Taking The Cow For A Walk

Now, I don't know if this story is true or not, but my darling daughter swears it is.  When she was in high school one of her teachers raised "show cows".  If a student misbehaved, rather than give them detention or have them write lines, he offered the option of having them 'walk his cows'.  She said they had to walk the cow around the pasture for him because they needed to be handled for when he showed them.

You decide if it's true or not.  I just smile when I think of it, though.

Too Much On My Mind

Yesterday I fully intended to post something on the blog, but time got away from me I guess.  Sorry about that!

Nothing sewing related going on.  I did make Johnathon a rice bag in 'flame' material.  He wanted one for his feet at night!  hahaha.  I think that's so cute.  He had his first basketball game over the weekend.  Ev and I went to watch him play and really enjoyed it.

I was at Wal Mart and picked up three packets of different flavored muffin mixes for Johnathon to make and dropped them off at their house during the day.  He called me last night to thank me.  So sweet!

Had some sad news this morning.  My friend Lori's husband passed away this morning.  He had been sick for a long time with cancer.  My heart breaks for her.  Please keep her and her family in your prayers.  Thanks.

Good Coffee Cake

If you haven't already done so, check out the Life on the Farm blog link on the left side.  A few posts down she lists a recipe for a good and easy coffee cake.  I made it last night ant it was a big hit!

There were only a few ingredients in it and it was very easy to make.  This one's a keeper!

Miss Addy Giving Me "The Look"

Addy climbed up on the loveseat with me last night, then gave me the look like "aren't you going to move your feet?" hahaha!  I just thought it was nice of her to come up there and keep my feet warm!

I see the bottom of my Christmas Tree banner in the background.  I love that banner but it is time for it to get put away.  I have a Valentine's Day one that can go up in it's place.

Journal Entry

As per your request, here is an example of what I put in my quilting journal.  This is how I did it up until now.  I think my new journal is going to have a little more details.

Overkill

While on retreat, I sewed the 6-1/2" neutral blocks together in rows of 20.  The quilt was supposed to end up being 20 blocks by 20 blocks.  Well, somewhere along the line I must have measured things a little too loosely.  Once I sewed row one and two together I realized this quilt was going to be way too long and wide.

When I got home from retreat I laid out the strips on the bed and sure enough, I needed to remove at least two blocks from each strip and only sew 18 strips together.  I sat in a comfy chair the other night and detached those two blocks from the strips and listened to some Ricky Tims while I did it.  It was very relaxing.

The upside is that I now have quite a few left over six inch blocks and can make a lap quilt out of them!  This will probably end up being one of the first nursing home quilts tops of the year.

Old And New

On the left is my current quilting journal.  The first entry was in January of 2011.  It's just a composition notebook that I made a cover for.  I like to record how much time I work on a project.  The notes in the old journal are minimal.  Just a line saying what I'm working on.  That's why it's lasted several years.  I'm near the last page in it, finally.

I decided that I would start a new quilting journal this year.  Need to make a quilty cover for it.  That will be a fun little side project.  This time, I may fill the journal with other information in addition to just my quilting time.  Not sure yet which direction I will go with that.

I Press, Therefore I Am

Can you tell I'm getting a little slap happy?  haha.  After work yesterday I went up to the sewing room and straightened up a bit.  There was a bit of chaos from my pre-retreat fabric hunt and gathering of supplies.  Once that was all cleaned up, I sat down and pressed all the strips for the 6" block and applique quilt.  I think I'm going to call it "Block and Tackle".  It has blocks and I'm going to tackle a new method of applique.

Felt good to get the strips all pressed.  The next part is to sew them into pairs, etc.  It will go quickly.  Would like to get some done tonight if I can.

Addy has been staying out of the sewing room the last few times I have gone up, which has been a big help.  Let me rephrase that.  It has been a big help WHILE I AM UP THERE.  There is always a surprise waiting for me when I come back down to the main floor after sewing.  It will either be a good surprise - she didn't tear any thing up!  Yay!  Or it will be a not so good surprise - she chewed up a wooden spoon/plastic food container/ the garbage/ a sock...  Sigh.  Last night while I was up there I heard her getting into something.  I went down right away and caught her with a plastic container I had just taken out of the fridge and emptied into the garbage.  The container was in the sink to be washed and it had held sauerkraut.  Well, you can imagine that the dog not only drug the container into the front room, she dripped sauerkraut juice all through the kitchen, sitting room, and front room in the process.  I cleaned it up, took the container away, and went back upstairs.  When I went to sit down later that night, there was a faint odor of sauerkraut by my chair, but I chose to ignore it.  I grew up with the smell every Sunday at dinner time, so it's not an unpleasant odor, just not one I usually associate with relaxing in the front room.  haha.

You just have to love that dog.  It's a good thing we do.

Snow

This was what was in front of me on my drive in to work this morning.  There was a pick up truck driving ahead of me.  You can see the fog and snow.  I thought that the line of fog was real neat, how it was just a thin layer.  You can see it blocks out just the middle of the trees!

We ended up with about three inches of snow.  Roads weren't bad and schools weren't cancelled.  It is just a pretty winter scene and I love it.

More Retreat Pics

I had myself a nice little corner set up to sew while on retreat.  I brought my folding table to put the machine on and the front desk loaned me a chair.  I kind of tucked back into the space between the couch and divider wall and used the coffee table to lay out my squares and the arm of the couch to lay out my rows once they were sewn.  It was a good little set up.

Mary sat directly across from me and used her folding table from home and the hotel desk and desk chair.  The room was large enough that even with all our equipment, there was still room to maneuver around.  The beds were set back in the other portion of the suite, which was nice, too.