you know it has been a while...............

when you get a call from your family asking if you are okay since you haven't updated your blog in a week, LOL. I have been having "up and down" days both physically and to honest mentally. The tests I have had done so far have only shown what is ISN'T versus what is causing it. While I rejoice that the worst case scenarios are ruled out, I am still frustrated about the symptoms that are still present several months later. Enough about that..............

Part of the reason for not posting is I got "nuthin'" to show you though I have been doing a little hand quilting. That's a slow process with little to show for the time involvement---oh, but I love it! No sewing going on here unless you want to count re-doing the the velcro on something of DJ's and reinforcing the seam on a pair of jeans. Just not in the mood.

No cutting either or I would have those darned appliance covers started and/or a firm decision of what to do with the FABS challenge fabric. Haven't found a pattern that excites me enough to head to the stash. I need Norma to point out something SHE is excited about as that usually does it, LOL. Truth me told one of her recent quilt show pictures sent me on a hunt for the pattern source--that card trick looking one? Two of a Kind from the April 08 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. I could see trying that one.

My stash just got augmented a bit though I do not plan to keep it all here--just some of it, for now. I found just enough places to stick the additions. Homespuns, greens (that kitchen project) and reds, neutrals for heart quilts. Another stack that would make a lovely fall themed quilt for donation to work on later. The leftovers will be cut into strips for bowtie blocks, triple rail fence blocks, faux log cabins and so forth. The Belles need to take what they want to work with too. You see, a few days after Theramae's memorial service her family called and asked if I could come pick up her sewing supplies and such. While they had extra hands on deck, they were clearing out what they could so it did not all fall to the family member who lives locally. I came home with the back end of my car loaded down.

She had left little undone--I know I couldn't begin to say that! I found a few odds and end blocks that we both were making. There are also leftovers from a previous project that can be worked up into another quilt. Strips, strings and squares to make more scrappy quilts. In fact, I think she almost had enough blocks for a small string quilt with more foundation papers cut out. I sorted through the magazines and put the most interesting of them in a notebook. That and the books went to our meeting place this week. I sorted through some fabrics over the weekend--washed and pressed 4 loads of fabrics. By Monday Lois and Nancy joined me to finish up--with some of it passed on for them to do the honors.

The quilt group met this week on Veteran's Day. I think we had 11 or 12 of us there. The power button on my camera quit working before I got all the pictures of the turned in quilts taken. Linda C let me borrow hers to finish the job and will burn me a CD for our records. Two days later I replaced the camera with one by the same manufacturer so the memory stick was still viable. The strippie quilt shown is one that Aline made from her batik scraps which I quilted for her. It probably does not show up well but I did just a zigzag through the pieced bands and SID in the plain ones.

While at the meeting some were sewing, some were pinning. I had brought the red and white fabrics from Theramae's stash and asked the girl's to make some heart blocks for her quilt. This is a tradition that we started in honor of the members we have lost or a member's immediate family.

Me personally? I found room for the fabrics from Theramae, marked a quilt top to be pinned, put the books up, sewed enough batting scraps together for two tops. I also talked to the church secretary about a tshirt quilt she would like me to make after the first of the year. That and the usual consultations about this and that quilting related or not plus a lot of visiting and catching up. What to do for the Christmas party, etc. Most of us went out to Quizno's for a quick lunch. Next thing I knew it was 3 p.m. and time to go home.

Here is Linda C with a quilt she had just picked up from the long arm quilter. Pretty. huh? And big!!

Theramae had a huge stack of pictures of her quilts that her family passed onto me with her things. Her family said she would always share the latest photos with them when they came to visit and I would suppose the quilts she was working on at the time. They pulled out some of them but it represents a pretty big body of work but it wasn't all of them. Joy and I took digital pictures early on but just posted them on our yahoo group. Later it became my job to take the pics and since that time, I always get double prints made. One goes in our albums and the other to the maker. (We are on our 4th album.). We looked through the pictures and shared some memories. These should probably go in their own "Theramae" album or scrap booked in some manner.

I had fallen down on the job with quilt documention this year---not sure why but maybe because there was no big push to get 50 or 60 of them for one specific location so I had to know how close to goal we were? We mailed out a bunch to WTIL earlier in the year and a pile of them to Pam for her M2M project after that. I had those entered on my document but not the ones that had were in my closet or on the armoire. The pile I had quilted through last month is starting to come in after binding with a few more out there to be finished. Well, yesterday I quit procrastinating. I pulled all the quilts on hand out and piled them up in the sewing/computer room and took care of that documentation. I made sure that we had pictures taken of each one and cleaned out the monthly files a bit but had DJ standing by to be quilt holder. I uploaded a pile of pictures so we can get prints made for the albums I previously mentioned. I ran to Walmart for some packing boxes--17 packed up and headed to WTIL headquarter. DJ helped me get those to the post office a bit ago.

Other than that, a quiet day. Laundry is done for the week and dishwasher has been run. A few hours till supper preparation. DJ is out working on the stump from the apple tree he cut down, mild overcast day. Skyler is napping on his bedroom perch with an eye out for any birds up on the roof and gutters. Word from DJ's son is that he ran into DJ's golfing friend from IL recently who told him he plans to be here "around Thanksgiving" but so far, said friend hasn't told US that. I can only speculate if that means the wife too or just him. Enjoy the quiet while I can, I guess.

Hope you all have a good weekend in whatever you plan to do---------