REAL Bobbin Lace

Today I spent some time volunteering at the local DUP (Daughters of the Utah Pioneers) Museum.  It was a great chance to check out the exhibits for myself.   There in the midst of one of the displays was an old lace pillow and bobbins used by a Swedish emigrant to our area.  She clearly used a finer thread than I have used thus far, but it was helpful to me to see how her pillow worked.

 I was surprised at how little padding this pillow had.  The roller makes it easy to to create longer lengths of lace.

Here you see a picture of the lacemaker herself along with some of her bobbins as well as a piece of lace that she made.

The next picture has nothing to do with the Swedish lacemaker, but it is a lovely bit of insertion lace on a blouse.

In addition to the bobbin lace exhibit, the museum had old furniture, clothing, musical instruments, tools and various other items from the pioneer era.

One visitor, upon coming to the musical exhibit, saw a picture of an old band and exclaimed, "Look!  That man on the end is my great-grandfather!"  That made my volunteer time all worthwhile.

Great Big Idaho Potato

Yesterday we stopped by the local Walmart to get a few things.  When leaving the store we couldn't help but notice something new in the parking lot.  A semi had just arrived pulling what looked to be an enormous potato.  It is apparently a promotional thing for Idaho potatoes. The potato is 28 feet long, 12 feet wide, 11.5 feet tall and weighs 6 tons!

Another grandchild visit

Just when it seemed all the grandchildren were done visiting, another came to see us this week.  If you have been counting, that means 17 out of 18 grandchildren have come to stay this summer.  If we are truly lucky, perhaps number 18 will still show up to visit before the year is out.

She really timed her visit well as the peaches on one of our trees were ready to be picked.  She could hardly wait to capture one of those balls on the grass, and when she tried a taste of that ball, she found that it was totally delicious inside.  She had juice all over her face and running down her elbows. Actually we all have been gorging ourselves on fresh peaches.

Today was her day to play pioneer baby at the living history farm, so we had to find her an appropriate dress and of course, a bonnet.  She had a great time looking around at all the new things to see.  I think her favorite was when the pea family showed up...peacock, peahen and peachick.

Naturally,  a morning of playing outdoors, makes some folks tired. Unfortunately sometimes it is the adults rather than the babies who wear out soonest.

 In addition to the Pea family, we also watched an ibis visit for a while before it flew away.  The local ducks kept busy paddling around in their pond.

 The pretty little flowers near the duck pond were blooming away in spite of the hot weather.

It's hard to believe that the living history farm closes for the season in just a couple of days.

Bobbin Lace Again

This week's bobbin lace lesson put my brain on overload I think.  I did okay when the projects we were doing were all basically one stitch per project.  This week's project, a torchon fan lace, used 3 different stitches with bottom, middle and top being totally different from one another.

There are quite a few mistakes in this lace sample, but by the last two fan parts I finally thought I sort of knew what I was doing.  The picture shows the pattern used to make the lace which is just above it.  Now I want to find time to make this same pattern a couple more times to cement it into my brain. 

Grandchildren - Part 5

We ended up the week with a visit with some of our older grandchildren.  It was really, really hot this week, but we lived through it all.  We managed to fit in a movie, lots of watching the Olympics, a trip to the local university campus including some of the delicious ice cream made there.  We also made the traditional trip to the living history farm in spite of the heat.  These girls have been re-enacting at the farm since they were about 2 years old.  They started out with some of the more traditional womanly arts involving sewing and yarn.

 When they were needed a rest from that they wandered over to the mountain man site and decided to throw some tomahawks for a while.  If you look closely you can see a couple of the tomahawks flying through the air toward the target.  You don't want to mess with THESE pioneer women!

 See those three fingers?  That means she successfully threw the tomahawk into the target three times.

At the trading post they got to practice their penmanship skills with ink and quill pen as well as check out the various animal hides.  The bushy fox tail was a great favorite.

 You think maybe she is just basking in the sun?  Look carefully at what she is holding in her right hand!  It made a REALLY loud bang when she pulled that trigger!

We thought they'd be the last grandchildren to visit this summer, but rumor has it that perhaps we'll see a couple more.  Hope that rumor pans out!

Grandchildren - part 4

We are so rich in grandchildren!  The last couple of days two grandsons have come to visit.  They had their own list of activities they hoped to do, but we also found a few other things for them to do.  We got out the British version of Chutes and Ladders, called Snakes and ladders for them one night.

The boys wanted to play on the slip 'n slide, which they did.  The other thing on their list was to go to the living history farm. In addition to the things they remembered and loved in the past, there were a few new activities like writing with a real quill pen.

 Of course there are always lots of places to explore and critters to find.

 Another new activity for them was throwing tomahawks.  They were a bit reluctant at first but quite enjoyed it once they got started.

 It was a really hot day, so panning for gold in the shade (and playing in the water) were also popular activities.  Best of all, they were able to trade the gold (fool's gold) they found for prizes at the mercantile.

 Ben was enchanted with a top that I brought along and was proud when he figured out how to make it spin.

 When they tried the 2-man saw, they worked against each other for a while, but finally figured it out and got that log sawed.

 They rode the train and the ponies and then finished the day with Grandpa at the woodwright shop learning to use some of his tools.

Ben fell asleep in the car on the way home.   We'll miss them when they go home tomorrow.