Diamond House

During our first visit to the Magic Kingdom in 2005, we rode the Walt Disney World Train and got off at Mickey’s Toon Town Fair. The whole area was basically a cartoon character meet and greet, full of small children who clearly wanted to be someplace else. We never even stepped off the platform. We got back on the next train and didn’t look back. The Fair is gone now, to make way for the Fantasyland expansion. Some of our favorite rides are in Fantasyland: Peter Pan’s Flight, Winnie the Pooh, It’s a Small World, Little Mermaid and the Mad Tea Party. But the attraction we’re most excited about is the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We’ve seen videos of the new ride on YouTube. It looks a bit like one of our favorite rides from Disneyland, the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but with dwarfs and diamonds.

First Kiss

"I know it is hard for you young mothers to believe that almost before you can turn around the children will be gone and you will be alone with your husband. You had better be sure you are developing the kind of love and friendship that will be delightful and enduring. Let the children learn from your attitude that he is important. Encourage him. Be kind. It is a rough world, and he, like everyone else, is fighting to survive. Be cheerful. Don't be a whiner." – Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Love at Home

My husband and I never saw ourselves as hot tub owners. We certainly never would have bought one. (Do you know how many Disneyland trips you can take for the price of a Jacuzzi?) But the people who built the house we now own did. In fact, they installed a hot tub nineteen years ago in the basement before there was a ground floor. If it ever completely fails, we’ll have to remove it a piece at a time, with a chainsaw. No one is more surprised than we are that we use it almost every day. In the winter it helps to add warmth and humidity to the house. In the summer we turn the heat down some, but we still take time to enjoy a good soak. It’s the perfect remedy for sleeplessness, achy joints, clogged sinuses, miserable weather or a case of the flu. How did we live without one for so long?

Laurel Wreath Variation

Quilts Etc. chose this block to represent Madeleine Albright, our first female secretary of state. Madeleine and I are almost exactly the same height. We don’t always see eye to eye, but on several points we agree completely: “We should use our opinions to start discussions, not to end them.” “Women can’t do everything at the same time. We need to understand milestones in our lives come in segments.” “I do not believe that things happen accidentally; I believe you earn them.” “Women have to be active listeners and interrupters, but when you interrupt you have to know what you’re talking about.” “There’s a significant moral difference between a person who commits a violent crime and a person who tries to cross a border illegally in order to put food on the table. Such migrants may violate our laws against illicit entry, but they are trespassers, not criminals. They deserve to have their dignity respected.”

Mailbox House

Chip and Joanna Gaines of the show Fixer Upper were the subjects of a BuzzFeed article last year that depicted them as bigots because they’re church members. Their response: “If there’s any hope for all of us to move forward, to heal and to grow – we’ve got to learn to engage people who are different from us with dignity and with love. Joanna and I have personal convictions. One of them is this: we care about you for the simple fact that you’re a person, our neighbor on planet earth. It’s not about what color your skin is, how much money you have in the bank, your political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender, nationality or faith. That’s all fascinating, but it cannot add or take away from the reality that we’re already pulling for you. We are not about to get in the nasty business of throwing stones at each other. Don’t ask us to because we won’t play that way.”

Whirlaround

I suffered from a serious case of déjà vu while I was piecing today’s block. Quilts Etc. named it Sandra Day O’Connor, after the first woman to be appointed to the US Supreme Court. But I found a nearly identical block in Maggie Malone’s 5,500 Quilt Block Designs, carrying the name Whirlaround. The Quilts Etc. pattern involved lots of covered corners to tackle the diagonal seams. But Maggie Malone’s drawing was a little cleaner, using eight Y-seams instead. I opted for Maggie’s method, hoping to waste less fabric and to end up with a smoother, more elegant finished product. After I completed today’s block I finally remembered why it felt so familiar. Kathryn Kerr’s 365 Challenge block from October 14 (You can see it here: http://mombowe.blogspot.com/2016/10/bachelors-puzzle.html) is almost a carbon copy.