Who is Orange Sink?

My photo
Rice Lake, WI, United States
My home town is Rice Lake, a small town in northern Wisconsin. I own Red House Wool Studio~ an in-home wool and rug hooking business. I enjoy collecting and decorating with antiques and primitives. Orange Sink Blog is a journal of my interests and ramblings about life. Cathy Greschner

Email Me Here

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Quilt and Road Repair


I woke up this morning with a splitting headache. I believe the past few days have been too stressful with the moving of Dave's mom to assisted living and cleaning out her apartment from 20 plus years of stuff from the no-throw generation.  More about that later.  By 7:30 am was feeling a bit better after taking some medication and applying warm compresses to my poor head. All was quiet  but a few moments later the old familiar beep beep beep of the heavy equipment started in!  They are resurfacing the road past here and it's only a few feet from our house. 
I decided it was a good day to dig out an old quilt top I've had forever  to repair a few big holes it had when I acquired it. I needed something to work my hands and soothe my achey head.  And something to counter-act all the energy going on outside. 


The quilt top is a beauty of an old thing. Little nine patch squares all hand sewn together. The fabrics are what call to me. Old homespuns in mostly blues and browns. Look closely and you'll see a brown, blue and bittersweet plaid so faded and worn. 


My steam iron glides smoothly over the wrinkled fabric. The boys outside ( who by the way love their jobs... I asked them..LOL!) layer a load of sand and gravel.  My thoughts turn to the contrasts in our work.  It's kind of the same in a way too... we are both repairing something with skill and love. 


For my repairs I chose a reproduction civil war fabric with indigo blue flowers and creamy background.  On this all plaid quilt I thought the contrast of a flower print would be fun.  Then my thoughts turned to  the maker of this quilt. As she sat and hand-stitched her homespun squares what was going on outside her door?  Were the men-folk with tractors or perhaps horse-drawn equipment making her smile as her needle and thread made tiny and neat little stitches.  






The boys and their big trucks and graders work on!  Happy and content to be making another road safe and usable for years to come. 


Repairing my old quilt today gave me a sense of accomplishment. The hand-work soothes the mind as well. Perhaps now I can focus on tasks ahead. In another post I want to share with you some of the goodies we found while we dug through the years of accumulation at his mother's place.  I know... don't need to be dragging home more "stuff".  I did restrain myself for the most part.  But a few things were too good to pass up. 


Hope your day was filled with good energy and the works of your hands soothing as well!

Cathy G

12 comments:

  1. That is a hard decision.... what to bring home from mom's (mil). My mil lived in the same house for 50 years and while she bought very little, she threw nothing away. After her death we moved to a different state and tried to be very careful about what we kept..but there are some things that it just didn't seem right to give away. And now every time I open her buffet she is here in TN with us. Hope you enjoy your keepsakes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The quilt is a nice keepsake. It must have a great many stories to tell. I can understand the feeling of accomplishment with fixing it.

    My daughter is going through her in-law's old stuff. They are overwhelmed with boxes and boxes from the attic and from the house content.

    It's hard to part with some stuff but we can't take all.

    Nice to have a new paved road in your area. I hope that your headaches are all gone. Be well...
    Hugs,
    JB

    ReplyDelete
  3. Absolutely beautiful keeper of a quilt. Be sure the grandchildren have an opportunity to take what they want to remember the good old days by.

    Even if you can't take it all how about extended relatives, neighbors or her survived friends.

    Hope you find a sense of calm soon.

    Saundra

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am sure those boys would be tickled to know they made it to a spot on your blog:) what a lovely post of such contrast yet similar in the end. Nice patch work. Sometimes the body just tells us we need that break...what better way to have a reprieve by doing a little handwork.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful quilt! .. I have been trying to talk my parents about downsizing, going through things and possibly an auction .. so much to go through. But I know they will not want to part with much, and I don't want them to stress over getting rid of their things. I didn't know these things were to be so difficult. Hoping all calms for you... Have a great day!

    blessings,
    ~ronda
    simple thyme prims

    ReplyDelete
  6. Morning, love the quilt, beautiful colours. Take some time to slow down a bit Cathy..Blessings Francine.

    ReplyDelete
  7. A beautiful story! It is hard to part with some things. I LoVed the comparison also with the road crew. LoVe the colors in the quilt too. Memories are wonderful !

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yucker! Headaches are not fun. But you seem to have taken the positive attitude and made it into a nice day working on your quilt. I love the little patch of calico fabric in with the plaids.
    I'm glad the road workers love their jobs. Is that why the drag the projects out so long??? Ha-ha!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I know of nothing harder than waking up with a headache. Not to mention going through houses. Such a hard emotional task.
    Road building is good and bad. Nice road but too much noise.
    I love that quilt you were working on. It does sound like a wonderful way to help your headache. I hope you feel lots better today.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The noise would drive me nuts! But you will have a nice new road when it is over. Love the quilt, and your repair to hit. Enjoy your summer. Sarah

    ReplyDelete
  11. I would have to leave the house if the road crews were that close to me...do to my lifelong fear of being killed by a piece of heavy equipment coming through the wall and crushing me...seriously...love how you've turned to mending a treasure as a way to get through a headache...the quilt is sweet

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm sorry to hear that you needed to move your MIL to assisted living. You wrote a lovely post.

    ReplyDelete

I love comments! Thank-you!