two things i learned about quilt blocks

1) They are a lot of fun to plan, create, invent, work color schemes, etc.

2) They are a lot harder to actually sew than it would at first appear.

Our Quilting Day Blitz at my church was a spectacular success! Over 200 quilt blocks sewn in one day! It was fun helping kids (and adults, but I mostly stuck with kids) make something that looks really awesome at the end- something they didn't think they could do. It was also fun watching all the interactions between everyone there- my 82-yr-old Mennonite grandma who's made more quilts than you can shake a stick at who came up to help, my aunt JoAnn who made her own very first quilt block but was an expert sewing machine sewer resource and "mentor" for several kids, my mom who started helping a first-time adult quilt-block maker and ended up spending all day with that woman making one of the most intricate quilt blocks of the day (no, they didn't really know what they were getting into... well, my mom did kinda but couldn't abandon Judy once they'd begun- and it WAS awesome), all the kids interacting, the teenagers (including BOYS) making blocks for the youth pastor's ordination quilt, all the adults chatting, hanging, asking for and giving advice, encouragement and praise... it was so cool.

It was also incredibly exhausting. Wow. The hot tub at mom's hotel was certainly appreciated...

So, I did make one of my own. And I would very much like to continue to delve into the world of quilting. But here's something I learned about quilting as a process: it also is a lot harder than it would appear. Time intensive. The blocks are all done, but now people have to take all the blocks for each quilt, make sure they are all a uniform size, cut all the material that goes in between all the blocks, sew the material and blocks together, then actually quilt or knot the pieced quilt-block top to the one-piece backing, and then bind the whole thing.

I always knew that quilts were the products of a lot of time, energy, (and in my case with my grandma- LOVE) but this experience has started to show me exactly what all that time and energy and money really looks like.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the time spent laughing (a lot) with some of the wonderful women in my family. Mom, Grandma, Jo, Cindy and I laughed until we cried at points... we also enjoyed Thai, Mediterranean, and Cambodian food, Cambodian traditional dancing (at a Cambodian New Year celebration hosted by the Cambodian congregation of our church on Sunday), and playing games (with Dana too) and laughing some more. All in all, an excellent weekend!

 

excited about this weekend

So, I am excited about this weekend. My mom, other grandma, and aunt are coming up Saturday morning and we are going to go to my church building and spend a good chunk of the day making or helping other people make quilt blocks for FIVE quilts. 4 wedding quilts and an ordination. They are spending the night at a hotel with TWO pools AND a hot tub. Then, after church on Sunday, the Cambodian congregation of our church is hosting a Cambodian New Year's Celebration, with food, music, and dancing, and we are going to spend time there, too.

I am excited mostly that my family members are excited. I mean, it's not everyone that would spend money to come up and sew for total strangers and think that Cambodian New Year Celebrations were cool. Of course, I KNOW the real draw is that they get to come spend time with us, me and my wonderful sister.

We miss them, too.

 

My first-ever Guest Posting

Okay, so my sister read my blog, and actually emailed me a response, and said she'd greatly like me to post it if I approved. I have to say, she put into words better than I have. Makes me feel not quite so silly about the four little rocks sitting under my computer screen... each one chosen to go there because it was unique and amazing. Thanks, cindy.

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The following entry is by Cindy....

 

Yes, she really, really, really likes rocks, all shapes sizes and colors...it doesn't matter...MLE likes rocks.  There is just something about what they symbolize I think that has her fascinated.  Rocks are little pieces of history, a tiny (or not so tiny) snap shot of the world as it was when the rock was formed. From weather patterns to pollen levels there is a massive amount of information contained in each and every rock.   When you hold a rock you are holding an incredible amount of information.   Information that may be hundreds or thousands of years old can be found in a rock of any shape, size or color.  A rock can travel over such an incredible area over its extremely long 'life' cycle.  You can hold in your hand a rock that may have been held by a settler heading west hundreds of years ago. The rock you hold may have been brought to a different continent by a young child using it as part of his game.  Each rock would have an amazing story to tell if only they could.  The pebble you kick off the sidewalk today may have been part of a mighty mountain in times past, you just never know.  Aside from the history of rocks there lies within rocks such beauty that one can never tire discovering the next one.  Just go to any lake, stream, or ocean and look at the rock along the water line.  The smooth well worn curves, the vibrant colors of some, the neutral simplicity of others, these are things that MLE notices and admires.  The shocking difference in appearance between the same rock when it is wet or it is dry. The wonder and power of God to have incorporated such awesome things as rocks into our everyday lives is something MLE is thankful for.  I get a little frustrated with the amount of rocks that Emmy wants to bring home with her every time she goes to the lake, or woods.  Sometimes I need to remind myself why she likes them, and that maybe I should join her more often in looking at the wonder of creation that lies all around us....even in a city like Chicago.

 

 

 

oh dear, what a long time...

too long, i know. i've missed so much.
right now, i'm at work, and my head hurts. and since i've missed so much, i'm not really going to try to write anything out. i'm going to take the "bare bones" approach, and simply write some one-liners that may tell a little bit about what's been going on in my life. i'll even put in some pics. the pics may not actually match what i'm writing, but they'll be nice pics.
If you read something you'd like some more detail on, please feel free to comment, or to call me and i'll tell you anything you'd like to know. or call me and i'll call you back using the minutes i never use up every month on my cell phone plan. :) seriously. okay, here we go:

1. i'd forgotten until yesterday how very humid the midwest is during the summer. it wasn't even humid yesterday, it just was that you could feel the tiniest bit of humidity when you walked out the door into the balm spring morning air- and i remembered in that instant what it is going to be like for months on end in the not-too-distant future.
2. yesterday i checked craig's list every hour on the hour for free or unbelievably cheap air conditioners, and no longer felt slightly silly for the two already in the trunk of our car (we may not be able to use the one, but it was free).
3. this is the time of year when the weather can't decided anything other than that it's not going to decided. therefore, it's a crap shoot as to whether the particular building you walk into will be imitating a sauna or an igloo, depending on which decision the buildng engineer has made.
4. i dress in layers, and brought my heater/fan in to work to try to counteract whichever choice the weather and our building have seen fit%2

Hallelujah!

I direct the reader again to the Christian Peacemaker website (www.cpt.org) and i give a huge shout of praise to God for the remarkable recovery yesterday of the remaining 3 CPT members who had been kidnapped with Tom Fox. Yesterday when i heard the little blurb on the 4:00 WFMT news break, i just about actually shouted right here at my desk. I wanted to get up and, as my sister would say, do a "happy dance". i was even more gratified to hear that they had been recovered by military forces without a violent confrontation with the kidnappers. they are healthy and will be reunited with family and friends.
Thank you Jesus.

btw- for those of you wondering, i did just today post the previous entry that is dated March 13. When i logged on today to "update" i realized that i had NOT published that post- i intended to, and was under the impression that i had, so i'm not sure why i didn't. i decided to leave it with the original date since it was actually time-sensitive in its content.

What would Jesus Do?

Yes, that phrase is incredibly overused, and as a result, conveys little impact.

Yet that is the phrase that comes to mind when I think of the Christian Peacekeeping Teams.

Growing up Mennonite, the word "peace" is one that I heard extensively. It was only after going to college that I began to get even an inkling of how my understanding of this word was unique. Like sandpaper rubbing on exposed skin, my deeply held concept of "peace" continues to be abraded by the ideas of the world in which I live. This is a topic that divides with less-than-peaceful results, and this division is especially evident within the Christian community. I have even, at times, avoided discussing the topic of peace, and therefore war, with my Christian friends.

But this weekend, the secular news included information on the death of Tom Fox, one of the 4 Christian Peacekeeping Team members that have been held hostage in Iraq. And because of the discovery of his tortured corpse, the philosophy behind CPT is getting just a sliver of media coverage. Tom's deeply-rooted beliefs are coming to light, and people are being presented with an alternative to jihad.

I would like to write further on this subject, but do not have time right now. Perhaps I shall work on something for future posting. I would however, like to point the reader to http://www.cpt.org/ for information (including Tom's own writing) about this remarkable organization. Notice the question posed in the website's banner.

The phrase whispers through my thoughts in quiet remonstrance: what would Jesus do, emily? and what are you doing?

Am I just believing my faith, or am I actually living it?

Look, mom, it followed me home!

Have you ever spent long moments along the banks of a river or stream lined with big old trees?
There is something strangely hypnotic and calming about the way the water swirls around, over, through the exposed roots. Especially the roots of deciduous trees: convoluted tangles snaking over and around each other.
Or, ever had the opportunity to feel the trunk of a long-dead tree for years exposed to the abrasive, smoothing effects of wind-whipped sand and rushing water? All silvery, soft almost like a fabric, but still hard, solid, wood- a happy recliner for a young girl looking for a place to read a book on the shores of Chatfield Resevoir. When we moved from Colorado to Indiana, some of my favorite trees were low, horizontal trunks that offered free bench seating over the river for dangling my feet in the water on hot sticky days.
Then there's the tree in Oxbow Park that i call "Le Roi Argent", The Silver King. A massive, towering sycamore tree, easily the biggest in the park, with bark peeling to reveal silvery white arms reaching into the blue skies. The King has a trunk with girth so great, even 2 adults cannot reach all the way around to touch each other's hands... Rare was the time when i would visit Oxbow without making the walk to pay homage to Le Roi du Foret. (yes, i know my French isn't very good anymore...)
So, yes, to this day i talk to trees. they make great conversation companions, and are really very helpful when one is facing a decision, or is upset, or muddling something out. i can't begin to count the number of times i have stopped and asked one of those stolid sentinels, "what stories could you tell?" My mind has wandered through history imagining the varied lives the great, old m/patriachs have lived- with their feet anchoring them in the soil and their branches reaching up toward the face of God.
Oh, for even one of them to have given a reply to my question. Roots and branches and leaves infused with the power of animation, thought, and speech.
My mom read Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit to me and my sister when we were quite young. i don't really remember not knowing the stories. Both of those authors really convey a sense of the entire world around you being alive and vibrant- a gift to our senses. And both were just a bit fanciful, in a fantasy way. And Tolkien must have appreciated trees as much as i, for he created trees that do exactly as i long for them to do.
"Look mom! The Ent followed me home! Can i keep it? "