just puttering

Pippi is showing you her newest acquisition. I got her one of those cozy cat cushions that features a self-heating core and warms without electricity and FedEx delivered it on Saturday afternoon. I was thinking it might help those old kitty bones. She sits down so gingerly sometimes that I thought she must be a bit uncomfortable. Then the next minute she is hopping up on something high or running 90 mph down the hall, so who knows? She seems to like it--to the point that DJ asked me where I intended to sleep last night. (She did allow me to have half the bed and I pulled the quilt at the bottom of the bed up over me till she moved on a few hours later. )

Speaking of bones, I have got a case of the lazy bones today---no sewing or anything remotely sewing related for almost a week now. A little knitting, yes, but that is about it. Well, first it was because we expected company on Friday and Saturday. But I had another project that I'll tell you about in a second.

Actually the golfing pal came--and left--while we had gone out for our anniversary lunch on Friday. We came home to a note in the door that said it was too cold (meaning too cold to play golf---duh, we tried to tell you that on the phone). He indicated that he was heading on further south--my guess down to Columbus, GA or Jacksonville, FL where other friends live but I don't think that they were much warmer on Friday and Saturday. I think he had that planned all along based on a less than promising forecast.

We were NOT looking for him till the evening hours anyway. DJ and I had left the kitchen floor mopping detail for last and the chairs were off in the living room so good thing he didn't come in! DJ said he was worn out from his cleaning detail earlier in the morning so he just hauled the chairs back in , LOL---and did it the next day. So we will have a clean house for us---we are worth it!

I had asked about some ideas for organizing my notebook stuff in my last post. Patti had some good ideas to suggest and really it was along the lines of what I was thinking as well. Norma had sort of put the bee in my bonnet about this in a conversation recently. I hope that she will post how she deals with her paper stuff as I think you might find it helpful if you haven't got a handle on YOUR stuff.

I gave some thought to the types of patterns and printout that I have. Then Thursday evening and most of the day Friday (once I knew Herb was not going to be plunked on my couch) I sorted and culled my way through my stuff. I am basically a traditional quilter so a good bit of my collections falls into the typical types of blocks:

• hearts
• baskets
• stars
• log cabins
• fans or circular designs and so forth.

As I was going through the notebooks I found that I needed some space devoted to:

• seasonal/holiday patterns
• kid friendly patterns since I make donation quilts
• critters other than cats (cats have their own notebook and have had for some time, LOL)
• reference/technique
• home dec/totes, etc.
• Clothing patterns but those were already separated out
• I don't do much applique so I didn't feel I needed a category for that--added it to the general mix.

Some stuff I separated out by designer if it was someone that I have a good bit of----in my case that would be:

• Amy Bradley
• Billie Lauder
• Debbie Mumm
• Glad Creations
• Atkinson Designs
• Mary Ellen Hopkins and on it goes.

Other stuff fit a theme, of sorts and could be grouped together as well-- barns, country, sewing, etc.

I tossed a bunch of my EQ printouts--those are in my software anyway-- unless it was something that I didn't feel I could replicate or had a lot of notes about the set or cutting directions. I kept handouts that I had generated for the Belles but those went into the mix---baskets, stars, log cabins, fans, etc.--if they fit the criteria even though I have those in my document files too. The duplicates got tossed or set aside to share. Then I just separated things out into the named categories and kept adjusting which notebook that they went into. Even better the one with the sprung rings that would not catch all the holes on the all the sheet protectors?----it is outta here! I cleaned out the two file cabinet drawers as well. Only one notebook is currently a hodge podge but it is also the one with the empty sheet protectors so anything new will be put in there temporarily. So I feel a whole lot better about that situation!

Moving onto something that I am NOT so okay with and part of the reason why I am not sewing. I was doing pretty well on working on this till last Monday night but I have real problem child with this. I swear that I cut all the strips the same length. I know that the sashing is for sure as I trimmed them all off at the same time. I stay stitched the braid strips to keep them from stretching as they were added to the sashing. I don't know if you can tell just how badly these have turned out from the picture. Some are too long and others are too short!! Worse yet? The last set that had two pieces of sashing added to it is too short on one side and too long on the other!! SHEESH Now what do I do?

I didn't have the heart to get the tape measure out and see what went wrong. I just folded them up and put them ont he shelf---mostly because I was cleaning. It is just scrap material and my first impulse is just to toss the whole thing (but save the yellow if I resorted to that drastic a measure) No way, no how, it this going to make flat quilt like it is now. Trim the long ones off and add something to the bottom of the too short ones once I know what the heck these really measure?? My mom said to take off the stay stitching (too tight a seam, too close to the edge---no thanks!) and take the seams up a bit to make them fit. Chalk this up to experience and never make it again is my feeling at the moment-- if the measurements are wayyyyy off. I have made one of these before without this kind of mess!!

We had a gorgeous day today though pretty frosty this morning. It was up till almost 60 today, warm enough to just walk in my jeans and sweater minus any t-shirt underneath--no heavy sweatshirt, hat and gloves today. Yesterday, not quite as warm but the first sunshine in days so there were a lot of people at the park. The basketball court had about a dozen people playing ball, the skate park was full, some kids tossing a baseball around, some of the playground equipment with their parents keeping watch. Still others on bikes and walking either in the park or the adjoining trail. Even one family flying kites. With school in session I have sort of gotten used to being about the only one in the park as I walk or spotting a few walkers in passing. Guess we all were a little sick of being inside and wanted to enjoy that sunshine.

No cooking tonight since I cooked our lunch--hurray for leftovers to warm up!

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1-29 ED NOTE: I have gotten a couple of good suggestions both here and off post about what I might be able to do with my oh, so errant braid strips. Norma at Random Stitches was kind enough to post a picture of her salvage job when the "Bias Bogey Man bit her bad" as well---click HERE for a view of her creative solution. I would need to take the sashing strips off but those could be used elsewhere---maybe on a Chinese Coin strippie, yeah that would work. No more braid though--I'm cured, LOL. OR what would it look like if I kept the yellow on there, cut squares and chunked it into squares whatever wide they measure? Food for thought.

meetings and homefront

My quilt group met yesterday but for a variety of reasons just three of us were there---the two newest members and me. The weather was awful--cold, raining/drizzling and gusty winds so I can't really blame anyone for staying home. A couple of the girls are having some health problems as well.

I pinned this little wallhanging after I pieced some old batting strips together. The pattern is from Joined At The Hip, one of their yard long designs. Something a little different for me--first, it is primitive and second, appliqued. Well, the easy way ( fused with steam a seam 2, windowed where possible and machine button holed. ) I thought it was a cute pattern. I have some of this type of fabric but probably not all the top would call for and ordered one of their kits . My sunflowers are a little bit lean-ier than theirs but hey, it is supposed not supposed to look perfect, right? They would have given us a paper sheet to help with the layout if placement were critical. Anyway, my wayward sunflowers changed my cats position a bit lower to get it fit in the available space. I just made my chicken's legs longer. Buttons will be added for the eyes once it is quilted.

When I was telling Cher and Norma about my project when we were chatting the other day , Norma commented that the motifs were a bit like the three of us. Buddies, of course but Norma collects chickens, I have a cat (Pam, this works for you too) and Cher has a dog. Nice analogy, I thought.

My other project for the meeting was to start to stick down the interfacing on the t-shirt quilt sections--boring but necessary work--but I could still visit with Nancy and Linda C while I worked. Linda had to leave around lunch time and Nancy and I decided to go to Olive Garden for soup, salad and breadstick lunch. A few stops on the way home got me back about my usual time.

Linda C has been a busy, busy girl since we last saw her and had a couple of quilts to share with us. The pattern is "Just Can't Cut It" from All Washed Up. I believe it is one of three (maybe 4?) that she made using the pattern. Good way to keep a focus fabric intact.

The other quilt she shared is a sampler she made in a beginner quilt class being taught at the new quilt shop in Oxford. She said that she didn't made the drunkard's path block that was to be included and substituted another block. Well done, Linda!

Nancy was studying some of the reference books while Linda stitched a zigzag quilt from one of the recent Quilt Sampler magazines. I am looking for some help for her with left handed rotary cutting and believe I have the perfect source for her here in my home library---Rotary Magic by Nancy Johnson-Srebro since it has pictures that will help her with lining up the ruler and such.

DJ and I received word that his golfing friend will be here sometime on Friday. The weather is going to be awful and really just like what he is leaving in Illinois. I doubt that they will be able to play any golf but he is coming anyway. It also happens that he will be here on our anniversary. He may be an old friend of my husband but I sort of resent having to spend our special day with him. No special meal, no movie night, no cuddling on the love seat if Herb is plunked on it. Okay, enough acting like a spoiled brat.

I started on my house cleaning today but did a more deep cleaning than his visit really required. Baseboard cleaning with the brush and crevice tools, washed the drapes in the sewing room and so forth. Thorough cleaning in my bedroom, sewing room and living room. I'll get to the bathroom tomorrow. I even vacuumed off the thread on my 4 wall mounted thread racks and rewound all the loose hanging threads. All this led me to the opinion that--

• I am nuts. The sewing room is the lint capitol of the world and it looked like it but still, mini-vacuuming thread?
• thread is just a big dust collector and except for needing it for binding finishing why do I even have all those colors?
• there has to be a better way to store it if I had the floor or shelf space

As I was filing some quilt patterns this afternoon , I have also come to the conclusion that I need to find some other way of storing and indexing these patterns. I have about 15 notebooks of varying capacity in sheet protectors. I should have stock in the company that makes those things! I have commercially purchased patterns out of their little pouches, stuff from the net, printouts from EQ of sets that I have used, inspiration photos and articles from magazines that I have pulled out so I could toss the magazines. How do you store this stuff? By theme, designer, technique?? All of the above, LOL ? Trying to find something usually means digging through most of the notebooks till I locate what I am hunting for. Do you keep a spread sheet of location and number the books?? I am going to mull this over. Even if it means taking everything out of the notebooks (I know I have duplicates) to sort them, I need to come up with a better system. Just not till after the company is gone and before he comes back with his wife in about 10 days.
Meanwhile, Pippi just stayed parked on DJ's office chair and trying to avoid the kitty eating machine. This is her new (old) favorite spot, her love affair with my bed apparently is over. She is also trying to take any opportunity to sneak into his closet . I discourage that since I want her to get up to eat. She would stay in the closet for hours and it is harder to coax her out.
Hope all is well at your home-----

another Saturday check in

Well, here it is--another week has flown by and I have to wonder what I did all week, in retrospect. Early in the week I was finishing up my next row robin obligation--not due till the middle of February-- and got it out in the mail but can't show you that. I started on a Joined at the Hip pattern--one of those cute yard longs--but still need to do the borders so can't really share that yet either. All the machine embroidery is completed though/ Thursday was "lost day" as I was down in bed with a sick headache most of the day and yesterday I was knitting on my cardigan.

So what is a blogger to do? Well, Pippi was sitting up in an entirely new spot yesterday on DJ's bureau. I am used to her sitting on his desk looking out the window or his desk chair but up here made me do a double take and call him in to see. Later the goofy girl was up on the kitchen table sitting on the newspaper---now that is NOT allowed and she was promptly removed once she was spotted.


The biggest news flash is that it is snowing---rather an unusual event but that frigid blast of cold air from Canada is colliding just right with the warmer air from the Gulf. We had some sleet/flurries and rain mix on Wednesday and that did collect north of us about 30 miles and on Mt. Cheeha about 30 miles south and east-ish--it is Alabama's highest elevation and part of the Appalachian foothills to you would expect it in the higher elevations.

The weather wonks had predicted 1-3 inches for our band in the central part of the state from midnight last night till 7 but it didn't arrive here till about 9. By 11 this is what it looks like in my yard. Further south and towards Montgomery they said heavier snow was expected.

Now, I am from the Midwest, IL and some of my grade school years were spent in WI so snow is no big deal to me. DJ and I have been in AL now for about 10 1/2 years and this is only the 2nd (possibly 3rd) measurable snowfall and we weren't in the state for one of those. All the natives talk about the Blizzard of '93 and the weather wonks were being very careful to say that it would NOT be a freezing rain event.

The temps are going to drop to about 18 tonight so they are more concerned about refreezing, I guess though the pavements appear dry. It IS still snowing so who knows?

I took some video as well but my first attempts were sadly lacking in production value. First I forgot to turn the camera off standby and got nothing, LOL. 2nd round, I switched the camera position and all it did was make one of the bushes stand horizontally.

I'm staying home---maybe finish up my little wall hanging and find something to back it with though I doubt I'll quilt it today. I'm in sewing mode, after all and hate to change the feet and change horses in mid stream too. So I believe that I will instead finish up those Pioneer Braid strips that I started on NYD.

Ohhhh the mail guy just delivered some Christmas prints from Norma that I have been expecting all week. (Thanks, Norma!) Tempting to just veer off on another tangent. I told Cher earlier today the t-shirt quilt has got to be tackled next week. I best stick to that as I want that done and outta here! My version of the Christmas Patience Corner will be my reward for doing that perhaps? No shortage of choices, that is for sure!

Saturday check-in

Poor Pippi--her blanket got moved as I am doing some foundation piecing so she is reduced to sitting on the little bit of background fabric that I left on the cutting table. But her wool throw was replaced by bedtime, trust me! She had a hard afternoon yesterday---sitting in her perch minding her own business when whoosh, off to the vet's. Lab work results show that she is not losing any ground but the kidney tests are not improving much either which to be expected due to her diagnosis, I guess. Oh, goodie--some meds to try to see if her appetite will improve any but fortunately a liquid, not a pill. She was hanging around pretty close to me most of the day after our return home, like she was thankful she didn't have to stay at the animal hospital.

Norma sent me a link this morning which led to my discovering that today is Live Like a Cat Day. Wish I had known that before I spent a couple hours deep cleaning out both of my closets this morning. To think that I could have been imitating my cat all along! Two closets, you ask? Nope, I didn't touch the one in the sewing room though it could probably use it. You see, this goofy house has no coat closet off the living room like most homes do so my bedroom has two closets. The smaller 2nd one is used for out of season clothes and our coats. Why, oh why did they not put in larger opening with a bi-fold door or that kind that you can push the one side and get at the whole closet?? ( Bitch and moan) Anyway, I had 5- 13 gal bags full to donate and 2 that DJ was inspired to drag out of his space. I had already donated one other bag earlier in the month too. Today's stuff went off to a new thrift store down the road along with the surplus hangers.

I have a couple of pictures to share of the quilts from the Bama Belles meeting on Tuesday. At left, is a quilt that Beverly made for her son to commemorate his wrestling career in high school. I believe he received it for Christmas this year. Sometime this past summer I had helped her figure out how to set the pictures on point--what size they needed to be cut since they are rectangular more than square. She was following a quilt that Ginny had made for a fundraiser for the private school for inspiration but like Ginny, winging the pattern for it. The blue and yellow she used are the school colors. The center square is a cross stitch piece her daughter had made. Beverly said Nancy had made a scrap book for him with the press clippings and such that went with it. Our long arm quilter friend Susan quilted the blue with stars which accents it well. Sure to be a prized possession for Steve.

Meet our newest Belle, Nancy, Beverly's daughter-in-law. (a daughter and DIL with the same name) Nancy on the right and Beverly is kind of peeking out from behind on the left. Nancy is new to quilting but look what she just finished making!! A king sized sashed nine patch. I think she is properly bit by the quilting bug, don't you? (She said she was mauled by it, LOL) Very meticulous with her piecing and pressing too. Each of those seams is pressed in a four patch spiral so it lays nice and flat. Some family members helped with the color layout so the colors progress diagonally across the quilt.


Nancy was taking this over to the long armers after the meeting but she recently tied a full sized top that we helped her pin at the last November meeting. Done and already given to the person she wanted to have it, I might add. There were enough blocks leftover that Nancy made a top for the kids.

We pinned about 6 tops total, I think. I didn't get a speck of sewing done the other day as I intended but Nancy took a bag of 2 inch squares home to play with. I need to find her some instructions on how to cut left handed--online or otherwise. Got any suggestions of where to look?

This other little quilt was made by a local Girl Scout group. Ginny brought it in for us for donation to WTIL. The mother that assembled it is not a quilter but no matter. It is "birthed" and backed with like crushed velvet like fabric (not sure what it is called) so it will be cuddly and a smaller child is sure to love it.

I have been piecing a bit in addition to prepping the sections of the commissioned t-shirt quilt. A stand up job and a sit down one as it were. Believe it or not, I am working on the next row robin and not waiting till the last possible minute as it is not due till mid February. Nothing that I can share with you though as the receipent may be a blog reader. I am foundation piecing 9-8 inch blocks is all I will say. Three of them are done and I will get back to them this afternoon. Or being cat-like, maybe I won't, LOL. Some knitting done on my fall cardigan as well in past days but nothing to see there either though I have almost knit my way two skeins of yarn at this point.

So, I hope you have a wonderful day in whatever you chose to do---or in the spirit of "Live Like a Cat Day", DON'T do.

this could be us

I love the "Pickles"comic strip and sometimes they remind me a lot of DJ and I. Though not really where our earthly remains will spend eternity, it could fit, LOL. That Earl!

this and that on a Sunday

This was a first---I don't think Pippi has ever tried to sit on TV before. The table itself , maybe. She likes to get up on the pressing/cutting table and then hop over to her window seat--that's a given. Lately though she thinks she can walk around the room without setting foot on the floor.


From the TV stand table she makes a jump over to my sewing table---parked on the braid strips I started--and then over to my desk which it to the right in the picture. What a silly goose!

I can't say that she has been a deterrent to sewing---I just didn't either find time enough to get started with the weird walking schedule I have had lately. Because it had been so, so cold with a frigid, bone chilling wind blowing and a high temps of 25 one day and barely into the 30's the next, I did go up and got a membership to use the indoor walking/running track at the community center in the town about 8 miles north of my home. DJ said to take his checkbook and pay for it--thanks for making an investment in my health changes, Honey. Well, guess what? I am officially a senior, according to , and it cost him a whole whopping $5 bucks for the year. Good to have a fall back position in a climate controlled spot out of the elements. Turns out in order for me to get my distance in I have to walk 40 to 42 laps----a little boring and hard to keep track of the laps so I guess it is better to walk for time in. I was able to wait till early afternoon and go to my usual outdoor spot the last three days. Very pleasant today though--highs in the mid 60's. What a change! DJ played golf for the first time in weeks.

So what have I been up to? Marilyn called a few days ago and asked if I wanted to ride up to a town about an hour from here to go to the discount fabric store. Sure, I said--it would be good to get out of the house a bit. She sews professionally, making doll clothes and lately, a cute hanging towel of her own design to hang off your stove handle that looks like a child's dress . (Mine is a molded handle or I would have one of these in a heartbeat). She was picking out fabrics to go with the towels and had a cart full of bolts. I poked around the store and found a few things to bring home though it makes for a pretty boring picture, LOL.

The red was a yard flat fold of a Christmas red with metallics---I have a Christmas row to do along the line somewhere. Also Norma is sending me some Christmas fabric squares to add to some that Cher sent recently and some I already own. She may post about her working on a Christmas Patience Corner quilt this weekend but Finn is the one who started her off on her journey---and now me , when the squares come, LOL. What a bad influence these two are (not!) So anyway, I got some white on cream background and WOW depending on which one will work best--I am leaning towards the cream though but the WOW will be used for something, always need some of that for block swaps and so forth. The one piece of yellow was just because I liked it for kids quilts while the other will be background for another row obligations. It is a subtle daisy print but will be in smaller less obvious pieces for a fall/Thanksgiving theme.


We went to lunch yesterday at the Mill Street Deli there in Boaz (AL) for a yummy sandwich. A Reuben and potato salad was not the most dietetic food to be eating so I declared yesterday a calorie watching holiday---and walked after I got home after 3. Good girls day out.

So what have I been working on instead? My cardigan from the neck down. I am 2 increase rows away from dividing the stitches for the sleeves so it is growing and getting heavier but still fits in the knitted bag that Cher made for me along with a skein or two of yarn. I'm having a ball knitting---I know this is a quilting blog but we all seem to cross craft. I have no desire to knit socks though!

The other thing I did today was whack up the t-shirts that will be used in a commissioned piece. I thought about cutting out the fusible interfacing as well but the desire to get that last little bit of knitting done is a stronger pull. Tomorrow, after I run a few errands hitting a place that is closed on the weekend or I would have gone today. I'll get back to the braid strips at the Belles meeting on Tuesday--good sewing project for there and if anyone wants something to do, I'll hand them some more strips and/ or the bag of two inch squares.

That's it for a lazy Sunday-----

what you do on NYD, you will do all year long.....

.......so, I was sewing and chatting with Cher and Norma yesterday having our own little online retreat . What we do on NYD we do all year, right? We girls kept checking in throughout the day motivating each other and cheering on progress--what fun! Trust me, I avoided doing a mending project and no ironing yesterday either when finger pressing worked fine for what I was doing. BUT I didn't warn DJ in time when he went after a cobweb he has spotted. If he wants to clean all year, I will let him! Bless him, he had vacuumed up the sewing room mess when I left to walk the day before.

The project I chose to sew on yesterday served two goals for 08--it was a donation quilt and it was something from my UFO hamper (my old clothes hamper and it is stuffed to the gills. Well, there it is at the foot of the table with Pippi's wool throw over the top of it ). One of the Belles had two strips of Pioneer Braid done but was not going to be able to complete the project due to an upcoming move. She gave it to me at one of our recent meetings. I started three more strips as my sewing project yesterday. No way, no how, was I going to be quilting, cutting or working on binding---do my first love instead. Before I hung it up for the night. I had gotten 20 of the 27 strip additions done on them. I'll finish up the sewing today.

Earlier in the day I also made 11 rail scrappy rail fence blocks from some of the braid strips Ginny had cut since it was the exact size I needed, rectangles 2 x 5. I planned on augmenting those with a pile of shorter 2 inch strips I had pulled for an ongoing Pineapple Log Cabin. I briefly toyed with the idea of working on those simultaneously with the braid but that would require paper piecing tools laid out on a crowded sewing table. Try a few separately before I put the remaining strips away.

When making some backing the night before, I had cut some 3 1/2 inch squares and whipped up 4 3-D bowtie blocks before I started on the Braid bands. A fun and productive day all the way around!

I decided this past fall that I will make scrappy rail fence blocks and 3D bowties as an ongoing project from scraps of my works in progress. This is often from backing cutaways or from cutting a strip to use up the last of the yardage on a piecing project and so forth. When I get enough, I'll put a donation top together.

You see, I don't have a scrap basket at all, not after spending three full days cutting early one year! There may be a few chunks sitting around waiting for the next time I am cutting but that is it. I don't let them pile up or become enough to bag up anymore. Like a lot of us stashbuster devotees, what I maintain is boxes of cut, most commonly used sizes of squares or strips instead. I can always dip into those when I am ready to augment the rail and tie blocks. Often I drag them off to our quilt meetings to share if a block I have chosen for us calls for a particular size. Want to do a faux log cabin--no problem, help yourself to some strips! Another one I want to do is Short 'n Scrappy Project 3, Ducks in a Row from Claudia's Quilt Shoppe but in scraps. She did this as a BOM several years ago and I have been looking at the printouts in my files.

After looking at Norma's cool color catcher top, I looks like I should consider piecing some strings too. Don't you just love quilts that are hiding in your scrap bag all along?

I have been noticing that other bloggers are into cleaning up and reorganizing their sewing rooms and other living spaces as well. I did that too but no on NYD! One day last week I could not find something that I needed that I just KNEW was in my pull out hodge podge/file drawer of my desk. That led to shredding, clearing and filing stuffed away papers at about 8:30 at night. Then in order to get into bed, I had laundry to put away but had to shoo Pippi off the pile of sweaters and shirts first. The spot in the armoire where they belonged was in disarray. Let's those to make a better spot to put the clean ones away.

But there were t-shirts in there too---that led to reorganizing and tossing from the drawers below and spread over to the blanket chest as well. I really didn't mean to start on the closet, not at that late hour. It was close to midnight by that time but I was on a roll. I've lost enough weight to wonder what might fit now and started trying on my old clothes---yahoo, welcome back old, friends and some things are about 20 some lbs away from fitting well but I'm getting there. Some stuff from last year is way too big now and is headed to the thrift store--even better!

By that time I was hot, sweaty and too wound up to sleep so I started looking at some of the quilt magazines on my bedside table, under the table and in a magazine rack. Why was I keeping these things when there is possibly only one thing I would consider making?? So, another pile or two started-- intact magazines to go to the Friends of the Library and the rest, ripping out what I wanted. Should do that in the sewing room area too but not ready to part with those quite yet.

Finally by 2:30 in the morning, I was ready to turn out the light and go to sleep. Made for a short night when Pippi got me up with kitty kisses at 6:30 the next morning but at least the storage areas in the bedroom are cleared out. I would drag the pinned quilts out of the closet where I can get at them a little better---or least a few of them--but we may have house guests by month's end so best kept behind closed doors for now.

I don't know about walking today--I need to after taking the holiday off but it has gotten frigid out there. 19 when we got up though the sun is shining. When the breeze picks up, I am sure you could calculate in wind chill factors. DJ has told me to see about using the indoor track at the community center in the town north of us and take his checkbook to pay whatever the fees are--a fall back for cold and rainy days. I would rather walk outside if I can in the local park so will see how it is this afternoon and dress accordingly. 40 lbs gone as of this morning since last March. A bunch more to go but I am not dwelling on numbers, instead I plan to continue on the path I started in 07. No back sliding!