The Fontaine Sisters

 

This is a photograph of a drawing I did in 1993 of my grandmother and her sister. They are "The Fontaine Sisters." My grandmother is on the left. At the time of the drawing, my grandmother was 88 years old, the same age my mother is now. 

It's a nice drawing, and good likenesses of each of them. (If you are thinking, "Lynne, your grandmother looks uptight," you are right. She was.)

The drawing is big. It's about 36" x 48" or so. It's been living in my closet since I moved to this house in 2014. but it's time for a change.

My mother did the painting of the bananas that's on that wall now. (It's about an inch smaller than the drawing in both directions.) On the bureau live framed photos of my family members, and I plan to hang The Fontaine Sisters on that wall. To do that I need to replace the picture wire on the back so I can hang it from the molding strip across the top of the room. I need heavier picture wire. I'll hit the hardware store after work to get it.

I had to remove the drawers from the bureau so I could move it away from the wall. (It's solid maple, so it's heavy) and this is what it looks like now.

This was at my dad's house and now it's mine. I'll hang it to the right of the drawing. I think it will all look really good when it is done. I read somewhere that if you have a collection of things you should display them all together rather than having them scattered all over. Well, this will be where the family pictures are.

I'm pretty excited.

A Little Sewing, Please, Maybe?

Oh gosh yes.

My sister called me up yesterday morning. "You know Lynne, if you WANTED all the attention you got, I'm not sure you could have cooked up a better reason."

I laughed.

"And you know I don't mean that in a negative way, it's just that, SHEESH!!"

Um yeah. Sisters pretty much hit the nail right smack on the head, or wherever else they want to smack it, and are quite satisfied with themselves no matter what.

"Frankly Marie," I said to her, "I would have been a lot happier without the tick bite and all the fuss..."

So yeah. I'm a week through the antibiotics and the last ten minutes of the hour after I take the pill are the hardest. That's when my stomach feels the most squeamish, and it tells me to start dinner so I will have something ready when the timer goes off. Otherwise I'm trying to get enough rest and drink extra fluids.

I have been doing a little bit of sewing, but it's for something I can't tell you about, so I have nothing to show you, except selfsame sister visited yesterday with a fellow quilting buddy to pick up one of these,

It's my homemade bread, (recipe here) and the only thing I did differently this time is add the grated rind from an entire navel orange to the dough when I was adding the eggs. This stuff is pretty much divine no matter how you eat it, sliced naked, toasted, toasted with butter (or anything else), as part of a sandwich or whatever. Nobody ever turns a loaf down, and I am always made aware at just how good it is whenever I take a bite out of the stuff that passes for "bread" nowadays.

After my sister and her BFF left yesterday, after looking at quilts, I decided to hang the crayon quilts in the dining room.

So yeah, finally, here is something quilt related.

Sister Love

I love my sister. I really do. She doesn't like the same fabrics as I do, she doesn't like the same clothes as I do, she doesn't like a lot of foods I do. She good at things I'm not, and she's allergic to cats.

No matter, we have great fun together. When I told a dear friend of mine (who lives 3,000 miles away) that my sister and I could have fun in a paper bag, she replied, "From what I've heard about you and your sister, you don't even need the bag."

So when my sister called me Friday evening and asked if I could help her with a small lap quilt she was finishing up, I said, "Sure, no problem." Sister ties her quilts, then folds the back over to the front and machine sews it down. Piece of cake, I thought, couple of hours, I'll be home for dinner and can work on my white rules quilt.

I got to her house Saturday afternoon. "I don't have the back put together yet," she says to me.

"Okay."

"I mean, I didn't make the letters yet."

"What letters?"

"It has to say from Karen with love Malissa."

I counted the letters on my fingers. "THAT'S TWENTY-FOUR LETTERS. You have to make 24 letters, THEN add them to the backing, THEN finish the quilt????"

"Yeah."

"Do you know how long it's going to take to make 24 letters?"

"No, but you're the expert in letters." Then she added, "and they have to look like I made them."

About this time I'm thinking, "Damn honey, are YOU lucky I love you, because this is gonna take ALL DAY and I would much rather be home working on my own quilt."

Instead I said, "ok, what do you want the letters to look like, and how big do you want them to be?"

We got to work. We worked all afternoon, cutting strips, sewing letters. We had dinner, and worked into the evening. (We did take a side trip to the lqs for more fabric.)

After seven hours I said I had to go. My hands hurt, my arms hurt, my legs hurt, my back hurt. We got all the words done.

I love my sister.

Really.





You can see the words here.

Happy Birthday Sis!

My sister loves to make quilts, but very often expresses a sense of inferiority. She isn't an artist, she doesn't make quilts the way I do, etc etc.

Yeah, so? She made me a beautiful quilt for my bed.She made the Pink-a-licious quilt for Cassie.

She's a Second Degree Black Belt, and I am totally impressed.

I love her to bits, and we have great fun together.

Happy Birthday Honey!

Selvage Sisters

My sister likes to make quilts too. She makes wonderful scrappy quilts. She is completely unencumbered by worry of the Quilt Police. She made this delightful pink quilt for my three-year old niece, Cassie. (you can click the pictures to enlarge.)

We collaborated on this Queen-sized quilt. We each made 10 blocks and then alternated them. You can't tell which are hers, and which are mine. (That's her on the right, trying to look angelic.)She isn't as good a sewer as I am (she's a Black Belt in Karate, so it evens out). I went over to her house yesterday to help her make some potholders and to have dinner. (OK, I cooked.) While trying to decide what colors to use, she asked if I wanted some selvages, because she doesn't like selvage quilts, or things made with them.

Is the sky blue?

So she gleefully went through her stash, tossing fabrics with selvage dots in my direction, where I lined them all up and sliced off the selvages.I brought home this gigantic stack.I love my sister.