Channeling My Inner Lucille

Back in February of 1974 I started working at the National Bank of Commerce in San Antonio, Texas. I worked there for 5 years until Katie was born. One of my co-workers was Lucille. She had been widowed at a young age and never remarried. She was in her late 50s when I first met her. I learn so much from her. She not only taught me how to bake and cook by sharing her recipes with me but she also taught me about hospitality by inviting me into her home. You could go to her home for lunch on Thursday and sit down to a feast fit for royalty. Once, for my birthday, she made me a coconut cake from scratch with fresh coconut. I can still taste it it was was so delicious. She was an early riser and would often bake a cake in the wee hours of the morning, bring it to the bank via the bus (she never owned a car) and serve it to us still warm from the oven. Her cake of choice was usually coffee cake. I remember one time when she made it she had chopped up maraschino cherries and scattered them across the top. It made her giggle when she showed me that the cake was extra special that morning. This week I made her special coffee cake although I didn't have any cherries to make it extra special. Tasting that cake brought back happy memories. Food does that to me. Lucille died 3 years ago. She was 97.

Fall Party

This year I decided to have an autumn girls' day. I gathered all my supplies and set out to make some memories. Pinterest is my friend. I go there to gather ideas. I found a cute tutorial on how to make pumpkins using toilet paper and flannel plaid. We made thankfulness jars and drank pumpkin spice lattes. I found a recipe on Pinterest to make them in the crockpot. I made egg salad sandwiches and a few other things. It was nice afternoon that I hope will fondly be remembered. I should have taken photos at the time but I'm just getting used to the idea of blogging and it didn't occur to me.

https://www.itsalwaysautumn.com/how-to-make-cute-plaid-pumpkins-using-toilet-paper-rolls.html

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/55169164172837732/?nic=1a

On a personal note, I realize that there is nothing earth shattering in these blog posts. My purpose is to record memories for my family. My hope is that as I go I will become a better writer and hopefully my entries will be more interesting. I don't want my lack of imagination or writing talent to keep me from documenting our lives for posterity.

Gardening

Since Mark retired we have been discovering what our new normal is. One of the things we do is garden. Mark does most of the hard outside work. He built it, he plants and weeds it, and he harvests it. I cook the bounty. This year we harvested mint, oregano, thyme, chives, lemon balm, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeños, kale, rainbow chard, green beans and okra. 

Ira loves helping Papa in the garden. He will go outside and harvest veggies all by himself when we aren't looking. I didn't get photo of the garden in its prime. That space was totally filled. Out tomatoes have done well. We canned spaghetti  sauce and salsa. We bought a small freezer this summer. I have made and frozen minestrone soup, kale soup, lasagna roll up with chard, chicken gumbo, okra gumbo, shrimp gumbo, and chili. All of these have at least one element from our garden. Our freezer is full. I am looking forward to enjoying these meals in the dead of winter.

Quilting

Recently, as I was working on a baby quilt I began to reminisce. I thought back to when I first began to quilt. The very first quilt I sewed wasn't actually quilted. I tied it. I made it out of scrap squares. At the time I was pretty tickled with it but looking back it was nothing special. When Katie and Grace were still little I decided to try real quilting. The first quilt I made was a tumbling block pattern. I  traced the pieces using a cardboard template I made. I cut the pieces out with scissors. I stitched the quilt together by hand and also hand quilted it. I gave it to Grace. It was on her bed when she was little. I was pleased with that quilt and it was what piqued my interest in quilting.

About 30 years ago I made a quilt for my bed using a somewhat complicated design. Again I cut the pieces out using cardboard templates and scissors and stitched it together entirely by hand. It could have been beautiful but I have never really loved it. I bought the fabric at Ben Franklin, a five and dime store. I bought pieces that had flaws so I could get it cheaper. Back in the 80s dusty rose and light blue were popular and I was going for sort of a country look. I didn't pull it off very well. I still have that quilt stored away. Since then I made a few things here and there but nothing very impressive. I went to work for LPS and for the most part set aside my sewing.

Jump forward to the present. I retired from school and decided to pick up sewing again. Only now, I felt as though I was very out of touch with all the new methods. Several years ago I made a rag quilt for Gail when she was going through chemo. During that time my mom's machine stopped working and since they no longer make its parts I had to replace it. Now I have a new fangled machine which I am still learning how to use. I have graduated and am using a rotary cutter which was a scary transition for me. I've also found some wonderful places on line where I can buy fabric. I am greatly challenged when it comes to choosing fabrics that go together. Now I can shop on line and know that if I stay within a certain collection my colors will all match. 

I realize this may not be the most interesting post. My main purpose in writing this blog is document my thoughts and memories for my girls.