Whatever!

Ya know those times when you feel like this:

But you'd really like to feel like this:

Yep - today was my day. Started off all bright eyed and bushy tailed: up at 5, and sewed for 35 minutes, a first for me. I don't sew in the mornings because I'm getting ready and psyched up to go to the lions den. But, Sunday evening I started a baby quilt for my soon to be grandson and it was rolling right along so I picked it up this morning. So far so good. I really don't know where it took that terrible turn, but by noon anyway, everything I touched turned to fertilizer. By the time I got home, I was ready to get lost in this little quilt. Doncha know I sewed 2 of the blocks in sideways??? And in this setting, it mattered. Went outside to water plants, and the hose knocked over some plants in pots. Go to feed horses and as I flung the hay, it disentigrated all over me; a walking tower of donkey chow. Fed the chickens and one walked under the stream of feed and the whole thing missed the pan and went all over the ground. Collected eggs and 2 of them broke. In my pocket. Started a load of laundry - how can you mess that up? Well, if after you get it going you stand and stare thru the window at the clothes going round and round and suddenly see a cell phone; THAT'S how you can mess it up. Open a bottle of wine, you deserve it. Only half of the cork comes out, the other half is bobbing around in the white zin. How the heck do you do that??? Talent. Oddly enough, I still want to be happy! I want to get this baby quilt all together before I hit the rack tonight. I want to jiggle to the music blasting in my sewing room. So all I can do is laugh - thank goodness every day isn't like this! Tomorrow my silken smooth life will come back. Sure it will!

I'll show you the baby quilt tomorrow -- promise!!

Patty over at Morning Ramble, is a brand new Grandma, to beautiful Mei- Ling. Instead of having their little miracle at home to love and enjoy, she is in the NICU with some extremely challenging problems.

The power of prayer is a wonder we cannot explain, and I'm asking that you include Mei-Ling and her family in yours. If prayer is not a regular part of your day, please send as much positive energy as you can to a tiny baby in Texas and her scared (first-time) parents, Melanie and Casi. If enough of us believe that she'll be home soon and well, it will happen.

No quilty news from me today - except that the RWB quilt is selling tickets at an alarming rate! It's already sold over $100 worth in 2 days, and we'll be selling them for 2 months! As to what to call this venture; well, we try not to call it anything. "Raffle" quilt is an old term that fits, even tho the semantics aren't exactly what the Gaming Commission wants us to use. DH is an Investigator for our state GC, and he suggested we try to avoid calling it anything, but "drawing" or "fund-raising" won't attract any undue attention. Isn't this DUMB DUMB DUMB - we can do it, we just can't SAY we're doing it? Duuuuhhhh..........

DGD and I, accompanied by DS1 and DDIL, are leaving in 12 days for Utah to visit my Mom. DS hasn't been there in 21 years! DDIL has never been, and Mom hasn't met her Great granddaughter. Mom is extremely unnerved at the thought of anyone calling me "Gramma" - she actually asked me on the phone if that is what I am called! Ummm, that's affirmative Mom. Well, she had hoped if she ignored it, maybe I'm not quite as old as it seems and ergo, neither is she. Given her recent terminal diagnosis that was too sad to hear. I cried for an hour over that. Madeline who is 3 & 1/2, is excited about her first plane trip, and if the plane goes too fast she intends to "tell that guy to SLOW DOWN!" that guy is of course the pilot - ROFL - can you just see this indignant 3 year-old banging on the cockpit door yelling to slow down?? She won't have Mama or Daddy, just old Gramma so I hope the flight is not too traumatic.

This trip promises to be by turns wonderful and heartbreaking. How in the world do we ever learn to live with endings and loss? Will this be the last time we have 4 generations together? I can't fathom my granddaughter growing up not knowing that incredible woman, that's too strange for me to get my mind around it. Shoot - I plain can't imagine a world without her in it at all. <>

Raffle Quilts and Murder

Well, I beat my personal best time for finishing a top. This little 30's job was an unfinished top at 2pm Sunday, and I finished doing the hand work on the binding at 7pm. That same night. Whoo-hoo! I had to piece out a backing, then quilt it, make binding and sew it on and finish it by hand.

I got to do the handwork outside on my new lawn enjoying the weather, my yard and just being alive. It was so nice, and relaxing and calming - I'm going to have to do a lot more finishing! I tried a new (to me) thread too - King Tut by Superior. It's way nice; a 40 weight with a real nice finish - I was so pleased with the way it looks. If you click on the picture you should be able to see the white borders pretty well - the quilting shows so nicely.

This is the pattern I copied from Quilting Peach, one that she makes for Quilts of Valor. I espically like the quilting on this one, it's all stars and squiggles. Both of these are bound for raffles, 1 for for Kidney Disease Awareness and the other for a Patient Emergency Fund. Now with those out of the way, I can concentrate on my fans. One of my mini-group buddies gave me a good idea, and I have to try it out......

What's that? Oh, what about the murder, you ask?

Well, it's like this. There is a mockingbird that lives nearby, and keeps very very early hours, (or very very late hours) and there's no sleeping happening around here after about 3:30 am. That bird is SO loud, and SO obnoxious and SO relentless - it NEVER shuts up! - and it has SO many people feeling antagonistic, that it may be a scramble to see who will shoot it first. Aren't birds supposed to sleep when it's dark? And where's a nice bird-eating hawk or snake or something when you need them? When I was sitting outside doing binding and enjoying the peace, the little buggar sat on top of a power pole and yada-yada-yada-yada'd the whole time. I was too lazy to get up and get a gun, besides it was too close to a house. There's a neighbor up the road who swears he's going to take up falcon training just to take care of every mockingbird in the county.

I'd have to help him.

Rainy days and Saturdays

We got word yesterday that DH's brother has passed away in Colorado after many years of illness. He was Hunny's hero growing up - 11 years older and of course those guys are the best. That and a rainy day today has made things real low energy here, so we've just been puttering, napping, watching TV and doing not much. I worked on borders a bit, but kept losing my train of inspiration.
It was a good day to talk on the phone tho, so I did that a lot! The mailman brought me goodies too; wonder how hard it would be to arrange goodies in the mail every day?


These are an e-bay purchase made when I was bored and not sleeping one night. Pretty colored jewels! I can't resist when something is all co-ordinated like that. My other pastime is this puzzle, a Rebecca Barker Quiltscapes scene, a gift from my friend Leslie.

It's been spread out on this coffee table for more than a month, and I fidget with it a bit here and there. It has 1000 pieces, and it is hard! The puzzle shapes are strange, and there are a lot of 'em! It's been real fun tho, because everyone who comes in has to sit and try to place a couple pieces.
My funny story of the day has to do with this rain, and the recent extensive work we've done in our front yard. This yard has always flooded badly whenever it rains, and part of the landscaping process was a lot of grading to take care of that problem. Today is the first decent rain we've had, so I peeked out to see how it's handling the rain. And the upper part of the yard was flooded! What the heck.... grab shoes and umbrella and head out there. HA! As it develops, the house next door which is a bit higher elevation than ours, has runoff water coming down their drive. Part of it just runs into the street and into the roadside ditch, but the underground pipe that carries their downspout water from the whole house stops short of the street, so all of it has been pouring into our yard, causing flooding. I grabbed a shovel and did a quick diversion, then stomped in to talk to my DH. "You have got to go talk to that kid! His runoff water is flooding our yard!" and Hunnys says, "What should I say to him?" Me - "You're his father - take him out behind the barn!" ROFL -- yes, that neighbor is our DS1, who lives there with his wife and 5 children. Hee hee -- I had to laugh. All that tractor work, and I fixed it with a shovel in 5 minutes. It has continued to rain with vigor all day, but the flooding is gone.
Now it's time for a nice fire, some dinner and a glass of wine and off to bed.........

Siggie Swap Blocks!

Oh boy o boy o boy - I've been watching for these, and they're here! DH came in with the package, saying - "Who do you know in Australia?" "Oh, lot's of people! And it's not just Australia, they're from all over the world! I can't wait to see where they've all travelled from. Just think, some have gone from Europe to Oz and now to California - can you believe it? Think about it - the WORLD, honey!"
And I ripped into that bundle - practically not breathing.

And the very first block on top was from Ms Jan, who lives about 60 miles from me.

DH said he wasn't laughing at me, but I can tell. We've known each other a long time, and I know when he's being sarcastic and laughing up his sleeve. REGARDLESS!!! I'm so thrilled with all of them! I would like to continue on, so if anyone would like to swap siggie blocks with me, I'd be more than happy to! Drop me an e-mail, we'll make it happen!
One of the projects on my plate right now is to turn out 2 quilts for work; one for our clinic to raise money for patients emergency fund, and another to be used nationally to raise money for the American Kidney Foundation. My buddy at work was going to help me, and she wants to, but our schedules have clashed every weekend and now the deadline is upon us. The national comittee chair called today politely inquiring about the quilt. Ummm, actually, that quilt exists only in EQ right now, in about 14 different versions and more color combinations than the NBC peacock. (old if you remember that!) I just can't decide; I've got Quilters Block. (no groaning out there!) She didn't say anything, but I could see her pursed lips right thru the phone lines. FINE - get on with it already! Whenever I get stuck on a long phone call, boring conference call or terminal HOLD, I blog surf. Today I stopped by Peachy Kim's and she was showing 3 that she made for Quilts of Valor. Dingdingdingding!! Hey! Quick, appealing, eyecatching even tho it's simple. That's it.

I got home and spent about 15 minutes rummaging thru stash, and got the blocks made up before dinner. It will have the red inner border and the blue for outer border, and by Sunday it'll be quilted and bound and off my chest. Or maybe on it - I have a little rule that I get to have a little nap under every quilt I make, or at least an evenings worth of TV.
And now, I have to go spend some more time playing with siggie blocks -- what fun!

Thoughts from an un-Thinking Blogger

I am sure enjoying reading the Thinking Blogger rings - it's fun to follow links and end up in all new places! You won't see my blog up for that one tho, and here's why: I expend ALL my mental energy in my job. When I first walked thru the doors this morning, the techs were yelling at me that we have a patient not breathing. That pretty well sets up a day for ya! Every day I deal with blood, tears, depression, anger, sadness - you name it and we'll come up with it for you. My professional persona is on red alert for anywhere from 8 to 13 hours a day and it can and does leave me drained. I certainly have the capacity to write thoughtful, meaningful entries but for the most part I just want to entertain and be entertained. I love blog-jumping and reading so many wonderful and yes, thought provoking blogs; as long as it's someone elses' thoughts and doesn't require me to be inspirational. The reason I quilt is to let my DNA unwind a bit from the stresses of my day, and roaming all your quilty blogs is a BIG part of that now! While I am sewing, or cutting, or pressing or playing with fabric, sure those "Important Thoughts" weave in and out of my consciousness, but I always try to beat them back to whence they came. (Ohhhhh!!!! That's why I have so many headaches!) There's way too much seriousness around me so I crave simplicity and silliness and happy creative thoughts. Keep it up - you are all making more of a difference than you know! Thank you!

Ice Cream Sherbert Weekend

When I was a new quilter, I saw a fan pattern in a magazine that I wanted to make. It was made with something called "30's Reproduction Fabrics" and I just had to do it. I ventured into the LQS looking for these cute, bright fabrics, and sure enough she had them. I didn't bring the magazine so I guessed at how much - how about 1 yard of all of each. All 63 of them!! Gee, as it turns out, that was enough for the fan quilt! I finished that fan top and it's really cute but not quilted yet, 6 years later. I made another one that did get quilted and bound, but the attraction had definately worn off long before all that fabric had been used..

Now, cut to many years and thousands of yards later, and I'm on my knees rummaging in the bottomest, backest hidingist hole in the stash looking for solid black, and turned up the rest of the 30's pile. Man, that's still a lot of fabric!! In the box was another long forgotten project, Ohio Stars blocks and some nine patches. (had to be someone else that made them; they're pretty rough!) and I don't know what the heck possessed me, but I dragged it out and started picking thru. People with short attention spans shouldn't do stuff like this. Ever. There was a big stack of already cut 3 1/2 squares. Hmmmm. Lemme think. I have this fan project on the wall that needs some thinking, and it's going to be cool when I finish it. I have a few baby quilts to quilt and the babies are getting closer every day. I have the big diamonds to quilt, and a purse to make for my Mom. I also have a couple of quilts to turn out for those raffles for work. I have a lot on my plate right now and I still am not crazy about 30's fabrics. So I started a new quilt, of course. Hey, don't snicker! You'd do it too! Oh well.... I saw this in a book and started it Thursday night - it's a quickie. I even had all those solids so it's a total stash quilt, which means it's free, right? (sincker snicker)

My granddaughter came for a visit this weekend because apparently she has withdrawal tremors and bad attitude when we haven't gotten together for a few weeks. They came Saturday and left Sunday, and we had a blast, of course. At 3 and a half she's got language down real well, but still has a baby voice so just about everything she says is hilarious. "Madeline, do you want bacon and eggs for breakfast?" "Well aksully Gammaw, I was thinking we can have cweem-pupps for bekfass." And you're not supposed to laugh at that? C'mon! That's a riot! we went to the nursery to get some plants for the front yard, and I pulled her around in the big wagon. Suddenly she hollars out - "Hey Gammaw!" What baby? "I love you more than strawberries!" Wow -- beat that, will ya?

How Green is my Valley

Finally, at last, there's GREEN in my front yard!! Hooray!! For the first time in many many years - almost 3 for us here, and 14 for the folks before us. The sorriest house on the street is a good buy, but getting it up to par is a long hard haul. This weekend I'm going to hook up our dump trailer and go buy plants for the perimeter planter, so cross your fingers I don't explode from excitement! While you're at it, cross your fingers that the rain holds off for a little bit, till Monday?



The fans are simmering on the wall while I figure out the rest of the design, but so far they have handles and strings. They had tiny black lace around the tops, but DH took one look and said, "Hey! Spanish fans!" Nooooo, hunny, those are Oriental fans. But, he's right, the black lace made it too Spanish. The strings are a bit iffy too, but I'm going to call that "Artistic License." So far it looks like they'll each be set in a square on point........ but hey, I'm a little unstable so that could change.

The first episode of the Alex Anderson/Ricky Tims internet show had the guy who owns Superior Threads. He's selling his product of course, but he talked about extra long staple Egyptian cotton verses long staple cotton. I did a bit of research and found out there may be something to that claim. So I ordered 3 spools of the Masterpiece and it came today. Aurifil has been my go-to thread for quite awhile now, so I'm going to do some sort of comparison. One thing I can say right off the bat is the Superior does feel a bit smoother than the Aurifil just feeling it as it comes off the spool. I'll let you know what I find out!

Happy Easter

It's easy to forget about Easter when there's no little ones around. As it worked out, Gramps and I were each others company today, and it didn't seem too different than any other Sunday. Because all of our kids have other families, it does happen sometimes that they are all celebrating somewhere else, and that's actually OK with us, neither of us feels deprived when that happens. So, what do you do on any Sunday after church? Well, sew, of course!


At our guild meeting on Saturday our speaker was the lady who judged our show last fall, and will be judging again this year. She trained at Pacific International Quilt Show and in fact was a judge there as well) She spoke about what judges look for in quilts, and gave a demonstration of how she actually does it. Last year she had 150 or so quilts to judge, (is that right, Rosy?) and she spent close to nine hours doing it. She is meticulous, and gives really excellent comments. I very nearly had kittens when I won a 1st and a 2nd at that show, and after seeing her in action I was really bowled over. So of course I came home all fired up, and nothing to do! ((haa haa haa -- so to speak!)) The fan idea has been in the back of my head for quite awhile, but was originally just a one block wall hanging, and the fans were a much simpler design. Ummmm....not so much now! The idea is getting bigger and bigger, and it's getting embellished and 3d stuff is evolving for it, and it's getting fun! Unfortunately, now I have to stop by the LQS for some odds and ends for it. Bummer, huh?

So my Easter festivities aside from church amounted to picking flowers from the yard and making pretties in the house. The lilacs are incredible.

And in case the kids ask if the Easter Bunnycame to our house, why,yes he did! And he brought Mrs. Bunny, and collected eggs from the hen house. Just as pretty as the colored eggs are the naturally colored greens and blues from my chickens. DH and I had breakfast at church and made a corned beef for dinner, and he made a blackberry cobbler for dessert . The world is all right!

Oh yea, one more thing - I had my colonscopy on Friday and all was well, a few little polyps so it was a good thing I went. Now for the mammo....

HAVE YOU DONE YOURS?

And Afterwards, Pass Out!

I've seen this around blogland and had to try it - what a hoot! All my crummy Springtime celebrations all nice and typed out, ready to file!
It'll sure be nice to get ALL that junk over with!

The Quilt Show

If you haven't heard, Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims have teamed up to produce a new quilt show online, called TheQuiltShow . The first two episodes are out, and let me tell you - if you have a high speed connection, go sign up! If you don't have high speed, call a friend who does and beg. The video quality is superb, the best I've ever seen for an internet clip. And it's long - a good hours worth. This show is terrific! Not bound by network constraints, they are free to be themselves, and it's like having them in your living room. My one and only complaint is the Bernina commercials - they're very short, and only a couple of them - but for Pete's sake! The second episode has Ricky playing a Native American flute, a beautiful haunting tribute to the mountains around his Colorado home, Wahatoya. I listened to that 6 times, tears running the whole time. (Then I bought the CD, and went back to listen some more!)
Go check it out!

Melon Balls and Chocolate Chips

What to do, what to do..........the perpetual question floating around my quiltroom! Sometimes there's so many good ideas, and so many UFO's, and so much pretty stuff, that I get paralyzed. Can't start anything because I want to do it all. I finished putting together the Diamonds top from several entries back, AT LAST! The thing has been hanging on my wall way too long, taunting me. Just because I vowed that it couldn't come down until it was one cohesive top that I could fold (and stuff into a bag...ummm, or not) So there it hung, partially together. And every blessed day, that thing chided me -- "HEY LAZY! I'm hanging here without arms -- do you care??" and "Can we get a little pieceing over here?" Oddly, this comes out in a twangy Bronx accent. Someplace I've never been, but apparently they have a lot of diamond quilt top relatives around there.

So burrowing around in the wreck of a fabric closet looking for the rest of that gold for the inner border for the %$#!*^ diamonds, I happened on these blocks made at a retreat last year. They were the result of total boredom with the projects I bought with me to do, and a hasty and lustful visit to the LQS there. Gee, I had no problem whipping thru these! I have 18 of them - most are really well done, and a few have some WILD and WONKY points. (That I did on purpose. Sure I did. WHAT? You don't believe me?)
So now those are being held hostage on the design wall, and let's see what accent they nag in. The name Melon Ball came to me, I guess because of the colors - or maybe this puppy will be Jamaican?

Then for about a minute, this cute little guy was on the wall:

Because I had a WILD and WONKY hair to do a ChocolateChipCherrySomething -- for weeks! I dreamed about it, doodled it at work, searched all the blogs and magazines for other B/P's, and finally scrounged up 44 FQ's of pinks and brown, and tried something. Maybe the idea was sort of a post-modern ice cream cone - chocolate and cherry ice cream? And OH my gosh -- look at those perfect points! What a work of art! Hel-lo - eight points coming together, and it's not a thread out of whack.. Cool beans!! SO awesome! I showed everybody who couldn't get away -- "LOOKY!" And the only problem with it is:
I don't care anymore. Geeeesh!! I had a little trouble even finding it to take a picture, and I don't think it's a week old yet. Poor little orphan child..........
I haven't gotten to spend a lot of time in the quiltroom because of all the activity in our front yard. What has been for 3 years a dirt lot with weeds is suddenly becoming beautiful! It's all graded smooth, the planters are all lined out and edged - the creek is all spiffy and rocked and cool looking, and we have a little footbridge for getting from one side of the yard to t'other.

So far this has been all my DH and my collaboration, with hired help for the heaviest stuff. Last evening LandscaperGuy was here to lay out sprinkler system and calculate how much sod. DH and I have had a running argument about this lawn. I suggested that it was going to be over 1600 square feet, (it's huge) and he told me to stick to my quilting and stop exaggerating. HA! LandscaperGuy doodled it out, and it's 1780 square feet. HA! And HA again!! So LandscaperGuy looked me in the eye and said, "This is going to be a maintence nightmare, and a pain in the butt to install, all those curves" I couldn't even respond -- huh? What do you say to that? Then he followed that with, "But when it's all done it will be the best yard on the block" COOL!!! Hey, it's been the worst yard in the valley forever, so as long as it's not that anymore, I'm happy. LG says, "One of these days you'll come home from work and it'll be all done" Oh man -- I'll have an arrest on the spot - full code blue. And I'll go down smiling!

Antique Quilt Find!

Horrible, stressful, dreadful day at work. A 4pm phone call put me over the edge, and I left (with a huge headache) before I could start to take hostages - just awful. What you need at those times is Retail Therapy and Fabric - oh yea, same thing, huh? Hee hee -- but this time I wandered into an antique store. There's not many in this county, and they're not full of great finds, but I was thinking about a couple of bone china teacups/saucers for my collection. Instead, I found this:

Oh my my, it is luscious! Clearly old, in mint condition, very well made. The lavendar and peach are classic 30's colors, as is the brilliant daffodil yellow on the back. A LOT of different fabrics, a lot of feedsacks. (The colors in the pictures were pretty accurate when it left my Picasa program, don't know how they'll publish. Click on them for a better look!)
I spread it out over an old sofa and checked it out, then folded it up and put it under my arm, tightly. I was half afraid someone would snatch it away, or say "Ooops - that's not the right price on that!" but I was the lone only customer. I've never felt so much like a thief. What a prize, to me anyway. I would have paid twice the price. It's about twin sized, hand pieced, (very nicely, too) and hand quilted. The quilting is not teeny tiny stitches, but it's straight and even, and there's a lot of it. The batting is that dense rather heavy sort you sometimes see in old quilts. Heavy and flat.
It's is perfect condition - no frays, no fading or staining, no repairs. If it had heavy fold lines I'd think it's been folded in a cedar chest for 60 years, but not even fold lines. It has a funny little row of individual fan squares along one side, not enough to make the bigger blocks for a whole row, but too dear not to use. I like that alot - no orphan blocks in this lady's bag! For all it's wonderful attributes, what really got to me was the size of the fan blocks -- 3 1/2 inches. Every last one of them! A lot of old quilts I've seen aren't too particular about how things fit or lay, but these are all just so, and the whole is nice and square.
I may even take it to work tomorrow, and when things get nasty again, I'll wrap up in it while I talk things over with the Divisional Vice Prez. Yeah, that's what I'll do!

Frog Prince

Any froggers out there? I'm one kind of by default. It all started with one plaster frog my daughter gave me years ago, and I'm not sure when it got out of control. Now it's an easy gift opportunity - which is great! I wish more people had well-defined areas of interest to make gift giving easier. In this case, it's resulted in hundreds of frogs. My office is crammed with every conceivable frog ever made! Patients bring them in all the time. Someone tried to count one time, and gave up at 180-something. Many are put away in boxes with the thought that someday I'll rotate the displays. (sure I will)
A couple of years ago I made this wall hanging for my office and I still love it. It sure gets the comments! It's covering up a lame landscape print that I looked at for 6 years before I had to get rid of it or scream. I had a blast making it, and it was the first quilt made in our new house, and one of my first ribbon winners ever - third, I think. My granddaughter has designs on it, and I may have to make one for her before she gets big enough to knock me over and take it. She showed a love of frogs from the get-go. Her first Easter she was 6 months old, and I put a silky bunny and a stuffed frog in her basket. She never did bother with the bunny, it was frog all the way! But I digress, again. Something nagging in the back of my puny little brain is telling me it's time for a new frog wall-hanging for the office. I have a really cool pattern called Bullfrog Boogie, and I might tackle that, but it's a whole mess of teeny tiny pieces......... dunno if I can be that patient. I have a box full of frog wrapping paper that people bring me, and I've thought of using those cartoony guys for some sort of applique. This one is going to be hard to beat, I think, but I'm going to have to change it out. It can't hang around forever, and it's been a long time already. Perfect! Another project! LOL.....

Progress After All

Happily, the worse of the flu seems to have run scared at the sight of my armament of drugs, LOL! I spent one crummy day being miserable, and Sunday being just punky but not feeling to bad - I'm going to say I escaped! Ya-hoo!!! (now having said that, watch me go down for the count tomorrow) I played in the sewing room today, a little bit here and there, nothing concentrated. Made one little baby quilt for our guild donations - just cutting squares and sewing them together then doing an envelope style layering. I even did some wavy lines of quilting on it!


Later in the day, I was aimlessly looking for something to do that wouldn't be too time consuming or brain taxing. I started thinking about those squares of upholstery fabric from a few blog entries back. About 6 years ago I bought a big bag made of those types of fabrics, and it has been my GO-TO bag ever since. I take it to classes, to reatreat, shopping, to guild, on planes when I travel -- it goes everywhere. A perfect size for me. As a consequence, it's starting to look like I schlep it around all over the place - go figure! I started eye-balling that old bag and got out those squares and began playing, and by dinner time I had a new bag:


MAMA'S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG!

It's the same size, but has a few tweeks I wanted. The original bag had a ring of pockets clear down at the bottom of the bag, and with the bag full it was tough to get to those pockets. I put custom sized pockets near the top - sized for pens, cell phone, can of mints, wallet, that kind of stuff. Because it was beautiful and sunny today, I made the bag sunny too -- and it definately lifts my spirits. I was moping pretty badly about missing my sew day. Aside from that, the weekend wasn't as bad as I was prepared for! In fact, it wasn't bad at all -- just slow and quiet. Not bad.

Just Pathetic

Being sick is a waste of time. Ruins all your plans and makes a beautiful weekend a total waste of gorgeous weather. Takes a perfectly wonderful Sew Day with friends and trashes it. Makes normally nice people grumpy. Suddenly you have to carry your own diaper bag of junk around just to get from room to room. So, me and my disease are going to bed and be grumpy and cough a lot. Please, everyone have a great weekend for me! I can't wait to read what you've been up to!

Blame it on Finn!

A couple of weeks ago, Finn wrote about a discount book website she had found, Hamilton Books. Addict that I am, I had to go look. Well, the box came the other day, and when Dh saw all the bounty, he asked, "Have you lost your mind?" then he asked, "Do you really think you need another quilt book?" (silly question) and finally, "How do you find all this stuff anyway?" I explained that Finn led me to it, and smiled................. to which he said,
"Well, at least books are cheaper in Finland" Hee hee hee, haa haa haa, ROFLOL!





I'm really really happy with that site - and the prices are fantastic. This big pile of books cost me less than $100, including shipping! And three of them are hardcover, that was a surprise, but a good one. I already have a couple quilts picked out that I want to do versions of. Not too much quilty this week besides the books - DH has been very very sick with pneumonia and that's kept me hopping, and not sleeping at night. I took to the couch so I don't catch whatever he's got, and I'm too long for our longest couch. I have a Sew Day scheduled for this Saturday, which happens to be National Quilting Day doncha know, but this morning I woke up with that coughing and congested feeling. Noooooooooo!!!

Everyone's doin' it, so here's my obligitory Spring Picture. Does it look hot? Because it is - over 80 today. Hard to believe we had snow 2 weeks ago. I do love my daffies, and can hardly wait till my whole yard is done being re-built so I can have hundreds of them. My chickens have suddenly remembered what their jobs are, and the egg basket is overflowing. Fortunately, we have 5 grandchildren living next door, so surplus isn't a huge problem. My DDIL won't eat them - she told us she doesn't want to eat brown eggs because they came out of a chickens butt. We asked her - Where do you think white eggs come from? With a perfectly serious face, she replied that White eggs come from the store. Ohhhh!!! Of course - the store!! Not a chickens butt at all -- Dh and I barely made it out of earshot before we howled with laughter -- our darling DIL is almost 40, but a city girl thru and thru. Another DIL was so tickled to see her hubby and his sibs chasing chinckens in my yard, something they grew up doing so they do it well. She couldn't get over that they knew how to catch them. She must have laughed for an hour, she was so tickled.
It's so beautiful I have to go back outside --

Big Brave Kitty

5:30 am, curled up with coffee and Simply Quilts, and my big guy Cuervo starts yowling -- a low gutteral growl that means something is not right. Pretty soom he comes at me with his trophy - a mouse!!!



He is 16 years old and has lived indoors all his life so he's not exactly the Big White Hunter here; this is is second mouse. So first reaction was "eeeeeewwwwwwww - keep it away from me!"


Second reaction is - "What a good kitty! What a big brave boy!"
Third - (after he was done playing with it and commenced to crunching) "So you won't be needing breakfast then?"



Finally, "OMIGOSH! There's mice in my house!!!"

I'm a slow thinker.



He very sweetly brought me the remains while I was getting ready in the bathroom -- 1/3 of a well chewed mouse -- YUCK!

Mariners Compass

Not too much quilty going on here - so I'll tell you an old story. A couple of years ago, I was president of our local guild and trying to get something going to get members excited. One of the things I tried was having a NAME quilter come do a trunk show, a first for us. I was so lucky to find Judy Mathiesan (of Mariners Compass fame) who happens to live not too awful far from here. Judy is delightful and no differant than any other prolific lady in your guild, just a sweetie. She brought a huge collection of fabulous quilts, including 'Nautical Stars', voted Best in Show at Houston, and one of the 100 Best Quilts of The 20th Century (cover of the book) by the International Quilt Association. Ya'll, I got to hold this quilt!!!

As Judy unpacked her bags before the meeting, she was piling quilts in the order she wanted them shown. This quilt came flying thru the air at me, along with a quick - "Here, hold this". I almost stopped breathing. She made this one with all little calico prints, most purchased from the cheapie folded goods table at the old Sprouse Reitz store. That really surprised me and goes to prove you can work miracles with any fabric. Those are teeny little pieces. It is stunning -- it glows. During her talk I was so priviledged to be a holder, along with my tall friend Chari. We got to see what most people don't, the backs! We checked out the quilting, the pieced backs, read all the labels and generally had a blast. She adds labels as the quilt ages, noting awards it's won, which shows it's been in and any other information picked up along the way. What a great idea! It made for really fun reading. All of her quilts are incredible, and she has the cutest doggy quilts I've seen. If you ever get the chance to see her or take a class, go for it - you won't be disappointed.

A Teeny Tiny Block!

While blog-hopping tonight, I came across Dawn's blog, with the most artful, exquisite minitures I've seen. You have to go look. It inspired me to try it - Holy Moly, it was tough! I spent awhile with the calculator figuring the cuts, and did a bit of re-cutting and re-sewing to come up with this:


And it only took me an hour and a half! Good Grief but it was fun and a challenge and very very satisfying. That center 9-patch finishes at 3/4"! I can see in the picture what I didn't notice on the real thing - I need to take that right side off and try again. Isn't this too much fun for a Monday night?

Best Laid Plans ---

Well - I'll just say I'm a free spirit! Then I have to protest that outside forces were at work, making sure I didn't get any of my plans done. Heh heh heh. So the big plans didn't happen because Saturday I ended up gone most of the day and going out to dinner that night, then our friends came over. So much for that day! Sunday was more of the same - all fun stuff and fun people, but all time away from the sewing room. Then there was Mary Hickeys' book of baby quilts that got me all fired up to start making quilts for the first grandson coming in June - Jaden. I hope he likes cowboys! Just as I was sewing on the last border, Jaden's Daddy came in, scared the soup out of me. He lives 75 miles away! He came up behind me and did a "boogie-boogie" - whew! So I got to show him Jaden's quilt, and he wants me to do fleece for backing. I don't have any right now, so quilting will happen later - but the top was all done in one day!

Here's a close up of the blocks, fussy-cut from some cute fabric, that I think my darlin' Rosy gave me when she was my Secret Pal a couple of years ago. I can't remember buying it but I have a hazy memory of opening a gift and finding it.

Every bit of it came from stash, too! So it was free! LOL - how's that for reasoning? If I shop in my closet, it dosn't cost a thing. Makes sense to me! And I know anyone reading this will agree that it's too easy to get sidetracked into new projects - that's the fun of it all! Hmmmm...now what?