Foot Stool

“As you center your home on the Savior, it will naturally become a refuge not only to your own family but also to friends who live in more difficult circumstances. They will be drawn to the serenity they feel there. Welcome such friends into your home. They will blossom in that Christ-centered environment. Become friends with your children’s friends. Be a worthy example to them. One of the greatest blessings we can offer to the world is the power of a Christ-centered home where the gospel is taught, covenants are kept, and love abounds.” – Richard G. Scott

Nine Chimney Sweeps

2015 must have been a good year for butternut squash. I didn’t plant any this year, but I’ve received several from family and friends. In addition, a few butternuts have shown up in my weekly veg box. The easiest way to cook this (or any other) squash is to scrub it, poke it with a fork and stick it in the slow cooker. After a few hours you pull it out, cut it in half, remove the seeds and scoop the pulp into a bowl. Add butter, salt and pepper and you’re in business. Last Sunday my big Crock-pot was busy making pot roast, so I peeled and cubed two raw butternuts to fit my smaller cooker. Afterwards my hands were raw, red and peeling. I’d completely forgotten that very fresh squash eats skin. If I’d let them age a few months I would have been fine. I must remember to use plastic gloves the next time I try this.

Honey's Choice

The state was flooded with immigrants – mostly women and children – and residents were afraid. The newcomers had different beliefs and traditions, and locals feared for their lives and their way of life. The governor issued the order: the encroachers must leave the state by March 8 or be killed. Although we’re a nation of immigrants who say we value the freedom to worship as we choose, appeals to federal government fell on deaf ears. It sounds like a story from today’s news, but it was 177 years ago. More than 7,000 Latter-day Saints fled their Missouri homes that winter with nowhere to go. Most ended up in Quincy, Illinois, (population 1,500) that responded with food, clothing, shelter, medical care and employment. “They were robbed of their all and have been compelled to hurry out of the state. If they have been thrown upon our shores destitute, common humanity must oblige us to aid and relieve them all in our power.”

Provence, Hand Quilted!

“Long in silence they watched the receding sail of the vessel,

Much endeared to them all, as something living and human;

Then, as if filled with the spirit, and wrapt in a vision prophetic,

Baring his hoary head, the excellent Elder of Plymouth

Said, "Let us pray!" and they prayed, and thanked the Lord and took courage.

Mournfully sobbed the waves at the base of the rock, and above them

Bowed and whispered the wheat on the hill of death, and their kindred

Seemed to awake in their graves, and to join in the prayer that they uttered.

Sun-illumined and white, on the eastern verge of the ocean

Gleamed the departing sail, like a marble slab in a graveyard;

Buried beneath it lay forever all hope of escaping.” 

– from The Courtship of Miles Standish by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Pint-Size Quilt

The big day is only a month away – it’s time for a Christmas bucket list! I usually write, “Attend a Christmas play, recital or concert.” But as I’m staging all three this year, I’ll skip that. Instead:

Make a “Christmas Countdown” paper chain.

Bake and decorate Christmas cookies with (and for) grandchildren.

Write and mail a Christmas letter.

Give everyone on the street paper sacks, sand and votives to make luminarias.

Decorate a tree while listening to Christmas music.

Cut and hang paper snowflakes (maybe try the Star Wars ones).

Watch a favorite Christmas movie (or maybe two or three) with popcorn.

Go caroling with family and friends.

Enjoy a nice blaze in the fireplace with a mug of hot cocoa.

Hang some mistletoe; then use it.

Read the story of the first Christmas from the Book of Luke.

Sleep in new pajamas Christmas Eve. Maybe wear them the whole next day!

Four Chimney Sweeps

When we lived in Yorkshire there were signs all over warning of steep fines for allowing dogs to “foul public areas.” I’ve read about Brits fined £100 on the spot who were caught walking pooches without poop bags. £100 is a lot of money; enough to make you careful to clean up after your canine. I don’t see signs like that here, and I’m pretty sure local police don’t stop dog walkers and demand to see their waste disposal bags. Sometimes, though, I find myself wishing we did more to make dog owners more conscientious. Jacoba Ewing, an apartment manager north of Ogden, has found an interesting solution. She gave all the dogs in her complex DNA tests. Now whenever a steaming pile turns up, she mails a sample off so the culprit can be identified and the owner charged. Clever, but I do think the British method was simpler.

Sixteen Framed Nine-Patches

“My mother taught us when we were very young that we must never ridicule the unfortunate. My mother worked in the fields from a very early age. One day some teenagers were picking fruit. One of the girls laughingly mimicked one who suffered from cerebral palsy. They all laughed as she threw herself into a stumbling walk. Suddenly she fell as if struck down. Presently she recovered, but there was no more fun at the expense of the handicapped. Mother never forgot what she saw, nor to teach a lesson from it. Parents, caution your family never to amuse themselves at the expense of the handicapped or of any whose face or form or personality does not fit the supposed ideal or whose skin is too light or too dark to suit their fancy. Teach them that they, in their own way, should become like angels who ‘move the water,’ healing a spirit by erasing loneliness, embarrassment, or rejection.” – Boyd K. Packer

Chimney Sweep

I love fabric in precut packages; even their names are delightful. 5x5” squares are called charm packs, and 10x10” are layer cakes. Rolled-up 2 1/2x44” strips are jelly rolls. Then there are mini-charms that are 2 1/2” square and jolly bars that are 5x10”. Precuts are fun to buy, but when I get them home I often have no idea what I’ll make with them. They lie around for months before inspiration strikes. Maybe that’s why I’m so excited about Moda’s new Frivols. There are a dozen of them, to be released once a month. Each is a lovely little tin with a window on top. Inside are a pack of 42 7” squares of fabric from a single line, a quilt pattern to use them, and a separate block pattern to make a sampler quilt after you’ve collected all twelve tins. Today’s photo is the first block from the first kit, which will make a 42x42” quilt, if I follow the directions, of course.

Nine Framed Nine-Patch Blocks

You don’t have to look far to find ugly, hateful, or mean on the Internet. In fact, it’s a daily struggle to find anything that doesn’t make you want to close your laptop and open something by A.A. Milne or Beatrix Potter. I want this blog to be a kind of refuge. I don’t write about things that hit the front page; at least not directly. People who use terrible acts to gain attention to their cause achieve their goal no matter what the media says about them. They know there’s no such thing as bad press. Of the events occurring in Paris last week, only one story should be circulated: three terrorists DIDN’T hit their intended target. They planned to detonate explosive vests inside the crowded Stade de France, causing a deadly stampede. When the first was turned away at the gate they detonated outside the stadium, causing one civilian death instead of dozens. The guard who averted disaster was a Muslim.

Rub-a-Dub-Dub

I studied this block before I began to cut the fabric. I determined that all the sixteen interior spots where corners met could be swirl-pressed (thus avoiding nasty lumps of fabric) if I ironed all the seams in the proper directions. Eight of the half-square triangles had to be pressed toward the dark side, and the remaining four pressed toward the light. I could see all four quarter-square triangles had to be pressed clockwise. That meant I couldn’t use the Eleanor Burns Quilt-in-a-Day method, which results in two clockwise sub-blocks and two running counterclockwise. I was so hyper-focused on getting all those pesky little corners to come out right, I couldn’t see the big picture until I finished the whole block and stopped to take this scary photo:

Four Framed Nine-Patch Blocks

I like roast turkey with sage dressing and cranberry sauce (at least until the third day of leftovers), but the part of Thanksgiving dinner I look forward to most has always been the slice of pastry that comes afterward. I’ve been charged with supplying dessert for the big day, and I want to bring two or three different pies. The question is: which ones? Apple is and always has been the hands-down favorite. But the rest look like a list of republican presidential candidates: a lot of variety without a clear front runner. I think the second pie should be pumpkin. It is, after all, the season of all things pumpkin spice. If I make a third pie, what should it be? Chocolate or banana cream? Strawberry rhubarb or coconut custard? Blueberry or cherry? Mincemeat or lemon meringue? My personal favorite’s pecan, but I suspect I’d end up eating it by myself. Hang on. Maybe that’s not such a bad idea after all.

Diddle Diddle Dumpling

Dogs in Europe are different from dogs in the US. They’re more likely to be insured, they’re more welcome in shops and restaurants, and they’re less likely to become strays. Specific breeds are remarkably different from their counterparts across the pond. Yorkies in Yorkshire, for example, are bigger and less neurotic than the ones I’ve met here. British Labradors are smaller, slimmer, calmer and more relaxed than Labs in the States. They don’t gnaw on furniture, and they’re not driven to escape like American Labs. I pictured the British variety when I read the adventures of a young Lab called Noodle. Noodle was on a ferry in the Tyrrhenian Sea when he slipped his collar and went overboard October 24. The pasta-colored pup doggy-paddled for hours before being rescued by members of a yacht club off the coast of Naples. Noodle was then warmed with a blow-dryer and returned to his happy owner.

4" Framed Nine-Patch

“Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, he had ‘never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.’ This is a hard doctrine, but it is a particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. We see an effort made to establish irreligion as the state religion. It is actually a new form of paganism which uses the carefully preserved and cultivated freedoms of western civilization to shrink freedom, even as it rejects the value essence of our rich Judeo-Christian heritage.” – Neal A. Maxwell

Eastern Star

Today we’ve been home from Disneyland a fortnight. We went with all our kids and grandkids; a feat we’ve never attempted before and are unlikely to repeat in the near future. It was wonderful to share our favorite rides, shows and cartoon characters with the newest family members. Now we’re back, though, all I can think of was what didn’t happen. Heather and I made it onto Star Tours only to be escorted out because someone lost their lunch. After serious research we discovered you can buy Matterhorn Macaroons on Main Street USA, but we inadvertently left the park without sampling them. Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes are never listed as “closed for refurbishment,” but somehow they’re never running, either. We checked most of the rides off our “to do” list, but missed two rollercoasters, two carousels and a Ferris wheel. There can be only one solution to this dilemma: it’s time to plan our next Disney trip.

Mrs. Keller's Nine-Patch

October 17 Officer Justin Gower pulled over a crew-cab truck in Cedar, Texas for having an expired registration and a bad light. When he approached the vehicle he noticed three young girls in the back without car seats. Gower hadn’t met their father before, but he realized he’d heard about him from a fellow officer. He called in Officer Cale Hawkins, who had encountered the family a few weeks earlier. “They were living in a hotel and all their money was going there,” said Hawkins.

“Giving him three tickets wasn't going to do any good,” said Gower. So Gower and Hawkins pooled their money and bought pink age-appropriate car seats for the one, three and four-year-old girls. Then the officers helped install them.

The recipient of their generosity asked for anonymity, but did say this, “It was nothing short of a miracle. It was something that was really needed. The officers have been a blessing.”

Twin Star Puzzle

How much do you remember about being five? I remember picture books and songs I loved, the rug I napped on in kindergarten, and my teacher’s polka-dot dress. I don’t believe any of my earliest memories involve a single specific event. They’re clearly repeated patterns; things that happened over and over. This fall Cleveland high school senior Julian Hernandez was filling college applications when he ran into a snag: there was a problem with his social security number. Julian and his high school guidance counselor investigated the matter and discovered that Julian has been on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children database since 2002. Julian was kidnapped by his father in Alabama thirteen years ago. He is currently being held on charges related to the kidnapping and records tampering. A police spokesman reports Julian’s mother is ecstatic that he’s finally been found. “That’s the reason why you never give up,” he says, “You keep looking.”

3x6" Flag

Last month I read about Chestnut Place, a condo community in Murray. Their HOA board decided the Stars and Stripes were holiday decorations and should be removed within ten days of the holiday. Residents with flags up in late September were slapped with a $75 fine, and they’re upset. They need to remember two things: One, there are LOTS of holidays when flying the American flag is appropriate, including (but not limited to) New Year's, Inauguration Day, Martin Luther King's Birthday, Lincoln's Birthday, Washington's Birthday, Easter (yes, Easter), Patriots Day, National Prayer Day, Mother's Day, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Constitution Day, Columbus Day, Navy Day, Veterans Day (get that flag out now, before you forget), Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Election Day. Add the other 42 US presidents’ birthdays, and they should never have to strike their colors. Two, their HOA board was voted in, and can easily be voted out.