I am a quilter which happened strictly by chance when my husbands second overseas assignment in Okpo, Korea put me there at the same time as an avid quilter. Unbeknownst to me, her mission, I think, was to turn everyone she met into a quilter. As I was not busy with school aged children, I feel into her web and she invited me to learn to quilt and I did. I still have that first quilt which still functions as a nice warm bed cover but also is pretty rugged and raw in quality. But that was the start and now, around 50 or more quilts later, I am a quilter.
I quilt by what I call the "Law of Three" In every three quilts I do, one is absolutely great and I'm proud to show it to anyone. One is OK, humdrum but acceptable, quite nice but only from a distance kind of quilt. And quilt number three is just crap. Usually because I get really tired of messing with quilt number three and just finish it up as fast as possible so usually the quilting isn't as nice on it and the binding is really ugly or bad but it still works in the dead of winter to keep us warm and looks good from a further distance. I don't intentionally work this way, it just comes out this way, no matter what I do, it seems. So now I accept it and go with it. and embrace all my quilts and love them, even the ugly and crap ones. We have so many that I joke we'll always be warm, even in a nuclear winter, but we may but crushed under the weight of all my quilts!
Anyway, I have two machines. One is my first quilting machine, a very nice Elna. I took it to the states with me a couple of years ago to leave with my daughter as I figured I would be going to visit her once a year or more often and during that time, I would be wanting to do some quilting as I would stock up on supplies and fabric and patterns when there. My machine was with her less than 6 months when she got a new assignment and closed up shop, put all her things into storage, including my Elna, and started rotational assignments out of Africa. The good news is she gets to come and visit me more often. The bad news is my backup sewing machine is in storage with no idea when I will see it again.
I bought my Janome at a quilt show probably 8-10 years ago. I love it as it does everything but tap dance for me. I'll be the first to admit that I don't use it to it's full capacity but it has made many a delicious lovely quilt for me (even with the Law of Three). Sometimes I get really busy doing other things here in England and it sits for awhile and then I go back to it and bang out several quilts in a row and everyone is happy.
This last time, I let it sit a bit too long and made a really beginner error that has cost me the life of my machine! I killed it! I went back to get a quilt done for a present, a little small thing with applique but needed zigzagging around the applique figures. I forgot to change my plate on the machine - that part where the needle goes into the machine to pick up the bottom thread. I had the straight stitch plate on the machine and needed to change to the plate where the needle could find it's way into the machine by being in other positions rather than dead center. After breaking three needles, I figured it out. Of course, each time I broke a needle, the machine would "stopped for safety reasons". I would change the needle, curse a bit or a lot, and try again.
Finally, after the third needle breaking and a lot more cursing, I figured out what was wrong and started changing out the plate and cursing at myself that I had made such a stupid mistake. I turned off the machine while I was doing this. When I turned on the machine, a new error was showing in the message panel and I had to look up this error because I had never seen it. Basically it said "I've died now, you idiot, because of your stupidity, and now you must take me to a service center to fix me!!!!"
Oh My! Who knew my machine was so expressive. Found a lovely Janome service center about an hour away from my house and my husband and I hauled in my machine along with the transformer because it is a U.S. machine with a U.S. plug. I have had that machine with me in Korea and used it on a transformer for over three years without a problem and have had it here in England for over two years with the transformer without a problem.
Unfortunately, the service center first suspected I was just a total idiot and had plugged my machine into British current and a surge had killed it. when I explained that wasn't the case, the owner delved a bit further and came back with "there have been 4 upgrades to this machine since you bought it and it is no longer supported by Janome so there are no parts available". OH, as good as the kiss of death! Booooo Hooooo Hooooo. There is nothing left for me to do except go pick it up and store it away until we go back to the states and try to find parts there. poor machine. But my quilting days are not done. I will find some sort of replacement to continue to quilt here in England. I'm sure we need more quilts and it is my duty as the quilt maker to have warm quilts available for all members of my family, be they two footed or four footed!
Showing posts with label Okpo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Okpo. Show all posts
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Friday, November 8, 2013
Eulogy to my friend - CS
Most of my friends are ex-pats. Several reasons: (1) shared experiences (and all ex-pats know this feeling that when you start to explain anything to a non-ex-pat, their eyes glaze over because they can't comprehend the lifestyle) (2) I don't make friends easily because I'm fairly shy but being an ex-pat in a small community situation (like when we lived in row houses in Okpo, Korea) means you have to get to know the people in the same community and (3) I find it much easier to keep in touch with people via email, facebook, letters, holiday cards, etc. I consider some of my ex-pat friends to be my best friends because of the experiences we have shared and the hardships/fun/trials and tribulations on moving, living in a country that doesn't speak English, trying to find "proper" food, etc. And often I don't see these friends for years at a time because our husbands move onto different projects and our paths don't cross. But I miss them and keep in touch, sometimes sporadically, but if our husbands come back together on a project, we pick up our friendships exactly where we left it. CS was such a person, a wonderful friend but we haven't seen each other in years as our husbands have been on different projects.
Last week I saw on facebook that my friend was having a birthday so I sent a birthday greeting. I got a message back from her husband that she was in the hospital and dying of breast cancer. OMG. I had no clue. She is someone I consider one of my best ex-pat friends. This was sad news indeed. Then yesterday I got on the computer to see another message from "her". Her husband wrote that she had died the previous night and the funeral was Friday. I had to cry and I am still tearing up that my friend had kept her illness pretty much a secret from a lot of us ex-pat friends and that I never had a chance to say goodbye and tell her how much I valued her friendship and enjoyed her company.
My friend was delightful. She had a wickedly droll sense of humor. Often on a comment of hers I would pause and think "she did NOT just say that" before dissolving into laughter over the comedy of it and the situation of it. We shared an unusual life in Korea in a small town for awhile and then her husband moved on to a rotational existence and she settled down in the Pacific Northwest. Part of our time together was in Houston also. They had a weird dog and let me walk it on occasion which was difficult because everyone wanted to come see what kind of dog it was but the dog was adamant about getting into fights with any other male dog. So I'd cross the street continually to avoid other dogs. What I didn't realize even then was my friend was probably struggling with cancer and it was probably a relief to have someone take care of the dog. But that's conjecture on my part. It was nice for me because I didn't want a full time dog responsibility but walking their dog was good.
She had wonderful stories as well. Her heritage was Japanese and some of her stories of her grandmother trying to survive the war were bitter sweet comedies of errors and bad luck at the beginning and good luck at the end. Her other stories were equally cool as she could deliver a story dead serious only to have you falling down in laughter later. She was very patient as an ex-pat wife has to be when her husband is only home every other month to fix things around the house and yet she was also good at getting it done herself when needed.
I should have realized that her Facebook comments were getting scattered and few and far between but time passes rather quickly for me and I just hadn't a clue. Her husband told me that she had been diagnosed 18 years ago with breast cancer so the entire time I knew her, she never said a word. I wish she had let me help her, in any way I could have. But she was always fun to be with and upbeat and the only time I heard her complain was when she was tired of having a part time husband, which we all complain about when our husbands are on rotation. She never complained about her health although I think that briefly she might have mentioned it in passing when she was better. So briefly that I'm not sure if she did or not. So I salute my friend and her steadfastness and determination to beat this thing and am very, very sorry that she has finally lost the battle. Since I cannot make the funeral, I will honor her in my own way by posting this for our mutual friends to see, they will know who CS is. And I will make a donation to some good breast cancer fund in her name. And I will even wear pink ribbons when the time is right for breast cancer campaigns. Good luck and keep well to her husband and daughter and her family members left behind. Goodbye CS. Bless you and keep you. I love you and miss you.
Last week I saw on facebook that my friend was having a birthday so I sent a birthday greeting. I got a message back from her husband that she was in the hospital and dying of breast cancer. OMG. I had no clue. She is someone I consider one of my best ex-pat friends. This was sad news indeed. Then yesterday I got on the computer to see another message from "her". Her husband wrote that she had died the previous night and the funeral was Friday. I had to cry and I am still tearing up that my friend had kept her illness pretty much a secret from a lot of us ex-pat friends and that I never had a chance to say goodbye and tell her how much I valued her friendship and enjoyed her company.
My friend was delightful. She had a wickedly droll sense of humor. Often on a comment of hers I would pause and think "she did NOT just say that" before dissolving into laughter over the comedy of it and the situation of it. We shared an unusual life in Korea in a small town for awhile and then her husband moved on to a rotational existence and she settled down in the Pacific Northwest. Part of our time together was in Houston also. They had a weird dog and let me walk it on occasion which was difficult because everyone wanted to come see what kind of dog it was but the dog was adamant about getting into fights with any other male dog. So I'd cross the street continually to avoid other dogs. What I didn't realize even then was my friend was probably struggling with cancer and it was probably a relief to have someone take care of the dog. But that's conjecture on my part. It was nice for me because I didn't want a full time dog responsibility but walking their dog was good.
She had wonderful stories as well. Her heritage was Japanese and some of her stories of her grandmother trying to survive the war were bitter sweet comedies of errors and bad luck at the beginning and good luck at the end. Her other stories were equally cool as she could deliver a story dead serious only to have you falling down in laughter later. She was very patient as an ex-pat wife has to be when her husband is only home every other month to fix things around the house and yet she was also good at getting it done herself when needed.
I should have realized that her Facebook comments were getting scattered and few and far between but time passes rather quickly for me and I just hadn't a clue. Her husband told me that she had been diagnosed 18 years ago with breast cancer so the entire time I knew her, she never said a word. I wish she had let me help her, in any way I could have. But she was always fun to be with and upbeat and the only time I heard her complain was when she was tired of having a part time husband, which we all complain about when our husbands are on rotation. She never complained about her health although I think that briefly she might have mentioned it in passing when she was better. So briefly that I'm not sure if she did or not. So I salute my friend and her steadfastness and determination to beat this thing and am very, very sorry that she has finally lost the battle. Since I cannot make the funeral, I will honor her in my own way by posting this for our mutual friends to see, they will know who CS is. And I will make a donation to some good breast cancer fund in her name. And I will even wear pink ribbons when the time is right for breast cancer campaigns. Good luck and keep well to her husband and daughter and her family members left behind. Goodbye CS. Bless you and keep you. I love you and miss you.
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