Journal: The Eagle Has [Not Yet] Landed

Last Monday, a quilting friend offered to send me some of her large supply of YLI silk thread in exchange for me making a machine-embroidered quilt label for her.  I looked online at YLI’s colors, saw that a spool can cost $6 or $7, and asked for two colors – a soft, pretty silver and a light gray.  I like pretty thread just about as much as I like pretty fabric!

The lady informed me that that wasn’t enough, and asked if I’d like a quilting ruler.  I agreed, thinking I’d add some flowers to the label to make it more even.

Wouldn’t you just know it, I picked what may have been one of the only colors she didn’t have!  And wouldn’t you just know it, she thought she had to go and buy it for me.  She ordered it from Amazon Prime, assuring me that it didn’t cost her a dime, because she’s been needing to use a gift certificate she had.  She ordered that thread late Monday afternoon – and it arrived at my front door shortly after noon the very next day.

It was so nice out that day, I had windows open on all sides of the house.  It was only 44° outside, but the sun was shining brightly, and the wind wasn’t blowing (amazing, for middle Nebraska), so it actually felt like only the warmth was coming in. 

As I stood curling my hair, the sun was shining in the open window onto my legs and feet.  I must be like those ladies of the 1930s – 1940s who thought they had to get all dooded up (that’s a word, isn’t it? – ladies don’t get ‘duded’ up, after all, do they?) before they could go to the sewing machine.

After thinking he was getting better after suffering with a bad cold for a couple of weeks, Larry was worse than ever that day, and running a fever.  So finally and belatedly he went to Urgent Care.  The doctor said his lungs were clear; it was an upper respiratory infection.  He prescribed antibiotics.  In a couple of days, Larry really was feeling better.

I caught his cold a couple of weeks ago; it’s a nasty one.  I didn’t get as sick as Larry did, though, probably because I didn’t go out in the weather each day.  We’re both still coughing, but we’re on the mend.

Have you ever read a book wherein various threads of thought were left hanging and never, ever resolved?  I recall some that were in the teen section at our public library, years ago.  They were in a series by the same author, and I loved the books – but those dangling mysteries drove me bonkers.  I kept hoping a future book would settle some of these matters, but they never did.  A book I’m trying to read lately has put me in mind of those stories.

Then there are the books where the authors positively adore commas.  They throw in commas constantly, where commas are not wont to go.  Drives, me bonkers.  Have you, ever tried, to plow, your, way through a, book where, there are too, many commas?  Pause that many times in a sentence, and your poor brain finally stalls out.  Those same authors invariably leave them out when they really need them. 

Did you know that punctuation – or the lack thereof – can mean the difference between life and death?

Witness:  “We’re going to eat, Grandma!” versus “We’re going to eat Grandma!”

I rest my case.

A friend who teaches piano lessons, knowing that I used to teach lessons also, was asking me about it.  It brought back memories...  The most piano students I had at one time was 21.  We had a 2 ½-year-old, a 1 ½-year-old, and a newborn at the time.  The 1- and 2-year-olds were no problem, but the baby always decided she was hungry (or colicky), right when I needed to be teaching a lesson.  Well I remember pacing the living room with the baby, whilst calling out various keys/timing/rhythms to a young pianist.  That would’ve been in 1982.  ♫ ♪ Long, long ago, ♪ ♫ loo-oo-oong ago!  ♫ ♪  I did teach my own kiddos how to play – or maybe they taught themselves, since it certainly couldn’t have been termed ‘formal lessons’.  I’d often call out the right keys or timing from some other room (or even another floor) of the house. 

By evening, the label for my friend was done.  I then appliquéd a few feathers on the Americana eagle before calling it a night.

Wednesday was warmer than the day before, getting up to about 60°.  The birds were warbling their happiness all over the countryside.  The redwing blackbirds are back!  That was the first day I’d heard them this spring, and boy, oh boy, could I ever hear them. 

That afternoon, I was helping somebody (let’s call her... hmmm... how ’bout ‘Zoey’?) with her computer and iPhone, setting up accounts, etc., on new devices.  She’s had a new smartphone and a new computer for three months now, but couldn’t figure out how to make her accounts work – mainly because she refused to try.  I think what she wanted was for me to hop a plane, hotfoot (hotwing?) it to her country, and do it all for her. 

Zoey is one of those sorts who, when she had an ingrown toenail, told me about it and gave me updates (complete with pictures 😲 ) half a dozen times a day for a good two months.  I tried to be sympathetic; I had an owie, too, after all.

Okay, back to last Wednesday:  Right whilst I was getting her signed into Skype on one of her devices, she got a message from a friend (let’s call her ‘Alice’), telling her about an accident she’d been in.  My goodness, the poor lady has broken bones from head to toe, went through multiple surgeries, and has a whole lot of pins and rods holding her together now. 

So what does Zoey answer? 

“Ouch.”

That was it.  “Ouch.”

The lady went on to say that rehab was really rough, but just the day before, she’d been able to be moved to a wheelchair and taken for a short excursion outside the nursing home where she is recuperating, which quite encouraged her.

Zoey:  “Yeah its [sic] tuff [sic] but you can it [sic again].”

I bid Zoey farewell and left her to the 5,500 messages she’d acquired in the three months offline.  But I admit to a secret desire to sabotage those accounts, just for spite over her treatment of and lack of sympathy for Alice.

Instead, I stomped up the stairs to my quilting studio and got back to the appliquéing of feathers on the eagle.  By late that night, the appliquéing was all done, and I’d started the embroidery.  The eagle now had an eye, and a satisfyingly fierce expression.

Here’s Tiger, having his evening ablutions:

Thursday, the UPS man delivered a box from the lady for whom I’d made the quilt label.  I opened it... looked at all the things in it... and then sent the lady an email:  “My goodness, do you think you are Santa Claus??!!!!  I just opened this box... and it’s absolutely chockful of treasures!”

There were half a dozen rulers... half a dozen spools of thread... stencil Templar... a needle threader with a little wooden base... ‘Fat Triangles’ papers... brushes (did she hear me, the last time I washed out my brush after painting starch on my appliqué pieces, saying I needed a new brush? – and I intended to brush shading and color on this eagle quilt, too)... a nifty little brass stiletto – from ‘Nifty Notions’, how ’bout that.  A ‘Quilter’s Rule’...  ‘Perfect Circle’ and leaf templates...  I probably forgot a few things.  That box was full!

“Oh me, oh my, now I owe you half a dozen more quilting labels!” I told my friend.

My brain is in high gear, dreaming up all sorts of new projects, in order to use all these tools and gadgets.  Now... if only I didn’t get so carried away doing such complex things, with each project.  I don’t often make ‘quick and easy’ things.  Not that I’m opposed to ‘quick and easy’.

Larry was happy that day, because he got his blue 1978 GMC three-quarter-ton four-wheel-drive flatbed pickup running.  The gas tank was all rusty; that’s what was causing the troubles with gas getting to the motor.  He took a little tank off of one of the lawn tractors, hooked it up, gave it a try – and the pickup ran fine.  So he ordered a new gas tank from O’Reilly’s.  They said it would be here by Saturday.

An online friend works at a quilt shop in a big city, running the computerized longarm.  One day a lady brought in a T-shirt quilt for her to quilt.  The T-shirts were all high-school-sports themed.  Problem:  the lady hadn’t washed the T-shirts before cutting them and sewing them into a quilt!  😜 😝

Reminded me of one of my very first paid sewing jobs.  I put an ad in the paper that went something like this:  “Wonderful, fantastic, out-of-this-world seamstress /tailor now willing to sew amazing, marvelous, stunning creations for you!”

And the job? 

Putting zippers at the ankles of a pig farmer’s coveralls.  Not one, not two, but three pairs.

They reeked.  They stank.  They permeated the air throughout the entire house.  I thought he’d brought them to me unwashed.

After washing those things in a variety of agents no less than four times without any discernable lessening of stench, I dried them, picked them up with forefinger and thumb, dashed to the sewing machine, and sewed at top speed, taking as shallow of breaths as possible.

And I didn’t wait for the man to come and pick them up; we delivered those coveralls, the moment I finished sewing.

The man actually noticed that his coveralls had been washed.  “You washed them for me!”  He grinned.  “They don’t smell much different, though, do they?”

No, they didn’t.  But they looked pretty good.

Here’s the eagle before painting and shading began:  

I didn’t draw this eagle myself; I’m not capable of that.  People would’ve said, “Wuzzat, a dodo bird?” 

I used a line drawing I found online, maybe on a coloring book site, if I remember right.   I used a variety of photos to give me an idea of coloration.

The quilt will wind up being about 66” x 76”.  I thought I might give it to son-in-law Jeremy for his birthday, but Larry likes it so well, asking somewhat wistfully if I was going to keep it, that I’ve changed my mind, and intend to give it to Larry for Father’s Day.

Hannah had a CT scan in Lincoln on Thursday.  Here’s a short summary from the report she received:  Majority of the ethmoidal air cells diffusely bilaterally are filled with soft tissue with very little aeration being present. Frontal sinuses are filled with soft tissue bilaterally with little aeration present on the left.  Pansinusitis changes with occluded ostiomeatal complexes bilaterally.  Soft tissue filling the upper and mid portions of the nasal cavities bilaterally consistent with rhinitis and polypoid changes.

I had to look up a whole lot of the terminology throughout the report.  To put it in simple terms, there are nasal polyps throughout the sinus passages that are almost completely blocking airflow.  Her antibiotic regimen didn’t really help at all, so she’ll probably need surgery.  She’ll see the specialist tomorrow. 

Hannah can’t sleep well, and often wakes up in a panic, feeling like she can’t breathe.  It makes me feel panicky about breathing, just reading that report!  She has bad headaches a good deal of the time.  This problem makes asthma all the worse.  And asthma and allergies can bring on the polyps.  It’s a vicious circle.

We are praying that the doctor will be able to help her.  Bobby and the children need her!  Larry and I never go very long through a day without thinking about our sweet daughter.

Friday, I considered going to Hobby Lobby for fabric pencils, but changed my mind, since it was cold, rainy, and windy, and I still had a nasty cough, though I was getting better. (Just feel my nose!)  So instead of working on the center panel for the Americana Eagle quilt, I worked on six of the borders.  Now all the two-inch squares are together, and the solid borders are cut to the right size.  

Saturday, Larry dropped me off at Hobby Lobby, while he went across the street to O’Reilly to get his new gas tank.  I used a gift card from my mother-in-law, Norma, plus a 40% coupon, to get a $35 box of Inktense pencils for ‘only’ $20.99.  😲  (And I still have money left on the gift card!)  

We were home again in half an hour.  I was ready to work on the background!  I hoped I wouldn’t ruin it. 😬  But I’d been watching youtube tutorials on how to use these pencils, so I gathered up my courage and launched in.

I’d say it went fairly well, for a beginner – especially a beginner who is absolutely not an artist.  Maybe I can throw fabric together and make it look nice... and maybe I can follow directions... and maybe I’m a good copycat... but truly, I’m not an artist.  Certainly not the sort who paints beautiful pictures, huh-uh, nosiree. 

But I painted some big chunks of light-colored fabric with my blue pencils, using aloe vera juice as the ‘fabric medium’.  Someone on youtube used aloe vera gel, and I figured this wouldn’t be so very different, and in fact it worked fine – although the gel probably would’ve kept the ink from running quite so much.  I penciled in more feathers on the eagle’s head and tail... activated the ink with the aloe vera... darkened more of the background... and here’s what I have now.

You can see the contrast is better, at least on top of his head and tail; but it’s still not very good underneath.  It blends in too much.  His head actually contrasted better before I added the feathering and then activated the ink.

I have some ideas for how to resolve the issue, none of which are quick, easy fixes.  (If I don’t make things ‘quick and easy’ in the first place, why should the fix be ‘quick and easy’?)  But I will resolve it, and I’ll do it before I begin adding borders.

Here’s what happened at the top edge of the blue ‘hills’ – the ink ran into the white ‘sky’.  Sooo... I penciled in the edge of the ‘run’, and then sewed right along that edge with a blanket stitch to make it look like another layer of appliqué.

Sunday, we sickies finally managed to go to church.  But going out in the cold, damp air makes me cough and cough – all the way to church... all the way home... and I went through one cough drop after another during the services, trying not to cough.  I only pretended to sing.  In case the cameras zoomed in on me, you know.  😉

It’s a chilly, gloomy day today, with the wind whistling around the eaves.  I opened a window just a crack, in order to make it whistle all the more.  😃

This afternoon I hunted and hunted (and hunted) on eBay for a skirt to go with the blue suit jacket Lura Kay gave me for Christmas – and for a jacket to go with one of the three skirts I already got, that didn’t match the blue suit jacket Lura Kay gave me for Christmas.  (This could keep going on... and on... and on...)

I have now ordered three more skirts with various degrees of blues in various prints, an ivory jacket, and a sweater jacket in medium blues, embellished with lots of buttons and braid.

One of the skirts I already have is much too short, and there’s no fixing it.  I think it will make a perfect skirt for a baby dress, when I get inspired to do that, one of these days.  (’Course, if I make one baby girl dress, I surely must make two more!  There are three little granddaughters almost the same age, after all.)  The skirt that almost sorta matches the jacket is several inches too wide at the waist, which has flimsy, wimpy elastic around it; and even when I hold it in place at the waist, it drags on the floor by several inches.  I will cut it shorter, use the excess to make a waistband, and put in a zipper.

But first, I have sleeves to put in a jumper for Elsie for Easter, and a bit of trim to put on another dress for her, in order to match Emma’s dress, which needs a wide band added to it, to make it long enough.

I just found a big piece of thick black fleece; I’ll use it on the back of a wildlife panel that I will make into a throw for Jeremy, whose birthday is next month.

And there goes the dryer buzzing – the last load of clothes is done.

I’d better get busy!

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