Writing Your Autobiography

Dear Friends,

Is it true that we are all writing our own autobiography by the way we decorate our homes? I think so. When we make and give our quilts away, does that make us "ghost writers" in their story? I think so too. Is your home a good read? Are you always writing more chapters? Will your autobiography ever be finished?

This is the summer of weddings for our family. Our son was married in May. Our daughter is getting married in August. My sister is getting married at our home this Autumn. So my dear husband and I are looking at our home with a much more critical eye and making notes on what we need to update or "rewrite" before the bridal showers begin, and out of town company arrives. We are assessing our "autobiography" and we are wondering how others will read us.

We have two entirely different stories. The cabin is a cabin....'nuff said, other than the fact that the cabin is the recipient of the overflow from our house in the city since I can't stand the thoughts of getting rid of anything.

Each item that you have for decoration usually has a history or a story.
For instance, our friends Randy and his wife Barbara, a fellow quilter, were recent visitors to the cabin. They instantly knew of something they had in their possession they thought would look good at the cabin.

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a brick with the word "snowball' stamped on it! This brick has a story. It is from England and was brought over from the Snowball brick plant and used as ballast in a sailing ship that was off-loaded in San Francisco.

Another item that we have is........

You guessed it.....a slipper bed pan filled with shampoo and soap for our guests. I'm not sure of the story behind this little treasure, but in hindsight, I think I know what the story is! We bought this in an antique mall in Nebraska on one of our cross country trips.

Now the good chapters! I have quilts hanging on anything that I can find that is suitable for display. Here is a single ox yoke from upstate New York that displays one of the first quilts I made and hand quilted from a Thimbleberries pattern.

A European rake that cost me $3.00,makes a wonderful hanger for the Christmas Windows quilt. It's Christmas year-round at our cabin.

Then there's the $10.00 harness with an old fishing pole that displays another quilt in the guest room.

I've run out of wall space inside so I have to hang quilts outside on an old Amish shovel suspended between a horse harness. I said I never get rid of anything and these vintage chairs are my proof! They've been in the family since the 1950's.

My autobiography will never be finished. It changes with the seasons and will never go out of print. It is dog-eared, dusty, well-worn yet loved. That's my story.....and I'm sticking to it. I'll let you, the reader, decide if it's a real "page-turner."

As always,

Lynn

The Bear That Ate The Bird Feeder Part II

Now I haven't matched any dental records.....but I do believe that this is the bear that ate the bird feeder. This picture was recorded on our "critter cam" at 8:22pm while we were sitting out on the deck.

I put the camera out before dark because I'm too afraid to go out in the back of the lot after 7:30....that's when the creatures start coming out.

Our fearless-four-month old puppy, Zinny, growled at something, but we had no idea that she was alerting us to the fact that we had a rather large bear not too far from where we were sitting. How can something so large be so quiet? Anyway, we were completely oblivious to the whole episode until we checked out the video early the next morning.

From now on, I'm going to pay closer attention to Zinny's growls.

Have a great weekend everyone. The hubby and I are busy stripping wallpaper and painting a bathroom......I'd rather be quilting!!

As always,
Lynn

Month #8 Miss Belle

Good Afternoon Blossom of Friendship Followers,

I was looking back at my BOM notes and was surprised to see that I started this quilt on July 28, 2008. It seems hard to believe that was almost one year ago and I'm still working on it. But in my defense, I also have to mention that I've made five other quilts while working on this one. I get a little carried away and it seems that I'm always working on a couple of pieced projects at the same time.

Here we are already on month #8 for most of you. Some started the program two months ago and some of you are almost finished. In fact, I'm afraid some of you may finish before I complete my whole quilt! I can't get the blocks to you fast enough. If anyone is interested and wants their blocks sooner, they are all bundled and ready to go through block #12. I'll be cutting the fabric for the finishing kits in the next couple of weeks.

Miss Belle is a cute little block. She's cheerful and extremely dainty. The double handle on the basket is an interesting touch. I love the way the blue flowers turned out. I've made some blue flowers just like that for the border too.

As I was working on this month's mailing, I was thinking quite a bit about all of you as I addressed each and every envelope. Thirty of you live in California, two in Illinois, two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania. Those of you in California are spread all throughout the state. Only a couple of you live right in Livermore.

So now I'm going to ask all of you to do me a favor. Please send me digital images of your Blossom of Friendship blocks. I don't care if you send me one or ten pictures. I would love to see them and I'll make a Smilebox presentation of YOUR blocks. I've only had one person bring their blocks into the store (thank you Patty) and I want to see more, more, more. I want to see what changes you've made and how you put your own "style" into your blocks. So email your pictures to patched55@comcast.net by the 18th of June. I can't wait to see what you've done! I know I'm going to be impressed.

As always,
Lynn