Old Man of the Mountain

JustOldStuff

OldPostCards

I had a couple great Aunts and an Uncle that lived up north in and around New England. We would spend a week each summer going up to visit them. We would stay with my Aunt Helen at her summer house on the lake.

I remember she took us one time to a place where an old homestead used to be and she and my parents dug around and found old bottles and things buried there.

She also would go with us when we would go to see some of the touristy sites. One of my favorites was going to see the Old Man in the Mountain.  

vintagephotosjohnson

As a little kid, I was pretty impressed that this old man’s face was way up there, but I was also a little disappointed. I had expected to see much more detail in that face.

WmMacGregor

Well, what do you expect from a little kid? I listened when my parents and Aunt talked about it and really thought it was going to look exactly like and old man’s face. I remember looking way up there and squinting my eyes so the details seemed to be there just not too clear.

landscapelady

Over the years I have kept fond memories of going there with family and getting to see the grand old man.  I also thought it was pretty cool that it was on the state quarter.

neleh88

smalls4utoo

cornucopia

VintageBeth

 

 

itsfound

I was saddened like so many others when the old man crumbled away in 2003, but his image does live on. 

 There is an old man legacy fund site (which I found interesting);

http://www.oldmanofthemountainlegacyfund.org/default.aspx

and a cool video;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MYYPru077vg

The old man may be gone but he is a long way from being forgotten.

(jj)

December 1st at our Home....

During the holiday season most people have special items they pull out of boxes in the closet to display in their home for the holiday they celebrate...

At our home it is Christmas :)  and these are a few of the things that help bring the Christmas spirit to our home....

On the first day of December I find the big box that I store my Christmas quilt in..take it out of the box, shake it out.and hang it up on our wall....

I made this quilt many years ago and every year since then it has hung on a wall in our family room during the Christmas season.

Then about 5 years ago I saw some beautiful wreaths made out of vintage ornaments...well I had boxes of vintage ornaments, the kind you find at most garage sales each year....so out came the hot glue gun and after a few hours I had my own ornament wreath....

It hangs from a Victorian wall piece which is on the brick above our fireplace.....
The hot glue gun was not the best tool for the job as the glue dries out, so every year I lose a couple of ornaments that drop and break before I can reglue them to the wreath...but I still love it!

About 2 years ago we went to a fabulous Christmas sale in a small Antique Shop in an even smaller town in Nebraska...and bought a felt runner, this is a reproduction of one from the early 1900's...it isn't old and I did not create it...but it has found the perfect spot on the entry table in our home...

The next item to come out for display will be our old Nativity Set...much loved and much worn...but the most important item of all!

I don't have a photo yet to share with you but the set will be out and set up on an old pie safe in our family room by tomorrow...

Hope you have some wonderful items of  your own that you display each year at this time, and that they bring you as  much joy and comfort as ours do us...

Now it is time to put a Christmas CD on, light the fire in the fireplace, heat up a cup of hot chocolate and curl up on the couch....Getting Cozy we call it!

VE

So My Teenage Granddaughter has decided.....

On the design for the quilt I promised to make her...

This may seem like a simple thing, however the discussion about the "theme" of the quilt started 8 years ago....we have gone through several ideas...including a quilt featuring strawberries ( I have several strawberry fabrics in my stash now)....a quilt featuring cooking (which she does quite well) but finally, now that she has a newly decorated room and considers herself to be more mature, the decision has been finalized.....the quilt will be  black and white and feature a music theme....WooHoo!

First item on my quilt "to do list" was go through my stash for possible fabrics and then shop for others...her Mother and I took her to a fabric store.....that was....an interesting experience!  Teenagers have strong opinions about fabric too :)

Next I found a quilt pattern I had purchased that had a music theme...which meant music symbols that I could copy for the applique portion of the quilt...

We knew we wanted  basic 12" square blocks..... some of them a nine patch quilt block of black squares alternating with black and white print squares....

I needed 125 5" squares like the ones above......to create 25 blocks that look like this.....

They are finished....so happy about that!

I also needed 24 of the white blocks that will end up as 12" appliqued squares....I have some of them finished.....

There will be 10 of these with the appliqued music symbols (I now realize that these symbols are backwards, but every quilt needs a mistake they say!) and 14 with a hand quilted design of the music symbols....I am going to use black quilting thread so the design will pop!

I will also hand quilt around each of the appliques (which are machine sewn on with a very tiny satin stitch),  do some hand quilting around the small squares which make up the larger square....these will also be "tied" in the center with a black yarn.

For now I have 2 applique blocks to finish, next I will lay all the blocks out until I find a grouping that I like, then I start sewing them together to form the quilt top.....if life goes as I plan (haha) the quilt top should be complete this coming week!

Check back in a couple of weeks for the next phase in the saga of the quilt!

VE