Road Trip

I have been travelling. Most of the time accompanied by Christian radio stations, sometimes resorting to tapes where the mountains made radio signals and cell phone signals fuzzy. For seven hours on Tuesday and seven hours on Wednesday I had the opportunity to contemplate, meditate, learn, and worship as I drove. Don’t worry, I paid attention to traffic too.

In the State of Virginia on Interstate 81 Northbound, I crossed the James River. The mountains surrounded and swallowed the river in folds of earth, crisscrossed by bridges, by lines of road and rail. At this spot 81 dove towards the valley floor and suspended above the river by concrete and steel continued northbound as though nothing significant had passed beneath its surface. Two roads, Mount Joy Road and Narrow Passage Road flank the James there, if the signs can be believed, and I thought how Biblical it sounded. Like the Mount of Olives, Mount Sinai, the Joy of the Lord is my strength. Narrow is the way. At that spot I thought, perhaps the river received its name less from a king in England, and more from a follower of the One King.

The Book of James in the Bible offers wisdom the early settlers, the namers of rivers, struggling in the new world might have cherished.
My brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance… 1:2-3

Be patient therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. … Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. 5:7-8,13

I am comforted and encouraged by these words from James, by Scripture, by prayer and by praise as I endure long drives.

Blue Stocking Bee Balm

Bee Balm, or Monarda, is an excellent companion plant for the garden. A member of the Mint family, it spreads easily – unless you have the blue kind of this normally red flower. We have ‘blue stocking’ – it resents being asked to be blue and spread at the same time. But, as you can see, it’s still okay with attracting beneficial insects, and it doesn’t seem to mind dry clay soil. So really, who can complain?

Bee Balm is a lesser used herb, but has excellent antiseptic properties. It is a source of Thymol (like in Listerine) and can be used as a mouthwash and to treat minor scrapes. It’s also edible. Use the flowers in salads – I find you need to break them up or people usually pick them all out too easily.
I am informed that Monarda is excellent for seasoning wild game but have not tried this myself -- the wildest games I have in the kitchen are usually board games. ;-)

Also known as Oswago Tea or Bergamot, Bee Balm make an excellent tea. Blend with black tea for an earl-greyish taste, although this is not the Bergamot of Earl Grey fame; or go straight Bee Balmy for curing headaches and "the vapors." Just breathing the steam of boiling Bee Balm is said to be good for a sore throat, and it certainly smells nice enough to be worth trying that the next time I have a sore throat.

Spray Starch and Sizing

I love the puckery look of washing and shrinking a quilt after it has been layered and quilted. That's my preference. There are some fabrics that absolutely must be pre-washed however. For example, Batiks will bleed their dye everywhere the instant I forget and don't pre-wash them.

I believe it's okay to mix pre-washed and not pre-washed fabrics in the same quilt top -- puckers, remember. The one thing to overcome when mixing fabric like that is the texture. Pre-washed fabric and fabric straight off the bolt at the store behave differently. Here's why: textile manufacturers use sizing on the fabric to give it more body.

So, to make pre-washed fabric behave like new from the store fabric, use a spray starch when ironing.

You Can't Catch Me I'm the Gingerbread Man

This morning before I run, run, run errands as fast as I can I thought I’d make a gingerbread man potholder. These anthropomorphic kitchen helpers are a big hit with my family and I’ve a sister with a birthday coming up. {Pretend to be surprised later – you know who you are.}

First I layer fabric with all the leftover bits trimmed from finished quilts. All those scrappy bits of batt wider than 2 inches that I hate to throw away because “they’re still good for something” are good for this. I like a thick potholder (these are meant to be used) so I go about 5 or 6 layers thick. This particular gingerbread man is sporting layers of Quilter’s Dream Poly, natural Dream Cotton, and his belly has got a wholesome piece of Organic Cotton batt in it. Yum.

His top layer gets pinned in place to prevent shifting and I cut him out with pinking shears . Then it’s off to the oven, err, sewing machine with our gingerbread man. He gets a row of straight stitching, use a hopping foot to get over the layers if you need to, and then switch back to a regular wide foot to do zigzag around the edges.

Mine always need to be trimmed a little then. To even out the edges and neaten him up a bit; I go fast and don’t always stay on my own lines. It adds character.

Be sure to check both sides. You want to make sure all the raw edges are caught so it won’t fray out badly in the washing machine, but don’t panic if his stuffing is showing a little. It’s supposed to – he’s raw. (As in raw-edged, and uncooked, and possibly a bad pun?) I have tried making gingerbread with turned under edges and they end up looking too skinny, this way they just look plump and properly puffy.

Then his decorations secure the fragments of batting so that he doesn’t end up lopsided. I use the stitched zigzag (#16 stitch for my machine) across his hands and feet. Normally I do buttonholes for the button spots down his middle, this time I tried free-handing some weeping willow trees. And don’t forget to add his face – straight stitch with the hopping foot and scribble it on there.

Could You Be More Specific?

How to Break-Up

The following conversation may vary with the unscripted responses of the other individual -- the most likely comments were chosen as representative.

“Umm, Honey, I believe the evidence examined in the unbiased light of real science supports the Intelligent Design and Creation.”
“What!?! How could you be so ignorant? Don’t you know that evolution has been proven?”
“Define proven.”
“Well, Everyone knows it’s true.”
Try not to be smug when you say: “I don’t.”
At this point they will look at you as if you are the stupidest person on the planet. Tell your soon to be in-significant other “Evolution is an unproven Theory. Even Darwin didn’t believe it in the end.”
The rebuttal to that point will most likely be an inarticulate scream of frustration and a forceble attempt to remove hair from their own head. A movement resembling a figure skating sit-spin sometimes accompanies this.
Now show some mercy, soften your voice and speak calmly but pleasantly. “I am willing to postulate that both Intelligent Design and Evolution are un-testable hypotheses and therefore theoretical, with no proof beyond sheer faith. I even go so far as to grant your right to believe, however misguided, that you are the product of millions of years of accidental mishaps in the life of an amoebic protein chain.”
“So you do think evolution is true, then.” Confusion and relief will struggle for dominance in this response.
“No.” not too breezily, now. Be kind. You and I know what you’re going to say next but they do not see it coming. “But since I can neither prove nor disprove either theory to your satisfaction, I have decided to let you be the product of evolution if you want and I will continue to be the purposely created child of a Loving God.”
“Well, I… What?”
“It’s a compromise.”
“So I’ve evolved and you’ve been designed.” The shaking head and patronizing smirk indicate amusement and a degree of disgust.
“Yes, I will accept the idea that you are the end product, the eventual genetic offspring of random mutant monkey parentage, while you will admit I am the deliberate, intentional child of a purposeful Creator.” Pause for a moment, let it sink in. “Unfortunately that means I can’t date you anymore.”
“Huh?” [editor's note: there is a 47% variable indicating that this response might actually be "Wha...?" as that is not an actual word we have kept the "Huh?"]
You continue, “Our compromise requires that I no longer believe that we are the same species, I’m sorry. I'm just not willing to date inter-specially.”
They will tell all their friends that they broke up with you because you are nuts.

Disclaimer: the above is pure imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is coincidental and mostly unintentional. For entertainment purposes only, ABSOLUTELY NOT MEANT AS RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.

Pink Diamonds

You may have seen the PBS Nature program special on Diamonds that first aired back in 2006, or perhaps are aware of this through some other channels, but it caught my attention that there are pink (and a few red) diamonds coming from the Argyle Mines in the Australian outback. What’s really interesting about these million dollars a karat diamonds is why the diamonds are pink. No one knows why. The program was quite clear on what makes other colors (such as boron makes diamonds blue) but they said that the pink baffled everyone.

Now I will admit I know nothing of conditions below the mantle where diamonds form; and diamonds supposedly two to three million years old are from an era definitely out of my sphere of surety -- but I immediately thought of a reason for diamonds to be pink. (I’ll admit from a scientific standpoint it’s a complete cop-out.)

They were made that way. After all, some diamonds just are meant to be pink – like the ones in this strip-pieced Lonestar baby quilt. I found this pieced top in my stack of UFOs, that’s UnFinished Objects not space visitors, in my closet. I think it may be older than those Australian pink diamonds.