Garlands

I did it! I made garlands as planned!! When I finally sandwiched, quilted, and trimmed all the strips and scraps, I had 367 strips (7.25"x1.5") to make into chains.

You need this

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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpPIxcntxkE

DoZE

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I laughed tonight

The Loud and I take turns deciding the night's TV viewing, usually only two episodic shows or one movie. Tonight was my turn, and when he said he'd probably only be up for one show, I decided to choose one that would really "count". I wanted to laugh, I needed to laugh, I was ready to laugh. So I chose "The Goes Wrong Show" (Amazon) and wasn't disappointed. 

Then he decided he could watch some of our other favorite show, the finale episode of Season Two of "Crime Scene Kitchen" (Hulu). That too did not disappoint, providing plenty of laughs. He went to bed after that, but I've stayed up with the final thoughts of the winning team swimming in my ears:

"From this point moving forward, we're going to celebrate ourselves, no matter what happens. We're going to encourage each other, we're going to cheer for each other, and just be grateful for the moment and experience, and live in it."   Yass and Amber, Crime Scene Kitchen

I truly want to bring this fervor with me going forward. Tomorrow is chorus rehearsal night. Can I make it happen? Can I manufacture the illusion of joy where none exists, enough to perform for an audience?

I made plans with my closest friend to meet at Nowhere Bookshop (San Antonio, The Bloggess--this was the first post of hers I ever read, and I laughed until tears ran down my leg) this coming Tuesday. I decided I needed something in my life to look forward to, a Bucket List to create and an item to check off, and this fits the bill perfectly.

It's a start.

I sang tonight

The Loud and I were watching "First Man" on Netflix tonight, days before it disappears from that platform. He kept insisting the Theme from "Laura" was what Neil and Pat danced to, and what Neil later brought with him on a cassette tape on the Apollo 11 mission. I kept insisting it was not, and ended up spontaneously singing the song (which I only know because of the Spike Jones rendition. Thanks, Dad!)

I didn't think I had a song left in me to share.

It's a start.

I smiled today

Two unexpected, all-the-way-to-my-eyes smiles of thanks for small gestures of kindness and thoughtfulness. I didn't know I still had those to give, but apparently I do.

It's a start.

October banner

The last stitch went in this afternoon and it's ready to go to my mom tomorrow.

I "pigma'd" the stems of the apples. There was a LOT of pen work on this one!

Progress

Just a quick progress report to give my eyes somewhere else to focus for a bit. All the paper-pieced blocks are finished. Last night I traced all the titles onto their respective fabrics, and this is what I've accomplished so far this morning while a cool fall breeze (finally!) wafts through the house.

It had been my intent to pen The 57 Bus on the 'wrong' side of the gray fabric, but when I saw how the pen skipped over the white markings, I realized that would help create the rough chalk texture of the original book jacket.  

Back to Lawn Boy now.

To-Do-sday: October Banner

I'm behind on getting my mom's October banner done. Quelle suprise! I've been collecting ideas for the last couple/three weeks and by this past weekend I had a plan.

Sixteen inches across is my goal for each banner. Driving to "Apple Country" every year was a family tradition when I was a kid, so a paper-pieced block of apples in a bushel basket will be included. National Book Month seems a great way to subtly poke the political bear by depicting a library shelf of banned books (with a 2" pumpkin as a bookend as a nod to Hallowe'en).

Massive Time Suck

This happened Monday:

Look at that poor, taped-together power cord on my old laptop!

My old laptop hasn't been playing nicely for years, crashing frequently and taking 5-7 attempts to reboot successfully each time. I've frequently been denied access to websites (or their features) because my favorite browser was no longer supported by my Operating System (or some variation thereof). So I plugged these two into an outlet for the long haul, introduced them to each other via our wifi, then left for a chorus performance that evening.

Good Trouble, Sir!

I didn't know much of anything of John Lewis as I grew up, and have been happy to be educated these past few days. The Lewis family is encouraging "well-wishers to tie a blue or purple ribbon on their front doors or in their front yards to commemorate his life (and signal that your household is part of the streaming community)". (Parentheses mine, as I don't think we fit the "streaming" part. The Loud is on Facebook, so he might.)

Regardless, this is flying 7' up on the lamppost outside our house:

For years now, I've been listening to horrible news of men and women being mistreated or prejudged in public settings, and I think about and wonder how I would've acted had I been in the same park, same Starbucks, same place with these people? How could I react? How would I intervene? How would I engage the rest of the (non-harassed) people? My musings were mental dry runs for if something happened, but it wasn't until this week that my possible intentions, if they ever came to be, had the necessary words of focus: Get In The Way.

Thank you, Congressman John Lewis. You have forever, posthumously, changed my life.

Bar set

Ready for the briefing!

To recap:

1 shot of amaretto for: "disappear", "many names", or any misnaming of this pandemic

1 shot of water for: "tremendous"

1 nut for: "therapeutic(s)"

See you on the other side!

6:30 edit: "C---- virus" took a commanding lead early on, but in the extemporaneous Q&A, "tremendous" finally took the lead. Not a single nut was harmed during the briefing--he's got two new words that took precedence: "pharmaceuticals" and "generic".

Lest You Think...

...that I hang around all day doing nothing until "Meet The Press" airs, here's what I accomplished this afternoon:

Because I want this to be light weight, yet not extremely stretchy, I looked for a cotton sheet to use as the middle. Couldn't find one in the house that was light enough in color (didn't want it to show through the white shirts on the top [Clam] and on the back [Calm]), so I used 80" of some white-on-white fabric instead.

Depending on how my Viking quilting machine deals with the knits, I may end up quilting this with my (relatively smaller) Brother 1500. I know I've got stretch knit needles for that machine, if it comes down to needing those.

Queued up

Last night's briefing was disappointing--only one shot downed--so I'm adding "tremendous", "disappear", and "it is what it is" to the down-one-shot list.

Cheers!

6:31 edit: Okay--"tremendous" will tip you over the edge, bigly! Seventeen shots!!!

NQR

I just learned what this means after reading Elaine's blog, then googling "NQR" (Not Quite Right).

Which brings me to my last...

Buried Treasures

(Trying the New! Improved! Blogger interface. At least it'll load pictures now.)

In the past couple of weeks I've been peeking into hidden corners of forgotten cupboards--organizing, clearing, and finding some surprises.

I've no idea when I bought the X-tra Large Lysol Wipes, but that container was a nice surprise to find under the kitchen sink. Despite suggestions from TIFI, these will be kept outside my body.

The anti-bacterial hand gel had to have been a gift, because there is no way on earth I would buy anything with this cloying combination of scents to put anywhere on my person. Of course, if I did use it, I'd certainly keep my hands as far from my face (nose) as physically possible! I won't, though. I just don't use anti-bacterial things, preferring to let my body build up natural resistances. This will be regifted to a friend stopping by this weekend.

Jesse's Girl

Today as I continued to quilt this Bowtie beauty, it quietly told me who it would belong to (not these rascals).

Wraith has very deliberately kicked the towel out of his way.

Picking up where I left off

For my own well-being, I had to shelve that which kept me obsessed for the past 7 weeks. I have 224 on hand,

denim for 70, and enough elastic for at least 200 more.

If the demand suddenly surges (because TIFI has decided to start wearing one?) and there's a run on what I've got, I'll cut up that denim and get back to work.

So tired

I "tune in" several times a day to NPR (I click the link on my bookmark bar), and each time, lately, I ask myself as I hit the touchpad, "Are we dead yet?"

I'm so tired of living like this. We cannot wait for the 2020 election to take this mad man out of authority, but there is nobody with the balls to do that where it matters.

It's no wonder I drink as I do.

Veterans

My eldest son, who served in the Navy for 10 years, yesterday revealed that he didn't know how to respond to people who say upon hearing of his background, "Thank you for your service."

I am a Veteran, technically, of the Vietnam era. My three years of service in the Women's Army Corps fell within the designated years of that conflict. These days, however, I'm thanked for "my" service based on the dependent's ID card I flash for the 10% discount at Home Depot or Lowe's, or as identification when trying to board an airplane (The Loud is an Army vet with 20 years of service).

Recently I've come up with a reply to the knee-jerk "Thank you for your service" the store clerks are trained to spout upon seeing my card. I look them straight in the eye and say, "You're very welcome, but if you really want to thank me: make sure you vote."

It's surprising how taken aback some are, and I can only hope that it gives them enough of a pause that they can connect the dots between my service and their rights. If they don't bother to exercise them, they've wasted my time.