Journal: The Quilt Police Ride Again

Tuesday morning, I discovered that I had totally lost my senses.

(... pause ...)

Well, that is, I only lost the senses of taste and smell.  The rest of me was still cognizant.

I couldn’t smell my hand-milled soap, or my shampoo.  I couldn’t smell or taste my coffee – a cryin’ shame, since I was drinking that scrumptious Blueberry Cobbler coffee by New England Coffees.  The only thing I could tell about that lovely cup of coffee was that it was hot and felt good on my throat.

This has never happened to me before.  Why, I’m the one whose very own father said I could track rabbits with my nose.  😂

At least I no longer had a fever.  I sure would’ve liked to taste my breakfast, though!

I trotted upstairs to work on my customer’s quilt, but all I really wanted to do was to take a nap.  I was soooo tired and sleepy...

A friend, commiserating with me, mentioned that she takes a garlic pill every day, which she believes often helps her ward off illnesses.

That reminded me of how Loren used to take a big, fat, smelly garlic tablet every day (or, lacking that, tuck a real, honest-to-goodness garlic clove in his cheek), saying it made him more resistant to germs.

“Naaa,” contradicted Daddy, “it just makes you more resistant to people, who then stay away, thereby keeping the germs farther from you, into the bargain.”  haha

At 4:00 p.m., I was soooo tired, I just couldn’t stand there and quilt any longer, so I took a 20-minute nap.  I might’ve taken a longer one, if I could’ve actually fallen asleep.  But 20 minutes of resting helped, and soon I was nearly done with another row, and ready to roll the quilt forward.

I got Rows 8 and 9 quilted on my customer’s Dear Jane quilt that day.  More pictures here.  I included a few ‘Before & After’ photos on that page.

That evening, I tried some of the powdered calcium, Vitamin C, and other vitamins that Teddy gave us.  I put it in orange juice, and wowwweeeee, did it have some kick!  One sip, and I immediately told Larry, “Well, I can sho’ ’nuff taste and smell this!” 

I wished I’d have tried it before supper, because I’d made a macaroni and cheese dish with corn and peas and some type of yummy Swanson’s canned chicken soup added to it, and I know from past experience that I love that concoction.  The temperature was right... the texture was right... but I simply could not taste it, more’s the pity.  Larry assured me it was good, the smart alec.  (Or maybe he was just innocently complimenting the cook.)  There was a little left over; I would try it the next day, if I hadn’t re-lost my sense of taste by then.  And maybe even if I had.

Wednesday, I went on working on the Dear Jane quilt.  When I started the quilt, a row was taking me about 4 ½ hours.  By the time I reached the halfway point, a row only took 3 ½ hours.  Either that was a simpler row, or I’d sped up!  (One does tend to get faster as one works on a quilt.)

We’ve been having lovely days, despite the hazy skies from the wildfires in the west.  I miss the cacophony of the bird song we hear earlier in the year; but the quiet, along with the singing of insects (katydids and crickets, in particular) is nice, too.  I’m always glad when I can open the windows wide.

By afternoon, I had begun to suspect that I had forgotten to count a row somewhere on that quilt, because it sure didn’t look like there were still six to go.  There is a total of 15 rows, counting the borders.  (I don’t ‘float’ my quilts; that part of the quilt yet to be quilted is rolled on the front bar.)

I paused with the quilting to make some food for Loren.  I’ve been putting a lunchbox on his porch, ringing the doorbell, trotting back down the steps, waving at him, complimenting him on his yard and flowers, and then leaving quickly.  I sure hope I don’t give him whatever it is I have.  Several of our children and grandchildren have been ill, too, so I can’t ask them to help with Loren’s meals.

Larry and I both stayed home from church that evening.

By that night, Row 10 was finished – or at least I thought it was Row 10; I wasn’t totally sure.  I still suspected I’d lost track.  Here’s a set of Before & After photos of one of the blocks.

Thursday, I felt worse than ever.  My temperature was below normal, but everything hurt, including my eyes.  So that afternoon Larry got some food for Loren at Cubby’s deli and took it to him.  Loren does not eat this food well, and we often end up taking it home with us a day or two later, and we worry about whether or not he had enough to eat.

Late that night, I rolled the quilt forward – and discovered what I had been suspecting, when the bottom border showed up:  instead of finishing Row 11, I had just finished Row 12.  I was closer to done than I’d thought I was!  I calculated how much I would have to do in order to finish the quilt by Saturday night – and went on quilting for a while, until Row 13 was halfway done.  That left just 2 ½ rows to go, counting the triangle border.

I still had little to no sense of taste or smell that day.  It’s a very strange sensation to be munching along through a piece of toast and jelly, only to realize, Hey, I didn’t taste (or smell) a single bite of that.  I don’t think of it right away, because, after all, I know what it’s supposed to taste like.

Except I don’t know what Quince jelly tastes like, and I bought the stuff specifically to find out!  I will now save that jar of jelly until my tastebuds revive.

That day I quilted Rows 13 and 14 on the Dear Jane quilt.  That left only the triangle border to go.

Here is the story of the Dear Jane quilt: 

Jane Stickle and Her Quilt

One day last week, Larry moved the trail cam to a field on the corner of Shady Lake Road, thinking he might hunt there one of these days.  Look what the camera saw early one morning:  A nice, big buck!

Someone on a Facebook quilting group wrote to me, “Do you always post your customers’ quilts?”

I wanted to answer, “Yes, because I’m a criminal and a thief.”  (since she obviously thinks it’s a crime, for some reason)

Or maybe, “Do you always sound so confrontational?”  Or how about, “Have you always been a stuck-up holier-than-thou pompous stuffed shirt?”

But... there are all those delicate little ladies on quilting groups who can’t handle answers like that, and some of them might be potential customers.   So... I rise above, and respond thusly:

“Of course, unless they prefer I not do so in a certain group, perhaps because the recipient might see it.  On the contrary, my customers have been quite delighted over all the comments.”

The woman responds, “Just wondered.”

‘Just wondered,’ indeed.

Guess she doesn’t follow very many professional quilters (and I’m not calling myself ‘professional’), does she?  How do we all know how professional quilters quilt, if they don’t post pictures?  Why, I know the styles of many of those quilters so well, I can easily pick their quilts out of big lineups.  They particularly like to post pictures of quilts they’ve quilted that have garnered big, pretty ribbons at big, important quilt shows!

I left the ‘Like’ button conspicuously unchecked under both of her statements.  That’ll larn ’er.

Saturday afternoon, a friend wrote, “Sarah Lynn, I was just admiring your work.  Have you ever had to unsew a quilt or part of one?”

Oooooo, yeah.  Remember the Mosaic Lighthouse quilt?  That was The Great Unsewing of All Time.  Took me two weeks, spending over 8 hours a day (and sometimes up to 12 hours a day, if I was feeling particularly energetic, and didn’t get interrupted) ripping out those seams.  All because on one of the three sections, I took 1/16” deeper seams than I had on the other two sections.  Take that fraction times 160 horizontal seams, and you’ll have a section that’s ten whole inches shorter than the other sections. 

Why wasn’t I checking it as I went along?!!!  (Answer:  Nobody knows.) 

Not only did I have to take out those 160 horizontal seams, I also had to take out the 40 vertical seams, because they were done last, over the tops of the horizontal seams.

That was a long two weeks.

I have pretty little seam rippers of all make and model handy at all times.  If I have to do very much ripping on any particular project, I ‘reward’ myself with a fancy-schmancy new seam ripper.  It’s my consolation prize!  😃 

The Mosaic Lighthouse quilt garnered me a handful of at least half a dozen new seam rippers.  Some of them had multiple blade attachments... some had ergonomic handles... some were scythes... some were those ‘normal’ types with little balls on one side ------ but all were titanium, and very sharp.

That day, I had only the triangles in the last border to do (plus a couple on either side).  The very first triangle I did had bad tension (probably because the bobbin was about to run out – shouldn’t make a difference in tension, but it sometimes does), and I didn’t notice until I was nearly done with that triangle.  It wasn’t bad... but... I picked it all out and redid it.

“So now, do you feel lots happier, knowing that?” I asked my friend, and signed off, “Sarah Lynn, Collector & Connoisseur of the Mighty Seam Ripper”

“I remember the Lighthouse fiasco,” she replied, “but I considered that more a sewing thing than a quilting thing.”

She’s right; that was more sewing than quilting.  As for ripping out quilting, I’ve done it plenty of times.  It’s not much fun.  It can take two hours to remove a dense patch of quilting that took a mere ten minutes to put in. 

I have removed quilting when the tension was wrong, or, less often, when I didn’t like the way the quilting looked.  Many times, though, even if I launch into a design that I am later not particularly fond of, I just go with it, figuring that once I’ve put thirty minutes or more into a design, I’m committed.  Sometimes adding a few more curlicues to a design solves the problem and makes it satisfactory.

And I never mention to anybody that those fanciful arcs, curves, and spirals I so blissfully quilted now look, to me, quite a lot like evilly grinning little gargoyles. 

Here’s a fact, though:  nevah, evah, evah, will I quilt something for someone after together we have decided on quilting design and a nice thread color (blue, in the case I’m thinking of)... and then, when the customer throws a fit – “That’s the wrong color of blue!” (I saw a picture; it was a lovely color of blue, and it matched quite nicely, and the quilting itself was fine, too) – anyway, nevah evah will I pick out all that quilting, and redo it with a slightly different shade of blue, as another quilter did for her customer.

Nope, I’d sooner just tie that customer up in her own quilt and let her cool her heals until she promised to be reasonable.

But I do think of that story now and again, when a customer tells me, “Just do whatever you think best!”  I choose things... check with the customer... send pictures... even when she says that.

Saturday night, I finished my customer’s Dear Jane quilt, all except the binding, which she will put on.

The quilt measures 108” x 108”.  The blocks are 6.5”.  I used Dream Wool batting, Gütermann 50-weight Tuskegee Gray 100% cotton thread on top, and 60-weight Bottom Line thread in a matching color in the bobbin.  The quilting was done on my 18” Handi Quilter Avanté longarm, employing rulerwork and free-motion quilting.  My Avanté is not computerized.

Sunday, Larry and I stayed home from church again.  We both felt pretty lousy, but our cases are considered ‘mild’ in comparison to others.  We hurt all over, including our heads and eyes, and we were sooo tired.  For the last several days, we felt nauseated, too.  We take vitamins, cold remedy meds, pain killers, and sip diet Mt. Dew or diet Dr. Pepper.  The fever only lasted the first 3 or 4 days.  Well, technically, I probably had a low-grade fever for a week, since it was right at 98.6°, i.e., ‘normal’; but my normal temp is 97.6°.  We’ve both lost weight, and feel sorta like limp noodles; but we’re not really in danger of wasting away just yet. 

“I can still smell and taste as usual,” Larry informed me. 

“You couldn’t smell anything in the first place!” I told him, which made him laugh. 

He sounded congested, and Friday night his chest was hurting; but he was better by last night.

I stand by what I’ve said all along about this virus – that is, the response has been fueled by politics and money and a variety of other evil agendas.  But it is nevertheless a nasty virus, and even this ‘mild’ case of it is entirely miserable and unpleasant, and it takes a long time to get over it.

That afternoon, I took some pictures of the Dear Jane quilt in natural lighting.  It was windy out, and gusts kept coming up through the deck and making a domed tent out of the quilt.  😄  

Below is a shot of the back of the quilt.

When the photo session was done, Larry and I totally wore ourselves out in a joint effort to neatly fold and compress that quilt into a box in preparation for mailing it today.  Whew, that was hard work!

I barely got done with that quilt in time! – another quilt arrived today, and one is coming on Wednesday.  My customers have evidently decided I should stop scanning old pictures and get back to quilting!  heh heh

For supper last night, I fixed baked chicken and noodles – those yummy fat frozen ones (well, that is, they’re yummy after they’re cooked, not while they’re still frozen) – with corn, peas, and lima beans.  I baked big, soft pretzels, buttered and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, for dessert.  I could taste it all just enough to enjoy it.  But neither of us can eat much, or we feel nauseated afterwards. 

Today I learned that Schwan’s depot in Schuyler, from which we get our frozen food, is closing.  They will ship food through UPS for this territory, and shipping won’t be cheap.

We figured something like this was bound to happen.  Businesses can’t just gradually continue to diminish without finally coming to an end.

Larry and I will have to go back to having a once-a-week date night at the grocery store!  We used to enjoy that.  And we took all the kids along, just to make it a little more fun.

I used to wheel the cart, usually with a couple of kids in it, over to the toy department in Wal-Mart, and show them all the nifty toys.  I’d hand them something to look at ... put it back... hand them something else...  It was our inexpensive way of going to a children’s museum.

One time some lady nearby said, “I never saw such a thing!”  I didn’t think she was talking to us, so continued what I was doing... then she got in front of me and said it again.  I looked at her, wondering, What on earth.

“I never saw such a thing as handing a child a toy, and then putting it back on the shelf without the child throwing a fit!”  She almost acted like I was doing something wrong.

You should’ve seen all the children’s faces.  So funny... they all lined up in order (funny, how they’d do that) and stared at her in amazement.  And then the baby in the cart handed me the toy she’d been looking at (it was Lydia, age 1) and said, “Put it back!”  hee hee  Lydia always did like to make monkeys out of people.

Teach children to obey, and you can have all sorts of fun with them.

How in the world did I get off on that?

Ah.  Schwan’s.  I wonder where one can get food of comparable quality?  And I wonder why they don’t put a depot in Columbus?

Larry took the quilt to the post office this morning, then came home to take a nap at noon.  Teensy, as usual, cuddled up on top of him.  Sometimes when he sees Larry heading in there to lie down, he scurries in front of him, leaps up on the loveseat, and curls up on the quilt before Larry even gets a chance to sit down.  Then Larry tries to squirm his way under the blanket without upending the cat.

Yeah, we don’t spoil the beast, or anything.

Loren arrived a few minutes later to fill his water jugs with our well water.  It’s crystal clear, and tastes so good.  Knowing that we are sick, Loren agrees with me that it’s a bad virus, and he doesn’t want to catch it – and then he thinks, “Water!  I need water!” – and there he is, knocking at my door.  Which isn’t a whole lot different than he ever was.  😂

I met him at the door, reminded him we are sick – and he said he could just fill his jugs outside.  So I went out and manned the spigot while he inserted the hose into bottle after bottle.

As usual, he wanted to pay me for helping him get water.  I laughed and said, “Water is still free here!”  So he laughed too, and went home again.

Later this afternoon, I took him some supper:  battered cod, sweet potatoes, lima beans, peaches, and cranberry pineapple juice. 

I sure hope I’ve been staying far enough away from him that I won’t give him this virus.  I’m certainly trying, with all my might and main!

I went to the bank (the drive-thru), then came home and washed first Loren’s clothes, and then Larry’s.

This evening, Teddy brought us a tall jar of some totally scrumptious chicken/vegetable soup.  Like I said last week, that boy is determined to get his parents well again!  (I hope we don’t make him sick first.)

In view of Schwan’s going kaput, I ordered a bunch of stuff from Hy-Vee.  We’re too far out in the country for them to deliver it to us, but we can pick it up tomorrow evening.  So I ordered a lot of dairy products, fruit, and some frozen meat.  At least we won’t have to wander around the store spreading germs.

Wow, now look what someone commented on one of my Facebook posts of the Dear Jane quilt:

“I’d be very upset if I found out you laid my quilt on a floor surface.  Hopefully it didn’t pick up any splinters and/or get snagged or ripped.  Won’t even go into the germ aspect of this.”

I did what I always do: I looked at her personal Facebook page. 

Lo and behold, look what she lets her small grandchild do!  (I blurred out this child’s face.)

So... which is worse?  A quilt on a power-washed, swept, and smooth deck, or a toddler alone on a Harley?  🙄 

Do you cringe when you see pictures of my own quilts and customer quilts on my deck?

I’ve seen beautiful pictures of quilts on fences with cows just the other side. I’ve seen quilts on the grass... quilts on a sandy beach... quilts suspended from trees... quilts draped over tractors or antique cars... and admired the beautiful quilt and the pretty picture. 

In fact, look at this picture! – that quilt is lopped over a barbwire fence, no less!

Larry doesn’t let the grandchildren climb or sit alone on his motorcycle.  We will never forget, back when we were teenagers, when a motorcycle fell on a climbing child in a nearby town, and the child died.

A friend wrote, “I know how much time and care and love that you put into your own quilts, and you have laid them out there just like you did with JoeAnn’s.  If you are going to do that with your quilts that you have spent hours and hours and hours creating, I know that you have taken great pains to make sure it is safe and clean.  I’ve actually taken mine out and thrown them on a grassy slope and also on our concrete drive to take pictures.  And I didn’t sweep or clean either one.  The quilts were fine.”

I even laid the cream and white New York Beauty with the Venice lace on that deck!  I really do try hard to take good care of people’s quilts – and my own, too.  I worry more about the floor in my quilting studio than I do about the deck (which Larry often helps me clean before helping me lay a quilt down on it).  The cats love that rag rug in my studio.  I try to keep it vacuumed... keep the wood floor dusted... and I dust my frame and machine before loading quilts.  But I need to remember to make sure no customers are allergic to cats before I accept their quilts.  So if this helps me do that, it’ll serve a good purpose, I guess.  (Plus it’s good fodder for my weekly journal.  Ha!)

And now, from my customer herself:  “If you do answer this lady you can tell her the owner of that quilt had total trust in her quilter and thought nothing about her quilt laying on the deck.  She appreciated having such nice pictures of the quilt.”

I replied, “Oh, I did hope so, JoeAnn!  I try so hard to be careful with all the quilts I am entrusted with.”

There.  Now I am happy.  Plus, I must be getting better:  I actually felt like doing a little dab of my neglected exercising this evening.

And with that, I shall close this letter.  Gossipfest.  Saga.  Diatribe.  Tirade.

The End!

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