Journal: A Pile of Quilts, Done!

 

Last Tuesday, I paid the bills, put away the last load of laundry, and then went to pick up a big load of groceries I had ordered from Wal-Mart.  After carrying them in and putting them away (and scarfing down a few scrumptious strawberries), I headed back upstairs to the quilting studio to work on my friend JoeAnn’s Postage Stamp quilt.  She’s a friend... she’s a customer.  But mostly, she’s a friend.

There was enough venison roast, baked potatoes, and onions left over from Monday night’s supper to more than make that evening’s meal.  I popped an apple crumb pie into the oven to go with it.

I was working away on the last row of JoeAnn’s quilt when suddenly I looked up and saw a beautiful sunset from my north-facing window.  I dashed for my camera.

I am sometimes surprised to look up and discover it’s gone totally dark outside, since, last time I looked, it was bright and sunny.

I love sunsets (and sunrises, too; but the latter often comes at such inconvenient times!).

When I quit for the night, there was half a row plus the bottom half-row (that makes sense; really, it does) to go.

Below is another picture of the Sandhill cranes, taken last week.  The cranes that come through Nebraska are on their way to the Arctic tundra, where they will nest.  The only place I’ve ever seen Sandhill crane babies is at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo. 

However, there are resident cranes that stay in some southern states all year around.  A quilting friend of mine who stayed in Florida for nine months saw crane babies near the home where she stayed. 

“They are so cute,” she said, “Long-legged balls of fluff!”

She sent me the picture below.

Photo by Susan Ryan Walter

Funny little thing; it’s already learning to do the Hokey Pokey, just like its parents do!  😄

Those rattling bugle calls cranes make can be heard up to 2.5 miles away.  Sometimes we can hear them when they are flying too high to be seen.

My cousin Fred, who lives in central Florida, has also seen Sandhill cranes with their babies near his home.  Here’s a picture he sent:

Photo by Fred Schouten

Around here, mute swans sometimes stay, nest, and raise their young.  Such fun, to watch the fluffy babies grow.  Of course, there’s always an abundance of Canada geese.  People don’t like them, on account of the mess; but as I don’t have to deal with the mess, I like them just fine!  😄

Nebraska has 467 native birds.  10-20 types of waterfowl migrate through our state, along with a large variety of raptors, shorebirds, gulls, and passerines.

It was Maria’s birthday Wednesday.  After church that evening, we gave her a ceramic lidded dish that sits in a fitted, surrounding base, with ceramic butterflies attached to dish and base.  We also gave her a book with instructions on decorating baskets.

Home again, we had a quick supper, and then I hurried back to the quilting studio, determined to finish that Postage Stamp quilt.  And finish it I did, shortly after 1:30 a.m.  I had 45 ½ hours of quilting in that quilt.  Soon it was trimmed and off the frame. 

I have sometimes put 200+ hours of intense custom quilting into a quilt.  When I draw up the needle after that last stitch, I always stand there in astonishment:  ‘Huh?  I’m done?!!’

I posted some pictures on various quilting groups before going to bed.  The person who designed the Settler’s Trail pattern is likely going to be astonished at the sudden surge of sales!

“Too bad you can’t get a commission!” remarked a friend, half in jest.

“Yeah!” I answered.  “But that’s okay.  I’m always happy to be the cause of someone’s good day.”

Thursday afternoon, there was suddenly a crashing noise, and then a loud scrabbling at the kitchen window.  I turned quickly – and there sat one of the neighborhood cats, a shiny black one with only a small spot of white on its chest, staring at me through the window.  It was clearly trying to get my attention.

I hurried out the garage door, talking to it softly so as not to scare it too badly.  Another cat, down on the garage floor beneath the shelving on which the black cat was perched, went dashing away into the far side of the garage, fast enough that I only caught a glimpse of it.  It was lighter in color, most likely the Siamese that roams these parts.  They were locked in; all the doors were shut.

No wonder I thought I’d been smelling cat puddles and messes!  There was a mess – right in the exact spot we used to have a litter box.

I propped open the walk-in door so the cats could get out, figuring more would probably come in, along with raccoons and swallows and opossums and skunks and porcupines.

“And grizzlies,” added Larry, when I related all this to him.

Soon I saw the black cat hurrying down the front sidewalk, looking a bit distressed.  He was probably awfully hungry and thirsty.

“How long would they have been in there?” I asked Larry, and he told me, “I found the door open yesterday morning.”  (It doesn’t always latch tightly, and strong winds can blow it open.)

No wonder the poor kitty smacked into the window and clawed at the screen.  It was saying, “I need help!  HELP!”

That day, I loaded my friend Sherri’s Vintage Harvest Truck quilt on my frame, chose a pantograph, ‘Monstera’ (that’s a beautiful plant with pretty leaves, not a scary beast), and started quilting. 

I used 40-wt. Mettler charcoal thread on top, and 60-wt. Bottom Line medium brown thread in the bobbin.  The batting was cotton.  The quilt measures 59” x 79”.  The brown printed backing has scenes from Nebraska, such as the tallest waterfall, Smith Falls, coneflowers, deer, and the forests of Pine Ridge.

After a couple of rows of quilting, I took time out for supper – chicken and dumplings soup, V8 Mango Peach Splash (juice that I thought had no sugar – but it has corn syrup), and apple crumb pie.

By 1:00 a.m., the quilt was done.  Sherri made it for her father.  He has a vintage pickup, all fixed up, and his wife has a vintage red Mustang, also all fixed up.

In fact, here they are in that truck.  I took the picture in 2014 at our 4^th of July picnic.  The second shot of the entire truck was taken at our 2019 picnic.

Friday, I loaded a couple of SD cards with old family pictures for Larry’s two cousins in Mexico.  Then I took the Vintage Harvest Truck quilt to my friend, the SD cards to the post office, and stopped by the bank.

When I got home, I vacuumed the rugs, washed some dishes, and then put a new heavyweight separating zipper in a favorite velour jacket of Larry’s.  When that was done, I cut the binding for The Birds of Colorwash Patch quilt, sewed the strips together, pressed it, and started attaching it to the quilt.

During the week, I had been getting emails from Hillcrest Rehab and Nursing, where Loren is, and from Prairie Meadows, too, telling me that both residents and staff had tested positive for Covid.  A couple of days later, Prairie Meadow was all clear.  Two more days, and they had new cases; and two days after that, there were a couple more cases.  Hillcrest does not restrict visitation, if neither the patient nor the visitors have Covid.  Prairie Meadows’ communication did not make the matter clear, although they reported it once “with great sadness” and next “with deep regret”, which makes me assume that means ‘no visitation’, and they hope that if they act all sorrowful about it, no one will get too awfully mad at them for keeping visitors from seeing an incarcerated loved one.  But what do I know?

Wouldn’t you know, I no sooner shipped off those SD cards, than I found half a dozen old pictures in a box of Norma’s in my little upstairs office.  They were unfamiliar, so I didn’t think they were in the folders of photos on the SD cards.  So I scanned them and sent them to the New Mexico cousins via Facebook messenger.

In this picture are Kenny, Larry, Rhonda, Roy, and Junior.  It was taken in about 1965.

That evening, I sent this picture to Lydia, asking, “Are new babies really supposed to look like this?”

It’s Lydia herself, when she was just a few days old.

“Mine didn’t, 😂” she responded – and then send a picture of Malinda as a brand-new baby, writing, “Well, okay, maybe I’m wrong.  😅”

“She’s thinking, ‘Who turned on all the lights?!!’” I said.  “And she definitely resembles you, more than I thought.”

Malinda weighed 7 lbs., 10 oz.  Lydia weighed 9 lbs., 9 oz.

“You had her beat by two pounds,” I remarked.  

“She now weighs 45 pounds,” Lydia told me.  “She’s tall and sturdy.  She eats a lot better than Ian, that’s for sure.  He’s a picky one.  But they’re pretty much the same size; so he must be eating more than I think he is.  (Malinda is 5 ½, and Ian is 16 months older.)  Anything ‘chicken’ is great.  Most other meats he doesn’t like, though he loves roast –and calls it chicken. 😄 No matter how many times I tell him he still says, ‘chicken – oh, I mean... what’s it called?’ 😂”

“Tell him it’s frog legs,” I suggested, always the helpful Grandma.  “He would remember that.”

“And never touch it again!” laughed Lydia.  She sent another picture.  “Here he is at 3 weeks old.  His little hands... 😍”

“Remember when we were at that cabin in Ouray,” I asked her, “and Daddy fixed fish for breakfast, and Caleb said, ‘What are these little round things?’ and Daddy said nonchalantly, ‘Oh, those are just eyeballs,’ and Caleb wouldn’t touch fish again for months?”

“Yes, I remember! 😂” she answered.  “He looked so ill!”

Poor Caleb.  He was so often the source of his sisters’ hilarity – and a good percentage of the time, it was entirely without meaning to be.  They did love their little brother; but he was awfully funny.

It took 45 minutes to sew the binding onto the top of the Colorwash Patch quilt, after which I folded it around to the back side and began pinning it in place.  I will never, ever use a layer of 80/20 and a layer of 100% cotton together again!  I don’t care if it is Hobbs Heirloom and Soft & Bright.  It’s waaaay too stiff.  ☹

It was difficult enough, sewing it on, that I actually debated whether or not to sew it to the back by machine, like I usually do, or by hand, so I wouldn’t have to fight the thing all the way around, and cope with the porcupine I make of it, with all those pins.

But not for long.  I soon had half of one side pinned, and decided to sew it (by machine) in sections, rather than pinning the entire thing before sewing it down.  I had my sturdy folding table against my maple table, right at my left side, supporting the quilt.  It wasn’t too awfully hard to keep the stitches nice and neat, and sure beat doing it all by hand.

Meanwhile, there were wind gusts up to 55 mph.  It was noisy up there in my quilting studio!  I ran out of steam about midnight.  I would finish the binding the next day.

Larry got home late, as usual, after working on the Duramax pickup in Genoa.  At least now he is putting it back together again, rather than tearing it apart.  He was covered in grease, from head to foot.  After having a bath and putting his clothes in the washroom, he helped me get JoeAnn’s finished quilts packed into a bag and then into a box.  We used the vacuum to squeeeeeze them in.  The smaller the box, the less it costs to ship, even when the weight is the same as for a larger box.

Saturday, this picture of Maria scrolled through on my screensaver, so I promptly grabbed a screenshot and sent it to Caleb and Maria.  Wasn’t she cute?

Writers for Newsbreak Nebraska get more shoddy and slapdash every day, I think.  Listen to this:  “A man died after gunshots were reportedly heard at a house party.”  (So, did he die because he heard the gunshots, or was he just one of the thousands of people in the world who died in the period of time occurring after said gunshot noises?)

Further:  “Officers said they talked to several people who were fleeing the house party.”  (I’m glad the officers are in good enough shape to carry on discussions while they run alongside fleeing people.)  (Or maybe the fleeing people are in no better shape than a good many officers I see these days.)  (Don’t blame me!  I’m just reading the silly stuff!)

Here’s another scratch-your-head line:  “It’s estimated that a little over 42% of American adults have obesity, while about 30.7% are overweight.  Overall, more than two-thirds of U.S. adults in the United States are overweight or have obesity.”

So... the obese Americans are not overweight?  And ‘have obesity’?  It’s a possession?

A more reliable source gives this data:  “70% of Americans are overweight or obese.”

And now let me present... Ladies who were those little girls in grade school whose teachers wrote on their report cards, “Does not read and comprehend well”:

I post pictures of a quilt, writing, “I have finished quilting this quilt for my customer.  The name of the pattern is Settler’s Trail, and it can be purchased at the Primitive Gatherings website.”

Lady #1:  “What is the name of this pattern?”

Lady #2:  “Where can this pattern be purchased?”

Lady #3:  “Did you also do the quilting?”

🙄

That afternoon, I was nearly ready to head to Omaha to see Loren, when Larry went out to make sure the Mercedes was in good working order.

He came back in and said, “You won’t be going to Omaha today.”

He says these sorts of things, sometimes kidding and sometimes not, and then he looks at me for a while, awaiting my response. 

I’d club him, but I kinda like him, despite this small annoyance.

I discovered long ago that if you just keep still and don’t give much of a reaction at all, that person who really wants to tell you something will before too long go right ahead and tell you.

He did.

It seems he was peering under the vehicle, checking for, oh, I don’t know... gremlins and glitches? – when suddenly he realized that on the insides of both back tires, which have for some unknown reason been wearing unevenly, there were whiskers!  Whiskers of steel, to be precise. 

Yes, the steel belts were showing through, and partially broken.  A drive to Omaha could very well bring on a blowout or two.  The tire shop in town is closed on Saturdays, so my trip was thwarted.

I headed upstairs to finish the binding on the Colorwash quilt, while Larry took the box of quilts to the UPS Store for me and then went on to Genoa to work on the Duramax.

A few hours later, the binding was done, and I started on a machine-embroidered label.  It has been so long since I used my machine for embroidery, I had to get out the manual and check out a few things.  Sometimes I thought I remembered how to do something – only to realize that I was remembering the function on my older machine, the 180, rather than this newer 730.  It was 1:30 a.m. before I finished that label (which I still need to sew onto the quilt).  I’m pretty pleased with it, though.  And the 730 Bernina is a delightful machine.

I love that it shows little color squares, telling me what color of thread to switch to, and that it cuts the thread for me.  If you knew how long it took to curve a line of print with the 180, o.n.e... l.e.t.t.e.r... a.t... a... t.i.m.e... 😶

Since it was Palm Sunday yesterday, one of the Sunday School teachers for the younger children gave each of them a palm frond.

“Oh!” I said to Keira, gesturing at her frond, “Did your teacher give you all dandelions?”

Keira very carefully explained to her dimwitted Grandma exactly what it was, though she did glance at her Aunt Hannah a time or two to see what in the world she thought was so funny.

After church Sunday, Kurt and Victoria invited us for dinner.  We took along the quilt, and Victoria spread it on her bed.  The dark teal-navy perfectly matches her curtains.  Violet, 4, likes it – and Luna kitty gave the quilt his seal of approval.  (What cat doesn’t like a quilt?)

“You can’t keep it!” I told Victoria.  “Yet.”  

(She already knew that, so I didn’t leave her shedding copious rivers of tears when I took the quilt home again with me.)

I plan to enter it in our County and State Fairs this summer.

Here’s a list of hours spent on the various parts of the making of the quilt:

Designing:                                                    4

Cutting:                                                      13.5

Piecing:                                                      36

Borders:                                                      10

Appliqués:                                                  32

Piecing back, loading quilt on frame:            5

Quilting:                                                   167

Binding:                                                      10

Label:                                                           2.5

 

Grand Total:                                           280

 

When we got home, I took pictures of the quilt on the deck.  It measures 112” x 120”.

All the children but Joseph and Jocelyn now have a big quilt from me.  Joseph retired from the military a few years ago, bought a big 5^th-wheel camper, and, with Justin and Juliana, packed up and moved back to Omaha.  They are saving up to buy a home – and I will probably wait until then to make them a queen- or king-sized quilt. 

However, last Friday I ordered some fabric, including a panel with an Army scene, and fabric with Army motifs, in order to make Joseph a large throw for his upcoming birthday (if I can get it done in time).

He does have the Texas Star quilt I made him in 1995 when he was 10.  Here are Victoria and Caleb in Caleb’s room with that quilt on the bed (and Socks on the quilt).  I used a stack of squares my mother had purchased many years earlier, and got two diamonds out of each square.  She was so pleased that I put those squares to use.

Six years earlier, in 1989, I had made Joseph a puff quilt in red, white, and blue.  He was 4.  The squares were about 12”, and I stenciled teddy bears on the white squares, painting them with fabric paint.  I have no idea what became of that quilt.  You can see just a part of it in these pictures of Joseph in his room:  Joseph’s Room

After using his hearing aids for over a week now, Larry really likes them.  He even uses them every day as he’s working, something he couldn’t do with the last two pairs he had, as all they did was amplify the sound of his truck – and if he was close to men pounding on those aluminum forms, the sound was excruciating.  These new hearing aids tune all that racket out.

Using the tablet that came with the hearing aids, he connected with a hearing specialist who tested him and helped him set the hearing aids to his particular hearing loss.  In a month and a half or so, he will have a second checkup, again using the tablet.  If all is well after that, he will return the tablet to the company.

He really likes these hearing aids; they are a vast improvement over the old ones.  They should be! – they certainly aren’t cheap.

But he was so happy the last few days when he could carry on conversations with some of the more soft-spoken of our grandchildren, and hear them quite well.

Now if only we can train me to quit talking so loudly to him!  😬😂

We had Red Baron Supreme pizza for supper tonight, along with strawberries and a yummy salad with kale, cabbage and carrot slivers, cranberries, walnuts, bacon, and a sweet mustard dressing.  For dessert, we had strawberry-rhubarb pie with frozen Cool Whip.  (I like it frozen best.)

Now to sew that label on the quilt – and then...

You’ll have to wait until next week to find out what happens next!  😉

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