Mine

I've pretty much decided that when I get Roll Roll Cotton Boll finished it's going to stay home.  Too much intensity in it to give it away!  I am kind of chomping at the bit now to get it done.  It's so close....  Would like to at least have the top done before the Olympics start.  I'm an Olympics junkie and have already lined up a few projects to work on while I watch t.v. 

I can't believe how fast the month of January has gone by.  It shouldn't be any surprise, though, because I lost so much time being sick.  That still aggravates me.  Oh well, need to just get past that and move on.

Fried some pork chops and made scalloped potatoes for dinner last night along with a bag of frozen veggies.  Was a pretty good meal!  I finally have my appetite back.  Don't really know what I'll make tonight.  Depends on if Nick is going to come over after teaching guitar and want to go out to get a bite.

Slowly building a border

I am slowly piecing the border segments. It works best for me to do it in small chunks so I am putting the pieces together in sections of ten for now. Was in sewing room for an hour tonight. Felt like I'm making some progress at least.

Typo's

I appologize for the typo's and lack of pictures right now.  Since I don't have my laptop at home, I'm a little bit limited in what I can use to post.  Those touch screen keys are so small I can't always see what I'm doing, so there are some misspellings in my posts. 

Here's a peak at what I have accomplished so far on the RRCB top:

I am pleased with the size, so far.  I was able to get the first border on after this picture was taken, which was just a 2" strip of material all around.  The next border is the pieced border and I am working on putting the pieces together.  After that, I think I might add a third border of the same material as the first.  That should make it large enough to fit my bed.

This morning when I came to work it was -1.  It has since warmed up to a balmy 11 above zero.  Brrr.

one bite at a time

I have slowly been making progress on Roll Roll Cotton Boll. I keep thinking of that old adage "How do you eat an elephaant? One bite at a timme!" Nick has my laptop andd iss going to see if it is salvageable but I sincerely doubt it is.

Casualties of the flu

My laptop has become a casualty of the flu.  No, it did not catch a virus.  I keep my laptop alongside my bed, between my nightstand and the mattress.  Yesterday morning, real early, I was having a coughing spell and needed to take some more cough medicine.  You can guess what happened.  I started to pour the cough syrup into the spoon and had to cough suddenly and I spilled cough syrup right onto the computer.  It just ran right down the sides and over the keys and everything.  Sigh. 

I've been able to rescue my pictures and put them all on a flash drive.  I have about 70% of my quilt patterns on the flash drive but the laptop is pretty messed up and became disabled while I was trying to save them.  Going to try again today, but I am pretty sure it's a lost cause.

Nick is going to try and take the keyboard apart and clean it with alcohol, but if everything is on the circuit board, it's probably toast.  Sigh.  I had a good four years with that laptop.  Going to look for some deals and hope I find something inexpensive that will do the job.

I'm back, barely...

This entire week, with the exception of Thursday morning, I have been home in bed.  Finally starting to feel human again but still have a lousy cough that really hurts. 

I did get upstairs one night for an hour and made three of the Valentine bags for the kids.  Still have two more to make, but I think theyh are looking pretty cute.

These were tg5he fabrics I'm using.

Keeping warm

Okay, so it looks goofy, but I have been wearing this hat for a couple days now.  It keeps me warm.

Still feel lousy.  Nothing tastes good so I'm not really eating.  Just made a biscuit, but only ate half of it.  I figure once the antibiotics kick in I will be on the mend.

Needless to say, no sewing is getting done.  Doing good just to stay upright for a few minutes!

ugh

got the crud again,

Catch and Release

I met with a friend today and we did some shopping and visited an antique mall.  There were a couple of quilts that caught our eye.  Thought I would share them with you.

Da Moon

Doesn't this look like the cover of a scary novel?  That was what the moon looked like last night when I got home from having dinner with Nick.  We went up to Tilley's after he was finished with teaching guitar lessons and got a sandwich.  I'm amazed at what a good job that camera in my phone takes.

Didn't do any sewing last night.  Tomorrow morning I'm meeting a friend and we are going to do some shopping at the fabric stores and get lunch.  Really looking forward to it!

And I signed up for classes at Paducah!  They are actually lectures, which is fine with me.  Things are starting to come together for this years trip.  Since my one friend has said she cannot go, I asked another who is very happy to be going.  This will be her first time visiting Paducah, so we will have a busy time, trying to fit everything in!

More Snow!

In the wee hours of the morning, when I stumbled into the bathroom half asleep, I happened to look out the window and it was snowing!  By the time the alarm went off this morning we had about an inch of the beautiful white stuff covering everything outside.  I'm enjoying it now because today we are supposed to get temperatures in the 40's so it will probably all melt.  The roads were a bit slick driving in this morning.

Tonight Nick teaches guitar in the next town over and is planning to come by afterwards so we can go to Tilley's and have some supper.  It will be late, after 7, but that's okay.  I'm looking forward to spending some time with my son.

Last night I finished putting all the blocks for RRCB into rows and sewed one more row to the half I'm working on.  The last rows is waiting to be sewn to that half, then the halves can be sewn together.  Does that make sense?  Probably only in my mind...  haha.  Anyway, the top is coming along nicely.  After the center of the top is complete, I will square it up then work on the pieced border.  It's getting exciting to see this come together after sitting in a box for so long!  And I'm even more pleased that it may be large enough to fit my bed.  It depends on how much it shrinks up during quilting.

Three more rows done

Are you tired of looking at what seems to be the same picture?  Well, I promise it's not!  This is the three rows I got done on the other half of the Roll Roll Cotton Boll top.

Two more rows and then I can join the halves!

So I have a bit of a dilemma.  The gal I usually go to Paducah with in April has told me she may not be able to go this year due to family conflicts.  I have asked her to let me know as soon as possible if she will be able to go or not.  In the mean time, I think I will go ahead and register for classes.  The hotel reservations are made, so that's not a big deal, except that I have two beds reserved in one room when I would only need one bed if she doesn't go. 

I also have a couple of other friends I could ask to go with instead, but until I have a firm 'no' from her, I don't want to ask anyone else.  I also don't like the idea of driving all by myself (I know I can do it, just don't like to do it!).

A bird or not a bird

During the holiday rush I remember my daughter sending me an odd text asking me if I liked penguins.  When I said they didn't bother me, except that they smell bad at the zoo, she then said she had asked because they are birds and I don't like birds.  What?  Okay, whatever, I just let that slide.  Well, the reason she was asking is because she got me the cutest cup.

It has a penguin on it!  I like the cup very much and use it a lot.  I have been making a pot of hot tea in the evening and this cup holds quite a bit so I don't have to get up for refills as often!

Tonight I am hoping to get upstairs and do some more sewing on Roll Roll Cotton Boll.  Even if all I do is put one more row together, it will be something.  I made chili last night and we have turkey in the fridge, so dinner is pretty much taken care of.  Ev wants three grilled turkey sandwiches for dinner when he gets home.

Another Monday night

Seems like I just run out of steam when I get home from work on Monday nights.  Tonight I called a friend of mine before I plopped on the couch to see if she wanted to go get 35 cent wings at Tilley's.  And since she was game, we went and had a real nice time, eating wings and just gabbing away.

Now I'm home, sitting on the couch, and drinking hot tea.  I have a load of jeans in the washer and some chili cooking on the stove.  It's a good night.

Progress

I worked on RRCB a bit today.  I have half of the center done.  The rows are put together on the diagonal, as the quilt is set on point.  Here's a pic of what I have done so far:

I put it on my bed to see if it will fit (ignore the three other quilts under it!  I tried to fold them over so the backside wouldn't distract so much from the top.).  I think once the borders are on it, it might be a good fit for my bed.  I'm hoping it doesn't shrink up too much in the quilting process.

This quilt has been a U.F.O. for so long, that I am just not getting in any hurry to get it done.  I'm enjoying the process.  The crush of the holidays are over and I'm making this quilt for my own enjoyment.

Taking down decorations

Tonight I spent several hours taking down my Christmas village and decorations.  I let the snow globe play "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" one more time.

While I was dismantling the village houses, I put all the trees together.  They get boxed up together, but before that I took a pic.  What a forest this would be!

It took a while, but everything is packed up and ready to go.  The only thing not put away is the cloths I use to make the snow.  I figured it was time they were washed.  They were just dusty, not really dirty.  I have them in the washer now.

Early to bed, early to rise

I was up about an hour earlier than usual this morning, so I figured I might as well do a little sewing.  Last night I was in the sewing room and started putting the blocks together for RRCB.  This morning I made another row and attached it.

The pieced border still has to be put together and attached after the rows are done, but I'm making some progress at least!

Woke up to more snow this morning.  Not supposed to get much in the way of accumulation, but it is supposed to change over to freezing rain.  That's one thing I really don't like to drive in.  And of course I worry about ice on the power lines taking out our power. 

Ivy loves me

What a life.

Moose and sheep

Remember this?  My nativity scene, with the cat?  Well, see the sheep in the front?  That was before Ivy turned it into a three legged, no eared sheep.  See the post at the end of the banisters?  Bottom of the stairs?  Well, I had a musical moose, about 8" high, sitting on the post for the holiday.  Tonight I went into the bedroom to find both the sheep and the moose in my bed.  Ivy looked just a little bit too innocent...  sigh.

Weather update

Current temperature:  -11
Feels like:  -37
Expected high today:  -5

Brrr.

Quite a bit of snow!

First, I just want to thank everyone who reads my blog, including those that post comments. Please know that  I read every comment and enjoy everyone's different opinions and comments!  Thank you very much!

Now for a few pics of my yard:

The top pic is of the steps to our pool and deck.  There is a set of four steps on a platform that is one step high.  The snow has drifted so the platform and the bottom two steps are covered.

Ignore the dirty floor please - the second picture is of what I saw when I opened my back door.  The drift is about 10" on the edges.  Usually the door area doesn't have any snow in front of it because it is sheltered by the walls and a large awning.  Those are doggy prints going outside - I stayed in!

And while I stayed in, here's what I was working on:

These are the string blocks for Roll Roll Cotton Boll.  I have all the blocks done now and need to set them in rows and put the borders on.

Our office is closed tomorrow because of the weather (loads of snow and frigid temps!).  Maybe I will get more done tomorrow.

Seriously people?

So we have snow predicted and cold weather coming.  Do we really need to clear out the supermarket shelves?  This is the bread aisle at the local grocery store:

I don't know about you, but I have enough food in the house to last a few days if I can't get out.  If I ran out of bread, we would eat crackers!  Sheesh!

Haven't done any sewing yet today.  Spent the day with the kids in Springfield.  Had dinner and did a little shopping.  Johanna's birthday is next week, so the three of us celebrated a little early.  Ev had to work today.

Predicting more snow

The meteorologist is predicting more snow - and lots of it!  That's supposed to happen tomorrow night.  I've got the fixings for homemade tomato soup and a new recipe to try.  If it turns out to be a keeper, I'll share the recipe with you!  Might not make it until Sunday night. 

Just in case the cold weather is getting everyone down, here's a reminder of Summer:

This was from our vacation this past year when we were in the southern part of the state at the cabin.  I just love nature pictures.

Winter wonderland

We got about 6 inches of snow overnight last night.  It looks so pretty!  Didn't have to go in to work because the office was closed.  That didn't make me mad at all.  I didn't get out of my pajamas!  Alternated between doing small tasks and sleeping all day, trying to shake this cold.

Ivy did enjoy the snow, in small doses.

She would go out, make one round in the yard, then bark to come in!

I had to laugh, when I looked at the snow in the front yard there were some odd prints that seemed not to go anywhere.  I finally figured out they were from the squirrels!  I had put out some corn for them and they remembered where it was and the tracks were from the trees to the corn and back!  Cracks me up.

I did some sewing today on the string blocks from Roll Roll Cotton Boll.  I have them halfway put together into the alternating blocks.  Don't know if I will get any more done on them tonight or not, but I did accomplish something at least.

Hope everyone is staying warm.

My fur babies

Shadow and Ivy were vying for my lap...

I spent most of the day on the couch with a blanket over me.  Trying not to get any sicker than I am.  Sigh.

Back to work tomorrow.  Ugh.

It's snowing.  Yeah!

Going to bed now.  zzzzz.