Cesare Rostati The Challenge

“Welcome Home” By David M. Taylor

The Challenge

By Cesare Rosati

It’s funny, the things you remember when you let your mind wander. The day before you left you were watching me fulfil my obligation after losing the bet we’d made following my comment about the quilt you’d been working on for nearly two years. I said I was tired of you cutting up all my old shirts for it. Shirts I was saving for when I worked on my car or in the yard. When Isaid that I thought you were never going to finish the damn thing anyway, you stormed out of the room and didn’t speakto me for hours. After you finally cooled down, you said, “I’m going to finish my quilt by next week. And, if I do, you’ll have to make me a pizza from scratch.” She’d never made a quilt before, and I’d been promising to make her a pizza from scratch, which, I’d also never done before. It sounded like a fair challenge so I accepted. Besides, I’d been watching her sitting on our porch swing, sewing pieces of cloth together after dinner for well over a year, and making very little progress. There was no way she was going to finish it in a week. When I got home from work the day following her challenge, I noticed that two more of my work shirts were missing. Three days later, when I drove up to the house, she was sitting on our porch swing, wrapped in her quilt. I couldn’t believe it. After parking the car in the garage, I walked into the kitchen, got a beer out of the fridge, walked out to the porch, and sat at the small table opposite the swing. I’ll never forget the smile on her face as she pulledthe quilt tightly around her. I’d hardly finished my first sip of beer when she said, “I want it with sausage and pepperoni.”

Two dayslater, I was in the kitchen staring at my computer’s screen following the instructions on how to make pizza dough. You walked past several times, not saying anything, but having difficulty keeping a smile off your face. I persevered and was surprised tosee the dough rise as it was supposed to. Two hours later, it was ready to use and I squished it down into a circular pizza pan. After spreading cheese on it, I placed cooked sausage and pepperoni on top and slipped it in the oven. I paced back and forth in front of the stove, peeking in through the glass front, for over fifteen minutes until the instructions said itshould be done. When I pulled it out, to my surprise, it was well cooked and smelled great. You were seated on the porch swing wrappedin your quilt when I opened the door and presented my pizza for inspection. I held it out to you and you lifted up the edge to check the bottom before admitting that I’d done it, and we were even. We ate on the swing. We were nearly finished eating when her cell phone rang. She put it to her ear and as I watched, her face went pale. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “It’s mymother’s care facility. They said she’s taken a turn for the worse and it’s likely she won’t make it through the night. I’ve got to go.” I watched her throw off the quilt and rush to her car. The care home was over two hundred miles away. It would take her five hours to get there. She said she’d call the next day to let me know how her mother was doing. The next morning I was sitting at the porch table, opposite the swing, when my phone rang. I answered immediately, assuming it was her. A man’s voice on the other end of the line said, “This is officer Williams. Are you Mr. Grant?” My throat began to constrict before he’d uttered the next phrase, “I’m afraid I have some bad news.” The officer proceeded to explain that a truck had lost control, crossed the median, and smashed into her car head on. “She died immediately. Without suffering,” he added, as an afterthought. I dropped the phone and stared across the porch at the quilt draped over the swing as my tears began to flow.

“Hats and Patches” by Susan Jane Jones

“When life gives you scraps, make a quilt”

By Ann Ross

Grabyour hat and get your coat leave your worries on the doorstep! I love hats the variety is like a parade. There is nothing today that can be like an Easter hat parade. Or, put on your old grey bonnet with the blue ribbons on it! Those visions of happiness showing period hats of a joy adventure are gone! I’m sad however I can and do remember. A hat is a talk character as it sits on top of your head. Let’s take a talk /walk with artist Susan Jane Jones. Where would you go, wearing hat # 1 shown at top in the quilter/ designer picture? Close your eyes let your mind go into the years before 1950. Hat wearing for Sunday church of course, a greeting of friends was the best place to show off a new hat! Look best for a day of adventure to the city. Where todaycould you find a real situation to shine wearing hat # 1? Allow your thoughts to flash change that picture hat into one from your memory. As hats appear they provide a place and time. Perhaps a new way to look at an old memory. Allow your mind to wander into fantasy pictures. Can you provide a vision character wearing #1 hat for identification. Looks like a wearer could be a school teacher, or a secretary interviewing for a job.

Maybe a new mother pushing a stroller showing her newborn. A hat was a first look perhaps more so than a face. I’m sad“it’s over my friends, that romance era is gone!“ . It wasn’t until the mid 19 hundreds that a head covering wasnot a requirement in secular churches on Sunday. Your photo memories will be vastly different gazing at the same hat photo quilt. Ilove hats, how could one not love hats? The artist picture hat suggest time, place and a given personality trait of the wearer. Looking into an imaginary mirror, a magical trip, what do you see wearing #!? Where are you going, how do you feel wearing that hat on your head looking back at you? A drift in times past ? A rise or

fall into when, where of a past adventure. A hat trip using the quilter artist hats, I dare say fun visions will appear. Hats of the past are smashed with an adventure personality. The four hatstyles are wrapped in a brown red quilt frame covering suggesting comfort, harmony and peace regardless of the memory. Number one hat with embroidered feathers will be the first to pull you into a memory lane. This hat may pull you to placesyou have never been in picturesque show type classic style hat of past.?Perhapsyou see yourself proclaiming, “hello, world, it’s me.” Each hat can

then erupt to tell your story to you.

A where, what, who, when occasion. Viewing releases a flurry of mind images, funny or maybe sad ! The classic hat would be perfect for an afternoon wedding, a lecture, high tea or a devilishly style for a dinner, dance evening. Feather embroidering produces a formal or sassy hat depending onhow you tilt your hat. Peering out from under a tiled brim, could satisfy a curiosity! Who was there? Sometimes a boring lecture is a mind drift of curiosity searching the hat wearers. Feather flowers adds a splash of color. Is this hat truly you! Smile, dance and play, let feathers float where they may play. # 2 hat on the left picture side is an announcement hat. I’m here! It is a suffragette’s hat requesting a voting privilege. It speaks volumes! Go back a 100 years. Women will not be second class citizens. We count! Interesting how men allowed black man, a voting privilege before women. A cry heard was, “ If we are good enough to have your baby, we are good enough to vote”. We will march and protest until you hear us. A hat with the visor brim points to the future. We took to the streetsprotesting and egg throwing when police tried to stop our march. Suffragettes wore large colorful with ribbon streamers easy for visuality. We are woman, not to be overlooked. We are women and we will get the right to vote. The 19th amendment was passed 100 years ago in 1920. The picture hat at bottom of the quilt is a gigantic picture. It is a design that enjoys flash and show. A joie de vivre hat with a seductive wide brim a tantalizing fashion vogue of the year 1933? Fashion writers loved this hat as they could let loose with description. It was a time when women and men needed to forget the great depression and get happy and productive. This is a glorious glamour hat with a sassy wide brim hiding a come hither look. An elegant cover for a quick kiss. A winning smash at the Kentucky derby! The significant winning place would be a festive cocktail party of New York’s finest fashion conscious rich! The hat that captured my imagination is # 4. My mother could have been the model. This 1920s cloche hat pulled over her ears to keep out the fierce winter wind that blows over an open Iowa corn field was a memory buster. As we both searched for winter hat, she told stories of college days. Rouged knees, rolled up hose, patent leather shoes to dance the Charleston. Mother driving off a mountain at camp ground site is hilarious as we make a mad dash to stop the car. I am happy to have many family memory tales.