Quilting tidbits

First of all, I have to tell you, that I am incredibly lucky.  I actually won the Block Lotto again this month.  Two months in a row!  That is amazing. In April, 50 quilters made 372 Modern Clover blocks–enough for eight winners and one of those winners was me!  Aren't these little flower blocks cute?  The block was designed by one of my cyber-quilting friends, Kate.  She plays Block Lotto but she also is the brains behind my Stay-at-home-Robin.  I will be setting these on point, and I think I'll space them with small borders.  Very exciting.
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This is the block for May.  They're calling it pineapple blossom.  It's scrappy but if you look closely, every block has two grey squares and two yellow or gold squares.  Those are the unifying colors that every quilter will be using.  They make for a subtle and warm constant that I think will be great.  I'll be donating my blocks this month as I have both the disappearing 4 patch and now the modern clover quilts to finish.

Oh boy!

I won!!!!

While reading through e-mails, I shout out "Oh boy, I won!!!"  My husband comes around the corner quickly to see what the excitement is about.  I won the Block Lotto! for March.  He was not nearly as thrilled as I was.  OK, it's not money, but it's almost as good.

We made disappearing four patch blocks in red and white and I love this block.  It will make a gorgeous quilt.  I also feel so honored to be getting blocks from so many other sewers.  I could not duplicate this scrappy quilt on my own. There's no way I could accumulate that many different fabrics.  I'll be getting  43 blocks, plus the 6 I made myself.  Isn't that exciting?

This is the second time I've won, so I really didn't expect it.  I'm so happy.  Thank you all you Block Lotto quilters.

Life Thoughts

We so underestimate the value of life at times.  I have been reminded of how precious our time is this week.

One of my grandkids just celebrated his third birthday.  It was a great time and seeing all 5 grandkids playing is pure joy.  The oldest is going to be 5 soon.  My own kids don't remember my parents at all.  My mother was gone before either of them were born, and my father died when my oldest was only 3.  I am so thankful that I have made it past those anniversaries of death.  I intend to see lots more birthdays, and I want to try to appreciate every little moment I spend with any of them.

One of my friends' mother ended up in the hospital last week.  She's having some problems and will require extra help from her family.  She is fortunate to have her family near to help her, and they are blessed to have her still in their lives.

Then the sister of one of my friends lost her boyfriend suddenly in an accident.  They were looking forward to a lifetime of memories that now will never happen.  My heart goes out to her and their families.  Anytime someone dies young, it seems that we are all cheated out of what could be.

Then, in between these events that I consider major in people's lives, I have stumbled upon various bits of drama over nothing.  Why do we spend so much time and energy on unimportant trivia?

Look around at your family and friends.  They deserve your best attention.

Warning...Political Rant....

I am so disappointed at the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Fred Phelps, I could just cry.

 For those of you not familiar with Mr. Phelps' clan and the Westboro Baptist Church, let me offer a brief explanation.  Phelps' group belies that gays are a sin against humanity.  They think the Americans being killed in the war in Afghanistan and Iraq are dying because of God's wrath against gays in America.  So, they have chosen to speak out about this issue.  Where do they take their protest?  They picket funerals of servicemen who died in combat in these wars.  The idea is preposterous.

First of all, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have nothing to do with gays.  These soldiers whose graves are being picketed are not known to be gay.

The Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 that the Phelps clan has the constitutional right to freedom of speech and can picket.  OK...I get free speech.  But there is also the inherent right, no responsibility, to respect another person.  The poor families of these servicemen are grieving.  They have lost their love ones, often very young people to a horrible death.  Why degrade these young people and their ultimate service to their country?

Pick some other place to protest.  One's rights to protest should not infringe on another person's rights to a dignified funeral.  Why can't we show a little respect, courtesy, and empathy to people in their time of sorrow?

It's all you...

Whatever happened to personal responsibility?  It seems the going thing is to blame somebody or something for just about everything.  Are we truly just becoming cogs in a wheel that is turned by another hand? I hope not.

When my kids were little, I had a no tolerance policy (or so I thought) about lying.  Lying really makes me angry.  I told them that if they did something wrong, they would get in trouble for it.  But if I found out they lied about it, they would get in much more trouble.  So they might as well fess up from the start, as "moms always find out...and moms do...sooner or later".

I have to admit I am too often guilty of lying by omission.  I don't like to hurt people's feelings so I have always tried to live by the rule "if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all."  I've come to believe that's not always a best practice even though it has good intentions.  It's a difficult habit to break, however.

Many people seem to want to believe the worst in others.  That's why gossip (and political commentators) are so powerful. The quickness to blame is seldom balanced with the same speed to credit.

How have people developed this fear of admitting they might not know something?  I suppose they think it makes them look stupid, but the real question is why they don't know it.  Have they not been exposed to it?  Have they not had enough practice with it?  Did their own laziness attribute to the lack of knowledge?  Did they not ask?   Do they think we all learn by osmosis?  No, too often they are hoping to slide their ignorance under the radar of observation.  I've got news for them.  It doesn't work as "moms always find out...and moms do...sooner or later".

The worst to me is when one is caught in error, they seek to blame everyone but themselves. Do they really think that?  Do they really not understand the concept of personal responsibility, or are they lacking the integrity to admit when they don't know something or do something wrong.  Maybe they are just higher on human scale than I am, as I seem to do things wrong all the time.

Do yourself and our society a favor.  Teach your children that lying won't get them anywhere.  Teach them the joy of learning new things, but that sometimes it is hard to learn those new things, and that's okay.  Teach them that it's okay to not know something, that that is an opportunity to learn.  Teach them there are no stupid questions. Teach them that it is not necessary to put someone else down, in order to build themselves up. Teach them personal responsibilty.

Contest

My Connecting Threads Quilt Design uses assorted tones of purple batiks.  I get to be entered into a contest by sharing this.  I do love contests and winning.  Actually, it's fun to experiment with fabrics in the patterns on the kit builder on their site.  The totals for the fabric calculate along the way.  It's a fun idea. I can't wait for them to add more quilt patterns to the mix.

Having been in the news business for more than 15 years, I feel I have the right to comment (and criticize) on the news business.  And today, I just have the need to rant a bit.

When will the networks learn?  Yesterday, the worst storm in practically forever, hit the central United States.  It spread from Texas to Maine covering the area with ice, snow, and gale force winds.  It is estimated that 100 million people were affected by this storm.  Thousands of schools were closed across the area, including Chicago schools for the first time in 17 years. Major highways including portions of I-70 and I-44 in Missouri and Lake Shore Drive in Chicago were closed.  Four states declared national emergencies.  I could go on..... Yet what did two of the major news outfits lead with?  Egypt.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I know that the uprising in Egypt is a huge international story.  I'm not saying don't do a good job of explaining what is happening there, and how it affects the rest of the world, and why I should care.  But what I am saying is most people, stuck at home, or stranded somewhere, want to know about the storm.  The storm is affecting them, personally, now.  Lead with the storm. And please, don't wait to cover the storm until it gets to New York (where the network is), since most of us don't live in New York.

And as a side note about the Egypt coverage....what is this infatuation about sending your anchors to the story?  Katie Couric has no business covering that story.  She's an anchor.  Leave her and Brian Williams in the studio.

I usually don't like ABC news coverage best. (That could be because my news life was working for a CBS, and then an NBC station), but on this one they got it right.  They led with the storm.  Yes.  And then they sent an anchor, but a veteran international news correspondent-turned anchor, Christiane Amanpour to cover the situation in Egypt.

Now, back in the day, I remember a discussion about what is news supposed to report:  What people should know, or what people want to know. ( The question came up on a nothing happening local news day when I led with Michael Jackson's hair catching on fire while he was performing in Kansas City when many of our local people had made the trip for the concert.) What people should know, or what people want to know....That sounds like a kind of arrogant question but I suppose the right answer is both.  But if you don't give them what they want, they aren't going to stick around for what you think they should know.