Pour Buddy's Doll and Quilts

Summer is in full swing and soon it will be over. I have added photos from my last family viist. It was a bittersweet visit asmy brother John had just died. We spent most of the visit trying to get all family notifed and make funeral arrangements. Here is the obituary we came up with to remember our brother.

 

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John Sydney Everall Jr  - 10 July 2009

Cambridge Central School Class of 1973

John S. Everall, Jr.  died at the Glens Falls Hospital on 7/10/09 after a long battle with Polycystic Kidney disease.  He was 54 years old and a Vietnam veteran.  He was the oldest son of the late Elsie and John Everall Sr. of Cambridge NY. 

John is survived by his five children: Charity, Faith and John Sydney Everall III of St. Joseph, MO and Shawn and Kayla Everall of Rutland, VT., and at last count 17 grandchildren. He is also survived by his siblings: Susan Gero and Dorothy McCully of Warner Robins, GA.  and George Everall, Paulie West and husband Lee West of Salem, NY.  John also had nieces and nephews in NY, VT, NV and GA whom he was very close with.

Anyone who knew John will tell you that loved his children and family most, but coming in close behind them would be his dog Rug, his motorcycle, gardening and brewing homemade wines and beer.  

John had become a master gardener.  He was able to grow turkey sized butternut squash that he was quite proud of. He had a picture he of a squash that was bigger than his grandchild. He loved to show this photo to everyone. One Thanksgiving he stuffed a huge squash and it was so big that his family ate that as the main course instead of a turkey. He shared the bounty each year from his garden with family and friends so they could enjoy his organic grown vegetables.

John belonged to the Owlkill Rod and Gun Club. He was an avid rifleman and believed that all Americans should have the right to bear arms. He built his motorcycle “the Wizard” from the ground by himself.   On a good day to John was able to have friends and family join him on an outing to the range and shoot off a couple hundred rounds, go for a nice long motorcycle ride and end up back at his place to have a BBQ with a huge bonfire for the evening.   He had a very upbeat personality and forthright opinions. He will be missed by all whom knew him.

The family will have the Memorial Farewell BBQ/Bonfire on the 25th thru 26th (Sat-Sun) starting at 2pm Sat until whenever. They all plan to party and swap tall tales as John would want them too. Friends of John and family are invited to drop in. The party will run all night, so please do not drink and drive.

 

In lieu of flowers, his children and family would like any donations to be given in John’s name to the Polycystic Kidney Foundation at:

PKD Foundation

9221 Ward Parkway Suite 400

Kansas City, MO  64114-3367

 

Or you can call:  1800- PKDCURE (753-2873)

Or online at: www.pkdcure.org

 

 

Today I went to Dr. Hancock’s with my sister Dorothy. Other folks know it as Hancock’s Fabrics, but we call it Dr. Hancock’s because you feel so much better after you go there!

We bought more fusible stuff so I can work on the castle tote. It actually uses twice as much as it said. Or I used it in extra sections. Anyway, I needed some so bought 4 yards more. That should get me started on the next one too.
 

My stash needs feeding to stay healthy.

I am making one of those new castle tote bags.  I have bought enough fabric to make three of them, but on one case I am not satisfied with waht I have for the castle edging.. I saw a fabric that looked like the castle turret edges and will work with the stone fabric. It also works weill with the turquoise fabric I have for the tower roofs, so I bought 1 yd of that fabric.  I also saw some chickens and some egg fabric. I have already made some rooster appliques, and I could use another something for that project, so I bought 1 yd of the eggs.
 
Dorothy has almost finished her quilt and needs to start another project. She dug out the horse pattern that I gave her when she arrived. Three weeks ago the pattern scared the willies out of her - too complicated! Now that I walked her thru one fusible quilt, she is ready to tackle the horses. So I told her to use whatever she needs from the fusible. After the horses, she will be able to make fusible quilts of any design to suit herself. She will be able to copy just about any pattern she finds on the internet. I feel good knowing that I have enabled her to be very creative with very little money when she returns home.

She bought a western shirt pattern so she can make shirts for her hubby when she gets home. I showed her where most of the clothing fabric boxes are hidden in my house. She laughed to see all my stash boxes hidden all over the place. I doubt she will find anything she likes, but I know she will enjoy digging thru my treasures.

All in all, it was a very resonally priced fix for our fabric addiction.

     Marti is the good looking lady with white hair. I'm the worker in blue.

Our guild classes with Marti Michell were a great success. The quilt guild in Perry, Ga is Crossroads Quilt Guild.  These Marti Michell classes were held at the Perry fair grounds.

 

In the Friday class we did the Kaleidoscopes design. This is a deceptively simple design with has secondary designs that keep the eye moving. This quilt top was made extremely easy to piece accurately with MM’s special rulers

 

Our classroom was a large building at the fair and it was wonderful to have so much space to work. Each person has a full 6 ft. table to themselves. Electric extension cords were also provided for each table.  With so much space, each person had room for a sewing machines, a large cutting board and even an ironing mat if they wanted. Irons and ironing borders were also spaced around the work space and provided a nice stretch and a reason to walk by all the other tables and comment on all the beautiful work being done.  

Marti gave a wonderful trunk show and speech at the beginning of the class, then guided us all as be worked like mad to get out 9 blocks done that day. Many quilters finished the 9 blocks and had a small top completed by the end of the day. I was one of those, and then over the rest of the week, I finished 15 more blocks to create a twin size top, which is now in the process of being sandwiched.

The Saturday class was a bit more advanced. We did a mystery quilt and I started it out wrong right way! I was so excited to get started that I did not read the instructions so well, and just grabbed the templates I thought I should use. Then I transposed the colors as well.  Well…. Lucky for me, Marti was not upset  at all by this.  While I was dying of embarrassment she just calmly made sure that I got back on track!  In fact, her handouts for the mystery quilt clues included 2 color choices, and all I had to do was switch to the other one. I think I must not be the only smart aleck who did this in her classes.

 As for the wrong templates, her sets are mix and match. I just had to switch up a size for all the templates and it worked out just fine.  The blocks just flew together, but since it was so much more advanced that the Friday class, almost no one got more than a few blocks done. We did get perfectly pieces, very accurate blocks out of it and are very pleased with the class and the template products.

At the end of the day I was a bit sorry to leave. It was a nice class and I got to meet a few of our new members. I loved seeing all the different color combinations and  hope folk will bring their tops in and share them at our meetings.

See you at out next meeting and holiday party,

Today Rick & I went with my friend to an estate sale.

 

Rick and I picked as much of the Jewish holiday dishes as we could afford to buy. I also bought a really nice coffe table. I felt so bad for the man. He had a streak of bad luck and must sell his treasures to survie a bankruptcy. Everytime I made and offer of 20% of the value, he eyes got so sad, but he took it with out much  dickereing. I really feel sad for hom. I am gald that we were able to resure most of the holiday dishes and I hope he appreciates that are going into antoher Jewish hoem to be loved and cared for.

 

We ended up with a gorgious glass Passover set, platter, matzoh dish and Elijah cup. It is nice to have a set for us, to use as our special set for when we are married.

 

 

Funny thing. I quilted all summer. I got 2 quilt tops done and one is layered and rolled and ready to machine quilt. I even machine quilted 2 blocks. Then I got stuck. Something is wrong with the setup. And the room feels so dark in the summer!

 

Then dolls came back into focus. How did that happen?

 

As I remember, I looked at an empty bedroom and took a nap on the old loveseat in there. I liked the room I feel relaxed there. I took a couple more naps there. It is quiet, far from the TV but still central to the house. I am easily found as the room is next to the kitchen. I thought it might make a good office for me. I started to clean it up and thought about it a little. But the table was too unstable for a computer and I hated to block out all the lovely light and the view of the pool. Then I got the doll room idea. My office was full of doll stuff and looked like a graveyard or a city dump. Really not nice. I needed to clean it up.

 

Anyway. the old mahogaony table was so sweet and feminine. It is an heirloom from my grandma and I do like to have it out to be admired. So I dragged that in there and set it up in front of the window.

 

Well, bit by bit, 5 minutes at a time, the room became my doll room.

 

I had a bit of help from a yahoo group for porcelain doll makers. They sent me a doll challenge. While I might not compete in that challenge, I am finally back into actively making porcelain dolls again. I really started slowly. I found the supplies all over my  house and brought then to the doll room. One day I had enough there to work with. So I sat down in the chair and touched things. I let the doll making supplies sink back into my soul, worm their way back into my consciousness and wake up my doll making talent.  I made a big deal of sorting the paints and then laying out the brushes and painting supplies in perfect order. I was still terrified to start. After a 2 year hiatus, could I still paint a decent face?

 

Lucky for me, I had a stack of doll bisque ready to go. In fact, I had bisque for the same doll 10 times over. If I failed, I could toss it out and do another one, the same face, until I was satisfied. Yeah, I know, why do I have 10 sets of bisque for the same doll just laying around my house, huh? Well, let me say that when I love something, I REALLY love it. And I thought it would be fun to make a series of dolls. I also have 25-30 sets of bisque doll parts all sorted out in boxes in a living room cabinet. Yeah, I do like making dolls. IT is a lot faster than making quilts.

 

Suddenly, I finished 2 whole dolls !! Yeah!! I did it. I beat the ghosts and the spooks and the things that ate at my brain a told me it would be too hard to do. I painted several doll parts and a few heads. True my painting needs a little practice, but I think they are still worth keeping. I was even able to just pull hair and outfits out of my supply stash and colplete the costuming too. And they look so cute!

 

And after all that cleaning and digging and reorganizing, I found my camera, too. Photos will follow soon.

 

So now I am stuck! I have too much to do between the garden, pool, quilting gardening, and a little social life. I just do not have time to work so much! Can’t wait to retire.