We’ve had more snow than usual this last week. With the high
winds, we’ve wound up with some sizable drifts here and there – and some areas
where it’s scoured right down to bare earth.
Last Tuesday, Hester
sent a video of Keira ‘running’. Andrew
is holding her, letting her feet touch the table – and those little legs are
really going to town. Hester says, “Ready...
set... GO!” which makes Keira grin and look twinkly-eyed.
A week ago after
church, Andrew told us that Keira had sprouted her first tooth. She’s progressing very quickly now. We
notice that she’s particularly adept at small-motor movement, such as picking
up something small with thumb and index finger.
Tuesday evening for
supper we had ancient-grain-encrusted Alaskan cod, steamed cauliflower,
broccoli, and carrots, strawberry or peach yogurt, pineapple, grape juice, and
a peanut butter cup for dessert. Larry
managed to make his way through all that quite well.
His neck has been
hurting ever since he had his dental surgery, and it makes crackling, crunching
noises when he turns it certain directions. He had to have his head
turned throughout most of that three-hour surgery because the dentist sat at
one side of the chair, for the most part.
His neck is getting
better, gradually. He has a bit of
arthritis in it, so the strain on it that day has lasted a long time.
His mouth doesn’t
hurt anymore, except for the fact that as his gums change, the dentures don’t
fit as well, and can make the gums sore.
Next week he’ll go back to have them realigned. That will continue for a year, and then he’ll
get the permanent dentures.
For the first time
in years, he has no abscesses. He has more energy... he can hear
better... his blood pressure is lower... So this is an all-around
improvement in health, for which we are very thankful.
That surgery was an
ordeal for the dentist, too. He had trouble extracting the roots of the
broken teeth. Larry said by the time they’d
gone past the first two hours, the dentist’s hands would sometimes shake, and
he’d stop and open and shut them a few times, resting them.
A couple of people have asked about Marshall
Dry Goods, where I got the fabric for the New York Beauty quilt. Here is the website: https://marshalldrygoods.com/
You can find most
everything by clicking your way through the menu on the left under ‘Shop
Fabrics’; or, if you know what you’re looking for, you can put it into the
search at the top.
At the bottom of
this page, you can sign up for their newsletter:
One lady wanted to
know if they send out a printed catalog.
I hunted for one ---- and found The Dry Goods Reporter, Volume 38, by
Marshall Field & Company... from 1908!!! The
Dry Goods Reporter, Volume 38 Scroll down to page 4, and you’ll see Adora silk, “Retail price, 42
cents, no less, no more.”
And the new ruff
collars. Oooooooooo-WHEEEEEE, boy.
And on page
40: “Most mothers are ruled by reason. Show them a child’s garment
that is more convenient, comfortable, serviceable, and economical than any they’ve
ever seen, and you’ll get their money every time.”
Page 84: “The
Thread with a Positive Guarantee: Ideal Nun’s Pearl Lustre by T. Buettner
& Co. Made in sizes 2, 3, and 4, and in 68 colors!”
I think they don’t
have a print catalog these days; their inventory probably changes much too
rapidly for that to work for them. That
old catalog must’ve been for merchants and businesses, as opposed to consumers.
At midnight, I quit
with quilting, headed for my recliner and heating pad, and began editing 100
pictures, 69 of which were birds. Many of those I tossed out, as a lot weren’t
good enough to keep. I took the photos
on a dark, overcast day, so a bunch of them were blurry. Here’s a red-breasted nuthatch. ß
More pictures are here.
Have you ever noticed that when you’re choosing new
glasses frames, it’s hard to tell what you’re getting when you’re blundering
around without your prescription glasses on? I thought I’d chosen a pair of frames with a
pretty little rose inside a circle of rhinestones on the
temples. Imagine my surprise when the
other day I had on some magnifying glasses... reached for my new glasses
without first removing the magnifiers, and discovered... there was a FACE in the middle of the rhinestones!!! 😲
I peered at it...
then went and got my macro lens, attached it to the camera, took some shots,
downloaded them to my computer, and then stared at that face on a 17” screen.
I decided it was
Dagwood Bumstead’s little sister, near as I could tell.
A friend helpfully informed me, “It’s the Versace
Medusa logo. Those are snakes around her
head.” Then, “You’re welcome,” she added.
“Well, for pity’s sake,” I exclaimed. “Aaaarrrggghhh. And ugh. And bleah. And all that. Let’s go back to calling her Dagwood’s little
sister.”
“I didn’t realize Dagwood had a little sister,”
remarked my friend.
“I only
realized it as soon as I looked at the macro shot of my eyeglasses,” I told
her.
Well, as long as the glasses are on my head (and I
don’t have my magnifiers on), I can’t see it. And that
thought brought to mind a poem my father used to quote:
For beauty, I’d not win a prize;
There are others more lovely by far.
My face, I don’t mind it,
Because I’m behind it.
It’s those in the front get the jar!
I looked up ‘Versace Medusa’ and discovered this: “Medusa in Greek mythology is a beautiful
Gorgon who was turned into a hideous monster by Athena. Versace was inspired by the pre-monster Medusa
who symbolizes power, strength and beauty. This is clear in his logo that portrays her
with flowing hair instead of snakes.”
So... does that make it any better, that it’s hair around Medusa’s face on my glasses?
Maybe not really... but at least I don’t
have snakes on the temples. 😝 Who could guess the pitfalls of merely trying
to see well enough to not walk into walls!
I spent a few hours
that day working on the first row of blocks, after the top borders, on the New
York Beauty quilt.
Wednesday, we awoke to 9” of fresh snow on top of
the 8-10” we’d gotten Sunday. There was
a vehicle pileup on I80 down south of us, complete with big trucks.
Our schools were closed, though I don’t think there was quite as much snow
in town as there was out here. The
day was sunny and bright, bright, bright, with all
that new-fallen snow; but it was cold.
After church, we
went to Jeremy and Lydia’s house to give Ian a birthday present. He’s three now. We ate Dairy Queen cake
with them, and then Lydia showed me the new violin that she got for Christmas,
and let me play it. Boy, oh boy, do I ever sound rusty. It’s been
years since I played a violin. After squeaking
it good and proper a few times, I told Jacob, “Oooo! We’d better oil this thing!”
I got better after
a few minutes; but I don’t think I’ll live long enough, even if I should practice
every day, to make it into the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. 😄
The violin has such
a wonderful, mellow sound; it’s gorgeous. But I soon handed that
beautiful instrument back to Lydia, so we could hear it the way it’s supposed
to sound, and I played the piano to accompany her. She has my Kimball
baby grand, the first grand piano my father got for me. It’s oak, a truly
beautiful piece of furniture, with fancy legs and song rack. I got it the
very day Jacksons moved to town, when I was 13.
I got more quilting
done on the New York Beauty quilt that day.
Those feathers go a lot faster than the ‘pebbles’ and the ‘piano keys’. After quilting all the cream-colored areas on
the first row as far as I could go without rolling the quilt forward on the
frame, I rethreaded the machine with white thread and started on the white
background patches. A woman on one of
the Facebook quilting groups asked why I would do ‘all that rethreading’.
“I do all the
stitching-in-the-ditch on the quilt first, then all of one thread color next,
before I rethread,” she informed me.
I’ve been wondering
ever since why she would think rolling a quilt back and forth, back and forth,
from one end to the other (and this quilt is 117” x 117”), trotting this way
and that along the frame whilst fighting with the excess fullness that more
than likely would develop in the backing, keeping the batting straight and
unrumpled with each re-roll, and reattaching the six side clamps... is less
trouble than rethreading the machine once each row. It takes me about 30 seconds flat to rethread
that thing.
I like to learn
about different methods of doing things, and give them a try – except for those
times when I know very well a method isn’t very sensible. Some people have an unreasonable fear of
threading their machines. 🙄
Here is a picture
Jeremy and Lydia gave me for Christmas; I hung it in my quilting studio.
It was warmer than usual Thursday – it got all the
way up to 30° F.
I spent a good part of the day working
on the white patches on that same first row of the New York Beauty, and was
finally able to roll the quilt forward on the frame. This stuff takes a lot of time! Or maybe I’m just slow.
But I now have all
of the various quilting elements nailed down. Let’s see if I can’t speed
this process up a bit! Whew, it’s taken me a long time to get this much
done.
Here’s the usual speed
bump:
It didn’t take long before I realized why Teensy was
sprawled on the rag rug at my feet: Tiger was snoring away in Teensy’s bed.
I had some housework to
do Friday before I got back to quilting: there were salt crystals all over the floor,
tracked in from the salt we had put on the icy walks. Soon everything was vacuumed and swept, and a
couple of areas were mopped. The Schwan
man came, and the freezer is now full. Then the FedEx man arrived with
groceries from Wal-Mart, so the cupboards are full, too.
It was our oldest
son Keith’s birthday that day; he’s 39.
The weathermen issued
a winter weather advisory for Saturday. Depending on which forecast we
read, we could expect either a miniscule amount of freezing drizzle followed by
an inch of snow and accompanied by 30 mph winds; or, if one preferred, a heavy glaze
of ice covered with 3 inches of snow, and 45 mph winds creating blizzard
conditions and bringing down tree branches. Take your pick.
By the wee hours of Saturday morning, the winter
weather advisory had been upgraded to a blizzard warning.
Later that morning, I filled the bird feeders, fed the cats, cleaned the kitchen, and headed
to my quilting studio, where I hoped to quilt and quilt and quilt. From now on, I only need to repeat those
quilting designs I’ve already done.
A friend was
telling about the upcoming bathroom remodeling they will be doing in their
house. They will be installing a
refurbished antique clawfoot tub – and a shower. She’s excited about the shower, because they
haven’t had one in that home before.
The only shower we
have in our house is in the basement, where there’s a tub/shower combination;
but the tub is raised (because of water lines, plumbing, etc.), and it’s too
much trouble for me to clamber in and out of it. Besides, it’s in the basement.
Someday, though, we’ll
have a nice, new shower in our addition. We already have a big whirlpool
tub in there, just waiting to be hooked up.
Another friend
commented, “I can’t imagine life without a shower. How would one wash one’s
hair???”
“One sticks one’s
head under the faucet!” I told her. 😅
I never had a
shower in a house I lived in until we were married and in house #2. Well,
except for my parents’ campers. When I traveled with my parents, they had
to fill the water tank a lot more often than when they were by themselves,
because I absolutely had to shower and wash my hair every day, without
fail!
I don’t mind
roughing it, but I gotta be squeaky clean whilst I’m at it. 😄
By the middle of
the afternoon, snow was coming down fast, and the wind was blowing hard.
There
were at least three pileups on Interstate 80 about 60 miles south of us. One involved 15 vehicles including 10 semis. Another involved 30 vehicles including at
least 15 semis, with 100 vehicles stranded behind the crash. The third involved 25 vehicles with about 15
of those semis. Numerous other accidents
littered the same stretch of highway, too.
The State Patrol shut down a 120-mile stretch of I80... not quite soon
enough, it would seem.
Some areas to our
east got 15” of snow, but we only got about 3”, though the wind made some
pretty deep drifts here and there. We had a thick layer of ice to scrape
off our windshield before heading off to church Sunday morning. We picked up three of Teddy and Amy’s kids,
as they had a huge drift covering their driveway, the tractor wouldn’t start,
and Teddy had to scoop the drive with a shovel so they could get their big van
out of the garage and to the road. It’s a long driveway to shovel by
hand. We got to church in the middle of song #2. Teddy and the rest
of the family arrived later; it took them five minutes to get down their
driveway, since he hadn’t cut a very wide swath, and the van kept getting into
deeper snow than it could cope with.
The Jeep didn’t
have any troubles whatsoever with that driveway. They need a limousine
Jeep! 😁
It
was Victoria’s 22nd birthday. One of the
gifts we gave her was something that had already once been hers: a beautiful 18” vinyl collector’s doll that my
sister Lura Kay had given her when she was little. She hadn’t had it long when one of its legs
came off. She was so sad about
that. She remembers me trying to fix it,
unsuccessfully.
Not too long ago, I
sent it to a friend in the east who fixes dolls. She returned it in January – wearing a cute
yellow dress she had made, and shiny white shoes.
Victoria was ever
so pleased to have her doll back again, fixed, redressed, and whole.
She told us that
Baby Violet, who’s 4 ½ months, weighs 15.3 pounds... and Baby Keira, who is 10 months, weighs 16.3
pounds. 😃
After church last
night, we went to Wal-Mart for some groceries.
Brrrr, it was cold, cold, cold – and I had on my leather dress coat,
instead of my long wool swing coat! By
the time we got home, it was 0° F.
It was -8° when
Larry went to work this morning at 8:00 a.m. (late winter starts). He had
blended fuel in his Cummins diesel pickup that’s supposed to be good down to
27° below 0°, and he put some additive in the tank before he left, but he could
only go 35 mph for the first 5 miles. Any
faster, and the pickup started gelling up. But after about 5 miles, the
additive had gotten mixed in well enough that he could speed up some.
By 1:30 p.m., it
had warmed up to 8°, but the wind chill was -7°. I needed to go fill the
bird feeders... but I didn’t wanna, much!
When I saw a brilliant red Northern cardinal land on an empty feeder,
tip his head this way and that in search of sunflower seeds, fly to the next
feeder and repeat the process, then gaze at the patio door and chirp a loud
protest, I reluctantly donned coat, boots, and fortitude, and marched out
there, bag of seed in hand.
This evening I saw
a picture of a quilt online, and I thought, I should be able to do that
in EQ8. So I gave it a try. I’ve
never designed a quilt with two different sizes of blocks in that
program.
But... 45 minutes
later, I’ve got it, in two color schemes. I think maybe it’ll be for a wedding sometime
this summer. Which do you like best?
Now to get back to
the New York Beauty quilt. I noticed in some of the pictures I took of it
Friday and Saturday that there are a couple of spots where I missed some
quilting. For some reason, I am more likely to see those areas in photos
than I am in person (in quilt?). Knowing that, I take plenty of
pictures as I go along.
If any of you
notice something like that, do let me know, won’t you? I’d appreciate it!
,,,>^..^<,,, Sarah Lynn ,,,>^..^<,,,
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