Posting Late - Good Excuse

I have a good excuse for posting late. Usually I post on Sunday morning but yesterday I took a grocery list and headed to the store! My first time out of the house (other than to the mailbox) since Dec. 21st. And I've not driven my car since the week before Thanksgiving! I managed to get the groceries and stop at the drug store for a few things. Chet was waiting with the door open - not sure if he was waiting for food or me! I was quite tired and took advantage of my nap by extending it a bit!

We are expecting ice/rain overnight! They even predicted power outages - hope it doesn't happen as we are total electric! Good thing I have a stack of quilts to help keep us warm.

Picture below is Chet with his Colts throw - a gift from Tracy and family. Anna Grace has been waiting to see this!

I have been keeping busy doing one of my favorite things. After digging through my stash I found enough fabric to put borders on the Wabash County Brick Wall quilt. Both border fabrics were used as backings for other quilts and there was quite a bit left over! (I love leftovers - be it fabric or food)! So this quilt is ready to go to the long arm quilter gal in Rushville. It measures approximately 45 x 55".

This little goodie just had to be made! ! I saw a photo of a doll quilt in one of Kathleen Tracy books. (Kathleen hosts a Yahoo group called Small Quilt Talks. Visit her at her blog: http://sentimentalquilter.blogspot.com) The half-square-triangles are leftovers from another quilt - we call them bonus triangles. It measures 13"x 16" - or there abouts - and I even hand quilted it - not a lot tho!


Till next week - stay well and warm.

Must Not Complain

Oh this snow and cold is getting to me. I've not been further than the end of the driveway to set out trash and recycling bins, pick up the mail and newspaper. Someone just came to the door, I opened it and the cold was sharp! (Poor guy is looking for tree trimming jobs. I told him to check back in Spring and he told me that was not the time to trim trees! Oh well!)

Nate and Mark brought in a supply of groceries so the 'larder is loaded' for a while and there is no need for us to go out on the snow covered streets. Mitch calls weekly to check in with us and we don't dare complain of our snow and cold - Green Bay always is colder and snowier! No sympathy from him! Tracy tells us it's cold in Mississippi when it's 65; at least she doesn't have to shovel snow down there! And she gets no sympathy from us!

I've been back at my sewing machine a couple of mornings this week. I finished putting together the brick wall quilt top - center portion of the quilt, this morning. Feels good to use up some of the left over fabrics from the bigger quilt. I did have to go into the stash and cut more but it was a pleasure to dig through the fabrics and find coordinates. Now I need to see if I have enough of something to put a border or two on this quilt. Right now it measures about 36 x 44" and adding borders will make it a nice throw size. Picture below.



I'd not used my camera since Thanksgiving and found this picture - Anna Grace, Mitch and Jonathan - I don't remember who's teaching who and I don't know what game they are playing - but it is a nice picture, isn't it?



Thanks for stopping by - stay well and warm.

Sunny Sunday

Another week has passed and I'm proud to announce that I've been back at the sewing machine. I decided it was time to try and use up fabric from my stash. I did a "Brick Wall of Wabash County" quilt almost a year ago (March 7, 2010 post) and there were a lot of left over rectangles so I started laying them out and cut more from my stash. It was to be a small quilt but it seems to be growing in size and I imagine it will be a lap robe or sofa throw size. We'll see just how far the rectangles that I have cut will go. Hopefully I'll have a picture to show next week. (I tried to copy and paste it but it wouldn't work!)

Chet is sad because of the Colts losing the football game last week - I think he's cheering on the Packers now. He's not gone out often because of the cold and snow. Mitch and Chet have been chatting after the football games. "A bonding opportunity" is what Mitch calls the phone calls!

Nate, Deanie and Mark are off to an ABATE get together this weekend, expect them back some time today. I know they told me where they were going - but I forgot! And that's okay - cuz I'm old!

Tracy celebrated a birthday on the 13th. Visited with her for quite a while one morning - her doctor/boss was out of town so she had some free time to chat.

Till next week - stay safe, warm and well.

I'm Back - I Think

It's been a while since I've posted - have been dealing with health issues the past three months but I think I'm on the road to being myself again. I'm not sure if this is good or bad! We'll see - right? :)

Our holidays were spent with family and friends. They brought in the food and we enjoyed a lot of the traditional dishes. The sons have been doing our grocery shopping - not their favorite thing to do and we certainly appreciate them doing it. There is a long list on the table now and Chet keeps coming up with things to add to it. He does enjoy eating.

We had snow but it all melted when we had temps in the 50's. Yesterday we had a couple of inches of fresh snow - looks so pretty out there but it's cold and windy. Our wonderful neighbor shoveled our driveway sometime this morning.

No sewing here since October except for the final block of the month block - I thought it was finished but someone pointed out to me that there was a mistake in it - so I took it apart and redid it. I've been too exhausted and shaky to use the rotary cutter and ruler. The other day I did pull out a kit and fondle the fabrics but I put them back in the cabinet.

I dreamed I turned on my sewing machine and it made odd noises, spit sparks and moaned and groaned. I woke up after that dream! I haven't turned it on to check it out!

Chet is ready for the Colts game tonight - wearing his Colts shirt, a gift from Mark and has his Colts throw, a gift from Tracy, on the sofa. I will have to sneak a picture to post next week.

Perhaps I'll have some other pictures for the next post - something quilty. Till then, be warm, happy and healthy.

A Few Pictures

I'm home alone tonight - first time in ages! I've had my bath and am dressed in new navy plaid flannel pajamas with lace trim! Mark and Chet are at the Colts football game tonight. It doesn't start till 8:30 so it will be late when they get home. Mark will probably stay over night and go to work from here in the morning. Mark is so patient and good with his father, takes a special person to tackle some of the projects he takes on with him!

Posting just a few pictures from our Thanksgiving Day with family and friends. Tracy, Jon and Anna Grace arrived about 1:00 a.m. They drove straight through from Mississippi - Jon is a licensed driver now and did about half the driving so they were able to do it in one shot. Mitch arrived about 1:00 p.m. Nate deep fried a turkey (shown in photo below) and Mark and his friend Brittany, made a beautiful ham. Tracy brought cornbread dressing and it was very tasty. Tia made a cheesy potato dish. I cooked cranberries (twice). And we had many veggies, rolls and the usual dishes. Mitch brought Wisconsin sausage and cheeses - oh so good!





Anna Grace 'sharing' her Stained Glass Windows quilt with Nate, Jon and Tracy. She fell in love with this quilt before it was finished - now the quilt is in Mississippi!




The guys: Mark, Nate, Jon, Mitch, Chet and J.D.



The Gals - Tracy, me, Tia, Anna, Kim (JD's friend), Brittany and Tori.

We had a lovely weekend and enjoyed being together! Tracy and family left at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday and drove half way and spent the night at a hotel. They arrived home about 11:30 today. Mitch's flight left at 7:00 p.m. and he got home about midnight. I'm sure they happy to be in their own beds, too.

That's it for this week. Thanks for stopping by. Stay well and warm.

Happy Thanksgiving

I imagine everyone is writing menus, grocery lists and looking forward to a big day with family and friends later this week. We are having a house full with our children and friends coming. Nate will deep fry a turkey and Mark is doing a ham. Tracy is doing Mississippi corn bread dressing and Mitch is bringing Wisconsin Brats. And of course we'll have all the usual side dishes and trimmings. The kids will do most of the cooking this year because my treatments leave me zapped! The Michigan Granddaughters spent a few hours with me yesterday going through cabinets, cleaning the refrigerator and stove and etc. It's nice and sparkling clean in the kitchen now. I could have kept them for a few more hours to hit a few more rooms but didn't want to scare them off for good.

Am proud to announce I finished block #12 for the Rocky Mountain Sampler quilt a group of gals have been working on this year. I've not laid the blocks out together to see how the completed top will look. This block is a bit 'blah' - think it's because I didn't use a red and I did in all the other blocks. The block looks a tad off kilter but a good spray of starch and a hot, heavy iron should fix it up. . . the power of persuasion!

Photos below are parts of my fabric stash - I think it's time to go through the stash and 'share' with other quilters. I've not been able to do as many donation quilts this year as planned but do have a few to give to our local Cheer Fund for Christmas baskets.

This picture is just the top half of a big cabinet I had built to house my stash. I also store books, magazines and an assortment of other goodies in it. Perhaps next week I will show a picture of my quilt books - and that's frightening, too. Oh well, I've enjoyed every book and magazine; and every piece of fabric that has come into this house.

Too Tired To Post - A Bit Of Sewing

Yes, I was too tired to do a post last week - and I see several of you visited the blog and checked up on me. I continue to deal with health issues and will for a while to come. Thanks to those of you who sent well wishes, thoughts and prayers my way. I really do appreciate it.

We've had some lovely weather - in the 70's a couple of days last week and that was a treat. The family has been keeping in touch and most of them will be here Thanksgiving weekend. Be a treat to see them all together again. Mark is taking Chet to a Colts football game that weekend and Chet is all fired up and ready to go.

Belated Happy Birthday wishes to sister Ellen and brother Wally - and anyone I may have missed. . . I do have b'day cards for you - right in front of me now!

I haven't had too much energy but did do a bit of sewing this past week. Block #11 for the Rocky Mountain Sampler is now complete and shown below.

This morning I pulled fabrics and cut for block #12 - the final block for the sampler. Pieces are laid out and ready to be sewn together. It took 2 1/2 hours to sew up block #11 and this one has more pieces so imagine it will take a bit longer to stitch together. This is just the center section, know as Card Tricks and finished, it will measure 6" - can you see the pattern?

The blocks finish at 12" each so it will be a nice throw size. I do have to find border fabrics to finish it off. Picture below is showing the cut pieces for the outside of the block. I hope it's a pretty quilt as I've just not been too fired up about this quilt. I think the idea of having the fabric, directions and etc. laying around for such a long time is just not my style! Not that I'm neat and tidy; perhaps it's that I'm not a patient person.
Till next time - be safe and warm.