Urgh!

Well, I'm disgusted.  I went home to eat lunch today only to find my husband, darling man that he is, freaking out about the pool liner.  It looks like it's going to be too short on the one side.  This is going to mean draining what little water we have in the pool already and redistributing the liner.  It's backtracking and no one likes to do that.  And to top it all off, we can't get to it until the weekend because it's a two person job.  So, I'm disgusted with the situation.  Going to just have to grin and bear it, I guess.

I broke down and made an appointment with the doc for next Monday (okay LaDonna?  lol).  I have to get my scheduled bloodwork done anyway, so I'll kill two birds with one stone.  I still don't think these nosebleeds are serious, but I want the doc to tell me that.

Tonight I am going to take my elderly great uncle out to dinner, if his schedule permits...  haha.  He's such a busy man.  I know he had an errand to run today that was about a 20 mile drive.  Then his band, yes, his band, might have practice tonight, so he may not be able to squeeze me in!  haha.  He's the accordian player in a Tamburitza band, playing Croation music.  I can't even begin to tell you how many years he has been in the band, but it's been a few decades, that's for sure.  My great grandfather, his dad, played accordian also. 

Music runs thick in my bloodline, and it's really blossoming with my son and his guitar now.  I'm so proud of him (I'm proud of my daughter, also, but today it's brag-on-Nick-day!).  Nick is fully immersing himself in music.  He's teaching guitar lessons, operating a d.j. service, and most importantly, going to school for a degree in music composition.  I hold no illusions that he will ever become rich from this field (although it is a remote possibility), but I feel certain that Nick will always be happy in his work.  Music really is in his soul and when he plays it shows.  I can't take all the credit, in fact ALL of the credit really goes to God for giving Nick this special gift.  I must also say that Ev's uncle is very musically talented.  We don't really have much contact with his uncle, just due to distance and whatever, but he made a living teaching music.  So the stars aligned when Nick was born and hopefully he will continue to progress and have a good life doing what he wants to do!

Clue 6 is next

I have worked on the mystery through clue 5.  Looked at clue 6, but not going to start on it tonight.  Got another lousy nosebleed and I am just disgusted about it.  I keep checking my blood pressure and it's okay, so I have no clue what's going on, but they have really become frequent, almost daily, occurrences, and I'm just plain disgusted.  Guess if it keeps up I'll make an appointment with the doc, but I really don't know what he can do.  Last time I went in for them I had to see and ear nose and throat doc and he just made it worse.

Ev has to go in tonight and work half of the midnight shift on his machine.  It means he has to go in for four hours, from 11pm to 3am.  Stinks.  Well, at least he got a good dinner tonight.  I did make the steaks on the broiler for him and I, and the mushroom caps for Nick.  Had our corn on the cob and steamed broccoli and garlic toast.  Didn't make the potatoes or mac salad. 

Still got the hose in the pool.  It is s.l.o.w. to fill.  What a project.  It will be worth it when it's all done, at least.  I know Nick and Johanna will enjoy it, and Ev certainly will.  He likes to get in the pool before work to cool off.  It helps to have your body temp down a little before going into that hot factory every afternoon.  I'll be in it after work in the evenings.

Press or sew?

I really do not like to press as I sew, but it is a necessary evil...  I'm working on the Summer mystery and I'm at a point where I MUST stop and press the pieces before I move on to the next clue.  So I took a break to post!  haha.

Been working on the pool all weekend.  Good thing we had three days off, because there isn't any way we could have gotten it all done in just two.  In fact, it's going to take even longer to get it finished because it's filling so slowly, but at least we are in the home stretch of it all. 

Went to that wedding yesterday and had a nice time.  Nick spent the night here and is still asleep.  I am hoping he sticks around for dinner this evening.  I bought steaks for Ev and I, and bought some big portabella mushroom caps for him.  Also going to make steamed fresh broccoli and corn on the cob.  Might put some potatoes in the microwave for baked potatoes.  And I am halfway thinking about making some macaroni salad, since Ev likes it so much, but I really don't want to heat up the kitchen.  It's getting really warm out.  Probably be putting the air conditioning on before too long.  Sure don't look forward to that power bill once we do.

Sunday night

We sure had a busy day today.  Still working on the pool liner.  We got the pad down and the liner in, but haven't started filling it yet.  We will start that tomorrow morning, early.  Probably won't get filled all the way tomorrow, but at least we will have a good start on it.

Went to a wedding this afternoon.  The people Nick is living with got married uptown today.  It was a nice wedding.  The ceremony itself was very short.

I started on the Summer Mystery today.  Last night I got all the material cut.  Tonight I just did clue one, but at least it's a start.  The clues look pretty simple so far.  I only cut enough pieces to do the baby quilt,  but I made sure that I had enough material to make a bigger one if I like it.

Pool repairs and beginnings of mystery

Worked outside on the pool today.  Got almost all the water out of it and all the yucky leaves out.  Tomorrow we can take the old liner out and put the new one in and start filling it.  Hopefully.  This is really quite a project, but one we only have to do infrequently (every 9 years or so...) and it's worth it when the pool is up and ready to roll.

I did cut the pieces for the 2011 Summer Mystery on the one group I belong to.  I downloaded all the clues and looked at the first one.  Since there are only 8 clues I should be able to finish the top this weekend.  It all depends on how things go with the pool I guess.  We have a wedding to go to tomorrow at 3.  I doubt we will be there very long. 

Old Singer is gone

Nick and I took a ride to the repair shop this evening.  We took the old Singer machine down there so the repairman would be able to use it for parts.  He wasn't going to knock anything off the price of the repairs, that I could tell, until I showed him 8 brand new packages of industrial needles and five bobbins for industrial machines.  Then he knocked 30 bucks off the repair price of 55!  And for the record I think 55 was high.  Let's hope the machine works correctly now and doesn't need any more repairs for another 30 years.

Nick and I went to Kohl's and got him some nice clothes to wear for his friend's wedding and that he can wear when he does his d.j. business.  Also got him a good pair of shoes, so he is set for a while now.

After Kohl's, we picked up Johanna and the three of us went to Lotawata Creek for dinner.  It was very very good, as usual.  Had a ton of leftovers, of course.  Ev will be digging in to them later, I'm sure!

Didn't get to do any sewing tonight, but will start bright and early tomorrow if I can!

Saying goodbye to an old friend

Today I'm saying goodbye to an old friend.  I'm taking the 1937 Industrial Singer to the repair shop for the last time.  I'm giving it to the guy who runs the shop to use for parts if he wants it.  Nick put it in the car last night for me and I'm heading right to the shop after work. 

Nick may be going with me to the repair shop so we can go over to Edwardsville and get him a pair of slacks, shirt, and a tie to wear at the upcoming weddings he is attending.  Then we may pick up Johanna and go get some dinner.  All kind of up in the air, but whatever happens I'm sure we will have a good time.

Ivy got out of the yard last night.  Nick stopped home for a few minutes after lessons and he took the garbage to the street for me.  Well, he left the back gate open and when Ivy went out to go potty, she discovered her door to freedom!  I went to let her back in and when she didn't come I noticed the gate was open.  When I looked out, she was over in the field across the street chasing a rabbit or two!  She was certainly giving chase to something and having a grand old time.  She didn't come when I called, so I went into the house to get jeans on (I was in night clothes).  By the time I got back outside and to the gate, she was standing there waiting to come in!  She's not a bad doggy.  Maybe Ev and I will take her to the lake again this weekend.

I am so looking forward to having three days off!  We are going to work on the pool, and hopefully get it up and running this weekend.  It's not going to be easy, but I am confident we can do it.  Just going to have to do it one step at a time.  We put it up in the beginning and between Ev and I, I'm sure we can figure out how to do it again.  The kids are going to help, too.

Surprise...or not?

Would anyone be surprised if I told them we woke up to rain this morning?  Again?  It's been cold and rainy here all day.  Again.

As predicted, I did not do any more sewing last night on the cover for the cedar chest.  Tonight I fully intend to finish it, wash it, and put it on the chest.  I do have a little bit of concern that the beast (aka Ivy) might decide it's a snack.  She was pretty good yesterday with the exception of destroying a throw pillow while I was in St. Louis.  She can be excused because she did it while we were having storms and the sirens were going off and she was all alone.  At least I'm telling myself she can be excused, and really, as long as Ev and I are okay with it, that's all that matters.  Right???  sigh.

Now, I know I really don't need to be starting another mystery, because I'm knee deep in Roll Roll Cotton Boll.  However..... there is a mystery I would like to follow along with on Saturday on one of my groups.  It looks like it will be a nice, easy, pattern.  It uses four bright colors and one dark.  I have chosen the materials for it.  To begin with, I will make the baby size or the lap size quilt.  I am going to make sure that I have enough material to make more blocks if I want to turn it into a larger quilt.

Storms all through the night

Went to see Jersey Boys, the musical, tonight.  We drove through some horrible storms.  At one point cars were off into the ditch.  I know we hydroplaned a couple times.  It was not a fun ride down there.  Once we got there it was pouring rain.  We went to eat first and I was very cold sitting in the restaurant, soaking wet!  But the food was good and the show was good, so that made up for it! 

There were tornado warnings all around, again.  Nick was at the house for a while with the dog.  She destroyed a pillow, but that was all, thankfully.  Johanna had to work, but there was no damage there.  So all is well.

Storms at Noon

Went home for lunch to take care of Ivy, since Ev had to go in early.  It was raining for most of the time while I was home, but it did stop long enough to let her out to do her business. 

I went upstairs for about 20 minutes and sewed binding strips together and then attached the binding by machine to the back of the cover for the cedar chest.  I'm using muslin for the binding.  I used a beige colored thread for the quilting, so now I'm wondering if I should use white or beige to sew down the binding.  I'm leaning toward white, because I'll be sewing right on the white muslin.  I doubt I get back into the sewing room tonight, but at least I got a little bit done today.  I sure love to sew!

Storms in the morning

I am really getting tired of storms all the time.  We had another thunderstorm this morning around 6 a.m.  When I let Ivy out to do her business it was coming down pretty good.  Ivy just looked at me like "you want me to go out in that?".  She refused to leave the shelter of the doorway.  I let her out about half an hour later when the rain slowed down, but she didn't want to stay out very long then, either.  She doesn't mind storms, in fact she usually just sleeps through them, but I don't think she likes to go out in the pouring rain.  Don't blame her there!

Our neighbor has a sump pump he is going to let us use to drain the pool of what is left in it.  It's all yuck water and we need to get it out of there before we attempt to replace the liner.  Really hoping to get around to that this weekend.  Want to get that pool up and ready to go as soon as we can.  I ordered the parts absolutely necessary to get it up, but there are more that will need to be ordered before the summer is over.  It's worth it.  We get a lot of use out of the pool.

Frogs are singing

Those frogs are sure singing tonight!  I really love to hear them.  The other night when it was storming they were really going at it too.

Here's a picture of the cover for the cedar chest.  It's all quilted and waiting for binding and corner ties.  I'm not real pleased with my quilting on it, but I am determined to 'just do it'.  I will get better with time.  I did a bigger loopy loop on it than on the one wall hanging.  My stitch length was all over the place.  But hey, done is better than perfect, and it's not a museum piece.  I'm just going to use muslin for the binding.

Tomorrow I'm going to see Jersey Boys after work with a few friends.  They had an extra ticket and invited me, so I'm pretty excited about it.  Nick is going to come to the house and take care of the dog for a bit.  They are predicting more storms, so I don't want to leave her outside for that long of time.

Made a pot of spaghetti sauce tonight and some Italian Sausages.  Won't be cooking tomorrow night because we are stopping somewhere to eat before the show.

After work road trip

I ended up taking the Kenmore to the shop in Highland tonight.  The guy offered to check it out for me right then if I wanted to go shopping or something for a while, but I was just too tired and wanted to come home.  He ended up calling me later and telling me it was done.  He replaced a belt that was very worn, so that tells me the other shop didn't even do anything other than clean and oil it, and that was something I had done on my own.  I'll be picking the machine up Saturday.

In the meantime I have the Bernina set up to use for piecing and may actually give her a workout for a while.  I didn't do any sewing tonight, but I did spend 40 minutes upstairs cleaning and oiling the older Kenmore.  I really got into the machine and oiled it everywhere imaginable.  What a difference that makes!  It just purrs now.  They sure don't make them like that anymore.

Made that turkey dish for Ev and made him another Canadian bacon and fried egg sandwich for tomorrow.  I was going to put together some spaghetti sauce and fry those sausage, but didn't get to it.  He will have plenty to eat tomorrow, with leftovers from tonight and that sandwich.  There is also a container of hamburger helper in the fridge he can eat.  See, there is one of the reasons I have such a hard time losing weight.  I'm not making excuses, I'm just saying that I try to make high caloric dishes for my hubby who I would desperately like to see gain some weight.  Then I try not to eat any of them!  sigh.

We had a storm this afternoon around one.  Ivy had been outside since Ev left for work, so when it started to cloud up I called Nick and he came home and let her inside, then stayed for a while until the storm passed.  Ivy didn't destroy anything between the time he left and the time I came home.  Maybe she is getting better.  She doesn't get spooked by thunderstorms, I know that.  Last night when it was storming she was snoring!

Monday in the morning

Ran upstairs for a couple minutes before leaving for work today.  I wanted to take the manual for the Bernina to look at on my break.  I am thinking that the bobbins for it may be the same as the ones for the Kenmore.  They seem to be the same size.  The Kenmore's are metal and the Bernina's are plastic, so I don't know if that would make any difference.  At any rate, I would like to get more bobbins if the Kenmore's don't fit.

Ev has to work 12 hour shifts all week.  It's on the front end, so that means Ivy will be alone quite a bit during the day.  If the weather cooperates, she can stay outside.  And if it rains, maybe Nick will go to the house and dog sit for a little while.

I think tonight I'm going to make a turkey fettuccini dish for dinner.  Usually make it with chicken, but want to use up the rest of that turkey breast.  That will be something he can take for lunch to work and will be easy to heat up in the break room.  I'm also going to make a pot of spaghetti sauce and some Italian sausage.

The log cabin wall hanging has a name.  I'm calling it Comforting Cross.  It just seems to complement the crucifix so well, that I felt it needed a similar name.

And I'm very thankful that we did not have very bad weather last night.  Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Joplin, MO.

Lake doggy

I think Ivy might have been trying to drink the lake in this picture!  She was having a great time.  Ev and I took her out to the Old Lake this afternoon and let her get in the water.  We would throw a ball in the water for her to fetch and also just let her swim around.  We walked back to the dam with her, then took her over by the boat ramp to get in the water.  She is a natural swimmer and loves the water.  When she gets in the water, she takes a running leap at it!  She was going in at the boat ramp, but I'm betting if she were jumping off a dock she would get some good air before hitting the water.

I pin basted the runner for the cedar chest this morning.  It's all ready to be quilted.  I will probably do a medium size loopy loop all over it.  Just something simple, to build my confidence in my machine quilting skills.  I have a baby quilt top that I want to quilt next, and then if I'm feeling daring, I am going to try and quilt a bigger quilt.  I think one of the tops I made out of recycled shirts would be good for this venture.  Somewhere on this blog, many moons ago, there is a picture of a quilt made out of red shirtings and 16 patch blocks and also one made out of green shirtings and 16 patch blocks.  One of those may be the guinea pigs... haha.

Sometimes I think my brain is going fuzzy.  I have been mooning around, kinda disgusted about the old Kenmore not working properly (I really love that machine, can you tell?  It was my first new machine and it was from my grandparents.).  Well, one of the reasons I was all mopey was because I had wanted to have two machines set up at the same time.  I wanted one set up for piecing and one set up for quilting.  I had completely forgotten I have that Bernette tucked away under my quilting station by the window!  Now, it's not one of my favorite machines, but it will do the job (I hope) so I'm going to set it up and give it a workout!  And if it doesn't work or I don't like it, at least I have Gram's machine to fall back on.  I've got it set up to do the quilting now.

Looks like we are going to get some more storms tonight.  The wind has really picked up and the radar is showing us in line for some pretty good storms.  I don't like when we get them at night, and of course that's when they are coming through.  sigh.

Relocated

I changed the orientation and the location of the wall hanging.  See how the wall slants down?  That is underneath our steps to the second level and that is where I had the wall hanging before, hanging on point by loops on the back.  I really did not like the way it was hanging, so I took it down, with the intention of putting two sleeves on it, one on top and one on bottom, on the back, to hang it straight.  I was going to hang it on the slanted part of the wall again, with four cup hooks.  But as I was taking the hooks out from the wall, I happened to look up and saw that beautiful blank space of wall just waiting for something to be put there!  I ended up just putting one sleeve on the wall hanging at the top and put a dowel rod through it and called it good!  I like that it complements the crucifix hanging on the wall next to it.  I have not named this wall hanging but it will probably have a religious tone, because the more I look at it, especially next to the crucifix, the more it looks like a cross in cloth.  It just hasn't told me it's name yet.

I moved that one sewing table out from the corner of my sewing room and fitted the older Kenmore that I had been using into it.  This will make free motion quilting so much easier because the machine base will be flush with the table.  It's not a perfect fit, but it's close enough for now.  When I come across some packing styrofoam or insulating styrofoam I will cut a couple pieces to fill in the inch or so to the back and side that have gaps.  The only thing about this table is that it sits about 4" higher than my tables.  I don't know why it is so high.  In fact, I had to pull out a different chair to use at it because my other sewing chair was too low!  I had an old office chair that was adjustable, so I just adjusted the height for that table.

Once I had it all set, I put my old Kenmore on the other table that I had been using in front of the window.  I was really excited at the prospect of having both machines set up to use at any given time.  I had not really used my old machine since I had it in the shop back in October.  Gram's machine was running fine and I wanted to get it broke in.  Well, the shop that I took it to did not fix the machine properly.  It's worse than it was when I took it in.  The problem is, I had it fixed 8 months ago and I doubt they would refund my money.  And I really do not want them to work on it again.  So I will chalk that up to experience, eat the $29 they charged, and take the machine down to the guy that I really didn't want to take it to because he's kind of a jerk.  But at least he knows how to fix machines.  Sigh.

Went to Wal Mart today to pick up a few items.  While I was there, I happened to pass by the bargain bin of dvd movies.  Impulse buying kicked in when I saw "Where the Red Fern Grows".  I have never seen the movie, but have read and reread the book and absolutely love it.  I hope the movie is as good as the book.  Going to order a pizza and watch it tonight.

Had to stop at Rural King and get Ivy another squeaky ball.  The one I bought to replace the old one must have been defective, because the squeak got knocked loose the first few times she used it.  I brought it home and two squeaks later the replacement died!  I took all three balls back to the store and explained how the oldest ball had lasted a loooonnnnngggg time, and that the two replacements did not and that I would like to exchange them.  They were very nice about it and I came home with two new and one old squeaky ball.  Let's hope these don't de-squeak any time soon.

This is not a potholder!

And this isn't the best picture, either, but here is the wall hanging I just finished.  It's 18" square.  I put loops on the back at the corners and hung it by cup hooks on the wall underneath the steps in the living room.  I don't like the way it's hanging, because it's puffing out from the wall and isn't laying flat.  I think I'll try and put dowel rods along the inside edges in sleeves to try and make it more rigid and maybe lay flat.  At any rate, I like it and I'm glad it's done.  I really liked the machine quilting I did on it.  It's just a meandering loop, but it's pretty.

Wall hanging quilted and ready to be bound

I free motion quilted the little wall hanging with the log cabin squares tonight.  I didn't get the machine moved into the other cabinet, but since the piece was so small it didn't really matter.  I think it's coming along nicely.  I have some material picked out to use for the binding.  It's got matching colors for some of the purples so it goes well with the blocks.  I'll post a pic soon.

Ivy is crashed out on the bed.  I hope she isn't resting up so she can have a wild night!  haha.

Thinking about basting spray

I think I might see if Wal Mart has basting spray.  I want to try it out on the little log cabin blocks wall hanging.  Jumping in with both feet on this one.  Going to try some free motion quilting on it on the oldest Kenmore machine.  I might try and put the Kenmore in that old sewing table I have upstairs. 

I pieced together some batting scraps for the wall hanging and cut a piece of material for backing tonight.

Ivy is not going to share

Let me just say that this dog is getting a LOT of attention from Ev and I, mostly because the kids are both moved out at the moment.  Sunday she de-squeaked the squeaker ball she loves.  So, of course Monday I bought a new squeaky ball.  Today, Tuesday, Shadow cat discovered it.  Then Ivy discovered the cat playing with her ball.  Ev said the fur was flying!  Never a dull moment...

I took inventory of the men's shirts I have upstairs this morning before work.  I decided I needed more blues so I went to the thrift shop and did the five for five dollar deal on the color of the week tag.  Got a few more for my collection.  They are in the dryer now.

Mondays really wear me out, but that's an old song.

I'm sure no one wants to hear about how lousy Mondays are.  Day went fairly quickly at work at least.  Came home for lunch today instead of going out with Barb like I usually do.  I really need to get back on my diet.  But when I got home tonight I backslid and ate cheese and crackers and a piece of cold pizza.  At least dinner was healthy.  I made chicken on the broiler, steamed green beans, and boiled new potatoes.  Oh, and fresh melon for dessert.

I've had a lousy nosebleed most of the night.  Just when I think it's done, it starts up again.  And now I'm getting the lousy after headache.  ugh.

Nick came to work today at quitting time.  He needed some groceries and asked if I would take him to Aldi.  You know, that kid is something else.  He asks to go to Aldi.  Not Wal Mart or IGA, but Aldi.  I'm proud of him for making a conscious effort to save money.  Especially since it was my money!  haha.

Didn't do any sewing tonight.  I was afraid I would bleed all over whatever I was working on!  Yuck!  I'm thinking that tomorrow I should go to the Salvation Army store on my lunch hour.  Whatever color tag is on special this week, you get five for a dollar on Tuesdays.  It's a great day to get men's cotton shirts for quilts.  I really need to take inventory of what colors I have and what I'm needing in the way of shirts.  Maybe my next quilt will be from repurposed shirts.

Windy Sunday

It's after eight p.m. and the wind is still blowing quite briskly.  I don't care for it when it's windy and rainy at night.  Can't see what's coming! 

Went to visit Johanna, Ben, and Johnathon.  Finally got to give him his Easter presents.  We played the Memory Game that I made for him.  He liked it a lot.  He's such a cutie!

I got out the Roll Roll Cotton Boll mystery again.  Going to start working on it again soon.  I also want to finish up the runner to put on the cedar chest.

Nick finished working on one of my coworkers computers today.  He took it to her house and got paid for working on it.  He seems to have his fingers in a lot of pies these days!

Joseph's Tulips finished

I finished Joseph's Tulips tonight and hung it up.  You can't see it well in this picture but at the bottom in the green border is the label.  It just has the name and '11 for the year.  I was going to put it on the back but then I felt like it needed to be on the front.

Watched the movie Secretariat tonight.  It was good and I would recommend it.  It was a nice, feel good movie.

We are so blessed!

Our family is so blessed.  Tonight Nick turned on his light in the basement room, but then noticed the globe of the light fixture was filled with water!  He then turned out the light!  Oh wow, talk about having angels looking after you.  He told me about it and I went down and pulled the fuse, then he took the globe off the light fixture.  I couldn't figure out where the water came from, but then it hit me.  The corner of the waterbed where it leaked a few weeks ago was right above the light fixture.  Thank You God for keeping us all safe.

Cooling off a bit

It was so warm the last few days that I seriously considered turning on the air conditioning.  Glad I didn't because it has cooled down nicely and we are enjoying a good breeze.  Probably going to rain some more, but what's new?

I have Joseph's Tulips pinned and ready to be quilted.  May just get upstairs after I'm done on the computer and start on it.  Nick was here for a bit and we went out to eat at Sunset.  They have redecorated in there and it looks really nice.  I'm halfway entertaining the idea of making a wall hanging that would match the colors of the new decor and seeing if they want to purchase it.

Took Ivy for a walk this evening.  She is doing so much better on our walks.  She was a little put out tonight when another dog, not on a leash but following it's master on a bike, didn't even glance her way or give a sniff!  Poor poochie was snubbed!  haha.

Pic of Joseph's Tulips

Here is my version of 'Bring on Spring', a mystery that Marge Gordon so graciously hosted!  I'm calling it 'Joseph's Tulips" as I previously mentioned.  I do have one more border on it of the same green that was used in the leaves of the tulips.  It's a 4" border and it really makes the wall hanging look rich.  Going to try and finish up on this over the weekend.

Speaking of Marge, I owe her a great big "THANK YOU" for helping me with the patterns I lost when the computer crashed.  Marge does a really good thing when she hosts these mysteries by having us donate a very small fee to cancer research.  I am a subscriber through the mysteries for relay group on yahoo and encourage anyone who is interested to sign up.  Great cause, great patterns, and a lot of fun!

Getting desperate

Well, maybe I'm not really desperate, but I do waffle on wanting to purchase a smaller longarm machine just to HAVE SOMETHING RIGHT NOW, or to wait until I can get the 24" Pro.  Instant gratification is nagging at my brain.  Then I think, all good things come to those who wait...  So I wait.  And will probably continue to wait until I can afford the 24" Pro...  It's what I really want anyway....  In the meantime I make tops.  Lots of tops.  Going to have to count them up one of these days and see how many tops I have waiting to be quilted.

Ivy report, 5/12/11:  Noticed last night that the mouth with a dog attached chewed up a digital alarm clock.  It was a small battery operated one I had purchased then didn't like because I couldn't read the numbers.  Still, I would have preferred she NOT eat it...  Will that dog ever stop?  haha.  I know she will mellow out in about a year.  Again, I wait...  haha.

Cow jailbreak

I really don't lead a dull life.  Today my friend and I went for our walk on our afternoon break at work.  As we were heading back to the office we witnessed a jailbreak by ten young cows/bulls.  See the one on the left?  He's looking back at the creek where they came under the fence at.  I think he was urging another one of his friends to mooove it!

Nick's phone needs to be replaced.  He is not having luck with it, and since it's still under warranty, Verizon is replacing it free.  I have said it before but I'll say it again.  I have always had the best of luck with Verizon's customer service.  They are top notch in my book.

Here is the back of the baby quilt I finished Sunday.  I just thought this Disney material was really cute.  I didn't purchase it, at least not that I remember.  I think it was in a box of scraps someone gave me.  There was just about a yard of it, enough to make a baby quilt.

This was the front.  I didn't do anything fancy at all, just randomly threw squares that coordinated with the back together and then quilted in a wavy line with variegated thread.  There's a label in the bottom left corner with the baby's name on it.

Monday night and I'm tired

Sure am glad this day's over.  Mondays just seem to drag at work.  Then when I get home I'm too beat to do much of anything.  Tonight Johanna and Ben came by to show me pics from their Vegas trip.  They had a good time. 

I made burgers and fries for supper.  The kids ate and then headed home.  Nick sent me a text from his gig in Springfield with the jazz band.  He's having a good night.

Gave my coworker the baby quilt today.  He said that the baby quilt I had given the other grandchild is hanging above her bed, now that the child is too big to use it.  The mom didn't want to pack it away so she hung it up!  That made me feel pretty good.

Frogs, dogs, kitty cats, and baby quilts!

Frogs:  We have tree frogs again.  I love them.  Ev hates them.  They hang out until the pool is up and has chemicals in it.  I like the sound of them, although they really are quite loud.  Ev's still got some city boy in him and the sound of frogs makes him a little crazy.

Dogs:  Took Ivy for a walk this afternoon.  Ivy is a big dog.  She's tall but not fat.  We encountered one small poodle-ish dog not on a leash, one very angry black cat, and several other dogs in their yards on our walk who were not particularly friendly.  The funniest of the lot was the cat, though.  I would not want to tangle with it, that's for sure, because ol' puddy tat puffed up and hissed up a storm.


Kitty cats:  Adding to the symphony of frogs is Shadow cats purr.  Such a pleasant melody.  hee hee hee.

Baby quilts:  It's done!  Finally got upstairs this evening and finished the baby quilt for my co worker's grandchild.  It's quilted, bound, and labelled. Going to take it to work tomorrow and give it to him.  Glad to have it finished.  When I get the camera software reinstalled I'll post a pic.

Friday morning

Well, Ev has to go in to work early today, his birthday, and work a 12 hour shift.  I'm going to go home at lunch and let Ivy out for a bit, just to give her a break.  I don't really want to leave her out for hours on end when no one is home.

I think I have an addiction to McDonald's oatmeal.  I can't stand any of their other food, but I just love their oatmeal in the morning!  At least it's something that's good for me.  My diet is not going well at all.  And tonight Diane and I are going shopping after work and will probably stop somewhere and eat.  sigh.  When I go home at lunch I think I'll just have a salad or something really low cal.

Really have to get that baby quilt done this weekend.  With the demise of the old Singer, I'll have to do the quilting on the old Kenmore, I guess.  I'll just do some simple lines, either stitch in the ditch or wavy lines.

I saw pictures on one of the chat groups I follow where this gal had made the cutest potholders.  She just did some strip piecing, but I think that she did a 'quilt as you go' technique on them that would make them work up really quickly.  Going to have to do some of that to make a few potholders for gifts.  I have a lot of insulbrite left from my last trip to Arthur.  I have to use a heavier needle when I sew through it, but other than that, it's not difficult to work with.

One day closer to the weekend

Sure am glad tomorrow is Friday.  Having a few days off last week has made this week seem really long to me.  And to top it off, it's raining again.  I'm about sick of rain.  Thankfully we don't live where all the flooding is occurring in the state.  Last week we were in Golconda and Elizabethtown down along the Ohio river.  We also visited Metropolis, IL.  The news yesterday said that they had put up the flood walls in Golconda and had evacuated Elizabethtown.  Metropolis was shown on the t.v. and there was more water there than there had been last week.  Sure am glad the quilt show was last week!

I was really tired when I got home tonight from work and wanted to take a short nap.  I took the garbage out to the street before I sat down because once I took my shoes off that was going to be it.  Well, we hadn't gotten the garbage out last week because we forgot and there was a lot to take out from the garage.  It took me twenty minutes to get it all out!  Anyway, when I came back in to try and lay down Ivy decided she wanted me to throw the squeaky toy for her.  She kept putting it on my back then laying her head on top of mine!  It was hopeless...I had to throw the squeaky toy.

I have to reinstall the software for my camera so I can upload some pictures.  I've got the disc, just haven't gotten around to it yet.  I have a flash drive that I'm going to put copies of the pictures on, I think, just in case something happens again.  And I think I might put my quilt patterns on one, also!

Down for the count

That's what I thought I was.  My computer got seriously infected with malware when I attempted to download updates for it.  Ouch!  I had the good fortune to get advice from my techie son and a computer repair person that just happened to be in our office today.  I had to completely wipe the drive and start over from scratch with a system restore.  This doesn't make me mad, but I did lose a few things, such as quilt patterns, and pictures.  But it's better than losing the whole computer!

So I'm still in the middle of getting the computer back to normal, and won't be on it too long tonight, but at least I'm up and running!

Just one thing

I have just one thing to say.  How come four and a half days off go by so fast when I'm not at work? 

Didn't do any sewing today.  Just a little organizing in the sewing room and going to settle in for the night by reading through the AQS show booklet.  I know I didn't see all there was to see and it's kind of fun to go through the book and remember parts of the show!