Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Writing Your Autobiography

Dear Friends,

Is it true that we are all writing our own autobiography by the way we decorate our homes? I think so. When we make and give our quilts away, does that make us "ghost writers" in their story? I think so too. Is your home a good read? Are you always writing more chapters? Will your autobiography ever be finished?

This is the summer of weddings for our family. Our son was married in May. Our daughter is getting married in August. My sister is getting married at our home this Autumn. So my dear husband and I are looking at our home with a much more critical eye and making notes on what we need to update or "rewrite" before the bridal showers begin, and out of town company arrives. We are assessing our "autobiography" and we are wondering how others will read us.

We have two entirely different stories. The cabin is a cabin....'nuff said, other than the fact that the cabin is the recipient of the overflow from our house in the city since I can't stand the thoughts of getting rid of anything.

Each item that you have for decoration usually has a history or a story.
For instance, our friends Randy and his wife Barbara, a fellow quilter, were recent visitors to the cabin. They instantly knew of something they had in their possession they thought would look good at the cabin.


Not everyone is lucky enough to have a brick with the word "snowball' stamped on it! This brick has a story. It is from England and was brought over from the Snowball brick plant and used as ballast in a sailing ship that was off-loaded in San Francisco.


Another item that we have is........




You guessed it.....a slipper bed pan filled with shampoo and soap for our guests. I'm not sure of the story behind this little treasure, but in hindsight, I think I know what the story is! We bought this in an antique mall in Nebraska on one of our cross country trips.


Now the good chapters! I have quilts hanging on anything that I can find that is suitable for display. Here is a single ox yoke from upstate New York that displays one of the first quilts I made and hand quilted from a Thimbleberries pattern.

A European rake that cost me $3.00,makes a wonderful hanger for the Christmas Windows quilt. It's Christmas year-round at our cabin.

Then there's the $10.00 harness with an old fishing pole that displays another quilt in the guest room.

I've run out of wall space inside so I have to hang quilts outside on an old Amish shovel suspended between a horse harness. I said I never get rid of anything and these vintage chairs are my proof! They've been in the family since the 1950's.


My autobiography will never be finished. It changes with the seasons and will never go out of print. It is dog-eared, dusty, well-worn yet loved. That's my story.....and I'm sticking to it. I'll let you, the reader, decide if it's a real "page-turner."

As always,

Lynn

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