Crazy about Mandy

Mandy is staying with me on Spring Break and wanted to "sew pieces of material together" so I showed her how to assemble a crazy quilt block. She jumped into it and has had a blast using scraps from my bag for the block. She wants to use it to make a pillow. Here is what she has done so far.

I've shown her some of the crazy quilts by Debra S. and Allie and am going to see if she wants to learn to do some embroidery stitches on the seams. I was much younger than her when Granny taught me my first lazy daisy stitch and similar simple stitches. I am so glad that Granny had so much patience with us kids.

Spring is beginning to tease us here. My periwinkle is blooming and I've seen daffodils blooming in several yards, mine are on the north of the house and bloom later. Some plum trees and a few very early apple trees are blooming and the Globe Willows and Weeping Willows are turning green. Here is a photo I took of the Weeping Willows and the pond just down the road from me.

The native trees and bushes know better than leafing out early, but some of the introduced ones start blooming and leafing early. A few years ago we had a bad late freeze that killed most of the Globe Willows and they have had to be replanted and are getting some size now.

Mandy and I went for a picnic today at the Five Points Rapids picnic grounds west of Canon City in the Long Horn Sheep Canyon on the Arkansas River. The trees and plants at that altitude are still pretty much in winter mode even though it was a lovely blue sky day. Mandy picked up lots of pretty river pebbles and I enjoyed watching a Dipper bird skimming just over the water and dipping and singing on the rocks in the edge ripples. They are very plain looking black birds who sound beautiful and are fun to watch. They even dive under the water and appear to be swimming to find whatever is down there that they eat. I saw one years ago, above Boulder, that would fly into the water above the waterfall and float to the bottom, then fly up and start all over again. I'm not sure if he/she was finding food or just playing.

Postscript to Silk

I'm not the only one!

I Love Silk! must be a girl thing

Santa showed up on my doorstep this morning in the guise of a mail lady. She brought me a box of fabric scraps and pieces from Debra. Words
cannot express how scrumptious these fabrics are, many of them are silk. They are leftovers from when Debra's mom worked in a fabric store and Debra sewed her own clothes. These were sent to me to encourage me to go ahead and try making crazy quilt blocks, instead of just threatening to do it. With these gorgeous fabrics I ought to be able to make something pretty special. Are any of you old enough to remember Scrooge McDuck rolling around in his money? That's what I feel like doing in these fabrics.

I also have a good size piece of the candlelight satin that my Granny made my wedding dress from (1956, first marriage); it's still wrapped up on the bolt. It was with the fabric that my Mom gave me recently when she was cleaning out her closet. I hadn't even realized that she still had any of it. I just wish we had some of the organza that was used for the bridesmaids and maid of honor. They were in lovely colors of lavender and bronze and that glimmered in the candlelight.

Well, it's off to visit the kids in Byers this weekend. This trip has been postponed for 3 weeks due to blizzards. Snow is forecast again, but just flurries. I hope the weatherman is right. We've had snow on the ground for five weeks now and that is unheard of around here. It usually snows and then a Chinook (warm, downslope wind off the mountains) comes along and melts it off. We are learning what it's like for those in other parts of the country. But I have to remain thankful for the moisture. At the height of the drought when breathing smoke from all the forest fires I swore I would never complain about rain again, and that included snow.