New Quilt, Old Ideas.

I have begun making the third and last of the dentist office quilts. Although it sounds harsh, I don't want to spend too much time on any of these quilts but I do want them to be "family heirlooms". I put those words in quotation marks to indicate irony because no one who gives away a quilt can predict what will happen to that quilt. This is probably more true for baby quilts but even full bed sized quilts can be abused by those you love.

Several years ago an older gentleman who swam for our local master's team, for which I was the coach, found out that I was an avid quilter. He brought a family heirloom to the pool and asked if I could repair the damage. Although I am not in any way a quilt restorer, I do know that care must be taken and all steps to repair should be easy to remove. This was a lovely blue and white quilt with very careful quilting that this 75 year old man's grandmother had made but one that he and his wife had given to their daughter when she was a pre-teen. She didn't shred it but she did mark it with ball point pen. Besides that some of the seams were coming apart and some of the old fabric was just disappearing.

So I fixed the broken seams with time appropriate cotton thread. I covered the worn fabric pieces with similar fabrics but in a way that would be relatively easy to reverse. I covered the daughter's teenage messages, luckily most of those were on the muslin pieces, with pieces that were nearly duplicates to the original though not historic muslin. I made sure that all of the repairs I made could be reversed if in the future someone wanted to know what this quilt looked like after being in the same family for 100 years. I also encouraged my friend to document his grandmother's name and what he knew about the quilt's history.

Although it may not seem to be related, I want to add some of the very funny remarks I have encountered in twenty-five years of scoring essays. The funniest to me was the young woman who clearly used a thesaurus when she wrote her essay. The book she read was Ethan Frome and although I don't remember the specific prompt, her essay was based on Frome's character, his self centered view of the world. She was looking for a synonym for self centeredness and chanced upon one for self gratification, a phrase she thought was identical. After all, Ethan Frome was obviously only looking after himself so self gratification surely fit the bill. What she wrote in her essay was that Ethan Frome engaged in onanism. I laughed so hard my husband came upstairs to find out what was going on. It fell to me to tell this young woman that onanism was masturbation and if she needed more information she needed to ask her parents. One student started his essay by writing, "When Charles Dickens sat down at his typewriter..." Last week a student wrote that a character was, "...demised to death."

All of these thoughts flowed through my mind as I picked out the fabrics, considered, chose, ultimately decided what the nearly nine year old daughter of the receptionist would get. My quilting life will have come full circle because I will be making, with some modern changes, one of the first quilts I made. The pattern is almost forty years old, the instructions do not even know that rotary cutters exist. there are no considerations for faster piecing. I will come back tomorrow to tell you just what very old pattern I plan to use. 

Cute Baby Quilt to Hug and Kiss

This is the second of my dentist office quilts. I would have finished it two days ago but I had four classes of essays about King Lear to score over the weekend. Tomorrow I am scheduled to speak to two classes of sophomores, both under the same teacher, about writing effective responses to the prompts. I have been obsessing over this ever since the teacher, in his first year here and still very young, asked me to come in. His request was couched in such a way that my senses began to vibrate. "Maybe they will listen to you more than they listen to me." That seems unlikely since I will be more or less like a substitute teacher. Everyone remembers how they treated substitutes, right?

Anyway, student skills are way down. That isn't just in the mechanics, the sort of stuff that used to be part of an elementary education such as spelling and grammar, but in the critical thinking part. I have worked for this same school doing the same task for over twenty years now and students used to have a deeper understanding of what they read. They weren't always on target with their arguments, and they frequently had grammar problems, but the depth and breadth of the problems now is pitiful.

Once again on a happier note, here is the Hugs and Kisses quilt.

 Most of these fabrics are new, primarily from Moda, but the alert viewer will also see some much older fabrics--the two bug prints--that are about 25 years old now. I believe they are both Hoffman prints but I am not positive. Of course it is called Hugs and Kisses because of the repeated XO motif.

Who Knew?

"Well, think of it this way. The Washington Post last week had a scoop on the Secret Service requesting an additional $60 million in its next budget: $27 million to protect the president's wife and son in their three-floor penthouse at Trump Tower in New York, where they live instead of the White House, and $33 million for additional travel costs."

Who knew that it would cost so much money to protect a "billionaire"? This little paragraph doesn't  even count some of the other costs associated with having Trump in the White House that have not occurred with previous presidents. Once again I write that it is nice that Trump says he won't take a salary or will donate it to a chosen charity. Personally I believe that is only so he won't have to reveal his taxes but who knows?

Keep in mind that the health care bill that was pulled from the floor would have left Americans who take care of their relatives with Alzheimer's disease out of any chance of having their relatives in a nursing home because it would have decimated Medicaid. If you haven't had that issue in your family yet, you will. 

On an entirely different subject, I have finished the quilting of the XOXO, hugs and kisses quilt, and will begin the binding process tomorrow. That may be a record for me in completion time. Pictures will come soon. The final dentist's office quilt will be the little girl's quilt requested by the receptionist. I got some woven blue and white check for the main fabric but I certainly have more than enough fabric to finish the rest of this last smaller quilt. When I finish this last small quilt I will return to my long term project. Pictures soon of the hugs and kisses quilt.    

Chaos and Confusion

After promising throughout the entire presidential campaign that he would repeal and replace the ACA as soon as he took the oath of office, Trump conceded defeat. Paul Ryan who had been salivating for seven years at the prospect of turning his own vision of the United States into reality conceded defeat. Many years in the past, Otto von Bismarck said that law making was like making sausages because it was better not to see either one made, but we the people were lucky that we saw this debacle. 

Trump admitted: “Now, I have to tell you, it’s an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated.” But everyone except Trump seems to have known that it was "unbelievably complex". In the end, the bill was such a pile of sausage that we are lucky it got pulled. That doesn't mean that what we are left with is in any way perfect but it seems unlikely that Trump or his minions will do anything to fix it.

I am old enough to remember when Trump in essence extorted money from the city of New York back in the 70's because he was such an inept business man.  His perceived ability to make deals was always based on getting someone else to pay for his ego and his mistakes. The people the rejected plan would have hurt the most  were the very ones who voted for him. Unfortunately they don't seem to understand that they would have been left with nothing at all.

Now Trump says he is ready to tackle tax reform. Given the nature of his proposed budget, that too will be a painful process to watch but watch it we must.

Simple and Fun

I have started the next baby quilt, an XXOO (Hugs and Kisses) quilt. Simple piecing, simple quilting, the fabric is the star. It has been so easy so far. I pieced the crib sized quilt in a couple of hours, layered it this morning after cleaning up the back and pressing both top and backing, fused two pieces of batting to make that fit, and then basted it all together. I can't say enough about the batting fuse tape. I have used it so many times to put together pieces that are perfectly good but not quite the right size. This is a permanent addition to my quilting.

Something's Fishy

Gail Garber called this quilt, "Something Fishy This Way Swims," but I just called it Something's Fishy. It was fun to make with all its bright colors. The best part from my point of view is that I didn't have to mark it at all--foundation piecing for the fish and the flying fish and extemporaneous random quilting for those details. So I don't really have to wash or soak it because there aren't any marks, it didn't take long enough to make to accumulate dirt, most of the fabric was new and therefore pre-washed just before I started. As it happens the young woman who is my dental technician painted her new son's room almost the same color so she plans to hang it on the wall. That's probably good since it isn't flame retardant fabric and he is still only seven months old and pediatricians advise against soft wrappings, including quilts, until the baby is over 12 months old.

The Face of Compassion

With incredulity I watched White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney declare that defunding Meals on Wheels is the essence of compassion because those people who make money get to keep their own money. That's swell. But who takes care of the elderly recipients of the aid? Killing off the NIH, destroying the EPA, strangling Big Bird, shuttering after school programs, while at the same time expanding our military seems like a recipe for disaster. Building more and bigger bombs while allowing air and water pollution to grow means more people will have cancer in their future without the research dollars to help them.

On a happier note, I will finish the Fish quilt this weekend so come back to see pictures.

More Quilts

I had my dentist appointment, which was really a hygienist appointment since I only needed a cleaning not a full dentist visit. I showed my hygienist the quilt in progress--it is nearly finished--and she just loved it. The other young woman, who is very new to the practice, loved it as well and was quite surprised when I asked her for the name of her son, a baby born within days of my hygienist's son. I told her this would be for the label, for posterity.

Then I went out to pay my bill and the receptionist/office manager asked if she could buy a quilt from me. She was a little miffed at first when I said I don't sell my quilts because it would be so impractical, but that I would be happy to make a quilt for her daughter if she could assure me it would go to a good home.

I don't mean to offend although I inevitably end up offending because I have a personal view of life. It isn't practical for me to sell my quilts because no one would pay the amount of money they represent. Even if I multiply minimum wage by the number of hours that I put in to hand sewing and hand quilting, or even machine sewing and hand quilting which the Baby Fish quilt is, there is no way that these young women could or would purchase the quilts. At a bare minimum, there are 180 hours of work in the quilt times $7.15 an hour.  Most of my quilts involve way more hours than that which puts them out of range for most people. Since I am a very experienced quilter I probably should get more than minimum wage and that makes the problem worse. Giving away the quilts is my solution as I don't need the income and I have fun making them. My only other option might be to have a charity auction fund raiser but that still means I give them away. If Donald Trump defunds Planned Parenthood, that may be my next mission.

"If He's Not Joking, Of Course"

The White House was supposed to provide the evidence that they held to validate Trump's claim that Obama ordered wiretapping on Trump. This was an order from the Department of Justice but the White House did not provide anything except Sean Spicer saying that everyone could take Trump seriously, "If he's not joking."

So are we supposed to look for a tell as poker players do to know when the president is just kidding? Most of his ridiculous claims come as tweets at 3 am. As I wrote previously, he has no monitor at 3 am. Am I the only one who remembers the ridiculous Hillary Clinton advertisement of the phone call at 3 am? Am I the only one who doesn't want Donald Trump anywhere near the serious phone call that comes at 3 am? Every single president in the last 40 years has had an incident testing the US readiness in the first year of the presidency.

I am very close to finishing the quilting on the Fish quilt but I won't get it done by Wednesday, which is my next appointment. This would not have been an issue when I first went to this dentist. His office was in walking distance of my house. But several years ago he move way further south so now it's not only a long car drive, but I have to take the increasingly unsafe interstate to get there. But it isn't that easy to find a good dentist who isn't either incompetent, a thief, or a creep around here.  Trust me--I went to several dentists when I first moved here 27 years ago. They were not only incompetent, they were thieves.

Pretty Funny--Laughter Is Still the Best Medicine

I am moving quickly in the quilting of the fish quilt. I didn't bother marking it because there wasn't any point. I am echoing the undulation of the flying geese/flying fish sections, and echoing the circles of the bubble elements so they end up more like rocks in a pond rather than bubbles. I don't think I will finish by next Wednesday which is when my next dentist appointment is but it won't be much longer than that.

A Republican congressman from Kansas named Roger Marshall wrote that, "... "morally, spiritually, socially,... the poor, including the homeless,... just don't want health care." This is his argument and reason for eliminating Medicaid entirely.

Here's the joke of the day, perhaps of the year. Guess what the name of the House Resolution to repeal and replace the ACA is?

H.R.1275 - World's Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017

 

 

Odd Choice

As I have written before, my husband and I live in Utah, have done for 26 years now. We're not here for religion but for rock climbing although my husband doesn't do much of that any more and certainly not right now as he is still recovering from his arthroscopy. But we have been here long enough to have had experiences with the local culture. That includes some encounters with the newly announced ambassador to Russia, Jon Hunstman.

All sorts of people thought Huntsman was a reasonable alternative to what was seen as a far right Republican slate. Most of us who had lived under Huntsman's relatively brief tenure as Utah's governor knew he wasn't ready to be president. Now you have to understand that here it isn't necessary to have honest accomplishments as long as one is male, Republican, and Mormon. It also helps if one comes from a family seen as putting a good face on Utah and Mormons. So we more or less understood that Jon Huntsman was a handsome smiling face, son of a very rich man, but not much more than that.  The only initiative that Huntsman succeeded as governor in putting through our state legislature was a flat tax that completely removed any burden of excess taxes from rich folks. So now, since Huntsman, everyone in Utah pays the same rate regardless if they are rich or poor. Given the egalitarian nature of early Mormon settlers, this fits in to their plan for the kingdom of Zion.

Huntsman did go on a mission to Taiwan as a teenager and did learn basic Mandarin. So as an ambassador to Singapore and China he made a little bit of sense even though he has no experience running a business, and the experience of running even a state government was out of his grasp and out of his expertise. Everyone extolled his degree from the Wharton undergraduate program at Penn even though his father had purchased that enrollment and that degree through generous gifts to the school. After all, Huntsman had never completed high school. My husband did his graduate degree at Penn and because of that we were often invited to Penn alumni events here in Utah. Huntsman attended many of the same events and at one he was invited to speak. Since at the time many people, not just Utahns, were touting him as a viable presidential candidate we were interested in what he had to say.

Both of us were flabbergasted at the speech. We couldn't decide if he was on drugs or just plain crazy. There was no content to his speech but beyond that there was no continuity. Words didn't follow words in logical order, ideas were isolated like helium balloons in the ether with no tie to statements. It was one of the more bizarre spectacles I have witnessed and husband and I walked out shaking our heads and giggling.

Now Trump has named Huntsman ambassador to Russia. He doesn't speak Russian, but he has the other requisite accomplishments. He is rich, although all of his money comes through his father; he got a degree from Penn with about the same level of work and glory as Trump's, and his wife and daughters know how to wear false eyelashes. Huntsman Chemical also has multiple contracts with Russian providers.

Incompetence?

The United States has weathered the storm with incompetent presidents before. No matter what side of the political aisle one stands on, Woodrow Wilson was completely incompetent in his second term with his wife acting as the de facto president though few people acknowledged it at the time and Ronald Reagan was in the early stages of his later announcement of Alzheimer's during much of his tenure in office. We have also endured and persevered through incompetent presidents who either lacked the education or the interest in leading that the office requires. We have even had several presidents who acted as place holders for those who engineered their electoral triumphs in order to take charge of the office.

But despite a reasonable background in American history and a personal interest in how the country has grown, I can't find an example of a mentally ill president before Donald Trump. While his supporters continue to cheer on his acts in the last six weeks, his true self always comes through in the infamous tweets for which there is no filter. That's the real Trump at 3 am. He doesn't even have a wife there to tell him to stop although I doubt he listens to Melania. Even his own minions in the Congress are now backing off from Trump's claims that he was subject to phone "tapp (s)" ordered by Obama. I doubt that means they will begin the process of impeachment, but it does signal an entirely different path going forward.

Top Finished, Ready For Layering (With Picture)

As I wrote earlier, I put the Baltimore Album project aside to make baby quilts, an act that still leaves me sort of edgy. Anyway, the piecing went fairly quickly and smoothly and I have one top finished and ready to quilt. I did not add the extra border that designer Gail Garber added because she had some rainbow striped fabric and I didn't. Other than that, it is pretty much as she designed it except not all of my bubbles are the same size. I don't machine quilt nor do I hire machine quilters either so this won't look like the magazine picture at completion.

I think this will suit any baby's room, boy or girl.

Trump has gone on vacation to Mar a Lago again, fifth time in six weeks. It has been reported that every time he flies down to Florida it costs taxpayers at least $35Million dollars. Good thing he said he wouldn't take a salary. While there he is busy tweeting insane nonsense about President Obama wire tapping him.In the meantime, several of Trump's personal advisors and picks for his cabinet have been exposed as meeting Russian emissaries multiple times prior to Trump's election. All you who voted for Trump sure picked well.

Long Time Ago

I have a couple of quilting related videos online from a long time ago. A few days ago a woman commented on my reverse applique tutorial, that if I remember correctly features a cameo by one of my cats. The video is at least ten years old but this is a reminder of how electronic media lasts forever. It's not such a problem for me, unless the Trump administration decides to go after private bloggers in addition to going after every major news organizations.

But it should be a caution to anyone with teenage children. A few years ago I warned one of my tutees that the information available online about him probably wouldn't help him get in to Stanford. How did I know? I don't search these young people but Google and LinkedIn always tell me when one of my contacts posts something new.