Bittersweet Blessings

Thirty some years ago I was living in South Africa with alot of time on my hands while my husband worked there.  I've never been a person to let my hands be idle, so when I found an ad for a quilting class I promptly signed up and learned the basics of quilting.  By hand no less.  It was love at first stitch!

 Back in the early 80's quilting was enjoying a revival of sorts, so when I returned to the States, at the urging of my friend Lyn,  I joined a local quilt guild.  The Night Owls.  Heaven.  Loved it.  However, at the tender age of 21, I kinda stuck out like a sore thumb as the very youngest member of the group.  I learned alot from the older ladies who graciously shared thier skills with me, and even taught them a few things as well. (although looking back on it now I think they may just have been encouraging me on my quilting path)

There was one lady in particular who scooped me up and tucked me under her wing.  Helen Relfe invited Lyn and I over to her house to show us a new project.  When we got there she had set up 2 sewing machines, had a pattern and her fabric stash wide open for us to choose from.  WOW!  Helen's generosity and gentle spirit just warmed my heart and made me feel really special.  Lyn and I each made a dimensional  Christmas tree wall hanging that day.  It still hangs in our houses every Christmas.  If it were not packed away in my Christmas boxes I would take a picture of it and post it here.

That day began a life-long friendship between Helen and I.  I so enjoyed visiting with Helen and her husband Walter.  Loved hearing about her journey to the valley from her home in Northwest.  Loved hearing about what Phoenix was like in the early 30's.  Helen and Walter showed me all the best places to get bargains on fabric and quilting supplies.  Helen and I were friends thru thick and thin......the birth of my children, the death of her husband. We shared the love of quilting, exchanged recipes, stories and hollyhock seeds.  One year for Christmas I made gingerbread cookie people and wrote "Helen" and "Walter" on the cookies and put them into bags.  The last time I visited Helen's home those cookie bags were still hanging on the wall.   

My family always say that my stories are too long and I tell too many details, and take too long to get to the point.  (gee, I'm becoming my mother after all! lol)  (love you mom!)

So here is the point to my ramblings......

Helen passed away earlier this month.  She would have been 93 this August.

I went to visit her this week and was told that she had passed.

No one called me.
I missed her funeral.
Sad. 

My heart hurts to have lost her,

but rejoices that she is no longer in pain and
is with her beloved Walter
sitting at the right hand of Jesus.

Bittersweet blessings.

I found this after an online search:

 Helen Strohmaier Relfe


92, of Phoenix, AZ passed away on June 10, 2011. A first generation American, Helen was born in Vida, Montana, August 18, 1918, and married Walter Relfe in Salem, Oregon, on September 11, 1938. Helen's life was characterized by hard work, including employment with the City of Phoenix and the Arizona State House of Representatives. She also gave much time, energy, and resources to serve others throughout her life. She is survived by daughters Carole Lowery and Dorothy Colvin, six grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchild ren. Graveside services will be held on Wednesday, June 15, 2011, at 9:30 AM at Greenwood Memory Lawn, 2300 W. Van Buren.

This is the last picture I took of Helen. 

She was always a lady and always had her lipstick on. 

Rest In Peace

Helen Relfe

August 1918 - June 2011

I miss you Helen, but I will always hold you in my heart.

One in a Melon

The first birthday of Miss Mia is fast approaching

and Jenny is planning a watermelon themed party for her.

So in the spirit of things I decided to create some watermelon themed accessories.

Can you see the little pink bathing suit pinned on the quilt?

I appliqued some watermelons on it!

I found this cool watermelon fabric when I was at Rosies Calico Cupboard

in San Diego.  I was hoping to find a coordinating watermelon print fabric

here in Phoenix.  Unfortunately I didn't find any and I didn't have enough

fabric to really complete this quilt.  So I decided to add a white border

and make some cornerstones out of the leftover piecing.

Here is the quilt top with white borders and leftover pieces for cornerstones.

Now the fun part begins............I'm going to add some applique.

Yesterday I loaded my longarm with this Nativity panel.

I've been having significant problems with my longarm lately.

A couple of months back I purchased new wheels to upgrade my longarm.

Unfortunately the new wheels have created a problem with static electricity.

The static electricity has arced and messed with the electronic with my machine.  Fortunately the folks at APQS have been really helpful providing a grounding kit and technical support.

I haven't wanted to load customer quilts until I have had this problem resolved, which I think I may have done yesterday. 

The Nativity panel came out pretty good.  Only one blip with the machine.

I'm hoping to quilt Mia's quilt tomorrow and that will be the final test.

She checked out the top today and told me that she likes it!

Blessed are the piecemakers,

tammy

Design wall Monday

Awhile back I posted a picture of an antique quilt that found it's way into my studio.  My friend Carole had a friend who wanted this pieced top quilted.

This is the picture of the finished quilt on my design wall.

Since I had never really quilted an old top on the longarm I was fraught with indecision.  I was afraid that the longarm needle would be too much for the delicate old fabric.  The quilt did not lay anywhere near to flat.  Almost every curved block had a little pooch in it.  Numerous background fabric had been pieced.......the grainlines went every which way.  The quilt was no where close to being square.  The top measured 69" and the bottom measured 65" ......a full 4 inches different.  The sides were pretty close to being the same at 85".
I was pretty scared to do this quilt.......what if I ruined it?  Should I improve on the piecing?  That would mean taking it apart......AND changing it.
Finally I just jumped in.  I figured that the people who wanted this quilt finished wanted it for sentimental reasons and would want it to remain as it was originally pieced.

So I put it on the longarm figuring to baste down the top and sides and if the fabric held up I would tack it at the intersections.  The fabric seemed so thin and fragile, but I soon realized that it was actually made from old flour sacks and was pretty durable.  So I ended up outline quilting the blocks and curved pieces.  It worked out great.

Whenever I work on a quilt I can't help but think about the person who will be receiving the quilt and trying to quilt alot of love into it, but in this case my mind kept wondering about the person who had pieced this quilt so long ago.
What was she like?  Why did she make this quilt?  What was her life like?
I was really fortunate enough to get some of these questions answered about this particular quilt.

This is what I received:

" It was made by Ola Streety who was born in 1900. She said it was her 1st quilt and it just never got completed. She was between 13-18 when it was done (they think) and when they found it, it was quite a surprise as the other family had already been through the house and taken anything of any value or interest. This was found in a box in a shed or attic and is really the only thing Jim (Tonya's husband) got that was his grandma's. I was able to make a pillow case just like you showed me to put it in. She wants to meet you some time to thank you herself. I told her what a special person you are and how you really connected with the quilt. Thanks again!!"

I am so happy to have been part of bringing this special memory alive in such a tangible way to this family.  I hope that they enjoy this quilt for many years and can feel the loving arms of Ola around them when they snuggle in this quilt.

This is the unquilted picture of the quilt.

I always like to close my post with a picture of my sweet grandbaby.

This is my current fav pic of her:

God Bless,
tammy

San Francisco Saga concluded

Need to finish up writing about our San Francisco trip!

Beware!  This may be a long post!

Sunday May 15

Bay to Breakers Day!

Here we all are at the very beginning of the race. 

We got up very early so we could figure out how to get the muni to the Embarcadero where the race started.

On the muni we met a homeless man who was making a sign advertising

his availablity for adoption.

He kept us entertained with jokes and funny comments on our bus ride.

"No checks" he said, "but Visa and Mastercard are okay"

It was a poignant and sad encounter.

There are SO many homeless people in San Francisco.

Bay to Breakers is a long standing tradition in San Francisco.

This was the 100th annual race!

The run is know as the Mardi Gras of the west

because of all of the alcohol, costumes, nudity and general craziness!

Before the race started we recognized that the man in the photo

above would probably we naked when we crossed the start line.

I wonder where they store thier clothes during the race?

It took us 2 hours and 55 minutes to walk the 7.4 miles course.

The serious runners finished it in under 45 minutes! 

Alot of folks worked really hard to prolong the experence!

If you are interested and would like to see more Bay to Breakers

costumes, youtube, and info

Check out this link:

http://bayarea.sbnation.com/2011/5/16/2173037/zazzle-bay-to-breakers-2011-costume-pictures-photos-captions-youtube-video

We probably walked another 2 or so miles getting our really sweet

finish medals AND trying to find a bus stop to get back to our hotel.

We had some lunch then Brian and Jen had to leave us to get a flight back to Phoenix and Mike, Rafael, Jenny, Mia and I went to the Aquarium.

Nice aquaruim located close to Pier 39.

Mia got a little touchy feeling with a large lizard at the Aquarium.

Monday May 16

We had a 9am tour time for Alcatraz this morning

so we grabbed some doughnuts from the shop adjacent to our hotel

and hopped on the trolley.

Jenny spent alot of time on the internet before our trip scoping out

places to visit and to eat. 

The place pictured below is supposed to be where the locals eat

and hang out. 

It was raining at this point and we walked a long way trying to find it.

So here we are finally at Red's Java house located right on the water and full of local color!  I could have eaten the onion rings here all day!  They were delicious!

No trip to San Francisco is complete without a ride on the cable cars.

Here is Rafael hanging off the side.

The rain must not have started yet in this picture.

By the time the cable car stopped everyone who

was hanging off the side were SOAKED!

Then we had to find a ride BACK to our hotel since the cable car was

not a round trip ride!

Tuesday May 17

We visited the Acadamy of Sciences which is a wonderful

Science museum.  They had a really cool place for toddlers

crawl around and experience science at thier level.

Mia had a blast here because she got to actually crawl around,

something she didn't get to do much of on this trip.

Who wants to put a baby down on the floor of a hotel?

After the science museum we boarded the muni and were off to see the Presideo.

The Exploratorium was located right beside this so we visited that next.

 Mia getting some tactile experience in the sand.

Playing with bubbles with mom and dad.

A Sip of Conflict.

Would you take a drink from a water fountain made from a toilet?

I didn't!

We finally boarded another muni to get back to our hotel to pick up our bags and head to the airport.

I have to say that SF has an extremely good transit system. 

They always seem to be full.

Sometimes to the place of having NO PERSONAL space at all.

Makes me wonder why I always see completely empty buses here in Phoenix.

We had one pretty tense moment on the muni.

The bus was packed, standing room only, and 3 big scary looking dudes get on the bus and one of them started blaring music on his phone.

Everyone was pretty uncomfortable,

especially when the words of the song started getting raunchy.

So I hear this voice from somewhere in the crowd asking the guy to please turn the music off....it wasn't appropriate for the kids and women to hear.

It was the voice of my husband!

As you might imagine the request was not met with compliance, but with a verbal onslaught of "I can play whatever I want, whenever I want, etc, etc"

The young man finally looked over at Mia who was sleeping and said that he would turn it off, but only because of the baby.

There were a few moments when I thought there could be trouble

but it all worked out okay and I was very proud of my husband for

speaking up for what is right.

Good Bye San Francisco...........We had a great time!

Hope we'll get to see you again soon!

God Bless,

tammy

Congratulations are in order

My last post was all about a party.

Now I happen to love a party,

but I forgot to acknowledge WHY we were partying!

Oh, I know, I told you it was Mike's birthday

and Rafael's graduation.

I mentioned it......

But I forgot to say how proud Mike and I are of

Rafael and Jenny.

These kids sacrificed alot to get that piece of paper.

Rafael worked nearly full-time while taking

a full load of college credits for two years.

There was homework.....alot of it

Group projects, student loans, pinching pennies.

Not to mention the time that was spent studying

instead of with family.

So Congratulations Rafael!

You did it!

and Mia helped!

Beautiful family.

Dad and Grad Celebration

If you have read my blog or looked at my Facebook

you would certainly know where be Baldi's go to celebrate!

Last night we celebrated Mike's birthday AND

the Rafael's college graduation .

At Caramba's.

We did something a little different last night.

I called ahead and reserved the patio and it was

wonderful!  We had the WHOLE patio for our group

and you know what.........we NEEDED the whole patio.

It was nice to spread out and move around.

Here are some pictures of the evening:

Brian with our little precious angel.

Rafael and Jeremy with their sweet babies.

Mike and Brielle with Tony and Elsa.

Christiana, Jeremy and Eliana

Buddy and Bree, Paul and Rick, Katrina and Kathy

Nicole, Jenny, Makayla and Craig

This table was occupied by many of our neighbors

Gail and Burt with their daughter Debbie

Joe and Jan

and Berta, who is not my neighbor but a very long time friend.

And in the back table you can see Charlene and Brooke.

Brooke and Mia were good friends last night.

I heard that Mia was laughing with them. 

Mike with Brady and Brielle

Quilting friends

Linda, Carole, Jerry, Joanne

Steve and Mary

More Quilters

Bob, Ray, John

Charlene's husband (sorry....I can't remember your name!)

Sharon

There never seemed to be an empty seat at this table so

I never got to sit down and chat with my quilting friends.

Our dancing buddies Bob and Sue

It was lovely to see the Forst family.

Jen and Grandma Lee

Mike  and Grandma Lou

Lou, Grandpa Jack and Lori.

Ali and Haley and Bianca's chairs were empty when I took this photo.

Rick and Vic

Kris

Besides Mike and Brian, I think that Kris is the person

that I have know that longest in this group. 

Sue and I shared a margarita

And to end this lovely story I present Miss Mia with Christiana

Mia looks like she wants whoever is behind the camera.

I'm guessing it was daddy!

My heart never fails to fill with warm happiness

when sharing an evening with friends.

My family is truly blessed.

tammy

San Francisco.....Day 2

Day 2 of our San Francisco adventure started out at the Ferry Building

at the Farmer's Market which is held every Saturday morning.

Mike, Brian, Jen and I spent a delightful hour investigating

all that the market had to offer before

jumping on a bus headed for Napa.

The flowers were beautiful

Jen found the peaches delicious

We found some fabulous ham and cheese croissants and I also

had a bag of cherries.  I've bought some cherries yesterday

here in Phoenix and believe me, they just don't compare

to the delicious ones I had in San Francisco.

Wine Tasting at our first winery.

No we didn't drink it, our server

just brought cool big bottle for a picture prop.

Still at the first winery.  Sadly I can't remember the name

of the winery, but our tasting server was Tracy and she

was WONDERFUL!  Very personable and pretty generous

with her tasting pours!

This was at our third winery.....don't remember the name of this

one either......are you noticing a pattern here? 

We did not enjoy this tasting as our "wine educator" was a

pompous  a**.  (pardon my language)

Right before this picture was taken our "wine educator" told us

that we needed to smell our wine with one nostril at a time, so I plugged

one nostril and sniffed and promptly cracked up laughing along with

Brian and Jen.  It was one of those laughing fits that you can't stop. 

Truly....we were pretty discrete about it AND we were not the only

ones in attendance that were not happy with our "wine educator".

The Andretti winery was a different story as we had

a nice tasting at a beautiful winery.

No, we didn't drink this whole bottle either.

Brian and Jen at Andretti Winery

Part of our wine tour included a 45 minute ferry ride

back to San Francisco.

Dinner and a good night's sleep.......

Bay to Breaker's run tomorrow!