Life is like a Quilt

Grama Bagley enjoyed her life.  She was a happy person.  She loved simple things. 

 Clean sheets hanging on the clothes line, freshly baked bread, flowers in her garden, raspberries from her raspberry patch. 

 She always had a big quilt on in the living room of her old house.  

Her neighbors would stop by for a visit and stitch for a bit. 

 Their creations were wonderful..not always perfect, but that was the charm of quilting in those days.  It was about getting together with friends, making something with your own hands, and then giving it to someone you loved.  

Grama was something of an artist.  

She didn't paint or anything.  But she baked with an artistic hand, as well as those quilts that came out of her living room. 

 And oh..her garden.  It looked like a painting.  

Grama loved having her family around her and was always ready for a song.

  Her love of music, good food, and nature are ingrained in me, as well as her love of the gospel. 

How I admire the way she met her challenges and lived her life.  

I would  have loved my grama Adelila to be able to sit down with my two beautiful daughters.  Wouldn't Grama love to sit down with Abby in her quilting room?  She would marvel at her two huge long arm quilting machines!  

She wouldn't believe all the quilts Abby does for others.  

They would chat about fabrics, colors and designs.  How thrilled Grama would be in Abby's talent and work ethic. 

 Abby also inherited a great business head.  She's full of drive and persistence.  

She works so hard, but always puts her family first, which is what Grama always did. 

 Abby fills her heart with what's important and is done with the rest.   

Whitney reminds me of Grama in an artistic way. 

 Her love of nature and the way she sees beauty in all things.  

She moves with grace and is a natural mother. 

 When she teaches yoga, she transforms into a different person. 

 So self assured and in control of the situation she is in. 

When grama was instructing a cooking class she knew exactly what she was talking about and was very much the expert. 

 Just as Whitney is.  

Yet they have those mothering qualities that are so much the same.  

It is so interesting to me how these two girls could have so many things that remind me of their great grandmother, and yet they didn't know her at all.  

Whitney has a sentimental side to her that reminds me of Grama. 

 Here is a quote from Grama's journal describing how she fell when she was losing her home.

"I have become attached to this place.  I love the flowers, trees and shrubs we have struggled to raise from a veritable rock pile."  

Whitney would feel just this way.  I know.  

I am so grateful for my two girls.  For the kind of women they have become.  

I know there are many that have had a hand in teaching and influencing them.  But they are very much their own person.  

Lovely, kind, unselfish, talented, hardworking, so many attributes. 

 I know their grandmother would love to know them and be so proud, as would many others would.  

How blessed I am to have all of them in my life.

Stitching Through Time..Abby and Adelila

My grandmother, Ad's house always had a quilt set up in the living room.

 Often when I would go over she would be sitting around the quilt with her friends stitching and visiting. 

Sometimes we would sit underneath the quilt and listen to their laughter, their stories,  their voices. 

The stitching on those old quilts spoke of great talent, and also said a lot about the women who worked on them.  

 Sometimes my grandpa would even sit and stitch a little.   

I loved to wrap up in the warmth of those soft folds my grandma made for us with such loving hands.

I spend many of my days at my daughter, Abby's home.

  She has inherited this great talent.  The quilting bees are a thing of the past for her. 

 She has a giant computerized quilting machine in her basement, with stacks of fabric ready to be stitched together to form yet another beautiful quilt. 

 She has quilts sent to her from all over the country from people who want her to quilt them together. 

Her husband also helps with her quilting endeavors. 

 (whenever a computer is involved, he's there!)

Her boys play downstairs around her while she does her work.

(nothing changes)

Abby has even been in McCalls Quilting Magazine. 

 (Quilt on the bottom left..designed by Sarah Maxwell & Dolores Smith, Machine Quilted by Abby Latimer of Latimer Lane Quilting.)

As I wrap up in one of her exquisite creations, I am reminded of my dear Grandma Bagley. 

 How the two of them would have loved to sit around a quilt together and share ideas and their love of fabric and patterns.  

The thought warms my heart.

Comings and Goings in February..Sunbeams, Grandkids, Birthdays, Arnold Friberg

It's almost the middle of February and the days never seem to slow down.  

I teach the Sunbeams in Primary. 

 Last year's class was a mix of two boys and three quiet little girls. 

 This year there are six little boys.  Such cute little boys, but full of it as all boys that age are!

I am constantly trying to think of new and creative ways to get their attention.

  Am so grateful for the internet and all the great ideas people are willing to share. 

I am also grateful for a team teacher who helps as we try to teach these little boys.

This last week the lesson was how Heavenly Father and Jesus love us. 

 What could be a more perfect lesson the week before valentines?  

I based a lot of the lesson on the song "My Heavenly Father loves Me." 

 They went on a hunt trying to find the pictures that went along and then they were able to put them in their heart envelope. 

 Hopefully they will remember they are loved.

Days are never dull when spent with Jake, Sam and Dylan. 

They keep me moving!

I love getting up to see Whitney and Wren for a little shopping at City Creek.  

We celebrated Melanie's birthday last week with Whitney's coming up!

Am missing this family, and hoping the snow stops back east soon.  

Otherwise we may not see them this summer as they will be in school til August with all the snow days they've taken. 

 Hopefully

 "The Sun will Come out Tomorrow!"

The perks of retirement!  At 3:00 pm today,

 Jim came downstairs and said "lets go see the Arnold Friberg exhibit!" 

 We jumped in the car and went to Gateway and totally enjoyed his beautiful paintings. 

 He painted in watercolor, oils, pencil sketches..everything.  There were paintings of his I had never seen before.  Loved to see the ones he did as young as seven!

  I loved reading the history behind his work.  

What a gifted artist.  

So there's our mid winter wrap up!  Have a Happy Week.

A Sewing Project

My mother was a talented seamstress. 

 She sewed for herself and we three girls always had beautiful clothes created and sewed by our mother.

  She had a little sewing room right off our family room, so she could sit and sew,

 but still be a part of whatever was going on downstairs with the rest of us. 

I sewed a little bit when my kids where little,

 but haven't even had a sewing machine for years

Jim bought me a new sewing machine a few weeks ago,

so I thought it was time to start creating.

Last night my friend Marcie and her mom Kathy came over and helped me

cut out a dress and a skirt, using a dress I had and just measurements for the skirt. 

We started about 7:00 pm.  

 They left at about nine when the skirt was complete. 

 I stayed up til about eleven and finished the dress.

So this morning I have a new dress and the skirt goes to Abby. 

 I'm really excited to have completed this project so quickly.

  Nothing went wrong as I sewed these up. 

 I even put the sleeves in the dress with no problem! 

 Kathy showed me how to make the yoga band for the skirt.

  I really appreciate her help. 

Kathy is my age,

but it was a little bit like having my mom there helping me along my way. 

My Goals - Learn a new Talent every 30 years

When I was in my teens I took singing lessons. 

 I worked hard, had an extremely good teacher and enjoyed singing. 

 At the age of thirty I decided I needed to learn something new.

  I am extremely untalented when it comes to the arts, so I decided to stretch myself and took up painting. 

 This was very difficult for me, but I practiced and practiced and proved to myself that with enough practice you could get fairly good at anything. 

Well, another thirty years have passed and I've decided it's time to learn something else..

I've taken up the harmonica!

My first lesson was today. 

 It was actually quite fun, so I think I'll go back and hopefully with a little bit of practice I might be able to play a song or two.

 ( I wonder what I'll come up with when I turn 90 !  It seems I'm on a thirty year learning curve.)

"The art of Teaching..."

Nick is a born teacher.  He thought he'd give the private sector a whirl, but found it wasn't for him.  So he's gone back to the Air Force Academy.  We will miss having him here with us.  Especially the little ones, who love his stories. Jake told me the other day that he would have to be the storyteller now that Nick was leaving, and he immediately started with, "once upon a time..." It was a pretty good story.  He learned from a very good teacher.  Nick's students are lucky to have him.


"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery."

Mark van Doren

The Little Ones

 

Usually our days are busy.  The three boys playing and just having a good time.  But Jake is sick today so Dylan and I are on our own.

Sometimes a little guy likes some one on one time....
Just to let his inner star shine!

Women from the Book of Mormon

A number of years ago, these talented ladies wrote and performed a program about the women from the Book of Mormon.  They wrote the lyrics, music, came up with costumes and sets within approximately a two month period of time.  They truly felt as though they were inspired.  They performed this program all over Utah, at women's conference, in the Washington DC area and for the General authorities wives.  After about five years they stopped performing themselves and made the script available for wards and stakes so they could put the program on for their own areas.  It has now been performed all over the world.

For our ward Relief Society birthday party (and since we have an in) we got them to perform again.  My friend Pat, who is in the group, was in charge of the production.  With the help of the original cast, she added members of our own ward, making it a larger ensemble.  Our ladies were fabulous!  Our homemaking committee did a great job with scenery, giving us all a book of mormon feel.

These women (in the book of mormon) were made to feel real, having the same heartbreak, worries, and humor that we have today as we worry about our children in the number "What's a mother to do?"  or asking as the three nephies wives did, "they should have asked us first!" 
I am always amazed, yet shouldn't be surprised that small ward productions everywhere put on such first rate shows such as these. 

The ladies in our ward loved the show.  We had about ninety people there!  Refreshments were sweet breads, cheeses, olives and grapes, in keeping with the times, served in baskets.  What a lovely night we were given and a tribute to women whether living now or then. 

CONGRATULATIONS TAYLOR!

Who would have thought that this cute little boy would grow up

to be a great baseball player

along with other fabulous athletic abilities,

a straight A student and....

also one of Souderton High School's students of the month? 

Well I'm his grama and of course...

I always knew he was a winner!

Way to go Taylor!

MY HOME

"There's nothing like staying home for real comfort."

     ~Jane Austen

My home isn't large, it didn't begin as my dream home. 

 It became my dream home. 

When we bought this house we didn't intend to stay longer than two years. 

That was about 33 years ago.  So instead of wishing we had the house we always wanted to build, we decided this was the home we always wished for. 

And because this is where we raised our children and made our lifelong friends, this is truly the home of our dreams. 

Everywhere I look in every room there are objects with special meanings connected to them.  I don't have things in my home.  Everything is either for comfort, a gift that is treasured, something Jim and I picked up while travelling, or a picture of a loved one.  So if I sit down, in any room, to read or rest for a minute I just have to look around, and I am reminded of something I cherish.

I've posted a few pictures of the bathroom Jim's been working on.

I think of the late nights, after a long day of work, that he has worked on this project. 

He's like that. 

Always working on something to make our home a bit nicer. 

 I told him a few days ago, as he was finishing up the tile, that he might not be painting a picture, but I felt as though his work was like a piece of art. 

He puts so much of himself into it.  He is such a perfectionist.

 A professional couldn't do a better job.

And so, as we put our heads together and pick colors for paint and choose tile or whatever the project may be, he does the heavy labor and I put the finishing touches and pull it together. 

I'd say we are a pretty good team. 

We might not have many talents, but together we can decorate, care for, and love our home.

Hopefully this effort expresses a bit about who we are. 

I love the time we spend in our home.  I love when our family and friends are here. 

The snows will eventually melt, and we will be outside working on projects in the garden.  And again, I will have never ending ideas of how we can plant this here or have that there.  And Jim will plant this here and move that there. 

It will be glorious. 

Our home isn't grand, it isn't even something you would look at twice if you drove down the street...

unless you knew how many dreams have come true inside these walls or
as you walk down the path and up the old stairs and
enter Upper Garden. 

Then you might want to stop by and stay awhile.

Friends are always welcome. 

"Like the musician, the painter, the poet,
and the rest, the true lover of flowers is born,
not made. And he is born to happiness in this
vale of tears, to a certain amount of the purest
joy that earth can give her children, joy that is
tranquil, innocent, uplifting, unfailing."
Celia Thaxter

Ad and Abby

My grama Ad's house always had a quilt set up
in the living room. Often when I would go over
she would be sitting around the quilt with her friends
stitching and visiting.

The stitching on those old quilts spoke of great
talent, and also said alot about the women who
worked on them. I loved to wrap up in the warmth
of those soft folds my grama made for us with such
loving hands.

I spend my days at my daughter Abby's home. She has
inherited this great talent. The quilting bees are
a thing of the past for her. She has a giant quilting
machine in her basement, with stacks of fabric ready to
be stitched together to form yet another beautiful quilt.
And as I wrap up in one of her exquisite creations, I am
reminded of my dear grama and how the two of them would have
loved to sit around a quilt together and share ideas
and their love of fabric and patterns. The thought warms
my heart.