Thanks Mom

Some of you may have heard that San Diego and the surrounding area experienced a little bit of a power outage last week. I was in a meeting when the power wound down but because we were in the middle of a heat wave, we knew that power outages were possible. I was surprised to find things a little different this time - it took me 30 minutes to drive the 2 miles from the base to the ship, and that was on the highway (which I only take because it minimizes stoplights and school zones.) I decided to keep my fridge and freezer closed and headed to the local store to see if they had any stock they wanted to get rid of, but I never quite made it. I stopped to chat with the neighbors three doors down, who are the local neighborhood social club even on normal days. We started chatting and then they offered me a beer and  not only am I a Sailor but my mom tought me to be polite, so I said "Yes, please" and sat down for a bit. I stopped at one because I had a funny feeling, and sure enough, about two hours later I started getting texts from the ship that were coming in random order, so I headed in. There was the oddest sight on my way...

No power = no trolley. This was just sitting on the street, thankfully not blocking any interesctions. All the riders had been evacuated well before I drove past. On the dark, deserted street, it gave the road an eerie feeling. The ship stuff was well in hand when I arrived, so we discussed the possibilities given the uncertianty of getting power back that night or the next day, so I cancelled work - schools were already cancelled, so it was the best thing for my guys.

We did get power back - at my house around 11:30 that night and to the shipyard (2 miles to the southwest) ar around 2:45 the next morning. I went in but given the continuing instability of the power grid, I elected to keep the sensitive electronics secured. That included computers...which meant there wasn't much to be done, so I went to a couple of meetings and then headed home to do the paper-based work I had left at home. And, I did a little finishing...

Yup, that's actual quilting you see there, on mom's "Thanks For Taking Care of my Dog-Hating Cat for Eight Months" quilt.

And there's binding...

I sewed the binding down normally, but I really wanted a little punch of color on the binding, so I did some fancy machine stitching as well. (That's about as fancy a stitch as my trusty machine gets, but it's exactly fancy enough for me.)  You can see that I did a single line of stitching on the narrow black pieces and a double line on each side of the wider "wave" pieces.

Here is the finished quilt in the natural light of my living room on Saturday afternoon (after I'd fixed a couple of bobbles that reminded me I shouldn't be sewing at midnight), so the colors are pretty true here.

 

Comments

[Margaret]

congratulations on finishing the quilt.Your Mum will be so pleased to have a nice homemade quilt to snuggle under now that you are heading for the cold weather up your end of the world.
You might be able to make one for your new house, now that you are back into" quilting mode"

[Cathy]

Stunning quilt! The colors are so rich and restful. Despite all the different patterns, it looks serene rather than busy.

[Shanti's Mommy]

I love it Shanti ... now, when do I get it? I can't wait.

I chose the colors myself with the backing as my inspiration. Shanti wasn't sure they were going to work, but she worked her magic and suggested the black waves as opposed to the sage I had initially selected.

Beautiful!