My Norris Family

My Norris relations start with:
John Norris (married Edna Brinker), son of
Noble Norris (married Nora Moore), son of
George Norris (married Nancy Wilson), son of
John Norris (married Ellen Woods).

John and Noble were born in Wayne Co., West Virginia and later moved to Medina Co., Ohio.

George was born in Lawrence Co., Ohio, moved to Wayne Co., West Virginia and later to Medina Co., Ohio.

John was born possibly in North Carolina, moved to Wythe Co., Virginia; then to Lawrence Co., Ohio and later to Wayne Co., West Virginia.

Genealogy Roll Call of Names I Research

And here are my families:

Brinker OH>PA -- decendants of Andreas BRINKER & Regula HERTER who immigrated to America in 1635

Drake from NW OH Silas Drake from Hancock Co., OH

Hubert -- I descend from two Hubert brothers, John G. & Valentine Jerome; KY>BAV

Kinter from OH>PA -- John KINTER & Margaret BANKS of PA

Judd -- from KY, includes The Judds country singers and actress Ashley Judd

Kuchenmeister, Kuckenmeister OH>GER Heinrich KUCHENMEISTER & Carolina FREITAG came to Cleveland, OH area in the 1850s

Norris OH>VA my oldest proven ancestor here is John NORRIS of NC who married Polly SONGER in Wytheville, Virginia; they moved to OH and then he married 2nd Ellen WOODS

Marxmiller KY>GER Diedrich, Henry, Christian MARXMILLER family lived around Covington, KY

Quackenbush from NW OH -- Mrs. Ann Quackenbush had Rowena, Tuneson, Alverado. I have been unable to locate Ann's husband's name.

These names I research, they are ancestors of my children on their paternal side:

Blackburn of Kentucky - David BLACKBURN of Grant Co., KY

Bradfield IN>OH>VA>ENG - Iantha BRADFIELD of Loudoun Co., VA

Heed -- Abraham HEED & Mary/Polly CREM

Plummer of Falmouth, Kentucky

Talbert, variations include: Tolbert, Talbott, Talbot -- Here are main lines that I have traced for a long time:

* John TALBOTT & Sarah LOCKYER of MD

* Richard TALBOTT & Elizabeth EWEN of MD

* Samuel TOLBERT & Keziah TRACY of Belmont Co., OH

Craft Area Organization

Here is a picture of my craft area organization. The green bookshelf in the midle holds my rubber stamps, then there is the sizzix bookshelf and the trim cabinets and bookshelves. On the bookshelf is my Cricut, and punches.

Hope this gives you some ideas. I know crafters always have lots of toys, oops meant tools, to organize.

Bead, Button and Trim Organization and Storage

Here is a close up of the yellow multi-drawer cabinets that I use to prganize all my little items. I have the buttons in drawers by colors; and try to divide the other items that way when I can.

That way if I need a blue button for a page I can pull out the little drawer with blue buttons in it; dump it out and find the one I like and then with my hand swoop all the others back in the drawer and slip it back into place. Takes a little while to organize at first. Just do it a little at a time while watch old favorite movies or shows that you know so you can listen while you work and still know what is going on.

I Like Sizzix

Here is a picture showing most of my sizzix, they are stored on a bookshelf that is narrow depth because it is sold to store your CDs on.

I have my alphabets like the Lollipop, Fun Serif stored in white plastic drawer containers. Each complete set of uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and punctuation fit in one drawer. So I can easily get out the alphabet I want to use and cut and then easily put them away.

The yellow drawer cabinets above hold buttons, beads, laces, trims and all little items like that.

Winnie-the-Pooh Denim Cathedral Window Quilt

This is a Winnie-the-Pooh denim cathedral window quilt. I made this for my granddaughter, Mary.

Norris Genealogy

Been working on my Norris genealogy lately; thanks to being contacted by a cousin.

Uncle Chester Norris and his brother, John Quincy Norris married sisters, Connie Rachel Ball and Ida Rebecca Ball.

Grandpa Noble Norris and brother William Norris also married sisters, Nora Elva Moore and Margaine Moore.

All these Norris boys were the sons of George Norris and Nancy Wilson.

Connie and Ida were the daughters of Hugh Ball and Amanda Jackson.

Nora and Margaine (aka Gaine) were the daughters of John B. Moore, Jr. and Emma Viola Judd.

Happy New Year!

May 2009 be your best year ever. Wish everyone happiness, health, love, and laughter this year.

God bless and protect all of our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines.

HOOAH

Solitude

Solitude
I have had the opportunity for the last two days and for about a week more to be alone. I am reveling in it. Having a huge family, peace, solitude and the calmingness of it all is so rare for me.
I feels like I have been out of focus for a while and now in the quietness I can be adjusted ever so slightly back into a clearer focus.
I am not lonely; and it does not mean I don't love my family immensely; but solitude has always been a bit of heaven to me.
Occasionally someone calls and we chat or someone drops by and we visit; but I now that peaceful quietness is waiting with open arms after my visitor goes back to their life. And I savor both experiences as someone savors the most delicious meal of their life.
And besides the quietness and calming; with feeling harried or rushed in the least I am being so very productive, I am loving it.

Merry Christmas

Warmest Christmas wishes to all of you.

This year has been a year of more changes that any in my life.

God is good and faithful; I have a warm roof, clothes and food. All my kids are healthy.

May all you have a wonderful Christmas.

May God protect all of our military members who are sacrificing so that we can have a peaceful Christmas.

Survey Paid

Received a check in the mail paying me for taking an online survey.

The company is: American Consumer Opinion, aka ACOP.

So they do pay, it isn't much but still it all helps.

Blue and White Log Cabin Quilt

This is a Log Cabin quilt I made long ago. I then neighbor had commissioned it from me. So I made it but when the time came to pay up. He decided Walmart sold cheaper blankets. Ok, whatever.

So this is in the proud possession of my oldest son, John.

John is very glad that our old neighbor was a flake.

It is a double bed size quilt.

Barbara's Billy Ray Cyrus Quilt

My friend has a sister that is severely mentally challenged. Her sister, Barbara, is crazy in love with Billy Ray Cyrus. She has all his music and scrapbooks with every single picture she can find of him in it. All the music cases and pictures are covered in lip prints as Barbara kisses them all every day. And when she gets a new picture or tape of him she just squeals.

As you can tell from the picture, Barbara loved her quilt, she was overcome with emotion seeing it.

So her sister had me make a Billy Ray for Barbara. So I pieced the background of every red fabric that said love to me, all different kinds of hearts and I even found a fabric with lip prints on it. Then on top of that I appliqued pictures of Billy Ray Cyrus. Some taken at concerts Barbara had gone to of his. And some I found online. I pieced the background first. Then I placed the pictures on the top as if you had them in your hand and just flicked them onto the bed.

Care Bears Denim Cathedral Windows Quilt

This quilt was made for my oldest granddaughter, Britny. She wanted Care Bears and I found this darling fabric with Care Bears sitting and sleeping on clouds.









A cool thing about this fabric is that the little clouds that the Care Bears are sitting and lying on glow in the dark. I didn't know that when I bought the fabric. I had been sewing on the quilt; and stopped for the night with the quilt pieces laying on my sewing machine. I turned out the light in the room and for some reason turned around. It startled me at first, because I had no clue what that weird eerie glowing light was from my sewing machine. So I went over to investigate and discovered the fabric glowed in the dark. That is pretty neat and especially for little kids that are scared of the dark.








Again the twinkles were added by me in a photoshop frenzy long ago.

I really like this pattern. How it starts with a circle and then you add a square and the circle wraps around the square making it a square. And when they are all put together it looks like endless interlocking circles.

I think the black stitching resembles the black leading in stained glass windows.

This is totally done on the machine, no hand piecing. i even rotary cut the squares for the insets; and I have a rotary cutting tool that cuts circles to cut the denim background circles.

This is another Denim Cathedral Window quilt this one was for my 3rd son, Joseph. He wanted a Nascar driver named Labonte [I forget his first name]. I searched in every store within the tri-state area to find this fabric finally found a little bit of it at a store 100+ miles away; and had them hold it for me til I got there.

The twinkles on the photo are from when I first was learning photoshop and was really impressed with playing with it.

This is a larger view of the OSU quilt. Don't stare at it too long or the background looks like it is pulsating, lol.

This was a queen size quilt.

OSU Quilt

This Ohio State University quilt brought in a 2nd place ribbon at the Scioto County, Ohio Fair.

The background is pieced in OSU's colors of scarlet and gray.

The logo is from a banner and is appliqued onto the quilt. It was quilt in an allover meandering pattern on a domestic machine.

Crazy Quilt Wallhanging

This is my first attempt at crazy quilting. I have been fascinated by crazy quilting for a long time.

So after several failed attempts at making a crazy quilt; that went in the trash. I came up with this one that I liked.

This was a birthday gift for my friend, Lidora.

It won a blue ribbon at the Scioto County, Ohio Fair.

The background is actually for crazy paper piecing blocks that I printed the papers for off line.

Then I embellished it with lots of beads and buttons.

I have quite a large button collection, thanks to being taught by my Grandmother Kuchenmeister to cut off and save all buttons from an piece of clothing that is going to be thrown out.

I tended to include lots of purple as it is both of our favorite colors and I threw in gold, because I love it and it goes so well with purple.

I also added in lots of lace and trims.

My friend really liked it.

I can not figure out how to get my pictures to be in any place but at the top of a post. Sorry blogger smushed them together.

This is a Snowball quilt top; that eventually was finished and sent off to charity. This was mye first quilt that had triangles in it, I believe. But I did not cut or piece triangles. I layered squares and sewed diagonally and then when I opened it triangles appeared. Same technique was used in parts of Tropical Storm at Sea for the small corner diamonds.

Tropical Storm at Sea Close-ups

This is a close-up a single block of the quilt, before it was sewn together. The quilt top had upwards of 2000 pieces in it and all o them were fussy cut for maximum effect. Often each piece was also directional, just to add to the mix.



This is a close-up of the completed quilt. Showing how the colors blended and made a wavy movement for your eyes across the surface of the quilt.

Tropical Storm at Sea

Tropical Storm at Sea

This quilt is an oversized twin quilt made in the traditional Storm at Sea pattern.
However, by fussy cutting and using the tropical colors it gives it a totally different look.

I was commissioned by a friend to make this for her oldest daughter. She said she wanted a quilt that was bright and colorful and reminded her of being at the beach. I cam up with this and she was happy with it.

The large diamonds have various undersea creatures in them, such as various species of fish.
The horizontal elongated diamonds have whales and dolphins or porpoises in them.
The vertical elongated diamonds have ocean backgrounds such as coral or seahorses in it.
The red points form a secondary star pattern.
The four elongated diamonds surrounding the large center diamond give the illusion of circle.
These same elongated diamonds form diagonal waves coursing across the quilt in both directions. The yellow is bits of sunlight piercing down into the watery depths.
The green is algae, kelp and various sea plants.

The entire quilt was quilted on a domestic machine in a mottled pattern that gives the impression of the shimmery surface on the ocean.

This patriotic Denim Cathedral Windows quilt was made for my second son, Josh. It started out as a lap sized one 12 rows by 15 rows; but every few months while I was sewing he would bring it so me and sweetly ask if I could add "just 1 more row to 1 side, please". And so I did. He had this up to almost a single / twin size throw.

He went to work in Louisiana before he enlisted in the Army and someone stole this quilt down in Louisiana.

So I am working on making him another one.

This one he wants the denim parts to be military camo; and a army fabric for the insets. I have the background circles all cut out; but came up 10 squares short for the Army fabric; and I can't find it at the local Walmarts!

I really want to make this for him, he just came home from serving a year long deployment in Iraq.

Denim Cathedral Window quilts

This is a type of Cathedral Window quilt that I got the idea for online and then sort of tweaked it into my own version. I have many of these quilts. Each different and each beautiful in a comfortable, homey way.

This one was made for a veteran and he wanted it "manly". That was his only stipulation. So the insets are a blue plaid - what could be more manly than that?

The background/back is cut from old denim most from jeans.

This one was a queen size one and it is very heavy and very warm.

Too much to do; too little time

I think that is the voice echoing in all our heads today. With Christmas only 5 days away; time is getting tight.

I got a list of things I want to get done before Christmas; some will get done, not sure about all of it.

But I am not going to harass myself because I did what I could; we can not push ourselves to do more and more 24/7/365.

I am always looking for peace but at the same time, I am making huge to do lists; I think there is a connection there. The longer the to do list the less peace there is.

Goodwill contest

For any of you Goodwill shoppers:

This was on my receipt:

Take our survey and enter for a chance to win a $25 Goodwill shopping spree.

visit http://www.giveit2goodwill.org

No purchase necessary. Must be legal resident of 50 US/DC.
18 or older. Limit 3 entries per month.

Congrats

2nd daughter called to let me know she has been promoted; she is a Specialist in the Army National Guard. Very proud of her.

Copyright issues for collage artists

Wanted to share this:
http://www.funnystrange.com/copyright/index.html

Copyright for Collage Artists
It tries to explain what copyright issues a collage artist needs to be aware of.

Trip to Washington, D.C.

My son, the one that just returned from Iraq; is leaving in the morning. But this time it is just a 2-3 day trip to Washington, D.C.



Last week, he and all the other recently returning Screaming Eagles at Fort Campbell; got to see the President, when he stopped to thank them for their service - so cool.



Tomorrow's trip is different, it is sad and happy.

It is sad because his buddies and him are going to the VA Hospital in Washington, DC to see their Sergeant. Only days before he was due to come home, this young hero's life was forever changed when his hummer hit a IED [a crudely made bomb] and his arm was blown off.

It is happy because, he is alive and back in the USA.



I feel sorry for this young man that I don't know that gave his arm for his country to defend my freedom. I feel guilty that I am grateful that it wasn't my son; although I know it could have easily been my son... or even my daughter, as my oldest daughter is still deployed to Iraq - a Staff Sergeant in the Air Force, she is on her 3rd deployment.



To all the mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, family members and friends; may your loved ones come home safe and sound as mine have so far. And God willing, they will continue to.



Deployments are a fact of life in my family:

oldest daughter - staff sgt in Air Force.

2nd son - cav scout with 101st Airborne - Screaming Eagle.

3rd son - ships to Basic at Ft Knox in 4 weeks; training to be a tanker crewman and set to deploy in the spring.

4th son - a high school freshman and taking JROTC classes.



God Bless this country and the soldiers fighting to keep it free.

Addressing Christmas Cards and Family History

It is time we start working on finishing up the Christmas newsletter and getting the Christmas cards ready to send messages of love to our family friends, both near and far.

As you are doing that, if you remember new facts about your family; quickly open up your genealogy management program; and add them. New marriage add it. New baby, add them. Don't worry that you don't have complete details now. Add what you know and then when you find more, you can go back in and edit it. Don't forget that after Christmas presents are open and dinner is served, is a good time to reminisce and you can do some updating then, if you remember to take along some information. A little planning now; will reap rewards later.

Christmas cards for Soldiers update

Well yesterday I got my cards mailed out for the soldiers. I sent 81.

Every year, you buy a box of Christmas cards; and send out how many you need and have some left. You bought them, paid good money for them, so you aren't going to just throw them away. So you save them. But the next year, you want fresh new cards; so you buy more.

I took all these leftover cards; and then spent a whole whopping $3.00 at Dollar Tree; where I found boxes of 16 cards for $1.00.

This is simple to do. Address them inside to something like, "Dear Soldier". Then I signed them: Thank you! Merry Christmas and my name. Easy peasy, as the kids say. Thank that soldier for paying the price to let you enjoy freedom.

Do it now; even if you just send one, that is another soldier that will know he is appreciated.

If you send multiple cards; mail them in the same large envelope. So I now have all the envelopes left from these cards that I can use to mail out other things. That's a win-win.

Pretty Pink Hat

I made this pretty pink crocheted ruffled hat for my granddaughter's birthday. The hat pattern is a simple one that I googled "girl crocheted hat" then I added the ruffle by dc 3x in every stitch.