Spring foliage

Some of the spring foliage from a few days ago---of course they all have opened up a bit more since then. Isn't nature grand?

The pampered lilac bush--not native to the area so DJ augments the soil, etc. All that attention is starting pay off. After about 5 years in the ground, it is looking the best it has ever looked with lots of blooms open now.

One of the azaleas--this one was darned near dead when we moved in but it is now thriving with the help of "Farmer Alfalfa" Watering it also encourages the clover and nettle though.

This azalea looks a bit more spindly. It was planted in a pot for a long time and it looked better than the other bush. Loaded with blooms though. We also have a small white Encore azalea planted between the two red ones that he got last year.

My little dogwood tree. Actually this is the 3rd one we have tried to grow and seem to be having a bit more luck. I really had my heart set on a pink one but I guess those will have to be enjoyed in someone else's yard as I drive by. I always enjoyed going to the AQS show in Paducah and hoping that the dogwoods were in bloom and take the drive around town in the evening to see them. Now all I have to do is hop in my car in about any direction. Had I remembered to take my camera with me on Tuesday I could have gotten some good shots of all the wisteria and redbud.

I got my little row of spools finished up and mailed off yesterday. Did a little bit of sewing of the beetle top shown HERE in this EQ sketch. The first row is together and part of the 2nd row units are started. I am thinking that I should have finished up the heartstring blocks first though since Lois sent a bag of strings home with me. Somehow the last three blocks that Beverly made and dropped by the house for the quilt are missing. I could at least get that ONE top done before diving head first into another. I am more in the mood for some mindless sewing--strings or Chinese coin strips might be just the ticket.

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Gratitudes:

1. Good news from DJ doctor appointment

2. Cooler weather today and some possibility of rain

3. Walking getting easier and shaving a minute off the lap timing

4. BLT for lunch---yummy!

check in on a Weds. evening

The Belles met yesterday so as usual I have a few finished quilts to share. The framed 4 patches were some from Nancy that I assembled and Ginny quilted. She used a nice leaf pattern on it so I hope the quilting shows up. Silly me--I went off without the digital camera so DJ had to do the honors once I got home.

Ginny also quilted the pseudo- Railroad Crossing top with a multicolored primary color thread in a zigzag pattern. I think it looks like a "happy" quilt but then I love yellow or gold. I have noticed that a lot of the quilts I make DO have yellows in them. If I like them, then I imagine one of the kids will too.

The other quilted top is one that Lois made shortly after her quilt shop class on how to use the Tri Recs ruler. When she pinned it she commented that her husband didn't think that she should donate this one. She used what she had left of the blue/red print on the back with a border around it--stashbusting is contagious??

We pinned a few quilt tops yesterday and I shared the block I had picked out for the BOM. I had decided to feature blocks this year that either include a nine patch or would incorporate nine patch elements. THEN I saw somewhere that someone else came up with the same idea, independent of mine. Same thing happened when I was writing up a handout for three ways to do attic windows and bowties. Debby Kratovil or some magazine did the same thing, LOL. Like minds think alike?

I should have been piecing some spool blocks that will be my part of a row robin with 4 friends as it needs to be mailed off to IN sometime this week. I had a few done but what did I do at the meeting instead?? Pieced 5 quilts backs for some race car tops that Theramae had assembled, LOL. Oh well---it needed done and I think I was the only who had brought their machine. I made some last night and finished up today though they still need to be joined. Not much in the mood to do that at the moment.

The obligatory Pippi picture shows her in her at her supposed hiding spot. There is a bit of quilt batting in there so it is nice and cushy. I didn't blame her a bit for hiding when the house was full of people on Friday and Saturday. Herb is here often enough that he does not bother me which is surprising to me--he talks loud and you would think that would spook her. DJ was a little jealous when she stood still for petting while she slinks away from him---most likely because she wants him to check her food bowl, no doubt.

Not a whole lot going on around here. I have been making an effort to get out and walk on a more consistent basis--more like daily schedule permitting. The temperatures have been in the mid 80's for several days so I have been trying to beat the heat. Seems like just a week or 10 days ago we still needed to run the heat. Now we could almost turn on the a/c--we could but won't is more accurate. You would think that there would be a little time interval where you could have a lower gas bill before you switch to a higher electric bill! I have some spring bush and tree pictures to share but I'll add those in another post. Meantime, I'll keep plugging away. 5 in my stack to quilt again but I am piecing for a few days till it cools down a bit. That's more fun anyway!!

Charity Quilt Day

Please pass on the following to any interested quilt group, online list, blog etc-----------

"Charity Quilt Day" March 29 Wraps Up "National Quilt Month"

To wrap up "National Quilt Month," Judy Howard is designating March 29 as "Charity Quilt Day." This is a campaign to raise awareness and funding for the sacrificial volunteer work of hundreds of thousands of quilters who provide comforters for sick babies, orphans, homeless and elderly people, cancer and Alzheimer's patients, soldiers and victims of disaster-those most in need of the touch of God's love and comfort that quilts represent.

On March 29, Judy is donating the net proceeds of Amazon sales of her books, "Heavenly Patchwork I and II" and "Centennial Stitches-Oklahoma History in Quilts" and companion DVDs to non-profit organizations like Linus, local Quilt Guilds, The Hugs Project, Binky Patrol, ABC Quilts, Quilts for Injured Soldiers, Wrap Them in Love, Newborns in Need, Quilts for Kids, My Brother's Keeper, etc, that provide charity quilts. Just tell them which group you would like to designate.

Besides donating to worthy charities, those who purchase Judy's award-winning gift books on Amazon on March 29 will receive bonus gifts valued at $100 of free quilt patterns, quilting tips and book excerpts by renowned celebrity quilt artists and historians like Kaye Wood, Darcy Ashton, Nancy Kirk, Ruth Harris, Jennie Rayment, Judy Anne Breneman, M.J. Van Deventer, Lucille Ralston, Dorcas Publishing, NLS Productions and more.

Please join Judy on "National Charity Quilt Day" in honoring charity quilters and their tireless work by helping "Wrap those in need with Quilts of Love" through your purchase of "Heavenly Patchwork" gift books and DVDs on Amazon March 29. See http://www.heavenlypatchwork.com/ and www.MySpace.com/nlsproductions for details. Thanks for sharing this info in quilt newsletters, websites, yahoo groups, blogs, chat rooms, and with all your quilting buddies.

Thurs check in

Pippi enjoying the spring weather. I may regret opening up the doors and windows with all that yellow pollen stuff blowing around right now but it is so nice to be able to not be so shut up in the house and have hot air blowing. Not sure what the trees beside the pines are responsible but I read that there are about 6 trees that produce that dust this time of year.

I have seen all kinds of redbud out --at least I THINK it is redbud-- and the dogwoods are starting to show up and a few azalea bushes are already in full flower. Just in the last few days it really looks different out there. My little dogwood so far has two little teensy bracts open---lots of possible blossoms this year so I have hopes that I might be able to share a picture of it this year. DJ said his much babied lilac is doing well too. Gotta love it!

DJ and I had to laugh at Pippi the other day when the neighborhood tomcat came by to see her. They butt heads through the glass at the base of the storm door and try to sniff each other. Usually Pippi just turns on her back on him and plops over on the catnip scratching box. The other day they went through the usual routine but the next thing we know she is being quite the inhospitable hostess and walks off up the hall. "I'm throught with you. Be gone!"

No sewing or quilting going on the past few days though I did get pedal to the metal over the weekend and early week. I got three of the donation quilts quilted on my stint. This Bright Hopes for the boys, one of Linda S' that will be a raggy like block and Jeanne's Delectable Mountain. I will share a picture of that one once the binding is done though. Lovely quilt. I have two more in the stack to do--the pink and brown framed 4 patch that I assembled from Nancy's blocks and Jeanne's Rail Fence in blues and greens. The pink will go to the girls and the Rail Fence needs to have the quilting lines marked--either a meandering line that I would like to try or be lazy and mark some diagonal lines. I'm debating, LOL.

What has stalled me out is household type work. Monday is always errand day but it turned into paperwork day in part though I did finish up the little bit of quilting that was left on Linda's top. Tuesday was clean the house day as company was due in Wednesday. I was "duster girl" while DJ was "vacuum boy" though I did half of that too when he went out to wash and wax his car. Wednesday I needed to go to the doctor and by the time I got home the boys were already on the golf course. Next thing I knew it was time to start supper preparations ( homemade scalloped potatoes, glazed ham balls, corn per DJ's choice and peach cobbler)

Today was much the same---walked again today, made a batch of banana nut muffins and then a huge pot of vegetable beef soup. It smells great at my house. Herb wanted to go out for pizza buffet so we met him at Cici's after he played another 9 holes. The soup is for tomorrow--you know how tomato stuff tastes best the next day anyway.

Darel's son, DIL, grandson and his gs' best friend will be here sometime tomorrow morning and Herb will be leaving first thing. Word has it that they all might be going out to play golf but we'll see. All week I have been trying to figure out where we will put everyone for the night. Do we have enough pillows and quilts? Yes. Bought another air mattress and set of sheets just in case. Other than putting up the sewing machine if I have to set up one of the mattress in here I guess we are ready for the next batch of visitors. How did we get so popular all the sudden?? They are actually on their way to New Orleans from here and will be taking a cruise from that port. I said, he does realize that we are two states away from there? This will be only the 2nd time they have been here since we moved 10 years ago--third for Tracy if you count when his dad had open heart surgery.

Really not too much else going on around here. We just found out that our Hancock's will be closing. I had heard within three months time but yesterday I passed there and they have store closing signs on the window already. A corporate decision to close 100 of the stores, we were told. This is not particularly good news. It is not clear how the Walmart decision regarding their fabric departments will affect our three area supercenters. There is NO local quilt shop---closest ones are either in the Birmingham area about 65 miels away. One of the two is closing, may have a buyer but the shop may be moved if it does to a less handy location. Other choice: over on the Georgia side of the state line, a good 45 miles away or so but you best call as she is not always there. Good thing I have a pretty good stash!

I do want to make a Building Blocks quilt like Pam shows on her blog. I think she probably linked you to the pattern which is the Debbie Mumm March 2007 quilting project of the month. I need some primary color yardage for a couple of things I have in mind for the boys and some fabric I hauled home from the donation bin.

Guess that is it for now----check and see what y'all are up to.

checking in

From Wednesday afternoon, Pippi, the bright eyes girl---just sure that I am heading to get her Petromalt. That must be like "chocolate" is to humans or something. The one below shows her scouting out the birds flitting around outside on the patio. Today she is smelling the pot roast cooking in the pressure cooker and is trying to get me back out to the kitchen with her.

Yesterday we had a rainy day and eventually had over an inch of rain in the last 24 hours. The weather guy says that most areas are about 6 inches behind on our rainfall totals for the year so even a little bit will help. DJ and I went on our trek to the thrift store about 35 miles from here and found him several really nice golf shirts for a dollar each. Some of these were quite pricey designer name shirts. We stopped a catfish restaurant for lunch on the way home.

Here is my DJ up on the ladder doing some home maintenance work. He needs the super long ladder that was NOT delivered on the moving van when we moved here 10 years ago. Scaring me to death up on the roof scraping paint off the fascia board and here he is priming what he can reach from the ladder we DO have. Painting was out today as it was quite cool and windy most of the day. He concentrated on doing maintenance work on the lawn mower instead--changing the filters and cleaning off the deck. He has had to mow once already this year but that is because the last three years he has over seeded with winter grass on the front and side yard.

We got word last night that his golfing friend will be coming through again next week on his way to Florida (Weds evening through Friday morning) His son just called and he, his wife, son and his son's friend may also be here Friday for a quick trip--they are catching a cruise out of New Orleans, I guess and since they were heading South, he thought they might come to see us. I doubt that DJ will be going back to IL with me in May or June so it would be good if they decide to come. Just odd that everybody wants to come the same week, LOL.

I have not gotten one darned thing done this week except the Card Trick blocks are all un-sewn now. At this point I am about half done with the cutting. About 2/3rd of the quarter square triangles to go. I have intended to quilt all week but that just has NOT happened. I guess it will still be there tomorrow unless some quilter fairy decides to pop in and do it for me, LOL. That girl must be at someone else's house is all I can think.

Don't forget to wear your green tomorrow or you will get pinched! Happy St. Pat's--------

quilts and quilt meetings

A few pictures to share of recently completed donation quilts

A couple of the girls are doing 16 patches lately--I've got one to stitch up too, as a matter of fact, in a Road to St. Louis setting. This is Theramae's simply sashed and cornerstoned version. She used a small check for the cornerstones and then used the same fabric for the binding cut on the bias.

Theramae is calling this one "Dotty Rickrack". Fits doesn't it? The pattern is actually called Streak of Lightning and can be found in the book 101 Fabulous Rotary Cut Quilts from Judy Hopkins and Nancy J. Martin---this was a compliation of some of their earlier books like Rotary Roundup and Rotary Riot so it might be in either of those publications too. She had used some of these same fabrics to make a wallhanging for her school teacher daughter's class room and used it all up by making scrappy binding from the fabrics leftover from the quilt top.

Aline's Log Cabin

Aline's Butterfly Challenge quilt

I met my objective of emptying out a couple of the donation bins at our meeting site. One box was too big and unwieldy and cracked on both the lid and the container so it had to go! I was busily tossing some of the poly cotton stuff and so forth when one of the new members who is getting up a group at her church to make lap robes came in. She thought they might be able to use it and hauled a large garbage bag off for their needs. I certainly don't care who uses it. Theramae also was taking some of it to the Salvation Army for donation.

We located the tops and race car fabric kits that I knew where in there. Hung the tops up with backing fabric to pin at a later date while two others need some modifications for our needs. Theramae has one and I took another. Lois, Theramae and I all have a race car kit with more to tend to later--probably at the spring sew-in next month. Lois got busy cutting some strips for Theramae and then on some of the selvageable bits and pieces. We can put on our creative caps and come up with some stuff there.

I still made several trips out to the dumpster and some fabric did follow me home. Backing stuff or something I could work up as whole cloth quilts or another purpose. Since we pinned so many tops last meeting, we just did the one leftover top. So many of the girls had other obligations (an out of town meeting, one just had cataract surgery, family obligations, leaving on vacation the next day, etc) that just a few of us were there this time and we called it quits earlier than usual.

DJ and I were tenatively planning on going out of town today and out for lunch but I am feeling a little "puny" today. We'll try again on Friday, weather permitting. He is doing some outside home maitenance and started the laundry. LOL, my priority was washing some fabric and a couple of quilts. The heck with the clothing! Since I still have 5 quilts to quilt, I think you know where you can find me for a few days, right?

more spring pics

Every year, it seems, we have birds building nests on the front door light and occasionally the back door one as well. You look closely and click on the picture I think see that the bits of grass and some sort of fuzzy stuff. Makes me wonder if it is quilt batting or dryer fluff, LOL.

The Bradford Pears are blooming every where and it seems like it happened just overnight. Highs in the 60's and plenty of sunlight will do that, I guess. This at the entrance to the subdivision at the end of our lane. I don't know if you can tell but there are three rows of trees, on the outside edges of the two lanes and on the median. About 20 or 21 trees. Looks like popcorn on the tree limbs in person.

Not sure what kind of tree this is in our yard but it is flowering--might be the plum tree or the apple. It was darned near dead but seems to be coming back this year. DJ had sawed off some of the really gone limbs so that may have helped.

And this one---no burning prohibition in the county, obviously. The across the land neighbor is NOT being very neighborly. I just shot this through the window but he he has been at this since early afternoon. I hate this--first, because we finally get some nice days and could have the window open and then can't because of him and 2nd, I have a real problem with smoke anymore. (Tightens up my chest) The breeze shifts and he is sharing this with the whole subdivision. GRRRRRRRRR

This has been a day of errand running and paper pushing mainly. I picked up some sheet protectors and a new notebook while I was out so got my 9 patch BOM ideas filed away and combined with another smaller notebook of kid quilt ideas. Cleared out the old mail and catalogs that I was just piling up and filed some recipe printouts in the notebook I just emptied. Not sure what I'll do the rest of the evening. Or maybe I do, after all. I saw that they have revamped and reprinted the Mary Ellen Hopkins book "It's Okay If You Sit On My Quilt Book" I have a copy of the old one and will re-visit it.

The Belles will meet tomorrow and MY main plan for the day is to go through the donation box and get things re-organized in our storage space. I know that there are some tops in a lower bin that need to see the light of day but they are hard to get at right now. A couple of the girls want to save "everything" and I want to winnow things down and get it down to one container. If anyone has any objections to my tossing something, then they are welcome to take it home and make something with it. Only fair, right?

tricky cards

Taking the day off from quilting--again.

I have 5 of the 9 done as of Thursday evening, finishing up quilting on the strippie top shown HERE. Take a look at the top and let me know if you think it would be better for a girl than boy. Those hearts and all that pink/purple have me debating about that.

Marilyn and I went up to the Piecemaker quilt group on Thursday evening as they were helping our friend and fellow Belle Betsy celebrate a milestone birthday. Marilyn makes and decorates cakes so she had done the honors last week. Then the threat of tornadoes and thunderstorms cancelled the party till this week and the cake went to the freezer. I didn't take anything to work on as I had been quilting all afternoon and had had enough for the day. Marilyn had a pile of donated Card Trick blocks to give me---I'll get back to that in a minute.

Yesterday, no quilting either. I was late getting up and then we walked in the a.m. My morning preparations take longer now that I am back to short hair and having to use a blow dryer along with the straightener for one section and the curling iron for another. Never happy with what we have growing on our heads, are we? Sheesh, makes me want my pony tail back, LOL . Next thing I knew it was lunch time and I had stuff scheduled in the afternoon.

I had to meet Judy at 1 so we could borrow her husband's truck and go pick up four-60 yard rolls of poly batting from a longarmer friend who sells it to us at cost for our donation quilts. It takes us a year and a month or two to quilt or way through this amount of batting as a rule. I was a few minutes late as I dropped a couple quilts off at Jane's house for binding detail. Jane invited me in as her mom (our Sarah) is continuing her recuperation at Jane's and doing so much better this week. Off we went a little after 1--the shop is a little over an hour away. Judy had a top to drop off and I wished I had brought a pattern that is intriguing me as she has a bit of fabric for sale at the shop now. I didn't get back from that trek till almost 4. Why bother when supper fixing was coming in about 45 minutes?

I had been looking for some patterns that are based on nine patches or that incorporate nine patches so I was gathering those as I am considering using them for a BOM for the Belles. One that I think will be fun to try is one that Finn showed in her 2-26-07 post. (Her posts do not have backlinks so I can't take you straight to the post so click on her name and scroll down a bit) I've also have a magazine clipping with the nine patch set on point and made into a basket that is a little unusual. Red Cross , Chunky Churn Dash AKA Dots and Dashes and those woven nine patch hearts that are in my strippie quilt are all possible choices for us to try. (Anyone of a link for that one? It used to be on the EK Tupper Kathkwilts site but I sure don't see it now though it is in my saved files.) Another one that I know Pam just whipped up called Building Blocks is good choice too. Hope she will post the finished top on her blog when she gets a chance. I was going through my notebooks and so forth late Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Got the materials all in one spot now with room for add-on's.

Okay back to the Card Tricks. The picture above is one that I made several years ago using that hard to work with Cobblestone red "kit" fabrics. Any of us involved with WTIL in past years knows this ubiquitous stuff. Heck, I just used a bunch of it for binding and backing on a quilt this past week. It keeps on giving or reproducing, I swear! What you might not see from looking at the quilt is that it is NOT done with traditional Card Trick block which is really just an Ohio Star variation--a couple more lines and a different coloration of the segments. Credited to Beth & Jeffery Gutcheon 1976. That surprises me as I had always thought it was a much older pattern.

Tilt your head to the left and take a look at the block--both of them. Can you see like Marti Michell did that it could be pieced as rectangles and squares and you can put the block at right on point to achieve the same thing? This is from her book Quilts for People who Still Don't Have Time to Quilt. 28 pieces versus 12? No triangles to match up and easier to strip piece--yep, you can see why I chose the technique above.
















As I said, Marilyn handed me a pile of donated Card Trick blocks. These poor things have a problem which appeared to have started with the half square triangle technique the maker had used. The sections do NOT measure the 4 1/2 inches that they should. Then it may or may not have thrown off her piecing in the HST-QST units depending on whether she used templates or the overlay method for the block center. DJ took a look at them and asked if I couldn't (or shouldn't) just pitch them. Well, I could but I know they can be selvaged. The fabrics are pretty though just in two colors rather than 4 as shown in the EQ print out. Squaring to a 12 inch finished block is not going to do it though. The seams she took to try to match the triangle points are deep and the blocks measure more like 11 1/2 in some cases. If I have to take them apart to fix that, then I might as well go all the way with it. So far I have disassembled three of them and just re-cut them to finish at a 9 inch block. I DO love a challenge. I'm almost afraid to see how many more I will have to do as well as the finished units that in the bag.

So anyway, I am piddle dinkin' with the un-sewing, recutting and and preparing this post. Next thing I will know it will be time to worry about what to fix for supper--again. DJ is going to have round eyes like a basketball soon from watching both the SEC and Big 10 tournaments. Next weekend it will be the NCAA revving up. This weekend is just the lead up to the pairings announcements. I am already sick of the talking heads blathering on and on. (For Pete's sake, call the player by his last name if you cannot pronounce his first name correctly!) Another 3 weekends to go?

Hope to be able to at least read what you all are up to---

some pics

Linda S. Four Patch quilt---I tried to do a free motion scallop thing in the borders---wish I had just gone ahead and marked it as I really stink at this free motion stuff. The stitch length was pretty good this time but I really am not fond of shoving something in there without a guide of some sort. I have all the horizontal lines done on the 2nd quilt I started yesterday and a quarter of the verticals--probably will take another hour's work to have the quilting done and the binding put on.

Pippi was waiting for us in the kitchen when we returned from our walk and looking so darned cute draped on the chair. When I tried to take the picture though, she was having none of it!

Venture anywhere near the laundry room and this is what you see---her food and Petromalt are out there and her food bowl is on that placemat on the right. She doesn't do that to DJ, just me. She is not always laying around thought she has that action (inaction?) down.

The daffodils--the orange centered ones are my favs--like fried eggs

View of Fink's Lake from our backyard. Once the underbrush comes back up, you will not be able to see much of it. Cedar tree (I think that is what it is) was one DJ replanted from our front flower bed which is no more. If it was going to get this huge, then why would put it a bed so would dwarf any other plantings??

The camellia---loaded with blooms and so far not much frost damage--cross your fingers

Time to get set up for quilting-----

quilting mode

Pippi cuddling with the laundry--nothing like warm underwear fresh from the dryer, huh? Next best would be lolling in the sunshine.

Sunday my goal was to finish up a pile of 96 HST's. Tedious work cutting them apart pressing and trimming dog ears but I don't need to tell you that. Who hasn't "been there and done that"? I set all aside that evening and watched another DVD off our shelf with DJ.

After looking at a stack of 9 donation quilts piled up on the armoire for almost a week, I thought I best get to quilting yesterday after I ran errands. I set the Viking back up, turned the table around to face the "quilting position" in my little room and got busy. This Snuggle Up and this 9 Patch were the ones I got done. Simple zoom lines for one and a grid in the other.

Today will be much the same---I've got one of Linda S tops set out (large 4 patches and plain alternating blocks in nice bright colors--pic once I'm done with it) and the sashed transportation squares. Again, zoom lines should do the job on both. Doesn't make for a particularly interesting post but that is what is happening here in my little corner of the world.
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Some have asked about my proximity to the storms last week when the tornadoes hit the Enterprise (AL) High School with such devastation and loss of life. That is in the Southeast corner of the state while I am located in the northeast central area so I would approximate the distance to be some 4 hours almost directly south of me. We had some winds and rain but nothing near what it could have been. Because of the topography of the land and the fact that these storms often roll in after dark when the air cools down, the storms often dissipate before they make their way clear across the state from whatever has happened in Lousiana and Mississippi earlier in the day.

That is not to say that tornadoes don't happen here--they do. I know I heard about the Palm Sunday tornado in '94 that wiped out a Methodist church not all that far from here when I still lived in Illinois. When I came back from the sewing retreat a couple weeks ago, I went right past the site where the church once stood and where a memorial stands in its place. Very sobering. I know that no part of the country is ever immune from natural disaster. All it did in my case is keep me home from a planned event which has been rescheduled to this week instead. The worst of the rain and wind hit about the time I would have been driving some 15 mins north of my home. No biggie. Others in the state and onwards into Georgia where not so lucky. I thank you for asking though and ask that you remember the families that are suffering in your prayers.

two quilt example

Mary mentioned in her blog posting about some heartstrings variations that were being discussed on list. She also showed some EQ sketches that she had been playing with.

Her center one reminded me of this one that my mom and I did---well, she did most of it and I think pieced it to Reader's Digest pages or some such thing. It is all strings turned into HST's but could also be pieced as a 4 section block of strings on point as a vertical strippie. She used a limited palette of color on this as well but I may have quilted it. (Mom, do you remember? Looks like your house in the background.

The other quilt is Naptime as the label says. Shelina showed a quilt in her post the other day with a quilt she called Flip Flop that reminded me of one like this. It is an old favorite from Quiltmaker's magazine that they reprinted in the Fall 2002 All Time Favorites. I can't find my scribble note about just were it was originally printed. This is one we kitted up on one of my "busman's holidays" back to IL. Not the best picture in the world--the fabrics were really quite pretty together but the peach looks washed out here. Maybe it will be easier to see the quilt, Shelina, full out.





Been a lazy day again today spent mostly trying to upload music to my iPod. I got it figured out enough to load and play which is all I needed for now. Its ready when I am though I DO wonder how you get the stuff off there should you tire of it and so forth. It's almost full now.

DJ and I are going to watch a DVD tonight---"Hoot " which is based on a Carl Hiaasen novel for young people. Might be a little juvenile but I liked "Because of Winn Dixie" which aimed at a younger audience so we'll see. Probably will cycle it through the family to the younger nieces and nephews if any of them what to see it and have not already.

Better go--he just managed to get the packaging open so he will calling for me any minute. Tomorrow morning is the annual Kiwanis pancake breakfast so we will plenty of togetherness, LOL. Where is my bluework snowman? Can't just sit.

day off

copyright Brian Crane Dist. by the Washington Post Writers Group

Someone posted a Pickles cartoon on their blog yesterday that made me think of one I had clipped a few years back. Appropriate, right? Sorry but I cannot remember whose blog is was but it was cute too--Earl, the crochety old man character said that he was going to have his ashes at the fabric store so he at least stood a chance of his wife, Opal, coming to visit him. (edited note---it was Beth at bzyqltr so you can see for yourself. Thanks for helping to jog my memory, Beth!)

So far today is a lazy morning but in a way, we are waiting for the other shoe to drop. We had one band of thunderstorms move in about 3 a.m. and the sirens sounded about 5 but at that time no tornadic activity. The weather persons had said last evening that if it were to stay overcast this morning, that perhaps the afternoon storms would be less intense but there are tornado warnings are on the Mississippi/Alabama line near Tupelo, MS and some of the NW counties in Alabama at the present time. I am on the NE side of the state so it will take a little time to impact us. I just read that there was one fatality in MO as part of the same storm system--too sad.

I did nothing of a quilting nature yesterday other than weed through the bins to remove some fabric I am sick of and take out the dribs and drabs. I took a nice sized sack over to the thrift store for someone else to enjoy on the way to the recycle center. Bank and post office errands and off to get my hair cut. Really cut---I am minus about 5-6 inches in length and had some layers cut in. Read: nothing to pull back into a ponytail. I have been thinking about this for a month and it will be cooler for summer. Well, not cooler having to use a blow dryer again which is the very reason why I DIDN'T want to cut it. Too easy to just pull it back or let it air dry. Found out my hair straightener had quit so needed to replace that and off on another round of errands. Some curl is good but some pieces need to come around to my way of thinking!

So basically I got caught up on my blog reading and had time to comment instead of skimming since by 3 p.m. I no longer felt interested in sewing, cutting or quilting. This morning, more computer time but this afternoon I believe I will cut out a top using that beetle fabric and get started on the hst's. I found enough WOW as well as the other fabrics I need for the project when I was digging in the bins yesterday. It keeps niggling in the back of my head so I am going to get it out of my system and in the forefront.

I finally got our iPod shuffle that we were supposed to get for "free" when we hooked up with DISH network in November. Took about 5 mins to get it out of packaging--sheesh. Another new toy to learn how to use but not today. Since it is so small, it will be a nice choice for walking. I love my CD player but there is no easy way to transport it short of stuffing it in my waistband or fanny pack. I guess you have to read the manual online as there does not seem to be much in the way of instructions with it other than what to press to operate it. I'll get it figured out.

Supposed to go to an event in Jacksonville (about 15 mins north of me) tonight and will haul my July bluework snowman that I had hoped to get done last month. Oh well--I had a productive month in other ways and am doing my part to reach our quilt goals for the Boys Ranch.