Cake Stand

I usually celebrate my birthday by doing something I’ve never done before. I’m actually planning NOT to do that this year. These past few months have been so full of unintended novel experiences, there didn’t seem to be any point. Between the second week of March and today, I’ve not seen a single movie inside a movie theater. I haven’t eaten inside a restaurant. I haven’t been inside a school, a doctor’s office, a library, a post office, a church, or even a grocery store in nearly three months. I HAVE made recipes I never thought I’d try. I've attended sacrament meeting in my home. I’ve stitched and donated hundreds of face masks. I’ve even performed while wearing a mask. (That brings challenges I hadn’t considered. You can’t see the keyboard or your hands, and it’s a bit of a handicap.) I will celebrate my birthday, though, with lemon cake, homemade lemon curd, and possibly a barbecue. If the weather cooperates.

On Cloud Nine

What is it about nine-patch blocks? They’re so simple, yet so appealing. These sixteen were intended for a quilt called “Cloud Nine.” It was part of the second installment of Kim Diehl’s Simple Whatnots. I bought the kit years ago, because I adored the nested nine-patch blocks in the center. I wasn’t in love with the bizarre border, but assumed it would eventually grow on me. It never did. Then it dawned on me that sixteen blocks can be a square quilt center, OR they can become a square quilt border. I watched the 1982 movie Tron while I pulled blocks apart and reconfigured them. I knew I wanted them to surround a house quilt block, but didn’t have a pattern for the necessary 17” block. So, I created one. Now that it’s all together on the design wall, I realize I’m no happier with the finished top than I was with Kim Diehl’s original design. Back to square one.

Martha Washington Star

I never knew my in-laws. They both passed away before I met and married their son. I think I would have liked them, and I know they would have adored their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I’m more than a little impressed that they had the nerve to start a family when they did, though both were well past the age when most people marry and have kids, and neither of them had any experience with a happy family life. I knew my mother-in-law played the organ, but that fact didn’t mean much to me until last week, when we ran across some of her old sheet music while cleaning the garage. She used to play More, I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now, In the Good Old Summertime, Far Away Places, When Irish Eyes are Smiling, and many more of the same songs I’ve played in nursing homes and at the hospital.

Welcome Home

When we moved into this house fifteen years ago, there were already two window screens missing. We broke a third by repeatedly removing it to put up and take down Christmas lights. While we lived in England, our tenants kept a large dog (the lease stipulated “no pets”) who actually ATE a window screen. For weeks after moving back in, we’d find poop in the yard with embedded bits of screen. A few weeks ago, we were cleaning the garage and ran across a perfectly good screen that doesn’t fit a single window in our house. (How does that even happen?) I stared at it for a couple of days, then started watching YouTube videos about how to repair broken screens. I didn’t have the right tools, but I pulled apart the mismatched screen and rebuilt it to replace the one the dog ate. Now I’m itching to use my new skill to replace the other missing screens.

Flower Basket

I used to have a glass gallon jar specifically for making sun tea. On warm, cloudless mornings, I’d fill it with cold tap water and eight tea bags. I’m sure you can use black or green, but I’ve always preferred herbal teas like mint, chamomile or hibiscus. Sun tea has a more subtle, delicate flavor than tea made with hot water. I’d cover and place the jar outside, someplace where it was sure to get at least four hours of direct sunlight. I’d check on the jar periodically, between household chores. When the tea reached a deep, satisfying color, I’d remove the bags, add a sweetener, and place the jar in the fridge. Most of the time I used a little cane sugar, as I dislike artificial sweeteners and honey settles to the bottom of the jar. Once it was chilled, there would be enough iced tea to last me two or three days at least.

Sixteen Nested Nine-Patches

“Mortality always brings challenges, but time after time I have seen that those who strive to obey the commandments are blessed to find their way forward with peace and hope. Those blessings are available to everyone. David declared, ‘Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.’ Wherever you live, whatever your house looks like, and whatever the composition of your family, you can help build the finest home for your family. The restored gospel of Jesus Christ provides the plans for that home. The Savior is the perfect engineer, builder, and interior designer. His project is the perfection and eternal joy of our souls. With His loving help, your soul can be all He wants it to be and you can be the finest version of yourself, prepared to establish and live in a ‘finest home.’ The restored gospel of Jesus Christ is the perfect blueprint for establishing finest homes.” - Elder L. Whitney Clayton

May Day Basket

There’s a write-and-wipe calendar in our kitchen to keep track of important events. When everything hit the fan in early March, the calendar got wiped clean: no more movie nights, no more library visits, no more plays, no more orchestra rehearsals. Heather would check the calendar every morning and become more and more upset at its sorry state. I actually considered hiding the calendar away until life gets back to “normal.” Instead, I started writing  down other events. Among the coming attractions are Escargot Day, Memorial Day, National Hamburger Day, Water a Flower Day, Macaroon Day, and my birthday. There won’t be parades or candles on a cake, but we’ll be displaying our flag, watering geraniums, grilling ground beef and eating coconut cookies. There may even be snails, if we feel especially adventurous. If the past few months have taught me anything, it’s this: we all need something to look forward to.

Nine Nested Nine-Patches

“I meet people all over the world, and one thing I have noticed is that the people who are in distress and the people who have something to give are often the same people. There is no nirvana when our problems finally end and we can finally help others with theirs. I have a front row seat to witness the impact of life-saving food, clothing, and labor donated by members of the Church in an emergency, but if you ask me what I have seen that accomplishes the most lasting good, it is you. You are the gift. You yourself are the gift. It is not the clothing, the hygiene kits, the school desks, or the wells. It is you. And you don’t have to be in a perfect state yourself to be doing it.” – Sharon Eubank

Joy's House

“Hearts may break, but hearts are the toughest of muscles, able to pump for a lifetime, seventy times a minute, and scarcely falter along the way. Even dreams, the most delicate and intangible of things, can prove remarkably difficult to kill. Stories, like people and butterflies and songbirds' eggs and human hearts and dreams, are also fragile things, made up of nothing stronger or more lasting than twenty-six letters and a handful of punctuation marks. Or they are words on the air, composed of sounds and ideas - abstract, invisible, gone once they've been spoken. And what could be more frail than that? But some stories, small, simple ones about setting out on adventures or people doing wonders, tales of miracles and monsters, have outlasted all the people who told them, and some of them have outlasted the lands in which they were created.” – Neil Gaiman

Four Nested Nine-Patches

It’s getting a little too warm to enjoy my oven, so I’m not baking nearly as much as I was last month. Instead, I’m using the bread machine (it doesn’t heat the kitchen as much), microwave, slow cooker, instant pot and outdoor grill. But the appliance that really shines as the weather warms up is my ice cream maker. Last week we churned out a new family favorite:

Sour Cream Strawberry Ice Cream

2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped

1 cup sour cream (not low fat)

 1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

Run ingredients through blender until smooth. Freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions. Serve “soft” right away, or ripen in freezer 4 hours. This recipe may be doubled. You’ve probably made strawberry ice cream before, but trust me: the sour cream and pinch of salt are game changers.

Crossroads

Nearly two centuries ago, the Choctaw nation heard about Irish families suffering during the potato famine, and they wanted to help. It wasn’t long after the Choctaw had been the first tribe to be forcibly relocated in the “Trail of Tears” Indian Removal Act, but somehow, they scraped together and sent $170 (That would be just under $6,000 in today’s money). It’s not a story you’d hear in an American history class, but it’s one the Irish know. In fact, there’s a piece of public art in Middleton, Ireland – a cluster of larger-than-life eagle feathers stretching toward heaven called “Kindred Spirits” – to commemorate their generous sacrifice. Today, the whole world is reeling from the impact of COVID-19. But certain Native American tribes have been particularly hard hit. Millions of dollars have been raised in the past few weeks to help supply clean water, food and medical supplies to the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Reservation, most of it coming from Ireland.

Nested Nine-Patch

“These words of Anselm are thus such good counsel: ‘Believe in order to understand,’ rather than “understand in order to believe.” Brothers and sisters, though living in a time of commotion, we can stand in holy places and not be moved. Though living in a time of violence, we can have that inner peace that passeth understanding. Perplexing things will still happen, but, like Nephi, we can still know that God loves us, a felicitous and fundamental fact which can and will sustain us through so much! How can we know that God is aware of us and loves us? He tells us by the scriptures—likewise, by our honestly counting the blessings and bestowals of His grace in our lives. Most of all, He tells us by the still, small voice of the Spirit!” – Neal A. Maxwell

Dream

This isn’t the disaster I spent my life preparing for. I know first aid. I keep cash on hand in case of emergencies. I learned to make fire without matches. If I were lost, I’d follow water downhill, because that’s usually where civilization is. What I should have learned was Zoom. And how to cut hair. I have food storage: honey, oats, wheat, etc. If the past two months have taught me anything, it’s that my family doesn’t want any of the food I’ve stored. We like fresh eggs and dairy. We go through lots of citrus fruit and greens. None of that keeps very long. I’ve always stored pasta, but I’ve clearly never stored enough. Who could have predicted there’d be a run on toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, soap, sanitizer, baby wipes, disinfectants, and distilled water? I can stock up on that now, of course. But what I want to know is: what’ll I need next?

Another Courthouse

I made three large quilts with the blocks from the 2018-2019 Quilt Etc. Great American Read block-of-the-month class: one for Festival of Trees, one for the hospital quilters, and one for my niece. The leftover scraps from those quilts were long, thin pieces, less than two inches wide. I made 6” pineapple blocks with the Christmas-colored scraps. You can’t go wrong with pineapple blocks, and they show off red and green particularly well. With the Fig Tree scraps, I made 6” courthouse step blocks, for no other reason than I’d never done it before. But the more blocks I made, the less I liked them. They were busy, pointless noise, like my scrap bag vomited on the design wall. They seemed to be destined for the “what was I thinking” pile. But then I thought of using negative blocks as intermediaries, with white centers instead of black. The result is this odd phantom checkerboard effect, which makes me quite happy.

Interstellar

The sewing room closet is still not completely cleaned, but I’m enjoying the process. I must have bought the kit for this table topper at least two or three years ago. The fabric is from a line called Katie's Cupboard by Kim Diehl for Henry Glass Fabrics. It debuted in 2017 and has been out of print for ages. The quilt pattern called for three nearly equal borders with non-mitre corners and a finished size of 16.75” square. I thought that looked a little clumsy, so I fashioned two half-inch inner borders and one 3 1/2-inch outer border with mitred corners. I used every bit of the teal print, so the finished top is 20” square. I don’t know if the change has made it more elegant, but it’s definitely more ME. I can’t expect to find more of the same prints to use for the back and binding, but Kim Diehl’s current line, Esther’s Heirloom, does contain a lot of coordinating colors.

Courthouse Steps Top

For years I’ve wished I could surprise our British friends Dick and Moira with some sweets from Bettys. We knew them when we walked our schnauzers together along Wetherby Road. They lived at the end of a narrow close near Hookstone Wood. I can’t surprise them, because I don’t know their exact address or if they still live there. Or even their last names. In April, Marten Wedebrand sent a care package from Sweden to his friend David Easson. He didn’t know David’s address either. So, he wrote, “David Easson, somewhere in Sheffield, England.” Then he added everything he knew about his friend: that he attended Olympics, not as an athlete, but as a reporter. David had “a child, a dog, or both.” And, “I think his wife’s name is Helen.” Over 500,000 people call Sheffield home. But somehow Darrell Gilmour of the Royal Mail, Sheffield Centre, tracked David down. What was in the package? Chocolate, of course.

Four Winged Four-Patch Blocks

Times like this can shine a light as hardship often can

To see the best in people and the good there is in man.

And I’ll remember Swansea with nobody about,

When the shops were closed like Sunday and just the tide went out.

And I’ll remember Mumbles with the harbour in its keep

And the little boats at anchor that fish the waters deep.

I heard the sea birds calling as the gulls all wheeled about,

But all the town was sleeping now. And just the tide went out.

And when all this is over and our fragile world survives,

I hope that God is caring now for the ones who gave their lives.

I pray we’ll find an answer, for my faith is cast in doubt.

That God draws back the heavens and all the stars come out.

And I’ll remember mornings with nobody about,

When the shops were closed like Sunday, and just the tide went out.
- Max Boyce

Peony Dance

“Becoming more in tune with the divine pattern of working together in unity is critical in this day of ‘me first’ messages that surround us. Today, we need women who have the courage and vision of our Mother Eve to unite with their brethren in bringing souls unto Christ. Men need to become true partners rather than assume they are solely responsible or act as ‘pretend’ partners while women carry out much of the work. Women need to be willing to step forward and take their rightful and needful place as partners rather than thinking they need to do it all by themselves or wait to be told what to do. Seeing women as vital participants is not about creating parity but about understanding doctrinal truth. Rather than establishing a program to bring that about, we can actively work to value women as God does: as essential partners in the work of salvation and exaltation.” – Jean B. Bingham

4" Winged Four-Patch

Jay Leno had his 70th birthday at the end of last month. He retired from twenty years of hosting The Tonight Show in 2014, and since then he’s been enjoying – and sharing – his amazing classic car collection. (He owns a 1934 Rolls-Royce with a V-12 engine from a WWII Fighter Plane. Even I think that’s pretty darn cool.) But lately, the stuff going on in his garage has been even more interesting, and a bit less egocentric. Jay Leno owns a couple of 3-D printers, and they’ve been working pretty much around the clock to churn out personal protection equipment; specifically, clear plastic face shields. “At the end of the week, we give them to the fire department. They hand them out to other first responders and hospital workers,” Leno says. “And it’s fun,” he adds. “It’s great to feel like you are part of something and sort of helping out."

Starry-Eyed

Emilie Talermo left her Australian shepherd Jackson tied up outside a San Francisco grocery while she shopped. When she was done, Jackson had disappeared. Emilie reported the theft to the San Francisco police department. She set up a website to offer a $7,000 reward for Jackson’s return, no questions asked. She even hired a plane to fly over San Francisco and nearby Oakland with a banner advertising the website. Friends and neighbors distributed thousands of flyers with Jackson’s photo and sent emails to veterinarians across the country asking them to keep a lookout. That was the middle of December. Four months passed, and there was still no sign of her stolen dog. Then Emilie got a call from a shelter in Palmdale, 370 miles away. Someone had dropped off a dog with a microchip that led to her number. Emilie wasn’t able to get to Palmdale to pick Jackson up, so the detective who’d been assigned her case volunteered.

Forty-Nine Courthouse Steps

Lucy Pevensie from “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was named for C. S. Lewis’ godchild Lucy Barfield.  At the end of her life, rendered unable to move or speak by multiple sclerosis, the real Lucy enjoyed listening to the Narnia books as her younger brother Geoffrey read aloud. The first book is dedicated to her: “Lucy Barfield, I wrote this story for you, but when I began it, I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result, you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be your affectionate Godfather, C. S. Lewis.”

Scrumpdilliumphuss

Have you ever sent a kid to clean his room, and found – hours later – that he’d rediscovered some long-forgotten toy and spent the whole time playing with it instead of cleaning? Maybe this phenomenon isn’t just reserved for kids. I was going through the detritus in my sewing room closet, and stumbled across this wall hanging pattern. How long had it been sitting there, waiting to be noticed? If it didn’t say, “Quilt Etc.” on the back, I’d have no idea where it came from. The pattern almost got tossed in the bin, but something said, “Give it a chance.” I didn’t follow the pattern exactly. It called for six fat quarters; I used 64 tiny scraps instead. It was so much fun to put this together, I’m already planning another version in 1930’s “Aunt Gracie” prints, and maybe a third using brighter, more contemporary colors. Will the closet ever finish getting cleaned? The outlook is grim.

The Butterfly Effect

When Grandpa kissed Grandma goodbye every morning, he’d say, “I’m off to the salt mines.” I grew up thinking he was a salt miner. But he did road work – snow plows in the winter and road construction in the summer. His garage, barn, tool shed and cellar were full of treasures he’d found by the roadside and brought home to repair. I still own a child’s rocking chair he’d salvaged with baling wire. I didn’t inherit any of Grandpa’s genes (It’s a terrible shame, as he was a tall, thin man) but I did inherit his love for rescuing unloved things. My home has always welcomed stray pets. More recently, I’ve taken to adopting quilt projects that other quilters have found too frustrating, otherwise known as Unfinished Fabric Objects or U.F.O.s. I'm enjoying myself, but I need to take care not to offer to do too many of these. Sadly, like with everyone else, there is a limit to my time and space.

Summer Breeze

“It goes without saying that despite genuine love and sincerity, many, if not most, of our invitations to share the message of the Restoration will be declined. But remember this: everyone is worthy of such an invitation. All are alike unto God. The Lord is pleased with every effort we make, no matter the outcome; a declined invitation is no reason for our association to end; and a lack of interest today may well turn to interest tomorrow. Let us never forget the Restoration has come out of intense ordeal and sacrifice. We rejoice in the fruits of the Restoration, including the power to bind on earth and in heaven. As expressed years ago by President Gordon B. Hinckley, “If nothing else came out of all of the sorrow and travail and pain of the restoration than the sealing power of the holy priesthood to bind together families forever, it would have been worth all that it has cost.” – Elder D. Todd Christofferson

Carrie Nation

Today should have been the 146^th Kentucky Derby, but it isn’t. The race is regularly scheduled to be held on the first Saturday in May, but this year it will happen Saturday, September 5. In its entire history, the derby has never been cancelled, and the only other time it’s been postponed was in 1945, because of World War II. That means the horses ran on Churchill Downs during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918, 1919 and 1920. The first Saturday in May is also Free Comic Book Day – the day when comic book stores hand out specially printed copies of free comic books. Of course, that’s not happening this year, either. Diamond Comic Distributors postponed the event until sometime in late summer, saying, “The severity and timing of the impact of the COVID-19 virus can’t be predicted with any certainty, but the safety of our retail partners and comic book fans is too important to risk.”

Thirty-Six Courthouse Steps

Forsythia is lovely for a week or two each year. The rest of the time, they make you wonder why you planted them. We’ve had three enormous forsythia bushes since we bought this house, hiding an electrical box with a sign saying nothing should be planted within eight feet. We’ve been trying to remove the bushes for years, but they just kept coming back. John was pulling the last of the roots out a few weeks ago, and knocked out our phone and Internet. I’m sure he’d have called the Blue Stakes 811 hotline, if he’d thought of what he was doing as digging. It’s what you do: call BEFORE you dig. Someone in the Denver area last month didn’t think to call either, and accidentally cut through an underground fiber line. The damage caused outages to several customers, including the Colorado 811 website. I must have a twisted sense of humor, because I’m still giggling about this one. Sue me.