Quilting in the barn

What I did on my last day off

2011-06-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

On my last day off I decided to go out to the barn and to do a little sewing. I wanted to make this quilt top that I had seen over at Babyboomers blog. It really caught my eye when I saw it and I knew I had to make one. So I did. Do you see what is wrong with this picture? What, I turned 5, count them, 5, squares the wrong way. I was not a happy camper when I saw what I had done. So then I had a date with my seamripper to unsew what I had done wrong.

Now it is all better and waiting for some kind of border or borders. And thanks to hubby for holding it up for me. I really like this little quilt top and the pattern and I see myself making more of these. At least one more for my youngest grand daughter. What I really liked is that you can change the size of the quilt by changing the size of the squares that you use for your HST"s. I used 2" squares and was really lazy and didnt square them up and I won't do that again, nothing lined up for me. My next one will be made with thangles in a bigger size. Besides all of that I do like it but what do I want a blue and orange mini quilt for? I used the fabric that was on my cutting table. Hmmm maybe I could give it to my step daughter, she likes the Denver Broncos. Ok everyone has been saying that they have been having trouble with blogger and now I am, it won't let me publish my post with out going to my list of posts and doing it from there. Is it blogger or is it something that I did?

Hot pad and a Quilt Top

2011-05-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

I decided to do this little hot pad today. Kathy and Doris from my quilt guild made up little kits and directions for these to give us at retreat.It turned out really cute but it took me to trys to get it right. Sometimes I'm a little slow at directions on new things. I had it backwards.

I didn't mean to have a big space between my pictures it just happened and I don't know how I did it. I seem to have probablems typing on my laptop. I drag my thumbs across the little mouse pad and when I do that it messes everything up. Then when I tried to move the picture I messed it up more. Sorry! While I was in the barn today and after I made the hotpad I started a baby quilt for my sons friend next door and I got the top done. Maybe next week I will be able to quilt it if I can find my walking foot. My Pfaff is broken again and I haven't been able to take it in to get fixed yet and I had put my walking foot for my other machine up so I wouldn't lose it and you guessed it I can't find it. I do that all the time, hmmmm could it be old age creeping up on me?

This is my mom at their camper. We had a cookout last saturday night for mothers day. I had to work mothers day weekend so we did it last weekend. Wouldn't you know it rained[no suprise there] as we were on our way out there and for awhile after we got there. It did quit and we had a good cookout. My brother and his wife came too. I gave mom her present from us and she thought it was funny. I got her a red polky dotted gallon tea jug and a red polky dotted tea glass and abox of our favorite tea bags. I also had a T-shirt made for her with a picture of Shawn and his 6 pack on it. The shirt turned out really good even if I did take the picture.

My son got more ink last weekend. Afterwards he asked me how I was able to sit for the 4 hours it took me to get the one on my back. He said that this one hurt him. Poor baby! My ankle hurt worse than my back did.

Sleeping Angel and a Quilt Top

2011-05-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

Zoey knew where to go when she was ready for a nap. All of the littles have taken their naps on Grandpa as its the softest and the warmest place in the house. Nick used to crawl up behiind him to watch tv and to nap and at 10 he still does that.

My new quilt top. After seeing this on a friends blog I had to try it. I like it even though it didn't turn out the way I thought it would. I bought my jellyrolls at Joann's and I had to buy 2 of them to get enough strips but instead of having 2 of each fabric I had 4. I think that is what made my fabrics clump together. No matter, the kids will still fight over who gets to use it. They always do! The greatest thing about doing this quilt was it only took me 1 hour and 30 minutes to sew it and that includes my pressing time. I will be making more of these. I might start cutting my strips from my stash to make more of these. I wonder how many I can make before I use it all up? It felt really good to be in the Barn again. I hadn't been out there for awhile. My son came out to visit while I was sewing and when he left he forgot to close the door and the kitty from next door came for a visit too. Good thing I saw her come in or I could have had a big mess in there. Well it is time to get ready for work as I have to go in a 4:00 today. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

6 Pack

2011-04-22T11:48:00.001-07:00

My son, Shawn and his 6 pack or Brady Bunch if you like. Last night is the first time we had all of the kids here at the same time. After 5 hours of them I was wishing for a 6 pack of my own but not the kid kind. I was wanting something with a little [alot] of kick in it. Love them all but sometimes I love it more when they are going home! Its not often that we have Ryan so I have to pull up my big girl panties and deal with it. We are having Easter dinner today as I have to work all day Saturday and Sunday. Wally World is only closed 1 day a year and it isn't Easter Sunday. Maybe it will be quiet out there since most will be filling up on ham and Easter eggs. I can hope, can't I? Happy Easter!

Birthdays and a Baby

2011-04-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

Meet Khloe, our newest granddaughter. Born March 10, 2011. She is Zoey's sister.

Our Gabby had her birthday in March, she is now 7.

Zoey had her birthday party last week but her birthday is not till April 27.

Her cake was really cupcakes made to look like a cake. It was pretty good too.

Zoey had her own little cake. That she ate, then she ran around the house like a madman.

Where does time go

2011-04-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

Seams like I just posted yesterday, but we all know that I didn't. So much has gone on since my last post that I can't remember it all. No sewing though. I just can't seem to get my butt out to the barn to sew. Maybe I can this week since the only day I worked was Sat. I don't work next week either. Said that sales is slow. That means no hours for me and also no pay for me. I do work the week that starts April 23. I did see my first Wal-mart person and it was so bad I won't describe it in this blog. I don't want any one to get sick because of me!

My grandson Mike left for the Air Force on March 22nd. Hard to belive that he is 18 now and in the AF. All of the older grandkids are gone from home now and all we have left in town are the little ones that are not so little anymore. Well, we do still have Zoey, who will be 2 at the end of April and Khloe that was born in March. So anyway I was checking out blogs yesterday like I do every day and there it was, a scrap quilt the caught my heart. I think I have to do this one if I ever get out to the barn. It is on the Baby Boomers Quilting Bee blog. All done with HST's! There isn't anything like a scrap quilt. I have been really trying not to buy any fabric for a while now so it is a good thing I like to use scraps. Of course the loss of income makes that easier to do. If you don't have the money you can't spend it. And like all quilters I have enough stash to make quilts for a very long time. I might have to buy some background fabric sometime though. My quilt retreat was at the end of Feb. and as soon as I upload my pictures to my puter I will post about that. I had a good time at it. Good friends, good food and 2 days worth of sewing time. Whats not to like about that?

I'm still here!

2011-01-16T21:29:00.000-08:00

Well I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I have had problems with my puter. It got sick and spent 2 weeks in the hospital and still isn't right. Good thing hubby got me a laptop for christmas. Then I had to get a router before I could go wireless. Then I had to figure out how to hook it all up. I still haven't got the new printer linked to the laptop yet. Maybe sometime this week. I am still working at Wal-Mart but not as many hours as before christmas. I hope that picks back up soon. I am waiting to see some of those Wal-Mart people that I get pictures of in emails.There hasn't been any quilting going on here. Its been too cold to go out and wait for it to warm up enough to sew. Plus I have been LAZY! I did buy the fabric for the borders of the last scrap quilt I worked on. I have been working on things for the retreat that mom and I plan for my guild. I will be mailing out the fabric and cutting list for the mystry quilt sometime this week. This years quilt is called Stash Digger and it is very scrappy. I have started shopping for the door prizes and I hope everyone likes what I am getting this year. What I really hope is that I get that weekend off work. I put in for it already.

More on Wal-mart

2010-11-15T09:27:00.000-08:00

I have completed my first full week at Wal-mart. The Work is easy so far and the people are still friendly. I enjoy it! I really enjoy it when they put me in the fabrics and crafts department but then I see fabrics that would be at home in my stash and for right now I have to leave them behind when I go home. We still have fabric but they are not going to order any more. Bummer! I have discovered that when people shop and decide that they don't want something that they have in the cart they dump it in some strange places. It is my job to find the things and put them where they go. I find things hid behind other things, in things, you name it they hide it there. My feet are getting better. Its not as hard to be on them as it was. I sometimes wish I had knee pads when I have to clean up the very bottom of the shelves. I have also discovered that people steal the dumbest things, like the whole package of puffy paint except one color. Whats up with that? You can't find a use for that one color? Or you only need 2 cupcake stickers, not the other 4. The list goes on and on. Don't they know that they will still be in just as much trouble even if they don't steal the whole package. Are you getting bored hearing about Wal-Mart yet? My job is zoning the housewares department which means I go through and clean up [refold towels repackage things and move things to where they really go]. I also do hardware, and fabrics and crafts when they put me there. The fabrics and crafts dept. was a big mess as no one has been there for a long time and when they did put some one in there they didn't zone it. [at least not very well]

My first 4 days at Wal-Mart

2010-11-12T17:58:00.000-08:00

I made it through my first 4 days at Wal-Mart. I didn't know if I would or not after the first 2 days. I really like the job and the people that I work with. Everyone is very helpful and friendly. My problem is my feet! Remember I have always sat on my big cushioned butt and being on my feet for 8 hours is killing me. I am not having any trouble with my legs like I thought I would, it is all my feet. I will be getting a new pair of shoes as soon as I can. I was hired for housewares but I was put in Fabrics and Crafts on Tues. and was there most of the time. Yeah!!! I am finding that the work is fairly easy but I stay busy all of the time. Every one keeps telling me to wait till the Blitz which is what they now call the Friday after Thanksgiving. Oh boy I can't wait. I have to work tomorrow and Sunday but then I have 3 days off.

Wal-Mart training

2010-11-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well I have done 9 1/2 hours of training this week mostly on the computer. Monday morning I start training for the job that I will be doing. At 7:00 in the morning to be exact. Do you know how long it's been since I have seen 7:00 in the morning? Almost a year. Nothing like plunging right in. I get a hour for lunch so I will probably have to take a nap so I can work till 4:00 in the afternoon. All in all I am still looking foreward to working for them. They gave me my name badge, and my box cutter on tuesday. I have tan pants so all I have to get yet is my dark blue shirts. I work 4 days next week and 4 days the next week.

Wal-Mart

2010-11-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

I START AT WAL-MART TOMORROW MORNING AT 9:30! Bet I don't sleep tonight from worring about it. It has been a long 2 1/2 weeks since I went for my first interview. Its been a long time since I had to look for work and the first time was a lot easier than it was this time, of course I was 34 years younger then and my mom already worked where I did. It was also my first time taking a drug test so that was scary even though I only take the drugs my Dr. tells me to. I hope I like it like I think I will. Wish me luck!

Happy Holloween

2010-10-31T21:18:00.000-07:00

Our traditiona; Holloween picture of the grandkids ready for trick or treat. Gabby, 6, Ryan 8, Korey 8, and Nick 10. Ryan will be 9 in Jan. Korey just turned 8 last week, we had cake and ice cream for him today. Got them all sugared up before the went trick or treating. There isn't a whole lot of difference in the sizes of the younger three. Nick is just a big boy.

I have three of these done for the family exchange only 4 more to go. Then I have to work on the little girl blocks and I have 7 of those to do. Not going to happen by Sat. This is the star block that I had to rip apart a few weeks ago. Once I figured them out they went together really easy. I might have to more of them. I wanted to do them in a dark red with the gold but I didn't have enough of the red. So I went with the green. I didn't want to buy anything to do them. I don't stash bust with those that report weekly but I am trying to use up so I can move more fabric out to the Barn. Still haven't heard anymore from Wal-Mart but they said I wouldn't till sometime this week. I hate waiting!!!

The Job Hunt

2010-10-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

I went for my third interview this morning and if my background check and my drug test comes back I should be hearing from Wal-Mart. I could be hired in just in time for Black Friday. Thats pretty scary. I have seen first hand how shoppers act on that day. Heck, I've been one of them! I am pretty excited about working there. It will be so different from what I am used to. [sleeping late, reading all day or sewing all day staying up all night playing on the puter] But really it will be great not to have to work in a factory. I hope everyone stays safe and dry on this windy stormy day.

Fall, Sewing, and my Job search

2010-10-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

Closing the pool makes me sad every fall. I spend alot of my summer in there, with the grandkids. The older ones swim like little fish. The younger ones are learning. Gabby should be like the boys next summer, she does ok when she forgets and just does it but then she remembers where she is and becomes a wimp that won't let go of the steps. See the 50lbs of sand on the deck? The one that weighed 200lbs of wet sand when I had to take it out of the steps while the wet sand was pouring out of the pour spout [that the bags have in them] right into the top of my swim suit. Really felt good!

I had to take a picture of the sun shining it the trees one night last week. It was so pretty when I saw it. [Had to get the barn in there too.] Our back yard faces east. The sun was setting when I took it.

I took this one later the same night. I liked the pink lights that was in the sky.
There hasn't been any sewing going on around here cause the last time that happened I had to rip everything out. It was one of those where I knew what I was doing, I read the pattern more than once. I sure did, then I skipped one whole step. Haven't been back since! I do need to get back out there, I have 14 blocks to do by Nov. 6 for the family exchange. I have the fabric for 7 of them cut thats what I was trying to sew when I did them wrong. All 7 of them! Good thing I didn't have to cut anything off after sewing parts together. Oh yeah, thats the part I forgot to sew on them.
On the job side there has been a lot of looking. I had 2 interviews last week. One at Goodwill Industries, part time, 37 hours a week and never any benefits 7.30 to 7.60 per hour. No. 2 was at Joann's, seasonal part time no benefits and hours all over the place during the week 7.30 per hour. I had 1 interview this week at WAl-Mart. Again part time guarantied 24 hours a week most times closer to 40. Chance for full time after I learn the job more than 7.30 per hour. I also got my second interview with them now they have to check my ref. and do a background check and then hopefully they will call me for the third one. I was offered a job at Goodwill but I didn't take it yet. I really hope Wal-Mart calls me back.

What I Found In My Watermellon

2010-08-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

We went the the farm market sunday and bought some mellons, one was a watermellon. I cut it open tonight and this is what it looked like inside. I had never seen a yellow watermellon. Now I have! When did these come about? I have to say that it was as good as a red one.

Now I have to show what Butch does with Shawn when Shawn gets on his nerves. Just a friendly little tussel in the living room. Butch won this round.

Sorry to be showing this quilt again but I had an idea for the borders and wanted to know what you think. With all that is going on with all the different colors in the blocks how would a border of all the different backgrounds used in the center? I am thinking of a 2 1/2" wide and cutting them 4 1/2" long like the block units. I know that will be alot of work but if I use a fabric that looks like a solid for the outside border, the border of background would frame the blocks better that any color print. So what do you think? I still haven't decided what color for the outside border.

1 picture found

2010-08-24T22:23:00.001-07:00

Ok, I found the picture of my quilt center, not in my puter but on my camera. I must have deleted it last night some how. I do things like that sometimes and don't know that I do. Its still not the best photo but I tried to take another one on the deck and this was the better one. I took it on the living room floor and didn't have much room for it. I like it. I can't decide what color I want for the borders.None of the colors have jumped out at me and said I'm the one yet. It is 96x96 right now and the borders will make it plenty big enough for our bed. I have been thinking of adding something to the top and bottom to make it longer so I have more overhang at the foot of the bed. Square quilts never hang over the end the same as they do on the sides. I see Miss Kimmy is on it in this picture too.

Bits and Pieces of my Summer

2010-08-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

This is something you don't see every day at my house. Both kitties on the couch, most of the time if one is up there the other one won't jump up there or the first one gets down when the other one jumps up.

It was haircut time and hubby was a brave soul to let Nick start it. Nick's short Barbour career
didn't last very long. Butch has what we used to call a pineapple in the 70s. Butched down except for some bangs. Nick didn't think about the bangs and cut some of them off. That ended that job for him and I had to fix it the best that I could.

We have been in this alot this summer. Nick was riding on the dolphin for a little bit. For some reason the kids have trouble staying on it. Maybe because it is round on the bottom.

Gabby was begging me to take her picture so I did. Look at that smile. Worth millions!! What is it with kids that they have to pose when you have your camera out? It took me awhile to get her to smile like normal. All of our Fremont kids start school next Tues. This is the first year that they have to wear uniforms to public school. Sure is going to save the hassle of what to wear. Our other grandson starts school tomorrow. Our county fair is this week which is why our kids don't start till next week.

I guess this is a teaser. I had a picture of the whole thing but when I browsed my pictures I couldn't find it. My secret sister picked this pattern for me to work on this year and I have to show progress on it when we get together every two months. I have the whole center together and all I have yet is the borders but I have to decide what I want to use. Around here nothing you put on the floor is safe from my kitties. Miss Kimmy had to lay on it as soon as I laid it down. I will have to post a picture of the whole center after I take a new one. Now I have to work on my retreat quilt to get that top done. I just need to finish putting the center together and make some more HST's for the border to put them on. I don't know what happened there that I didn't cut enough or I lost them. I think I just didn't cut enough, must have gotten in a hurry. Happy Quilting!!

Things I find in my camera

2010-07-12T08:18:00.000-07:00

I think that grandson Nick has gotten my camera again. When i loaded them to my computer I had 5 of these again. I have to have a talk with him about other peoples things and leaving them alone.

I happened to look out my back door the other day and saw this in my neighbors back yard. Nice and big, licking the salt off of the stump. Randy puts a salt block on there for them in the winter.

Then I looked out a few days later and this was almost up to my fence. I couldn't believe that the kids where in the pool and it was brave enough to come up there. I t ran off when I opened the door.

I showed you how Nick was sleeping under his bed in a different post so I thought that I would show how he was sleeping last week. On his floor again with Grandpa's snuggy on and what is on his face????

GAbby's eye mask! You would think that if the overhead light is bothering your sleep you would get up and shut it off. Not Nick, it was easier to get up and get the mask and put it on.
On the quilting side I have not done any. Shame on me. I have things to do but I have been really lazy, the books that I have seems to be calling my name every day and I can't get past them to get to the door to go out to the barn to sew.

2010-06-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

This is my son 2 years ago.

This is my son in May of this year.

This was my son Saturday night after a few beers.

This was my son Sunday. I am glad that he got rid of the stringy mop he had 2 years ago but did he have to go this far? He works in a plastic factory and he thought his hair was too hot. Nice and easy to take care of. Speaking of my son, he got his GED last summer and in May did the graduation ceramony. They only have it once a year and he missed it last summer.

I have been working on a quilt from Pat Speth's Nickle Quuilts book, here is my four patch and my picket fence units. I needed 144 of each and when I did the four patchs I didn't get my brain around the directions enough to grasp what I needed to do. I didn't think that the way you do them makes 2 at a time so instead of doing 72 I did 144 which made 288. I guess I have a good start on my next Nickle Quilt. My secret sister picked this quilt for me to do this year. I have a good start on it. I only have to do the flying geese yet and then I will be able to start putting the blocks together. It will be a queen size when it is done.

I am doing my guilds BOM this year and this was June's block. I used the no waste method for making my flying geese. I don't think I will ever do them the other way again. This way was so easy and I didn't have to decide what to do with those leftover triangles. I did make a mistake when I put the block together, the geese is flying the wrong way. They should be going in instead of going out. I am not changing them though.

Grandson Nick crawled under the bunkbeds to unplug his fan last week and somehow fell asleep. When I asked him why he slept that way he said it was really comfy under there. Go figure we buy them bunkbeds and they sleep on the floor. Why did we spend money on beds?

You know how it is when you are moving things you find things that you forgot you had? Well this glass was like that. I also have a smaller one too. A friend got them for me in her travels.Do you remember Kare. I had put them up for when the barn got done and I found them when I was moving things out there. I use the big one every night. Thank you, Kare.
We took the cover off of the pool last Friday and discovered that the liner is coming out of its holder. I am now draining the water out so I can maybe get it back in. I hope I can because I can't buy a new liner right now.

New header

2010-05-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

How does my new header look. I have been wanting to add my barn to it for awhile now and I just decided to just do it. You see, I did not know how and I didn't want to bug my puter expert so I got it figured it out and you know it wasn't hard to do at all. I had to do it 2 times because the first time all you could see was the door and I wanted it all to show. I am only a little proud of my barn. I really like going out there to sew.

Send those kids home, NOW!!

2010-04-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

This is my husband around 6:00 tonight. Nick's mom came in to use our oven cause theirs don't work to make cookies with the boys. That meant that she had all three of hers here. Jamie stopped by and brought Zoey.That was after we thought that we were going to have a quiet afternoon and evening. HA! That didn't happen. It didn't happen of Saturday either. That was when we had a cookout for Zoey's first birthday. All 5 of Shawn's kids were here. From 9 1/2 to 1 years old, it was like a zoo here.

Zoey's cake was really cute.

Her small one was cute too. For the first birthday we always get them their own little cake to eat all by themself. Of course it is always better if it ts chocolate and they can make a big mess.

Zoey dug right in and she did make a big mess with her cake. It wasn't enough that she had it all over her face and hands she had to get up and walk in it, oh yeah she had a good time eating that cake. She went right in to the tub when she was done. Nothing left of her cake!
In other news, I haven't done much sewing but I have been cutting 5" square for my next quilt. It is from one of the Nickle quilts book and I have enough dark squares but not enough background squares, I only need around 400 of them. I have about half cut. I am useing some of those background fat quarters that I have no idea why I bought them.

Have you seen my tote?

2010-04-20T21:32:00.000-07:00

Thought I would start out with a picture of the other side of the boys room. Looks pretty neat right now, they haven't had a chance to mess it up yet. Give them time.

My family quilt group got together last Sat. and cousin Lisa brought cousin Terry's and her quilt block pattern from last year for us. We are making row quilts with blocks that we exchanged through the year. We each picked a block pattern and then each of us made 7 blocks so we would have one of each from everyone. Theirs are the last 2. So I have been looking for the tote that had the fabric I was using for my blocks in it along with my set of blocks for my quilt. I looked every where more than once. I looked everyday more than once. I took things off of the shelves in the barn, I looked in the boys room even though we took everything out of there. I looked in the dining room where I had some of my quilting things. I was getting pretty upset and called cousin Lisa to see if it got put in her car the last time she was here by mistake. I still did not have any luck finding the tote. Then tonight when I was going in to put my jammies on I looked into my bedroom and it hit me! So I went in and looked under my bed and there it was. I put it there so I wouldn't loose it. It wasn't lost, I just couldn't find it! I knew that I hadn't seen that tote in the barn.

This is the fabric that I have used in my first 5 blocks. Our first 5 blocks are Tree, Cardtrick, House, Star and a signature block. Our last 2 are a girl block and a kind of swirly star. I was going to make my star block out of the red and gold but I don't have enough of the red so I guess it will be green and gold. My girl block will be made with the orange for her dress.

This is the signature blocks that we have already. Terry and Lisa still has to make theirs so I am showing their tree blocks. This was a fun exchange and I think that our different personalitys show in the colors that we put in our blocks. It seems like we each like different colors which is a good thing or all of our blocks would be the same.

Change Is Good

2010-04-13T21:16:00.000-07:00

Remember last fall when Judy L. wanted us to show our stash and I showed these 2 pictures of my sewing room? Well my end of the room went from this......

and this.....

to this. Looks a lot better. We got the boys bunk beds after my sewing stuff was moved out. Now they have room to play in their room.

and my wobbly ironing board went from this.......

to this. I got 2 kitchen base cabinets and put it on them now it is very sturdy and does not move when I use it. I even gained some more storage space.

Grandson Nick likes to iron for some reason and was helping me over the weekend and when I looked up to see how he was doing he had the iron laying down as he moved the fabric to the new spot. When I yelled at him to set it up I was too late, it had already left a spot. I tried Maryellen"s Best Press for the first time and I really like the way fabric presses with it. I was pressing background fabric because I am starting a new quilt out of the nickle quilts book and I need something like 296 background squares and I don't have enough in my 5" squares. I have plenty of med./dark squares to do the quilt. I have to show some progress at the family quilt gathering on Sat. I want to do some 4patchs by then. I only need 144 of them. My secret sister picked the Blackfords Beauty quilt for me to make this year. I have to make 36 blocks to make it big enough for my bed. One step at a time is how I am going to do this one. It takes 4 patchs, flying geese, and picket fence units and I thought that if I did it one unit at a time would go faster for me. But I have to work on it before I can get anything done at all.

April Fools Day

2010-04-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that it is April already? This year is flying by. Today was 80% WOW. I have been looking for a job and not having much luck. Kelly's temp [where I had to call for Whirlpool] told me that I was not qualifed for a job there because I have never worked afternoons or midnights and because I have always sat at my job. I haven't heard from any others. I only wish I could make what I would at a job at home quilting without alot of cash invested. My friend Judy just opened a longarm shop and said she would hang some of my quilts and put a price tag on them but I don't have any of them quilted yet so I am in a stand still on that. Does anyone else save bits of ribbon that comes on candy and other things? I do and as Gabby and I was in the barn putting things away we decided that I would find a glass gallon jar to put them in. That way we could see them as they are all colors. I have some silk flowers that came on some summer tops but I took them off that will go in there with the ribbons. My DH empted his dill pickle jar last night so guess where that is going. GAbby and I was going to go out to the barn but she fell asleep so I will wait till tomorrow and let her fill the ribbon jar.

Barn Sweet Barn

2010-03-22T21:13:00.001-07:00

I am not all the way moved in but I have been sewing in the barn now for about 2 weeks and I love it. I still have somethings to put away and I still have the things in the garage to move in but I am getting there. The top picture is of the end of the barn. I have my cutting table and ironing board is there. I really like my big ironing board[thank you Uncle Henry] but I am having trouble with it because it is too wobly. I think that is from the little board under it. Someday I want a stand built for it. With a shelf under it so I can put a small fridge there. The green and red storage totes go in the loft. I have block of the month kits in them. Gotta get them done one of these years.

This is my sewing area. This also shows that I still have the drop cloth down on the carpet. It has been too wet and muddy not to have it down. I would have a mess without it with the littles helping me move things out there. I have been working on my retreat quilt so I can get that done. I only have to sew the blocks in rows and then into the center of the quilt. After that I have to do the outside border and it will be done according to the pattern but I think I am adding a border of just fabric on the outside to make it big enough for our bed. I am trying to figure out what to do with my thread. In the house I had it on racks hanging on the wall behind my machine. I really like seeing it there but it was getting dusty and I didn't like that to much. It is much to pretty to just hide away somewhere. Anyone have any ideas? HEY Kare, look no beer cans!

Ta-Da

2010-03-08T18:56:00.001-08:00

We went from this broken down cabinet that we had to redo, with gorilla glue and some brackets to keep it together to this.

All set up and ready to go. I did sew a few pieces of fabric together so I could say that I did sew in the barn already. After we finished the cabinet today I had Donny drill a hole in the top of it so I could run my foot cord down through the top because it wasn't long enough to come out to where I needed it to sew if I run it down the back. Now it goes down the middle and I can have it come out as far as I want it to. I might go back out there later tonight.

This is the newest member of our family. Mom's new puppy. He is pretty cute.

Moving In

2010-03-07T19:15:00.000-08:00

It started yesterday when I loaded up the kids with stuff and sent them to the barn. Yep we were moving in this week end. This mess is mostly in the barn. I have put some fabric and other things away so we could move in more. Nick did more today. Butch emptied my beanie baby bookcase so it could be moved out there. Then the handyman was coming over to fasten cabinets to the wall. After Shawn and the handyman moved the bookcase out to the barn I was out there with Donny to show him where I wanted them fastened in I looked out the window in time to see Shawn and his girlfriend, Jamie moving my sewing machine cabinet across the deck. And then it happened...............................my cabinet fell apart! After they picked up the pieces and carried them into the barn. Donny was trying to figure out a way it could be put back together. We think he got it with a little luck and a lot of gorilla glue. I will know tomorrow. Two hours later I found out that Jamie had Shawn sitting on top of it so she could give him a ride which probably would have worked better if they would have unlocked the castors so they could have rolled across the floor But no they didn't so she just drug it which pulled all of the fasteners out of the wood. It kind of P--sed me off because the cabinet is not that old. True I didn't pay that much for it but I don't want to replace it yet. I wanted to sew tonight but that will have to wait till tomorrow now.

More Barn News

2010-03-05T22:49:00.000-08:00

Nick and the 2 kids from Hell went out to the barn tonight to help me put the last cabinet together. Big mistake!!! We did get the cabinet together but I had to send the 2 little ones back in. I did not want to get my head bashed in with my hammer or my eye put out with a screw driver. Nick did help me with it and he did a lot. My big board ironing board will go to the right of this one. My uncle Henry made my big board for me. I want to have a stand of some kind built for it so I can put my fridge under it. Gotta keep the cans of Coke cold some how. {or beer}

It looks good where it is at and yes I can get into the big cabinet. My butt still fits between them. These two cabinets add lots more room for the stash. I think I will have to paint the insides because it is bare wood but that can wait for warm weather.

Mom got me the three drawer units for christmas 2 years ago and they fit in there very nicely. I will use them for some smaller things like velcro, elastic and that kind of stuff.

My new cutting mat fit on top and leaves me room to stack my parts when I cut them out. The only thing with this cabinet is that when you lean on the front of it, it tips forward so I have to have the handy man come and attach it to the wall. I wonder how long it will take him to get that done. I have to do something with the big crack in between the doors too.

Isn't this the cutest little night light you ever saw? One of my secret sisters got it for me and I saved it just for the barn. The kids and I am going to start moving some things in tomorrow and I hope I can get some son help to move my sewing machine cabinet. I don't think that the kids can help with that. It is way too heavy for them. They can carry books and fabric though.

What A Great Deal

2010-02-23T22:56:00.000-08:00

Can you believe this? My mom was shopping at Wal-Mart the other day when she found 2 of these cutting mats on the bottom shelf under a bunch of other stuff. They were marked down to $13.00 half price. She didn't buy them! She was telling me about them and said that they looked like some one had walked all over them and asked me how you could clean them. I told her you could use a dishrag with soapy water and if it didn't come off with that it probably wouldn't come off on the fabric anyway and what did you mean you didn't buy them? Well she went back on Sunday and they were still there, this time she bought them. They came clean with soapy water so now we both have a new cutting mat[she gave me one as an early birthday present] They are 22"x 36". It will fit on the top of the cabinet that I bought to use as my cutting table for in the barn. I needed a new mat cause I have my old one almost cut in half. I have had it a long time I like these ones that are pink and yellow because it is easier for me to see on when I cut.

I am almost ready for the retreat. I did some shopping today and I still have a little to do but I have to figure out what else to buy. I plan on getting some of the things sorted out tomorrow and the rest on Thursday.

2010-02-17T20:03:00.000-08:00

Where does the time go? I always have good intentions of doing my blog every couple of days and even though I am not doing much I never seem to have time to do it. Maybe its all of the books that Aunt Mary gave me to read or the quilt sample I am working on for the guilds retreat. Maybe I am just lazy and don't do it because then I would have to sign in. I don't have a clue! So anyway I have all the books read and the sample almost done, I only have to put the sashing on the sides yet but I made a mistake and cut the parts a 1/2" too small so I had to rethink what I was doing. It just made me sew more parts together before I cut them to lenth. It still works out the same. I spent a whole week playing with a 50lbs of sand. I can't say what I made yet as it is a suprise for all of the retreaters. I think they are cute and I hope they do too. Tomorrow Butch and I am going with my stepdaughter to see Brittany at school. It is our first time to visit her. I hope I remember to wear my other coat. I don't think I want to visit Ohio State with a big M on my coat. We have most of the gifts bought for the retreat but not done up yet, good thing I have another week before it. I can't wait cause it is a lot of fun.

Leapster Bags

2010-01-29T19:47:00.001-08:00

Wow it only took me 1 year and 2 months to get these done. Can we say a little slow? We got the kids leapsters 2 christmas's ago and I was going to make these bags for them to keep them in along with their games. Well sometime after christmas I got Nick's done and wasn't exactly happy with the way it turned out and put off doing the other 3. I got bored 2 weeks ago and decided to finish them. The only thing I did different was I squared the bottom corners and I liked them better. Gabby really liked hers and put her leapster in it right away. I put a pocket on the front with a velcro flap for things they don't want to lose.

The back of the bags have pockets for the games. I made them all different so the boys couldn't fight over them. Nick has since outgrown his leapster and saved his money and bought a Nintendo DS so he can use his bag for that.

Next oldest of the littles is Ryan. We went to his pinewood derby last saturday and his car won 1st place in his age group and 2nd place over all the kids. Way to go Ryan.

After the pinewood derby we went to a pizza house for his birthday party. Ryan is 8 now. It doesn't seem like he should be that old yet because he is so little. He is a lot smaller that Nick.

Looks like an old fashioned hay stack but it is a stack of fabric shavings where I squared up some triangle squares. 296 of them I thought I would never get them done. When I cut my squares from the last post I cut them 4" instead of the 3 7/8 that the pattern said to because I don't like to cut the odd sizes. The only problem with that is then you have to square the up or they won't fit. I did get them all trimmed and I also got the sample blocks done. I really like how they turned out. I hope every one at the retreat likes them. I can't show them yet because the retreat is a mistry. I am now working on the next step and it is going well. I am liking this quilt more and more as I work on it. I can't wait to see every ones fabric choices and how their quilts turn out and I hope they like what we picked for this year. I spent part of yesterday ordering some of the goodies that we get for all of the ladies that go to the retreat and I think that the gifts are going to be good ones. We still have some to order and to pick up but I will do that next week.
Today is Butch's birthday and the littles and I had a small party for him. [ we sang happy birthday to him and had cake and ice cream] I haven't gotten his gift yet. He wants a new movie so I will let him pick that out.

Getting ready for our retreat

2010-01-16T22:12:00.001-08:00

Here it is, all of the parts for our retreat quilt. These are the parts for the whole quilt top which is around 76"x76". I am using civil war repo's. I know that some of the others are using fabric from their stash and that is what I was going to do but I decided to treat myself to these fabrics because I have wanted a civil war quilt for a long time. Now I am getting one all I have to do is get it done. I still have to do my presew but that is not hard. None of this quilt is hard but I'm sorry I can't tell you what it is yet, it is a mystry quilt. We do this every year and everyones quilt turns out different and they are always very pretty. I can't wait!

My step mother found these pictures of me in my dads dresser when she went through his things and gave them to me. This one is from my Junior year. I look a lot different now.

This one is from third grade. I used to like mom to put my hair in a bun.

This is from 2nd grade. This used to be one of my favorite dresses. There was one other picture but that is one that I will not show on my blog. No I won't. I have no idea why these pictures were there and not others. I can't ask dad he won't tell me anymore. The lost albums were found at grandma's house when we cleaned it out. They have been lost since dad took them from mom after they divorced and we didn't know where they were till then. They were all of the pictures from when we were little. [a long time ago] We also found the albums from dads second wife and some from the third one too.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T21:13:00.000-08:00

This is what being a grandparent is all about! We had all 9 of our grandkids here today for christmas. They sounded like there was 1000 kids here. The youngest one never walk when they can run and the don't talk when they can yell. I am ready for them all to go home. Thats not going to happen till tomorrow sometime. It is nice when you can get all of the family together.

I made them all stand together for a picture. It is the only one I have of all 8 of them. Alex, Mike, Brittany, Korey, Nick, Ryan, Gabby and Alex is holding the baby, Zoey. Maybe if Alex comes home every christmas I will be able to take yearly pictures.
I haven't moved in to the barn yet I wanted to get christmas over first. Butch is getting me another big cabinet for christmas because he said what I have is not big enough. We will go pick it up some time next week.

I hope everyone had a great day. I did even if it was loud.

My barn

2009-11-24T19:58:00.000-08:00

THE BARN IS DONE!!!

The End Is Near!!!

2009-11-19T19:06:00.001-08:00

.Butch got his power chair about a month ago. He likes it alot. He doesn't use it much because our upstairs is not very big and he can just zoom around in the wheelchair. He wanted the powerchair for outside and when we go away but at 250 pounds we can't get it downstairs by ourselves. And our car won't carry the extra weight of a lift and I am not buying a different car. The cats like to sleep in it.

These are the 3 stooges that put up my dry wall. Mike, Donny and my son Shawn. I laughed my butt off. It looks pretty good though.

My back wall where my cutting station will be. My lights are in and working on all three sides. My airconditiioner is in and working. Walls are all painted for the last time. I bought my paint at Lowe's and I always check out the discount paint table and found a can of yellow that was almost the color I wanted so I got it. Well he needed another can and I didn't know what color it was because it wasn't on the can sooooo back to Lowe's I went and back to the discount table where I found another can that was just about the same color and I bought it. It ended up being closer to the color I wanted. My walls look very good.

Mike started to paint my trim and I was having second and third thoughts about having lime green with my wall color. It didn't look very good out in the sunlight. I liked it but I didn't at the

same time. After about 4 coats of paint it got better. At that point I said the heck with it, and decided that was what was going in there. Today the trim started to go in the barn and I really like it. My carpet was laid yesterday and I forgot to take a picture and it was covered up with tarps. All that is left to do is the rest of the trim and the covers on the plug ins and the light switchs. Looks like I can start moving in maybe sunday. It will be so nice to go out there to sew and not have all my helpers. And they won't be in there using my things to cut up sheets, pillowcases. and their

One of my finnished windows. I have to come up with something to do with the breaker box which is so ugly. Hopefully the next pictures I show will be all done ones.

For Judy

2009-11-14T18:54:00.000-08:00

Judy told me today at quilt club to update my blog. When I said I just did she then told me to add pictures, so here Judy these are for you. This picture is of Butch and grand daughter Brittany at the Ohio State/Michigan game party about 5 years ago. This was such a good picture of them that I made it into an 8x10. It is easy to see how much she loves her grandpa.

My favorite car! I had wanted a VW Bug for as long as I remember. Of course back when I was younger I wanted a yellow one with purple interier. Yuck! I did finialy buy my yellow one but it was black inside. Nick really liked it too. He still asks me when we can go and get it back. I miss it too. He still calls me the bug grandma.
My last hours of work went well yesterday. No tears!

Quilt club was fun today. We worked on the blocks for our 2010 raffle quilt. It is going to beanother great looking quilt. If this looks funny when I post it it is because my puter is acting funny. I can't explain what it is doing but it just isn't right. The barn is sanded and the primer is on so the painting will start tomorrow. I am going to go pick out my trim and carpet tomorrow.

Just checking in

2009-11-11T18:23:00.000-08:00

Not too much to update on the barn, He did get my airconditioner in the wall and has started to sand the walls but not much else is going on out there. I reminded him tonight that he said last week that it would be done by the time my job ended. That is Friday at 12:00. I don't think he's going to make it. I have 14 hours left to work. They told us yesterday that we are done at 12:00 on Friday, not to start anything that we can't finish by then. At 12:00 we are to shut our machines off and take our personal things and leave. But we are to go to Ryan's and they are buying our lunch and paying us till 2:30. Then we get our bonus for staying on till the end with our last checks. Am I going to cry? Probably. I'm allowed, I have worked there for 33 years and this is going to be very different for me. I hope I can find a new one that is easy and pays alot. I hope I don't have to say---Do you want fries with that? On a good note I will have lots of sewing time. If I get off my butt and get to it. And sometime I will get to move to the barn. I am going to start to put my cabinets together. I have to if I want to put my fabric in something.

The Barn, What Else!

2009-11-06T20:02:00.000-08:00

The barn is coming along nicely now. Handyman has all the mud on the walls now. It needs sanded, painted and the lights, heaters, ceiling fan hooked up and the airconditioner installed. I have to find some carpet too. Then it will be moving month. I say a month because of how much I have to put in there. Handyman says that it will be done by the time my job ends. That is next Friday, the 13th [does not sound good]. I don't have a good feeling about that day. I don't want to start job hunting!!!! I don't know how to job hunt!! I have a feeling that I will be really bummed out over this. It hasn't been to bad yet. Maybe I will just crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head and stay there.

Paint colors

2009-10-31T22:22:00.000-07:00

I was asked a couple of weeks ago what color I was going to paint my walls so here is what I have been thinking about. I was going to paint the bottom of the walls a dark slate blue and the top some shade of yellow but I have been rethinking that. Now I am going to paint the whole wall with a light creamy yellow. My trim will be bare wood, I like how it ages. My ceiling will be white. Then I am going to paint sawtooth stars on the walls and in the center of them I am going to put my cow wallies that I got from my secret sister a few years ago. I am not sure what color the stars will be yet. Maybe a lime green to match the fabric that my Aunt Mary got me. It is lime green and has cows in it. I am thinking that it might end up being my curtains. Carolyn from quilt club got me some of the same fabric so I have plenty of it. Someone also asked me what color was the outside of the barn, well here is the thing I threw away the tops of the first 2 cans of paint so when I needed more I had to take the can in so they could do a match up of it and it is not exactly the same shade and I don't know what color it was to begin with. I like it better than the first paint. Sorry I couldn't help with that.

Not a update

2009-10-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

I was going to give a update on the barn but I have nothing to report. I paid my handyman on monday and he hasn't been back since. Usually when I give him money he only stays away for 1 or 2 days. I know he helped my brother for 2 days with a garage door opener but what happened to the other days?? So the barn is just sitting there with one coat of mud on its walls and nothing else done. The 2 or 3 week job has turned into 2 months. Hope it gets done before my job ends so I can start moving in when I will have nothing else to do. Kare, are you still willing to help? I want to be in before the snow flies. Then I can be out there all nice and warm and cozy till I have to pee then I will have to run into the house [no potty out there]. Hmmmmm maybe I should be planning an addition for the future.

Quilting Barn Update

2009-10-23T19:58:00.001-07:00

THE BARN NOW HAS POWER HOOKED UP TO IT!

Zoey, Kimmie, and of course a barn update.

2009-10-20T18:15:00.001-07:00

Our baby girl is getting so big. She is already crawling and pulling herself up on the furniture so she can stand up. Zoey is going to be a mover, she is never still unless she is sleeping.

My secret sister wrapped my gift in a brown grocery bag this time and Kimmie claimed it for her hidding place. She hid in it for about an hour. Yes she does have blue eyes and yes she is crosseyed. She looks funny at night when her eyes are crossed and red. Sometimes at night depending on the light her eyes turn red.

This is the front wall of the barn.

This is the back wall.

This is the left side.

This is the right side. Can you believe it I have walls. He is going to start mudding it tomorrow. They are also going to hook the wire into the house tomorrow. I will have heat and lights and all of the good stuff in there. My secret sister gift was a new hot pot for my tea water and I am going to save it to use in the barn. Now all I need is a potty for after I drink all of the tea. My brother says that I already need to add on. It is getting closer to moving day.[or weeks] This is getting so exciting. Other news my next to the oldest grandson, Mike, came over tonight with a friend of his and helped me put the lid on the pool. Thanks Mike. Our plant manager called a meeting with us yesterday and told us that the new company has moved our last day forward. We now get to work untill Nov.13. Great for us we get another paycheck before they boot us out of the door. Brittany was home over the weekend. She told us all about her college. She sounds like she likes it but is having some trouble finding kids that want to do something besides party. I told her not to worry that they are out there and they will find each other. I have a care package just about ready to send her. I am putting little things in it that I know she will like.

Show us your stash and Quilting Barn Update

2009-09-26T13:16:00.001-07:00

This shows a little bit of stash to the right of my machine.

This shows some more to the left of my machine. I only get half of the smallest bedroom that we have.

Here is the bulk of my stash back in that corner of our garage, back there where I can not get to it. I haven't seen inside of those totes for about 6 years. I know it is in there but I can't get to it to fondle it without killing myself. Are you sure that you want to help me with this mess, Kare.

This is my handyman's helper. He says that it really helps.

This is another helper of his. All I hear it do is yelp alot. It is cute but my cats are bigger than she is.

My handyman running the pipe for my main wire that goes to the barn

The framework for the loft. I am going to get those under the bed storeage boxes and use them up there.

My breaker box with some of its wires hooked up. The barn is getting closer to being done. They have some insulation up in the ceiling. I bought the airconditioner this morning. I got it at 20% off because I got the display one.

Quilting Barn Update

2009-09-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

My handyman has started on my barn, inside now. He has the loft framed in and is moving some outlets up from where I had them put. He said that where I had them put I wouldn't be able to use them. He was right because that is where I am putting my cutting table. He has the bracket for my ceiling fan put up. Butch and I went to Lowes the other night and I got the fan and the baseboard heaters and I was going to get the airconditioner but they told me that they are going on clearance so I could save a bunch of money on that so I waited. I am hoping that it is all done by the time my job ends so I can move in. The way he is working it should be done before that. I will have to paint my stars on the walls before I move in. I have to put my cabinets together before I move my fabric in. I hope they are big enough cause I have a lot of fabric. Some I haven't see for awhile. I hope to take inside pictures tomorrow.

My Work and anything else I can think of

2009-09-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

On August 26th they called a meeting at work. Then they left the boot drop! At the end of October they are closing the doors for the last time. That means unemployment again only this time I really have to look for a new job. Of course we can relocate if we want to but who wants to go to Texas or Oklahoma. Not me I [and my husband ] couldn't leave the littles. We wouldn't want to miss that much of their young lives. Now we could pack them up and take them with us but we like it when we can have them for a while and then send them home and besides all of that their moms wouldn't like it if we took them. Well maybe they would! This is going to be a big change for me, I have done the samething for 33 years and thinking about change is very hard for me. I really like what I do and then I think about all of the friends I have made there and it makes me sad because I will probably never see some of them again and some I will only see if I run into them at Wal-mart. On the other hand work on the inside of my barn will start within the next week. I can't hardly wait. I know it will be a wonderful place to go. It will be all mine. I know that I will be suprised when I see all of my fabric again. I haven't seen some of it for years, not since Butch put it in totes in the garage. I see lots and lots of scrap quilts coming from the barn. I used to buy only 1/3 of a yard of fabric when I found something I liked. Now I know better and I buy more. I know some of you are saying to yourself that you want to come and play with my stash, I mean organize my stash. That is going to be fun and it sounds like I will have plenty of time to do it. I have all of the paint for the inside picked out and Aunt Mary gave me fabric that is perfect for the curtains[lime green with cows]. I plan to paint quilts blocks on the walls and I have cow wallies that I am going to put in the center of the blocks. I think the blocks are going to be a sawtooth star. I am really getting excited about it all. When we built the barn we didn't think it was going to take this long to finish it[2 years] but it is all coming together. Brittany is leaving for college next weekend. The family is going to all go to dinner with her next Sat. night. Butch is going to bake her some cookies to take with her. I am planning some care packages for her. I have thought of some things that I can send her that she will like getting in the mail. Shawn has a job. He has been off of work since January. He worked really hard and got his GED and then went looking for a job and it paid off. He started last Tuesday. The starting pay is almost what he was making before he got laid off at his other job and he worked there for 4 years. The best part of the new job is that he likes it.

The Red Barn

2009-08-21T17:56:00.001-07:00

This is my handyman, Donny my brother-in -law. I tried to zoom in but this is as close as I could get from the deck. He has been getting it painted again. I did it the first time but the primer bled through the red. It looks much better now. He will start working on the inside next month sometime.

Here it is all painted red and white. He does nice work. I can't wait till the inside is done and I can move my quilting things in. I will be able to go in and lock the door and have my things right where I left them the last time I used them. I won't have to look for my pieces when I need them because the grew legs and walked away from where I left them. My machine will still be threaded when I go to use it. WOW it sounds great.

We planted some dalias this year and they got huge. Well this one did. It is alot bigger that what it looks in this picture. The other ones look puny compared to this one. We used to plant them at our other house but they never grew this big. All of our other flowers are wilting. It has been pretty dry here and even though we water them every day it is not the same as a nice steady rain. We did get some rain this week but not enough.

The grandkids start school Sept. 1. All of them go this year except for Zoey. Nick will be in grade 3, Ryan in grade 2, Korey in grade 1, and Gabby in Kindergarten. The oldes one Brittany will be a freshman in college and Mikey will be a senior in High school. Alex is living in Chicago.

I haven't been doing any sewing [no suprise there] but I have 14 blocks that I need to get done before the 29th. That is when the family quilters come here again. We are doing row quilts this year. We are taking turns picking a block and then we each have to do 7 of them and give one to everyone for their quilts. So far we have a tree block, a star, a cardtrick, and an album block. It is my turn to pick a block and I have picked a house block. After this month we will only have Lisa and Terry's blocks to do and then the fun begins, we get to put them together. I think I know how I am going to do mine. I want it to fit my queensize bed so I have to put sashing in it or some kind of pieced borders. I am leaning to the pieced borders and I was thinking about doing a couple of rows made with smaller blocks.

Two weeks ago my pump quite working and then the search was on. I had to find a pump that wouldn't break the bank. I found a 1 1/2 horse powered one at In The Swim, on line. I could only find 1 horse ones in town here. It was the same price as the 1 horse and I didn't have to pay shipping, just handling. So if you have a pool and need something for it check out In The Swim. My pool is clean again.
This post is getting pretty long so I am going to quit rambling on an let you go for tonight. Have a great week and I hope I will post again soon.

2009-08-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

Brittany was over last night and Nick came running out to give her a big hug. It shows how big he is getting. He is half of Brittany's age and almost as tall as her. Of course she is not that tall herself. Nick misses her when he hasn't seen her for awhile. Most of the time she stops over he is not here. She is busy getting ready to go to college. It sure is going to be different for her to go away, for her and us. We are used to her just popping in when she has time. She is going to Ohio State so she will be able to come home often.

Nick turned 9 on July 18 and we had a small party for him. All of his brothers and sisters was here. There was only 7 kids here[2 of them are under 1 so they didn't do anything] but they sure made a mess.

His cake was a spiderman one. It was yummy.

The raffle quilt that my guild does every year is done now. I put the last stitches in it Friday after work. I had to take it to Carolyn so she could take it to the Berlin Hights basket festival. We set up there to sell tickets. I am very happy at how it turned out. I really wanted to keep this one.It is king sized but if the winner has a smaller bed it will just drape more over the side.

Now I need to get busy and work on some of my stuff. I have lots of starts that I need to finish. Some of my quilts only needs the borders yet before the go to the quilter and some of them needs a whole lot more. For some reason that I don't know I have been a starter and not a finisher. I have to get over that. Some of my things I have cut everything out and never sewed a stitch on it.

I did go back to work about 5 weeks ago. We worked 1 week for the old company and then started working for the new company. We are now owned by Cover Craft. We still have no benefits and still don't know if they are going to leave us in Fremont or not. The only good things so far is they are not taking 10% of our pay any more and we are working steady 5 days a week.

Grandma Hoy

2009-07-13T18:47:00.000-07:00

On saturday July 11, 2009 Ardis Hoy passed away after a very short illnes. Grandma had just turned 90 in May. This is her with my brother, Den and I at the graveside service for Dad. Our family is getting smaller and it wasn't that big to begin with. Grandma and Grandpa only had 2 boys. Dad and Uncle Jerry. They each had 2 kids. Lucky me I was the only girl untill my cousins had kids. Grandpa passed away a long time ago.

This picture is of Grandma and Grandpa. I think it was taken after they were married. Nice looking couple. They were married over 50 years before Grandpa died. I am glad I have great memorys of times with them. Grandma always made me feel special and I was to her because I was her only girl. She used to do things for me that she didn't do for the boys. She is the one that taught me how to crochet. If anyone got any potholders from Mom or me she is the one that made them. My Grandma was very special to me and I will miss her for the rest of my life.

Kitties and babies

2009-06-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

This is Kimmy our other cat. She was helping me on the puter the other night. More like getting in the way. She usually lays on top of the quilt rack that I have next to the desk when I am on the puter. We got both kitties at the Humane Soceity about 5 years ago.

This is Zoey enjoying one of Grammy's quilts. She has gained about 3 pounds now. Now she feels like a real baby. She was too small when she was born. She is 6 weeks old. Her mom went back to work this week so her daddy is getting to know what its like to have a baby and take care of it for a few hours at a time. It will do him good! He wasn't around the other ones much when they were that small. He was working then. Now if only they had their own place. Maybe some day.

Mostly Brittany

2009-06-07T20:56:00.000-07:00

Today was the day for darling granddaughter,Brittany. Done with school till Sept. when she goes off to Ohio State. She ended up 6th in her class. My hope for her is that she ends up being what ever she decides to be. And what she will be happy doing. To me she in not old enough to be out of high school, it seems like yesterday that I was holding her as a little baby.
This is our family back row is grandson Mikey, stepson Mike, me, stepdaughter Rita,[Brittany's mom] and her other grandma Kathy. Front row is Gary,[Brittany's dad] Butch,[my husband] and last but not least is Brittany. Kathy is my husbands xwife and Rita and Mike are their kids.

I tried to get the whole class in the picture at the same time and I couldn't from where I was sitting. Sorry about the fence but it was in front of me and they didn't want us to stand there and block anyones view. We had a great day for it today, we was a little worried because the said we was going to get rain but we didn't. If it would have been inside each grad could only have 4 guest so I wouldn't have gotten to go. Worked out well for that.

2009-06-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

Here you go Kare, pictures of what I have been doing. I have been making little stars out of the coffee fabric that Sue and Jane gave us at the retreat. When the stars are done I will sew them into 2 little quilts. The stars are only 3 . The quilt will be about 12" when finished. I got my little bowties quilted and bound. I had fun with these. I would like to make a bedsize quilt with these but it would take forever as they are only 2" apiece. The blue quilt is 10"x10" and the rust one is 14"x12". I was working on things to sell at an outdoor craft show in July that I do with my friend Pat but I can't do it this year because I will have the family quilters here that day. We did that show last year and I did really well at it. I only sold a couple of things but they were some of my bigger things so I made money at it.

I made Zoey a blanket out of flannel that is covering her and grandpa on the couch. It has a different print on the other side. Sammy kitty is cuddling with them. Right now Kimmy is on the puter table to help me do my blog. She thinks that she is Queen of the house. NOT!

This was a busy week for me. On Tues. I took Butch for his eye exam. He has been complaining that he was having trouble seeing out of his right eye. Well he really was.He has Macular Degeneration. Really bad. On Wed. I had to take him to Toledo to the eye clinic. He had to be there at 9:15. They did more test on his eye and then he had to get a shot in his eye. He has to go back every 6 weeks for another one. They don't know if he will get all of his sight back but they can keep it from getting worse. We didn't get home till 4:30 that afternoon.
On Thurs. I went with Mom to Columbus to take her dog to Medvet. He has cancer and will start treatment next Tues.
On Fri. Butch woke me up because his kidney stone was on the move. He has had them for a while but they haven't moved for a long time. I was going to take him to his Dr. in Toledo but he didn't think he could ride that far so I took him to the ER here in town. They did test and said that yes it was his stone and gave him something for the pain said that it is small enough for him to pass it on his own and then would not let him go untill he peed for them. That was at 4:00. At 6:00 he told the that they could cath him so we could leave. Finnialy at 7:30 we got to go home after a stop at Wal-mart for a script for him. That is why we have trouble on vacations in the car, he never has to take a potty break and I have to alot.
The kids are out of school now Friday was the last day for them. Nick gets to go to third and Korey goes to first. Gabby gets to go to kindergarden next year.

Being laid off has got me all messed up. I can't remember what day it is or even what month it is as you could tell from 2 posts ago. I have that all fixed now and I hope this post is right. With me you never know.

OOPS!

2009-06-04T20:51:00.001-07:00

I looked over my last post again and I still had it wrong. The flood was May 27 not March or April. I think I have it right now. Sorry!

We had water everywhere

2009-06-01T13:52:00.000-07:00

On May 27 the rains came. The weather service issued a flash flood warning for Fremont OH.

The top two pictures show our neighbors back yard and ours. His on the left and ours on the right. The next one shows the neighbors down the road. This is the first time that the creek flooded into our yard like that.

This shows the flood on the street that we have to drive on to get to our road. I usually get stuck on the wrong side at least once a year and have to wade home. Nick was with me once and he thought it was the funniest thing to do. The first time it flooded after we moved here I flooded my car because I didn't think it was that deep. It was not as bad as this time. This time DH was stranded on the other side with me. Shawn waded through the part that wasn't too deep and helped me get his dad and the wheelchair through some back yards so I could get him home. We still had to wade through some but it was only ankle deep. If you look at the bottom picture to the left of the stop sign you can see the back of a car that was parked on the street, it was in up to the bottom of the windows. It no longer works. The stop sign is on my street. It was chest deep past the car that got drowned.
Sorry I just looked over what I wrote the other day and discovered that I had put in March instead of May, I have changed it.

A little bit about everything

2009-05-22T18:06:00.000-07:00

This is Nick's little corner of our yard. For some reason he loves Morning Glories and we have planted them for him. This year we planted 2 kinds for him. Next time you see this corner it will be over run with them. They do look pretty on the fence. Don't you just love this big cup? I do. When I first seen them a Wal-mart I knew that I had to get one for my mom for Mothers day. We both are tea drinkers. I also had to make her a big tea bag for it. I got two brown FQ's and wrapped them in tissue paper and added a string and a tag that I cut like a Red Rose tea bag. Made for a pretty cool gift if I have to say so myself.

Last week when I got around to trimming my butterfly bushes I came across this. I left it there so I could see what will come out of it. I am hoping for a butterfly. The branch looks funny there but I couldn't cut it off and when what ever it is comes out then I can cut that branch off.
I have been nursing 4 clematis along now for about 3 years and this is one of them in bloom. One of them got caught by Shawn and the weedeater and the other 2 bloom later. I only had about 4 flowers on it last year. DH wanted tomatos again this year and after seeing the topsy tervy tomato planter he had to have one only we got a different one but on the same order. We will see how many tomatos we get this year. He had to plant 2 other plant the old fashioned way just to be sure he get some. We planted a bunch of other seeds in the front beds. Hope they all grow. Cosmos hollyhocks zinnias poppys and some other ones that I can't remember. I planted sweetpeas on the front fence. I hope the grow cause they smell so good when they bloom. I've never planted them before. We have snapdragons in the lightpole bed and we don't have to plant those, they come up from last year.

Brittany's prom was last weekend. She got her princess dress that she wanted and of course she was beautiful. She also had her first date that night. I didn't have a better picture of her by her self on my camera. At least not one that showed her dress. She is going to put her pictures on a cd for me so maybe then I can post a better one.

I got busy on Wed. and made Nick Butch and I pillowcases. Nick's and mine are Michigan ones and I made Butch a Cleveland Browns and a Cleveland Indians one. Mine is pink. I used Joanne's pattern and it was easier than my pattern and the seams are finnished on the inside.

I read a few blogs everyday and on Terry Atkinson's blog she showed an Art Binder. I really liked them because I like graph paper and that is what she showed in it on her blog. Sooooo I had to try one. And one turned into 2 but the other on is not done yet. I did not know how they would turn out so I just grabbed some FQ's at Wal-mart to do them with. Turned out ok. I might have to make one for all of the grandkids. They always want me to make them things. I might have to try and make a bigger one so I can put a large pad of graph paper in it. It also holds twist up colored pencils[my favorite for drawing quilts].
I am all caught up in my blocks for the family exchange. Yea! I only have to do 7 more for the next time, but I am not behind those. I don't have to have the next 7 done till in July. I do have them started.
I have been blogging for over a year now and I am learning as I go. Sometimes things don't go as I plan them. I learned the last post that my pictures go in backwards from the way you enter them and this time I put them in the way I really wanted to post them.
I have also learned things from other bloggers. I have learned that I am not the only girl that was in love with Donny Osmond and that I am not the only person to listen to John Denver. And do you know what? I still listen tothem and I still enjoy it like I used to. I have learned many other things too like my son is not the only one that is not perfect. I pick up pointers on quilting issues and other things as well. I enjoy others quilts that they post about. I like reading about familys and just everything. Thank you everyone for letting me see into your lives. Karen

New baby girl

2009-04-28T19:32:00.001-07:00

Sorry I am going to make you wait till the end of this post to see the picture of the new baby. I am starting out with my Dad's service. We had it on April 18. It was a really nice day and I got to see family that I have not seen for many years. The service wasn't anything fancy or anything like that. It was very simple the way Dad wanted it. It was hard to think that Dad was in that little box.

I finally have a picture of Shawn and his haircut. Turns out that he is a nice looking guy. Now if only he would keep his body parts to himself. But he does make cute babies. This is his fifth.

Meet Zoey Lynn, born on April 27, 2009 8:11am. She was 4lbs 14ozs, 19" long. Mama didn't have any trouble and once she started hard labor it went fast. So fast that she didn't have any pain meds.
Now for the bad news!! I am laid off again and have been for 2 weeks now. It don't look like I might not be going back this time. The company stopped our insurance on March 31 and then our last day was the Thursday before Easter. This time we didn't get to finish the work on out tables. Last week I heard that the supervisers are laid off too. When I went by the buildings the other day there was only 2 cars in the lot at the one I worked in and only about 5 at the main building and I don't know who 2 of them belonged to. They haven't said that we are not going back its just a feeling I have. After working there for almost 33 years I have no idea how to go about looking for a new job that will pay me as much or better that what I was making, but I did go to the Job store and they helped me do a resume. It is only a 1 pager but I hope it will work.

Brittany has decided to go to Ohio State. She had to chose from 3. I told her that I was not going to wear one of those shirts. Really though I am happy that she picked the one that she felt suited her the best. It is a little sad though that she is going to go away. She has always been one of those special kids that just makes you happy to have her around, she is always so upbeat. I know that Grandpa and I will be making some trips to go see her.

I have gotten behind with my blocks for my family exchange. I got all the blocks cut out now and all ready to sew. I am only 14 behind but I cut them and the ones for the next time. Got them all marked with the dia. line and the squares pinned together. All I have to do now is sew.

The retreat and my quilt

2009-03-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

The retreat is over, of course it was two weeks ago and only for two days. All of the quilt guest had a great time and got some nice gifts (from the retreat committe and from some of the other guest). On sat. morning when the guest arrived the had the desk caddy sitting on their tables where they set up their machines. In the caddies were a small legal pad, graph paper, lint roller, pen, pencil, tube of oil, small paint brush, spool of thread and a name tag for them. Saturday afternoon they all got a Tee shirt with this years block on them (thanks Sue) and a key chain. On sunday morning they came back to a bag with two FQ"s and a panel of quilters quotes a the challenge for next year.

Some of the guest got gifts for us too. Sue and Jane tried their hand at glass etching and made us a coffee cup and filled it with six coffee fq"s and a quilt pin. Carolyn and Jeanette got us a tote bag fabric and lint roller and spray bottle and binding clips and a personal fav. chocolate. Aunt Mary had Uncle Henry make us a wooden presser stick and Jane got us each a finger pincushion. Thank you everone. I came home with more than I went with. Everyones quilt was turning out very nice. To see all of them laid out follow the link to the Milan Quilt Builders blog in the right top corner of mine. Kare has pictures of the ones that got laid out on the floor. I did not get all of my blocks done there but I did finish them up the next weekend. I also got my top put together. I still haven't decided if this is for me or for Gabby. It is too big for her toddler bed and I don't have a clue when she will get a twin bed for here. I like it even if it is all PINK. When you look at it can you see the star in the center? This was a fun, easy quilt to do. I might have to do this block again. The block is the split 9 patch . We had 18 guest all doing the same block with our own fabric and all 18 quilts where very different. Very pretty too! Night Karen

Getting ready for the retreat

2009-02-19T18:30:00.000-08:00

Wow time sure flew by and now it is almost time for the retreat. Whats more unbelieveable is I have everything ready for it. Not the meat for the sandwhichs but everything else. I got the block samples sewed last night and all of the guest gift bags packed and ready. Yeah! I always manage to get things ready in time but I start to worry about a week before. I have my rolling tote packed and my tool bag packed. All I have to put in it is my fabric for my quilt. It is all cut and ready but not in my tote yet. I also have to tear down my machine and get it cleaned and oiled so it is all ready to sew on this weekend. We have the biggest guest list that we have ever had. I hope everything goes well and we have a good time. It always has and we alway have. I have been thinking about taking my old machine just in case. Last year my machine broke down on sat. night and I had to borrow Eileen's spare. Good thing she lives down the street from where we sew.

What I have been up to

2009-02-13T19:17:00.000-08:00

Time has been flying by lately. It seems like christmas was yesterday. Mom and I have been working hard on the planing of our guilds retreat that is next weekend and I think that we have it all under control now. I only have a few things to get yet and then all I have to do is show up. Then we will have to work for about an hour to get things set up before we can kick back and enjoy ourselfs. The quilt is all planned out and copied, the gifts are all bought and put together. I have one more set of bags to do and then it will be all done till I have to load up my car next friday night. I think I need a small truck to haul all of the stuff I have to take with me. I finished buying my fabric today so I have to get it cut next week. I am using dark pink and light pink for my quilt. We have guild meeting tomorrow so I can answer any questions that any one might have about the instructions or fabric or anything else that comes up. I hope that everyone likes the things that we got them this year. I think that this year is going to be the best one yet. I say that every year though. It seems like it just keeps getting better and better every year. I can't post what the gifts are yet as no one knows what they are until the retreat but I will post them after. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY. Happy quilting Karen

A little sadness

2009-02-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

Larry C. Hoy October 19,1941-Febuary 4, 2009

After a three week illness I am sad to say that my dad passed away last night. He was 67. None of us thought that this would happen when he got sick this time. The cold air always made him sick because he had breathing problems along with other things.

He is getting cremated and we will have a grave side service at a later date in the spring. We are doing it this way so grandma can go. She can't get around very well and going out in the cold and snow is not an option for her.

The picture that got left out

2009-01-10T14:26:00.001-08:00

This picture didn't get put in my last post so I had to add it. It is the one that shows a little over 8" of snow. Make sure you read my last post.

Snowy day at home

2009-01-10T13:43:00.000-08:00

This is just what to do on a snowy sat. afternoon. Gabby crawled up on the couch with grandpa and promtly fell asleep. So did grandpa for a while till Gabby made his legs fall asleep. We are getting a lot of snow. So far we are not getting any wind with it but that is going to come later this evening.

I had a brainstorm on how I could show how much snow we have gotten since yesterday so I stuck a ruler in the snow on top of the fridge we keep on our deck. It shows that we have a little over 8" at 3:30pm The other picture shows how much is piled up on top of it. Then I had to take a picture of our gate on the deck with the snow on top of the pickets. I think it looks like wide rick rack. Korey and Gabby just left and Butch Nick and I have to go to the store to get some things for tomorrow. We are having our family christmas at Elmwood where my Grandma lives. I have things to make for my covered dish but I didn't get our gifts for the exchange. My guild meeting for this morning was canceled. I hate when we have to do that because I always enjoy the me time with the ladies. But it was a big safety issue with the roads being bad. It was also a sewing day but we will have that at a later meeting. We are going to be making pillowcases for kids. They are fun to do and my grandkids like the ones that I have made for them. Time for me to go so we can get back here soon, have a great snow day and keep the sewing machines zooming through the patches so you can get that quilt done and on the bed. Karen

Christmas , New Years, Family and Kids

2009-01-04T15:21:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I seem to speed through the last month and didn't slow down for anything. We had a very nice Christmas even thhough our family is falling apart and nothing will be the same at family gatherings. My stepson and his wife split up last spring and the weekend before Thanksgiving my stepdaughter came over to tell us that her and her husband is splitting up too. Their partners will be missed by Butch and I. They both were part of our family for a long time. The littles had a great time opening gifts. All 4 of them got leapsters from us and games for them from my mom. I was a little worried about getting Nick one because the age on them only go to age 8, which he is but the kids play with them every time they are here. We have discovered that they have games for up to 4th grade. My son is having another baby with his current girlfriend. A little girl so they say. I think he is trying to populate the whole world by himself. He is taking a trip to the Dr. when he gets his income taxes back. I am taking him myself!!!!! If that don't work I will do it myself!!!! We had all 4 of his kids here for christmas and Ryan got to stay with us for almost a week. That doesn't happen much. He is such a quiet little guy. Not like the other 3. This is a current picture of the 4 littles. Nick, Ryan, Korey, and Gabby.

Yes Korey has a black eye. It seems that he was jumping on something [Gabby's bed maybe] and fell on the corner of her toybox. He is lucky that all he got was a black eye. My grandma was with us christmas day and we got a picture of her with Shawn and his kids. We had 5 generations here that day.
It looks like Gabby is trying to give a look at her chubby leg. Hard to belive that for a little while she is our baby. She will be 5 in March. She is not the well behaved little princess that she tells you she is. It is time for me to go. I have to go back to work tomorrow after being off for 2 weeks. I am not going to want to get up in the morning. Have a safe and happy New Year!

Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T18:35:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the big day. Turkey day! I can't wait to get up to put the turkey in the oven. It always smells so good while it is cooking. I have almost all of the pies done, I only have the banana cream one to do yet. The crust is all ready. I just have to cut the bananas and make the filling. I was going to make fruit salad too but I forgot to get the fruit. I got the nuts, grapes, and the bananas for it but not the canned fruit. Oh well I don't have room in the fridge for it anyway. Mom and Garry will be here to eat with us. They are coming early because Garry is working on the barn. I have to float the turkey in the tub. It has been thawing in the fridge all week and is still frozen solid. The tub is the only thing I have that is big enough for it. Nick gets a kick out of it and wants to give it a bath with soap and all of that. Last weekend I started sewing my flannel quilt but I didn't get very far, I had to make too many flying geese units. I got one border of the on it but now I have to make more for another border. I should have it done sometime this weekend. Then I have to get back to the retreat challenge quilt. Sometime soon I have to make some handmade christmas cards. We are exchanging them instead of gifts with some of my family. I just have to come up with a wonderfull idea for them. Now it is time for me to go for tonight. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and remember that the Christmas countdown really starts now!!! Karen

Barn Bits and More

2008-11-12T17:31:00.000-08:00

My update on my quilting barn is that my rafters are now braced up so that when we put in the drywall up my ceiling won't sag. I hate it when my things sag. Don't you?? I hope that this weekend Garry will put in my breaker box and wire my lights and put up the loft. I can feel it getting closer. My excitement level is getting up there again. To think that I will be able to leave everything out and know that I won't have little fingers getting in to everything and I won't have to worry about them trying to use my scissors and cutters. I won't have holes cut in sheets and pillowcases and no more quilt blocks cut in half!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have both fatty, fatty quilt tops done now all I have to do is quilt them and the binding. They turned out nice I can see me making more of them. Every fabric that I used was Thimbleberries. I ended up with 4 blocks left over. Or a start of the next one. I had to go back to work monday morning. 5:00 came pretty early after having 5 weeks off. I should have been born rich! Or married money! I guess we can't all be wealthy. I know quite whinning and be thankfull for what I do have. I am.Nick's quilt is on the left and his is a twin size. Mine is on the right and it is a king size, a big king . It hangs to the bottom of the box springs and all of the way to the floor at the foot end of the bed. I remembered that I didn't put a pic. of the kids on trick or treat night. Here it is. Nick, Korey, Gabby and Nick's youngest brother with his mom Ashton. They look pretty scarey. Ashton is the coyboy.

I found out saturday that I won a prize from the shop hop that I went on in October with my aunt. I have to go to Birds of a Feather in Avon to pick it up. I think we will do that on saturday. I don't know what I won I will have to post that later after I find out. Happy Quilting!

Happy things!

2008-11-04T18:20:00.000-08:00

Wow where to start? I guess I will start about 2 weeks ago when we went to a cancer benifet and I bought a tip ticket for a basket filled with stuff. I won! The basket really was a quilted bag that I have been looking at the pattern to buy it. Now I don't have to. The things in the bag was really nice too. Thats the only thing we won all night but I liked it. I have all of the blocks done for the Fatty, Fatty 2x4 quilt done. I goofed when I was cutting for them. I needed around 50 because I am not putting big borders on it. I cut enough for 94 blocks. Oops! So Nick will get a matching quilt for his bed which is a good thing because he doesn't have one to fit a twin. The next good thing is that I am getting the Barn wired.Yeah!!! My moms boyfriend started it on sunday. He has all of the plugs wired and will get my lights wired this coming weekend. I cann't wait. Its been a long time getting this far. It still might be next summer before I can move in it but its getting closer.I won't know how to act when I can have all of my fabric in one place and not hidden in the garage in totes. Then I can do some real stash busting. All of my quilts will be scrap ones then. I will need to use up all of the 1/3 yard cuts that I used to buy. Mostly cause I didn't know any better. Who knew that quilts took more fabric than that? Not me. But I quickly learned that I had to buy more of one fabric. And I do.

I know that I took a picture of my barn after I painted it red but do you think I could find it. NO. I have to wait till tomorrow when I can take one when it is not dark out. Happy Quilting Karen

Started A New Quilt

2008-10-21T17:28:00.000-07:00

Well I did what I said I wasn't going to do, I started a new quilt yesterday. I am doing Thimbleberries Fatty Fatty 2x4. I spent yesterday and today cutting and cutting. I am using all of my leftover fabric from TB kits that I have done. So that means that it has a little bit of everything in it from Christmas to whatever. I did have to cut some fat quarters too but not many. I had lots of strips left from a sweatshirt workshop that my quilt club did last year and used the ones that where wide enough. I think that I have enough cut that I won't have to put any borders on it. The pattern for the king size has borders only on the sides and not the top and bottom. I didn't like that. If I am going to put borders on a quilt I am going to put them on all four sides. I think that the quilt looks undone with them only on two sides. I know that some of you don't like to do scrappy quilts but I think the more fabrics the better for some quilts. I do like and do some planned quilts but right now I can't buy any fabric so I am doing a little stash busting on my own. Gotta go sew so I can get this done.

2008-10-19T12:32:00.000-07:00

Brittany got her senior pictures back. She is just beautiful. Of course I couldn't get them to move around this like I wanted them to, But they can still be looked at.

We chose the big head shot so when she goes away to school we can still look at her face almost lifesize or we can use it to scare the mice away. Its hard to imagine that she is this old already. It seems like she should still be that little tiny baby that she used to be. Now I have to get frames so I can get her on the wall. And yes she did have a dress on in that picture. It has tiny straps on it but her hair is hiding them.

2009 raffle quilt

2008-10-15T07:28:00.000-07:00

Milan Quilt Builders have started the raffle quilt for next year. I have almost half of the blocks finished [by members of the group]. I gave in and left them take some of them home to work on. When they come back to me all we have to do is lay them out and sew them into a quilt. And put the last of the sashing on and the borders. I want to run off with this on. I really love the colors and the pattern that I designed on my quilt wizard. I have pictures of Kare's three blocks that she took home to do. They are at the top of the page. I have to take pictures of the ones that I have here at home. I have been laid off. It was to be for two weeks but I got a call this morning that I will be off untill Nov. 3. What am I going to do? I guess I better get the sewing maching going. Its not like I don't have anything to work on. My Aunt Rita and I will be doing the road trip shop hop on Friday. Butch is going along for the ride. It is only 6 shops this time. The last one we went on was 12 shops[I think]. We did that one over two days. Shop hops are alot of fun, but they can be quite costly. I will have to watch my spending this time. While I am off I want to get my retreat challenge quilt top finished and work on my snowman flannel quilt top. I know that we will have 3 of the littles on the weekends and that cuts into my sewing time. Nick would rather be here than anywhere else. He is getting so smart. Brittany was here on Sunday. She is so busy that we don't see her much anymore. Getting us ready for next year when she will be away for collage. We will miss her.

Another week in my boring life

2008-09-02T17:38:00.000-07:00

Gosh it has been a week since I've posted and I have pictures. Not much went on during the week cause we don't do much with me having to get up at 3:45 every morning. That means I go to bed early. These two pictures are of our space at the Milan Mellon Fest. You can see how big our quilt is. I can't wait to see who wins it. Our banner shows up really good, and how could you say no to buying a ticket from the smiling faces behind the table.

Nick really enjoyed the rides after my time in the booth selling tickets, He wanted to ride everything and wanted one of each to eat and drink. He did not get his own way. This is what I have been doing. I am making 7 tote bags for my family quilt group. They are all the same. We use them to give our secret sister the gifts that we get them. Our gifts are usually something small and quilty. The table runner is from a kit that I bought on a quilt shop . My next quilt is going to be a flannel on that I bought the fabric last year or the year before.

It is not that dark in real life. I am going to use Thimbleberries pattern My favorite flannel throw. I am not using TB. fabrics but I just love the snowmen. My grandchildren will probably fight me to use it. I am hoping to use it on my side of the bed this winter. DH wanted to know why I was taking a picture of fabric to post because " Its just fabric" . He just don't understand.I just had to take a little break to catch an act on America's got Talant. Brittany's friend John Burkin is on twirling his fire baton. He did a great job tonight. I have to stay up long enough to vote for him. I always enjoy watching him anywhere he twirls. With all of that going on I guess my life isn't all that boring right now. Have a great day tomorrow and remember to keep quilting.

Time Warner Cable

2008-08-25T16:15:00.000-07:00

It happened again our cable went out around 7:00pm friday night and I called them. No luck they couldn't come fix it till thursday. Do any of you have a DH like mine? The man goes nuts without tv. It was just out three weeks ago for almost a week and now they tell him that he has to go another week, lucky me. I even tried to pull the wheelchair and blood thinners needs the phone for that. Did not work. After 6 calls in 2 days I gave up. He got tired of watching vidios sunday afternoon so he called, low and behold he got them to come today. Talk about a suck up!If TWC would have fixed it right the last time it would not have happened this time. They didn't bury the cable the last time and my neighbor tripped on it this time and pulled it out of the box. That would not have happened if TWC would not have run the cable across 2 back yards to get to us. We really had a quiet weekend, the grandkids went home friday and we had no tv phone or internet. I did do some sewing but I can't tell in here in case my family reads this cause I am making the family quilters something. Its a good thing that I'm not making anything big cause I get bored making more than one of something and I have to make 7 of these all the same exactly the same. I have to go so I can call Nick and Brittany, tomorrow is the first day of school for them. LKBye Karen

2009 raffle quilt

2008-08-17T15:51:00.000-07:00

I figured out a way to post a picture of the raffle quilt design so here it is. My camera program wouldn't let me upload from it so I had to take a picture of my screen and download it to that and then I could post it. Maybe some of the colors or blocks will change but this is the general idea. I had fun doing this and I might do one for myself cause I won't win this one. The blocks will change where they are . I just stuck them in anywhere for now and we can move them around till they suit us. My hand colored one looks nothing like the colors in this version. My very first queen size quilt was a sample which is not quilted yet. I don't think it has its last border on it yet. Where is our rain? I am adding water to the pool to keep the pump from sucking air and burning up. Most summers I don't have to add a lot of water because we get enough rain to keep it full. Not so lucky this summer, I have added water a couple of times already. All of the kids are gone. Even Shawn, he had to work tonight. The grandkids all went home yesterday. It has been quiet for us today. Sometimes we need that.

Quilts and quilting

2008-08-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

I have been busy last night and today. Last night I worked on a new table runner and got about half of it done before Nick kicked me out of our room so he could go to bed. After that I got on the computer and my quilt design program and drew up the raffle quilt for next years raffle. I tried to post it here but the formation of it couldn't be put on here. Bummer! So anyway I am almost out of colored ink so I printed the outline of each block and I am coloring them by hand. The colors are not how I have them drawn but they will show the blocks and how they will look in the quilt. The quilt is done in darker colors with a few light ones thrown in . I think it really looks good. I would like to have it for my bed but I say that every year cause I hardly ever see a quilt that I don't like and want. As soon as I am done with this I am going to work on my runner again while I try to figure out how to get into Kare's suitcase. She is going to Las Vegas and on a quilt shop hop there. I sure would like to go with her. Some of us get to go everywhere. Not me, I am stuck at home with DH and Nick and NO MONEY. At least I am where they love me. I think they do anyway. Time to go sew more later.

Bits and Pieces

2008-08-14T17:08:00.000-07:00

I don't know how the kids do it but when I got home from work they were in the pool. The water temp is only 76 and us adults know that feels pretty cold. They were like frozen ice cubes when they got out. Nick has been in every day and he wants me to swim with him. I have to tell him that old people can't swim in water that cold. Butch's tomatoes are starting to get ripe. Its a good thing that he only plants 2 plants. We always have a bunch of them. Nothing taste better than a home grown one sliced up with a little salt on it. Yum! I started something new on sunday. Shame on me, I wanted to finnish some of my things. I went on a shop hop 2 years ago and bought a kit for a table runner at one of the shops. The main fabric is green with white daisys on it and the rest of the fabric is green with one yellow. Just right for summer. I might have it done for fall. I have been really slow at taking pictures of things, I still haven't posted one of my pink and brown quilt. Our cable is fixed and working fine now. The electric co. was doing some work out here and cut our cable. At least TMC gave us a good discount. You don't notice how much time you spend on the phone, on the internet, or in front of the tv untill you don't have it and then you haven't got anything to do. I think DH got tired of watching movies.

What do you do without Time Warner Cable?

2008-08-08T08:10:00.001-07:00

Last saturday we lost our cable phone and internet and anyone that knows us knows how much time I spend on the net and how much time DH spends in front of the tv. It was out almost a week. When I called they couldn't get anyoue out here until thursday. Talk about boring! Butch watched movies 24/7 and I just did nothing. I know I know I could have gone in and worked on a quilt, its not like I don't have any thats not done but it was better to just sit and complain about not having the net. I tried to tell TMC that we needed the phone because of DH being in the wheelchair just in case something happened and he needed to call out. Didn't do me any good. The raffle quilt is quilted and is beautifull. Lisa does a great job on them. All it needs now is the binding and I am going to start that today.

What is that on my deck?

2008-07-30T18:36:00.000-07:00

Nick and I took our nightly dip in the pool after I got home from work and after about an hour I was ready to get out. I was ready to eat. As I climbed up the ladder I looked up and there was this thing staring at me. It was not the prettiest thing I have ever seen. Nick said that he had one outside his bedroom window and it kept staring at him through the window and crept him out. I think that he was a little scared of it. I knew that I had to get it on my camera so I hurried in to get it. By the time I got back out there it had climbed up to the top deck. Moves pretty fast. It does have some good traits Like after sex it kills and eat the male. And it eats bugs in my yard. Can you guess what it is?

It is a praying mantis. It was not a full grown one. I hope that I don't have to fish it out of the pool tomorrow night.

Happy Summer and Birthday

2008-07-29T17:31:00.000-07:00

This is a flower that is in my garden. It was really pretty this year.I have these in about 4 colors. I used to have lots of flowers in my garden and then my DH decided to take over my beds. Now I have alot less because he thinks that he has to pull everything up by the roots.Ryan came over a couple of weeks ago and spent the night with Nick. The boys wanted to swim. Ryan was scared a first but I showed him that the floaty suit wouldn't let him go under and then he was ok with it. Ryan is Shawns second son. We don't get to see him very often. Of course Nick is like a little fish in the pool .This is the first year he hasn't had to wear a floaty. He is tall enough that he can touch without one.

Nicks birthday was on the 18th and he was lucky this year. He got 2 cakes, one on his day and one last saturday when we had a little party for him. He wanted Batman things so we gave him money and Mom gave him a gift card to Walmart. Shawn and Jamie gave him a Hot Wheels crash em up set.

I had to post this picture of DH. I looked into the living room one night last week and this is what I saw. It was soo funny that I had to take his picture. Don't tell him that I posted it. He might get a little mad at me. I just had to do it.

I haven't done any sewing this week but I did draw out 4 mariners compasses that I want to do someday.I don't want to do a big quilt just a small one as these blocks are only 8" . I need to draw out a couple more, maybe. Gotta go. I want to have some popcorn and I can't eat and type at the same time. Its not like eating icecream. Karen

My good luck

2008-07-19T18:57:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for a while so I decided to do that tonight. Nick's birthday was yesterday and we are having his party at a later date. It was going to be next saturday but he is going to New York with his family. Now I ask you what an eight year old want to do more have a party where you get cake and presents or go to a yucky wedding where you have to dress up? Last tuesday they drew my name out for the Eagles 712 club and I won $25. Today I did a craft show in Bradner with my friend Pat and while I didn't sell alot I did sell a small quilt and a quilted mat. While I was there I bought one raffle ticket for a 50/50. When I got home Butch and I went to the eagles to pick up my money from the other day and when we got home I had a message on the phone that I had won with my one ticket. I won $110.50! Hows that for luck? Shawn's girlfriend said that she is going to let me pick her lotto numbers.Our house is quiet tonight, no kids. They all went home this afternoon while I was gone. I haven't done any sewing this week. None! I have been really lazy but then when I start to go in to sew I can hear my raft calling my name and I end up in the pool. I know, what a life! It is nice but usually I have some kids in there with me and I don't get to laze on my raft like I want. They always want to play. Nick is getting to be quite the swimmer and the other two do really well with their floaty suits. They can zip all over faster than I can. Ryan was here for a couple of days and he was scared at first untill I showed him that his suit would not let him go under. He was ok after that but he hasn't found his water wings yet. This was the first that he has been in our pool.

2008-07-09T18:55:00.000-07:00

Wow time gets away from me fast these days. I can't believe its been two weeks since I posted. I haven't had much going on. Just to work and back home. I have been doing a little sewing. I put the last seven blocks together for the guilds raffle quilt after all of the blocks where found. The last row is on its way to Lisa and she is going to sew it on the quilt. Now the quilt will be 108x96, nice size for a full to king size bed. I also got all of the center blocks done for my retreat challenge quilt. I still have to do the outer pinwheel blocks that go around the blocks that have the sayings in them. I did all of that insead of watching the fireworks. I have been working on the design for Brittany's quilt. She wants one for Hi-Society. Purple and more purple. Yuck!! For some reason I am not fond of purple. I use it but not a lot. Other than that I haven't been doing much. A little swimming once in a while. The water has been cold. It started warming up and then the rains came yesterday and now it is colder again. I will have to get back to this later and I have some pictures to post.

I had a great weekend!

2008-06-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

This was a great weekend for me. Friday I didn't do much of anything, I couldn't I didn't get up untill 1:00pm. I do sleep late sometimes but not that long. My late is around 10 or 10:30. We went shopping for things that we needed for the cookout on saturday. The family quilters were coming to my house. We cooked chicken legs and thighs on the grill. We quilters exchanged our secret sister bags and they had birthday presents for Aunt Carol and I since our birthdays are in June. I got cows, fabric, and some tools to use with my quilting. My stepdaughter called while everyone was here. She forgot my birthday on the right day and was sorry. Brittany brought my present over later that afternoon. More fabric and buttons and a giftcard for Joann's. All things that I really like. We had our fat quarter exchange and I can't figure out what I want to make yet. I know that it will be a quilt but I don't know what pattern or how big it will be. When we are all done with the exchange we will have 84 different fabrics. At least we hope they will all be different. The last time we did this I made my bearpaw quilt. Last year we did scraps. I haven't used all of mine. I made some tiny bowties with the first scrapbags I got.I don't know if I liked exchanging scraps I can make enough of my own without getting them from someone else. I like doing FQ's or blocks. I bought Quilters home mag. today, That man sure can make me laugh! It seems like he knows each and every one of us. And coments on all of our bad habits. While I was shopping at Joann's today I found a bright colored stripe fabric that I think will work with my retreat challenge quilt as the outside border and a solid purple that might work as the binding. I will have to wait till I get the quilt done to that point. I could change my mind. It has been really quiet here this weekend Nick is on vacation with his mom and Korey and Gert went home yesterday morning. Nick called a little while ago and said that they are on the way home. Going through Dayton at that time. I was going to sew today but I never got past putting my new buttons away and cleaning up Nicks mess in there. I wish the barn was done. It still has no power. I have been tempted to run a heavy duty cord out there and using it that way. If we could get it wired I would move out there. The man that was going to wire it has been sick for awhile now. We went to a farm market today and got fresh from the field strawberries. Short cake tomorrow night, yum! I could keep on going but I have to get ready for bed 3:30 comes early.

Is this our summer?

2008-06-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

Where did the sun go? I get the pool opened and cleaned up after being closed all winter and the sun goes away. It took Nick and I three days to get the dirt and leaves cleaned out and to get the water sparkly clean so I thought that he and I would get to swim and play last night and tonight but it is way too cold to swim [its not heated unless the sun is out]. Nick leaves tomorrow for vacation with his mom. I am almost ready to turn the heat back on in the house. If it does not warm up for the weekend I hope I can get some sewing done. Nick won't be here to kick me out of "his room" . Saturday is the family quilt get together. That is always fun. Nothing like a day of eating and gossiping. And oh yea quilts! Thats what it is all about. It also keeps some of us in the family in touch. The last three quilt blocks for the raffle quilt has been found so it will be bigger than it was in the picture. Like we have been looking for them for about 2 months maybe longer. Today is my 50/th birthday. It has been a very uneventfull day. You would think that something would happen. Something good I would hope. I don't feel like I am 50 or that I am smarter than at 49 but maybe that will come later. The day just comes and goes like every other day. Bummer I wanted fireworks or something!!!! Butch and Nick did bake me a cake today.

2008-06-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

I think I am ready for the meeting tomorrow morning. I have my notebook and my sewing things ready along with my machine and quilts. I also baked 2 cakes so Joanne will be happy. My grandkids think it is someones birthday cause I don't bake cakes very often. They will think that they died and went to heaven when I bring the leftovers home. I started to do block 2 of my retreat challenge quilt and found that I cut my pieces too big but I can work with that it is better than too little. We had 3 of the littles here today. Lucky us. They just can not get along. You know how it is with kids. It was ok till this afternoon when it started to rain and they had to come in the house. This house just is not big enough for the three of them. Nick went to bed at 9:oo so he can be up to go to quilt club with me in the morning. He must like to hang out with old ladies. He says that he has fun when he goes. He wants to learn how to make a quilt. One of these days I will start working with him.

Weekend

2008-06-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

Here it is the weekend!! For me anyway. I only work 4 days a week but 10 hours a day. Nick and I have been working really hard to get the pool ready for sunday. We are having a cook out for fathers day. I have it all brushed down and tomorrow I will vacume the gunk out. The bottom of it looked crappy this year. I think the cover was letting water through it. That means dirt and everything else. Nick is reading this as I write it. Can't write anything that I don't want him to know. He is getting too smart for his britches. I have quilt club on saturday. I think that we are having a sewing day. I have to find something to take. It is my turn to take the treat. I have to think of something really good. Joanne said so. Mom is going to help with it too. nickolas wants to say hi, so hi to who ever reads this. This meeting is going to be a good one. We get to show our challenge quilts for the first time. I can't believe that mine is done and has been done and I won't be up till 2 or 3 in the morning trying to finish it like I usually am. I even have my flag done for show and tell. I also have 7 blocks done for my retreat challenge quilt. I only have 17 more to do of that style and 17 of another to do. Can I finish it by Febuary? I can only hope. I will unless something else catches my eye. I am having fun with this and my FQ's are all bright colors so it is easier to work on that something dull and boring.

Quiet week

2008-06-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

Not much has been going on this week. The kids came over and helped me take the cover off of the pool saturday. I do have a mess to clean up. After getting it filled with water I tried to get the pump going and had no luck. It seemed that the outside plug went bad and I wasn't getting any power to it. Mike came over tonight and put a new plug in for me. Now I can get to work and get it cleaned. I did get the chems. in it tonight so that will help. Today was Nick's last day of school and now he thinks that he is staying here for the summer. He said that he might go home for a day once in a while. I did get my retreat challenge quilt started and I have 7 blocks done. I can't wait to get it done now. My fq's are all bright colors and I am putting black with them and it looks good together. I am paper piecing it and that means that all of my seams should match up when i am done. we will see. I had to cut 1" noodles to use and Nick came out with a handful of them last night and asked if he could have them.I don't know for what but I couldn't let him have them cause I don't know if I willl have enough as it is. This is the biggest project that I have done this way.

What should I start next?

2008-06-05T20:09:00.000-07:00

Now that I have the raffle quilt top done and my challenge quilt all the way done, binding and everything but the lable I have been looking for something else to start or finish. I have been thinking about starting my retreat quilt. It was my idea so i better get mine done. I have everything for it except for the outside border. I haven't found what I want for it yet. I have the long weekend to start it. The only time I won't be able to work on it is tomorrow when I am going to pick up my Pfaff machine. Yes it is done!. I hope it works longer this time. They said that they found the problem this time. And saturday when we are taking the lid off of the pool. I could have used it today. I was very hot when I got off of work. The 10 hour days are going to kill me. I know that it is only for 4 days a week but the hours poop me out. Its going to get ugly when it really gets hot out. I got our air turned on today. I had to change the filter before I could. It feels so nice. I think that I will sleep good tonight. So will Butch. He didn't sleep good last night, he said that he was too hot. I don't know if it was or not I was sleeping like a log! A while back I wrote about hanging things on our walls again. I have every thing hung up except for my quizzel which I can't find [Butch put it somewhere] and I need to find something for on a shelf above the couch. Probably a cow since the big picture has cows in it. Its not like I won't be able to find a cow for there I do have a few around here. I also need to make two small quilts to replace the two I have hanging now. They are getting old and faded. I think I made them around 12 years ago. I even hand quilted them, now there isn't enough money in the world to make me hand quilt something. Maybe when I really get old I will do more of that. Thank you cousin Lisa for getting your long arm quilting machine!!

Raffle quilt

2008-06-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

I have the top done now it goes to the machine quilter for her to work her magic on it. Soon it will be a beautiful quilt. I will pass out the tickets and pictures at the next guild meeting so we can start selling them. I hope we do as good on this on as we did last year.

As you can see it is a big quilt. 96x96 done in pinks and browns. We had Mikey's birthday party yesterday, he was 16, so look out he will be on the roads soon. I would post a picture of him but that one didn't turn out very good.

Our Gabby girl is learning how to ride her bike without training wheels. Nick took this picture so it is not the best but he is learning how to use the camera. Now if only Korey would. He really doesnt have much to do with his bike. He would rather play with swords and knives. Not real ones .

We kept Korey and Gabby for 2 days and for once they were fairly good. That don't happen very often. Nick was here too. Usually when we have the three of them they fight about everything. I told you how Nick was learning how to take pictures, Well this one just showed up yesterday . I think he is doing a Brittany. She is always taking pictures of her self with my camera or my phone so when I use them there she is. I have the binding sewn on my challenge quilt now all I have to do is the hand sewing on it. I can't put a picture of it on here yet. I am not showing it to anyone till I show it at the guild meeting. I just love it. I got my counter put on last night thanks to Kare and Brittany. I got it as far as saved on my favorite list and didn't know how to get it on here. I do now! Thank you Kare and Brittany!!!

2008-05-31T17:16:00.000-07:00

The Big Winner Is

2008-05-25T19:11:00.000-07:00

Nick had his raingutter regatta today at East Side park. He is in cubscouts and this was one of the things that the boys get to do. He was telling us last night that he was going to win because he hates being a loser [he came in dead last in every heat with his pinewood derby car]. He got to race 3 times and won all of his boat races today. He was one happy boater. He won a nice backpack with a lantern and a compass in it. Thats him when he won his last race. He looks pretty happy.

I said that I would post a picture of my TB [Thimbleberry] wreath and I finally took pictures. Hve to find someplace to hang if for christmas but that is the easy part. I also finnished my flag that I bought the kit for when mom, aunt Rita, Lisa and I went on about 2 years ago. I want to hang the flag on the garage on days when you should hang flags out.I have to figure out how to do that. Its easy when I hang things on the deck or on the porch rail, I just use pins to hold them up there. To bad I can't put a pin through the metal that is around the garage door. You know back when I started this blog I thought I would only do it for a little while but it is really quite fun. I look for things to write about that I think others would enjoy reading about and I have always liked taking pictures. I guess I could finnish what I was trying to say about the flag kit that I bought . I got it at Red Rooster quilt shop. that is where mom aunt Rita, Lisa and I went, on a shop hop. We went to shops around Columbus. It was nice to get away with just the girls.

The zoo and Brittany's prom

2008-05-23T08:12:00.000-07:00

Back again. On friday May 16 Butch and I went to the zoo with Nick's 1st. grade class. We had Nick and one of his friends, Logan, to walk around with. We had fun with the boys and wished that we had more time to spend there. In order for the kids to be back to school on time we only had 21/2 hours to see as much as we wanted to. Logan didn't care as long as he got to see the monkeys. Nick wanted to see everything. We had to take a sack lunch and Nick wanted to take a bologna sandwich so thats what we took. Nick is the one in front. On May 17 was Brittany's junior prom. She went with a group of girl friends and one of the girls cousins that was male but just decided to tag along with them. Brittany is on the right side in the black and white dress.

Sone of the girls didn't get to the picture place on time so I did't get them in the group picture. I think that they were all beautiful that day, but then I think that Britt is beautiful every day. When we got a granddaughter we got the best one of all. Her mom's friend, Angie, did her hair and I had to show it because I thought it was so cute. Look at that smile! Britt has a smile on her face almost all of the time. It was a proud moment for all of us last night. After many years of starting and stopping Brittany's dad Gary recieved his GED. After the ceramony we went to the Eagles for a little party of cake and laughter.

Way to go Gary!!!!!!! I think that I have picked out the blocks that I am going to do with the fabric I am getting from the family fat quarter exchange. I am going to do a puss in the corner block. The pattern that I am looking at makes a 6" block so I will need a lot of them. When the year is over I will have 84 hopefully all different fabrics. There is 7 of us in the family group now and every year we do some kind of exchange with fabric or blocks. We also get together every other month so it keeps us in touch. My aunt Carol has been bringing grandma with her so it also lets her see part of the family more than once a year. Of course we have some of the family that hasn't seen her since she got sick and went to live if Elmwood Asit. Living. That was 7 or 8 years ago. Close family, huh. I really have three different quilts that I want to make with my FQ's for this year. Too bad my Quilt Barn's not finnished. I still need to find some one to do my wiring. Once I get that done it should go faster. I would like to be moved in sometime this summer. I don't know if that will happen or not. It will be so nice to be able to work on things without having to move them when I'm done for the day. I keep going back to the nickle quilts books for quilts to make. I must love the scrap quilts.

10 hour days

2008-05-20T16:11:00.000-07:00

Lucky me Global decided to put us on 10 hour days to help with gas use. We only work 4 days but the hours are killing us, and this is only the second day. Needles to say after I get home and fix supper and eat All I want to do is sleep. This early to bed and even earlier to rise is for the birds. I promise that some day i will post zoo and Brittany's prom pictures. I really did take some.

Brittany's Flip Flops

2008-05-14T17:07:00.000-07:00

This story starts when we went to Hawaii in 2005. I bought Brittany and I matching flip flops and we wore them all of the time. Then in 2006 we went to Kings Island for a couple of days and one of the days we went to a big water park. Grandpa couldn't go in the water so I put my floppers on the back of the wheelchair to keep them with us. Brittany saw what I did with mine so she put hers in the chair beside grandpa and to make a long story short one of hers got lost. She was pretty upset about it. I have been trying to get her another pair just like the ones that got lost. I went on line and tried every way that I could think of to get them. Thanks to my friend Kare whose daughter lives in Hawaii I finaly got her a pair. I gave them to Brittany last night and she was really excited about getting them. My mission is complete!!!!!!! No one knew that I was still trying to get her some. I hope she don't try to wear them with her prom dress this saturday. I haven't done any sewing this week. Just at work and that don't count. The company that I work for decided that with the gas prices getting so high that we are going to work 4 ten hour days instead of 5 eights. Bummer, I hate working ten hours. the only good thing about that is we get a three day weekend. On friday Butch and I will be going to the zoo with Nick's class. Sounds like fun we haven't gone there since Nick was little. With all of the kids should be fun watching them. Hope it don't rain. My other plans for this weekend is to finish putting the raffle quilt together. Shouldn't take too long I don't have much to do on it yet. Then I won't feel guilty for working on my things. Lisa already has my challenge quilt so I am waiting for that to get done. She said it would be done by the end of this month. Lisa in my longarm quilter and cousin.

2008-05-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

I had quilt club today. I really enjoy going to that. We had sewing time after the meeting and I didn't feel like taking my machine down and taking it with me so I cut binding for my TB wreath wall hanging that I did a while ago. I got it sewed on last night so I could hand sew the rest of it today. I got almost 3 sides done. I had to talk a little too. Tonight we went to mom's camper for a cookout. My brother and his wife was there with their dog, Andy. Mom had her 2 dogs there and the 3of them got along well. Nick wanted to stay the night but we made him come home. We are so mean! Mom wants to wait for it to get warmer out for him to stay. He took his bike out with him so he could go play with his friend that he met last year. Just had burgers and dogs but it was still good but then I like to eat so almost anything tastes good. Nick had to have a bologna sandwich. Go figure. Kare's daughter found some flip flops that are almost the same as the ones that Brittany had from Hawaii. Grandpa lost one of her old ones that were just like mine. She missed hers a lot because we wore them all of the time. THANK YOU, THANK YOU KARE!!!!!!! I have the club raffle quilt almost together. It is going to be Beautiful. If you are checking out my blog and want a ticket just email me at fabric_cow@yahoo.com I will post a picture when I get the top put together. Then I have to send it to the quilter. I took a walk around my back yard this afternoon while Butch was mowing and some of our plants are getting big already. I had to pick some lilacs to bring in the house so we could smell them. I wish they would bloom longer so we could smell them all summer.

Where has time gone

2008-05-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

Where has time gone? I got an email from Joanne yesterday about Quilt club and never realized that our club meeting is this saturday. Then this morning I looked at my calendar at work and realized that Mothers day is this sunday. It seems that the older I get the faster time goes. Am I ready for either on? No!!! I better not turn around when the kids are here or they might age a couple years on me.I haven'tbeen doing much this week so I don't have too much to write about. We have Gerttie here tonight for awhile. We haven't seen them as often since Shawn and Dixie broke up. Butch put her on the scales tonight and she weighs 56lbs. She is only 4 and already a chunky monkey. Sewing Express called about my machine tonight and they found the problem with it. I broke a bracket that has a spring in it. Bad news is that they have them ordered but they haven't gotten them yet. Bummer now I will have to take my old one to club meeting to sew on. If I can think of what to take to sew on.

Hanging the new clocks

2008-05-04T17:58:00.000-07:00

While we were on vacation Butch and I bought two clocks. Not cookoo clocks this time. We already have three of them. This time they play music on the hour. We couldn't agree on which one to get when the salesman made us a deal so we could get both of them. This morning we decided to hang them. No letting them stay in their boxes for three years like the last time. So after we hung them I decided that I should get the rest of my things put back on the walls that I took down in 2002 when we painted the inside of the house. I never put them back because right after that is when Butch had his first surgery and after over a year of running back inforth to all of the hospitals it was not something that I felt that I had to do. Now it looks like someone lives here again. Butch had to take a short nap on the couch after we got done. It was hard work cleaning the dust off of everything while I was crawling on things to get everything hung up. My new tatoo is driving me crazy cause it is starting to peel and itch. My other one didn't do that. I hope it gets done with this soon. Shawn had to go back to work tonight and Nick went home about the same time so we are having a very quiet night.

Another long lazy weekend

2008-05-03T17:48:00.000-07:00

Wow I got back from vacation and went back to work on Thursday to find out that we had Friday off because we didn't have enough work. I haven't done a thing yet. Just been sitting around thinking about all the things that I could be doing. I could go in the room and work on a quilt or read a book or take a nap but I have been too lazy to get off of my chair to do any of them. Shawn and Dixie broke up three weeks ago so last night he got Korey and Gerttie and brought them over for the night. Nick got here right before they went home this morning and things got a little wild before they went home like they always do when the three of them are here together. Good thing Ryan wasn't here. I might have left. Sometimes it is too much for this granny. We haven't seen Brittany yet but she is always so busy with all the things that she is in.

This is all of Shawn's kids. Korey 5, Nick 7, Ryan 6, and Gabby 4. Looks like little angels, right! The picture to the left is Mikey, Nick and Brittany at the State Fair. Brittany's baton group goes there for a compitition almost every year. Most of the time they take Best of Show. Mikey doesn't do much although he did start bowling on the high school team this year till our only bowling alley burned down about a month ago. Other than that he plays vidio games and listens to his music on his Ipod. I have one other grandson but I don't have a recent picture of him. He lives in Chicago. He has been there about a year. I was out looking at the pool while Butch was cooking on the grill and I can't wait to take the cover off. Still a little cold to do that yet. Last year Gert took her cloths off crawled over the gate and went swimming on top of the cover. She got a good spanking for that one. We are lucky that she didn't go through the cover. I hope you don't mind my rambling on, I learned how to do that from my friend Joanne.

What I did on my spring vacation.

2008-05-01T17:28:00.000-07:00

Time sure goes fast when your having a blast. Almost at the last minute we decided to go to North Carolina for our neices wedding. We left last thursday and got back yesterday. It was a nice time for a road trip. We stayed with Butch's younger brother Terry and his wife Darleen. They live in Lincolnton NC. Tonya the one that got married lives in Belmont NC. Tonya and Ryan got married on saturday. She not only gained a husband but she got two stepdaughters in the deal. She already had a son. On sunday after a small family get together of the ones that traveled and the ones that live there we left and headed to Gatlinberg and Pidgon Forge for a couple of days. We really like the Smokey Mountains. We did all the usual tourest things like siteseeing and shopping. We didn't do Dollywood this time because time didn't allow us to. I had to be back to work on May 1st. We did do a different show this time and if you ever go there I recomend it to everyone. It was the comedy barn and it is a show that you can take the little ones to. I don't think I laughed that much in a long time. Whats more the kids that was there thought it was as funny as the adults. While in Pigeon Forge Shawn got the brain storm that him and I should get tattoes together, so we did just not the same thing. I got a sunflower and a bluebird on my ankle. I am not sure what his is supposed to be. That is kind of hard taking a picture of my own ankle. If this would have been my first one it might have been my last. This one hurt when he was doing it. Shawn said it was because he really drilled it in and it is closer to the bone than my other one. One of the best parts was that the Peace Frog store was still there and I got 2 shirts and two stickers for on my car. This is the house that we stayed at . This is a brand new house and very nice inside. I was a little afraid that I was going to spill something and mess it up somehow. I made it with no messes or anything else. They put us in the Disney Room. It was filled with all things Disney. Believe it or not but it went really well with 7 adults and 4 kids all trying to get ready Saturday for the wedding. We had no bathroom clashes or anything else. Terry made us breakfast every morning. He is a pretty good cook. It was a nice weekend with them. We don't see them often enough. Their little boy is growing up faster it seems than if we saw them all of the time. He will be 4 this month. I looked for quilt shops the whole time we were gone. I only saw one sign for one but it was around 7pm on Sunday and I didn't even go to find it cause I knew that they was closed. I went to work today and when I got there I found out that I don't work tomorrow. I could get used to this one day a week!!! Until I get my paycheck.

Family Quilters Gather At My House

2008-04-19T19:21:00.000-07:00

Today is over at least the quilting part. 7 of us get together every other month at my house to talk, exchange fabric [this year we are doing a fat quarter a month] and to eat. Some of our husbands and kids and grandkids come too. We talk about quilting and we do some gossiping about some family thats not here. We show our latest quilts and praize cousin Lisa who is our longarm quilter. She does great work. I had my little bowtie quilt top to show. The picture is of a bowtie quilt that my quilt group did for a raffle last year. Mine is not that big and I set my blocks different but you can see that they make a pretty quilt. Nick went home today. He didn't want to but finialy decided to cause his mom was taking him to the zoo. The house seems quiet when he 's not here but we need that sometimes.

2008-04-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

The last post was not finished. Nick wanted to say hi and when he went to put his name in my keyboard froze up. Called my friend Kare and she told me what to try and it worked . The picture in the last post is Nick. We are getting ready to go to North Carolina for our neice Tonya's wedding. We waited almost till the last minute to make our plans. It will do us good to get away for a couple days. Shawn will be home to take care of our kitties so they don't go hungry. I have to show him how to give Sammy's pill. He will have fun with that.

This picture is Gabby the one that helped me with my bowtie blocks. Looks like an angel, right? I call her Gerttie or witchy poo.

Getting ready for the family

2008-04-18T19:34:00.000-07:00

My group of family quilters are coming over tomorrow. As usual I am running about a day behind. I thought I had everything I needed when we left Walmart, but on the way home at 9:30 pm I realized that I forgot to get my fabric for our exchange and the ground chuck for our lunch. Guess I have to run out in the morning. I did get everything I needed to make pasta salad. That is what Butch wanted me to make. hi

My saturday

2008-04-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

My machine has to go back to the shop. It sewed ok at first then after about 15 minutes it started doing the samething that it was doing before. Makes me more than a little mad. Nick went with me to the meeting and again he was my presser. He does pretty good. My oldest granddaughter came over for a while tonight. Hadn't seen her in a couple of weeks. She is very busy with school, batons, and cheerleading. She is a Junior this year so next year will probably be even worse. Thats her on the left. I don't know how the barn pic. got on here, it happened when I was trying to get Brittany and I don't know how to delete it. I will have to learn how to do that. I was going to put one of Nick on too but I am afraid to try now, maybe latter.

Quilt club meeting in the morning.

2008-04-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

I picked up my sewing machine today. I had to take it in for service. It was strange going back to my old one. I didn't try it out yet since I am taking it to quilt club tomorrow. We are having open sewing after our meeting. I am going to work on my big bowtie quilt. All of the blocks are done and I just have to put it together. Kare and I exchanged blocks for awhile and I ended up with enough for two quilts. If my machine doesn't work I will just talk or help some one cut or what ever they need help with. Grandson Nick wants to go with me, for some reason he likes to go to quilt club with me. His great grandma lets him push the foot pedal for her while she does the fabric. Brave woman!!!! He sometimes cuts apart while we are sewing and the last time he went with me I taught him how to press some simple blocks.