Two Roz Quilts!

   

I finally finished both of the quilts I made from the squares my sister Rosalind started.  She started a hand stitched cathedral window quilt.  When she passed away the pieces sat until her former husband passed away and the new wife found them and sent them to me.

   

I broke the pieces up into two smaller quilts.  I used pink sashes to bring out the pink colors and to honor her nickname, Pinky.  The green border brought out some of the green colors in the squares.

My niece had originally started a similar quilt at the same time.  She and Roz were close.  She never finished her quilt, either.  Because I was making two quilts out of these squares, I decided to give one to Natalie and keep one for me.

This one is the one for Natalie.

   

   


The only real difference between the two quilts is that my quilt has the square where Roz wrote her name and that of her husband, Arnold, in pencil. I backstitched over her writing.

   

   
 
I'm getting better at free motion quilting.  Or maybe I am just getting faster. Either way, I finished that and sewed on the border.

I sent Natalie her quilt and told her she can't open it until her birthday.  I folded up my quilt until I know what to do with it.  I don't want it to get ruined.  But putting it away doesn't make sense either.

   

So I'll think about it for a bit.

More on Rosalind's quilt

Rosalind started this cathedral window quilt and I am going to finish it.  It won't be exactly as she planned but I wanted to highlight her work, not mine.

   

I found one square that Roz had written on with pencil.  She wore her name and birthdate on  corner.

   

Her husband was Arnold Yasui. She had written his name and birthdate on the opposite corner.

   

I used an off white thread to backstitch those details. This square will be the center of my quilt.

   

My sister's nickname was Pinky. and the colorful fabrics she chose had various shades of pink.  I chose a pink fabric with tones from the "window" pieces.  This became the sashing between the squares.

I thought too much pink would take away from the squares, so I picked a green fabric that worked with the green of the "windows".

   

I need to add a back piece, some batting and start quilting.

Rosalind's Quilt

My sister Rosalind started a quilt. It is a cathedral window pattern and is all hand stitched.  It is made with triangles of a light fabric.  You fold the edges of the triangles over a square of a patterned fabric, to sew it to the fabric in a diamond shape.  Like this.

   

Roz hand stitched everything.  I don't know if she even owned a sewing machine.

Then she passed away and the pieces were forgotten in a storage space.  Her husband remarried and then he got cancer and passed away.  His widow contacted me and as she went through the storage unit and has Kindly sent me several boxes of Rosalind's keepsakes.  The quilt squares were in one of the boxes.

I decided the quilt needed to be finished.

   

The finished squares had a lot of issues in terms of evenness.  I tried to fix them with ironing.  This was minimally effective.

   

There were over 100 squares.  The original pattern called for all the finished squares to be sewn together and then continue adding in the colorful squares. There was enough fabric to do so and I thought about finishing it that way.  ButI didn't want to hand stitch a quilt that was going to end up King size.   If I machine sewed it, there would be an obvious difference between the triangles.  Also, it would be more my quilt, at the end, then the quilt Roz started.

   

I decided to keep the squares as she made them and assemble it as I would any other quilt.

I also chose to take the advice of the folks at my local fabric store, Web Fabric.  They suggested  breaking the quilt up into two smaller quilts.  It would be much easier to do the quilting on my regular sewing machine.  It meant that I could make the second quilt for my niece.  She and Roz had started the quilts together and she was a thrilled when I asked if she wanted a finished piece.

I chose some pink fabric to be the sashing between the squares and to try to even them up. My sister's nickname was Pinky, so this was an homage to that.  I'll get to that next.

Yarn baskets

My cousin Saja lives in Tennessee and gave me a commission before Christmas.  She wanted a couple of baskets that she could use for her knitting.  They had to be bigger than my usual baskets and have a loop to pull the yarn through.  The loop was to prevent the yarn from tangling.  I have done other loops before, as a decorative swoosh, and I liked the idea of doing some for a specific purpose.

Even though Saja had specific design elements, she left the colors and other details up to me.

 

I started by cutting some fabric that I thought went together well in strips.  I stirred a pile of strips with my fingers until I could see that I would like the final outcome. 

 

Then I started assembling the first basket.  I chose blues and greens that reminded me of the ocean on a sunny day.  We both grew up in California and spent many happy days running along sandy beaches and playing in the surf.

 

To finish off the first basket and provide a loop for yarn, I made an "S" with the tail of the basket. I just happened to have a silver "J" and included that in the center of the final swirl to represent her name.  Saja is named after my grandmother and SHE was named after her aunts. Two of her aunts were Sarah and Jane.  The first two letters of their names became Saja.

 

The second basket is in shades of pink.  This is in honor of Saja and my sister (her cousin) Rosalind and their battle with breast cancer.  Happily, Saja beat her cancer and sadly, Roz did not.  I left a bigger loop in case she uses some fat, nubby yarn.  Then I added some BLING , cause Saja likes her some shiny!

 

I sent her a picture of the finished products of her commissions  She says she likes them and wondered if I would mail them or hold them hostage for her to come and get them.  I like that idea.

Come for a visit, Saja and get these baskets!  We'll visit a local yarn shop and an acquaintance that is raising llamas for wool.  Sounds like spring break is covered!

Five Years

I received this email from a German friend my sisters made while travelling in the South Pacific on a freighter.  He kindly contacted me and forwarded some pictures of Rosalind.  She is no longer with us and I miss her so much. 

Her trip to French Polynesia and this trip to Germany were part of her bucket list.  Our other sister, Robin went on the freighter journey, and I'm sure it was worth the broken arm she ended up with on the way.  Well, I HOPE it was worth it!  I went with her to get her scuba certification.  Another bucket list item.  And schlepping around Southern California lugging heavy scuba gear and wearing a wet suit is not my best thing.  But totally worth it.

Damn cancer.

Apr 8 at 11:26 AM

Dear Rebecca,

it would be nice if you could place following post on your blog for the 17th of April:

Hardly to believe, but it's now five years that Roz passed away, and nearly nine years that I got to know her on a cruise across French Polynesia. Though I knew her only less than 4 years from which we only had the two weeks in the South Sea and one week in our house in Southern Germany near the Lake Constance to meet personally, we became close friends and I got to know her as a warm-hearted interested person that I will miss for ever.
Dieter

And perhaps the attached photo taken in Isny (Allgäu, Southern Germany)  on May 25th, 2007.

Love,
Dieter

Rosalind's Pot

My sister, Roz, used to visit us at every house we lived in.  She liked to help me in the garden.  That was one of her favorite things to do, gardening.  I loved that, because it is not my favorite thing and she was always good company.

 

We were shopping during her last visit before she died.  I was looking for a pot to put some herbs in and keep close to the house.  She bought me this whimsical tea cup pot.  I love having tea parties and collect a few interesting tea cups to use, so it was a fun gift.

This year I planted gardenias in it and kept it down by the B&B entrance.

 

I meant to bring it to the house to keep the gardenias from freezing.  I never thought that the pot would freeze.

We recently had some unseasonably cold weather.  It was in the 20s and I didn't get to the pot in time.

 

The freezing weather must have cracked the pot.  And now I will have to throw it out. 

I won't buy another one.  I kept this one because Roz bought it for me.  That's what made it special.  And now it is gone, just like she is.

And I am saddened once again.  Still.

Too Hot For Pictures

Like it says.  Too hot.  Do you know how it is when you get off the plane in Hawaii?  You have been in a climate controlled airplane and now you get hit with a wall of heat and humidity?  THAT is what it is like here.  Except for the tropical breezes and the flowers and the ocean.  Oh, yeah.  And the palm trees.  Other than that it is almost exactly like Hawaii.

It hasn't rained in a few days and I have newish plants that need to be watered.  And fed.  So I did that. Lots of sweating.  Noticed some bird poo on the table and chairs in Roz's garden.  The hose is a bit too short to reach so I sprayed it the best I could and then scrubbed it off with my fingers.  Is this gross?  Is it bad that it doesn't bother me?  I have certainly touched a lot of animal (and human) feces over the years.  I can't be bothered to be bothered.

I weeded around her Pinky Winky Hydrangea.  I told her to pay attention to how I am working to keep her garden nice.  Send me a sign.  No answer.  I asked her , "Now, do you believe in God?  No answer for that, either.

Rosalind Risser Yasui Memorial Garden

                                   

It has taken a lot of time and money, but the garden is finished.  I would like to think Roz would be pleased.  Lee and I designed and built the gazebo to sit under and enjoy the view of the orchard.  We have apples (currently being attacked by something the Ag agent is going to find),

                                 
 peaches, plums and apricots.  There is a pear that was given to me in lieu of flowers from my library friends after Roz died.  That was the germ of the idea to build this garden.  This year we added blueberries and I hope they will grow big and lush.

There are several things we did to honor Roz and Dad.  I used rocks around the deck because he loved them.  I wrote about that in an earlier blog.  My brother Roland told me about a Hydrangea called a Pinky Winky.  Her nickname from childhood was Pinky...another earlier story... so we planted one of those.  Dad and Roz loved Hawaii, so we planted a Hibiscus.  It may not survive our winters, but I will cover it and hope.

                                                                     

Roz gave me a garden rat when we lived in Laguna Niguel, so I brought it with us when we moved and it is now in her garden.  It will share garden space with the Pinky Winky Hydrangea

                                    

I put a fresh coat of glossy black paint on a table and chairs and I intend to sit out and have an adult beverage there soon.

Roz came and stayed with us in Laguna Niguel several times after her diagnosis for about a month each time .  The first time was after her surgery.  Her husband had to work and I wanted her close so I could help her.  She needed help dressing and I wanted to feed her.  I was worried she wouldn't eat if she was home alone and hurting.

The second time was after her treatment.  She wanted to learn to scuba dive and asked me to take the classes with her.  We had snorkeled all over the Pacific, but we were never certified.  So we did that together.  I learned afterwards that it was one of the things on her "bucket list".  I am so glad she asked and so glad I agreed. 

Roz couldn't just sit and vegetate.  I can and tried to teach her that fine art, but I was unsuccessful.  Sometimes she would go out in our garden and putter around. Occasionally I would go out with her, but at times she would just go out when I was doing something else.  She would always have garden gloves and a bandanna.  Her husband Arnold shared her bandannas with my cousin Saja and me and now I take one with me when I garden.

When we first moved to Laguna Niguel, we had a trio of palm trees under which grew a mound of mint.  Now mint is very invasive and I had to keep digging it out of the rest of the garden on a regular basis.  I have since learned that if you don't want it to spread and take over, you need to put it in a pot.  I finally had enough and used Round-Up to kill all the mint.  I spent the next year or so trying various annuals to bloom under the palm trees.. Nothing worked.  I added soil amendments and tried things that liked full shade all the way to full sun.  Dead, dead, dead.

 

I gave up and took all the failed experiments out and bought a bunch of mint.  If that is all that would grow, I would just deal with the consequences.  I spent an afternoon buying and replacing the mint and it was growing nicely.  Then Roz came for one of her visits.  She had been there when I was fighting the mint on a previous visit.  When I came out to the garden to see what she was doing, she smiled up at me.  She had just spent and hour digging up all the mint I had planted.    She was so happy to have helped me out with my mint problem.  What could I do?  I thanked her and never told her the story.

So I planted mint in Roz's garden.  If it spreads beyond the garden, we will mow it and the smell of freshly mown mint will remind me of Pinky.

I have a few ideas for garden art, which I love, and I will add them as time goes on.  I will get some dragonflies to put on and around the gazebo.  I am thinking of a trellis with wisteria to climb on and dangle through the gazebo top.  I want to add a brass plaque but I need to figure out what I want it to say.  Pinky and Dad's garden?  Paradise in Virginia?  I have no idea.  I am open to suggestions.