Veterans Caucus Scholarship Quilts

Now that I have finished the Indian Wars quilt and it has been delivered, sold, and is in the hands of a new owner.... it is on to the next one. (I haven't heard how much it sold for but will start bugging people today! I really want to know. And find out who is the lucky new owner!)
Mexican-American War. 1846 – 1848. Quick history ~ The US annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845....and since Mexico did not recognize the secession of Texas in 1836, it still considered it a rebelling province. And as they say..... The fight was on. We won...they lost...Mexican debt was paid for...and Texas became a state.
Some of the facts ~ Although 13,000 U.S. soldiers died during the course of the Mexican-American War, only about 1,700 were killed in combat. 90% died of disease, such as yellow fever. About 12% of the more than 115,000 soldiers were wounded or discharged because of disease or both. For years the veterans suffered from devastating diseases contracted during the war. The casualty rate could easily reach 35 – 40 percent if later injury and disease-related deaths are added to the totals. It makes this war one of the proportionately most deadly in American military history. Mexican casualties are estimated at 25,000.
Many of the military leaders on both sides of the American Civil War will have fought as junior officers, including Ulysses S. Grant, George B. McClellan, Ambrose Burnside, Stonewall Jackson, James Longstreet, George Meade, and Robert E. Lee, as well as the future Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
I have a lot of research, reading, and compiling to do for the background. I also have a lot of quilts of the era to look at. I need to get a feeling for the times, styles, and designs before I decide on the final patterns and layout. I am hoping to find something that just clicks. Or inspiration to strike out of the blue like lightning! Good thing there are re-runs on TV and you can always 'listen' to a ball game. I have a large folder full of information collected over the last four years....so there is plenty to read. I will keep track of the ideas as they come up and post them. That will keep my progress on track and moving.
Now on to some work and lots of reading.

Veterans Caucus Scholarship Quilts

First start with a plan. And then work, work, work......






I used the four elements for the quilting patterns.

Air on the left.
Fire on the right.

Earth on the left.
Water on the right.

As with all the the quilts in this series, I had to first do the research. This one was a little harder in that it was on the American Indian Wars. Because the Indian Removal Act of 1830, I decided to group all the Native American Indian conflicts together. They cover a large geographical area, a diverse number of peoples, and a wide range of time. The Native American Indian Wars started with the first white man stepping on the eastern shore and the movement of the Spanish up from the south. The last armed conflict with the 10th Cavalry was in 1917. That is a long time. I did a lot of reading and looked at a lot of quilts in trying to find just the right one. I think that I chose a winner. It has all the things that I was looking for. Symbols that are meaningful to both the Native American Indians and the United States. This quilt was also a challenge in making it. I had to work out all the pieced diamonds first and then follow the plan. Each of these quilts has given me something new to learn. That makes it easier to get enthusiastic about each one of them.....Three done and 10 to go!!

Next is the Mexican-American War.

'Remember the Alamo!!'

Additions to the garden

We went to an auction Saturday. (We do that a lot!) There was a lot of stuff.....really good stuff. It was an eclectic collection of all kinds of things. My favorite kind!! I did not get a bookcase that I wanted....somebody else wanted much more than I did. But I did get another great 'pot holder'. Not wanting just any old pot holder, I am always looking at things that can serve another purpose. (Just because it is a crystal cream pitcher doesn't mean that it can't be a candle holder, a vase, or an organizer for your bath or your desk. Some other post I will have to take a camera around to show the ordinary things that have other uses in my house.)

I bought a really old child's chair. It is held together with wire and the seat is sagging wire instead of split wood.....the legs have been 'cut' down. One of the great things about it is that it still has some of the original green paint on the front legs. Not the greatest for a child, but it is just perfect for a pot of petunias!! It looks great at the end of the porch next to another chair that had no bottom. (With a saucer in the hole where the cane bottom is suppose to be...another plant holder is born!)

My peonies have started to bloom. And with all the rain that we are having...I am cutting the blooms off all the time. They are wonderful at holding so much water that the pull the blooms down to the ground. If not that then the rain beats all the petals off. So that someone can enjoy them....I make great big arrangements of flowers.

They smell great! Brighten up a dreary day!

Makes me glad that it is Spring!

Good thing....

  It is a good thing that I did some work yesterday as it has rained lightly all day. It is now afternoon and I only got to three of the pots that are usually on the porch. It has not been a very productive day but at least I did get some things done. Guess I will have to try for tomorrow......Or else start a water garden in our front yard. I even took out all the old dirt from the pots and replaced it with new potting soil. That should give everything a great boost. I started thinking about how long some of the pots have been around and decided that they just had to have some new dirt...!

The columbine has really bloomed well this spring. I am trying to get it started in some of the other flower beds and hope that they take off as well. I spread the seeds out when the seed pods were totally dry......Some places it has worked well and I have gotten a good start. Next year they should be doing great.

I did get some dark purple petunias to go with everything else. I realized that the colors were all tending to be pink and not much else. I hope to get a good interesting mix of color. I am spreading the marigolds and the purple petunias through all the pots and that should help.

Hopefully, all the plants will be grateful for the new soil, and fertilizer and produce lots of blooms.

Now I will get my book and hot tea and sit outside on the porch and enjoy the bird's song and the really cool weather and hope for more sunshine tomorrow........

Sun, flowers and planting......

Today that large glowing object in the sky has shown it's bright and shining face...for a few hours. It was nice not to have it rain all day. We are suppose to have a few days of nice weather and then some rain again. (But early Sunday morning it looks like rain again.) I am going to try and get as much of my flower planting and gardening done as possible. I have bought a bunch of flowers for the pots and flower beds. It has been raining so much that I have had to wait for it to dry out before I can get anything in the ground. (At least, I have not had to worry about watering all those little containers.) But first, I have a few things that will have to be done, or worked in, as I go. I need to cut the stems from the old fashioned iris as they are now done. They were gorgeous this year. I think that every fan had a stem with flowers. Much nicer than they have been in the past couple of years. I also have to move a couple that have gotten themselves away from where I want them. An other digging project is to dig up a clump of surprise lilies that are taking over a spot that I had a beautiful bunch of Shasta daises. Unfortunately, they fell to the hands of an over zealous helper who mistook them for weeds two years ago. They look like dried stems in the early spring and got pulled up. The surprise lilies(You get the leaves in the spring. They die down and then in the middle of the summer the flowers pop out of nothing) have started to take over that spot and I want to try snapdragons there and look for another big daisy plant. And of course weed as you go.... (One of my stress relievers.....to reach down and touch a living, thriving thing....to grasp it tightly......and yank it completely out of existence.....! Much like making bread by hand!) Since it was a nice day, or at least as good as we have had for a while, we went to an auction. Not to hot....not too cold....and not raining! There was a lot of junk and very little really good stuff. Luckily, there was nothing that we could not live without.....and nothing that our kids (they will be glad to hear) 'might' need! We stayed for a while but decided to get home and get some work done.

There was plenty to do. The least of it was getting the yard mowed. With all the rain....it was really growing and needed a good mowing....without having to use a pontoon boat to do it! Tom got the lawn mower out and was going to see how far he could get before having to quit because the ground was too wet. I got out the towel and shovel to get after the flowers.

This year I have decided to try and get snapdragons to grow again. I have tried this before with no luck. My Grandmother Buxton and Grandma Dorothy used to have beautiful snapdragons that were knee high. I have never had any luck with them. But I don't feel too bad as one of my best friends has never had any either and she has beautiful flower gardens. For a start, I just want them to last through the summer.

I have also bought inpatients, marigolds, petunias, dianthis(which I have gotten to winter over and get an early start), allyssium, saliva, and wave petunias (the kind that spread). I bought some new gloves and wanted to try them out. They worked great! They are made of neoprene and did not get soggy as I worked in the wet dirt and yet I could feel through them. I am going to have to buy another pair.

I bought 8 packages of Asiatic lilies for about 75 cents a pack and got them all in the ground. Only one of the bulbs was bad! I am hoping that they will get started quickly as some of mine are already getting ready to get the flower buds on the stems. I also got the saliva in the wheel barrow and front bed under the tree. They are suppose to be a 'full sun' plant, but I have put them in under the tree for years and have had the best of luck with them there. I have tried them in the flower bed out in the full sun and they did not do well at all. I guess that you just have to try out each plant and see where it does best. (Maybe I will try some inpatients out in the planters that are in the sun most of the day.) I also got some of the pots done. (In looking over what I have bought...I may have to look for some color other than the pinks....some dark purple or reds might be needed.)

In a small amount of time we got a lot done....from mowing, to weeding, to removing, and planting.... Now we just have to wait till it all fills in

and enjoy the color,

and look for the humming birds that enjoy the nectar.