Our Own

Our Own

*

If I had known in the morning

How wearily all the day

The words unkind

Would trouble my mind

I said when you went away,

I had been more careful, Darling,

Nor given you needless pain,

But we vex "our own"

With look and tone

We may never take back again.

*

For though in the quiet evening

You may give me the kiss of peace,

Yet it might be

That never for me

The pain of the heart should cease.

How many go forth in the morning,

That never come home at night!

And hearts have broken

From harsh words spoken,

That sorrow can ne'er set right.

*

We have careful thoughts for the stranger,

And smiles for the transient guest,

But oft for "our own"

The bitter tone,

Though we love "our own" the best.

Ah, lips with the curve impatient!

Ah, brow with the look of scorn!

'Twere a cruel fate,

Were the night too late

To undo the work of morn.

*

------(author to be listed when found)

Kitty-cat t-shirt

When I was somewhere around six years old, I saw this adorable dress and my mother bought it for me. I have saved it all these years. For a very long time I have planned to do something with it and finally have.

I cut the front out, turned under the edges and corners and whip-stitched it onto a plain gray t-shirt. Then I cut the little cuffs from the skirt to edge the sleeves. It was a fun little project that I worked up quickly and did not take any pains with it. I knew the perfectionist would examine the shirt and see if I centered the picture and turned under all the corners equally, but for once, I did not care. Sure enough, the shirt was brought under scrutiny and a doubtful voice asked if I had turned the corners under equally. "Nope," I answered cheerfully. "I didn't even try." The kitty is so pretty it should catch anyone's attention. If someone notices the picture is not perfectly sewed on, I really do not think they are enjoying the cute kitty as much as they should. :)

Happiness

Happiness is like a crystal,

Fair and exquisite and clear,

Broken in a million pieces,

Shattered, scattered far and near.

Now and then along life's pathway,

Lo! Some shining fragments fall;

But there are so many pieces

No on ever finds them all

*

You may find a bit of beauty,

or an honest share of wealth,

While another just beside you

Gathers honor, love or health.

Vain to choose or grasp unduly,

Broken is the perfect ball;

And there are so many pieces

No one ever finds them all.

*

Yet the wise as on they journey

Treasure every fragment clear,

Fit them as they may together,

Imaging the shattered sphere,

Learning ever to be thankful,

Though their share of it is small;

For it has so many pieces

No one ever finds them all.

*

-----Priscila Leonard

Three picture woodburning

Here is my latest woodburning project for someone. The roses, which were only outlined did not show up well until colored. The first picture shows the work I did. The others, showing the roses colored and the board finished and stained, was done by another.

The Two Glasses

There sat two glasses filled to the brim,

On a rich man's table, rim to rim;

One was ruddy and red and blood,

And one as clear as the crystal flood.

*



Said the glass of wine to the paler brother:

"Let us tell the tales of the past to each other;

I can tell of banquet and revel and mirth,

And the proudest and grandest souls on earth

Fell under my touch as though struck by blight,

Where I was king, for I ruled in might;

From the heads of kings I have tron the crown,

From the heights of fame I have hurled men down:

I have blasted many an honored name;

I have taken viture and given shame;

I have tempted the youth with a sip, a taste,

That has made his future a barren waste.

Greater, far greater than king am I,

Or than any army beneath the sky.

I have made the arm of the driver fail,

And sent the train from the iron rail;

I have made good ships go down at sea,

And the shrieks of the lost were sweet to me,

For they said, 'Behold how great you be!

Fame, strength, wealth, genius before you fall,

For your might and power are over all.'

Ho! ho! pale brother," laughed the wine,

"Can you boast of deeds as great as mine?"

*

Said the water glass: "I cannot boast

Of a king dethroned or a murdered host;

But I can tell of a heart once sad,

By my crystal drops made light and glad;

Of thirsts I've quenched, of brows I've laved,

Of hands I have cooled, and souls I have saved;

I have leaped through the valley, dashed down the mountian,

Flowed in the river and played in the fountain,

Slept in the sunshine and dropped from the sky,

And everywhere gladdened the landscape and eye.

I have eased the hot forehead of fever and pain;

I have made the parched meadows grow fertile with grain;

I can tell of the powerful wheel of the mill,

That ground out the flour and turned at my will.

I can tell of manhood debased by you,

That I have lifted and crowned anew.

I cheer, I help, I strengthen and aid;

I gladden the heart of man and maid;

I set the chined wine-pative free;

And all are better for knowing me."

*

These are the tales they told each other,

The glass of wine and paler brother,

As they sat together filled to the brim,

On the rich man's table, rim to rim.

*

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Re-covering chair seats

We recently moved an old dinning room table into our kitchen. The seat covers were in horrible condition, stained and ugly. I was drafted to re-cover them. I had about four yards of blue flowered cloth that I did not really need. Since my mother's kitchen is mostly blue with a bit of mauve, it worked out nicely to cover the chairs with this cloth.

DISGUISED

Behind that stubborn lock of hair,

Behind mischievous eyes,

Behind that carefree innocence

A man in making lies.

*

Behind his childish buoyancy,

Behind that warming smile,

An adult waits to be revealed

In just a little while.

*

Be slow to speak, my lips! My hands,

be careful what you do!

The kind of person he will be

Depends so much on you.

*

- B.L. M.

This past winter, I wore the bottoms out of a piar of knitted house slipper/socks. I had been given a good bit of miscellaneous yarn for which I hadn't been able to think of much use, so I took some of it and crocheted new bottoms for the house socks. Now they are set for this coming winter.

Does anyone have any ideas for what to use various small amounts of non-matching and not really pretty colored yarn? Making the bottoms to thes slippers successfully used up some of it, but not much. I hate waste things and toss the yarn out, but I'm at a loss of thinking of something useful to do with the rest of it. Any ideas would be welcome!

The Greatest Test

Help me to walk so close to Thee
That those who know me best can see

I live as godly as I pray,
And Christ is real from day to day.

I see some once a day, or year;
To them, I blameless might appear;
'Tis easy to be kind and sweet
To people whom we seldom meet.

But in my home are those who see
Too many times, the worst of me.
My hymns of praise were best unsung
If He does not control my tongue.

When I am vexed and sorely tried,
And my impatience cannot hide,
May no one stumble over me
Because Thy love they failed to see.

But give me, Lord, a life that sings,
And victory over little things.
Give me Thy calm for every fear,
Thy peace for every falling tear.

Make mine, O Lord, through calm or strife,
A gracious and unselfish life.
Help me, with those who know me best,
For Jesus' sake, to stand the test.

----Barbara Ryberg

Poetry book

My friend Leah Sue has written and printed a book of poetry. You can find out more about her book and read the title poem on her blog.

Mother’s Day Bear

Since I only use cotton scraps in quilting, I recently purchased some teddy bear patterns in an effort to find something to do with my linen scraps. When I asked Mother what she wanted for Mother’s Day, she said a stuffed bear to sit on her little blue decorator chair by the hearth.

It was fun to make the bear and only had one little problem. After the bear’s body was finished and the head was finished, I stuck the head inside the body to sew it in place. Wanting the head to sit properly, I very carefully lined up the body seams to the head seams and sewed it on. . .then I turned the bear right side out and pulled the head out. . .and its nose was sticking over its shoulder. Oh, dear. Apparently, I had carefully matched the front head seam to the side body seam! I did major surgery and took his head off and re-sewed it. The poor bear will probably have permanent neck injury from that procedure. I was happy to make something I had wanted to make anyway and it cost nothing except for the two button eyes. The bear was made from otherwise useless linen scraps left from civilian re-enactor’s coats. The vest was scrap from one of my re-enacting dresses and the bear was stuffed with all kinds of tiny scrap pieces which were too small even for quilt making.

The cloth gets a bit distorted in reducing the pictures.

Be patient. . .

This poem was taken from a good book by R. T. Cross.

If we knew the little fingers
Pressed against the window pane,
Would be cold and stiff tomorrow,
Never trouble us again,-
Would the bright eyes of our darling
Catch the frown upon our brow?
Would the prints of rosy fingers
Vex us then, as they do now?

Ah! those little ice cold fingers-
How they point our memories back
To the hasty words and actions
Strewn along our backward track!
How those little hands remind us,
As in snowy grace they lie,
Not to scatter thorns, but roses,
For our reaping by and by.

Patch work heart painted tin.

Recently, we were able to visit my friend Leah Sue. I thought I'd bake some cookies as a gift for the family. I wanted some sort of gift to remain after the cookies were gone, so I decided to paint a tin container for the cookies. I looked through our stash of saved tins and found a large one without too much rust. After scrubbing off what little rust there was, I sprayed it with gray primer.

I would have liked to paint some flowers or some kind of scenery, but I am not a good painter and knew I'd not be able to get it to look realistic, especially with this kind of paint. A craft book gave me the idea of a painted patchwork heart. After painting the patch heart on the top, I painted small hearts of each color of "cloth" around the base of the container.

Then the morning we were to leave, I bake some of our favorite cookies - double peanut butter - and filled the painted tin with them.

Skirt and Vest

The skirt and vest have been finished. The vest was a very simple pattern with no darts and no back ties. I did not want to purchase any lining for the vest with all the cloth I have here, so I started looking through my cloth. I found just the thing, a burgundy which was left from backing a quilt. It matched the flowers in the blouse well, and though it did not match the vest cloth perfectly, it was fine for a lining and saved money to use it. The skirt was a gored skirt and I placed a bit of elastic in the back. I would have preferred the skirt about an inch longer and a little fuller, but I was trying to get a skirt, vest, and blouse out of the cloth and therefore had to compromise on the fullness of the skirt. I did get the blouse cut out, but have not made it yet. Lord willing, when the blouse and a western vest is made, they will be posted on my western blog. Ordinarily, I like cotton cloth. This cloth was some kind of rayon or polyester and rayon mix. It has one good advantage. It does not wrinkle near so badly. It will pack and travel much better than my cotton dresses. The picture of me wearing the dress is its true color. It matches almost perfectly with my Sunday dress boots.

Lovely blouse

Like the shoe cobbler’s children who never has shoes, it often seems the seamstress never has decent clothes, or the clothes comes from the thrift store. It has been long over due for me to make some clothes for myself. I found this lovely cotton cloth at Hancock’s and wanted to make something from it.

Despite is being ordinary cotton, it was an un-pretty price. Even though I waited until it was on a 50% off sale, it was still too expensive to make and entire dress as full and long as I like them. So, I decided to make a blouse and then make a skirt and vest to match from another cloth. The cloth was so dainty and feminine, I did not want a standard shirt collar. While looking through my patterns I found a pattern with a cute little collar. It was just the kind of blouse I wanted except for the sleeves. I had bought another pattern with three quarter length sleeves which were pleated into the cuff. I mixed the patterns, using the one with the lay-down collar and altered the sleeves to make them the three quarter pleated ones. I usually gather the sleeves into the cuffs. The pleats turned out pretty. I rarely make blouses, but am glad I did this one. I finished it this morning and it is so, so, just. . .I like it. :-)

Word Power

WORD POWER

*

A harsh word spoken,

A young heart broken,

A life that is scarred for aye --

The twist of a lip,

Or a cutting quip,

And a young soul sent astray.

*

An encouraging word

And a young heart stirred,

And a zeal that is set afire --

Would that our speech

Caused a soul to reach

Up to the stars and higher.

*

Our words have power

To raise or lower

A young heart that would be true.

Speak love, or speak hate,

But know that the fate

Of a soul can depend on you.

-- J. B.

God’s sovereignty will prevail and no one can cause a soul which God has chosen to save to be eternally doomed, if that is what is meant by, "the fate of a soul can depend on you." Nonetheless, there is much truth in the poem.

Sweetly Modest

My friend, Leah Sue Carpenter, now has her own home business of pretty girl's smocked clothing and other things. You can see her work at Sweetly Modest.

Ribbon embroidery and crocheted sachets.

These are some matching ribbon embroidery journal books and crocheted scented sachets I made for a couple of friends last year.