Author Archives

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Latest quilt

Not loving this latest project. In fact, I like the back better than the front. If I were a painter and this was a canvas, I’d be painting over it.

It is meant to be a star sampler quilt. Too much gold and not enough time spent moving the blocks around.

Another picnic quilt! How’s that for positive thinking!

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Flea Market Part 4 of 4

This young lady was purchased for only $1

I had decided not to buy any more cabinet cards that didn’t have a full dress to look at but we can bend the rules if it only costs a dollar! Right?

She seems to be fairly well off with a fashionable dress and a big piece (or 2) of jewelry at her throat.

Oct 30th 1899 Aunt Charles Banks Bedford (Bens? Bells?) For Pam

Blake of Blake and Edgar is possibly William Blake, who moved to Bedford Ireland in 1866. Blake’s wife, Annie, was also a photographer. Blake & Edgar photographers business began at 32 (later renumbered 74) Midland Road in 1871. It is unclear who Arthur Edgar was. Blake & Edgar moved to 38 and 40 High Street in 1897. Which fits the date on the back of the card.

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Flea Market Find Part 3 of 4

In my previous 2 posts, a wrote about a flea market vendor who had a couple of bins of $1 items. At that price…why not! As well as the mechanical pencil and the pin, I got a pair of salt and pepper shakers. I don’t need them but I thought they were pretty. They are silver in color (silver plated?) and smaller in size.

I have since cleaned off the tarnish and they look nicer.
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Flea market find part 1 of 4

Hubby and I got to a flea market a week ago and I lucked out a found a vendor that was selling random items for a $1 or 2. One item I found was a silver mechanical pencil. It might be Victorian but for a buck, it is probably more vintage than antique. That’s ok. I will look the part on a chatelaine…if ever I can get out in costume again…

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Wild “around the world” crib quilt done.

I finished the crib quilt I have been working on. It will be for my grand baby to sleep with/play on when he comes to visit for the first time! The colors are wilder than his mom typically decorates in but that’s ok. It’s his blanky for grandma’s house.

If it doesn’t go back to Europe with him, I will donate it to some charity/thrift store (assuming it doesn’t get stained in the mean time.)

The backing isn’t as loud.

There is a definite trend for me to make things with TONS of color. I like color in things I make. It keeps it from being boring. My grandma was the same. Trouble is most people don’t wear or decorate in any thing wilder than neutrals! I can’t even give my crap away. Sigh!

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Postcards for my peeps

My job WAS working with seniors who are living at home with dementia. They come spend a day with me and their peers and their primary carer gets some time off. But since COVID, all I can offer them is a weekly care package that includes a letter, some puzzles, reading material, coloring pages, jokes, candy and a small gift. Last week I made quilted postcards that they can either keep or mail to a friend.

There is 1 for each person. The top card shows the place for the stamp and writing.
These two are my favorites.

I started a quilt for my grandson (who lives in Germany) that he can use when he is here visiting. They will be staying in our basement which is cold. I think he will be able to use it.

Not sure why the colors are so washed out. Must be the lighting. Basically the colors are more true primary colors.
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Kaleidoscope hexagon quilt done

The latest quilt is done. It is intended as a cuddle quilt for the couch. My mom got it.

I’m happy with my piecing.

I’m happy with the quilting.

I’m not thrilled with the color choices on the front…or the back…but it was all thrift store or stash material.

I’m not happy with the zigzag stitch used to put the blocks together. I thought the wider stitch would “frame” each block and make them stand out. It just isn’t that pretty.

But, it is functional. And I learned from it so that’s good.

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Canada Day 2021

Last Thursday was Canada Day…The equivalent of the 4rth of July for Americans. For many, it is just a day off of work. For some it is working for time and a half pay and a banked vacation day. May be it is the launching of summer holidays. To some, it is an excuse to get together with friends and family…COVID messed that up last year but it is slightly better this year…at least where I am.

Some people actually take the time to consider why we like Canada. The land itself is lovely with loads of scenic variety. We have plenty of resources: water, farmland, and oil to name a few. I’m pretty fond of our democracy and our health care system. We are known world wide for being fairly decent humans as a whole (but I’m the first to admit that not everyone is the stereotypical polite Canadian. We have our share of “butt orifices” too.) By enlarge, Canada has treated me and mine well.

But this year Canada has been forced to look at our butt holeary in a historical sense. We have to face the fact that in the not so distant past, Europeans sailed over here and looked around and thought “this is a nice place…I can use this.” And they started taking things: pelts, land, women…. And they abusively used the land, the people, the plants and the animals for their own gain. To the indigenous peoples, the colonizers were cruel, even when they thought they were being kind. Trading can be a nice thing…except when you are ripping people off and dealing in things that was ultimately harmful (alcohol for example). Sharing of ones culture and faith can be a nice thing if it is a mutual sharing but not when it is rammed down someones throat!

The ultimate example of this “ramming” was the residential schools which were started in the Victorian era (1890’s I believe) and continued into my life time. The idea was the Europeans weren’t going anywhere and in fact they were moving in like cockroaches. The indigenous would benefit from an education that helped them adapt to the Western way of doing things. Nice concept…NOT! The residential schools ripped children away from their parents-often under threat of incarceration if they did not comply. The children were stripped of their home, family, community and then stripped of all reminders of that. Their clothing, hair, adornments and mementos were removed. They were punished for speaking their own language. The treatment in general was neglectful at best and commonly it was abusive.

My ancestors were here for the start of this. Were they actively engaged in this? I don’t think so. Were they unaware of this process? Possibly. If they were aware of this, there is a good chance they thought this was a good idea. And that idea is unsettling. But, we Canadians can not say, “this was the past. Don’t hold our fore father’s past sins against us”. We can’t say it because this was going on, to some degree, in my life time. There are still people alive today that had to go to residential school and now are living with trauma. There are people alive today that were raised by people who were ripped from family only to be abused. How do you learn to parent in those conditions? The negative repercussions have rippled across generations marking the people even when they themselves haven’t been to residential school.

So why are Canadian’s thinking about this now? Because unmarked graves are being found at these residential schools. Some are saying “don’t automatically think they died from abuse and neglect”. That may be true but the questions remain: Why unmarked graves? Did they get an honorable burial? Were the people that loved them there? Did their loved ones get satisfactory information on the life and death of this child? Did the family get the opportunity to bring their loved one home for burial? Did they get the opportunity to set up a grave marker? And the ultimate question…why weren’t they safe at home in the first place?

So in their grief and outrage for these children and in the relived memory of their own trauma, the indigenous community spent Canada Day saying out loud that the creation of this country has not been a good thing for them and theirs. Colonization has not been a blessing. And the symbol of colonization…Queen Victoria…got knocked off her pedestal in front of the government building in my location.

Honestly, I’m surprised she has stood as long as she has. People around the world have begun to look at statues celebrating people and victories and realizing that not everyone is happy about the results of these memorialized events and people. The confederate statues in the States are the most obvious examples of this.

I don’t know the long term plans for this statue. I hope it isn’t destroyed. It is part of history. But have it displayed in a museum with perhaps the paint still on her (because that is now also part of the history that shouldn’t be lost).

The name of my blog is a play on the words “I want to be Victorian.” But in actuality that isn’t true. They health care then was dreadful. Though I would be part of the “in crowd” (white, middle class or better, and Protestant) I’m still a girl and therefore would be little better than property. If I lived in the Victorian era with my current world views I’d be even more horrified by the crap I would see in the 1800’s than I am seeing now! And I’d likely be put in a mental institution or jail for my radical thoughts. If I were Victorian, I’d have no internet (heaven forbid!), Netflix, electric sewing machine with dozens of stitch options, and no car.

I just like the clothes, furniture and architecture. But these things didn’t come about in a void. The clothing styles demanded top hats for men, which demanded beaver pelts, which demanded the fur trade which demanded the colonization of North America, which demanded the native population “problem” be dealt with.

I want to be respectful to the trauma of the original peoples. I’m not sure that the respect of that trauma wont taint my enjoyment of Victorian costuming. That’s were I’m at. Wondering how I fit into this fu*ked up world.