My life in Vermont
We came to spend the holidays with David in Hawaii – he usually comes east for his yearly fix of snow and skiing. Of course there isn’t much of that this year in Ludlow anyway. So we’ve been enjoying the sun and the surf, and time with family and friends.
Just thought I’d post a photo of Hawaii decorations. It seems strange to see snowmen and penguins and snow globes here. But we thought this person was pretty creative.
As promised, here’s the picture of Roger’s new truck. It’s just like the old truck, except it’s grey and comes with the cool bed cover he had wanted to get for the old one. The other fun thing is that the whole back window goes down, rather than just the little slide portion in the center.
We’re looking forward to lots of happy miles.
Back in September I signed up for a Quilt Art challenge. We could depict any fairy tale, fable or myth we wanted, even one we had written ourselves. I chose The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde. I had 2 1/2 weeks to complete the piece which is 26″ x 29″ and I finished with a whole day to spare. The whole collection of challenge quilts can be seen here.
We’ve recently found out that our quilts have been selected for a special exhibit at the Houston International Quilt Festival in the Fall of 2007. This is exciting news since Houston is one of the premier shows for traditional and art quilts. So I thought it was time that I post some photos. Here they are:
The work was done mostly collage style, layering raw edged pieces to cover the batting and quilting them down by machine. The children were traced onto white fabric from a comercial print, altered for size and painted with fabric paint. The sign is separate and attached with metal brads.
We’ve bought another Toyota Tundra pick-up truck. Roger went on line and located several possibilities at a dealer in Acton, MA. We were looking for a low mileage, used truck and they were one of the few places that had any. The red one Roger thought he wanted was sold before we got there. But they had a very nice silver model with a bed cover like he had talked about getting for the old one. So, after a test drive and some negotiations, we plunked down the money. It’s been an interesting several days as we’ve tried to work out how to transfer VT plates legally to a car sitting in Massachusetts; and thanks to some very helpful Dept of Motor Vehicles workers (they’re actually nice here), efficient insurance people, and flexible Acton Toyota dealers, we now own the truck. We’ll take our VT plates with us on Sunday to pick it up on our way to Ellen’s home near Boston. I’ll try to post pictures soon.
And speaking of going to Ellen’s, we plan to spend Sunday night with her and board a plane for Hawaii Monday morning. David has convinced us to come for Christmas and we have planned a reunion of sorts. My two brothers Lee and John will be there, John’s wife and children Sam and Joylin, Ellen and Doug, and of course David. Sadly, James has to work and cannot come. We’ve rented a house on Kauai for a week and we plan to mark the big 60 for Lee and Roger as well as celebrate Jesus’ birthday. We anticipate it will be a wonderful time. We’ll stay on for another week with David after everyone else has gone home.
And on another note, I have gotten a clean bill of health from my recent tests and physical exams. There is no evidence of the cancer returning and I don’t have to see my oncologists for another 6 months. Praise God for health and safety.
…it’s totaled. Initially they said $15,000 worth of damage but it turns out to be more than that. It’s hard to think that we could do that much damage at 35 mph all by ourselves (with the help of some pretty sturdy concrete and metal). So we’re in the market for another vehicle. We’ll have to wait and see what finds it’s way into our driveway. For now, we’re getting along with one car – it takes a little more planning.
We’re a little achy today but I’m hoping that will go away in a day or two. Just neck and shoulders really. We’re waiting on the verdict of the truck. We returned the rental car today, back over the same roads. And I remembered that Webs, a FABULOUS yarn store was in Northampton – of course we stopped in. I bought a tiny bit of angora roving to experiment with needle felting clouds through cotton into a wool batt. The jury is still out on that but I’ve been thinking about this sort of thing for some time. Just need to get myself into my studio and DO something. Meanwhile, the knitting…
We learned two things about flexibility today: 1) Cars are not flexible and 2) we need to be.
We had big plans for today and the rest of the week actually. Today was supposed to be a Connecticut doctor day for me: Mammograms and ultrasounds in the morning, radiation oncologist and regular oncologist in the afternoon. These are regular check-ups, no cause for alarm, just due diligence. Then dinner with James, spend the night, and on to Maryland for several days so Roger could work and I could visit with dear friends we haven’t seen in a long while. But God had different plans for us.
It was snowing lightly in Massachusetts as we drove through North Hampton about 1.5 hours from home. It laid briefly on the road before melting. Traffic was moving slowly because of slippery conditions and several accidents up ahead. The bridges were treacherous because the melted snow was refreezing there. You know what’s coming: We were part of the problem. After fish-tailing over one bridge, we lost control on the next one, smacking into the bridge guardrail with the front of the truck and spinning 180 degrees and smacking into the same guardrail with the back. We came to a stop mostly in the left lane perpendicular to the travel lanes. We are counting our blessings. God was merciful and neither of us was hurt. No other cars were involved. Two compassionate strangers stopped to make sure we were ok, helped us pick up debris from the highway, and stopped traffic so we could pull off onto the shoulder. Thankfully the car was drivable except for no rear lights so we weren’t stranded in the middle of the road. The police came quickly, called a tow truck for us, the driver of which recommended an auto body shop nearby with an excellent reputation and a rental car place just down the street. And I’ve been able to reschedule all my doctor appointments for two days next week – an amazing feat in itself. We still hope to visit with James for a meal and overnight while we’re in the neighborhood.
We’ve cancelled our MD visits, no urgent need for Roger to do face to face business at this time. Teleconferences are wonderful inventions. Hopefully we’ll be able to reconnect with our friends another time soon. If nothing else, we’ve had good chats on the phone which will have to suffice for now.
We praise God for providential care and are trusting Him to bring good out of this inconvenience.
Here is my second attempt at the leaf pattern for the jacket I am knitting. It came out very nicely with no mistakes that I’m aware of except in the bind off row. Oops. Shown also is the gauge swatch in the thinner yarn that I plan to use. Can’t wait to get started…
… by the knitting bug. On Thursdays I’ve been hanging out with some knitters who get together to knit and share what they’re doing. Hoping to tap into some of their creative energy, I’ve been sharing my quilting with them and drooling over the luscious yarns in the shop where we meet. Several weeks ago Roger and I found ourselves in a Borders book store. I wandered into the craft book section and picked up a book by Jean Frost featuring knitted jackets. Thumbing through it, I saw several I thought were very nice. I resisted and put it back on the shelf. Over hot cocoa in the cafe I mentioned the book to Roger and that I was resisting getting into knitting, trying to keep my creative focus on art quilting – I know how distracted I can get, chasing all those fun rabbit trails. Well, Roger couldn’t see what the big deal was, so I succumbed and bought the book. The next step was to choose yarn for the project. I chose a beautiful cotton yarn in periwinkle and dug out the right size needles from my mother’s plethora of knitting paraphernalia. I knitted the swatch to check the gauge – a whole inch too big. I chose smaller needles and tried again – still too big. Smaller needles and another swatch – same size as the second one. The yarn I chose was too heavy and I needed to choose something else.
So until I could get to a store where I could get the right weight yarn, I decided to try the beautiful leaf motif that attracted me to this pattern. I’d classify myself as an advanced beginner when it comes to knitting and this was rated intermediate. That disparity has never daunted me before. I’m good at directions and pictures so I gave it a go. After starting over 5 times, I finally decided to “fix” my mistakes and keep going. Tonight I finished the motif, and while it has several mistakes in it, it is fun to imagine what it might look like if I did it all right.
I’ve started a new one now that I think I know what I did wrong. Then I’ll be ready for the real thing. Stay tuned…
