was ten years old. 

That is most likely my birthday cake.  My baby brother would have been seven and my other baby brother almost one.

This photo was taken in the first remodeled kitchen at the farm.

My mother made my baby brothers shirt and that bib overhauls my other baby brother is wearing.
She sewed the curtains too they were a pale yellow with a brown design. 

Note the days of the week flour sack embroidered towels hanging next to the old rotary dial wall phone...with a short cord...it was beige.

The plaster of paris fruit hung in the old kitchen too...and must have been a favorite of my Moms since it appears in the new kitchen.  The new kitchen had birch cupboards with stainless steel hardware...and a double sink.  The linoleum on the floor was a medium green color...it was a tiny hex pattern...I scrubbed it many times.
Far Side

Small Quilt

My Mom works on Christmas Gifts all year round.  She worked on this one after Christmas last year.

This is a small quilt perfect for a table or the top of a cleared off desk IF that ever happens!

Hand Bag

My Mom sews, she practically has a fabric shop at her house.  She sews just about every day.

She made me this lovely little bag.

It is just perfect for holding crochet projects that I carry around with me.

Cards and a Hand Update

I received a few Get Well I am glad your surgery is over cards!  Then I got a package in the mail from Kansas with some books to keep me occupied!  Thank you all, it is great to get unexpected mail!

Then it was my birthday and a few more cards showed up in the mail.

That cake is filled with a whole lot of candles!

My parents took us out for a late lunch/early supper yesterday and my Mom made a cake with coconut and brown sugar frosting!  They both said that they didn’t think they would live long enough to see a child as old as me.. I replied “I didn’t think I would ever be this old either”  and we all laughed.

My Mother sewed a new kitchen curtain valance for my birthday.  I dropped that hint on her a few months ago when I saw a fabric I fell in love with that is part of a Minnesota Collection. We got out one of my old curtains for a pattern and when I clean the shade and wash the window I will put it up and take a photo.

The hand report.

I am three weeks post carpal tunnel release surgery today.  I have burning in two areas of my wrist/hand.  It is still swelling.  I ice it all night and sometimes during the day.  I take Aleve and Ibuprofin every day. I have good mobility but there are still some things I cannot do.  Like wring out a wash cloth…or my hair ( I have long grey hair)…pull anything toward me…like heavy drawers, open bottles of anything, push the car door open.  Three weeks and I have not driven the car…heck I cannot drive a grocery buggy so I let Far Guy drive.  Pushing, pulling  or reaching out is painful, anytime the palm of my hand comes in contact with anything I have pain.…I am getting real used to being a lefty. It is very possible that I have nerve damage and it will just take time and patience to recover.  Sometimes I am sorry I had the surgery…but then I recall the pain I had before…six of one half a dozen of the other….at least there is a chance that this burning pain will go away…someday. Getting old is not for sissies.

A bit of good news I had a biopsy taken from a small growth above my eyebrow.  It is just some kind of cyst and not cancerous per my dermatologist who went over every inch of my body. She likes doing small surgeries so I think I made her day by having something that looked troublesome that she could remove.

Quilts for The Grands

In honor of High School Graduation my Mother likes to make quilts for her Great Grandchildren.

Noah was the first to receive his.

Noah and his Great Grandma.

Noah with his Great Grandpa who always pulls stray threads so he helps with the quilts too.

Adam was next although he didn’t graduate or anything my Mom thought he should have a quilt too…both the boys are tall so their quilts are extra long.

Adam and his Great Grandma

Paige was next.

Paige and her Great Grandparents.

My Mom loves to sew, a trait which she did not pass down to me.   Mom sews the blocks together and prepares the quilt top for the long arm quilter who happens to be my cousin Wilma.  When they come back after being quilted they just need a binding! Mom sews half the binding on to the quilt with her fancy smancy sewing machine and then turns the binding to hand sew the rest.  Mom sits in the easy chair and hand stitches the binding on. More ofter than not Mom has a quilt in the works all the time.

My Mom Sews

My Mom is a wonderful seamstress. She sews, she has a sewing room and everything, a fancy sewing machine and a serger. She even has a cutting table, and a dress form. She has a room full of fabric and never passes up a fabric shop. Her ironing board is set up continually in her sewing room. She always has a hundred projects going at once.

I have none of this machine sewing know how. I do have a sewing machine. I would much rather hand sew something than drag out my machine..which is stored in it's original box..upstairs. My sewing prowess began in high school when I was going to flunk Home Economics sewing..my Mom saved my project..but she only got a C. Later in life, when I was pregnant, I bought some material to make some maternity tops..I sewed the sleeves in backwards..I cried. When the girls were little I tried to sew them some flannel nightgowns. The girls looked so pathetic in them I threw the gowns in the garbage and cried. I still have the remnants of some of my sewing projects upstairs, pieces of quilts..started..never finished. Beautiful patterns for wall hangings..that I would love to sew together..but I know they will never turn out the way I want them to. Part of my problem may be..I hate to measure anything..and apparently just eyeballing something doesn't work in the sewing world.

My Mom always comes to my rescue. I needed new kitchen curtains.. I designed them in my head. When I went over to pick out the fabric from her "store" ..she had four or five matching fabrics for me to choose from for the lining. She sewed them..she didn't like the way they turned out..the Loons in the pattern were not swimming evenly across the material. She whipped up my valence in no time flat. I like it... Want to see some before and afters??
Before: The old flannel ones that she sewed for me, about six years ago. I whined about my sewing skills back then also.


After: A simple valence, lined of course, the buttons are old treasures, some from my Grandma D and some from one of my Mothers old coats from years ago. No, the buttons do not match..they are all individual and unique. Kinda like me:)