Back in November I negatively critiqued Ken Burns’ much-ballyhooed 6-part documentary, The American Revolution, which was produced as part of our celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. Well, more honestly I gave up on this 6-part documentary, after falling asleep during the first two episodes. In that November blog post, I Slept Through The American Revolution, I mentioned that I thought Burns’ documentary would have worked better as a podcast and I recommended two very good history podcasts by Wondery, American History Tellers and Tides of History, so with that in mind this is going to be a freewheeling blog post about a book shopping haul update, jigsaw puzzling progress report and perhaps even some meandering down memory lane. Don’t expect a central theme, but you’ll probably gather there are too many ideas floating around in my head and, oh my goodness, too many book purchases and hobbies in progress. I’ll even toss in some truly mediocre photos for visual interest, LOL.
I started down the listening to podcasts road a few years ago and, just like with audiobooks, it took some getting used to and I finally settled on open-ear earbuds and have found listening to history podcasts, while working on jigsaw puzzles goes together as perfectly as Hershey’s chocolate syrup on vanilla ice cream (I’m a PA girl).
Recently, I listened to several American History Teller series while working on jigsaw puzzles: The Cold War (7 episodes), Prohibition (7 episodes), The Age of Jackson (7 episodes), Revolution (7 episodes), and National Parks (7 episodes). The jigsaw puzzle progress is moving along too. Here are the puzzles I’ve completed:
The jigsaw puzzle new purchases well, 3 from Ollie’s, for $4.99 each, which is quite a deal, 6 puzzles from Amazon, and one Charles Wysocki puzzle from ebay with a backstory.
Here are the puzzles from Ollie’s:
With book purchases, these were inspired by history podcasts. I am proud to say, I mustered some self-discipline and only purchased two books discussed at the end of a The Cold War series podcast. The last episode of that series was an interview with the historian, Audra Wolfe, a Cold War expert. She recommended a short list of interesting Cold War books, so I purchased these two:
I have started reading, Raven Rock: The Story Of The U.S. Government’s Secret Plan To Save Itself, While The Rest Of Us Die, which is a wild ride through the history of Continuity of Government planning in the Nuclear Age.
Now, the backstory of the ebay purchase- a discontinued Charles Wysocki jigsaw puzzle, called Peach Of A Day. I put this puzzle together when we lived at Fort Leonard Wood in the early 1990s. We had returned to the States after five years in Germany (1992) and I was loving going to the little Walmart store off-post and buying fabric to keep feeding my dream of becoming a good quilter, but then I found Charles Wysocki jigsaw puzzles in the toy section and an old hobby passion was rekindled.
My husband was used to how I am a 100% commitment kind of person. It doesn’t matter if its’ taking care of my family, volunteering, or any of my always-growing hobbies and interests. My fabric obsession and desire to recreate my great-grandmother’s closet of fabric scraps has been going strong since I first married in 1980. My great-grandmother crocheted, did embroidery, but her true passion was quilting – and she was good at it.
I gravitated towards embroidery, counted cross-stitch and needlepoint and love working on those. I also enjoyed latch-hook. When I got out of the Army in 1981, I had been used to getting up in the morning and getting busy. Now, it was only my husband putting on combat boots in the morning, while I was now pregnant and in an apartment in Germany. I needed projects and since I love reading, decorating, cooking, baking and needlework, I threw myself into those. I found a large latch hook rug kit at the PX and got busy. I still have that rug:
When I first started this rug, I don’t think my husband thought I would finish it, because he watched me attach each short strand of yarn to the canvas and work my way across each row. With that first needlecraft project as a wife, I don’t think my husband knew how I am, but he quickly learned – I like to finish needlework projects and I like to have several more lined up, but I also am always working on several other hobbies, for when I need a break from sewing. I’ve met many women, who are into needlework and crafts, who are just like me.
At Fort Leonard Wood, my husband encouraged me to take some quilting classes that were on-post, because I had started buying a lot of fabric at Walmart and I did that. However, I’m not very good at quilting and I don’t really enjoy it that much, but these quilting dreams from y childhood have been slow to die. I grew up with my great-grandmother living on one side the house and our family on the other side and my earliest memories of my great-grandmother are sitting at her round table in the corner of her kitchen, while she sat in her rocking chair and stitched quilt pieces together.
I became my great-grandmother’s helper bee from the time I was very young. She made several quilts that were a pattern called Grandmother’s Flower Garden, which was popular during the Great Depression. This quilt is pieced together using a technique called English Paper Piecing and here’s a You-Tube channel that offers all sorts of tutorials, tips and inspiration: Emma Jones Vintage Sewing Box. I spent many hours carefully tracing hexagon shapes on the back of fabric and cutting out my great-grandmother’s pieces for these quilts.
My true absolute joy in being my great-grandmother’s helper bee though was spending endless hours sitting in her fabric closet, filled with cardboard boxes of fabric scraps and picking out fabric for her quilt blocks. She would tell me she wanted some pretty pink floral patterned fabric, or she wanted solid blues, or perhaps she wanted yellows. I could stay in that closet for hours pulling out fabric scraps and trying to find the colors and patterns she wanted. She showed me how to lay fabric pieces together and think about how they look together and then try some other combinations, in order to find color combination you like. I have never made a Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt, but I’ve made some block and years ago I made some throw pillows appliqueing Grandmother’s Flower Garden blocks onto the pillow tops. I have a few blocks sitting here… someday maybe:
Since 1980, I’ve been recreating my great-grandmother’s fabric scrap closet and have at least a dozen large plastic totes of fabric in my garage.
But at the Walmart in Waynesville, MO in 1992, I became obsessed with Charles Wysocki jigsaw puzzles and I put one after another together and decided I was going to glue all of them together and hang them on the walls on our stairs. My husband hung them, but he kept urging to go buy something nice things for the walls and not some cardboard puzzles. I even had him hang some on our hallway upstairs.
In 1994 we moved to Hinesville, GA and bought a brand new house here. I had already started making decorating choices for decorating our new house, when one morning, sitting at the kitchen table, I was chattering on about this Charles Wysocki puzzle I had hung underneath the middle window in our kitchen. It’s my absolute favorite one, called Peach of A Day.:
My husband had this alarmed look on his face, as I happily told him I had put the box with all my other Charles Wysocki puzzles in the garage until I decided where to hang them. Mysteriously, when I later was looking for my box of puzzles in the garage it was nowhere to be found. He never fessed up to throwing them out, but would always urge me to go buy nicer things to hang on the walls.
My favorite puzzle is now pretty dinged up, so I searched online and found it on ebay and the vendor says all the pieces are in the box, so we shall see. If they are, I’m going to glue it together and replace the old one.
I have been in jigsaw puzzle phase for years now and I recently put together this Charles Wysocki puzzle and glued it together and I am thinking of hanging it in the guest bedroom. The my walls in my house are pretty full of other stuff, but I have space in the guest room. I’ve certainly gotten over that idea, to hang Charles Wysocki jigsaw puzzle everywhere, but this one just feels like it need to go in a frame and be hung up this year:
If I get around to getting carpal tunnel surgery on my wrists, I might even celebrate America’s 250th anniversary by completing this latch hook rug kit, I found in my garage early last year while I was decluttering:
I guess, you’re catching a theme here, LOL. This one has been a phase my entire life. Here’s my 2016 blog post, My I love America room:
Have a nice day!
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