This Winter’s To-Do List

For almost a whole year, I’ve been sewing two new quilt blocks every month (more or less). I began Craftsy’s Block of the Month quilting class last winter. Of course I blogged about it! Last February, I wrote about my new quilting project in the post “Like Mom and Dad“. Many of you know my mom was an avid quilter. When she was alive, I didn’t have much interest in helping her quilt. I helped her pick out fabric a couple of times, but she did all the work; the cutting, the sewing, the quilting. She made crib quilts for Lily and Emmy; they still use them all the time. Grandma’s quilts help the girls remember Grandma.

Grandma’s quilt comforted Lily after she fell and hurt her mouth.

When I stumbled on the Craftsy Block of the Month class, I decided to try quilting on my own. My very first block was a slashed block, the Asterisk. This block was fairly easy for me, a novice quilter, to complete. It gave me the courage to keep on going!

Asterisk Block

And when I read class descriptions like “English Paper Piecing”, “Dresden Plates” and “Curved Piecing”, I needed a little courage. I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to sew any of those quilt blocks! Not only am I a beginner at quilting, I also don’t sew very much.

But I kept at it, because every time I chose the fabric for my block and cut the pieces, every time I assembled the block like a puzzle and stitched it all together, I understood why my mom loved quilting so much.

Ohio Star

The Ohio Star Block was one of my favorites to make; learning how to make quarter square triangles was so much fun!

A curved pieced block, based on Drunkard’s Path

 The curved pieced blocks were very challenging, but not as hard to make as I thought they would be.

Circle of Geese

Visually, I just fell in love with the Circle of Geese. It is a paper pieced block that was very time consuming but also fun to make.

And so now, I have twenty completed blocks. Now comes the hard part: finishing the quilt!

All 20 quilt blocks

And finishing this quilt–adding a border, quilting, and binding it– is the only thing on my bucket list this winter! I’m going to do it–just wait and see!

Mama’s Losin’ It
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Wait–What’s Broken?

I glanced out the front window as I was picking up the toys scattered around the living room. A muddy stream of water was running down the street. “Hmmm,” I thought to myself. “They must be flushing out the hydrants.” But then the stream grew wider, and I grew curiouser. Shoving my feet into my shoes, I stepped outside. Water was not gushing out from a hydrant. It was gushing up from the ground and the whole street was quickly filling up with water. Neighbors were standing out on their lawns, trying to call someone who would come fix what was broken. Those who were not on the phone were in the water with rakes in their hands, clearing the sewer drains from fallen leaves. The school bus arrived and drove slowly through the water, causing waves to lap up people’s driveways.

And the water kept gushing up from the ground.

Our street, flooded

I had to go pick up the girls, so I walked away from the gushing water and toward the school. I could hear people yelling at cars to turn around. The water was getting way too deep. Just a few minutes later a police car arrived. The officer blocked off the street and yelled a cheerful greeting to the girls as we walked home. A fire truck soon pulled up. The neighbors, police officers and firemen all stood around and watched helplessly as the water shot out of the ground. The muddy swirls were mesmerizing. There was nothing left to do but wait.

Lily has her notebook, ready to report the breaking news story!

Finally, the water company arrived. They had to shut off the water slowly so that no other water mains would burst. Someone advised me to go fill up buckets with water while I still could so that we could flush the toilets when the water went off completely. The girls and I went inside and filled up buckets and even a couple of pots. It was kind of like telling someone to go and boil water when a baby is about to be born…it occupies one’s time but in the end is unnecessary. The water was contaminated so we couldn’t use it for anything but flushing the toilet, but we weren’t without water for long. The water company worked well into the night, keeping me awake with the generators, trucks and bright lights, but having the water back on in the morning was well worth a little lost sleep.

Mama’s Losin’ It

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