Life Blooms Anyway.

Beautiful Mountain Laurel in my yard.

It’s like a parade of sorts.  It first starts with the forsythia, and then the daffodils.

From there we move on to the dogwood and apple trees.  And just as their blossoms are falling, pushed out by the newness of emerging leaves, the rhododendrons burst into colorful action delighting our eyes.

And when the torrents of rain beat the rhododendrons and the lilacs into soggy fallen sadness – I walk out into the yard to play with Zoey and find that the Mountain Laurels have come to save the day.

This is just the first that has really started to bloom, but I bet with a bunch of sunshine and warmer temps – the woods will be full of the beautiful pink tinged blossoms.

Anyone who has read me for long knows that I find meaning in all kinds of life lessons and analogies are always spilling forth.

And such was yesterday – because there has been SO MUCH UPHEAVAL.  And unnecessary murder.  And raging racism (Which has me SO ashamed because I honestly thought that 58 years into my life we would have learned to love and respect each other by now as all equal beings of infinite worth sharing this planet!)

My heart is breaking for the unmitigated racial profiling and horrendous killings that continue.

And for my birth city of Minneapolis.  These kinds of things should NOT happen in Minneapolis? 

I know people’s emotions are hair-trigger right now.  But it’s at these times that we should be pulling together and helping each other out MORE. 

I am a middle aged white woman who was born in Minneapolis to two hetero white Minneapolis-born college kids in 1962. And though they had it hard, and worked for all they had they were also born into white privilege. 

No doors were closed on them, or assumptions made, or judgments handed down ahead of time based on their appearance due to their clean-cut American whiteness.

Sure, all lines lead back to being "immigrants" at one century in time or another, but it doesn't matter as much when your heritage is Anglo.

I didn’t ask to be born white, and have worked my ass off for everything that has happened in my life, but along that journey no doors were ever closed to me, no prejudices made based on the color of my skin, my race, nationality or my accent. 

(Okay, so I am STILL teased when outside of Minnesota about the Minnesota-ness of my accent that has never left me - but it's done in love and teasing, not in judgement!)

My last name has always been so very Anglo - Wilkinson or Hunter, instead of Ramirez or Patel, Shah, Yamamoto, Chan and the list goes on. 

I am straight, married for 39 years this August, 2 kids, pets, mortgage – the standard. 

My husband, also born into white privilege of hardworking but also white parents grew up without a lot of anything (but way so much more than many) on rented farm ground in Eastern Oregon.  Little rental farmhouse, 2 bedrooms one bath between them, but that home was filled with both parents, 3 children and an abundance of love and everything else that being white could afford them.

And I - as one white woman born of privilege - (And until you admit that to yourself you won't see it.) don’t know how to break beyond that, because I’m told that I can’t understand and will never understand - almost as if I'm not allowed to begin to understand - what others have gone through and have been living daily – for the entirety of their lives.

All I can say is that I SEE and I WITNESS and I long to make a difference.

To my LGBTQ friends, I hear you, too.  And I love you for who you are and I cry at the pain and injustice you suffer, and cheer for every triumph in your quest for a better life of acceptance, joy and love. Not in spite of who you are - but BECAUSE of who you are. Continue to shine on.  I DO see you.

And this goes back to the blossoms at the top of the page.  The world knows how to renew itself, no matter what is going on in the realm of us humans.  The flowers don't judge each other based on their color, size, fragrance.  

They just tell me "You can make a difference. Bloom where you are planted. And do better."

The one thing that breaks through these human imposed stereotypes?  QUILTING!

When we quilt together – there is no "them" or "those."  There is only US.  And WE.  

When we are quilting together, it doesn’t matter what your age or background is, your nationality, your education level, your financial status, your chosen religious practice, whether the world considers you as tall or short, fat or thin, one of the perceived beautiful people or homely (because that is what people choose to see) - IT DOESN’T MATTER!

So while my heart exploded over what is happening in my beloved Minneapolis (I really hope that cop spends his life in prison for murder, and the 3 others with him as accomplices to murder but I am not the judge or jury) I had to turn myself to something a bit more constructive – in bringing people TOGETHER instead of categorizing, dividing, groups of “them.”

(Boy this post isn’t turning out like I thought it would today.  I am rambling in my thoughts – but as this is my journal, I also ask YOU not to judge and comment back that “I thought this was a quilting blog.”  It’s NOT.  This is my life, and that means you get EVERYTHING.)

Quiltville Inn will be reopening late next month.

It’s time to SANITIZE ALL THE THINGS.  So we can welcome ALL.  

And yes, hopefully that will even include a guy’s quilting retreat in the future as we tend to categorize and stereotype by gender as well, don’t we?  Have you ever thought "Oh, you are a guy? You quilt? You must be gay?" We need to stop that. NOW.

Oh so much hospital grade sanitizer!  This gallon is a concentrate and makes 500 gallons.  FIVE HUNDRED GALLONS?! 

There is a multitude of spray bottles also arriving because there will be sanitizer for wiping down work stations, tools – rotary cutters, rulers, surfaces, etc. 

You guys know that you shouldn't share tools during a pandemic, right? Not without cleaning them first.  It's like borrowing someone's fork while they are eating with it.

There will be a spray bottle in each shower to mist the walls and floor with sanitizer so the next person can safely step in.

There will be a spray bottle of sanitizer in each bathroom with instructions to basically clean up after yourself leaving the toilet, sink, faucet, light switch and door knobs clean for the next person to safely come in.

The same for the kitchen surfaces.

And hand sanitizer stations EVERYWHERE.

This weekend we will be installing 3 z-fold paper towel dispensers in the bathrooms – pull one from the bottom, instead of handling the whole roll.  This will also free up counter space.

On my list are bigger trash cans for the plethora of paper towel waste that is going to have to happen.  The good thing is – I can order recycled paper towels, so that helps a bit.

For now – the days of cute terry hand towels used communally are OVER.

I have ordered commercial bedspreads for all of the beds at the inn because they will have to be washed after each group.  My quilts can't handle that kind of sanitation.  And above all else this makes me sad.  Isn't that silly?

But folks are welcome to bring their own quilts from home to brighten their sleeping quarters until I can safely bring my quilts out again.

My laminator has been smokin’ with new signage!

All entries get a warning sign.

Notices going up in the Quilting Quarters.

Today I plan on making the bathroom procedure signs.  More painting will continue as we work to get things ready.

We wanted to have the porch repainted by now – but we need gutters first because of the splash back the huge rains caused.  It will happen, in time.  Maybe not on the schedule I had originally planned, but it will happen.

Anyone entering a door will be greeted by this notice.

I cleared my head and my heart riding shotgun to town -

Windows down – this was my view of the passenger side mirror  - Zoey just LOVING the wind in her ears, the smells in her nose – and she is so cute when her eyes get squinty due to the breeze.  No more car sick.  She is reveling in it!

We waited in the car while dad went to get more paint and supplies.

And this is how my morning has gone.  Click to Play:

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A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on May 30, 2020 at 4:52am PDT

Saturday morning tail wagging!

(With Keurig playing that awesome morning song in the background!) 

Lola is settling in well.  She has mostly taken to hiding upstairs in the loft area, often behind the quilts that hang over the loft railing.  But Zoey can sniff her out every time! LOL!

“Where is Lola, Zoey?”  And off she goes in a doggy/kitty version of hide-and-seek.

As far as Lola and Emmy Lou go – Emmy is quite ticked off.  She’ll get over it.  Or not.  I don’t think they will ever be friends, but they will learn to tolerate each other and that’s the way it has to be.

Oh, this is going to be fun!

(I wonder what the thought bubbles over their heads are saying?)

Thanks for letting me get all of this out, and allowing me to speak my heart.  I know I am even a bit more vulnerable as the pain of losing Dresden is still so very tender.  I thank you for ALL of the wonderful comments after yesterday’s post.  They really helped.

I wasn’t going to add this in here – because you already know the drill.  But this is the final reminder for this month’s Quilty Box Gift-Away. The drawing is tomorrow, so hurry and get your entry in ON THAT POST.

All Digital Patterns are on sale for 25% off using coupon code DIGITAL25 at purchase – that also ends tomorrow at midnight, so don’t delay on that one either.  You’ll find them in the digital pattern section of the Quiltville Store.  Coupon MUST be used at time of purchase for discount to be applied.

The Addicted to Scraps Book is also on deep deep discount at only $15.99 (reg. $27.95) as long as Virginia’s lock down lasts – and that is supposed to lift June 10th.  It comes with a free PDF download of my Wanderlust Table Runner pattern (A $10.00 value.)

Today?  I’m going to see if I can start building rows for Casden’s quilt.  Now that the cats aren’t at the QPO I can safely lay things out.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Go on and blossom and make that difference! What are you afraid of?

Have a lovely Saturday, everyone.