Checking in

This was a picture that Wendee, my tablemate took of me at the sew-in and recently posted to the guild album.  We were to wear an old fashioned apron that day which explains the attire.  Otherwise, I'm in my standard t-shirt and jeans or in hot weather, t-shirt and bike shorts until I get the summer clothes officially out in circulation, LOL.

Anyway---
 I have been doing a good bit of sewing recently with this one getting moved along.  This is the Climbing Roses top I showed you from last week though at that point I had 5 more rows to go.  I did that on Thursday when I was trying to keep my mind occupied and not get so mopey about the day's significance to me.    I then spent the rest of the day flipping strips, re-sewing and generally changing most of the quilt around in some manner.  Sometimes more than once on the same section.  Friday morning it got so bad with all this quilt fiddling that I finally got out of the house and went to Ashville House Quilt Shop for some retail therapy, LOL.

They were having a 25% off sale of everything except sewing machines and I needed some backing for this top.  I ended up getting something that is not quite the same shade of aqua but it WILL work since I am using some yardage that is that aqua and red diagonal stripe for the binding.  It also happens to be the same Good Karma yardage that was issued for the fall challenge quilt for the retreat with the Attalla bunch.  The shop has plenty more on hand if I mis-calculated my needs for the two quilts.  I know what I am going to do for THAT one but have not started it yet.

Saturday, I started sewing the sections into pairs.  Later that evening I sewed the pairs into sections of 4, or into thirds since there are 12 vertical rows.  That is where it still stands two days later--just two joining seams to go.  I didn't feel much like sewing yesterday and then we had some thunderstorms roll in.  Figures too since it was Race Weekend at Talladega, near here.  Always rains, storms, even tornado threats.

I am un-decided what I want to do next but have it narrowed down to three things.  That is, after I prep the back and binding.

1)  Make the other 5 blocks needed for Square Dance.  Leaning more to this one as it would be a quicker finish.

2)   Get back to the Granny Squares that have been waiting since two fall sew-in's.  I don't remember how many I have done or even how many more I need but it used some of the leftover Ellen challenge fabric.  I already did one top and this was a bonus one, or two.  I had planned to see how far I would get with the strips I had already cut.

3)  Something altogether new.  I have a charm pack of Bernatex "Brigitte" that I got for free from Missouri Star last fall.  I had pulled some Moda Marble background from my stash, ordered just a bit more to be sure to have enough.  I want to try that Missouri Star tutorial for Floating Squares with it.  When I put the fabric away in its own little compartment, I had typed up my own sort of cutting guidelines so it would just be a matter of going in to cut the background fabrics up, more or less. Might do that if I don't want to drag the machine to evening sewing this week.

 ALWAYS thinking of the next project or in this case, the next three, LOL.

To commemorate DJ's birthday, I did two things in his honor.  I made pizza, albeit this one was topped with turkey pepperoni.  He would have preferred ground beef or ham and cheese with white sauce like they had at Cici's.   When I think of all the crust recipes I tried till I found the one we both liked.  I think I told you the story about how he was telling me about his days working the part-time job at George's Pizza in Bloomington while he proceeded to burn the tar out of frozen one we planned to have for supper.  The 2nd, he had ice cream almost every blessed night---it was the lowest fat content he could find or the cheapest store brand low fat he could get.  I asked him once why he didn't get the "good stuff" and cut back on the frequency of eating it.  I did not want to get in the habit like him and rarely ate it but I did buy some Klondike Bars (Heath Crunch, thank you very much!)  and consumed TWO in his honor.  That's the closest I could come to a bowl of fat free whatever stuff.  Mostly, I treasured my memories and him.  I was truly a blessed woman and wife.

Okay, what else?  Saturday I was invited over to Paul's for a fish fry.  He had been out fishing a couple days late last week and told his mom to call and tell me late Friday evening.  His former boss even gave him some fish he had caught.  I guess Sonny wanted the fun of fishing but didn't care to clean or eat them!  Miss Kathryn said she was bringing some coleslaw but I didn't need to fix anything else.  I did anyway recalling that they had apparently had to hunt to find some tartar sauce last week.  I whipped up some Comeback Sauce which is supposed to be "so good that it would make you slap your mama", whatever that means!  Anyway, I used what is supposed to be a copy of Zax Sauce but a tad less heavy on the hot sauce content or it was when I made it but I still ended up adding about what the recipe called for, and made a triple batch.

These critters!  Oscar can't decide if he wants in or out.  Mostly the opposite of whatever he IS doing.  It has been threatening rain or actually raining for three days now so outside is a little chancy.   I am almost positive that the back gate was his escape site based on something he managed to do today inside.  I had the hallway gate closed and the bungee cord tightened across the top.  You may recall that I caught him recently with his head between the gate door and the frame?  I was working in the kitchen when  I heard him clattering the gate.  With it intact, the little booger had gotten on the other side and I found him sitting in the master bedroom near the foot of the bed.  I stretched the bungee cord a bit tighter.

I had found one of Skyler's old sparkly puff balls (AKA PomPoms) in the couch cushions recently.  He used to love those things!  Oscar tried to eat them so neither one of them was getting any to play with.  Skyler promptly lost it, I thought under the coffee table.  I could feel that there were others in the frame.  You see, DJ had hammered some lumber strips on the table to keep Skyler from loosing all his puff balls in the crack in the frame.  He knew I would try lifting and scooting it to get at them or use a yard stick under the couches to dig them out.   I don't think the strips worked as look what was under or jammed into the frame work!!

I never did find the blue sparkly one but man, did I others of them.  The frayed one was extracted with an old hemostat from the sewing room.  Skyler has again become enamored with his scratching post too hence the catnip mess on the floor!  And a pink sparkly puff ball.  I think it is lost again but he sure had some fun tossing it around.

Glynda and Robert sent a bag of cat toys that had been the sister-in-law's the other day.  You got it, Sky wants nothing to do with it and Oscar plays with the stuffed mouse though so far he has not managed to tear it up.  As soon as I see stuffing, it is gone and he can play with his squeaky frog again.

I probably better walk Oscar one more time before the rains come in.  THX for stopping by to see the latest installment of "Life on the Lane".  Few dull moments here, that's for sure!