Happy New Year! 2023 is here. The best part of this year is that it is not an election year so we don't have to wade through the sludge for a while, although the George Santos saga doesn't seem to be letting up. I found it funny that the news reported that he probably wouldn't be assigned to the Financial Services committee since so many of his lies involved financial services. That never stopped the House from placing dimwits on the Intelligence committee.

I tried to get my act together to replicate the painting that I described previously but I didn't like how it was working out so I put that project on a back burner for a while. It isn't really a UFO since I didn't make any object yet, just doodled a picture on paper. What I am working on is another adaptation of some very old designs. Years ago I got some block patterns at Gentler Times in Salt Lake City, a store that doesn't exist any more. Anyway, I was thinking about what to do when I put three different quilt patterns together, sort of, and started working from those.

The late Sue Garman designed many quilts and the company she started to sell her designs is still online, but the patterns I am working with pre-date that company for the most part. I am combining "angel quilt" blocks with "postcards from the past" and "folk art wedding" blocks. So far it looks pretty good. Once I get a little further there will be photos.

 Turns out that this quilt spans the seasons in more ways than one. I started it just before the autumn equinox and I finished today just before the winter solstice. That's fitting given the various design elements on the top. 

This is just as completed, neither rinsed nor washed but slightly damp from spraying with the water baking soda mix that is how to quickly get rid of the blue ink. This was both fun and frustrating but ultimately I like the finished product. I did like the design that Gerri Kimmel-Carr published but all those depressing dull colors would have bothered me.

The lesson is to make any project your own. A long time ago I read an article in a quilting magazine that advised people to look at their own closets to see what colors and patterns appeal to them. That wouldn't work well for me since so many of my clothes are either black or grey. So for me I have to look at my art or my curtains or even my socks which are all far more colorful than my normal mode of dressing.

 

 I am sewing the binding on the folk art quilt. I usually do a double French binding with mitered corners which means going around twice. With that in mind, I have finished the front side and have attached about 12 inches to the backside. This project started because I was leafing through some older quilting books and saw all of those heraldic angels. Some of the angels are blowing trumpets and some are singing in a choir. The original name of this design was The BOM quilt as the designers were planning it as a bom project. BOM is not a good name for a quilt even if it's a good name for how the quilt was intended to be made.

Given that objection, my current name for the quilt is Choirs of Angels but that is probably because it is nearly Christmas. My version is not in Christmas colors nor was the original, but both have a variety of Christmas themed elements. What I hope anyone who reads this blog sees is that any quilt can be made your own by changing the colors. I know from personal experience that newer quilters, and some who are more experienced, still have trouble choosing fabric and colors. Learning that there is no right or wrong about how fabrics blend together is an important step for anyone.

With any luck at all the last week will have put an end to Trump even if it hasn't put an end to the destructive power of Trumpism. Hooray and farewell. All of y'all yahoos should consider a contemplative retreat to ponder the error of your ways. You are not right, you have never been right, and you have created generations of mistrust. Apologize.

 Nearing the finish of the quilting on the folk art quilt. In straight inches I have about two feet of the outside two borders left but that includes some feathered wreath and some small scale cross hatching so it isn't as if it's just a two foot line of stitching. I will have pictures very soon.

My next project will be a strong departure from my norm. I was leafing through an old copy of Antiques and Fine Art magazine (which doesn't really exist anymore) and saw a painting that I thought would be interesting worked as a quilt. I sent the artist a request to use her work as a starting point for a small wall quilt and she was quite enthusiastic. It turns out that her grandmother was a quilter and she always admired the craft. It also turned out that she lives and works only a few miles from my house so she wants to stay in touch through the project. That shouldn't be a problem.

I know the distance to the town where she lives because my husband and I walked home from there two days ago. We had gone downtown to try to get our train passes renewed but were not able to do so. But we decided to go to the closest local Japanese grocery store which is in the town where the artist resides. Since the rush hour was already over, the next train wasn't due for about an hour and I just didn't feel like hanging out. The weather was damp but not that cold so we got wet over the distance of three miles.

 

 It looks as though someone is losing control:

“Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump wrote in a post on the social network Truth Social and accused “Big Tech” of working closely with Democrats. “Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!” So says Donald John Trump.

That is former President DJT calling for the destruction of the Constitution because he didn't like the results of the 2020 election.

Now, really, all you Trumpettes out there, if there are any of you left, do you really want to vote for someone who wants to be a dictator? That's what throwing out the Constitution means after all. We all know Trump doesn't drink so this explosive tirade isn't alcohol fueled.   

Unfortunately, simply getting rid of Trump, which after this latest tirade is more likely than not, doesn't remove the stains of autocracy and bigotry that Trump let loose. Everyone can argue about economic strategy, about foreign policy, about multitude federal mandates, but no one sane should countenance destruction of the rule of law or respect for the the rules and norms that pertained before the fat fart rode down the elevator.

Is he hearing footsteps?

 The sheer stupidity of some planners is on view here on the Main Line. For a number of years, Lower Merion School District tried to hammer through a very bad idea of destroying property and vegetation to build playing fields for a middle school. Some of the physical property is already razed but the clear cutting of old growth and curated trees at that property was prevented by citizens' revolt. Now more land is in danger at the sister property to Stoneleigh, called Oakwell.

Decades ago some very wealthy people built some very nice houses near where I currently live. The Gilded Age mansions have mostly gone the way of all flesh including the destruction of the house at Stoneleigh but Oakwell mansion is theoretically protected by a historic designation. What is not protected is the 13 acres of old growth and historic trees and plants. Some of the trees slated for destruction were already here when Washington crossed the Delaware. Add to that travesty the fact that trees and vegetation are more important to these students' futures than having a brand new soccer field and the decisions are even more senseless. 

What will Pennsylvania be without the sylvan part?

https://www.saveoakwell.org/ 

Feel free to add your voices to save the trees.

 Yesterday's voting was quite interesting. Looks to me as though the biggest loser of the day was DJT. Of course it isn't over until it's over, but it certainly wasn't the blowout Republican victory that was expected. That alone makes it a day worth celebrating since so many of the Republicans on ballots around the country were/are demonstrably crazy loons. Case in point being Doug Mastriano who was running for governor here in Pennsylvania.  Luckily he did not win. Josh Shapiro is quite middle of the road rather than far left so he is a real good fit for this state that has such wide disparities in life and expectations around the state. The old saying is that Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia separated by Appalachia. 

I am still enjoying my new project. I have completely quilted 7 of the 9 inner blocks and most of one of the two remaining blocks as well. The outside border isn't very wide and the inner double border will be the one that provides the most challenges since it is half green and white check and half black floral. Marking on black fabric is always a problem for me so I am going to try to mark and quilt that section from the back rather than the front. I know that is not the best way to do it but I don't think it will make a substantial difference in the finished quilt. Of course most of my quilts never see the light of day once I finish them or at least only for a brief time either on our bed or hanging on the wall so obsessing about the right way to do them is a waste of time.

 My older brother had a stroke a few years ago while on a trip to the Czech Republic. He was about the same age that Fetterman is right now, and like Fetterman he had some issues with language. The bigger and more obvious side effect initially is that for some reason he had very little control over his left arm. I don't mean that it was paralyzed but that it became over-active like a wind-up toy. My brother kept hitting himself in the head for a while after the incident.

So? Well the real point is that now my brother has very few and remarkably subtle signs of having a stroke and he is more than gainfully employed. Does that mean that Fetterman will be totally fine by January, 2023? No one can predict the future and each stroke victim is unique. But certainly Fetterman stands just as much chance as my brother at having a more or less complete recovery.

You know who cannot recover from his own wounds? Mehmet Oz is a charlatan. If you don't believe me you can pull up the testimony Oz gave to Congress about his widely panned diet pills and drugs and have a good laugh at how the doctor was skewered by those folks who know pandering lies when they hear them. Or you can listen to Oz's comments about how abortion access should work in Pennsylvania, extolling the virtues of letting local politicians into the exam room (metaphorically) to make that decision for any woman who has the audacity to expect reasonable medical care.

Doesn't that idea alone make you want to hit yourself in the head?

 The final applique pieces went on yesterday afternoon. Today I will begin the whole marking and layering process. I don't think that is anyone's favorite part nor is it mine but there aren't other options. It's funny. My husband didn't tell me until I had sewn everything that when he first saw the photo of the quilt, he couldn't understand why I wanted to make it since for him those "cottage" colors obscured the interesting design. Of course he tells me that he likes my version very much but what else would he say?

 This is just the flimsy of course, no marking, no back, no batt.

We had some friends visit this week. They were on the east coast to meet their very first grandchild and got in touch with us. We had a nice visit but it culminated with the wife asking me if I would make her a king-sized quilt. She is not offering any recompense for this largely because I have told her in the past there is no way she could afford to buy one of my quilts even if she paid minimum wage by the hour. I did make her son and daughter quilts but that was a while ago and my tolerance for certain activities has gone down. Case in point is marking and layering and basting a quilt. The current project is not that big, about 65 inches square, but even that will test my back with all of its poor old vertebrae. I am considering making a flimsy for this woman but telling her she has to find her own machine quilter in Salt Lake City. I doubt she would go for that idea because even though this woman was Phi Beta Kappa as an undergraduate and went to Columbia Law School, she has not got a clue what is involved in making a quilt. I like to make quilts but this request seems a little out of line.

 I finished the last block today and sewed the center portion together. I am not sure that I have enough fabric of the Moda cream background for the next borders but I have several other cream background fabrics that can stand in.

Although the bottom right side looks askew it is straight just not heavy enough to hang straight without batting or quilting.

 The weather has been miserable here with the lingering remnants of Hurricane Ian. We have had torrential rain and a sharp drop in temperature for the last few days. My husband invariably says, "It's a good day to stay inside," but as a hand sewer that's pretty much true of every day. In any case I made some changes to my first two rows of blocks and then sewed everything together yesterday.

Neither my husband nor I liked the pieced block from the book so I went to my typical fallback pieced block of a Mariner's Compass. This one is a smaller size from the normal compass blocks and allows for lots of color choices. I also added a new border to the upper right block to off set the framed pieced border treatment of the lower left block of the original, not shown here. The original block arrangement was just a tad too asymmetrical for me. 

 On one of our walks this morning my husband and I noticed some "flyers" lying on most of the driveways on our street. To me, at first, they just looked like litter so I picked one up to dispose of in the trash cans at the park that we normally walk to. Once in my hand, I realized this was more evil and insidious than trash. These were solicitations and exhortations of neo-Nazi groups to "Rise Up White Men".

These are particularly distasteful on this street. My husband and I were the first mixed race couple on the street and remain so, but we also have new neighbors who are black. I don't think that any of the people who live on the street distributed the objectionable material but that doesn't mean that all of my neighbors are delighted to have a mixed race couple and a black couple on their previously (for about 100 years) lily white enclave. 

Everyone has the right to speak, but everyone also has the right to rise up against hate speech. I believe wholeheartedly in open discussion--so bring it on you neo-Nazis. Meet me in an open forum. 

 Here is a picture of the original quilt from Red Wagon. I have changed a few items and plan a few more changes. One of the  changes happened because I wasn't really paying attention to the whole "refer to photo for placement" so rather than the birds going in two different directions, mine go around in a circle. That does not matter to the design, at least not to me. Later you will see some other changes but I have been running around and cooking like a mad person so I have not done any sewing yet today. 

 

One of the dishes I am making for dinner is Thomas Keller's macaroni gratin, that's mac 'n cheese to us peons. I always hated macaroni and cheese because my mother's wasn't that good and Kraft boxed style is just sort of salty. Keller's is so good that I would practically dab it behind my ears as a perfume. It isn't really hard or complicated but the mornay sauce he uses instead of a plain old white sauce with cheese takes about 45 minutes to make and then you have to push it through a sieve before you proceed to make the gratin. Other than that it's easy and still cheap but it is definitely worth the time.

 I just finished the second row of blocks and sashing for the new project. My version is infinitely more my taste than the original that was all of those "country" colors from the late 20th century. I did make a few of those rust, brown, and black quilts back in the day but they were never my favorite choices. The colors I have chosen make this quilt more dramatic and yet still quite sprightly rather than depressing.

 

The block size now is 15 inches with two inch sashing. Most of the fabrics are from my stash but the background is a newer fabric, off white with small bright triangles. It's called Homemade Salsa. Making all the elements 25% smaller made for some intricate applique, including the very small openings, just barely visible, that are supposed to indicate where the angels blowing the trumpets have their arms separated from their bodies. the interior sashing is going to be all this green and white checked fabric and the outer sashing before the final border is the same green and white with a two inch outer sash of the black background floral, not the black background pin dot that makes the trumpeting angels, trees, and parts of the birds. My husband asked me if this is supposed to be a Christmas quilt but  I am not sure even if there are elements that are common to Christmas. The bottom row will have sunflowers, crows, and rabbits, and the outer border will have crows, rabbits, and foxes.   

I have been making so many floral and bird quilts that are closer to real life flowers and birds so doing these with their simple shapes that merely represent a tree or bird has been entertaining. If you go to my post from May 30th of this year, you can see the black floral in an entirely different guise. That quilt which I had originally called My Funny Valentine got renamed as Grey Skies Are Gonna Clear Up when my neighbors' daughter got dumped at the altar. It now hangs in her apartment in Chicago.

 I have been working on a quilt from a very old Red Wagon book. The original quilt was enormous (90 x 90) so the first thing I did was reduce everything by 25%. The second step was to switch out the late 90s colors of brown, rust, and black to more lively colors. I like what I have gotten done so far.

 

 Although I have had this book for a few decades, I had only made one of the quilts previously and that one was a pieced quilt. Working on an applique quilt from the book has proven to be a more frustrating experience as the instructions are about as basic as instructions can get: "Refer to the photo for placement." That doesn't help much at all in trying to make everything symmetrical and balanced appropriately.  Luckily with folk art, perfection is rarely the goal.

 This quilt will never be a prize winner for any number of reasons but I expect it will serve its purpose to make a two year old smile. When I was a little kid, one of my favorite toys was a yo-yo clown. These yo-yos were the sort made out of fabric and the fascination for me was the interplay of colors and prints. That was part of my idea in using so many wild prints, mostly from Tula Pink. I had a very old extra thick crib batt that makes it fluffy and puffy. I rarely use the thick batts since I do all hand quilting.

I am calling this "Live Long and Prosper" and I incorporate Mr. Spock's hand gesture that Leonard Nimoy in turn took from an Orthodox Jewish blessing ritual. It represents the Hebrew letter "shin" that carries various connotations including peace as it is the first letter in "Shalom". My husband said that he thought modern remakes of the Star Trek tv show are common enough that the baby's parents, though quite young, will be familiar with. I am not so sure but it doesn't matter to me.

I made the binding wider than usual expecting it to be tugged on repeatedly.

 So here is the new baby quilt as laid out for basting. Part of my goal in making this was to include multiple learning opportunities, from colors, to numbers, to same/different. On top of that the back is a very wild piece of fabric that has all sorts of animals in funny clothes from giraffes to hippos. I didn't want anyone to think this was a precious family heirloom--I want it to be loved and shredded by the time this kid is 18.

 

 

 My husband and I got an invitation to a birthday party about a week ago which means the birthday party is only 3.5 weeks away. The party is for a two year old boy on our street and I am delighted to be invited to his special day but I didn't just want to show up with a teddy bear or something. Funny story: last year when he turned one, I left a best wishes card, a teddy bear, and a small homegrown pumpkin at his front door. Later that day his dad told us that he loved the bear and had spent the entire morning rolling the pumpkin around and seemed to love that as well. But as babies do, he got tired so they put him to bed and as new parents do, his mother and father lay down as well. When everyone got up they went downstairs and found no trace but some orange smears of the pumpkin and a dog who desperately needed to go out. You probably already know what happened to the small pumpkin but the sweet pitbull named Nana had devoured it and needed to get rid of the evidence.

Anyway, this party has a rocket to the moon theme so I have been sewing like mad to make a small rocket and astronaut quilt for this two year old. I will have pictures soon.

As an update to my own medical news, I met my new doctor a few days ago, had a bunch of blood drawn, and had a shoulder to groin CT scan. So far the only new information that has developed is that I have a heretofore unknown ruptured lumbar vertebrae (I knew my lower back hurt) and some growth on an ovary or fallopian tube. The CT scan could not tell whether it is a cyst or something more dangerous so I have already scheduled a trans-vaginal ultrasound. If that sounds like a whole lot of fun on an early morning visit to a doctor then you already know what is involved. If it turns out to be cancer I might change my mind about not being a litigious person since the previous doctor could have ordered a scan two years ago. 

  

 My latest project is quilted though it isn't a quilt. Some years ago I went to Big Lots in Salt Lake City where I picked up a decorative bowl for $3.00. It mimics the classic Tobacco Leaf pattern but clearly at that price it is frankly fake. Didn't and doesn't matter to me as long as it looks all right. We didn't use it on our dining room table until recently when my husband accidentally broke a crystal bowl that used to be in the middle of the table. The bowl just didn't go with the various items we used for protection of the table. The latest "runner" underneath the bowl was one of my late mother-in-law's obi, lovely thick silk but not in the right colors. Plus obi are such a strange size (14 feet by 11 inches) that I had to fold it several times to fit .

 

So I decided to make a runner whose colors would be more compatible. This pattern was about 30 years old, a small wall hanging designed by Pat Andreatta, that I modified in some ways to blend with my fake Tobacco Leaf bowl. I just finished it and unlike the quilts I make it didn't required soaking to remove the markings. The applique markings were in chalk  and those disappeared as I sewed. I didn't mark any quilt lines as the background fabric obscures the quilting anyway--navy blue on navy blue--so I just did a loose meander to hold the layers together after I added quilting to the applique bits.

 

As with most projects I learned a few things, especially appliqueing all those tight little curlicues. I have done curlicues before but these were much smaller in overall scale and also in the width of the bias strips. The first lesson I learned was to work on top of a firm surface that I could hold on my lap while sewing and rotate that rather than rotate my cloth. The second lesson was to weight the curlicues after they were sewn by putting them on my ironing board with that same flat firm surface and my iron (turned off of course). That final step made a huge difference in how the curlicues look, going from decent but a little scrunchy to lying completely flat on the surface.  If anyone is curious about the yellow birds, goldfinches are the state bird of Pennsylvania.

 Everyone in the US is entitled to legal representation but the old caveat of being careful what you pay for comes to mind when reading about Trump's current legal situation including the filings to the courts sent by his current attorneys. Trump's ace legal team has filed suits in two different courts including one that they apparently did not quite understand. A Trump appointed judge in one of the courts has responded to a court filing by giving Trump's crack (or is that cracked) advisors a second chance since they apparently filed in a civil court for a criminal case. Add to that the language in the various new filings and what ensues is just deserts.

“[That] makes no sense under law, because if it is, in fact, subject to executive privilege, that means it’s a government document, and hence, should be held by the government in the Archives. So that’s why it’s a very, very bad legal argument with no validity to it,” he said.

“The motion is a confession to having material you should not have in your house.”

 Are we sympathetic yet? I am sympathetic to the people who have to wade through garbage to find any nugget of sound legal reasoning. I don't know if the plan is to argue incompetent counsel.  

 In Utah where I previously lived, and in many other deep red states, the legislature instituted a new rule that its proponents say will protect young female athletes by prohibiting participation of transgender youth in girls' teams. The rule is supposed to protect girls from both unfair competition and sexual predation.

A funny story from my own life experience occurred to me when I read an article about parents who wanted a successful youth athlete investigated all the way back to kindergarten to assure themselves that their daughter lost to a "real" girl rather than to a transgender girl. Texas, where I did my age group swimming, is clearly a geographically large state. What that means in practical terms is that the parents of athletes and the athletes themselves probably aren't always that familiar with each other. Though San Antonio and Corpus Christi are both in South Texas, in most local age group meets (especially back in the days when I was a young swimmer), your daughter will probably see the same people but if you go from San Antonio to Corpus Christi you may not recognize the other competitors. After all more than a hundred miles separates the two cities.

To add to that sort of confusion, the local officials at these meets, even if they were fully qualified to judge, might not be familiar to a swimmer or her parent. My mother, who was a fully qualified stroke and meet judge, often worked on a voluntary basis at our local meets. Adding even more to the confusion, I matured very young, certainly well before the norm. So I hadn't grown in height since the age of 11 and I was physically mature in all other ways as well so I looked like a woman in the pool with little girls. At the finals of one meet (so far back in the dark ages even local meets had heats, finals, ready benches, etc.), a woman came up to my mother who was the stroke judge just as the final for my event was about to start. She wanted to lodge a complaint to have me removed from the event because she just knew that I was a ringer, a fully grown woman pretending to be a girl. My mother asked which girl she meant even though she knew damned well which one was the target. Sure enough, this mother said that obviously the swimmer who had qualified first was not in the right age group of 13/14 years. As she said to my mother, "Just look at her!"

My mother said that she happened to know that I was not only not too old to swim with the 13/14 group, I would still be in the same age group the next year because I was still 13 not even 14. The irate parent asked my mother how she knew so much about me. "I was there when she was born."

When I saw the following headline coming out of Utah I simply smiled:

After a girl beat their daughters in sports, Utah parents triggered investigation into whether she was transgender

 

 

 It is fairly easy to predict Trumpettes reacting poorly to their dear leader's current unenviable position. One woman in Arizona proudly proclaimed that Trump has never lied in his life. The hot Arizona sun has fried eggs, why not eggs and brains? The most despicable aspect of the Trumpettes' accusations is that many have specifically vilified Judge Reinhardt and Merrick Garland because both men are Jewish. In their thinking (can it even be called that?), their shared religious faith means there is a Jewish cabal trying to destroy American life and ideals. Then Fox amplifies those disgusting sentiments by broadcasting a doctored photo of Reinhardt trying to link him with Ghislaine Maxwell (also Jewish) and by doing that link the cabal with Jeffrey Epstein (also Jewish).

One of the more important aspects of being a nation of laws is that all defendants can be represented in court. Did Trump have documents that should not have been in his possession after 1/20/21 despite repeated requests and subpoenas for those documents? I would say based on what was revealed this week that is undeniably true.  Trumpettes have various responses ranging from "well he declassified them" to "they were all planted". First of all, when you cannot even agree on the defense you probably should at least confer before making wild statements. Second, declassifying documents does not happen simply by waving a wand nor can certain documents related to national security and weaponry ever (that is never) be declassified. No one needs to plant evidence when the Incredible Bulk freely admitted to having them.

Trump may never get closer to wearing orange than his hair or his skin, but if you still think he is your savior, you need help.

 When celebrities die I usually shrug my shoulders but a death yesterday hit a little harder. Sure, everyone dies but Bill Russell transcended simply being a sports star. The following praise says it better than I ever could:

And we hope each of us can find a new way to act or speak up with Bill's uncompromising, dignified and always constructive commitment to principle. That would be one last, and lasting, win for our beloved #6."

 

 

Another recent death revealed Trump values more than any of us could expect. Trump buried his first wife, Ivana, at his golf course in Bedminster, NJ. Was it because he loved her so sincerely? Unlikely, right? Turns out NJ does not tax cemeteries at all--no property tax, no sales tax, ....

Beauty is for the Birds (plus CAUTIONARY TALE)

 The quilt is complete, bound and rinsed. Given all the false starts and U-turns I made while working on this, it surprises me that it turned out as well as it did. I do like it though like Joanne in Massachusetts the gold background would not usually be my first choice. Since the manufacture of cotton cloth for quilting, or any other purpose, is harsh on the environment, I try not to buy new fabric when I have something that might be useful.

The photo was taken in what is our multi-purpose room--quilts, fabric, television, ironing supplies, etc. This is one of the two places in the new/old house that still has the exposed barn rafters and this space was part of the haymow.  There is a very large trapdoor with huge hinges that opens so that the hay could be moved from the lower level to storage and back again back in the stable days.

Now for the cautionary tale. This is for everyone but specifically for women of a certain age. My husband and I have watched while both friends and relatives died, some from cancers of various kinds and some from other problems such as coronary issues. We always swore that if we were stricken by some terminal problem we would simply up stakes and go to Italy. Of course that might still be possible but it's the sentiment more than the fact that drove our thinking. My friend Willis died of stage 4 cervical cancer but before she died her oncologist insisted that she have a hip replacement. She fought for a while but finally gave in because the doctor was so insistent. After all the pain and expense she died about ten days later, in more pain that she needed to be in.

My sister died of stage 4 lung cancer. The last three months of her life were spent in NOVA Medical Center near DC because one of her tumors pressed on her spine and paralyzed her legs. So she was clearly not going to make old bones but various doctors at the hospital used her to defray their children's private school fees or something. In those last three months she was told she couldn't have painkillers because they didn't want her to become addicted. Still, they insisted that she "tote that barge and lift that bale", forcing her to do weight lifting that ultimately broke her arm and broke her hip, which they then insisted she needed surgery to repair so that she could go home. Two days after the hip replacement they kicked her out of the hospital as she had become hypercalcemic because of the cancer and three days after that she died, once again after hideous pain and equally hideous medical bills. Clearly they couldn't beat the dead horse any more.

Those are only two of the tales I have personally witnessed but they should be enough to make anyone think twice about entering into the medical/industrial grasp if they can avoid it. So when my ongoing health issues started I was already predisposed to mistrust treatment that went beyond what I thought was necessary or correct. But I did go to the doctor as anyone would who has lost so much weight without trying. But besides my mistrust I was cautious, plus I didn't think the medical group I was using was of top quality, not just in the medical side but the administrative side as well. Case in point, right before my last annual physical the medical group (Main Line Health), sent a system wide email asking everyone to review their personal information as they were going through a system upgrade. I was astonished to see that I was described as an Asian lesbian on my personal history. Now there isn't anything wrong with being an Asian lesbian but I am an Irish/German heterosexual married for more than 50 years with 3 children. To this date, 8 months later, no one has admitted to altering my biography. If at this point you wonder why I stayed with the group, after switching doctors three times in five years I didn't want to go through the hassle of getting all of my health information changed yet again to a different office.

So in January I saw my primary care doc who told me she wanted me to see a GI doc. The blood test done routinely showed damage to my kidneys for the first time and she told me to stop taking any NSAIDs but that was all she said. No other advice at all other than the referral. I was reasonably confident that I did not have colon cancer as none of my colonoscopies or FIT tests showed anything but normal readings, but I  figured an office visit was a simple start.  The GI doc was angry, abrasive, and condescending. When I told her that my previous GI doc told me in no uncertain terms that my next colonoscopy would have to be done with a pediatric scope because he had nearly impaled my intestine due to an abnormally long transverse colon that took some very odd turns. He described it as the most terrifying moment in his medical career, honesty that is unusual but greatly appreciated. The new GI doc scorned this doctor and scorned the pediatric scope advice. She flat out told me she would not follow my request but that additionally I would never know if she did because I would be fully sedated. Then I told her that I had serious issues with most anesthesia that in past surgeries had nearly killed me through malignant hypertension and tachycardia. I asked if she could return to the older protocol of the Versed and she refused. So I left her office and refused further treatment from her.

I informed my primary care doc of my decision about her friend but I never heard back. In fact, I have never heard from my primary care doc again despite phone calls and messages through the health portal. That was in March because the primary care doctor had described my problem as routine, as in no rush, so March was the first appointment possible for a "routine" intake. Of course after losing a quarter of my body weight prior to the January visit and then 7 more pounds by the March visit I certainly thought my issue was far more urgent than routine. Stuck in limbo with no clear path forward I was still healthy enough to maintain some of my normal activities but I was also still losing weight and feeling crappy at least 50% of the time. Still no response from the doc until her assistant asked me through the portal if I would take another FIT test. I told her that I had done 4 FIT tests in just under 5 years and asked how often this needed to be done, given that all the readings indicated no problems, completely normal readings. She took 18 days to answer. In the meantime I had bumped into a neighbor whose prior career had been spent as a nutrition specialist at Penn Medical center in the transplant unit. She might be 80 years old but she is still as sharp as a tack and clearly educated in her field. She, along with the rest of the neighbors, has watched as I became thinner and thinner so she asked me two questions: Do you have an ulcer? and What supplements do you take? This was one of those lightbulb moments. My neighbor told me to stop taking the vitamin B tablets immediately, vitamin B that had been recommended by a doctor after I had some nerve issues. Turns out B is discouraged for ulcer patients as it is highly acidic. But I had never considered my supplements as any problem and certainly my primary care doc and the GI doc had my medical chart showing the ulcer and the supplements without saying a thing. 

So I thought if B was bad, what about the others? Serendipitously, I read an article in The Guardian about a British fellow who was hospitalized in dire straits because of vitamin D. The description of his symptoms pretty much were the same as mine though far more severe. Everything from the nausea, the weight loss, the mental confusion,  and the kidney damage etc. were all problems I had. Vitamin D had also been recommended to me by a physician because I don't drink milk and I no longer spend much time in the sun having had more than six skin cancer surgeries, none for melanoma but still a danger signal.

Once again, both the primary and the GI docs had my chart but either did not read them or just ignored the information. I stopped all of the supplements at that point which was about a month ago. I asked my primary care through the portal why she had not given me any warnings. Still no response except that this week on Monday a phone message from some underling in the office promising that they have not forgotten me and that I would get a call from the office manager the next day. You know how truthful that promise was.

While you may not have a bad doctor and you may not have an ulcer, you still are in danger of similar complications. I don't know about you but when my doctors tell me to take B or D or anything OTC they usually just say the letter. The pills and capsules from CVS and others are far bigger than anyone recommends. In my case, the D alone is about 3 times more than the normal dose recommended for a woman my age which is a huge issue of which you might be unaware. Off all supplements now, I feel a little better. However I now have irreparable kidney damage which will never heal. I hope it doesn't get worse.

I am glad I finished my newest project. If nothing else it is a bright spot, literally, in what has been a very bad year. I am metaphorically going to Italy.

 I completed the quilting on the new project this morning and pulled most of the basting threads out. I did not trim it, nor did I remove any of the blue marking so it is far from finished but here is a picture:

 

The flash washed out some of the intensity of the gold fabric so it loses some of its impact. The flash also obscures the dense quilting in the center of the NY Beauty blocks. I am calling this Beauty is for the Birds. The upper right corner has the state bird of NY, both male and female eastern blue birds, plus a ladybug that is the state insect. Those are more frequently seen in the warmer months so the other birds I put on are ones that are more commonly seen in NY in cooler weather, both male and female cardinals, a black capped chickadee on the left side, and a Northern junco on the bottom. The butterflies are just for fun except the darkest one is sort of a blue imperial. The male cardinal is eyeing a fat green caterpillar, one of his favorite foods. The thistle in the lower right is just for fun as well because I like making those 3D flowers.
 

 Although I have quoted this line from e.e. cummings before in reference to GW Bush, it applies just as well to Trump.

"how do you like your blue eyed boy mr. death"

I am sure there are Trumpettes out there who still worship at the altar of fat that was the 45th President, but their devotion needs serious examination and analysis. Last night Trump's gross behavior and idiotic persona were on full display.Even his adult children who were in DC on January 6 tried to get him to cease, desist, acknowledge but he was not interested. None of us can know the inside of someone else's mind nor can we base our behavior on our surmises, but if you still support the monster within the corpulent  pustule, you might want to examine your own mind.

On a lighter note, I will finish the new project soon. There will be pics.

 So many mindless politicians seem to be jumping on the "You can't do that!" But what they really mean is that they don't approve of a number of ideas that most Americans seem to grasp far better than their elected representatives. Of course there will always be the brain dead who believe that their own particular brand of religion is what God intended which never fails to amaze me. If you follow that idea to its logical (illogical) conclusion, then you would have to conclude that monotheism doesn't exist, that we worship multiple gods with multiple visions. It isn't just a schism between different religions since even within American Christianity adherents point fingers at other Christians and make disparaging remarks about the other guy's god. My Texas Southern Baptist grandmother loathed my Roman Catholic mother, treated her as though she were a devil worshipper and there are other more dangerous ideas now.

Even if you don't think these various statements are not about religion, ultimately the words and the phrasing show that that's the derivation.  From abortion to gay marriage, from interracial marriage to contraception, the Ted Cruz/Clarence Thomas factions may claim that the Constitution supports their particular views but at bottom those ideas show up in various religious guises throughout history. While it seems unlikely that Cruz and Thomas actually believe in the other's God with Thomas being RC and Cruz being some kind of Protestant (I know Cruz's wife is Seventh Day Adventist but I don't know if there is a name for what he is), they are happy to throw the Golden Rule away in order to rule. The sophistry of their arguments often makes pretzels look like straight lines.

I never thought we would lose the Civil War in 2022 but we have. Woe is me, woe is my country. 

 Kristi Noem, bless her heart, has achieved the seemingly impossible feat of making Sarah Palin look very smart.

 The last day of the Trump SCOTUS term magnified the hypocrisy of the Trump judges. First they claim that they must absolutely protect innocent lives from being destroyed but they finish the term by allowing air pollution to continue and expand. So whose life are they protecting? Certainly not anyone or anything that breathes or relies on clean air and water to thrive.

 The latest pronouncement from the Trump court does not surprise me.What I want to know about the praying football coach was not covered in the lawsuit as far as I know. One of my sons played football in high school in Sacramento. He was at one time a starting defensive player and a starting offensive player on the team. The coach was LDS and literally only rewarded good Mormon boys although his story would probably be that when he called the team for a huddle either before or after a game he was trying to create a team spirit. The problem with his team spirit was that it always involved prayers to Heavenly Father and when my son objected he got benched. Of course the coach couldn't keep a good player benched but what that coach did was entirely inappropriate even if he claimed that my son was insubordinate. Insubordinate to whom, the coach or the mythical sky being that the coach wanted everyone to bow down to? 

 Better not blink or you might miss something important.  Maya Angelou once said, “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”

"Clarence Thomas, explicitly called for the court to reconsider its rulings striking down state restrictions on contraceptives, state sodomy bans and state prohibitions on same-sex marriage.

'Because any substantive due process decision is 'demonstrably erroneous,' Thomas wrote, "we have a duty to 'correct the error' established in those precedents."

 

Just because you think contraception is not only legal but a wise choice for family planning, career goals, education, etc., doesn't mean that Griswold v Connecticut has any stronger place in US jurisprudence than the precedent establishing a right to an abortion. If you think that's fear-mongering you haven't been paying attention. There are many reasons why that "right" will be the next one directly attacked, but the most compelling reason for someone like Thomas is that some forms of contraception are viewed as abortifacient.  Add to that the disdain that so many conservatives hold for women, (Alito complained that Princeton should never have admitted women because he felt they sullied the nature of Princeton. Don't tell him that Woodrow Wilson would not have allowed his admission as an Italian Catholic) and you too might want to warn all your younger friends, male and female, to lay in a long-term supply. For heaven's sake, the man who wrote the Mississippi abortion law under question at the court said publicly that he hoped it would make all women in Mississippi think twice before ever having sex. Just the women, mind you. He didn't make any comment about the male side of the pregnancy. If that isn't a disturbing disruption of the 14th Amendment I cannot think of a more clear example of unequal rights under the law. Apparently this man thinks women spread their legs and men have needs.

I never had an abortion though one of my sisters did and other women I know did as well including a physician friend who aborted a pregnancy because of serious and irreversible physical abnormalities in the fetus. I, like many women including my own mother, had an unplanned pregnancy but I chose to bear that child. But it WAS my choice.  If you cannot conceive without in vitro fertilization or some other modern medical intervention you might want to give up if you live in any of the states that abolished abortion as soon as SCOTUS made its announcement. Most of the modern methods produce unwanted embryos that are discarded, thus in essence aborting those that are not implanted or that do not thrive. Tough luck on that front too. 

 

 

  

 Last year about this time I was astonished to see an amaryllis blooming in my front garden. I wasn't astonished this year when this one bloomed:

There are two more blooms on this yet to open and there are at least four more plants in the same bed so I might be surprised again next year.

 This blog entry will irritate many people for a variety of reasons. So what?

FINA wrote and adopted a new rule regarding the inclusion of transgender swimmers in elite competitions. Not only is the new rule ridiculous, the end result will hurt women's elite swimming because there are so many ramifications. 

Yesterday I saw one of my neighbors running behind his son's stroller going down the street. My neighbor, a very smart guy, is clearly not an athlete, more suited to chess than running. I turned to my husband and said, "It used to be a pejorative and frowned on to say that someone "ran" (or threw, or swam, or caught, or fill in your own sport) like a girl, but that is what FINA wants." So if everyone swims like a girl, does swimming improve? At the London Olympics, the average height of the US women's swimmers was 6'1". Any notion that the size of the competitor can be indicative of the power of the swimmer is clearly true if only because of the leverage gained but height alone is not a given for talent, and it isn't only men who are tall.

Lia Thomas, whose inclusion on the Penn women's team began most of the brouhaha around transgendered swimmers, did not even win all of her races at the Ivy championships nor at the NCAA meet.  Was she beaten by men? Nope, Lia Thomas lost to other women. Oddly enough, as a long time competitive swimmer and coach, I can say that none of the teams I swam with or coached ever broke down workout lanes by gender. One woman on my last masters team refused to swim in what she termed the "chick" lane because she believed that swimming behind and beside men made her faster and better. Her comment was more sexist and derogatory than anything else that happened at the pool.   

When I lived briefly in Colorado, I worked out at the Air Force Academy and one day the coach pitted me against one of the men's coaches, a guy who had been an Olympic swimmer but who was not competing any more. She made us swim in one lane and do an 800 meter for time and she encouraged me to eat his lunch. For me the only worry was the turns because I have very bad eyesight and cannot always tell where someone's arms and legs are in the pool with my goggles on. But we touched the wall simultaneously and he asked me why I didn't try to pass him at the turns. I have had a few injuries in the pool and I told him I knew I could catch him on the last 50 meters without endangering myself. He was about half my age and bigger than I (I am not even close to 6'1"). Did he swim like a girl? Hardly.

Competition can be positive or destructive. Psychology plays an enormous role in how one approaches life and if you think you are a loser, then you will be. It isn't the opponent who defeats you in most races. If you want to be a better swimmer you need to improve your technique (no gender difference involved there); you need to work out wisely (no gender difference there); and you need to believe in yourself not in the other person (no gender difference there). 

As a funny end to what is clearly my own opinion and experience I have another story. One of the last masters meets I competed in was an IGLA competition. Though I am not a lesbian I coached an IGLA team and so I usually entered the meets as well. It was the last day of what had been a five day meet and everyone was very tired. There were one too many women for the final heat and I asked permission from the meet referee to swim in the final heat of the men, thus turning three heats into two to end the meet sooner. This was allowed but when I got on the block one of the timers said, "This is supposed to be a men's heat." The start judge turned to me and said, "Just tell him you're in transition, honey."

 I have no claim at all to knowing more than the rudiments of botany but there is a dogwood tree in my neighborhood that fascinates me. This tree stands in a public park, subject to any number of dogs and other hazards but it perseveres. How can I say that a tree perseveres? Isn't that sort of the silliest kind of pathetic fallacy?

You can judge for yourself. The photo on the right is a little dark. The left hand photo is from one side where the tree looks more or less like any other dogwood in the park. It's fairly tall, in full leaf in this photo after having a full complement of blooms a couple of weeks ago. The other two photos show the other side, or what there is of the other side.

 

 

It's hard to tell but most of the trunk of the tree is gone. Essentially this has roots, and then an open tube of mostly outside bark. Once the branches start, the tree is solid but there is not much to the trunk at all. It is startling and inspiring.

 It seems rather odd to be wished a happy Memorial Day given the purpose of the day. Though my family encompassed a fair number of people who served in the military from the earliest days of our national aspirations, only one that I know of died as a direct result of the service. My late sister's husband was one of the last USN pilots shot down over Viet Nam. Unfortunately, he did not die from that crash but from being shot by the VietCong who came to his wrecked plane. He always carried a non-regulation 45 handgun in his plane and he started shooting at the VC who then shot back. She did finally get his remains back years later and he was interred in his family's church graveyard in Massachusetts. He also had a bridge dedicated in his name when his remains came home.

I introduced my sister to this guy, never really expecting much from their introduction. He was a nice enough guy with a decent sense of Irish humor but he was not very well read or even well educated and my sister went to a well-regarded college after being  named a National Merit Scholar. It's hard to say if the marriage would have lasted but because of his death he acquired heretofore unknown saintlike status that never wavered. In her final hours when she was talking to ghosts his name was heard over and over.

Coming back from our early morning walk today, we bumped into the father of the young lady to whom I was giving the Democrat Rose quilt. He said that out of the blue, and  day after the bridal shower, the groom called off the wedding. I don't really know either bride or groom but this was a shock to the parents. As for me, I have a beautiful quilt all dressed up with no place to go. Guess I will unroll it and put it in on the guest bed.

 The first time I entered a quilt contest, I won a prize for excellent applique even though I had no idea what I was doing. As I have written many times, I have not taken any quilting classes though I did teach a kids class at a shop and I also held quilt evenings at my house a long time ago. But anything I know about quilting has been through trial and error (lots of error) and my own previous sewing experience.That first prize winner had an appliqued center and a pieced border that the judges decided just did not fit with the center although I thought it did. The center was a lovely floral heart wreath with a ton of other flowers and the border was a single wedding ring block in complementary colors.

My current project reverses that with a pieced interior and an applique border but those same judges might not find a good fit in my vision again. The center is a variation of New York Beauty and my envisioned border incorporates some of the NY state symbols such as American Beauty roses and Eastern bluebirds. What makes design sense to me might not make design sense to anyone else. Funny story, though.

When I started this project, I thought I would tell Bill Volckening. That's not quite as odd as it sounds since I have known Bill for a very long time from before he ever saw a New York Beauty quilt and only wanted a T-shirt quilt from his long swimming career. I found out that since last we talked he had gotten married, still lived in Oregon, was starting his swimming competition again, etc. When I told Bill I was making a NY Beauty, he said he wanted to see photos when I finish. 

I am definitely not finished or even close but my husband took a photo today of the progress. The bird that I put on the top border is supposed to be a male eastern bluebird. The female is far less flamboyant which may be why neither my husband nor I know if we have ever seen one. There is an American Beauty rose and a ladybug, the state insect. The female bird will be on the side border that is still incomplete in the photo below. The other borders will be different, not necessarily any official state symbols, but more flowers birds and bugs.

The background fabric is at least 27 years old because I bought it right before my 25th anniversary. Some of the fabrics are older than that and some of them are younger. This will end up at about 60 inches square, far smaller than the Democrat Rose. I have plans for some quilting that isn't simply cross hatched, perhaps some trapunto

 While working on the new project, I decided to finally get a new sewing "table" for my Bernina. Many years ago I purchased this machine that was theoretically designed for quilters but could be used by home sewers for other projects as well. Within a month I had broken one side of the removable "table" that depended on a narrow cantilever. Long after that accident, I broke the other side and had been super-gluing the three pieces together to use the machine. Now this was inconvenient and somewhat maddening but with everything else going on in my life I sure didn't want to think about looking for and buying any accessory for what I still thought (and think) of this machine as my new machine.

Guess what? Bernina doesn't make my machine anymore. I don't know when they stopped but that avenue for replacing the broken piece was gone. After looking online for something else, I found a company called Sewing Parts Online in Oregon. They custom make all kinds of parts including the part I broke. I got my new sewing table (to my way of thinking it isn't a table but that's what it is called). It is a good fit and it has four adjustable legs so even if one is using a fair amount of pressure to hold the fabric pieces in the correct position, there is no wobble or wiggle. At my age I did not want to purchase another machine for the very limited amount of machine sewing I do.

 As I wrote previously, the problems I had visually with value difference came up because I was trying to be more extemporaneous. Apparently that doesn't suit my nature since dissatisfaction has been dogging this project. I think I am on the right track now and obviously I am my biggest if not only critic.

Here is what it looks like now.

 Most of the time my fabric choices depend on having a contrast between the background fabric and whatever applique design I am working on. So far the current project is not dependent on applique although I do prefer to applique the curved seams to sewing them on the machine. But this is pieced fabric and depends on not just color but value.

I was making myself crazy trying to use the block fabric that was a cream or off white color as it was making the blocks busy and uncoordinated. So I tried changing the colors for the offsetting sashing bits that are common to New York Beauty, making them less contrasted to the sewn corner parts and that made me crazy too. After picking everything apart a second time I just went back to the background fabric of the four blocks comprising the center and substituted a plain cotton in a similar color to the Yellow Rose of Texas quilt, once again sort of mustard colored but this fabric is just a tiny bit more orangey than just Gulden's mustard. If I had to flat out describe it, it might even be Trump tan--that terrible pinky orange color. I will post some more pics soon but it is the light or dark value of the fabric that is currently causing issues. I am getting very good at wielding a seam ripper.

 Here is the first photo of the new project. This block is not complete yet but it does show the colors so far. Some of these fabrics are fairly new with the red being the newest. It's from one of my favorite team of designers, Lewis and Irene, who I believe are Scottish. The green and the blue patterned fabric are at least 30 years old.

 

 

 I started a new project the other day. If you have read this blog before you already know that I only work on one project at a time since I don't like "unfinished objects", UFO's. Even though I found a quilt store fairly close to my house, I am still relying on older fabric for this project. 

It's a New York Beauty design for the main blocks but I am still working out the other design elements. I used to plan assiduously, drawing designs out on a inch grid paper, but these days I work more on spur of the moment or what looks good now. I cannot say honestly that this is a good way to do things. I am way more of a plan everything down to the nth degree, but so far I like what I am doing.

While I was writing this entry, I looked up to our arched window and saw a rainbow.

 

 

This is looking to one side of my kitchen toward the neighbors' house. You can see a faint double rainbow in the image. Years ago I wrote a blog entry about a double rainbow early in the morning but did not get a photo. This rainbow isn't as spectacular as that but it is still very cool.

 

 

 Yesterday I finished binding the new quilt and today I made and attached a label. It is a very pretty quilt but compared to more modern designs it looks quite simple. Since I very rarely use or display any of my quilts, it was a very easy decision to give this to one of our new neighbor's daughters who is getting married in July. I have met her a couple of times but I cannot say I know her. Her father is from Chester County in Pennsylvania and knows about quilting so he was bowled over when I asked if his daughter might want a quilt for her wedding. If she had not agreed, it would simply have gone into the stack on the princess and the pea bed, akin to quilt purgatory.

The lighting does not show the quilting well. There are feathered wreaths in the circular blocks and fancy feathered designs at the intersections of the blocks. The background is densely quilted every half inch in a diagonal grid and I chose to incorporate a scalloped edge similar to the edge on Kretsinger's Rose Tree quilt though I certainly don't pretend to  be a reincarnation of that well known quilter. So eight months after beginning the quilt I finished it. Hurrah!

I do adore that twisted rope border.

 As I suspected, I didn't learn much from my doctor visit yesterday other than I have lost 7 more pounds since January. I have a follow up appointment for an endoscopy in mid-April for which I have to get COVID tested and then quarantined. Our family friend who used to teach at Johns Hopkins always told us we could get better medical care in the East. That clearly depends on being able to get the medical care in the first place.

 Two major milestones today: I finally have my appointment with the GI doc and I finished quilting the large Kretsinger inspired quilt. Neither milestone is a complete action since the quilt is not finished and the doc doesn't even know me, but at least the milestones are past. I will trim and bind the quilt over the next couple of days so photos will be posted soon. I don't really expect to learn much from the medical appointment but any progress is forward progress at this point.

 My husband and I were taking our normal post-prandial walk down to a local park. We passed one of the houses on our street after passing a young Asian woman pushing a baby in a stroller. She was clearly not the baby's mother and my husband asked me if I knew who she was. I definitely did not but I definitely knew she wasn't the baby's mother so I hazarded a guess that she was a new nanny for the enigma house, especially since she didn't follow us all the way to the park.

My husband asked me why I called it the enigma house to which I replied, "Well they are a pair of docs."

If you don't get the joke it's okay. There are too many weird and unsettling news stories these days but at least the Trumps are finally getting what they deserve out of life. That alone is worth a hearty belly laugh. 

 The groundhog saw his shadow today which is supposed to mean six more weeks of winter but March 21 is a little more than six weeks away so the groundhog's shadow must mean a shorter winter not a longer one. We have a neighborhood groundhog, probably more than one since they all look alike. I find his antics particularly funny when he comes to the yard. Most of the critters that steal our produce or raid our compost bin are furtive in their behavior. The groundhog walks in looking like he is simply grocery shopping. He walks over to the vegetable plant, usually a tomato, and plucks the fruit off the vine or more irritatingly just bends over and eats the bottom of the tomato leaving the top still attached. He never seems nervous or skittish. After his snack he just goes back out of the yard, no rush. He doesn't even wait for the cover of darkness.

 Even though it snowed steadily for 24 hours yesterday, here in SE Pennsylvania we only ended up with about 9 inches and it is very light. It still makes for treacherous walking and driving but nothing like NYC and eastern Massachusetts. The temperatures are a bigger problem dipping down into single digits overnight. We do have a generator if the power goes out but most of our neighbors do not. Last time there was a multi-day power failure event, we charged batteries and ground coffee for neighbors we had never even met. 

I am happy that I have the big quilt to hold on my lap during weather like this. Some of the rooms in this old stable are difficult to keep warm. I think I have between one and two months of quilting left even if I work every day. I have some thoughts on my next project but at this point the main thought is to make something smaller like a table runner. Perhaps I will make a cushion cover for the inglenook bench in our living room. We still have this old fashioned white on white damask cover from the previous owner who died at the age of 97. My living room is relatively serene in design and color so the white/ivory color is all right if not terribly exciting but some kind of applique cover would be great. No one really sits there very much so the extra wear and tear of people's derrieres wouldn't matter.

 As it happens, I haven't finished the current project as Joanne from MA thinks, but still patiently hand quilting every half inch across this queen sized quilt. The colors turn out to be the colors of suffragettes in the early 20th century but the blocks are from further back. Since it is called either Whig Rose or Democrat Rose, I am guessing it was a pro-slavery block since Democrats were the supporters of slavery. But these days the affiliated parties have switch their public stances with Democrats being those who want to expand voter options and  Republicans slamming on the brakes.

Most of that doesn't matter when quilting since it is the block itself, regardless of previous attachments, that the quilter looks at and chooses. I have found a home for this already. One of my neighbors has a daughter getting married in the late spring.

I hope to finish this long before the wedding but the health issues I wrote about previously are only settling in for the long haul. For the most part, I just feel utterly miserable so I either have to not eat at all or eat very sparingly.  The best guess anyone has is that I have at least one stomach ulcer (this was determined a decade ago) and probably more. Will I get better? At this point it seems unlikely and if I keep losing weight it won't matter. In the past I swallowed a camera but all that did was take pictures that no one thought were conclusive. This time I don't know what hoops I will have to jump through, or if I will get any questions answered but I am still hanging in there and quilting every day.