Journal: Butterflies, Panels, Quilts, Goats, & Chickens

Last Tuesday, needing wool batting for my customer’s quilt, I called Claus ’en Paus, one of our two local quilt shops.  (As I mentioned in last week’s letter, I had checked Hobby Lobby and Sew What, the other LQS, the day before.)

They didn’t have any.

I called Hobby Lobby in Norfolk, and was informed that Hobby Lobby no longer carries wool batting.  Not really believing that, I looked it up online, and got the following response:  “We couldn’t find any results for ‘wool batting’ in Products.  Sorry!  Did you mean ‘wood baking’?”

‘Wood baking’?  I’ve never baked wood; have you?  Okay, time out while I look that up.

Hmmm... I found a couple of wooden plaques with sayings on them such as ‘Baking Sweet Memories’, and picturing gingerbread cookies.

No, I didn’t mean ‘wood baking’, I meant ‘wool batting’, just like I said in the first place.

I called Country Traditions in Fremont – and they had it.

So off I went to Fremont.

Guess what?

Did you guess?

Their wool is Quilters’ Dream Wool!

Pricey stuff, but ... Ooooooo, is it ever nice.

While I was there, I also bought the fabric for Caleb and Maria’s One-Block Wonder quilt.  To my surprise, Country Traditions had very few panels.  I want a scenic panel in the middle. 

When I got home, I pulled up Marshall Dry Goods online, thinking to order one of their many pretty panels. 

But... what one sees at Marshall Dry Goods in July is not necessarily what one will see in August.  In fact, it’s very likely that there will have been a total change.  They are one of the largest fabric inventory holders in the United States, with approximately six million yards of fabric at their warehouse in Batesville, Arkansas.  But they are liable to have sold half of that and put three million yards of brand-spankin’-new fabric in its place, in only a couple of months!

The two dozen or so wildlife and scenic panels that I’d admired last month had shrunk to two – neither one of which would go with either the fabric I’d just purchased, or Caleb and Maria’s house.

I gave eBay a try – and bought this panel, Call of the Wild – Atlantic Beach Path, by Hoffman Fabrics:

A friend later sent me a link to Bear Creek Quilting Company, where they have a whole raft of beautiful quilt panels.  I’ll remember that, when I start making quilts for the grandsons.

In the meanwhile, I hoped the Atlantic Beach panel would match the fabric I got.  It looked like it did; but what colors look like on one’s monitor may or may not be what they look like in person.  If it didn’t match... why, I would just buy more fabric, until finally it wouldn’t matter an iota if anything matched or not.  heh

I got my customer’s quilt loaded on the frame that evening, and started quilting.  But it was late, and I was tired, so I didn’t go far before stopping for the night.  The lady made this quilt 26 years ago.  She’s going to be happy to finally have it quilted.

On one of the online quilting groups, ladies were discussing their budgets (or lack thereof) for their quilting interests.  The questions were as follows:  How do you figure it?  What items in particular do you budget for?  Do you stay within your budget, or do you fall off the wagon? 

I don’t have a budget, really; I just get what I need when we can afford it, and seldom get anything I don’t need.  I usually buy the fabric I need wherever I can find a discount; but I didn’t do that, that day.  Nope, not that day.  😬  I just picked out what I wanted and paid for it.  It was not on sale.  Eeek.  😑😕😵😮😯😒😖  But you can’t beat the quality of the fabric they stock at Country Traditions; there is that.

Wednesday, I went to Pet Care Specialists to pick up some Felimazole – medicine for Teensy Cat, who has hyperthyroidism. 

That afternoon, I was attempting to retrieve something from the cupboard without disturbing Tiger, who was eating from his bowl of cat food right next to said cupboard.

The peanut butter jar fell out.

Furthermore, it landed smack-dab in the bowl of cat food from which Tiger was eating.

BLAP-SPLAT-CRUNCH

Pieces of cat food flew out of the bowl and onto the floor, TINKA-TINKA-TINKA.  Tiger’s ears flew up, too.  (If you don’t think a cat’s ears can fly up, then you’ve never dropped a jar of peanut butter into his bowl right while he was eating.)

He stared at the peanut butter jar.  He turned and looked at me.  Then, “Ow,” he protested sadly, in his low-pitched gravelly voice.  I couldn’t quit laughing, so he ‘ow’ed once or twice more for good measure, staring at me reproachfully.

A bit later, I gave Teensy his soft food with his medicine in it.  He decided he didn’t want it, thank you kindly anyway, and went to eat the dry food.  I quickly scooped up the dry food bowl and put it on the counter.  Teensy stared hard at the floor where the bowl used to be, ignoring the saucer of soft food I moved over beside him.  Then he scootched over slightly and went to eating those few pieces of dry food that were still scattered on the floor, crunch crunch crunch.  🙄

Well, at least somebody cleaned up the mess.

We went to Stromsburg after church that night to put E85 in the Jeep.  Why don’t they sell that stuff in Columbus?!  The Jeep runs waaaay better on it.

We indulged in some raspberry cream cheese flips and a couple of bottles of Frappuccino to keep us from dying of starvation before we got home.  Every now and then, one must eat dessert first!

We ate some Campbells’ chicken and dumpling soup when we got home, and then I went back to quilting.  By four in the morning, the top border and the first row of my customer’s quilt were mostly done.

A couple of days after Victoria told me she was worried about Violet because she wasn’t standing yet, the baby stood (with help).  Sometimes roly-poly babies take a little longer to do things like that.

When Victoria was a baby, and beginning to pull herself to her feet, I said to Larry one night as we tucked her into her crib, “We’d better lower that mattress tomorrow!  She’s getting taller!”

‘Tomorrow’ was one day too late.

The next morning, I heard her waking up... went to her door... opened it ----- she saw me, grinned, held out both arms, leaned -------

I knew what was about to happen, and ran --- but I couldn’t get there in time.  Over the rail she went, headfirst.

My heart stopped, when she hit the floor.  Oh, my goodness, her head bent back so far... I thought my baby had a broken neck. 

But before I quite got to her, wondering how on earth to pick her up, and if she was mortally wounded, she scrambled to a sitting position, then to her knees, and, looking a little dazed, and with tears in her eyes, held out her arms to me again.

Then she said, said Victoria girl, in true Victoria girl fashion, “Oops!”  And laughed.

Thursday, I filled in some feathering on the sashing of my customer’s quilt and rolled it forward in preparation for row #2.  The machine is working perfectly, and the tension is good on the back. 

My thumb and wrist are being troublesome again, and I was thinking, Oh, no, not that dreadful De Quervain’s tenosynovitis again!  (When I get maladies, I get really impressive-sounding ones.)  I struggled with that for several months last year.  I finally got a cortisone shot for it, and it really helped.  But now there’s a caved-in spot in my wrist where I got the shot!  I bought a couple of wrist braces, one for each wrist, from Amazon (Mueller Green is the brand), and they help a lot when I am quilting, making it almost painless to use my Avanté.  So there’s some good news.

By the time I quit for the night, the second row was done.

Friday, I completed row #3.  I can’t quilt as long as I used to.  7 hours that day, and that was enough.  😏

Saturday, I put fresh water in the birdbaths (those things need to be power-washed! errrggh), put out some over-ripe orange halves for the orioles (and bees and wasps, heh), and picked a giant bag of not-quite-ripe peaches before the birds and bugs get them.  There are still a lot on the tree; I hope some of them have a chance to ripen.  The ones I picked will ripen in a few days; but they’re always better (and bigger) if they can ripen on the tree.

The oranges looked better than expected when I cut them, so I ate one.  And I ate a couple of peaches, too.

I noticed from my USPS email notification that my Red-E Edge clamp replacement had arrived, so I went over to the mailbox on Old Highway 81 and got the mail.

Turns out, the fabric panel ‘Call of the Wild Atlantic Beach Path’ had arrived, too.  And yes!! – it does match the fabric I got at Country Traditions!  The blues are just right.

That day, I finished the fourth row on my customer’s blue and white quilt.  I have 26.5 hours in it so far. 

Loren’s 81^st birthday was Friday, August 9^th, but he and Norma were gone, having taken a little vacation in western Nebraska.  They got back Saturday afternoon.

So Sunday after the morning service, we gave him his gift – a battery jump box that Larry got for him at Bomgaars.

We also gave Andrew and Hester a big clock with a clear face, through which one can see the gears.  It was their 11^th anniversary Saturday.

Our neighbors have gone to Texas for a couple of weeks, so we are caring for their animals, chickens and goats.  We walked up there yesterday afternoon, and came home with eight eggs.  One of the goats is going to have a baby (or two) soon – and she was coughing!  So Larry went back and checked on her before we went to the evening church service, and we both went up there last night.  She seems fine.  Maybe she just got a sprig of hay stuck up her nose? 

I looked at the peaches; they are still not ripe.  But there are dozens all over the ground, rotting.  I think if we would have sprayed that tree for bugs, this would not be happening.  I peeled and ate a couple that I’ve had lying on the table ripening, and they were scrumptious, but small.  They might ripen after they’re picked, but they don’t keep growing!

I walked up to check on the goats, taking them a cut-up green bell pepper that was getting a little too soft in spots.  The nanny was in the little barn, but she finally came out, waddling along.  The billy liked the pepper best, and the two other nannies liked it all right; but the expectant nanny seemed to think it was a bit hot, and rubbed her mouth on the grass after she ate a piece.  Acckk, I didn’t want to do something bad for her!  

The billy kept standing up on the fence, tipping his head this way and that, trying to look cute enough to coax me into giving him another piece – and then I held out the piece that had a soggy, limp corner starting to go bad.  Billy started to take it... stopped... backed up... sniffed at it – and then tipped his head up and looked at me.  I mean, he looked a hole through me.  It was as if to say, How dare you try to trick me into eating that!  He was cautious about my offerings, after that.

The roosters liked the peppers, too, especially the seeds.

Larry got home late tonight, after finally getting his red pickup back together.  And... the clutch still slips.  But at least the thing goes again.  Still, it’s disheartening that after all that work, and sinking some money into it, too, it still isn’t right.

After a late supper, we went to care for the animals, and brought back eight eggs again.  Omelets tomorrow!  😄

We also picked two handfuls of cherry tomatoes.  The man told us to pick anything that looked ripe in the garden.  There are peppers, big tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, beans...  Not sure what else, as it was dark by the time we went there, and we only had a little flashlight.  I’ll see what I can find tomorrow.

We got a bit of rain yesterday morning, and an inch and a half overnight.  Everything is green as can be, and the white hosta buds have started opening, just in time for the hummingbirds that will soon start migrating back through!

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