Journal: Quilt Party! Quilt Party!

 

Last Tuesday, I put a thick, hardcover picture book from National Geographic, measuring about 6” high, 6” wide, and almost 2” thick, into a gift bag for Loren, along with the Messenger newspaper and small stack of Christmas cards and pictures from friends and family. 

Into another gift bag, this one for grandson Warren, I put a knit hat and glove set with a dinosaur knitted into the front of the hat and an RZR (off-road 4x4) like his Grandpa’s.  Into his card I taped a tiny glass bottle of real gold flakes.  Warren, Teddy and Amy’s eighth child, second to the youngest, was 8 years old that day.

Then I gathered coffee, purse, gift bags, and camera and headed out to the Mercedes.  I would drop off Warren’s gift on my way to visit Loren.

I had hurt a rib the previous Saturday carrying gifts up and down the stairs and out to the vehicle, and it wasn’t much fun climbing in and out of the Benz that day.

Having let Amy know I was on the way, Warren was on the porch waiting for me, and came running when I pulled into the driveway.

I fully expected him to like the RZR best.

Nope.  He saw the hat, exclaimed happily over it, saw the RZR – and then found the bottle of gold taped inside his card and was totally delighted.  He proceeded to explain very carefully and earnestly to me how one pans for gold.  And he had all the details quite right.

He liked the RZR, too; but it was a distant third.  Amy sent me a picture of him with his small bottle of gold, smiling happily.

Grant brought out two little kittens to show me.  They’ll soon be old enough to put up for adoption, and they’re sooo cute.  One was a dark charcoal marble, with narrow orange lines curving through his fur, and little white toes on every foot; the other was a long-haired, bright yellow-orange kitten with such a fluffy white mane and bib, he looked like a miniature lion.

When I got to the nursing home, I found Loren in the dining room with the other residents.  He’d just finished eating supper; they brought out ice cream a few minutes later.  A man at another table, upon receiving his bowl, picked up the entire scoop of ice cream in his hand and slowly nibbled away at it.  He probably wondered why the cone had disintegrated so quickly.  😐

Loren was so pleased with his new book, he hardly wanted to set it aside and look at his Christmas cards with all the pictures.  So I started opening the envelopes, holding the pictures so he could see them, telling who each person was, and relating little stories about them.  It wasn’t long before he’d handed me the book to put back in the bag so he could better hold and look at the pictures.  He very much enjoyed going through all those pictures.

I gave him our card with our picture in it – the one of Larry and me sitting near the campfire at the campground in Alpine, Wyoming.  Loren recognized Larry, but not me. 

I told him, “That’s Larry and me!” 

He looked at me quickly, and then said in a surprised tone, “Oh!  Yes!  You do have white hair!”  😂

But when I mentioned our family get-together, and said Carolyn and Violet’s names, he said, “I sure hope I can come home soon.”  That made me feel bad. 

I hurriedly went on to our friends Paul and Jennifer’s big family picture, naming all their children and grandchildren.  Loren was quite surprised when I pointed out seven of the children and told him they are our great-great-nieces and nephews, and two others are Larry’s first cousins twice removed.

The Elkhorn River

Then a nurse came along, apologizing for interrupting, asking if I was going to be staying – because they were gathering together all the residents who wanted to go for a ride on the bus to look at Christmas lights.

I’d been there an hour, and that’s a long enough visit.  Loren starts getting tired by then, and he won’t remember whether it was 15 minutes or 2 hours in any case.  Shorter is usually better; he can remember more of the things I say, because I haven’t told him quite so much.

So I said, “I’ll put your gift bag on your bed, and your cards on your dresser, so you can look at them later; and next time I come, we’ll look at any of the cards we didn’t see today.”

He was agreeable, and hurried off toward his room.  I opened the door (it never ceases to amaze him that I can get the code correct), and then asked, “Do you want your coat?” 

“No,” he said, “I won’t be needing it.”

Bet you will, I thought, but I do not take that role anymore.  I let the nurses do it.

Loren headed off down the hall (the wrong way), telling me over his shoulder, “You can just leave the door unlocked.” 

I can’t, of course; it locks automatically.  But I said, “Okay,” anyway.

I heard the nurse calling his name from the other end of the hall.

Sure enough, I was still in the room when a nurse tapped on the door and then opened it and came in, Loren tagging along behind her, to get his coat.  She helped him on with it, and he didn’t protest a bit.  He had that odd little guilty half-smile on his face as he looked at me, and I was nearly certain he remembered telling me moments earlier that he wouldn’t be needing that coat.

I told him goodbye and skedaddled before I wound up in the middle of the throng of exiting residents, some with walkers, some with canes, some in wheelchairs, and some just plodding along.  Loren walks the best of any resident there, by far.  Why, he even walks better than some of the nurses!  🤣

I was glad they were going off on an excursion; it would totally distract Loren from missing friends and family, as he had started to do.  He was terribly fond of Carolyn and Violet.

Larry was well enough to go to work Tuesday, but by the time he got home at a quarter after 7 (same time I got home from visiting Loren), he was worn to a frizzle-frazzle.  Vegetable beef barley soup was just the ticket.

An online quilting friend asked me what name I usually go by – Sarah, or Sarah Lynn.

‘Sarah Lynn’ is what all my close friends and family call me, and that’s what I like best.  But I answer to Sarah, if people call me that – and I even answer to ‘Lura Kay’, my sister’s name, because my parents, my brother, grandparents, and several aunts and uncles were forever calling me that.  😄  Loren did so one day not long ago, actually caught himself, and then said the right name, laughing.

One day when I was in first grade, we were each to stand up and tell the class our entire name, including middle name, and then tell any nickname we might have.  I stood and announced that my whole name was Sarah Lynn Swiney; my first name was ‘Sarah Lynn’; I did not have a middle name; and everyone at school called me by a nickname, ‘Sarah’.  (No way under the sun would I ever divulge the dearly-loved nickname my father had for me, ‘Cookie Doodle’.  That was too special to just spill out to the world at large, some of whom might consider it a good thing with which to heckle me.)

Me with my mother, Hester Swiney

Miss Morde, my teacher (who should’ve been a drill sergeant in the army instead of a first-grade teacher), informed me I was quite wrong, and said my first name was Sarah, second name Lynn.  I politely disagreed.  She impolitely disagreed right back.

I hushed up, out of respect for my teacher.

But at noon, I marched home in High Dudgeon to apprise my parents of the indignities suffered upon me.

Imagine my astonishment when they told me the teacher was right!

Ohhhh, the humiliation.

Wednesday afternoon, Victoria sent a picture of Willie eating a new-to-him food. 

I gave her the caption for the shot:  “Ma!!!  Are you feeding me Strychnine?!”

Carolyn had a fever that day, and both of Joseph’s children were sick with sore throats and fevers.

Victoria then sent a picture of Violet in the little sunflower-print dress we gave her for Christmas. 

I requested of Victoria, “Tell Violet she looks like a bright little sunflower.”

Victoria soon replied, “She thought that was funny. 😄”

I spent part of the afternoon scanning the many Christmas pictures we’d gotten, finishing after church that night.  Larry was not yet well enough to go to church, as he was still coughing.

Walking out of the church after the service with Lydia and a couple of the children, Hester behind us, I stepped off the curb, heading toward the passenger side of the Mercedes. 

I paused, then stepped back up on the curb and continued on to the driver’s side.

“Oops,” said I.  “I wonder if getting in the passenger’s side of your car when you’re the one who’s supposed to drive is a sign of Alzheimer’s?”

Hester laughed, “If it is, we’re all in trouble!”  🤣

The ladies on my Quilt Talk group like to greet each other in the mornings and announce their plans for the day.  I usually wait until later in the day, and then report on what I’ve actually accomplished. 

Thursday, however, I told my quilting friends what I planned to do that day, because...

Are you ready?

Because I was going to work on Kurt and Victoria’s quilt!!!  I’m plumb excited about getting back to quilting.  And if I announced my plans, that would encourage me to get the kitchen cleaned and the clothes into the washing machine quicker, and scurry up the stairs to my sewing room all the faster, right? 

Outside, it was snowing, and the house finches, goldfinches, English sparrows, and the occasional nuthatch were thronging the bird feeders.

A Birds-in-the-Snow video is uploaded here.

This photo of the Colorwash 9-Patch quilt top was taken in July of 2021.  I sure couldn’t have taken it Thursday, with all the snow out there!  This is what I’ve been looking forward to finishing, through all those months of photo-scanning, though I did enjoy going through all the old pictures.

The poor quilt was all wrinkled, from being folded for so long.  The ‘flimsy’ or quilt top could be considered ‘done’, really; but it’s not... special, just yet.  And it has to be special.

Let the (Quilt) Party Begin (Again)!

But first:  I started the washing machine, took pictures of birds in the snow, put clothes into the dryer, spread the quilt out on my bed in preparation to doing ... something, took clothes out of the dryer, folded them, put them away, measured the quilt, put wet clothes in the dryer and more dirty clothes into the washer, washed dishes, and then hunted on the Internet for the line drawings I wanted for the appliqués I planned to make.

After printing the drawings, I transferred more clothes from one appliance to another and into drawers, then went into my little office to look through fabric bins for the colors I wanted.

I did not have the colors I wanted.

I picked other colors.  I would make do.  In fact, maybe these second choices would be better than what I’d wanted in the first place.

I got a notice telling me that my grocery order was ready for pick-up at Wal-Mart.  Larry was just leaving work, so he obligingly went and collected it for me.

I taped together the line drawing that was too large for my printer to print all on one sheet of paper, and then laid the printed pages of drawings atop the quilt, arranging and rearranging until I was satisfied.  I took a picture of it so I wouldn’t forget where I wanted each piece. 

About the time I was really in gear and going strong, suppertime rolled around.  I was hungry enough by then that I didn’t mind getting interrupted.

We had deer roast, corn flavored with butter and honey, Oui yogurt, Gala apples, and V8 berry juice.  Larry had half a Belgian waffle with peanut butter and syrup for dessert, but I was plumb full.  I saved my waffle for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Friday it got up to 43°, so some of the snow – we’d gotten about 3” – melted.

By mid-afternoon, the quilting frame and table was cleared of the last straggling boxes and bins of old photos.  I spotted a few that I’d brought home from Loren’s house that should have been scanned...  but I’m ignoring them with all my might and main.  I’m done with that project; if any other large numbers of photos need to be scanned, I’ll let my offspring’ns do it!  (I’ll let them, but they won’t, probably.  😉)

I got out freezer paper, my good paper scissors, a pencil, and a marker.  Next step!

After tracing the line drawings onto freezer paper, I ironed the freezer paper onto another layer of freezer paper, then carefully cut them out.  After choosing which fabrics to use for each template, I ironed templates onto fabric, and cut those out.  

Teddy sent me a video of Larry trying out his new Teewing X4 electric scooter, which has a top speed of about 53 mph.  You can stand or sit on the scooter, whichever you prefer.

So here came Larry, flying down the road in front of Teddy’s house.  Upon seeing Teddy taking a video of him, he immediately stuck both legs out in an ‘I’m out of control!’ attitude.  😅

“He behaves quite a lot like your Grandpa Jackson,” I wrote back to Teddy.

This is picture that I was thinking of; Lyle was entertaining his grandchildren on Larry’s three-wheeler.  It was in 1987, a year before he died.  He was 51 here.

Saturday was a bright sunny day with a high of 41°.  Quite a difference from the week before.  I had planned to go to Omaha to visit Loren, but Larry suggested that we wait until today, since he would have the day off, and we could then go on to Anita, Iowa, to pick up a piece of equipment he had purchased.

So I trotted upstairs and got everything rounded up that I would need to turn under the edges of the appliqués for the Colorwash 9-Patch quilt:  Purex Sta-Flo liquid laundry starch, a small paintbrush, the Clover mini iron, the ceramic cup to rest it in when it’s hot, the quilted-Teflon-covered board for ironing small appliqués (so I don’t get starch on the big ironing board), and the Stuff-It tool.

The Stuff-It is a tool that my sister gave me several years ago for making stuffed dolls, toys, and especially pillows with skinny areas to stuff.  I use it to turn the edges of appliqués under.  It keeps my fingers safely away from the iron, and the tip is rounded, so it moves smoothly along the fabric.  Here’s the pillow I first used that tool on.  

I poured starch into a cup, and when the little iron was hot, I got in gear.

It took several hours to get the edges turned under on all those appliqués. 

When that was done, I spread the quilt back out on my bed, and, with the help of the picture I’d taken the day before, began positioning the pieces.  There’s a birdbath and seven birds in various poses.

Once the pieces were where I wanted them, I began removing the freezer paper and then putting tiny dots of glue around the perimeters of the appliqués in order to hold them in place until I can stitch them down.  This process took a while, as I needed to be precise, and the birdbath alone is comprised of 49 pieces.  The birds, for the most part, are simple silhouettes.  The one alighting on the birdbath from the left has the most pieces, and it has only five.

That evening, Victoria sent a picture of a plate piled high with miniature muffins that Carolyn and Violet had made from the muffin mixes and tins we gave them.  She also sent an audio clip from Carolyn and Violet, which was recorded right after the muffins came out of the oven and right before they had supper.  Carolyn starts:  “Hi, Grandma!  I love the muffins that you gave me, and I’m excited to see what they taste like.  Thank you for the muffins!”

Violet waits for the smallest pause, and then takes her turn:  “Hi, Grandma!  I like the muffins, and it’s so fun!  You put them in a bowl, and then –” 

The cat meowed, and Violet lost her train of thought.

She regrouped.  “And then we baked them, and –”

The cat meowed again.  Violet paused.

Then, “And we didn’t eat them, and we don’t know what they taste like!  Bye!”  😀

I think she was in a hurry to eat supper and have a muffin for dessert.  😉

“You’re very welcome!” I replied.  “I just popped some into the oven, too!  Mine are banana nut.  And I don’t know what they taste like yet, either!”

They were Martha White mixes, a brand that’s always quite good.  Soon Victoria was writing again, telling me that the girls proclaimed the muffins ‘delicious.’  😊

Somewhere around 9:30 p.m., I heard fireworks going off in town, a constant rumble of them.  I thought it was squirrels running on the roof before I remembered the date:  New Year’s Eve.

I finished gluing appliqués to the quilt shortly before 1:00 a.m.  They are ready to be stitched down.  The appliqués are in the very center of this king-sized quilt.  The bird bath is 30” tall.

And that day’s work with all the appliqué preparation at the ironing board, and especially leaning over the bed and reaching out to carefully place the appliqués in the proper position, was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  (Not that I’m a camel.)  My rib and side that I’d hurt last Saturday carrying all those gifts out to the Mercedes were now protesting loudly, with my back joining in just for harmony’s sake.

I put everything away as quickly as possible and started to head for the feathers.

A pickup drove slowly by on the front lane, heading up the hill to the east.  It was a Dodge with a Cummins; I could hear the turbo.

Soon I heard it coming back down the hill from whence it had gone, heading for the cattleguard, and it belatedly occurred to me that this was unusual, at that hour of the morning.

I quickly announced the matter to Larry.  He peered out the window, and actually recognized the truck.  “It’s the only one like it in town,” he said.  (He would know something like that.)

The truck continued on over to Old Highway 81 and turned south toward Rte. 22.

And then, two or three minutes later, it was on the lane directly to our south.  I looked out one of the back windows, saw that the pickup had stopped, and someone was out of the pickup, holding  a flashlight.  Or maybe there were two; I couldn’t be sure, because I had on my crafting glasses, and they don’t focus at that distance.  I thought they were in our yard on the west side of Larry’s big garage. 

The Barn, Ackerhurst Dairy Farm

I duly reported this to Larry, and he quickly put on his boots, collected some protection, and went out to see what was happening.

But the truck had already gone roaring off before he even set foot outside.

He looked around both the back yard and the front yard, but there were no footprints in the snow at all; so whoever was out of the pickup must’ve been in the neighbors’ driveway instead of our yard.

The Barn is now used for large events such as weddings.

Maybe they got drunk at a New Year’s Eve party, and couldn’t find their way home?  Larry wondered if they were out of diesel and couldn’t find a place open, and were hoping to siphon some out of a vehicle somewhere.

We quit worrying about it and went to bed.

I couldn’t sleep.  My rib and side hurt.  My neck hurt.  My back hurt.  Eventually I found a comfortable position, and then tried hard not to wiggle.  It felt like I barely blinked, and my alarm went off.

I got up and started getting ready for church.  A hot shower felt good, but lifting my arm to blow-dry and curl my hair wasn’t a bit of fun, and soon I decided I just plain didn’t feel well enough to go. 

After the church services, as I’ve mentioned, I like to dole out little pictures cut from the backs of calendars to the younger grandchildren.  Larry, meanwhile, doles out Tic Tac breath mints.

Last week Eva was all worried about her Grandpa Jackson being sick.  Yesterday, Larry told me, she was all worried about Grandma Jackson.  Caleb and Maria had scarcely gotten home before Eva said, “Grandpa needs to give Grandma a Tic Tac so she feels better!”

Today we decided it would be best not to go to Omaha and Iowa, as we were issued a Winter Storm Warning.  The bad weather would start at noon, and it might continue until midnight tomorrow night.  Omaha will probably stay warm enough that they’ll only have rain, as will Anita, Iowa; but we might have had trouble trying to get back home late tonight.  I had thought to pack suitcases in case we had to stay overnight somewhere; but one night might not be enough.  So... we’re staying home.

Prairie Meadows nursing home

By a quarter after three this afternoon, it was raining, and the temperature was dropping.  The weathermen say we may have ¼” to ½” of ice before it switches over to snow, and that could cause branches to break and electrical lines to fall.  5 to 8” of snow is predicted on top of the ice.  

By a quarter after 7 this evening, it was really slick outside.  Teddy came to get some of his pork and ham from our basement freezer, and said if he hadn’t have kept his pickup centered over the high middle of the lane, he would have slid right off the road.  He parked out on the lane; there’s no coming or going from our sloped driveway.  Looks like it’s a good thing we didn’t go to Omaha and on to Iowa after all.

When Teddy went downstairs, he discovered it was toasty hot down there from the pellet stove; so he rummaged up a fan and propped it on a dresser at the bottom of the stairs, angling it up toward the door, to boost more of that warm air up here.

Teddy has a cow that’s been down for a week now.  He has her covered well, and put a window well over her today so she wouldn’t get all wet in the rain.  She has a four-week-old calf.  Giving birth to the calf made her a little more gimpy than she would’ve otherwise been; plus, she’s a Guernsey, and they are prone for hip troubles.  Then after those days a week ago when the temperatures stayed well below zero, the cow couldn’t get up one day.  

Teddy has tried helping her up to no avail.  He called the vet, and he has come and given her shots of penicillin, and Teddy gives her magnesium and other nutrients, and makes sure she’s fed and watered regularly.  The calf figured out right quick-like how to nurse despite her mother lying down.  Teddy turns the cow from side to side often so she doesn’t injure her legs lying on them too long in one position.  The sling he ordered should come tomorrow, and then he’ll use his tractor to lift her.  Poor thing.  And poor Teddy; he tries so hard to keep his animals healthy and well.  At least the little calf is still hale and hearty.

Deer roast, potatoes, carrots, and onions are done baking.  Mmmmm... yummy.  Want some?  If so, please come bearing pie.

And now for some Toof Humor:

Larry showed his teeth to Carolyn and Violet one time a year or more ago (with my protests).  They, not being the least bit squeamish, laughed and laughed – and later tried to remove their own small teeth.  

When they couldn’t do it, they concluded, “Our teeth are too slippery to do that.”  🤣

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