SUMMERTIME BLUES

I haven't blogged in a long while. Spring is a busy season at work, fiscal year end and all the reports that go with it. Then the auditors come to visit. By the time I have their report and make all the adjusting entries, we're into July and the summer is half gone.

Spring is also the time to work in the yard. By now, I'm harvesting my garden. Cucumbers, green beans, onions, green peppers, jalapenos and tomatoes are all doing well. I'm doing some canning, mostly beans and tomatoes, including salsa. And freezing peppers. (that's the easy part.) The flower beds are at their best, as are the weeds. Last year I let a thistle grow for the goldfinches. And this year I'm wearing leather gloves and pulling lots of thistles.

This is my flower bed last January.

And here it is 5 months later.

We've managed to get out camping six times this season. Out of those 18 days, it has rained on 15 of them! Never day long rains, but enough so that I've gotten a lot of books and magazines read! I have a great raincoat, so still take walks, but the Beagle Belle doesn't like walking in the rain! She has discovered squirrels and rabbits and "hunts" vigorously with her nose. So when we walk, my arms get as much of a workout as my legs when she pulls me where she wants to go! I weigh 4 times what she does, but she's a strong little girl!

My sewing machine is feeling a little neglected, but gets to go to a quilter's retreat in August, so we will both be happy! I made a few t-shirt quilts for graduation and Father's Day (made enough money to add to my stash) and am now inspired to make some for my sons. I have lots of t-shirts that they've left at home after moving out, so I'll recycle them!

And as always, Belle helps me "test" the quilts!

Memorial Day

Memorial day has come and gone. When I was in high school, Memorial Day was still on May 30th, no matter what day of the week it was. We had the day off school, and the marching band traveled to each of the towns in our school district (my graduating class was 110 students from 8 different towns) and played at ceremonies either in town or at the cemetaries. I always ended up wiping the tears off my face after "Taps". Even after hearing it 6 or 7 times that day. I still tear up when I hear it, even at the closing of our Boy Scout meetings....

Speaking of Boy Scouts, I'd like to salute the young men I know who have joined the military in the past several years. They've joined the Army, the Army National Guard, the Air Force, and the Marines. They've served in Iraq, and Kuwait, been stationed in Germany, Hawaii, Texas and Florida. They're all Eagle Scouts and I'm proud to know every one of them.

So here's to B.J., Paul, Richie, Andrew, Ben, and Jon. Take Care. Thank you!

Ginny's Quilts Giveaway

What a way to celebrate your 41st birthday! Check out Ginny's giveaway at Ginny's Quilts! She's a very generous person! http://http://ginnysquilts.blogspot.com/2009/03/quilters-delight-birthday-give-away.html

I already have some of her "favorite" items, she really knows her stuff!

Spring fever.

The few nice days we've had lately have inspired me. I've finished a quilt from last year's BOM club and now am planning on spending the weekend painting our bedroom to go with the quilt! And as long as I'm painting, the windows will get washed and the blinds cleaned, and new curtains while I'm at it. And of course the furniture gets rearranged! If anyone has a hint for painting a tray ceiling, let me know!

Belle and my husband will complain of course...Belle won't be able to find the things that I know are hidden under the bed, and Dave just hates change....but he'll help me move the furniture anyway!

So spring cleaning will begin, and hopefully while cleaning some items will be put in the boxes for garage sale or Goodwill - depends on how ambitious I am. Garage sales are a lot of work, but I enjoy going to them and recycling someone else's treasures.

My mom is having cataract surgery next week. I'll go up for the surgery and then bring her back home with me. She'll spend a day or two and then we'll do the "Grandma" shuffle, besides Ankeny, she'll get to Altoona, Lee's Summitt (MO), and probably Waterloo on her way back home. So it'd be nice if the weather cooperated!

A great quilting retreat

I went to the quilt retreat last weekend sponsored by Quilter's Cupboard (http://www.quilterscupboardiowa.com/) - 27 hours of quilting! It was a great way to get some projects worked on and a lot's of fun to watch what others were working on.

These two quilts are the same blocks, but look really different after each quilter finished them. Just goes to show that you could make only one pattern and never have two identical quilts....

A lot of brainstorming and playing with fabrics went on.

And of course there was a lot of great food. I really enjoyed the four different homemade soups and the three different casseroles. And the cakes were great!

And finally, this was my biggest accomplishement for the weekend.

All of the fabrics came from my stash, now I have to figure out the best way to quilt it!

Since the weather was so great, I actually packed up and left a couple of hours early so that I could take the Beagle Belle for a walk. Both of us have cabin fever and are looking forward to camping weather and those long walks.

Spring is almost here.

Spring is almost here.
Winter is almost over here in Iowa, and we can now see the deer wandering around.

Still January!

We woke up this morning to a fresh snowfall - about 3 - 4 inches fell overnight. Yesterday was very cold - I don't think it got much above the single digits, so I was pleasantly surprised when there was no wind with this snow and clearing the walks and drives wasn't too bad.

My boys have grown up, so the only snowmen in our yard are these four! We made these when the boys were 5 and 6, so twenty years ago. They've held up well, getting a new coat of paint every so often and new scarves.

Belle came outside while we cleared the snow, and I took her for a long walk. She gets worn out playing in the deep snow, so was happy to come inside and sit in the sun and watch out the window. And fall asleep in the sun!


Doesn't this quilt look like the snowman is saying " I give up!"? Another month or so, and he'll be put away for another year.

So since the outside work is done, it's time to go play with fabric...hopefully I'll have pictures later of new accomplishments!

Stay warm!

Finally! Time to Blog!

This is how I've felt when walking Belle in below zero windchills!

It's been a long month already. January is usually busy for me at work with lots of deadlines on things like Payroll reports and W2's, Sales taxes, and the like. And this month has been plagued with server problems.

As of today, a new server is installed and (knock wood) all programs are running. Of course, that could change at any moment!

I've taken out some of my frustrations from work by cleaning and organizing my sewing space. It's amazing how much better I feel just going down there with everything picked up, dusted and vacuumed. Of course, once I spend some time down there, it won't stay that way long!

I'm going to a quilt retreat in 9 days. I've got 3 projects ready to take along, but want to get at least 2 more ready. I received a great book on "Stash Buster" quilts for Christmas and won a "Simple Stars" one at my January guild meeting, so have lots of ideas. Two of my projects did come directly from my stash, but I'm sure I'll have to buy something to complete them. :)

A friend had hip replacement surgery last week so I'm taking her this quilt to cuddle up with as she recuperates. It's supposed to warm up to 40 degrees tomorrow, but back down to 9 degrees on Saturday. I'm sure the quilt will get used.

Colors look different in different light!

January weekends are made for quilting!

Merry Christmas

Two nights until Santa comes!



The weather prevented us from having our family Christmas get-together up north this past weekend, so for now, the goodie bags will sit in the basement, awaiting that magical trip.




Since we didn't travel this weekend, the boys came home and got constructive! They built a cat tree for Matt & Vicki's kitten, Willow.










My boys are 24 and 25 so I don't think they'll be watching for Santa this year, but they must still believe because their wish lists kept growing!


While the garage was "man" territory, Vicki and I got constructive in the sewing room.



Vicki finished a doll quilt for her niece made from scraps from the quilt I made for Dakota.

Then it was table runner central as we salvaged my scraps and created table runners for gifts. And a few more "go green" shopping bags too!






The cold weather has kept me indoors, much to Belle's dismay - but we've tried to go for walks. She doesn't make it far before she starts hopping on three legs - alternating the legs because her feet get too cold! It's tough to push a dog out the door so she'll go to the bathroom before you leave for work!


Enjoy your holidays!

Baby it's cold outside.

They always say that if you don't like the weather in Iowa, just wait a bit, and it'll change. Yesterday morning I took Belle for a walk about 8:00 am - sunny, light wind and 50 degrees. All the ice on the sidewalks had melted and we had a great time.

By 5:00 that evening, it was 10 degrees and the wind was bitter. That's Iowa!

I gave my soon to be daughter-in-law a sewing machine for her birthday a few weeks ago. Yesterday she came over and we spent the day "playing" in my sewing area.

Here's what she accomplished! The pattern for the table runner is from Doris at "Threads of Conversation". Doris used batiks, and I made one - but haven't taken a picture yet.

The next few nights will be spent finishing Christmas gifts.

Stay warm.

Christmas Stress?

Happy Holiday Season!

I started getting out decorations and found a box of old ornaments that I'd gotten at a garage sale, and an old pie stand. So I combined them to show off my new treasures. I love the ornaments, a lot are like my mom had when we were growing up - so I'm guesstimating that they're around 50 years old.



We're going through a software conversion at work this week. Actually, we're just going "live" with the software, we've been working up to it for several weeks. This Monday after a four day weekend, everyone seemed a little tired, and maybe a little cranky. And adding extra work on top of our usual work didn't help. I'm trying to keep the stress level (and my blood pressure) down to a managable level. My solution: Take a quilting magazine to work to look at during lunch, and read a few blogs! Catching up on some of my favorites made me realize I hadn't added any lately, oh no...more stress :)


I worked on Christmas gifts over the weekend, and finished two wall hangings and a baby quilt.

The moose has garland weaved through his antlers, and lights and bulbs attached. It was fun and easy to make.


The baby quilt is a baby brick quilt as you go pattern.




This quilt is for a niece, and I have another one to make before April. And sometime, I need to decide on a quilt for my oldest son's wedding. The date is October 24. Oh no - more stress!

Enjoy the season!

Quilting weather

The temperature is supposed to be around 17 degrees tonight - and it's cold out! Perfect weather to sit on the couch and finish binding a quilt, especially when the quilt can cover you up! The weekend went by too quickly, and I only got in about 3 hours of quilting! But I did visit my sister, Dave and I helped run cable to her son's room, then she cut our hair. It's great having a sister who can be your beautician too! We "barter" jobs back and forth, haircuts, dog-sitting, tutoring, and manual labor.

I did get a start on making some "Indian Hatchet" blocks. Paula at "A Latte Quilts" has an easy tutorial. Lots of fun to make and a good use for those fabric strips.

My other accomplishment was helping get the outside lights up for Christmas. We don't usually turn them on before Thanksgiving, but it's nice to have the job done. Except we bought extra lights last year on sale, so there's talk going around of doing a bit more decorating! Hope the weather warms up!

Stay warm!

Dakota's quilt finished.

This is a pattern called "Cotton Candy". It's a free pattern that you can get from http://www.clothworkstextiles.com/.


I made it for my son's fiancee's niece. (I know, convoluted sentence.) Vicki (the fiancee) picked out the colors. The fun part was making her help me put the blocks in order because the directions said to arrange the blocks "as in the quilt illustration." Since the colors were totally different, it was a bit of a challenge, but I really like the way it turned out.





It's time to start making Christmas gifts, now that the camping and yard work season is at an end. There are a lot of websites with free patterns and not enough time to work on everything. But it's worth the time to take a look at those free patterns, you never know when you'll spot that perfect gift idea!







Halloween was last week, but here's a belated picture of my son Matt and Vicki. Matt's a dragon (but you can't see his tail) and Vicki's the witch. That's Belle as Underdog.

They were a big hit with the Trick-or-Treaters.

Fall camping

We spent last weekend camping. The campgrounds close this weekend. The weather was great on Saturday, it was a perfect fall day. Sunday turned windy and cold and now the camper is ready for winter storage.

Belle asked nicely so we took several walks around the campground, enjoying the fall colors and nice weather. At the end of the day, she was really worn out.

I've taken my sewing machine out camping a few times, but usually try to have something to work on along, like binding or embellishment. I've been working on "crazy quilt" blocks for over a year now and I think I have enough that I'll be able to put them together this winter. The quilt will be more decorative than functional, but it's been fun to experiment with embellishments.

There will be more embroidery to do on the new seams, add some more ribbons, and I think I'll quilt it with a "tie" method. Or maybe use buttons or beads.

Keeping Count

Several years ago, I was visiting with my neighbor's mother, and she showed me her photo albums of all the quilts she'd made. I thought that was a great idea and decided to start doing that. But you know how good intentions sometimes don't exactly get done....

With the holiday season upon us, my son was asking me what I wanted for Christmas. Wanting to save him some money, I told him to make me a screen saver for my computer at work using pictures of some of the quilts I've made. Instead, he just sent me the instructions on how to do it myself! So I've been trying to find pictures of quilts I've made and given away, and taking new pictures of the ones that are still around.

I didn't realize how many I've made, of all sizes and types, some that I wonder why I attempted them when I was just starting. (And my bindings were not good!) I'm missing pictures of a lot of the table runners and wall hangings that I've done. Also on my "missing" list are the ones that I waited to take a picture of, planning on taking a picture with the person I was giving it to.

So my new resolution is to ALWAYS take a picture and print it out, with my notes on where it now lives!

Halloween and my Sewing Machine

I was washing and waxing my vehicle on Saturday morning when I got a phone call from my 4-year nephew. He asked if I could make him a "Curious George" costume for Halloween. So off I went to the fabric store (any reason is a good reason - and they were having a sale!). I printed off a picture of George and spent Sunday morning having fun. Here's a picture
of the finished project, complete with banana. It's off in the mail today, and my "bill" inside told him to have Mom take his picture wearing the costume and send it to me.

While I was at it, I made some gifts for my neighbor and her new baby. A fabric book (pre-print fabric), blocks, burp cloths, and a bag to tote the baby stuff in.








And I finished the quilting and binding on a Halloween wall hanging!


I'm still learning to take a good digital picture, but over all a productive weekend!

My outlook changed

When I was a kid, I had an older cousin who was "different". She would now be classified as "mentally challenged" and would be taught skills so that she could function. 50 years ago, she wasn't sent to school, taught to dress or to feed herself and spent most of everyday sitting in front of the television. She didn't communicate and I was kind of scared of her went we went to visit.

I was given the opportunity to work with some "challenged" individuals through the Scout program. There a some who remind me a lot of my cousin, but I'm not scared anymore. Our society has evolved where handicapped individuals no longer are hidden in our homes. Mainstreaming these individuals in our schools has enabled our children to realize that being "different" is not always a bad thing. The "kids" I work with are between the ages of 20 and 70 and have lots of different abilities. I'm challenged to come up with a program once a month that enables all of them to learn something, have fun, socialize and usually take home a craft of some sort. The nights that we have our group meeting can be hectic, noisy and disorganized, but I come home feeling good, because they approach everything with such a good attitude. I very seldom hear "I Can't" but always "I'll try". And some of them are very creative - their projects turn out much nicer than some of my "examples". Last week we learned about the Iowa Indians and made dance sticks and rattle bracelets. And when I threw in some kazoos, we had a great music fest.

Appoach everything with a positive outlook.