Virgie Bell's View/Visit

Hi Diane...Just as well do a post and get to visit with you at the same time. These three cup towels are Jerry's. It is all I had left here. I gave so many sets away. You can get the patterns to embroidery at the notions department in Wal-Mart. The really neat thing is that they have all of the same patterns there were when I was a little girl and Mama Curry was teaching me to do this. The cup towels themselves come from Wal-Mart and are already hemmed. They are flour-sack cup towels, which is in keeping with the old time traditions.

I will forever be grateful to my grandmother for the wonderful two weeks I spent at her house every summer. We did our sewing-shopping at Woolworth’s in downtown Lubbock in those days. We would walk about two blocks and catch the bus and spend the day. She and I were kindred souls. We found much joy in the creative things we shared. In fact, she was the recipient of my first writing. I had forgotten all about that until just now. One summer I did comic books where I drew the characters and made up the dialogue, then colored them while she became my constant reader. I never had a better friend. I know Aaron is enjoying her. Mama Curry was so full of life and joy. Her interest was her family and what went on in our lives.

You can get the patterns for embroidery at a Hobby Lobby, but they really don't have as much in what I like to do. They have gorgeous and very expensive sets to do. I wanted to do the cup towels of the past. Not new and ritzy stuff. I do know that I am a dying breed since I like to do this stuff, but I find it relaxing. I haven't really gotten into it yet, as Jerry is building a storage room/kitchen in the backyard, and of course, I have to watch. We did so much remodeling last summer, so I really missed the yard. We haven't gotten it all back to the state I want yet, but it is a beautiful and peaceful place. I sit at that same place you saw the picture of and mourn Aaron.

I feel God very close in nature. Look at the sunlight dappled on the lawn. It travels and weaves back there for hours at a time. It is solid shade; therefore if you have flowers, they have to be artificial. I don't like the silk flowers, but it is the only way to have any flower. The green things on the table are Sedum, God’s greatest gift to gardeners. You snap them off and slip it right into wet soil and you are done forever. They come back year after year and require nothing. We call them ‘Never Dies’ because they sleep each winter, but come back even stronger when spring arrives. They will have a burgundy blossom toward the end of summer, and it never falls off, so get some for sure.

The cup towels come in packages of five and are just about a dollar each. I really have no idea as I have bought each time by the basketful. I tend to be gung ho no matter the project of the moment and there is always a project going for me. Reading is my true passion, but I limit it to bedtime, except for newspapers and magazines and recipe books. If I didn't, Jerry would need a second job to keep me in my reading. Being my husband costs a lot for someone who doesn’t read himself. He likes ball games and we watch the news and that covers it all for our house. I find it so surprising that people like Al Gore and Tipper go nuts over TV Programs. It is goony if you ask me. Our ex-Vice President and ex-President are couch potatoes and movie buffs. Do you suppose JFK and Reagan were? I don't think so. I turn on FOX news each morning, it goes off at bedtime, but it is really just background noise. You find you are mostly caught up on world affairs and such without becoming too engrossed. I used to love the movies, but the stars themselves turn me off these days. I promise you in my youth, there was never movie after movie with cartoon characters. All the movies were good for family viewing. We had beautiful women and heavenly handsome men back then. Not the Britney's and the Barbra's of this day and age. Lana Turner, Greer Garson, Claudette Colbert, Rita Hayworth and on and on and on with Humphrey Bogart, John Payne, and James Stewart. The real alpha kind of men. If the jerk, Michael Moore, had been on the scene, he would have been lucky to save Mama Curry and me our lunch at Woolworth’s. All the Directors were along the lines of Howard Hughes and the like. They didn't look like droop and slop Moore. If he had been anywhere on the scene, it would’ve spoiled my vision of the world as I saw it on the Silver Screen and dreamed of it being in my little girl heart. Until I wrote my first comic book with my grandmother, all the while, smelling her wonderful meals cooking in her kitchen, well, a girl just didn't get luckier than that.

The iron-on patterns are Aunt Martha's, and you can view them all over the internet. You can even order all the stuff including the metal embroidery hoops. You can only get the plastic at Wal-mart, but they break too easily. I never finished the rug I started on years ago. Send pictures of yours when finished. Until then, SUPPORT THE TROOPS!