Two Special Quilts

I received a baby shower invitation saying that our nephew and his wife are having a baby boy in July. So, out comes shades of red, blue, green, yellow, and purple material to go along with car fabric to do a "Four on the Floor" baby quilt. I added a scrappy border, will quilt and bind it and -- ta da - a quilt is born. I also will find a book about cars to go along with it so that Cillian will have a fun book to look at while sharing his quilt with his mom or dad or even Pipi and Mimi.

This quilt is called "Mountain Get-away", and is the raffle quilt for the Sandy Historical Society's 11th Annual Quilt Show. We finished it by the end of February and it has been hanging in the local banks to have people purchase advance tickets. Notice the elk in the upper right hand corner - that is the block that I did. It was kind of plain until the antlers were added - now it is a regal elk overlooking our northwest. The blocks were machine appliqued and the quilting is wonderfully done by a local quilt shop owner. It was fun to do and a special person will take it home at the end of July during the Fly-In, Cruise-In Breakfast where the lucky ticket will be drawn.

I DID IT!!!

I like to sing. When I was in high school, I was in the SMA Choral. We did the musicals, concerts and sounded like angels in the IHM Motherhouse Chapel. Once out of school, I didn't join any choirs because I felt like I could just sing among the parishioners. So, when we moved to Oregon, after one year of being a member of Christ the King Church, I joined the choir, sang at the Grotto and was going to begin cantoring. Then we moved parishes.

We have a cantor, Vivian, and an electric piano pianist, Andrea, who do the music at our new parish, St. Michaels. As their is no choir, I told them if they wanted me to fill in for the cantor when she is not available, I would be happy to. So, Vivian said that she was going to be out of town at the end of March and would I fill in. I immediately said "yes".

I then asked if I could practice with Andrea, the pianist, maybe a few times before this weekend. That was when they told me that THEY BOTH WERE GOING TO BE GONE!!! Yikes!!!! So, not only would I be the cantor, I would be everything - cantor singing acapella!!!!

Last night and today were the days. I was really nervous last night, but only knew a couple of people at church and Fr. Kraull was grateful for my involvement. I also wouldn't let Phil sit where I could see him. Didn't want any distractions. I did fine until the "Holy, Holy, Holy". Somehow the music was nearly the same as another song and so we sang one verse of it instead of what I was supposed to lead them to sing. AARGH!!!! But I got through it and had many people come up to me and thank me for leading the songs.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I then had to go to St. John of the Woods in Welches and do Mass there as well. Wonderful little church, in the woods with great acoustics. Only about 20 people and I didn't know anyone so that was good. Noticed that they were singing songs I didn't know, so we changed that fast.

Then this morning, I went back for 9:30 Mass at St. Michaels and did it all over again. Only knew one person there and she sat in the choir loft so that was ok. Oh yes, I did all the songs correctly the last two Masses and am now done. Whew!!!

I did enjoy it and was glad that I only did one big goof and my voice didn't crack at all this morning. Vivian is going to be gone again in May but so am I so they will have to wing it themselves!! But I will look forward to serving in that capacity again in the future. Thank you God for getting me through it - it was great!!!