Journal: Raccoons, Chihuahuas, and Pooh-Sticks

 

Last Monday night, a  raccoon was at the feeders by 8:30 p.m.; more were out front having small feuds.  I took them in (the feeders, not the raccoons) – and a few minutes later, a raccoon was on the back railing chirring at the top of his voice, protesting the disappearance of the smörgåsbord!

Tuesday, it finally got up to 60° by 11:30 a.m.  It was sunshiny and bright.  I did a bit of housecleaning, ate a late breakfast, then headed upstairs to my quilting studio, where the 'For Love of a Chihuahua' quilt was already loaded on the quilting frame and waiting.

I’d been thinking about that quilt ever since getting it loaded the previous Friday night.  I’d considered all sorts of custom quilting I could do... but... 1) this quilt is going to granddaughter Juliana for Christmas, not to a quilt show, 2) I hope to get at least three more quilts done before Christmas, and 3) Juliana likes hearts.  So I looked through my pantographs – and chose one that was intense enough to give custom quilting a run for its money.

It seems that, even if I’m not doing custom, I gravitate to the more intense pantos; can’t help myself! 😄

I printed the pantograph at the size I wanted, taped it together, put it in place on the quilting frame table, cleaned the lint out of the bobbin race and added a drop of oil, wound a bobbin and inserted it, threaded the machine, and was ready to start.

I quilted until suppertime.  We had a quick meal of chicken and noodles and broccoli, cottage cheese, and coconut yogurt.  Then back to the quilting room I went.  I kept at it until I reached the halfway point, and then shut everything down.

My eyes were quite troublesome that day – and have continued to be so.  Sometimes when I retire to my recliner in the evening and try to do a few things on my laptop, they water like anything, clamping shut suddenly just about the time I manage to focus on what I’m looking at, and, in general, being entirely recalcitrant.  The various homeopathic pills that are specifically recommended for this problem help little, if at all.  I continue to use them, thinking that I’m possibly better off than I would be without them.

I refilled my little vaporizer and placed it so it would blow a soft mist into my face; that usually helps after a little while.

Ah, well; everyone has their cross(es) to bear!  I’m thankful that I can continue to sew and quilt without too much trouble, I can type without looking at the screen – and I have autocorrect set to fix and complete tens of thousands of words.  I started this dictionary in Microsoft Suite back in 1999, and have carried it along from one computer to another as old ones gave up the ghost and I had to get new ones, adding to it regularly. 

I’m thankful I can play the piano even if my eyes go shut, and thankful that when I sing, my eyes magically return to ‘almost normal’ (whatever that is, heh heh). 

They say (whoever ‘they’ are) that one of the effects of Benign Essential Blepharospasm is depression, but I am not affected that way.  I look forward to the ‘new’ bodies believers will have some wonderful day in heaven, and know in the meanwhile that joy doesn’t come from without, but is within – so long as His Spirit is in our hearts.

Did you ask me for a sermonette?!

Wednesday, I continued the quilting until time to get dressed for church.  Once I’ve donned the glad rags, I have approximately an hour before it’s time to leave.  I get ready early, so that I’m out of the way when Larry comes sliding in from work, always with not quite enough time to get ready.

By the time we headed to town, there were only 1 ½ rows to go.

As always, our midweek church service is a welcome respite to both soul and body.

When we got home, we had a late supper:  mine was a peanut butter and tomato sandwich (on toast); Larry’s was soup.  Then I headed back upstairs to finish quilting that quilt.  It took an hour and a half, because that pantograph took 30 minutes for each pass.  The panto is 8” wide – but it curves and interlocks so much, I only rolled the quilt forward 4” each time.  Finally done, I cut it from the frame and headed to the feathers.

Thursday, I quilted a throw for a friend.  It was such a lovely day, I opened the windows in my studio. 

In the late afternoon, I took a short break to eat a snack of a handful of crackers and a slice of Pepper Jack cheese.  Quilting for too long at a time makes neck, shoulders, hips, knees, and even feet and toes hurt – and I have a tendency to keep going, going, going.  Judging by how my toes sometimes feel after quilting, I evidently try hanging onto the floor with them whilst I’m a-whizzing that big quilting machine around! 😄

I dropped off the throw on my way to Walmart that evening.  There were eight cars waiting.  I pulled into a parking spot and announced my arrival.  The app responded, “Wonderful!  We’ll be right out, posthaste!”  (Or something like that.)

The app lied.

For the first 15 minutes, nary a soul came out of the store to give anyone their groceries.  We all went on sitting there.

And then... a little girl in the pickup across from me reached over and laid on the horn.

Whether this was on purpose or by accident, I could not tell; but the funny part was that a store employee – what do they call them? – oh, yes, ♫ ♪ ‘associates’ ♪ ♫ – was just coming behind the truck with their order on a cart, and she nearly jumped out of her hide.  That was no doubt the quickest two-step she’d done all day.

Thirty-five minutes after arriving, I finally had my groceries and was on my way home.

I pulled a Mrs. Smith’s Apple Crumb pie out of the freezer and popped it into the oven.  It would be done by the time we finished supper, which was battered cod, Old Bay clam chowder, applesauce, and white grape-peach juice.

At least I thought the pie would be done by then.

But our 32-year-old oven isn’t heating as well as it used to these days, and the pie wasn’t quite done.  I can’t use the convection part anymore, because it smells like the wiring is catching on fire when I turn it on.  I put the pie back in the oven for another 15 minutes, and Larry headed to town to get some frozen yogurt to put on it.

Here’s a fact:

I don’t like Old Bay clam chowder.  I do like New England clam chowder, however.

“What’s the difference?” asked Hannah when I gave her this IPI (Important Piece of Information).

“Maybe ‘Old Bay’ uses old fish?” I suggested.

Later, after a slice of pie and a scoop of frozen yogurt was down the hatch, I went back to my sewing room, cut the binding for the Chihuahua quilt, sewed it to the top, and got part of it pinned to the back side before quitting for the night.

Friday, I finished sewing on the binding, swept the back deck, and took pictures of the 'For Love of a Chihuahua' quilt.

Then I went to our LQS, Sew What, to get the vintage airplane panel for Justin’s quilt.  My friend Jo, the owner of the store, was there, so I took Maisie’s ‘You Are Loved’ quilt and matching book and Juliana’s ‘For Love of a Chihuahua’ quilt to show her.

When I got home, I input the design for the label for the Chihuahua quilt into my sewing machine and started embroidering it.  Somewhere in the middle of this, Larry got home from work and came to ask what was for supper; so I went back downstairs with him to see what I could find.  😏  It’s sooo awkward when the chef neglects to fix supper when I am otherwise occupied!

Later that night, I helped Larry take my longarm off the quilting frame, and then he carried it downstairs, and would haul it out to the Mercedes in the morning before he went to work.  The timing on the machine is not right.  Last time I took it to be timed, I had a size 20 needle in it – and evidently the tech didn’t put a smaller one in when he timed it.  If the timing is not precise, it takes a bigger and bigger needle to grab the thread and not skip stitches.  When I put in an 18, it skips now and then – and with a 16, it will hardly even quilt at all.  The tech should know this!  (And I should’ve remembered to put in a size 16 needle.)

The lady who was a former co-owner of the store used to act exasperated if I ever called and said my machine was out of time.  “Machines are not out of time unless I say so!  You are not smart enough to know if your machine needs to be timed!”

(Well, she didn’t exactly say that, but she was obviously a-thinkin’ it.)

She’d order me to change bobbins, needle, rethread, try different thread, and her all-time favorite – “Put in a bigger needle!”  (It really is a pretty sure sign the machine needs to be timed, if it keeps needing progressively bigger needles to keep it from skipping stitches.)

She was downright hostile when I told her I preferred it to be fixed rather than to have a Band-Aid applied. 

I rarely ever want to quilt with a size 20 needle; it’s just too big for the fabrics I generally use, and can make runs and snags in them.  Also, it’s too big for the thread I like.  Size 16 is what I like to use best.

Saturday, Hannah went with me to visit Loren.  We dropped off my Avanté at Nebraska Quilt Company in Fremont on the way.

Loren was dozing in a chair in the front commons area when we got there.  He awoke when I spoke to him, and was happy to see us.  He recognized Hannah, though it’s been awhile since he’s seen her.  He said something about cats, and cat food... and I knew he was talking about the times Hannah would care for our cats when Larry and I were on a trip somewhere.  He was having trouble staying awake, though.  And his sentences were pretty garbled.  But he was in good spirits, as he is most every time I visit.

After leaving, we took a drive beside Standing Bear Lake, then proceeded home.

When I dropped Hannah off at her house, Aaron was coming out to go to choir practice.  Upon seeing me, he said, “Don’t leave yet!” and went to get the Bible on which he had inscribed my name on the leather cover in gold cursive.  He does such a nice job.

I have now retired my old Bible, as it’s coming apart.  This is one of the newer Bibles I found at Loren’s house when we cleaned it out.

Hannah gave me several pretty pieces of fabric for my birthday.

Larry was working on his skid loader when I got home.  

For supper, I fixed fish, and a vegetable mixture of broccoli, carrots, snap peas, and water chestnuts.  We also had some California green grapes (why do they call them ‘table grapes’?) that are totally scrumptious.

Okay, I looked it up, and here’s the answer to that question:  Grapes are called table grapes because they are grown to be eaten fresh, as opposed to being used for wine, juice, or dried into raisins or sultanas.

Next question:  What are ‘sultanas’?

Annnnd... here’s the answer to that:  Sultanas, sometimes just called golden raisins, are golden-colored dried grapes that are made from various varieties of seedless white-fleshed grapes.  The skin of these fruits start off as pale yellow in color, but unlike raisins, don’t darken in the same way as they dry.

Sunday was October 6 – my 64^th birthday.  Look at this cute little wallet Andrew and Hester and the children gave me after our morning church service.  

They also gave me a scenic calendar, and a quilting book with the old-fashioned patterns.  The Carolina Lily pattern on the front cover is the same quilt block I have as an icon on the tabs on my blogs.  Hester made me some pumpkin-cranberry muffins, and I was nice enough to share them with Larry.  Shouldn’t I get a gold star for that?

I need a better place to take pictures of quilts outdoors, perhaps something I could hang them from or drape them over.  I need to get some heavy-duty clamps to hold them, some heavy cording or rope to clip them to, and have a way to string it between trees or something on that order.  It would have to be really heavy-duty, because big quilts are heavy.  Caleb and Maria’s quilt weighs 15 pounds!  And it would have to be high off the ground, but able to be lowered in order to reach it.

I told Larry I needed him to make me a giant metal frame with outriggers for stability, and curlicues to make it pretty, a detachable pole at the top to slide the quilt on, and it should be adjustable both horizontally and vertically.  He actually looked interested in this idea (shortly before he fell asleep at the table).  (I could’ve said ‘legs’ to stabilize it, but I knew ‘outriggers’ would catch his attention and make more sense to him, what with all those huge outriggers that stabilize his big truck when he’s using the crane to lift heavy cradles of forms.)

After the evening service, we were visiting with our children and grandchildren and friends.  Little Eva was entertaining Baby Maisie, making the baby laugh.  She laughs so cute, with a low-pitched, rolling laugh that makes all of us laugh, too – which in turn inspires Eva to new heights of entertainment.

Carolyn and Violet came to wish me Happy Birthday. 

“Thank you!” I said.  “Do I look older?”

They looked at me, smiling and considering.  Then, “Yes, you do!” Carolyn told me.

They want to look older on their birthdays, after all, don’t they?!

So, “Oh, that’s good!” I said, and they happily trotted off to find their parents. 

We went to Walmart to get a birthday gift for Amy, whose birthday is today.  On the way home, we picked up some scrumptious quesadillas from one of the truck vendors in town.  Mmmmm... they were so good.  We got both chicken and beef.  They were so big, we couldn’t eat them all, so we saved some for tonight’s meal.  We got a couple of Jarritos Mandarin fizzy sodas, too; but I didn’t care for it much, because it’s too sugary.

A friend was wishing me Happy Birthday, and I said, “Thank you!  Just think, here I am becoming a senior, and it was just a year or so ago that I was a senior in high school!”

“A lot of water under each of our bridges, for sure,” she responded, then added, “So let’s play Pooh-sticks.”

Hee hee  ‘Pooh-sticks.’  That made me laugh, and I told her the following story:

Victoria once accidentally played ‘Pooh-sticks’ with one of her sandals from a little old wooden bridge over a fast-flowing creek out in western Nebraska, and one of her brothers had to see if he could run faster than the creek was flowing in order to catch that sandal.

He could, and he did.

Victoria helpfully stood on one foot and giggled her head off throughout the entire escapade.  She started out standing on the still-clad foot, but then forgot herself and stood on the bare foot whilst hoisting up the clad foot, which made her giggle all the harder when she realized her error.  Eventually the shoe came back and the child was reclad.

My friend added in the necessary sound effects:  Step, skwudge, step, skwudge ... repeat.

Blow-drying and curling my hair only takes about ten minutes instead of 15, since I cut it Saturday morning.  I started the laundry, dusted, swept, vacuumed, and tidied, filled the bird feeders, and rewarded myself with one of the pumpkin-cranberry muffins from Hester, along with a fresh pot of coffee.

This afternoon, Victoria and the children visited, bearing gifts:  matching potholders, hot pads, kitchen towels, a dish-drying pad, a pretty little wooden heart that says, “I love that you’re my Mom,” a Hershey’s bar with Almonds, Andes mints, assorted teas, and a loaf of bread fresh out of her oven.  Little Arnold is trying hard to walk, holding on to whatever he can in order to move along beside it.

After they left, I took Amy her birthday gift:  a mulberry-colored silky scarf, and mulberry-colored gloves with soft, furry insides and tech-tip fingers.

She gave me a gift in turn:  a bag of organic coffee beans and a couple of fabric kits.

Larry brought home some groceries this evening, including all the ingredients for banana splits:  Kemp’s frozen yogurt, bananas, strawberries, caramel, butterscotch, and chocolate toppings, and honey-roasted peanuts.  I only had half a split, because I was quite full from supper.  I try not to eat when I’m not hungry.

I’d better draw this letter to a close before I gain ten pounds!  When I wrote about those yummy grapes, I went and got a handful of them out of the refrigerator.  When I wrote about the Mandarin fizzies, I pulled the bottle out of the refrigerator and drank some of it, in spite of ‘not liking it much’.  And that was after the half banana split!  🙄  I’ll have to leave the peanut butter off my half a toasted bagel for breakfast in the morning.

Good night!

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