Shining Faces

One of the joys of working with young people is that they come back. Since winter break happens around the same time at all the colleges, people from east and west coasts and places in between have been visiting to tell me about their studies and their experiences. Seeing these students grow and mature is rewarding in all ways except for chocolate. I don't really eat candy much, and if I did it wouldn't be chocolate but I have boxes of Ferrero Rocher that simply go to waste at my house.

Tomorrow two of my "kids" are coming over and I am going to teach them how to make Danish pastry.  I know that one of these young women loves to cook and wants to get better but I don't think the other one cooks at all so it will be interesting. Danish is such a fascinating series of steps, each one integral to succeeding, that it is very much like engineering which both of these young women want to pursue as careers.

White Christmas

I haven't written anything for a while because my youngest son told me early in December that what he really wanted for Christmas was a hand knitted muffler. The pattern I chose used size 3 needles and thin yarn so I have been madly knitting every day to get that done on time. I finally finished the fringe and folded it up.

We had a big snowstorm a week ago. The official total was just under 7 inches which was more than we got the entire winter last year. At our house it looked more like about 12 inches, stacked up on our patio table in the back. The daytime highs have gotten to the point where a lot is melting but there is a prediction for snow Christmas day.

Merry Christmas everyone.

A Real Shock

There are few things that make me feel older than hearing that someone I know has died. Now as I get older this naturally occurs more often but when the person who died is younger than I am it still shocks me. A woman I coached on the local masters swim team told me yesterday that a mutual acquaintance died last week. Apparently she had a stroke two years ago and had recovered enough to swim again, but had a second stroke while swimming on Tuesday. She was three years younger than I am and had taken pretty good care of herself throughout her life. Her husband was even a physician from a family of physicians and they had a physician son.

Home Again and Glad

My husband and I just returned from two weeks in France and Spain. Most of our time was spent in southwest France and then two days each in San Sebastian and Bilbao. These destinations were all chosen by my husband for reasons that still escape me except for Bilbao, but my job was to pick the hotels and the restaurants. We stayed in some wonderful, grand old hotels, and one stinker that was like a Holiday Inn stuck inside an old monastery. We also rented a car to move from place to place. The moving from place to place was fine, French and Spanish highways are good with good signage and drivers who pay attention to some of the rules that we Americans often forget (like stay to the right except when passing). But driving in the cities was a nightmare even with a GPS system of navigation.

I can heartily recommend Le Parc restaurant/hotel in Carcassone. It is a Michelin starred restaurant with a small hotel attached. This is a much newer building with very stark modern design, but it wasn't that expensive and the restaurant is amazing.

French Food

This morning I was reading a news article about American school lunches. Because of the increase in childhood obesity, the federal government mandated new nutrition standards for school lunches, increasing whole grains, reducing fat and salt. The article says more food is being wasted because more food is being thrown away. Although the support for that statement was only anecdotal, if true it would not be surprising. What was surprising was that the typical French elementary school lunch, including baguette, butter, cheese, and fruit, would not be allowed under the new guidelines. One wonders what the purpose of the guidelines is. Ostensibly the idea is that children will learn to eat food that is good for them, to grow up healthy and trim but most children in my experience eat what their parents eat. They don't run home and tell their parents to cook whole wheat pasta and serve it with kale just because the school gives them that for lunch.

As Gary Taubes writes in his copiously researched books on nutrition, scientific data is woefully inadequate because people can't be locked up for long periods of time simply to control everything that goes in their mouths. A controlled experiment is virtually impossible. There are also numerous other variables that determine weight and health. So many food shibboleths have been upended but even the science that upends them is not from human controlled experiments. Anecdotal evidence does not count as data.

The difference between French food and American food is always brought home forcefully when my husband and I fly to Paris. On the way there we eat American airline food, nearly inedible but similar in content to school lunches here. Then if we have to fly from Paris to our end destination we usually get a small meal that is very, very good, similar to the school meal described in the news article--a small piece of grilled chicken, a lightly dressed salad or crudites, a hard roll with cheese and real butter, and often some small fruit tart. Though hardly Michelin starred food, it is simple and good.

More Reasons Why

When I was 10 years old I was entering sixth grade in a new school in a new state. I had visited Texas before since my father's family lived there, but this was my first experience living there. It was a complete shock and most of the shock came from my stubborn nature butting up against my teachers. Although there certainly were other Roman Catholics in my school, they had grown up in Texas and understood the culture better than I did. They also were far more retiring about political issues. So I was sent to the principal's office for the first time in my school career for any number of different offenses not least of which was pointing out that the teacher was incorrect on many matters including her use of English and her pronunciation of certain words. The dictionary always bore me out but the teacher still sent me to the office for insubordination. But I also refused to say school prayers. I knew for sure that they could not be required but they were still a part of the daily routine in this public school in south Texas in 1961 and they were very obviously Protestant prayers from the King James bible.   The teacher was reprimanded by the principal for that one but that only compounded my problems. Back then students in public schools were required to memorize a certain number of lines of poetry and then declaim them. Ordinarily each child was allowed to pick the poetry but because my teacher wanted to teach me a lesson, she assigned mine from that same King James bible.

I should have been relieved when I moved up to junior high school but I knew from my sister and brother who preceded me that the algebra teacher was going to be a problem. Every Monday morning during roll call students were asked if they had attended church the day before, and if they had, where they had attended. Certain faiths were given extra credit with Baptists getting the most. Some faiths were neutral neither gaining points nor losing points. But Roman Catholics lost points every single Monday whether they went to church or slept in. Besides the fact that I wouldn't have lied to satisfy this ridiculous woman, it wouldn't have done me any good since I was notoriously and infamously Roman Catholic even though my family was far from staunch. So every Monday I endured the ritual. More than fifty years later I still remember both of these women.

This kind of bullying still goes on. Where I live now a different faith is in charge but the problem persists because far too many people think that freedom of religion only means freedom of their religion.

Mammogram Normal, Flu Shot Received

My mother had breast cancer and a radical mastectomy when she was 49. Because of that, and an abundance of caution, I have been getting mammograms annually for what seems like at least half my life. I have to say that the machines may have gotten better at the imaging, but they have gotten worse at the procedure. I had my annual exam on Tuesday. The hospital upgraded to the 3-D imaging machine and it was even more uncomfortable than any previous machine. I never complain about the compression. After all the closer that they can smash your tissue, the better the image. But the whole put your foot here, lift that elbow half an inch, shove your face into this piece of plastic that doesn't fit a human face at all--that's just crazy. This new one moves in one direction and then in another. The technician says, "Don't breathe," then, "You can breathe," and then less than one second later, "Okay, don't breathe." I am glad my scan showed everything is all right, but I need to get some of these young women who come to me with ambitions of being either doctors or bio-medical engineers to improve these stupid machines.

There is no way a man would let his testes be treated this way and doctors seem adept at diagnosing testicular cancer with ultrasound. Yes, I know the tissue is different but somehow the women are being subjected to the medieval torture while the men have the medical advances--again. 

Can You Hear Me Now?

My  husband's hearing has never been particularly good. Back when he was in college he had a physical prior to being commissioned in the Navy and was told that his hearing was not good enough to be a Navy officer. He claimed he had a cold and they passed him through but even when he was a younger boy his brothers used to make fun of him with a rhyming Japanese chant that ended (phonetically), "Tsumbo daka-ra". The loose translation of the little rhyme is, "Butch forgot because he is deaf."

Well my father was very hard of hearing, supposedly because of artillery noise during WWII, so having a man who was hard of hearing around the house was pretty normal for me. So was having a man who was bald but that's a different story. But as the years have gone by and we both have gotten older, hubby's hearing has gotten worse and worse. He tried some hearing aids a few years back but was driven crazy by the amplification of all the background noise. Besides that he found out that after 60 years of not having to pay attention to anyone, now he had to hear everyone whether he wanted to or not.

The problem has gotten so bad though that people besides me are noticing. So on Tuesday he is being fitted for some temporary hearing aids and then later he will get some of the brand new variety that fit in the ear. I don't expect any miracles but I am curious to see how he reacts.

Sewn and Ready to Mark

I got the Princess Feather top all sewn. Tomorrow I will mark it. There are some odd seams because I swore I wouldn't buy any new fabric for this one. It's just pinned to an old sheet so it looks very wiggly right now. I am planning some fancy trapunto so it may even end up wiggly. It is going to be a bed quilt, not a wall quilt so that probably won't matter, especially since my antique bed has high side rails and a tall headboard and footboard.

Baby It's Cold Outside

We have had a few days of very wet and windy weather and right now it is 48 outside. Two days ago it was about 90 so this is a sudden change. Even the weather service cannot keep up because I checked their forecast and they say the low today will be eleven degrees higher than it is right now.

So far I have only one student asking for help with his college essays.  I did get queries from two others but they haven't produced any writing to critique as yet.  The young man is such a nice kid I want to send his father a note to thank him for doing such a good job but I am not sure how good his English is. The family speaks Russian at home and that causes some problems with the boy's writing no matter how smart he is. Higher than a 4.0 gpa, all good scores on national exams, and he wants to go to Caltech.  As I have mentioned before, I don't write these essays; I advise and suggest. This student, like many students, thinks that using passive voice and what is called future pluperfect in Latin, though I think it is now called past perfect in English, sound more educated. That's total rot but so common I don't react as aggressively as I used to, but this kid's first essay was filled with the total rot.

Recently, because it is election season, many people have been complaining about the bad outlook for the United States. Donald Trump's slogan is something like, "Make America  Great Again." The students I work with, like this year's young man, are often first generation Americans. They are all optimistic and grateful, eager to help solve problems. Anyone who is pessimistic about the future should help a young person go to college.


If your child is applying to college this fall, read the essays. Present tense, active voice are the default choices for these essays. Besides being easy to remember so that tense inconsistency doesn't happen, present tense combined with active voice clarify the argument and enhance the sincerity.

Essays, Essays

The school year started and I got my first set of AP Literature practice essays to score. While most of the students in the class are only juniors rather than seniors, the national norm, that is still no excuse for the poor writing I am seeing. The students are mostly quite bright, mostly identified as gifted by some testing done when they were wee ones, mostly determined to go to prestigious colleges. But they cannot form arguments, cannot keep a consistent tense, cannot attach the proper pronouns to nouns, and so on and so on. They all seem to understand Crime and Punishment, but what should be the most basic elementary grammar and writing skills elude them. Then the ones who are fully convinced that they are geniuses, write so pedantically with such convoluted and complex constructions that they often forget where they were going when they started the sentence. They end up with noun/verb disagreements at worst and simple confusion at best. Those who do well in the class and exam are given college credit in many schools.

One would hope that students who are assigned to an Advanced Placement class would have reasonable skills from elementary school. Unfortunately that is rarely true. It seems that all of their teachers wanted to make what they read relevant by letting them make dioramas for their book reports. It really isn't rocket science.

Do You Really Want A Religious Government?

The situation with the county clerk in Kentucky is infuriating. I don't care what her religious beliefs are nor should you. What is important here is that Rowan County can't have religious beliefs and  I have a hard time believing that anyone wants the county to have religious beliefs. Even if every single resident of the county were an Apostolic Christian, which seems quite unlikely, Rowan County cannot impose that belief system on its taxpayers. That's what Ms. Davis is trying to do. She isn't standing up for religious belief, she is standing for the tyranny of a particular religion over all others. She can worship goats if she wants to but she absolutely cannot make taxpayers support her goat worship.

Bright Minds, Bright Futures

Yesterday I had a little get together that grew. Initially two of my previous students asked if they could come by to say farewell before heading back to college. One is a rising junior at Harvard and one a rising sophomore at Harvey Mudd. I agreed quickly and planned to offer them some light refreshment since they were arriving around 11:30. Then my only AP student from last school year got in touch to tell me that she had passed her AP Lit exam and that she had a blast in her summer trip to Europe. I suggested that she come over at the same time as the other two young ladies since they all knew each other even if slightly and talking to students who are already done with the application process and have finished part of college can be revelatory. Since she had to return some books and travel guides to me she readily agreed. Then, out of the blue, a young man called asking for assistance in writing his application essays. I had never met him before but he knew at least two of the young women so I suggested that he come over for an initial meet and greet.

All of these young people are smart and engaged in their activities. No one can predict the future but these four are sensible and practical. They also love my peach pie--my son's tree had an abundant crop this summer.

Everyone starts something new on Monday. For two it is their senior year in high school and the other two are heading out to their colleges. I always wonder what their parents think about them wanting to spend time with me. It is a little odd but a delight in my life. I was tickled when one of the seniors asked one of the older girls how to survive the college application process. "Stick with Priscilla," she said.

I also was contacted by several of the English faculty at the high school last week. They had so much turmoil under the previous principal that I had resigned from my job of "reader" except for one teacher. That principal just disappeared two days before graduation in the spring and the most troublesome teacher left for other opportunities as well so the teachers wanted to know if I would go back to working with the whole floor of literature teachers rather than just one. Although my husband had reservations since he knows how frustrating it can be, I agreed. So I start anew on Monday as well.

Bad Air Day

Acres of the western US are burning right now with prevailing winds whipping the fires along and blowing the air into the Salt Lake valley. The air is so bad that the mountains are not visible, nor is the Capitol even though I am only across the small canyon of City Creek. Health advisories recommend staying indoors and even inside my eyes and throat burn.

Besides that I know two guys who are hot shot firefighters, a designation not an adjective. I always worry about their safety in the hot months. Some of the fires are natural disasters from lightning and some are human stupidity. Climate change has wreaked havoc on several areas of forest so the wood is even more likely to burn.

Very Time Consuming

I started adding the dogtooth border to the border pieces. At the rate I am going this will take about two weeks. I took 90 minutes to finish 10 "teeth". The plan is to have the dark red next to the muslin and have dark green on the outside edge. I wish I had cut the teeth a little shorter and a little less acutely but it looks all right. I can't change it at this point since I am trying to use up old fabric not purchase new fabric.

The new car will take some getting used to. This is the first car I have had with a camera view in reverse. My BMW had a back up signal but not a camera. There are all sorts of bells and whistles that I may never even turn on or access but the ride and steering are very smooth and powerful. I have to have all wheel drive, even in a sport coupe, because I live on a steep hill that is snowy and icy in the winter.

Center Section Princess Feather (Prince's Feather)/Christmas Cactus Finished

I did not take my sewing to San Francisco as I usually get too busy to get any work done, but I have been working steadily otherwise. The center section is about 46 inches square, similar in size to the feathered star quilt.

 It's easy to see that I like old-fashioned quilts more than any modern ones. So far I am abiding by my decision not to purchase any new fabric but we will see what happens when I move on to the border. I used to make Baltimore album style quilts frequently so I have many pieces in reds and greens and yellows. I also used to go way overboard in Christmas decorating so many of those fabrics have Christmas themes.

The outside border will be a lighter green background floral with a dogtooth border and some applique in the corners.

Yum, Yum

My husband and I made meatballs this morning. The recipe is from the cookbook "Buvette" from the eponymous restaurant and is just delicious. It is very involved with ground pork, ground veal, ground beef, ground mortadella, currants soaked and softened in sherry vinegar--you get the idea. The ingredient list is two columns long but the results are outstanding. The recipe also makes about ten dozen meatballs so we only need to make them occasionally since they freeze so nicely. Tonight we are going to have them with cut ziti and Swiss chard in a chicken broth. The greens vary--sometimes it's mustard greens, sometimes kale. Very delicious meal and after the meatballs are done the rest is super easy.

 Last night we had a cold cream of cauliflower soup with a nice salad of our own heirloom tomatoes mixed with goat cheese, toasted bread cubes, fresh nectarine, and fresh basil from our garden. Tonight it will probably just be arugula and tomatoes.

New Car

Went down to Lexus today and picked out a RC350. First time I ever got a car right off the lot. That's usually because I special order standard shift but that isn't an option for many cars any more hence today's purchase. Although my husband wanted me to get the Tesla, after the test drive I knew I wouldn't want the car. It's simply too big. Although my husband is probably disappointed that I didn't get the all computer car, I think I am going to like the Lexus. If you see an old woman driving a grey RC with red interior--that's me. I even got a reasonable trade on the BMW because it was special ordered to have a 6 speed standard transmission. At least the car dealer won't sue me for selling them a lemon.

Very Funny

I got my air ducts cleaned yesterday. Nine years ago we had new hardwood floors installed with wooden air vent covers on our first floor, the part that wasn't kitchen. The fellow who installed the floors didn't wait for the Varathane to dry completely so one of the wooden covers was stuck to the vent and had to be pried loose. Given that information and since we didn't have any ball playing dogs at the time we had the floors done, it came as a surprise, and a funny one to boot, when the technician stuck the long vacuum hose down the vent and came back up with not one but two tennis balls. Our current dog who loves balls was delighted and I was in equal parts appalled and tickled.

I can't tell if the house smells better. Like the TV commercial says, I am pretty much nose blind to the familiar smells of my house unless I have been out for a long time or gone for a while. If nothing else a lot of coal dust was eliminated by the cleaning. My house is natural gas fuel now but was originally a coal burning furnace and only some of the ducts are new from when we had the whole furnace replaced. I know the ducts are cleaner though.

Don't Get Me Started

For many years I have been complaining about pretty much everything. The issue to me isn't simply that I don't like the way the world runs but that so few people do the job they are hired for correctly. When I first moved here to Utah, I went through what was a pretty convoluted process to get a driver's license. Having moved multiple times I was prepared to take a written exam. I was prepared to take a driving test as well since California required it the few times I moved there. For the record I have moved 29 times in my life and in most ways think I am pretty adjustable if not completely copacetic. So when at the end of a 90 minute process the state employee handed me my license and my name was misspelled I was reasonable. "My name is spelled wrong," said I. "No it's not," said he. Really? My name isn't even oddly spelled like the man in Sacramento who added a number 3 to his name Brown so that it read Bro3wn. Don't even ask what happened to my son with the new system in place.

Anyway, a week ago I scheduled a duct cleaning for tomorrow. Apparently the person I spoke to didn't even tell the person who is supposed to come until this afternoon. At least that was his story when he called to reschedule from 10 am to 2 pm tomorrow. Who knows which of these people is speaking the truth? At this point I curse both of them. I will probably be cursing more vehemently after the duct cleaning. 
 
 

Opposites Attract (Updated)

My husband and I just got back from four days in San Francisco. I wanted to at least ride in a Tesla (though not drive one if it had to be in San Francisco) and my husband was keen to do so as well and he was even willing to drive in the city. Well, he liked the car and I didn't. Besides the fact that it is enormous, compared to my 3-series BMW it was like driving in a stretch limo without the luxury. Seriously, I know that they don't send out the super tricked out models for test drives but this was like being in an old '57 Bel Air including the smooth bench seat in the back. Husband is still super enthusiastic, wants me to buy it like Monday but I am not at all convinced. It will be my car after all and it just didn't appeal to me for any number of reasons. So I am going to arrange a test drive of a couple of different Lexus models.

Then husband left his wallet at TSA in Oakland. This is the second time in a row that he has left something important at TSA in Oakland. Last trip it was his cell phone. Of course it is a little harder for men since you aren't supposed to have anything in your pockets so the wallet has to go somewhere that is foreign to you in many ways. I was waiting for him past security and I called the only credit card he has to report it lost since even if the wallet is recovered who knows what has happened since he last had it. He has always sworn that he doesn't need any credit cards--he has been perfectly content having me sign for everything. I can't even say that his memory has gotten worse since we have a thirty year old photo of him wearing a T-shirt that reads "No more memory available at this time."

Update: The good news is that his wallet showed up at the checkpoint during our flight. The bad news is that we don't really know what is left in it or where it has been.

Very Bad Day

You know those days that as the hours pass, you wish you had stayed in bed? First, my husband came home from his outdoor excursion weekend to be here for his birthday. He was pretty restless sleeping from all his muscle aches and abrasions so I woke up about 2:30 am. I left him in bed and came downstairs where it smelled as if something had died in my air conditioning/heating vents. I knew I had to call someone but my heating contractor doesn't answer the phone until 8 so I drank my coffee and read the newspaper for a while. Then my husband got up, drank his coffee, and we took the dogs on their morning walk. It was raining outside so we didn't stay out that long and when we got back home we got ready to go to the gym, part of our daily routine. As soon as darling husband stepped outside he landed in a big dog poop and then he stepped backward, cursing the dog by name, and landed in the afterthought dog poop. The gym was more or less the same as always except the roof was leaking worse than usual. This is one of the facilities built for the Winter Olympics and the roof has always leaked.

Well when we got home my husband looked down at the puddle on the floor and then up at the leak in our own roof. Swell. Now I have to call a roofer as well when the sun finally rises. The roof is only ten years old but what can you do? Finally at 8 am I call the plumber/heating contractor. Luckily they have had a cancellation so they will be at our house in an hour. We don't have a regular roofer so we look on HomeAdvisor and get a recommendation. That fellow calls and says he will be here in 90 minutes. The plumber was on time but couldn't find anything in the system to explain the smell and they don't do duct cleaning so he recommended someone. The roofer didn't show and didn't show and we were about to give up on him when the doorbell rang. No explanation for the delay but he was very nice, very friendly, even fixed something that he noticed while he was on the roof that he didn't charge for while also fighting yellowjackets in the rain. So all the flashing is sealed, the loose siding shingles are tacked up, the yellowjackets are dead and I am moving on to cooking roast chicken for the birthday dinner. I am exhausted and I haven't done a lick of sewing today but the day is still young. I always figure things can't get much worse on days like today but sometimes even that feels like I am tempting fate.

Sloppy, Sloppy Slobs

I live very close to a popular walking, biking, hiking spot. Some of the paths are paved and some are sort of groomed  but not paved. Hundreds of people and dogs go up and down the canyon every single day. Every single day I pick up other people's trash. There are numerous cans along the trail including a couple that are for recycling but it seems that most people are too lazy to carry their own trash or dog waste to the appropriate receptacle. I have never seen anyone leave the mess but I watch as other walkers pass by without making any attempt to clean up after their slob neighbors.

De Novo (Updated With Photo)

My friend's daughter sent photos of her new house in San Francisco and a red and green quilt just won't do no matter what room it ends up in. Although I don't think she picked the colors since she hasn't really had time to do any painting, the house is very small, and painted in blue, white, and grey. Even with small oriental carpets on the floor, a red and green quilt will stick out like a sore thumb. Good thing is that a few years ago I layered and quilted an antique quilt top from about the 1880's that is primarily blue, white, black and brown, with some reds in the middle. It is simply 3 inch squares, no design to speak of, with the reds concentrated in the center. The fabric is in excellent condition especially given the age of the top so I am not worried about it surviving. She keeps dust covers on her beds and couches because of the dog as well. The other good news is that the quilt is complete. That gives me an excuse to continue sewing my new project. I have finished one of the blocks and it looks even better than I thought it would. Sewing all the ins and outs on the feathers means I have to keep a wooden toothpick at the ready. Of all the tricks I know for applique, that one is the best no matter what.

Here is block one of the large four block center--

 I promised myself I wouldn't buy new fabric for this, except for the backing, so all of these are from my stash. I plan to do some fancy quilting in the plain corners and have a coordinating border.  Now you can see why the toothpicks come in handy.

Yet Another Change

After wallowing in ideas, fabric, books, etc. I started my new project for my friend's daughter. I was going to make a Wheel of Fortune quilt but just couldn't bear the idea of sitting at my sewing machine for that long so I decided on a red and green four block quilt (super old-fashioned in all dimensions) that combines a Princess Feather with a Christmas Cactus. I have so much old fabric that making old-fashioned quilts to get rid of some of my stash just makes sense. I like it and can't say I care particularly if she likes it. It will be a nice project.

Lizard Nebula Completed

Well you  can tell that I drew this out entirely freehand since it is lopsided but other than that I think it turned out reasonably well. It's still not my style but I am trying to expand my repertoire, probably to no avail since one must still enjoy what one does.

The Problem With German Cars III

I had to take my car down to the dealer today. The warning light for a locked steering wheel kept coming on, meaning that the ignition would not work. Luckily this happened when the car was parked and off anyway rather than driving down the freeway (which it could have been), but it was still a total pain in the neck. Please understand that the car was always parked on a flat surface, not outside on a hill, sometimes in my garage, and sometimes at the grocery store or the gym so there wasn't any reason for the wheel to lock. Anyway, this was not the first time this had happened so I more or less knew what was up, but when I took it in this morning the technician told me that BMW had learned that this was a safety hazard (no kidding) and had changed the design. Well now my car is getting its third steering column in 42,000 miles because BMW screwed up originally. I am already planning to purchase a new car but this is getting ridiculous since I have to make sure that everything works before I sell it or trade it in.

Fine German engineering is an advertising slogan not a fact of life.

Misgivings

Amazon has been sending me solicitations to buy the new book from the American Museum of Folk Art--Red and White Quilts, Infinite Variety. I saw that particular show a few years ago and I was underwhelmed. I also had serious issues with the last book that Elizabeth Vogel Warren and the museum produced. It had lovely pictures but the didactic text was lacking in what I think of as essential information such as the dimensions of the quilt, the type of fabric used, possible name of maker,  the possible location of its manufacture, etc. Besides those quibbles, I already own two books, the original comprehensive volume, "Glorious American Quilts",  and the Masterworks volume from the museum that was so disappointing, so  the quilts in the new book must be included. Certainly the ones I viewed at the red and white exhibit are all in the books I already have.I doubt this new book is worth its hefty price tag.You'd be better advised to look for a used copy of "Glorious American Quilts" although it isn't even the quilt collection book I like best. That would be last year's book about the Williamsburg Collection, Four Centuries of Quilts.

So Many Projects

 I have been steadily quilting the Lizard Nebula and have nearly completed the center appliqued section. I don't expect the outside portion to take that long since I will simply be doing echo quilting. As usual my brain is boiling with ideas but as usual some other projects are intruding. My California friend, the one who just visited in May, has a daughter who just purchased her first house. This is the same young (well young to me) woman to whom I gave the blue and white Melon Slice quilt a couple of years ago. I liked the quilt well enough but this time I just want to pick the fabrics myself. I plan to make a Wheel of Fortune quilt with reds, yellows, blues, and greens--very, very traditional but also simple enough to be modern. Just like the first quilt, which truth be told was the third quilt I made this young woman, it needs to be sturdy and washable since she has a dog that gets on the furniture. He is quite old but she will surely replace him with another dog when the inevitable happens.

Then this morning I met the wife of the man to whom I gave the Trinity quilt. She wanted to meet me in person to give me a big bag of home made caramels and to ask me if she could commission me to make an Amish style quilt. I don't like to work on commission for any number of reasons but I do like Amish style quilts and hand quilting is my favorite part of the process so I told her we could talk after I finished the lizards and the wheels.

I had lunch with the young lady who is a rising junior at Harvard  and asked her if she wanted a quilt for graduation and if so what style, colors, flowers, etc. When she said that graduation was still two years away, I pointed out that hand made quilts take quite a bit of time and that it was part of a queue that I had mentally arranged. She told me that one of her roommates had made a quilt as part of a Folklore and Mythology class simultaneous to her trying to pass Organic Chemistry. It doesn't surprise me that her roommate's project was so artsy and hands on since my husband spent a great deal of time learning silk screening and making plaster shapes with balloons when he was at Harvard. I certainly understand why my young friend felt an imbalance though.

But the quilt I have in my head that is sort of my own project, based on Ted Storm's work, is the one I am most looking forward to working on. Lots of handwork, lots of quilting, lots of flowers and lots of colors. So 3.5 quilts in my immediate future or less than immediate future and all but one going to good homes. I still won't make a dent in my fabric stash.

Lizard Nebula Exploding (With Picture)

I finished the crazy top and layered it today. Luckily my son does like this one (of course he liked the last one as well) and it is only about 50 inches square so makes a reasonable wall hanging. Here it is on the ground basted and ready to quilt. Although this design is adapted from the work of an artist who lives in Hawaii, it reminds me of an aboriginal painting I purchased in Sydney when I was there.

On a completely different topic, Old Trinity Schoolhouse is moving from Virginia to Ohio. I know they won't have a physical location any more but I do think that they will continue an online presence. In the meantime the fabric, the patterns, the books, etc. are all 50% off. These are a somewhat limited range of fabrics but all are very high quality and at 50% off they run about $5.00 a yard, a very good deal. I have no financial ties or personal ties but I have been pleased with their service.

Amazing!

The Supreme Court of the United States of America decided that equality before the law is the goal in the United States. Gay marriage is legal in all fifty states. No longer will glbtq citizens be second-class citizens. I didn't think I would live to see this day though I have worked for equal rights for many years. Now we wait to see what all the screaming meemies try to do with religious exemption laws as they tried to do with interracial marriages 45 years ago. Legal protection trumps discrimination as I know from personal experience.

Totally Different Tack

Rather than make either of the quilts I have written about, I have tacked into the wind and I am making a small quilt that is completely different from any quilt I have ever made. More than fifteen years ago I saw a magazine cover that intrigued me. It is an acrylic painting on handmade paper called Eclipse, by Carla Crow, and it will challenge my sewing skills though not my quilting skills. My son saw my cartoon of the quilt design and was enthusiastic so perhaps this one will go to him. It will be small enough to hang on the wall so my daughter-in-law won't have to worry about the dogs pawing at it.

Trinity Completed (With Pictures)

The photos above show the completed quilt but they don't show the quilting very well. As usual there are elements of the completed quilt that are not satisfying but I do like the elegance of the stars and the softness of the colors. In the quilting that you cannot see there are many feathered elements--feathered hearts,  feathered wreaths, and a large winding feathered border that turns all the corners except the one with the dove. The background fabric is a batik with small irregular hearts in the design.

Working On The Binding

Back when I first started quilting and even up to a decade after I began, I loathed binding. Part of my issue was that I was (and still am) completely self taught so I had no clear idea of even how to make binding properly. I didn't even know what it meant when the instructions said that the binding should be well stuffed. I couldn't figure out how anyone could "stuff" binding. Because I just hated making and sewing on bindings, my bindings were always bad or at least not of the same quality as the rest of my quilts. The biggest change came when I stopped using the continuous strip binding technique (you know the one that most folks use to speed up the process) and started cutting multiple bias strips individually, thus coming closer to insuring that they really were true bias and each one was the same width. Now I at least don't loathe binding though I don't know that it is my favorite activity.

Anyway, I am a little more than halfway around on the second go around of completing the binding. So the double fold bias has been applied all the way around and joined to the front of the quilt and I am doing the blindstitching of completing the binding  by folding it over the seam on the back. I like to use double fold French bias binding since that is longer lasting and gives a sturdier edge. Once that is complete I can finish removing all the basting threads, attach a hanging strip to the back, make and attach a label, and then soak and block the quilt. By Monday for sure I will be done. I have decided to call the quilt Trinity.

Update: I just completed the binding, sleeve, and label. The quilt has to soak to get rid of the blue and then dry. That's always distressing to my coonhound since he likes to sleep on that bed. I will post photos tomorrow.

Torn Between Ideas

I am working on the last wide border of the touching stars quilt and I am torn. As I indicated previously, no one in my family really needs or wants a quilt, but since I am always making them I have to ask which one do I work on next. I have an idea for another horse quilt but this is the daughter in law who rejected the current quilt (though she never saw it) so I wonder if she would want this quilt or whether I am just pushing it on her and she is simply putting up with that. For me the attraction is learning new techniques and challenging myself, but I am so stuck in my ways that making one of the other quilts in my head would be more satisfying. I will have to decide soon since my current project is nearly done. The fellow I am giving it to is just someone I work out next to on the elliptical at the gym--I don't even know his wife's name, but I do enjoy our chats while we work out. I am satisfied that the current quilt will have a very good home.

You Are My Sunshine

I don't know why but I have been on a yellow fabric jag lately. When I first started quilting the selection of yellow fabrics was very limited. There was a choice of pastel and blah, or a bright background for a sprigged calico. Back then I had a hard time mixing solids and prints (I am old enough to have grown up wearing white gloves to town so I was pretty fashion repressed). Now I don't necessarily mix fabrics when I get dressed, but I have that same hard time even thinking about using solids exclusively in a quilt. But I got a bunch of new yellows in the last month or so, including one that is almost identical to that old sprigged calico. Maybe it's the coming of spring and summer. As is my habit and by now my style I am thinking of combining piecing and applique but I haven't started anything except mentally since I refuse to stop making a quilt until it is done. I am making good progress on the touching stars quilt but I have at least two weeks left and probably longer.

Only Time Will Tell

So far the recovery from the ablation in March has been uneventful, much smoother than the previous year's. The cardiologist did change one of the medications, the heart rhythm medicine, to a different kind. I sort of hope that isn't the only difference since that would mean the medicine is making the difference not the ablation, but my husband is tolerating it much better as well. None of the nasty side effects as the previous meds, not even the headaches. He goes back in three weeks for what is supposed to be the final post-intervention follow up at which point he will find out if he needs to stay on any of the medicines at all. I know he has been feeling much better because on the days that the weather allows he rides his bike or runs with Watson, the coonhound. Watson's vet said he needed to lose a couple of pounds (only four) but he is such a lazy bones that simply cutting back the food probably won't make much difference. The terrier would play all day long but Watson's ideal existence is sleeping and eating.

I have been getting quite a bit of the outside border quilted lately. Just finished another 350 yard spool of thread. The craft glove makes a big difference in how long I can quilt in any one session. Silly to think that I was injured swimming but that's what happens when you play with the big boys. We were having a "fun" duel relay meet with a local high school team with some serious relays and some T-shirt type relays. We were passing kickboards like batons in track and field relays and the fellow who handed it off to me shoved the kickboard with great force into my hand. Well it hurt a great deal immediately but since I didn't want to lose the relay or let the team down I just kept going. It wouldn't have made any difference since the force snapped my ulnar collateral ligament necessitating some serious surgery involving titanium anchors. Then after about eight years I snapped the repaired ligament simply pulling on my socks. The pleasures of aging bring other physical ills but I can't blame my left hand on getting old.

Good Reads (Books To Recommend To Friends)

I recently finished the latest two books from Mary Doria Russell. If you have never read this author you definitely should, beginning with her "science fiction" books, The Sparrow and Children of God. Those are from nearly 20 years ago but they are still timely because they deal with morals and ethics and society as much as anything else.I am not a science fiction fan but my husband convinced me to read them and after that I was hooked on her work. Her latest two books are connected to each other as well, both focusing on "Doc" Holliday and Wyatt Earp, the first, Doc, set in Dodge City, Kansas, and the second, Epitaph, set primarily in Tombstone, Arizona. Not what anyone would think of as sympathetic characters necessarily, but both books are very good. Her novels and characters are all over the map and the universe but they all resonate with moral questions that humans face daily.

And Speaking of Ireland

We had a very dry winter here but our spring has been unceasingly wet. Rain again today. When my friend visited last week she said it reminded her of Ireland. It is remarkably green here right now, an unusual circumstance even this early in the spring. I don't have any grass at my house since I xeriscaped the entire yard eight years ago but other yards are nearly emerald. It has also been too wet to mow so the grass is standing about a foot tall. Still too early to plant my bean seeds, especially with the dirt so wet and cold.

Hand Quilting Is So Satisfying

I spent the day quilting a corner of my feathered star project. This quilt only has one appliqued corner but there is a great deal of detail in the applique. If you go back to the April 12th entry you can see a photo of the applique. Today I worked on the lower right side of the corner, never moving my hoop. The grid doesn't take much time but there are so many berries, leaves, and vines that six hours of hand quilting were needed. Despite all my hand issues, what with all the surgeries, I do enjoy working closely on my hand quilting. I don't even like how machine quilting looks. It used to mimic hand quilting but now it has developed its own style, one that repels me. My husband saw a picture of a densely quilted machine product recently and said it looked like terry cloth to him. Anyone who objects should look at Anne Oliver's densely hand-quilted projects to see the difference.

  I have several different varieties of peony in my yard. Most have already opened to their full glory and dropped to the ground. This is the first of a group of late bloomers. Anyone else remember the tissue paper flowers we used to make in the 50's and 60's?

Slainte, Ireland

The vote in Ireland that affirmed gay marriage as a human right in the Republic of Ireland is now a done deal. May Ireland prove that a commitment of love is more important than a tradition of hate. In the United States our divorce rate approaches 50% of all marriages. How in the world does that respect marriage?

Perhaps the quilting community can make quilts for all the newlyweds? 

Not Quitting

I got several nice notes from people after my last blog entry so I want to make it clear that I am not going to quit quilting. I already have several ideas percolating in my brain.  But sometimes it seems both weird and disheartening. I had a friend visiting last week and I showed her all the quilts that usually stay on the guest room bed, the quilts I had to move so she could sleep there. I estimate my average time spent on a quilt is about 500 hours. If I charged even $10 an hour my quilts would be $5000 which is so unrealistic as to be ludicrous but if I charged less than that I would be insulting myself. So I give my quilts away either to friends or to charity auctions. I am lucky enough not to need income from my addiction. My quilts are beautiful but they aren't innovative--they are deliberately old-fashioned and often reproductions of famous quilts made with exacting care as to fabrics and mostly entirely by hand. I am a process person not a product person. There is no way I can stop quilting even after two elbow surgeries and two thumb surgeries. But no one but my very limited number of readers ever sees them. I think quilt shows are fine but not for me and these days not for the type of quilt I make.

Found a Home

I am giving my newest creation to a fellow I know from my local gym. After my daughter in law said she didn't want it, I wasn't depressed but I did question why I spent so much time making these quilts if no one in my family wants them. Simply continuing to stack them up on the spare bed makes me feel like the crazy woman in the neighborhood.

Old Friends, New Possibilities

An old friend visited this weekend. The working adjective applies in two ways--she is a friend of long duration having been my children's reading specialist when they were in elementary school and also because she is 77, more than a decade older than I. It was great fun to visit and she is very fond of dogs, especially hounds so my less than tidy pet sanctuary and my bluetick coon hound didn't bother her. We also had numerous far ranging conversations touching on virtually all subjects, one that got so heated that she told me to "Shut up!" She apologized immediately because she said she was only yelling at me because of my argument's similarity to that of her father, a lawyer. We were discussing the current Supreme Court's opinions that grant constitutional rights to corporations and I irritated her because I said that I understood the legal path  that was followed though I didn't agree with the opinions. She, who abhorred the decisions and only wanted to criticize the Roberts court,  said that I said exactly what her father always said, "If you don't like the outcome, you must change the law." Since she could never yell at her father she yelled at me. We live in such curious times. A constitutional convention would be a fascinating spectacle, but the legal status of corporations serves a purpose in civil societies. My husband started several small companies in his business career; all of them benefited from the legal fiction that a corporation is a legal "person".

I showed her the quilt I am working on--the touching stars with the white dove in the corner. Initially I planned to give it to my son and his wife since my son told me that he really liked it, especially the subtle colors. But my daughter in-law told me she doesn't want any quilts that can't be hung on the walls (she has not seen the quilt at all). I would be making this quilt in any case but now I truly don't have a place for it to go. Since I am beginning to feel guilty about all my handiwork simply stacking up on the guest bed, my guilt is being amplified by making a quilt that I know for sure will just end up in the dark in a pile.

Anyone want a quilt?    

Three Students This Year

The first young man got in to Bowdoin, the only school on his list. The young lady I mentored got in everywhere she applied and will be at the University of Portland. The third young man got a full ride chancellor's scholarship to Berkeley where he will focus on artificial intelligence. In two weeks he is going to be in Pittsburgh for the Intel science competition. His entry uses a variation of AI to diagnose and treat breast cancer. He is a pretty remarkable young man and I have never met him in my life. That's a whole different story.

Don't Click On It

The last couple of days miscreants have been making "comments" that include invitations to click on something. Don't do it. I don't know who they are but they are out to either scam you or to hack you. I have no control other than deleting the posts as they show up.

In the meantime it is nice spring weather here--ten days ago snow to beat the band and nearly 80 F yesterday. I have several different varieties of peonies in my yard and many are blooming right now. I also have some allium in bloom and some bearded iris.

Progress is ongoing on the Christmas dove quilt. I have finished quilting about two-thirds of the center touching star section so my original target of August not only seems possible but I might have finished by then. I have three projects in mind--one relatively modern and the other two quite traditional.

Now that I am using my craft glove my hand feels better as well. Many years ago my ulnar collateral ligament (holds your thumb to your hand more or less) was snapped in a swimming accident. I had a surgical repair done that lasted about ten years but then I snapped the ligament again. So then I had to have an arm tendon harvested to replace the ligament but I think I have now either snapped or damaged that as well. But I got a pair of craft gloves that provide a lot of compression and that allows me to hand quilt without feeling like a martyr to the cause.

All Marked, Ready To Quilt

I can guarantee is that my newest Christmas quilt will be complete by this Christmas. I finished marking the top a few minutes ago. Tomorrow I will start layering and basting. That always takes a while. Squatting tailor style doesn't suit old folks well and this week I have been suffering from a pinched nerve in my upper back. I have a very bad upper spine, skull down to mid-back, including having had discectomy and fusion on four levels in my neck several years ago. Although thoracic disc ruptures are remarkably rare I am lucky enough to have two ruptured thoracic discs at levels 2 and 3. I have been eating ibuprofen as if it were jelly beans so the next thing to go will undoubtedly be my stomach. Of course no one in her right mind would want to have a thoracic disc repair. They crack open the ribs as for open heart surgery and it is simply a hideous process and recovery. Luckily all I have is the serious pain, not any numbness or tingling yet.

Funny That

About ten years ago a fellow who wanted to start an online column about triathlons and triathletes contacted me to ask me if I would help write a training column for the swimming portion. I said yes and wrote a few columns for his site but haven't thought much about it in the intervening years. A couple of days ago I happened to come across my first column online somewhere and was I surprised. In the last year alone that one column has gotten more than a thousand views with comments from readers that are embarrassingly fulsome in praise. There are far more hits on that bit of writing than on anything this blog will ever produce. Funny that.

Applique Corner Complete

As I wrote in the previous entry, I changed my plan for the quilt corner from the Christmas card to one of my own design but inspired by the card. I retained the central image of the dove but made three circles of holly and ivy to represent both the old carol and the trinity. I think it worked out well.

I was afraid the bird would end up looking like a seagull but it does look like a dove. Now just stick that idea on the touching feathered stars and add copious quilting and you will see the finished quilt in your mind's eye before I finish it.

All Four Stars Completed

Although the process reminded me why I prefer applique over piecing, I finished all four feathered stars and joined them to make the center section.

I drew out my corner design as well. The center is obviously symmetrical but there will be an applique design in only one corner with a fancy feather quilted border on the remaining section of the border. Although I started off thinking of using the Christmas card design, what I drew evolved into a white dove sitting on a mixed branch of holly and ivy with some small berries. So this will be a Christmas design but not the usual type of Christmas design.

New Project Underway

After some false turns and blind alleys, I have started my newest project. I have many very old quilting books, patterns, even old fabric. While thinking about a more modern project I thought about making a Christmas quilt--not one that screams Christmas but one that will be more subtle. So I switched gears entirely and  I am making a traditional four-block feathered star quilt with an applique border (that seems to be my niche) based on a Christmas card I saw in the Art Institute of Chicago catalog. The artist is Brendan Murphy and the card is called "Snow Dove."  Each star block is 27" square and they will be set point to point so the center section will be 54" square. I haven't drawn out the border yet but somewhere between 8" and 12" for a finished quilt of 70" to 78" square. Some of the fabrics in the star are about twenty years old and two of them are from just last year so it will be a real mix.

The colors aren't quite true here since the inner dark is pine green not dark teal but you get the idea. The background is a batik in a color called "pineapple" so that makes it much brighter as well. This pattern I am using is so old it pre-dates rotary cutting and quick piecing techniques but obviously I am not in a hurry if I am starting on a Christmas quilt in March/April.

Indiana Bullseye Quilt All Done, Daunting Challenge (With Pictures)

The Indiana Bullseye Quilt is complete. All of the bias edges that go in to making this pattern make it especially difficult and even laying out the pieces becomes a challenge as the quilt grows. It isn't like a block quilt where there are straight and predictable rows. Picking or drawing a quilting design is complicated by the circular nature since most quilting designs are for straight edges--squares and rectangles. Anyway, enough whining. It is done and I am glad. I have a lovely spring quilt for what looks like an early spring.

The modern versions I have seen are in more subdued colors but every single antique version I know of is in  brights like these. All the new dyes available at the end of the 19th century probably made a big difference.

Although I believe that the Indiana in the name of the quilt is the city and county in Pennsylvania not the state, I nevertheless put in peonies and cardinals, the state flower and state bird of the state of Indiana largely because two of my husband's college roommates were from that state.

1000 Yards of Thread

I just completed the quilting on the top--1000 yards of thread. No photos yet since it really isn't done--needs all the trimming, binding, soaking, etc. I probably won't get it done tomorrow even though my husband is going rock climbing. That's right--ten days after the ablation he is going rock climbing. Good thing the doctor said no restrictions on his physical activity. Last time he went climbing, in the very same place, he started having AF halfway up the climb. Monday seems like a reasonable finish date for the quilt.

Now I have to get serious about planning the next project. I have three ideas swirling in my head and I haven't zeroed in yet. My husband just sprang on me that he might be going to do some work in Paris for a while. He wanted to know if I wanted to join him at the end of his sojourn. Better find out what our sons are doing since we depend on them for pet care.

Back Home Again

Husband made it home all right. Even though it was only 13 months ago some of the treatment protocol has changed, for the better we think. They pull the Foley's catheter much sooner now which is understandably a great relief, they take off the sterile cover patches (taking some skin with them in one place) that previously you just let wear off (the jury is still out on that one since the big risk is infection), discharge is way faster, and they even let you walk out the door instead of insisting on a wheel chair. He stayed in rhythm this time so he didn't need a cardioversion and he is on different medicine too. He never smoked, never drank, played tennis and biked and ran, all in all in pretty good shape but his nerve ends are misfiring. His heart is pretty healthy with no arterial blocks or anything but the AF will kill him just as fast as arteriosclerosis if he is unlucky. I hope we don't have to do this again in a year but all things considered this is a pretty easy heart treatment. Fingers crossed that normal sinus rhythm is maintained.

I still love that man so much after all these years. We were just kids but we must have been smart--and lucky.

So Far, So Good

The ablation went well although the overall news wasn't heartening. The same four spots that were identified last year had reconnected and were misfiring, and there were also three new spots. We aren't spring chickens but we aren't looking for managed care yet either so thinking of finality doesn't come easy to either of us. Don't want to borrow trouble though.

I took the Bulls Eye down to work on while I waited. It was an enormous hit and I got a great deal of quilting done. There is only one corner and about two feet on one adjacent side of the border left to quilt and then the binding so there will be new photos to post in about ten days to two weeks. Someone asked me once how I finished a quilt and jokingly I told her that I always played Beethoven's 9th Symphony. She meant how did I finish the edges, but I do listen to the whole symphony every time and I almost stand up and cheer when the Ode to Joy is playing.

AAArgh!

I outlined my problems with my BMW a few entries back and I have decided that I really should buy a new, different, car. I would really like to test drive a Tesla--they have an all-wheel drive model that should be good for our snowy hills. I mean I can't depend on no snow every year as it was this year. But this state has a law on the books that there needs to be a "dealer" for there to be new car sales, you can't buy from the manufacturer. They claim that this protects the consumer although I sure don't see how--dealerships have been lying to people for years so they are hardly models of good citizenship and financial probity. Anyway, a local legislator drew up an emergency change to allow Tesla to operate here--they already have remodeled a building fairly close to where I live and spent a bunch of money doing that. But yesterday the legislature voted down the bill. So it looks like they will be all dressed up, with cars in the showroom and everything, and no place to go. In theory I could go to Las Vegas or LA to buy the car but I would still need a dealer to provide service under warranty, etc. What a mess.

Must Be Ground Hog Day

Last year on Valentine's Day my husband had a cardiac ablation. He was doing well, off meds, feeling very good, and then in November he began the cycle again. He started with just a few atrial fibrillation episodes a week and then more, and then more. Two weeks ago, he consulted with his cardiologist and scheduled another ablation for this Thursday since he was not only having multiple episodes a day but they were becoming longer and longer. While this was not unexpected, it was nevertheless a blow. The surgeon is very experienced, same fellow as last year, but there are always worries--right?

March Madness

No, this isn't about basketball although the University of Utah might do well in the tournament. This is about what is happening outside my window. Up until March 1, Salt Lake City had only gotten 6 inches of snowfall the entire winter. I think we may have gotten 6 inches today and just since 8:30 am. Of course that is peanuts compared to the east coast. I hope this helps our water situation later when it warms up.

At Home In Alaska

When we lived in the big house, several of our youngest son's friends lived with us. Most were pretty short term but one stayed with us more than seven years, becoming like a son. When I made a series of family quilts, I made this one for him He lives in Alaska now, guiding heli-ski tours in the winter and working construction in the summer. He sent this photo of his quilt--clearly he needs better instructions on how to hang it but you get the idea. That's the family crest in the center and other blocks that he picked around it.

Another Step

Today I completed the next round of quilting, the squaring of the circle part. Partly because of the mechanics of  handquilting, and partly because our weather and climate here are dry, my fingertips, index and thumb, are getting beat up. I do not like the looks of machine quilting, especially the more dense modern version that has motifs everywhere making the quilt look as if it has acquired a communicable disease. But right now, today, it feels as if I need thimbles on three digits not just one.

There Is A Reason Justice Is Blind

Following is the text of a letter to the editor that I sent to our local newspaper. The exigent factor for my letter is the current session of our state legislature. There has been a bill proposed for a few years now, even before gay marriage became legal in our state, that would offer protections to the glbt community in jobs, housing, etc. This week, in an action that made national and international headlines, the LDS church authorities said that they were in favor of adding the lgbt to the protected classes. Everyone cheered until the full statement became public. The only way the church will support the bill is if protections for religious objections are added. These religious objections would be available to the church, the largest employer in this state, but also to individuals who have sincere religious objections.

"To The Editor:

Less than three years before my husband and I wed, the Supreme Court made it legal in all jurisdictions, even Texas where my Southern Baptist grandmother lived. Despite a unanimous decision finding that marriage was one of the basic civil rights, and a fundamental freedom, my grandmother still believed that the Bible prohibited interracial marriage. She disowned me and when the time came referred to our children as mongrels. She acted on her staunchly held religious principles.

The Utah legislature is poised to emulate my grandmother, passing new laws based on the Bible and on their perceived religious principles. Yet this same legislature frequently describes the Constitution as a divinely inspired document. If the Earl Warren court got it right in that unanimous decision, then the Utah legislature can only get it wrong if they choose discrimination over the Constitution.

Forty-five years later my husband and I are still married. It is less common for us to encounter outright bigotry but not unheard of. Without the support of law we would remain second class citizens, an unconscionable outcome in these United States."

I don't care how sincere your religious objections to anything are. "Judge not, that ye be not judged." is also in the Bible.



    

Another Ring Of The BullsEye Completed

I finished the second feathered ring and started the second pieced ring. the pieced rings go very quickly because they are straight lines, simple X shapes, in the ditch. I am also picking up a small amount of the outside background so that I don't end up pushing the circles out of shape by simply moving around the circle.

My New Throne

For decades, I have asked my husband to figure out a way to make a heated toilet seat. As a man he didn't feel any urgency, even when we lived the in the 10,000 square foot monstrosity with the inadequate heating. Technology has caught up with my request from two directions. The most obvious is that someone has built a heated toilet seat in two sizes to fit the particular toilet. The second advance is the search engine to find the toilet seat.

I won't post a picture but I can tell you that having a heated seat is wonderful. My husband didn't engineer the new addition but he and my son wired the plug to be code compliant and safe.

The Problem With German Cars II

I finally got my car back yesterday. Although the insurance covered all of the mechanical issues, the cost to them was still nearly $5000. That's added to the more than $15000 they have spent since 2010 when the insurance went in to effect. Keep in mind that the car only has 40K miles on it. Fine German engineering isn't fine but the products are still ridiculously expensive. Just one of the parts in this last go round cost $2700. I will not purchase a BMW again. When it works it is a sweet ride but every year there is something major wrong.

Moving Quickly

This is the same picture as before but I included it for reference. I have finished the quilting to the outside edge of the first pieced ring. There is still a great deal of quilting to go, feathered wreaths in the white rings, and feathered motifs in the corners of the squares. The inner square has a stylized pineapple, a traditional symbol of hospitality, and the outside corners have feathered hearts with feathered swoops coming out of them. The pieced parts quilt up quickly since it is primarily straight lines. The feathered parts take longer. Maybe by the first day of spring?

Profound Loss

The massacre at Charlie Hebdo may have happened in Paris but it is an assault on liberty everywhere. Political satire always takes courage. It is easy to be politically correct. It is hard to be politically aggressive because then you are a target. Speak the truth. Speak out. Don't let the monsters win.

Vive la Republique, Vive la Liberte, Vive l'Fraternite

The Problem With German Cars

I got all the basting done and have started the quilting, but there have been some delays caused by other issues. January is the month that my car's license plate needs renewing so I always take the car down to the dealership because I purchased an extended warranty when the regular coverage ran out. Well that turned out to be one of the smartest moves I ever made. I am not much of a trend follower, I like to hold on to old clothes, old friends, old pets, and I don't see any point in changing cars all the time. When my eight year old BMW doesn't have any issues it is a great car to drive, pretty good on gas mileage, very good in the snow and going up and down the steep hills where I live. But there have been so many issues over repairs that when people talk about fine German engineering I just laugh. To top that off all the parts are prohibitively expensive as are the repairs. Anyway, now my car has a transfer case issue, $3500 to repair that one part. It took a while to diagnose it, then it took a while to get the insurance to approve the repair. So I have been spending more time than I want to down at the dealership. The car is still not fixed since it takes time to get the part. If I were a little further along in the quilting I could just pick it up and take it with me but it's not ready for transport yet. I have been getting reading done though.

Least Favorite Task

I started basting my quilt sandwich today. First I had to move the furniture in the living room. Then the process of push-pinning each layer to the rug and its underlayment began.

I have to take my car down to the dealer tomorrow to get it inspected for license plate renewal. Besides loathing the experience (why are those men so condescending?) I won't get to work on the basting but by Monday I should be done and quilting even with very close basting. I just checked the dates of when I started and it was only the middle of November. It seems like much longer than that, especially since each border took eight days to applique.