A Touch of Blue

I spent most of a month in Canada recently, coming back only a week ago. It was a hectic, wonderful, family time. There was a new baby (born on my birthday!), a wedding and lots of family to get together with. 

In spring, we'd been thinking about the reception for the wedding and how to decorate the tables. Also, my sister had mentioned that years ago her collection of small blue glass bottles had broken and she'd like to start a new small collection of blue bottles to put in her window. I mentioned the request for blue bottles at weaving one Tuesday. One of our weavers, Bonnie, mentioned that there was a beer bottle that was a beautiful blue. She brought one the next week and I took a picture to send to my sister. Ultimately, the decision was made to use that bottle to decorate the tables in the tent where the reception would be held. 

There were 30 tables with 2 bottles per table....alot of people "forced" themselves to indulge so that I would have enough bottles to take up to Canada for the reception. 

The result was beautiful.

 It was so simple, white table cloth, narrow runner down the middle, pretty vases with flowers, an Ikea lacey candleholder on each end and tiny white pails with fish gummies as a favor.

 If anyone is needing decorations for a wedding up in Moose Jaw........I know where you can borrow some pretty blue vases!!

The wedding was Sept 13. I left the following Wednesday to begin my drive south. Mom had had so many highlights in the last months, her first live great granddaughter, the wedding and seeing me for a month. Her health had been so precarious for so many years. She'd had 6 by passes 7 years ago and during the recuperation she developed a nasty infection that took her to the ICU on life support as she fought her way back. Her kidneys did not come back so she was on dialysis 3x a week ever since. Mom was a trooper. She did what she could and always had ideas of things to do inspite of being in a wheelchair the last year of her life. I think it was the day before I left to drive back, I heard her in the kitchen. She had locked the wheelchair in place, pulled herself up, and was washing the dishes.

Frieda Martens, 1923 - 2014.
Mom passed away early Saturday morning after being in the hospital for 5 days. She'd been in the hospital before the wedding for a week but had been well enough to ride the 5 hours to the camp where the wedding would be. Mom was a very creative person, sewed most of our clothes, had a big vegetable and flower garden for years and was the matriarch of the family. Born in the Ukraine, she'd come over as a small child with her family. After marrying Dad, they'd been missionaries in Belgium Congo for 5 years. My sister was born there. Once home in Canada, they had to start over and her creativeness helped us survive.
We will miss her more than words can say but she's so happy now to be with Dad, our brother Rob and her first great granddaughter, Coralee.

Mom was so happy that day. It was great fun to see her enjoy herself. Rachel put her corsage on. If you look closely, you can see the bit of blue showing by the shoulder straps of her gown. Well, we sewed Rachel into that dress. After my sister sewed most of it, I ended up doing some more just to be sure no blue would show, and it didn't. She was well sewn in!! As we went through the reception line, I slipped a seam ripper into her new husband's hand so he'd have a way to get her out of it! Fun times!

So I'm back here in Knoxville. I will fly up a couple of times in the next few weeks to be with family again but I'm trying to get some weaving and finishing done for the show that's coming up in a couple of weeks.
Family comes first.
Until next week, maybe (I'll be flying), keep weaving and keep your family close.
Carol