Last
Monday evening it was windy, with gusts up to 35 mph, and the clouds changed rapidly as
I took photos of a beautiful sunset. The sight reminded me of an old favorite song
of mine:
♫ ♪ When His Glory Paints the Sky! ♫ ♪
I
can see Him through the twilight,
At
the closing of earth’s day;
I
could almost hear Him whisper,
As
to Him I knelt to pray:
“Only
wait a little longer;
Alter
not in faith nor sigh!”
I
will meet you in the morning,
When
His glory paints the sky.
With
my eye of faith upon Him,
Though
the shadows thicken fast;
But
the darkness cannot hide Him,
‘Til
the morning break at last.
E’en
in times of deepest anguish,
When
with bitter tears I pray,
I
can hear His gentle whisper:
“I
am near you all the way!”
Here it is, sung by
the Palmero Brothers in 1966:
Early last week, all of Jeremy and Lydia’s
family got better after being sick for over a week – except for Malinda. After seeming to have nothing more serious
than the sniffles, Tuesday she had a fever and everything hurt. Several of Teddy and Amy’s children were sick,
too, with fever, flu, and stomach bug making laps. We have yet to get together with either
family, or with Caleb and Maria, who have also been sick, to give them their
Christmas gifts.
Larry went hunting Tuesday evening and got
two deer. He gave one to Bobby, since
they’ve been hunting together, and Bobby was unable to go that night. We will have good meat for a while!
They went out Wednesday afternoon, but didn’t
get anything.
A quilting friend about to get off work for
the day in a big city wrote to say that the traffic looked awful from her
window, and she wasn’t looking forward to the long drive home.
So I wrote back, in a gloating tone, “From my
windows in my quilting studio, I neither see nor hear a solitary car or tru----------
oops, I lied. There go a couple of trucks right this minute on Highway
81, which I can see down the hill a mile to the east. But I can’t hear
them.
“A couple of hours ago, I heard a train going
through on the tracks to the south, down near the Loup River. In a minute, I will have this quilt rolled
forward, and then the only sound to be heard for a while will be the Avanté,
quilting away.”
Speaking of trains, I’ve watched videos of
train rides all across Canada... through Alaska... Switzerland...
Russia... I’d like to do that, too. On this side of the
hemisphere, preferably. I love exploring – but not whilst my hair is
standing up on end because of guns in my back and/or knives at my throat.
It’s exciting enough, listening to our missionaries’ stories. 😲
I was moving things around in a cupboard, and
found one of my rolling pins lurking clear at the back. I’d wondered where that thing
was.
I have a heavy (HEAVY!) marble rolling pin with
a wooden ‘trough’ for it to rest in; I found it at the Goodwill for $5. I
really like that rolling pin. It works wonderfully; plus, it’s just plain
pretty.
One time when Victoria was quite young, she was
rolling out dough with it. I was also
doing something at the counter, barefoot as usual. She pushed the rolling pin
out of her way, and it started rolling right off the edge of the counter – and
my feet were directly underneath.
I flung whatever I was holding in my hands
(no idea what it was, but it sure made a lot of noise as it landed), and
snatched the pin out of midair, thus saving both the marble handles and my
unsuspecting, hapless toes. Whew.
Victoria looked on with wide eyes.
I also have a long, solid-wood French rolling
pin, one of those that tapers on the ends. I really like it, too.
It’s easier on my arthritic fingers than the kind with handles.
Not that I’ve used either for a while. Every time I make something pretty and yummy
in the kitchen, people come along and just eat it all! The things I make upstairs in my sewing room,
on the other hand, stay made.
Haven’t had anyone devour a quilt (or anything else I’ve sewn) yet.
After
posting this picture of the twisted-tuck border on the Atlantic Beach Path
quilt, a lady commented, “Clever sashing—but it would drive me nuts trying to
make it lay flat.”
Well, but, but, but, lady!!! I’m not trying to make it lie
flat! The whole point is to make it look
three-dimensional, with the twist ensuring that it does just that. Each tuck is twisted, and it’s ironed so that
the point of twist creates multiple S-shapes along the border. When the quilting is finished, I will sew a
pearl at each point of twist.
Brother Robert (our
pastor, my nephew) told us that night at church that his oldest daughter and
her husband had a new baby boy, born that afternoon. The baby was the first born in Platte County,
and the hospital gave them some gifts and a gift certificate.
Late that night, I finished the fourth of the
seven top borders on the quilt.
I’m doing a piano-key design on the tucked
border, stitching between each tuck. I
stitched right on the original line of sewing that holds each tuck, so the
quilting line, done with #60 thread, is not easily seen.
Friday afternoon, Larry
came home from work... Bobby pulled into the drive behind him... and off they went
together in Bobby’s pickup. I watched
from my second-floor quilting studio window, then sent Larry a text: “You know, if you really want to sneak off
without me knowing, you’re going to have to convince Bobby to put silencers in
his mufflers.” ((sniggle))
The man whose
property Larry and Bobby have been hunting on asked Larry if it was okay that
he had told a friend that he, too, could hunt the area. Larry said of course he didn’t mind; the
property is plenty big enough. (That
always makes me nervous, though.)
Anyway, they drove up to the big field – and there sat the guy at the
other side of it, in the bed of his pickup, shotgun in hand. Hunting Made Easy, 101.
Larry rolled his eyes
upon spotting this ‘hunter’ and told Bobby, “Oh, brother. We won’t see a thing today!”
Indeed, no deer ever
came within thousands of yards.
Shortly after dusk,
the Stupid Hunter clambered into his pickup and drove away. And of course it was time for Bobby and Larry
to quit by then, too.
The man who writes the
comic Pickles has been eavesdropping at my house! Larry just
sang this a couple of days ago, in nearly the same circumstances.
Friday night, I finished the last of the top
borders and made it down to the hexies. Let the fun begin. 😄 (Not that I didn’t enjoy quilting the borders, too.)
Now, let’s speed this process up a bit!
😉
It always takes longer when I first start custom
quilting, as I decide on quilting designs.
After all, once I’ve invested half a day in a design for a certain part
of a quilt, I’m pretty well locked in and invested in that design, unless I
want to spend hours and hours removing the stitching I’ve decided I don’t
like. Once I’m committed to a design,
the quilting generally speeds up. At
least, let’s hope so!
Larry went hunting
with Bobby Saturday morning, but they didn’t get anything. Maybe the Dumb Hunter was out there with
symbols and gongs, trying to call the deer in?
I got up
at 8:00 a.m. so as to go with Larry to Broken Bow; he’d said we would leave at
10:00 a.m.
At
precisely 9:58 a.m. he wrote, “We haven’t
headed back yet. Should be there in 45
minutes.”
So everything was normal. 😏
An hour and a half
later, we were on our way. Broken Bow is
127 miles to our west, out in the Sandhills.
We were going to get some parts for one of Larry’s pickups.
It was a pretty, sunshiny day, and not too
awfully cold for early January in Nebraska.
They got
quite a lot more snow out there than we did at home.
Those ice fishermen on Bowman Lake had open
water here and there all around them. 😲
On our way home, we ate supper at the La
Peña Mexican Restaurant in St. Paul. The
big sign over the door says, “Authentic Food.”
Oh, yeah? As opposed to... plastic? Wax?
Resin? Hmmm.
They did have scrumptious food – and
quite low prices for generous plate sizes. While we waited
for our orders, they brought us iced tea, along with warm corn chips and a bowl
of yummy salsa.
I ordered a burrito – and was surprised
when I was brought a large plate containing two beef burritos, refried beans
with cheese on top, rice, lettuce, tomatoes, and a big dollop of sour cream,
gravy, and sauce. The menu hadn't
mentioned it was a dinner! All
that, for only $6.99. Of course I
couldn't possibly eat all of that. 😳
Larry ordered a chicken chimichanga – and
was just as surprised over his meal as I was over mine: he got two large chimichangas, with sauce,
rice, and beans. He, too, had thought he
was getting only a chimichanga. His meal was $7.99.
It was nice and quiet in the restaurant until
a bunch of toddler-sized natives came in.
They brought several taller species of humanity with them – but they
were even louder than the toddlers. Big
baskets of those warm corn chips quieted them right down.
So that’s why they give people those.
In the following anecdote, names of town and person
are changed, the better not to insult anyone unnecessarily:
We stopped in the little town of Canton,
where lives a man Larry has known and done business with for many years. When we first became acquainted with him, we
knew him only by his first name and the town he lived in – so the kids all
called him ‘Jack Canton’. Some time later, we learned his last name – ‘Hogger’.
Now, ‘Hogger’ is a perfectly fine Scottish
name meaning ‘careful and prudent’.
But...
Teddy, who was then about, oh, maybe 8 or 9,
raised his eyebrows and whispered in a ‘practicing’ sort of voice, “Jack Hogger.”
Then he grimaced and said, “I think we’d better just keep calling him ‘Jack
Canton’.” haha
We got home around 7:00 p.m., and I scurried
upstairs to the quilting machine. By the
time I quit for the night, the first row of hexagons was about half done. More photos here.
As I mentioned last week, we are having quite
a siege with influenza in our state, and particularly in our town. My great-niece
Jamie, Kelvin’s youngest daughter and one of Victoria’s best friends, and her
husband Mark got it last week. Mark and Jamie have two little girls about
the same age as Carolyn and Violet, and they, too, are best of friends.
Mark’s temperature got up to 105° a few days
ago. They thought they were both getting better, but Saturday night Mark
had a couple of seizures, one at home, and one in the hospital. He was
taken to a hospital in Lincoln to be under the care of a neurologist.
Jamie followed the ambulance to Lincoln... And then, Sunday morning,
Jamie had a seizure, too!
So frightening to think it could have
happened when she was driving the night before.
Sunday afternoon, Victoria wrote to me, “Jamie
just texted me. They’re both going to be
okay. The neurologist said that it’s flu
related and there’s no brain damage.”
We were so thankful to hear this news.
They’re such a sweet and dear young family.
Last night, Andrew
told us that Keira has Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease. She has blisters all over her arms and
hands. It started with a fever, but that’s
gone down a bit, and they have medicine to put on her. She doesn’t seem too miserable or sick, but she
gets tired easily. Poor little thing.
Today, Hester tells
me that Keira is getting better, and the spots are going away.
Some quilting friends were discussing some of
the worst things they’ve done, attempting to quilt. One had only enough money for either a
cutting mat or a rotary cutter, but not enough for both. She bought the rotary cutter and used it on a
Masonite board, since she already had the Masonite. It worked – so long as she ran the rotary
cutter back and forth multiple times on the same line.
She couldn’t figure out why other quilters
were so gung-ho about those fast-dulling rotary cutters! – until she got a
mat.
Another lady tried a piece of plywood. 😂
Victoria (at age 8 or so) used my ironing
board for a cutting mat.
She did get her fabric cut.
She cut more than she bargained for,
though. 🙄
Yeah, we had to buy a new ironing board
cover. (I already had a cutting mat.)
Worst thing I ever did? I caught
a quilt on fire. And I was making it for a customer!
I’d spread it out on a table, the better to
measure for the borders. A corner got
too close to a candle.
Suddenly noticing the flames, I snatched up a
pile of folded fabric (new fabric, mind you!) and ka-smushed it down hard
on that burning quilt.
The fire went out.
I only had to replace two patches in that
quilt, amazingly enough. And the new
fabric only had one little burned spot and a bit of soot, which came right out.
A friend just
mistakenly cut twice the number of patches she needed for a quilt. I’d say she has a good head start on quilt
#2, eh?
That reminds me of the time I made myself a
plaid wool skirt when I was about 16. I didn’t notice when I cut it out
that the pattern called for only one of everything (because left, right,
left side front, right side front, left side back, right side back, front, and
back were all different) – so I left the fabric doubled, like one normally does
when cutting out clothes.
I put all the pleats in, thinking all the
while, Wow, there sure are a lot of these things, sewed it together,
thinking, Wow, it sure seems like a long way around this skirt ------
and discovered it was exactly two times bigger around the middle than I was.
I had two skirts sewn together.
I took off the excess, folded the unnecessary
part and put it away, and finished my skirt.
About 10 years later, I turned that
superfluous and redundant half-done skirt into matching jumpers for Hannah and
Dorcas, ages 5 and 4.
This afternoon Lydia
invited us over to exchange Christmas presents, since everyone at her house is
once again hale and hearty.
“Tonight would be fine,”
I wrote to her. “Any particular time?”
She read this out loud to Jeremy, whereupon
Ian, 3 ½, responded, “I have a tickalary time!”
Hee hee We’ll have to say that from now
on: “Any tickalary time?”
😊
Lydia texted back, “You can come whenever it
works for you. Just let me know beforehand so we don’t forget and go somewhere
or something. 😅”
Haha I did that! On a Monday, I
invited Bobby, Hannah, & Company out for the following Friday. On
that Friday afternoon, Hannah mentioned coming that evening, and something in
the way she said it made me ask, “What, did I invite you once, and now have
forgotten?”
She paused. Then, “Yes?” 🤣
Shortly before 6:00 this evening, Larry came
home from work – and our plans for visiting Jeremy and Lydia were immediately
scrapped. Larry is sick. He’s been slowly getting sick since Saturday
night. Now he’s really sick, with
the stomach flu.
Aarrgghh.
I sure was hoping we would escape all this sickness!
I’d better quilt fast, while I still feel
like it. 😏
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