Journal: Geese, Mountain Lion Print, and an Eagle Quilt

Last Tuesday morning, the sun was shining brightly, and the cardinals were singing at the tops of their voices.  Meanwhile, my brother Loren was busily cutting wood – for us.  Never mind the fact that he was low on wood for his own fireplace (and likes to use it exclusively, not turning on the furnace much at all); no, he thinks he has to cut wood for us, because Larry gave him a trailer full of wood last month, and because he just learned what our electric bill was, and etc., etc.  He said, “Besides, I don’t want my muscles to get saggy!”  ha  He’s 79 ½ years old, for goodness sake.  Works rings around people we know who are 20-30 years younger.

Using the Americana Eagle quilt as my carrot, I worked my way through the housework.

Next, I rifled through (definition #1: to ransack, especially with the intent to steal; definition #2: to steal and carry away) my five smallish totes (28-quart – 24” x 16.5” x 5.5”) for coordinating fabrics for the Americana Eagle quilt.

I came upon a wonderful piece for the backing – a true Americana print in cream, tan, brown, ecru, and beige, with old-fashioned pictures of farming families, old airplanes and cars, trees, streams, sky, and quaint little farmhouses.  Hmmm... according to Glidden paint company, the main colors in this fabric are ‘Copper Haypenny’ and ‘Hot Mustard Seed’.  Ooookay.

I also found a navy print with little brown squares to use for an outer border, and a brown/tan/cream in a small plaid that might work for, uh, ... um, ... well, maybe for the next quilt, heh.  There’s a mottled cream/tan with a tiny, almost-tweed, square print that I could use for the central background behind the eagle.  Or maybe just another border, if I piece the background with lights and neutrals.  I think I might have a large enough variety of browns and creams for the eagle, maybe.

But! – I never, ever have enough reds/burgundies.  I found a scanty bit of maroon that might be enough for the first border, but I needed more. 

And for the cream/ivory/beige background?  Well, those are other colors of which I never have enough.  But I pulled every last piece, big and small, that was even close to fitting into that color category, and... we’ll see what happens.  The light-colored triangles in the pinwheels are already a variety of fabrics, so... this should work.  Shouldn’t it???

Somebody tell me this is going to work!  Tell me the conglomeration of cream/ivory/beige /light tan background fabrics are going to be just ducky!

It occurred to me that Loren had given me a couple of very large bins and several boxes full of fabric that belonged to his late wife Janice.  She, too, gave me a bin or two shortly before she passed away.  The bins are full of a hodgepodge and a mishmash of everything from half-done stuffed animals (gotta finish those someday) to iron-on embroidery patterns to soft fleeces and furs to the flimsiest muslin on the face of the earth (Janice loved bargains – witness the spools of thread that she purchased for 10¢ apiece, and which I used up in bobbins).  Reckon there might be any maroon or dark red fabric in any of those bins or boxes?  I’ve used a few things from those bins, but need to sort through them.  I headed off to the basement.

Forty-five minutes later:  And the verdict, after pawing through several bins and totes, is...  Yes indeedy, there are lots of pieces of dark red/maroon/burgundy fabrics.  There are double and single knits.  There’s a chunk of knubby vinyl for upholstering.  There’s a piece of dark burgundy rayon.  There are maroon fleeces and dark red faux furs.

There’s even a queen-sized set of maroon bed sheets, complete with pillow cases.  They would match our blankets and quilts, but our mattress is an extra-tall king-size.  There’s a beautifully machine-embroidered ... ?  curtain, maybe? in the same fabric as the bed sheets (60% cotton, 40% poly).  I could turn that into a pretty blouse, with those tall embroidered flowers placed strategically on the hemline, curving up into the bodice.

But there is no dark red/maroon/burgundy quilters’ cotton at all.

However, I did find a large quilted bag with wooden handles and a zippered top, with multiple pockets, in a bright sunflower print on a dark blue and green background.  I brought it upstairs and tucked it into one of our large suitcases in a closet in the little library, then changed my mind and got it back out.  It would serve as a reusable gift bag for Hannah, whose birthday was the next day.  I got her a couple of presser feet for her sewing machine (Bernina 1630), a rubbery purple doughnut bobbin holder, and a pack of 15 new bobbins. 

I had a gift certificate for Claus ’en Paus quilt shop that I’d been saving since a friend gave it to me for my birthday in October.  I would use it to get the maroon fabric I needed.  The store was closed by then; I would go the next day.

That quilt shop has little paw prints all over their bags and signs and whatnot, to go with their name.  And the name?  It came about because the store is owned by two sisters, one with the last name of Clausen, and the other with the last name of Paus.

I always feel a bit bad for them, because they started out in a huge, old building uptown, with wood plank floors, high pressed-copper ceilings, enormous vintage chandeliers, a balcony where they could keep a longarm...  but because of fusses with the landlord, a person who owns a lot of the town’s older buildings and with whom many of the town’s worthy citizens have had fusses, they had to move. 

Their second building was a fairly new, beautiful two-story home with bay windows, decks, and arched windows, and zoned as a business.  A florist had done business there previously, and the Clausen/Paus sisters had only just gotten carpeting put into the area where the large refrigerators for the flowers used to be when the building was purchased by Radio Shack, and they had to move again. 

For a while, all their fabric and notions, etc., were in a big semi-trailer – including the bolt that I needed to finish a border on my Mosaic Lighthouse quilt.  I had to make do with something that didn’t quite match as well. 

They finally were able to move into a smallish uptown store.  They have it set up quite nice now, and have been there for... ? a couple of years?  Three years, maybe?  But quarters are cramped, and two people cannot easily fit in the aisles.  I don’t think the beautiful maple cutting table one of the ladies’ sons built for them when they were in the pretty house fits in this little store, as I don’t recall seeing it the last time I was in there.

It’s too bad.  But at least we still have two LQSs in our smallish town/city (population 22,000), plus a fabric store full of fancy clothing materials such as satins, taffetas, brocades, shantung, chiffon, and so forth.  Our Wal-Mart has a fairly large sewing department, and now we have Hobby Lobby.  However, there are practically no longarm supplies, so there is that advantage/disadvantage, depending on whether or not one is in the mood to go for a drive or wait on supplies ordered online.

Did you know it takes a loooong time to trim 174 two-and-a-half inch pinwheels?  (And yes, they badly need trimming.)  If I glued all those trimmings together, I’d have enough to make several more blocks.  😁

I used to think I didn’t like scrappy quilts.  It turns out, it’s not the scrappy part I didn’t like, it’s when it’s a mishmash that I don’t like it.  (And I grant, what one sees as a ‘mishmash’, another might see as ‘lively and interesting’.)  There was a lady on a quilting group who often made scrappy quilts – but they almost always had a whole lot of white background (once in a while, it was black or navy), and the colored parts were in some sort of pretty block.

So I changed my mind, and decided to put together some scrappy quilts.  Mine are controlled scrappy, as they call it... because there is always some kind of pattern to the colors and fabrics I use.

Funny... this is the way I used to put together Fourth-of-July clothes for the kids.  We always have big Fourth-of-July church picnics, and we dress the children up in cute outfits, often with a red, white, and blue colorway.  I leaned toward sailor outfits... lots of white.  We’d eat dinner... the kids would all play vigorously... and then we’d all go home, and I’d look with resigned dismay at those once-pristine outfits thinking, I wonder which of my spot removers works best on ketchup and grass stains?

After trimming the pinwheel blocks, I cut 300 two-and-a-half-inch squares from a variety of creams, ivories, tans, beiges, ecrus, and off-whites for the background pieces.

When Larry got home from work, he put up some cord covers and installed a light switch in my quilting studio for the two LED lights over my quilting table.  Much handier, to be able to flip a switch, than to stand on tiptoes and strrrretch to reach the chains on the lights.  The light in the front dormer is connected to a surge protector.  It and a variety of other appliances can be turned off by the switch on the surge protector.  The other two lights work separately.

Larry needs to get one more cord cover kit to finish the job.

A friend, upon seeing the picture with all those trimmings, sent me a video showing how to use them to make ‘new’ blocks, putting them into a pocket made of a clear, water-soluble stabilizer, and then sewing back and forth over the top of the works before washing away the stabilizer.

“Aarrgghh!” I said.  “And here I was feeling really proud of myself for using up all those little one-inch triangles.”

I don’t even like those blocks made of trimmings.  I put that kind of junk to good use – in the trash can.  There they sit, not bothering anybody at all... and when I toss an empty spool of thread into the garbage, it lands with a quiet little ‘poof’ in the middle of the trimmings, instead of hitting the sides or bottom of the trash can, making a loud clatter, and waking up the cats.  So, you understand, the cats don’t want me to make anything out of those trimmings. 😏

I don’t really mind all the little fiddly things involved in quilt preparation... but my back was sure complaining by the time I was through cutting little squares!  I stood at that table and trimmed and cut for... hmmm... almost 11 hours.  I had 52 hours in the quilt by then, including the two hours spent designing it in EQ8.

It got up to 38° Wednesday afternoon, and was bright and sunny.  I heard a finch warbling out his springtime song for the first time this year.  During the winter, I only hear their ‘cheep-cheep’s at the feeder.  Sounds friendly, but if you watch, you’ll see that they’re actually having continual fusses over the sunflower seeds:  “Hey, that was the one I wanted!!!”  “No, it’s mine!!!”  “You’re in my place!”  🙄

Several huge flocks of geese flew over.  I can tell without looking whether they’re snow geese or Canadas, because the snow geese have a higher-pitched honk.  There are already half a million waterfowl on the Missouri River near Desota National Wildlife Refuge, and a quarter million west of Grand Island along the Platte.  Soon there will be a couple million or more.  It’s a sight to see in the springtime, that’s a fact.  Nebraska is the middle part of an ‘hourglass’, in the migration flight pattern.  Never ceases to amaze.

The tourists come in almost as much abundance as the birds.  They’re a sight to see, too.

Loren arrived with another trailer load of wood for us.  That man!  He ought to be keeping it for himself.  But he thinks he needs to help us.  Sigghhhhh...

Larry came home for lunch, so we visited and ate together.  Well, sorta.  Part of the time I just kept quiet while he napped.  😃  He has a bad cold.  He doesn’t get sick much, though he often has toothaches and abscesses.  He goes right on working... even when it’s cold and windy and snowy out.

After Loren and Larry left, I headed to town to get the fabric I needed.  I walked rather gingerly out to the Jeep, as there was a skating rink in place of a sidewalk on the north side of the house.  I certainly wouldn’t be taking that route to the Jeep in my pretty little church heels that night.  Fortunately, the back deck and back drive were fine.

When I walked up to the door of Claus ’en Paus, the first thing I noticed was the front window, filled with a lovely display of beautiful quilts and various pretty props.  Inside, it was much brighter than it was the last time I was there.  I looked up at the big, old-fashioned chandeliers (including one of cut glass with hanging crystals), then noticed the ceiling – it’s the original pressed tin, but it’s been painted white. 

When I remarked on how much brighter everything was, and wondered if they’d painted the ceiling, the lady laughed, “Maybe you just came before, when a bunch of lights were burned out!”

There were many beautiful quilts hanging high on the walls, all around the store.  On high shelves sat vintage sewing machines, some with vintage lamps hovering over them, glowing prettily, baubles hanging from antique shades.  Part of a quilt top was under some presser feet.

Fabrics are sorted into various collections, and arranged according to shade.  Everything looked so pretty, I wanted multiple pieces from almost every collection!  A front corner holds all sorts of tools and notions, and there is a revolving book rack full of books and patterns.  Little baskets here and there around the store hold more pattern pamphlets.

And!! – the cutting station is that beautiful maple table one of the ladies’ sons made for them!  I was happy to see that again.  The lady told me that they have a longarm in the basement.  There is a loft, but it’s only for storage at the moment.

Anyway, I was really glad to discover that they’ve made the space, though small, attractive and charming again.

That evening, a friend mentioned that her handyman was coming to work on something, “...so I need to clean the house,” she finished.

We used to have a plumber that we liked – not because he was such a great plumber (he wasn’t), but because he always looked so messy, I knew he couldn’t possibly judge us for our messiness. 

The kids were once giggling over his great mop of dirty, messy hair, and I, upon overhearing this, admonished, “Hey!  Don’t make fun of him!”  They looked properly reprimanded until I continued, “That wig (not that it was a wig) really comes in handy!  He uses it to swab the deck after he’s through with his jobs!”

That set them off all over again.

One time he arrived at our front door and rang the bell.  Hester, age three, trotted to the door, looked up at him through the screen... and then, with a child’s total lack of comprehension that soundwaves travel in any direction other than the intended target, she shouted back at me, “MAMA!!!!!!  MR. ROOTER-TOOTER IS HERE!!!!!”

Once when I let the man in, I was leading him through the kitchen to one of the bathrooms that needed his attention..... but he stalled out in the kitchen, and stared at all the children sitting around the table eating supper.  (In addition to looking messy, he also had a serious lack of good manners.)  Then he asked with some degree of amazement, “Ah aw deeze chillen yers??”

“No,” I said, “We just rent ’em for suppertime.”

I truly didn’t think he’d ‘get it’, but he guffawed loud and long. 

(Not sure what he ‘got’, but he must’ve ‘got’ sumpthang.)

I’m either sorry or happy to say that the plumber we have nowadays (whom we don’t need to call very often, gladly enough) is not only fast and skilled at the job, but also a fastidious, nice-looking gentleman with a normal sense of humor that never deteriorates into an off-color story. 

But yeah, I gotta clean the house first, if I ever have to call him to come.  🤣

After church that evening, I sewed for a while, until three rows of little blocks were sewn together for the Americana Eagle Quilt.

I keep wondering about those darker squares, but there’ll be darker squares throughout the quilt, and I rarely take anything apart to change color schemes, once I’ve begun.  So... the darker squares stay, and I keep going...

On a quilting website with a variety of tutorials on scrappy quilting, I once read the following:  “Make your quilt sparkle! – put together pieced backgrounds of the same hue, but different shades.”

So as I put this background together, I keep telling myself, You’re making it sparkle!  It’s sparkling.  It’s sparkling. 

Is it sparkling?  😏

The quilt pictured on that website was hanging from a huge cottonwood branch, with the sunlight streaming through the leaves onto it.  Something was certainly sparkling!  (It was a lovely quilt.  Probably sparkled even indoors.)

Thursday, I got two more of the pieced interior borders put together and started the fourth before I petered out.

I begin projects ‘by accident’ now and then. That’s pretty much how this Americana Eagle quilt got started.  Larry was working on this and that in my quilting studio, so I didn’t want to be working on something large that would get in the way.  Therefore, I pulled out the pencil boxes in which I had saved all those little maroon and navy triangles from a long-ago project.  I’d spotted them again when I moved some things from the downstairs sewing room to the upstairs quilting studio.  Thinking I’d just do something fun for the evening and give myself a step forward on a future project, I made a bunch of pinwheels.  So began the Americana Eagle quilt.  Thanks to EQ8, it only took a couple of hours to come up with a design in which to use all the pinwheels.  😊

Saturday, I washed clothes, rugs, and curtains... mopped floors... vacuumed rugs... scrubbed the bathroom... washed dishes... and finally got back to my quilting studio to work on the Americana Eagle quilt.  I need to patch a pair of Larry’s insulated work jeans.  Where in the world is the matching pair of old jeans from which I cut patches?

Soon I had all the interior pieced borders done (that’s somewhere around 250 two-and-a-half-inch squares, including the pinwheels), and started working on the eagle and the background for it.  I put the line drawing into a 30” x 40” spread in publisher, told it to break the drawing apart into printable pages (my printer only does 8.5” x 11” pages), then printed and taped them back together. 

I cut a foundation, and started putting on the background pieces.  It’s always a little hard to get the appliqué pieces into the proper places when there are so many thicknesses of fabric – makes it hard to see the diagram through the background and appliquéd pieces when they’re all atop the lightbox, even though I have a really bright light.  I’m going to be glad for the large frame of the lightbox Larry made me, doing this large center piece.

It got up to 65° that day, and was all bright and sunny, with birds singing, and often the wild cry of snow geese or Canada geese, far overhead.  They usually fly lower in the evenings as they hunt for cornfields in which to land where they can replenish their reserves for the long flight north.  Some will go all the way to the North Alaska tundra and the High Arctic.  Birds are amazing creatures!

Loren cut wood almost every day last week, and he brought us another trailer load.  He got it from a friend’s large acreage north of town, where there are enough dead trees amongst the hills to keep all our fireplaces burning for years to come.  At least now he has a good supply for himself, too, and just in time:  a winter storm is coming our way.

Larry has a bad cold.  He, of course, keeps going to work.  Several nights after work, and again on Saturday, he worked on his blue 1978 GMC three-quarter-ton four-wheel-drive flatbed pickup out at Caleb’s garage.  He pulled the motor, fixed two spun rod bearings... and put in new main bearings, rod bearings, oil pump, fuel pump, water pump.  It’s now running again – but only when he forces fuel to the engine.  Either the new fuel line is plugged, or the new fuel pump is bad, or both.  It’s been a lengthy and oft-set-aside project, but one of these days... it’ll be drivable again. 

Amy sent me a picture of Elsie looking quite businesslike, what with someone's large, black-framed glasses perched on the very end of her small nose.  She was peering over the top of the rims, and in her hands was a Walkie-Talkie.  Funny little girl.

Baby Carolyn is 6 months old.  As usual, there are lots more pictures of her than of the other grandbabies.  Don’t blame me!  Blame her Mama.

Baby Malinda, 8 ½ months now, recognized me amongst the thronging horde after the church service yesterday.  She flung out a little arm and said, “Hiiii!”  Makes a person feel really, really important, when babies do that.  😁  Little as they are, babies very well understand when they are loved, don’t they?  😊

When Lydia was a baby, as I did with the others, I’d tell her, “You’re my little sweetie pie.”  One night I tucked her into bed, and said, “You’re my little sweetie.”  She was almost asleep, eyes drooping, but those big blue-gray eyes popped open wide, and she told me, “Pie!” before gathering up her blanket and snuggling in.  hee hee   Yes, dearie.  You’re my little sweetie pie.

Once again, there’s a mountain lion roaming along the Loup River, right across the road from Jeremy and Lydia’s place.  Larry’s nephew Nathan and wife Abbi and family live just a couple of houses down and on the river side of the road, and they found cougar footprints on their property – and that paw is almost as big as Abbi’s hand.  Nathan and another cousin, Ben, have seen the big cat while out riding or running.  The Loup River is about a mile south of our house.

The wind is gusting over 45 mph today, and my chimes are playing loudly enough to wake the dead.  We’ve been issued a winter weather advisory until 6:00 p.m. tomorrow evening.  There’s a possibility of 3” of snow, and the winds are expected to be blowing at 55 mph.  Snow will start coming down, they say, a little before 11:00 p.m. tonight.

Teensy is on the loveseat, lying on his back, feet up against the backrest, sound asleep – but he’s dreaming, feet jerking, growling, whiskers all a-tremble.  Reckon he’s dreaming a cougar is sneaking up on him?

Maybe he’s dreaming he IS a cougar!  😆

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