Dear Friend,

I just read this found this link to a beautiful and sad piece of poetry about the Austrailian fires earlier this month. It brought back a lot of memories our our Rodeo-Chedeski fires. It was such a terrible waste and loss to the people of Australia. Click here to read "Black is All I See".

I hope we can keep the these devastating fires off of our forests. Even with all the moisture we have had over the past couple of years, I still worry about the threat of fire. I know it is heavy on my dad's mind too. He wants to put a metal roof on the house in Vernon this summer. With all the growth they are seeing, all the people moving up there, and the high use of the forest, it would only take one careless mistake to lose it all.

Sorry for seeming so morbid, but reading this poem and seeing the photos, it really got to me.
I think it's time to turn the computer off for the day. I promise to write something more tomorrow. Maybe I'll tell you about the little trip Shirley and I took today.
Love, Jan

Busy, Busy Busy

Dear Friend,


Well I have been busy the last couple of days. I machine stiched the binding on the brown and red quilt and now have another hand project setting at my TV chair (did I tell you that I hate this part of quilting). It puts me to sleep faster than Tylonel PM!) but I did find a marvelous website with a tutorial for put binding on the was the slickest technique since sliced bread. I knew how to do the corners but it's the beginning-end joining that made me crazy. If you want to try it go here and there is even a PDF to print with wonderful pictures to illustrate.



Last night I went to ZT for a Quilt History Group. We discuss a specific time period, the events and influences they had on quilting and the women of that era. Right now we are discussing the early 20th century,the 20's and 30's. I have grown really like the fabric of this time period and now have a chance to look at the lives of the women. One of the books I am reading is called Waiting on the Bounty, The Dust Bowl Diary of Mary Knackstedt Dyck.




(This is a 30's top I am going to machine quilt today and tomorrow. Wish me luck.)

When we first moved to Wellton, we went through some bad dust storms and I remember how bad they were. But to have them blow away your life and your living, day after day, year after year, it is makes the little bit of craft/art/necessity that these quilts were, more special. For most women in the early days, quilting with a circle of friends was the only social life and the only artform that most of them had. If you think a faded and worn feedsack quilt is ugly and useless, stop and think about the woman who lovingly stitched it together to make something useful, yet pretty for her home and then got to spend a few hours with her neighbors and friends quilting it.


Mat just sent me a couple more photos. This is a red-tailed hawk. He has watched it catch 6 rabbits while he is working out in this area.



And here is a picture of the Upper Ranch. I think this taken from on top of a mountain. Makes me wish summer was here.


I will write more later, Shirley is trying to find her way out here and I need to close now to get ready for a visit with her. I think we'll go to lunch at Cravings and maybe do a little exploring around here.
Love to all, Jan

Tell Them I'm Out of the Office

Dear Friend,

I love the desert in the early spring. Especially if we have had a good wet winter. Shawn took this photo last week and hope you can see how green the mountain is. I also thought it was a great scene photo with the 3 elements of the story- a beginning, a middle and an end.

It is day 2 of several days off and I am feeling so relaxed. No traffic, no auditors, no telephones, no schedules. What more could I ask for? I have been fairly busy though, I pieced together all the blocks for my black-red & white quilt top and found I was 2 rows short, so it's back to the ZT to find some more pieces to add. It's a good thing this is a very scrappy quilt and I do have a bit of the the fabric already in it but I still need to add some. Oh, and I was trying to do 2 things at once (so much for multi-tasking) and broke my Rowenta iron. So I will have to replace that because I cannot sew without one.

I am glad he is wearing those heavy work gloves.
More photo's from Mat. This time he appears to have befriended a ---you're correct. It is a bat. I don't know if I have never seen one this close or have never seen a yellow one. Creepy!




Wyatt's class went up to the Don's Camp at the base of the Superstitions last week and these are some of the pictures from his adventure. I would love to go but they only present this program for the schools-during the week.
An attempt at roping. That will come in handy someday!



Panning for Gold-in the Superstitions, of course.
Panning for gold as a woman????


Despite my best efforts to try to avoid the stores while I am on this short vacation, I now need to get ready to go into town. Sometimes I feel like I am back in Wellton and contemplating a trip to Yuma, that's how far it is to the quilt store. I know that is also the distance from Vernon to Show Low-but the only reason to go to Show Low is groceries, there is so little else.



This is a picture of Ian's newest bed cover. Straight from Ikea-he loved it!

Things to do, places to go. I'm off to buy a new iron and look for some special fabrics to finish.
More later, love, Jan

Multiple Celebrations- Happy Birthday Hunter

Dear Friend,

We are celebrating a couple of great things around here today! The first one and of course most important is the 17th birthday of this great young man. My oldest grandson carries both maiden names of his grandmothers (poor kid) but they do make a great name for this good looking guy. Hunter has so much knowledge tucked under that curly mop of red he absolutely astounds me. He is the family book of knowledge, spell checker, and go to for computer "what did I do wrong". Hunter has a great sense of humor and being the big brother to the other two, a ton of patience. Also, if I pay him enough, he does a great job of vacuuming my car.

Happy Birthday Hunter, you're a wonderful grandson-I love you!

It's also President's Day. When I was in school we celebrated George Birthington's and A. Lincoln's washdays seperately, and now look at us-the Fed & the Post Office are closed, so we get the day off! That makes me a happy camper.

Well, now that we have made it a day of recognition for all the presidents I can add another couple of my favorites. I am truly grateful that these men are a part of our nation's history. Their wisdom and sense of duty truely defined our government and our freedom. So, George, John, Thomas and Abraham, thank you so much for all you gave us.

All that being said, I want to share a first-hand account of a small encounter that really is bothering me-maybe because I have been hearing echos of this from other sources but this happened to a friend of someone very close to me. You decide...

Recently, a group meeting here (non-sectarian, non-political) was doing a little exercise of getting to know each other-the question was posed, "name a wish you have that will not be fulfilled" or something along those lines. The "friend" stated her wish was that John McCain had won the election. Several days later, the "friend" received a mailed letter-several pages long, accusing her of being rascist, non-christian and intolerant. The author of the letter included several bibical scriptures. I will not go into some details of the letter-sender but you are probably correct about the genetic connection involved here.

I know that everyone has the the constitutional right to free speech, my question is this (and an age-old one at that!) are we looking at the next 4 to 8 years of never being able to express our political views for fear of being accused of something that has nothing to do with the above mentioned labels?

Leaving you this epistle to quander the significance of with love,

Jan

Wednesday-My Middle of the Week-Weekend

Dear Friend,

Another wonderful day off. I love my 4-10's! It gives me 2 Mondays a week but it also gives me 2 Fridays! Hooray for Friday!

First, CONGRATULATIONS to the new Pinal County Public Defender. Yes, our own C. N. Weagant is now the man to see in Pinal County. All we need now is 6 more 5 cent-related families to join us out here in the woolly wilds of QC and we can be voting block to recon with!

Help me figure this one out, please. Lisa came out Saturday to learn how to make one of those wonderful tote bags from Quilts Illustrated. She got off to a good start-ironing and starching the fabric, then she cut it according to the instructions. She started sewing, even made one whole panel-so where did it happen that I ended up sewing the entire bag??? Anyway it is done and she did it these great fabrics. I love 30's & 40's fabrics. After that, I got the backs to my star quilt and my Yellowstone panel quilt put together and went to Sue's (my favorite long-arm quilter and friend) to trade. I picked up this wall hanging. Isn't it gorgeous? It's a block of the month from 2007 Quilt History Study-the Civil War Years and each block is based on the myth of the Underground Railroad Quilt. Sue did some beautiful custom work on this, the feathers in the borders. I tried to do a close up but I can't do it justice.

Last week I finally finished "The Zookeeper's Wife" (don't tell anyone I skipped 2 chapters so I could read the ending). During the discussion of this book we talked about the tremoundous spirit of the people of Poland during the Nazi occupation and the work they did for the underground resistance. I am in awe of their work and accomplishments. The story is being made into a movie and should be released sometime this spring. I don't know any particulars about who or when-but it will be interesting to see if they can bring a little more life to the story.

Ms. Ackerman, the author, is well-known for her writing about nature, human nature and poetry. But most of us in the group felt the book lacked something, suggesting we kept reading looking for something exciting or dangerous (more climatic???) to happen. In fact, all of these things did happen, it just wasn't portrayed in this story. The diary exerpts were wonderful though, and both of the Zabinski's risked everything for their Jewish and Polish friends. Would any of us be willing to hide or help our friends and neighbors in our homes at such great risk and danger to our own lives? I hope we could stand the test but will never have to.

Now it's on to "American Made, The Story of the WPA". I guess now is as good as time as any to reread what a miserable failure "government work" was to the economy of the American people. Luckily, I don't have to read the whole thing-just a couple of chapters.

Love to all, Me and "Maxine"