It's Official....

I completely missed the month of June! I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden it's July and I didn't make a single post in June. I've been busy, but I sometimes feel like nothing gets done. I'll give a quick review of the past month and an update on what's going on now.

I've been working quite a bit lately and there's been changes going on at work. The Norwalk club has been sold and the owners are in negotiations for the Huron club. I'm still working in all three clubs, but because of vacations, etc. I've been working a lot. That's going to continue through July, even though I will be gone for the last weekend of the month. That's the Cleveland 3-Day in which Jack, Lynn and I will be working the lunch crew. We have to report for Crew Day on Thursday and the walk is Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

We had our annual fundraiser garage sale the last weekend in June, so I spent many days in early June picking up donations, pricing items, making signs, advertising, etc. We were pressed for time to get ready because the week before the sale was our annual sisters' weekend (also known as the estrogen weekend) that stretches into an entire week when our families join us at Burr Oak. As usual, we had a wonderful time and it was very relaxing and enjoyable. I was able to get a bit of walking in and Jack and I went canoeing one afternoon. We had a wonderful time and it was SOOOO needed.

I've been busy with various fundraising efforts (we have to raise $2300 each), including the garage sale and a pampered chef party. The party was well-received and we will get 15% of the total sales donated to our fund (that should be about $170).

Jack and I visited David and Rachel in Chicago last weekend and had a good time. It rained most of the day Saturday, but it was a light rain so we went to the Botanical Gardens and walked around for a couple of hours. It was BEAUTIFUL! There were fireworks Friday and Saturday and we were ablt to enjoy about four different set of them at the same time each night.

This weekend is the Huron County Relay for Life and Lynn and I are part of the Funky Monkey Team. This is the first time that either of us has been part of Relay for Life, but we are looking forward to it.

Nikki and Quinn spend 10 days with us in the middle of June. That was great! Zach was able to join them here for a long weekend, so that was really nice. I feel kind of bad though because I was busy with work, the garage sale, and the pampered chef party. I wish I had more time to just sit and play with Quinn. She is getting so big and it is amazing how much she changes in such a short time. I've got to make plans to get to Cincy soon!

I have lots of quilting work to get done. I'm still working on two T-shirt quilts and three memory quilts. Hopefully I can get busy on them next week. I'm also working on a wallhanging that is made out of ribbons won at horse shows. It is challenging, but that's what I like about it. Perhaps I'll have pictures for the next post.

Oh, something quite different did happen today. While I was putting some things away in the basement, I noticed a snake on the stairs. I HATE snakes!!! Jack came in, picked it up and happened to mention that it had a triangular shaped head, which I believe means that it is poisonous. Now how the heck did it get into my basement! Anyway, I have gone back to the basement, but I sure do look around the entire time I am there. Did I mention that I HATE snakes? I'm sure that I'll have some interesting dreams the next couple of days.

Okay, speaking of dreams, it's time to get ready for bed and hope that tomorrow is productive...........

Free, At Last and Pictures

As some of you know, I've been wearing a halter heart monitor for the last 3 weeks. Now I must tell you that a "halter heart monitor" sounds much sexier than it really is. Imagine having 3 electrodes stuck to you, each with its own wire being fed into a sensor that connects to a black lanyard which hangs around your neck. As if that isn't sexy enough for you, you must keep the cell phone monitor within 10 feet of the sensor at all times and respond to its multitude of beeping which indicates that 1) you have somehow disconnected one or all of the electrodes, 2) you are out of range of the cell phone and a signal cannot be found, 3) the battery of the sensor or cell phone is low, 4) you're having an "episode" and you must respond to a questionnaire within 60 seconds, 5) you are back in range of the cell phone and 6) there were a couple of beeps that I'm just not sure what they meant.

Anyway, the monitor finally came off today. The doctor told me that they have recorded enough data, even though I didn't have one of my "major episodes" which was the reason for wearing the darn thing anyway! All that remains to remind me of the monitor are the red, swollen sore spots where the electrodes stuck to my skin. It sure will be nice to sleep tonight and not feel as if I'm being strangled.

All joking aside, I'm amazed at technology! I was pretty shocked when I got my first phone call from the monitoring company at 2:12AM the first night I wore the thing wanting to know how I felt because I was having an episode. I didn't even feel it! Amazing!!!

Backing up a little here, yesterday was a mixture of busy work and relaxation. I made all of the cookie dough for my orders and my nephew's graduation party, and I made a breakfast casserole and put it in the freezer for this coming weekend's festivities at my sister's house. I worked outside a little bit, but not as much as I had wanted. All of the mulch that we had is spread and I'll get more on my way home from work Wednesday, if it's not raining. I watched the Indians' baseball game and was going to go to turn it off when they were down 10-0, but I decided to stick with it while I was doing some hand sewing. Boy was I glad I did! The Indians scored 7 in the bottom of the 9th and won the game. That was fun to watch.

In regards to quilting, I have finally finished my pink and brown blocks and will post pictures tomorrow or Thursday. I worked on the guild retreat quilt and should be able to finish that soon. I also spent a little bit of time getting everything ready to finish up the raffle quilt. I probably won't have time to work on that until Thursday because I work from 5:30AM - 2:00PM and then have errands after that.

As promised, I finally have some pictures to add. I have to warn you, it's a good thing I can sew because I sure would starve it I had to earn my living by taking pictures. Hey, maybe I could market that as a weight loss product - take crappy pictures, try to sell them and buy your meals with the money you get! I've got to get busy on my new business plan. :-)

Anyway, here are two of the hanging baskets we bought Saturday. I love all of the color and different flowers. Do you see the sprayer in the second picture? That was filled with vinegar and dish soap and used as a "green" weed killer for the new garden area. Within 2 hours the grass had started to die and I was ready to start spading the area. Can you see the brown grass in the last picture? (I feel like an elementary teacher. Do you see Spot run?)

This last picture is of the area that has become the dumping spot for plants over the last couple of years. If I didn't know where something was going, I planted it here for "a couple of days." Well, a couple of days has turned into a couple of years, but it's finally getting done. I have some iris and lilies that I need to get out of there, but that will have to wait until they are done blooming, and I want to transplant a few more of the black eyed susans. After that, this area will be a clean slate!
Well, I'm excited. Three posts in four days is pretty good for me. I'll try to keep it up, but I certainly won't make any promises. I do have some guild work that I should have done before I blogged, but this was going to be more fun. I guess that I'll have to do that when I get home tomorrow before I do anything else!

Beautiful Day and Lots of Work Done

No pictures, but Jack and I got a lot done today. After church, lunch and basic sitting around deciding where things were going to get planted we got busy. The entire lawn got mowed, the old sedum got transplanted and the new sedum found a home along the front porch. The yellow marigolds and purple petunias got planted in front and the garden phlox got transplanted by the tiger lilies. I transplanted the yarrow and some of the black eyed susans. Everything up front got fertilized, mulched and watered, and everything that was planted and/or purchased yesterday got watered as well.

Tomorrow I will finish transplanting the black eyed susans and hopefully get the rest of the flowers in the ground. We're going to put the garden in a new area this year but we need to see how much sun the area we have in mind gets. We want the garden closer to the house and that limits the areas we can use. We'll know tomorrow and get busy prepping the ground!

We had to unlatch the shutters from upstairs because there were bats behind them. We don't care that they are there, they just poop all over the balcony and that is a pain to keep clean. We have to do this every year, so it isn't a big deal, just a pain.

Jack went to teach class tonight and while he was gone I worked on a couple of quilt designs that I've been playing with. I got the fabric yardage figured out and started to write up the pattern. Sometimes I do things backwards. I design the quilt and write out what I think will be the instructions. I use what I typed up as a guideline and change it as I sew and decide the best or easiest way to complete the quilt. I haven't done any sewing yet, but I hope to before I go to bed.

I love days like today. Beautiful weather, time to play in the dirt with the one you love, design a quilt or two and hopefully get some quilting in. Who could ask for more?

Plants, Fabric and Work Changes

I have been REALLY busy the last couple of weeks and today was no exception. Jack and got up this morning and went plant shopping. (Actually, we did a little bit of shopping at Mulberry Creek Herb Farm yesterday, but the bulk of our shopping was done today outside of Shiloh.) Now I know that many people (mostly the over-achievers) have already bought and planted everything for their garden, but we're a little slow sometimes. Actually, this is earlier than last year. We were so late last year that we had a hard time finding what we wanted. Anyway, I digress....

We picked up a couple of beautiful hanging plants along with our marigolds, petunias, sedum, pansies, tomatoes, peppers, dill, parsley, basil, etc. We also got a couple of horseradish plants to augment the patch we already have because we love fresh horseradish! By the time we were done shopping, we had a car-full. I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow to post.

Since we were in the area, we stopped at the new home of Country Fabrics. This is the first time that I've been able to get there, and it is really nice. The building is an old barn and is much larger than their previous place. My friend Carolyn and her husband were at the shop so we got the chance for a brief visit. (We were all in a bit of a hurry since the trips were kind of spur of the moment.) I picked up a couple of fabrics that I'll use in the raffle quilt that I am making for my sister's school. I'd picked out fabric from my stash, but I knew that I didn't have enough for the border, so I got that and some background fabric. Now, when will I get to sewing that? I have no idea. I have to get my "you know what" in gear and finish the raffle quilt for the 3-Day!

After a quick lunch (grilled turkey burger and grilled asparagus - YUM!) Jack and I went back to Mulberry Creek to get a truck load of mulch so we could get started on planting. We got the flower boxes all planted and then I worked on getting the other areas cleaned up and ready for planting tomorrow. My goal is to have everything done tomorrow so I can sew on Monday since I don't have to work.

Speaking of work, Doug and Gretchen sold the Norwalk Club! I'm not sure exactly when and how that will affect me since I work in all 3 clubs, but I'm assuming that nothing will change for at least a month to give the new owners a chance to get organized and accustomed to the place. I've met the new owners and they are very nice. Even though change might be scary, it is often a good thing and I'm looking forward to the new adventure!

More on our progress tomorrow.....

A Packed House and Auction Finds

We have had a house full of visitors for the last week and it has been great! Jack's daughter spent last week in the area, splitting her time between here and her mom's house. She had to work via the computer, but it was nice to have her here. Of course I was busy every day last week so I didn't get to spend near enough time with her. She was able to go with Jack to a couple of the classes he was teaching and I know that he really enjoyed having her there. We are going to try to figure out some time that Linda, Sheryll and I can get together to sew. I don't know when it will happen, but I hope soon.

Also, Nikki, Zach and Quinn arrived Thursday night and left this afternoon. That was a lot of fun. There was a belated birthday party for Quinn Saturday at the park and the weather was beautiful! I took some pictures, but I haven't had a chance to edit them so I'll add some later. There was a small cake for Quinn to eat and it was funny because she didn't like it. She had to be coaxed to try it or even play with it.

On Sunday, Jack and I took some time and went to an auction in Norwalk. We got some great deals including 2 quilt racks and 2 quilts. One of the racks is wooden, but the other one is wrought iron, which matches another one that I have. I was pretty excited and they were both realy cheap. The same is true for the quilts - cheap! I was surprised because there were about 20 -25 quilts up for auction and I didn't see any that went for over $75 (even though we left before the last 8 or 9 were auctioned).

Anyway, the quilts we bought are both large twin size and hand quilted. The Dresden Plate quilt is hand appliqued, but the blocks are machine pieced. I'm not sure of the age of either quilt, but I think the blue and white one is realtively new (70's or 80's). The Dresden Plate quilt has some fabrics that I recognize from a book I have on dating fabric, but I haven't taken the time to check it out yet. It has a few condition problems, but I think they are repairable. I think I'll have the quilt appraised at the Antique Festival in July here in Milan. The Milan Historical Museum hosts a quilt show for the day and will have an appraiser there. In the mean time, I'm going to get out my book and collection of old fabric and see how accurately I can date these quilts!

Catch Up Day - Sort of...

It's Tuesday, the day I try to get caught up with things (housework, quilting, etc.), but I haven't been too successful today. I started by trying to clean up some of the junk I've saved on my computer, thinking it would help it run faster and allow me to wait a little longer before I have to upgrade. I'll tell you what, I have duplicate files (just named them differently), duplicate pictures (saved in two or more separate files - why, I don't know) and lots of stuff that I can't for the life of me remember why it was important enough to keep in the first place.

Anyway, I was moving along pretty well until I got to the pictures of Quinn. I had taken some pictures this past weekend while they were here but I hadn't really looked a them. They are pretty cute. The weather was beautiful and we spent quite a bit of time outside. Quinn loved her lawn mower and swing!

Of course it was sunny outside, so she had to have shades! What 13 month-old doesn't like sunglasses?

I did do some sewing this weekend. In my previous post, I told you that my friend Rachel digitized some letters for me. Of course, I finished all five blankets and forgot to take a picture before I took them to the lady who wanted them. DUH!!!!

I also started AND finished a quilt top called Fiesta. The pattern is by Michele Scott and I found it in the July, 2008 issue of McCall's Quick Quilts. Of course I changed the construction technique because I didn't read the instructions correctly and I made a cutting mistake. Also I changed the pattern so that the quilt would be 72" x 72" rather then the original 59" x 71". I didn't really want it to be square, but I did want the design to be symetrical, which is wasn't orignally. I was going to make it bigger, but since I was using stash and I didn't have enough of a couple of the fabrics I decided square was better than buying more! I am in the process of layering the quilt, so I don't have a picture right now. I PROMISE to post one as soon as the quilting is done.

Maybe I'll get more done next Tuesday.............

Birthdays and shows, but no sewing

I'm finally posting again, after what, 2 weeks?

Jack, Lynn and I went to Cincinnati 2 weeks ago and visited Nikki, Zach and Quinn. We had a great time and the weather was fabulous.

On Saturday we all went to the Cirque Dreams, Jungle Fantasy and it was great! I can't imagine how anyone can be that flexible or talented. If you ever get a chance to see them, you really must go. There were contortionists, trapeze artists, acrobats, jump ropers, etc. I would be hard-pressed to tell you my favorite part of the show.

Check out their website: http://www.cirqueproductions.com

Quinn really enjoyed it. We were all surprised that she was so engrossed in the show that she didn't fuss at all and was dancing to the music. She fell asleep during the last 5 minutes or so, but I think that is amazing considering she hadn't taken a nap.

Saturday was Zach's birthday and Nikki bought him a grill. We got him some utensils and a grilling cookbook and some seasonings. Since we had gone to the 2PM show, Zach grilled dinner for us all and it was really good. We didn't celebrate Quinn's birthday yet, even though it was on the 9th. Nikki and Zach want to have a picnic/party at the park so no one has to try to have a ton of people at their house. It is also perfect for the kids because of the playground equipment, tennis courts, etc. Even though it will be almost a month after her birthday, the party is May 2nd. We figured that Quinn wouldn't care. Afterall, she's only 1!

Jack and I went to the Indians home opener last Friday afternoon. Lynn was there with some friends, but we weren't sitting close. It was cold and rainy and there was a rain delay. We all left after about an hour and half delay. Jack and I stopped to get something to eat and when we got in the car around 9:15, they had resumed play. I couldn't believe it. The rain delay was almost 4 hours long! I'm a big baseball fan and so far it looks like it is going to be a challenge to really enjoy watching Cleveland this year. I know, it's early!

I haven't had much time to sew. I've been busy at work and I was sick over Easter weekend. YUCK! It is driving me crazy to not be sewing. I've been trying to sneak in a few minutes here and there, but even that hasn't happened much the last coouple of weeks. I'm hoping for this weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures then also.

My friend Rachel digitized some letters for me and I have to see if I can save it to a USB stick and transfer it to my machine. I think I'll try that tomorrow morning before I get busy with the thirty other things on my list. Thanks Rachel! That was fast.