I was having fun the last couple of days, making these cute little kitty blocks, which are going to be in a love quilt for a dear friend, who just lost her Mom. She likes cats, so this is the pattern chosen for her blocks. It goes so fast, I could easily make hundreds of them, but I don't know who would want such a quilt. LOL Oh, well, guess that will not stop me from making more. Got a couple of very good suggestions regarding fabric/color choices that I will try to make up later this week, like tomorrow.

I will be able to do that now, because I GOT THE WEDDING QUILT ALL DONE, EXCEPT FOR THE BINDING!!! It is off the frame, and the frame is leaning against the wall, making my basement look absolutely huge!! I did put up thanks to God for helping me get this quilt done, as I worked the time frame out mentally, and I came up with this quilt being worked on for almost 2 years. That cancer really put a crimp in my quilting time, but it is all better now, so God saw to it that I finished the project. Now I just have to come up with an appropriate label for the back of the quilt. I also discovered to my delight, that the backing actually has a bit of pink in it, so it really goes very well with the top of the quilt, which is teal, raspberry, and cream. I just hope that the bride and groom like the quilt.

My sewing cabinet is coming along nicely, and I think it will be coming home about the 18th of April, as Tom and I come home from the wedding in Moorhead, MN. I sure hope I can get some of the mess cleared up before it comes home. LOL

Well, I hope to get some more of my little swap quilt done tomorrow, as we are getting snowed on again. I hate going out in slippery weather, so quilting will be a great excuse for me. LOL
A nice big pot of soup, hot coffee, and quilting, what more does one need to be happy in February?

More later.

Ele

Well, it is now after Valentine's Day. What did you do for fun on that special day? I got to sew, and then we went out for barbecued ribs for supper. Very romantic, huh?? Well, the sauce on the ribs was sorta dark red, so that counts. We show love for each other every day of the year, so don't really need a special day for that.

I did get an e-mail from George, showing me the progress on my sewing cabinet. It now has the extensions and front doors on it. It looks soooooooo heavy, I just hope Tom and I will be able to get it down the steps to my cave. I do know it will get much used. Oh, a good news item!! I worked on a new BOM this weekend, using my FW, but because I can't locate the regular foot for it, was using the 1/4" foot, but that did not work well when trying to do diagonal stitiching for 1/2 square triangle blocks. I set that aside and tried again to make the Kenmore actually sew again. I put some heavier fabric in to sew on, so I could pull it hard if I needed to. Well, it would not sew forward, so I gave the fabric a yank backwards, and after a second or two, I heard the gears shift and it started sewing normally again. I was a very happy camper!

Put the FW away for the trip to Arkansas and finished the whole 12 blocks for the next BOM step. Then I cut pieces for the next lottery block for guild, which will get sewn today. I only have 2 more to make so I will not get behind while we are away. No mail today, so I should be getting a F8 bundle in the mail tomorrow, for a Carol Doak swap. I hope to get those 4 blocks done before we leave, but will have to see how that goes. Got lots of packing, loading, listing, etc. to do before we actually pull out, so some quilty stuff will not get done in the next 3 weeks.

I got a phone call today from the Mom of the bride who is getting the wedding quilt I have been working on for over a year. Needed the grooms name, as the bride changed her mind once before, after I started the quilt. Needless to say, putting the former groom-to-be's name on the quilt now would be ultra-tacky! LOL I now have the proper name, so I can start working on the label. I will be glad to see the last of that quilt, even tho it is lovely. It has been taking up space in my cave for almost 2 years, so it is time for it to go!

Well, it is now time for me to hit the sewing, because I do have to do something constructive today. Might as well be quilting, because tomorrow will be laundry and opping in the chatroom. Oh, ya, I get to be home alone again tomorrow, because Tom goes up to Dundas, MN to work on his steam tractor project. I really do like being home alone, because I get to do just what I want to. LOL Please don't tell him I said that, ok? That goes for you too, Morbida!

Well, I will see you later, have a wonderful day, and keep quilting.

Ele

Test driving a new quilt!!

Here is Edna, trying out her new birthday quilt. She has been bugging me for a green quilt for her, so this is what I made for her. Her big day was on Friday last week, but I figured I had to wait a couple of days, simply because we had house guests that she did not know. I think she looks pretty good laying on her Turning 20 quilt, even at 87 years old. And no, she did not fall asleep and start snoring!! She does do that, however. I got to stay home alone again today, as Tom went to work on the steam engine again. I did my 3 hours in the chat room, then went into town to deliver Edna's quilt, stopped at the post office and the grocery store, then back home. Just after I got home, the doorbell rang. Our renters had come to find out if I could jumpstart their car, as the battery was dead. I did not have cables in the van, so had to go out to the old corn crib to locate the battery charger, which they plugged in and used. Shortly after I came back in the house, they came and said the car had gotten started. It was fun trying to converse with them, as they don't speak much English and my Spanish is what I learned in high school, almost 50 years ago. LOL It was a fun afternoon. Now I am going to the cave, to cut and sew some 9-patch blocks that need to be sent off and received by next Sunday. I hope I can get it all done. All I can do is try.

Quilty hugs,
Ele, in Iowa, where snow is melting

Well, after a very busy, busy week for me, this is a fun moment at the end of the week. On Friday, I had the pleasure of teaching this nice lady how to sew my favorite teddy bear pattern, and here she is, holding her unstuffed, very first project. She made a couple of boo-boos, but after I made her rip the stitches and do it over, she had a nice looking critter to call her own. I sent her home with her very own usable pattern, the instructions for installing the nylon joints to make the arms and legs movable, a catalogue with the necessary supplies for making more bears, and a couple of estate sale chenille bedspreads she can use to make a bunch more teddy's. Joanne said she had so much fun learning how to do this, and she was very thankful to have my assistance. She was an excellent student. Tom said her hubby was an equally adept student, when they were outside in the orchard, pruning the apple trees. Jim has trees at his home in Minnesota that needed pruning, but he did not know how to do it, so he got showed!!! It is a necessary thing to do for the trees, and now he can help his own trees. LOL

Our weekend was wonderfully busy, as was our whole week, but now it is done, and we can get back to our lazy ways for a couple of days, before we start getting our stuff ready for loading into the motorhome, as we are getting closer to our Arkansas departure date. We are hoping the weather warms up some before we actually leave.

Today, we went to Nicollet, MN for the annual fish fry. We have gone on the first Saturday in February for that feast at least 15 years now. It is such a good meal, and we look forward to it all year long. We always meet a group of friends to share the meal with, and this year there were 14 of us, all eating beer battered pollack, German potato salad, creamy cole slaw, warm bread, and excellent coffee. Nobody went away hungry, I just know. After we eat that huge meal, we go around the corner and hit the famous meat market, to stock up on smoked summer sausage, made at the meat market. That is very good and this year we got a jalapeno flavored sausage that has a real zip to it. Should be wonderful on crisp crackers.

When we got done with all that, we headed to Mankato, MN to get Tom's glasses fixed. He lost the nose pad part of his specs, and we could not find how to repair them ourselves, so he put them on the dining table for about 2 weeks, knowing we could get them worked on today, so he wore an old, very scratched pair, and they are not good for his eyes any longer, so he was not doing well with reading and such. Now he is happier, because he can see again. They must have been in very bad shape, because the repair took almost an hour at Vision World! I think the girl working on them learned a couple of new words while working on them. One lens kept coming out of the frame, every time she was cleaning them before handing them back to Tom. She did some very bewildered frowning a couple of times, but was pleasant most of the time.

Left there and headed to Blue Earth, MN, so I could pick up my prescription refills at Wal-Mart. I also got some fusible interfacing to use for stabilizing some tender chenille I want to use to make a few teddy bears from. It is yellow and lovely, but very easily torn, so in order to make it a bit more sturdy, I will use the fusible, which will strengthen it a lot. I also picked up another box of my Mango/Peach tea, which is heavenly. I love the aroma of it while it steeps.

We left there and headed home finally. Seemed like forever since we were home, but it was just a few hours. lol Was glad to get home, as I really wanted to get to the basement and put more stitches in the wedding quilt, but alas, we both sat down in our recliners, and promptly fell asleep. When we woke up, we had to had a bit of left over soup for a quick, light supper, then back to the recliners, Tom to sleep and I to read some of my book. Now I am doing this and getting ready to head to bed. Does not seem that any stitching will be done tonight! I did take a couple of patterns off the computer to work on, and will most likely take them to Arkansas to work on, as they are small things, one is applique BOM and the other is a pin cushion thing to make.

I will be back tomorrow, to show you the green quilt I made for our friend's birthday, which was yesterday. I did not get the quilt to her yet, tho, as she was gone all day yesterday, and we were busy with house guests. She will get the quilt tomorrow, so I will let you see her with the quilt. I know, I know, this is supposed to be a quilty type blog, but sometimes I just don't get to quilt much. I want to, but it just doesn't happen the way it is supposed to. LOL

So, until I gift the green quilt, I will say good night, stay warm, think happy thoughts, and smile!!

Quilty hugs,
Ele

This is what my new sewing cabinet looks like on Feb. 1! I have doors! George is doing a great job on this, and will be very glad to have it in my house to use. He does great work with wood! Still not sure when it will be done and ready for me to use, but whenever that is, it can't be too soon for me. I am getting very impatient!

It was a very busy day for me today, and I am very glad to be back home, safe and sound. Tomorrow will be another busy one, but a bit different than today. I get to do "girl stuff" with my friend Joanne and her sister, up in Northfield, MN. We are going to go junk store shopping, so not sure what treasures I will find. Have a few things in mind to look for, but you never know just what will catch your eye. That is the fun of such excursions.

I did manage to get my wedding quilt worked on a bit yesterday, and actually turned on of the end boards 2 twists before I called it a night. The quilt is getting much narrower across the top now, so it is lots closer to being done, thank goodness. I do not worry that it will be off the frame by the end of this month. I also got another of my UFO tops done into a whole quilt, even the binding is done. Just have the label left to attach, which is what I am going to do next tonight. Feels good to have another ufo done, and that makes 2 off the list now. I will add that picture in the next blog. I am just too tired now to bother with it.

I'm off to do that label now, then have to get to bed, so I can be up and ready to roll about 7:30 in the morning. Another early day for me! I think I am getting too old for all these early mornings. LOL

More later.

Quilty hugs,
Ele

1. Here I am with Dr. Chee, as I present her with her "thank you" quilt I made for her. She was so surprised and happy to get it, almost as happy as Tom and I are with her and her wonderful care of me while dealing with the cancer last year. I had to go today, Groundhog Day, for my first follow-up visit. I got an all clear, with everything looking very good. I was a very happy person, needless to say. It was a good trip, and on the way home, God blessed us with the most beautiful light show! Sun shining thru heavy clouds and masses of blowing stuff below the clouds. The colors were awesome, and the whole thing changed like a slide show. It was such a lovely gift!

Wow!!! I can't believe it has been a whole week since I wrote in here last. I have been pretty busy this week with lots of different stuff. I had to get busy and send out a couple of packages, one to the east coast and one to the west coast area. The east coast one was a group of fat 1/8 fabrics for an online swap, and those were received. The one for the west coast is some Barbie doll quilts that are to be used for birthday gifts for a lovely set of twin girls, who's grandma is a sweet lady who comes in to chat in the room I monitor. I had fun making those little quilts, and even tho it was still quilting, they went very fast and I enjoyed the little break from my "have to" stuff. Thanks, Alexandra for letting me help!

The weather here has been just plain frigid, so I stayed home most of the time, and just stayed in my cave and worked on quilting stuff, so I feel like I have accomplished a lot this week, even if it doesn't look like it.

On Tuesday, I was doing something in my wallet, and happened to notice that my drivers license had expired last month, so it was a rush trip to the courthouse, about 25 miles away, to get that taken care of. Had no problem and have an official picture of me with almost hair! LOL Got just enough up there to make a shadow in the picture on the license, so if I ever get stopped and the law looks at my picture, not sure they will believe it is me. I just think that is so funny!

Wednesday I did my opping duties for the regular 3 hours in the chatroom, then worked on the wedding quilt for a while in the afternoon. We decided to go up to Rake for the chicken strip baskets for our supper, so got to chat with some friends from town while there. This little bar has a special on Wednesday nights of baskets for $2.oo each. Pretty good food, and very good price, so we go there when the weather is good enough. I usually choose the chicken strips and the potato wedges, but they have shrimp, fried fish filets, hamburgers, chicken breast sandwiches, and occasionally a hot ham and cheese sandwich. We also order and share an basket of onion rings. Makes for a decent meal, even without anything green.

On Thursday, I had to go to Mason City, to the hospital, for my mammogram. Have not gotten word of the results so far, but will let you know what it is. We did a bit of shopping at Fleet Farm, so now we can plant our garden again this year with all new seeds. We went to the Bonanza restaurant, for a lunch buffet, which was very good again, and only had to pay $5.00 per person, which is cheap for there. Our friend Edna went along for the ride and a bit of grocery shopping at Aldi's. Got back home about 5 to find emails on the computer telling us we were going to be getting company the end of this week. After we had a quick supper of soup, I had to head for quilt guild. Took my feather weight machine for sewing, but after I got her all set up and ready to stitch, I did not sew at all. The ladies asked me to lay out some of the charity blocks we have made, and then wanted to know if I would take the blocks home and sew them together. Of course I did that, knowing it will stretch me something awful this month. I actually brought home 2 sets of blocks to turn into tops. When I get them done, they will go back for finishing at another meeting, so the sewing part is not so difficult for me to do.

Yesterday I just worked on the wedding quilt, and also the Turning 20 quilt that came back from the long-arm quilter. That needs to be completed by next Friday, as it is to be a birthday gift for the lady who watches our house when we go to Arkansas in the spring. She is nutso for green, so this quilt is very, very, very green. I will put up a picture as soon as it is all done. That should happen tomorrow. I did more stitches on the wedding quilt today, and it is getting closer to being done, and I can hardly wait to see what the back of that one will look like. I already know what the top looks like, but the backs are always a surprise for me, but I refuse to cheat and look at the back while it is on the quilt frame. Maybe because I am not good at crawling around on the floor in my old age!! LOL

When our friends come on Thursday, we will first go out for supper, then back home. On Friday, I get to teach the wife how to make teddy bears and also how to paper piece. She will be taking that knowledge down to Mexico, where she and her hubby work at an orphanage they have adopted. She has been teaching the ladies in the area how to sew, so this is another thing for them to learn to make. I think they sell the stuff they sew, so they are happy to learn. They have already started making tote bags, and the bags look great. Will take some pics of the lessons on Friday, so they will be in here, too.

The husband gets to help Tom prune the apple trees, which is good to learn, as he also has apple trees but has no idea how to deal with them. Tom is a good teacher, so Jim will learn well!

On Monday, I have to go back to Mayo for my first check up after the cancer. Am a little concerned about that, but I am probably looking for trouble. I do have that lovely blue and white quilt to deliver to the cancer doctor, and will be doing that at about 2:30 in the afternoon. I have to have a blood draw, a chest x-ray, and a CT scan, before I get to see the doctor. Gonna be a busy day for me. We have to be there by 8:30 a.m., and we are 115 miles from that hospital, so we will have to leave before breakfast!

I am going on Tuesday this week, with Tom when he runs away from home again. He will be going to work on the steam engine again, and I get to spend "girl time" with a friend up in that area. She said we would be going shopping at resale shops and maybe the Goodwill store. She buys books, and I look for fabric for quilts. LOL We will make a great shopping team! We will have lunch out, then wait for Tom to get done with his fun, and head back home, hopefully to get here before I have to go to an online meeting at 8 p.m.

I am getting tired just thinking about all I have to do this month, but hope it will all work out ok. We are leaving for Arkansas in 36 days, and still have to get the stuff into the motorhome, which is a lot of work!! Oh, well, I keep saying that retirement and old age is not for wimps, it is a lot of hard work!!

On that note, I am going to bid you adieu, and say good night, too.

Quilty hugs,
Ele