Ponderings

Design Wall Monday 1-30-12

2012-01-30T14:49:00.001-05:00

My goodness what happened to January?

I am still in Texas - will be for several more weeks - but I've been sewing over at my sisters house this past weekend in between trips to local antique shops to poke around.

For my travels to Texas I brought along some long over due unfinished projects to work on - things that had been sitting unfinished for way too long.

This project was started many years ago (maybe 9?? years) after I participated in a year long 5" Fabric Swap at Southampton Quilts - my favorite quilt shop up in Massachusetts. After the swap finished - I had begun this Morning Star Quilt out of the Nickel Quilts book. I had most of the individual components made but had not put anything together to assemble a block... much less 24 blocks. It took me a day of counting and organizing to figure out just where I was in the process... not sure why I never make notes to myself?

I am working on getting the blocks assembled - here are 4 blocks stuck up on the design wall right now. I have the others ready to sew the final seam and then I’ll start putting rows together. I’d really like to put a great big dent in this before I head back over to my folks house tomorrow morning as I don’t think I’ll get to do any sewing while I’m over there. But I’ll be back here at my sisters the next week so there is still lots of time.

Be sure to check out other Design Wall Monday Reports at Judy L’s Patchwork Times Blog.

In Case You Get Confused..

2012-01-28T01:33:00.001-05:00

You know you are in a Texas Walmart store when this is the display as you enter the store...

Multiple Choice…

2012-01-24T19:06:00.001-05:00

Here is a little quiz about what I’ve been up to…

I love Mexican Food
I also love smoked ribs
I am snuggling my 6 mo. old grandson
I am visiting family in Texas
A cowboy bought my lunch last week
All of the above

If you choose number 6 – you would be correct!

Last week I drove down to Texas. My daughter (living in Hawaii) was coming into town for a conference and asked if I would come down and watch the baby for her… Well - DUH?!!! I have family here in TX so it was a win-win for me and made it easier to sell the idea to The Engineer. “Hey Honey – I’m gonna drive to TX to snuggle our grandson while his Momma is at a conference – and then I’m gonna stay and visit my family… is that OK?” OK… Bye Bye!

My daughter and grandson have come and gone again – all too quickly but it was a delightful visit. At 6 months he is just shy of a sumo wrestler…

Now that my ‘official duties’ have ended I’ll be spending several weeks hanging out with my folks, visiting (and sewing) with my sister, catching up with a couple friends in the area, and going to the retreat that Judy L from Patchwork Times is sponsoring later in February before heading back to PA via Kansas where I’ll stop and visit some more family.

During this time it is my intent to eat as much good Mexican Food as I can find… and BBQ too. Because hey when you are in TX it’s the thing to do.

Oh and I needed to show you the ribs my BIL smoked over the weekend… Finger Licking Good!

Design Wall Monday 1-9-12

2012-01-09T13:08:00.001-05:00

Yet another edition of Design Wall Monday hosted by Judy L of Patchwork Times. Be sure to check out what other quilters are working on.

I am finishing up this 4 Patch Stacked Posie Quilt – I am using only 16 of the 36 posie blocks… so I can make another quilt with the leftovers – just need an new design plan. I have found that it’s easy to get a bigger quilt by setting the posie block within a block. These blocks end up being about 18 inches. Three rows are stitched but not joined together yet… I’m working on finishing up the sashing on the bottom row and then will join them together. With a 9 inch black (yes I have enough!!) border this will finish off at 100” square.

No longer on the design wall is this Bouillabaisse Quilt. I wanted to get it done and out of the way so I spent some time this week pulling and pondering options and decided on this green leaf print. It is a mid value – not too light or dark and the color is sorta neutral too. I didn’t get a picture of the whole quilt because the Posie quilt above is on the wall. This will serve as a shop sample for a class later in the spring.

By the end of the week I’ll be able to mark these both off as complete… well complete tops at least!

Design Wall Monday 1-2-2012

2012-01-02T09:43:00.001-05:00

Design Wall Mondays hosted by Judy L from Patchwork Times is an opportunity to show off what we are working on and share with other quilters. Not sure how often I’ll post - but here is my design wall today.
Those of you who know me – know that there isn’t a border I can’t screw up… and to be consistent – because consistency counts – I don’t have enough black to add the 6 inch border. That’s what I get for using the black I had on hand and not verifying that it was enough or more than enough to accommodate a change. You really can’t mix blacks… it just doesn’t work. This black is a little bit grey and another black I have is black-black. I have enough to put a 2” border on… and maybe I’ll call it done at that point. That would make it 64” x 84”… plenty big enough.
I did pull some other black and white prints to see if they would work as a border but I’m not convinced any of them work like I’d like them too.

Oh well… I am consistent!
The pattern is Bouillabaisse by Pie In The Sky Quilts.

New Year Resolution…

2012-01-01T10:25:00.001-05:00

Yes I’ve made one.

It’s one I’ve been Pondering over the past couple months.

You see I’ve done a bit of traveling over the past couple months and you know what has really stood out to me? People really can’t drive and talk on the phone. I know many think it’s no problem if you are using a hands free device. But the fact is that it does effect your driving – even if you are using a bluetooth or speaker phone. Each and every vehicle that I’ve passed that has a long line of vehicles stacked up behind it has a driver talking… they haven’t a clue what is going on around them. There are many other clues – far too many to point out here – but the fact is people talk while they drive.

If you sat down in the dentist chair would you let the dentist come in and work on your teeth while yakking on his/her bluetooth? How about the Radiologist reading your mammograms – can’t they do that and tell their friend about the party they attended last weekend? Maybe the surgeon removing an appendix or a tumor… why can’t they make their travel arrangements for their next vacation? If all of that is unacceptable – why do we think we can get into a large fast moving vehicle and then not give the operation of it our full attention?

So it’s official – no more chatting while I’m driving. Nor will I talk with others who are driving… I’d rather you get where you are going and talk to you then.

Let’s all pay attention to what we are doing while driving… someone’s life may very well depend on it.

Happy New Year!

Winter Is Cancelled...

2011-12-30T11:22:00.001-05:00

I know many of you will be disappointed to learn about this.

You see I ordered new boots to keep my feet warm this winter without thought to the effect my purchasing winter gear has on the accumulation of snow.

Really! Some of the mildest winters in New England were directly tied to my purchasing in advance new snow pants, boots and coats for the kids.

By comparison - the years that they had nothing better than layers of jeans and sweat pants, multiple layers of socks and plastic bags stuffed into boots that were either too big or too small, and a miss match of gloves and mittens to keep frost bite at bay... Those were the epic winters of storm after storm where the totals were measured in feet rather than inches.

I know y'all will be heartbroken... Sorry!

Merry, Merry To You!

2011-12-23T21:13:00.000-05:00

I want to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas!

Design Wall Monday Dec. 19

2011-12-19T21:00:00.001-05:00

I believe this is the first Design Wall Monday I’ve participated in this year… better late than never ya think? LOL

I actually have something on the Design Wall and have spent part of my day sewing the remaining strip sets together and cutting triangles. I’d like to try and get at least one more block made before all the holiday hustle starts. Sorry about the picture - It’s night and my iPod doesn’t take great pictures – the colors really are much nicer.

The Pattern is called Bouillabaisse by Pie In The Sky Quilts. I first saw a finished top at Southampton Quilts when I was up working the Fall Shop Hop. I cut and began piecing the strip sets 2 weeks later when I went to the quilt show up in New Hampshire. This first block was completed at that time.

Check out the other listings today on Judy L’s Patchwork Times site…

Tis The Season…

2011-12-17T10:33:00.001-05:00

At least that’s what I have heard… hard to tell here with the weather being so warm.

But I’m not complaining… my folks came up north to visit for 2 weeks over Thanksgiving and since they are from Texas it was much easier on everyone to have the temps in the very moderate range. I only had one miserable trip driving down to VA to pick them up from my brothers house – all the other trips were fine… well - if you completely ignore all the idiots out there driving around – but that’s a whole different subject.

So is anyone going out Shopping on Super Saturday? LOL - Not me! I went out to one department store last week at a local Mall to take advantage of a 2 day sale. I went in – directly to the department I had business in – selected my items and checked out. It didn’t help that I didn’t feel good (the beginnings I’d later learn of a 24 hour bug – bleah) all I wanted to do was get back out the door.

My sewing room was yet again rearranged to accommodate guests. You would think I’d finally “get it” that using the day bed for storing bins and bags and stacks of stuff/projects/fabric isn’t a good idea. Apparently I’m a slow learner…

So not much sewing going on – but I did finish (no picture) a smaller version of the Swoon quilt as a shop sample. The pattern called for 9 blocks – I made 6 blocks to finish it off closer to a twin bed size quilt - by adding a 6 inch outer border it finished at 66 x 92. This is a good pattern to use up some of those coordinating fat quarter you have – but you will need FQ’s that have a full 18” of width. There is no extra for errors in cutting… I have a couple blocks where I had to sew pieces together to accommodate an error on my part.

Here is a pic of the grandkids in Hawaii!

Happy Holiday’s Everyone!

Boys Will Be Boys...

2011-11-22T15:48:00.001-05:00

The Engineer opened a new bar of soap today... Which reminded me that I never told y'all about the lovely lady we met recently.

She is a young wife and Mom living with her family on a near-by dairy farm. She - in addition to homeschooling her kids and helping with the dairy - has her own little business on the side making and selling soap.

So one beautiful fall Saturday we stopped in to buy some soaps.

I picked out a nice "Oatmeal, Milk and Honey" and a lovely "Lavender Flowers". I hadn't paid any attention to what The Engineer had chosen...

That'll learn me... LOL

Do Not Tell Me If I Am Wrong...

2011-11-20T11:58:00.001-05:00

Because it seems to be working for me.

I have to press ALL the seams open on these blocks I am working on (and not liking it a whole lot).

The other day as I was pondering open seam I decided that it might be easier to do if I wasn't working on a flat surface.

So I pulled out my old ironing 'ham' - and it does seem easier...

But like I said - if this isn't true - don't tell me until I am done.

How Is Your Memory?

2011-11-16T12:40:00.001-05:00

Do you take a specialty ruler out to use only to realize you don't remember how to use it?

Since I know I have a mind like a sieve sometimes (often) I know that keeping the instructions with the ruler or in a safe place is important.

Here is what i do.

All of the original instructions go into a clear bag I keep on the shelf. Everything in one place - no guess work! I also make a copy of some of them to keep with the rulers I might take out of the house - that way I'll never loose my original instructions.

I also use this approach with kitchen/household appliances and gadgets. Everything into a bag - I find those zippered linens bags a great size. I know right where to look for the book for the stove when I want to clean the oven.

And I discovered yesterday that I have the booklet for the breadmaker I left in MA with my daughter. I'll have to remember to give that to her...

Maybe I should write myself a note...

The pictures are of my Deb Tucker Flying Geese ruler with it's copy of the instructions - the other picture is of some of the stuff from my 'originals' bag.

So how do you keep things organized?

There Is An App For That

2011-11-15T21:53:00.001-05:00

It occurred to me that I could probably write and send a post to the blog using my iPod - and sure enough... there's an app for that!

So here I sit with my feet propped up and not a computer in sight.

And to check out the picture feature - here's a big sloppy grin...

When Quilters Gather…

2011-11-13T12:04:00.001-05:00

I went up to the East Coast Quilters Alliance Show “A Quilters Gathering” in Nashua, NH. It’s an annual show that I’ve been going to since 2002 – I haven’t attended every year nor have I stayed over every time but living 6 hours away certainly makes that a reasonable decision. We had a great time – it’s always fun to get together with this group of ladies. We enjoy the show, the vendors, and sitting and sewing the long weekend in our room. And It’s great to see some other quilty friends who attend the show individually or with a guild group on a day trip. Much fabric was fondled and purchased and even a new machine this year (not by me!).

This year I finally attended a lecture and a class. The lecture was by Louisa L. Smith called “I’m stripping to show my curves”… very interesting way she has of working with fabric and something I may need to investigate further. I also took an evening class with a couple of my fellow roommates – a Sue Nickels class on drawing feathers. No machines involved – just paper and pencil. I’ve never even attempted feathers… but I think I may just give it a go now that I have had some expert guidance. There will be lots of paper work before I take needle to fabric though… I need to find that doodle thing I bought a while back and use that as I sit and watch TV.

Many years ago I began to use the curtains in our hotel room as a design wall… it’s a tradition of sorts now and I was chided Thursday evening because I hadn’t pinned anything up yet! The picture isn’t great but here is a sample of what we were up to that weekend. Last years projects can been seen back here.

After the show I headed to my daughters house in West Springfield, MA – she had power again as of Thursday evening. Goodness gracious… Mother Nature had put on her big boots and stomped around the Pioneer Valley big time during that freaky October storm the Saturday before. Much of the North East had damage but the Pioneer Valley was especially hard hit. I found driving around depressing… you didn’t need to travel much to know that the tree damage is extensive and the cleanup will take a long time. Some streets you felt like you were driving down hedge rows with the debris piled along the tree belt in front of all the houses. Driving down some of those tree lined streets is a dangerous proposition as there are still some broken limbs hanging up high… waiting for the first good wind storm to dislodge them.

It did feel good to get back to the pool and back to my weekly therapy. The gym had asked if they could take my picture and use some comments I made concerning the benefits of the pool program in their program guide. So here is my minute and a half of fame… LOL

Each and every day I’m pleased with the progress I’m making… I’ll be truly happy if I can get to the point where I can walk fast again!

Sending WARM Thoughts…

2011-10-31T15:21:00.001-04:00

Wish I could do more than send Warm Thoughts to my family and friends up in Massachusetts and Connecticut who are without power following this crazy October storm!

I cannot imagine how frustrated you must feel – especially since all you can do is wait until the various electrical and tree removal crews can get in to do their jobs. I hope they will all be able to work quickly and SAFELY to get everyone back up and running. I can’t imagine the headache this is for the emergency services folks… it’s tough work when the majority of people are effected through out the area. You can’t get food or gas because they don’t have power either.

Both my kids are also without power since Saturday – however my daughter at least has a wood stove keeping them warm. She’s working to keep the freezer cold by running a small generator every so often – but I think my son is going to loose everything again… he was out of power for several days following the tornado in his neighborhood this past June.

We got a fair amount of wet snow here in PA and those areas with lots of trees and power lines in the same place are suffering with the same lack of power. We did OK right here at the Stone House – lights flickered but stayed on. We have a conduit running from the garage to the house to ‘one day’ put in a generator… that ‘one day’ may need to come sooner than later.

Here are some pictures from Sunday after the sun had been working at melting the snow for a while.

Out my side porch to the driveway… right there at that first step is where I fell last February – needless to say I did NOT go out there.

This is looking off my side porch towards the front – the butterfly bushes are drooping over… usually taller than me which I know isn’t saying much – but they were easily 6 ft tall this year.

Again from the side porch looking into the back yard towards the garage. We (meaning The Engineer) did go around and knock the snow off the bushes before they got messed up.

I will be in Nashua NH later this week for A Quilters Gathering Quilt Show. I had planned to drive up on Tuesday and stay with my daughter and go to Southampton Quilts on Wednesday before heading up to NH. But now I’m not sure they will be open? So I may just head up first thing on Wednesday and head right to Nashua… I don’t know just yet?

Some power crews must be working somewhere around here as my power keeps flickering on and off… so I better try and post this.

Stay as warm as you can…

That Was Fun!

2011-10-23T16:19:00.001-04:00

And hectic, and exhausting… but most of all FUN!

I returned home earlier this past week from Massachusetts where I had the opportunity to work the 10th Anniversary of the Massachusetts Quilt Shop Hop at Southampton Quilts!

I realized as I made my way north that this was my first road trip since I busted up my knee in February. It was so good to be ‘on the road’ again – I love to travel and especially love to get in the car and drive. (Yes I went to Hawaii this summer to hug on a new grandbaby… but I didn’t have to drive to get there so it doesn’t count as a ‘road trip’.)

I am quite happy to report that my knee handled the weekend very well! Yes it was a little tired but overall I was very pleased that all my hard work to get my knee and legs stronger paid off… well that and those medical compression stockings I recently bought. I never thought I’d say I loved anything that resembled panty hose on steroids – but I love these things! I had practically no swelling in my knee after being at the shop for some really long days!

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed seeing so many quilty friends up there! It did my heart and soul good to see each and everyone of them – I truly feel blessed to know them.

I so miss everyone from the shop – the owners Nancy and Maureen, and the other teachers Beth, Pam, and Dale. Each of these ladies are so creative and bring their unique style to the quilting craft – but even more important is that they are all just wonderful folks! And I don’t want to miss mentioning Gail (a long time shop customer, quilty friend and new shop hop recruit). She survived working on Friday (always the busiest day) and showed up again on Saturday for more! LOL

It was also great to spend some time with my kids… I haven’t seen them since they came down here in the Spring – so I was overdue for some hugs!

OK – so what else is going on…

I found a lovely large paisley to make another 4 Patch Stacked Posie…. mmmm pretty!

I’m going to be making (with my neighbor and sister) Sauerkraut on Monday. I’ll see if I can remember to take some pictures of the process. In 6 – 8 weeks it will be ready to can.

Oh – I don’t know about you but I have to work a bit to try new things. In my mind pumpkin belongs in pie. Coconut milk isn’t anything I would have considered as an ingredient. But my daughter last spring made a delicious soup – with pumpkin, chicken, coconut milk and curry as the main ingredients. I’ve had this soup on my mind recently – been craving it actually. I’ve looked at several recipes and they all use a variety of things so I figured I could just wing it. So I threw a couple chicken breasts, a quart of chicken broth, chopped onion, and some pumpkin puree in the crock pot yesterday morning. When I got home later I added the coconut milk and went to add the spices. I had NO curry powder… none, zip, nadda! How can I have pumpkin curry soup without curry? LOL So I added a little of this, that, and the other in there and came out with an acceptable tasting concoction for dinner. Curry is on my grocery list.

And because I’m all about sharing the things I learn along the way…

…the problem with using a low sodium chicken broth is that it does not have enough salt in it!!

An Update in Pictures…

2011-10-09T18:14:00.001-04:00

We went to the farmers market a couple Saturdays ago… and I made cabbage & sausage (no pics), tomato pies and a couple zucchini casseroles (no pics).

Here is a family update… Miss K is playing volleyball,

Kai is excited about Halloween (to infinity and beyond),

and Keanu has been sharing his smile more and more. I sure miss that sweet face – actually I miss all those sweet faces!

My husband picked grapes off our vines… two 5 gallon buckets of grapes! And there were many, many more left on the vines. We have gotten no grapes the past 3 years - didn’t the vines know I wasn’t canning this year? Good thing my husband helped pick through them… I washed and cooked them down and then strained the juice. Two days later I canned 3 1/4 gallons of grape juice. It’s concentrated so we add some water when we drink it and down the road if I feel like making jelly I can use some of the juice for that.

I made some granola this past week… all natural, organic, gluten free, yadda, yadda, yadda, healthy for you and oh so yummy! That filled a 2 quart jar and two pint jars.

I made some churn dash blocks out of some fat quarters that were sent to me when I was ~~in prison~~ recovering from my busted knee – Thanks Nancy!

A long while back Lori from Dakota City Quilter showed some blocks from a pattern called Swoon Blocks that uses 2 fat quarters and some background fabric for each block – they finish at 24 inches! I have cut out for 6 blocks (rather than the 9 from the pattern) and this one is ready for final assembly.

And last but not least… My favorite oldest girl went to the Navy Ball with her favorite handsome Navy fella… ain’t she pretty!

Well that about brings me up to date… except to say… I’ll be on the road later this week for my Annual Fall Pilgrimage to MA. I am headed up to work the Shop Hop at Southampton Quilts for the weekend and visit with my other two favorite kids…

Oh and my knee… I’m very happy with my progress since I’ve been back – still working it daily at the gym and doing the extra ART therapy… but it’s all been worth the effort! It isn’t perfect but it’s getting closer!

Searching High–Searching Low…

2011-09-18T11:09:00.001-04:00

Searching for my Quilting Mojo…

I guess I have the quilters equivalent to writers block…

Hopefully it’s just a matter of my having had little to no exposure to fabric over the past 7 months.

Yes – I am now 7 months post surgery! Last week I went to see a different Orthopedic Dr. to get a fresh opinion of where I am and where I can expect to go with my knee. He said that he thought I was doing well. He said that these injuries take a good year of healing before you know just what limitations you will have long term or before you would consider any surgery to remedy anything. I have been seeing a Chiropractor who uses the ART (Active Release Technique) Therapy (Ortho Dr. thought this was great!). This type of therapy has been a great help in getting my knee working again. It’s not just the knee joint and the tendons there that need work… it’s also the muscles (especially the quad) in my thigh that need attention to get back to working correctly. I’m not an athlete but I want to be able to stand without my leg hurting and walk (faster and further) and hopefully without a limp. I’m very optimistic that I can get there.

The quilting… well as I said I’m in a big slump. I did go into the quilt shop Thursday to pick out fabric for the November Calendar Quilts and I also worked the Finish It Friday class and I went back on Saturday to pick out for the December quilt. I was tired but it felt good.

The quilt shop here is closed this next week for the Town Fair… the streets around the shop are blocked off so it’s a vacation week for the owner. After that I’ll go back to working twice a week (4 hour days) and see how that is on my knee. There is a local Shop Hop that runs for the first 2 weeks of October and the Shop Hop up in MA is the weekend of the 15th. I am really happy to say I will again be coming up to MA to work at Southampton Quilts that weekend!

I am hoping that this increased exposure to fabric and all the lovely quilty folks will reawaken my desire to make quilts!

I’ll never forget That Blue…

2011-09-06T23:16:00.001-04:00

That morning was the most perfect late summer, early fall morning in New England.

It was crisp out… not yet cold – just a hint of the winter to come. The air was dry and the sky was crystal clear – not even a whisper of a cloud. The sun was gloriously bright - adding just the right amount of warmth.

And That Blue… it was rich and deep – the most beautiful color a sky can be.

Later as I pondered the events of that day I remember thinking “how could something so horrible come out of that glorious sky?”

Eventually…

2011-09-05T00:07:00.001-04:00

Eventually I’ll get my body clock adjusted to this eastern time zone!

I arrived home Wednesday afternoon after a long flight with not nearly enough sleep. I blame my long re-adjustment on the fact that I was gone 5 1/2 weeks… I don’t believe my age has anything to do with it… stop it – I heard that snickering.

I had a wonderful visit with my daughter and grandkids… such a pleasure to watch as everyone settles into the new routine of having a baby in the house again. My daughter asked the last week I was there if there was something I wanted to do… maybe go to the beach? see some of the Hawaiian sights? I told her that I had done everything I wanted to do – be right there with her and the kids and hold the baby. I got a sun tan on my feet from walking down to the park with her and the kids and we had gotten out to eat some good seafood (really good seafood) at a couple different places while I was there. So I was happy… well as happy as I could be about having to leave.

And oh my – that little one… well take a look – he’s not so little. Here he is helping me pack on the day I left.

Actually I was trying to see if he would fit in my carry on bag… but he was too big.

Here is a video of Kai explaining how he fell down the stairs and bumped his head and had to go to the hospital. He had a minor concussion so we just had to keep him quiet (HA HA HA – keep a 2 1/2 year old boy quiet) for a few days. Honestly I was ready to go buy duct tape…

Describing his fall down the stairs

Fortunately he was only about 3/4’s of the way up to the first landing – goofing off and jumping like a frog. I was already on the landing when I heard him jump up and looked back to see him tumbling backwards down the carpeted stairs. His mom was in the living room and heard him and when she looked up all she saw was his landing at the bottom… banging his noggin. He seemed to be fine but we were worried about his neck – so he and his mom spent 5 hours in the ER… on her birthday… Happy Birthday Mommy!

Tuesday I have to be back on Eastern Time… I need to get back to the gym and I have all kinds of appointments this week.

No, No, No…

2011-08-25T15:23:00.001-04:00

I’ve always loved 2 year olds… they are just sooo funny!

I was teaching Kai to sing ‘Where is Thumbkin?’ Then the other day as we were walking into a store he was asking me to sing the Pumpkin song with him… ? After a bit of back and forth and watching his hands we figured out that he was asking for ‘Where is Thumbkin?’. I emphasized that it was Thumbkin… see my thumb… Thumbkin… and then we sang as we walked.

Later in the car he again asked for the Pumpkin song…

Mom: Kai… it’s Thumbkin

Kai: No, No, No… this is a guy… this is Pumpkin

Mom: Kai – look – this is your thumb (wiggles' thumb in the air) – this is Thumbkin

Kai: No, No, No… this is a guy (also holds one thumb up in the air)… this is Pumpkin (holds other thumb up).

Mom (chuckling): Kai – see my thumb? This is THUMBKIN!

Kai: No, No, No… THIS is a guy (again holds one thumb up in the air)… THIS is PUMPKIN (holding up other thumb)!

Mom & Granny (both laughing and holding thumbs in the air) KAI… this is a thumb… (wiggles thumbs for emphasis) THIS is THUMBKIN!

Kai: NO, NO, NO! (now annoyed that both Granny and Mom are so STUPID)… THIS is a GUY (also wiggles thumb up in the air)… THIS IS PUMPKIN (holding up other thumb)!!

…of course by this point both his Mom and I are laughing like the idiots the boy thinks we are.

So it’s official… this is a guy (holds one thumb up) and this is Pumpkin (holds other thumb up)!

GrannyMommy

2011-07-28T20:54:00.001-04:00

The first day I was here in Hawaii the 2 year old was testing his limits - as all 2 year olds are likely to do.

I asked him to stop – at which point he pointed his little finger at me, wrinkled his eyebrows and proclaimed “You not a Mommy” as if that was going to make me not make him behave properly. (The hardest part was not laughing out loud!)

His Mommy heard him and said that yes I was a Mommy – I was her Mommy and that I was his Granny and he would have to behave and listen to me.

I still got the ‘finger’ a couple times complete with the announcement that I wasn’t a Mommy… but he finally caught on that I am indeed a Mommy – not his Mommy - but that my word is just as effective as his Mommy’s word.

It was about that time he started calling me “GrannyMommy” at times. At first I thought it was a slip – meaning to call me Granny but calling me Mommy – but that would have been MommyGranny. He doesn’t use it all the time – but it is on purpose and he uses it when I am doing things with or for him that his mom would otherwise be helping him with.

The visiting nurse came today – the little one (and I use that term loosely) is up to 9 lbs. 2 oz. He was 8 lbs. 10 oz. when he was born and dropped to 7 lbs. 14 oz. on discharge. We may start calling him Moose!

We are off to the park down the street… Aloha!

signed… GrannyMommy!

Being Prepared…

2011-07-24T18:38:00.001-04:00

You know the planning for a long flight to Hawaii takes a bit of thought.

I wanted to be comfortable – so I choose to wear a pair of black light weight knit work out pants, a sleeveless top and a long sleeve very, very light weight knit cardigan. Because my left foot is still a bit swollen my slip on shoes were the perfect choice.

I charged all my electronic devices, updated my iPod, downloaded a book to read, downloaded a book to listen to, and brought along a Sudoku book and mechanical pencil.

I was all set…

Until the lens fell out of my glasses…

Is it some sort of twisted evil plan that makes an eyeglass manufacturer design glasses that have the screw holding the lens in place inserted from the bottom up? What’s with that?

And so about an hour into my 9 hour flight… I couldn’t see to read my book or play any games on my iPod. I could play Sudoku in the book I brought but couldn’t see my little number notes in the corners of the blocks. I did listen to my audio book – but that made me sleepy and I had to keep backing up the story.

So I decided to sit and Ponder for awhile… then I remembered the extra pair of reading glasses I had packed in with my makeup bag.

Mental note: Pack an eyeglass repair kit for the next long trip.

Any frustration over my glasses was quickly resolved upon arrival.

The little boy being a little boy…

A very happy big sister…

And a laundry helper that seems to be sleeping on the job!

Aloha!

Saying Aloha…

2011-07-21T16:25:00.001-04:00

We have a new grandbaby…

Say Aloha to Keanu…

His older brother just loves holding him…

Everyone is doing well – the kids are especially excited with their new brother! I’ll have more pictures when my daughter gets her cable service established. You see - they moved down the street to a bigger house. Yeah – she went into labor the day the movers came. LOL – when it rains - it pours… even in paradise.

My quilty weekend was so much fun… we had a great time and got a lot of sewing done. Our Challenge Quilts were all wonderful – I of course don’t have any pictures so when I do get some I’ll post them.

I worked on a New York Beauty for a shop sample that was printed on foundation fabric. Of course no matter how many times I looked at it and rearranged… I’m still not excited about the color dispersion. Oh well. I think I’d like to do something like this again but using a paper foundation that could be removed.

I also got the Sept. & Oct. Calendar Quilts done…

I’ll have to update that page but that will have to wait.

Now I’ll say Aloha… because my bags are packed and I’m headed to Hawaii first thing Friday morning! There are 3 grandkids there for me to snuggle… oh and I’m gonna work on my tan too!

Eating Peas…

2011-07-12T13:33:00.001-04:00

I had to laugh when the President – in talking about getting this whole debt ceiling issue resolved – said it was something that just needed to be done… “So we might as well do it now: pull off the Band-Aid, eat our peas. Now is the time to do it. If not now, when?"

The USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council’s response was… “We take President Obama’s comment on the need to ‘eat our peas’ as a reference to the First Lady’s push to get all Americans to eat a more healthy diet as part of the Let’s Move campaign. Eating peas has two clear benefits: they can help close the nutritional loopholes in your diet, and preparation isn't taxing! If tasty and nutritious meals featuring peas are served more frequently in the White House and in the cafeterias of both Houses of Congress, it will contribute to a balanced diet, if not a balanced budget. Eating more lentils couldn’t hurt, either.” (Closing loopholes… not taxing… balanced budget… very clever!)

That made me laugh too – they could have had their nose out of joint but instead chose the higher road… saw the glass as half full… and made ~~lemonade out of lemons~~ pea soup out of dried peas!

Anyway… I’m at the ‘eat my peas’ point. My quilty friends will be arriving here day after tomorrow - I can stall no longer… I have to sort thru the remaining clutter and get it put away, the ~~compost heap~~ pile of misc. laundry needs to be caught up, and books and magazines need to be collected and put away. Then I think I’ll call it done… good news is that I know my friends don’t come to visit or inspect my house. They will understand that I didn’t wash my curtains because I’m not climbing a ladder to take them down or put them up… and as long as no one writes in the dust – it won’t be noticed either! LOL

Here’s a picture to ponder… kinda looks like farm fields from the air don’t ya think?

University Update–Calendar Quilts

2011-07-01T23:12:00.001-04:00

Finally I’ve gotten some pictures of the May thru August Calendar Quilts.

Individual pictures are posted on the Calendar Quilts Page… just click the link on the right or on the link above.

All of these still need to be quilted… something that won’t happen any time soon.

May & June… I especially like the Ants and Watermelon on June.

July and August…

Four more to go…

And So She Sews…

2011-06-26T10:17:00.001-04:00

And boy does that feel good… well outside of the fact that standing still (ironing and cutting) uses my knee differently and made it a bit sore in different places. But I can at least sit with my feet planted in front of me for a period of time and that felt really good.

Really a post about quilting! Can you believe it? Yeah, me neither!

Anyhoo – this is what I’m working with…

This is the 3rd year for a gathering of quilters here at my house – we call it Howdy’s HoeDown. Hokey I know – but it is what it is! LOL The Challenge this year was to use the fabrics handed out in a quilt top. I had selected 3 fabrics (yellow, green & pink) and then combined 2 of them in each package - a 2 yard cut of one fabric and a half yard cut of another. You can add whatever else you need to end up with a 60 x 60ish size quilt. My fabrics are the yellow and green and although I had a plan and other fabrics picked out last summer – I shifted gears and selected an easier design and picked up new fabrics last week to work with. I have the blocks completed and into rows. Today I’ll have a top… and I’m happy with it! But I can’t show you pictures of it until after the gathering!

I have turned in both the July and August Calendar Quilts… but I only have a picture of one of them. This is August. I’ll get better pictures – those bees really are yellow. Although I had quilted the first 4 – those done since I busted up my knee are just assembled and fused – I’ve not done any of the decorative stitching nor quilted them. Next week I’ll go back to the shop and get the fabric picked out for Sept. & Oct. so I can get them going.

I’ll have to update my Quilt University list next week when I get some pictures. Actually I need to go in and refresh my memory as to what I wanted to work on – I think I’d like to try and catch up by attending ‘summer school’… LOL

Only a quick note about my knee… I saw the Dr. this past week – 4 months post surgery. He said I’m doing very well considering the extent of my injury. So I continue with PT – I’m now at 125 degrees of bend – with them pushing on it. Functionally what I can easily bend it to with my own lame muscles is about 115. I’m not content to stop there… I want my knee back… I want it all back. I still have swelling and discomfort but that’s all part of the therapy – I’m challenging it every day so it stays a bit annoyed at me. The water therapy I’m doing at the gym is wonderful for all of me and I’m slowly adding to the ‘circuit machine’ exercises I do – I really need to add ‘core’ exercises and now that I’m stronger in general I can do that – PT has now OK’d my adding some of the leg machines in as well since we started those this past week in therapy.

I don’t think I’ve ever exercised this much in my whole life.

Building Strength and Flexibility

2011-06-10T20:53:00.001-04:00

Slowly but surely I’m gaining my strength back.

I am adding to my daily schedule as I get stronger. Last week I started going to a water therapy class at the gym to help improve my overall strength. I’m still going to Physical Therapy 3 times a week and am slowly and continually gaining flexibility in my knee. Nothing magical about it – just plain old hard painful stretching. I am now at 115 degrees…

There was so much that I took for granted before I busted up my knee… who knew I’d ‘want’ to be able to do laundry, shopping, and cleaning? I can run the little vacuum around and although I’m usually pretty flexible (ha, ha, ha – flexible!) about some clutter – the accumulation is starting to bother me. To clear up things it requires multiple trips in and out of various rooms and up and down the stairs – I’ve only got one good hand to use but carrying a lot of stuff throws my balance off – which is scary on the stairs. Going to the store for more than just a few items is exhaustive – I’m so glad I shop at one of those old fashion ‘small town’ grocery stores – it’s not even open on Sunday. I haven’t been in a ‘super store’ in ages and I don’t miss it.

Adding the water therapy class into my routine last week resulted in the need of an afternoon rest/nap each day. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for naps… but I’d rather take one because I want too… not because I need to.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m overweight… but this knee – well it's not my knee. The whole leg doesn’t look like my leg – which is weird. The muscles are misshapen and the therapy keeps everything swollen. Sure wish fat had melted away as quickly as muscle mass did… LOL!

OK enough of that…

Let’s talk gardening! The strawberries are dying out there on the plants. I just can’t spend much time picking as I can’t squat or use the garden stool that I used last year and I can only bend over for so long. I didn’t get the water pipes set up so it’s up to Mother Nature to water… and although she provided quite a bit of water a couple weeks ago… here recently - not so much. Besides – if I did pick them I’d have to do something with them and I still have frozen strawberries from last year. I did buy some tomato plants to put in – but they are now dead… shriveled up sitting right there by the faucet - I didn’t water them and apparently they didn’t water themselves either. My daughter and granddaughter helped put in some onions and they are holding their own back there in the raised beds – the lettuce plants they helped with are also doing well – I’ll be picking and eating some of that soon. Hmmm – let’s see… oh I also put in a couple basil plants that are holding their own so far. I wish I had found a new rosemary plant to replace the one that didn’t survive the winter snow… I’ll have to go out to the herb place and check there for one. Otherwise my perennial plants are doing just what they are suppose to… and that is making me happy. The Engineer is doing all the yard work so far… I know he’ll be happy when I can get back on the tractor and at least mow the back yard – that would knock an hour off his time.

I have done no sewing since I finished the last pair of Calendar Quilts… I haven’t even gone up to my sewing room. I will work on the July Calendar Quilt this weekend. I spent a couple hours at the shop Thursday picking out fabric for it. The time I spent at the shop convinced me that I am no where near ready to go back to work. I was exhausted… those bolts got heavier while I was away.

Quilters are Amazing Folks

2011-06-09T21:13:00.001-04:00

Do you remember in a previous post I mentioned a fund raising effort by Judy Laquidara of the blog Patchwork Times to benefit the Joplin Red Cross. Thursday she delivered the checks sent in to the Joplin Red Cross Office that totaled $11,245 dollars – YES eleven thousand dollars!! Amazing response to her call to action!! To those of you who joined in the effort – Bravo!!

Speaking of Joplin - there is an amazing story from the Joplin Globe Newspaper of 2 Oklahoma Storm Chasers that followed the Joplin Tornado into the city… Desperate Moments will leave you with goose bumps on your arms and tears in your eyes. Take a minute to read through some of the other stories too… recently a family cat was found under the debris of their destroyed house 16 days after the tornado. Poor kitty must have heard it’s owner talking and meowed out for attention.

I am so glad that my quilty friends are all safe in MA following the tornado there last week. I’ve watched several of the videos posted at MassLive.com and have looked through the still photos of the tornado damage in all those different towns – scary stuff indeed. I asked my son how he knew there was a tornado in his area. He said the power had just gone out and the rain had started and he was closing windows in his apartment. It was “the lawn chair flying past his window that was the give away” for him… since he’s on the third (top) floor of his building.

Raise your hand if you are ready for a nice calm summer… that’s what I thought!

Dear Mother Nature…

2011-06-02T07:25:00.001-04:00

For Crying Out Loud - Enough Already… Knock It Off… Take a Chill Pill…Put a Sock In It… Quit Yer Bitching!

At 4:46 pm Wednesday my son Kelly calls me to say he’d just been in a tornado. Not a conversation I expected to ever have with him as he still lives in MA. As he talked I switched the TV to the Weather Channel… and sure enough there was video of the tornado coming across the CT River and live video showing a truck overturned on the Memorial Bridge… the bridge I know my daughter Kayse uses to go home… at that time of day. He was OK but said that he’d checked outside and there was lots of damage in his neighborhood and you could hear sirens in the background. He hadn’t been able to get in touch with his sister who lives in the same town because the cell phone service was overloaded. His other sister in Hawaii had tried to call while we were on the phone so I told him to call me later and I’d see if I could connect with Kayse.

Sure enough I also couldn’t get a connection with Kayse but was able to call Kara in Hawaii. Bless her heart… she was crying and all upset. It took me a minute to understand her… Kayse had called her to say that she was OK but that she hadn’t been able to contact Kelly and then the call disconnected. Poor girl sure needed a hug… I assured her Kelly was OK. And I was able to connect with Kayse by phone a short time later. She was home and had fortunately left work early – otherwise she would have been right in the middle of it.

My kids are safe… but a block from my son apartment… the story is very different. This is a 2 1/2 story multi-family house… well it use to be 2 1/2 stories.

And this… well I’m not sure what it was – although I recognize the tan stucco building to the right of it.

And this would have been a 3 story multi-family house… just like the grey one next to it…

Many communities have suffered damage… certainly not what Joplin has suffered… but for this part of the country – an event to be remembered.

I’ll call Southampton Quilts later to make sure all my quilty friends are OK… I hope everyone is OK.

Do You Like Action Adventure Movies?

2011-05-25T08:54:00.001-04:00

I do…

But I don’t like feeling like I’m watching an Action Adventure Movie when I’ve got the Weather Channel tuned in.

The live reporting last evening of the OK tornados that were touching down and churning their way across the landscape – well - it was surreal…

During an Action Adventure Movie you know that nobody really gets hurt… but it tears at my heart to see those tornados spewing debris knowing that people are having their lives ripped apart… right at that moment.

I’ve lived in Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska and have relatives living in TX, KS and OK. I’ve known that sick feeling when you see the air turn that eerie green… I don’t miss it a bit.

Do you know Judy Laquidara of the blog Patchwork Times? She’s an accomplished quilter, quilt book author and all around great gal who currently lives outside the Joplin, MO area. I’ve known Judy ‘virtually’ for as long as I’ve been a quilter – having met her via Alex Andersons Quilting Message Board. She has a wonderful proposal for all who would like to reach out and help the folks of Joplin. Please go read her blog post and if you would like to help out please do.

Now all I need to do if find my check book – I can’t remember the last time I ‘wrote’ a check out… LOL

What a Spring We’re Having…

2011-05-23T08:32:00.001-04:00

My heart just hurts for the folks suffering from the terrible tornados that have been wrecking their way through the mid-west and south this year.

I pray those suffering find peace and comfort soon…

Here We Are…

2011-05-20T22:04:00.001-04:00

Nearly a month since I sat down here… figured I better get here before the End of The World… ya know… just in case! LOL

We have had 7 straight days of rain here – certainly not the flooding along the Mississippi – but I’m so ready for some sunshine! I need it for my mental health…

Physically I am slowly getting stronger… when I come down the stairs and realize I forgot something upstairs – I usually go back up and get it… if I really need it… sooner than later… sometimes.

I got to 90 degrees a couple weeks ago and then came to almost a screeching halt only gaining 6 degrees since then. That has been very discouraging for me – but they are still very up beat at Therapy and believe I can continue to gain slowly but surely.

So I decided to take a pro-active approach and I joined a local Health Club this week. It has a large facility, hundreds of pieces of equipment, lots of programs, and a warm water (92 degrees) therapy pool – which is what I am most interested in. Although shopping for workout clothes and a bathing suit might just do me in… too much walking… and that’s just from the parking lot… LOL

I won’t be going back to work at the shop until the fall… I want to focus on my rehab and getting back to doing my normal everyday activities. I need to get back to doing housework, laundry, grocery shopping, and cooking on a regular basis… who would have ever thought I’d look forward to doing those things!

La, La, La, La, La, La…

2011-04-26T09:39:00.001-04:00

I say with my fingers stuck in my ears!!! OMG are you as tired of hearing about the Royal Wedding as I am? I do wish the couple well – as I would any young couple setting out… but for crying out loud… enough already. Unfortunately it’s not going to be over as of Friday – it will continue for a good couple weeks I’m sure. I am thankful that I am at least more mobile these days and not confined to my ~~prison~~ recliner all day long eating bon-bons and watching TV.

She walks! Yea!! With a single crutch no less!!! AND…. drum roll please… she does STAIRS!!!

The timing could not be better for my increased mobility as my daughter is off with her husband and kids this week for a much deserved vacation… which means I’m on my own during the day. I have to go get my own coffee and meals during the day. I am also driving myself to PT – which continues to be a painful but fruitful experience… I am now up to 77 degrees. Can you say ow? Me… I usually say ow, Ow, OW! The tendons and ligaments were pretty well banged up in the fall – so now I need to encourage them to stretch out again… well the therapist does the encouraging… me - I say ow, Ow, OW!

I am getting those muscles in my leg stronger – they now mostly cooperate when I send them mental commands to work… although they do still have a jello quality to them as they quiver and wobble.

Kara and her family will return here this weekend and then between Monday and Tuesday they all head off to San Diego for a couple weeks. Mark still has a week of school in SD and they will work in some more family time before heading back to Hawaii.

And so - my days of being pampered are over… I think I could have enjoyed them more if there wasn’t all that pain involved! LOL

I Am Cured…

2011-04-18T16:46:00.001-04:00

I am cured of the want, urge, desire, hankering, longing, craving, wish, yearning, eagerness, or desire…

…to sit around and do nothing all day.

Yep, I am so over that…

Get Some Cheese and Crackers…

2011-04-14T16:40:00.001-04:00

I feel a ~~wine~~ whine coming on… LOL

I won’t really whine much - I am a bit frustrated with about everything these days. My knee, the weather, quilting…

Let’s start with my knee… it’s doing about what I expected – which is not much. I had PT twice a week for 4 weeks and just began my 3 visits a week. I am putting weight on it and using it to walk although I’m still using the walker until I build up my overall strength more. I have recently started to work on bending it – going from 40 degrees the first time they measured to 60 degrees yesterday. Not at all what I need or want in a knee… I ~~think~~ know the rest of it is going to be a lot of hard painful work.

My overall strength is getting better – especially once I started weight bearing on that leg. I no longer wear myself out just getting my shower…and I’m not exhausted when I get to PT.

I have been spending a little more time downstairs recently – but still have to haul myself up the stairs for the ladies room. I’ll be happy when I can walk up the stairs. But for now I’ll go up and down on my hiney a few times and then call it quits and stay up in my room.

I miss the sunshine when it’s hiding… and it’s been hiding around here a lot recently. It was such a pleasure to raise the blinds to the sunshine this morning! Now that I’m walking easier and further I can venture out on the driveway with the kids and enjoy some fresh air – which we did this morning. There is so much I’d like to be doing in my garden – I look forward to getting out there and getting stuff done. It’s mid April already – let’s get the warmth going on a more regular basis!

Quilting… well there isn’t much to say on that subject. I haven’t done a thing – nothing… nadda! I haven’t even gotten up to my studio to work on the calendar quilts I need to work on. I brought the stuff home a couple weeks ago – but just have not been able to get up there to work on them. I hope this weekend will be different.

My daughter and grandkids will be here just a few more weeks. I am so very grateful of the time and energy she has given me these past 2 months. I know it’s not the vacation she had planned – it’s not what I would have planned either. There are lots of things I wanted to do with them while they were here… but those adventures will have to wait until next time. I do hate that she’s had to work so hard… she pregnant and due late July – so it’s been a lot of work taking care of the kids and her Mom and Dad. I really don’t know what I would have done without her here.

Just a quick note: because I have recently had some S P A M comments show up on older posts I changed the settings so that Anonymous comments aren’t accepted and (if I remember right) you may get a note that the comment is awaiting ‘Moderation’. I’ll reset things after a while… I wish those nitwits would find something better to do with their time.

But after all that frustrating stuff… this is the kind of thing that keeps me sane. I know it’s a long video… but the boy was just too funny.

I Seem To Be At A Loss For Words…

2011-03-26T16:37:00.001-04:00

Yeah… really… me…

OK… enough snickering out of y’all – it does happen some times.

The problem is that I really have lots of things I’d like to say but I can’t quite clear my head enough to get it out.

I have been sidetracked mentally by the disasters in Japan… the human loss and physical devastation is just hard to wrap my mind around… my heart just hurts. And then as those first few days unwrapped before us on TV - I read a stupid insensitive comment by a young nephew of mine on Facebook. I have to say that I have had to work hard to ‘keep my fingers to myself’ (an online version of biting your tongue) and not respond to his comment… but apparently that kind of ignorance isn’t limited to my nephew as the national news contained stories of others who lost their jobs because of their inappropriate on-line comments. What’s wrong with people?

And then one morning as we watched the news – the story ended with a mention that you could ‘text 2 donate $10.00’ to the Red Cross to help with the disaster in Japan. My 6 year old Granddaughter turned around and said to her Mom… “I have $10.00 of my own money – can we text to donate it?”

I could not stop my tears… try as I might to hide my emotions at that moment I couldn’t. Here was a little 6 year old who got it… she saw suffering and need and was willing to make a personal sacrifice to meet that need. I was so proud of her and of her Mother who has nurtured that spirit in her.

Of course the kids didn’t understand why Granny was sitting in her ~~prison~~ recliner with a kleenex to her face sniveling… “Momma what’s wrong with Granny?” says the 2 year old. Then they both stood there like they had done something wrong but didn’t know what it was.

Well, I stopped sniveling – my granddaughter turned over her hard earned money to her Mom and together they ‘text 2 donate’ to send her money half way around the world to help.

In other news… I’ve been going out for PT and I’ve decided just showing up for the appointment is work all by it self. By the time we have breakfast and I get my shower and get dressed and then use the walker to get into the facility… I’m beat! They are using a muscle stimulator on my left upper leg while they ice my knee. While that’s going on I have some arm exercises to do. Then I have some leg exercises and I’m on my way home again. A nap always feels good on PT days.

I did go into the quilt shop this week also. I needed to sort out the fabric I had already cut for the next 2 calendar quilts. I had pulled the fabric before I hurt my knee but hadn’t divided it up into kits. I did have to lay down on a table a couple times – there’s just so long I can sit with my leg propped up. I plan to haul myself upstairs and do some sewing this coming week. I’d like to get the 2 backgrounds pieced and then do the fusible applique… not sure I’ll quilt them – I’ll be happy just to have them assembled.

I don’t know about y’all – but I am tired of being cold… let’s get on about the business of spring shall we!

Knee Update…

2011-03-13T14:46:00.001-04:00

I saw the Dr. again this past Friday… hard to believe it’s been 2 weeks already. I had to get a couple new x-rays…

It’s interesting that this view (from the front) almost perfectly lines up the 2 screws they put in. In my last post I thought the second screw came in from the side because you could only see a portion of it. But I can see now that the second screw is a partial and is used as an anchor to hold the broken off piece of bone in place. They are both inserted at the same angle.

I still have at least 3 weeks of not using the leg but the Good News is that I will begin some PT for the rest of me this week! Yahoo!

I am Loosing it…

2011-03-08T11:04:00.001-05:00

No – not my mind… although that’s probably not far off.

I’m loosing muscle tone. What pathetic muscle tone I had anywhere and everywhere – it’s slowly slipping away from my being so inactive. It’s been 4 weeks Monday since I busted up my knee – and 3 weeks today since the surgery to fix me up. Last week I went in for my annual mammogram. I got the worst charley horse in my right cheeky as I was standing on one leg whilst the 2 techs worked together – one scurried back and forth working to get me set up and then she’d dash in behind the other who was waiting to push the buttons to ‘photograph’ me. Good thing I don’t have much to push and pull into place… if ya know what I mean!

Yesterday I went with my daughter out to do a couple errands. We stopped in at my MIL’s to deliver groceries my daughter had picked up for her. My FIL is in the hospital following knee surgery last Friday. Yeah – a family of gimps! LOL At 84 he’s going to end up in a rehab facility in a couple days… he won’t like it – but if he wants to get back home he’s gonna have to work hard to get back his strength and mobility. We then stopped at a knit shop to pick up a Knitty Knobby for my granddaughter to use. And those two events wore me out. Today I am really sore from that little bit of getting around with the walker… everything hurts.

I’ve been doing a lot of pondering these past couple weeks… like every time I haul myself up and down the stairs – I think about those 30 40 50 pounds I should have lost. I think I have found my incentive…

New Hardware…

2011-02-26T19:26:00.001-05:00

I went to the Dr. on Friday for my post-op follow-up and to get the stitches removed from the ‘pokie holes’ in my knee.

I got to do my best impression of a pretzel so that they could take an x-ray from the side of my knee. That pretzel position wasn’t nearly as painful as the one I assumed for the x-ray at the ER.

I found out I’ve got 2 screws… one that goes straight in – in the middle of the bone to hold the ACL back in place where it broke off (at the break) and another coming in from the other side to hold the bone together snug.

I could show you the camera picture of the stitches in the ACL and the screw… but I don’t want anyone feeling light headed… one of us is enough.

Here is the other new hardware…

I’ve got a couple hinges either side of my knee – but it’s locked straight – no bending this knee and no weight to be put on the leg.

I’ve got some quick release buckles on the velcro straps… no more noise when I take it on and off.

The supports are along the sides and there is only padding where the buckles are – so this will be much more comfortable and won’t slide like the other one did.

All buckled up… and no place to go…

He did offer me a cast… and then offered me this. He said this immobilizer works as well as a cast except for when people take it off and then reinjure themselves moving around without it on. Needless to say… I won’t be tooling around without it on – I can take a hint.

I did get my wheelchair… it helps in some respects but it’s a tight squeeze in some places and then having my leg sticking straight out just complicates things. Easier to just stay put…

My Son-in-Law surprised us by driving up here on Friday. He’s recently reported to the DC area for a Navy school – that’s why my Daughter and grandkids were planning on being here at this time to visit. Their Friday class was cancelled so he took advantage of the opportunity and headed up here after the DC area morning traffic settled down.

Maybe this week I’ll be more productive… maybe… maybe not…

The Answer…

2011-02-23T12:57:00.001-05:00

I took this picture the other day…

…all such sweet and funny cards – each and every one that have come in make me smile!

But all of you quilters will especially appreciate this card…

It covers any and all occasions I think…

Thank You All for all of the Wonderful Happy Healing Thoughts that have been sent my way via the post office, email, and especially those quick and powerful prayers (I may not hear them – but I feel them)!

The kids were excited that there was some snow on the ground yesterday morning when they awoke. Or ‘Snowman’ as my grandson calls it… if it’s white and on the ground… it’s ‘snowman’ – not just snow. So if you follow his logic you will understand that “Granny fell down on snowman and broke her knee”… that’s how he explains it. They were excited to go out and play in the ‘snowman’. LOL It’s really cold so they may get another day or two to play but come Friday it will be raining… and the snow will be gone again.

I laid down on the bed yesterday afternoon about 2 – the little boy came and sat in my ~~prison~~ recliner to watch a little TV while Mom & Keao were doing school lessons online. He fell asleep… I fell asleep… he woke up later but I stayed and snoozed off and on until 5 PM. Three Hours! And I still went to bed at 10 and fell right to sleep.

My granddaughter Keao and I have started reading the Little House series… that should keep us busy for a few months don’t ya think?

Todays’s plan… maybe I can avoid an afternoon killing nap if I get out some knitting… oh and I hope to have a wheel chair delivered today – I’ve grown tired of using this office chair to scoot around – time for an upgrade!

New wheels should make me feel good don’t ya think?

Two Weeks…

2011-02-21T15:36:00.001-05:00

I am 2 weeks beyond the fall and just about 1 week post surgery… and I think I’m doing OK. I’m putting a picture at the very bottom of this post – so if you don’t wanna see a few ‘pokie holes’ with stitches in my knee… well don’t look – although it really isn’t too gross.

The Dr.’s office said I could remove the wrapping on Friday when I called and cover the stitches with waterproof Band-Aids – the surgical wrap was slipping and rubbing the stitches and driving me nuts since the swelling had gone down quite a bit. Today after my bath I took off those Band-Aids and took a picture before putting new ones on. I think everything is looking good – in a knee full of ‘pokie holes’ kinda way.

Friday the stitches will come out at my Dr.’s visit… and I hope I can get a wheel chair for getting around the house. Right now I’m using an office chair to roll myself to the bathroom because the walker was killing my right shoulder. I may just end up in PT for it before my knee.

I’d like to say I’ve done lots of sewing – but I haven’t. Last week I spent most of my spare time snoozing and this morning when I got the applique out I found that it bothers my shoulder… so I may just try out some knitting and see how that goes.

My knee (well at least a picture of the knee) is down there…

The Best Medicine…

2011-02-18T10:25:00.001-05:00

My daughter and grandkids arrived Tuesday while I was at the Surgery Center. Kara said that the kids spent a few minutes hugging on the dog Toot and then Kai asked for his boots! The boy loves his boots! Had to have his boots.

But if he doesn’t have his boots on – he’s barefoot. And he usually makes a big production of taking the socks off and throwing them on the floor… he’s such a boy! LOL

This child – my favorite oldest granddaughter – stood out in the cold holding the screen door open so I could hobble inside after my surgery Tuesday.

I took these pictures using the ToonCamera App.

Here is Keao when she came to snuggle with me in bed Wednesday morning.

And here is the boy snuggling with his Granny in my ~~prison~~ recliner.

It’s hard to hold the ipod and touch the screen to take the picture – but not as hard as it is to get a picture of the boy when he’s standing… talk about a wiggle worm! LOL

The surgery on Tuesday went well – I was very happy with the Surgery Center – very professional. I actually had a conversation with the Anesthesiologists – not the hi, bye you usually get from them.

Anyhoo – my ACL did get a couple stitches to pull together a small tear and then where the ACL broke away from the bone it was screwed back down into place. Six weeks to allow the bone to heal and then the PT will start.

I slept the rest of Tuesday waking up long enough to take more pain meds and eat a small meal. I couldn’t believe I could sleep that much.

My son called during that time to check in on me… and this is his Facebook entry about it…

“Discovered a great new game the whole family can play. It's called Talk to your mom when she is on Percocet and see how many times you get her to say "Wait, What?"

Twit! LOL It shouldn’t be a surprise that this is the one who as a teenager promised to take care of me in my old age… he said “I’ll get you a bed by the window!” What more could I want?

So here we are on Friday… I actually started typing this post on Thursday but got sidetracked by naps and such. The swelling has gone down – my only real problem right now is that the bandaging has shifted and the stitches are being tugged and pull – very pricky feeling. I can’t tell you how annoying that feeling is. I put a call into the Dr.’s office – hopefully they’ll tell me I can pull this stuff off and what to put on over the stitches to protect them.

My youngest and her fella are coming in over this long weekend to visit… the kids are so excited to see her! Me too!

I’ll Be Back…

2011-02-15T09:20:00.001-05:00

Probably in a day or so…

Surgery is today – late morning – or whenever they get around to me I suppose.

My daughter and grandkids will be at the house by the time I get home from surgery and (terrible Mom that I am) I have already given her a couple chores to do when she gets in. Sad huh?

Their travels have been good – the overnight ride on the train has been a wonderful experience for her and the kids. She said it was great having them contained in a roomette. Everyone slept well and having a toilet in the room is a must when you travel with kids who never have to ‘go’ at the same time. My neighbor Mrs. B will pick them up at the train station for us.

I woke up early this morning because they said I could have some clear liquid today if I had it before 6:30 am. So I did that and then got a shower – not an easy feat but a necessary one. ‘Cat Baths’ only do so much. I have ordered a bathtub transfer seat and a hand held shower hose – hopefully they will be in by the end of the week.

My Mug Rug Arrived! Greenmare from Mare’s Nest had a Mug Rug Give Away to celebrate 300 posts. Well – sad to say - I didn’t get in to comment on the post – but she took great sympathy on me when I wrecked my knee and sent me one anyway! Take a look at the picture on her blog – it’s the blue scrappy one at the top left of the picture. Thanks so MUCH Mare! You are a sweetie and my Mug Rug will be put to good use during my ~~prison sentence~~ convalescence in this chair.

I’ll see y’all in a day or so…

Risking the Pink…

2011-02-13T18:02:00.001-05:00

When you procrastinate… you risk the PINK!

Huh? you say…

The Engineer ran a load of kitchen towels through the wash yesterday. What he didn’t know was that the holiday linens in the bottom of that basket I had been holding to wash separately because they were RED. Oh well – nothing a little bleach and time won’t take care of I suppose… that is what I get for not taking care of it earlier.

The good news is that it was mostly kitchen towels and faux paper towels he washed. The picture shows the last load I washed (on Monday before the terrible knee incident) and his recent washings all folded now and ready to be put away.

I can at least still fold laundry. I figured I needed to get the clean laundry off the bed in the guest room because my daughter and grand kids are on their way. She has been able to get a military space available flight out of Hawaii early today. They will be going through San Diego and then on to South Carolina. She and the kids will then take the train up to Lancaster. They have Navy friends in SC who will help her and the kids get around and stay the night if that’s what is needed before heading out on the train.

The kids have always traveled well – I hope this trip is no exception.

The Engineer had moved a recliner upstairs for me on Tuesday so that I don’t have to spend all day in bed. We don’t have a bathroom on the first floor so I have to stay upstairs mostly. Going up and down the stairs on my hinny isn’t fun or easy. But the arrangement in our room wasn’t working very well.

Today we rearranged so that I have a little better set up for me to convalesce in. (and yes that was a royal we… I supervised and suggested where to put things) I’ve now got my chair over by the windows that face the back yard (south) so there will be lots of sunshine. I have the deep window ledges to use to keep all my ~~junk~~ important stuff on. Before the move I kept all my stuff on a folding table next to my chair and when I wanted to go to bed I had to put everything away, fold the table up, and push the chair out of the way. Now I’ll just go to bed… and leave all my stuff over here.

Another procrastination regret… I never got around to painting this bedroom. The previous owner had a furnace malfunction and the house filled up with soot. Although it was supposedly cleaned by the insurance company – it was never painted and so this room still has a very dingy look to the walls. My sister and I washed everything down with bleach when we moved in - so it’s as good as it gets without paint. All the baseboards had also been removed (we don’t know why)… which we figured we’d replace when we paint… although with my knee problem I’m now beginning to think we’ll have to hire someone to finish all the painting that needs to be done. Oh well… least of my worries at this point.

Monday afternoon I’ll call to find out my surgery time for Tuesday… I am anxious to get this show on the road. I am already tired of sitting around and my shoulder is getting a bit annoyed at hauling me around. I may end up in PT for my shoulder before my knee!

I Have A Date!

2011-02-10T20:01:00.001-05:00

With a Doctor!

But he’s just gonna fix my knee… so it’s not going to be as much fun as one might imagine… LOL

The Orthopedic Dr. called this morning and we decided that on Tuesday he will poke a couple holes in my knee and fix me up. Best I can tell you is that the bone where my ACL is attached is broken – and he’s gonna fix it.

Then there will be 6 weeks of immobilization while the bone heals and then PT to get my knee back in action.

All Happy, Healing, Bone Mending Thoughts and Prayers will be Appreciated.

One of these things…

2011-02-09T20:13:00.001-05:00

Is not like the other…

That’s what goes through my head when I look at my knee. I am in a little less pain directly in the knee tonight (unless I move around) but have more aches in other places now. Some from the fall and some from the extra effort it takes to get around. My neighbor brought a walker over for me to use – it’s much easier to get around with that than with the crutches.

This I know… I’m gonna have great abs when I’m done with this nonsense.

I saw the Orthopedic Dr. today and as I expected he said he’d need to see an MRI to determine just how much is damaged. Although I was able to get in this afternoon for that… I don’t see the Dr. again until a week from Friday. Apparently he’s got surgeries scheduled between now and then and won’t be in the office. Hopefully someone will at least look at them and get back with me about what they see.

So we are in a “Hurry Up and Wait Mode” around here… so tomorrow I’ll start with some hand applique I have to do and I’ve got some knitting to keep me busy.

I want to say Thank You to all of you who have sent good thoughts my way and are keeping me in your prayers. I do appreciate all the positive vibes I can get!

I Am Not At All Happy…

2011-02-07T19:42:00.001-05:00

I was on my way out to run an errand this afternoon.

A bunch of snow had slid off the porch roof and landed on the sidewalk.

So as I stepped down and over the snow…

my left foot slid… left

I went down on my right knee…

while my left leg was still headed left…

a direction it isn’t suppose to go…

then it popped…

and I knew at that point I was pretty well screwed… pardon my language.

I pulled my left leg back in front of me and then laid back on the sidewalk… hoping I’d just wake up in bed and it would have just been a bad dream.

I didn’t, it wasn’t… I tried to stand up and found that I could not put any weight on my left leg. So I called my neighbor to come over with her cane and help me. She came and after sliding my hinny along the side walk to her car she took me to the ER.

Nice thing about small towns is the ER’s aren’t usually too busy. I am back home with something to immobilize my knee/leg, a pair of crutches and a phone number to make an appointment with an orthopedic Dr. tomorrow. Hopefully I can get in on Wed to see someone to find out just how much I screwed up my ACL.

If I wake up tomorrow and figure out it’s been a dream… I’ll let ya know.

I’ve got my fingers crossed… because I can’t cross my legs…

New Rules…

2011-02-05T10:12:00.001-05:00

I have developed a new rule for myself…

No decisions are to be made after dark… at least no quilt making decisions can be made after dark.

I’ve spent each evening this week up in the studio working on several things – one of which was the 4 Patch Stacked Posie I had shown you before. I had planned to use the border print in that collection as the border. I had an inner border fabric cut and added to the border print and after putting one side on the quilt (I had planned to miter the corners) – it just looked like it was going to be too much… too heavy… or so I thought at the time… late Thursday evening. So I whacked it off even with the edges and put a block of inner border fabric in the corners. It was late Friday afternoon by the time I finished the corner blocks and got the borders all around.

IT LOOKED AWFUL… truly awful. I took a picture… and it’s so awful I won’t even show you. (I don’t mind telling how stupid I was – but I’m not going to give you a visual to go with it.) I sat last night and tried to figure some solutions – and after a couple hours of pondering this that and the other… I got out my seam ripper and took it off. Already it looks better! Those who know me know that one of my quilting mantras is… “I haven’t met a border I can’t screw up”. I am, if nothing else, consistent.

Today when the icy roads melt up – I’ll run out to the shop and pick up another couple yards of border print.

Other projects… Last weekend I started a table runner out of the recent Kim Diehl’s Simple Graces book. This picture is with the machine appliqué done (not a great picture) – it is now quilted and I’m stitching the binding down – so another picture will follow at a later date.

Raise your hands if you are tired of winter… yep that’s what I thought… me too.

Fabric Identification

2011-01-24T17:44:00.001-05:00

The fabric I’m using for the new 4 Patch Stacked Posie is a new collection called Peony Tales by Betty Wang for South Sea Imports.

The focus fabric is on the right – the border print I’ll use for the border is on the left.

The pink and green I’ve used in the blocks is also from the collection. All the blocks are done and I’ll begin assembly tonight after dinner… I’ll update later if I get anything accomplished.

Hot Water to Soup in 20 minutes… and other stuff

2011-01-24T09:52:00.001-05:00

Sunday morning I got up to a dry (and very cold – brrrrr) house. (Enough of these single digits - Spring can’t come soon enough.) The humidifier was in need of cleaning so I unplugged it on Saturday morning as I headed out the door for an all day workshop. By the time I got home Saturday evening I was too tired to mess with cleaning the humidifier… so late Sunday morning I put a large pot of water on the stove to simmer. The Engineer had already headed out to his woodshop so he didn’t know I was just using a lazygirls method of boosting the humidity in the house.

Well … he didn’t know until 11 AM when he came in after finishing up his project. “Are you making soup for lunch?” was his question – which had caught me off guard because I forgot about the simmering pot. He wanted to know if we were having lunch before or after he got his shower? LOL I told him to go get his shower and I’d rustle up some lunch.

Since I had a pot of hot water all ready… I threw a spoon of chicken soup base and about 3 cups of dehydrated scalloped potatoes in. I had a ham steak in the freezer – so I pulled that out, cut it up, cooked it in a pan and then deglazed with some of the broth and dumped it all in the pot with some dehydrated onion and some pepper. Everything simmered for 20 minutes until the potatoes were done. I chopped at the potatoes with my spoon to break them up some and then added 2 cups of light cream. At that point - we called it lunch. We were slurping our soup by 11:30.

After the pot had cooled off I packaged the rest of it up for his lunches… I think I have the freezer pretty well stocked now. I didn’t take a picture Sunday but here is a picture from a couple weeks ago when I packaged up a bunch of beef vegetable soup in containers for the freezer. I bought these microwave containers at a restaurant store last year. I had to buy a case but have shared them with my daughter and son to freeze leftovers for lunches. My husband use to take the freezer tape label off – but I told him to leave it as the writing washes out in the dishwasher and I just remark it.

The serving size is perfect – he has soup or other leftovers for lunch every day.

Enough of that – here are a couple pictures from my Buggy Barn Hearts Workshop this weekend for a group of Jersey Girls. There are 3 sisters, one daughter and a friend. They came out last year for a 4 Patch Stacked Posie workshop.

From left to right the fabric combinations are – vintage fabrics, green-brown-creams, 30’s, blue-brown-cream, and the pink-brown-cream I had used as my sample. None of the blocks have been trimmed yet – there will be 2 other sets with fabrics all switched around.

There are lots of pieces parts to keep track of as you can see by their tables. We had a good day – everyone got a complete set of blocks done and started working on the others. Although it’s bitter cold outside - at least they had clear weather to head home in this year – last year when they headed home we had flurries here and they drove into 6 inches of snow at their homes in southern NJ.

Last but not least… this is where I’m headed with the 4 Patch Stacked Posies. I’ll get a picture of the fabric and post it when I get back into the shop. I can’t even tell you who makes it… but it’s a pretty grouping.

Enough sitting around this morning… places to go and things to do!

I Go Now…

2011-01-21T06:22:00.000-05:00

Do you Skype? Since I’ve gotten this new little Acer Aspire One Netbook computer we Skype more often with the grandkids in Hawaii. My other computer was just tooooo slow… so we didn’t Skype very often. But now we do… and oh what fun.

The kids always ask if Pop’s is around… like I’m chopped liver… and they ask to see our dog Toot… again with the liver! LOL

One day I showed my daughter my new Muckboots ( I LOVE THEM) and my grandson Kai was quite impressed with ‘Ganny’s’ boots (he hasn’t quite gotten the rrr’s down).

Apparently the boy loves boots… yeah the boy who lives in Hawaii loves boots! My daughter asked if I still had his boots from last year…

So I got them out so he could see them.

He wanted them… and each time we have Skyped since he has asked about his boots… well after he asks about Pops and Toot… me? well, remember - I’m chopped liver.

The other night when Pop’s and I were on Skype with them Kai asked again about his boots. He wanted to see them - again. I told him they were put away in a box and he could have them when he came to Granny’s house to visit.

So… as he climbed out of his Mom’s lap and onto the desk he said… “I go now”

Yep, right through the computer the little fella was headed…

“I go now”…LOL

Can You Guess What’s Up Next?

2011-01-19T21:49:00.001-05:00

If you guess a 4 Patch Stacked Posie – you’d be right!

The 4 blocks above are the 4 options I have in making one block.

Now that I have all the blocks done – a total of 33… I’ll have to decide how I want to set this. I would have 36 blocks had I been paying attention when I made my first cut at 3” rather than 3.5“… I’ll work them in if I can – or use them as a teaching point… LOL

I’ll have to spend some time with EQ this weekend and see what I can come up with…

Life and University Updates

2011-01-17T11:12:00.001-05:00

The holidays are over and it’s time to get back in the swing of things. I certainly don’t want to mislead you into believing I’ve been very productive recently… I haven’t. The little tree is still sitting here on the dining room table waiting for me to go find the box it belongs in… everything else is put away – but not the tree.

I spent one recent Saturday in the kitchen cooking up a storm… a crock pot full of beef short ribs – 3 meals put away and one eaten that night. A large pot of Spaghetti Sauce made up – several containers frozen and we enjoyed a couple meals that week. I don’t know about your family – but my husband could eat spaghetti every day. I cooked a big pot of vegetable beef soup up to put in the freezer for The Engineer to take for lunches. I was seriously out of lunch stuff for him. I also cooked up a big pan of pork chops and sliced potatoes… that divided up nicely into 5 meals – 4 went directly into the freezer. Hmmmm lets see – what else… I cooked a nice pot of red beans and rice but we ate it all before the week was out – so no lunches set aside… but it was sooo good! I saved out some of the hamburger meat (from spaghetti) and made up a Sheppard's pie for the freezer. Needless to say I was tired of cooking that day!

Before the holidays I did have a couple things that I finished but didn’t report on at the time. My grandson got his Swimmies Quilt for Christmas – somehow I managed to not get pictures – but my daughter will be bringing it back this spring when they come to visit… we need to decide what to do with their little fishy eyes! And I need to get a label on it too.

I finished the Buggy Barn quilt…

The colors don’t show as nicely in the picture - it’s a sample for a class ~~in a couple weeks~~ for this coming weekend (how’d that happen so quickly?). It’s done in creams, pinks, and chocolates!

I’ve also gotten the tops done (not quilted yet) for the March and April Calendar Quilts… they are cute – I’m going to just do an all over stipple to quilt them – I’ll post more pics when they are quilted. Click on Calendar Quilts to go over to that page… it’s also listed on my side bar --->>> over there… on the side.

I have two thumbs to knit and I’ll have 2 pairs of fingerless gloves done for a couple of friends. Now I’m working on some mittens for my husband. He has problems with carpal tunnel so is quite fussy about things on his wrists. I got about 2 inches past the cuff and had him try it on… too tight so I unraveled it and made it bigger. I should finish up the first mitten tonight and be able to start on the second one. I’ve had the yarn for about a year… I think he’d also like me to finish the socks I told him I’d give him. It’s the first pair I started… got one sock done but it was a bit too big for me. Rather than undo it I told him I’d finish them for him. LOL That was 2 years ago now. Oh well…

I’ve put the last load of laundry in – so my loafing time is about over. Time to get out of my jammies… and make lunch… LOL

A New Year…

2011-01-04T08:34:00.001-05:00

We ended an old year and began our new year enjoying time with family. No grand parties, no elaborate celebrations… just time hanging out, talking, playing cards and Pictionary… quiet family time.

Santa was good to me… I got a zippy little Netbook computer and a digital camera. Technology that I’ll very much appreciate and enjoy using. All I need to do is get my new camera set up to work with my new computer – then I’ll have some pictures to share.

Everyone gets back to a normal routine this week… not that I consider my life in any way normal. I need to go around and pick up the few holiday decorations I put out so that I can get them put away.

I have done NO SEWING the past couple weeks… zip, nadda, none. I seem to be lacking interest and enthusiasm… sure hope that changes because I’ve got lots to do.

So did y’all make any resolutions? Yeah… me neither! I have some plans… but nothing cast in stone.

Merry, Merry…

2010-12-23T09:47:00.001-05:00

I’d like to wish a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you, your family and friends.

My kids are driving in tonight from MA for the weekend so I most likely won’t be posting over the next couple weeks.

I’ll see you in 2011…

Need An Extra Day?

2010-12-21T22:04:00.001-05:00

I got an extra day this week… today (Tuesday) actually – I got an extra day today.

I spent all day thinking it was Wednesday, thinking I had to get this, that, or the other done. (I went to Costco… you know how I hate to shop and I went to Costco… today… Wednesday… or so I thought) It wasn’t until late afternoon when I was talking with my youngest daughter that she pointed out that it was Tuesday… only Tuesday. I have a whole ‘nother day to get ready for the weekend.

I don’t know why I thought it was Wednesday… maybe I’m just excited that my 2 kiddos are coming in after the boy gets off work Thursday night. So they will be getting in very, very late… or actually really, really, early Friday morning.

Shhhhh, don’t tell… but I also went to the Mall last Friday afternoon… early afternoon. I got in and got out… quick trip into the Apple store to buy myself an ipod Touch – thanks to a very generous $$ gift from my in-laws. I have to say – I love it, love it, love it.

I picked up a little app (or two or ten)… this one adds a quirky cartoonish look to photos you take… here is my little tree… in the dark with the lights.

I sorta like this pencil drawing too…

And here’s the dog who was pestering me to feed her.

I think I’ll have fun with that app… LOL

Now that I have an extra day… I’ll go get my groceries on Wednesday rather than Thursday. And then I’ll be done…

You don’t have much time left – so if you need an extra day… now you know how to get it.

It’s Bear Season…

2010-12-07T10:25:00.001-05:00

No not Bear Hunting Season.

It’s the time of year that I do my best impersonation of a bear…

You know it’s Bear Season when…

You want a warm and wooly coat when you ~~have to~~ HAVE TO go outside.
You’d ~~much rather~~ MUCH RATHER stay inside where it’s warm and cozy… and wait for spring.
Your legs have made the transition from bare legs to bear legs…

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to get that whole hibernating thing to work in daily practice… phooey!

Since I can’t hibernate… I have to run out for a couple errands today. Sure wish it wasn’t windy today… but since it’s snowing in Western PA… I’ll not complain out loud… right now… anymore… today…

Then later I’ll go back to working on my grandsons fish quilt…

The one I’ve been dragging my feet on… the one I lost the backing for… the one I couldn’t decide how to quilt. Yesterday morning I was looking through a quilt magazine and found my answer. It was right there… undulating horizontal lines… simple!

I’m half done… well and then there’s the binding. It should be in Hawaii by Christmas… only 2 years and 1 month past his birthday.

Shopping…

2010-11-30T11:53:00.001-05:00

No – not the Black Friday / Shop Til You Drop kinda shopping (which I hate). I am talking about your regular ole gotta get me some groceries kinda shopping… and I’m not loving that much either.

Recently I’ve decided to reward myself for grocery shopping by heading over there early in the day and getting an Apple Fritter from the bakery as my reward. No – I don’t go everyday… still only head out every other week… so I don’t think I’m in any danger of getting any fatter by shopping.

Look what I found today as I wandered down the spice isle…

How clever are these? All the spices and a recipe for a meal. You could design a gift around this… gather all the dry/canned ingredients and wrap it all up either in a basket or in what ever pan or casserole dish called for and last but not least - throw in a gift card for the grocery store.

It’s going to be a rainy day here – so I think I’ll head up to the sewing room and get some stuff done.

Over The River…

2010-11-24T16:35:00.000-05:00

and down the highway…

Tis that time again to gather with family and friends and to Give Thanks for the many blessings we have.

Let us live together, eat together

Together, let us do noble deeds and share the fruits

Let us understand each other, casting aside jealousy and ill-will

Let us all work for peace and peace alone.

Hindu Prayer

Ten Minute Table Runner

2010-11-23T16:03:00.001-05:00

Nancy - the shop owner at Piece By Piece Quilt Shop - came in with a free pattern (links below) she came across recently. She showed me the table runners she had made and I couldn’t believe how simple they are.

You will want to make ~~one~~ ~~some~~ ~~a lot~~ one for everyone you know… and then some to keep for yourself.

It’s just this easy… 1/3 of a yard of one fabric (center) and a 1/2 yard of another (borders and back).

Sew the two pieces together along both long edges.

Turn right side out and even up the borders that wrap to the front and press. Trim off both selvage edges.

Fold in half along the length (back sides together)…

Even up the edges and stitch from the open end to the fold. Press seam open and turn…

These are shorter because I cut them in half when I trimmed the selvages – I wanted to make place mats rather than a runner…

I had already made a runner… swapping the fabrics and using a 10” center piece… which gives you wider borders…

Buttons, tassels, or decorative stitching are all options for finishing off the turned corner.

The shop has been packaging up some nice fabric combinations including the free pattern and we cannot keep up with them.

The Ten Minute Table Runner was a publication from Utah State University Extension Office – however I can only find it at this quilt shop’s web site. Although I can’t find that specific PDF currently at the USU Extension Office… I have found that they have a similar one that has you sew the short seams with the runner folded in the opposite direction (front sides together) which results in the corners turned to the back and more of the center fabric shows. Just a little different look… I happen to like having the back/border fabric showing on the front corners.

There’s still time to whip up one or two for Thanksgiving!

Socks…

2010-11-21T11:17:00.001-05:00

I started knitting socks almost two years ago…

The first pair of socks I started… I haven’t finished… yet. I completed this single sock in March of 09 while hanging out in TX with The Engineer while he was working down there.

But I have finished several other pairs and I wear them… the second pair I started I actually finished in March of 09.

I also finished these little cotton footie socks in March of 09.

Needless to say – sitting around in a hotel room left lots of time to knit… LOL

These Spiral Tube Sock were completed in Dec of 09.

These blue socks (wool blend) I started in January and finished in April this year – my daughter who was visiting from Hawaii bought the yarn while she was here - I told her that when she moved to a cold climate I’d give them to her. The lighter socks I started in May this year and finished recently.

I hate it that it takes so long to finish a pair… mostly because when you get one sock done you have to then start all over again and make another…

Recently Judy L mentioned a book someone had suggested to her to learn the 2 at a time technique – Knitting Circles Around Socks… so I purchased it and Knitting More Circles Around Socks (since they were both on sale – 40% off at Knit Picks).

Last weekend I started…

about mid week I had turned the heel…

and Saturday morning I finished…

I do like the 2 at a time technique. I followed the Basic Sock Pattern from the first book using # 5 circular needles and Plymouth Yarn Encore Tweed Worsted weight yarn in an oatmeal kinda color. Most of the other socks I’ve knitted used the sock weight (thinner) yarn and #2 double pointed needles – but for learning this technique I’m glad I followed the Basic Pattern using the heavier yarn and thicker needles. Of course there is always the concept that with a thicker yarn you have less stitches and therefore get done sooner too… LOL – I liked that as well.

The next ones I do will be the toe up style and then I can just keep knitting until the yarn is finished and make the legs longer.

I took my time and paid close attention to the pattern and I spent some time each day knitting so that I could get them done. I was happy that I caught on pretty quickly and was able to do away with the point protectors they suggest using in the beginning as a means of keeping track of what set of needles you are working on… and then I managed to get 3 sections on one needle only once – so I was happy.

I’m hoping to adapt this technique to work up some fingerless gloves I need to get started on soon…

Roasted BS…

2010-11-15T11:56:00.001-05:00

I laughed earlier when I uploaded a pictured and named it that…

BS was just easier to type than Brussels Sprouts…

Well the picture of the finished dish wasn’t any good… it was blurry ~~and showed my dirty oven~~ which is why you aren’t seeing it here. But the Roasted BS was yummy…

Last Friday I picked up some ‘sprouts on the stalks’ from my favorite Amish Farmer at The Green Dragon Farmers Market. See the sprouts there between the huge cauliflower and enormous radish… yes radish practically the size of baseballs! And that broccoli… oooooh so pretty! A head of yellow cauliflower came home with me too – I’ll make soup with it later today.

Then we visited the Amish Bakery down the isle… to pick up some sticky buns with pecans! Mmm, mmm, mmm – so yummy! The Engineer also loves ShooFly Pie…

Anyway – back to the sprouts…

I cut them off the stalk, washed and trimmed them. Then I cut the large ones in half, sprinkled them with olive oil and a red/black pepper mix. I mixed these up earlier in the day and let them sit in the oil/pepper mix for a couple hours before I threw them in the oven on a roasting pan. I cooked them at 350 degrees… stirred them around every once in a while and left them to cook… until they were done… (Sorry I know you hate it when I do that but I was doing other stuff and wasn’t rushing them. When they were about done I had The Engineer throw the steaks on.) Nicely browned on the outside and tender and mild (not at all bitter tasting) on the inside. I liked the ‘heat’ from the red pepper… this went very nicely with the steak we cooked that evening.

You can Google Roasted Brussels Sprouts to see pictures and recipes… (most seem to cook at 400 for 30/40 minutes) I did see one link that mentioned balsamic vinegar… I may have to go back and try that one.

I cooked up a batch of applesauce on Sunday for the freezer. My apples seem to be past their prime so I’m not going to spend too much time cutting things up. I’ll probably make up some apple pies and a crisp today and put those in the freezer too. I think the warmer than normal temps have caused them to soften up too soon.

On Friday I finished up the January Quilt from Kim Schaefer’s Calendar Quilts. I need to add some decorative stitching and then quilt it… but it’s assembled. He’s cute don’t ya think? I do have to add this project to my University list… there will be one quilt for each month.

This weekend I also tackled the knitting 2 socks at a time technique. I had ordered the Knitting Circles Around Socks book (from KnitPicks) after seeing it mentioned by Judy L’s blog. I only restarted once… so far… It was really odd getting started but once the socks had some substance it was a little easier.

I have only once (so far) picked up the wrong needle to knit with and ended up with 3 sections on the one needle. Easiest way out of that was to grab a double pointed needle and move the sections off the circular needles and then put them back on the right needles.

I am working on the legs still… I’ll let you know if I’m still excited about this when I get to the heels. Who am I kidding… nobody likes a heel…

Home Again…

2010-11-11T11:13:00.001-05:00

Although I do love to travel… I hate the whole process of unpacking and putting stuff away. Especially all the sewing stuff… which of course I took too much of in the first place and then gathered a few more things along the way too.

My ‘Roomies’ at the show were - as always - wonderful! I do enjoy hanging out with those ladies.

Although we ended up in a room smaller than we had wanted - we made do and finagled the space to have 3 sewing machines set up and operating. I love my SewEzi table.

Oh – that down comforter there on the bed… it lasted only one night. OMG I thought I’d burst into flames while sleeping. It was replaced by a lovely finished quilt that Neen had brought along to show. It was wonderful… the wool batting was the perfect balance of warmth and light weight.

Dawn snugged her table right between the beds and had easy access to the iron… well – IF I remembered to turn the iron back to that side of the board so she could reach it. She got a little more exercise then she wanted because I have a mind like a sieve…

We also managed to eek out enough space for a mid size cutting board on the desk and the beds doubled up as alternative work surfaces to spread out all our equipment, fabric, patterns, etc.

The ironing board was sadly just an ironing board… when you get use to using a 24” x 60” board – well… anything else just isn’t sufficient. Size is everything! But it did come with a seat… which Melissa was thankful for as it was very late when she was getting her seams for her hunters star pressed.

Oh and we also had a design wall – kindly supplied by the Hotel. A couple table runners (Dawn & I), a wine tote (mine), blocks from a Hunters Star project (Melissa), star blocks from a Laps from Fats book pattern (Dawn), 2 small quilts from Bit’s & Pieces book (mine) and a couple half log cabin blocks from a pre-cut quilt kit that was gifted to me from my friends and a kaleidoscope type ornament made from a kit I purchased.

Maybe it’s just me… (most likely it’s a result of the economy) but the ‘quilt show’ wasn’t as impressive as it’s been in the past – not as many quilts on display and nothing that really stood out to me like others have in the past. I actually only went through the show once… I didn’t see anything outstanding that made me want to go back and look again.

Attendance seemed down from other years… again probably the economy played into that. I don’t like shopping in crowds and really didn’t see the kinds of crowds I would have avoided in the past.

I did spend some time each day poking around the vendor area and came away with just a few things - again nothing jumped out as truly inspiring. Some vintage fabrics spoke to me – 50’s themed holiday prints and I poked around and came away with some Civil War era fat quarters. I purchased the wine tote kit but I think I need to tweek the pattern as it’s just awkward. I loved making the kaleidoscope ornament and will make more of those for sure – especially since I picked up a 45 degree diamond template to make cutting easier.

I pieced the 20 half log cabin blocks from the kit my friends gifted me. It felt odd piecing when I hadn’t cut the parts out myself. A nice kind of odd for sure… just sit down and sew and in no time you are done. If you are looking for a great gift – consider a ‘precut quilt kit’.

Since I couldn’t find the tops I made from the Bits & Pieces book… I made a couple more. I had some of the parts cut and partially assembled for one top (right) so I finished that first after adding some fabric… when all was said and done - I am not in love with it… the fabric I added had all the right colors but I think the print is too busy.

The one on the left I may end up changing… that inner border on the top and bottom – it bothers me the more I look at it. I may just put in my second choice which is the blue toned fabric.

The Table Runner was a hit… I’ll share info on that in another post. You will want to make some… great easy gifts.

Dawn and her table runner above and the blocks for a raffle quilt she’s making are below.

Neen was working on an appliqué project and reading… but I have no evidence of either of those… so you’ll have to take my word on it.

It was great fun to hang out with everyone again and get to know others like Sue Trask. Sue was there as a Freshman Vendor – she owns The Quilt Patch – has been friends with the other gals for years and Melissa and Dawn both teach at her shop. I enjoyed getting to know her and look forward to seeing her again next year.

We heard a rumor that next year (2011) will be the last year the event will be held at this hotel. It was previously a Sheraton Tara Hotel but is currently owned by Radisson. Not sure where the show will be moving… more rumors indicated that Manchester may be the place… but you know how rumors are! We will have to wait and see…

After several days of sewing and visiting at the show I headed back to MA to spend a couple days with my kids. I drove home on Tuesday in order to cover the quilt shop for the Thimbleberries Club group that night. I’m still tired though… it always takes a few days to wind down and catch up with sleep.

My sister is headed out here today and we will pick (pick up) apples… and I guess since it’s nice out I should finish cleaning up around the garden beds.

I wonder what I’ll do with the apples this weekend… LOL Nothing if I don’t get off this computer.

It’s Show Time…

2010-11-02T22:16:00.001-04:00

I’m headed out on Wednesday to spend the weekend at A Quilters Gathering in Nashua, NH where I’ll meet up with several friends to visit and sew.

I think I set a record today. I had my suitcase (clothes) packed by about 1 PM today. Then spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning and tonight after dinner and voting I got my sewing stuff all packed up by 7:30 PM. All I need to do is pick up my sewing machine at the shop in the morning and head out of town.

I’m taking several projects that are on my University List and should make some progress on them while I’m there.

Speaking of the University - I did complete the BOM Sample for the shop and have updated my University List and put some pictures in.

I’m not taking my computer so I’ll see y’all next week…

Unless I see you at the Quilt Show…

Let’s Go For A Walk…

2010-11-01T09:55:00.001-04:00

Join me…

Oh no… we aren’t stopping here – although I could use a little help cleaning out the rest of the tomato plants… I am so over the tomatoes.

Out here a little further in the yard - here is where we are going… isn’t she a lovely tree?

The Stayman Apples are ready… they are a late variety so we will be picking for a couple weeks.

Mostly just picking up the ones that fall. Some will fall with no damage but many will bounce on a limb on the way down… I’ve even had to pick bark out of some of them. I was out here earlier (on Sunday) to pick up around the tree – these two just fell so I’ll take them in and add them to the ones I’ll salvage by cutting the bad parts out.

These are the ones that have ended up in the mulch pile on Friday… damaged by the fall and or munched on by the bugs. Once picking season has begun it’s easier to keep things cleaned up around the tree on a daily basis. I know we could have salvaged a good portion of many of these apples by cutting out the bad parts… but on Friday (when we cleaned up) my sister took home approx. four 5 gallon buckets of apples to make sauce with. I also ~~unloaded~~ gifted a 5 gallon bucket to the quilt shop…

These are sitting in my kitchen doorway… I picked them up on Sunday when I took these pictures…

And I cut up the damaged ones I picked up to make Apple Crisp. Assembled and ready for the oven – boy this sure is good – especially with ice cream.

There are lots of apples still up there…

I’ll be taking some with me when I head up to the A Quilters Gathering this week up in Nashua NH - dropping off some with my daughter in MA as I go by.

Gone…

2010-10-25T20:33:00.001-04:00

Have you ever looked for something only to find it’s gone?

I have opened, moved, and unpacked every bin and box in my sewing room and I cannot find what I’m looking for.

The other night I started out looking for some samples I had made from the Bits and Pieces Book a few years ago. I know I got these back from Southampton Quilts late last winter and was going to send them back to display again. After I had gone through and looked everywhere the first time I realized that I also did not see the fabric I had bought for the back of my grandsons quilt. ????? The quilt I need to be working on soon. I can visualize both of these items in my sewing room.

Sunday I started at one end of my sewing room and opened everything, looked through every bin, box, and drawer. I looked in the attic storage space, I looked in the storage cubby, I looked in the basement, and went through every other place that had a door, drawer, or cover to it.

I found nothing…

As I’ve pondered this over the past few days I realize I’ve also not seen a tote bag of quilting samples and some other finished pieces… I haven’t a clue where I could have stashed them.

I’m having a really hard time wrapping my head around this… I guess I should make a list of the things I haven’t seen so that I know what I’m looking for. Phooey!

The worst part is now I have to go find new fabric for the back of my grandsons quilt… uuuugggghhh!

Shop Hop Weekend… in 500 Pictures

2010-10-21T20:10:00.001-04:00

nah… just kidding about the 500 pictures!

I’ll put a slide show below of the pictures I took at Southampton Quilts during the weekend and the pictures my Quilty Friend Judy took of the Shop Hop Quilt at all the shops for me. I had designed the quilt this year for the Hop so I was quite excited to see the design done up in so many different fabrics!

This was the 9th year of the Hop… I was one of the original 200 or so that participated the first year. So it is exciting that this year there were more than 1,200 that signed up for the 3 day event with the 8 shops.

I was so happy to be able to go up and work the event. Yes we were busy! But it was a fun busy.

I especially enjoyed seeing old friends! Quilters are the Best kind of people!

Shop Hop 2010

Morning!

2010-10-07T08:10:00.001-04:00

This is what it looked like a little before 7:00 AM here today. No this is not what I woke up to… it was still very dark when I got up (and stayed up) today at 4:20 AM. Since being sick I haven’t stayed up after making coffee, setting up breakfast, and packing a lunch for The Engineer so he can head out the door by 5:30. I’ve gone back to bed and gotten up closer to 6:30… when the dog decides she’s waited long enough to eat and makes me get up.

I was upstairs sewing when the person on the local radio mentioned that it was a pretty sunrise and everyone should go look. So I did… and I’m sharing it with you.

Oh yeah and this… I’m heading up next week to MA to work at Southampton Quilts during the Massachusetts Shop Hop. They have a 50’s theme this year… so I was thinking about making a circle skirt to wear. I found some cute 50’s housewife-ish floral fabric – figured I could cut it up and use it in a quilt when I was done. But before using the good stuff – I wanted to try a sample out. Pulled out another floral I had – made up the skirt – put elastic in the waist – put a turned under hem on it.

Really cute skirt… except that when you put a circle skirt on someone who’s short and ~~a little~~ ‘roundish’… well…

Think clown cars, trapeze swings, and fishnet clad ladies riding galloping horses in circles… all I need is some rope and wooden stakes to anchor it down.

I’m thinking a trip to Christopher & Banks is in my future… I still have a gift certificate!

Switching Things Up

2010-10-05T10:43:00.001-04:00

For those of you who follow along via a ‘Reader’ of some sort – you won’t notice that I changed the layout and background a bit. I’ve chosen a different Blogger layout and since it is Fall I’ve selected a fall background. Not sure how long those leaves will last – my plan is to throw some quilt pictures into the background but I will have to take new pictures to make that happen properly.

I’ve also added a ‘Pages’ listing over on the side bar. I have my University Class Projects List there… that is where I’ll track the projects I’m working on and their completion. I’ll still yak about it in a blog post – but that will serve as a ‘one stop shopping’ place (for Miss Professor Beth) to track my progress. There is also a link back to the most current Blog page… wouldn’t want you to get lost.

I did vacuum top to bottom yesterday… not that it much matters because the dog tracks dirt in all day long.

I cooked up the last batch of tomatoes yesterday and made tomato soup out of some of it for dinner and froze 2 quarts of sauce. The leftover soup we’ll have tomorrow for dinner – tonight I’m making smoked sausage and cabbage. The leftovers of that will end up in a soup… mmmm that is really good and all you need to do is add some chicken both.

I love it that it’s soup weather again… mmmm, mmmm, mm!

And just a little moment up on my soapbox…

Wouldn’t it be nice if the candidates who make false claims about themselves and their competition had to then make a commercial and state what they said that was wrong and apologize to the public. When I was a kid I learned a valuable lesson when I lied to a friends mom when I told her that my mom said I could come over to their house after school. After I got home - My mom made me call that friends mother and tell her I had lied to her and that I was sorry. I never did that again.

Why doesn’t the ‘truth in advertising’ apply to political advertisement?

I’d really like this candidate to run a write-in campaign…

Noneof Theabove

I think they would win.

I’m stepping down now…

October?? Already?

2010-10-04T09:54:00.001-04:00

It seems like it was just yesterday I was listening to the annoying AC units wishing I could just throw open the windows and let fresh air in. Now those units are off and what windows might be open are open only a tiny bit as it’s rather chilly out there.

We had quite a bit of rain last week and topped off with 7 inches one day. The ground was already rather moist so it didn’t take too long for the ground water to push up in three places in our basement. I wish I had taken a picture or video – there was a river flowing (really – making trickling noises and all) from where it was coming in - right into a floor drain in two spots and into the sump pump in the third.

We have always (for the past 30 years anyway) put things up on pallets of some sort… a lesson we learned long ago when water came in a basement of a house we were renting. We only had to clean that mess up once to know we didn’t want to do it again. We also firmly believe in sump pumps… they only have to run once in their life times to make them worth the money and effort.

On Saturday The Engineer discovered the well pit had about 4 feet of water in it. Good thing he had shut off the electrical supply to that earlier in the week when he was doing some wiring work. Took several hours with a portable sump pump to clear it out – but no damage done to the equipment down there. The well water is only used for the outside spigots.

On the quilting front - I did have a finish last week. This is Star Whimsy from the Star Savvy - Laps From Fats book by Good Intentions.

The first picture is of several blocks before final assembly. I pulled all my fabrics from the same line – but a couple of the lighter fabrics are a bit too light from a distance and especially with a flash.

The colors are very washed out in this picture… seems the lights here are too bright.

This is my first finish towards a PHD at Southampton Quilts - Quilt University.

I am currently working on a BOM for a shop sample so this should qualify under my ‘Work Study – Coop Program’. I’ll have some pictures and details later on it. Blues and Browns… uuummm pretty!

Oh and a cute fusible applique wall quilt… more details to follow on that.

Now I need to go clean my house… it so needs to be done. I also need to either cook or throw away those tomatoes… somebody please make them stop!

I think the next nice day I’ll go out and pull the plants up out of the ground – that will do it!

A Finish… or Two…

2010-09-27T09:09:00.001-04:00

Finally… this Aunt Grace Circle of Friends sample is finished (pieced not quilted) and ready to hang at the shop. It took much longer than I’d have liked for it to… but it’s done and that’s all that matters.

I didn’t put ‘Grace’ in the corner blocks (sorry but I don’t like her)… and I didn’t put 5 leaves on the flower stems… it just seemed to be too busy. I’ll look at it while it’s hanging and decide if I want to add another one or two but for now - this is done!

Back in mid-March I mentioned that I was designing a quilt for a shop hop. I sent a preliminary pattern out earlier in the summer so that the shop owners could get their quilts made up. My good friend Dawn Marie (from up in Maine) used that set of directions and made up a test sample to check out the details for me – Thank You Dawn Marie!!

In the mean time I purchased a better software program that allows me to more easily edit and place pictures and text where I want. The pattern had to be divided into 8 pages – one page will be handed out at each shop… visit all 8 shops to get the complete pattern. Each shop will make the quilt up in what ever fabric line they choose – I can’t wait to see how different they all will look. After some redrawing and reworking of this that and the other… I sent the completed pattern off last week. Man it sure felt good to have that done!

I’ll be going up and helping to work the Massachusetts Shop Hop up at Southampton Quilts (the shop I use to work at)… so if you are in Western MA October 15, 16, 17 - you may want to hop along. I can’t wait to see everyone!

The One That Got Away…

2010-09-24T23:37:00.001-04:00

A little more than a year ago I ran across this quilt whilst out poking around antique places.

I wish I’d had the money for it because I keep thinking about it…

It occurred to me when I ran across the picture again today that I could add this to my University list…

Not a whole quilt… maybe just some blocks to test out the pattern. Or maybe make it into a bed runner? Maybe if I put it on the list – I can stop thinking about it.

I did buy the Curve Master Foot at the Lancaster Show last spring… so I can’t use the curves as an excuse for not making it. Hhhhmmmm?

It seems to be an Antique Extravaganza Weekend around here if one were to believe all the signs posted. So The Engineer and I will poke around some places on Saturday and then Sunday we are going to treat ourselves to a Crab Cake lunch at a seafood place we like down in MD. We haven’t been down there in over two years… although we’ve talked about it often.

It should be a nice couple days for getting out and about to enjoy the beginning of fall.

Who knows… maybe I’ll find that quilt again and I won’t have to make it!

Cutter Quilt Window

2010-09-21T11:02:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago when my youngest girl was here we found a local farm craft stand and I came home with this.

They had several - all put together in colors… red blocks, blue blocks, etc.

An interesting way to make use of old quilts that really have seen better days and discarded window sashings.

They had very loosely glued craft paper to the back which allowed me to take a peek… very interesting! Let’s take a closer look at a couple of them.

The blocks are cut to fit on the frames on the back – too bad most of the blocks would fit better in square windows but we don’t have square windows do we?

This one is especially interesting – because this heart is cut from an old quilt and is stitched onto the back of an old quilt – which was only apparent to me once I looked at the back of this.

You can see the faded colors of the original prints in the Dresden fan pieces. You can see that the ‘heart’ was stitched onto the other side completely through the layers – which is what made me realize it was added on. You’ve got to wonder who Velta Wood was…

This one makes me wonder – was this a mistake in assembly? Or was there some other design element going on in the quilt that isn’t apparently in just one block?

I also love the embroidery block… tattered binding and all.

On other subjects…

I am finally feeling human again… actually enjoyed a cup of coffee today. Those antibiotics make me feel nauseous… and coffee just wasn’t happening for me. I even had to ask The Engineer to clean the coffee pot the past couple days… yeah that bad. Good news was that he was working late all week and I didn’t have to cook. I just went out and got whatever my mind said would taste good.

Now that I’m feeling better it’s time to get back in gear. Let the cleaning begin…

Addendum: University Submission

2010-09-16T09:22:00.001-04:00

At the risk of having my fellow students think I was trying to win favor with the Professor and earn my place as Teachers Pet by submitting a very sparse Course List for the First Semester at Quilt University… which by the way would have been a really good idea had I thought of it – I have an Addendum.

My list was sparse only because I’ve been sick and was too lazy to trudge all the way up to the third floor where ~~all the evidence is~~ my sewing studio is and the list I had started. So I confess… I just decided to wing it.

Now I don’t want anyone thinking I don’t have stuff to ‘finish’… I do. Most of it’s still packed though and since most of my stuff ends up as samples in a quilt shop – I usually move on to other things once the top is assembled – little ever gets done beyond that.

The last quilt that I completely finished was this one from Focus on Florals by That Patchwork Place… I worked on it while I was getting the MA house ready to sell and blogged about it – 3 years ago this month! (And I’ll say I just wasted an hour reading through my life back then… aahhh bittersweet.)

I finished it – sent it off to a long arm quilter in the area and it hung in the quilt shop for a long time – whilst I pack, sold my house, moved, packed and moved again, and then packed and moved again. I did get it back – actually picked it up this year… wait a minute – it isn’t completely finished – it still needs it’s binding. I’ve purchased binding twice because I didn’t really like what I selected the first time and bought different stuff when I picked it up… ADD THAT QUILT TO MY LIST! (I will have to go hunt for the binding – but it’s up there).

Well this post has gone astray – I was going to demonstrate how long it’s been since I actually finished things by showing you the last thing I finished. But even the things I’ve finished haven’t really been finished. Hmmm and in thinking about that and bindings – I do have a confession. I have several quilts that have bindings sewn on – and glue basted to the back – which in theory makes it easier to sew as it’s all in place and no pins or clips are involved. Certainly makes them look finished but the glue basting doesn’t hold up well in the washer. Ask me how I know this… there is a certain Circus Quilt involved.

OK - the Addendum.

I guess I’ll start with the bindings since I’m thinking about those right now…

MD – Focus on Florals – needs binding made and applied(picture above)

MD – Circus Quilt – trim threads from washing, glue baste the binding (again) and sew (somehow I don’t seem to have proof of this quilt? I’ll get a picture later)

MD – Homeward Bound from 30 (40?) Quick Cut Quilts by That Patchwork Place – glue basted binding needs to be sewn. Picture taken before quilting…

Trust me when I say there are many, many more that need finished bindings… when I find them I’ll add them to my list.

Here are some more of the things I believe I have on the list (upstairs) but forgot to submit…

PHD – Peas in a Pod out of a Kim Diehl book (brain not currently working and there’s that ‘stair thing’ so I’ll add details later), pieced blocks are done – only the appliqué to finish. Only… Ha, ha, ha… so why did I stop?

PHD – Serendipity out of the same Kim Diehl book details to follow. I have all the backgrounds pieced and am in the process of the machine appliqué. This picture doesn’t show the pieced sashing but it is pieced as well.

OK that is the Addendum… at least it’s the 1st Addendum.

As much as I hate that the antibiotic I’m taking now makes me feel bleah for a few hours and I can’t do much more than sit on this couch… I have been able to type this. But I do need to get my self in gear… whether I feel up to it or not.

University Submission…

2010-09-15T08:58:00.001-04:00

I have made my selections for this term at Quilt College at the University of Southampton.

I’ll be working simultaneously on both my PHD (Projects Half Done) and my MD (Mostly Done).

(MD) Swimmies Pattern by Lisa Boyer: First up is the project that really does have a time line… it was due nearly 2 years ago when my grandson was born. Now I don’t want to lead anyone astray… this top was finished long before my grandson was even conceived. My daughter loved it and asked if I’d finish it for him. Needless to say it’s still not quilted and needs to be finished and mailed before his 2nd birthday… he’s a turkey. So I think I have enough time… if not it will be a Christmas gift!

Everything else is in no particular order…

(PHD) This is a kit I purchased at the Quilt Odyssey Show at Hershey this year. Civil War Flying Geese by Calico Corner in Carlisle PA. I don’t usually buy kits myself… but I could have walked away with every one of their Civil War line. Pretty stuff! Anyway – the geese won’t take long… and then I’ll have pomegranates to appliqué in the evenings. At least that’s the plan… LOL It’s also a wall hanging – so should be do-able.

(PHD) This is another find from the Hershey Show… Star Whimsy out of the Star Savvy Laps From Fats. The quilt at the show in the booth was lovely… and they had sold out of all the books and kits. I selected a Moda fabric line… but can’t remember off hand what it is… so I’ll have to tell ya later. but the stars are looking lovely! Everything for the stars are cut and bagged, and I’ve completed several stars.

(PHD) This is a Bonnie Hunter (Quiltville) Mystery Quilt free pattern I started more than a year ago… I pinned that third row of pieces onto the block a long time ago – and there they sit. So if nothing else I need to sew those seams so that I can get the pins out before they rust…

(PHD) I don’t have a picture yet of Heart Crazy by Buggy Barn Quilts. This is my second Buggy Barn quilt… I hope I love it as much as my last.

That’s all I can think of right now - that I have pictures of… but I believe we can pick up extra ~~classes~~ projects as the term progresses. I’ll keep you posted on my progress!

Is It Bigger Than a Bread Box?

2010-09-07T10:23:00.001-04:00

Actually…

it is a Bread Box…

I have been looking for a vintage looking bread box for my counter and was very happy to find this over the weekend while poking around antique shops with my daughter.

Tomato Pie…

2010-09-03T07:13:00.001-04:00

We’ve been eating, cooking and giving tomatoes away… and they just keep coming. Note to self… next year don’t buy so many plants! LOL

I didn’t dress this up as much as I had planned – but that was because the first thing I did was cut my thumb on that mandolin I was using to slice the tomatoes… you know – right after I thought to myself… ‘gee ya better be careful’. One of these days I’ll learn to just stop when I have those thoughts and walk away… far away! I have scars to prove that it would be prudent to do so.

Anyhoo – not a bad cut - but anything on the edge of your thumb is an annoyance.

I kept it simple - I was aiming for a mexican flavor so used some corn tortillas and green chilies. We will dress it up when we serve it tonight… some nice salsa (homemade of course) and avocado and sour cream…. mmmmm, mmmm!

Basic ratio for making a quiche type dish is to use 1 egg per half cup of milk or cream. When I’m using tomatoes I add a little more egg. For this 9 x 13 pan I used 6 eggs and started with 2 cups of cream. I added a little more milk (maybe a half cup) around the edges as it wasn’t quite as high as I wanted the liquid level. Sometimes you have too much liquid and other times you don’t have enough… life is like that sometimes!

My youngest is coming in by train from MA to visit this long weekend… I’m going to make her make the salsa today! And maybe do some weeding in my garden too! She’ll spend some time finishing up a woodworking project with her father and she and I will spend some time running around Antique shops!

Oh and I’ll make her go out and pick the tomatoes while she’s here…

Being Exhausted is No Excuse…

2010-08-23T18:47:00.001-04:00

I sure wish I could get away with saying “I’m Exhausted” and then just doing nothing… like my digital camera.

I wanted to get a picture of a brown butterfly out in the garden but it said ‘Battery Exhausted’ on the screen and then shut itself down.

A ‘big sigh’ would have been a nice annoying touch…

Anyway – here’s the best I could do with my phone… which seems to need to have it’s lens cleaned I think.

Haven’t a clue what it is - it’s just a purdy rich brown butterfly with yellow and blue spots!

Should have been sewing some today but did some cleaning; picked tomatoes and then went to the grocery store. Then I put on a crock pot of Beef Stew and another one of Chili.

Sad news is neither of them was ready for dinner… Kitchen sure smells good though.

We had nachos for dinner – a quick easy no work kinda meal. Although it did taste a little like beef stew… LOL

Not in Kansas anymore…

2010-08-19T09:10:00.001-04:00

But I was… and look what I found! Flowers of the Sun by Southsea Imports. Ooooo so pretty! The flowers have got to be 8 – 9” across and rich wonderful colors. Not sure what I’ll do with it… so I got 4 yards to make sure I had enough.

I made a quick trip out for a family reunion – left on Wednesday last week and returned home Tuesday this week. Nice and easy drive out and back with a layover just outside of Indianapolis which is the midway point.

Oh and my garden… the one my husband was suppose to be minding. He didn’t think any tomatoes were ready to be picked… still too green he thought (probably made that assessment as he drove by). So I picked after I sat my luggage down…

Last night after dinner I washed, cut, cooked, and pureed all that would fit in my 12 Qt stock pot – which wasn’t nearly big enough for the task at hand. By 11 PM it had cooked down enough that it fit into my large crockpot where I left it simmering overnight. It will continue to cook down through the day today and I’ll most likely can it tonight when I get home.

See all those Romas? Never even touched them… since there were some greener ones in there I figured I’d wait. I knocked those off reaching for the ripe ones that had fallen off the vines and were laying in the dirt under the plants.

Next time I leave I think I’ll hire a gardener to mind the garden… too green my foot! LOL

I’m working a few more hours this week at the quilt shop as the owner is on vacation. Lots to do there with finishing up samples and cutting kits for the BOM programs.

But I’ll be pondering my Sunflowers…

A Lost Week…

2010-08-02T06:46:00.001-04:00

or at least most of it anyway.

Some medication I had taken before did not agree with me last week… seems the generic has changed the formulation and although it was probably doing what it was suppose to be doing it was also making me feel terrible… really terrible.

Once I stopped taking it – it took about 48 hours to get the awful feeling out of my system. Then I had something of a relapse… oh no wait – that was just sticker shock from the cost of the brand name version of the medication… LOL

So last week I spent most of my time on the couch… now don’t get me wrong – I’d love to have nothing better to do than sit around doing nothing. But when that’s all you can do – kinda takes the fun out of it.

I’ve got tons of stuff to catch up on… the car needs service… I’ve got errands to run… plants to water… a pattern to work on…

But first here are some pictures of my butterfly bush and one of it’s visitors. We usually have a few butterflies flitting around and these swallow tails seem to especially like to visit.

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New Week…

2010-07-26T09:12:00.001-04:00

And the most important thing is we have some new air out there now. Yeah – the AC is off and the windows are open… at least for a day or two. It has been too, too hot and way too humid around here. But the higher than normal heat has been the story just about everywhere… so I’ll stop complaining now.

I went to the Hershey Quilt Show this past weekend… and although I tried to not buy anything… I did come home with ~~a couple~~ ~~a few~~ several things.

The fabric on the right goes with the Civil War Flying Geese pattern on the left… oooo this was pretty… a little applique and flying geese – what could be easier? And it’s wall hanging size so it should be do-able… this will go on my University Class List (although I’m afraid the point of attending was to get stuff done that you already had on hand… ooops! my bad!)

The top left pattern Maddie Bea’s is a pattern and template set that I found intriguing and thought would make a good future class… so I’ll tell you more later after I’ve had some time to play with it.

The other two patterns are charm patterns and were just too cute… so they came home with me as well.

I’ve made progress this weekend on my Aunt Grace’s Circle of Friends BOM sample. You know I’ve never done a BOM and didn’t think I’d enjoy the process… but I have enjoyed making these blocks. I have the pieced blocks done and am now on to the applique parts and then on to assembly and borders.

I need to get off the couch and get busy – maybe I’ll vacuum while it’s cool here in the house… or there’s always the laundry that doesn’t seem to do it’s self either, or I could pour another cup of coffee and go sit on the porch and watch the fish.

Momma Knows Best…

2010-07-21T05:24:00.000-04:00

Well - outside of the fact that she made her nest in my herb garden… she’s really pretty smart.

At least she knows the fine art of making a nest.

I found the tell tale signs (disturbed dirt and grass clippings) in the garden the other morning when I went out to water. So I didn’t water that area in case there were babies in there.

Later I started gently pulling out the grasses that covered the opening and digging further and further down pulling out stuff as I went… no babies! Yea!

What a nice, cozy nest she made – at least 12 inches in and just underneath my thyme. I dug out a bunch of grass used to cover the opening and line the walls of the nest… but as I continued to dig down – there was a bunch of wood pieces from the garden mulch laid in the bottom of the nest to keep her babies dry.

Sure hope she has a Plan B…

Off to The University!

2010-07-20T08:04:00.001-04:00

Yep… I’ve decided to take the plunge and work on a degree!

I know… everyone is sitting there wondering just where will I get the time to go off to school?

Well – worry not… I’ll be an online student! I do not even have to leave my house much less get out of my jammies.

The most exciting part is that I’ve been personally invited to enroll by the Professor who is in charge of this particular program.

Although I was quite excited that she thought I was worthy… I’m really not as smart or talented as she may think. I’m just really good at bluffing my way through – but shhhh don’t tell OK?!

Now I have so many decisions to make… what degree do I work on? An MD or PHD? And what field of study? I’ve dabbled in a variety of things over time… I hate to brag but I’ve done some work in History, Finance and Fashion (to name a few) so I could finish up those. But there is also the lure of Agriculture and the Culinary Arts.

OK - so you want details? I’ll be attending the University of Southampton… cool huh?

No - not The University of Southampton in the UK… I’ll be attending the Quilt College at The University of Southampton (aka Southampton Quilts).

Their PHD (Projects Half Done) and the MD (Mostly Done) programs are quite appealing… I really could work towards both degrees with little more effort than unpacking a box and pulling out a few projects!

I have to ‘declare my major’ and submit my project list to ‘Professor Beth’ by September 15th as school starts in October! Although I’ll be an online student… I hope to make it up to the campus to attend a class from time to time.

I know many of my fellow students and am quite honored to be working along with them towards our degrees. (Hi Ladies!)

I’ll keep you posted as I go along… but for now - I need to go poke around in some boxes.

What To Do With A 15 Year Old Dino…

2010-07-19T08:04:00.001-04:00

I ran across this little fella out in the yard the other week… resting under a bush… alone…

I don’t know the life span of dino’s these days – but I’m guessing that he’s really lived longer than most would have considering his condition. He has suffered some loss of pink from spending too many hours in the sun and those mud baths have left some permanent staining in a few areas. Although still pliable he did suffer an injury many years ago that left him with an opening that runs from his belly button around to his hip… the end result of that injury was to render him mute!

Even though he could no longer ‘sqeeeeeeeeek – SQEeeeeeek’ when you squashed him with your foot he was still much loved by our sweet old girl. This was her toy that she’d had since she was a puppy. It’s been a few years since we’d throw it for her to chase – running wasn’t graceful for her any longer. But she’d happily take it and walk off with it if you offered it to her.

All her other puppy toys are long since gone – destroyed as only a growing dog can destroy. But this dino was different – maybe because it’s a bit sturdier – but I think mostly because she loved it differently. She really kinda babied it rather than chewed on it. We did most of the squeeking of it… which would bring her running to rescue her toy from under our feet. She use to jump and dance around as we stepped on it…. sqeeeeeek…. and as soon as we raised our foot and it would start the inhale ‘SQEeeeeek’ she’d lunge at it, snatch it from under our foot and run off. She would then squeek it a few times herself to make sure it was OK and then proceed to lick and baby it for awhile. Sure miss that sweet old girl.

I need to go this week and pick up her ashes… she was ready long ago - but I wasn’t… probably still not - but I’d hate it if she got lost at the vets office because I didn’t go pick her up. We know where we will bury her… her favorite place in the yard to lay and watch the world go by.

The dino will sit in my kitchen window for awhile… it makes me smile… and cry…

I’m Just Looking…

2010-07-18T13:18:00.000-04:00

That’s all I was doing… just looking.

I wandered into the local Janome / Pfaff Sewing Machine Shop this weekend to poke around and check out the shop.

I have been considering getting another machine – something I can leave down at the quilt shop to use.

I usually use the owners Pfaff when I sew at the shop – but I end up changing out the thread and bobbins because we work on different projects and use different stuff.

So I thought maybe I’d go in to the sewing machine shop and see what they had in a used machine…

Somebody should have told me that wasn’t a good idea.

They had a couple used Janome 6500’s that were in really, really good shape. Those caught my eye because of the large work area for quilting. And they had a 6600 that had just come in as a trade in… that model has the even feed foot built in.

So I talked, and tested, and thought, and, and, and…

In the end I decided it wasn’t a good idea to go and look… because the 6600 is now a new (to me) machine. I’ll keep it at the house and take my Viking down to the quilt shop to use. Maybe now I’ll get busy on some of the quilting I need to do.

Just looking… yeah – they must hear that all the time!

I’ve Got Mail…

2010-07-17T21:33:00.001-04:00

You know - like real mail… delivered by the postman!

Yeah the same postman that can’t seem to close my mail box 4 days out of 6 - but that’s a whole different story…

I got mail… real mail – not an advertisement, not a bill, not a magazine – real mail.

Hand written words put to paper… Two different pieces of mail on the same day.

I know it’s silly but it made my day!

Aunt Grace Circle of Friends…

2010-07-17T08:16:00.001-04:00

The shop will be offering this BOM program this fall and just before the retreat event I received my kit for the quilt top.

Of course there was no time or energy available to do anything other than say… “oh that’s nice” and put it away.

I have put my sewing room back together now and have begun cutting… and hope to get blocks done up pretty quickly.

I find it interesting that I’m working on a quilt called “Circle of Friends” right after having a retreat with a great group of quilty friends!

Check with your local quilt shop to see if they are offering this BOM program…

Fabrics are by Judie Rothermel, Marcus Fabrics and the BOM patterns by Vicki Bellino @ Bloom Creek

So Quickly…

2010-07-14T20:33:00.001-04:00

Why is it that when you are having a wonderful time with good friends the time passes all too quickly?

Three days of sewing, visiting with each other… a fair amount of shopping and good food – all the things you need for a gathering of quilters!

I Want…

2010-07-07T07:07:00.001-04:00

I want to do this…

I want to throw open the windows and let the fresh cool air in!

But what I want and what I get are usually two different things. So the windows are closed and the A/C’s are running and it’s HOT, HOT, HOT out there… oh and humid too!

Last year a couple of quilty friends came to visit. Not one to waste the opportunity I invited several other quilty friends and we had a mini-retreat.

This year we are doing it all over again… more friends, more food, more sewing! I can’t open my windows but I’m going to fill my house with quilty friends (and a local motel too!). We will spend the weekend down at the quilt shop sewing… There can’t be a better way to spend a weekend in July!

Being Practical Doesn’t Make It Easier…

2010-06-26T22:17:00.001-04:00

I know when something has to be done… you just need to do it.

But this sweet old girl… she has made it hard for me.

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She has been on the decline for several years now - but I knew a couple months ago when she began to loose weight that we were coming to the end. She was a beautiful mix of Alaskan Malamute and Sheppard… always a puppy at heart, good natured, but with an independent streak.

These pictures are typical of her… resting on her porch with an easy grin on her face. She did not like having her picture taken… does it show? LOL

She was 15… and I’ll be missing her a bunch.

Two Days in Pictures…

2010-06-16T07:51:00.001-04:00

Sunday Evening - remember I said I thought the next Cherry Tree would be ready soon… turned out it was ready right then.

So I called my sister that night and told her she needed to come out if she wanted any of these cherries… and so she did.

Monday morning - we started picking… see those red cherries in the picture below… those are from a different tree – they aren’t ready - yet. Seems there are two trees planted together… or I guess it could be that the black cherry tree was grafted onto a different root stock and the root stock grew a tree as well.

I finally reached the top of my ladder…

I picked all I could reach and said that was enough!

Some of my pickings… everything got put in the refrigerator Monday because I was too tired after a morning of picking cherries and an afternoon spent working in the garden.

Tuesday Morning… Let’s see – first a trip to the store for more canning jars. This is the book I worked from – a Mothers Day gift from my daughter last year.

This sounds good…

Wash and drain the berries…

Then I used this cherry pitter… one cherry at a time… 3 cups worth of cherries took me 1 1/2 hours. Can you say tedious?

Then I decided to use this antique cherry pitter I had hanging in the kitchen. I picked it up last year poking around antique shops. You roll some cherries in the top… turn the handle…

The pits come out here…

and the cherry come out below…

Now tell me please why there isn’t a modern stainless steel version of this guy around? I had 5 cups of cherries pitted and ready to use in 30 minutes.

Sure is a shame you can’t smell this… or better yet taste it!

I made 2 batches of the Black Forest Preserves… one per the recipe and one I used orange extract instead of the almond and added some cinnamon – yum! Then I made a batch of Cherry Jam using the same recipe I used on Sunday when I canned the other cherries we picked. A 4 cup batch of cherries for more jam and a 3 cup batch for more preserves are in the freezer… for some day when I have nothing better to do.

Not a bad day – 3 batches of jam/preserves canned… and a couple of tired feet.

Don’t Let Your Daughters Run Wild in the Garden…

2010-06-13T18:11:00.001-04:00

Don’t let them move out and live where ever they please.

Too many daughters living in a small area puts a strain on resources… and in no time the place is looking like the slums. Everything is crowded and jumbled up and nobody is getting the nutrition they need and many are lost in the shuffle and overlooked.

Next thing you know they are having daughters themselves and the whole garden goes to hell in a hand basket.

Oh… you thought I was doling out Motherly advice? Nope!

Just a little ‘learned the hard way’ Gardening Advice going on from the Accidental Strawberry Farmer.

Did you know that those new plants that grow from the main or ‘mother’ plant are called daughters? Me neither… until recently when I did a little (too late) reading on the subject of strawberries.

I made the mistake of buying 2 strawberry plants last year. Well – ok – I thought it was 2 strawberry plants in those 4” pots. What I actually had was 25 plants… in each pot. NO – what I actually had was more than 25 plants in each. So I planted my ~~2 plants~~ 50 plants (I gave the extras away) and reaped a small but yummy handful of berries last year. Imagine my delight when my strawberry plants made more strawberry plants… I mean hey – who doesn’t like free stuff right?

So I began this growing season with 2 overly full raised boxes of plants… and this was after pulling out most of those daughters that made an attempt at setting up housekeeping outside along the edges of the boxes.

Lessons learned… DO NOT LET YOUR STRAWBERRIES BE IN CONTROL. Oh sorry, was I yelling? There is probably a correlation to that whole mother-daughter thing… somebody has to keep the rules and rein in the wild daughters. So I’m going to be putting my ~~mother hat~~ gardening hat on and pulling on my gloves and getting ruthless about the rules and keeping order. I’m going to be making up a new bed later this summer and we will set up a new orderly community. And then I’m putting my foot down and yanking out anyone who doesn’t cooperate.

Below you see my freezer… it contains 10 half pint jars of Strawberry Freezer Jam. It also contains in excess of 109 cups of crushed strawberries in various containers and bags. AND 24 plus cups of frozen whole berries…

Yes there are indeed 4 cartons of ice cream there… how do you think I’m using up the crushed berries that haven’t made it into the freezer? Over ice cream, yogurt, and bananas… and I’ve been giving them away.

My sister came over the other day… she asked if she could have some strawberries. I told her she could have what ever she wanted to pick… but I wasn’t helping. So she went home with a bunch… probably between 6 and 8 quarts.

And we also had to pick cherries…

but the bugs and birds had been feasting already. The Engineer and I picked for us and I told my sister she could keep whatever she picked. After tossing the bad ones on the ground I still ended up with 3 overflowing 2 quart containers before I said I quit. After pitting and trimming bad spots I made 2 batches of Spicy Cherry Jam on Saturday. The remaining cherries are in my dehydrator – um getting dried out… LOL

And then there is this tree with a smaller darker cherry… should be ready in a day or two… and another tree behind this that will be ready a week or so later I think.

Make them stop… make them all stop… LOL

Best Laid Plans…

2010-06-07T07:44:00.001-04:00

I think I mentioned the last time I was here that my Dad was coming to visit. He wondered if the Cowboys jacket would be a problem in Philly’s territory… I don’t think he’ll mind if I tell you he celebrated his 81st birthday while he was here.

For the first weekend we planned for our kids in MA to come down to visit. I figured we’d spend the weekend doing a little work in the garden (no sense passing up on cheap labor), quick and easy meals to cook, eat, and clean up, and then a whole lot of time spent playing cards and visiting.

What we did that weekend was no garden work, and we ate most meals out. We did play cards a lot - just not where we had planned.

We hadn’t planned a trip to the ER and a Hospital admission for my Dad when we made our weekend plans. The good news is that the pains my father had experienced early Saturday am were not associated with a heart attack, or blood clots… but we had to wait until all the tests were completed Monday afternoon to know for sure.

So we made ‘Lemonade’ out of that weekend. We couldn’t have been more pleased with the courtesy and kindness from the hospital staff – not to mention the professionalism. We took over the family room down the hall and the hospital staff came there to check vitals and dispense meds. When the announcement came that visiting hours were over… we just closed the door and dealt a new hand… and nobody blinked. We left at 10:30 PM Saturday night and 9:30 PM on Sunday.

The Cardiologist said that he had people half my dad’s age that couldn’t do the full 9 minutes of the stress test… he was impressed… and so was I. There was however no good idea what actually caused the pain… but I suspect it was related to some gall stones they noted in the CAT Scan.

After his release I put him to work in the garden…

Here is the Herb Garden my Dad and husband built for me… Daddy’s doing his best impression of a Scarecrow… LOL

On the next Saturday we went to surprise my brother who earlier that morning had returned from a 6 month assignment (contractor) in Iraq. He’s standing there still talking to Dad on the phone… “What are you doing here, how’d you get here… I don’t believe this… how’d you get here?” We had driven down to VA and Daddy called him on the phone while we stood outside… then we starting ringing the door bell over and over and over. LOL

My sister Lori from NJ spent a good deal of time here with us as well – she and my husband spent a day touring Gettysburg with Daddy. You could easily spend a week there so we’ll have to make sure to visit again during Daddy’s next visit. He did say that knowing he’d passed his stress test with flying colors made climbing those towers a lot easier… LOL

We had a great time and I sure hated to drop him off at the airport… those 2 weeks went by very quickly!

This and That…

2010-05-13T15:09:00.001-04:00

Do you have times when you know you should be getting a ton of things done… because your life is going to get really busy very quickly… but you just can’t seem to get your head organized or your self out of your own way?

Yep that’s me right now.

We are having new windows put in next Tuesday. We had the first floor done last July and are finishing up the rest of the house now.

But that means I have to finish putting away (and sorting through) the rest of the stuff we hauled out of the attic storage and left in my sewing studio. The engineer has finished sorting through his stuff… so I need to make decisions on the rest of the boxes and bins.

It’s been raining a lot over the past week… and on the days it wasn’t raining it was windy. No - not just windy… it was WINDY! Between the wind and the rain and my work schedule – I haven’t gotten the rest of the plants in the ground.

The Engineer and I made my T-Poles for the garden this past weekend. And look they are waiting in our new shed which was delivered between the wind and rain one day.

There are 3 T-Poles – they will go at either end and one in the middle of one of the raised beds. A heavy duty wire will connect at both ends of the T running down the length of the beds. You then hang wire or string off of these down to your tomato plants (or other climbing plants) who then wrap or climb the string. But The Engineer wants to get a post auger and cement… it’s never easy… never

Which is fine because I need to order new sand and peat moss to add to the boxes. Everything settled last year and I’ve only got about half of what I’d like in there… so I’ll top them off before planting this year.

These first two boxes have the strawberry plants… both inside and outside the boxes. (That’s the new shed in the background)

I had so many runners last year that had leaped out of the boxes - I was giving them away and finally throwing them away.

I’m going to have more strawberries than I can shake a stick at. I’ll be freezing a lot of them and hopefully making some jam. After this season I’m going to take all the strawberries out of these two boxes and move them to a shallower box I’ll build along one side of the garden.

Rather than plant my corn in the boxes again this year I was going to plant in this area. So a couple months ago I covered this area with clear plastic and edged it with boards. The idea is that it will have a solar effect – heat will build up - the grass will die and then I could till it up and plant. Some how my grass didn’t know that was the plan… it just kept growing. I finally had to take the plastic off and mow. We’ve mowed 3 times. The only place grass died was where the boards were.

Then last week I hauled the plastic over into the middle of the yard so that the rain could dry off and I could fold it up. Do you see this spot? This is what happened to the grass that was under the plastic for just a couple hours! Yeah… a couple hours. The other area was covered for weeks. This actually looks better in this picture today as the grass looks like its coming back in… last week it was very brown. I’m not even going to try and understand… really.

I want to turn this 7 x 8 foot stone area into my herb garden. This is a picture from early last summer. The previous owners used a patio set on these stones. I’ll either rake all the stones to the edges and box in a 3 x 4 foot area in the middle or rake the stones into the middle and plant along the 4 sides… yet another decision to make.

I’ve got a bag of clothes I need to try on and then get rid of because they probably don’t fit. I’d like to say I got taller… but that’s just not the case. I thought maybe spending a couple years in storage would make them grow but I’m not holding out much hope for that either… maybe I should just save myself the grief and get rid of them.

And then there is Spring Cleaning… I do need to clean my house… really… because my Dad is coming to visit! He’s coming out for a couple weeks. He thinks it’s a vacation but I’m gonna put him to work helping me get some of this planting stuff done. He grew up on a farm in Kansas… surely he’s an ole pro at growing stuff.

And the kids will come in to see him while he’s here… which means I can’t hide anything as I’m cleaning… and I’ll need the bed up in the studio too… so I do have to finish up there…

All this stuff to do and I’d really rather just go take a nap…

A Big Hello…

2010-05-07T07:01:00.001-04:00

First things first…

“Hi Ladies! I do so miss y’all a bunch!”

That was a shout out to all the wonderful ladies at Southampton Quilts in… you guessed it… Southampton… the one in Massachusetts. I’m sure there are other Southamptons – and there may very well be another ‘Southampton Quilts’ someplace in the world… but there truly is no other place like Southampton Quilts. They are all special folks there - the owners - Nancy and Maureen – all the instructors… and especially the customers who are more like friends than just customers.

A special hello to one of the instructors - Beth (I think a living example of dynamite – so much energy in a little package!) I aspire to be a teacher like her one day… she has a flock of ~~customers~~ ~~students~~ friends that follow her from one adventure in quilting to another.

If in your travels you have the opportunity to travel north of the Springfield, MA area… stop into Southampton Quilts… and tell them I said Hi!

Country Road…

2010-05-02T09:15:00.001-04:00

We were headed over to my In-Laws Saturday… using the back country roads around the town rather than the main roads through – it’s not about getting there faster – it’s all about the journey.

As we rounded the corner of the first jog around a local farm I could see the flat bed wagon sitting in the drive along the other side of the farm house - full of plants.

“Oh good – she’s got plants out today” I said as I navigated the turn around to the side of the farm and the gravel driveway that contained the wagon.

“Did you plan this?” asks my husband as I turn into the driveway and stop.

“Yep” is all I say as I head over to see what wonderful goodies she has out for sale.

I have always admired this farm wife’s gardens. She has lovely flowers and an enviable vegetable garden. Everything is always neat and trim… always… everything. So I was quite happy when I first saw plants sitting out for sale last year. Her prices… could be anything from 50 cents for a small pot to 4 dollars for a gallon pot of perennials. They are all beautiful and happy plants and you know that is important. Many of the plants have the garden markers with all the pertinent details – but you are just as likely to find a section of mini-blind plastic with the plants name written on it with the price.

I make my selections… put the money in the coffee can that is sitting in a box on the wagon and off we go. Yeah… just like that.

So here is what I came away with… some ornamental grasses, new lavender irises, purple heuchera (coral bells), campanula (bellflower), and purple cone flower (echinacea), and pink bee balm.

Here are the ruby coreopsis, red yarrow, shasta daisy, and another campanula (bellflower),

I have also started to pick up some stuff at the Green House up the road from me too…

Some herbs… basil, rosemary and garlic, a few annuals, and some lettuce.

I hope to get some into the ground today… but won’t if I continue to sit here in front of the computer.

Privy Bags

2010-04-30T07:03:00.001-04:00

Last weekend I found this book at a local printshop/bookstore. I was intrigued by the title and without spending any more time looking through it I made my purchase and brought it home to enjoy.

Later that evening I sat down to enjoy my new find… What it is is a Catalog to accompany a showing of Lancaster County Privy Quilts by the Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley. Hey, wait a minute - that’s where I live… that’s the local historical society! And you know what… this showing is still happening – at least until May 15th!

So if you’ve got an inclination to travel to Lancaster County, PA this show is open on Thursdays and Saturdays, 10 AM – 4 PM. The Historical Society’s Museum is located at 249 West Main Street, Ephrata, PA.

This catalog of Privy Quilts would be a delightful addition to any quilters book collection and I am looking forward to seeing them in person very soon.

Loves Taters…

2010-04-27T06:49:00.001-04:00

Another picture of this little man from their visit this past winter…

I was making some Sheppard's Pie and handed him that potato masher - he sat there for the longest time sucking on it…

Good thing he likes taters… his Mom just found out he’s allergic to milk and eggs.