Grandma Grace

Yesterday I thought alot about my Grandma Grace. I have mentioned her many times here. Charlotte is named after her. She is the person who took me to church as a child. She made me snowman and butterfly shaped pancakes when I would spend the night at her house. She let me help her prepare her Sunday School lessons. She bought me my first camera as a reward for learning my multiplication tables. At 18 years old she gave me her most treasured car...a 1966 Buick Wildcat...it had fins on the back. I loved that car!!!! She tried her hand at quilting and would be proud to know her beloved dining room set (which she left to me) serves as my sewing table and the matching hutch stores my antique quilts and books. I also have the remnants of her quilting "career".

This quilt was large and was exactly half way finished with hand quilting. I cut it in half, bound it and gave my sister the finished half for her 30th birthday. It made a nice cover up sized quilt. I had many things from my grandmother that were special to me...all of which would be considered "junk" to anyone else. My sister had her cookbook with her hand written recipes, but I wanted to share a real piece of our grandmother with her. I have the other half, unquilted, still hanging on a hanger in my sewing room.

I have her aprons, her family Bible, several of her bowls, and more memories of a loving grandma than I can count. Why was yesterday filled with such thoughts of her? It was 17 years ago that she died from injuries suffered in a car accident. I miss her and think about her often. I pray my presence in TJ and Emerson's lives is as positive as Grandma Grace's was to me.

Ok, onto another subject.....I was able to do some deep cleaning in the kitchen yesterday. Of course a clean kitchen begins and ends with a clean sink. A dirty sink, in an otherwise clean kitchen, is like an unmade bed in a tidy bedroom. I sure love Mrs. Meyer's Lemon Verbena scrub.

Smells wonderful and leaves a SHINY sink behind!!! Don't forget to clean behind the sink....Rachel and I went to the grocery store. I really dislike the store so having her do 1/2 the list is a huge help. I took TJ in my cart and she took Emerson, who was sleeping and no fun at all! TJ wanted out of the cart to help Grandma, so I gave him a "chance" to walk nice with me. He did SO well. He stayed right by me, did not touch ANYTHING without permission, and said,

"Look Grandma. My feet are walkin. They don't run in the store."

I was very proud of him!!!

Emerson loves her buddy Zachary....once she woke up, she was great fun!Rachel finished up the binding on TJ's quilt. I need to get a picture for you. It turned out great!!! The mailman brought me a box yesterday. Inside was the most wonderful bag of goodies....A snowman mug (I know this will be my favorite coffee mug for winter...it is BIG), some hot cocoa mix, and a Candyland Christmas Jelly Roll!!!! I am so excited to have another jelly roll to play with. For those of you who have no clue as to what a jelly roll is, it is a wonderful roll of 2 1/2 x 40 something inch strips of an entire line of Moda fabrics. They are perfect for countless projects, but also a beautiful sight (it looks like a real jelly roll) and fun to touch....a quilter would totally get that, but others may think I need medication!!! So who sent me this wonderful package??? The QUEEN of Jelly Rolls herself....Debi!!! Thank You SOOOOO much Debi. I treasure our friendship.

With such a busy day, and then Awana's last night, I did not get any sewing done yesterday.These are cut and waiting for me, and today I plan to actually get them stitched together.
It is still black outside, as I got up at 5 am, so I guess there is no time like the present! I may have a good chunk of them done before anyone else gets up....if I get going!!!!