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The miniature quilt above was “born” in the most unconventional of ways. Let me tell you about the inspirations behind it. I was in an antiques store and spotted a fairly large, white box of hexagons (six-sided shapes.) They were still clinging to the paper shapes upon which they had been basted with white thread.

While I was looking through them, at the various colors and designs, I noticed that a green calico one with small motifs. This fabric was pieced over a black and white magazine print image of some official standing on the back of a train. Who was it?

Looking through a magnifying glass, my husband, Jim, and I discovered that the image was that of Harry Truman. A Time magazine article online, “When Politics Rode the Rails,” by Hugh Sidey, tells the story of how Truman made a major campaign sweep across the country, by rail, in 1948, making 356 speeches from the back of the train, and covering 31,700 miles.

I decided that this green fabric was special because of this association. So, I picked out the basting stitches on the larger hexagon shape, and cut much smaller hexagons to create the flower that you see above. Free hand, I added some stems and leaves with embroidery floss, for this abstract creation, and then decided to enclose the motif in an oval.

Undoing a picture frame, I overlaid the glass on top of the flower design in order to draw the shape I wanted. Then I pinned lace around, on the pencil mark, pinning the lace in place and tacking it in place with a yellow chain stitch. Since I’d just purchased some beads, with no particular intent in mind, I added those at intervals, and surprisingly, they were placed in an equidistant manner, all the way around, as you can see.

Next I decided that I wanted embroidered hearts in the corners. I added some borders and a little quilting, and here we are, a mini quilt that means something special to me just because it reminds me of a significant historical event in the history of the United States.

Keep in mind that this quilt seemed to develop on its own. I had no master plan in mind. I was just “tinkering.” Sometimes it is just fun to “play.” I was not making the quilt to enter into a show, or to publish in a magazine, or to be impressive, or to sell. I was simply creating something from the heart so that it could “be,” and for some unknown reason, I had to do it.
Remember to play. It’s good for the soul.

Pat

Look around your house. Do you see your family members standing around the kitchen counter to eat, rather than sitting down at the dining room table? If you are a quilter, and the answer to that question is “yes,” you may be one of the victims of HTMS syndrome. HTMS is characterized by having every flat surface in your home covered with sewing machines, sergers, quilt magazines, fabrics, collected textiles, a camera, quilt books, spools of thread, and sewing implements.

HTMS (better known as “have too much stuff”) is a common malady among quilters who have been “at it” for some time now. The magazines reproduce, like little bunny rabbits, during the night. Every day, you wake up, and there seems to be more, yet, the other side of this syndrome, HTMS, is CGROA (can’t get rid of anything.)

You’d best be aware of these too situations. In some cases, they have led to divorce. In other cases, they have precipitated an afternoon in bed while you ponder what you can possibly do to “downsize.” Take the word, “downsize,” … please!

Downsizing is attempted by the well-meaning person and the idea goes well until decisions must be made. The internal conversation goes something like this, “Oh, no, I cannot possibly part with the original painting that little Bart made in kindergarten, and I will never give away the hat with homemade roses made of construction paper, made by Aunt Flossie in the nursing home. Her creative talents really shone through at the age of ninety.” We can think up all kinds of reasons for keeping all kinds of things, and therein lies the true problem.

Other Warning Signs

The main characteristic of those who have these co-existing maladies (HTMS and CGROA) is that they save everything. Part of the disorder is being HTAC (happier than a clam) to hoard material goods.

With “downsizing” being the buzz word of baby boomers, we will hear more and more groans about these sudden attacks of the above syndromes that conflict with each other. It’s a dilemma with which we will have to deal, lest all those decisions are taken out of hands, in one fell swoop, by fate. I don’t know about you, but the thought of someone else going through my stash of things could make me break out in hives, and that, in itself, is a good incentive to buckle down and start dispensing with some of my earthly goods.

Besides that, maybe if I clear out a few items, we’ll actually be able to find the surface of the table again, to enjoy eating there.
Patricia Cummings, geezerette

Here are a few tips on how to spot a true Yankee, that is, someone from northern New England, say, New Hampshire, Vermont, or Maine, preferably a born and bred native. If you are not already a true Yankee, consider this: too many years are required to “become” one, and by that time, you’d be dead. So, if that is your situation, adjust to your status of “newcomer.” Whether you’ve lived here ten years or forty, newcomer you will be.

A true Yankee has some, but perhaps not all, of the following characteristics:

1) He wears his pants too short. This may be a habit with roots in childhood. Having short pants could be advantageous when walking through a cow pasture, for example, and could help dear old Mom cut down on laundry time, hauling water from the pump and heating it to wash clothes, or else beating the clothes on the rocks of a nearby stream. Ah, but now, I do exaggerate!

2) The true Yankee, always wears a hat on his head, except in the House of the Lord. The hat is to hide a balding head or the lack of a haircut, and the hat is ceremoniously removed when a person is desirous of a senior citizen discount at a local fast-food eatery.

3) We northern New England Yankees have heard of them there Ivy League schools, and we know that the folks in Texas, for example, think we have ALL gone to either Harvard, Yale, or Smith. The fact is, most of us haven’t. The only “ivy” with which we have much experience is that “poison ivy” growing in the backyard.

4) Now, you may have heard that Yankees are “cheap.” I want you to know that the word is a total misnomer, yes, completely misleading. We are “selective spenders.” There is a difference. A certain relative of ours prefers to substitute the word “frugal” for “cheap,” when it comes to her spending habits. We reserve the word “cheap” for paid “ladies of the night,” and sleazy motels with bedbugs.

5) Yankees enjoy the simple pleasures of life…like ignoring the neighbors! Oh, yes, they may be nice people. We will never know. We “tend to our own knitting,” and nothing would be more obnoxious than to constantly have our lives interrupted by someone dropping in for a spot of tea. Anti-social, we are not…well, maybe a tad. Perhaps, I should say we are “busy” – sounds more friendly.

There you have it, a few tips on how to spot a Yankee. Look for the too-short pants, the white socks (health is a BIG concern), the balding head with hat, or not, the indecisive penny-pincher who lingers over items in the store, weighing and balancing and counting change, and the neighbor who waves, but quickly goes inside.

We are a friendly bunch…just don’t push the issue.

Patricia Cummings, born and raised in the Granite State

If you appreciate life in the slow lane, then you would probably enjoy seeing the image above. This is a small pillow that features a turtle. The textile started life as a printed quilt block, in some unknown person’s stash of goodies to embroider.

Found in the same shop, on the same day, is the above item, a tablerunner, with a stagecoach and galloping horses at both ends of the textile.

I can’t help but appreciate the juxtaposition of these embroidered images: the first, a turtle among the flowers, with butterfly hovering overhead; the second, someone trying to get to some other place…like yesterday!

Me? I’d rather ponder the posies.

Pat

The Norton House Quilt Shop in Wilmington, Vermont, is one of our favorite destinations. To read more about Wilmington and to see photos that Jim took, around town, of statues and painted bears, visit our new file. This town in Vermont is a great destination!

Pat and Jim Cummings