Close to Nowhere

Son Kris has learned a lot of new skills since becoming my caregiver. His cooking skills have grown immensely – he’s learned to make ramen noodle soup in addition to scrambled eggs.

He’s learning about many new things – laundry, cleaning, etc. We’ve taken to calling life around here the “new normal.”

He’s not happy about learning all these new skills, but he’s grinning and bearing it, so it’s working out.

We’re learning to eat new things also. He was diagnosed with diabetes several months ago and has drastically changed his diet. The doctor told him low carbs and he’s actually doing that.

There’s been so much change around our house that when I find something that’s “old normal” I get excited about it.

I’ve mentioned quilts a time or two. Even though recent health crises have made me afraid I wasn’t going to be able to quilt anymore, I’ve discovered that with Kris’ help I still can.

Years ago, at the quilt show in Paducah, Ky., I bought a partial Lone Star quilt. I’ve always wanted to make one, but it’s an overwhelming quilt and I just didn’t fool with it.

When I found two halves of a hand-pieced Lone Star at a silent auction I was so happy. It was really cheap and I snatched it up. I discovered it was so cheap because when I sewed the halves together it had a big puff in the center. I’ve played with that quilt off and on for years now, first fixing the puff, then backing and batting it, and then putting it on different frames to finally quilt it.

I’ve dragged that quilt back out and was anticipating many a happy hour hand-quilting. I’m staying in the living room a lot to make life easier for Kris, so machine quilting is a little further down the road.

I can’t thread the needles! Eye and hand coordination is not cooperating at all. I used to like little tiny needles to hand quilt, so I have lots of them. All of the little tiny needles have little tiny eyes for the thread.

Turns out Kris has learned another skill. He is threading my quilt needles very easily.

Now I’m wondering – can I teach him to quilt?