It rained hard last
Monday night after we got home from the fair – and the kitchen and living room
ceilings leaked... again. This time,
Larry dashed upstairs and looked into the windows directly above those leaking
areas – and discovered the bottom parts of the frames were completely full of
water, and there was no good way for them to drain. At least, not in the appropriate places.
At least now that
we’ve figured it out, we might be able to fix it. Just takes $$$$$, you
know.
Tuesday, Victoria sent me an ultrasound picture –
showing a tiny baby face. Isn’t it amazing, what one can see in those ultrasounds? Everything is going well, and her blood
pressure is still excellent, which is good news.
Kurt and Victoria traded in Kurt’s pickup for a 2009 GMC Yukon.
It’ll make a nice vehicle for their
growing family – plus, they got $3,000 back for the trade! That’s a bonus.
As I type, Teensy
is playing in a big box. He leaps in... scrabbles around a bit... reaches
out and bats the flaps so they fly up and down... then holds bolt still for
several minutes. This all makes Tiger,
who was over on the loveseat trying to have a nap, stare at the box all
bug-eyed.
Wednesday, I
quilted all day on the Sunbonnet Sue quilt.
By the time I quit to get ready for church, I knew I’d be able to finish
it later that night.
We were almost
ready to go, and I was standing by the front door waiting for Larry, when I looked
up – and there was a big ol’ wolf spider on the ceiling, almost right above my
head! We have nine-foot ceilings. I can’t even reach them with a flyswatter
when I stand on a chair. Sooo... I shot
the thing off the ceiling with a rubber band and stepped on it.
(No, I don’t do
catch-and-release with spiders, when they have the audacity to invade my
house.)
And with that, we
were ready to head out the door to church.
I forgot to keep
track of the piecing, but I have 68.5 hours of quilting in it.
Thursday, I put the
binding and the hanging sleeve on.
It wasn’t long
before Teensy was on the quilt. It was in
a big heap on my sewing table, and I was cutting the hanging sleeve. I turned around – and there was Teensy, all
snuggled down into folds in the quilt until he was barely showing – but he was
purring loudly enough to wake the dead.
A friend was
telling me about her elderly neighbor lady, who seems to be getting steadily
less logical – and she may not have been entirely logical in the first place.
That reminded me of
a neighbor lady we used to know. She and her husband were good and
longtime friends of my parents. But in later years, she’d call my mother
and ask what day it was... and finally what month it was, and eventually what year
it was.
Mama was always kind,
but it did get to be a frustration, getting phone calls and visits at all hours
of the day. She was telling me about it one day, worrying over whether
the woman was awasble to care for herself (her husband had passed away a year or
two earlier), and I suggested, “Tell her it’s 1960, and ask who she’s going to
vote for.”
Mama snickered,
straightened up, and said, “Well, that wouldn’t be very ni-------” and
then she couldn’t go any farther for laughing.
Another neighbor used
to make charity quilts when I was young. That is, charity quilt tops.
She and her friends would get together to do the quilting. She’d sew
together fabrics of all whim and whiffle: double knits, velours, sateens,
flour sack, and military-strength canvas.
These pieces of fabric were usually large, and of any and every
shape. She didn’t trim; that would waste fabric, right? She
just sewed these shapes together, willy-nilly. Flat? Who needs flat?
Then she washed the
thing and hung it on the line.
Upon spotting some
of these monstrosities from our back yard when I was, oh, about 5 or 6, I asked
my mother, “Why do poor people want ugly quilts?”
Mama shook her
head, shrugged one shoulder, and then said, “That’s why they blow out their
candles before they head off to bed.” hee
hee
Don’t
you just love bread, fresh out of the oven?
There are ciabatta rolls baking right now, and the aroma is making me
drool. I love the heels from loaves of
bread, piping hot from the oven. I cut them
thick... slather them with butter and honey... The only drawback is that when your top teeth
sink into that soft, warm bread, and your bottom teeth hit the crusty bottom of
the slice, if you’re not careful, it flips right up and puts a gob of butter
and honey right onto your worthy proboscis!
Friday, I found my long-lost
+3.00 magnifying glasses. When my sewing room was downstairs, I always
kept them on a shelf just behind my sewing chair.
Some time after I
moved upstairs, I looked for them... they didn’t seem to have traveled
upstairs with me... nor were they in their old spot downstairs. I had the +2.75 magnifiers, but they
weren’t enough at times.
It’s been nine
months since I moved to the second story from the basement—and I just found those
magnifiers in a top dresser drawer in my bedroom, in a nice glasses case that came with a former pair of glasses.
And the reason I
found them??
Because... I knew
there were two or three nice glasses cases in that drawer, and I needed one of
those cases because ------ yeah, you’ve already guessed, haven’t you?
Because I just
bought myself some new Calabria Flexie magnifiers. 😃
Oh, well.
These are even better. They’re +4.00 – and they’re purple!
Actually, I wanted
another color... but didn’t know if I wanted to spend that much -- $17.95 – so
I kept dillydallying ... and then I realized that every day, there was one less
color to choose from. People were buying them like hotcakes! So I
got meseff in gear and bought the only color left in +4.00 magnification.
Wow, I just noticed
that there are some glasses with a magnification of +6.00! Furthermore,
they’re fancy-schmancy: Fashion
Magnifiers
I don’t remember why or when I put
those +3.00 magnifiers in the glasses case and put it into my top dresser
drawer. Maybe I thought they were my older regular glasses? They
have similar frames.
Amy sent some pictures
of Warren and Elsie. She’d gotten them
ice cream cones, and Warren, 3 ½, was really enjoying his – so much so, he told
Amy, “I love you really bad, Mama!”
There was a photo of Elsie with
one of the kittens, cradled upside down in her arms. His little paws were all curled and crisscrossed, totally relaxed. It wasn't hard to tell
that the kitten is tame as can be!
One more picture showed Elsie strolling along with a pink umbrella overhead.
One time when
Hester was about four years old, it rained until there was standing water in any
low-lying areas around our house. During a lull in the
downpour, I was in my bedroom sewing, when I heard someone lustily singing the
Pooh Rain Song out in the back yard.
This required
investigation. I went and looked out my
window – and discovered Hester, sitting in an upside-down umbrella in a puddle,
rocking happily back and forth.
The spines on that
umbrella were never the same again.
That afternoon, I
finally, finally, packaged up Todd and Dorcas’s Baskets of Lilies quilt, took
it to the post office, and shipped it off.
The quilt won First
Place at the Platte County Fair, and Fifth Place at the Nebraska State
Fair.
That evening, I
didn’t get any labels made, because Larry and I got all involved looking at
campgrounds in Colorado. He was wanting
to head to the mountains soon, before the campgrounds close for the winter –
and he had a couple of weeks of vacation coming, too.
Saturday
afternoon, the baby cardinals were in full chorus, cheep-cheeping away, begging
for food. I was looking out the front
door, watching them as they hopped from branch to branch in the lilac
bush. Two little yellow birds landed in
the bush, trilling high-pitched warbles and tweets. I think maybe they were female Wilson’s
warblers, but I’m not sure. The
hummingbirds are back, too! They’ve been
fighting like everything over the feeder.
There are four ports, for pity’s sake; why does one hummingbird think he
owns the whole feeder? He wants it all
for himself!
These are
probably juvenile rubythroats. They look
like the female, lacking the brilliant burgundy gorget, but some of areas where
they should be snowy white are mottled – a sure sign of a young bird. So they’re fighting for dominance and
territorial rights, never mind whether or not this is going to be their future
territory! It won’t be; they don’t nest
here. They’re only migrating through,
and they take their time at it, staying around for days and even weeks,
depending on the weather. Rubythroats
are one of the most territorial hummingbirds of North America. They have been known to kill each other.
Last
year, one took another down from our feeder, right onto the front porch,
holding him down with his long beak and tiny little talons. The underdog (underbird?) flailed and flapped
and finally managed to scootch himself over to the edge of the porch, where he
took a nosedive into the rosebush and sedums.
I was holding my breath, hoping there wasn’t a stray cat lurking under there.
While my machine
embroidered the main label for the Sunbonnet Sue quilt, I got the pictures I
took as we traveled from Merritt Reservoir to Atkinson, Nebraska, edited. See them here.
I have the wording
ready for the 18 smaller labels. The stabilizer is cut, and most of the muslin
pieces for the labels.
That night after he
got off work, Larry informed me that we were going to head west Tuesday!
You know, I like to plan for these things!!
It finally dawned
bright and sunny Sunday, so after we got home from church and had a lunch of
Larry’s yummy pancakes, I took pictures of the completed 1936 Sunbonnet Sue
quilt on the back deck. More pictures here.
The quilt measures 87” x 87”. I used #40 Omni
thread on top, #60 Bottom Line in the bobbin, both in pale yellow. The
batting is Poly Dream. There are 68.5 hours in the quilting alone.
I forgot to keep track of the hours in the piecing. There are 18 more small labels to make, one
for each of the Sue blocks. You can read about these vintage blocks here:
As I was taking pictures, I noticed that the Double Rose
of Sharon Hibiscus was still blooming profusely, so I trotted down the steps
and got a few shots of hibiscus blossoms, too.
I’m really, really
happy that I finally put these Sunbonnet Sue blocks into a quilt, and can’t
wait to show it to my sister, who found and gave me the blocks. Our
mother would have loved to put them together, but she was a full-time minister’s
wife, and her time was not her own. All the while I grew up, and up until
the day my father passed away, Mama spent the majority of her time welcoming
guests and being a gracious host. Looking back, I have realized how
exhausting it must’ve been for her. She was a naturally quiet and
reserved person. My father, on the other hand, was boisterous ---- well,
that’s not really a good word to describe him accurately. He was... well,
it’s hard to describe Daddy in just a few words! He was jubilant and full
of life, and loved to visit with people.
Anyway, my sister
Lura Kay told me just a few days ago that Mama had been asking about these
blocks for several years after Daddy died – but Lura Kay couldn’t find
them. She knew they were somewhere in Mama’s basement, but she and
her sister-in-law had thoroughly cleaned that basement a few years earlier,
and, though they had seen those blocks, and she knew they hadn’t discarded them, she just couldn’t find them.
But when Mama was
in the hospital for what would be her last few weeks, and we knew she wouldn’t
be coming home, and the parsonage needed to be moved to make room for our new
church, several of us cleaned out Mama’s house ---- and Lura Kay found the
blocks. She took them to the hospital to
show Mama, and Mama gladly looked through them, naming each person who’d had a
part in making the Sue blocks, and telling a few details about various ones.
Here is a picture
of my Great-Grandfather John Jackson Winings and my Great-Grandmother Cynthia
Ella Tohill Winings. She is the Ella
Winings of the one opposite-facing Sue.
Yesterday Lura Kay
told me, laughing, how she’d pointed out one name on one of the Sues, inquiring
about the person, and Mama gave a wave of the hand and said, “Oh, she was just
a neighbor down the street,” and then got back to telling important stories
about her grandmother and her aunts and great-aunts.
I laughed, too,
well imagining our mother’s offhand gesture. “That one didn’t
amount to a hill of beans, ay?” I remarked, and Lura Kay laughed again. “Maybe
even got her nose (and needle) in there where nobody wanted it, who knows!” I
added. 😃
Mama was 86 when
she died. The first few days of her last hospital stay, there was a nurse
who’d come in a couple of times a day and talk to Mama in a VERY LOUD
VOICE. She liked Mama and was kind to her, but, oh, my, did she have
to SHOUT?! After she walked back out one day, Mama said to me, “Do
I look deaf? What is there about me that looks deaf??” And then,
with one of her twinkly grins, “Could you make me a big sign to stand at the
foot of the bed reading, I AM NOT DEAF!!! ?” hee hee
That nurse in these
visits asked the same few questions: “What is your name?” and “How old
are you?”
Mama, always sweet
and gracious, answered politely the first half a dozen (or more) times.
And then she tired of it.
“How old are you?”
asked the nurse for the eleventieth time.
“What year is this?”
asked Mama in return.
The nurse’s face
changed. You could just see the gears starting to turn and churn, clash
and grind. She looked around at me furtively, obviously wondering if I
realized my mother had gone daft, or perchance if I had gone with her.
“It’s 2003,”
enunciated the nurse slowly and carefully.
“Okay,” said Mama,
nodding. ”I was born in 1917. So now, if you’ll just subtract 1917
from 2003, you’ll know how old I am, and,” she continued in her sweet, ladylike
tone, “after you do that, then you’ll probably be able to remember it better!”
she finished triumphantly.
I don’t imagine the
nurse knew her well enough to recognize the sparkle of devilment in her eyes. (But she ceased asking Mama those questions,
to Mama’s relief.)
Here’s the back of
the Sunbonnet Sue quilt:
Last night after
church, I found Lydia talking to my great-niece Michelle, who is getting
married in a couple of weeks. I walked
up kinda close and lurked, like I had an Important Mission. People always look at you to see what you want
when you do that.
And they did.
So I said to Lydia
(while Michelle stood right there), “Could you ask Michelle what color her
kitchen is, and don’t tell her it was me who asked?”
That made them both
laugh.
Her colors are
turquoise, yellow, and red. Reckon I can
dream up something quick to make for her in the few days I’ll have after we get
home from Colorado?
Today we’re getting
ready to go to the mountains! I’m
packing clothes and suchlike; Larry is working on the pickup, camper, and the
RZR. We’ll be gone about a week and a half, I think. We’re going to
leave in the morning; Larry has too much to do to get it all done before dark,
and he was up really early, so he wouldn’t be able to drive far before he’d get
tired.
Here’s the RV park where we’ll stay:
https://www.mountainviewsrv.com/ That’s just south of the town of Creede, which is in a box canyon with a
tall waterfall at the boxed-in end.
It’s suppertime now, and I have all of my things ready, except for the
things I’ll still need to use in the morning. I have a few more things of
Larry’s to collect, and then I’ll gather up some things for the camper.
I always worry
about the cats when we’re gone. We have
to obligate someone to care for them – and it’s usually Hannah. Teensy now needs thyroid medication twice a
day. I really hate dumping the job on
our daughters. I love my kitties, but
when they’re gone, no more, no more, no more.
Goodbyeeeee! Next week, I’ll be writing from southwestern
Colorado.
,,,>^..^<,,, Sarah Lynn ,,,>^..^<,,,
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