These are pictures of a quilt I just finished. I used to handquilt but arthritis has forced me to quit to so I had to have this one quilted. I did put the blocks together by hand but I don't have to use a thimble to do that. For many years a friend and I had our own little quilting bees and quilted for our church bazaar. I made my first quilt when I was a sophmore in highschool and didn't dream I would have to quit someday.
My mother when she died had completed quilts for my sister and I. I chose a double wedding ring. She also had tops made for her granddaughters and grandsons,and the great grands which included one unborn baby.
I don't sew as much as I used to as computer, reading and genealogy take time from the sewing machine. I find myself making blankets out of fleece and flannel. I am not really happy with them as they aren't quilts. SeWhatt, they keep the babies warm and knowing memaw made them makes them special. At least I think so for they are made for special babies.

The picture I posted yesterday was of my daddy Quinton Beasley and his father Arthur Claude
'Bum' Beasley and it was posted on the 25th but like 1 am in the morning, guess my computer and I aren't in the same time frame.

Grandpa was known as 'Bum" all his life because he bummed pennies. He had an older brother whose name was Charles Anderson. I have noticed in some genealogy sites that it is indicated
that they are one person, C. A./A.C. There were definitely different people. Uncle Charlie was a hard worker and built the barn pictured here before moving to Hughes Co. Ok. He farmed and later moved into Wetumka. He has a large garden in his back yard with grapes and fruit trees.
There was a big garden at Grandpa's but it was called Grandma's garden.

Grandpa never owned an automobile and I don't remember ever seeing one at Uncle Charlie's. We always went to see him and he went to Little Piney with us to visit.

Wetumka's highschool burnt one year and they didn't have school that fall so Uncle Charlie's daughter Wanda went home with us. She was there the day I started to school. Years later I was visiting her family in Shawnee, Ok. Her son Dennis took me to meet a lady whose house he had wired for an intercom. It was my first grade teacher Mrs. Shubert. It is indeed a small world.

Uncle Charlie and Aunt Bertha had two daughters, Maxine and Wanda. Maxine's daughters were younger than I. One year we stayed at Uncle Charlies over Christmas. Santa still came to see me but not in Wetumka. I had to wait until we got home but I forgave him. There was a baby doll I named Jimmy, a quilted cradle and a little trunk filled with doll clothes, blankets and a flower garden quilt. That is one of the few Christmas's I remember from when I was young.

Happy Birthday Daddy

If my father was living he would be 93 today. Born on June 25, 1907 he was the eldest child of 'Bum' and Susie Ober Beasley and was born beside Little Piney Creek in Johnson Co. Ar. His name was Quinton Dillard and he was named for his grandfather Quinton Dillard Beasley who lived across the field in a two story log cabin built before the Civil War. I loved to hear him talk about his childhood.

His Uncle George Gillian gave him a puppy that he named Woodrow after President Woodrow Wilson. To keep Woodrow from whining Grandma Susie fed it butter. Woodrow lived until Daddy was a young man.

A time that was exciting for daddy was when the peddler came in his horse pulled hack. The sides opened up and it had double doors in the back. Oh the wonderous things the peddler brought. Tops that spun, whistles, marbles, pocket knives coveted by the older boys, dolls and dishes for the little girls. Needles, thread, pearl buttons, chewing tobacco, tools, spices, it was all there.

Daddy got his first job when he was about 12. His parents built a two story frame home and he fired the boiler for the sawmill which was set up by the creek.

As his grandparents got older he stayed with them, bringing water from a spring at the creek, chopping wood, picking the leaves from spice bushes for his Grandma to use for her tea.

What a wonderful place for a little boy to grow up, a paradise of swimming holes, fishing holes, and hunting all sorts of game. Happy Birthday Daddy.

What do I write about?

Mentally (is that a word) I have a long list of ideas I would like to write about but would anyone but me be interested? Guess we will find out. I love genealogy and have spent years searching for ancesters of my 'families'- Reeves, Beasley, Wetherington, Lester, Skaggs, Ober, Nicks, and on and on. I have traveled to South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee; Ohio, Pennsylvania; Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, and Arizona searching for our past. The rest of the US I have covered by computer. I am fortunate that Jerry enjoyed traveling and walking thru cemeteries. We have met distant cousins that have become good friends.

On the wall in front of my computer is my genealogy wall. A large picture of my great great grandmother, Lucinda Johnson Skaggs White who came from Green Co. Kty to Johnson Co., Arkansas in the 1840's is surrounded by pictures of other early settlers and each have their own stories. I hope to share some of these with you.

Do I want to do this?

A year ago I opened a blog and didn't follow up on it. A cousin has asked me why I don't have a blog, I remembered that I had one, checked it out, and lo and behold it was still there. I don't know where it is going to take me but we shall see.