Round the Corner

“My dear brothers and sisters, if we look at ourselves only through our mortal eyes, we may not see ourselves as good enough. But our Heavenly Father sees us as who we truly are and who we can become. He sees us as His sons and daughters, as beings of eternal light with everlasting potential and with a divine destiny. The Savior’s sacrifice opened the door of salvation for all to return to God. His grace is sufficient for all who humble themselves before God. His grace is the enabling power that allows access into God’s kingdoms of salvation. Because of His grace, we will all be resurrected and saved in a kingdom of glory. Even the lowest kingdom of glory, the telestial kingdom, surpasses all understanding, and numberless people will inherit this salvation.” – President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Night Vision

We turned our clocks back six days ago today. It will probably be another week before I’m accustomed to the change. I’m still waking a full hour earlier than I mean to (and as I’m already an early riser, you can imagine how ridiculous that is). I’m hungry long before mealtimes. An hour before bedtime I’m dragging around, trying to force myself not to fall asleep before the clock says I can. I’ve read that in ancient times people reckoned time strictly by the sun. Each day and night lasted twelve hours, but in summer daylight hours were longer and nighttime hours were shorter. In winter the unequal hours reversed. I find that idea very appealing. I like to rise at dawn and get most of my work done before the sun is at its zenith. And what a delight to snuggle under a quilt with a good book at sunset!

Harvest Stars Quilt

Andrew Lumish is a self-employed carpet cleaner who works six days a week. Sundays you’ll find him visiting cemeteries near Land O’Lakes, Florida. Andrew likes to honor veterans and their families by cleaning grave markers. He’s a history buff who seeks out those who fought in the Vietnam War, the Korean War, both World Wars, the Spanish-American War, and the Civil War. He often finds their stones are so dirty the inscriptions can’t be read. He uses a soft-bristled nylon brush, a bucket of water and a Ph neutral cleanser that won’t damage limestone, slate, marble or granite. “It's something that I feel I should do to give them the proper respect for fighting for our country,” he says. “They may not have any family still living.” He doesn’t ask permission, but he’s never been chased away. “I may be trespassing, but it's a good kind of trespassing.  I'll take that all day.”

Lewis and Clark

The English don’t do Halloween – at least not the way Americans do. They don’t adorn their houses with fake blood and gore so that the ACLU has to ask them to desist, or so that people mistake real murder victims for holiday decorations. You do occasionally see the English in fancy dress, but they’re not trick-or-treating. They’re UNI students on a pub crawl. The British celebrate Bonfire Night instead. There will be music, fireworks and huge fires tonight to commemorate the day Guy Fawkes almost blew up the British Houses of Parliament. Fawkes and his co-conspirators were Catholics forbidden from practicing their religion by Protestant King James I. So the bonfires are either to celebrate religious freedom or the prevention of mass murder. I’m not sure even the Brits could tell you which, though more than a few were able to recite the beginning of the poem, “Remember, remember the fifth of November…”

My Own Home

I enjoyed the first set of quilts in Kim Diehl’s Simple Whatnots collection. I loved how the tiny prints in the Henry Glass Farmhouse line lent themselves to miniature table toppers and wall hangings. But I’m not so enthusiastic about the third group of Simple Whatnots. Many prints in the Gathering Basket line are much larger. So far I’m just not finding the quilt patterns quite as charming. “Home Again,” didn’t suit my tastes at all. So I pulled out my graph paper notebook and went to work. I increased the size of the houses from five to six inches. The stars grew from five inches to eight. I designed a more coherent border and tossed all but one of the background fabrics. The kaleidoscope, broken dishes, checkerboards and curved blocks came from “Simply Dynamic Sampler Quilts” by Marianne Hatton. My 14x19” wall hanging kit grew to a 36x52” lap quilt. One I can live with.

Tea Party

Today’s Election Day. I hope you’ve carefully considered your choices and set aside the time to go to the polls. I voted by mail a while back, but now I have another decision to make. I’ve finished twenty 12” blocks using the Graceful Moments fabric collection from Maywood Studios. I'll soon have enough for a queen-size quilt. It's time to select a setting for the blocks. I’m considering a variation on one of the themes from http://www.patchworkparty.com/gallery.asp . The Neapolitan Swirl from Everything Quilts is just stunning. I like the 9-patch posts and triple sashing from The Quilt Asylum and the ribbon border from Inspired to Sew. I promised to make a new quilt for Heather’s bed three years ago, but she hasn’t liked any of the dozen or more tops I’ve completed in that time. Maybe I should show her the finishing gallery and let her choose.

Five Inch Harvest Star

Because we are accountable and we make the choices, the redemption from our own sins is conditional; conditioned on confessing and abandoning sin and turning to a godly life, or in other words, conditioned on repentance. “Wherefore,” commands the Lord, “teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence” (Moses 6:57). The Savior’s suffering in Gethsemane and His agony on the cross redeem us from sin by satisfying the demands that justice has upon us. He extends mercy and pardons those who repent. The Atonement also satisfies the debt justice owes to us by healing and compensating us for any suffering we innocently endure. “For behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam” (2 Nephi 9:21). – D. Todd Christofferson