It's Monday morning!

Hope everyone had a great weekend. It was actually somwhat pleasant here (the wind wasn't blowing a gale!). I managed to get outside and scrub up a Little Tikes desk so one of the granddaughters could use it.

I also got the blocks done for a Turning Twenty block exchange I'm in. The last one we did was black/red/white. This one is any floral. Anything goes as long as you can find a flower in it. Mine will be in today's mail to their new owners. It's fun to see what design others send you. You send for blocks to each of the others in the group and they add two strips and send them back. When you get them all you decide on the layout, sew the blocks together, and...you have a quilt top all done.

Monday Thanks

That I don't have a mortgage
That my husband has a good job
That my car is paid for
That my family is healthy
That I live in the country

Have I mentioned Fat Cat Patterns before? If so, disregard. I'm really enjoying applique and am itching to get started on some of her patterns. If you like applique, go on over to her site. Sindy has a special for the months of April and May. Believe me, you won't want to miss it.

I promised my Mom that I'd get her quilt quilted before Mother's Day. It's creeping up fast! I have another one that I want to 'practice' on before I make a mess out of hers. I'm not planning on anything too ambitious, I've only machine quilted one other quilt and that was a disaster 30 years ago! Hopefully I've learned a few things in the meantime.

Have you heard Susan Boyle sing? If not, go to Google Videos. There is one of her singing Cry Me a River that is just beautiful. You really need to experience her singing.

I'm STILL working on my April bunny basket. I just have the eggs and a little chickie to do. All the thread changes take up so much time! It's not perfect but I hope with each one I do I get a little better at it.

I also have Esther Aliiu's Mystery BOM called Red Delicious, which has absolutely NOTHING to do with apples, by the way. She only leaves the pattern up for a month. If you miss it, there is a charge. So I'll have to buy the first three. Believe me, they are worth it!

I got a phone call from my granddaughter Aspen a bit ago. What's unusual about that, you ask? This is the very first time she has called Grandma, 'Ma' to her, and actually TALKED to me, rather than it being a one-sided conversation. Those are the kind of things that are precious to Grandmas.

Off to enjoy a teensy-weensy bowl of ice cream. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Saturday Blessings

A day of rest
A beautiful Spring day
Bird songs
Grandchildren
Computers

Rainy Days and Sundays

Drip, drip, drip! Not complaining in the least. I was about to drag out the sprinklers, my flowers were getting very thirsty. The grass is getting very tall though, I need a day that's dry and warm enough to mow before I have to call a friend with a swather and baler!!

It would be a good day to sew but it's so gloomy I just haven't been in the mood. So I've been browsing online, looking at all the free patterns and quilting sites.

I saw the neatest idea...somewhere. They had mounted photos, all the same size, on cardstock and then clipped them to a wire mounted on the wall. I want to do it a little differently and clip the photos to a piece of clothesline. Hmm, maybe even cut the cardstock in the shape of various clothes and use clothespins. Wish I still had all those cute little plastic ones from when I was a kid! Remember them? Back in the 50s, if I remember correctly.

I did work on one of my blocks-of-the-month, A Tisket, A Tasklet. The April one is a basket with a chocolate bunny, colored eggs and baby chick. I cut my chick facing the wrong direction so need to cut another chick. I have discovered I have a real passion for applique, much more so than piecing actually. above is a picture of my block so far. As you can see nothing is stitched yet, it's just in the arranging stage. Now I need to splurge and buy some of those really nice threads I've heard about. I love the way the egg that I used the batik fabric for turned out.

Hope you all enjoy what's left of the weekend!

Sunday Smilies

The rain
Daffodils
A roof that doesn't leak
Greenery Outdoors
Baby Animals (as long as they belong to someone else!)

Spring is getting closer

It's a beautiful morning. The sun is shining. Unfortunately, the wind is blowing also so it's not very warm.

Mercy me! I just heard this terrible racket and looked out to see what Keith is doing now. You know men, sometimes they can do the crazest things! Well, he's off the hook. It was like an old DC-3 flying very very low a few hundred feet from my house. I never heard a crash so I gather the pilot knew where he was going. Certainly not to our local airport, much too big to land there. That was enough excitement for one day, for sure.

My crocus are blooming and the daffodills aren't far behind. Now, if it would just warm up so I can get out there and clean out the flower beds. WHY do weeds grow so well over the cold, cold winter anyway?

I'm moving the computer into a closet that was just full of 'stuff'. A lot of it was clothes that realistically I know I will never fit into again. And, if I did they'd be the wrong color or whatever. So huge gulp, I'm cutting up some of my favorite shirts for quilt scraps. The rest are going to SA (Salvation Army).

I picked up the new issue of the Fons & Porter quilting magazine and there is the cutest round table topper in it. They did it in reds/yellows with chicken fabric and chickens appliqued around it. Since those aren't my colors, I decided to do blues/whites and applique teapots and cups/saucers where the chickens are. It may be a bit before I can start it though. I PROMISED my granddaughter that I wouldn't start anything else until I finished the three quilts that need quilting and then did her quilt. Well, perhaps I can sneak it in-between somewhere along there. LOL

Friday Finds

Best Friends
Blue Sky
Too much stuff (some people don't have enough, let alone too much)
Oldest daughter's birthday today
My fun, fun, fun Janome 6600P

Getting Older...and Older...and

Does anyone out there remember the song, I think it was by Tennessee Ernie Ford (I can hear you saying WHO?) "Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don't you call me 'cuz I can't go" The name of the song is 16 Tons.

I'm not deeper in debt, but I am another YEAR older !! Birthdays quit bothering me after I was 45. I had breast cancer and was told I had probably 2-2 1/2 years. So, now when I have a birthday I just look at it as a laugh at the doctors. That was back in '93 and other than being diabetic now, I'm healthy as can be. Don't even 'catch' a cold!

Have you ever thought about that? Do we catch a cold, or does it catch us? Or is that like the question, how far West do you have to go before you're East? My guess is the Date Line. What's your idea?

I'm doing the A Tisket, A Tasket block-of-the-month and am learning about applique, for sure.
I have the pieces all cut and in position and I'm stitching around them now. Since I absolutely detest hand sewing anything, I'm learning to do it on the machine. So, it's not quite perfect. I've made a few boo-boos. Are there REALLY quilt police that will come and get ya if you mess up? Get real. I have February all done and am working on January. They really are kinda fun! I'll post some pictures when I have them finished.

Other than that, I've been trying to organize all the patterns I download. So far, I've filled a 3" binder! And that doesn't count, of course, all the ones waiting to be printed out.

Our Granddaughter was here for a few days. She went to the quilt shop with me. Now SHE has the quilting bug. I thought I'd start her out on something easy like maybe a turning twenty pattern. They go together quickly, before she gets borned with it, I hope.


Saturday Thankfulnesses

• Rain, but not TOO much
• Little Lambs
• More Birthdays
• Crocus
• Spring

Getting Older

Saturday Morning

Not a very promising day, weatherwise. Not cold, but high overcast clouds. No sunshine. I LIVE for sunshine !!

I'm rather disappointed. I joined this online food journal site and have been trying faithfully to enter EVERYTHING I eat. It's a pretty cool site because it gives you all the nutritional information besides keeping track of your calories. According to everything I've read I should be eating a MINIMUM of 1200 calories per day. Right. Let's see, since I started I've GAINED way-to-how-many pounds! It's very difficult for me because being diabetic I REALLY need to keep the carbs down. I'm thinking this next week I'm going to try forgetting to worry about the calories and just eat to keep from getting too many carbs. Probably be better for my sugar levels also !!

I made the cutest little blocks the other day. I'm doing several online BOMs. Seriously behind on a couple (like, haven't even started) These blocks are your basic nine patch in a square, but I did them with some strawberry print fabrics from my stash. I used dotted swiss type fabric for the background. Here's some pictures. Very spring like, I think.

Oh, bother. Now I can't get the cursor down below the pictures.

Keith came home with three little baby banty chicks. Well, actually, he started out with four, but lost one. So I think that's a pretty good sign that spring is really on its way. My hobby is quilting, his is chickens. I'll see if I have time to go up to the shop and snap a few pics to share.

Why is it when a person starts out to clean, it ends up being a bigger mess than they started with? All I was going to do was try and organize all my assorted quilt patterns that I've collected over the years. Now I have piles of patterns all over my workspace! I got started and then life interfered. Maybe this evening...

Have a GREAT day everyone.

Saturday Thankfulnesses

• That it's family day (the day we spend together and don't let life intrude)
• That one of our granddaughter's is here for a few days
• For God's watchcare over us
• That SPRING is finally coming