Missing My Machine

My Pfaffie is in the shop... the woman in the shop was able to extract my quilt quite easily. That gave me hope that the problem is not serious and that a simple tune-up will do the trick. I had to just leave my machine and wait for a phone call from the repair person... when, I have no idea.

I dropped by church and picked up my old machine that I had left there. I had to pull out the manual to help me remember how to thread the thing and how it works. I think someone had used it, and had left it in bad shape. I monkeyed with it and got it running, but I couldn't get the tension set no matter what I tried.. so I gave up.

Now I have no machine, and it is amazing how unsettling that is. I barely know what to do with myself. I've been able to work on my knitting ... I'm almost done with a hat ... but I sure miss sewing!

Last night I attended this outdoor wedding. I have promised the happy couple a quilt, so my Pfaffie better come back home soon. I need to get busy.

Sewing Machine Wreck

Disaster! I was machine quilting... in fact, I finished two quilts, both of which went quite smoothly. Then the third was full of problems. The thread wasn't cooperating, the darning foot fell off a couple times, and finally the foot fell off again, and there was a loud, wrenching noise, and everything stopped. The needle is stuck down, very deep into the fabric. If I turn on the machine and try any sort of remedial steps, the engine grinds loudly. I'm going to have to haul the whole mess into the shop.

I'm nervous about the outcome of this wreck. I love my Pfaffie!

Plays With Fabric

I've been having a lot of fun playing with fabric. Lately I have been making crumb blocks (scrap blocks) by the zillion. I have even noticed the smallest dent in my scrap bins. (If you don't already know this, scraps multiply overnight, so to see a dent in the supply is quite miraculous.)

I am working on blue scraps with yellow slashes.. just free piecing and free slashing, and it's fun to work with no rules. This is what I have so far. I'm not sure how it will finish itself. It has not yet communicated its final design to my brain. I'm willing to be patient.



Then I have this green and red one in the works. This is a pattern I saw on the internet about ten years ago. I made it once, but not with crumb blocks. What do you think? I rather like it.



In other news, FIL came home from the hospital two days earlier than predicted, and is like a little boy with a new lease on life. He hopped and skipped through the grocery store aisles saying with a smile "they told me to get exercise!" Amazing. It must feel great to come back to good health after being on death's doorstep.

I'm thankful for:
1) seeing the joy of living in my FIL and extended family
2) gorgeous, glorious, amazing fall colors against beautiful blue skies
3) husband who knows how to cheer me up
4) friends whose company cheers me up
5) sewing quilts for the sheer fun and joy of creating

Father-in-Law's Heart

Father-in-Law (FIL) is 90 years old. He had a deteriorating aortic valve. In July he began a process to apply for a trial heart valve replacement program at Mayo Clinics in Rochester, MN. He had to go to Mayo many times over the last three months for various tests. At first he was told he could not get into the trial program because he was "too healthy." He was disappointed, because he really wanted to avoid open heart surgery if at all possible.

The trial program puts in a replacement heart valve made of cow tissue. It goes in through a vein in the groin and therefore is much less invasive than open heart surgery.

Finally he was accepted into the program and told that he would have his surgery in late October. Meanwhile, his valve begin to deteriorate at an alarming rate. He was getting very sick and weak. He ended up in the hospital with congestive heart failure. The doctors were alarmed at his poor health and decided to push his surgery date up.

Surgery took place yesterday, October 8, and the effects were immediate! Right after surgery, FIL looked much better. A couple hours later, he looked supremely better. Ten hours after surgery he declared, "I expected to feel this good in about six weeks."

Because he is part of a trial program, he will stay in the hospital for several days while they complete tests and collect data. He is helping future generations avoid the trauma of open heart surgery. As doctors learn more about this less-invasive option, more of us can look forward to a short stay and a quick recovery from this type of surgery in our later years. Hallelujah!

Mother-in-Law (MIL) has been extremely worried since July and is very thankful that the operation has finally happened. Everyone is thrilled to report that FIL is doing wonderfully and making a speedy recovery. It's like watching a miracle unfold in front of one's own eyes!

(I'm resuming my gratitudes list after a long hiatus.. it helps me to give thought to a thankfulness list and to publicize it. So my thankfulness list is back.)

Today I'm thankful for:
1. medical miracles
2. laughs with family
3. gorgeous autumn colors
4. warm days and sunshine
5. pretty colored yarns (and the ability to knit)

Book Reports

I finished another couple of books:

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - Kindle edition. This one is quite popular. A friend told me she stayed awake on a red-eye flight, the only one awake and with her light on, unable to put the book down. She's the reason I bought the book. But I didn't like it that well. The first part is actually rather boring. Then when it starts to get interesting, I didn't like the story. It's gruesome, and I really didn't like most of the characters very well. So... I may be the only one in the world who is not in love with this book, but so it goes. I give it a B-. (BTW, it is translated from Swedish, and there are three books by this author. He died right after getting the three manuscripts to the publisher, so there will be no more from him; sadly for those who love the books. I probably will not read the other two.)



Right after I finished the above book, I picked another one from my list in the Kindle. What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell. For me, this one was the page turner. I could not put it down. I read the entire book and finished it in one day! This was a story that captivated me, and I loved the main character. She is 15. I did wonder at her maturity... quite far above most 15-year-olds that I have known... but, there are those mature 15-year-olds, and it kind of fit with the quick growing up she'd had to do during her tough early years. It takes place right after the end of WWII, centering on a family of a mom, step-dad, and the daughter. Step-Dad has just returned from the war. They have a lot of experiences that are shaped by the war and its aftermath and also by the pre-war poverty and single-motherhood status in the early years of this family. I recommend this fascinating page-turner that kept me glued to my Kindle all afternoon and evening. A+ (in fact, this book is a 2008 National Book Award winner, young adult category - I really enjoy this genre, apparently! I read them and love them and find out later that they are young adult books.. but old adults can love them, too. I'm proof.)

I still haven't finished the alphabet. I have J and Y left to read. But I've doubled and tripled up on some of the other letters, so I think I've met and surpassed the challenge. It was a lot of fun picking books by the letter with which the title begins! I still sort of do that as I choose which book to read next. I refuse to read them in the alphabetical order in which they appear in my Kindle! That's too boring. I like to mix it up.

What have you read lately that you couldn't put down?

It's a Girl! (30 Years Ago)

a sushi caterpillar

Today, 30 years ago, my first baby was born at 3:23 a.m.! She was a wonderful baby, so interested in people, and so full of energy and happiness. She is still that way now! I can hardly believe she's 30, because I feel like it was me turning 30 just a few years ago. Time sure is funny, isn't it?



Last night we celebrated in a Thai restaurant. The food was delicious, and the service was excellent. When I told them it was my daughter's birthday, they gave her this ice cream tray, free! It has mango ice cream, coconut ice cream, and some other flavors that I couldn't remember two seconds after they were said. On the two ends are flowers made out of grapes. What a place!

I gave daughter a gift inside a gift bag on which I wrote a bunch of things she used to say back in her toddler days. She loved reading it! These are some of her sayings. See if you can figure out what they mean:

ho-hodee dat
fick dis
(in our back yard she used to chase) skeemadoes
I energy!
You're not the boss of me! -- Oh.. I guess the meaning of this one is pretty clear. I found a t-shirt that had the same thing on it.. so I just had to buy it.



Happy 30th birthday, Daughter! Hope you have many, many more.

It's a Girl!

me at the Twins game.. with grandma-like blue hair and all


Great news! I'm sort of a grandma... but not really. I get to be excited, though! I'll probably never even meet my "granddaughter" in person. But I'm still excited!!

I don't want to intrude on anyone's privacy, so this is the story without specifics. About ten years ago I found, through an organization, a young woman who had just started college and to whom I was asked to send Care Packages. I love doing that, so I sent one. She was very grateful, which was fun, so I sent more. I kept it up during her whole four years of college.

Then she went to graduate school, so I sent more. What grad student doesn't want a Care Package every now and then?

She obtained a master's degree, got a great job, got married, and last Thursday she had a baby girl!!! (The same day I attended the Twins game.) We have never met in person, but we have kept in loose contact. Today I got an e-mailed photo of the super cute baby, so I'm sort of claiming to be a grandma, even though I'm not. Yes, the baby already has a quilt I made.

I'm just thinking... if I ever really get to be a grandma, my grandchild will be spoiled with quilts! Hey, could be worse!

Not Too Chatty 'Til Now

I haven't been very chatty lately. Maybe you are happy that I haven't bored you with my everyday, goofy thoughts! Today I am going to bore you a little. Here are my thoughts:

1. Retirement is fun, but I am still figuring out how my time should be divided. I totally love having so much time in which I am free to decide what to do, where to go, and when. I am gradually getting a few subbing jobs at the school. I have done only two so far, both not in regular school buildings. I love having substitute work as an option, and this includes the option to say "no." LOVE it! I also want to take on some volunteer work. I have two possibilities in mind, and this is where my time division comes into play. One of the possibilities will be more time-consuming. So I need to figure out how much time I can give away, and how much I'm willing to do. A friend told me it takes a while to figure this all out when one is a new retiree. She is right! I am jealously guarding my time, so I don't know if I want to take on the longer-hours volunteer position or not. (It appeals to me a little more than the other, except for the time commitment.)

2. Reading.. I'm still reading books as much as I can! Recently I finished Driftless by David Rhodes. We read it for our cousins' annual book-club gathering which is coming up soon. We read one book per year. I think that is funny and cool -- an easy-to-accomplish book club assignment! Anyway, Driftless was a very good book; one that I could read again and still get a lot out of it. In fact, my mother has now read it three times, and my sister and aunt read it twice! I still have letters J and Y to finish for my A-Z challenge, but I have been ignoring them, because I started a J book and a Y book, both of which were boring, so I moved on to more interesting books. I am currently reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I think I don't love it as much as other people; it's quite popular right now. It's interesting, but I'm not glued to it as some people say they were.

3. Politics.. I'm opininated and I know sometimes I offend readers who may disagree. I'm passionate about what I believe, so that's where my strong opinions come from, I guess. (And it's my blog, so I get to write about whatever I want, but I do feel squirmy when I offend my readers.) I feel like my politics is wrapped up with my beliefs that we need to help each other and be more of a collective team than we currently are. Sometimes I get very overwhelmed and discouraged about where our world is headed. Today I am feeling optimistic again. I love it when I feel more hopeful.



4. Quilting.. still concentrating on this during most of my daytime hours. I finished a quilt top (below) and quilted and bound this orange baby (above). I finally found some boxes that worked and got some quilts sent off to where they belong. I still have a large pile of projects to complete. It keeps me out of trouble!




5. Entertainment... I get to go to a Twins game and see the new stadium for the first time. I'm excited!

What Good Are Quilts?

I'll tell you what quilts are good for... here is the proof. It's a quote from Kandee who received the quilt we gave her following the loss of everything in a tornado:

"When KT gave me the quilt, I had tears. Since then I have felt joy, comfort, warmth and hope for the future... everything a quilt should give."

That's why I make and give away quilts!

Throbbing Finger

I finally have three quilts done and ready to mail to Wrap Them in Love. Now for the hard part: finding a box the right size. Here are the three quilts for WTIL:

a panel with an added border, 36 x 48

nine patches made in memory of Bev B., 40 x 60

a panel I bought at a garage sale, about 40 x 65?

I am also sending two quilts to Central Ohio Binky Patrol:

crumb blocks, 55 x 75

more crumb blocks, 40 x 60

After finishing these quilts I worked on crumb blocks. I have over 60 of them done and another 20 or so in progress. I guess the quilt gods decided I had done enough for now. My rotary cutter, containing a brand new blade, jumped up and slammed into my finger and fingernail. Boy, did it hurt! And bled all over the bathroom sink while I struggled to clean myself up and find bandages. After I got it wrapped up it continued to really hurt and throb.. so I took something for the pain. I am glad to report that it worked, and I am now able to sit still and type. (Before it kicked in -- I paced around the house yelling "please cut off my hand!") I think I'll survive, but I'm done sewing for the night.

Marriage

I met my husband at college. We started dating openly. We were inseparable for our last three years in college. We got to hold hands, walk arm and arm, and even kiss in public. No one beat us up or threatened us or even mocked us for being in love. Our love and our marriage never became political issues. Why should they? Love is happiness. Love and marriage are what is expected of us. Love is a gift from God.

Why is this different for people who happen to be gay? I can't imagine the fear. I never had to feel scared about my feelings. I was a girl who liked guys. I had crushes. I didn't have to pretend I didn't. I could talk to my friends about my crushes. I didn't have to feel scared in locker rooms. I didn't have to worry about what it meant that I was having crushes on the "wrong" people. I can't imagine what that is like. Many people who are gay say they knew it about themselves by age 3, or age 6, or age 9. Can you imagine how scary that feels?

Love shouldn't be scary, and marriage should be a happy thing for anyone who is lucky enough to find love. I don't understand why gay marriage is such a big fear of so many people. What harm is it doing if my neighbor guys love each other and want to marry each other? It doesn't threaten my family in any way. It doesn't weaken the status of marriage. In fact, in my eyes it strengthens it.

The local Catholic powers-that-be are sending a DVD to every Catholic in our state, urging them to take a stand against gay marriage. Why? Do they prefer to force gay people into promiscuity and sneakiness? You would think they would support the idea of commitment, taking a vow to stay together and make a marriage. Isn't that better for our society than forcing people to hide and sneak?

I don't understand it. I guess I've been lucky enough to know lots of openly gay people so that I could learn that there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to fear. Fear comes from not knowing or understanding something. The people who are so anti-gay probably don't know many gay people... to clarify: they do know gay people, but the gay people have sensed that they need to tread carefully, so the anti-gay people have not been lucky enough to get to really know them and love them as friends, teachers, helpers, and role models.

I know... there are passages in the Bible that people always quote. Well, I am a practicing Christian, too, but I rely more strongly on the passages where Jesus tells us to love one another and to accept and welcome strangers and to be kind, and hospitable and to "do unto others..."

I could start quoting Bible passages that many anti-gay people are famous for ignoring... adultery? (It's EASY to finger-point on countless non-gay Christians who have violated THIS one.) You name a Bible "rule" and one can point out how people have chosen to ignore it. We all need to stop being such hypocrites.

I think the important rules are the ones that give us an overall guide to how we should live: love one another, be kind, be accepting, be non-judgmental. We should celebrate love as a gift from God, no matter who it happens to. If we could do that, we wouldn't need to be so scared of our gay neighbors and waste time, money, and energy on worrying about their marriages.

900 Posts!

Can you believe this is Post #900!? I have been blogging since 2006! I really didn't expect to keep doing it for so long, and to enjoy it so much. I do love writing, even when I have nothing to say. Thanks to my readers who pop in now and then for a visit. It has been awesome "meeting" people from all over the world.

One surprise has been getting responses from authors when I post book reviews! That happened at least twice! This morning I heard one of those authors being interviewed on public radio. I felt like she was an old friend, and so was her book. (I'm in awe of authors, in case you can't tell.)

Anyway, what I'm here to talk about today is my sewing, which I have finally had time to get back to. Who knew retirement would keep me so busy that I wouldn't have time to sew at all some days!? I guess I should have expected that, as I knew I'd be doing more of my church and volunteer work during the days, and that cuts into my sewing time.

"Oh, well," she says as she tries to wipe the big retirement grin off her face, "it's all a matter of budgeting my time, I suppose."

So this is what I have managed to make lately:

This is a quilt for Central Ohio Binky Patrol. They want some bigger ones for a new shelter. So I whipped this one up out of scraps. It measures 50" x 75". The backing is soooooo soft; I hope this quilt will be a super-great source of comfort to whoever gets it's cuddly softeness.



This is another one for COBP. I don't know if it's large enough for the shelter needs, but they have plenty of places to donate quilts, so I'll let the organizers figure that one out.



This one is made from 9-patches which we are doing at Sunshine in memory of Bev. I'll probably finish this one myself and send it on to Wrap Them in Love. You might see it again once I get a picture of it in finished form.



Yesterday and today I worked at our church rummage sale. That's a big job! What a lot of stuff! It didn't all sell, so we had a lot to box up. The extras will be hauled off by Salvation Army. I am now a Rummage Sale Veteran, having never worked on one before (dare I admit).



In case you are wondering, I have not yet spoken to Mrs. Mark, but I will in the next couple of days.

Here's to my next 900 messages (lifting glass of Diet Coke in a toast to my readers)! Long live blogging!

Lousy Neighbors

How could we have let this happen? We're lousy neighbors. It's embarrassing to admit how really lousy we are. Tonight we found out that our neighbor died of cancer.... three and a half years ago. Yes! We had no idea!!

Charles made a home repair, and its origin had to do with a faulty water heater from way back. The repair could have been made years ago, but we had never put two and two together. He thought, "gee, I should tell Mark (not his real name) about this."

Mark was our neighbor. The nicest guy... so friendly and always had a big smile on his face. He loved working in his yard, in the garden, and he loved golf. Sometimes they traveled to Scotland and other places where Mark got to play golf in places that gave him a thrill. He asked us to collect mail and extra papers that arrive while one is gone and can't control what is dropped on one's front step. It wasn't much, but he appreciated our help. It was always fun when they returned, and Mark would retrieve their mail and give us a happy report about the trip.

So when Charles thought about telling Mark about the home repair, he started to realize that he hadn't seen Mark around the neighborhood in quite some time. And.. come to think of it... when the garage door is up, he noticed that there is only one vehicle in the garage.

Well, I am the Queen of Unobservance, so don't ever ask me about who has been in the neighborhood and who has not, or who has only one car when they used to have two. But once Charles mentioned it, I realized I had not seen Mark in a while, either.

I did a Google search and found Mark's obituary. I was shocked, saddened, and feel ashamed that we had no idea! We certainly would have gone to his funeral or at the very least would have spoken some words of comfort to his widow. I am sitting here with a stomach ache, feeling so bad about being such lousy neighbors that we didn't even know he had been sick, let alone that he died.... and so long ago. Dang!!

The last time we saw Mark and Mrs. Mark was when our son graduated from high school. They came over here for the open house party. As usual, they were happy and full of smiles and so friendly. It seems like just a year or two ago. You know how time flies.... It was five years ago! Little did we know that Mark had very little time left on this earth. I always thought we would invite them over for pie and coffee... as soon as we got the house cleaned up, or as soon as we got this or that remodeled. Ha. It never happened.

I feel awful. Tomorrow I will do something. I don't know what. But I will do something. I have to speak to Mrs. Mark. It will be hard to admit what lousy neighbors we are.

Moral of the story: Don't waste any time planning to be nice to your neighbors! Just do it! You might not have as much time as you think!

Surprise for Kandee

Kandee's quilt was delivered by my friend who knows Kandee! Here's the report:

I gave Kandee the quilt this weekend and she was shocked, touched, amazed, etc. She just kept asking me "How did they do this?" She was very teary and very grateful! It was really sweet. I would have taken pictures, but of course, I didn't have my camera.

I'm sorry I don't have a picture to share with you. The more hands that get into the process, the less control one has on how things happen. But it was delivered, and that's the important part. And Kandee appreciates it, and that part is important, too!

Thanks again to all who participated. It was a fun and rewarding process.

More News About Kandee

Today I delivered the Kandee Quilt to the actual delivery person. She will deliver it to Kandee this weekend. (Or, it's also possible she will leave it with her family who will deliver it at some future point, but I'm thinking that it will happen this weekend.)

Here's what I know about Kandee's current situation: she is currently renting a furnished place, but has decided to re-build on her farm site. So.. the quilt we give her will be one of the first things she owns that will be a part of her new home.

At the last minute I realized I should put a label on the quilt, so I did that minutes before taking it to our delivery person. I didn't get a chance to ask if she can take a picture, but I hope she will.

I'll keep you posted.

P.S. Happy 24th Birthday today to my wonderful son!

Stuff I've Been Up To

School started this week, and I'm not there! It felt funny and weird, but I'm adjusting. I've been busy sewing and doing various household and church tasks and family stuff. Life is busy, even without a full-time job! The only thing I haven't had much time for lately is reading.

green scraps and APPLES, in progress for Wrap-a-Smile

A while back I was given a box of fabrics to use for charity quilting. They were ALL apple fabrics. Red apples, green apples, apples on black, apples on white.. you name it, they were in the box. I've been using them mostly for quilt backs. I'm tired of apples! But I still have several pieces to use... it was nice to get free fabric! But I hope next time there is a little more variety. Uffda.. I have apples coming out my ears.

Lotto blocks that I won.. haven't had time to sew them together yet, but here's my start at a plan.

another quilt in the works.. columns are made, but not yet sewn together. The mess on the table is my cleaning-in-progress.. trying to organize things into bins and whatnot. Big job.

All our appliances are aging and slumping at once.. this week we got new washer, dryer, and dishwasher! It's fun! I especially like the washer/dryer, well.. because the dishwasher isn't working yet.. hubby needs to buy a new hose or something. So I don't yet know how great it is. I'm looking forward to how quiet it will be.

school supplies for UMCOR that we collected at church.. I went in and organized them into kits. They'll be sent to children around the world

a little collection bank I set up at church - to raise funds for a project in our area that helps women transition out of homelessness

Last night we had dinner at hubby's parents' place.. with a cousin from another state. She and her husband were visiting - last time hubby and cousin saw each other was 1988. It was a nice evening.

P.S. Are you still reading? Then I'll tell you that today I finished the binding on the quilt for Kandee, and tomorrow I will give it to our delivery person!

Kandee's Quilt!

Kandee's quilt is done... except for the binding which I'll do very soon. It's beautiful!! Thank you so much to everyone who sent in blocks, to Diane who volunteered to quilt it, and to all who sent in money to help with the whole process.

Here's a lovely additional surprise: Diane suggested that the money you sent should go to Kandee instead of to her (it was originally to pay for the machine quilting). She said Kandee needs it more. Isn't she a doll??

So here are the photos. I took a lot, hoping that you will all be able to see your own blocks and also to get a look at the machine quilting. I'll let you all know when this gets delivered to Kandee.

Books -- Important Vacation Companions

one of the dish cloths I made while on vacation.. here it is in progress while I take a knitting break

Charles and I did a lot of reading while we were on vacation. I read four books, and Charles read two. I also made three knitted dish cloths and started a fourth!

Are you curious about the books? Here are my short reviews:
Addition by Toni Jordan - (Kindle edition) I loved this book! It is about a woman with Obsessive Compulsvie Disorder who counts everything. It's sweet, touching, funny, and memorable.

Celestial Navigation by Anne Tyler - (a library book) It was interesting but full of odd characters. Some of them sort of gave me the creeps, a little bit. Still, aren't we all a little odd? They were believable characters in their oddities.

K by Mary Roberts Rinehart - (Kindle edition, free) It was pure entertainment, in my opinion. Nothing really redeeming about it, but an OK story line. It takes place back in the early 1900's when women were second class citizens, and did that ever show! If you can let that not bother you, it'll at least entertain you, and the price was right.

When Christians Get It Wrong by Adam Hamilton - (Kindle edition) It's a series of sermons he prepared for his local church, and as the book goes along it gets more and more challenging to think about what we believe, how we should act on our beliefs, etc. It's a good book which I would like people in my church to read and study. Apparently there are study guides and DVDs available (or podcasts).

Charles read Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese and Ford County by John Grisham. He liked the Verghese book and not the Grisham one so much, although Grisham is usually more the type of book he reads. This one was short stories, and he wasn't too impressed.

Since I got home I've been doing a lot of sewing. Some time I will set that aside and get back to the next book I have started. It's a good one.