The Double Wedding Ring

Oh why did I say I would do it? My son's long-time friend, our family friend's daughter, is getting married. I, of course, want her to have a quilt. And, on the way to her parent's house for a holiday party I thought it would be fun to create something with her mom, for her...and low and behold, there was the quilt top. Presented to me. In all it's glory.

Fine vintage fabric. Almost finished. I mean, how much would it take to finish it?

Well, after really looking at it, without the soothing comfort of delicious egg nog made by Gary (whose recipe should be illegal) I see it for what it really is. Someone's attempt at a double wedding ring. But something was just a little off.  It would not lie flat. The pieces did not fit well together. It was just a bit off. But that could be fixed. I was sure of it!

Several days later, after more research on Double Wedding Ring quilts, I have the solution. Take it apart and do it over. Yikes! But what was wrong was that the background fabric pieces were not cut properly and, therefore, the quilt would never lie flat. And we had wanted to take out the muslin and replace it with new fabric anyway. Right? Just to update it!

But now I have to trim the rings so that they fit properly. And cut all new background pieces. And sew it all back together. By hand, because that is how it was started...

What is wonderful is that it is working out. It does look good. It will work. And the whole time that I am working on it I am wondering what the first woman was doing who first pieced this quilt. What was she like? Who was she? Why did she start this quilt? Where did she get the fabric? Who taught her to quilt? What is the history of this piece?

The final quilt will go to a wonderful young lady and her new husband. I approved of him the first time I met him, and, I'll tell you, I don't approve of many young men so quickly. This will be part of their new life. The quilt will keep them warm and provide for them the beginning of their history. We'll let them know what we can find out about this quilt. I'm hoping that we will be able to establish who began this whole process.

This is what it is all about. Passing it on. Melding the past with the future. It is not all about Twitter or iPhones or texting or even blogging. It is about passing our hearts and information on to the next generation. Paying it forward. Keeping it going. Passing the love forward.

Now, I sure hope I can get this done in time...

Water Water Everywhere

It all started on the 29th of December. I heard a strange sound in the kitchen and, after we went through every appliance, we discovered a small leak in one of the water lines to our kitchen sink. Oh dear! Well, we phoned our local plumber, Surf City Plumbing, who sent out Mike the very next day.

Mike is a great guy and a great plumber. He pulled out the copper pipe and replaced it with some new fangeled pipe that should last a million years, well, not really, but a long time. He noticed a bit of mold on the back wall and we told him we had already called the insurance company on this problem. He also noticed a stain on the ceiling which we thought was a dripping faucet in our shower. He said he'd be back to fix that if we wanted.

Well, that started the entourage. Disaster Abatement guys followed. Great guys too, Juan and Lorenzo. They cordoned off our kitchen with plastic, put up a clean room, tore off siding from under the kitchen window, brought in fans and then air cleaners. Lots of NOISE. Lots of PLASTIC. No kitchen, no bathroom. Bummer. We moved our kitchen to the laundry room. Ate dinner out. Thought we would be ok.

Humman came and tested for mold. We're ok. Take down the plastic. Use your bathroom. One week without both was a bummer. Uh Oh. No. Our mold abatement guy read the report wrong. Bathroom ok. Kitchen not.  More plastic, more fans, more hassle.

Then we found a small leak in our environmentally run furnace. A water leak. Yikes. No one makes this model air flow furnace anymore. But someone in Texas has the replacement part! Yeah! It should be here today. The plumber is lined up to put it in. We are anxiously waiting for the UPS driver to get here. We haven't had heat for a week. And it's been cold. We do have fireplaces, which we use at night. But it gets crispy during the day.

It has now been seven weeks. We still do not have our kitchen back. It is still under plastic. Hopefully today this can come down.

And I am keeping my fingers crossed that today we will again have heat. Wow.

The Big Surf Contest is on for this weekend at Mavericks. Those are some big waves. Of water. Powerful water. Just stay out of my house unless you can behave!