Some of My Favorite Things

When I'm feeling blue..ooo "I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't fee...l so... ba.........d."Okay, I don't sing as well as I use to but when I'm depressed I sing. Yes, sing. The Sound Of Music comes to mind when I'm down in the dumps. Of course when I'm overwhelmed which is easy since I'm Autistic, then I sing a different tune, "In my own little corner in my own little room, I can be what ever I want to be."


Blame it on Concert Choir if you want but Mr. Penny was an excellent director and instilled a love of music in me. Of course you could say it was inherit from my grandfather who came over from Wales and spent some time as a professional singer. When he was fourteen he won honors from the Queen with a choir he directed. I don't claim to have inherited his beautiful tenor voice. Duh!, I'm a high soprano but I did inherit a voice that carries, filling up a room for better or for worse. Our son once told me that he heard angels when I sang. Then he was only four years old at the time. In actuality my voice isn't anything special but I suspect he felt the love flowing through the music I sang to him.



Now I often sing to calm the beasts. The ones inside me. So as I wait for my increase in Progesterone to arrive dispelling my chemically imbalanced spirits, I sing and emerce myself in a few of my favorite things, "And then I don't fee...l so ba......d" Sorry, I couldn't help but burst into song again.

One of those favorite things this time of year is the anticipation of chicks. The incubator is near full and I can't wait to candle the eggs. To peak inside through a light beam and watch the development of a chick is somehow mystical. It's only been a week and they've two more to go and I've resisted the urge to check which eggs are fertile and developing and which are not. I want to share the event with the grand kids. At night when it's dark we'll light up a small box with a hole in the top where the egg will rest and the light from inside the box (a strong flashlight or light bulb) will penetrate inside the egg showing up the fascinating world of a developing chick. I anticipate that our oldest granddaughter will be very intrigued for when her youngest sister was developing inside her mother, she kept tabs in the book that charted a babies progress in development. One day when her mother announced she was going to the doctor, she became very alarmed, "No mom, the baby is not ready to come out yet." thinking he was going to deliver her sister too soon. She was 3 years old.

Then there is the seeds just starting to sprout. It's only been three days so it must be the corn salad or the arugula I planted. What I don't know your asking? No, I figured the surprise would be fun so I didn't label the tray full of different kinds of salad greens. I'll know when they get a bit larger anyway and the suspense brings a bit of delightful anticipation. Now the various types of tomatoes I did label for I'm trying a few new kinds this year and I labeled the cucumbers and melons to tell them apart for they go into different areas of the garden. I'll start a few more plants, pumpkins etc. when these have sprouted and moved under the grow lights. Some of these same species I'll direct seed out in the garden but in order to extend the harvest time, I'm starting a few indoor and getting a jump start.

Then there is the nap quilt I've been working on for our middle granddaughter.
I should have gotten it done months ago. It seemed like a good comfy project to work on right now when my energy levels are low.

I can just imagine our granddaughters delight this weekend when she finds
out she too gets a nap quilt. Her oldest sister received one when she was three years old also. It's a grandma tradition I've started making a bed size quilt for them when they turn two and a nap quilt when they are three. I'm hoping to get a sweater made for our oldest granddaughter this year. I want traditions that each grandchild can look forward to as they turn different ages. My grandmothers did the same for me. When we granddaughters turned twelve we began receiving things for our hope chest, embroidered pillowcases etc., and each Christmas the grandmothers made an ornament for our future Christmas tree when we were on our own. When we married we received a handmade crocheted afghan and our first child received a afghan and a receiving blanket. A creamy colored afghan still sits on the favorite rocking chair of my grandfathers. That chair rocked me when I was small and in turn each of our children. I've had it restored and now it rocks our granddaughters.
So while I watched a BBC series on the computer I pieced together the quilt. Very slowly we are remodeling our home and this room does not have flooring, just a painted plywood floor. We're paying for things as we go. The house is paid for and we don't want to accrue debt again. The floor works great for small quilts. With the front and back of the quilt cut to the same size, I taped the back fabric until it was taunt, the printed side toward the floor. Masking tape works great for this.
Then used a quilters spray glue that rinses out in the wash, I sprayed the fabric all over. Don't worry about getting it on a slick surface floor for remember its' washable and I just run a mop over the floor when I'm done to remove the sticky residue.
Next, I took a batt folded in half lengthwise and again width wise and laid it on the glued back fabric. I used a double size bed batt for the project.

The first layer of the batt is glued lightly down to the fabric. I love this spray because you can move the batt off and reposition it if it isn't just right. The batt is double thick since it was folded lenght wise first of all. I then peeled the top layer to the side and sprayed the bottom batt layer and flipped the top layer back over it so it was then two layers thick again. Then I sprayed the top layer of the batt. When I tie a quilt, I always have a double layer of batting. The quilt ends up limp if I use one layer only. When I'm machine quilting I use only one batt layer.
Then I laid the top fabric over the sprayed batt, folding it in half to position it and then stretched the other half over the rest of the batt. Large safety pins work great to securely hold all the layers together. I placed them about every 5 inches.
I then tied the quilt while I basked in a BBC television series set in the Sence and Sensibility era that I found on the computer. We don't have satellite or cable t.v. because we don't watch much. When I'm blue I find myself wanting to be distracted and I listen to books on tape a great deal to divert my mind and keep me moving and getting something done or I'd have a tendency not to do anything. That of course fuels the depression so I do a few of my favorite things during whatever season I'm in.

A few of you quilters may notice the edging. I'm not telling you about it because I'm never doing one quite like it again. Took me a whole day of frustration to get it done. Nope, never will I do one quite like that again.

P.S. I didn't have pie for breakfast. I was a good girl and had leftover egg and cheese souffle from last night, salad is for lunch. I'm not always a bad girl just sometimes my resistance is low.

By the way, have you got a wonderful depression lifting formula? I know that things that lift one persons mood may not another but it's always nice to hear what others do. It may be something that I haven't thought of or will work for others who read this post.

I know I can find comfort in the scriptures.