Tall Tales from Kansas

... to lend some wisdom and history to these times

The Block Studies Collective has just entered month #6. Here are my month #5 squares laid out in a pattern of sorts that will likely get shifted as I make more of them.  But, for now, I have put this block on hold as I get ready for the last month of the class and a new block. The fabrics have been washed and I am examining them closely to see what colors I like together. 

Tara Faughnan, who is teaching this class, has exceeded my expectations. I will post more about that later. 

I am almost done with sock #2 - I took this photo a few days ago but I have rounded the heel, picked up the gusset stitches, and am streaming down the length of the foot to the toe. 

I do not know what people who don't have some sort of creative outlet are doing to get through these days. Last Friday's performance in the Oval Office by Donald Trump and JD Vance was especially reprehensible. I told Chris tonight I really wanted to talk to dad, or Chas (his dad), or great Aunt Alice. Someone who would have the perspective of the things they lived through and their service in the military to lend some history and wisdom to these times. 

A card from my pen pal, flowers, and the photo below of said pen pal on the beach with her friends also made me smile. 

A recipe for granola in the NYT cooking section caught my eye a while back and I decided some baking would ease my troubled mind as well. I generally use a nut butter and honey to coat my seeds, nuts, fruit, and oats when I make granola. This recipe was totally different and completely delicious. 

It was lighter and crisper without the nut butter, there was also an addictive hint of salt and the coconut flakes added a new dimension. This will be made again. For sure. 

Happily there have also been some sunny days with temps in the upper 50's. Ahhhhh. Just what we need, a trip outside to "blow the stink off" as Eleanor (Chris's mom) used to say. 

This week I am graduating from writing e-mails to making phone calls to all my representatives in Congress. This past weekend I asked them to tell my how they felt watching the spectacle unfold on 2/28 in the Oval Office. I fully expect them not to reply. This week, my calls will focus on cuts to medicaid and medicare. Unless you work in a healthcare setting, it could be hard to put a face to the folks we take care of every single day that rely on this for their medical care. Everyday ordinary citizens who have worked their whole lives, just getting by, only to be hit by a catastrophic illness that leaves them unable to care for themselves and without family to care for them. 

OK - time to close my mind down on that front for the night.  I want to dream about fabrics, yarn, making, walking, flowers, and granola :-)

 

Helpful links: 

Tara Faughnan website

I was going to put up a link to the NYT cooking for the granola recipe, but realized if you don't subscribe you may not be able to access it... here is second best. 

Onward friends. I hope all the people of Ukraine know that some (I think I can even say MOST) Americans are standing strong with them and will continue to speak out against the things we see that are wrong. 

a bit of swapping out as things got underway

In the name of letting my creative spirit flourish, as I tell myself to "steady on", here is the first effort at a log cabin block. Once I got started it was a whole lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I might have put a strip in a place not originally intended, but it does not diminish the satisfaction even one tiny bit. 

This was the original layout, but once I started things changed. 

I have never done foundation paper piecing before. It makes things quite precise. Sometimes a little order and precision is just what is called for.

This was the plan for block #2. There was a bit of swapping out as things got underway.

Here are the 2 blocks side by side. There are many strips left and lots of ideas floating around. If I would have thought about it earlier, I would have used some strips and made a "Quilters for Kamala" block. It has a nice ring to it. Someone probably already did it. 

Is it just me or does the ginkgo and the sky and the lake and the grass feel like the same color palette as the log cabin? 

does that not sound perfect

In the midst of a run of cloudy, chilly, days recently, there was this lovely day of blue sky and sunshine. It made me want to get in my car and head to the mountains. Any mountains. Close mountains if possible. To walk in the woods and smell the essence of fall. 

And maybe I would take a pile of books, then in the evenings after a day of walking, I would stretch out, sit on the porch, drink some wine, eat some chicken corn chowder that Brother would have made and arranged to be shipped to my remote cabin in the woods, and then head inside to sit by the fire and read. 

Does that not sound perfect? 

whenever a healthcare provider moves into the patient role

French toast with blueberries and sausage is a very good breakfast when your body is knitting itself back together. It sends a message to new parts, that are getting acquainted with older parts, that the boss (you) are going to be treating them right. Plus, French toast is known to encourage the production of endorphins. 

I sliced the bread extra thick but neglected to take that into account when soaking it in the custard before baking. It was still quite acceptable on the deliciousness scale. 

The calendar tells me it has been 19 days since surgery. These are the thoughts that run through my mind in no particular order:
Will I be ready to go back to work in 10 days?
Should walking still be somewhat uncomfortable?
Why does it feel like I still need this cane?
Maybe I should use more pain pills?
And of course, the inevitable middle of the night, "hey what's that and why does it hurt?"

I am reporting on all of this because we humans just want to be sure we are "on track" don't we? We like to be sure that we are having a "normal" recovery. We change our expectations from having the fastest recovery ever in the history of this particular surgery, to being  in the "acceptable" range. 

Whenever a healthcare provider moves into the "patient" role, all our words of support, encouragement, and sound advice regarding how hard to push it and when to use analgesics play around in our heads. Chris asked me the other day if going through this will change anything I do as a part of my work. The answer is a resounding YES! What I will do a better job of is educating patients and their families about how they are going to second guess themselves at every single turn, driving themselves crazy with all of the uncertainty and expectations. Then I will hand them a card that says "You are YOU, different from anyone else that has ever had this done, YOU are going to recover at YOUR pace and no one else's, and when you start thinking differently, send me an email and I am going to lovingly remind you of this". There will also likely be a hug involved, depending on our relationship. 

I will then tell them that French toast with blueberries, sausage, and syrup can have a very soothing effect on whatever ails them.

finding joy in the midst of unpleasantness

Today I want to go back to yesterday's post for a minute. To the part where I said I was making pudding as part of my "living my best life" plan....

Peggy said the other day in a Marco Polo - how do we know if we are living our best life right now? What does that even mean, and how do we do it?  

Living MY best life has to include some moments of joy, some times when I am taken out of this self, when I see, hear, taste, smell, read, imagine, something that captivates me. Experiences that make me look around and be glad to be alive. 

This has been trickier for me lately because I have been a bit "hobbled" by a bad hip.  The good news is a replacement hip is in the works. BUT as hard as this has been, what an excellent lesson it is about having an alternate plan for finding joy in the midst of unpleasantness. Because surely, there will be more hardships as life unfolds.   

Living my best life also includes the ability to have meaningful interactions with people, be that at work, in my personal life, and nowadays in this great big world where we connect through the internet. I mentioned my friend Peggy earlier and Marco Polo. Since she and Annette and I got together in Omaha in November we have been doing this regularly. Oh what a delight it has been. I love being able to see their faces and hear their voices when we chat. We refer to it as our endless dangling conversation that can be picked up and dropped off at will. I love that Peggy's comment about "living our best lives" triggered in me the need to do something FUN. Even if it was making banana pudding.  Which by the way, Peggy in Omaha, and Annette in New Jersey, also made. Because that just extended the hilarity of the whole thing. 

P.S. gratuitous photos of grocery store flowers don't have much to do with this post except for the fact that they bring me joy every time I look at them.  Thanks Loooo!

it wouldn't be right if I didn't make at least one mistake piecing parts together

Today was the day I got down to business on the improvisational tree project.  I have been wanting to try these trees for years. The first quilt I saw was a red and white one and then last year there was the one Maureen did using her hand dyed fabrics. So fabulous. 

Today I stopped trying to think about how to do it and looked it up and found this wonderful pdf instruction sheet on Amy Smart's blog. I am fairly certain her's was the first one I saw, but who can say. 

I stuck with the plan of trying to use up napkin scraps with this darker background. 

Gosh it's fun. And easy. Ok, I did have to do a little bit of ripping out. It wouldn't be right if I didn't make at least one mistake piecing parts together. 

At 6:23pm on Saturday night I have completed 6 little trees. I will need a few more to make a pillow for the couch. 

Not sure yet if there will be strips between the individual trees or not. Good fun!

to understand them as a part of life that come and go

After almost an entire month of not being able to walk without discomfort (which totally took the mental health benefits out of it), I have been back at it for the past 3 days. Church of the glassy river, Baker Wetlands, pond down the street... how I missed you. 

Oh the mysterious ways of the body and the reaction of the mind. What is this? When will it go away? What should I do to make it better? Is this making it worse? You know the drill.  Can we talk about aches and pains for a minute? Not to roll around in them so everyone will feel bad for us, but rather to understand them as a part of life that come and go. Often with no rhyme or reason... not one that we can pinpoint anyway.  A cloud that has blown in that will surely blow away is a great metaphor from Tara Brach (or maybe Pema Chödrön) for the suffering in life.

This has been a great wake up call for me on the importance of STRETCHING and making time for it before and after walking. The next time I am plagued with some unpleasant sensations in the body my plan is this: acknowledge, accept, and remember it's a cloud. Then I will speed dial my massage and physical therapists, who by the way are my "team" as much as my primary care doctor and all the "specialists" out there. Fabulous women these two. 

long may you reign

Today apparently is tulip Tuesday, luckily I have lots of photos to commemorate the flower that is being celebrated.

This bunch is my bouquet of the week from the farmers market. They are a perfect compilation of colors and textures. 

I mean come on, who thought to take pinking shears to the edges of a tulip... and then figure out the whole hybridization thing? 

In other news, I just bought a pair of cantaloupe colored walking shoes. Seriously. I haven't photographed my feet in them yet, but you get the idea. I feel my fitness level getting boosted to whole new heights as I gaze upon them. 

P.S. Happy Birthday Nancy! Long may you reign.

pom-pom colors were lined up just so

Fodder for the winter inspiration board has been clipped, pinned, rolled, dug out, strung, hung, and moved around about a jillion times. That is the pure joy of an inspiration board. Re-arranging until if feels just right to YOU. And then doing it all over again. If you want to. 

Painted trees that sister and I made last year came out of storage.  

The pom-pom colors were lined up just so.

Old quotes were kept, same with images of things I am still planning to make. 

Here is what it looks like right now. 

I like seeing it before I go to bed at night and first thing in the morning when I wake up. Throughout the season items are added, if the spirit moves me.

Happy Friday all! It's supposed to get colder here this weekend. Perfect weather for knitting, reading, baking something, and maybe watching a corny Christmas movie. 

no topic is off limits

The Prairie Makers (minus 1) met today and worked on projects. Below is the quilt Ann has been diligently working on.

As you can see, she is about done! Binding was being sewn down by hand today.  

This is an amazing bit of work, and I LOVE how she quilted it.  We declared it a family heirloom.  

Pam is putting together what looks to me like a very complicated blouse even though the pattern says it's "easy". I love the combination of the structured pattern with the fun fabric. 

We discussed quilt artists, the ridiculous installation of "traffic calming devices" in old west Lawrence, fruitcake recipes, who's doing what for Thanksgiving, what it's like being retired &/or working part-time, stick-on-wallpaper, and about 9 other topics that I can't remember right now. No topic is off limits and we love sounding like a bunch of "old ladies". It was wonderful.

Thanks for another great day of creating friends.. and for letting me boss you around while photos were taken in your knitted creations.

it all started with Mafalda Maritote

Last week Marti Huff and Nancy came to Lawrence for lunch at the Ladybird Diner. We are pie lovers, the lot of us, and no one does pie in Lawrence Kansas any better than the Ladybird. Trust us.

As soon as we slowed down, after all talking at once... which is what you do when you are giddy with delight at the thought of a leisurely lunch, Marti embarked on a tale of intrigue from her days working for "The Outfit". This all began with her recalling Mafalda Maritote (such a name! who could forget it?) who was the sister of Al Capone. 

When Marti graduated from the Bryant and Stratton Business college in Chicago, they assisted her in finding gainful employment as was their practice back in the day. So, for the grand sum of $75.00 a month, Marti sat at her desk in a "chicken pen" of an office, at the Maryland Match Company, typing out letters to all the hotels in the area encouraging them to use their matches. Right next door were the offices of Abraham J. Titlebaum, which may or may not have been the front for the mob. 

Somehow, Marti's relative in Florida read about Mafalda's wedding and through the guest list traced this to the Maryland Match Company. Once the grandparents in Chicago found out about all this, they whisked her out of there lickety split and put her on a sleeper train to the east coast where she would spend the next months serving in the role of governess for a relatives children while the mother looked after her newborn. 

Thus she was saved from being drawn into the underbelly of the mafia crime world and instead became the matriarch of the Huff/Walrafen/Pfanmiller dynasty of Kansas City. And now you know ... the rest of the story (I didn't want to steal that line, but you have to admit it goes perfectly there). 

P.S. we did NOT get a psychic reading but you can't pass up a photo op like this. That does not mean we may not venture in there after our next lunch date. I mean how can I not have been there in the 36 years I have lived in Lawrence? AND... If I am diving in with anyone, it's going to be Marti Huff. 

cloud study # 62

Sky with clouds. Sunday morning between 6:33 and 7:32 am. It was glorious.

Note to self: go outside and look up more often. 

jimracks and doodads

This week, my self-prescribed, heart expanding, resilience therapy consisted of lunch with the Huff girls. There was discussion of how Nancy is faring 7 weeks into retirement (very well), whether legs really do look better tanned or not (it was a 50/50 split), the need to support small/local businesses (even if you might have to drive 30 minutes to get there), and the vital importance of taking time to just sit and be. Books, haircuts, new glasses, and the joys of aging also made it on the agenda. 

For 90 minutes we laughed, Marti taught us about "jimracks and doodads", and we sampled the iced sugar cookies, a chocolate crinkle, the snickerdoodle, and an over-the-top 7 layer bar that included chocolate, coconut, pecans, granola, ?butterschotch chips, butter, and maybe sweetened condensed milk. 

At the end of our time together, I was filled up. Somehow more open inside. Good humans, these three.