WIP Wednesday 08/06/14

Unfortunately, I have not had nearly enough time to stitch this week.  I managed to make a bit of progress on my Heaven and Earth Designs Freebie of Santa and the Mouse.  (I finished a bit of orange and filled in some blue.)  Any additional time I have had, I have spent working on my Heart RR block.  It has been fun to work on and I hope to have it finished in time to mail out this afternoon. 

To see what others have been up to check out the comments on this post at pintangle.com.

Last Friday, I went on my first college campus tour with Monkey (my eldest.) It is hard to believe he will be a senior this year.  My youngest will be a freshman.  I have no idea where the time went - lol!

I am kind of excited and kind of nervous all at once because I also entered two items into the textile category at the county fair on Friday.  This is a first for me.  I have no expectations of ribbons, but I thought it would be fun to enter them anyway.  The fair will be next week.  While leaving the fairgrounds, I lived through the longest 4-5 of the longest seconds of my life...  It's a bit off topic, but writing about it may be therapeutic.

Imagine approaching a railroad crossing and seeing there is barely enough room for one car between the intersection (with a red light) and the railroad crossing guard.  Sure enough, I crossed the tracks and as soon as I stopped at the light the "ding, ding, ding" of the alarm began.  I glanced in the rear view mirror to see how far the back of my car was from the slowly lowering guard and began inching forward - just to be sure I was not in the way.  I glanced back again, to see if there was plenty of space only to see the horrified expression of a woman who now sat in a car behind me ON THE TRACKS.  I could read her lips as she screamed, "GO!"  Umm... red light.  Cars in intersection.  I glanced back again. Was there a car behind her I could not see? Is that why she did not back up?  She could pull into the empty right turn lane next to me to get off the tracks.  Why wasn't she moving? Did she need more space to maneuver into that lane? I inched a bit more forward and realized the cars in the lanes to my left had stopped.  I looked up at the light. A horn behind me blared just as I saw the light was now green.  Thank you, God! I quickly made my left-hand turn.  In the rear view mirror, I saw her safely make her way straight through the intersection.  My mind was still reeling.  I saw train cars stopped along the track.  Did the train have to stop? Did it get that close? Did I hear it honk in warning as it approached the woman's car stopped on the tracks? Logic said no, it did not stop.  The tires would have screamed.  There would have been noise. But there was a train stopped. (On the way home, I confirmed there was actually just a string of train cars simply parked on one of the tracks.  The train had not stopped, but carried on its way.)  I parked at the grocery store (my destination) about a block away. I held my hand in front of me and it shook violently.  In my mind, I could still see the woman screaming, "Go!"  But, the light was red.  It turned green. When did it turn green? I asked my 17-year-old son.  He shrugged and told me she could have backed up.  There was no car behind her.  In its shock, my mind could not wrap itself around the knowledge the the woman was okay. "Did she get across?" I asked, the memory of watching her car cross the intersection vaguely flashed in my mind. He reassured me she did.  I am not sure how many times my incredibly rational son repeated, "Nothing bad happened and if it had, you did not do anything wrong."  It was so easy to hear, but so hard to believe.  Had things turned out differently, I could have seen the train hit that woman in her car.  And I would have had to live with the knowledge that I chose not to move my car out of her way.  (Knowing that would have required running a red light and driving into an intersection, risking more lives, would have brought little comfort.  As it is, the question still haunts me. When did the light turn green?)  I remembered my mom telling me stories of the man that decided to commit suicide before I was born.  He parked his car on the train tracks in front a train while my uncle was in the car with him.  The train must have hit the passenger side first.  My mom said the train conductor later said he could see my uncle scream, "Oh my God."  (How long did that image haunt that conductor, I wondered.)  I thanked God for the blessing of all of us safely driving away.  I noted blessings do not all feel like sunshine and rainbows.  I was thankful, nonetheless.  I kept trying to wrap my mind around why I did not see the car the first time I looked back, but did the second time.  If that memory was accurate, it would have meant she drove onto the tracks AFTER the alarms began ringing to alert us to the oncoming train.  I could not comprehend why she did not back up, or pull into the empty right turn lane.  Then my mother-in-law's comment put all the puzzle pieces together.  "She was trying to race across and beat the crossing guards from lowering."  I suppose if you were familiar with that road, and knew the light would change in your favor, you MIGHT be willing to pull up onto those busy train tracks and stop behind a car stopped AT A RED LIGHT knowing a train was approaching.  Maybe if you were willing to gamble with your life.  (Though I would hope not.) What if the gamble did not pay off? Every choice has consequences.  And the person making the choice is not always the only one to pay those consequences.  What about the consequences on the life of the train conductor or the driver of the car in front of you?  When there is another car at the intersection, it is no longer about the timing of the light and the crossing guard dropping.  There is now a human element.  The driver of that vehicle might find the horror of the situation as enough of a distraction that they may not see the light has turned green for a second or two.  (When, exactly, did that light change?!)  In the end, my son was right. Nothing horrible happened.  With luck, that lady will not stop on the train tracks in the future; if so, there would be at least one positive result of those stressful moments. As for me, I may take the long way around and skip that intersection altogether when I leave the county fair this year...

I apologize for the short novel!

Anyway, this week I have some big projects around the house I hope to complete, so I may not have much progress to share next week.  We shall see!  In addition to what is marked off below, we picked 21 pounds of blueberries and I put up over 10 pounds of peaches and 6 pounds of pears.  My youngest and I even made 4 batches of homemade fruit leather and a batch of dairy-free coconut fig ice cream!

Last Week's List:

Short-term: 

1. The wall quilt I plan to create with all of my CQI Winter/Christmas blocks. 
2. Make a TAST post. Done! View it HERE.
3. Make a purse with my April CQJP 2014 block.
4. Complete back for May CQJP 2014 block.
5. Make a purse with my May CQJP 2014 block.
6. Freebie Santa and the Mouse Ornament -  Heaven and Earth Designs chart by Michele Sayetta and artwork by Scott Gustafson. (I believe the ornament is a portion of the chart "Santa and the Mouse.") Complete 100 x-stitches by next week. Hmmm.... I do not believe I quite reached 100.
7. Embellish Barbara's block for CQI Hearts Round Robin. 
8. Complete Fabric Postcard for CQ for Newbies Yahoo! Group Swap. Done! I will share pics after I know it has been received.

Long-term: 

1. My CQJP 2013 May block - better late than never?! (It is referred to as Block 4 if you follow this link.)
2. A crazy quilted hexagon to participate in my first swap with the World Wide Crazy Quilters Yahoo! Group
3. A change purse for myself. 
4. Have a count of at least 50,000 words for my CampNaNoWriMo novel.
5. Embellish June CQJP 2014 block.
6. Make a purse with June CQJP 2014 block.
7. Embellish July CQJP 2014 block.

This Week's List:

Short-term: 

1. The wall quilt I plan to create with all of my CQI Winter/Christmas blocks. 
2. Make a TAST post. 
3. Complete back for May CQJP 2014 block.
4. Freebie Santa and the Mouse Ornament -  Heaven and Earth Designs chart by Michele Sayetta and artwork by Scott Gustafson. (I believe the ornament is a portion of the chart "Santa and the Mouse.") Complete 100 x-stitches by next week. 
5. Embellish Barbara's block for CQI Hearts Round Robin. 
6. Paint guest bathroom.
7. Weed front yard.  (Like the way I added my chores - lol!)

Long-term: 

1. Make a purse with my April CQJP 2014 block.
2. Make a purse with my May CQJP 2014 block.
3. My CQJP 2013 May block - better late than never?! (It is referred to as Block 4 if you follow this link.)
4. Embellish crazy quilted hexagon to participate in my first swap with the World Wide Crazy Quilters Yahoo! Group
5. A change purse for myself. 
6. Have a count of at least 50,000 words for my CampNaNoWriMo novel.
7. Embellish June CQJP 2014 block.
8. Embellish July CQJP 2014 block.
9. Piece August CQJP 2014 block. (I may combine this with #10)
10. Make an up-cycled coin purse.
11. Open an Etsy shop and list up-cycled coin purse! (I am excited and nervous.  Any Etsy tips are welcome for this newbie!)
12. Piece and embellish snowball for Kathy S. by September 30th.
13. Piece and embellish snowballs for Nicki Lee, Donna and Lori by end of October.
14. Piece and embellish snowballs for Lynne by the November 15th.