Yoyos!

Generally, I have an aversion to yoyos. No, not the disks you do tricks with with your hands, nor the south central Michigan version which is also known as a retractable measuring tape. These are gathered circles of cloth.

I developed this aversion when I was in the second grade. One of the recess ladies was really smart. On days when we had to stay in because it was raining, she somehow got me and all of my friends to make yo-yos for her. You see, to make a quilt out of yo-yos takes a lot of yo-yos.

OK, so if I don't really like yo-yos...why am I talking about them? Well, there's one lady who does the most fantastic yo-yos! I lust after her work with yo-yos. Actually, I lust after a lot of her pieces. Today, I helped hang the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network's show at Glen Helen Environmental Education Center in Yellow Springs, OH. Lori entered a fantastic piece which she illustrated on her blog, Laughing Girl Quilts. You MUST look at this. In fact, if I weren't more ethical, I'd swipe her photo and show it to you here...but go see this...then come back and read this.

This brought to mind the yo-yo quilt I am showing here. Myra Fields made this quilt in 2009 using over 200 different fabrics. She made 850 yoyos. Myra wrote: "This is an easy quilt to make but soooooo (sic) time consuming. I vowed never to make another; however, but both of my daughters asked for this quilt, so now I'm making another one!"

Also known as "Suffolk Puffs", these quilts were popular in the 1950s and 1960s. This is an unusual example because it is indeed a quilt. There are sections of the piece which are composed of three layers held together with stitching. This is called a "Boston Common" set, because it is set out in rectangles as the traditional pieced Boston Common quilt is. Usually, a yo-yo quilt is not truly a quilt because the rosettes are sewn to each other and then sewn down on a sheet or solid piece of fabric, or just left "holey."

Lori said that making them was time consuming but addictive. Making yo-yos is a little easier as Clover came out with some yo-yo making templates to make from very small yo-yos up to very large yo-yos. They even come in specialty shapes to make hearts, clovers, butterflies, flowers and ovals. I've even been making some to serve as centers on a quilt I am making for my mom.

I'll leave you with one other piece employing yo-yos. I don't think that this belongs to Beth Ann Miller, I think she was holding it up for someone else, but it was made by a member of the Batty Binder's quilt guild in Troy, OH. Yo-yos add extra texture and sometimes they are just the right thing....like in Lori's Wrack Line.

Wordless Wednesday

Well POOOH! I posted this yesterday....and evidently it went to my drafts file instead of a post. So here it is....even though it is Thursday now and almost gone at that!

Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection

I'm steadily working on quilting things...but I thought I would share a wonderful treasure if you happen to be in the Seattle/Tacoma area. On the way to my sisters from the airport, we stopped at Weyerhaueser's Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection. Just a little over a quarter of an acre is given over to a fabulous collection of mature bonsai. Open free of charge, it is well worth the stop. Adjacent to the bonsai garden is another garden which is larger and has an admission fee. As my hip was hurting, I opted to only do the bonsai.

I think that my favorites are the ones like this one. The bark has been peeled back and the tree is tortured, but survives and even flourishes. Showing strength and grace under pressure.













This one is the "Tall Stewartia" (Stewartia mondelpha). I love the red bark, and the leaves are beginning to turn. While much of the collection are conifers, many are deciduous. Soon, the various maples and azelias will begin to color for the fall and I bet that the display will be spectacular.

This particular piece has been under cultivation since 1965 and was collected at Gotenba, which is between Tokyo and Nagoya. Bonsai Master Yasuo Mitsuya directed the care of this piece for his client, Keijiro Fujimagari. It came to the Weyerhaueser collection in 2005.






This one looks like it is really tall, but is only about 24".








Several of the exhibits show little forests of bonsai trees....So lovely and serene.

More Questions than answers

This is one of my favorite family photosgraphs. It shows my great grandmother, Helen Johanna Dempsey Ellis (known as "Josephine" or "Josie" as she hated the name "Helen Johanna") proving a land claim. According to my grandmother, this was the claim in Havre, Montana. Grandma Josie told me that the dog was given to her by a cowboy.

My great-grandfather, Elmer Esmond Ellis, was a banker and worked in town. Grandma stayed at the landclaim and made a home...as you can see, it wasn't much of a home, but these shacks were common in the early years of Montana and you can still see them dotting the landscape. Many were the initial homesteading claims, some were oilmen's shacks and others were for the herdsmen, whether sheep or cattle. Every day, a cowboy would ride by and (according to the tale) tip his hat at my grandmother before moving on. It turns out he was worried about this single lady on the plains and in order to help keep her safe, he gave her this dog which looks to have some boxer or Staffordshire terrier in his lineage.

I don't know much about Elmer Esmond Ellis, other than the fact that he was always trying to get ahead. He died in 1942 in Dawson's Pass where he went to mine gold..now mind you, he was middle aged at the time and my mother (his grandchild) was about 12 years old. I think that this is the only photo I have of him. He's standing here with his girls, he never had any boys, but he gave them all "boy" nicknames. My grandmother was "Jimmy." Her sisters were "Stubb", "Spike", and I foget the third one. My grandmother's name stuck...and she went through life as "Jimmy", far better than "Leona" which was her name.

I remember my great grandmother most from the visit we made in 1972. Here you see my dad, my uncle Ray, my grandma Jimmy, my mom, Aunt Mayme, Grandma Josie, Aunt Ceil and me. We flew out in my dad's Beechcraft Bonanaza from Michigan in order to settle my mother's aunt's estate.

While I was visiting this time, my sister and my niece drove down to Havre to see the land claim. My niece had researched the claim and found the records for two 90 acre claims. The first peculiar thing about this was that the claim was dated 1922, which doesn't much fit with the photograph. By 1922, Grandma had 3 kids, and I doubt that she, the girls and my grandfather could have all fit in the shack. In addition, I think the photograph is much earlier, based on the clothing. The photograph of Grandpa Ellis and the girls would have been about 1925, about the same time as the land deed was recorded.

When we got there, we were even more puzzled by the piece of land. Here's the access...the area adjoining what was the Ellis property is now the landfill.

It is a plateau, with a climb of about 30 - 50 feet to get to the top. Once we were there, we could find no evidence of habitation, even on the bottom before the climb there was no disturbance to indicate any kind of shack, and this soil tells you whatever has happened to it.

Along the fence line, there had been a graded road, but that's just about it. The land wasn't tillable, and could only have been used for pasturage. With it only being a total of 180 acres, that wouldn't have been enough to do much with.

So, was the photo of my grandmother and the shack from an earlier claim? She supposedly lived in a soddy in Morris, Minnesota before coming out to Montana....We know she was a linotype operator and left her home alone and came to Montana to take a job as a young woman....she was a very adventuresome.

Unfortunately, we can do very little hunting or tresspassing in order to find out the real story.

Barns and Quilts

My mind has been on barns lately. Of course, my mom would say that my mind is always interested in barns. I love the light inside them. Playing in the haymows as a child, and looking into all the dark nooks and crannies was (and is) one of my favorite things to do.

This year, the Batty Binder's Quilt Guild in Troy had a scavenger hunt as part of the activities. Miami County is one of the several counties in Ohio who have promoted the painting of quilt patterns on the barns. For Miami County, this was an effort to connect people with Miami county's rural areas.

Rafael Santoyo, a native of Villa Modera, Mexico has painted over 50 barns throughout Miami County. While other counties in Ohio have done this (in fact, it started in Ohio in the Appalachian foothills in Adams county with the work of Donna Sue Groves), so far, ours are the most spectacularly painted. Rafael actually replicates printed fabrics in his work...even going so far as to make "batiks."

We had to go out and photograph as many of the quilt squares on the barns as we could. Then, last month, we were assembled into "teams." We are now going to individually make quilts with a barn theme. I already was thinking about barns and quilts...so I will probably do a series.

Then, the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge group assigned us the theme of "chiaroscuro." Chiaroscuro is an art term which referes to painting (or drawing) in a moody way, with extreme lights and darks. Carravagio was a master at this method, but I am sure you can think of many others who also work(ed) in this way. My thoughts immediately went to this shot I took, as well as many others I did in Montana several years ago.

This lovely double wedding ring pattern is painted on the side of a barn which was raised in 1858.


The barn is kept in good shape by the Zimmerlin's of Piqua, Ohio.


The Wintrow Barn, also in Piqua has the log cabin pattern on it.






and the Shutt Barn has "All Hallows."













While it doesn't have a quilt pattern on it, this is one of my favorite barns, and rather unusual. It is done in the Second Empire (also known as Mansard") style and accompanies a house in the same style. I'm a little worried about this one. Barns are often not kept up. The gutters fall into disrepair dumping water onto the foundations which then freeze and thaw and sometimes break down. The roofs are not maintained and water gets in, rotting the floors and sills. Then they start to fall. Vandals, lighting strikes, and basic neglect (which then causes insurance liabilities) . Pole barns (barns made from telephone poles and metal siding) just don't have the same character that these wonderful wooden structures have.

Now I have to get back to trying to finish my last 2 FFFC quilts done...I REALLY want to get them finished before I start on the new one...I'm very close to being done!

Wordless Wednesday

Patriots and Heros

Last Saturday, my mom went to the hallway and got the flag out. With great determination she went out to put it up. "What's up?" I asked.

"It's Patriot's Day, " she said. Patriot's Day? For someone who lived in New England more specifically Massachusetts, Patriots' Day was held in April, the Monday on or near April 19 commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord. I must have been asleep at the wheel because I didn't realize that Congress had designated September 11th as "Patriot Day." I wish they had chosen a different name, unless, of course, that Congress wants wants us just to display patriotism, not necessarily remember people who died in the terrorist attacks that day.

Lest you think that I'm being a vile and horrible person for even suggesting that perhaps it is inappropriate, let me first say that it seems that in the modern parlance, we have forgotten the meaning of "patriot" and "hero." It bothers me that we refer to football players as "heros." Being good at your sport doesn't qualify you in my book. Perhaps you can aspire to the skill and ability that these players have, but a hero is someone who does something selfless for which you look up to them. It has come to mean just someone whom you admire. Here's how Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines a her0:

1.

a : a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability b : an illustrious warrior c : a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities d : one that shows great courage

2

a : the principal male character in a literary or dramatic work b : the central figure in an event, period, or movement

3

plural usually heros : submarine 2

4

: an object of extreme admiration and devotion : idol

So, yes, the modern use indicates the 4th item as applying to the players...right after "hero" as in the sandwich. But to me, a hero is someone who shows great courage, is selfless and whom you admire for these attributes. Not a sports figure to my mind, at least not in most instances, but I'll grant you there ARE sports figures and others who have displayed heroism in addition to being an object of admiration for their skill.

September 11, 2001 was filled with heros. People who went into situations trying to help others and lost their lives in the process. People who tried to thwart the progress of the plane in Pennsylvania and died probably saving countless other lives as they plummeted to a field rather than the intended target. While many died without having the opportunity to show heroism, I'm sure there are countless examples of heroic action which were not recorded that day.

A patriot is something entirely different. A patriot, according to Merriam-Webster, is "one who loves his or her country and supports its authority and interests." Somehow, I think I'd rather remember the day for the heros and try to support selfless behavior and to show courage on September 11th. We should remember and commemorate the day, but I prefer to think of them as heros and as players in a tragedy.