Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might...........Ecclesiastes 9:10

My little hands have been busy sewing, knitting and crocheting and I want to show you some of the results of my labor. It's been a "labor of love" making things for people I love and it delights me to bless them in this way.

One of my many nieces is getting married in August. She's (as they say) getting married on a shoestring. She's a graduate student doing medical research in Vancouver, BC. Her fiancee is also a grad student. They will return to their studies after they're wed.

Because I'm a collector of vintage lace and love re-purposing it into something that's very "today", I wanted to make her wedding related gifts. I made a wedding garter and a little wristlet, both from vintage lace.

I made the garter from a strip of hand crocheted lace. These pieces of lace were once use to embellish bed linens, and other household linens. The Victorians even embellished undergarments with hand made lace. Many times these strips were made by little girls who were learning the skill of crochet in order to fill up their "hope chests" for their own "way in the future" weddings.

The most interesting thing about this lace is: it did not wear out. The sheets or pillowcases, towels or petticoats that the lace embellished, wore out. But the frugal Victorian housewife separated the lace from the worn out piece. They then saved the lace to embellish something else. Oftentimes, this is where I step in and discover it at a household sale, estate sale, garage sale, op shop or somewhere else.

The wristlet evolved from a rectangular doily that was used to line a bread dish. It has the word "BREAD" crocheted right in the middle of the piece. I folded it into an envelope purse shape, lined it with silk and added a crushed ribbon wrist strap - so the bride's hands would be free to hug people.

I think it's so cool to have heirlooms as part of a wedding day. You know how the old saying goes : "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, a sixpence in your shoe...."

Taken from THE KNOT wedding website
 Something old represents continuity; something new offers optimism for the future; something borrowed symbolizes borrowed happiness; something blue stands for purity, love, and fidelity; and a sixpence in your shoe is a wish for good fortune and prosperity............................

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Another project that I've been working on is making little trinkets to go into what is called a "swag bag" - a special gift bag for the first 100 visitors to visit my friend, Angel's. upcoming craft show. I am making tiny Christmas wreathes to pin onto your lapel, or to use as a giftwrap embellishment or even a tree trimmer. The swag bag will be chock full of the cutest ever little tchotchkes.

If you can get to Chambersburg, PA on November 2nd and do your Christmas shopping at this show, yours will be the best gifts ever.

https://www.facebook.com/IHeartHandmadeMarketplace?directed_target_id=0

A Little Local News

One of the things I love most about Summertime is I'm outdoors all the time and sudden discoveries are all around me.
Today, I just want to show you some recent discoveries I found right "under my nose".

My brother came from Pennsylvania for a visit last week and he wanted to see the newest edition of Wegman's (our local grocery store). The company built a brand new store within the city limits, replacing one that was outdated, outmoded, passe' - all that. This company is renowned for "state of the art" stores. They are the Anthropology of grocery stores. Though this new branch is quite small compared to their other branches, it has enough interesting things to draw me back again and again.

All of the Wegman's stores have what they call a "Cafe'". In this space, shoppers may sit down and relax with their computers, newspapers, tablets, etc. along with a meal that they have purchased from the food court section of the store. This section has "ready to eat" Oriental, Indian, Spanish, Italian, Southwest, Kosher, etc. - hot and ready to eat. They have coffee and other tempting drinks, they have a French Pastisserie, salads, fruit and yogurt cups - and on and on.

What I love about the new store is that their Cafe' also went on and on. There were tables along a long windowed edge of the building. Therefore every table was a window seat. They had a room that looked like a family room in a home with a large TV on the wall over a roaring fireplace. Guess what was on TV? The Food Network !!

They had a long narrow hallway type of room lined with tables and walls lined with huge blowups of vintage photos of historic Rochester. I am in love with this.

Here's the corner of Winton Road and East Avenue 150 years ago

And here is what it looks like today. This is the very spot this new branch is located.

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Some things that are happening in my back yard - flowers growing, deer sunbathing

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A sheep farm that is not far from my house. The sheep all skittered away from the fence when I approached. I didn't know they were shy - didn't want their picture taken - they had no sunglasses to hide behind so they gave their behinds to the camera.

A Ride on the Erie Canal

I keep being more and more amazed at all we have to offer, in the way of tourism entertainment, to visitors to the Rochester area. Last week, with a housefull of  out of town visitors, we took a boat ride on the Erie Canal. This was a guided tour on a packet boat (the type that was used for commerce in the 1800's). The canal is very shallow. Packet boats were flat bottomed and were pulled along the waterway by mules who walked along the "tow path". These vessels had to pass under many low bridges. A famous folk song tells the story.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KpheIh32cQ

We arrived at the port of Pittsford for our 2 PM departure on the vessel The Sam Patch (that's another whole story). The main feature of our cruise was a visit to one of the canal's 57 locks.

Because the canal traverses landscapes of varying elevations, there had to be a method of coercing water to, very calmly climb mountains, travel down valleys, and cross  natural waterways. The solution was locks. 

Here are pictures of our vessel waiting inside of a lock for the water to fill so that we could travel the canal on a higher elevation. Coming back, the opposite happened. Our vessel was at a higher elevation. We entered the lock. The water level was dropped so we could travel back at this lower elevation.

I do hope I've explained this in an understandable way.

The Erie Canal was completed in 1825. It was all dug by hand, by immigrants. There were no civil engineers to design it or architects to lay out it's path, no cranes and mechanical earth movers to dig it. The walls of the canal were paved with small round stones called cobblestones. Many historic and beautiful New York state buildings (including homes) were built with the left over cobblestones. Today they are a treasure.

The canal traverses New York state from Albany to Buffalo. 363 miles!! The longest artificial waterway and greatest public works project in North America. The canal put New York state on the map. It opened up the interior to commerce, trade and settlement. Until that point in history, all major population centers were in the east coast states.

Our guests totally enjoyed this visit with history. Today the canal is part of the National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior. It is a treasure trove of adventure in so many ways. Today the old tow path that the mules pulled the packet boats along is now a bike path. This week (July 7-14) more than 500 riders of all ages and from all across the nation will participate in an 8 day, 400 mile bike tour from Buffalo to Albany.  

The towns or ports along the canal stage many local events along their shores. Many vacationers sail up in their watercraft and dock at the ports in these canalside towns, shop at their local boutiques and groceries. There are Philharmonic Orchestra Concerts, there's a rubber duckie race, local high school's crew teams practice on the canal, kayakers paddle. Many towns have boat launches where residents can park their cars and launch their boats. In winter, the water level is significantly lowered to protect the walls from ice damage. At that time, the canal becomes a huge ice skating rink. 

  And some people are lucky enough to have the canal in their backyard............

Garden Tour

There are several garden tours in my area every summer. I got hooked on them when I was designing a garden for our home. I wanted to have a pond so I paid particular attention to garden ponds and asked loads and loads of questions of the garden owners – do you leave the fish in there all year long? Yes, but you must keep the bubbler going so the fish can get oxygen. The fish go dormant as do the plants. As the water warms up in the spring, both fish and plants begin to awake and begin the cycle again.

The hospitable gardeners who open their garden for visitors to trample through each summer are some of the most generous people on earth. They’ll pull up a bit of a perennial plant and give it to you to thrive in your garden. There are many plants in my garden that were started this way.

I went to two this summer. In my area these garden tours are annual events and are usually fund raisers for the organizations who sponsor them. The ones I attended this season were sponsored by the Historical Society and the other was sponsored by the Science Museum – both vital local organizations.

I happened to miss the one that is my favorite, because of a conflicting commitment. That one is called the Notable Garden Tour – notable, because there are musicians in every garden. This show is sponsored by the Greece Performing Arts Society. This organization believes that gardening is a performing art – and rightly so. Therefore, live music in every garden as well as an artist who is doing some plein aire water color or sketching with charcoals or some other type of easel art. They also provide snacks in each garden at this show. Snacks provided by our local mega grocery. You can see why this one is my favorite.

GENESEE VALLEY QUILT FEST

I had the wonderful opportunity of visiting this annual event, held in the Athletic Field House of a local university.  This event is “quilters and seamstress heaven”. All around the edges of the huge room are vendors booths selling fabrics, threads, fat quarters, finished quilted work (purses, small quilts, table runners), there are sewing machines and long arm quilting machines. In the room’s core there are rows and rows of quilts, six hundred all together, arranged by color, made by local quilters. There are antique quilts, art quilts, patriotic quilts, doll quilts, etc.

There are classes, contests, and drawings. The contest that intrigues me the most is called THE IRON QUILTER CONTEST. Modeled after TV’s Project Runway and Iron Chef. As on the TV shows, the contestants are given a surprise theme to base their work on. They have access to a huge stash of fabrics and 3.5 hours to sew up a quilt showcasing the theme.

This year the theme was DISAPPEARING ACT.

Just like on Iron Chef, there’s an audience watching the quilters, rooting for them, annoyingly asking them questions, taking their picture. But when 3.5 hours is up they have to stop creating. The contestants line up their quilts on white boards, given an opportunity to tell about their thought process for the design they selected. Each quilt is set on a chair, for the judging.

                               This was my favorite, but it did not win.

                       When the zipper is pulled up, the squiggle disappears.

 

  Rochester skyline - what I loved about this quilt is the bridge trusses were dressmakers snaps.

     

The judges paced back and forth, examining the quilts and after much comparing of notes, the judges announce the winner. The disappearing squiggle !!! and she takes home the beautiful Bernina.

I did not take pictures of all the contestants work, just the ones I was totally impressed with.

Here are some pictures I took while meandering up and down the labyrinth of quilts - just my favorites.

  President George Washington. Can you imagine all those tiny scraps?  Even shadows? Amazing.

          This one was in honor of a person's 90th Birthday. Her whole life in pictures.

                           The remaining three pictures are vintage quilts.  

.................Turn of the Century (19th) Rochester businesses in favor of temperance.

 

                                                     Doll Quilt

On loan from the Susan B. Anthony House's "Meaningful Threads" exhibit - Women's Suffrage Movement

A Week With My Granddaughters

I recently returned from a holiday with my granddaughters at their house. We had such a delightful time together. We played, watched TV together, cooked, ate out, did a little homeschooling, went to church, shopped and fell into bed at night, exhausted.

The girls made some dinner items with my supervision. One evening, they made the faux fried (baked) chicken cutlets for our “chicken with roasted potatoes and salad dinner”. I sliced sideways through the chicken cutlets, then pounded them, to make them nice and thin. I oiled a cookie sheet. The girls slathered the cutlets with mayonnaise, then coated them with Italian flavored breadcrumbs and laid them on the cookie sheet for baking, while I prepared the potatoes to go into the oven with the chicken.

They were averse to slathering with bare hands so they wore plastic gloves, changing them often for new ones., as the old ones became just as coated with mayo and breadcrumbs as the cutlets did. So we kept the waste container nearby at all times.

They were thrilled with their cooking experience and ate the chicken with gusto. We even had leftovers to make chicken salad for the next day’s lunch. Chicken salad is Daddy's favorite.

Their next kitchen adventure was making a chocolate pie (a totally "kid friendly" recipe). I brought home from the store 1 prepared graham cracker crust, 1 large box of instant chocolate pudding, and 1 container of lite frozen whipped topping. We had milk on hand to mix with the pudding mix and chocolate sprinkles to garnish.

With this exercise, they did the whole in entirety with only mild oversight from Grammy. Put pudding mix into large bowl – slowly added 2.5 cups of cold milk while whisking slowly (at first). Being sure to incorporate all pudding mix and milk. Set aside and watch it thicken. Open graham crust package and thawed cool whip package. Fold a couple heaping tablespoons of cool whip into the pudding mixture (to lighten it and make it creamier). Scrape all of the creamy pudding mixture into pie crust. (lick bowl and whisk before putting into dishwasher). Refrigerate pie for at least a couple hours.  1/2 hour before supper, spread remaining whipped topping over pie. Sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles. Serve for dessert.

They were ecstatic over this dessert and actually made it again a couple days later. Here is Sammi licking her plate of any remaining chocolate pie remains.  

         J.J. wore Grammy’s shoes and modeled a pink choker Grammy made for her.

Grammy staged an outdoor scavenger hunt for them one day. Used their entire block to hide things, in plain sight, for them to find.

                    They took me out for a belated Mother’s Day gift, for “TEA”

                               

                    A totally precious memory of a week to keep hidden in my heart.

MOTHERS DAY

Is Mothers Day really a day that Moms get to do what they like to do? If so, I had the promise fulfilled bigtime.  Very leisurely, I awoke on Mothers Day and got myself ready for a field trip. I ate breakfast first, at home in my kitchen while reading  the Sunday paper. 

I got myself all gussied up. Took out one of my little coin purses to put only the “necessaries” into. Carried that in my slacks pocket. I wanted my hands free. I didn’t want to carry my big old satchel around on my field trip and run the risk of knocking things over with it while it independently swings back and forth on my shoulder.

So, now I’m ready for my “safari”. Necessaries in my pocket along with my car keys. Phone in the pocket on the other side. I’m ready to hunt.

Off I go to THE SHOPS ON WEST RIDGE. Two stories of vendors booths (200 in all), set in vignettes, filled with vintage treasures and shabby chic style decorator objects. Almost  heaven. I slowly and carefully examine every booth, setting out in an orderly fashion, walking around the room edges first, then up and down the aisles in the middle. I wanted to be absolutely sure that I didn’t miss anything. I would make a mental note of a shop that I wanted to revisit or which had something I would consider buying.

Every once in a while, over the P.A. system  an announcement was made that at noon free pizza and cold drinks will be served in their café. By that time, my legs were yelling for a rest. The pizza was tasty and the drink refreshing. A lovely break. Now, back to the hunt.

I saw so many delightful things, if I had unlimited funds, I would need a moving van to get back home. This beautiful white vignette enchanted me. Firstly because the chest on chest is like the one my father kept his socks in. Now it is in my son’s bedroom with his socks in it. Here is its twin – painted white.

After being absolutely sure that I had seen everything, I made my decision about what I would buy, but do you think I could remember where I saw the item. Instead of mental notes, I should have jotted an actual note on an actual note pad. I had to go to the check-out and ask the personnel to help me find my “find”. I described it. Myself and an employee searched the building looking for it. The employee found it!!

Here’s a picture of it. It is a garden table, painted turquoise, with a solid wood top surface and wicker apron and legs. I wasn’t really sure how I would use it but I knew it was coming home with me. I tried to talk myself out of it but I just couldn’t leave without it.