Amy Currioman

I’ve spent most of the last two days sewing a quillow. Do you know what a quillow is? It is a quilt with a pocket sewn in so that the entire quilt can be folded into the pocket. Once that is folded in, the quillow now looks like, and can be used as, a pillow. So it is a quilt/pillow, therefore called a quillow. I’ve made several quillows in my life. I’ve sold some, and I’ve given some as presents.

This one I just made is being sold to one of my husband’s friends. He is planning to give it to his wife as a Christmas gift! I made a matching pillow case for it, so he can get a pillow form from the local fabric store to put inside it, or they can insert a throw pillow that they already own inside it.

Anyway, here is a picture of my lastest quillow! I hand-tied this one instead of machine quilting it. I thought that the pattern of the fabric lended itself to hand-tying. When I make a quillow, I let the fabric “tell me” what type of quilting would be the best suited. I hope the wife enjoys it!

My family asked me to have the big Thanksgiving dinner at my place this year. Well, of course I said yes. I know I’m a good cook, but I happen to have a lot of things that need to get done for other commitments, so I decided to purchase one of those pre-cooked Thanksgiving meals from the local grocery store. I picked it up the day before Thanksgiving and took it home. My hubby carved the turkey – it was a pre-cooked Butterball turkey. It was on the small side, but the meat was juicy and tender. As for the side dishes – they were a complete waste of money. I hope that next year I can just buy a pre-cooked turkey and make my own side dishes!

But everyone that came to the meal enjoyed the food and had a good time. And that is the important part of it all, isn’t it!

One of the things that I find very interesting about living in a rural area is how much time is spent with neighbors discussing things like cell phone coverage and television providers.  I can remember when there was no such thing as pay television (except in motels!)  Everyone simply had bunny ear antennas or rooftop antennas for the free local channels.  And there were only a few local channels – the big networks and a public television!

So I find it amusing when I see and hear so much promotional material about different television offers!  Direct TV  commercials abound on just about every single channel I get on my television!  My brother has Directtv and tells me that he loves it because he is always watching some kind of race going on somewhere!  And there are many different Direct TV Packages available to satisfy almost anyone’s interests and budget.  What an amazing difference in television technology there has been since I was a child sitting in front of the old black and white television show watching Ranger Rick, Captain Kangaroo, and Bozo the Clown!

I love how the Internet has made so many of us “global citizens.”  I can remember when I had to work really hard to get information about things that were happening out of town!  If you wanted information on a particular town, you had to contact the local chamber of commerce and try to get copies of the local newspapers.  If you wanted to buy something specific to that town, like Georgia Dome tickets, or United Center Tickets or even Tournament of Roses Parade Tickets you had to use the long distance operator to try to help you find telephone numbers and then make a seemingly never-ending series of long distance telephone calls to try to find out how to get tickets!

But now, with the advent of the Internet, and the increasing access it has made possible to the consumer, you can get all of those things just with the click of a mouse and a credit card or paypal account!  The ease in which this can be done is almost unimaginable to those of us who were adults before the Internet was invented.  It truly is a modern marvel!

Have you ever needed a translator?  I took Spanish back in 1969 (yes, that WAS a long time ago) and 1970 in middle school.  I really enjoyed learning a foreign language.  I wanted to keep taking it, but the classes were full and I couldn’t get in.  There were a few times in the early ’70s that I actually used some of what I had learned in my job, but then I moved to New England where nobody spoke Spanish – it was mostly English and French. 

More recently I’ve found some websites that were in a foreign language and found that I wanted an online translation to help me to understand what the websites were saying.  I find it fun to be able to communicate with other people whose native tongue is not English!  I think that as more people turn to using the Internet to become global citizens there will be an increasing need for free translation services.  I sure wish I’d kept up on my Spanish skills!  I’ve been thinking about taking a course in it but I’ve been feeling too lazy.  Or maybe I just feel that I don’t have the time right now.