Week ends . . . past and future

The weekends always go too quickly. Saturday, my DGS and I went to the Children's Museum, in Indianapolis. This is a wonderful place for kids and adults, and home of the largest permanent exhibit of glass from Dale Chihuly, a blaze of color that is four-stories high in an atrium. Just stunning. I never tire of looking at the components of this piece . . . but, I always think about how hard it would be to dust! One very interesting aspect is that one can go to the lower level, and lie back on a rotating circular sofa looking up into the base of the sculpture.

Currently, they have an exhibit on animation, and Super Heroes. So, not only did we see some vintage cartoons . . . Drew giggled madly at "El KaBong", a Hanna-Barbera classic . . . but an animator was on site, and he actually drew a cartoon based upon suggestions from the audience. One of the suggestions was horseback riding, and another was waiting in line for ice cream. So, he drew a horse, making its way through a line for a chance to eat grass.

In the Super Hero exhibit, we saw one of the eight Batmobiles. Pretty strange looking car . . . bet it would be difficult to parallel park with those huge wheels in back. Evidently, my practical side was in charge this weekend, because I kept applying daily considerations to the unusual.

In the drive, to and from Indianapolis, my grandson was greatly concerned if we would have adequate fuel, as well as, the distance. My Montana has a trip odometer, so I set that at zero, so he could watch the mileage. It also has a computer mode which will reveal how many miles one can travel on the remaining fuel. I don't know that he has ever been in a car that ran out of gas, but perhaps he's heard comments about getting short of fuel. Anyway, I set the other computer, so that he could see our range of mileage, and I estimated that we could drive 450 miles on a full tank. One of the things that puzzled him was how the range could drop as we accelerated, and actually go up when our speed evened off. He wanted to know if we got better mileage by going faster. I wasn't sure I could explain that to his satisfaction, but I gave it a try. He so bright, it is really fun to hear his questions. Probably the funniest thing he ever asked was as we were driving along one day, and he said, "Nan . . . tell me how something works." My DH says I have set myself up to this kind of questions, going back to when I showed him an electric eye that activated an automated Santa one year at Christmas. I don't really mind . . . it's one of the things my parents always did for me, so I'm just carrying on the tradition.

Next Saturday, several of us are piling in a couple of cars, and heading to Madison, Indiana, for a visit to Margie's Country Store, a very nice quilt shop, and other destinations in town, such as Lanthier Winery, the fudge shop, and the Lumbermill antique shop. The crew will be kind of a combination of two quilting groups . . . sort of mixed nuts! I'm dedicating myself to minimal purchases . . . looking for some chocolate browns. A couple weeks ago, my friend, Linda G, came over from Cleveland for a couple days, and got to come to quilt group with us. She had been tidying up her studio, bent on removing things she would never make. She passed these things along to the rest of us. In this bounty, were eight kits for a quilt designed by Piece O' Cake a few years ago, called, "Tulips in the Park", long on my list of quilts to make if I live long enough. My first thought was that I would take the kits to Camp in September for the "garage sale" . . . but as I looked through them, I thought this was an opportunity for me. I actually have several of the patterns already, having picked them out of clearance bins through the years. Here in my hands was the launch of the quilt with 75% of them already in kit form. I didn't have to think too long, actually. I went to my stash, and pulled out a few browns to supplement, and that gives me a shopping objective, too. Having a "shopping list" is much safer than walking into a quilt shop without a plan!

Yesterday, I spent the day repairing a poorly made quilt. It belongs to the elderly neighbor of a friend, and Helen had asked if I could fix some places where the stitching had broken. The quilt had been a gift to this older lady, and she was greatly distressed by the damage. It turned out to be one of those imported jobs that some of the discount stores sell. If it had been technically correct, it wouldn't have been possible to repair . . . but, it also probably wouldn't have NEEDED the repairs. There were tucks and bubbles in the piecing all over, and some of those stresses were too much on the large stitches. Every time I thought I was done, I found several more splits. I just told myself, it would make this older woman happy, and make me appreciate the skills and good materials I am fortunate to have.

I'm going back to working on my current Santa now, and have only his beard, mustache, eyebrows, and hat to put in place. Saturday morning, before Drew arrived, I was able to piece the next Somewhere in Time block from Block Central, so that project is current again. I'm so lucky to have multiple projects going!