This chair sits in our kitchen near the door. It appears to be an empty chair, but it isn’t. It is filled with memories from six generations in my husband’s family.
In 1903, when Tom Gilreath was thirteen years old, he rode a horse from Suches to Blairsville, via Sosbee Cove. A distance of twenty miles, across a mountain, meant that he had to spend the night on his way there and on the return trip. Tom’s mission was to pick up four chairs which had been hand made for his family.
Many details of this story been lost over time, the bare essentials I’ve outlined are all we’ve been told. But a thirteen year old boy who had to take his food and bedding and find his way to his destination and home must have had some frightened moments. Hmmm, four chairs, a boy, and his belongings – does this mean he walked the twenty miles home?
And his mother, Margaret, don’t you know she was worried? Though I guess she was accustomed to wondering how things were going for the men in her life. Tom’s Dad, Jonathan, was a circuit riding preacher as well as a farmer.
That made Tom a man earlier than many even in those days, I suppose. Their Dad being gone to minister to others meant that the children had certain responsibilities. Tom recalled going out on cold winter evenings and breaking the ice from around Jonathan’s boots so he could dismount from his saddle and stirrups. Maybe his older brother Henry had to stay home and tend the farm – that would explain the younger one going on the mission to collect the chairs.
I’m sure when you examine an old chair in an antique store you appreciate the craftmanship of assembly without nails. But next time, look a bit beyond the pegs and think about how the chairs were delivered. Maybe on horseback, on a mountain road, accompanied by a lad whose mother was trusting that he would be unafraid.
This chair is empty in the photo, but sometimes it serves as a staging area for things we need to remember to take with us as we head out the door. I did not know Grandpa Tom when he smoked cigars, but those who did say they can smell his tobacco when they see one of these chairs. All four of the originals are still in the family.
If I had known old ladies had so much fun, I would have aged faster.
I always love to take classes. Yes, I could have enjoyed being a professional student.
This photo is my unmarked free motion design from this afternoon. Red Mettler 50 weight cotton thread in the top, Aurafil 50 weight cotton in the bobbin. Echoing is done with 60 weight Kimono silk thread.
I am creating a journal quilt again this year, Fifty-two Wednesdays. Each week, I select one image from my life and stitch it into a rectangular block.
Early this morning I got a text message from someone who loves me. My son-in-law is literally halfway around the world on a work assignment and sent the photo you see here. He said, “I saw all this fabric and thought you might want some. There is wool. There are wool/silk blends. There are more. Tell me what you might like.”
There is a phrase buzzing around on Facebook these days when people describe their husbands, “not perfect, but perfect for me.” Well, that is certainly true of my husband, but I recently thought of the phrase with respect to houses. I was cleaning out some old file folders filled with inspirational ideas for decorating, sewing, and gardening. Along with those, I have kept a folder filled with house plans. For many years, I thought my dream house was in there somewhere.
Today at a community event where I was invited to share my quilting story, members of the group were invited to bring some of their family quilts as well. Several did just that. What fun to hear others’ quilt stories.
Now I’m itching to grab some hexagons and assemble them in the pattern these women used.
Many quilts are made in small units, or blocks, which are then assembled into a larger quilt top. Most quiltmakers I know have an abundance of “orphan blocks”. These can result when a project is abandoned, when extra blocks were made to test color combinations or size, or when the stitcher simply changed her mind about where the design was going.
Some of these baskets and bunnies still reside in a basket awaiting their opportunity to shine. The photo you see here is a quilt top that came about when my minigroup needed a quick project for a donation effort a few years ago. The timing was Spring, my stitching sisters remembered my collection, and we got busy. The completed top was quilted by a local longarm expert and we had a sweet little quilt in record time!
In my quilts, anything goes. I love quilting cottons, silk, linen, denim, and wool. All together or separately, depending on the project.