a surprise in the mail

The mail lady honked a little bit ago meaning I had a package. However, as I walked out to the carport I was thinking "I didn't order anything".

As Janet was scanning in the codes, I told her I did recognize the mailing address as my friend Veronica from NM.  I've known her online for years and years, back in the old aCozy Quilt Bee days, 99 and on up.  The group eventually fell by the wayside but we keep in touch on Facebook as do several of the old gang.

She sent me a friendship/comfort quilt!  Some of the blocks are from the list friends, possibly other blocks swaps as I did not recognize any of the names on the card she sent with it.  My FAB pal Pam helped with the shipping costs.  Other than a quilt that the list made for me when I was moderating back in 99, no one has ever made me a friendship quilt.  I've been involved in making blocks or even assembly/quilting some over the years but now I have one of my own.  I am so touched by this and the message in the card that she sent with it.  Thank you so much, V and friends!

The quilting is wonderful, done quilt as you go.  Veronica is a pro at this, let me tell you.  Lot of my favorite colors in the blocks too.  It is just as pretty on the backside where you see all that wonderful quilting too.  Veronica did a two toned binding technique so you see the dark fabric on the front that frames it and then a yellow that matches that sashing on the back.

So quilty content, after all.  Who knew?  I'm waiting for glue to completely cure before I can finish up what I want to do today for my hop stuff, plugging along.

Checking in

I hope those of you in the States enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. It was a quiet day here though we had our main meal at noon, freeing up my afternoon to finish up the quilting on a top I had been working on. We had had turkey breast and trimmings not too long ago so I fixed ham instead and tried to watch my portion sizes and no second helpings. I did enjoy every bit of that pumpkin pie though! Somehow when it takes 10 laps (almost 3 miles) around the park to burn off a dessert, it makes me think twice about overindulging but hey, it was a holiday.

I have had these pictures in the camera for a few days but really have not been online or on the computer much this past week. You can probably see the lake that is catty corner from our house in this shot. I love these Bradford pear trees at the end of our lane at the entrance to the nearby subdivision. Gorgeous in the spring with the white blooms, nice green leaves in the summer and then stunning color in the fall. Since we mainly have bushes on our own property, I sorta think of these as "ours" even though they aren't, really.

Wednesday afternoon we heard the screeching of tires and a car heading the opposite direction of the one you see pictured had to swerve to avoid a woman who pulled out of the side road near the lake---a blind spot really and there have been accidents there before and near misses. The young man wound up in the culvert near the base of the tree just out of camera range--no one hurt but it probably didn't do his front axle much good. They had to close off the road for a bit to allow the wrecker guy to haul it up and out.

Another shot of the rows of trees at the subdivision entrance---just to the right is our lane. BUT the "tree assasins" have been out working in our end of the county for the past three weeks and finally made over to our immediate area. (Asplundh contractors for the power company--we had the same company in IL and called them the same thing so maybe they are all over?) Some trees have been literally trimmed in half at the top to avoid the power lines and just look lopsided. The last row of Bradford pears bit the dust as they finally grew tall enough to have the power line run right down the middle of them. (See below?)

I am just sick about this and the people in the subdivison probably are as well. Late this summer they were also about to cut down some 75 year old pecan trees in the town north of us but that is being held up in a court case. One of those situations were the homeowner was about to chain herself to the trees to keep them from annihilating her trees and seeking legal recourse against the power company.

This is one from our own yard. Color is off a bit though as our house is a grayed-green with gold accent trim. I rather like this shade better, LOL--not fond of the green.

As I said, I have been quilting a good bit this week. When I last posted several of the Bama Belles and I had gotten together to assemble a friendship/appreciation quilt for one of our members. Saturday Jane, Sarah and I went over to Aline's to pin said top and I had volunteered to quilt it. (see below? who knows where this stuff will land on the page though)

I was finished with it by Monday afternoon and really should have had DJ close the door behind him before I took the picture---I kinda like the stained glass effect but you can't see the quilting very well. Plus I think you can see a husband outline a bit, LOL and that danged overgrown plant of DJ's is blocking some of the blocks. Jane has it now to finish the binding so it will definitely be done in time for the presentation at the Christmas party next month. I'll get a better picture once it all done.

I also did a little friendship star top that Joy had donated and my own Puss in the Corner top--both will be going to WTIL headquarters once they are completed. I guess I didn't take a picture of the PIC once the top was done but it looks much like the EQ sketch and was made from the challenge box of scraps that Ellen sent out. Only appropriate that it return to her as something usable, right? I have one more to do--a watercolor Split Nine Patch that Lois made from her scrap basket. I love it! The blocks finish at 3 3/4 inch. She did a wonderful job on it and I can't wait to share it once the pins are out. The quilt group meets on Tuesday so I can pass these on for binding and move onto the next project.

After the quilting is finished it will be my Merkitties Challenge top. Only been thinking about it since August, after all. I look forward to some piecing. Commissioned t-shirt quilt right after that. Meanwhile, I have put a few rows of knitting in my headband for walking purposes---about half done. When Pippi would not get off a quilt top I thought I was going to bind the other night I even did a bit of bluework on my snowman project--still stuck in October there. Got a small spot to fix in one of my jackets before I forget it is there again---more handwork.


Speaking of Pippi, she has decided that she does not like her dry cat food anymore. A few days of really not eating had me worried sick--were her kidney levels labs bad again like this summer when she wasn't eating? Or was she just being finicky? A test before I drug her in for repeat lab though. Since she would scarf down a bite of contraband canned food, I had DJ pick up a canned version of her prescription diet at the vets early in the week. Thankfully, she seems to like it and is eating again. It is pricey and smells awful but if she is eating and avoiding 4 days of IV therapy, I say, go for it. Here is her "new" favorite spot--smart girl as she is right smack dab on the softer of the two pillows. You probably cannot tell just how much weight she has lost from the pictures as I should have turned on an overhead light but she is really bony.

Well, that rip is not going to fix itself so off I go----

Friday check in time

Another week as flown on by, just about. Early part of the week I was busily working on finishing up my row robin obligation and was able to get it mailed out on Wednesday as planned. The next one, hearts this time, arrived today. Sorry no pictures.

The quilt at left is one that Joy made--Twisting Star with an alternating Snowball block. I think it might be the first one she quilted with the Nolting set up that she has. The quilt group met on Tuesday but we arrived to find the pastor's wife and two of the church members setting up for an early Thanksgiving dinner. Turns out that the girls cottage that the church has "adopted" were invited along with their adult leaders and the director of the Presbyterian Home for Children. Since I had 16 quilts to deliver to that same facility, I arranged to leave the quilts in the closet and have them take them home with them. The pastor asked me if I wanted to come to the dinner as well to present them to the group but I passed. The church had early Christmas gift bags for them and I didn't want to interfere with that as we had not meant the quilts to be "Christmas" gifts---just part of a regular donation we make to the facility.


One of the Belles told me today that her brother-in-law had attended the dinner though. He commented about how excited the girls were about the quilts and how much they loved the brighter colored ones. There were a few "boy" quilts in the mix as well for them to set aside. I've been smiling all day after hearing that.

Trying to stay out of the way of the decorators, we set up our pinning table for three tops, had lunch and left early. The top pictured is Lois' Merkitties Challenge--Aline had her top done as well but I didn't get a pic of it. Lois used a blue print with little fishes and bubbles on it and the small print squares in green have turtles on it--inspired! I love how these are turning out. Mine is on tap as soon as I quilt three WTIL tops and that aforementioned friendship quilt.

We got sort of delegated to the kitchen area at the meeting though. I guess no one checked to see that it was our meeting date---or whatever they did took precedence. We couldn't have sewn if we wanted to since access to the tables and plug-ins was out. I knew that a few of the girls were not going to be able to make it the meeting so that might have been okay. Actually it was almost easily that one person in particular was NOT coming as we have a friendship/appreciation quilt planned for her and it made it easier to lay out the turned in blocks and make some decisions about sashing colors, etc and see how many more we might need.

Since I had been so bogged down with the row robin, I had pulled out a pretty basket block I had made some time back. Yesterday though, I whipped up these two blocks---both had "Friendship" in their name so I thought it was appropriate. The green is a 30's repro from my stash with little spools and tomato pincushions on it. The T block (for Theramae) used some leftover BOM stuff and a piece I had gotten at the "yard sale" in September.

6 of us met today at our friend Betsy's house to assemble the top. Of course we had the usual block switching up till we all were satisfied about the way it looked. Then the search was on for a enough and an appropriate color for the sashing---Betsy pulled something from her stash that contrasted nicely with the cornerstone fabric while Aline provided the backing. Since we had 20 blocks for a 4 x 5 set, I was able to calculate how many cuts to make. I like to presash the blocks rather than sew long rows of sashing and corner stones to long rows of blocks so led that way, instruction-wise while Jane and Betsy cut. We had five machines set up so the initial plan was to each take a row and then work on joining them. Aline and Betsy worked on joining the rows while Jane seamed the back, Sarah seamed the batting and I cut and sewed the binding. We'll pin it tomorrow morning. We had a little potluck lunch and lots of chatting. A friend from the JOY group came by in the morning and one of the Belles who is busy building a new home about 5 miles from Betsy came by after lunch with pictures of her new grandson Brodie.

The drive over to Betsy's was lovely as you go through a pass through the foothills---in spite of the drought we have been experiencing this year we now have a good bit of fall color, more than we expected. Cold and frosty this morning though and as white as I want to see the ground around here, LOL. I don't care if I never see another flake of snow being from the north originally. Because of my mid-morning obligation, I could not wait till later to get in my walking and got the day off from my routine. It happens.

Guess that's it for now----