Make Room for Quilts

Here's my in-process version of the Mystery Quilt for our Guild in Groveland. A Mystery Quilt builds from directions coming one step at a time. You never know where you are going until you get there -- thus the mystery! Wish me luck!!

I found myself a space to cut my quilts. It's not traditional, but it works. Unable to make a reasonable workspace indoors, I appropriated one of two of my father's workbenches on the lanai.

The pink and black is fabric laid out for cutting or recently cut. The green is a plastic tablecloth, courtesy of Wal-Mart. Under it is a blue tarp, designed to block any grease or other really unacceptable stuff. Under the table is a funky, painted wooden box, my father's trunk packed into his car when he came to Hawaii in 1939. My grandfather, a shipwright, may have made it for him. The white blob on the right of the photo is a towel, draped on a stationary bicycle to keep it out of the dirt until it is again called into use as an ironing board cover. The iron, perced on the stool so it won't melt any of the plastic, plugs into an outdoor extension cord running across the width of the lanai to to the nearest outlet. If I need a design wall, I'll rig something using the clothesline. Now, where can I put the sewing machine? Workbench is at a good standing height, but too high for sitting.

Meanwhile, it was a difficult day for my dad. When left alone at the breakfast table, he was carefully examining my mother's prescription meds. Fortunately, he doesn't have the hand dexterity to open those bottles. But the temptation shouldn't be there. He didn't want to dress in more than underwear. When I asked him about putting on trousers, he said he was dressed. He is sleeping far too much -- at least 20 hours each day. He has not been talking to unseen persons. He's visibly loosing weight and rejecting many foods. He is not taking direction well, or easily distracted. I don't know whether it is harder to loose your body or loose your mind. It's certainly easier for a care-giver to deal with a rational patient with a deteriorating body than a physically sound patient who is irrational.

Be positive. Look for the good. Keep praying!