Ms. Cleaver Chronicles

Between my last post and this one my world stopped.

After church on August 16th, while washing her hands to make lunch, my Grandmother collapsed and never got up again.

Though she was 81, she was in excellent health and her death shocked us all.

I felt the same way I did when my father passed away five years ago – that the world has lost one of it’s greatest members and most people didn’t even know what they missed, and what I am missing so very very much.

This blog was the home page on my Grandmother’s computer. We always talked about it when we spoke on the phone or when she wrote. I only feel it appropriate to put down some of my memories of her in this space.

Leota was a wife of 58 years, mother of two, grandmother to five, great grandmother to one, with another on the way.

She was a home economics teacher, a part-time bookkeeper, a bridge player, a quilter, a needleworker, a cook, a collector of sterling silver napkins rings, and the consummate hostess.

She was always stylish and had her hair done every Thursday. I though I got my red hair from her, until my mother told me she got it from a bottle.

She was born in Missouri, but called it Missoura in a town named Isadora she called Isadori -

that she took each grandchild to visit when they were twelve.

She started life on a farm, but traveled the country

and the world

She had a succession of somewhat sad-looking Southern California Christmas trees

and made fantastic feasts.

She quilted each of us a blanket and stitched each of us a specifically chosen Christmas stocking.

Mr. Cleaver’s was the last stocking she completed and our wedding quilt was the last quilt she finished. Her round robin quilting group was working on a biography quilt, when she passed away – the squares she made for her own quilt depicted the farm she lived on after she first got married and of the balloon ride she took over the African safari.  That’s my grandmother in a nutshell.

Oftentimes when someone dies, everyone scrambles to find a photos or an object to remind them of the one we lost, none of us had to scramble pieces of her handiwork were already there.

I can’t believe she’s no longer with us, but at the same time, every time I pick up needles, or press a seam, she’ll be there.

I love you and I miss you very much – and if there’s internet in heaven, I know you’re still reading this blog.

(Thanks to Jen for the scans)

A little over a month ago now, I took that pattern-making class at the local art college and in the weeks leading up to our Philly trip I tried my hand at my first pattern-drafting project.  As one might expect for a first go, this one had its ups and downs and a number of changes along the way.

Big change #1 – this started out as a dress. I’d carefully drafted and sewed together a bodice and had started doing some draping with a skirt when I realized that this pattern was waaaaayyy to busy for a head to toe garment, at least for me.  As

just a top I wasn’t digging it, so I turned my focus to skirt portion. (As I side note, I wouldn’t recommend using a heavily patterned/directional fabric like this for your first drafting project, but then again I never did anything the easy way).

Over all it’s a pretty basic high-waisted a-line skirt, but it’s rather fitted. The most major design feature in it’s construction is the inverse pleats at the waist.

Big Change #2 – the pleats were originally mirrored on the reverse side for shaping, but that made the posterior region look terrrrrible.  So again, we adapt. I ended up moving the shaping into the zipper seam and let me say that it’s an interesting experience trying to put tailoring/pins marks on the backside of something that you are wearing and then trying to take it off. That said, it only took three round of basing stitches to get a well fitting seam that didn’t make me look like I was wearing a bustle.

After that it was just finishing, which was easy. In honor of clean lines and hand-sewing month at Sew Mam Sew! I handstitched both the waist band and hem, which looks really sleek.

Overall, I’m really happy with the way it turned out. It fits really well, though  in hindsight, I think I would have added an additional inch of ease in the hips (is that a pun?). But not too bad for a first try. I’m looking forward to doing more of this in the future!

Last weekend, Mr. Cleaver and I took our big summer vacation, a long weekend in Philadelphia.

We were fortunate to spend a few days with Mr. Cleaver’s college roommate and his family, who showed us around town and make sure we got plenty of great food to eat.  Our days pretty much went like this: sleep in, eat break fast, go out and see awesome things, eat some local food, head back to the house, play with the kids and chat with the adults, sleep and repeat.

Some of the awesome things we saw?

Star Trek: The Exhibition at the Franklin Institute (nerds, eat your heart out!)

If sci-fi tv series aren’t your thing, the Franklin had a lot of other incredible exhibits including the Amazing Machine, which contained one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, an automaton who can draw pictures and write poems with better handwriting than me (seriously – check out the videos – so cool).

Another great thing about the Amazing Machine is that a old Singer sewing machine was used to explain the majority of the types of machine parts. Also – the first sewing machine caused a tailor’s riot in France!

The Franklin also had a lot of great hands on exhibits including the Franklin Airshow and Sir Issac’s Loft, when Mr. Cleaver is shown literally pulling his own weight.

Of course it wouldn’t be my first trip to Philly without my first cheesesteak and for those who know about these things: Geno’s, with, no wiz.

On our second day, we went out to Valley Forge to pick up a little Revolutionary War knowledge, including learning about General Baron Frederick William Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben, who I had never heard of and turned the Colonists from a rag-tag band of individual militias in the U.S. Army.

And there’s no better way to follow up a load of history with some Guitar Hero.

Our last day in Philly we headed out our own to Old Philly for some more history and learning. We saw the Liberty Bell, which was smaller than I thought it’d be; the National Constitution Center, which made me cry and I highly, highly recommend; and a lovely and haunting performance of a glass armonica.

These are just a sampling of the photos I took on the trip, but if you want to see more you can check out my “Philly Trip” photoset on Flickr.