Border or No Border? (A Quilt Question, not a Geopolitical Question)

Yesterday, after writing about quilting, I laid the quilt blocks that I've made from Thanksgiving until early January across the bed.

In some ways, they're a bit too busy, so I separated them to see if having a border around each square would be better.

I worry about a border, because I was creating quilt squares with the thought that they'd be together in a crazy quilt kind of pattern.  I'll keep adding to the pile as I keep pondering.

Quilting Timelines

I have been up for awhile, my brain ping-ponging around creative projects.  Let me describe it so that I remember.

I woke up thinking about what I want to work on during Quilt Camp in March and what needs to happen in the two months between now and quilt camp.  I thought further ahead--Quilt Camp in March is not the only one.  There will also be one in August and one in November.

I thought about the timeline that I need to keep to have the Christmas quilt done for my cousin's first child as a graduation (from high school) present; I want to have it ready by Thanksgiving when I see her again.  What background fabric should I get?  Then I remembered that I already bought some backing fabric back in March when JoAnn Fabric was first having their going out of business sales.   

I thought about the log cabin quilt that is close to being ready to quilt; I've sewed the remaining squares and need to turn them into a long strip and attach it to the quilt top.  Maybe I want to finish that one in March.  If so, it's time to think about backing fabric.  I'll make a back big enough to do a fold-over binding.  I could create the back and assemble/quilt at Quilt Camp in March.

I felt a momentary sadness because I didn't get backing fabric during the 20% off sale at Asheville Cotton Company--then I remembered that the sale doesn't end until January 16.  I may head over on Tuesday and see what I find.  Why not today?  The rain pounding on the deck in the pre-dawn dark makes me think it's a good day to stay put.

I went online and saw a woman's crocheted "temperature" blanket, and I wondered about creating something similar this week in fabric:  red/pink fabrics for warmer weeks and blue/purple fabrics for cooler weeks.  And then I laughed at myself.  I have more than enough projects to keep me busy for the next few years.  My cousin has two more children who will be graduating.

If I give a quilt for high school graduation, what about college graduation and weddings, if those events happen?  Let me leave those questions for later years.

First Day Back: Workshops and Hot Meals

Although I was very tired by the end of the afternoon, yesterday was a good first day back at Spartanburg Methodist College.  Classes don't start until Tuesday; yesterday was a day for a very short meeting, four concurrent workshop sessions, and two (two!) real meals--not cold food in a box, but buffet meals of hot food with options that showed that everyone's dietary needs could be met.

Many of us have worked at other places, so we know that we've got a good situation; there wasn't  grumbling about having to report to work yesterday.  Plus, we've had a nice, long break, and most of us can look forward to a summer off.  Throughout the day, I reflected on my pre-administrator days, when I thought that having 3 weeks off was luxurious, and I never had a summer off.

The workshops were interesting, with ideas that I could actually use.  I also went to the 2 workshop session on strategic planning/visioning, which I liked, even though I know that many of our good ideas won't be implemented.  But they won't be implemented because we had so many of them, not because no one cares.  

That session ended with an interesting question:  if the school got 10 million dollars, what should the school do with it?  Ten million isn't life changing money for an institution.  Our newest building, built in 2012 (I think) cost 12 million.  But it's not no money either.  I thought that was a fascinating way to frame the question and to help us think about priorities.

I returned home tired, but it was a good tired, not the "I hate my life" tired.  I woke up several hours earlier than usual, which was another aspect of yesterday that left me tired.  I thought that I would get syllabi finished, but I didn't.  That turned out to be a good thing, as I made adjustments to my English 102 syllabus/approach during the day.

Today I go back to campus for a shorter day.  Again, it doesn't make me angry, the way it might have done in my 20's or 30's.  On the contrary, I feel lucky to be in a place that encourages us to take real time away, which leaves us refreshed and ready to do the work of the school.

A Few More Snippets from Winter Break

As I head back to a more regular work schedule, let me capture a few last snippets that I haven't so far.

--As we traveled, we saw a lot of wildlife.  Of course, we often see a lot of wildlife, a lot of dead wildlife by the side of the road.  But Christmas Eve, as we drove back across the mountain from Bristol (TN) to Arden (NC), we saw a wolf.  You might ask how we knew it was a wolf and not a dog/coyote/fox.  It was a large animal, with a face that wasn't like a fox or a coyote.  It was far from any house where a dog might have gotten out of a fenced yard.  We also saw an eagle on our trip back from Williamsburg.  At first I thought it was your average vulture, but it had white wings and a white head as it swooped up away from the road kill he had been eating.

--Our neighborhood group put together a dinner for a group of retreat staff who are meeting at Lutheridge this week.  I was pleased with the amount of help I got.  I didn't take a picture of the 3 lasagnas (a Stouffers lasagna with meat, a homemade one with chicken, and a homemade one with roasted veggies), the bags of salad, the loaves of bread, the homemade banana pudding.  But I did get a picture of the Kings Cake that I made (recipe in this blog post) and that my friend decorated:

--When we were in the resort in Williamsburg, we had great fun transforming leftovers from a restaurant meal into more meals for the smaller group of family that vacationed from December 31-Jan. 2.  We went home with risotto and pasta and 14 garlic rolls.  We used garlic rolls so that we didn't have to go out to get bread for lunch; it went well with our hummus and carrots.  The risotto and pasta were the base for our meal on January 1, along with some additional shrimp that we brought to cook.  Delicious!

--When winter break started, I didn't know that I had a melanoma, so I didn't know I would spend part of the holiday having a melanoma removed.  Here's the site just after the biopsy in early December:

And here's how it looked with the steri-strips in place:

I'm glad that the melanoma surgeon warned me that the site would look lumpy because he always stitches underneath.  The stitches will dissolve and the arm will smooth out.  Here's how it looked yesterday, January 6, a day warm enough to walk in a sleeveless shirt:

--We've had whiplash weather all break, from very wintry weather (but no real snow) to very balmy weather, with record breaking warmth on Christmas Day and much of this week.  If I lived here all by myself, it would be just fine with me.  My spouse is much more grumpy when it's cold, so I'd be happy if our current spring weather meant we never went back to wintry weather.  

--Before yesterday, I might have written about how I didn't do much poetry writing, but Tuesday, I came up with a pretty good rough draft.  I saw the foggy weather and thought about the early December forecast for freezing fog, and came up with an interesting Epiphany poem.

--Even if I haven't done a lot of writing, I've done a lot of quilting.  My spouse and I made 4 quilt tops for the local Lutheran group that creates quilts for Lutheran World Relief.  I made a lot of log cabin squares for my cousin's oldest child who graduates next year.  She loves Christmas, so I'm using all Christmas fabrics.  Here's what I will remember when I think about this winter break:

--I have really loved the fiber optic lighted tree in the above picture.  I love it every year, but this year, every morning I turned it on when I first got up in the pre-dawn hours.  I turned off the other lights in the front living room/kitchen, except for the stovetop light.  It has been SO beautiful.

--I have loved having time to see friends and family.  The lack of lots of time to see friends and family is the one drawback to my teaching and preaching schedule.

It's been a great winter break, and while that fact can make it hard to go back, it also makes me grateful.

Last Day of Winter Break

Today is the last day of winter break, although it will be a slow re-entry back to my teaching life schedule at Spartanburg Methodist College.  

Tomorrow we have a day of faculty meetings and workshops--and breakfast and lunch!  The world is divided into two types of people, those who understand why I am so thrilled to have breakfast and lunch that the school provides and those who don't see it as a big deal.  I spent years of administrator life arguing that if we required faculty to be on campus all day, we should provide them food, snacks at the very least.  If we weren't going to do that, we would need to give them a real lunch break, at least 2 hours, if we thought they'd all go out and get their own lunch nearby.  Most of my fellow administrators, almost all of them not exactly pro-faculty, thought I was unreasonable:  these faculty should be grateful to have jobs at all!

Unlike some years in the now more distant past, I don't mind going in for a day of meetings and workshops.  On Friday, we have a morning of meetings.  Again, it's fine with me.  It would be even more fine if my commute was shorter, but that's on me.

This morning, I was a bit gobsmacked by realizing how long it's been since I've been a full-time faculty member returning from winter break:  that would be early January of 2007.  After that, I was an administrator, and I would find out what it meant, truly meant, not to have had enough time away.

Today I'll continue getting ready to go back to my full-time schedule:  some organizing, some laundry, some syllabi creation.  I also need to work on my faculty annual report, but I'll do that after getting syllabi for Tuesday classes ready.

It's strange to think how some of these requirements, like the annual faculty review form, used to drive me crazy, but now I'm not disturbed at all.  Part of it is that I'm older, and I understand that much of the world works this way, with some annual review and assessment as part of ongoing full-time employment.  Part of it is that I've worked at places where it was all performative and no one ever looked at these laborious forms; at my current job, we get extensive written feedback on our annual reports, from everyone from our department chair to the provost.  The provost has a face to face meeting with every full-time faculty, which I've never experienced in any work setting I've ever had.

While I never want to go back to dealing with assessment and accrediting the way I did as an administrator, that experience, too, helps me understand why we need to do some of the things we do as a department and a school.  I am happy to pitch in.

And to be honest, these requirements don't take much from me.  The annual report will take an hour or two to write, but the writing comes naturally to me.  The faculty workshops always give me a nugget or two--or more--that I can use.

Part of it, too, is that I have had a generous break.  I left campus for Thanksgiving and haven't been back.  That week after Thanksgiving, I worked remotely so it felt like the first week of winter break, even though it really wasn't.

Yesterday my spouse asked me if I was looking forward to going back to work.  I said that I wasn't dreading it, the way I had in past years--and that is a gift.  I'm happy to be able to recognize it for the gift that it is.

A Poem for Epiphany

As I look back through my poetry folder, I'm surprised to see how many Epiphany poems I have.  I've always found the liturgical year and holidays to be fruitful places for inspiration, and Epiphany is particularly rich.  You've got a new star, wise people from a distant land, a murderous dictator, a baby whose story we already know, and various types of knowledge (observation, dreams, ancient information).

I often read T. S. Eliot's "Journey of the Magi" as Epiphany approaches; this year, Ross Douthat posted a reading which I like even better than my own internal voice reading the poem.  That reading sent me back to my poetry folder, and today I'm posting this poem which draws inspiration from Eliot's.  It was written about 10 years ago, and this appearance is its first publication.

Dispensations Old and New



The old dispensation cannot save
you now. Hard and bitter agony.
Eat stones for breakfast, crack
your teeth before sunrise,
it makes no difference.
Suckle the camels who cannot eat cactus,
wait for the silken girls with their sherbet,
No one will sing to you.

You must listen to a different song.
Plug your ears against the angel chorus.
Put away the mandolin and fiddle.
Listen for the star’s quiet plainsong.
Follow the single note.

Leave death’s twilight kingdom.
Enter the deep midnight,
the place you hoped
would be a temporary sojourn.
Learn the new landscape with only
your fingertips for navigation.

Houses of Dynamite

I spent the week-end watching A House of Dynamite, which I've wanted to see since it came out.  At last, we had a moment and seized it on Saturday.  It was so well done that I wanted to see it again, to see the artistry of it, once I had the plot figured out.

In some ways, it was strange to be watching a movie about the launch of a nuclear missile during the week-end of the U.S. invasion of Venezuela.  It might have been better to watch Missing, which is about U.S. intervention in Chile or maybe Salvador about U.S. interference in El Salvador.  

Watching A House of Dynamite also made me want to revisit the nuclear war movies of my youth:  The Day After, Testament, and Threads.  But I am resisting--there's only so much of this that I can take and maintain my equilibrium.

It was interesting, though, seeing the very realistic sets of A House of Dynamite and reflecting on the sets of Threads and The Day After, especially the military bases and government operations.   The technology is both updated (all those computers!) and old-school (the siloes that house the missiles, the hatches that cover the siloes).  Then as in the 1980's, I think about all the money spent on weapons, what else it might have been used for.  But I also know that some of that technology had additional purposes, like our laptops and phones that might not have been invented otherwise--weather forecasting equipment too, that keeps us safer.

A House of Dynamite also had wonderful shots of the D.C. area, which gave me that twist of time feeling.  It made me think of the D.C. of the year that I lived there in seminary, but also the D.C. of the 1980's.  In some ways, they are very different cities, and I thought about how long I've loved that city, but how it is unlikely I'll be spending much time there again.

But who knows.  Five years ago, Wesley wasn't even part of my awareness, although it was about to be.  Life takes interesting turns.