A Family Heirloom

Tonight as I was sewing and admiring fabric, my mind drifted to a handcrafted piece of history that I love.

This quilt belonged to my great grandfather when he was a baby, born in 1903. His mother used scraps of satin, taffeta, and velvet from dresses to create each hand sewn block. Back then, quilting was not a hobby like it is today. Quilts were made out of necessity and were not a "showcase" item.










As can be seen in these photos, a lot of care and love went into making this quilt. One square boasts an embroidered design, surrounded by otherwise plain blocks. The hand stitching is very precise, which is proven in the fact that this quilt is still in one piece after more than a century, and it has survived countless moves as well as years of use by who knows how many children.

Although I was very young and have few memories of my great grandfather while he was alive, this is a family heirloom that I love to admire and imagine the history that could be told in every stitch.

Wordless Wednesday

'nuff said......

Not Me Monday

Well, seeing as how January is almost over and I haven't blogged since last year, I thought it was about time I did something about that. So here it goes... it's another edition of Not Me Monday! Check out MckMama's blog too, to find out what other people have not done this past week.

Since we've only been back to school for two weeks after our Christmas break, you wouldn't think I'd be ready for a day off, right? Wrong! Yes, I love my students and I love teaching, but I must admit that I love my days off too. So it was definitely not me who discovered that I'd made a HUGE mistake on the calendar that I sent home with parents the first day back from vacation. After looking at the school district's calendar, I did not realize I had marked today, January 18th, as a "day off" instead of next Monday. I did not drive in to school to verify the information. I did not have to inform all the parents on Friday that we would have school on the 18th but would have the 25th off. I guess there wasn't too much harm done, but how embarrassing.

Once I got over the disappointment about the fact that I had school Monday, I thought the calendar fiasco was over. So as I sat at my sister's house this weekend, I was not completely embarrassed all over again. As I checked my email at 12:26 a.m. on Sunday, this is not the subject of an email I received: "NO SCHOOL" is coming up. Yes, this was an email reminder I received from the calendar on my class website. Oh no, that means this message was sent to all the parents too, after I told them today that we would have school on Monday. As if the first time telling everyone I messed up wasn't bad enough, I did not have to tell them twice... first when I told them in person and second when I had to update the calendar and re-send the message.

Now that the Do we have school/Do we NOT have school issue was solved, I thought it would be smooth sailing the rest of the week. No more embarrassing, humiliating, I-can't-believe-I-did-that moments for me. Boy, was I wrong. Our family weekend stretched out until 10 PM Sunday, and then I had to drive two hours home. Normally that would not be a problem, since I'm usually up until midnight anyway, but it's different when you're driving that late. I had to stop to take out my contacts, since my eyes were getting quite dry and gritty. Solution in case? Check. Left contact out? Check. Right contact out? Check. Lids secured on contact case? Check. Ahhhhh, that feels much better.

Today as I attempted to put in my contacts, there were no problem with the left one. Only a slight problem with the right one. The problem? I couldn't find it. I did not think I'd lost my mind as I tried to look for it. How does a contact just disappear? And that was my last one, too! I did not search for five minutes, and as I continually came up empty, I did not just give up and put on my glasses. As I got into the car, I was not expecting what I found. I did not see a dried-up, crusty, crunchy contact lens flipped upside-down on the dash. No, I did not completely miss the contact case and put my contact on the dash. Not much I could do about it during the school day, so I did not leave it there for another eight hours. Once I arrived home, I did not fill the contact case, drop in the shriveled lens, and hope my contact would be revived. Fast forward three hours... TADA! Contact lens was not completely re-hydrated and ready to be worn! YAY!

Try Not Me fun next week! You'll love it!