There was only two thirds of a yard. It was sweet fabric, with children singing and the Baby in a manger. I wanted to display it to full advantage, and used it to frame a red and green star. Things went well until I went to add the borders. The strips were a few inches too short.
"Going to add cornerstones?" Hope asked.
That's my girl.
"Yes, that will solve it nicely." I was pleased that my daughter not only knows what cornerstones are but understands how they can rescue a quilt design. My twins can identify an Irish chain, a double wedding ring, flying geese and a log cabin quilt. I know. I have quizzed them. I cannot say as much for the woman at
Magic Cabin who asked me to send her samples of a log cabin doll quilt that they were considering carrying in the catalogue.
"Where are the cabins?" she asked when the package arrived.
"Oh. You meant a house block," I sighed into the phone. I scurried to make new samples, which were more to her liking. She ordered a hundred. I was excited about the brief blaze of fame, until I did the math. They paid me $20.50 for a quilt with one hundred thirty pieces of different sizes and prints, including a fussy cut child in the window. They retailed for sixty nine bucks plus shipping. They were not worth sixty nine dollars, but they sure as anything were worth more than twenty dollars and change.
But my quilt was prominently featured on the catalogue cover back in 2000.
So what?
I used my mammoth paycheck to buy annual passes for my kids to go to Disneyland, partly as a peace offering for ignoring them for the two months I spent with my head bowed over a machine.
One of my students once told me a story as we were sewing on a button.
"I saw a man whose button popped off, and he said that now he would have to throw the shirt away! Isn't that silly? I know how to put a button back on and I am only six!"
It is my heartfelt wish that I am helping children know that they can mend and create, hem and install a zipper. It's a great feeling.
There are techniques for repairing and beautifying marriages too. One day my nineteen year old son mentioned his plan for giving gifts to his girlfriend.
"I got her earrings and a necklace in Alaska, so I will give her the earrings for our anniversary in November, the necklace for Christmas. Then I need to figure out something for her birthday in January and of course then is Valentine's Day. Gifts are one of her primary love languages."
That's my boy.
"You could give her one earring now and one for Christmas, and still have the necklace for her birthday," I suggested. He cocked his head and smiled.
"Hosanna said the same thing."
