Journal: A Bit of Quilting

About a week ago, Larry washed the Jeep.  It has black metallic paint, and a wash job makes it glisten and shine.  A couple of days later, I happened to glance out the window.  There sat the Jeep in the drive, sparkling in the sunlight – with a couple of cardinals, a brilliant red male and his duller buff-colored mate, perched right on the hood.  Even as I watched, an English sparrow landed on the drive beside the Jeep and pecked up some fallen purple coneflower seeds.  Then he turned, observed his reflection in the passenger side door, and promptly went to dueling with it!  Aauugghh, my newly washed Jeep!  🙄

I miss fluffy little Tabby.  He could seem like a bit of a dumb bunny at times, but he always, always had a sweet disposition.  I keep thinking I see him coming along to ask for his soft food, from the corner of my eye.  And then I remember...

Our old kitchen chairs are still in the back hallway, all jumbled together and in the way.  Larry can’t seem to think of any place to put them.  He suggested putting them upstairs in one of the rooms I fixed all up a few months ago!! 

I ranted and raved, “Why are you and your carburetors attracted to all my clean spots?!!!”

And he laughed.

Sigggghhhhh...

I think I’ll make matching chair covers for all the chairs... fix up the old ones... and keep them handy.  We never have enough chairs around this place.  A friend sent me a free online pattern; isn’t it pretty?  Right down my alley.  

Wednesday, I got back to working on Todd and Dorcas’s quilt.  A break that evening for our church service... and then I worked on it again after we got home and had a late supper.  By the time I quit, I’d finished seven more Carolina Lily blocks.  There were just two more to go.

Somebody asked me if I could share the pattern I created in EQ7.  Yes, I have a file from EQ7 (now converted to EQ8), but nobody will like it, because I wound up with all sorts of odd patch sizes – 1/8”, 3/8”, 5/8”.  I’m always doing that, somehow.  I get the blocks the way I want them... the quilt just the right size... the sashings in place...  There!  Done!

And then... Oh.  Look at all those odd sizes.

If I fix one odd size, something else goes odd.  Sooo... I don’t worry about it, and just cut those odd sizes.  No problem.

However, I’ve discovered that others don’t share my opinion of ‘no problem’.  They see those funny fractions, and immediately think, Problem!  Problem!

So... if any of you want my pattern with its oddities, I’ll be glad to send it to you.  You can play around with it as you like... I’m sure with a little time, you could get those patches to be of ‘normal’ increments. 

EQ8 is going to be better, in getting things the ‘right’ size – because you can hover your mouse over an individual patch, and a little box will scroll down and tell you its size.  In EQ7, one must go to File, Print, and then click Template or Rotary or Foundation to see all those patch sizes.

Thursday was a total bust, since I woke up with the stomach flu.  I got up, carried my clothes into the bathroom to take a bath and wash my hair, changed my mind, and went back to bed.

I didn’t even open my laptop that day.  Now, that’s sick!  I had a temperature of 99.8°.  My usual temp is under 97°, so 99.8° is kind of high, for me.

I didn’t get up again for any length of time until the next morning.  I still wasn’t quite ‘up to power’, as a friend of ours used to say, but I was better.  Just feel my nose!

I set about trying to make up for lost time.  I pretty much felt like a wet noodle (a stiff and achy wet noodle, if that’s possible), but at least I was in my sewing room again, working away.  One whole day lost!  Bah, humbug.

Before long, I had the last two Carolina Lily blocks done, making a total of 25 blocks.  Next, I began cutting the 13 ½” backgrounds for 16 appliqué blocks.  There are actually 36 appliquéd flower sets, some of which will extend into the borders.

I finished cutting all the white background pieces for the quilt, ironed each large white block into sixths, and then ironed down the appliqués on the pressed marks.  Since I’d cut the pieces with Steam-A-Seam II, I needed only to peel off the paper on the other side of the sticky stuff, steam the appliqués into place, and then do a satin stitch around the edges.  Not my favorite way of doing it... but... thought I’d give it a try.

Hannah wrote to see if I was still in the Land of the Living.  We were conversing through text – her phone to my laptop.  Odd things happen sometimes, with this manner of communication.  Some of her messages arrive before they leave her phone (timestamp quallyfobble); others take an hour to get here.  The little Verizon messenger boy obviously takes a coffee break after every half-dozen messages.

Bobby was hard at work on Christmas music for our band that night.  He spends many hours working on it – all while working somewhere near the same amount of hours as Larry.

The first time I wrote music for all the horns, years ago, nobody told me different types of horns needed their music written in different keys.  Aarrgghh.  I’d done it all by hand!

I was sooo happy when I finally got a computer music program.

Saturday, I was editing some pictures, tried pulling up PaintShop Pro, and got a popup box saying, “Encountered improper argument.”  Eh?  Ah wasn’t arguin’ wit nobuddy!!  An’ iffen ah wuz, it weren’t improper, huh-uh nosiree!!!  Ah only make proper arguments.

I’ve had an order coming from Wal-Mart, and I was really anticipating its arrival:  It’s a new pillow.  The ‘My Pillow’ brand, to be exact.  Wal-Mart’s website says my new pillow should have arrived Friday, and is marked ‘Delivered’.  But...it’s not here.  Wonder which neighbor is enjoying a new ‘My Pillow’?  I need that thing.  My pillow is shot, and has been for years.

The made-famous-by-TV ‘My Pillow’ is supposed to ‘keep your nerves in alignment’.  Well, how are my nerves supposed to get in alignment, when the stupid FedEx guy doesn’t deliver my ‘My Pillow’ to the correct address, I’d like to know?!  FedEx is notorious for wrong and missed deliveries out here.  The drivers also walk through flowerbeds – but since my flowerbeds are combo flower-and-weedbeds as of late, we won’t talk about that now.

I just had an online chat with a Wal-Mart representative.  He’s so cheery, he makes me want to box his ears:  “Your entire address, for verification purposes only,” he requests merrily.

I give it to him.

“Perfect!” he exults.

I want to retort, “No, it isn’t perfect.  I don’t have My Pillow!!!”

Eventually he informs me that the shipment came from another company, so there’s nothing Wal-Mart can do about sending me a refund or replacement.  He immediately (and cheerily) contradicts himself by telling me he will send my complaint to the My Pillow Company, posthaste, and they will email me in a day.  “Two at the latest!” he writes chirpily.

In the meanwhile, dirty ol’ Hortense Grzeskiewicz has My Pillow tucked under his greasy cranium.  😝

By Saturday night, I’d finished 16 appliqué blocks for the Baskets of Lilies quilt.  There are 20 more to do, but they’ll have to wait until I get all the sashes and cornerstones and borders put together, because they are partly on outer half-blocks and partly on the borders.

The appliqué pieces are all cut from a leftover piece of fabric that I used for ruffled curtains and a table scarf in Hannah and Dorcas’ room when they were young.  Reckon Dorcas will recognize it? 

After church yesterday morning, Larry made some of his scrumptious waffles.  These were even better than usual.  He used a multigrain flour mix from Arrowhead Mills, and added a little cherry yogurt to the recipe.  Mmmm, mmm. 

It’s been a week since that shooter killed all those people in the little church in Texas.  I remember when I was young, a shooter entered a grocery store in a big city (Omaha?), went through the aisles ordering everyone down onto the floor, took their money, and randomly shot a few, even though they weren’t putting up any resistance whatsoever.  He finished his job and departed – and the people went on lying there in sheer terror. 

I remember staring at the grainy security-cam picture in the paper and asking in amazement, “Why did they do that?!!!  Look at all those things they could have been throwing!  There were dozens and dozens of people in that store!  I’d have beaned him on the head with a can of green beans when he wasn’t looking!”

My father burst out laughing, then asked soberly, “What if he’d have shot you first?” and I replied, “Then Mama would have beaned him!”

Well, I don’t believe in being foolhardy.  But... I also believe in fighting for my life, and for the lives of my friends.

I discovered an automatic picture-labeling function occurring on my laptop some time after I got it a year ago, particularly with the new Microsoft Suite software.  It labels all the pictures I put in my letters.  Some of its attempts at identifications are hilarious.  It has no idea what a quilt is, for one thing.  Obviously, picture-labeling programmers do not quilt.  heh

It got last week’s photo of Tiger right, though:  “A large orange cat lying on a bed.” 

So you see the program has its sizes in good working order.

But pictures of the Carolina Lily blocks?  

The description:  “A picture containing queen, text, bedclothes, newspaper.”  Queen?

And of course, the disclaimer (or, in this case, the claimer):  “Description generated with very high confidence.”  Ha!

I think the programmer was kinda sorta full of himself whilst he was a-workin’ on that software, what do you think?

He doesn’t know anything about afghans, either.  For the pretty afghan Hannah made for Larry, the program churned out this:  “A picture containing indoor, cake, table, sitting.”  

(And of course, it was “Generated with high confidence.”)

Another of the lily blocks got described thusly:  “Bedclothes.”  Another one, identical except for fabric colors, was labeled, “A close up of a logo.”  (The programmer didn’t know when ‘close-up’ should be hyphenated, either.  Bugs me when computer programs have misspelt words and bad grammar.)

A couple of my Folded Star potholders were labeled, “A stack of flyers on a table.”  

Another was “A sandwich cut in half,”, while yet another was “A colorful kite.”  Haha 

Programmers should be required to take a short course in crafts!

And now I shall get back to the Baskets of Lilies quilt.  A customer’s quilt is on the way... another will be wanting to meet with me shortly (the customer, not the quilt; the quilt doesn’t know what it wants)... and two regular customers are saving up several quilts that they plan to send me immediately after the New Year. 

I turned down a lady in town who wanted me to make kitchen curtains for her.  I need to make things for my own family!  I need to scan pictures.  I need to try to get a book of patterns published.  I need more time!  And energy.  More energy couldn’t hurt.

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