Yep – You Could Say I Am Ornery!

Posted on by Tammy

This past weekend, I got to spend a full day with my quilting friends I haven’t seen for a long time.  The guild meeting night is the same night as one of my hubby’s office hours.  He’s a Licensed Massage Therapist – and I work for him.

The weekend was the quild’s annual Quilting Getaway.  We always go away to Amish Country here in Ohio about an hour’s drive from where we live.  When the hubby was in school for his “second half of life career”, my quilt group let him come down to get clinical hours.  They loved it so much that he has become a regular for this yearly event.  Trouble has it, they usually ask if he’s coming this year before they ask if I am!  No worries, I think I’m still welcome…as long as I bring him along!

Seeing everyone this weekend reminded me of a getaway a few years back which made me laugh.  A quilter who had been in the guild years before had come along to sew with us this particular getaway.  This quilter is a fabulous quilter and very meticulous in her work.  I’m always in awe of her color choice, perfect corners and the overall look of her quilts when she is finished.  As if her work isn’t superb enough, she always has another one of my quilting friends do the actual machine quilting when she is done.  The machine quilter is also phenomenal.  So, you put these two together on a quilt and WOW! (By the way, hello to this machine quilter who pops in here on occasion!)

Back to that weekend.  My quilty friend was placing her 1/2 square triangles on her flannel wall to be able to see her work as she built it.  She would diligently sew, then place a few blocks on her board, back to sew, etc.

Well, she made the mistake of going out to grab a little dinner with some of the other girls.

As a fellow quilter, I will tell you that with the amount of work she does on her pieces, I’m not about to totally re-arrange them or anything that drastic.  But let’s just say I “blinged out” her quilt.  Just a little!

Most of the crew was gone, so I only had a few witnesses.  I had bought some really wild black and white swirly fabric and decided I was going to find a spot to add to her beauty! Nobody had actually seen my fabric, so it wasn’t going to be easy for her to figure it out quickly.  Those of us who were there were betting on how long it would take her to find the little 1/2 square triangle in the mass of triangles that were already on the flannel board.

I took down a block and traced with a piece of paper, the exact size of fabric I would need for the spot I wanted.  Then I cut it out and found a spot that had not been sewn together yet and replaced the triangle.  Her fabrics were darks, so it didn’t really stand out too much.  It did look like it was sewn into the row, though. Hehehehe

All of the girls started to return and we all got back to working and yakking!  Nobody said a word about our friend’s misplaced triangle.

She started sewing away.  Once she had sewn a whole row together, she got up and placed it on her flannel board.  Once she placed it up there, she stood back and was looking at how she placed her colors in relation to the other rows. All of us that had stayed back were watching her out of the corners of our eyes.  Nobody said anything.  Others around us, though, started noticing us watching and started whispering, “what’s everybody watching her for?”

All of a sudden she walked up to her quilt on the wall and zeroed in on the lone black and white swirly triangle and yanked it off!  She then looked around the room, but nobody spoke or broke a smile.  She just eyed us all up, then looked back at me and said, “I bet YOU did this!”

Then the entire room busted out laughing.  This quilter is so meticulous about her quilting like I said, that everyone figured I had just given her a heart attack that her quilt was out of sorts!

No worries though, we are still friends.  She forgave me, but threatened that she would be watching me and her quilt the rest of the weekend!  She did admit that when she finally caught what was wrong, she thought for sure that someone had actually taken her block apart and sewn that triangle into it.  Then she
realized that she hadn’t connected the row entirely yet, so her pulse slowed back down!

The moral of the story here, always watch your work, no matter what it is, if you leave it out while you leave the room.  Or is the moral – always watch your work when ornery Tammy is around?

…and that’s all I have to say about that!

Tammy

She’s Such a Sweet Little Lady!

Posted on by Tammy

As I looked at the calendar today, I realized that Saturday will mark the second anniversary of my sweet Grandma Meade’s entry into Heaven.  I teared up a little as I truly still miss her.  A lot.  I started thinking of the many, many memories I have of her.  I got to have her almost 51 of my years as she passed just shy of her 100th birthday.

I started thinking of some of the most funny things she has said or done through the years and it really got me to chuckling.  She was generally a quiet lady, not an ornery one like me!  Yet, she had some zingers that she let loose especially as she got into her 90’s!  Oh my!

I’d like to share some of the most favorite of our family and I hope you will have a chuckle off of them, especially when you realize this is coming from such a little sweet and proper southern belle.  Here’s a photo of her just a few months before she left us:

Love this lady!
Over the last year she was alive, she started to not “know” us.  She recognized that we were family, but not necessarily able to call us by name.  But…she always lit up when she saw my hubby!  Why? Because he always gave her chocolate! I would bring her candy, and he would unwrap it and give it to her.  She would always smile and say, “this is gooder then ‘snuff.” (Not that she ever had it, but it’s an expression from down south where she’s from!) Also, he always has warm hands and she would always get him to hold her hands and warm hers up. 
One day when we came in, hubby gave her the chocolate as usual.  She smiled real big and reached out for his hand.  “Warm up my hands, good lookin’, ” she said.  My daughter, hubby and I cracked up as she has never talked this way – well up until those last couple years!  Hubby reached out his hands and wrapped them around her hands.  Her hands were forever frozen.  She smiled up at him and said, “why don’t we get married?”
I said, “Grandma! He’s my husband, you can’t have him.”
She looked at me out of the corner of her eye,  and twisted up the left side of her mouth like she does when she was not happy with something and said….”Well, you weren’t brought up very well then, you should have been taught to share.”
Another favorite happened at Thanksgiving one year at our home.  It was before our three parents and grandma moved to the nursing home.  Our daughter was home from college and Grandma was talking up a storm asking her lots of questions about school through dinner.  And then it started!
Grandma was rattling off about school and friends and boys. Then she made a comment that started my daughter (ornery as her Momma) to get her going!
Grandma asked our daughter, “so, do you have any boyfriends?”
Our daughter replied, “no, I don’t have time, I’m too busy studying.  Why?  Should I have one?”
Grandma said, “No, you don’t need one.  You know what boys want anyways.”
The rest of us at the table begin to snicker, but the daughter kept a straight face and said, “No, I don’t.  What do they want?”
Grandma said, “YOU know.”
Daughter said, “No, I really don’t know what your talking about, tell me.”
Grandma said, “We need to change the subject, this is upsetting my tummy.”
Daughter said, “But you were going to tell me what boys want.”
Grandma then replied, “I like hot chocolate.”
We all busted out laughing!  Since our daughter won’t drop it and change the subject, well then, 
Grandma will!  To this day, whenever any of us in the family get asked a question we don’t want to answer or don’t want to talk about, we reply with, “I like hot chocolate.”  
Which then cracks us up and we smile and say, “Oh, Grandma Meade.”
Grandmothers are something aren’t they?  I was fortunate enough to know both my parent’s mothers as well as my mom’s grandmother.  Though I was only close to my mom’s mom and her grandma.  My hubby, unfortunately did not know his grandmothers.  One was gone before he was born, the other was in Germany and he last was with her under the age of five.
So, I’m wondering.  Do you have wonderful memories of your grandmother? Please share a memory or two of your grandmother.  I know I’d love to hear about them and I bet the readers who visit here on the blog would love to as well.  What do you say – will you add a comment below about your grandma?  Grandmas, whether you were close to them or not, can leave some funny memories in our hearts and minds.  C’mon, share a memory with all of us today, won’t you?
…and that’s all I have to say about that!
Tammy