Hurry, hurry, hurry!

We are back from Mayo at Rochester, MN with great reports for Hubby. A little tweak here, another there, and he's good to go again. I made it to Mill End and I was able to get ALL the fabrics I needed for window treatments and chair upholstery for the new house, as well as some other fabrics at great prices to add to my stash. Have you all considered how every valuable our stashes are these days of ever increasing prices?

I also got to go the Minnesota State Quilt Guild's show which is held in Rochester every four years. In my opinion, it's one of the best!

Here's my favorite from the show - it just took my breath away!



I mostly took pictures of border treatment ideas. Here's something I really liked:

And the other part of the border looked like braid -
This was a funny little wall hanging to celebrate her retirement as a hairdresser. It was in honor of some of her clients. The next picture shows the 3-d rollers, and one of the ladies even has wrinkly hose on. What a hoot!


Not only the quilting but the simple border leaf pattern really made this quilt outstanding!


I loved the way the flowers repeated in the border.

A little bit of embroidery here and there around the applique made it look shadowed and special.

The hurry , hurry, hurry part of the post is because that seems to be my life since we returned. We are moving something to the new house everyday now, and I am hurrying to stay caught up with the packing, the unpacking, the cleaning, and the other things that always seem to pop up. Life is grand, but I sure wish I could slow the turntable down to about 33 rpm!

B-Day Quilt

**NOTE: This blog post has been hanging out in the virtual space where missing posts go since the 22nd of June. I'm sure glad it finally showed up!

Well, another year has passed, and the Babes are still doing our annual birthday gifts to each other...the gift of our time, and a day filled with sewing, chocolate, laughter, gossip, chocolate and sewing! Since there are several of us (me included) with birthdays in April, we decided to "choose" a Babes Birthday day throughout the year to celebrate. That way they are disbursed evenly. My real-age birthday is in April - my Babes Birthday this year was yesterday. How cool is that?

We are leaving in just a few minutes for Mayo in Rochester Minnesota. Hubby has his yearly "tune-up" for his transplants, and it just so happens that the Minnesota State Quilter's Guild has their big show there every four years. I'll be working on a baby quilt and some other small projects while I'm there, as well as entertaining myself at the quilt show. A couple of college baseball games (the Honkers) and Rochesterfest should round out our week.

I thought I would let you see the FABULOUS blocks my Babes made for me. They are 8.5" blocks, and the quilt is 11 rows wide, and 12 rows long. Unless, of course, I add more when I return. A great way to use up those strips and scraps, and charm squares. The official name for this pattern is Waste Not, Want Not, and Bonnie over at Quiltville calls it 16 patches and Pinwheels. Her version is to use smaller blocks, but my strips were already larger, so there ya go!

A little of everything!

Let's get caught up with what's been going on! It seems that life is moving really fast for me these days, and even though I think I am going to get the blog, I just don't quite make it. I think everyone must go through periods of their lives like this. Or at least I hope I'm not the only one, running to try to keep up with myself!



Here are the girls at my new house, sewing up a storm! It was Carolyn's choice for her birthday stitch day. She's in the middle of moving into a new house, too, so she chose to have us make some Hero quilts. We managed to get two of them done. Remember, I have my priorities straight...no kitchen sink or counter tops at the new house, but my sewing stewdio is almost ready. Well, it was ready enough to sew, anyway, right?

The Midwest has sure been pounded by storms. This morning I think I heard the weather radio issue the five hundred and somethingth thunderstorm watch for our area. So far, we've seen them form, lift and then move on. Just keep on rolling!



These photos were taken during the last storm. You are seeing them move from the southwest to the northeast. The first picture is from our back porch; the last one is from the front porch. AND the colors are just about right (on my monitor). There's a sort of moody glow under them.

In the meantime, we still are working at keeping this house ready for showings at a moment's notice. The lookers have slowed down, but are still coming, so it WILL sell before the end of summer, I hope. I've more or less emotionally severed with our pool due to the storms, and I've been spending more time at the new house since I am working on getting my stewdio set up there. That's helped.

Yes, we've closed on the new house, but there are still some things that need to be finished. The builder is also building his house just down the road, so he splits his time between ours, theirs and the one that he is building in the small town south of us. The new counter tops and sink were installed last week, and the additional cabinets are about 1/2 stained and lacquered before installation. The floors will be refinished while we are gone to Mayo next week. Things keep moving.

I talked Hubby into one red wall in the dining room. I love it, and so does he.


In between the storms, little boy and I have played in the pool. That's the only time I've been in the water this year. Of course, that doesn't mean I couldn't - I just haven't! He is 3.5 years old this year, and isn't afraid of anything. He's so much fun to play with now, too!





So, today, I am finally going to work on my birthday quilt - the Amazing Quilt Babes will gift their time to me next Saturday, and I have to have it all prepped. I've chosen "Waste Not, Want Not", but Bonnie from Quiltville calls it 16 patch & Pinwheels. Having moved all my scraps and fabric tubs to the new house has inspired me to really get moving on using it up! So, after next week, you can expect to see a picture of MY birthday quilt and the girls! (Remember! It's not really my birthday - it's just my official Amazing Quilt Babes birthday day that has been assigned to me.)

Let there be Socks!

My mother is the one to blame, I guess. I just can't sit and do nothing, and it never fared well to tell her that I was bored! Only boring people get bored, she would say. So I read, and I sew, and I write letters and read my mail.

And I do love to read! My eyes are tired today, though, with the overcast skies and more warnings of rain and severe weather. The grass is looking great, and the flowers are all starting to bloom nicely - so are the weeds. Tomorrow will find me doing a little weeding here and some planting at the new house, too.

The grand kids were over the last two days in the pool, and the little one is now mostly swimming instead of drinking the water, so it's pretty fun. Today was to be burgers and brats on the grill, but it rained, and they decided to stay home instead. Son and his girls will still come for their Monday night feed in a bit, and I decided to make meatloaf for them. His two girls head back East this coming weekend to visit their mother for a month, and meatloaf is one of their favorites. So meatloaf it is!

I decided that since my sewing is boxed up and most of it is sitting at the new house, I would find something else to keep my hands busy. My friend, Judy, found this book for me, and started me out with understanding what I am to do with this new project. I think I am going to like this! Ask me again after 6" of knitting and purling on these 2 circular needles!

4 + 1

So the holiday is upon us, and I have nothing to report on the sewing front. I DID complete a little RR exchange which I can't show you, and I did manage to complete 2 blocks for another group exchange that I completely forgot to take a picture of.

Since the thorny issue last reported upon, I've been on the move hither, thither and yon. Picking out paint colors, keeping the house spotless for showings, enjoying grandkids when I can, and even working (gasp!) at the LQS 13 miles south of here has made the spring just fly by.

Nothing exciting. Just letting you know that the foot is healed, the heart is happy, and I am still living in one house and prepping the new one. We'll be here in this house until it is sold or until I close the pool in Ocotober. So, in the meantime, here's my lovies of the moment.

These are 4 of my grandkids - the one on the left is an extra one (not mine) but she claims me as hers whenever she can. The next one from the left is oh-so-me it's frightening!

No, Clyde, this is not your sister, Bonnie! Clyde seems to think that this cast iron kitty is HIS to love and lay on. No matter what room I move it to, he finds it and "talks" to it, then curls up by it to take a nap.

Now, this is what I call sibling love. This is how they both take their afternoon naps - mind melding!

A Thorn in my Side (foot)

I was brought to tears last week about this time when I was out at the new house, walking the back perimeter of the property. I was truly enjoying the beautiful day, and discovering that we have a little stream that feeds the East fork of the Grand River when all of a sudden!

OUCH!!!!

I walked right into a patch of black locust trees, and couldn't remove myself without stepping on a HUGE thorn. It went right through the thick sole of my tennis shoe, and got me on the left foot, right at the big toe joint. I pulled the thorn out, and went ahead with our walk, remarking we would have to keep the grand-kids out of this area until we could get it cleaned up.

Within the hour, my toe could hardly move, and by the end of two hours, it was extremely swollen , red and hot to the touch. By the time I could take myself to the doctor's office, they told me to go to ER where I found out that Black Locust trees have toxins on their leaves, bark, thorns and fruit.

So, after a Cat Scan of my foot, and 4 hours of IV antibiotics, I was sent home with Percoset, oral antibiotics and instructions to keep my foot elevated for at least 2-3 days until the swelling went down. I also got the warning that if I got red streaks, or it kept swelling, I should return to the ER upon which I would be admitted for "further treatment".

Put the kabosh on my weekend, let me tell you! But I am happy to report that by the end of the 2nd day, my foot looked pretty normal, and it was only a bit tender. Just think, though, without the wonders of modern day medicine, I would have gone the way of Jake in Lonesome Dove after he got a mesquite thorn in his thumb...off into the sunset.

Tomorrow, the arborists are meeting us to discuss the demise of these nasty trees! In the meantime, I am walking ever so gingerly on the property.

(I just can't figure out what I've done with the font size on this entry, so if it looks like I am screaming, I'm really just confused!)

Moving, moving, moving

Wonder where I've been? Me too!

First, we bought a house, then declined the contract because of what we found in with the inspections. Then, when we least expected it, we found another one that was even better! It's on three acres of land, brand spanking new, and is being finished exactly the way we want it. The builder and his wife are just super nice people, and they will be our neighbors when their new house is finished in the next month or so. There will only be about 9 houses all together on this cul de sac and the street behind it, and it IS COUNTRY!!!! We love it! We'll close this Friday and take possession of it then, too.

Just to show you how much in the country here's a couple of pictures of the house from the front which faces west, then the north and south sides of the yard.




We have a lot of landscaping to do. At this house, we've spent the last 8 years planting over 50 trees and I can't begin to count how many perennials.

In the meantime, I've been getting this house ready for market, and it got listed this past Friday. A showing on Saturday went well, they want to come back again. Tomorrow is the realtor walk-through for five hours, so we are going to go "plant" our new mailbox at the new house during that time. I also had to get my two SAMs (storage and moving) ready with all the extra furniture (read that as sewing tables, sewing cabinets, sewing tools, fabric and a few pieces of real furniture) to make the rooms look better and bigger. They got moved this morning to the new house, so that's done.

Because we've had so much rain lately, we've had to cut the grass about every other day here at this house, and we just got finished doing some paint touch ups. I can't think of another single thing to do. I've even planted about 8 flats of petunias and have all my lawn ornaments out.

So. That's what I've been up to. Not sewing, but dreaming of sewing in my new 18' studio space with another 12' X 13' resource space, AND an unfinished space with a window that has a sink hook up and drain where I can paint and dye to my heart's content.

Here's Hubby on the stairs going into my space:

Kitchen nook
Living room with hubby on the hearth

Part of the kitchen

Looking into the dining room

Come on over and stitch with me! (or help me with the landscaping)