Sunshine Delft Quilt - Part 1

I have subscribed to Quilters Newsletter for many years. In the August/September 2012 issue there was an article about a quilt collector named Bill Volckening. There was also a second piece detailing one of his antique quilts in a pattern called "Suspension Bridge". This included a description of this quilt with pattern templates and instructions about how to make it. 

There was also a link to Bill's Blog page where he wrote about both featured articles. And he issued a challenge to the readers:  

I've challenged readers to make this quilt, I hope you'll send news and pictures of your quilts in progress, and of course, your finished quilts.

 I have considered making a NY Beauty variation for several years now. I like the graphic nature of the pattern. I have just not been too sure about all those fussy little points. Though I do know that the best way to make this pattern and ensure sharp points is to Paper Piece them - which is a very different technique from English Paper Piecing.

And just because there was not ENOUGH challenge in making this pattern, especially since I have not done any Paper/Foundation piecing in years .... I decided to add an additional degree of difficulty .... size. I was not interested in having another bed sized quilt, but did think it would look nice as a wall hanging. So when I copied the paper patterns I reduced the size by 50%.

Now the decision was - what colors should I use? I drafted the basic block in PowerPoint and printed off several black and white line drawings of the quilt and while watching television one night I used my big box of crayons to color various possible options.

I settled on a scrappy version in blues and yellows. I am thinking it will look great against the cobalt blue wall in my kitchen hanging over my white iron table and chairs. This combo also means I will not need to buy any additional fabric as I have enough of an assortment in my fat quarter/scrap containers.

Now that those decisions have been made it was time to get down to business - last week I made 12 of the corner sections .... only 36 more to go!!!

David - Please come home

In March 2010 I adopted a stray cat that I had been feeding for the last couple of winters - that complete story can be found here:  David d'Khat

I really love David. He has become a complete love bug and I know he realizes I took him in and gave him a warm safe place to live.

A couple of weeks ago I had to take him in for some oral surgery. I had noticed that he seemed to be having problems eating - and even trying to look at his teeth seemed to cause him discomfort. The vet verified that he was having issues with his teeth. The two broken in half canines he had left from his years on the street had cracked further and his gums were infected - the teeth needed to come out. Otherwise the infection would get worse and gum infections can cause sepsis and death faster than people thinks.

So even though I am still not employed full time I had little choice but to pay for his surgery. And while he was out I had them neuter him as well.

David did great through the surgery and recovered quickly. Within a week he was back to his old self - even "nibbling" on me when I was not petting him enough.

So on Tuesday I had to take him back for his Post-Op check up. I had him wearing his harness but had put him in his cage as well for the trip there. Once at the vet's I took him out of the cage and he did great on the harness and leash alone.

Carrying him out towards the car things were still going well as I unlocked the car. However just as I went to put him into the vehicle the UPS truck next to us started his engine. This spooked David who went into mad contortions and before I could really react he had managed to twist himself almost inside out and slipped of his body harness...went under the car .. and was gone.

GONE!!!

I just freaked out. I had no idea which direction he went off in. Did he cross the street? Did he head back towards the freeway? ..... No idea.

For an hour I called his name and did my best to look under and behind all the plantings and bushes surrounding the vet's building as well as the apartment buildings behind them.

Nothing,

I went back at 3:30 pm, 8:30 pm and midnight. Then twice the next day. Sometimes twice a day since. In other people's yards, back yards, expanding the perimeter sometimes.

Still nothing.

The first afternoon I talked to the vet and sent them a picture of David. I also contacted all the local rescue groups, animal control offices, humane societies etc I could find. Giving them a description and e-mail a picture when I could. I posted on FaceBook - my page, a local lost pet site, other cat sites and even CraigsList.

Still, as of this evening ... Nothing. No sightings, no information, no calls, no response to my calling him or even tapping of a spoon against a cat food tin. Which is usually the universal sound for an indoor kitty.

I am trying not to just wallow in guilt and "what ifs?" I know I have done what I can. I even have groups of people praying to St. Francis that we find him and get him home safely.

But it is still hard.


I miss him.

Tigger's Adventure

 Another re-posting from my website of an incident which happened Christmas week of 2008


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'Twas the night after Christmas, when all through the condo
Not a creature was stirring, not even Jay Leno;
My stockings were hung o’er the shower rod with care,
In hopes that the kitties could not reach them to snare;
Burrowed under my quilts, all snug in my bed,
While visions of Clearance Sales danced in my head;
With Naomi on one side, and Jericho on the other,
All warm and cozy for a long winter's slumber,


When from under the bed there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my covers to see what was the matter.
Looking about for the source of the crash,
Yanked on the side lamp and my big toe did smash.


Sounds behind the dust ruffle did fill me with dread,
But quickly I knelt to look under the bed
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But my darling boy Tigger who caused me to fear,
With electric cord in his mouth he did shiver and twitch
That for a brief moment I thought “This is it,
My darling sweet kitty is dying this night”,
But with panic and speed I grabbed hold to fight.


The light did unplug, into darkness descended,
With growls, claws and strength dear kitty was upended.
To the top of the stairs then down all he did tumble,
And noisily landing onto the carpet he rumbled.
We raced down the steps unsure of his status,
Only to stop short as he flailed and hissed at us.


Then down more stair steps like a crazed thing he flew,
Myself in pursuit with the other cats too.
And then, in the kitchen, all slid stop with a clatter
And I threw on the overhead to see just what was the matter.
As I drew near the kitty was still twitching around,
So round the midriff I held him to lift off the ground.


He growled and he wriggled, his jaw clamped hard shut
And then I did notice the thing from his mouth that did jut.
A skinny long thing with no fur, scales or tinsel,
For a moment I feared he had heaved out his tonsil.
Still almost asleep I blinked with pounding heart,
As my fingers and pressure forced kitty’s jaws apart.


His sharp little teeth clenched hard with all his might,
As I wondered just how badly he had injured himself tonight;
Then his jaws did spring open, he grumbled and groused,
While onto the floor dropped a limp and wet MOUSE!!!
I let out a shriek that rang loud in my head,
And stared at the limp thing that thank god was dead.


The other cats circled, quite intense to explore,
This new fangled play thing, laying slack on the floor.
I shooed them away as they grunted and yowled,
Then moved to the counter for a paper towel.
The clock read 3:30, the middle of the night,
As I bent to the body I yelled out in fright,
The mouse was NOT dead merely stunned or in shock,
And I quivered and flinched and looked round for a rock.


Then with several tissues, and not taking long,
I snagged it by the tail and flew into the john.
As it whirled down the toilet to the sewer to sink,
I shuddered and mumbled “By god, I need a drink!!”

Exchange Students and Mister Crab

Several years ago I was a Host Mother for a young lady from Japan who was in the US for a year as a student. One evening I came home from work to find that she and a friend had gone to the waterfront and decided to buy a crab to have for dinner. Said crab was at that time wrapped in newspaper in the refrigerator.

Being a bit distracted at the time I said "Fine", went into the living room and sat down to read the paper. The girls poked their heads out and asked how would they go about warming up the crab, so I told them a pot of hot water and let it sit inside for a few minutes should do it. About 15 minutes later I heard shrieking from the kitchen and ran to investigate.

You see, Rieko and her friend had never seen a crab, much less cooked one. And apparently the words of the vendor dockside had not really penetrated. They had assumed it was ready to crack and eat and only needed to be warmed up, but as I rounded the corner it was immediately obvious to me that this crab was alive and well. If the snapping claws he was waving in the air had not tipped me off, then his muddy gray color would have.

There was a small saucepan steaming on the stove, barely the size of the crab, and he was perched atop the edge. It seems when they unwrapped it from the newspaper they had mistaken his lack of movement as meaning it was already dead, not sluggish because of the cold. So they had picked it up and started to place it in the water. Of course when his first leg had hit the hot water Mr. Crab woke up REAL quick and was now poised on the edge of the saucepan like a tighrope walker. But not for long as he launched himself off the pan and headed across the counter.

The girls were squealing and poking it with chopsticks, too afraid to get near it as the crab took off. I quickly rushed in and grabbed it from behind to set it into the sink where it could not get any leverage to escape, especially with his one red leg. Of course his clattering about in the stainless steel sink added to the general din of the room.

After calming the girls I explained how to tell a cooked from a live crab and we set about getting a large pot for his final "bath". As the kitchen sink was occupied they had followed me into the bathroom as I filled the pot from the tub faucet. That's when the curtain rose on Act II. You see, the scurrying sound of claws on stainless had proved much too intriguing for Patch to resist investigating. So my 10 year old, 12 pound cat had jumped onto the counter to investigate. I guess the crab was just incensed at this new outrage and as paw had gotten too close to pincher ... well, you can just image the noises now eminating from my kitchen.

Eventually the crab met his long delayed demise in a large stock pot, I got the girls calmed down and the cat's "owie" looked at. As I surveyed the disaster zone that was now my kitchen I sighed and did the only thing that made sense - I ordered a pizza.

Appliances on Strike

This was originally written in January of 2010 and posted on my website ... reposted here just for your enjoyment.

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I don't think they are allowed to do that actually - go on strike I mean. At least not in my world.

Appliances are supposed to be heavy duty, made from real materials like metal, weigh a ton and run forever. At least they should in my world.

Three year old coffee makers should not "die" the morning of Thanksgiving when the need for massive amounts of caffeine as you prepare a 25 pound turkey is a necessity. And they should not be so hermetically sealed that you cannot even find a way IN to where the heating element is located so that you can replace it.

You should be able to take things apart, diagnose the problem, buy the part for under $5 and put it all back together again so it runs for another 10 years.

Like my waffle iron.

I do believe this thing is made out of the steel left over from building the Brooklyn Bridge. For something it's size it is incredibly heavy. If it ever fell off it's shelf and hit someone in the head I do believe it would kill them. There are two kinds of grill plates - waffled and smooth so you can make grilled cheese or pancakes with it as well. The plates are definitely NOT non stick and get hot enough to singe the hair off your arms. But they make amazing waffles that are a little crunchy on the outside and tender inside. It used to belong to my grandfather and probably dates back to the 1940s or 1950s.

And it has stopped heating up.

This was a sad thing to discover AFTER I had the waffle batter ready to go. But after converting the batter into pancakes I took a few moments to disassemble the monster with only a screw driver. It needs a new heating element - no big deal. I just have to get to the hardware store for the part.

See - this is how it SHOULD be with appliances.

Which brings me to my current rant - my little stand alone freezer. It's not very big, it's actually shorter than I am. There are no shelves on the door and you have to defrost it manually. But my dad bought it for me as a floor model clearance item from Home Depot about six or eight years ago for a little over $100 dollars. And it worked fine - all I asked of it was that it kept things frozen as implied in it's name - a freezer.

And it was fulfilling it's singular purpose - until Monday sometime. I noticed a small puddle of colored liquid at the base of the door. Odd. I cleaned it up, opened the door to the freezer and discovered that a quart bag of frozen berry puree had developed a rip and liquid was oozing out.

Now, I am going to pause here for a moment to let you all say what I know you are thinking - and which I should have questioned myself at the time.
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There. Got it out of your system? Go ahead and say "Duh" - because I have done it myself. Just WHY if things are "frozen" was their "liquid" oozing out. Wouldn't it have ... oh I don't know .... FROZE inside the freezer???

*Sigh*

Sometimes even us smart girls have our brain dead moments. Because it was not until I saw another puddle Tuesday night that the little light went off in my head. And sure enough the temperature inside was rapidly loosing it's arctic chill as surely as the purple "marbles" in one bag were reverting to blueberry mush.

Okay, pull everything out and into boxes then onto the back porch they go. With nighttime temps in the teens I figured they were safe out there. Unplug the freezer (always a good first step before doing repairs), clean out the pan, check the drainage holes - clear. Check the coolant coils - clean, no nicks, no leaks. Plug it in - well it hums but nothing seems to be happening, unless you count the motor at the base getting REALLY hot as a "happening". That's not good.

So yesterday I called a local appliance repair shop to talk to someone about costs, parts etc. What we concluded was that the condenser motor had died. Now, the part itself is about $100. However, and of course there is always a "however", in order to replace it you have to disconnect the coolant pipes - which contain freon - which is not a really safe chemical and can cause cardiac arrhythmia or just make you feel really sick. So this is not really something the home repair person should be dealing with. Which means the freezer would have to be picked up, taken to the shop, repaired, the freon re-filled and then returned. With parts and labor the estimate was about $400-$450 dollars. For an appliance I paid under $150 for - Ummmm ..... NO!

Therefore my only other choice was to replace it. Oh joy - another withdrawal from my savings account.

I tried getting a hold of several Craigslist postings, looked on line to see what a freezer runs for these days, then after work I headed off to the Sears Appliance and Hardware store just down the street from where I work.

Less than an hour later I was driving away with a new Kenmore freezer. Not the same size or style as the one that died, but I think I still got a good deal.

This one is larger than the one that died (8.8 cu ft as opposed to 7 cu ft of storage), it is a chest style instead of an upright, black instead of white. it's original price was $430. However they were having a sale, then another discount if I took the floor model, a discount for taking it with me and finally the salesman gave me an additional discount for the sale starting tomorrow. So all told I paid $300.78.

Now, if I had not had the car repair bill last week I would not be so stressed about taking MORE money out of my savings/EF to pay for this - but life has a way of derailing most of our better laid plans.

I know some people would not consider replacing the freezer a "need". And for several hours I debated with myself as to whether I really needed to do so. Then I remembered the boxes of food items on my back porch, and the things crammed into my refrigerator's freezer - doing a rough estimate in my head I came up with an amount of about $ 250 worth of food that I would have to throw away without a separate freezer. That to me seemed much more wasteful and fiscally irresponsible than replacing the unit.

Now the next hurdle - actually getting the new freezer into the kitchen - which happens to be on the second floor (or first floor for those of you with a European bent).

So I called Anne - who I knew had been hanging out with Arnold for the afternoon - and told her I needed Arnold to bring her home, oh and for him to stick around as I had something to move. A short time later they pulled up and brought his friend Steve with them. Good, two teenage boys - free muscle. It took under 30 minutes for the boys to bring the broken item downstairs so I can arrange for it's haul away, and carry the new one into the pantry.

And then several hours more to the unit to get cold enough so I could pack it, go through the food stuffs from the porch and fridge, pitch what could not be saved, arrange the saved items, figure out the new shelf I will need and replace or find new homes for the items I had to take out of the pantry during the repair attempt and change over.

It's so much fun being a home owner.

Perhaps someday manufacturers will again make appliances that can be repaired more cost effectively than replaced. But in the current disposable society we live in I think that day is a destined to remain in the realm of fantasy.


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Humorous side note:

I have always kept whole grain flours (like rye, wheat or barley) and nuts in my freezer. The high oil content in these items make them prone to going rancid rather quickly when kept at room temperature.

As I was bringing in the boxes of food items from the porch to put into the new freezer I grabbed a cloth shopping back that had various varieties of flour and a large gallon sized ziplock bag of walnuts. When I grabbed a corner of the walnut bag and lifted it a small shower of nuts fell back into the shopping bag. Carefully removing the bag I saw that an entire section of the bag had been shredded. Not torn, not a puncture hole but actually shreds of plastic were everywhere. And wait a moment, I thought I had a full bag of nuts not this half bag amount .....

It only took me a moment to piece together what must have happened and start to laugh.

You see, we have a couple of resident squirrels. Friendly little critters who have been known to sit on the railing outside my back door and chatter until they get my attention. This is their way of saying "Hey!! It's winter ya know and you could be putting something out for us to eat!!" So being the sucker I am I answer their demands and will pull out a handful of walnuts and place them in a line along the top of the railing for them.

For a year it was a single male who haunted my back deck, but this year he has been joined by a female. I know it is a girl because she was sitting up a month ago with rather swollen teats. Then recently I noticed they have been joined by a third who patrols the decks with them.

I think Mr. Squirrel came onto the deck yesterday and chattered for me, but I was at work. He then come over to investigate these new items on the porch table. Being familiar with the aroma of walnuts and associating my back door with this treat he quickly discovered the ziplock bag of golden nuggets.

Now I find it hard to believe that one little squirrel could have eaten half that giant bag by himself. One can only imagine the melee of squirrels that must have been gathered on my porch yesterday afternoon. I can almost visualize him pulling out his push-to-talk phone and speed dialing everyone in his calling circle:

"Beep....this is alpha tail, nut bonanza outside unit twelve ... beep ... bring the family .... beep"