Journal: Needles in a ... Pincushion

 

A week ago Sunday night when we walked into the church, there was Hester with Oliver, who’s 3.  I walked up behind Oliver, gave him a little pat on the shoulder... and he turned, smiling at me in that sweet way he has.  Then he noticed the buttons on my jacket.

He pointed them out.

“Those are Easter eggs!” I informed him.  “When I get hungry in church, I just eat my buttons.”

He stared at the buttons in astonishment momentarily – then lifted his eyes to my face and started laughing.

The smoke detector that I have in my quilting studio began loudly chirping ‘low battery’ last Monday evening – and I couldn’t get it open!  I set it on the table.  Reckon Larry would notice?

But after a while, the chirping drove me nuts, and I tried again to open it, and finally did.  I put new batteries in it – and accidentally pressed the ‘Record’ button.  So now the recording that’s been on there for 26 years is gone.

The detector is one of those sorts especially for kids where you record a spoken message on it.  Larry made the recording years ago for Victoria (the detector was in her room), and I kept it that way.  Well, I pushed the wrong button (had the wrong glasses on) and deleted the message alert, so now I’ll have to put a new message on the thing.  I think I’ll just record a loud horn noise.

In studies done many years ago, they discovered that children will sometimes sleep right through the screech of a regular smoke alarm, strange as that seems.  But they wake up every time at the voice of a parent telling them to get up, and follow the parent’s voice directives as to what to do next.

For supper that evening, we had steak and potatoes and carrots, with apple/peach juice, and pistachio ice cream for dessert.  I cooked it in the Instant Pot.  (Well, not the pistachio ice cream.)  Makes everything so tender.  That pot was a good investment.

Three hours of trimming the rest of the paper-pieced units for the Wolves’ Dream Catcher quilt, and that part was done.

Tuesday, I removed the newsprint from the paper-pieced LeMoyne Single Irish Chain blocks, and then started putting the units together.  By bedtime, I had seven blocks together.

Wednesday, I went on sewing Irish Chain blocks together.  I’d get done sooner, if I didn’t do this: 

That background fabric is a warm, pale silver.  I tried to pick something that looked like the fur of a silver wolf.  I got 13 blocks done before time for our midweek church service, despite having to take out that four-patch, turn it, and resew it.  It really didn’t take all that long, three minutes, tops. 

But let’s try not to add an extra three minutes to all 48 blocks, okay?  That would add almost 2 ½ hours to the process!

I had a few sleepless hours Wednesday night, so I didn’t feel like going out Thursday morning and pulling weeds.  And they badly needed to be pulled, after multiple days of rain.  Ah, well, I would do it the next day.  Purportedly.

Meanwhile, I went on putting together the Irish Chain blocks.  There were 28 more to go.  Would I get them done that day?

At 7:30 p.m., I paused for supper.  We had part of a chicken pot pie to share.  It wasn’t quite enough, so I added hominy to the menu.  I love hominy, whether white or yellow.  We had Chobani Flip Perfect Peach Cobbler yogurt for dessert.

Annnd... I did get all 48 LeMoyne Single Irish Chain blocks done.  They’d make a pretty little quilt on their own, wouldn’t they? The blocks will measure 6 ½” finished.

I got a new, bigger pincushion.  After transferring the pins from the old pincushion, I cut it open – and discovered all these needles inside it.  

They’ve been in there a looong time, because I’ve been using the needlecase I made back in 2015, and haven’t stuck needles into the pincushion since then (or if I did, it was temporary [supposedly]).  The needlecase sports silk ribbon embroidery and an antique button from my mother’s button box.

Friday morning, it was around 60° when I went out to work in one of the flower gardens.  I spent an hour and a half out there and only got one garden done, but at least that one garden looks decent now.

The peonies were heavy with dew, and drooping over the retaining wall.

By midmorning, I’d showered and was sipping coffee while  curling my hair.  My stomach growled; it must’ve thought it was time for breakfast.  When I was little and my stomach would growl, my father would make a scared face and say, “Better throw that thing a bone!”  I don’t know why I thought that was so hilarious.  😂  I still think it’s funny.

By 11:30 a.m., it was a bright and sunny 71°, with a heat index of 81°.

That evening, we had spaghetti and Italian meatballs for supper.  Mmmm, yummy.

I sewed for a while longer, getting the Irish Chain border attached to the quilt. 

Later, I went out to get the bird feeders.  A raccoon was already at one of the feeders, as usual.  This one has a bit of a limp; she’s hurt her right hind leg somehow.  In the back yard somewhere, I could hear a fox making that odd squall-squawk noise they do.  It was too dark to see it, though.

Saturday morning, I again worked in the flower gardens, managing to get a couple of them looking nice.  The clematis are starting to bloom.  The peonies weren’t all covered with dew like they were the previous day, and were standing upright.  I found a Wild Prairie rose blossoming, too.

That tiny little wildflower is no bigger than my littlest fingernail.  See my fingernail in one of the pictures?

Levi, who recently turned 15, sent me a note:  “I got to have fun today!  I drove ALLL the way back from Calamus.  We drove up the way from Bartlett, then I switched and drove home.”

“Wow, big drive!” I answered.  “That’s a pretty route.”

“I was too busy staring at yellow and white lines to really notice much of it...” responded Levi.

“Well, that’s a good thing,” I told him.  “Still, I imagine it was a fun drive.”

“Except for a few cliffs I nearly hurtled off,” said he.  😂

The rest of the day, I worked on the next border for the Wolves’ Dream Catcher quilt.  I printed the pages I needed, as it was another set of paper-pieced blocks, then cut the fabric and started sewing.  By bedtime, I had 104 two-piece units completed.

Sunday was son-in-law Kurt’s 28^th birthday.  We gave him a set of Presidential knives in a display case like a heavy-duty briefcase.  This, in turn, was in a box – a large, square, flat box.

Willie, upon seeing his Daddy carrying it, asked excitedly, “It’s pizza??”  😄

 Poor little guy was hungry!

I went to the cemetery and collected the flowers we’d left there last week.  I keep intending to buy some new ones the day after Memorial Day, when they are half price or less; but do you think I ever remember??  I think of it the day I go back to get the flowers from the cemetery.  And by then, there are usually no Memorial-Day flowers to be had in any of the stores.

It was very hazy all day because of Canadian wildfires, and at times I could actually smell the smoke.

When I went out to get the bird feeders last night, I discovered that the June bugs are back.  What, do they have little calendars in their underground burrows, so that they know the moment it’s June??!

Time to get back to work on Lyle’s quilt!  This border block is called ‘Striped Grooves’ in EQ8.  

Here’s the quilt as it’s done, so far.  (The upstairs library floor isn’t big enough for this quilt!)

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