Yesterday

This project is finally finished, and to be honest, I am sorry to be wrapping it up.

The wind and the sun added such character to this picture!

If you are a regular blog reader, you already know that this quilt was inspired by the pattern "Madness"  written by Kathy Doughty of Material Obsession. But what other inspirations did I bring to the process.

Color: inspired by a wedding quilt I made last year for friends.
Fabric: the scrap basket.
Size: I ran out of orange and pink scraps.
Yesterday: this began as nothing more that happenstance. The first two blocks I made are the two in the top left corner. I had been imagining a zigzag row, but after I put the two blocks together I could only see the letter Y. So, being an improv quilt and all, I decided to go with it and I stitched together the big Y.
Also of coincidence, I had started this quilt just a few days before my birthday, and I had been spending a lot of time strolling down memory lane. Those 2 things just kind of blended together and the Y became Yesterday which, in turn, became the focus of the quilt. Finally, I took the time to write out a little list of all the things that had been on my mind so that I could use it as part of the label. In part it reads:

YESTERDAY...
…I was only 40.
...the big challenge of the day was getting 2 babies to nap at the SAME time.
…we lived in a teeny tiny apartment with a lot of doors.
…I had never made a quilt.
...I held my brother’s hand as he died.
…I had a red, white and blue bike with a banana seat and streamers.
…I was 18 and mad at the world (and my mom).
…my little girls couldn’t cross the street without a hand to hold.
…we made payments on my first $100 sewing machine.
…my mom grew tulips in our front yard.
…we would ride our bikes to the park and watch the train go by.
...I had no gray hair.
…we had unauthorized picnics on Sundays afternoons in the backyard while waiting for escrow to close on our new house.
…we drove all the way to Alaska.
…I was a college student.
…I thought I was not artistic.
…I had uterine cancer.
…we hiked Half Dome and Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park
.…I started a business.
…I joined my first friendship circle.
…I was afraid of the dark.
…I drove a blue-green Chevy Suburban with barn doors and V8 power.
…I attended my first International Quilt Market.
…we visited NYC for the first time, and saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.
…I married my friend.

A little ordinary mixed in with the extraordinary, a little good and a little bad, a little heartache and a little joy, a little adventure and a little ho-hum... a life well lived and now marked out in quilted beauty.

Inspired by Martha

You know how sometimes you get a magazine in the mail and it's a dud? Nothing inside the cover that speaks to you? Always a bummer.

Or how about those times when you get a magazine in the mail and it has a few lovely little things that you can't wait to try? Always a plus!

But how about those rare times you get a magazine in the mail and it appears to have been hand written JUST FOR YOU? That just happened to me. It was this one...

And I will probably NEVER let it go.
What's so great about this "To Rana, Love Martha" issue?

Well how about this great collection of magnifying glasses:

All things apples:

I am pretty sure this laundry basket would make doing the laundry less of a chore:

Pretty no-carve pumpkins:

FABULOUS popcorn on the cob:

I am hoping this salad will turn my guy into a broccoli lover (instead of the hateful hater that he is):

And speaking of good food, how about roasted carrots with chimichurri:

Or escarole and bean soup:

Chicken Chile Stew:

For the nature lover in me, there is this "virtually fool-proof" watercolor inspiration:

A branch for the coat closet...brilliant!

How about a fabulous gray kitchen (and I don't even like gray!)

Kitschy light bulbs:

Organized drawers:

Pumpkins to greet your guests (and yourself):

And last but not least, this great firewood containment system:

Now, in an effort to be a doer and not just an admirer...

I have assembled some watercolor supplies (I even have a few leaf tracings inside):

I picked up my first magnifying glass:

I have apples just waiting to be cooked up:

I have friends in mind to invite over for chicken chile stew (Theresa and Laura, this means you!).

I have also broached the subject of a gray kitchen and a branch for the closet with my guy. It seems that at this point in time these things are completely "impossible"....and I may have heard him utter the words "stupid Martha Stewart"...which I take to mean I should hide this treasured issue before it mysteriously disappears...maybe I should start a Pinterest board too, just in case...

All of these images, of course, are from the October 2014 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Aging is Bad

Last year, I was having a couple of health issues that caused me to go in and see my favorite doctor. A few weeks later I was in the hospital having surgery.
It was a giant bummer.

Earlier this summer I started having a little trouble with a couple of my teeth.
I went in to see my favorite dentist. And over the course of the next few weeks I had to have some extensive work done that included complications that landed me in both the oral surgeon's office and the periodontist's office.
It was a giant bummer.

And if all of that is not bad enough, I feel like my vision is slipping.
Go see the eye doctor??
No way. So far these visits have not really gone well.
I have been putting it off and putting it off....
Then today I am driving in the car with my guy and I realize that he can see better than I can.
Well, that did it. I walked right in to Costco (home of the world's best optometrists) and asked if they could fit me in. Yes, they could, and a few nervous and dreadful hours later I was being seen by a nice doctor who told me that my diagnosis was "the bad bad B word".
Oh gosh.
And then he just sat there quietly, looking at me and waiting for me to pronounce the "B word".
I was starting to feel a big-fat-freak-out coming on, but I was able to hold it together long enough to utter the word..."Blind?".

"No! Bifocals. That is the problem with patients like you. You have 20/20 vision your whole life, and then when things start to get a little soft around the edges you think you can't see anymore...." blah blah blah. He had lots more to say on the matter, but none of it was bad. No blindness. No surgery. No specialists. Just bifocals. I can live with that.
Giant bummer avoided!

So, the next time you see me I will be sportin' a nice new pair of glasses (over my perfectly not blind eyes!).

His and Her Mornings

Me and my guy...we are different. We have been married for more than a quarter of a century, and it seems like that would bring some oneness, but it hasn't.

Mornings. That is where our differences really shine.

He is up at 5 a.m. Yes, 5 a.m.
Me? I do not like getting up before 6:30. Ever.

He likes his coffee strong and black and bitter.
I like my coffee cup to be filled with 1/3 coffee and 2/3 milk.

He likes his eggs scrambled, right out of the shell.
Me? I like them scrambled with a little milk and cheese. Light and fluffy, please.
Oh, and he likes to put butter in his eggs "so they don't stick to the pan".
I say better stuck to the pan than stuck to the hips.

He likes his oranges sliced into wedges.
I like mine cut into wagon wheels.

Toast?
He wants his barely heated with a big pile of butter right in the middle.
I like mine with actual toast marks and lightly buttered from edge to edge.

Every day.
And after another quarter of a century?
I suspect that it will be more of the same, with a side of wrinkles.

Silver Anniversary

Twenty-five years of wedded bliss and never had a fight!

Wait!

Maybe we should just stick to twenty-five years of wedded bliss...

Wait!!

Just kidding.

Yep, me and my guy have been dancing the dance for twenty-five years. It seems so crazy to think that it has been that long, and yet it also seems like just yesterday.
We were so darn young....

Anyway, let's don't get teary-eyed. Ok, maybe it was just me....

I know that all of you think that my guy is the sweet and patient one,
and that I am the mischievous handful. And mostly that would be right.

BUT...

Let the record reflect....

That the fun and mischief in a new bride's smile

can also be filled with gentle and sweet love.

But the groom, you know...the sweet and patient one...

Uh-huh!

I'm just sayin'....

I LOVE YOU BABE!

I hate to say this, but...

About 6 months ago I started thinking that I couldn't see as well as I used to. But, since I am so darn young, hardly more than a baby really, I decided that I must be imagining things. I have a great imagination.

Then, a few weeks ago I started having trouble threading needles. At first it was just those little size 8 betweens, you know the ones made by John James. I love those needles! But then it quickly progressed to the big ol' fat 90/14 Schmetz. Which I also love! Probably just a bad spool of thread. No need to get riled. It was time to order more thread anyhoo.

Then, last week I was sewing with my friend Theresa, who is a beginner. I was winding bobbins and threading the machine for her when she needed it. And would you believe it took me forever to thread it for her! I felt a little embarrassed. But I was pretty darn sure it was just the lighting over by that particular machine.

THEN, my lovely little first born daughter came by a few days ago to help me get ready for a teaching gig. I was stitching away, minding my own business, threading needles and all. But apparently I was not threading them very fast because would you believe that she said to me, "What's the matter mom, are you getting too old to thread a needle".

That's right. "Too old to thread a needle", that is what she said. I should have drowned this child at birth! Or let the wild beasts eat her. Or eaten her myself!! "Too old to thread a needle", she says.

Flash forward to this week, and me and my guy go to the fair to see Tanya Tucker sing her little heart out, Delta Dawn and all. And after the concert my guy wants to walk though the commercial buildings. So we are cruising through the salsa makers, chamois and cookware with a lifetime warranty when we come upon a giant wall of reading glasses. So, I say to my guy:

"Hey, I am gonna try on a pair of those glasses."
"Why, you don't wear glasses."
"I know, I just wanna confirm the fact that I don't need glasses."
"Oh brother."

Guess what happened:

That's right. Mama has a new pair of readers.
But, they're cute right?

So then....(this is like the never ending story)
I say to my guy:
"Sometimes when I rub my eyes, it takes a long time (like 10 seconds) for them to come back into focus."
"That happens to me all the time. Don't worry about it. It's normal."
"Really, you're like the expert on eyeballs or something."
"Trust me. It's normal."
A little time passes, and then he says to me (You're gonna love this)
"Wait 'til you rub your eye and it gets stuck over on the side. Don't freak out when that happens to you. It's also normal."
"What!!"
"Yeah, you rub your eye, and it gets stuck over on the side, and you can't move it back. It's kinda weird. I'm just telling you so you won't freak out when it happens. IT IS NORMAL."
"That is not normal!"
"Yes it is. I asked Bill and he said it is normal. It happens to him all the time."

Seriously, does this look normal to you:

I didn't think so....
But if you happen to run into my guy and Bill in town and they both have jacked-up eyeballs, don't mention it. They think it's normal.