Journal: Fourth of July

It’s 11:30 p.m., and the Fourth of July of 2016 is almost over.  We’ve had an enjoyable picnic at Pawnee Park with family and friends, and we are now on our way back from West Point, where we watched a spectacular pyrotechnics show.  They advertised it as ‘the best fireworks show in Nebraska’, and I’d say they lived up to their hype, outdoing even Omaha’s and Lincoln’s shows.  And the music wasn’t as bad as usual, since most of it was big band patriotic songs, the kind that makes you want to march in formation and smack big drums with large mallets.

Tuesday, I decided to make another pansy block.  The pansies on the first one just aren’t big enough to show up properly on this quilt.  And I do need a back for the bag I’m going to make using the ‘bad glad’ (the gladiolus mishmash).

I really like my rotary cutters and June Tailor 12” x 18” and 12” x 12” slotted rulers.  I switch back and forth from an ergonomic Martelli to a straight-handled Olfa; easier on the wrist that way.

Speaking of rotary cutters...  Victoria once cut some fabric with one of my rotary cutters.

On the ironing board.

Without a cutting mat.

The ironing board cover had been new.

‘Had been’ were the operative words in the previous sentence.

I posted some new pictures — Flowers, Fruit, and a Two-Spotted-Stinkbug — and then went to my sewing room.  By bedtime, the templates for the pansy block were done, ironed onto fabric, edges ironed over, and the pieces were ready to be glued onto the background.

Wednesday, I posted another page of photos:  Tall Phlox, Hollyhocks, and a Tiger

Before getting back to the appliquéing, I posted the next pattern in the Buoyant Blossoms BOM series – the Nine-Patch Pinwheel blocks:  Nine-Patch Pinwheels.  I added a fourth option for downloading:  Google Drive.  Links are on my blog.  I hope that helps a few of the people who were having troubles downloading the pdf files.

The small pinwheels are paper-pieced.  The points always turn out so neat and precise, with this method.  Paper-piecing HSTs is fairly easy.  But trying to paper-piece odd shapes with strange angles makes me feel quite a lot like a child must feel when he walks up to a little chair, turns around to sit on it – and invariably turns either too far or not far enough:

PLOP

He misses the chair and sits on the floor, then looks around in astonishment to see who moved the chair.

That’s exactly how I feel when I sew the line, fold the piece back right side up – and it comes nowhere near landing on the spot it’s supposed to cover. 

I will say this:  I’ve improved since the first time I tried it.  (Paper-piecing, that is.) 

I think Tiger has decided he’s entitled to anything and everything we have to offer.  He doesn’t understand handouts, though; when we hold out tidbits of food, he doesn’t seem to realize we are trying to give him something, and he’s not interested in cheese at all.  Cats are all so different... different tastes, different habits... some caused by what they’ve been accustomed to.  I wonder what became of his owners?  He’s definitely been used to being in a house before.

There was a bat in the house when we got home from church Wednesday night.  Arrgghh, I hate those things.  Or at least, I hate them when they come into my house!  It came flapping through the living room, aimed right into the kitchen where we were, and swooped straight at my head, as always.  I ducked under the table so fast, Larry didn’t even know where I’d gone to.

He got the tennis racket, and the next time the furry Chiroptera came winging through, ka-THWACK! – he got himself knocked clean outa the sky.

The chicory is in bloom.  It may be a wildflower, but it’s sure pretty, with its delicate lavender-periwinkle blossoms.  We have some itty-bitty wildflowers that, when seen close up, look like delicate orchids.

One time when we were in eastern Colorado, we had to stop in the middle of nowhere to replace a tire on a trailer on which we were hauling four-wheelers.  At a quick glance, it looked like nothing but desert all around, with a few yucca and sagebrush scattered about.  While Caleb and Larry changed the tire, Victoria and I hiked down a little dirt road.  I found innumerable tiny wildflowers of all variety and hue, along with a considerable array of colorful insects and diminutive butterflies.

When I showed my photos to Larry that night in a cabin up in the mountains, he was quite surprised when I told him where I’d taken those particular shots.  There’s beauty just about everywhere, if you only know how to look for it! 

That night, I stitched down the pansies on the new block.  These, I’m satisfied with.

I sold a couple of patterns that day.  Since I bragged last month on all the patterns I was selling, there was a severe slow-down, and I’ve only sold 4 or 5 in the last three weeks.  That’s what I get for bragging, eh?

Thursday morning found Victoria sewing a skirt for the Fourth-of-July picnic.  I showed her my favorite (and the easiest) way to put in a zipper, and she did it quite well.

I finished the embroidery on the pansy block that afternoon, then went to Amy’s to pick up some things the four older children had made of Lego.  Ethan had done a watercolor painting, too.  I would take these to fair the next morning when I went.  Lyle made this truck hauler and all the things with it. 

I also borrowed back the fish mug rugs I’d given the three older boys and the teddy bear mini quilt I’d made for Josiah.  At least, that’s what the girl at the fair called it (‘mini quilt’), thus allowing me to enter them all.  They only allow one entry per person in any given category.  But there are many categories, and they go out of their way to help people find an appropriate one for all of their items.

Then I went to Hester’s house to pick up the pillow I’d made for her.  She showed me their spare bedroom upstairs where they’ve put in a bedroom set, and she has the quilt and pillows I gave them on it. 

Next, to Lydia’s house.  Jacob came out to meet me with the Rooster hotpad and the Hershey’s cow placemat.

The tassels on Hester’s pillow were coming apart, so I fixed them when I got home.  It wasn’t an easy task.  They’re made of fine, slippery thread, and I could hardly hold them tightly in a tassel and wrap thread around them and tie it all at the same time.  But they’re fixed now.

That evening, Larry was getting ready to go to the village of Kansas, on the far side of Illinois, 625 miles to the east, to pick up a pickup (sounds funny, like saying ‘quilt a quilt’) whose engine he plans to use to fix the Dodge pickup he already has.  He was going to ride his motorcycle there, get the pickup running (he didn’t think it would be too much trouble) (he never does) (in fact, maybe it runs already, he remarked with his usual happy optimism), put the motorcycle on the pickup’s flatbed, and drive the pickup home.

A little after 10:00 p.m., Teddy called.  He’d tried calling Larry... gotten no answer... and so he called me.  He was worried about Larry riding his motorcycle so far.  “Did you know there was a motorcycle crash on the highway north of your house, just a few minutes ago?” he asked. 

And then, as sometimes happens, our phones lost connection.

Well, as he told me this, I’d been trotting up the stairs to give my phone to Larry, who I supposed was probably sleeping on the loveseat or something.

He was not in the house.

His phone and wallet were on the table... but he wasn’t there.

I promptly thought maybe he’d gone to try out his motorcycle for one reason or another, and my heart pounded so hard, I felt like I’d just run a marathon.

I redialed Teddy, and about the time he answered, I found Larry in the garage, getting his motorcycle ready for the trip the next morning.  Teddy went on with his story:  an ambulance had hauled the rider away, and shortly thereafter, the LifeFlight had come to the hospital.

Teddy tried to talk his father out of riding his motorcycle, unsuccessfully.

Larry’s a good rider, and a safe rider.  His father taught him when he was very young and starting to ride small dirt bikes to always expect the other guy to pull out in front of you, swerve into you, etc., and to watch every nearby vehicle carefully, and be ready.

Early Friday morning, Larry headed for Kansas, Illinois, population 787 – on his motorcycle. 

A couple of hours later, I headed to Ag Park, where our Platte County Fair will be held, the Jeep loaded with all the things I planned to enter in the fair. 

Hannah and the children were there entering some things they’d all made. 

I got a glimpse of things other people were entering; there were a couple of very pretty quilts.

My phone chirped – it was a text from Larry.  He was in Adair, Iowa, filling with gas, and his motorcycle had gotten 40 mpg.  Adair is 159 miles to our east.  He still had 466 miles to go.

Later, I got a couple more Buoyant Blossoms patterns ready to post on Craftsy and Etsy, and then I altered the blouse I planned to wear for our Fourth-of-July picnic.

That evening, I took Loren some supper:  chicken breast fillet, mashed potatoes (made with provolone cheese, since I didn’t have any milk – yummy) and brown gravy, mixed vegetables, corn, orange jello, and pineapple upside-down cake.

I updated his Chrome browser and got AccuWeather back up and running for him, as a storm was moving closer, and he likes to keep track of it on interactive radar.

Tiger came in the house with me when I returned.  First, he ate... then he drank... then he explored... then he ate... drank... and finally he lay down near me and stayed there for quite a while before meandering back outside.

Victoria came rushing in a little after 7:00 p.m., Tiger moseying behind her, and began making supper for Kurt.  She’d marinated chicken pieces in the refrigerator overnight, and now she stirred up a crunchy coating for them, and put them into the oven. 

Finding Victoria too busy to give him any attention, Tiger followed me downstairs, and commenced to rubbing around my ankles as I stood at my sewing table measuring and cutting.  A little while later, Teensy came downstairs, too.  Shortly thereafter, wonder of wonders, they were laying not six feet apart, snoozing calmly (as opposed to hissing and spitting).

Bobby’s aunt (who is also Kurt’s great-aunt) has given Victoria a beautiful set of china, white with silver trim.  It’s lovely.  Simple and elegant – just what Victoria likes. 

I like peanut butter/tomato sandwiches.  But it has to be on toast, rather than bread, or I don’t like it at all.  Oh, and crunchy peanut butter, too.  Jif is my favorite.  Extra-crunchy.

I thought it would be horrid, and refused to even try it when I was little.  But my mother and sister later talked me into it, and I finally took a bite.

Mmmmmm, mmmm.  I was hooked on a brand-new delicacy.

Around 8:00 p.m., I got this photo from Larry.  He wrote, “Loaded and fueled up and heading for home.”

So he now has Ugly Dodge, Good Motor/Transmis-sion; Pretty Dodge, Bad Motor/Transmission.  This will hopefully add up to Good and Pretty Dodge someday.

I got the Buoyant Blossoms quilt top halfway put together that night.  I pinned a couple rows of quilt blocks together very, very carefully... matching up all the seams and HSTs as precisely as possible... taking one little spot out a couple of times just to get it perfect... only to finally realize ----- I’d forgotten about the sashing.

On the plus side, once I’d taken it back apart and added the sashing, the only things that needed to be matched up were the cornerstones; so it didn’t take too long to have it back together again.

Once the mistake was fixed, I hit the hay.  No sense in spinning one’s wheels just because one is too sleepy to think straight, much less sew straight.

Saturday, I finished putting the top together, added a border, and then cut the next one, which will have a lot of triangles and little squares in it.

It rained, one of those nice rains that gets everything well-watered but doesn’t destroy anything.  At 11:00 a.m., I got this note from Larry:

“Well, I guess I’ll be home around 2:00 p.m. if nothing else goes wrong.  Tires losing tread, no jack or wrench to take tires off, cable on transmission falling off, and taking a couple of naps.  Everything’s working normal except you aren’t along to take pics of all the action.”

Once home, he set about making up for the fact that he’d only had 7 hours of sleep in the last 48.  He woke up long enough to have supper, and then soon went to bed.

Tiger is evidently pretty sure this is his house now.  He came in, cuddled up to the food dish, and ate to his heart's content.  Then, feeling a little nervous, he explored a bit, gathered his courage, and hopped up on the loveseat.  There he found a fleece blanket, which he pumped his big paws on, then curled up on.

Yesterday, Pastor Daniel Chamberlain, a friend from Oklahoma, was here visiting, and he preached for all three of our services.  We very much enjoy his preaching.

After church, I made a pasta/cucumber/shredded carrot salad and blueberry streusel cake for our church picnic. 

Larry decided not to go on a bike ride last night; there was too much traffic – and some of them were probably three sheets to the wind.  He went this morning instead.

Recently, a friend and I were remembering a late friend of ours who had Down’s Syndrome.  I will never forget how hard she laughed when I tried to ride her big tricycle.  As I started around a corner to the left, I tried leaning as one does with a bike, and of course it didn’t lean, which made me feel like I was falling to the right, so I therefore corrected as one does on a bike – by turning hard to the right.  I wound up going around in a tight right-handed circle, lickety-split.

And Jeanne, in the middle of all her laughing, informed me, “You should learn how to ride a tricycle one of these days!”

This morning I baked bagel dogs, and we filled our 5-gallon jug with water and ice.  We loaded the picnic basket with plastic divided plates, glasses, silverware, and paper towels.  Then off we went to Pawnee Park.  It was 66°, and only got up to about 73° by midafternoon – an extraordinarily nice day for a picnic in mid-Nebraska July.  There was a bit of a breeze, and it was overcast and easy on the eyes.  Good for photos, too.

About 400 people were there.  Everyone brings (more than) enough food for their own families, and we put all the bowls and dishes and pots and pans and trays on long tables in one of the big shelters in our large city park.  There were two long tables full of main courses, and another full of all manner of desserts.

After we eat, the children all rush off to play.  There is a playground with equipment, and on other sides of the shelter are volleyball courts, basketball courts, and fields for playing baseball and football.  There are paths for hiking, some of which go through woods alongside the Loup River.  I took 424 photos – and that number is steadily increasing as I copy photos and crop to various individuals.

Here’s a story I tell to you only because I think you are my friends, and expect you to remain so even into my dodderage and feeblemindedness.

First, I give you a few basic statistics, so that you can understand the dynamics:

Our friends Curtis and Joyce have three young boys and a month-old baby girl.

Curtis’ brother Ryan and his wife Jeanie have two little girls, Cristina and Clarice.

Okay.  So there I was, trotting happily about snapping pictures as fast as my little trigger finger would go.  I got a cute shot of Cristina.  I wandered hither and yon until my brain was scrambled with People and Places and Things To Do... came upon Curtis... and informed him that his little daughter was just sooo sweet and pretty (he of course was smiling by now)... and I finished it off by saying, “And she’s always so friendly, too!”

If he looked somewhat nonplussed (thinking, Well, I suppose one-month-old babies can be ‘friendly’, if you think about it properly), I failed to notice.

I went away, Canon in hand.

My brain churned slightly.

Oh.

Yes.

Quite so.  (In a Winnie-the-Pooh tone.)

Curtis popped up again in a nearby location, so I went to inform him I’d smartened up:  “That little girl I was talking about is your brother’s!  I knew that... ” – and then, the coup de grâce:  “—you only have boys!”

Curtis smiled politely through it all.

I went away, satisfied that he no longer considered me a candidate for the Funny Farm-------------and then remembered that he and Joyce have a brand-spankin’-new baby girl.

I didn’t go back and correct my error, for fear of making another worser one.  I told Hannah, “Instead, I believe I’ll just go put a bag over my head until it’s time to go.”

Sigggggggghhhhhhhh...

At least I got a cute picture of Cristina!  (And I did know her last name.  That counts for something.)

When we got home, Larry worked on a coworker’s skid loader (the one we got in South Dakota) down in his building.  The neighbors to our south were burning a pile of branches – and the wind was directly from the south.  :-P  I was glad we would soon be heading off to West Point to watch the fireworks, and I hoped the breeze would clear the air by the time we get home.

Here are Kurt and Victoria leaving Pawnee Park; Victoria was scheduled to work from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. – and they paid her overtime.  It worked out well; people were starting to pack up and leave the park anyway. 

I wish you an enjoyable and safe day.  Here in Nebraska, we’ve already had someone lose a couple of fingers on Saturday, and tonight someone lost a hand and damaged an eye setting off a homemade explosive device.  Lives can change forever in the blink of an eye.

Now I should either go to bed or make more coffee.

I choose... go to bed!

,,,>^..^<,,,       Sarah Lynn       ,,,>^..^<,,,