Memorial Day 2010

Today was a  day of remembering.  I came across this little cake topper in my mother-in-laws things after we cleaned out her house upon moving her to assisted living.  There was a note explaining it.

It read:  "This bride and groom was on top of our wedding cake December 7, 1940.  Russ bought the cake at Saunders and it cost $6.00.  Everyone had a piece of the cake."

 

One year later, my father-in-law was called up for World War II.   He brought back this bottle of "Carnation perfume" bought in Paris for my mother-in-law sometime while he was in the war.

 I always wondered why she loved Carnation perfume so much.  Now I know.  She now wears Belodgia (carnation fragrance) and it is my favorite perfume, too. 

Another thing that I came across while going through her household things was this little creamer.  I love toile and just couldn't pass up keeping it. 

Underneath the creamer it says "Reverie...Alfred Meakin ....Staffordshire England

A Hand engraved pattern applied under the glaze, detergent and acid resisting colours"

I am going to do some research on this one. 

On the quilting front.....I pulled a little kit out of my cupboard and thought I would prepare it for a retreat that I will be attending soon.  It is a Schnibbles.

I have three other friends who bought the kit the same time that I did and haven't seen or heard about any of them working on it so I put out some feelers as to how it went  since I have heard that Miss Rosie patterns can sometimes be a little hard to understand.

Anyways, two of them attempted it and the fabric ended up in their stash and the other one got it out to work on, but didn't have the correct ruler with her at the time. So, it was suggested that before I head out on my retreat with this being my only "full quilt" project to work on, that maybe I should put together a block and this was the result.

Not that easy when you are working with "scant" 1/4" seams and having to use an Omnigrid 98 ruler.  I didn't have that ruler but I had one by Fons and Porter that I thought would fit the bill and the block did come out pretty close, so I am going to give it a try.  I will be taking some applique on the retreat.  Hopefully #9 Cherry Trees will be prepped for the trip and maybe  a few of my circle blocks or maybe even a DJ block.  I will keep busy, I am sure; but if I am going to keep going on reducing my kits; UFOs and WIPs, I hope to get this Schnibbles top done by the end of the retreat.  

Anyways, I just wanted to touch bases with you all and hope you all had a great Memorial Day.  I know I am very thankful for all our military does for our freedom; and the fact that we, as a family, did some remembering of my late father-in-law, Russ, today and got to think of how much he meant to us.  

Happy Memorial Day!