A woman who knew her own mind...

Elizabeth Margaret Knott -  October 1919- March 2015

 

A woman who knew her own mind…and she was invariably right.  She instinctively made important life decisions such as building, buying and selling at the most opportune moments. She started life with everything stacked against her succeeding and had to quit school during the depression.   But she was unstoppable.  She designed and built seven houses plus designed and built an eighteen-hole golf course as well.  She was strong willed, opinionated and she not only knew what was best for her, she knew what was best for everyone else as well.

Widowed in her sixties it was suggested that she would now have to spend more time with other women. Absolutely not! She promptly had a facelift and made a list of criteria for the next man… tall, played bridge, played golf, liked to fish, liked to travel, a good dancer and, most important, liked to cook as she never did.  And being a natural beauty she soon found one - the first of many companions to be replaced as they died off… Gradually as the pool of available men became fewer, her list grew shorter…. down to “liked to cook” and then “drive at night” was added.

I loved her and admired her but our mother-daughter relationship was difficult and complex. She had no intention leaving this world peacefully and didn’t… Someone may be taking her to an unfamiliar place but that won’t stop her from telling them how to get there. There will be NO service.  She herself arranged it years ago so she goes straight from the mortuary to the grave and no obit as she didn't want anyone knowing her business. 

Overall preview and mother frustrations

Here is a rough overall preview of all nine block.. the buttons and lots of fine tuning remain but I'm taking a break to work on smaller projects while I sit with my mother and.................

that's why there have been so few posts... My relationship with my mother has always been trying.  If I had to pick three adjectives to describe her they would be negative, stubborn, and critical..and that's at the best of times.  Now she is 94.  She hears what she wants to hear when she's at a doctor's office and if she doesn't like what she hears, she goes to a different doctor.  Consequently her doctors are reduced to those who just give her lots of pills and out the door. She dislikes drinking fluids and hates water.  So it is a revolving door to the hospital with dehydration and kidney and bladder problems.  Then they send her to a rehab facility who insist on physical therapy which she hates and refuses to do.. So they send her back to assisted living even worse for wear and it all starts again.

Chatelaine and my blonde mom!

Hopefully this will be the last chatelaine for a while..  This one is for the class  display at the quilt shop and the class has already been approved and January dates selected. Sign up doesn't start until next month. This one is finished except for the tools for the pocket upper left...  I tried to keep the embellishment simpler on this... Didn't want to scare people.

One of my stitchers always uses a thimble and is fashioning a lace pocket for her thimble on her chatelaine.  Another would like to have a pocket for her glasses which she wears while stitching.

One friend would love to make one but this would be too fussy for her... I have some lovely black toile in the barn.  It would be fun to make a chatelaine with it coordinated with black and white stripes, checks and polka dots.  A whole different look. Between the suffrage quilt and the Morris book, I have an endless supply of black trims and lace.

This morning to went to town to bathe my mom and color her hair blonde.  She's 94 years old and does not want to be buried with gray hair..She has been telling me for years that I wouldn't look so old if I'd color my hair..  I don't mind my gray hair but I can't fault her the burying issue as I have a few of those myself.  I have a long list of things I want to be buried with including  my tambourine and my red shoes.