47 Quilts and Counting

I've been working hard on several different block of the month quilts. That means you join a class that provides the fabric for the block for a fee. The one with the white background is being made with a 30's fabric. It will have some appliqueing around the edge but won't be too bad.

The red, orange, green is a class that I am taking with Terrie and Laurel Lee once a month.

This red and grey is an online quilt that has a medallion in the middle. These blocks are all differnent kinds of stars. Its gorgeous.
Terrie and I are making the civil war tribute quilt. It too is beautiful. We go to class and learn about the civil war battles. How heart breaking it is to hear about how many thousands of soldiers were slaughtered during this time. Mothers must have wept many tears knowing that not even the body of their young soldiers wouldn't be coming home--many were buried in graves with only the number of how many were buried with them. Tragic time for this young country.
This is my latest quest. It is called the Farmers Wife. It is a published book about a contest in the publication of the same name. They asked women (farm wives) to write in and tell them if they would let their daughters marry a farmer.
The book contains only part of these essays which, by the way, were all positive about their daughters marrying a farmer. Along with the essays are two 6 inch quilt blocks that coincide with the writing. This one is churn dash and maple leaf.
This is practical orchard and railroad
Aren't they cute? And so easy to produce thank goodness, because there are 111 of them to make
This is how I organize my templates because I may have to use them in another block. I like using my scraps because I have a free hand to put together fabrics I like plus I need to use up and recycle. When I have enough blocks, I will put them together with sashing. This is quite a project.
This is my work space--on the kitchen counter. I have to clean up every 2 weeks so Lindsey can come in and clean. And Mister is soo patient with me.
I try to keep my stash organized but sometimes it gets the better of me. At least now I am going to Curves and walking. I love quilting but sometimes it needs to be put aside so I can socialize with kids and grandkids and others. It hasn't taken over my life completely. Only another quilter, scrapbooker, writer, or hobbyist of some sort can understand the souls need to create something lasting.

ATV's

Dave and Jill invited us up to Kamas on Saturday for lunch and the chance to drive their atv's up behind the Soapstone area. What a wonderful time we had. Neither Lee nor I had ever driven them before but with a little instruction from Jill we were off and running. Dave led us up into some absolutely gorgeous places. As we drove higher the snow became deeper but slushy. Instead of going up and over, we turned back. Dave and Jill wanted to pull an atv out of a bog that another person had left there. We could tell that he had done everything he could to get himself out but the mud was too deep. When the guys came back with a truck, Dave had Jill move into position to attach the winch onto the other atv and pulled it out with ease. In the meantime 4 other atv's tried to pass our parked vehicles and got stuck in the snow. We had quite a convention up there on top of the mountain.




Dave also got a new quilt from his quilting sister. It is perfect for the cabin.




The drive down was smooth and easy going except when trying to move through the slushy snow--then they had a mind of their own as to which way they wanted to go. I tried to remember what I learned about driving through snow in drivers ed. But it didn't have quite the same effect with these machines.

We took a different path on the way down that was strewn with rocks and water. This really jiggled my britches trying to keep to the road and out of the way of rocks and trying to keep my shoes clean.

We had an awesome ride. Thanks Dave and Jill
We returned to the cabin and dinner. What could be better than great company, good food and a fun ride?

MARICOPA INDIANS

Elaine wrote...

While working on the Primary Stake Board of the Phoenix Stake (there was only one then) in May 1949, word was received that they were to start a Primary among the Maricopa Indians. Th me this seemed like a wonderful oportunity which I would like to participate in. I volunteered for this position. I say position, however, we didn't know what to call me so I was never given a title.

Our first meeting or two were held under the arbor of the Sundust family and both men ,women and children came until the Relief Society was organized and then the sisters attended that and loved it. Our average attendance was 9 adults and 20 children. This was the first time they had ever learned to do something for one another--when they learned to quilt. This was done until each sister had a quilt. They learned unselfishness, they learned to do for others, and they learned to love one another around those quilts. Lola Shumway was the first Relief Society President to go out to the Reservation. They loved her. She taught them how to do for themselves.

We would leave Phoenix every Saturday morning about 9:30 AM and stay until afternoon. I didn't have a car to use so had to depend on someone to take me out. I went the entire year without missing one week. But I had many different assistants, Maude Pace being the first one to go with me. Even I couldn't have done this without my baby sitter, June Marble, a teen-ager then, who came every week and didn't charge me. I'll never forget this wonderful service she did.

We didn't have an outine to follow--my but we were green. No one knew what to tell us to do so I took the lessons from the back of the Children's Friend which appeared then for the the missions. We tried to teach them good health habits and cleanliness, along with the gospel and handicrafts. The activity they loved the most was a game of baseball after every Primary -- I enjoyed it as much as they did. It ws wonderful to drive into the school yard and see those happy, smiling faces standing there waiting forus and waving goodbye as we drove away.

Before we could hold our meetings in the school house we had to clean is up, not having been used for so many years. One of the government workers told us that we had done more in 3 months than the other hurches and the government had been able to do in 20 years.

I moved away from Phoenix 10 years ago, and I know that there has been great improvement over our humble beginning but it was a beginning with love and a sincere effort to bring to these wonderful people the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Elaine Kimball Jones
1963

A New Birth

My life was in darkness, I searched and found
The truth and the joy of my life
I shall not be afraid of the dark
Steadfast and sure will I stand
To witness for my great Spirit in Heaven
For I found joy in life
Through the teachings of the Book of Mormon
It guided my life to a new birth.

Writings by Sally Sundust, 1949

CATCH UP ???

These are pics of Mom and friends.
This got in here unexpectedly. But is was truely a mystery quilt. This was for Mary for her birthday and I am working on one for Peggy now. Maybe it will be done for her birthday.

I don't think I can catch up for 3 months worth of info.

I've been busy with finishing up and presenting a beautiful Primary Program at the end of September. We had maybe 40 children and to hear them sing we had to bunch them up together close to the piano because there were so few older voices. But it was amazing and they did an incredible job.

Then the stake decided that "yes" we would designate new boundaries for each ward in the stake. Essentially, they took our ward and split it up to two other areas and gave us names instead of numbers. We are in the Falcon View ward now with many new people to get to know. Now I understand what our kids are going through when their wards are divided and they lose friendships that were just beginning. But looking through this with older eyes, Mister and I just
know that we have more friends to meet and make.

I decided not to return to the primary. (This was an option for me) It was time for new folks to take over. I was put in as the Compassionate Service Leader. This will allow me to serve a little more and get to know more people.

I have been working on our Christmas party for the Jones family. Invites are out and I will be doing a collage about Mom.

She was a beautiful woman who had a huge responsibility of seeing that her younger sisters were taken care of after the divorce of their parents.

I also made a snow white costume for Gabby. It was darling but my photos are not loading so I can't show it off. I have finished several quilts to be given away to famiy. Its been fun but now my time needs to take off in another direction. I feel like I need to be of more service than I am and will start finding ways to use my time more productively.

LUKE'S BAPTISMAL DAY

Luke was baptized and confirmed by his father Levi on July 18, 2009. How proud we were to be a part of this special day to honor our oldest grandson. His father confirmed him and gave him a very special blessing. He will be a great example to his cousins.

The Miller Family was there to watch and...
so were the Smith's. A few of his friends were there also.
Momma Sandie was also very proud of her oldest son.

The Boardman's came up from Delta, Axel and Springville. Cousin Cheyenne gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and Granny B gave a talk on baptism. What a wonderful day.

New Post Finally

WELL!! It has been a while since the last post. All I can say is that this hasn't been top of the priority list.

Many things have happened since April--Grandkids have had birthdays, trips have been made, swine flu has made its debut and lives have moved on.

Family Fun day was held in early June and Andrew and Lori brought their bounce houses and stayed to have fun with the kids. Next year I will insist that all the families come because it is a fun activity to be together at. Here are pics with Lori, Andrew and the kids.

One special thing that happened was the rain. It had been raining for weeks and this day was also expecting a good downpour. We heard that the high counsel member in charge of the fun was praying for weeks with his family that the rain would hold off. He said that his prayers were very specific that the rain would hold off until at least 2:00 pm. We started cleaning up about 2:00 because everything was winding down. Andrew had lots of help with the houses before the sky burst open at about 2:10. Prayers were heard and answered that day.

FAIRY TALES

How do you feel about fairy tales?  I grew up with Red Rose, Snow White, Grimm Brothers, and Hans Christian Anderson.  My favorite book to pull from Dad's shelves and shelves of books was the Blue Book of Fairy Tales. I found out when I was older that there was a Red Book and possibly others. I think if I ran across one of those books now, I'd pay whatever price was being asked.  Many parents won't let their children read them because they may be too violent but I read them for the fun of it and where my imagination took me.  I have kept my school collection of fairy tales but there are so many wonderful authors now that expand the tales into novels. Shannon Hale, Robin McKinley and Jessica Day-George are just some.  

I consider Brian Mull's Fablehaven series as a fairy tale.  He  also wrote The Candy Wars. I have just finished his newest adventure.  Luke was excited that I had read them as his teacher has read them to her 2nd grade class. (Maybe a little overload there) Pick up a book at the library and sit down with a new fairy tale that you haven't read before.