Just normal

Every month I write a page long article or essay on the topic of quilting... And it gets published in the newsletter of the Common Thread Quilt Guild in Ottawa, where I was a member before I moved away... this is the article I wrote for March 2013. I am currently visiting my son, his wife and my two grandsons, so I actually made it to the Guild meeting as a guest this week past. They had the BEST Show and Share I have ever seen... In any event, here's the article:

 

I have been listening to new podcasts this week, while I am away from my sewing machine. I was listening to one that relates to quilting and the interviewer asked the interviewee what she was working on. And the interviewee (whose name I did not catch, but who was a blogger who details her progress on-line) proceeded to talk about the quilts that she was working on. And she sounded embarrassed to admit that she had about 5 quilts in progress AT THE SAME TIME. I thought the interviewer (also a quilter) handled the whole thing very well, because she said to her, "Oh, you are just normal, then!"

I have written musings on this topic before. I think I mentioned the woman in the fabric store who only allows herself to buy the fabric to make ONE project at a time. And her personal rule is, she must finish that project before she goes on to do another. (I have to say, if I worked in a fabric store this would be the only way that I would ever get to take home a paycheck... otherwise I would just sign the thing over, and walk out with additions to my stash...)

I have many quilting friends. And I don't think I know ANYONE else who follows that personal rule. I love to have several projects on the go (as long as they don't get too far ahead of me, of course!) I like to have something that I am binding, something that I am cutting, something that I am planning, something that I am piecing (although that stage usually gets me so excited that I forge on with it and get it quilted and the binding on there) AND something all ready to quilt. (I'm not keen on having something ready to go onto the frame - but I am pretty pleased with myself when I have something ON the frame, ready to go!) I'm also pretty enthused about having something that I am learning on the go too, something new to me... I'm beginning to think about what to do with these one-off blocks...

Each stage in a quilt is different. The nice thing about binding something is that that is a portable project (when so many quilting things are not!) And, of course, when the binding is done the quilt is finished too. (Usually) The nice thing about cutting is that once the pieces go on the design wall, you begin to see how the quilt is going to look when it is all finished. The nice thing about piecing is that it works up so fast and you can see progress happening before your very eyes, and the nice thing about planning is that it is SO exciting!!! And the quilting itself is wonderful (when everything goes well) because you are beginning to finish the quilt! I love all those steps and I feel eager to get on with each one of them. And I might actually get bored with working on the same quilt or project. Sometimes I intermix projects as a reward. Do this boring bag, and you can be rewarded by starting that pretty baby quilt... or make these three blocks, so that you can be rewarded by taking this quilting class and starting THAT neat project! Interspersing steps means that I will shortly have two exciting projects done rather than one that I have gotten slightly tired of working on!

I know that there are people who work so hard on something, or they find it so difficult, or they are so worried that it isn't perfect that they grow to hate a project; and as a result it goes under the bed or in a box and never gets finished. I have never had this happen with quilting. It may be because I don't tend to let projects carry on too long -- so I don't get tired of them. I have made a few projects where I will never do again (stack and whack comes to mind) but I finished them (and gave them away!)

So here's the point of this diatribe: Normal is defined as: conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnomal; regular; natural. By this definition, if you have several projects on the go (and even a few that aren't actually going anywhere) then you are absolutely NORMAL!!

So, I would like to invite you to embrace your normalcy, enjoy your quilting and have fun!!

Just having a baby...

Okay. Technically, I'm not having a baby. My daughter-in-law had the baby. And she had him early this morning and it was VERY exciting!!! I can hardly wait to meet him in person - just a few more days.

But it brought home to me the differences between having a baby NOW and having a baby 33 years ago in another country.

When I was pregnant for my oldest child (the Boy in question) we lived in West Germany. Beloved Dearly was in Canada's armed forces and the Canadian Forces hospital - the MIR (Medical Inspection Room) was considered Canadian soil so that our babies would be Canadian. I think that had only happened about three years before the Boy was born.... My girl friend had a baby who was in the breech position (bum down instead of head first, in case you don't know and care) and ended up having her baby in the German Krankenhaus - and her baby was NOT Canadian - I believe she had the right to chose when she turned 18 years old.

When I went into labour for the Boy (and we didn't KNOW we were having a boy), we were visiting friends. I was 11 days overdue and I felt and looked like I had swallowed an watermelon (and a large one at that!) intact! Around midnight my contractions were 2 minutes apart (and they remained 2 minutes apart from then until the Boy was born!) We had been told to go into the hospital if our water broke, if our contractions were really strong, or if they got closer together than 10 minutes apart. So off we went. I was in the mildest possible labour - but who knew? Certainly not me!

So we spent the night in the hospital, waiting. I dozed off and on, but poor Beloved was required to hold my hand! He tried to eat my breakfast (I certainly wasn't going to be able to) but he couldn't eat it one handed and I couldn't not hold his hand.

The Boy was born at 9:33 in the morning... and Beloved went off to let them know at work where he was and then to call the Grandparents to tell them the news.

This was 1980 - not the dark ages, but I would like to point out some things that I remember. We had a computer. It had NO memory at all. I don't think floppy disks were invented - but if they were they certainly weren't in any one's home... We connected it to the tv and you had to program it using Basic.

Cell phones had not been invented yet. Because we were overseas we didn't even have a telephone in our house. There were no such thing as 'long distance plans'. Canada's phone companies held a monopoly. There was no competitive pricing and long distance was EXPENSIVE. In Germany it cost a lot of money to have a phone put in, so we didn't have one. Neither did any of our friends.

If you wanted to make a long distance call you either took all your German coins (Deutschmarks) and went to the Internationaler Fernsprecher  (as far as I can remember the spelling) (The international telephone booth) and you fed the slot coins. When it beeped, you either fed it more coins or you hung up! Or you went to one of the Messes or the Salvation Army Gift Shop and booked an overseas call. Beloved headed off to the Salvation Army. You wrote the number in a book. The lady at the shop called the overseas operator and booked the call. You waited until they called back to say they had the line. You made your call, the overseas operator called back when you were done and told the lady at the gift shop how much you owed for the call and you paid her - in CASH - Bank cards had not been invented yet!

Beloved called my parents and his parents and told them the news!!


The following words had not been invented in 1980:
Internet
Wifi
Cellphone
Tablet (other than a portable blackboard and chalk!)
 Android (at least not in the context of a tablet)
operating system
facebook
facebook status
notification
laptop
pm (or private messaging)
reboot
chat (in the context of computers)
apps
email

The Boy's second son was born this morning at 0120 in a hospital in a different province. Around 5:30 yesterday evening the Boy sent me an EMAIL to say that they were at the hospital; his DW's (Dear Wife, in case this isn't familiar to you!) water might have broken and they would keep us posted. He had her CELL PHONE and he would send me an EMAIL from it. (Even that sort of blows my mind, really!)

Around 8 pm (I'm guessing at the time, I'm tired now and my brain is not working so well!) I opened FACEBOOK to check on my friend's STATUSes, and discovered that the Boy was using his DW's FACEBOOK account to CHAT with me, over her CELL PHONE... She was definitely in labour, had gone 11 days early with our first grandson and, here we were 11 days early now. He would keep me informed.

I decided that I would turn on my TABLET. It is WIFI and so I would easily be able to carry it around with me. I turned it on, and turned on GMAIL, where I could access FACEBOOK - only to discover eventually (after running back into the kitchen every time there was a NOTIFICATION - which makes a little chiming noise) that I needed to use another APP to read my PRIVATE MESSAGES on FACEBOOK. Once I got the tablet REBOOTED and the new APP open, I was fine. When the Boy sent me a message, it would appear on my TABLET (which has the ANDROID operating system) in real time...

Did I mention that my mind was blown, just a bit?

Anyway. We chatted unil 02:33 (my time) when suddenly he introduced the baby, told me that he had been born very fast, the doctor had nearly missed the delivery, and that his DW and new Son were doing fine.

I reminded him to take pictures. And he told me there was one in my email!! They had taken a picture with the CAMERA in her CELL PHONE and had EMAILED it to me. OMG!

By the time the baby was weighed, it was 03:30 in the morning. I had seen a picture of him, heard how things went as they were happening, had his name and weight, and had reported all the info to Beloved.

Can you imagine? I don't know how long it was before my parents got a picture of the Boy - but it was at least two weeks!!!


Anyway, those are some thoughts on how technology has changed my life. This morning before I left to play cards with my Mom and Dad, the Boy chatted via gmail just to give us an update. And he suggested a VIDEO CALL. We saw our older grandson (not quite two years old - his life is about to make a radical change!) and heard him speak some words! We spoke with the Boy who got 1 hour's sleep last night, but was doing laundry and then going to head back to the hospital for visiting hours and to take the big brother in to meet the new baby brother... As I sat there, watching him talk on the screen of my laptop, like something out a black and white science fiction movie I thought to myself; "What a difference thirty years makes!!"

:-)