True to my word, I did spend the majority of the day in the sewing studio. Not so much sewing as putting pencil to paper to work out a border that I hope I have enough of the quilt top fabric left to pull off. In the afternoon . . . “The best photo ever!” JoAnn sent me a photo of my brother Michael drinking coffee out of a cup. First day in eight weeks that he could swallow something that he put in his mouth. I am hoping that the feeding tube was able to be taken out. I didn’t ask any questions as to when his cancer treatments will resume. This news today was fantastic.
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Noreen
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Noreen
A Day’s Work
Sometimes it isn’t how much I get done but how I get it done. Tidy, tidy.
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Noreen
When I stitch I do get lost in thoughts. Dennis is always ready to help. After I have whacked shrubs out by the roots, Dennis was right there to load up the debris to head out to the tree dump. A one dollar bill is all it costs to be rid of branches, limbs, etc.
Today Dennis headed to Sleepy Eye as they had called that the air bags had come in as a direct result of a recall. Before Dennis came home he had stopped at the parts store and picked up spark plugs and a wiring kit for his 1968 Cub Cadet that he is sprucing up. When he came home he checked in with me in the sewing studio. I was his last stop before he was going to check his eyelids out for cracks in his recliner. When I look at Dennis who will be having his 82nd birthday this fall, I couldn’t help but think of Dad.
Dad was another one that always had an agenda but would take a time out for a nap every day. No matter what he was doing in the machine shed or out in the fields, you could set a watch by him. At twelve noon he was at Mom’s table. If she fixed him a noon meal, it was the least he could do to be on time. After noon lunch, he headed for the living room floor, stretched out and took a 15 minute nap. Again, you could set your clock. At age 73, Dad was taken too early. When I look at Dennis . . . special!
By the way, when I loose my place in stitching, it means that the seam ripper may be gotten out. A tip: the seam that needs to be ripped out . . . take it to the ironing board and press the seam open. The ripper finds its niche between the stitches and makes short work of it.
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Noreen
A Fun Project
When it is soggy from 2 inches of rain, I head for the sewing studio. Friend and neighbor, Jan, is always ready and willing to help with her chainsaw. Jan’s husband, Randy, has a great “green line” that has helped us out when the snowfall on the drive is more than he feels we should tackle. Jan and Randy’s’ granddaughter loves cats. Does she have one? No. Kayleigh never misses a chance to find Snuggles when she is visiting St. James. Jan has even let Snuggles into their home so it can be close and personal with Snuggles and Kayleigh. Pink! Who would have guessed Kayleigh’s favorite color. Jan first thought of having a personalized towel for a gift to Kayleigh. Pink is apparently not a hot selling item in stores. The second choice will be a sofa pillow that Kayleigh can enjoy while watching her videos. It was fun watching this design come to life and it will be coming into it’s own when Jan brings over the pillow form. It was a good day of being inside after the garden work of yesterday.
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Noreen
After having 1.5 inches of rain yesterday I have made an administrative decision. Our backyard was just about to the point that I could walk and not get muddy shoes. The large square perennial garden in the backyard has had its last season. It is about 25′ x 25′ and it has given me much joy over the last twenty years. We have had and will always have a low area to content with and the rain of this year drove that point home loud and clear.
When nephew Brett does get a cement job done here I will have an area right off of the patio that will hold the perennials that I have an emotional attachment to. The ideal time to move them will be in the spring of 2019. The rest . . . will be going by the wayside. This morning I spent a fair amount of time pulling some plants up and getting them ready to be mulched. Between now and the snow flying I have decorative rock to move, some posts that have held garden art will be taken out, etc. Next spring I know of a fellow and his Ford orchard tractor that has a great garden tiller and the area will be tilled with grass seed following. The area around our huge Maple tree and the patio porch will still allow me to get my fingers dirty.
The passions that amount to “busy work” do wane followed by new “busy work.” The thread and fuzz that I enjoy has remained with me since I was a child. It endures. It is satisfying. It challenges me. With the condensed gardens and the thread and fuzz, I know that I will remain busy as there are a few challenges that Dennis occasionally brings into my life. All in all I have a balanced life. I like it. I like it a lot.
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Noreen
My Day, My Way
From time to time, I have a back that gives me pause. Not surprising. I was a farm girl that any farmer would have loved to have had at his beck and call. 40 Lb. hay bales on the hay rack behind the baler: I was there. Stacking hay bales in the hay barn right to the rafters: I was there. McCormick milk machine pails filled from the Holstein cows: I was there. Helping to load feeder pigs into a trailer: I was there. The list could go on and on. Dad had me at his beck and call right along with my sister and two brothers. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Dad and Mom taught us kids how to work and make light of it. If we made a game out of it, the time went quickly and the weight of it didn’t take its toll . . . for some time to come.
The aches that may come periodically now that I am in my 70s do not bring sad memories. The wonderful life I had as a child brought me into my adult years knowing the value of putting in a good day’s work. I now enjoy a good day under my belt, but with much less intensity. I still enjoy everything and anything I always did, but perhaps with a different twist on things to achieve the end result.
Today was a great example of enjoying my sewing studio acknowledging that my back needed some TLC. I would like to make myself a new quilt. What! Me getting a new quilt to use! I don’t put in a full day of cutting pieces. Bending over the rotary cutter can be a back braking task. This whole process will take a fair amount of time . . . which I happen to have. No matter how anyone tries to retain good posture while sewing, it doesn’t last as that perfect seam allowance gets my nose right up close and personal. I spent the greater portion of the morning getting my sewing machines ready to stitch. Yes, that’s right, plural sewing machines.
Mom’s sewing machine (circa 1965) has been serviced and was loaded with the correct thread for my project. The Sears sewing machine model that I have had since 1968 was also ready to go with the right thread and needle. Last but not least was the Bernina to get suited up. I am working towards a finished 8″ block that is comprised of five different pieces. I believe I need 100 of these finished blocks when I am finished. Each of the three machines will stitch a portion of the 8″ block. Doing a series of ten on each machine means I will not be hovering at any one machine for long. Getting up, moving, getting my butt on a different chair and then heading to the ironing board after 10 of the completed blocks have been put together will not bind the back, shoulders and hands from extended repetition in one place. It may sound like a lot of foolishness, but it’s my foolishness to take care of that which I know can cause a lot of discomfort. I have nothing more to do than to take care of my health while enjoying life.
When I redid the sewing studio last fall it fell into place that I could navigate the two church tables, my sewing machine table and the ironing board from all sides. No sitting in a corner being boxed in. It’s doing exercise laps while ending up with a sewing project well under way. Fun creative times at Stauffer Avenue.
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Noreen
Today we voted in the primary. It was the first thing on our list this morning. Dennis dropped me off and he was off to the parts store for some brushes for the generator on his Cub Cadet. The tractor has been a good project for Dennis, beside the fact that the back portion of the acre doesn’t take him long at all and it is done.
I headed for Windom with my cousin’s quilt top. Christine had a few minutes to visit with me. Christine works at a drug store that fills prescriptions for over 30 different health care facilities in the area. Christine was appreciative so she could take the quilt top and make plans for it to be quilted sometime in the future. It ended up to be a bit of a story as to how this quilt top got wonkie. Christine didn’t sew the quilt top together. Aunt Lorraine who has Macular Degeneration had her hand in this. It doesn’t matter as the project is back with Christine. The family does worry as to what will happen when Lorraine’s eyesight continues to deteriorate as there is no cure for the Macular eye disease. All the more reason for me to continue taking care of myself as much as possible.
The skies have threatened all afternoon, but I am afraid the rain has dissipated before it hits the ground. All is good here on Stauffer Avenue. So many blessings abound here in our home. Priceless.
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Noreen
There are mornings that block out the rushing of traffic past our home. This morning was one of those great awakenings at 8:45. I had been in a wonderful dream of some times past. When I opened my eyes looking out the window to the east I was entertained with a flutter of Black Walnut leaves. The leaves that had turned yellow and gold fell like a vail. I stayed still for some time to let the dream fade. What a great way to start the day.
Dennis had received a letter from Ford that his little red pickup had a recall on the air bags. After several cups of coffee in the patio porch we headed to Sleepy Eye to get the skinny from the dealership there. We will be receiving a call with an appointment time when they are able to replace the air bags. Dennis asked me to ride with him. His plan was to keep me out of the sewing room a bit longer as he knew I was feeling some strain in my shoulders and hands. Bless his heart.
This late afternoon I gave Thomas a call that he could come and pick up his daughter’s quilt. Check! Call that project done and out! I will be taking some time to tidy up the sewing studio, complete with the Swiffer on the concrete floor. I do take time to hit the multiple waste baskets with thread and fuzz, but to no avail, some sneak by. I have no plans to hit another project head on. I need a bit of time to reflect on what would be fun to work with. In other words I am going to do a “needs analysis.”
Dennis just reminded me that I have a quilt top to deliver into the owner’s hands. When Aunt Lorraine was here several weeks ago, her and I spent a lot of time tearing apart a quilt top for her daughter that had refused to lie flat. Once we had the issues taken care of Lorraine decided to leave the quilt top with me rather than her taking it with her to Arizona, only having to mail it back to Minnesota. Lorraine’s daughter works in Windom about 26 miles from here. I believe I will surprise her at her place of work and put that quilt top where it needs to be. I am leery of having someone else’s project in our home. There are less than good things that can happen and I would never be able to make it right. We will see what tomorrow brings.
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Noreen
Update on T-Shirts
Here is the skinny on t-shirts: they could pass for oil cloth tablecloths. None of the 16 shirts I had to work with were plain soft cotton t-shirts. The rubberized vinyls have taken over. This may be the last of projects such as this for me. A stabilizer needs to be put on the back of the shirts so they become a square that is able to be worked with in organizing and stitching the quilt top. All of these shirts had to have a pressing cloth laid on top of them to allow the heat of my iron to adhere the stabilizer on the back of them. When quilting the top of the quilt, I needed to stitch through newspaper on each block as I didn’t have the special presser foot that rolls over the vinyl. The newspaper then needed to be removed via the perforations that the stitching did. Bummer to the nth degree. Tomorrow I will dig through my stashes to find something to use as the binding. No . . . the back of this quilt has not been photographed. I was not going to purchase any new yardage for this project and it got pieced and pieced and pieced. Sew be it.
I will say that the morning right up until twelve noon was spent outside on the patio visiting with neighbors. The air was nice with a bit of a breeze and no biting bugs. The wonderful morning enjoying coffee and chit chat started the day off great. I knew what I had been battling these last few day with this quilt and there was no point of putting it off. As I have said there may not be any more of these quilting bartering projects. I would sooner offer . . . not putting myself in a bartering situation to begin with, especially when it involves family.
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Noreen
Dennis and I had decided last night that today would be a quiet day with little to nothing that would need to be done. Dennis enjoys the Rural Farm television channel. It goes from tractor auctions, to insights on farming in various states and the best part for Dennis . . . the gospel and country music.
It is difficult for me to sit on my hands. I did linger in the patio porch this morning for enjoying several cups of coffee. Not much breeze. Looking out to the east there was plenty of activity. The squirrels were having a hay day. The neighbor’s Oak tree has a fair amount of acorns to be had. The acorns are green as grass and perhaps that is the way for the squirrels to enjoy them.
Snuggles did catch a squirrel last week. Dennis watched the entire hunt go down. Snuggles feels so heavy when he sits on my lap, but according to Dennis is was greased lightening on Snuggles’ part that was the end of that squirrel. The catch was not to be eaten but to be played with. When there was no more movement by the squirrel, Snuggles sauntered off. Within a few minutes Dennis had the dead squirrel in a plastic bag and into the garbage. Last year we learned our lesson. We did not pay attention to Snuggles’ conquests until we could smell them.
I finished off the day with getting a far amount done on the t-shirt quilt for Thomas’ daughter. Thomas had been on site quickly last week when we had a huge Maple branch go done. The barter system is alive and well on Stauffer Avenue: have chainsaw, will travel . . . for a t-shirt quilt. It’s all good.