Journal: Day Trips and Design Walls

Last Monday evening, I was putting some clothes away when I heard a distant commotion in the back yard.  A distant high-pitched commotion. 

Cats!!! I thought.  Fighting cats.  Screaming, yowling cats.

I don’t like cat fights.  One of ours invariably gets clawed or bitten, and winds up needing antibiotics.

I sent a quick text to Larry, who was working on his pickup on the back drive:  “I hear cats screaming out in the back yard somewhere.  Can you see what’s happening?”

The noise promptly stopped, and I imagined Larry had chased the heathen cat off to Timbuktu and comforted our sweet little Christian cat. 

The noise started up again. 

I decided I had better handle the conflagration, and forthwith headed for the back patio door at a good wrathful clip. 

I hadn’t quite reached the door when I realized what I was hearing.

I sent Larry another text:  “On second thought, maybe it’s just you.  Are you screaming like a cat?” 

(It was one of his power tools.  heh)

Tuesday, I paid the bills, did a quick clean of the house, and downloaded some apps onto my new smartphone.  ß  (Yeah, I like old-fashioned clocks and colorful birds.  That one is a lilac-breasted roller, found in sub-Saharan Africa, and it sometimes wanders to the southern Arabian Peninsula.)

Then I headed to my sewing room, put a few things away from my last project, and found places for the things I’d brought back home from the fair (quilts, mug rug, fabric nesting bowls, etc.).  Before long, I should’ve been thinking about supper, but mostly I was thinking, Where’s another Kleenex?  I either had an Olympic case of hay fever or a very bad cold.  Or both.  

Then I remembered that there was a whole lot of scrumptious, leftover soup in the refrigerator.  I had no need to worry about supper!  I happily got out the fabric for the Atlantic Beach Path quilt and set out to see what would happen next. 

I started making the hexagon kaleidoscopes, first using the fabric I like least, in case they didn’t turn out too so very good.  But these kaleidoscopes are just as easy as the ones I did several years ago, and certainly not as difficult as the instructions in one of my books would have one believe.  By bedtime, I had a dozen hexagons done, except for the middle seam, which is saved until one is putting together the long rows of hexagon halves, so there will be no y-seams.  Now, if only I had a design wall! I thought.  But in order to have a design wall, one must first have a place to put said wall.  So... I would make do with a bed or the floor and a camera.  Photos often show one what one’s eyes do not see. 

I don’t like One-Block Wonders that look like one giant muddle.  Let’s hope mine doesn’t turn out like that! 

More photos here: 

Starting Atlantic Beach Path Quilt

Wednesday, I put a load of clothes into the washing machine, then went upstairs to my quilting studio. I wouldn’t be going to our midweek church service that night; this code wudd blumb bizzerble.   I even took a nap that afternoon.  I hardly ever take naps.  That nasty cold was seriously hindering my progress! 

In spite of the nap, I finished a couple dozen more hexagons, this time with my favorite fabric of all the pieces I’d gotten for this quilt.  More photos here.

 After cutting all the strips and triangles for these hexagons, it was clear that I needed more fabric.

Thursday, I opened the front door to discover numerous boxes on the porch.  Some contained the big bags of bird seed I’d ordered... some held food products from Wal-Mart... AND! – one was my new 80mm Lensball, and another was the package of six more Atlantic Beach Path panels.

First things first!  I opened the box with the Lensball in it, grabbed my camera, and hurried out onto the front porch to give it a try.

I immediately discovered that people are right when they warn not to hold it in the sun, with one’s hand directly opposite the sun’s rays.  A mere two seconds are all it takes to register, “HOT!!!” in one’s brain.

I have read of a photographer losing an expensive leather jacket to the Lensball.  I once left a half-sphere glass paperweight with a Bible verse printed in it inside our Yukon... then just happened to dash back outside to get something – and found that the sun had changed position enough to shine on the paperweight, and a paper underneath it was already smoking, turning brown, and on the verge of catching fire!  Disaster narrowly averted.  Whew.

The Lensball came with a little crystal stand; I’ll use that next time I take some shots with it. 

By mid-afternoon, the cold had subsided somewhat, and I decided I was well enough to make a quick trip to Country Traditions in Fremont for more fabric for this quilt.  I hadn’t yet had a good plan in my head when I bought the first few pieces, as I hadn’t yet ordered the center panel; and I evidently left my math skills home in bed... because... if the pattern on the fabric repeats every 24”, and I need 6 identical pieces for cutting the hexagons, then I need 6 repeats of 24”.  Therefore, my one-yard pieces of a couple of the fabrics just wasn’t going to work, was it?! 

Before going anywhere, though, I thought I’d look for the fabric online.  I learned that this line of fabric, English Countryside, by Maywood Studio, will not be reproduced, and many sites online that used to sell it are out.  Country Traditions is nearly out, too.

I shut my laptop and got myself in gear.  I grabbed purse, phone, tablet, coffee, and some pieces of the fabric I wanted, jumped in the Jeep and was off.

It was a pretty day to go for a drive.

Country Traditions is a big quilt shop, possibly the biggest I’ve ever been in.  They have over 8,000 bolts of fabric, all of it high-quality quilting cottons.  And the stuff I chose wasn’t on sale, either.  😲  As Dorothy said, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we aren’t in Wal-Mart, at all!”

Shortly after I got home, I got a message from one of the many quilting ladies who follow me on Facebook:  “I was going through my Facebook feed and guess what I saw.  Pictures of what you had shown me when I helped you today at Country Traditions.  Love your work!  I look forward to seeing the finished product.”

!!!  How ’bout that?!  Small world, hmmm?  It was the lady who cut the fabric for me! 

“Thank you for helping me!” I wrote back to her.  “I enjoyed my time there.”

After supper, I started cutting the six Atlantic Beach Path panels into strips, and then 60° triangles.  I began making hexagons before the cutting was complete; I switch back and forth from cutting to sewing in order to keep my hands and wrists happy.  It’s quite fun, really, to see what these kaleidoscopes will look like when the 60° triangles are sewn back together.  I quit at midnight, with 13 hexagons done.

Friday, a quilting friend from Nova Scotia wrote to the quilting group to say she was finally back online, and had electricity again after Hurricane Dorian hit and cut power to nearly half a million people.  She’d been without electrical power, phone, or Internet for six days.  She wrote, intending to tell her friends that it hadn’t been too bad, “The lowest temperature was 20°.”

Far from assuring some who didn’t realize Nova Scotia uses Centigrade, many kind ladies were concerned, and inquired into whether the family has a fireplace.

But... 20° Celsius is 68° Fahrenheit.  😊

I used to think it was such fun, traveling to Canada with my parents when I was young, to not only change time zones, but temperature readings.

I remember Daddy saying in alarm (on a hot, 85° summer day), “Put on your coats!!! The temperature has dropped to 29°!”  😂

By the time I quit sewing for the day, all the Atlantic Beach Path panels were cut into triangles, and about 75% of the triangles were sewn into kaleidoscopes.  These hexagons, though not as pretty as the ones made from English Countryside fabrics, will blend the center panel into the rest of the quilt.

Meanwhile, under my quilting frame, Tiger had gotten into his almost-too-small bed with too much blundering vigor, and nearly tipped himself right out the other side. 😂

I haven’t seen any bats for a few days, thankfully, but late that night (or early the next morning, depending on your viewpoint) I leaned down to turn off my steam station – and nearly put my hand on a giant wolf spider lurking right there on the floor!  He’d probably been just about ready to pounce on my foot.

I dashed off for a flyswatter in my quilting studio, and dispatched him to the Great Spider Web in the Sky.  (Did you know wolf spiders don’t make webs?  Rather, they sneak up on their prey and jump them.  Hence, their name.)  I laid the swatter down, turned off the steam station, picked up all my freshly-ironed hexagons, walked into the hallway – and spotted the wolf spider’s big (and I do mean BIG) brother poised at the top of the wall just under the flat dormer at the top of the landing!  Aaaiiiiyiiieee.  I sent him to join his little brother.

For some reason, I absolutely could not sleep that night.  First I was too cold.  Then the top of my head itched.  Then my ankle itched.  Then my hip hurt.  Then I had to blow my nose.  Then the blanket frame collapsed and the quilt fell on my arthritic toes and squished them.  Then Larry’s alarm went off (that happens at 20 ’til 6).  Then my pillow needed to be replumped.  I eventually gave up and just got up.

Lookie, lookie this!  Saturday, Larry put together a Major Road Block, just for me!

It’s a design wall, actually.  This is a real necessity when trying to arrange the kaleidoscope hexagon blocks of a One-Block Wonder.  The more I tried arranging blocks on the floor, the more I knew it was a necessity.  So I asked Larry if we could go to Menards and get the components I needed – but he, remembering the foam insulation he had not yet used, brought it up from the basement. 

It consists of three 8-foot x 4-foot pieces, with flannel attached to the front.  One piece of flannel has pink flowers printed on it (and the insulation itself is pink, too), which is a bit jarring; but it’s the lightest color of flannel I have, so that’s what I used.  Now I need to hurry, hurry and get these pieces put together, because this big 8x12-foot wall is blocking our way into the music room/living room.  (No, there isn’t another solitary place to put it in this entire house.  Someday, I could put one in the addition... but not yet, as the addition has table saws, stacks of quarter-log siding, pine flooring, and the requisite sawdust all over the floor.) 

I started to trot into the music room to play the piano a few minutes ago – and was rudely brought to a halt when I rounded the corner and came upon the forgotten design wall.  😲

That evening, my sister Lura Kay called to tell me that there were some unique clouds in the south, and the setting sun was shining on them.  The windows in my quilting studio face east and north, so I hadn’t seen them.  I grabbed my camera and skedaddled outside.

After getting pictures of the clouds, I turned toward the west – and there was a brilliant sunset!  I took aim and pressed the shutter button.  Multiple times.  Then I walked around to the front of the house and got pictures and videos of a white-lined sphinx moth.

More photos of the moth:  White-Lined Sphinx Moth

Photos of the sky:  Clouds and Sunset

Larry has gotten quite a lot done on his older red and white pickup, working on it in the evenings and on Saturdays as he can.  The clutch is together and in, the transmission is in, the shifter is put on, and he’s working on the steering column.  He took it out, took the brake boosters off and the brake pedal out, and was putting the clutch and brake pedals in, but needs to make a bracket to hold the master cylinder that runs the slave cylinder and pushes the arm that pushes the throw-out bearing against the clutch pressure plate, which releases the clutch.  He needs to make a hole in the firewall for that, but is thinking about using part of the body of the old white Suburban instead of the rusty body parts on the pickup.  (Can you tell I typed all of the above as Larry was telling me about it?  Like the prophets of old, I was writing of that which I do not fully comprehend, but, mind you, I believe everything he says!  😄)

When the truck is in good working order, it will be the vehicle with which we pull the camper – once Larry finishes his work on the camper, that is.

Yesterday, the Discussion of the Week on one of the online quilting groups concerned sewing rooms.  Namely, how big they are, what is in them, and whether or not we put things away when we’re done using them.

My second-floor quilting studio measures 21.5 ft. x 11.5 ft., give or take a little for the sides of the dormer.  In it are my two Bernina sewing/embroidery machines, my Bernina serger, the HQ18 Avanté and 12’ frame, my cutting table, an oak bookcase with drawers and cupboards, a couple of oak filing cabinets full of thread, an oak nightstand with one drawer and a couple of shelves, the Sizzix eclips2 electronic cutter, and a variety of other things in drawers and containers.

The little office just across the landing where are my ironing board, oak rolltop desk, pine dresser, oak bookcase, and some fabric bins measures 11.5 ft. x 9 ft.  It might be nice to have a big, square room; but I’m quite fond of this old farmhouse with its nooks and crannies. 

I try to keep things orderly as I work, neaten the rooms before I shut everything down at night, and always put away everything I’ve used for one project before I start on another.  I like to keep what I’m using at the moment in the same place all the time, so I don’t waste time hunting them down.  But... if you knew how often my favorite seam ripper(s) vanish...

Wait!  I don’t ever use seam rippers, so what does it matter if they vanish??!

Eh.  Ahem.

I’m fond of Tropicana Orange Juice with Lots of Pulp.  😋

We used to have a hard time finding it with Lots of Pulp; in our local stores, it was either without pulp, or with some pulp.  And then Hy-Vee started carrying it.  The first time I poured a glass of it for Caleb, who was about 4, he took a big gulp – then made a face and started picking at his teeth.  

“What’s the matter?” Larry asked him.

And he, still trying to pick things off his teeth, informed us, nose a-rumple, “There are germs in my juice!!!”

After church last night, we drove to Shelby to put E85 in the Jeep.  There’s a large convenience store there, and they always have scrumptious sandwiches and things made fresh in their bakery every day.  Since it’s 20 miles from the church to the gas station, and 26 miles back home again, and we’d had no supper, we bought some food. 

Larry got a junction burger – hamburger, pickle, onion, etc., fully enclosed in a wrap-around bun.  I got a chicken cordon bleu in the same kind of wrap.  We got a couple of boxes of maple pecan Danishes and raspberry Deutschland twists for dessert.  We’ll be having those for dessert for several nights this week.  I had a Danish, and Larry had a Deutschland twist for dessert.  We got bottles of Pure Leaf organic herbal tea, too – I had Fuji Apple & Ginger (delicious) and Larry had Passionfruit & Pineapple Hibiscus.  That’s extraordinarily good tea.

Today it suddenly occurred to me, Larry put his work clothes into the washer late last night, and asked me to transfer them to the dryer when they were done.  And I forgot.

I wrote him a note:  “I forgot to dry your clothes last night!!  Are you working in your skivvies?”

He responded, “🤨 I found a pair but they’re almost as bad as working in my skivvies!” (Meaning, there were lots of holes in them.)

 “Well,” I consoled him, “at least it’s a good day for working in skivvies, seeing as how it’s 90°, and the heat index is 95°.”

He got home early, about a quarter after four, and in half an hour, we were on our way to Burwell, out in the Sandhills, to get a transfer case for his pickup. 

We drove through very pretty countryside, with lots of tall, rolling hills; but we were heading into the sun, and that doesn’t make for very good pictures.  I took pictures anyway, hoping I can fix them in my photo editor later.

The Nebraska Sandhills are beautiful.  They encompass approximately 19,300 square miles of sand dunes stretching 265 miles across Nebraska, containing about 95% or 12.75 million acres of rangeland.  The large sand masses that were formed by blowing sand are now held in place and stabilized by vegetation that consists mainly of grasses.  We’ve had a lot of rain, and the pastures and fields of grain are sooo green.  There are flowers everywhere.  The rivers and creeks are flowing full, and the lakes are blue and pretty, rather than covered with moss, like they get when there’s not enough rain.

We saw many fields full of cattle – and there are little calves bouncing around out there.  I was surprised, thinking it was too late in the season for that to be safe, but Larry says there’s plenty of time for them to get big enough to make it through the winter just fine.

After picking up the transfer case from the man who owns the salvage yard, we drove to Calamus Reservoir, arriving minutes before sunset.  There were hundreds of pelicans on the water.  We watched the sun sink down behind the hills and the waterfowl begin to congregate in large groups as they do in order to sleep in greater safety overnight.  Before leaving, I put my camera on the tripod and took a few wide-angle shots.  The sky!!!  It reminded me of a favorite old hymn, ♫ ♪ “When His glory paints the sky!”  ♫ ♪

As we left the lake, we saw several deer along the roadway.

We ate supper at the Sandstone Grill in Burwell.  We had chicken and rice soup while they fixed the rest of our meal.  I had a bison Spaniard burger with pepper jack cheese, guacamole, bacon, lettuce and tomato.  I only ate two-thirds of it, the better to save room for a piece of homemade strawberry rhubarb pie with a scoop of ice cream.  Droool...  I’ll have the rest of the sandwich tomorrow.

Larry had a big sirloin, cheesy mashed potatoes, a dinner roll, a mixture of green beans, cauliflowers, and something he describes as a hard yellow vegetable, but not squash.  ?  (I think it probably was squash.  He mistakenly thinks all squash is served with seeds intact.)  He had coconut cream pie for dessert. 

I also had cranberry juice and hot orange spice tea, while Larry had iced tea.

The deer come out in droves when night falls, so we have to be very diligent in driving home.  A friend wrote, “I think our deer wait until they hear a car coming, then fling themselves willy-nilly out into the street.”  hee hee  

A mother racoon and her half-grown young’n did that to us just before we got home.  Only the mother made it.  😖

Bedtime!

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