The hot summer we are having has greatly restricted my outdoor activities. Without a garden to spend time in I navigated to other interests. My big project of making a quilt was completed so I went on a wild goose chase. I was trying to find the new library branch in this northeastern end of our county. On the first trip I had a lovely drive through the farming area. There are some interesting looking farms along this road named "Jot Em Down". It wound past one of the largest "front lawns" I have ever seen. Those folks must have to mow two acres to get to their front door. Not many chicken farms along this road. They appeared to be other types of farms.
When I got to the end of that road I had passed over Keith Bridge Road, 400 highway, A.C. Smith road and that is when I just gave up and turned around. I returned the same way I had come and for the second time passed a man on a bicycle who had been heading in the same direction as me. I hope he found his destination for I did not.
The next day I tried again to find this library on Settin' Down Road. This time I went west on Browns Bridge road, past Keith Bridge road, passed over 400 again, through Coal Mountain and past highway 9. At this point I gave up again. I had thought this new branch would be closer to me than the main library which is in the town of Cumming, right next to the Senior Center. It is about 12 miles from my house. That is a long way to drive to check out a book. It is about the same distance to the library in Gainesville. That is where I used to go to get books. The fee for using a library out of your county has grown to $60 yearly which is more than I want to pay.
So, I began to pick up old books I had read before. After reading A Tale of Two Cities and Black Diamonds in my Own Back Yard, I picked up some old journals that I had written as far back as 1948. What I noticed as I read my activities from those years was first how much reading I actually had done. Mostly I read non fiction. There were gaps in my journals, sometimes just days, even years when my children were young and needing my attention.
The one I have just finished was from the years of 1994 and 95. It was pretty revealing to me to read from my own account of how much work I had done. I had a helper, Bob Huffman. Bob was a retired lawyer who liked to keep busy and earn pocket money. He was a fun person to work with. It makes me tired to think of all the things we did over the years to maintain and improve the place here. Also it amazes me that I had forgotten all of the things I did during that time and the years before. I suppose our brains can retain just so much then some facts have to recede in order for others to squeeze in ! For sure, I did not shrink from work, or from walking at the end of a busy day. I used to walk two miles each day with my neighbor Liz. Liz is living in a nursing home now and does not remember anything !
But all of that is in the past. Going forward I have many projects in mind, mostly they are solitary ventures. Reading is still high on my list but this is for in the evenings. Television is for when I am too tired to read. Another quilt is in progress, a nine patch this time, which will be tied, not hand quilted. One of my weekly regular activities is to attend the adult Bible study at my church. We usually have about 20 people and the scriptures we study varies. Right now we are studying the words of Jesus. This past Sunday it was from Mark chapter 9 verses 42 -50. Our pastor, David Beville is our teacher and he always asks for someone to read, it is voluntary but it usually seems to be me. We have a lot of quiet people who are content to listen but then there are trouble makers like me. There are parts of the Bible which are troublesome to me. Sunday we were discussing one of those things which I cannot accept conclusively. I try to reason it out but cannot get my brain around what our Bible says. It may be heresy but I cannot come to terms with heaven and hell. If hell is separation from God, then are we not in a state of hell on earth when we separate from Him from time to time. Is it now or is it later that we pay for this voluntary separation. How can we be punished when our earthly body is no longer functioning. How does your soul be punished? These are the mental gymnastics I brought up in our class. David says we cannot cut and paste the Bible. He says he wishes that God would eventually heal all of us but the Bible says otherwise. I will just have to let it rest and trust that a wise and loving God will forgive and whatever happens will just have to happen. How can I do otherwise?
Monday, August 16, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Mission Accomplished
Last night I made the last stitches needed to sew the binding on my latest quilt. It is standard size and it took me around two years to make it. It has pieces of cloth in it which were given to me by my daughter Bonnie and her cousin Charlotte plus material of my own.
I have learned that when you hand quilt the whole piece will not end up quite as big as you had planned, or measured for. It shrinks a bit but not noticeably. That is why one always starts doing the hand quilting in the center and work outward.
This pattern is one I "copied" from my daughter. She had the idea and made a smaller lap quilt. I copied her technique and this is how I proceeded. By using some mathematical calculating I decided how many squares I needed for 4 inch squares plus the one inch border strip to cover a standard bed. Then I cut them from fabrics that I liked. With the squares in hand and the one inch strips all cut I began to assemble the quilt.
The first step was to sew short one inch strips on one side of all of the four inch square blocks. This takes a while but it makes the rest of the sewing go faster.
To assemble the squares for the on point arrangement, I started up in the left upper corner with one block. Since it had the side strips sewn on I simply placed it at the left upper corner. For the next row I sewed two blocks together . Then I sewed a strip of the one inch fabric at the top of these two. Next I sewed the first single block onto the top of it. As the rows took their place they are appearing to be slanting rows, and they are supposed to. For each succeeding row I increased the blocks by one, laying them on the bed as I worked and always sewing the one inch wide pieces on the side of all of them and the strip along the top of them. When those are sewed onto the ones waiting on the bed each block will have a one inch strip all around it. It took me several weeks to get this all sewed together as I was not working continuously on this quilt.
Once the blocks were all sewed together I began to make my "sandwich" with the backing on the floor, right side down. Then on that I placed the batting, stretching where needed as I went along. Last came the blocks I had sewn all together covering it all. In order to hold everything in place, I used one safety pin for each block and pinned all layers together. I did this all over the entire quilt.
Now the hand quilting began. Using a large wooden hoop I put it in the middle of the quilt and secured the three layers in place while I would be hand sewing "in the ditch". That is in the seam lines. This took longer than any of the other steps. I usually only worked on it in the evenings. I set up camp in the balcony area of my house where the lighting would be best. I had a short table in place to put up my feet if I wanted to do that. The television was nearby so that I could listen as I worked. Sometimes my middle finger of my right hand would become tired or hurting from pushing the thimble on the needle. That is when I got aspercream and applied it to that finger and hand.
It has been a fun thing to do and a good way to use up extra material. I occasionally had some input from visitors as to which blocks would look good together while it was laying on the bed waiting to be sewn together. So, you could call this a group effort. Whether group or individual effort, it will be a warm and fun quilt to sleep under when winter comes calling as it absolutely will do around the end of the year.
I have learned that when you hand quilt the whole piece will not end up quite as big as you had planned, or measured for. It shrinks a bit but not noticeably. That is why one always starts doing the hand quilting in the center and work outward.
This pattern is one I "copied" from my daughter. She had the idea and made a smaller lap quilt. I copied her technique and this is how I proceeded. By using some mathematical calculating I decided how many squares I needed for 4 inch squares plus the one inch border strip to cover a standard bed. Then I cut them from fabrics that I liked. With the squares in hand and the one inch strips all cut I began to assemble the quilt.
The first step was to sew short one inch strips on one side of all of the four inch square blocks. This takes a while but it makes the rest of the sewing go faster.
To assemble the squares for the on point arrangement, I started up in the left upper corner with one block. Since it had the side strips sewn on I simply placed it at the left upper corner. For the next row I sewed two blocks together . Then I sewed a strip of the one inch fabric at the top of these two. Next I sewed the first single block onto the top of it. As the rows took their place they are appearing to be slanting rows, and they are supposed to. For each succeeding row I increased the blocks by one, laying them on the bed as I worked and always sewing the one inch wide pieces on the side of all of them and the strip along the top of them. When those are sewed onto the ones waiting on the bed each block will have a one inch strip all around it. It took me several weeks to get this all sewed together as I was not working continuously on this quilt.
Once the blocks were all sewed together I began to make my "sandwich" with the backing on the floor, right side down. Then on that I placed the batting, stretching where needed as I went along. Last came the blocks I had sewn all together covering it all. In order to hold everything in place, I used one safety pin for each block and pinned all layers together. I did this all over the entire quilt.
Now the hand quilting began. Using a large wooden hoop I put it in the middle of the quilt and secured the three layers in place while I would be hand sewing "in the ditch". That is in the seam lines. This took longer than any of the other steps. I usually only worked on it in the evenings. I set up camp in the balcony area of my house where the lighting would be best. I had a short table in place to put up my feet if I wanted to do that. The television was nearby so that I could listen as I worked. Sometimes my middle finger of my right hand would become tired or hurting from pushing the thimble on the needle. That is when I got aspercream and applied it to that finger and hand.
It has been a fun thing to do and a good way to use up extra material. I occasionally had some input from visitors as to which blocks would look good together while it was laying on the bed waiting to be sewn together. So, you could call this a group effort. Whether group or individual effort, it will be a warm and fun quilt to sleep under when winter comes calling as it absolutely will do around the end of the year.
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