Naming My Blessings

Addie Boy, my dear cat companion.

I used to say, when I was caught talking to myself, that I was consulting the best person I know. Now I am also consulting with my monthly house cleaner! I find him to be a warm soul and so I confide in him about the preceding month's events. This month I told him that I had lost another friend.  I am not sure if God is cleaning out my friend list, but truly any loss of friendship at my age sits heavy in my heart!  He smiled sweetly as he does when he is being sympathetic and then replied that one of his clients talks of spending much time with her friend, Phyllis and then added that she has likely named her sewing machine after its brand, Pfaff. His story made me smile. I was quick to pick up on his suggestion and started thinking of names for my sewing machines. He knows that I love to sew and each month I show him my sewing projects and he is one of my most avid supporters of my stitching.

Addie Boy, my constant sewing friend, with my dear friend, Beatrix.
Bernice, not pictured here, looks much like her relation, Beatrix.

I pondered about what to name my two Bernina sewing machines. Perhaps Bernie and Bernice, though both are deserving of more thoughtful consideration. Perhaps my mother's machine should be named Beatrix after one of my mother's and my favorite authors, Beatrix Potter. The name is fitting as it means "one who brings joy"! They are my most durable and faithful machines! They have only six different stitches and continue to work hard, and no matter how much I over-use them, they never let me down. My mother was always there for me when I needed her, and was my wonderful partner-in-crime when it came to quilting and so it is only fitting that her machine have such a special name!

I have another machine that I rarely use, but still treasure, my Husqvarna that does beautiful embroidery work among its other fancy stitches. Perhaps its name should be Husky Varna? I am no slight woman and so having a name like Husky is meant as no insult, but quite the contrary, she is much like me and she does stitching that I greatly admire!

Handi-Hope, a new friend that is going to help me quilt my many quilts.

I also  have my new semi-long arm Handi Quilter Simply Sixteen machine in my craft room in the basement. I confess she has been sitting in isolation too long as I focus on getting my quilt tops pieced right now. It will be like a new relationship when I return to her! The name Handi-Andy first came to mind, though I think Handi Hope might be a more fitting name for her as I have hopes that she and I will make quite a team when I get to quilting all my newly made quilt tops in the near future. For Christmas I acquired some rulers and a ruler table for her and I will soon be ready to quilt any sort of design I can imagine with her help.

I have a couple of other machines tucked away as well...my favorite Aunt's old Singer Featherweight machine, that I think I will call Fairlight as she is not only a beautiful antique and special treasure coming from my dearest Aunt, she is also dependable and  lightweight!

I also have another antique machine in its own cabinet likely not to be used unless the power goes out for an extended period of time as she is an old New Ideal treadle machine and has been a dependable and functional friend as well. I think I will name her Talulla which is both an Irish and American Indian name. The idea that she be given an Irish and American Indian name fits as she is a precursor to my other machines, like a rather primitive and early settler in my life and I do have a bit of Irish in my ancestry.  I also thought the name, Therese would be fitting after my French Grandmother as she represents the grandmother of all my machines. I  will then call her T.T., short for Tallulah Therese which means Princess of Abundance and  after some of my favorite French saints, Therese of Liseau and Theresa of Avila as well as my own grandmother). She is mostly stored and ready for use should any power outages occur. She was the first machine that I owned, back in the days when my ankles were trim and fit and less rusted than they are now!

My final machine friend is a pleating machine to be used for smocking. I keep her still for I still plan to someday use her to pleat and then hand smock like my mother used to do. I shall name her Pammy Pleater, after my long time nursing school friend, Pam, who lives in Colorado. I likely wouldn't have made it through college without her friendship! My house cleaner is right. With such trusty friends to spend time with, I will simply name them, and count my blessings that I have such loyal and abiding friends as these.

Not to be forgotten are my family of furry friends, Addie Boy and Cassie Dog, though I shall reserve other blogs for these trusty companions...and of course, last, but not least are my two daughters and husband, again deserving of their own blogs.

I must admit, that in my earliest days, my mother used to tell me that I had a best friend named Kathy Een, though my mother never saw her, she would however see me talking to her quite often and I apparently spent many hours in her company. I was apparently too young to master calling her by her real name, Kathleen, but that didn't keep me from enjoying her company no matter how invisible she was to those around us. Some say we revisit some of our previous issues as we get older. Some even need to wear clothes that weren't too different from our earliest days and it is interesting that they call them by special names too, like Depends or Poise, names that make them more dear to us as well, so why not give names to my special machines that keep me company while I stitch? Thanks to my house cleaner and his wise counsel, I now have seven friends I had not considered before as friends: Bernice, Beatrix, Husky-Varna, Handi-Hope, Fairlight, T. T. Treadle and Pammy Pleater! I am feeling less lonely already! And truly these are friends that have proved themselves to be true and loyal friends indeed!

As spring comes and it will be easier to get out and about, I will consider making more  "friends-with-skin", as one of my friends on-line calls "people-in-person" these days. She and I are growing used to having more on-line friends than "friends-with-skin" as we become more confined by the weather and our health issues.  With many inches of snow on the ground yet, I will presently count my blessings and appreciate the friends that I have right here within my own house, including my now named seven trusty friends, along with my dear Addie Boy Cat and Cassie Dog. I am thankful for them all, and grateful too for the wise counsel of my monthly house cleaner!

Cassie Dog, my meal and nap time companion.

Addie Boy is very fond of Beatrix as well as me!

A Civil War Quilt

I learned a few years ago, that my great grandfather was in the Civil War, and have been reading about it ever since. What an amazing time in our country's history and the more I learn about it, the more I realize that our present day political polarization isn't so different than it was in those days. Even our own households can be divided politically and our differences can seem quite large.

I am currently sewing Civil War blocks to create two quilts. I am using red, blue and off- white reproduction fabrics and patterns from Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler Quilt Book.  Her book has 50 different patterns, and the directions include different ways to assemble these blocks to create different quilts. It is providing me with much practice using different piecing techniques, and I am working to get my blocks exact so as to have corners meet and points remain points!

I am also reading about various women of those days and making the most out of what they have, and figured I might as well try to do the same. It makes me feel good to create something beautiful, as I think about the present's difficult issues. Passionate conflicts and divisions seem to be dividing us just as they did during the Civil War days. I am trying to be positive and hopeful that verbal discourse will lead to solving the problems at hand, and no matter what happens, I will have created some beautiful quilts! I am simple and practical enough to hope that relaxing and creating something beautiful will be a first step to creating peace in our household despite our differences. My quilt blocks will be as diverse as our opinions and yet will hopefully create a beautiful whole and unified quilt. Should our country be as fortunate!