"You've Got To Be Kidding"

December is finally here. My long awaited favorite month of the year is in full swing. News of note?.....not much you would want me to go into great detail about, except that I have decided to go under the knife again for a complete overhaul. I'm not talking about any trimming away of the fat I have acquired by eating prime rib and ice cream or smoothing away the wrinkles on my freckled face. I wouldn't think of masquerading around Mandarin after a face lift......my friends of 40 years and all of those old boyfriends who appear occasionally in Publix would never recognize me (I can't have that!) 

What I am talking about is major spinal surgery complete with rods and screw, cadaver bones, artificial disks, a hard neck brace and the magical place known as rehab. My cervical and lumbar spine otherwise known as a "highway to hell", has reared it's ugly bones. It's going to be a tough one, but my newly found bffn at the Mayo Clinic says were going to be getting to know each other very well in 2010. He thinks he can save my mobility in what may be either the stupidest thing I have ever agreed to do..or the only option I have left to continue to remain upright. If I can cop a lap-top out of Santa this year, I'll be able to write about the crazy things that will surely come my way during that twilight state before and after intubation. My mind usually takes me to places even Holly Hunter hasn't been. No one can really say for sure why my spine has let me down... maybe it was all that sex and rock 'n roll in the seventies or maybe it was the numerous times I fell off my bike or took a nose dive off the top bar of my swing set. The fact is, my spine has let me down. a tough break for sure.....but I truly believe that "when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping".

So,  that's why I am taking off for Paris again before I'm down for the count on February 1st. This time my stay will be longer than three days and the plan is to see the things I didn't get to see the last time and more. I'll be traveling with a dear friend I have known since junior high along with my red walker with wheels and hand brakes. We've found the lowest airfares available to mankind for January traveling and what looks like a great hotel. It's a good thing WE PURCHASED TRAVEL INSURANCE BECAUSE EVERY FREEKING MUSUEM WORKER IN PARIS IS "ON STRIKE" NOW SHUTTING DOWN EVERY MAJOR MUSEUM. Naturally, THIS INCLUDES "MY" BELOVED LOUVRE AND IT'S GIFT SHOP WHICH I WAS REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO SPENDING MORE THAN THREE HOURS VISITING THIS TIME AROUND.

=EN GREVE!!! = Visitors to Paris' Pompidou Centre (Beaubourg) find the doors locked due to a strike. Several of the French capital's museums

went on strike to protest over the government plans to reduce staff numbers and state subsidies. 

The signs read "On strike". 

I've never known a telephone man to strike for more than a month, but the French might be more determined than the American communication workers of my generation. Before marrying into new money, a work stoppage was the last thing I looked forward to. In my later years at work, I actually hoped for a strike to get some unpaid strike vacation and a chance to sew to my heart's content. Who could predict man's quest to avoid doing more work for less Euros would affect Claire in Jacksonville. Not me, that's for sure. My plan is to have a back-up plan. I don't think the Vatican's Swiss Guard has ever gone on strike.....maybe I'll have the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to ponder while under anesthesia for the day....on second thought, maybe I don't want to see the hand of God reaching out to me during a dreamy drug induced post-op fog.

An Unfinished Quilt

I have a passion for making quilts. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many I have made.

I also can't tell you how many old unfinished sets of quilt blocks or quilt tops I've seen for sale in my time. The pattern one is most likely to find in an antique store or at a quilt show is the beautiful “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” (GFG). The reason so many of these blocks go unfinished is that the quilter really enjoys hand-piecing the actual block, but when it comes to sewing the blocks together to make the blocks into a quilt top.....well, the tough part begins. This particular pattern it is difficult to sew together, the project becomes less portable and frankly it goes from a relaxing pastime of hand-piecing to a real pain in the ass.

I know this because I have completed a GFG and it took me four years. I carried all of the tiny pieces around with me and worked on them while waiting on the doctor, flying out of town, driving to North Carlina and to where I accomplished more than you will ever know--My Lunch HOUR. I'd hand a few pieces to friends ostensibly to teach them how to do the piecing, but really I was just trying to get them to do a block for me.. Finally, after leaving work on a Friday, not knowing if we'd be involved in a labor strike the following Monday, I handed my anxious friend Gail a bag of fabric ready to sew some GFG blocks to ease her nerves. She showed up Monday morning with almost twenty-five completed blocks. I had not planned on her being that nervous and was now faced with having all I need to begin sewing my blocks together.

Most vintage blocks you find for sale are usually made from Gramp’s old ugly plaid shirts or wool that has served as a meal for moths. Rarely do you fine old blocks that can be sewn together without having to true them up or cut them down to be able to even fit together. So, when I found this very nice set of ten unfinished blocks at Joyce’s shop several years ago, I wanted them. They had plenty of potential, were clean, came with extra yardage and were expertly hand appliqued. So why did the previous owner fail to finish her quilt? While squaring up and arranging the old blocks into a layout that pleased my eye, I thought about the beginnings of my quilt and the circumstances of the woman who started it. Since the blocks also came with the receipts for the 36 inch wide fabric that she purchased, I decided that this woman from Vincennes, Indiana walked into the Gimbel-Bond Company on July 17, 1941 and purchased 7 ½ yards of the main fabric - a creamy soft yellow percale for $ .25 a yard along with 2 ½ yards of green for the leaves at $.22 a yard. She may have already found a pattern that she liked and just wanted to ”get started” because her next purchase of fabric for this project was on August 16, 1941 at which time she bought 3 more yards of the yellow she had finally decided on for the flowers. Meantime, without having everything she needed to complete the quilt, but having enough to start the blocks; she cut out her paper patterns and began to applique.

My guess is that she may have been short on money and stretched it out over time or even worse, her husband, father or brother had headed off to war the following December after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th. She took quite awhile to make her final fabric purchase for the quilt, buying 3 yards of fabric on October 12th, 1942, over a year later. This was probably going to be used for the quilt backing and prices now were up to $ .32 a yard. The three receipts added up to $4.14. Did she have to work outside the home to do her duty for the war effort? Was she so preoccupied with the events of the day that she couldn’t concentrate on her pastime? Whatever the reason for not finishing her quilt, I am thrilled to have been lucky enough to have found her quilt blocks and finish them for her. If it were possible, I would return the completed quilt just to see the expression on her face and her relief that her money and time wasn’t wasted after all. There’s nothing worse than a UFO (un-finished object) staring at you every time you open a drawer or in my case, the trunk of my car. I have a significant collection of incredible fabric. I have so much in fact, that I could start sewing today and everyday thereafter and still not use it all up. But one thing that I don't have are unfinished projects staring at me like that doggie in the window. When I'm looking through my stash for just the right color of blue or a print that "speaks" to me, the only thing staring at me is Michael Miller, Alexander Henry, Kona Bay or Three Sisters for Moda begging to be cut. I can't handle the reminder of a well intended purchase and lack of “stick to it’ness” that would cause me to start something and let it go unfinished. I am one of those rare women who hardly ever allows this to happen. I learned this from my Mother.