Snowy Evening: A Five Year Finish

5 years or so ago, Marianne, John's sister asked me if I wanted to work on a quilt project with her and Rachel. It was a Crabapple Hill design titled "Walking in a Winter Wonder Land"  with redwork embroidery snowmen with a pieced border. This is the picture on the pattern package:

I was intrigued, I have always like redwork and hadn't done any but I didn't like the title block with the musical staff and especially the block with a little verse on it.  It as just a little cutesy and meaningless to me. I said yes anyway and asked Annie if she wanted to do it with me. I had all of mom's red fabric that she had collected in the 70s, 80s, and 90s that she has stashed and thought it was be a fun way to use some of it. 

Annie and I loved quilting together. It was so fun to get together on Mondays, her day off and stitch for a few hours. We soon decided that we each wanted our own quilt and would do the embroidery on our own and piece the border together.  I was a little humbled to see that Annie's redwork was finer than mine. She was much more meticulous and sewed finer stitches than I did. And my redwork was pretty good. We would work on the quilt in the winter months then summer time, yard work and trips would happen and we would have to put our stitching away for a while. 

I finally got to the point that I had to make a decision about the verse and title blocks. Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" has always been a favorite of mine, even though I later learned he wrote it when he was contemplating suicide. "And miles to go before I sleep"  is a very profound thought no matter where you are in life. 

So I used Frost's title:

And the first verse of the poem:

As a side note, I machine quilted it using mono filament threat on the top. It is a clear nylon thread like very very fine fishing line.  So fine it is hard to see. I didn't want the quilting thread to show over the redwork and knew if I hand quilted it it would be another 5 years before it got finished. Using a non cotton thread goes against everything I know about quilting, especially one that is so non organic. But it did what I needed it to do and I am happy with the results. 

Now to finish the rest of my unfinished projects. Like this one:

Coal Stoves and Creamed Tuna

I asked Mama what Grandma did after Guy died. She moved her family to a little home on Center Street and 2nd East. It was a small 1 bedroom house with 12 foot ceilings that was heated with a coal stove in the living room and one in the kitchen. Grandma's sister Antionette bought her a white coal stove instead of the ugly black one for the living room. Mama said she used to help pull the wagon they used to carry the coal to the house. 

Mom remembers standing behind the stove in the living room to get warm. The coal dust used to get everywhere in the house including the walls which needed to be washed once a week. Guy's brother would come over and wash them for Grandma. One of mom's jobs was to clean the grime off the windows. She once said that this was the days before detergent and the soap they had didn't cut the grease and grime very well. So they really had to scrub to get things clean. 

Grandma and mama shared the bed in the bedroom with David in a crib. Keith and Dean slept in the living room. I asked mom what they lived on. She thought a minute and said "l don't know, I do know we always had enough to eat, but sometimes just barely."  They usually had a pot roast on Sundays but one Thanksgiving all they had was creamed tuna and grape juice in crystal glasses. Mama later found those crystal glasses in a box of things after grandma died and gave one to each one of her brothers as a memento. 

When things got hard mom used to hear grandma talking to Guy as if he were there, more to comfort herself than anything else. Grandma had wonderful faith and knew things would work out. After a few years they were thrilled to move into a nearby 3 bedroom apartment with central heating. 

Halloween

I finished several Halloween projects this year. For some reason I must have been feeling pretty industrious. The first was a pillow I made fo Matt and Erin from scraps from Halloween skirt and pants I made Ian, Lily and Molly while I was watching them while Matt and Erin were on a 2 week business trip to England and Ireland. 

The second was a wall hanging for Chris and Meg as a housewarming surprise. We hadn't been to see theim in Reno since they moved and went to spend Halloween with them. It was just a panel I added borders, but I think it turned out spooky cute. I love the green bat border I used for both. It is the only fabric I bought for both projects. 

I did a little wool project by hand. They are easy, rewarding and fun to do. Kind of like paint by numbers only with a needle and thread.  

And a few Halloween pictures of the grandkids. While we weren't there with Ian, lily and Molly I was with them for 2 weeks. 

I actually want treat or treating for the first time in year with Ezra, Travis and Maggie. I love the look on Ezra's face. He was a gladiator and Travis was Hiccup from "How to Train Your Dragon."

John and Maggie.  I love her new haircut. She was a police officer. 

And Annie in her Viking hat with her new puppy Tappen. 

Manly Projects

Chris recently posted a picture on Facebook of a workbench he made and commented "now I can start on any number of manly projects." He was taken to task for using the wold manly. Women objected to the masculine adjective, saying they liked to make wood projects so manly was not an appropriate word. 

What adjective did they want him to use? He is a man. Has man bashing has become so commonplace that it has become acceptable to berate men for using a masculine word to describe himself or his interests?   I don't think anyone would take offense if I used a feminine adjective to describe my quilting and sewing projects. 

Foy years women have tried to inject the use of a female or gender neutral pronouns when describing themselves. Humankind instead of mankind. Police, fire, delivery, service and mail women as well as men. We of all people should be aware of the devaluation that language has to any gender.

Just because Chris wants to build manly projects on his new work bench does not mean that a woman cannot build any kind of projects she wants on hers. John has built girly projects for our granddaughters and womanly projects for me in his wood shop. But it is still his manly wood shop. 

I don't want to live in a gender neutral society where I have to be cautious of every pronoun or adjective I use to describe myself or others. I want to be able to use phrases like "boyish good looks" or "she is such a girly girl" without offending others. The advance women have made to include themselves in the descriptive lexicon of our language should not be used to eliminate the use of our masculine descriptive vocabulary. 

Mama's Father: Guy Phillip Hill

I askedmama what she remembered about her dad, Guy Phillip Hill. He died when she was only 71/2 years so she doesn't remember much. 

He was born November 12, 1904 in Bountiful, Utah to John William Hill and Sarah Ann Frisby Hill. Guy and Eva Cowley Willey met when they were in high school. She was a 6 months older and a grade ahead because she skipped a year. As a side note, mom said her elementary school wanted her to skip 5th or 6th grade but grandma always said no.  

Guy and Eva married on his 21st birthday, November 12, 1925. They had 4 children, Dean, Kieth, Beth Ann and David. Guy had a "toxic goiter" that must have made him a very sick man. He worked driving cars to and from Detroit and would pass out going into Little America in Wyoming due to the altitude. Mama remembers walking down the street with him and he would have to stop to catch his breath every block or so. They were living with his parents and he tried to help dig a half basement when he was home from his cross country drives and would have to stop and rest. For some reason his mother got really cross with him and told everyone he was a lazy bum who wouldn't work hard for his mother. ( I asked mom if I should put that in and she said "why not, that's what happened.)  Mom also remembers that the family received a box of oranges from a caring friend and her grandmother kept them all. "I never had one of those oranges."

 The doctor told Guy that he would have to have surgery or he would die. They didn't have the money, but finally his brother John said he would pay for the operation. But before he could have the surgery, he died on May 4, 1941 after eating a meal that included early spring radishes, he thought he had bad indigestion from the spicy food and went out to the outhouse. When he didn't come back in Uncle John went out to look for him and found him collapsed by the outhouse door. Mama remembers the doctor trying to revive him by jabbing a long needlle into his heart. She cried out "Don't you hurt my daddy!" He was 36 years old. She was 7. Mama  saiid that her mother never had radishes in the house again.

Mom said her fathers' death didn't sink in until she was sitting in front of his casket during the funeral and realized that her father was really dead and not coming back. Then she started crying and was inconsolable. 

This picture was taken after the funeral. Butch or Uncle Dave was 9 months, Uncle Dean was 14 1/2,  Uncle Keith was 13 1/2 and mom was 7 1/2 years old

Mama's Elementary School: Stoker Elementary

Mom and I passed the old red brick school in Bountiful on 2^nd South and 1^st East where the University of Utah holds their continuing education program on the way to the Legacy Center where dad is staying. Mama went to elementary school there when it was called Stoker Elementary. She walked from the apartments on 3^rd East and Center Street four blocks away. It was a game to seem who could cross the creek without getting their shoes wet, no one wanted cold wet feet all day at school. She never remember losing, her feet were always dry. She has come full circle as it is the same creek that passes by the Legacy Center, only now it goes through a cement culvert.  

Mama in the sixth grade. 

One of her memories of elementary school is when she was walking to school she felt the strap on her full slip break. She kept tugging at her slip because it was starting to show. Then she felt her other strap break. Her slip started falling off and she ran down a hall she wasn’t supposed to go to get to the restroom to fix it. All the girls carried an extra safety pin to fix things like that. The principal saw her and told her to come see him. She told him no and ran home because she was so embarrassed that her slip was falling down. Of course her mother made her go back to school and apologize to the principal. He had already called Grandma Trump and told her what mom had done. Mom said that from that incident onward the principal always liked mom and would have her run little errands for him.

Ann Elizabeth and David Orson Willey: Mom's Maternal Grandparents

I asked mom what she knew about her grandparents. Grandma  Trumps's parents were David Orson Willey and Ann Elizabeth Cowley Willey. Ann Elizabeth was the second wife of David Willey and the brother of Matthias Foss Cowley, the apostle. There isn't a lot of information about their marriage except the date June 24,1900 because it was performed after the Manifesto was signed. Mom thought Matthias probably performed the sealing but we cannot find an official record of the marriage.  Matthias later resigned from the Quorum of the Twelve because he disagreed with the abolishment of plural marriage and was disfellowshipped from the Church In 1911 and remained so until 1936, when he was restored to full fellowship. Mom said she once asked Matthias' sister why it took so long for him to rejoin the church and she indignantly replied "maybe because he didn't think he did anything wrong. " As far as I know there are no pictures of Ann Elizabeth and David Orsen together. This is the only picture I could find of Ann Elizabeth, she is with her brother Matthias.

Grandma and her sister Antonette Wiilley were raised in a polygamous home. Whenever their father came to visit was a special day. He would walk in the door and say "Annie, I have a new word for you." But he never once stumped her, she always knew the definition.  Grandma never said anything bad about polygamy, and loved her father's visits but Auntie (as we called Antonette) always felt like an illegitimate child.    

There is one story mom told about Ann Elizabeth and Matthias. I don't know the dates. Ann had "water on her knee" which was very painful and caused her to use a cane. She asked Matthias if he would giver her a blessing.  He did and then asked her for a drink of water.  She reached for her cane so she could get up and he said " No Annie, you won't need that anymore." She got up, got him his water and was pain free.