Today's the Day

We are leaving in about 1 hour for the walk. Jack has to be there for "crew training" and since we didn't want to take 2 cars, Lynn and I are going with him. We'll help set up for the opening ceremonies, sort T-shirts, etc. Jack will have to be at opening ceremonies at 4AM so I'm sure we'll all TRY to go to sleep early tonight.

Pray for good weather (cool and no rain, please) and I'll update early next week!

Here's a Quickie!!

The bake sale was a huge success! We had a ton of food and even though it was a fairly slow Saturday for Bob Evans, we sold a lot. We started selling a little before 9:00AM and were scheduled to stay until we sold out (we assumed that would be around 2:30 or 3:00). There was so many items donated that we were there until around 4:00; but we did sell out. As usual, I met a lot of interesting and fun people! I don't have my camera here to download pictures, but I hope to do that tonight.

We are getting close to the 3 Day event and I've checked the weather forecast. It is supposed to be cool in the mornings and evenings, but hot and humid during the day. Also, there is a chance of rain on Sunday. Of course! Oh well, as you all know I'm not made of sugar so the rain won't hurt me. It sure didn't last year!

I'm both excited and anxious for the event. My foot has been giving me some real trouble lately and I worry about that. I guess that I just do what I can and not put myself on too strict of a schedule. I have 12 hours each day to complete the 20 miles so I don't have to be back in camp within 7 hours! I will take my time and get there when I get there.

Lynn has been babysitting every day this week and won't be home until tonight so we haven't really had any time to organize ourselves yet. We'll have to get the packing done tonight and make the final decisions on how we are decorating the tent. Since we are each allowed 1 bag at 35 pounds, we have to do some constructive packing to get everything that we need to take. Our shoes (2 pairs each) take up a lot of room! We know that we over-packed last year and hope to avoid that this year. Jack is also allowed 1 bag and I doubt that he will exceed the 35 pounds, so he should be ok. Anyway, we are getting excited.

I have binding to add to two large quilts. I was hoping to work on them before the weekend, but I don't think that will happen. That will give me something to do next week, while I recover. I'll also post pictures.

The Melon Festival is coming up fast and I will be selling raffle tickets for the guild quilt. It is pink and brown and I love the quilting. Check out Karen's blog http://karensquiltingbarn.blogspot.com to see a picture.

Baking up a Storm!!

Well my house smells great and so far I haven't eaten a single cookie, muffin or brownie!!! Lynn works at Bob Evans in Norwalk and they are hosting a Bake Sale for us tomorrow. Of course we are baking alot, but what is really neat is that a lot of the employees are donating baked goods as well.This is the last organized fundraiser before the 3-Day walk so I hope it is successful. I am pretty near my goal and with the Pampered Chef donation I should be good. Lynn still has a little bit to go, but I'm not really worried about it.

Anyway, I will take some pictures of everything we bake and at the sale tomorrow and post them. I will also post the picture of Devon's quilt. Speaking of Devon, he is getting stronger and doing well. He is getting breast milk through his feeding tube and has stopped losing weight. I think he is now up to 1 lb., 7 oz.!!! Lisa was able to hold him (in the incubator). She was so nervous, but so happy. I see a bright future for this little guy. He's a fighter!

I better get going so I don't burn any of the cookies!

I'm Back

I was told by my friend Karen that I needed to post here, as it has been quite some time since I've written anything. Of course I always listen to Karen, so here is my post!!

As usual, things have been very busy here. Lynn and I had our second garage sale and that went pretty well. We also had a fundraiser Pampered Chef party and that was fun. The party was an ice cream social and we had about 20 people attend. We had over $1000 in sales and we get 15% of the total donated to our 3-Day fund. Yeah!! I also sold raffle quilt tickets at the Basket Festival and that was really good, so we've given our 3-Day fund a retty good boost lately.

Speaking of the 3-Day...we are less than 3 weeks away from the event. I am getting pretty excited, although my foot has been giving me some real problems. I guess I just have to "suck it up" and deal with the pain!

This past weekend, my niece Lisa (from the Dayton area) was visiting my sister Ann in Canal Fulton and she ended up delivering her baby early. Devon Michael was born Monday at 11:15 in the morning and he weighed 1 lb. 15 oz. It is amazing to see him. He is 14" long, but so tiny. He is hooked up to a ventilator and he has an IV going in to his belly. It is amzing to see him. The doctors have been doing lots of tests on him so at this point everything is pretty much a "wait and see" situation. I have faith in modern medicine and I'm sure in a couple of years you'd never know that he was born so early and small. Of course I've made a quilt for Devon. I have to hand stitch the binding to the back and I plan to finish that before work tomorrow. I'll post a picture soon.

Ok, it's 3:05AM and I'm getting tired. I'm off to bed for the night and I promise to try to post more frequently!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Since I haven't posted since the garage sale, I'll start by telling you that Friday was an awesome sale date! Saturday left a lot to be desired because it rained for most of the time we were open, and Sunday was slow but not terrible. I was by myself Saturday and Lynn was by herself on Sunday because I was at the Milan Antique Festival selling quilt raffle tickets. Anyway, the next garage sale will take place at my ex-in-law's house in Berlin Hts. during the Basket Festival (the first weekend in August).

I've been pretty busy with work and getting some quilt orders done. Pictured is a memory quilt made from the clothing of a man who passed away last year. The fabric came from such clothing items as pants, jeans, sweaters, T-shirts, knit polo shirts, flannel shirts and shorts and a North Face hiking jacket. I like how the log cabin blocks went together on this quilt. I think that the pattern displays a good amount of fabric, yet isn't just one big square. The border is composed of various shirts and T-shirts that had logos that couldn't be cut down enough to fit into the log cabin block The new owner was pleased with the outcome, and that makes it all worthwhile.

Quinn was here earlier this week and as usual, picture taking was involved.

Jack and I took three of the kids that we tutor to Cleveland on Wednesday. We went to the Science Museum. That was a lot of fun and I think Jack and I had just as much fun as the kids!

Jack's daughter from Pennsylvania will be visiting this week. I'm not sure what the schedule is, but I think they will be with us Wedsnesday or Thursday through Saturday. It will be good to see them. I think the last time I saw them was in March at Aunt Ruth's birthday party. I was going to try to think of something special to do, but I doubt that'll be necessary. Sam has already asked Jack if he can learn to shoot the 22 and I'm sure Ian will want to practice shooting also. I guess that I'm learning to not plan too much, so I'm not disappointed if it doesn't happen.

Garage Sale Preparations

Our big fundraising garage sale begins tomorrow (actually, later today) and we've been working on gettting ready for it. We've had LOTS of donations and that's great. Pricing everything is a pain, but we've learned that individual pricing is the way to go. Customers like it much better when they can see the asking price and not have to guess or wait until we are close by so they can ask. Anyway, it's a pain, but well worth the time and trouble.

I had to work from noon to 7:00 and I really had to go to the grocery store or I'm sure my family was going to forbid me to enter the house. It was close to 8:30 by the time I made it home, and by the time I had the groceries put away and grabbed something to drink, it was almost 9:00. I walked outside and began to work on final pricing when Jack came out and said that we had better get the tarps ready because it was going to rain. Of course, I was not happy, but I did it anyway and he was right, it rained. After the rain stopped. Lynn and I worked for a little longer then decided that we'd just have to get up early and finish. We were a little afraid to set anything else out, for fear that it would start raining again. (It had not rained again, by the way...)

Of course, Lynn, being the smart person that she is, went to bed but I decided to check my e-mail and post to my blog!! Who needs a decent amount of sleep anyway, right?!? I'll post again in the evening and let you know how the sale is progressing.

Training Walk and Quilt Order Pictures

I had a training walk this morning and it went pretty well. Three women joined Jack and myself for the walk and we left the Norwalk trailhead at 7:45. We stopped for a restroom and stretching break in Monroeville before heading to the Sand Hill trailhead outside of Bellevue, seven miles away. After a short break, Jack and two of the women returned to Norwalk by way of a car while the other woman and I made the seven mile trek back to Norwalk. It was a beautiful day for the trip and it was nice to meet other 3-Day walkers. I'm a bit tired tonight, but not bad. I'm happy that I was able to get the 14 miles in and feel pretty good. I don't remember when I reached the 14 mile mark last year, but when I think about it, I still have to add 6 miles to that for three days come August!

Unfortunately I developed my first blisters today and I will have to get in the habit of taping my feet before anymore training walks. YUCK!! I have a short walk scheduled for tomorrow morning at the Norwalk Reservoir. We will walk the Reservoir perimeter 3 times to get 6 miles. Jack will be joining us at the marina, but will fish rather than walk. My nephew Sam is hoping to join him there. They will enjoy themselves and it's nice to have them there in case we need anything.

I told you I would include pictures of the T-shirt quilt that I finished, so here it it. The pictures aren't great because I was home alone when I finished the quilt and didn't have anyone to hold it up for me. Oh well.... There were so many T-shirts of all shapes and sizes that I decided to put this together without sashing or borders. The woman who ordered the quilt really wanted to have the front be just the T-shirts anyway. To fill some of the "empty" spaces, I used leftover fabrics from the shirt backs, sleeves, etc. I made sure that every design and logo was added to this quilt because the shirts belonged to a man who passed away 2 years ago and this was ordered by his wife for their 3 year old son. Because of the layout, there are a lot of partial seams, but they really weren't too bad. Also, I did not use interfacing on this quilt. I had to be very careful to avoid stretching the fabric while cutting and sewing, but I was surprised at how little stretching I had. Te finished size is 80" x 96".

I also finished another quilt order and delivered it. The ten hand pieced blocks in this quilt were made by the great grandmother of the woman who ordered the quilt. She originally had 20 blocks, but gave half of them to a cousin. She wanted a quilt made from the remaining 10 to give to her grandmother as a birthday gift. I was able to find some vintage fabrics (print and muslin) and some close reproductions. She wanted a large quilt, at least a double so I figured that I had no choice but to put the blocks on point and add a border. I embroidered the history of the quilt blocks and quilt and placed that in the center of the quilt.

I embroidered a feathered wreath in the alternate blocks and quilted a grid over the entire quilt top. I really like the way it turned out and so did the woman who ordered it and her elderly grandmother. I'm glad!