MAGIC THIMBLE CREATIONS

It Took Two Days

2012-01-03T22:45:00.000-06:00

My last post I talked about the TV bought back in June, but not opened until two days ago. That left the huge TV box, which we will need when we move, and the old TV sitting in the living room. Well yesterday I managed to get the box up the steps to be stored on the main level of the house. That left the old TV sitting on the floor in the living room.

This morning I said to Bill I want to move that TV so the cat's don't ruin it. (Where the TV was sitting on the floor it was in their running path from the back of the basement, around the corner, into the living room and up the steps to the main level of the house. We have two cats and it is a real ritual for them to get their daily exercise by running up and down the stairs and all over the main floor up to the second or is that the third level of the house.) He said we would do that before supper.

We went into town for a bit this morning. When we arrived home Bill ate and I could tell he was tired, so he fell asleep in his chair, but not for long. Shortly after that he went to the couch for a proper nap. When he got up I mentioned the TV again. We both decided we could manage the TV. It is a slim TV, but 42". When it was sitting on the floor it didn't look big, in fact I thought about carrying it up myself. I am glad I didn't try, because that would not have worked. Since Bill can not walk backwards, I went up the stairs first. My balance isn't as good as it used to be and going up stairs backwards was difficult for me. The TV barely made it around the corner of the landing since these steps are enclosed. I had previously cleaned the area where the TV was to sit. Much to my surprise the surface area was large enough for the TV base, but the TV did not fit into the corner. Finally we got it set up. but the cord to attach the TV to the cable on the wall is a bit short, but I got it to work. Then I could not find the cable remote. Now for the rest of the story.........

The room we put the TV in has had all the end tables removed, loose item sorted and much of it removed, so I could not find the cable remote. So Bill returned to the basement, but I stayed upstairs for a while looking for the remote. I first looked through the things in and around the TV stand. NO LUCK. So I moved to the fireplace mantel, NO LUCK. So I decided to check the hearth, NO LUCK. While checking the hearth I found two metal boxes. I decided to go through one of the metal boxes and it was pictures.

Most of the pictures were from the 70's. Many of the pictures were of my nephew, because he was born in July of '76. This was also the time frame when we were building the house Bill and I are living in now, so there were many pictures of the two story garage and the basement of the house. A few pictures of other relatives and people I did not know. One picture of my first house, which was in the backyard of another house in Muncie, IN.  There was pictures of our house in Griffith, IN and a couple of floods both in IN and KY.  A few pictures of my first brand new vehicle bought in Feb of '79.

None of those pictures bothered me. Even the pictures of my maternal Grandfather's funeral. (He died in Yugoslavia, so they took pictures so my Mom could have some type of closure) Then a picture came up of this same Grandfather standing the in kitchen of his home. It was such a good clear picture of him smiling that sly smile of his I just started to cry. He died more then 20 years ago, but a few days ago I was chatting with someone who grew up in the area of Cleveland, OH where my Grandfather lived.   My Grandfather out lived 3 wives. I only knew his last wife and she was very dear to me. When we went to Cleveland we would usually leave after school and work. This started because my brother and I would sleep most of the trip. The trip for the most part was on a toll way and my Dad would drive all night. When we arrived at my Grandparents house it always smelled soooooo good. My grandparents had been busy preparing for us. All kinds of baked goods, but most of them were not the type we usually had at home. Mary, as I called this Grandmother, was a great baker. She made strudel from scratch. Usually she made cheese, my favorite, and apple. She made nut roll with white raisins in the nut filling and a really light fried cookie of some type. She kept that all in the basement. On the main level was home made noodles that were cut so thin they were like slivers. The home made bread had a coarse texture that held the butter. My Grandfather would make sure to go to Santa's.....a local store that made it's own sausage, smoked hams and had specialty luncheon meats depending on the season. They were all good. The best part of the food was the home made soups. I have Mary's soup pot. It is a porcelain cover iron pot. Very heavy.

I learned a lot from Mary and my Grandfather. They always had a large garden. My Grandfather taught us how to take slips from roses to start new plants. He also knew how to graft fruit trees, divide clumps of flowers and grew so many grapes he would make wine after all the jellies were stored. He had asparagus, rhubarb and mild green onions. Sometimes my grandfather would take us to the river. We may go just to play, sometimes we would go fishing and other times we just went there to wash his "machine" as they both called the car. Mary liked to sew and she would usually send an apron or two home with us. I think she made her own clothes and maybe some of my grandfather's clothes.

At least once while we were visiting my Grandparents would have an argument of some type. We never knew what the arguments were about, because they were speaking a foreign language, most likely Croatian. After my Grandparents sold their nice brick home they rented an upstairs apartment from family friends. The friends lived in the lower apartment. I remember it was near an elementary school and had an old wooden garage in the far back of the lot. One day my grandfather was in the garage and my father and I walked into the garage to greet him. My grandfather was always gracious to us and would greet us warmly. This day he acted funny immediately putting his hand in his pocket instead of hugging us. My Dad and him started exchanging greetings and just doing some general chatting when all of a sudden smoke started coming from my grandfather's jacket pocket. He had been hiding in the garage smoking a cigarette. Mary thought he had stopped smoking!!!!   He also never stopped drinking.

My last memory of my Grandfather was at Mary's funeral. They were catholic, but I am not sure how much they attended church. Mary's daughter was not catholic and she "took care of the funeral". I remember during the service my Grandfather crying and yelling out "That is not right!" and then he yelled out what Catholics believed. I cried then also, because my Grandfather's heart was broken.

Shortly after the funeral my Grandfather left for the "old" country to visit his family. When his brother died we were notified to go clean out his apartment. He decided to stay and take care of his Sister-in-law. When he died several years later we received a telegraph message. The only time I ever saw a telegraph message. It was written in broken English, but it was clear that my Grandfather had died. He is buried in what was then Yugoslavia, but may now be part of Croatia. Later we received pictures of his funeral. The one I remember the most was not in the pictures I saw today. It was of a beautiful wooden casket being carried through town by a horse drawn carriage. It was so old world. Today was the first time I saw the other pictures. The grave yard was nothing like ones we see here in the states. It also looked like some military or official uniformed men lead the processional.

One more thing about my Grandfather. He used to tell us he came over to the United States on a boat in a potato sack. I knew he was just pulling my leg, but it is a fond memory I have of my Grandfather. When I first started using the computer about 11 years ago I found a record of my Grandfather passing through Ellis Island. It recorded his name, age, destination, job status, who sponsored him and how much money he had.

2012-01-02T08:18:00.002-06:00

Yesterday being the first day of 2012 I had planned to write a post. That didn't happen. First, I stayed up too late the night before chatting with new friends, so I was tired. We went into town for breakfast and to see our adopted family. Ashlee was working as our waitress and usually her husband brings their 11 month old son in so we can see him. We were also hoping he would bring in his daughter so we could say good bye to her before she left to go home in AL. We learn in chatting with Ashlee that she had been sick since we last saw her on Christmas day. She also told us her son was cutting his back teeth and is not sleeping or eating. So the father, son and his daughter were staying home.

We did a little bit of shopping and then Bill decided to go see the rest of our adopted family. We got home about10 or 10:30am. I was sitting checking my mail and catching up on news when I heard noises in the back of the house. I knew Bill was back there, but thought he was just doing something in the kitchen.   Remember I was tired and the conversation we had had in the restaurant didn't make me figure out the noise. The noise continued so I finally got up to see what was going on in the back.

To help you make some sense of all of this a little background information is needed. Bill and I thought we were going to move back in June. We were bidding on a house, was going to have an auction at our house and we thought for a while we might be living in two different states for a while. Packing would need to be done here and someone would need to supervise repairs that needed to be done at the house in WI. We were shopping one day and saw a friend of ours was standing by the TV's. He was buying a 50" TV for his child's family as their TV died. He was telling us what an incredible buy the TV was and since a friend of ours works there we asked him about the TV. He looked over the specks and agreed it was a good buy. Since we had the truck and the back still had the sand in it for winter weight we went home to get the van. This was going to be the TV for the new house and our other TV would stay here until we finished moving. While at home I checked the TV out on the internet and it had good ratings. We went back and bought the TV, stored it in the back room and that is where it stayed. Needless to say the house deal fell through and we didn't take the offer made on our house. So the TV has been in the back room for over 6 months.

The noise in the back room was Bill getting the "new" TV out. We had talked about this in the restaurant earlier, but I have been hearing that we needed to get that TV out for over a month. So guess who had to connect the new TV!!!! You are right, ME! I knew it was wrong the first time, so I tried again.....no luck. We were trying to bypass the DVD player. That could not be done and I could not figure out why Bill wanted it that way. Then he said we could not use the DVD because he lost the remote. I sat on the couch and looked over to the table and there was the remote to the DVD player. Then he said he needed the other remote also. He needed the remote to the TV to be able to put the TV in the right mode. Guess what. He no longer needs that remote.....new TV!

Well I did get the TV connected and it is a nice TV. It has a better picture then the other TV. Now do you know why it was so important to get the TV hooked up yesterday? Wisconsin is playing in the Rose Bowl today. It would just be a shame to have to watch that ball game on a little smaller, but still nice TV.

Today I guess I get to put the TV box away....move the old TV to a new home within this house and cook. Well the cooking is started. I put the ingredients for two loafs of bread in the breadmaker.  The dough should be ready to make into loaves shortly. I don't bake in the bread maker.
I also have pea soup in the crock pot. If Bill doesn't want that for dinner he can have left overs.  I already have had my breakfast, made a dessert for Bill last night, so once I get the bread into the loaf pans I can move on to other things.....like the TV and box.

Bill went to town. He won't be back for a couple of hours due to the fact he must wait for a couple of places to open.

I do hope everyone has a great 2012. I plan to continue to pack things we don't need and sell things we really don't need at all. I am also working on some patterns.

GO BADGERS

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T09:41:00.001-06:00

Christmas being the celebration of the birth of Christ makes it an important day in many religions. I hope all who celebrate Christmas remember why it is being celebrated.

Bill and I are going to go visit our little adopted family today. I must take food for Bill to eat, because his Gallbladder needs to be removed after the holidays. So instead of all the great foods that will be offered today he will have mashed potatoes, peas that I will thicken the juice so he can use them as gravy and some gelatine. If they have venison he may have some of that as long as it is a shoulder as it doesn't have much fat.

Need to get going, as I need to get things ready.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. To everyone else I hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy your family and friends.

Peggy

Dad's Birthday

2011-12-22T21:40:00.001-06:00

Today was my Dad's Birthday and he had a visitor in the nursing home. Layne is the 9 month old son of a very special family we have "Adopted" since our families live in other states. This was Lanye and his 16 year old step sister's first visit with Dad.

I am mad at myself. As I was leaving work today I was informed that I would be layed off or is it laid off at least until mid to late January. I was shocked, but not really upset, by being layed off and forgot to visit Dad before going home. I will see him tomorrow. I guess he will just need to forgive me.

While I was driving the 18 miles home I was trying to decide what I wanted to do to help generate some more money. Since it is winter and I need to get back to my quilt pattern designing, testing and launching them to get my business going again. I will be offering some free patterns right here and announcing new patterns. Actually I have many patterns ready, I just need to review them and maybe make a new sample.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Peggy

Wow! I love the pictures on my last post!

2011-09-26T20:37:00.000-05:00

My last post was January 26, 2011. No I didn't fall off the earth, get kidnapped or anything else. That date was the day we put my Dad in a rehab center/nursing home. He had been in the hospital with pneumonia and congestive heart failure for about 2 weeks. We thought after a month of rehab he would be able to return home. That did not happen. Both my Mom and Dad are now in the Nursing home. They are in the same hall, but not the same room. My Dad's roommate is a younger man that is there due to not being able to walk and care for himself. Very nice guy that my Dad liked before he became a resident.So what did that mean for my husband and myself? The house without my parents also living in it made it too large for the two of us. We worked all spring and most of the summer trying to dispose of many years of collected stuff. That was not easy, because some things we didn't know what they were and if it was something we should keep or not. We had problems with too much rain in the spring and too much heat and humidity in the summer. That is why the pictures of the snow in my last post is something that looks nice to me.
Also during all of the sorting and cleaning I was designing
for Quilting Treasures, Little Golden Books - Shy Little Kitten
http://www.quiltingtreasures.com/stuff/contentmgr/files/ad70fc9ed7c752d15c7de07ece0db11b/download/shy_kitten_jan18.pdf

and Fancy Feline http://www.quiltingtreasures.com/stuff/contentmgr/files/fc7fbd11adbcbc17d727ce55abcd8614/download/fancy_felines_1_17_11_b2b.pdf

Several of my patterns are still on their web site.

When loved ones move to a Nursing Home it means going to where they are located as much as possible until they are settled. Then there are the Care Meetings, fiances, popping in at unusual times to check on the care or lack of it. Fortunately my parents are in a great facility. We really like most of the staff and the head of the section really listens to what we say. The down side is the middle of the night phone calls because of a fall and most of all seeing my parents go down. Mom celebrated her 86th birthday today. Early this year they celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. So I have been busy and looking forward again to the cooler weather of fall and winter.

Peggy

What? It is January 26, 2011?

2011-01-26T22:19:00.000-06:00

The past two weeks have been lost....I'm sure. Actually not, but I have not accomplished anything. My Dad ended up in the hospital with double pneumonia and congestive heart failure. He was released today from the hospital and is now in the same Nursing home as my Mom. He is there for Physical Therapy and they think he will come home. I'm sure in one sense that will make him happy to be back home, but sad that Mom will not be coming home with him.

On to nicer news. This morning we woke up to a beautiful scene. It started snowing last night right after dark and must have snowed most of the night. Look at the trees. That snow is still on the trees, but will disappear soon.

It is so pretty and bright even with the clouds overhead.

I hope I don't loose any more days this year.

Peggy

I Want A Part II

2011-01-04T23:06:00.000-06:00

I just watch the movie "The Notebook". Don't read all of the link if you have not seen the movie. What made me cry was what I saw and heard near the end of the movie and I started to write this post. Part II actual does happen at the end of the movie. I absolutly loved the way the movie ended.

Now why did this movie get to me so much. I'm a softy at heart.....I needed a good cry.....and

My Mom is in a nursing home due to the fact that she has forgot how to walk. She also has dementia. Some days she remembers the past and can talk about it. Other days she is living in the past, doing laundry, cleaning house and cooking dinner....all in her mind. Then there are the days Mom barely knows when we arrive at the nursing home. My Dad goes to visit her every day. Some days Mom is nice, responsive and even loving. Other days she says things or does something that hurts Dad's feelings. He is dedicated to her regardless of how she acts on any particular day.

The Nurses can see what my Dad is going through and do their best to cheer both Mom and Dad up daily. Many of the workers want to know where men like him are today. They want a man in their life as dedicated to them as he is to her.

I don't know the answer to finding that type of dedication other then honesty, working together for the same goal and love. That describes my parents and also my husband Bill and myself. I am so blessed.

Patchwork Times UFO Challenge

2010-12-31T21:14:00.002-06:00

Procrastination is part of my makeup.....not the type we put on our face, but the makeup of our being. I always admired quilters who actually finished projects, but I have many, many unfinished quilt related projects. So I am going to join Judy of Patchwork Times UFO challenge. One finish a month done by the number listed and drawn each month.

So here is my list. Some are easy to finish,binding and label, but others will require planning, much sewing and maybe by the end of the year they will be done. I am doing this from memory, because I can not get to the containers tonight and still make the dead line for posting.

Here is my list:

1. Make a quilt using the red and white basket blocks.
2. Bind the red/white/blue Lover's Knot.....ignore the quilting as it was my first
time to use a quilting machine and it has polyester batting.
3. Quilt,bind and label green baby quilt.
4. Finish quilting, bind and label twin retreat quilt.
5. Remember Me Baby Quilt. Four blocks are complete, two blocks just need circles
and three need to be appliqued. Want to complete the quilt.
6. Finish portable ironing board cutting mat carrier.
7. Finish or give away oriental lady applique.
8. Finish piecing, quilting, binding and label Layne's quilt.
9. Finish cat quilt.
10.Finish original design quilt with the brown, gold and yellow green quilt. I know it
sounds awful, but it isn't.
11. Piece quilt in box 1.
12. Piece quilt in box 2.

Eleven and twelve are already cut and some of the piecing is finished. I don't remember the patterns, but they are scrappy and were from an exchange with a quilt group.

Wow! I know this is very ambitious, but I want to finish or get rid of items that I no longer want.

Relapse

2010-12-29T15:56:00.002-06:00

I don't know what this "crud" (illness) is that many people have including myself, but I am really tired of coughing, phlegm and just not feeling good. It is not one of the flu's that the flu shot was to help, because my Dad had a flu shot and he has the same thing I have. Now it seems like Mom and Bill are both getting the same "crud". I hope not, but they both are getting something that is not normal.

My last post I thought I was getting better, WRONG!!!! I guess I was just forcing myself to work, but then I ended up stopping all sewing, working on the computer and just doing the general stuff around the house.

With the above said I am hoping the new year will bring us health and I can get back to working on patterns, quilts and making some money again.

Baby it's Cold Outside

2010-12-12T11:08:00.004-06:00

Not only is the temperature down by 25 degrees from yesterday, it is snowing and is windy. I took my Dad into town, 18 miles away to see my Mom at the nursing home. I was to go help a friend today, but we cancelled that little trip. When we arrived in town we noticed that the roads were covered with snow, slippery and the first street we went by had an accident. So we just grab a quick breakfast and stopped to see Mom. Then we headed home. We had to detour due to an accident, but we made it without incident.

This is our first snow of the year and I am somewhat in the south. Many people do not know how to drive in the snow and many more just plan don't know how to drive. I am not fooling about that, because daily you need to watch for cars turning into your lane and going at least 15 miles per hour slower then you were going. The same was true today, but they didn't realize that slowing down was more difficult today.

The other problem was the number of pick up trucks that have rear wheel drive, with no weight over the rear tires. Bill, dh, has a pick up with rear wheel drive, but last week he purchased 480 lbs of sand in bags that was placed over his rear axel. So Bill made it home as well as Dad and I. We are glad to be here.

Bill is going to watch sports on his new TV and I am going to sew, because I am so far behind due to being sick.

Maybe I will have some pictures soon.

2010-12-12T11:08:00.001-06:00

One Week

2010-12-11T20:45:00.008-06:00

It has been one week and I promised myself to write. So here I am again. This past week I worked on projects that I can not show you yet. Maybe in a couple of weeks after I get the OK from the companies I am working for I will show you. Actually I didn't work as much as I had planned, because this cold I have is really taking all my energy out of me. This afternoon I sat down around 3pm and fell asleep. Two hours later when dinner should have been ready I was just waking up. Bill said he checked on me a couple of times because I was not moving. It is not yet 9pm, but I am going to go to bed. Night!

One

2010-12-11T20:45:00.005-06:00

One

2010-12-11T20:45:00.003-06:00

One

2010-12-11T20:45:00.001-06:00

I've made a promise to myself!

2010-12-04T12:33:00.002-06:00

Wow it has been almost six months since I have made a post to this blog. I have been here a few times trying out new backgrounds etc, but have not felt like writing. So today I have made a promise to myself to do my best to write once a week.

What have I been doing for 6 months? Hmmmmmmm!!!!! Well until about a month or so ago, well maybe two months I have been doing very little. The heat and humidity was just too high to feel like moving. I should have been creating, but that wasn't happening either. Basically I just transported Dad to and from town so he could be with Mom in the nursing home, did the laundry and cooked a little.

Bill and I did make a trip to WI in early fall. We went up at two different times, so I was not away from home as long as Bill. Then late in October we went to Branson, MO and Fort Smith, Arkansas. We were not gone long, but it was a relaxing trip. We stayed in a fishing cottage right at the lakeside. We didn't fish, but it was nice to know others were catching fish. I did a lot of sewing and enjoyed not having to leave the cottage. Bill went shopping and I stayed put.....now I know that doesn't sound right, but Bill had some things he wanted to buy. The place he went to had many little booths and they seemed to add new items daily. I did go shopping one morning. I was looking for something special at a quilt shop. It took two trips to the same shop, but I found what I was looking for on the second trip.

While at home this fall I have designed a few quilts and pieced a few for Quilting Treasures. I have also tested some small items for various designers and magazines. I have a baby quilt to make for a friend. Her due date was in February, but now the Dr said she will deliver anytime after the first of the year. I have the design, and the fabric is washed. My favorite iron died so I bought a new one. Still have not ironed the fabric. I still need to finish another quilt and a pattern, then I will do the baby quilt.

Must go now...pick up Dad and head towards home. Leftovers for dinner, so maybe I can get some sewing done.

Until next week,

Peggy

Where am I , Part Two

2010-06-19T21:50:00.000-05:00

Where am I now ? Part two! If you have not read the first part do so now.
To continue my sage of where I am now I must go back to staying in the little sleepy town. I slept well and actually slept in. I knew the last leg of my trip would not take as long as the first leg, so I just took my time. It was breakfast time and I knew the place I wanted to eat was about 16 miles away. I made the pleasant drive on the curvy road taking in the scenery. Cows with calves, newly planted soil, various shades of green in the leaves of the trees and lots of “weeds” blooming. I love the terrain in this part of the county, because the hills must be planted in curved rows and the farmers will plant corn, soy beans and wheat in groupings of rows around the hills. It kind of reminds me of a quilt with curved rows.
The reason for the beautiful terrain in this area happened during the last glacial period when the ice was retreating; no excess materials were left behind. So ridges are deep due to lack of fill. I will describe more of this area later.
I walked into my favorite bakery in even a smaller town then I had stayed the previous night. I was greeting warmly. I told the owner “Bill kicked me out” and she laughed, because she was telling Bill the last time he was there to send me up to see and he stay home. Breakfast was wonderful as usual then I bought some bread and cookies and was on my way again. I had a little business to take care of in this town then left using the same road again heading north. I knew as long as I was either going north or west I would eventually reach my destination.
I went through many small towns. Almost all of the towns were near the river I was following. It was nice to see the pride the people took to keep the towns clean, manicured and pretty. Many of these old river towns have lots of history including some of the Laura Ingalls Wilder stories from The Little House on the Prairie books. Yes, the Ingalls did live in this part of the country when she was a very young child.
The cumulus clouds above were bright white with the background of a vivid blue. The sky was very different from the previous day on another part of my trip. I spotted a strawberry patch just a few feet down a side road, so I stopped. I didn’t want to take the time to pick berries, so I just bought some along with some blueberries and a few tomatoes.
As I was traveling I again was taking in the terrain. Some parts of the landscape just seemed to jute out of the ground into a very high plateau. These areas would allow a person to see miles and miles if you were atop the giant structure.
Historical markers were about every 10 or 15 miles. I didn’t stop to read many, but I notice some marked where previous Forts had been located right along the river.
When I was getting close to the end of my journey I had to again cross a “mighty” river that didn’t look so mighty at this location. The weather is cool and the humidity is reasonable. I am a little north of two cities that the mighty river divides. Have you guessed where I am located?
I actually am just north of St Paul MN at the edge of Hugo. Yesterday I visited the town of White Bear Lake where I spent some time in two very different from each other Quilt Shops. I have had a great time, rested and am now ready for my trip home. I plan to go south via the Mississippi River road but this time in MN instead of WI like I traveled on the way up. I will take my time traveling and will stop at a few towns along the way. When I arrive home I am sure I will wish I was back north as I have heard the weather in KY is very hot and equally humid. I am not looking forward to the hot weather, but am looking forward to being again with Bill, Dad, Mom and friends.
Until next time,
Peggy

Where am I?

2010-06-19T08:49:00.001-05:00

Where am I? Right now I am sitting in my friends Debby and Mark’s dining room. I was looking at my mail, but the wireless connection I was using is no longer available. Debby has not come home from work and Mark is busy doing other things, so I decided to write in word until I can post.
As you may or may not know my dear husband, Bill, and I watch after my parents. One of the things we do is to make sure my Dad is taken to town every day so he can spend about 4 hours every day with my Mom in the Nursing Home where she resides. This is kind of wearing at times, but we would have it no other way. Bill and I usually take turns providing the transportation, but since Tuesday afternoon Bill has been doing all the transportation. I am sure he is wore out by now, because we have other duties to do, the weather at home is really hot and humid and that also means 4 hours in town for the one providing the transportation. So where am I????? Well as I say “Bill kicked me out!!!!!!!!” Not really, but he did tell me I needed a break and decided I should leave home for a few days.
I took Dad into town Tuesday morning. Then I went directly to the DR for my 6 month checkup. My appointment was scheduled for 9:45 am. I was hoping to leave town by 11:00am, but as you know, DR’s run on a different schedule. Sometimes it is a patient’s fault, but more often than not the DR has over scheduled, took a phone call or did something else to delay the people waiting. I left the office at 11:30 or so. Went to two banks and met Bill at our favorite restaurant. We ate a quick meal and I was on my way……heading north!
As many of you know we have many relatives north of KY. We also have several friends north of KY, but I choose to visit the friends farthest away. They graciously welcomed me. It did take me two traveling days to get here. The first day I was delayed by the DR, spent more than an hour in a Truck Stop waiting for the bad storms to pass. The rain was actually travelling parallel to the ground. I did get wet running from the van to the door of the Truck Stop, but some nice man opened the door for me…..Thank You!
After the wait at the Truck Stop I continued my journey. I had a goal to reach a certain destination, but was not sure I would make it. My journey was to soon take me down unfamiliar roads. The weather had cleared, traffic was not bad and since I had a bit of a rest I was feeling good. I made it through my first “city” with no problems. It would be a long time before I see another city of any size. My journey has now taken me a little west by northwest. It was about 10:30pm when I realized I was going to be travelling near a friend’s home. I had also earlier passed another friend’s home, but my destination for the night was still in mind. The sky was clear. In fact there was a beautiful crescent moon that seemed to be setting changing color from a shocking white to a fall harvest orange color.
Construction signs everywhere….all directions, so I just followed a recently created ”one lane road” that took me into a new state and around a cluster of 4 cities than eventually a new direction, North. My destination for the evening was now doable, but I would arrive late, about midnight. I really took a chance that a room would be available in the motel in the little town I was aiming to reach before I sleep.
As I entered the sleepy town I pulled over and called the motel to be sure a room was available. One was waiting for me when I arrived. Now, time to rest…….more hints to be posted at a later time.

Time Out

2010-06-06T11:59:00.002-05:00

Today I have decided it is important to take some "Time Out" to write a bit in my blog. I can't believe that it has been so long since I last posted. No wonder people have called and written to me to find out if we are all OK.

Since I last wrote either Bill or I have taken Dad into town everyday so he can spend some time with Mom. He arrives in the morning at the nursing home and stays through lunch. Then we go home and he usually will do his scratch off lottery tickets, does the crossword puzzle in the paper and takes a nap. He has really cut back on his activities, because his balance seems to be going down hill.

Mom has good days and not so good days with her memory. Most days she can carry on a sensible conversation, but other times she will talk about stuff that makes no sense. Bill is really good talking with her when she makes no sense, because he will go along with what ever she wants to talk about even if it is way out. The other day she was talking about doing the laundry. Bill told her that she didn't do his laundry and she responded..."I don't wash clothes that are not in the laundry basket." For the longest time I could not figure out what she was talking about when she mentioned the children playing or the babies she held. Then one day I saw one of the workers with her baby in the nursing home. The workers bring their babies and children in ofter as well as some of the daycare children schedule regular visits.

Our drive way is mostly hill. This past year or so we have had extreme amounts of rain some of which came down hard. Our gravel drive washed out with very deep ruts. We were finally able to get someone out to fix the drive, cutting in a new ditch and added a bit of gravel. So far it has held and packed nicely. Next we need to cut down some of the trees limbs that overhang into the drive.

Bill and I planted a few vegetable plants in pots at the house. We no longer do the big garden. I think he will be harvesting a tomato very soon. We also have a hot pepper ready, but I am in no hurry to pick it.

Well it is time for me to pick up Dad from his visit with Mom.

Till next time...

Peggy

As the World Goes Around

2010-03-23T21:39:00.002-05:00

March is nearly over and so is winter. The snow and cold weather lasted longer this year, so we are just seeing signs of spring. I am not looking forward to summer with all the heat and humidity. Bill and I noticed how much colder it felt here then it did in WI when we arrived home earlier this month. The dampness made the same temperature feel colder even with no snow on the ground.

I have been working on a couple of quilts. One is ready to be sandwiched and quilted for Quilting Treasures. The other is made up of many....many triangles. I make headway on it daily, but it seems to be taking a long time to make. I only need to get the top done and I am to the point of sewing the block units together. It will be done before long. I guess most of the quilts I have made lately have had picture panels that don't require lots of piecing, plus most have been smaller.

Well I wrote much more on this post, but lost it. I will just make a note that Mom, Dad and Bill have had a twenty four hour bug that started at the nursing home, but all are better now.

I will write more when I have time.

On My Design Wall

2010-01-04T16:38:00.007-06:00

My actual time for creating has gone down over the past few years due to care of my parents. At any one time in the past I may have been working on any number of quilts. Now it seems I only work on quilts when I am making one I can't show you because it is for a fabric company. So today I am going to show you what I am working on. It is not a quilt, but I am using up some of my stash.

I am working with a new product distributed by Superior Threads called Texture Magic. I actually am a Rep in Western KY and Western TN plus a bit of IN for the company. I had to put some of my rep work on hold for a while until Bill and I can work out a schedule. When he gets home from Wisonsin we will decide who will take my Dad to the nursing home to see my Mom. In the mean time I will be working on samples when I am not in town with Dad.

The way Texture Magic works is that it is sewn to the back of a piece of fabric that you want to add a texture to the surface. You can sew in grids, feathers, random methods, stipple and actually us this as a time to practice machine quilting or try out a new design. These can be close together or far apart.

I sometimes just follow the pattern on the fabric.

Then the fabric is steamed (if using an iron to steam be careful to not touch the Texture Magic with the hot iron). The Texture Magic fabric will shrink up to 30% leaving the Texture Magic side flat and the fabric side puffed. At that point the fabric can be cut for quilts, clothing, purses, pillows etc. After it is steamed the Texture Magic is soft and silky and washable.

The places where the stitching is close the fabric creates a fine texture. The areas stitched far apart will shink the most, but the fabric will lay in folds. The folds may change with use. Soon I will cut this piece and add other fabrics to make a purse and/or a pillow. I think the scraps can be used in applique as trees.

Jan. 3 stash report

2010-01-03T19:03:00.002-06:00

As I am sitting here in front of my computer making my first stash report of the year I really don't want to complain, but I am freezing. Yes, the furnance is running, so is the humidifier, but I hate electric heat. I have on an undershirt, 2 T-shirts and my longer winter jacket on top. Bottom underpants and flannel long pants, socks, fuzzy high top slippers,and a fleece blanket wrapped around. Actually right now it is only my nose, feet and hands that are cold. So I am going to use that as my excuse for not sewing, well it works for me! My report is Nothing Gained and Nothing Lost! Actually I am going to try harder this year and stop looking for excuses. I just need to get some work done. If I use up fabric wonderful. If I don't I will enjoy what everyone else is doing.

Happy New Year,
Peggy

As the year ends.....

2009-12-31T21:19:00.003-06:00

The year 2009 has been a year of much contrast. The year started out with much hope and enthusiasm, but as it progressed we could see the writing on the wall that old age or illness brings to those we love. This year several people I loved passed on to a better place. Others have had to move to places that can give them better care then their loved ones could give them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year.

My Mother had been going down mentally for many years, but this year she changed by leaps and bounds at times. We had visits with several close relatives and I am sure she some of them she had no idea who they were and why we were having dinner with them.

Bill and I made a trip to WI before the weather turned bad back in mid November. When we left Mom was having some physical problems with her walking, but she could walk and take care of her personal self. When we returned from our trip we noticed a difference in her, but didn't realize until a few days later how much she had changed in just a little over a week. Right before Thanksgiving she could no longer walk. Bill and I transported her where ever she needed to go in the house. Finally, when we were spending more time taking care of her then sleeping during the night and Bill, Dad and I were exhausted, we didn't ask her, we told her that she was going into the hospital the day after Thanksgiving. We knew she was ill, but did not realize that if we had waited many more days I would be telling you now that we lost my Mom, but instead I am going to tell you that she is now in a Care Center. After 5 days in the hospital, many doses of anti-biotic and diuretics she is better.

Unfortunately, she still can not walk on her own. Physically she can walk, I have seen her do it, but mentally she has trouble getting her brain to tell her legs to move. I guess there is hope that she will walk again, but not much when you know that within two hours of eating a meal she does not remember eating. Doesn't she look good in the piture above with my Dad taken a couple of weeks ago.

Mom wants to come home, but our house isn't set up to handle a person in a wheel chair. She doesn't get upset when we leave her, but she worries about my Dad. I too worry about my Dad. He is so sad to have to leave Mom when we visit her every day. The two of them have been together for nearly 64 years. The only time they were apart was when my brother and I were born, an operation or two plus a few hunting and fishing trips my Dad took when we lived near his family. They were also apart when the weather man predicted partly cloudy weather and we ended up with 27" of wet snow. My Dad was not far away, but he could not come home from work for nearly a week.

So far we have made sure Dad visits with Mom at least once a day, but with the winter weather just starting it is a day to day option.

Bill is in Wisconsin right now. His son had an operation to fuse some vertebrae in his neck. That happened Dec. 29th and all reports are he is doing well, but Bill had to leave Christmas morning and I miss him dearly. On Dec. 24th we received a phone call from Bill's sister early in the morning. Bill's younger brother had a heart attack and died at the young age of 51. Tim, Bill's brother, left this world without seeing the joys of any of his three children getting married or having children.

Several friends and relatives have died this year, several others have found out they have cancer or other diseases. It is interesting to see how each has made the best of the time they have. For instance,one person started a butterfly garden and cared for it at a local school while she was fighting and lost the battle to cancer. Another is legally blind, but every week she and a friend take either dogs or cats to the local assisted living or nursing homes for those living there to see and pet the animals.

Several people we know that have passed this year,made trips to the local restaurants for a meal and never let the rest of us know how sick they really were,until we heard they had died. They would share with us who were willing to listen, a love of life that included stories. These stories have taught me much history, made me laugh and made me cry.

I count my blessings every day to have been touched by so many good people in this world. I also hope that I continue to see others live life to the fullest.

We now must look to the new year that is approaching quickly, not with sadness, but with hope and courage. Let's not sit and feel sorry for ourselves, but let's try to make life better for others which in turn will make life better for everyone.

Happy 2010 to everyone reading my blog and I do promise to write more and show you some exciting pictures and tell a story or two.

Peggy

Missing in Action

2009-09-23T22:18:00.004-05:00

It has been so long since I have posted here I forgot how to post. Well not really, but I hit the wrong key and my process of changing the title became a post. I hope I recovered it without confusing someone who happens on the title while I am working.

Where have I been for almost 3 months. Would you believe here at home, just not inspired to post. Well finally I feel like I have something to share. I have discovered a new product. It is called Texture Magic by Superior Thread. It is easy to use by sewing it to the back of your fabric with an overall grid or free form pattern. Then with the Texture Magic fabric facing upward it is steamed. While holding the iron or streamer above the Texture Magic it begins to shrink. It shrinks 30% in all directions giving your main fabric texture.

The great thing about it is it makes my poor free form stitching look great. I will post a picture later today of what I am doing. In the mean time look here and here.

Week 26 Stash Report

2009-06-28T14:36:00.003-05:00

Judy indicated this week is the half way point. My use of fabric is behind my goal of 100 yards, but at least I am not adding much fabric to my stash. This week has been hot, hot, hot! Storms have also taken out the electric several time in the past few weeks. One time from about 1 am to nearly 1pm.

I did some sewing this past week, but it was for others and some not much fun. I hemmed two pairs of jogging type pants and am now working on a simple curtain. I could not find the thread color I needed a couple of nights ago or the curtain would be done and out of the house. Now my goal is to get it done by Thursday when they come home for a while.

This week may be busy with all the Freedom Fest activities, but who knows what we will actually watch. We have tickets for the concert and fireworks on the 4th, but weather will be a factor I'm sure. I am not going to sit outside if it is really hot and humid.

Here is this weeks report.

Fabric used this week: 0 yards

Fabric bought this week: 0 yards

Fabric used this YTD 23 5/8yards

Fabric bought YTD 1 3/4yard

Stash busted YTD 21 7/8 yards

Week 24 Stash Report

2009-06-14T19:12:00.005-05:00

I have not made a report for several weeks due to the fact that everything stayed the same. While we were on our trip I asked to stop at a Bernina Dealership that was located near the Eastside Mall in Madison, WI. We went to where we remembered it being located and different stores we in the building. I wanted to purchase a couple of pigma pens and a Clover White Marking pen. I thought I was going to be good by not going to a place that sells fabric.

Well as you can see below I went to a quilt shop and purchased 3 fat quarters. I went to Mill House Quilts in Waunakee, WI. Check their web site here and then you can congratulate me on only making the purchases in the picture.
Fabric used this week: 0 yards

Fabric bought this week: 3/4 yard

Fabric used this YTD 23 5/8yards

Fabric bought YTD 1 3/4yard

Stash busted YTD 21 7/8 yards

I was very, very good, because I still had some of my birthday money!
Peggy

"The Rest of the Story" About Our Trip

2009-06-12T15:24:00.003-05:00

Bill and my trip started with attending my Aunt Shirley's funeral. Since we had already traveled from Kentucky to NW Indiana we decided to continue on north to visit with relatives and friends in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Every move was planned before we left home and all went well. The weather was so nice with the cooler temperatures and lower humidity. Spring flowers were just blooming and the farmer's crops were either just being planet or had just started to green up the ground with their glory. The winter wheat was still growing and a vivid green.

We spent the first night near Bill's home town so we could go to the bakery in Bloomington, WI early to see friends and relatives before they started their work day. I love the bread at the bakery, so I had some wheat toast with my breakfast and also bought two loafs to take with us.

Our adventure really started after we left Bloomington early in the afternoon. We first took the River Road on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi north to LaCrosse WI. Then we crossed the Mississippi into Minnesota and continued following the river on the opposite side. Late in the afternoon we stopped in Wabasha, MN. This is the town that the movie "Grumpy Old Men" was based. We were disappointed to find out that the movie was not filmed there, but just based on some of the activities, people and places in the area. I wish we had more time to spend in the area, but we had to move on.

Our destination that night was Hugo, MN where we stayed with friends. We really just enjoyed each other's company due to the fact that Mark had only been out of the hospital a few weeks after having bypass surgery. Debby and Mark's home was so comfortable and the cats welcomed us to the point of one sleeping with Bill and I the second night. We sat out on the patio and enjoyed the lovely weather. Bill and I were both amazed at how late in the evening the sun was still shining and how early the sun was peaking through our window in the morning.

When we left MN we headed back to WI. We met Bill's son at a restaurant in Sauk City. He had an appointment there later in the day. Then we went on to DeForest to watch grandson Devin's baseball game. Devin is 11, so the ball skills are really starting to delevop enough in the kids to make the games exciting to watch.

As soon as Devin's game was over we headed to our destination for the evening. We were spending a couple of night's at Bill's nephew Eric and his girlfriend Melisa's
home. This was arranged so we could see Bill's sister Phyllis, niece Kelly, niece Jody and Bill's God Son Mitchell. Bill's son also joined us for the day, so we talked....talked...laughed and just enjoyed each other's company.

Now for what I call the rest of the story. The picture above shows what the front of our van is to look like....minus all the bugs.
This is what it looks like now, after a baby racoon and us met on the road. As you know today's cars are molded and that little hole is between a $1600 and $1700 to have repaired. The condensor was bent and will need to be replaced. Also the boot that keeps the drips from the air conditioner out of the interior of the van is missing. So until we get the van fixed the rug under my feet will be wet. That is unless the humidity and temperature drastically drops here in KY and that is not likely to happen.

We did manage to go to the Farmer's Market on the Square in downtown Madison WI. We didn't buy much, only things we can not grow or get in KY. Two bundles of fresh Rhubarb, a pound of Asparagus and some cheese.

We spent the rest of Saturday with JR and family. Devin spent the night with us in the motel and he went to the indoor swimming pool twice. He wanted to stay there longer in the pool, but I knew we needed to meet his parents early in the morning so we could have breakfast together and Bill and I could be on our way home.

Bill and I took turns driving home. Actually Bill did most of the driving and I slept. I did drive a few hours while Bill took a nap. We sure hated to leave WI. I have one more item to tell you about, but that will be in my post Sunday.

Peggy

Shirley Fae Aumiller

2009-06-10T15:26:00.002-05:00

Bill and I recently returned from a trip. It was an unplanned trip, but not a surprise trip. My Aunt Shirley passed away at the age of 90 years and I think 348 days. Normally I would not post obituaries, but this one was so well written by her daughter I have included the link here. I don't know how long it will be on line, but it is well worth reading. It also includes her picture which shows so much of her personality.

My Aunt Shirley was a kind woman. She enjoyed people and always had a smile on her face when you stopped by to see her and her family. We stopped by unexpected one day to discover that my Uncle and her were remodeling the house. I'm sure my parents knew they were working on the house, but I did not know. If any of you have taken down plaster walls I am sure you are aware of the dust and mess it makes. Not in their house! Some how they managed to keep the house clean while remodeling! I remember her house was always neat, clean and shiny. The yard was well cared for also.

I don't know if this is correct, but in the back of my mind I remember my Aunt Shirley playing baseball at one of our family picnics. She also joined many of the relatives in active...and I recall noisy, games of bunco.

My parents, Bill and I were at her 90th birthday party last year. She was so happy to see those who were able to attend. Bill and I were very happy to be able to take my (Dad and Mom) to see his sister one last time while both were still able to enjoy each other's company.

My cousin Shirley Jean had kept us informed about her mother's decline. It was my job to keep my Dad informed. A few days before she died I told my Dad that Aunt Shirley was very near to her death. Seeing that my Dad spent time with my Aunt when he was young I noticed he was emotional about the announcement. When I learned about her death Bill and I went up to tell my parents. At first my Dad showed little emotion and started to talk, but then said I will tell you something tomorrow and started to cry. The next day he told us that Aunt Shirley came to visit him during the night before she had died. So he was not surprised she passed. Bill asked if they had a nice conversation and he said they did. They were very close even if the two of them didn't see much of each other after both left NW Indiana.

I feel fortunate to have know my Aunt Shirley and know that she is now resting in peace in Heaven with our Lord, his son and the rest of the family who proceeded her.

Stash Report

2009-05-17T21:05:00.004-05:00

Mine stash has not changed at all for weeks on end. I have been busy sewing a quilt for Quilting Treasures for them to show at Market. ( http://magicthimblecreations.blogspot.com/2009/05/busy-month.html ) Judy's rules indicated that we don't count that fabric that came in and most of it went out again. Also with it being spring the garden had to be planted. We also had company and took a trip with them to Talladega, AL so most of them could go to the NASCAR races. I stayed with Bill's nephew's family and watched it on TV.

I have been very good to resist going to a friend's home to get fabrics that are being given away. My friend is in a nursing home with multiple problems including her memory. She will spend the rest of her life there, so her husband is going through her stuff and giving away things that their immediate family does not want. He offered it first to the local quilt guilds and the remaining sewing craft stuff is going to a charity store we have in town. So all of her stuff will be going to good causes.

Peggy

A busy month

2009-05-17T20:26:00.004-05:00

It has almost been a month since I last posted. For those of you who know me I think you know why I have not posted. This spring has been a rather wet one in KY and whenever we could get outside we were mowing, gardening, repairing things that got broken etc. While in the house it was the usual stuff of cooking, cleaning, laundry and we had company plus we took a short trip with the company.

Beside all the normal spring stuff we had to take our dog into the veterinarian because she was bit on the leg by a poisonous snake. We caught it in time so she didn't have any permanent damage, but she did spend 2 days in the hospital and 2 days in the kennel because we had no way to keep her contained. He hind leg was bit, it swelled up and was tender. She responded well and is just fine now. Five days after we picked up our dog she had a seizure. It was unrelated to the snake bit, but she did go back to the veterinarian on an emergency call just to be sure she was alright. We brought her home the same evening and she has been fine ever since.

I also made a quilt for Quilting Treasures to display at Market that just happened in Pittsburgh. The picture we took of the quilt before sending it off isn't very good, but I will post it for you to see. The fabric will come out in August and is called Pink Ribbon Signature Collection II by Karen Neuburger. It is soft pinks, blues, yellows and white with butterflies, flowers, dots and the breast cancer ribbon. I love the designs and managed to use each of the 12 fabrics from the collection in one quilt. I posted the EQ image and then the bad picture of the real quilt.

It us beyond me why I have an undeline now. The color was also blue and print was bold. I could fix that, but not the underline. So I will end for now.

Peggy

Quilt Show Conversations

2009-04-22T20:59:00.002-05:00

Bill and I had to make a trip to town today to pick up some things before our trip to Alabama. We also attended a meeting this morning concerning our neighborhood, but that is another story all together. Due to the meeting we ended up in town at lunch time. Normally we have coffee in town between the breakfast and lunch crowd, so those eating lunch today were not the people we normally visit with in the mornings. The restaurant was busy so we took an end table for one or two people. The tables in the restaurant are set close to each other and it is difficult to not hear what the conversation is at the next table. So this is what happened at the next table of 3 people when we sat down. It ended up being 4 people at the table 3 men and a woman.

The man sitting close to Bill was talking about the winning quilt at the AQS Quilt show being held in Paducah this week. He knew all about the quilt, who made it, where she was from, that she was arriving today, how long it took her to make the quilt etc. I didn't really think that was so unusual to hear that conversation, but then he continued to talk saying "I really want to see that quilt. The last time I went to the show it was so much fun. Everyone is so talented and friendly." That also was not unusual, but then he continued: "I think I will go tomorrow. Everyone is so much nicer then those at the "Harley Davidson Rally".

I have never been to a Harley Rally, but I know many who have attended them. Everyone seemed to come back and indicate they enjoyed the get together. I am glad to know at least in this man's eyes that quilters are nice, have talent and he enjoys our art. The third man came back to the table and they left, so I didn't have the oportunity to talk with the man, but I am happy to share what he had to say.

I have attended many of the AQS shows, but had to stop due to allergies to the building. I can't wait to hear reports from everyone about the new improvements at the Cherry Convention Center and the Executive Inn. Maybe I will be able to attend in the future if it is as nice as the news media said it is now.

More later,
Peggy

Stash report Week 15

2009-04-12T13:10:00.003-05:00

I had a seizure early Monday morning, so this week is a big zero as far as any work being done. On the plus side it was a big zero for adding fabrics also. Usually if I have a seizure I am OK immediately after, but this one was different. I only did what I absolutely had to do this week and the rest of the time I slept. I was so glad I had some meals made and in the freezer.

Next week I will be working with someone elses fabrics and I won't be able to show you the results until Mid May when the quilt is displayed at Quilt Market.

Happy Easter to everyone.

Peggy

Week 13

2009-03-29T22:41:00.003-05:00

Fabric used this week: 0 yards

Fabric bought this week: 0 yard

Fabric used this YTD 23 5/8yards

Fabric bought YTD 1 yard

Stash busted YTD 22 5/8 yards

I am doing some work for someone else, so it doesn't count. I did post the pattern from last weeks report here.

Peggy

Spring Awakenings

2009-03-24T16:03:00.004-05:00

This is my 100th post to my blog. I want to celebrate this by sharing a pattern with you that was shown in my last post.

Early in the spring at the garden is a small 4 petal purple flower growing in the grass. That flower is what inspired me to create and share this pattern. If you click on the title it will take you to the pattern which you may download and print. This was my first time to create and share with a pdf file using the new Adobe 9.1 reader, so if you have a problem let me know. If you don't have adobe you will need to download it free to open the pdf file. I have included lots of color pictures to make it easier for you to put the design together.

I originally created the design using variations of deep red and orange as shown in the picture. When I started thinking about the flowers of spring in this area most of them are shades of purple, yellow or white with an occasional pink. Lots of yellows and orange flowers start appearing early summer.So I changed the design to purples.

Enjoy,
Peggy

Spring and Week 12

2009-03-22T21:51:00.009-05:00

This past week was very evenful. We had company from MN. We celebrated my birthday. Plus the first day of spring arrived. All of this was very exciting and I must say again "Another week with no sewing."

So my report hast not changed.

s5r4ttttt (cat chat)

Fabric used this week: 0 yards

Fabric bought this week: 0 yard

Fabric used this YTD 23 5/8yards

Fabric bought YTD 1 yard

Stash busted YTD 22 5/8 yards

The good news for everyone is I have designed a pattern to share with everyone. Above is a picture of the design. I will share it this week when I post my 100th post on my blog.

Peggy

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-03-18T20:53:00.003-05:00

It was a wonderful day today. The weather was perfect. Bill our friend Bobbie and I went fishing. We had a great time. Bobbie caught the first fish. Then Bill and Bobbie took turns catching fish and Bobbie even caught a turtle. Bill told me we were leaving at 2:30pm and I needed to get busy and catch a fish. I still had the same worm I started with several hours ago. At 2:25 Bill started taking things to the car. I put on a new little piece of worm and was determined to catch a fish before he carted me off to the car. I did! I caught a yellow perch.

Too bad I forgot my camera! We caught bluegill, yellow stripes, bass and yellow perch...oh and a turtle. I bet if they were all put together the whole bunch would not of weighed a pound. So needless to say we brought nothing home but good memories and warm hearts.

Traditionally Bill and I fish for the first time each year on my birthday. We have done this every year since we have been married. Some years the weather was nice like it was this year. Usually then we don't catch much. Some years it has rained or was windy and we caught enough for a meal for Bill, my parents and myself.

Fishing is one of those hobbies that can be relaxing, comical and profitable with meals. We only fish from the shore. This year since Bobbie wants to fish with us and she lives in town we are going to explore new to us fishing areas. Hopefully we will catch some for the freezer, but if not we will survive. Bill can't fish very long standing. Neither can I. So if there isn't a place to sit and fish we must bring our own chairs.

Well it is time to say good night.

Peggy

Overnight Company

2009-03-15T20:03:00.002-05:00

Bill and I had company yesterday from MN. Bill and Debbie have been friends for years from when he lived in WI. We would meet for dinner whenever we were in WI before she moved to MN.

The last time we were in WI she came down to the condo we rented in the Dells to see us. We were hoping her boyfriend would visit us with her, but he didn't come. This time they were on their way to FL for a short vacation and we are about the half way point. We were so happy they stopped and decided to spend the night with us.

Debbie's boyfriend Mark is very much like Bill. They both had similar things happen to them over the years. They both have great sense of humor and are able to catch something one says and make it......hmmm.....a little twisted and funny. I hope we see them on their trip back home. They have am open invitation.

Peggy

Week 11

2009-03-15T19:57:00.003-05:00

Another week with no sewing. This has got to end. So my report hast not changed.

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric bought this week: 0 yard

Fabric used this YTD 23 5/8yards
Fabric bought YTD 1 yard

Stash busted YTD 22 5/8 yards

I did design a new quilt for my new bedroom. It will use lots of my stash. This week we are working on finishing my sewing studio, so soon I will actually be making progress because I will have a place to sew.

Peggy

Week 10

2009-03-08T21:00:00.002-05:00

I thought this week would be better, but not so as far as my stash. Too many trips to town to get supplies for the redecorating and for the garden tractor. We have also started to work in the garden. So my report is the same as last week.

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric bought this week: 0 yard

Fabric used this YTD 23 5/8yards
Fabric bought YTD 1 yard

Stash busted YTD 22 5/8 yards

I hope next week will be better!

Peggy

Week 9

2009-03-01T15:57:00.002-06:00

My life was busy this week with out door activities and indoor painting-wallpapering. Needless to say my stash did not change at all. So my report is simple this week.

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric bought this week: 0 yard

Fabric used this YTD 23 5/8yards
Fabric bought YTD 1 yard

Stash busted YTD 22 5/8 yards

I hope next week will be better!

Peggy

Work in progress

2009-02-28T20:50:00.003-06:00

This picture shows two pieces of the wall paper up with my helper Gordo on the step stool. I have another piece up now. I have one more cut, but I want to open another roll so I can use the piece already cut as a pattern.

The first piece I put up had three places that had to be cut out. I started there due to the cable wires that come out of that box. I place my plumb line so it was at the left side of the box. The piece that will be around the door frame will sit at the other side of the box. I did it this way so I would not need to deal with the wire.

I think I will wait until tomorrow to do more papering. I am kind of tired now.

Peggy

Progress

2009-02-28T12:49:00.002-06:00

This has been a very busy week. We are trying to get things ready for spring by checking electric golf cart (that we use in the garden) and the yard tractor. Batteries or lack of good batteries was an issue this week. We had to replace the battery in the tractor and the golf cart is having a new set of batteries installed at the repair shop. We also have an old van that needs a new battery, but that one is still a debate as to if we just want to junk the van or should we get the battery.

We also did some outside cleaning the one nice day we had this week. Leaves were swept up. Excess stuff that was put under the deck was moved to a different storage age. We also tried to tie up the snowball bush since it was bent over by the ice last month.

I also painted the trim for the bedroom and have the walls prepared to put up at least 16 sheets of wall paper. I plan to start the wall papering shortly and hopefully will get most of it done today. I also want to cut out a dust ruffle today so when we move the bed I can put it on.

Bill and I did buy some new sheets for the bed because I only had one set that fit our bed. When our water bed decided to leak and we change to a regular bed I had to start over with sheets. I am not much of a shopper, so we just bought one set. I now have 3 sets to fit the queen size mattress. It will be nice to not have to wash, dry and make the bed with the same sheets all in one day.

Guess if I am going to get anything done I better get off the computer.

Peggy

Week 8

2009-02-22T20:16:00.003-06:00

I didn't sew much this week, but did start the block of the month stitchery project at http://willowberrydesigns.typepad.com/ . Mine is not yet finished, so I have not pressed it. I still have leaves to add to the willow tree and then decide if I want to change anything.

I have not done this type of embroidery in years and learned the hard way that back stitch doesn't mean stem stitch like I was taught as a child. Back stitching was easier for me and much faster to do then the stem stitch.

I am claiming 1 yard of fabric used this week, but I only used about 4 1/2" x 7 1/2" this week. I have several stitchery projects I want to try on this background fabric.

Fabric used this week: 1 yards
Fabric bought this week: 0 yard

Fabric used this YTD 23 5/8yards
Fabric bought YTD 1 yard

Stash busted YTD 22 5/8 yards

Still having fun,
Peggy

Today

2009-02-20T17:49:00.003-06:00

Bill and I have been procrastinating the finishing of the bedroom...and that also delayed the sewing room completion. Today I washed the walls in the room that will become the bedroom and Bill put the base coat of paint on the walls. The whole time he was doing that he was saying the paint we have will not cover the paneling in the room. He may or may not have been right, but I came up with an alternative to the paint. Seeing that this is a small room I suggested we just put up wallpaper. That way we won't need to do more painting other then the trim. We both hate to paint.

Another advantage to the wallpaper is being able to wallpaper behind the shelving. The shelving is built into a former shallow closet. I can cut and put up the wallpaper to fit between the shelves, but we could not paint without making a big mess.

We were on the north end of town and decided to stop at Lowes to check out their in store selection which is usually pretty good. I was walking down the main isle planning to turn down the wallpaper isle and said to Bill, "I must have walked by the wallpaper isle." So we turned around and sure enough I did miss the isle where the wallpaper used to be located. We turned down it and the only thing left was the textured paintable wallpaper. Lowes has decided to only carry special order wallpaper. I am not good at sitting looking at wallpaper books for hours. It is boring, a waste of time and besides that we would have to wait who knows how long for delivery.

When we went out to the car I noticed the back tire on the passenger side of our van was a little low. We just had the tires rotated Wednesday, so I know they were OK at that time. We went to the tire place to have them check it. We waited about 15 minutes for them to finish up a car in front of us. Then we were next. They removed the tire and sure enough it had a nail in it. Usually when we get a nail in a tire it is a roofing nail, but this was the type of nail used to put studs together. A long very strong nail. Thank goodness we noticed the problem before it really became a bigger problem.

Then we went to a paint place on the south side of town. They have wallpaper to order and about 20 selections to buy. We found something we both could live with and thought it was $22. a double roll. So we decided to buy it and it was only $10. a roll. Now just need to paint the trim. I really don't mind putting up the wallpaper. I think we will bring in a little bit of the outside with this paper seeing we don't have windows in this room.
The only other color in this room will come from the quilt on the bed. I do have a picture my Aunt Margaret painted for us with an old rustic barn with some grasses with a blue sky. I think that will be a nice addition. We will need to actually see what fits in the room before we actually decorate.

NASCAR is on TV now. Must go see what is going on. I will try to finish my stitching tonight to share with you.

Peggy

Virandah Views

2009-02-18T18:28:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow I am going to a "sew a chat" at a friend's home. I have a hand project that I have been working on for years that I usually take to work on, but I am again getting tired of working on this project. So I searched for something to do that would be different for me. So I am going to start a BOM embroidery project.

The project Virandah Views is offer by Cheryl of Willow Berry Designs. Just click on the subject title to see the project. Why don't you join me making this little project that will combine hand embroidery with piecing.

I will post a picture of my first block soon. I have not embroidered in years, so this will be an adventure. She has posted the initial information and the first two blocks. I am a little behind, because our printer decided to take a vacation. I bought a new printed and have spent the past two evenings catching up on my printing.

Well I need to find my embroidery hoop and get my background fabric ready.

Have a good one,

Peggy

Week 7

2009-02-15T08:03:00.005-06:00

This week was spent trying to get things cleaned up and claimed with the insurance company as a result of the ice storm a few weeks ago. So I only worked on one project this week. I made two pillows using the John Deere fabric my husband contributed to my stash a few weeks ago.

We gave them to a waitress at the restaurant we stop at almost daily to have coffee. She is a John Deere collector, only 21, out on her own and she takes care of her sister's two children. The children are 9 and 4. She is always happy go lucky and never complains about taking care of the children. Here is a picture of the pillows. They reverse to show the other season.
So this week I only used 1 yard of fabric.
Fabric used this week: 1 yards
Fabric bought this week: 0 yard

Fabric used this YTD 22 5/8yards
Fabric bought YTD 1 yard

Stash busted YTD 21 5/8 yards

Peggy

Peas....and more peas

2009-02-08T19:50:00.003-06:00

Would you believe last week it was as low as 12 degrees. Today it was 71 degrees with sunshine. So we planted snow peas today. We know that we can still have a frost, but we are hoping we don't have a deep freeze.

We planted then near the house where Dad plants the extra tomato plants. Even if we don't get any of the pea pods to harvest the plants will at least add nutrition to the ground for the tomatoes later on in the season.

Bill also blew the leaves again. We live in a woods of mostly oaks. They sometimes don't loose their leaves until the new buds start pushing them off the limbs. While outside Dad and I started to take apart a gliding swing we had on the deck. It is rotting and is dangerous. Neither one of us was strong enough to remove the bolts. They had been painted over too many times. We roughly figured that the swing is at least 30 years old, so I guess we can not complain about it rotting. I hope we get a new one this spring that has a canopy over it.

Well the cat wants to take a nap on my lap, but he will need to wait until I take care of the laundry. I think I can get another load finished before going to bed.

Peggy

Ice, cold, no electric.... on and on and on!

2009-02-07T15:58:00.003-06:00

As I am sure everyone knows by now Arkansas, Kentucky and parts of other states were hit by an ice storm late in January. We still have areas of Western Kentucky without electricity and my be without for another 2 to 3 weeks. The ice weighted the trees to the point they either broke or just fell over from the root up.

We stayed in our house for a few days. The bad part was the nights were just so long and cold. I cooked outside on the propane grill. By the time I had a meal ready parts of it was cold, but we at least ate and it was good.

We could handle needing to acquire water for drinking and washing up, but going to bed at 5:30pm because of darkness. Then going to bed early because we were so cold. I told Bill there will be lots of babies born in about 9 months....that will not include us!

We had ordered propane for our gas logs before the storm arrived, but it was not delivered until 5 days later. So only one gas log fireplace was on and it was turned down low. Bill and I could no longer take the cold because we were getting sick. We also felt that my parents needed to get to a warmer location. So we moved to a lodge (motel) about 20 miles away for 3 nights. Bill and I stayed 4 nights to allow the house to warm up a bit after the electric came back on. Besides that we didn't know the electric would be on that night.

At least we were able to see the Super Bowl. It was a good game even if I didn't like the way it ended.

One of the really bad parts of the ice storm was the telephones didn't work, not even the cell phones. It was three days before I could let some in the family know that we were OK.

After arriving home then the real work started. We had clothes to wash, dishes for the time we were at home without electric to clean...the bathroom where the toilet was flushed by pouring in water once a day..oh and then the food that spoiled. Bill and I had cleaned out the refrigerators while the electric was off, so the bad stuff could go into last weeks garbage. Tomorrow we need to empty and list everything that spoiled in the upright freezer. That way it will go out in this weeks garbage. We are listing everything, because our original insurance police said it would be replaced.

To tell you the story of going to the insurance company the first time to see what we needed to do to make a claim. I won't tell you the company, but let's say they have pulled out of FL and were in trouble with the hurricanes...so draw your own conclusions. They told us if our neighbors didn't have power they would not pay for any loss other then physical damage. So we explained to the agent...a new agent...that most of the neighbors had electric. She immediately questioned that notion. She said so you have damage with a pole at your house. I said "No, part of the neighborhood is feed via the lake road, another part via the road by the Church and our part of the neighborhood is feed up another road." That road goes through a pine farm area, but the pines didn't bother the lines. A rotten pole with a transformer had been hit and came down in pieces. She opened a claim for us. Hopefully we will get something. We have never as far as I can remember made a claim on this insurance. I'm sure we will pay for it next year!

We are still exhausted. We fall asleep early and sometimes take naps. Bill and I decided it is mental exhaustion as well as physical.

Today we heard that the workers hoped to have our county all back on power today. They they will move on to another county serviced by the same electric company. Our county was really the easiest, because our ice melted first. I feel for those who have been without power for nearly two weeks and it may be another two or three weeks before they have electric.

It was nice to see how the community pulled together. Kroger, Walgreens, Lowes and some other stores were open even with only emergency electric. We could not believe how many people were in Kroger. It was a 2 to 4 hour wait the first day just to check out. Warming stations were set up at the hospital and the senior citizens center. Then as soon as town had electric some of the Churches opened up for meals and showers. Gas was available at one station, but most people went to TN to get gas, water and propane.

I also noticed as things got more back to normal people would put signs in their yard advertising free water. We have many artisan wells in the area, but until know I had not idea where they were located.

Unfortunately many people died during this emergency. Some from improper heating, like using a propane gas grill inside the house or old kerosene heaters. One man locally would not leave his home and died of hypothermia. Another one had a limb from a tree fall on his head. We do hope others aren't found dead in their homes.

Be sure to plan ahead for electrical outages. They can happen at any time and any where. We always have water on hand for drinking as well as for washing. Food is also something to think about and batteries. We were prepared, but it was still tough. I am glad we have our electric on now.

The day I took may camera with me when we were out and about the ice all melted! So no pictures.

Peggy

Week 5 and 6

2009-02-07T15:52:00.003-06:00

The ice storm hit our area hard and left us without electricity for longer then I want to remember. So needless to say I did not use any fabric, nor did I buy fabric. So my report for the week I missed and this week are the same as week 4.

No it isn't! I forgot that I sent about 4 yards of fabric to a friend. I had some children's fabric that I have already used and didn't need it any more. Yes I did make some progress.

Fabric used this week: 4 yards
Fabric bought this week: 0 yard

Fabric used this YTD 21 5/8yards
Fabric bought YTD 1 yard

I did very little other sewing during the past two weeks. Lack of electricity and a means to see was the first problem, then I was exhausted. When electric finally returned it was time to clean up everything that didn't get washed....dishes, clothes, etc. So I think I have a good reason for not sewing much.

Peggy

Week Four

2009-01-25T20:59:00.002-06:00

I was busy this week, but did not make any progress toward busting the stash. In fact if you count the piece of fabric that my husband picked out and we bought to make pillows for a waitress at the restaurant we go to almost daily....I added to the stash.

Here is my lack of progress:

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric bought this week: 1 yard

Fabric used this YTD 17 5/8yards
Fabric bought YTD 1 yard

I worked on two UFO's this week, but did not finish either.
I did not sew for my new patterns, but worked on a project I am testing for another designer.

You just won't believe!

2009-01-19T21:42:00.002-06:00

Last night Bill and I had decided to make a pork roast today. I took it out last night to thaw in water that I add several cloves of garlic. This is the way my mother always started her roast pork. It was a large roast, so I put it in the crock pot this morning. Turned it on low and went to eat breakfast. After breakfast I decided to move the crock pot to a "safer" location on the stove. It is sitting on a piece of glass over a burner. The kitchen is cool and the stove area is cooler due to the vent being connected directly to the outside. It was windy today so the below freezing wind was making it's way into the kitchen. Not really, but it is cooler under the vent then elsewhere in the kitchen.

Bill and I took a trip today to Paducah to do some general shopping, buy some batting and to get some groceries at a store we don't have in Murray. We ate a late lunch, so I was not looking forward to having a pork roast for dinner. The roast was made so Mom and Dad would have a good dinner. I kept thinking all day, I wonder if I turned the crock pot back on after I moved it to the stove. You guessed it. I forgot to turn on the crock pot. We arrived home about 15 minutes before we were to eat. Fortunately I had asked Mom and Dad to make mashed potatoes and the spuds were still cooking in the water. Bill had pick up a kielbasa for Dad. So I grab a head of cabbage and made them fried cabbage and onions with the sausage and buttered potatoes. They had also made a nice fruit salad, so they ended up with a nice quick meal, but not a pork roast.

Now to the pork roast. I wasn't worried about it spoiling, because it was too cool where it was sitting. So I turned on the crock pot and it smells so good now. It is time to turn it off and find room for it in the refrigerator. So tomorrow we will try again to have pork roast, mashed potatoes, broccoli salad (already made) and maybe some corn.

Our friend who had a lung cancer operation did well today. In fact this is what his daughter had to say about the day.

"Dad is out of surgery and is now in recovery. He did well! They ended up taking out his right upper lung lobe as we expected , but they did not have to take any of his chest muscle or ribs. His chest wall margins were clean, meaning there was no cancer remaining. If the lymph nodes are clean Dad is done with cancer treatments. Those results will be in on Wednesday.

The surgeon was very pleased with the surgery and Dad's post-up status. Tonight Dad will go to a regular room. I will keep you updated as this goes along.

It goes without saying, without your prayers, calls and care we couldn't have gotten this fare. Thank you for all your support."

This is all very good news, now we just need to hear that nothing is in the lymph nodes.

All is possible....just look at this sent to me by a friend. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MslbhDZoniY

Peggy

Week Three

2009-01-18T10:55:00.002-06:00

This week was a week of hitting a brick wall as far as progress was concerned. I was going to do some quilting and discovered I didn't have batting large enough for the projects that were done. It also seems like Bill and I were away from home more this week then normal. I did work and made much progress on two UFO's. I also had trouble with my cat this week. He has decided that he needs my sewing thread more then I do. He doesn't bother it unless it is moving. So it didn't matter if I was machine or hand sewing the cat was there with the thread in his paws or mouth. I am working on breaking this habit and hope when I get into my sewing studio he will leave the thread alone.

The only fabric cut this week was to replace the binding on Bill's quilt. The old binding has holes in it and the hand stitching has come away from the back of the quilt. I need to get it done today, because the weather is getting warmer and he will be switching from his double fleece blanket to the quilt.

So here is my progress:

Fabric used this week: 5/8 yard
Fabric bought this week: 0 yards

Fabric used this YTD 17 5/8yards
Fabric bought YTD 0 yards

I worked on two UFO's this week, but did not finish either.
I did sew on a top for one of my new patterns.

Shrimp Creole

2009-01-16T18:24:00.013-06:00

Today Judy at http://www.patchworktimes.com/ posted a giveaway to win some Slap Your Mama Seasonings and apron. I have been wanting to try that seasoning, because it is cajun. My choice here is the Kroger brand of Creole seasoning that I use and another brand that I don't like. So I am always on the lookout for new seasonings. The giveaway is something that she is making us work for, but for me it was not work. To qualify you needed to make a cajun food, take a picture of it and post the picture and the recipe on your blog. Then link the page back to Judy's blog.

Now Judy has timing as I had already planned to make Shrimp Creole for dinner tonight. I will post some pictures with explinations then the recipe at the end.
The first thing I do is to gather the ingredients and chopped the vegetables. I use more vegetables then shown, but some are canned. I also used to clean the shrimp saving the shells to make a quick shrimp broth, but I fried shrimp one day and made broth and froze it.
The next thing I do is make the roux. It was not in the original recipe, but I think it adds lots of flavor. Basically what I do is to mix the flour and oil in a heavy pan, stir and cook it until the flour/oil mixture is the color of peanut butter. Be sure you allow about 1/2 hour for this process. Cooking at a medium or lower temperature stirring constantly. Isn't the pan I am using nice. It is an Iron pot for doing stir fry, but I love it for many different things I cook. I bought it at an outdoor store.

The roux is almost ready. By the way I hardly ever measure anything, so sometimes I actually make more then other times. Today I made more so I can share it with some friends.

As soon as the roux is ready I add the vegetables, stir then quickly add the tomatoes/okra, tomato sauce, butter and the shrimp broth. Mine was still frozen. I cook and stir everything adding the herbs and spices.This mixture is allowed to simmer for about and hour. Notice the pan in the back? My husband came to help. He cleaned the shrimp and now the shells are cooking in water. When they turn pink I strain the broth into a container and freeze it for the next time we go cajun with shrimp.
I do not have a rice cooker, so I make my rice in the microwave. I have about an hour to rest before finishing dinner, so I put the rice together. Place the container in the microwave and set the timer to come on later.
Dinner is almost ready. About 10 minutes before dinner I add the shrimp. Notice the grey color. Stir the shrimp into the mixture until it is pink.

Notice the pink shrimp, it has curled and is ready to eat. Don't over cook the shrimp as it will be tough. Put everything into serving bowls. You can decorate with green onions and fresh parsley. Adjust seasoning as desired. I make a medium hot creole, because some people don't like things hot. You may also use fresh or frozen hot peppers instead of the dry cheynne pepper.

Shrimp Creole

2 pounds raw shrimp (I use the frozen medium size with the shell, but no heads) Wash and remove
from shells. Set cleaned shrimp in refrigerator.
Wash shells place in medium saucepan with a little celery and onions.
Cover with water. Bring to a simmer and cook about 10 minutes. Save the broth by
Pouring through a sieve over a bowl. Set aside for gumbo. Discard shells. You will need between 2 and 3 cups of liquid. You may us canned chicken broth if desired.

1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1 chopped bell pepper
2 cloves garlic cleaned and chopped fine
½ cup oil
½ cup flour
1 can tomatoes with okra (15 ounce or so)
1 can 8oz tomato sauce
2 T butter
1 teaspoon creole seasoning
¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (or you can use finely chopped fresh hot pepper any amount
you desire
¼ teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
salt and pepper to taste Salt increases the heat cayenne pepper. Sugar will lower the heat.
1 teaspoon fresh parsley chopped or ½ teaspoon dry parsley

Be sure everything is chopped and ready to use before you start to make the roux.

To make the roux pour the oil into a heavy sauce pan or skillet. I actually use and iron pan large enough to hold all the ingredients. A heavy dutch oven works well, but be careful to not burn yourself on the pan when stirring.

Heat the oil a bit then add the flour. Carefully stir in the flour. Heat the mixture using medium to medium high heat stirring constantly. The flour will start to brown and you will need to stir slowly or frequently to keep the flour from burning. When the roux turns to the color of peanut butter it is done.

Add the celery, onions,pepper and garlic to the roux. Stir a bit then add the tomatoes with okra, tomato sauce, butter, shrimp broth and the seasonings. Bring to a boil and simmer until vegetables are cooked, stirring once in a while. If too thick add water or broth. If too thin cook a little longer.

While this is cooking make your rice following package directions. We use long grain rice and cook it in the microwave.

Just before serving add the shrimp and cook until it is pink. Stir often. Taste to check flavor.

I hope you try this recipe. We enjoy it fresh or as leftovers.

Peggy

"Baby It's Cold Outside"

2009-01-15T13:41:00.002-06:00

Yes it is cold outside, and it is going to get colder before it warms up. I am not complaining, because I know others are suffering with much colder temperatures as well as lots of snow. I also know that this freezing weather is good for the ground. It helps to kill some bugs, softens the ground and maybe even kills some weed seeds. The truth be known I would much rather deal with the cold weather, even if my legs and hips hurt, the the hot, humid weather of Western KY summers. At least now I can put on layers of clothing or get under a quilt, but in the summer???????????????? well that is not a pretty picture.

Last night I was going to layer a couple of quilts only to discover all the batting I have on hand was too small for each project. I have two medium size boxes of batting scraps from projects I did last year, but it includes so many different brands of batting I could not sew enough together for the larger quilt. The smaller of the two tops is the baby quilt and I want that batting to be all one piece. So I went on line to try to locate a source for a batting I might like. Now the problem is.....what batting do I want???? I really like 100% cotton batting, but have used the 80% cotton, 20% polyester. The 80/20 or the needled cotton batting makes machine quilting easier, but I also do hand quilting. So I am having some samples sent to me so I can make a decision by trying the samples. The battings available today are very different from those that were available when I still owned my shop nearly 7 years ago.

I do have a whole piece of bamboo batting, but it is 60"x 60". That is an unusual size, so I need to design something just to try that batting. It will need to be a design I can combine machine and hand quilting. I also want it to be a quilt I will use, wash and really be able to evaluate the batting.

Last night I made 3 t-shirts into open up the front t-shirts by adding a soft velcro to the cut I made up the front. We have a friend with lung cancer and he is being operated on Monday. They plan to remove part of his lung and he was told to bring a button up shirt to wear when leaving the hospital. He always wears a t-shirt under his outer shirt so I made him 3 open up the front t-shirts so he can keep warm.

Dinner tonight is Roast Beef, potatoes and carrots. I think I will also make some lima beans and a salad. I don't mind cooking, but I hate the menu planning. Thank goodness my family will eat most everything I decide to make and they also sometimes will help making the decision of what to eat. Yesterday my Dad even made the meal and it was very good. He made Chicken cooked in home made bar-b-que sauce, baked potatoes and brussel sprouts. I made Bill some creamed peas so he would have a vegetable.

Looks like it is time to scoot...and get that roast beef made.

Peggy

Week 2

2009-01-11T14:27:00.004-06:00

This is my second week to try to use up my stash and to finish projects started. I did not sew much this week, except for today. It was just one of those weeks when I was away from home more then normal, meals were more complicated and I was just tired. Another thing that stopped me was needing to find my batting, which I did, but it was way behind stuff. So I kept putting off moving things to get it. Now that I have it I need to find out if I have enough to quilt last weeks project, that I can't show to you and this weeks project that is pictured in this blog.
It is a crib size quilt made for Bill's (and mine) great great niece in AL.

The quilt started out to just be fussy cut squares sashed with corner blocks. I had it up on my design wall and hated the quilt. Then I saw a disappearing nine patch quilt and decided to lay it out that way. It took longer to place all the blocks then it did to sew them. Now that I look at it in a picture I think I did a poor job of dispersing the colors. The problem is mostly the lack of variety in my pieces.

I had originally bought the fabric with the ducks, fish, frogs and turtles on it to use for this quilt. I bought the last of several pieces in a close out sale. Then I ended up sharing the fabric I bought with someone else who also needed a baby quilt. She only needed blues and yellows. I wanted a variety. So she offered some of her animal prints to me in exchange for what I gave her and the greens. I end up not having enough of one green so I did two greens. All in all it is an interesting quilt that has a lot of things for the two girls in this family to find and imagine about and not a typical quilt from me.

This is the report for week two:

Fabric used this week: 5 3/4 yards
Fabric bought this week: 0 yards

Fabric used this YTD 17 yards
Fabric bought YTD 0 yards

I worked on a UFO this week, but did not finish it. I did not work on patterns this week.

Peggy

Catching up

2009-01-04T20:24:00.002-06:00

Bill and I spent New Year's Eve at the home of some friends. We were not partying, but sitting with an ill friend so his wife and sister-in-law could go out for the evening. Since Bill and I don't go out much in the evening here it seemed strange to be going into town after the sun set. It was even stranger to be driving home about 1:00am. It was nice to help out our friends.

While at their house we watch a football game and helped the man we were caring for to get back into bed after using the bathroom and taking his medicine. He watched part of the game with us and after we woke him up to take his second dose of medicine (which included a sleeping pill), he sat up and watch TV with us for about an half hour. We were watching old black and white sit coms on WGN. Soon we were all asleep. Our friend in his bed and Bill and I each in a recliner.

That was our excitement New Year's Eve until the sisters came in from their evening out about 1:00am. They were so happy that both were about to go out in the evening. I think 7 of their friends joined them at their table at a Moose Lodge Party.

Happy 2009 everyone,
Peggy

Stash Report

2009-01-04T19:55:00.002-06:00

Since this is my first week at busting my stash I am counting the entire fabric used to create the quilt I just finished. Well I just finished the top and need to dig out the backing. I will be doing that as soon as I am off the computer. I have also worked on a UFO, but at this point don't have it finished. I like the looks of my first report.

Fabric used this week 11 1/4 yards
Fabric bought this week 0 yards

Fabric used this year 11 1/4 yards
Fabric bought this year 0 yards

UFO's finished 0

To Judy of http://www.patchworktimes.com this did push me to work on my projects knowing I needed to make a report. Thanks for the help.

Peggy

Stash Busting

2008-12-29T18:51:00.003-06:00

Here it is December 29 and I am going to join a group of other quilters who are pledging to try to use up some of the fabric we own. I have lots of fabric, lots of UFO's and hopefully this coming year a plan to turn the fabric and UFO's into finished projects.

I don't buy much fabric anymore, but I still have fabric from when I owned a LQS 6 years ago. Some of it will be used only on backs of quilts, or as ironing board covers, but I also have enough to make some nice quilts.

My UFO's were mostly created when I was teaching quilting. I would start a project so I could teach a technique. When I learned how to use EQ4 I started some more projects just so I could be sure the program was accurate...it was, but then they became UFO's. I also took classes or would try everything new, rulers, methods, covered boxes, fabric boxes and so on. I have many projects that just need to be quilted, labeled and bound. Some are queen size, but most are smaller. Some are just 2 feet square! So these are my goals for the year 2009.

Finish one UFO each month. Now that is only 12 UFO's! I can do that.

I also need to please my dear husband and whittle down my stash, so I plan to use 100 yards of fabric. This does not include any fabrics sent to me to do special orders or to create samples for fabric companies.

Along this same line I am creating a goal to have 5 quilt new patterns at each quilt market. Quilt Women. com will be publishing most of these patterns. That means I have deadlines to meet. The first one if February 1, 2009. I have the patterns pretty well written, and most tested. One sample is completed except for the special label. Two are to the quilting stage and two are cut out. Making quilts to create new pattern are also using up some of my stash, so I can count them two ways!

So I guess I better get busy!

Peggy

TOO YOUNG TO NEED TO KNOW!

2008-12-29T18:15:00.002-06:00

Subtitle: Donut Hole

Now I know all about donut holes, I can make them, I can eat them and I know how guilty one can feel if donut holes are a regular part of a diet. The donut hole I want to talk about today is the one that those on Medicare Part D can fall into. Well this isn't a real hole, but it can feel like it when one experiences it when not prepared to be there.

My Dad asked me to order and pick up some medicine for him today. He knows about the donut hole and thought he had enough information to know that he would not be a victim of the hole that requires the purchaser to pay for the entire amount of the medicine. Wrong! He became a victim today of this "loop hole" The reason it is called a hole is because you drop into the hole at a certain point with the total costs of your medicine (insurance and the price you pay) reaches a certain point for the year. This year it is $2510. The nice thing is you can also work you way out of the hole by spending more money on medicines and some other things. The bad part about this was he bought medicine today that he didn't really need until after the first when a new "donut hole" starts. So today he paid $96.69 for medicines when he normally pays $37.00.

The lesson learned here is beginning Jan 1, 2009 when the medicines are bought I will record not only how much he is paying out of his pocket, but how much the insurance company is paying. That way maybe we can avoid this mistake next year.

What is sad about all of this is that as we age things should become simpler, but NO, they are more complicated! Those who care for the elderly or must deal with the elderly on a daily basis must be able to explain why things happen.....as if we don't have enough to worry about in just dealing with the other everyday things.

Well that is my complaint for today!
Peggy

Christmas Shoes

2008-12-24T22:18:00.002-06:00

Tonight, Christmas Eve, I watched the movie "Christmas Shoes". I wanted to watch it because Kimberly Williams-Paisley was in the movie. Bill knows how much I like her as an actress and also as the wife of one of my favorite country music stars Brad Paisley. I actually liked her the first time I saw her act in "According to Jim". Well back to the movie. It is not a new movie, but it was new to me. I was glad Bill went to sleep as I cried for almost an hour watching what she and her movie "family" had to endure during what should have been a time of Christmas Joy. I won't tell you what happened in the movie, but it touched me making me sad and happy at the same time. I am an emotional person, so for me to cry while watching a movie is not unusual.

I do want to share something about the movie. It took place in a small town. The size of the town really isn't that important, but what is in my mind is the way every person has an affect on those that we meet in our daily lives.

I know that I have hurt people in my life, but that usually happened when I could no longer tolerate how I or others were being treated by that person or I am just tired and frustrated. I am sure I have hurt others and had not idea that I inflicted any pain. That sometimes is just a part of life. I also know that I have helped many people. Some people I have helped it was very obvious to me that I was helping them, by teaching them a skill, doing something for them or giving them something they needed or I thought they would like to own. Some ways everyone can help others is to give a helping hand, a thank you, an I'm thinking of you, a "if you need me give me a call" and really mean it or just listening.

I remember when a friend of mine husband passed away. I really didn't have the means to send flowers or any of the usual things people do for others at a death. What I did was a few days after the funeral I sent her a personal note and just expressed how sorry I was for her, but I also included in the note "if you want to talk just call me or stop by to see me". She has told me over and over how much she appreciated my offer and she did take me up on that offer on more then one occasion. Our lives have both changed, so we don't see much of each other now, but we always give each other a hug and a warm greeting when our paths cross.

Recently Bill and I have made several new friends. The sad part of these new friendships, and maybe our age in general, is they or someone they love are ill and some near death.

We met a man who was in his 90's and he was sharp as a tack. He looked like a picture of health. As we talked more and more with him he shared with us that his health was not as good as he looked. He had multiple heart attacks, the type that the only help was medication. The medication and age lead to kidney failure and soon after that death. He shared with us things about living so many years and answered many questions we had about the depression and how our nation has changed.

Others we have met recently shared the changes in our local area. Since the town we shop in has a university and has been named several times as a good place to live we meet people from everywhere. Bill and I do not judge people by the way they look, color, how much money they have or don't have, education or where they are from originally. Basically we like people and give most everyone a chance. The one thing we don't tolerate are those who don't accept others as equals. We try our best to give everyone a chance. Some become friends, others we tolerate and a few we just try to avoid. I'm sure the reverse is also true about us to others.

We heard a story today about a lady I have known for years. She was a quilter, teacher and used to have a memory that always amazed me. We were talking with her husband and now caretaker. She is suffering from Alzheimer's. She seems to be very active at night. Last night she was wanting to go home. She told her husband that she had a job and needed to get home. He could not convince her that she was at home. She packed a small bag and went to the door using her wheel chair. He was near her, but did not try to stop her. I thought he did a really smart thing by opening the garage door. It was a cold, rainy night last night. She got a feel of the out door conditions and decided to leave some other time. At 5:00am she went to sleep. I hope it helps him that Bill and I listen to his adventures with his wife.

I want to thank my friends who have been here for me. Some who are relatives, some live close and others live a long way from us. Others I have never met in person, but still have shared much of my life, feelings and thoughts.

Merry Christmas and love to all,
Peggy

Dad's 82nd Birthday

2008-12-22T21:18:00.003-06:00

Today my Dad celebrated his 82nd birthday. He has decided to grow a beard because it is too hard for him to see in the mirror to shave and he also has a bit of a balance problem. Bill and I have both said we would shave him if he wanted to be shaved, but thank goodness he said "No". He is sporting about 6 weeks of growth and has passed the itching stage, so I think it is there to stay. I like beards, so his is fine with me.

I made Dad his favorite Date Nut Cake. I wish I had bought the dates before yesterday, but I didn't. So I was up early this morning making the cake. I wanted it to sit as long as it could, because it gets better with age. I had a half piece at dinner. It was not as good as it will be tomorrow, but it was good. This recipe was a favorite of my Grandmother's and it is really easy to make. (Today the dates are already pitted and dusted with flour so they are not sticky. I hated pitting the dates when I was little as my hands would get sooooooo sticky.)

Here is the recipe.

Grandma Smith's Datenut Cake

1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped dates
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 1/2 cups flour
1 t baking powder
1 t vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Place dates in a small bowl. Sprinkle with baking soda and pour boiling water over the dates and soda. Set aside to cool. In mixing bowl cream sugar and shortening, I mix by hand, but you can use a mixer. Add eggs then alternate flour and baking powder with the date mixture stirring after each addition. Add vanilla and chopped nuts. This is a very thick mixture.

Grease and flour two loaf pans then put half of the mixture into each pan. Place in oven and bake about 45 minute. Check to see if each loaf is done by sticking a wooden toothpick into the center. The loaf is done if toothpick come out clean. Turn each loaf out onto cooling rack and cool for at least 1/2 hour. Wrap each loaf well or place in plastic bag and seal. I freeze one for later and we eat one.

Dad likes his with whipping cream. I like mine plain or with cream cheese. I also enjoy just butter. A sandwich made with date nut cake and cream cheese served with a cup of hot tea is one of my favorites this time of year!

Enjoy,
Peggy

I Feel Special!

2008-12-12T14:26:00.005-06:00

Today Bill gave me a beautiful arrangement of roses. He took me into town today and I went to visit a friend. When he came to pick me up in the restaurant we were eating at he was carrying a dozen roses. They are at the perfect stage of opening. My camera doesn't take the best pictures...or maybe it is just me who doesn't take good pictures, but aren't they pretty! I tried to take a closeup of one of the flowers so you can see the variation in color in each petal, so excuse the blurriness. My friend JoAnn and I did some sewing at her home before we went out to eat. Seams like we always have something to talk about. We were both doing the blanket stitch and I was glad to see she had a book out with instructions. I forget how to start the blanket stitch because I only work on this project when I am away from home. So it was nice to have a guide.

We are just having pizza for dinner this evening, so I don't need to rush around cooking today. I think I will get out a pie I made earlier this year and put it in the oven. That way the oven will be nice and warm when it is time to put in the pizza. A pie will make Dad happy. Better go get the pie in the oven, or it will not be done in time for dinner.

Peggy

Still not done!

2008-12-08T03:23:00.002-06:00

The house being in total disarray is driving me crazy. We thought we would get all the trim down last week, but that did not happen. I had a DR's appointment, which meant going into town another day for blood test.(Everything is OK.) Then we changed our mind about how and what trim we were going to put down. The weather also was not nice enough to paint outside and still isn't so we decided to get drop clothes and paint inside. That said, everything must be cut first, then the room cleaned so we can paint. If it was not one thing it was another. Today I am taking Mom and Dad both to the DR for their exams. I don't expect anything unusual, but that will still take up the whole day.

Here it is 3:30 am and I am awake. I really want to sew, but I don't know where I can sew. I think I will just stack some stuff a little higher so I can sew. No I need to go back to sleep.

This coming year I am going to keep track of how many yards of fabric I sew into something. My goal is to lower my stash. I have been using mainly from my stash, except for what I make for the fabric company, but I have also added to my stash.
My goal is to use more fabric then I bring into the house. I will be posting my results.

As I look back this year I know I have things I have not finished. I still need a purse, a baby quilt still needs to be quilted and several other projects started need to be finished. I am going to have a special place to keep these projects so they will be in full view each time I am in the sewing studio. They must be finished early in the year.

I am getting off the computer now, because the cat is making too much noise playing. I don't want him to wake up Bill.....as if that will happen. Bill is a sound sleeper.

Floors all down

2008-11-30T19:14:00.003-06:00

Friday we worked hard putting down the flooring in the bedroom. It is a small room, but it had a few area that needed to have some fancy cuts done to them. I did most of the cutting with my dad helping a bit when he didn't think I could do something. I guess he doesn't realize some of the complicated cuts I do with quilting and upholstery work I do at times. I know it is different with a saw, but it is not as if this was the first time for me to saw something.

JR, Bill's son did most of the laying of the floor, but Bill did help him when he needed the help. JR also did all the measuring. The floor looks nice. We still have that pesky trim to cut, paint and put up. I did at least put it in the smaller of the two rooms. Bill and I decided to not paint the paneling in the bedroom. It is a light almost white paneling and it would have been difficult painting around the built in shelving. If we change our mind we will just need to be careful to not make a mess on the new flooring.

That's all for tonight. The Bears are on TV now...may watch them for a while.

Peggy

Love the shelving!

2008-11-22T20:35:00.008-06:00

Bill and I put up one of the shelves that we bought. I love it. The shelves can be adjusted in multiple ways. The system has a groove every inch or so in the support legs. A two piece clip fits over a groove and one corner of a shelf fits over the clips compressing them more into the groove. If the clips are put in the same place on each leg and the groove is hit properly with the clip the shelf will hold up to 200lbs. I added some felt floor savers to the bottom of the level adjustments so we can easily move the shelf.

As you can see the trim is not attached to the wall. In fact it has not been painted, because it is still too cold outside to paint. Maybe when we get the rug out of the other room we will be able to paint them in there.

Our cat Gordo likes to help. He is about 9 months old and my constant companion. He lays on
the rug in front of the kitchen sink while I do the dishes or am cooking. Sometimes he wants to play with my feet as they are moving about. When I am napping he is on my lap, unless he is in the bed. He is a really good cat and except for the occasional nip when he is tired or wants to play he doesn't bother anything.......except the paper garbage containers near the computer and near our living room chairs. He likes to tip them over to find little goodies he can hide under the rug. He doesn't do that as much as he used to, but he still likes to hide things. I am surprised he doesn't get into my sewing stuff, but so far he leaves that alone.

Bill has a "fishing pole with fish" cat toy that he used to play with Gordo. The cat will chase the fish and even jump high and do topsy turvy move in the air. He also has multiple small toys that he bats from from to room. When we clean we find balls and little do-dad's he has hidden or got wedged into places he can't reach.

Usually about now Gordo is wanting to go to bed. He will come to the computer chair where I am sitting and want me to hold him. If I am just reading I pick him up and he lays curled up on his back on my left arm, sleeping. After a while he gets heavy.....maybe that is why I am having trouble with my left shoulder!

I now must see if I can get something done around the house before I go to bed!

Peggy

Wednesday was busy!

2008-11-19T21:12:00.003-06:00

Today Bill and I went to town to meet a friend of ours. I had made Shrimp Creole last night and wanted to share some with him. We met for coffee at a local restaurant. When he left we walked over to say hello to some other friends of ours at another table. About an hour later they asked us if we would like to join them for lunch at yet another restaurant in another town. Since we were still sore and tired from what we had been doing we said yes. The restaurant is actually in TN, but not too far away from where we live. We had a nice visit, good meal and lots of leftovers. I ordered the chef salad, because I wasn't real hungry, but knew I needed to eat. It came to me on a 10" plate, filled edge to edge and it was about 6" high in the center. It had lettuce, mushrooms, celery, onions, peppers, hard cooked eggs, ham, bacon and grated cheese on top. I brought at least 2/3rd's of it home along with part of a steak and a chicken plank other had leftover. My salad cost $5.50. There is enough left over for Bill and I to share for lunch tomorrow if we desire.

When we got home we put more of the flooring down. We have a partial plank to put down to get to the door. I am not sure we will actually put it down, or leave it for Bill's son when he comes down. We (mostly I) need to clean out the other room, remove the carpet, wash the walls down, prim and paint. Unfortunately we still need to paint the trim, but the weather is windy, cold and a bit damp. Maybe we can get the other room cleaned out and paint them in there.

I really won't get my sewing room set up until after the Thanksgiving. Extra stuff will need to be stored in the sewing room until the new bedroom is done.

I did a bit of sewing tonight. I hemmed a pair of my Dad's sleep pants and made a velcro opening in the front of a T-shirt. He has problems putting clothing over his head, so he wanted to try a velcro opening down the front. I hope it works for him, because he needs the extra warmth now that the weather has changed.

Catch you later!

Peggy

Today's Progress

2008-11-18T21:02:00.003-06:00

To catch up with what has been happening here I need to go back to Saturday. Bill, Dad and I went to Paducah to return some items and do a little shopping. After returning the items at Home Depot we were going to look at shelving for my Sewing Studio. Would you believe all of their free standing shelving was in storage....nothing on display! So we moved on down the road to Lowes. The one we had picked out in Murray, but they didn't have it in stock, were not available in Paducah. I had also been looking at some chrome shelves, but was not sure I wanted to pay $89. each for shelving I am not sure will work the way I want it to work. So we decided to just go on to Aldi's to do some grocery shopping.

While at Aldi's we picked up some fresh vegetables and a few other items. We didn't need much, but on the way out Bill spotted some chrome shelves that looked like the ones I wanted. The specs were exactly the same and they were on closeout sale for $30. each. I was able to get two silver and one black.

We decided to put a wall paper border at the top of the wall so I didn't need to try to paint the wall without getting paint on the ceiling tile. I can't put it up until we put up the corner trim. That won't happen until the flooring is down and the trim is painted. Wouldn't you know the weather was damp and windy so we could not work outside painting the trim. We have no place to paint it inside. I did get a second coat of paint on the walls "early Monday" morning. Then I went to bed.

Monday again the weather was windy and damp working on being cold, so Bill and I went to town to get new fluorescent tubes and a new shop light. We thought we would start the flooring in the afternoon, but that did not happen. We were both exhausted plus I was making lasagna for dinner. So now you are caught up.

Today we laid enough of the flooring so the bed could be moved on top of the new flooring. It looks nice. We only worked about 2 1/2 hours, but we were cutting in the upper part of the garage. So Dad and I did the cutting. Bill leg has been bothering him, so he just snapped the flooring in place. Here is what the flooring looks like. Not really much different in color from the plywood under it, but much easier to clean.
Notice my Quilting Square up Ruler at the side by the wall. I use it to mark the line for cutting. It is difficult to see, but there are 1/4" spacers along the wall. This flooring floats. It locks together with a tongue and groove system and is held in place with the trim.

Oh I also changed the fluorescent tube in the light that was already in the room. We still need to put the new light in, but I want to decide where every thing will be placed so the light will be in the correct place.

Peggy

The Making of a Sewing Studio

2008-11-14T23:33:00.006-06:00

After much delay Bill and I are making progress with creating a Sewing Studio for me. This involves the transformation of the largest of the bedrooms in our area of the house. It had a carpet on the floor, but that has been removed and we are now down to the subfloor of plywood.

Exciting right! Well eventually that will be covered with a light wood laminate. But before we can lay that the walls had to be painted. The original walls were a medium color wood paneling. This is a basement room with no windows. At best it is dark and the paneling in the picture makes it even darker.
So the next step was to paint the paneling. We both hate painting. Plus painting over paneling is tricky. It is easy to not get the paint into the grooves or have the paint slid right off the panel, because of it's slick finish. So the first step was to put on a primer that is designed to use on paneling and in areas that could harbor moisture. Believe it or not that went rather quickly. I did the edges and Bill rolled on the rest of the wall. We didn't need to worry about trim, because other then the door trim that is already attached the rest will be added after the floor is in place.
So this is the results of the primer.

We painted this first thing this morning. Just that little bit of light color paint on the walls made a big difference in the room. We have overhead lights in this room, which has two 4 foot fluorescent tubes. The tubes are the soft white, so they don't offer much light. We are going to have Bill's son (He is coming Thanksgiving weekend to help.) add another light the same size plus we will change the tubes so they are the brighter, day light type tubes.

The next step for us today was to paint the walls with the main color. We bought this paint at least two years ago and it is an aqua color. I tried to stir the paint, but I must not have done a good job. When I started to so the trimming at the top of the wall the paint ran like water. I had a new roller, but was using the same brush I had used this morning. I don't think it was completely dry , but I really don't think that was the total problem. I think I just didn't get the paint mixed well. If I do something in the afternoon and things don't go well I get frustrated. I had more paint on the floor and me then on the walls. So I put my paint back in the can and stirred some more. Bill didn't seem to have trouble, but I basically was done for the day. He has his part done, but I still need to paint the top of the wall and the trim around the door. At least I have the whole weekend to get this done as Bill is taking the weekend off. Here is a picture of Bill after he was finished and had come in for being outside. The aqua color don't show up well, but it is a pretty and light color. Perfect for a background for the Sewing Studio.

Keep watching the blog for updates. It will take a long time, because we are also doing the other small room that will become our bedroom. I will be happy if we get it all done and I get the stuff sorted and in place by the end of the year.

Peggy

Back from our Quick Trip

2008-11-06T21:17:00.004-06:00

We are now home!
Well actually we have been back for a while, but it seems like we just returned. I guess it was because we were tired when we returned and then we had to deal with time change. I was discussing with a friend today that I was having a difficult time adjusting to the time change this fall. Normally I don't have a problem, but I did feel better when she told me she and her husband had discussed the same problem

This year I became more aware of my need to eat at a certain time. When time changed my body started giving me singles about needing something to eat, but it wasn't meal time. I can just ignore hunger, but when I start to get the feeling of relaxing from the head down, I know I am in trouble. I know it will only be about 15 minutes and I will have the shakes in my hands and my brain won't allow me to think logically. I also become very sensitive to temperatures or lack of circulation. I have a Dr's appointment next month, so this is on my list of things to discuss with her. I have thought for years I am Hypoglycemic, but she doesn't think that is the problem. She did find a thyroid problem and I am on medications for that situation.

Our trip to MO and AR was nice, but much too short. You would not believe the number of Quilt Shops we went by, but they were closed. Most of them were closed due to the day of our passing by, but also because of the hour we passed them. I don't understand why they were not open at 7am. I didn't open my shop until 10am, so I know why they were not open. Next year I hope to plan better so I can at least go to one shop.

The leaves this year are showing wonderful colors. They were trying their best to hang onto the limbs and let us enjoy their grander, but yesterday many trees just let them drift to the ground. Today is was like a shower of leaves as we were driving into town. I noticed tonight we have little piles of leaves on the deck. We will need to start pushing the lovely leaves over the hill before too much of the woods decides to land near the house. It is a pain to go out nearly everyday to remove the leaves, but if we don't they can get so deep it is difficult to even pick them up.

This is the quilt that I made for Quilting Treasure's to show off there new line of Currier & Ives Sailing fabric.
The pattern will be available soon on this
web site with the fabric being delivered to
your local quilt shop in Dec. This quilt is not hard to make and would make a prefect gift for the favorite man in your life. The first pieced border from the center panel is a variation of a block called Attic Window. I thought of the women who might be looking out to sea waiting for their husbands return home from a long voyage. I combined many of the small squares that would normally be in the blocks into rectangles. So the piecing of that border is minimal. I also used an easy to piece flying geese instead of using two half square triangles to make the points.

Get out and enjoy what is left of fall. Winter will be here before we know it...as some places have already had snow. I wonder if they were snowing leaves at the same time as they were snowing the white stuff?????? Maybe someone will let us know.

Peggy

Taking a short trip

2008-10-25T21:25:00.002-05:00

In the morning Bill and I will be leaving for Branson, MO. We have two free nights there thanks to a local promotion. This is actually not a pleasure trip, but a visit to our, for now, neurologist. Dr. Gus, as we call him, moved his practice last year to Ft. Smith Ark. When he move it left Murray with no neurologist, now we have two. They both moved in after we had our appointment. Since they are specialist we need a referrals to be able to see the new DR. So since we will be in Branson we will continue on to Ft. Smith to see Dr Gus.

We noticed today that the leaves are really changing colors, so it should be a pretty trip.

I will post again when we get back

Peggy

Vacation was great!

2008-09-29T18:01:00.002-05:00

Bill and I went on vacation for 10 days. We went to Wisconsin hoping for cool weather. In fact we both took sweatshirts and insulated shirts that never made it out of the suit case or off the hangers.

We were very busy the whole time we were gone, yet because it was a change of pace it was relaxing. I think Friday was the only day we were not with relatives of Bill's. We were with Bill's son, daughter-in-law and grandson the most. We also saw a niece, nephew and girlfriend, great nephew, sisters, brother-in-law, boy friend of a sister, cousins and a lot of good friends. We played cards, watched 10 year old's play football, talked, ate meals together and just enjoyed our time in WI.

We were staying in a Condo Vacation Community in Wisconsin Dells. We took Devin our 10 year old grandson fishing at the small lake on the grounds. He caught lots of little bluegill and was perfectly happy until I stopped taking them off the hook for him. He has learned how to put the worm on the hook, catch the fish but he doesn't want to take the fish off the hook. Well that is all part of fishing, just like us quilters sometimes need to frog stitch (take out stitches) even if we don't like the process.

Bill and I also went to the casino once.....for about 10 minutes. We had set a limit of spending $20.00. Bill spent and lost his ten in nothing flat. I changed $5.00 into $12. on one machine and my other $5.00 into $80.00 on another machine. I told Bill let's cash in and go back to the Condo to watch the ball game. It took us longer to walk from the parking lot to the casino and back then we were actually in the casino. I thought we might go back again, but we just didn't have time.

While Bill was watching Devin's football team play I was playing also. I did manage to go to three quilt shops (one twice) and get some supplies I needed for making samples for my new patterns.
I bought some black and white fabric's, mostly from Mark Lipinski's Califon collection, and some 1800's reproductions to fill out my collection. It was difficult to decide what collections I wanted use, but my stash at home needs to be reduced so I tried to get fabric that could be used as focal fabrics.

On the last Saturday we were there I call Trish P, a gal from the Pickle Road yahoo group I belong to and she was available to meet me at The Mill House Quilt Shop in Waunakee. Prior to her arriving I asked a clerk to cut 12 of the Califon black and whites . When Trish arrived we started talking quilts, fabric, health and many other things and the next thing I knew she asked if I wanted to go to the quilt shop in her town. Naturally I said yes and out the door we went. Guess who forgot her fabric. The bad part was I had not paid for it! So one of the clerks managed to catch me before I started my van to ask me if I still wanted my fabric. I was embarrassed, but they saved me a trip back to their shop as I really wanted the Califon black and white collection. So I paid for my fabric and we went to Village Creek, LLC in Lodi. The shop was about the size of my former shop with most of the fabric being reproductions. Their was also some Bali's, but I was not interested in them. It was a fun time looking and buying....now it is time for the making.

First I need to make a quilt for Quilting Treasures. The fabric arrived from them while we were gone. It is very nice, but I must keep the style, designer and pattern I designed a secret until Quilt Market opens at the end of October. I love the pattern I designed as it is simple, but has lots of movement. Look for my quilt if you go to market.

One thing I forgot to tell you is we now have two new lazy boy chairs for our living room. Bill's sister Donna gave them to us. One is leather and the other is plush in deep red and deep rose. We are waiting until Thursday to bring them into the house, because our kitten has an appointment that day to be fixed and claws removed.

We also brought back some meats that we can not buy in KY, potatoes that were at least $3.00 cheaper per bag and some good northern apples. Our van was loaded when we left WI.

We stopped to see out friends Beverly and Len in IL and they gave us 6 dozen farm fresh eggs. Oh and I forgot the breads I bought at the bakery in Bloomington, WI. They make a wonderful multigrain bread that I just love toasted. After visiting with Beverly and Len and enjoying a nice cup of coffee and a piece of delicious chocolate cake we looked for a motel room so we could rest for the night. We had already checked Tuscola, Arcola and then we checked a couple of other small towns on our way down the road. One clerk told us they have been booked since May. Later we found a room in Effingham and discovered it was Parents Weekend at Eastern IL University. I think every parent of students attending EIU were visiting.

Bill and I slept in late and took out time making our last day of vacation last as long as we could. Mom and Dad cried when we arrived home, because they were so happy to see us. We had friends and neighbors check on them while we were gone, but they had to do their own cooking etc.

Now it is back to normal, cooking, cleaning, figuring out bills and yes sewing those quilts.

Have a good one!
Peggy

Me again

2008-09-15T21:56:00.002-05:00

Wow! Being without electric yesterday and today I had not seen the pictures of what happen when hurricane Ike hit Texas and other areas of the south. What devastation. I was familiar with many of the areas due to a trip to Houston and the surrounding areas last year. I'm sure some of the restaurants we ate at and places we shopped at are now just sticks. So sad.

Go down and read about our experiences with "Ike"!

"Ike" and I and other radom ideas

2008-09-15T19:45:00.002-05:00

Hurricane "Ike" and I were not on great terms over the weekend. I am sure others all over our nation felt the same way. We rarely have company at meals these days in our home. There are many reasons for this, but when we do entertain it is good ole home cooking. Nothing special to us, but maybe something our guest have never had or tasted only at our home. This weekend was just one of those times, but then "Ike" arrived. Remember we live in western Kentucky!!!

We do not live near the coast and have felt some affects of hurricanes in the past with a little rain or a slight wind, but "Ike" decided we needed to feel his fury. "Ike" did bring us some humidity on Saturday when our guest, my Brother, Sister-in-law, and their two adult children from CA arrived. "Ike" also brought a breeze, which is unusual at our house due to our location in a valley. Being from southern California humidity is not something they tolerate well....and neither do I. Saturday went well with Bill and my Dad starting to smoke a turkey early in the morning. When it was almost done we added two pork roasts. I wish I had taken pictures of the smoked roasts and turkey, because they did turn out picture perfect. When my brother arrive he helped my dad finish the main dish. We just added a cranberry relish, corn we froze from our garden and tomatoes from a friend's garden. All was good, but the house did get humid with the in and out checking on dinner.

Sunday morning my parents, Bill and I had breakfast, but the dishes did not get washed when "Ike" decided to show he was still something to fear. His wind was very strong and the trees in our area of KY were snapping like toothpicks. We were rather fortunate to live in the woods, but only had a small branch or two hit the ground. Most of the area north of us suffered much damage from trees breaking or being uprooted. This caused a huge power outage like I have never seen. Our power was out from 8:15am Sunday until sometime near 2:30pm Monday.

Thank goodness we have a gas grill and fish cooker and I have a wonderful husband who understood when I was frustrated and was being nasty to him when I was just upset with the circumstances. We did change our menu from Fried fish, Red Beans and Rice and Cole Slaw to Fried Fish, Potatoes and Onions in foil cooked on the grill and Green Beans we canned from our garden heated on the side burner of the grill and Cole Slaw. Sounds simple enough, but the fish would not thaw (this is fish we caught and froze in water) . Plus we had limited water in jugs so to speed the process I had Bill put the fish in the "electric cooler/warmer" we have in the car. He was able to heat the fish enough to start the thawing process and I used some water and my hands to finish the process. By this time I was tired and I knew the fish no longer looked like fish, but little pieces of a mess.

Now it was time to bread the fish which is a mess to do under the best circumstances, but I had little clean room in either kitchen and less water to clean my hands when I was taking the fish out of the milk wash into the coating. What a mess!

Then it was time to coordinate everything so it was all done at the same time. Fortunately I had help with the vegetables. All I did was frying of the fish.......lots of fish. Remember I was feeding 8 hungry adults! "Ike" was now not only blowing his wind all around, but now it was also raining a bit. Rain and oil do not mix, so the fish cooker had to be moved closer to the house under the eves. This made me very uncomfortable, but we managed. The meal was very goodwith very few left overs.

Again we had dishes from 8 people, cooking utensils and a small kitchen with no water. So everything was stacked and forgotten. We actually we couldn't see them shortly after dinner due to no lights. Our company left for their cabin and we all went to sleep.

Company arrived this morning to coffee, bacon, blueberry bran muffins, biscuits and scrambled eggs. All cooked on the gas grill. I must admit some of the muffins burnt, because I could not coordinate everything correctly. The plus side was it all tasted good, except the last batch of coffee was toooooooo strong, and we had very few leftovers. Again.......lots of dishes, nasty pans with black soot on them and still no water.

After all the good byes were said our company left. Bill and I went to town to pick up some batteries for the portable lights and some chicken.......already cooked for a meal today. We had heard that our electric may be out for a while.

We stopped to have coffee at our favorite dive. While there we learned that people north and east of us had more damage then we had. So again we counted our blessing.

While waiting in line for the chicken I met out magistrate. He is the man we call when we have a problem with the roads and other things our district. I had never met him, but after talking with him I learned about some tobacco barn fires, grass fires and home fires that happened Sunday, so again I was thankful. While taking to him some of the county road crew came in for lunch and we learned that some areas of the county may be without power for 36 hours more. So I was very thankful when our electric came on.

My mom managed to get one load of dishes done before dinner. I just used leftovers to make a hash and then we worked on the dishes again. I had to leave, so I don't know if they are all done, but you know what?????? They can be washed tomorrow.

I am just thankful we survived "Ike" with no damage and my brother and family were able to visit with my parents. They will really have a story to tell when they get home! Who would have thought a hurricane could cause so much trouble in KY!

Glad you have moved on "Ike"

Peggy

Color Spectrum Test

2008-09-06T10:34:00.002-05:00

In one of the on line groups that I belong to the following link to a color spectrum test was posted. http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77 It is an easy test to take, but be sure you look at the entire width of the page or you might get a score you do not deserve.

My score was zero which means I have perfect color spectrum. This is good and bad. It means to me that I can be very picky when choosing colors. I always knew that I had a color sense that others didn't have. I guess that is why when I owned a quilt shop the customers wanted me to pick out the fabrics for them. I didn't mind helping, but I never liked totally picking out the fabric for a quilt. I wanted my customers to have a say in what fabrics they liked and in what order they should appear in a quilt. The most challenging for me to pick out was always a log cabin

The bad part about the color spectrum test is that all the colors were of the same value. When we shop for fabric the values are sometimes bright and other times dull. There is much more then spectrum to picking out fabrics for a quilt. Oh and then the patterns printed on the color can totally change an opinion about a fabric working in a quilt. For instance, I have a very bright pink fabric with yellow ducks printed on it. The fabric works well with the coordinating fabrics from this line to make a child's quilt, but it would not work in a pink quilt due to the yellow duck.

One other thing I think everyone needs to remember about color is lighting makes a difference. Some quilt shops have full spectrum lights that are to show the true color of a fabric, but do you light your home with full spectrum lights? Most likely no! So my advice is if you really need something to match something else in your home either take samples of colors with you to the quilt shop or buy just small amounts of a fabric and take it home to test. If you have a favorite fabric you want to have as a focus in your quilt take it with you to pick out fabrics to coordinate with your favorite fabric. Sometimes you can just take the color dots from the selvage of the fabric, but I would rather have the entire piece of fabric.

Sometimes I don't have my fabric samples with me, but end up in a shop with fabric. Now this doesn't happen too often for me now, because I am trying to just use from my stash. It did happen with my latest quilt. I knew I needed a bright, a little darker then a true blue fabric. It needed to coordinate with a pale blue and also mix well with a dull dark yellow green, a pale green and a bright red. I didn't need to worry about patterns on these fabrics as they are mostly color on color patterns. I did not take any samples with me when I ended up in a place with fabric. So I just guessed which fabric would work. I guessed correctly and that might have to do with my color spectrum abilities and having the type of memory which allows me to visualize.

The quilt I am working on now will be published soon by http://www.quiltwoman.com I will post a picture when it is done. The thing I like about this quilt is that the colors is what makes the pattern move. The quilt is actually made using two simple blocks, but the changing of the colors in the block makes the quilt look complicated, but it is not. Speaking of that quilt I need to get the last three blocks sewn so I can start the final assembly.

Peggy

New Fabric Pictures Arrived

2008-08-29T11:54:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I received a disk with the pictures of the new fabrics I will be using to make a pattern and quilt for Quilting Treasures. I wish I could share them with you, but The fabrics are a big secret until Fall Quilt Market. I will tell you that one piece is a large panel, but it is not just one image. It has several imagines so it is really interesting. Some of the images are large and others are small in comparison.

The colors of this collection are calmer then the last two collections for which I made patterns and quilts. It is also based on the work of a couple very famous names in past art.

I was so excited about the collection I designed the quilt using the panel last night. The problem with designing quilts just from the images can be a surprise of slight differences in what the actual size of the print. In this case I took the side of safety and bordered the panel in a like fabric to the background so I can make adjustments if needed. It was also taking an ordinary block for the boarder and flipping and rotating it to make an interesting border.

This weekend I will design another quilt with out the panel using 8 to 10 of the other fabrics. I have a few things stirring around in my head. I want the quilt to be interesting, but would like it to be a rotary cut quilt.

I have sent my first design into Donna at Quilting Treasures and will send the other design in as soon as I finish it this weekend. Once she reviews the designs and they pick the one they like it will be time for me to do any editing they would like done on my design. Then it is time to wait for the fabric to arrive. During the wait I can start writing the pattern and do the drawings, but until I actually have the fabric I can not really finish the pattern.

I will post a picture of the finished quilt as soon as quilt market opens in October.

Peggy

Testing Marian's Magic Quilting Thimble

2008-08-21T22:38:00.013-05:00

I was asked by the owner of Marian's Magic Quilting Thimble if I would write a review of the under Thimble invented by his late mother. I agreed to test the thimble, but also told him that if I didn't like the thimble I would not put a post in my blog about the thimble. All that being said I did test Marian's Magic Quilting Thimble. The following is my review.

Marian's Magic Quilting Thimble is used on a finger under the quilt to aid in controlling the size of quilting stitches and it also keeps the needle from injuring the underfinger. The Thimble is cone shaped and will fit on most finger sizes. The cone part of Marian's Magic Quilting Thimble is flexible to fit to the shape of the choosen finger. If you go to the web site http://www.momsmagicthimble.com/ you can see that the shape of the thimble has a point at the end with a ridge to encourage the needle to change direction.

I first stitched a sample of my normal quilting stitch (row 1), then I started testing Marian's Magic Quilting Thimble(row 2). As with anything new it does take practice and a little work to think about how to use that object that is now on my under the quilt finger. Even with all that going on I immediately notice an improvement in my stitch. I don't hand quilt often now, but felt like my stitching would have been acceptable to me today. As I continued stitching my stitching improved. I did try curves, stitching right to left, stitching top to bottom an also stitching with my frame secure on a holder. I never have been able to stitch away from myself, so I didn't try to figure out how to use the under thimble stitching away.

I will use the thimble again. I liked not having to worry about the skin on my underfinger being hit with th e point of the needle. I believe also that with a little practice and using a stationary frame I would be able to actually increase the amount of stitches I could do per sitting. That will be a bonus to the stitches looking nicer on the top and bottom of the project. Sorry my picture is not better, but I am not a photographer.

Peggy

Today

2008-08-15T21:05:00.007-05:00

Today we discovered what is wrong with our washing machine. To back up a bit it was working just fine last week. Wednesday I did a small load of clothes after Bill and I were working outside, because I didn't want any bugs to be let loose while sitting a week in the laundry basket. When the machine reached the point where the water should drain, nothing happened. First thing I thought it was the pump, but if it was the pump I thought the spin cycle should at least make a effort to start.......nothing. We were busy yesterday, so this morning it was time to make a decision on what to do about the washer.

I talked to my Dad and he thought it might be the switch that keeps the basket from spinning when the lid is up. I agreed with him and in fact had tested that switch to see if that was the problem. He is not able to help with fixing things at this point due to a fall, so I was running up and down the stairs following his instructions. We thought about calling a repair person, but decided that we could take that money and put it towards a new machine. I would rather put the money towards a dryer which we really do need.

So Bill and I decided to check a little more into the situation. I took one look at the back of the washer and said "I don't know how to get into this washer. It is not like any of the other washers we worked on in the past. There was just two screws back there and the rest was plastic inserted through the metal. We didn't know what held the back cover on. So we looked at the inside of the washer again at the switch. We saw two screws there and Bill removed those while I held the switch...yes the washer was unplugged. Sure enough I was able to get the switch out enough to see that it was attached to a long wire that didn't want to give at all. I looked in the parts catalog and it is called a switch harness. In terms everyone would understand the switch can not be bought by itself. You must buy the wire it is connected to and be able to plug that wire into something....someplace inside the washer area we could not get into. So I went again to talk to my Dad. He said to test the switch to see if it was bad we must plug in the washer and short out the switch with the washer on in the position where it stopped working. I won't tell you how to do this, because I don't want anyone to get hurt. I had seen my Dad do this many times and understood when he told me how to do the process. Sure enough the washer started to work.

Well now we knew what was wrong, but still had no way of replacing the part. I noticed in the directions one could order a book on self repair. So I could order the part and the book and wait a week or so for it to be delivered. I went upstairs again to talk to my Dad. We decided since this was just a safety switch and I am the one who does the wash most of the time....and we do not have small children in the houe it would be safe to bypass this switch. Again I unplugged the washer and did what my Dad told me to do with Bill's help. We again have a working washer. The best part is it didn't cost a thing. Our washer isn't that old...just barely beyond the warrantee period. I am happy it is working again.

Last night I said I needed to make a new purse. So I went to the see what I had that I could use to make the purse. I found many blocks, but most of them were pieced or appliques with a light background. I don't need anything with a light background!!!! It know it would look dirty in no time. I did find these blocks all sewn together in a row.

I really like the two in the middle. Here is one so you can see it better.

I made these blocks as a sample when I owned my store to try to sell some stencil kits I bought. The samples must be about 8 years old. I think it is time that I use at least some of them. They are dark enough and also have enough color to be interesting. I think I will place one on point on each side. I hope to work on this project tomorrow.

I slept much of the day today....right through lunch and then again through dinner. Good thing Bill can take care of himself and I took a chef salad up to my parents earlier for their dinner. I woke up during the night last night and could not go back to sleep until about 5 am this morning. Then I woke up just before 7 to fix breakfast for everyone. We did that repair job after breakfast and I fell asleep in my chair. When I woke up I found out it was after lunch time. You would think the smell of the polish sausage Bill had for lunch would have woke me up. I got up and checked to see if there was a condo available in WI for a trip. It was and I called to make the reservations....through a friend. After that I made my lunch and made the salads for dinner. Sat in my chair again. Had a cup of coffee and fell asleep again. When I woke up Bill had eaten his salad and already returned his bowl to the kitchen. So I got up. Finished my salad and ate my dinner, did the dishes and watched a bit of TV.

I love this time of year because we watch the Little League World Series. It is wonderful to see these youth playing a baseball game with such pride, skill and energy. I also love the fact that all the officials, coaches, workers etc at the park volunteer their time to make this world series inexpensive to attend. If you get a chance watch a game. Bill and I want to go to PA some day to actually experience the excitement in person.

Believe it or not I am sleepy again. Hopefully tonight I will sleep the whole night and not be so tired tomorrow.

Night,

Peggy

Purses and other random thoughts

2008-08-14T19:34:00.003-05:00

Hi All,
I have a thing about carrying a purse until it must be replaced. The one I am carrying right now was made from a book cover that a friend had pieced and quilted for me many, many years ago.

I have a love hate relationship with my current purse. I love it because it was originally made by my friend Peggy and since I was no longer using it as a book cover I made it into a purse. When I look at it I see my friend and love her choice of colors. I have received many compliments on this purse and I can thank Peggy for that fact.

My hate relationship is kind of two fold or maybe three. I never added a handle to the purse, so I carry it under my arm. Funny thing about that is I have received several calls from my brother-in-law David. Apparently sometimes the phone when in the purse under my arm automatically calls David's phone. We have a nice conversation and go on with the day. The other thing I dislike about this purse is the inability to organize the inside. There are no pockets in the purse. I made it in a hurry, because prior to this purse I was not carrying a purse. I had a wallet that would fit into my jean's pocket and that was all I needed. Then I started wearing clothes with shallow pockets, or no pockets, plus I needed to carry more when traveling without my dh Bill. The third thing about the hate relationship with this purse is that I need to replace it....soon. The fabric is showing signs of wear.

So now I think I am going to make a variation of the tote I designed for Quilting Treasures. I loved the way the pockets were made on the tote, because they were easy to add, but I need to make it smaller, with handles and I don't think I want it to gather with a boot tie at the top. So basically I guess I only like the pockets on the tote and need to design a new purse. So I am off to do that now. One of the most difficult parts of this project will be deciding on the fabric. I need something that will go with many colors with out being flashy. I also need it to not be seasonal, because I know I will use it for several seasons. I will post a picture later. It may not be until this weekend, because I know that going to sew will lead to other projects for me.

Bye for now,
Peggy

My Quilt on front cover of catalog

2008-08-08T20:35:00.002-05:00

I was busy making dinner when my husband came to the kitchen all excited. He said I had a high priority e-mail from our friend Beverly in IL stating that my quilt I designed for Quilting Treasures is on the front cover of Hancock's of Paduch's newest catalog. I could not believe it. Do you know how many people look at that catalog and my quilt is on the cover! My name is on page 72 as the designer of the quilt. I know this is a method of selling the fabric, but I am happy to have my quilt on the cover.

I don't get the catalog, because we live just 65 miles from the store and if I want something from the store I just go there. Well you guessed it, today I signed up for the catalog! So DH and I are going to the store tomorrow to pick up a copy of the catalog. I would hate to miss out on having my quilt featured someplace and not be able to see the actual catalog. I was also happy to see that they have kits for the quilt.

The quilt is the Reflections of a Sunset Safari that I featured in a previous posting. I recently made a tote of the same material.

Back down to earth now. Dishes are waiting!

Peggy

New EQ Mystery Clue Posted

2008-07-31T05:37:00.004-05:00

If you have been reading this blog lately you know that I am doing the new EQ Mystery. A new clue was posted at http://www.electricquilt.com/ just recently and here is my results.

I did change some colors from lesson 2 and know that I am looking at a smaller picture of lesson 3 and have had a couple of days since I last looked at the project I will most likely change some colors in lesson 3. The colors are to show seasons, which I think mine does, but I do not like the way some of the fabrics are not blending. This is something that is nice about working with EQ, because you can test the fabrics first without cutting one piece of fabric.

I am happy to know that I am learning something new to me about the program with each lesson. I also learned this time that when I was originally coloring my piece that my "seasons" are not in the same place as instructed. I think this is because I put the heavier colors towards the bottom. This represents winter for me, because we don't have much snow in our area so my lights are limited. If I lived up north when they had a record breaking snow this past winter I would have used more whites, greys and crisp cold blues. I think it is interesting to see the way others color their designs.

Lately I have been going through my collection of things I have copied off the internet and organizing them into catagories. I am making sure all patterns have all their pieces and like things such as applique, mysteries, advice columns are all separated into like folders. I have one notebook nearly full with applique items.

Last night I played a bit with a new idea for a magazine article, but it may actually contain too much information for an article and need to be a book or booklet. This is something some friends have been encouraging me to do, but it is still in my mind and not on paper.

We just had a thunder storm. The weather is really strange here lately. The temperature indicates that it should not be really uncomfortable outside, but the humidity is so high that being outside is not pleasant at all. We have been having some type of rain usually about 4 or 5 in the afternoon, but today it happen between 5 and 6 am. The rains have been hard, but don't last long, so our overall accumulation is little. The house is warm even with the air conditioner.

New Pattern at Quilting Treasures

2008-07-26T12:17:00.004-05:00

I had lots of left over fabrics when I made my last quilt for Quilting Treasures, so I asked if it would be OK for me to make a tote bag for them. This is the results.
http://tinyurl.com/65rxoc

If I were making another one I would add some handles before adding the pockets, but I didn't think of that until after I had it all put together. I didn't want to sew handles over the pocket design, plus my fabric availability was low.

Next week I should be getting pictures of the new fabric line for the fall market design. I will then create several sample designs on EQ and send them in for a review. Once everything is OK then it is the wait for the fabric. Sometimes it is difficult to actually plan a quilt from just a picture of fabrics. The pattern on the fabric may not be the size I thought it was or it could be printed on the fabric lengthwise instead of crosswise which actually changed the design of the last quilt.

Today is kind of a lazy day. We have been so busy all week we just need to rest. A few things have been moved from the bedroom into the former guest bedroom. This is in preparation for the painting and new flooring. Then the bedroom will become the sewing room. The former guest room will become the bedroom after it is painted and a new floor put down. All in all it will be a mess for a while. This afternoon I am going to pack up some of my stash so it can be stored for a while.

The garden is almost finished. I am still canning tomatoes and a little okra comes in about twice a week. This week I used the okra when making Shrimp Creole. Each time I make Creole it taste different, because I will add new things I have on hand. Yesterday's batch was a little pale, (not red) , because I used fresh tomatoes in it instead of sauce. It still tasted fine and that is all that counts.

Tomorrow will be Bill and my 6th anniversary. A lot has happened in those 6 years, health wise mostly, but it has been a wonderful 6 years. Bill is my best friend and the person I hope to spend many future years with him. Happy Anniversary Babe!

Con't thoughts and playing

2008-07-18T22:03:00.004-05:00

Last night I wrote about my thoughts and leanings towards creating a folk art block. I went to pull some fabric and a project container caught my eye. It had folk art project in it that I had worked on while taking trips with my parents to FL many years ago. It is a baby quilt with I think 12 applique blocks by Little Quilts. I was turning under the edges of the applique and basted it to the background, then did a buttonhole stitch by hand in black to hold the applique in place I have several block finished, so that project is again my take along work.

I took it with me today and work on it while Bill had his stress test on his heart. I was able to baste 4 stars and was ready to add the circles to the center of each star when I discovered that the circle templates were missing. It didn't matter, because Bill arrived and I had to stop working.

Tonight I started the mystery offer on the Electric Quilt web site. It at this point is just going to be a practice project on the computer to learn more about the program. If I like the results I may someday actually make the quilt, but I don't need to start one right now.

This is how the center block started. This block would be nice set

block to block. The pattern would have curves and diagonals that would keep the eye jumping, but that is not what the mystery writer had in mind.

This is after lesson 2 and I changed colors to reflect seasonal sunsets. The instructions encouraged a scrap look changing the colors slightly on each side. I ended up changing the center colors also.

I also learned how to place blocks in a black and white coloring instead of the using the colors in the block library. This made it easier to visualize ways to change the color in the block and the way blocks work with the block next door.

I did several things on this block I would not normally do. for one thing the coloring is not symmetrical, but I did try to do some balancing. Also I would not have thought to use this type of border without a break from the center block. I really like the look of the lower section. I think if I actually make the quilt I will need to add a little blueish purple to the let hand side outer edge. The next clue may actually take care of that problem, so I will not change anything right now.

If you have EQ be sure to take advantage of all the EQ folks offer in the way of lessons, support and just fun stuff.

Peggy

My Thoughts Today (How I develop new patterns)

2008-07-16T20:51:00.006-05:00

I am in the process of thinking of a new project. I need something to carry with me to work on when waiting. It seems like I want to do something folk art that combines stitching, applique and piecing. I figure I can do the applique and stitching while waiting and the piecing at home. I think I am leaning towards folk art, because it is so free. A mistake in placement is never a mistake, but a new way to look at the piece of art.

I also want to use a soft fabric. I may even check out my limited flannel collection. I wish I had a nice selection of wool that I could felt and not have to worry about turning under, just do some interesting stitching around the edge.

I guess I need to really work on the pattern so I can pick the fabric. I do have some homespun plaids that would make nice backgrounds. Then I can add old fashion style of prints for a basket and some flowers.

A nice quote for what is going on in my mind right now....said by an artist I love, but many people I know have not idea I like this artist.

" If you know exactly what you are going to do, then what is the point of doing it?" Pablo Picasso

I find that many times the best laid plans on paper are changed as I actually work with the fabric. Sometimes fabrics just don't give the look I want when combined together. That is not to say the original idea was not a good idea, but maybe just not the right idea at the time.

I will post the progress with this project. Right now I am going to pick out a few fabrics.

Peggy

Quilting Treasures Patterns

2008-07-09T20:23:00.004-05:00

I design patterns and make quilts for Quilting Treasures. My latest project was made with the Sunset Safari fabric I had left over from the the quilt in the picture. I made a tote that features the lower panel on the quilt creating pockets on the outside. As you can see Bill is modeling the new tote. The pattern will soon be available at the Quilting Treasures web site http://www.quiltingtreasures.com Keep looking under projects to see what is new. They have a much nicer picture of the tote, but they don't have the model I have!

The garden is winding down. Bill and I set some "Kosher" dill pickles today. I have never been much of a pickle maker or eater, but we have so many pickles we just hate to see them not be used. I have left over brine, but need to find more hot peppers before making another batch.

Since my last post we have canned pickle relish, spaghetti sauce and froze corn. Notice I said "we". Many of the projects at our house are family projects, so one person doesn't have to work so hard. By sharing the work we can all take pride in what gets done.

We finally had a bit of rain today. So maybe the potatoes will be able to be dug, as the ground where they were growing was like concrete the last time we tried. WOW! I just went to the door and it is pouring rain out there. We won't get into the garden tomorrow, as it will be one big mud hole.

Other home front news. Dad has fallen several times since his stroke. So far he has been lucky to just have bruises and minor cuts. The DR told him to stay out of the garden, because that is where he has fallen the most, but Friday he fell at the edge of the driveway. The part of the drive that "falls off" down a hill. The hill is steep and natural with trees, bushes, tall grasses and most likely some junk. He was fortunate to fall and stay on the drive and not go over the hill. He was lucky that Bill and I had decided to marinade the ribs before we left to check out the holiday happenings in town. We were able to help him get up, wash his wounds and made sure he made it upstairs.

Sometimes I think Dad is doing better, then he decides to do something he should not do like this afternoon picking blackberries. He told me about them yesterday and asked me to keep an eye on them and pick them. It was raining this morning, so Bill and I went to get some dill and vinegar for the pickles. I had planned to check them this evening after dinner hoping it would be cooler. I don't know why he thought they had to be picked immediately, as when Bill and I "caught" him there was less then a cup of berries ready!

Bill also received bad news about his application for disability. He was turned down, but was told he can only do one job. Now tell me with the job situation as it is today and us living in a rather rural area, where is that job? We are now reevaluating and trying to figure out what we need to do so we can keep an eye on Mom and Dad yet one of us work. This involves getting them to DR appointments or to the ER, taking Dad shopping, taking care of the vegetables from a huge garden we did not need, making most of the meals, doing laundry and most of the cleaning, picking Dad up off the ground at least 2 or 3 times a week, finding the things that Mom can't remember where she has it now stored and the most frustrating answering the same question we answered yesterday. I can go on and on, but that only leads to more frustration.

We need to look beyond today and keep our goals and plans for our future in the limelight, not moved to the back burner.

The Frustrations of "Old Age"

2008-06-22T23:10:00.003-05:00

Just recently my father spend a few days in the hospital. He had a TIA or mini stroke. Unfortunately my mother and him did not tell Bill or I that he was not feeling well until it was too late for the DR to really help him So when we took him to the ER they could only do tests and put him in the hospital for observation. At least while in the hospital he was safe from himself. We can see the left side of his face droops a little and at times he still can't talk clearly enough for most to understand what he is saying. The worst is the drooling and his teeth falling out while he is trying to talk.

Almost as soon as he arrived home he was on his golf cart (electric and quiet) to survey his garden. (Now I need to tell you that "His" garden would not be growing at all if Bill and I had not tilled, fertilized, planted, cared for and harvested that lovely plot of land.) Surveying the garden from the cart would have been OK, but he got off to harvest some of the vegetables. When he decided to do this yesterday he fell twice in the bean patch. No one was there to help him get up, but he did manage to get to the cart. Most would know to come home, but no he went to see if Bill was catching any fish and see what else was going on in the neighborhood. When he arrived home his blood glucose was low (I think)(he is diabetic) and he could not get to his part of the house without help. Fortunately I was in our living room and was available to help him. At dinner several hours later, he admitted that he has not fully recovered from his "adventure".

Bill and I are doing our best to not take away any of Dad's feedoms, but it is getting to be more and more frustrating. (Dad did decide to not drive a car except to go to the local store that is very close. He only drives there when he needs the gas can filled, which isn't too often.) We talk with him one day about out concerns for his safety and we think he will at least use some common sense. Then he leaves home, forgetting to take his medicine, tries to pick beans, falls twice and goes to other parts of the neighborhood while his blood glucose is going down. It is getting very close for the roles to be totally reversed and I will become the parent of my elderly parents. At least Mom stays home and for the most part stays out of trouble. She is very forgetful and has trouble getting around, but we know where she is and for the most part what she is doing.

My advice to everyone is to think before you do something. Every action has a reaction. Some reactions are difficult when you are the one who has to make the decision to limit what actions someone else may take as they age. This is all so FRUSTRATING!

I have seen my friends and some relatives deal with one aging parent. Some parents live with the child only to be moved to another facility like a retirement home or assisted living. This usually happens when one or the other is unhappy. Others keep the parent in their home and have help come into the home. So far Bill and I are dealing with my parents by our self. I was working, but that has ended. We do get away once in a while, but this is rare now and for short periods of time.

Now I must get some sleep as another day will be starting soon.

Peggy

The party's over!

2008-06-15T22:38:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was a long day on the road (678miles round trip), but for a good reason. Bill and I took my parents to my cousin, Shirley Jean and her husband Wayne's house for her mother's 90th birthday party. My Aunt Shirley looked good and seemed to enjoy the visitors for the day. We had an enjoyable time visiting with people we knew and didn't know. I had met everyone in the past, but I can honestly say I didn't remember several people.

It was a beautiful day for traveling considering how much rain has been falling in the mid-west. It was sad to see the corn fields in IL with ponds where the corn should be growing.

Just before we turned off the interstate in IL to go into IN we stopped to give our friend Beverly some fresh vegetables from our garden. It was so nice to see her again. I wished we could have stayed to visit with her, but due to the fact we were not yet at our destination we didn't stay with her too long.

Today Shirley Jean called with some bad news. My Uncle Orv in FL passed away today. It has been a few years since we saw him and my Aunt Alma, but we thought of both of them often.

Some of my memories of Uncle Orv include the first time I met him. He won me over instantly with his winning smile and the spark in his eyes. I also saw that my Aunt was again happy. When Aunt Alma and Orv married, during their middle years, Orv became and instant father to two grown children and a grand father also. He seemed to take great pleasure in that new job.

Orv would tell stories about going hunting or fishing with my cousin Larry. Some of these stories were funny, others were serious and some were sad, but the thing I saw as important was that Orv enjoyed being with Larry. Orv and Aunt Alma made the trip to the Atlanta area to visit Alma's daughter Linda and her family. Whenever we saw them Orv would talk as much about Linda's family as my Aunt Alma. He would talk with pride about both children as if they were his own.

I would say Uncle Orv never meet a stranger. He could carry on a conversation with anyone and usually found some common ground with that person. He was a great story teller, kidder and a total gentleman. He will be missed.

Here's a hug for you Uncle Orv, I will forever miss getting a hug from you and I am so glad you were a part of our family.

Love,
Peggy

Beans,beans and more beans

2008-06-12T09:07:00.004-05:00

As all of you know who raise a garden when the vegetables are ready they must be taken care of at that moment. Not when one has the time to spend hours picking and canning, but right now. This year has been a good year so far for us being able to plant the garden, getting needed rain with out too much and the bugs have not been too bad. Right now we need rain for the tomatoes and corn that are just setting, but it is an abundant year for the green beans. So for the past few days and also today we have been picking, snapping, washing and canning green beans.

So far I have canned 35 pints and 4 quarts of beans. I think I may get another 6 or 7 pints once the pressure canner has cooled enough to do another batch.

We will have many more pickings of beans, but other then a few for table use I am finished with the beans. We have already started giving beans away. I wish my friend Beverly still lived close, because I would be sure we would get some to her. May need to think about this and do some talking to family about maybe taking some to her. We will be fairly close to her on Saturday celebrating my Aunt Shirley's 90th birthday.

Just think, I have an Aunt whom will be 90 years old soon. Only 2 of her sisters have already passed. That leaves 3 sisters and 4 brothers still alive. They all have some health problems, but to the best of my knowledge they are all still at home either being taken care of by their children or fully independant and on their own. Their father passed what I consider young at 63 or 64, but their mother lived a long active life as did their maternal grandfather.

I used to love to go visit my Great Grandfather McGraw. He lived in a tiny house in the front yard of his landlord's home. I remember the yard at least to me was large with lots of trees. It was a "long" trip. All of about 25 miles, but we were gone all day. He would make us a nice meal. As far as I am concerned he was famous for his meat loaf that had hard cooked eggs right down the middle of the loaf. He knew that I was intrigued with those eggs baked right in the loaf and kept it a secret from me about how he made it so it looked so perfect.

A few other things I remember about his house was he didn't have "running" water. Well actually he did, but it was by a hand pump at the kitchen sink. As I am sure you have figured out by now that also meant that he had an out house. I HATE OUT HOUSES! I am very sensative to smells. It doesn't matter if it is perfume that if overly applied or the "smell of money" as you travel the back roads and go by a farm too close to the road, but an out house is sometimes smelly, but in the summer too hot and enclosed. He knew I had this problem and would allow me to use his chair in the bedroom. The seat would lift up and there was a hole with a little champer pot below. I hope someone in the family still has that chair, because it was a life saver for me.

I also had another connection to my Great Grandpa. I was born the same month and year that he lost his wife, my Great Grandmother. She passed at the end of the month of March 1950 and I was born a week or two earlier.

The beans are now finished. A grand total of 41 1/2 pints and 4 quarts. Whew! Glad that is done. Now I can get some other work done.

Peggy

One Busy Day

2008-05-28T17:57:00.005-05:00

This has been one busy day. We are in the process of installing a new, larger window air conditioner in the basement area. The problem is we don't have a window to just set it in like the instructions suggest. So we needed to enlarge the hole we had put into a wooden door that we used to fill in the space of one of the opened sliding glass door that leads to the "patio". Enlarging the hole was not a problem, but we didn't think about having to consider the shape changes from an open window to a flat square opening. We now have all that figured out, extra support in place, but were just too tired today to finish up the job. It is cool right now, so not having AC in not a problem. We know that shortly we will not only have heat, but more importantly we will have humidity. That in a nutshell is why we used some of the money I received from making a quilt and pattern for Quilting Treasures for a newer, larger AC. here is a picture of the quilt that will be a free pattern download in the near future at http://www.quiltingtreasure.com/. Look under projects. The last quilt I made for them is now also on their website. Look in More QT Products, then scroll down to the Paddington Counts Quilt Tin. They are selling the Tin with my pattern and fabric to make the same quilt.

While working on the quilt for Quilting Treasures I learned how to transfer large pattern pieces from my EQ6 program to a pdf file. I downloaded a free program pdf 995. I went to the block in EQ6 that I needed to have templates to use on the web or it could also be used for just printing. I then clicked file and click on printer set-up. I then changed the printer from my default printer to the pdf995 option. Close that window and again click on file and then print. The menu brought up options and I click on templates. At this point I checked and changed if needed the block size, seam allowance and line thickness. I then clicked on preview. In the preview area In I then deleted patterns I did not need and moved the rest so they were closer to the left. (This helped to keep the regular printer from printing pages not needed.) When I was happy with everything I clicked on print. The computer will then print the file to a pdf file that you can look at with a free adobe reader download. Fast, simple and easy. I know someday I will need to invest in another program that will allow editing of these pdf's, but for now this works.

I also received an interesting e-mail today with an opportunity to work a booth at a quilt show. The owner's of the booth would have it all set up and would take it down. They would pay $150.00 and 2 meals for each day worked at their booth. I am not able to work during the show due to other obligations at that time, but may in the future.

The garden is doing really well. We are already eating green onions, lettuce and spinach. The green beans are about ready to bloom, so it won't be long to canning season. The tomatoes are blooming a setting fruit. The corn is growing by leaps and bounds.

Tonight we had fresh blue gil filets for dinner. They were so good. Bill has gone to the lake to see if he can catch some more. We want to be sure we have enough fish froze to have plenty for winter.

Catch everyone on a less busy day.

Peggy

Enjoyable day

2008-05-16T18:48:00.003-05:00

Today I was with my friend JoAnn. While at her house an electrician was also there finishing up some things that needed to be done on her new home. He and his helper were working in the craft room that we were in as well as other places in the house. She was not happy with the light on the ceiling fan and just explained to him what she wanted. They went to get some supplies and picked out a new light for the craft room. When they came back they showed us what they bought and we both said at the same time......that is perfect!

I was working on a quilt binding and JoAnn worked on a quilt she is making for her Granddaughter out of the GD childhood clothing. We kind of bounced some ideas off of each other about the quilt she was making and a quilt block I need to applique for a mutual friend. I confirmed that she could do what she wanted to do with her quilt and she helped me solidify my idea for the quilt block I need to make. She even had a pictures to help me with my idea. Now I just need to draw it and pick out the fabric to get it made.

Our kitten, Gordo, is growing my leaps and bounds. He is able to leap to places that gets him into trouble being there and he bounds under feet so he sometimes goes sailing across the floor. He is learning our rules, but sometimes I think he is very hard headed and must learn the hard way. So far Gordo has been a very good kitten. Thank goodness he doesn't whine like his namesake. He is still in the chewing stage, and I will be glad when that ends. All in all he has adjusted well.

Bill caught a good mess of fish. We ate them night before last. Unfortunately it took a few days to have enough to bring home. He again went fishing today, but didn't have enough to bring home. We still have plenty, but like to share with others. It has been tough fishing this year due to the cooler wetter then normal weather. I am not complaining, because I would rather have cool weather then the heat and humidity of the summer in this part of KY.

I will post a picture soon of a quilt that is almost finished.

First Day Home

2008-04-29T15:32:00.005-05:00

Today is our first day home from a quick trip to the Talladega NASCAR race that were held over the weekend. We were with many relatives during the trip and we had lots of fun. I did not go to the two races. I stayed with Bill's Nephew Bryon, his wife Leann and Great Nephew Bradley. We chatted and watched TV including the races. Bill stayed home from the race on Saturday so Bradley could attend. Bradley was happy, because his favorite driver Tony Stewart won.

Bill's son, JR and grandson Devin and another nephew Eric and his girlfriend Melisa were in Alabama for the races also. It is fun for all of us to get together once or twice a year. Sunday I was fortunate to see Bill's great niece Cassie and her two little ones. The came back for a few minutes on Monday prior to us leaving so everyone could see Cassie, Cheyenne and Calley.

Today JR and Devin left here for their home in WI and Bill and I went to town so we could have a little "Our" time together. While we were in town we found a new kitten. He has not received a name yet, but I think by the picture you can see that Bill and him are going to be best buddies. I told Bill he can not name the new kitten Buddy, because we had a cat in the past named Buddy.

I think we will need to put a bell on the kitten. Bill woke up enough to put the kitten in the kitty bed. I saw it sleeping there, but now it is gone. It may be under the quilt again with Bill, but I don't know. Hopefully Bill will realize the kitten is there, if it is there, when I wake him up for dinner. I will post later.

Peggy........worried about the safety of the new kitten!

Parting of Ways

2008-04-17T15:36:00.003-05:00

Things change in life daily, but sometimes changes are dramatic. For instance births, deaths, marriages, new jobs or having to leave a job. No matter what the dramatic change is in one's life each of us need to look at the good that comes from that change. The good in my most recent change in life allows me time to help my family with the out door work.

Most recently I parted from a job that I truly enjoyed. I was a two way parting. By that I mean I needed to not do part of the job so the gal I was working for decided she no longer needed my help on the other part of the job. So I call this a mutual departure. I am not mad or even sad about no longer having this job. What does sadden me is I am not sure the person I worked for understands that the stress she was dealing with (not directly related to the job we were doing) at the time of the departure was the cause of the departure. Sometimes we need to delay projects, ideas or plans to be able to do one job well before starting another job.

I work under the rule that when one door closes another one opens. Sometimes people need to look a bit to find that open door but doors are open for each and every one of us. For me a door opened last night. It is not a big, long term project, but I have a small job. I also have a pattern and quilt to make for Quilting Treasures in the next week or so and a baby quilt to finish. My step son and grandson will be visiting next week and we are all going on a trip to Talladega to go to the NASCAR races.

The weather has changed so the past couple of days we have been working outside planting the garden. I think we will finish with the most of the seed planting tomorrow and will wait a week or two until we plant the tomatoes and peppers. The local co-ops have not received their bare root cabbage plants, so we may not plant them this year. We have a few cabbage plants, but not as many as my Dad thinks we need.

Today is Bill's Birthday. We went out to eat lunch and since Bill usually doesn't eat desert Pam, the waitress, put his birthday candle on his hamburger. I thought it was so funny to see the candle right there in the hamburger meat.

Tonight I need to open my EQ6 Quilt Design Program and check the design I have drawn for the Quilting Treasures project. It includes a setting sun, but that is all I am going to tell you until I can post a link to the fabric and pattern.

So don't forget to value all your experiences and always look for the good in situation instead of dwelling on the bad.

Where or where have I been??????

2008-04-05T16:31:00.003-05:00

I have not posted since my birthday, but with very good reason for my lack of publishing. Shortly after my birthday Bill and I left for a vacation in Wisconsin. We had many people ask us WHY are you going north in March. The main reason was our 10 year old grandson was to be on vacation from school also. The other reason was we had not been back to my husband's home state since last summer. So for more then a week we were not near a computer.

We stayed at a Condo in Wisconsin Dells. This way we didn't bother anyone else and could have our grandson visit with us. We went out to eat a few times, but we had also brought food with us so we didn't have to leave the Condo if we didn't want to leave. Some people like going out to eat on vacations, but I don't mind cooking. We also did some pre-preparations so most of the time the cooking was easy. On Friday of our visit two of Bill's sisters, a brother-in=law neice and son were visiting for most of the day. We had a great time visiting, eating and playing cards. This was also Bill's son's birthday, but we didn't celebrate it until the next day.

The Saturday party included Bill's son, his wife and son, a nephew and his girlfriend, Bill and myself. Again this included a meal, card playing and lots of chatter. We had a great time and actually celebrated Bill's son and nephew's 34 th birthdays.

Upon arriving home early early in the morning Monday we checked the computer for messages and to actually find out the time. (The electric had been out while we were gone). I managed to get the computer to boot up once, then it froze up and would reboot. Monday a neighbor told us that most likely the power source in our tower was shot. I called around trying to find the part, but everyone wanted to fix the computer, not just sell the part. I finally found one that was larger then we needed, but available to buy. This is how computer dependant our society is today. Every store or computer place I called said to me after I told them I could not boot up my computer and the part I was looking for......."You could go ON-LINE to buy the part" My response to them was "If I could get ON-LINE I would not be calling you looking for the part." Then I immediately hung up. Monday evening we had bad electrical storms, so I didn't want to work on the computer. After the storms calmed down I shakenly installed the new power source. Working on our computer is something I do, but am always worried about it working correctly after I am done. With lots of prayer I finished the installation and plugged everything back in and turned on the computer. I was so thankful to see the screen light up and the disk turning, lights flashing etc. Our computer works again!!!!!!!

The rest of the week was spent at Patti's getting things ready to take her store to the Quilt Festival (I think that is the name) in Chicago. The show is actually in Rosemont west of the city, but close enough to be considered Chicago to those who don't know. Patti and I are leaving Monday. We plan to stay south of the city Monday night and go to the show location Tuesday mid morning. Then the work begins. We have a trailer full of store stuff that will need to be unloaded, unpacked and the booth looking attractive by Wednesday evening. I hope to see many people I know, as I used to live just across the Indiana border from Chicago. I know I might not recognize former friends and relatives, but maybe I will.

Must get going. Dinner is calling.

Happy Birthday to.......ME!

2008-03-18T21:44:00.003-05:00

Today I am blessed to be one year older. I like to spend my birthday with my dh Bill. To reflect a bit on this our first year together was in 2003. It was a mild spring day on March 18, 2003 and we decided to spend the day fishing at the pier in our neighborhood. We did well catching fish, enjoying each other's company and making the day special. Many people would have been upset with the day, because we sat through a misty rain most of the day. The way we looked at it was we were together, no one was bothering us and we were enjoying the day fishing. We have repeated several birthdays fishing, but none was as special as that first birthday we were together.

We do try to spend my birthday together. The place may vary, but one constant is we talk about our life together.

Bill supports me with my love of quilting. He encourages me to do what I enjoy doing and to be with people who also enjoy quilting. If it wasn't for Bill I would not be working for Batiks by Design or going to National Quilt Shows or designing again. He also makes sure that I don't overextend myself. I have the tendancy to work too hard to please others and forget to take care of my own needs. I love Bill for taking care of me (and my parents when I am gone).

Today was a totally different birthday for us. I woke very early 4:19am. We had an appointment for 9:15am 65 miles away from home. I was also concerned about today's weather, because we were to get thunderstorms and lots of rain. For the most part the bad storms and heavy rains did not happen where we were, but it was very windy. Our appointment went well, but we won't really know the results of it for a while.

On our way home we stopped at our favorite local restaurant to have some lunch. A man from our neighborhood was also there and sat to talk with us for a while. We are neighbors, but don't see each other often. To make this long story short we spent several hours talking. We got home just in time to make some baked potatoes and grill some steaks to enjoy a family dinner together with my parents.

After dinner we drove down to the lake. We could not have fished from the pier today even if we had the time. The lake is up over the pier and the waves on the lake were white capping. With all the rain north of us I think they will need to hold the water in our lake to allow the flooding above the dam to go down. This makes us happy, because fishing is usually better during a flood and for the summer after a flood.

Tomorrow it is back to work. I think we will be assembling some kits and cutting fat quarter for the April shows. Stop by the International Quilt Fesival at the Batiks by Design booth # 1241 & 1243 to meet both Patti and myself. The fesival is April 11-13. We will also be set up at the Kentucky Oaks Mall during the AQS show in Paducah, KY, but I will only be there thru Thursday April 24.

See all of you soon.

Peggy

March Snow

2008-03-09T10:21:00.007-05:00

Spring was in the air. Trees were turning red with buds and the daffodils along the road were blooming. We saw our first robins since late fall and the blackbirds were entertaining us on the way to town with their flying group acrobats. I would wake up early to daylight and it was lasting until after dinner. All the usual signs of spring.

Since moving to western Kentucky back in 1984 I have witnessed another usual sign of spring many times over. That sign is a heavy March snow. Usually it is wet and sticks to the trees and true to form we were blessed with a nice March snow Friday. Here is a picture of what our snowball bush looked like Saturday morning. I should have waited until the sun was shining to take the picture, but I was afraid a wind might blow the snow away. It was very pretty, but the snow is now off all the trees. Some still remains on surfaces that are protected from the sun.

Bill and I cleaned the snow off the front deck yesterday after breakfast. Unfortunately the snow shovel handle broke, but we did get most of the snow off the upstairs deck. Our dog Tipper
had laid on the snow right at the front door. Her body heat melted the snow enough to create ice.

My DH and I told my dad it was there and that he should not go out via their front door, but to come downstairs and use our front door.

Needless to say he did not listen and when he went out he fell as he was trying to close the sliding glass door. I was in the shower at the time and Bill thought I fell. So he checked on me first, I was not the one to fall. When he went upstairs he discovered Dad laying outside at the icy spot on the deck. Fortunately he only hurt his right elbow. Both Bill and him said he has grooves in his elbow to match the grooves of the door frame. I thought Dad would be sore today, but he is fine.

We thought Tipper would be a small dog, because her mother is short. Here she is as a puppy.

She laid under the saw horses as Dad and Bill were building her dog house. She quickly outgrew the dog house, but the cats could hide from her in there. She was soon too tall to even crawl through the door to get to the cats.

Bill is now home from fishing with a broken line. Does that mean he had a BIG OLD FISH on the line???????

Need to go get some work done.

Peggy

My Patterns

2008-02-28T21:33:00.004-06:00

I know some of you have been waiting for my patterns to be available. Part of the reason for the delay is I had some of my pieces waiting to see if they would be published first in a magazine. The Dashing Nines has been turned down at this time, so I will now publish it myself. Well actually it wasn't turned down. It was more I wanted the magazine to choose between the two designs Batiks by Design(BBD) and I had submitted so I could publish the other design. Another of my designs, that I have not shown to you is still being considered. I need to get them some additional information. I can tell you this much, if it is published in "the magazine" it won't happen before the Nov/Dec issue. I will keep you informed.

My patterns will be released soon and you may get them from Batiks by Design using the link to the left under My Patterns or directly from me. The first two patterns will be available early next week. I need to do a bit more work to have them just right. Well just right in my eyes.

I worked this morning for Patti at BBD. I finished cutting and packaging a couple of orders then started serging the edges of fabric we are going to wash to put into kits. Patti is going to offer a couple of patterns with prewashed fabrics to see if her customers like them that way. It does take more energy and time on our part, but if they sell we may make more.

After leaving work Bill and I went out to lunch. We try to do that on Thursdays, because it gives us good husband and wife time. Sometimes we will also do some shopping, but today we went to the cemetary. I received a survey from the one of the local cemetarys. I filled it out only because we would get a two night stay in one of several hotels around the country. I know it is a come on, but I can listen to someone for an hour or so to save some money when traveling. I knew we would have to talk to the sales person, but I was honest on the survey indicating that we already had cemetary plots. They didn't ask me where they are located. Actually I have two cemetary plots. One in Ohio, which also has a casket and vault already bought, and a pair that my husband and I have in Wisconsin. We will be using the ones in Wisconsin. Anyway to make the long story short we now have two nights in a hotel to use before September 2009. The sales person was nice and did answer some questions I had about disposing of the plot I own but won't be using.

Tonight I started collecting materials needed for a machine quilting class I am taking Saturday. I know how to machine quilt, but it is nice to practice, learn another person's methods and be with others also in the class.

Tomorrow night Bill and I are having dinner with his sister and brother-in-law. They are passing through our area on their way home to WI from AL. They spent most of the winter in AL. Several couples from WI rent cabins in a state park and enjoy all the activities offered in the area. They picked a great winter to be away from WI, as WI had record snows, winds and temperatures this winter. I'm looking forward to seeing them again.

Well I need to work again tomorrow, so I best get to bed.

Peggy

It's been so long!

2008-02-22T22:29:00.002-06:00

I have not been able to post to my blog in such a long time I had trouble remembering how to get here. Don't worry, everything is ok here, just busy and tired.

Our weather seems to be stuck in a cycle of a threat of ice on Thursdays. So far we have either been too far south or too far north and have missed the bad stuff.

I worked four days for Batiks by Design this week. Most of what I did was to sew on samples. We try to work up all the patterns in Patti's fabrics, so everyone can see what they look like using traditional batiks.

I also worked on taxes this week. Funny thing, I felt like I hardly worked last year, but the IRS considered me a small business because I received a couple of 1099's. You get these when you earn more then $600. from one employer. So it looks like we will need to pay again this year. At least it won't be much that we will need to pay. I still need to change and add few items before I can send the taxes in, but the hard part is finished.....YEAH!

Bill had four post put into his lower gum Wednesday. These will be used to hold his lower dentures in place. He has been a real trooper with the whole process. Right now he has 4 metal posts and no teeth. Some how he manages to eat.

A couple of mice were in our greenhouse and ate the tops off of all the tiny tomato plants. So the second batch of tomato plants are starting to come up. Part of them are now living on my stove using the stove light to grow by. That means a lot of crock pot, microwave and Forman cooking for a few weeks. I can always use the stove upstairs, but it is kind of an adventure to see what can be made without the stove. I did move the plants one evening so I could broil a few steaks, but I thought Bill should have something he really liked before he had the posts put in. His lower teeth will be put in as soon as they are drilled to accomodate the posts. Then the upper teeth will need to be aligned to the lower teeth.

I think I can actually stay home this weekend if I want. It is nice to know that even if it doesn't happen. I will be sewing, cleaning, doing laundry, cooking.....geez I think I want to go out! No actually I enjoy doing all of that even if I sometimes complain. The one thing that is nice is Nascar is back on TV and Dale Jr is doing just fine with his new team.

Time to make the coffee for tomorrow.

Peggy

The Weather

2008-02-06T21:16:00.000-06:00

Yesterday and today we again have been fortunate to not have any damage from the weather. Lots of damage happened with in 75 miles all around us, but not here.

Seeing the pictures of the snow that is hitting Southern, Wisconsin where my husband's family lives, reminds me of the many snow storms I "enjoyed" in Indiana and Ohio. My favorite memories include the 27" of partly cloudy (unpredicted snow) we had when I was in JR High School in NW Indiana. Another was the blizzard we had in Ohio while I was teaching in Preble County. The snow and drifts were so high I could not see the mail boxes at the road. They were completely covered with snow. The National Guard was called out to clear the roads in the county. We missed a whole week of school if I remember correctly.

Several things I remember about snow are how the sun reflects off the snow, how quiet the world seems when outside in the snow and how messy and ugly the world gets as the snow melts into slush. I would much rather drive on packed snow rather then in slush.

Much happiness to all,
Peggy

What not to do when the electric is out!

2008-02-03T20:51:00.000-06:00

Last Wednesday the weather was windy as a weather front was about to go through our area. Right after we finished eating dinner our electric went out. So the dishes didn't get done. My DH and I took naps. About three hours later the electric came back on just long enough for me to reset the clocks and try to get on the computer to check on the coming weather. Flicker....Flicker...Flicker and it was out again.

I had slept for three hours and was wide awake. It was totally dark in our house. We do have emergency lights that we use to move around the house, but we conserve them. So I had the bright idea to light some candles so I could work. Now I will show you two of twenty reasons why I should not try to rotary cut using three short candles. Notice that the brown and gold fabic is longer then the white and gold. They are supposed to measure the same size. So I had to trim. I also didn't cut enough of the brown and gold fabric as I couldn't accurately count the pieces not knowing if I had one, two or three pieces in my hand.

So today I trimmed and sewed. I need another picture for my pattern cover showing an additional setting of the table runner. So this is how it is layed out using the same number of pieces as the blue one or the multi colored one posted earlier.

For those waiting on this pattern it will be available soon. I am waiting on some paper work from the state. I thought it came in the mail yesterday, but it was a large envelope that included all the stuff I read already, plus a blank application. I at least know they received my application and it looks like it was approved, just waiting for the magical numbers needed to do business.

I am now working at Batiks by Design part time. Tomorrow is a work day, so I guess I need to finish up for the night. Have a good one!

Peggy

So much to learn!

2008-01-28T22:48:00.000-06:00

Sorry I don't have pictures again tonight. I have not taken any lately that I can share. I promise the next thing I sew will be posted.

Patti from Batiks by Design and I are trying to learn many new computer programs that will make things easier for both of us. It seems like there is a never ending CD out there with a new...or old program that I don't have...that I, she or we need to know. At least we are learning the accounting and bookkeeping programs together, so we can compare notes and maybe one of us will know how to work out the problem.

Some things in life are as I have heard all my life "clear as mud". The new terms, the way different people write and maybe just my lack of brain cells to process everything really makes life interesting.

Let me get back to my sewing and designing as soon as possible. I have so much I want to accomplish all at one time.

If everything works out right and my parents are healthy enough to take care of themself for a week and a couple of days we will be going on vacation. Today Bill, my husband, rented a condo in Wisconsin Dells for the last week in March. This is the week that our grandson is off school for his spring break. The place we rented will sleep 6, so I am sure we will have some overnight family visitors while we are there.

The Dells is a popular vacation area, but mostly during the summer. Much of what goes on during the summer are the types of stuff we avoid. We just want a place to "get away" from it all, not be shoulder to shoulder with other people. That is why we go to the Dells in the winter when much of what attracts others to the Dells are closed for the season.

Another reason we go to the Dells is being able to rent a place that is like home. We can eat out if we desire or we have a kitchen where we can cook. We also can have relatives and friends visit us instead of us running all over WI becoming exhausted. Since our relatives live from LaCrosse to Madison and south they are all with in an hour or so of where we will be staying.

Another plus is the outdoor activities we can do while our grandson Devin is staying with us, so hope for good weather. We can go fishing, play at the out door playground, or go to the indoor activity center. All of this is on the grounds of where we are staying.

Shopping is also available in the area, but we will keep that to a minimum. We do like the new outlet mall there and I know where a few quilt shops are located in adjoining towns. We will also make the trip a time or two to Bloomington, WI, my husband's home town. We love it there. It is a small town that has some of the most interesting people if you get to know them. It also has a great bakery that serves breakfast and lunch. I will also buy some bread from the bakery and maybe some rolls to take back to our Condo. At Christmas time they have wonderful cookies. I really like the cranberry oatmeal cookies.

My personal travel schedule will be busy this year helping Patti at Quilt Shows. We are going to Chicago mid April and then Paducah, KY at the end of April. Paducah is only 65 miles away, but we may spend a night or two in a camper up there to conserve our energy. August we will be in Nashville TN. Then we have a break until October when we will go to Des Moines, Iowa come home for a few days then we are off to Houston. Our schedules are different in each place, but one thing stays the same.....we get tired....we eat too many snack foods to just survive and restaurant food takes too long to arrive and are very expesive. Oh did I say we get tired! As you can see I would much rather have a home cooked meal that arrives right after I change my clothes and I can enjoy being off my feet. A spa bath tub would be nice also, but I would not have time to use it anyway.

Well it is off to bed time. Tomorrow is grocery shopping day and it is suppose to rain with strong winds. I just checked the weather. Now they are saying Thunderstorms! OH YES! It is only getting up to 58 degrees and then drop to 25 degrees. If we didn't need so many basic items I would just stay home. I am out of too many things, so I will just hope the bad weather doesn't hit until afternoon.

My Views about Machine Quilting

2008-01-20T19:23:00.000-06:00

I must say that I am one of those people who prefer hand quilting. I also must say that after going to so many quilt shows lately I admire machine quilting. I know some of my friends are falling over right now. I am not sure if they fainted or if it is because they are laughing so hard!

I always loved the look of hand quilting and actually enjoyed hand quilting. The problem I have is I like lots of quilting and I just don't have that type of time. I have quilts that I started hand quilting more then 10 years ago. Two of these quilts have special meaning to me, so they will never be finished by me other then by hand. Now the other two quilts I can see me machine quilting them just to get them finished. The problem I have with both of these quilts is that they are large, have polyester batting in them and would be difficult to do on my domestic machine.

I recently quilted a quilt that is less then 50" square on my sewing machine. I had a few areas that were difficult to quilt, but most of it was fun. The hard part is deciding how I am going to quilt the piece. Borders are the biggest problem, because all four sides are usually alike and need to be quilted the same. Sometimes that is easy if the fabric has a pattern to use as a guide, but when the fabric offers no clues for the quilting???? I know I can use a quilt stencil, but that means an extra step. Funny I don't mind that step when I hand quilt, but when doing it by machine I kind of like the freedom to not having to follow a line. I think part of that is because I find it difficult to follow a line. My walking foot has an offset opening for pulling the threads through. I can't line up with that unless I move my needle......HA, I just thought of that. Why didn't I think about that when I was quilting???????????

Another problem I discovered for me is that moving the fabric with my hands causes my right hand to hurt right in the middle of the palm. Funny thing is I don't notice it while I am quilting, just when I am trying to relax and do something else. I also noticed that I need to take breaks to relax my shoulders. I get too tense trying to do the design just a certain way.

I did learn that making circles is easier in one direction then it is going the opposite direction. This is a good thing to know, but my natureral instict is to start in a place to cause me to to the direction that is not good for me. In time as I do more machine quilting I will remember where to start to make it easier.

I think the thing that I learned that really impressed me is that when you step back from the quilt about 3 feet all the imperfections disappear. It is when you nose is 6" away while you are sewing that things really look bad. Also when quilting close the imperfections seem to disappear as more quilting is added. Or maybe it is because I want to get the quilt done that I stop seeing the "problems" and just overlook what bothered me when I sewed the design.

Oh well! All I know is that I had better learn to love machine quilting, because I have lots of samples to quilt of my new patterns. I sent off last week for the last of the approvals I need before I start selling my patterns. So I will have several for sale soon!

It was cold here today, but not nearly as bad as it is where they are playing foot ball today. I can't believe they schedule a night football game in Green Bay, WI in January!