Monday, February 13, 2012

Several years ago, in my former life, I started an applique quilt of my kid-hood memories. At one point I put the blocks away in an old hat box and forgot about them until the next time I moved. Recently I was going through some sewing things and ran across them. I was Kind of on one of my lulls in having a painting to paint and couldn’t find one I wanted to do, so I pulled them out and started working on getting them ready to go into an actual wall hanging. There was one ½ done and 2 more to design & do, but the rest of the 16 squares were done and ready to go. What follows is the result of my recent endeavors of getting the last three done and the order they will be places on the wall hanging in. I have already sewn them into the dividing strip but will add the photos of that later after it has been totally completed.
Mom & Dad Wedding Day this month 71 years ago my parents married. LOVE AND MISS YOU MOM & DAD
The Old Lakeside House... the sisters had the up-stairs attic bedrooms. Mine (with my sister Gaye) was the window on the right. I remember looking out that window one night and watching the log cabin across the road from us burn to the ground. Sonja’s & Nan’s was the one on the left.




Grandpa & Grandma Hansen cook out pit.

Awwww the wonderful times we would have having weenie roast & cooking marshmallows over at this precious spot. I remember so many birthday parties being held there.




My oldest sister Sonja...the snowflake is because of the town she was born in is named Snowflake.
Below is my brother Malcolms block he was also born in Snowflake.



My Sister Nans square.


Sister Gayes square


My square above.

It is said that the old farmers would leave one tree growing in an open field so that if there were lightning it would go to the tallest thing, the tree, and not them. I don’t know how nay times this tree had been struck but it was a lot. Its trunk had been ‘hollowed’ out but lightning so you could go hide inside it…. Yet at the very top of the tree there was still fresh growth every year….Mom even shot a skunk out of this tree once. LOL


Ol' Paint

Someday I will write a book about this wonderful old horse. She was my nanny, best friend, escape from house work, freedom to roam and my protector.

You wouldn't think that a stinky outhouse would be on a kids list of favorite places. But this one was one of mine. WHY????? Because it meant that when I was outside playing in the good months I didn’t have to go into the house to go potty. You see, going in the house meant you were an open target for my mom to assign a new chore to.


Grandpa & Grandma Hansen House

There was refuge from the storms of life in this house. Sleeping at grandma’s house meant that I would get to hear her wind-up mantel clock as it ticked and then chimed throughout the night. I would make-up songs in my head to go to the rhythm of that clock. Grandpa sleeping in his favorite chair (playing asleep) and then right when we got up to him to see if he really was asleep he would snort at us, and make us jump in surprise. So many other wonderful memories to remember.


Every summer there was a fruit & vegetable peddler (from the Phoenix area) come and sit beneath a huge tree in town to sell his goods. My favorite was the watermelons. You will see in the close up that follows that I have written the names of OUR ‘Summer Visitors’ who would also come up from the Phoenix area in the summer time.



Every summer my parents made homemade ‘aged’ root beer and then when the cousins were to come we made homemade ice-cream to go with the root beer. On the wall behind this picture are all the aunts, uncles and cousins names written. The close up shows just a few





This block is for my Grandfather & Grandmother Davis.
They lived in the Gila Valley of AZ which has many, many cotton farms there and I used to love to ride down the road to their house and see all of the cotton rows run as we drove past. This is the car I remember Grandpa having most and the colored string of spots coming from the window is for the suckers that he brought to us every time he came for a visit. They were in a long line of cellophane wrappers and had a curved ‘stick’ on them so you could loop it over your finger. Funny the stuff we remember about our grandparents.

Yes that is an old Water bag hanging off the front bumper of the car...how many people remember those?


Woodland reservoir was about a mile up the road from our house. One of my favorite places to go to and play. Because I was so young at the time I was not allowed to go without one of my sisters with me. OH the fun times we had. We also had a pond on our land, my grandparents Hansen had their reservoir near their place and there was another ‘lake’ (O’Mally’s Lake) across the road from our place. Oh, LOOK, my brother Malcolm and his favorite friend Richard are fishing today.