Quiet Week

I'm posting a random picture of me.. it was early this month when I went to California (obviously). I can't share current pictures for a while, because my camera died. Boo hoo! Sob! Do I really have to go back to using film and a scanner? Doesn't that seem so cumbersome and old fashioned?! Dang. I want to shop carefully for my next camera, so I refuse to rush out and just buy any old thing (although it's tempting, just to be sure I have one - my camera is like my right arm!)

This week I have been taking it easy. I've had a couple of optional things to do in the evenings, all low stress. Tomorrow I'll go out for dinner with a group of women. That's about as much fun as a person can have! Friday I am taking a day off, just for rejuvenating myself, and I am really looking forward to having a long weekend!

Check out my April 19 post and join my contest to win a free book! Author Ann Zemke sent me a free copy, and it arrived today, with a nice signature from her inside the book. I can't wait to see who will win it!

Birds and Quilts

Before I talk about Birds and Quilts, I want to remind people to read my post from yesterday, April 19, to see how you can win a free book. Ann Zemke is donating a copy for this drawing!! How super is that?! I hope lots of you enter my little contest. Winner will be announced on May 1st.

Now on to my day's report. This morning I walked to church. It's just over a mile, like 1.2 miles. I didn't leave as early as I had planned, and I should have. I got to church all red in the face and out of breath, and I was surprised at how long it took me to recover. Mostly the red face -- I always get beet red when I exercise. (One guy thought I was sun burned.) But I was also hot for a very long time. Harumpf.


Anyway, the walk was very nice, and a little robin hopped along with me for a while. I managed to get a picture. I also walked home from church, and for some reason it seemed like a shorter walk. Must have been Divine inspiration after getting my church "fix." ha! I also didn't get so tired and so hot on the way home. I was pleased to get over 5,000 steps on my pedometer right away this morning! (Yes, I'm back doing the 10,000 Steps program through Health Partners - my third time. Maybe one of these years regular walking will turn into a habit with me. Keep your fingers crossed.)

Then I spent most of the afternoon finishing two quilts. One is for Wrap a Smile and one is for Rosebud. I'm taking some quilts along when I go to Rosebud in late summer.



This one is for Rosebud. I used charms I bought from BrendaLou in California when I went on her retreat in early April. I bought the green yardage there, too. The green is a Maywood fabric that is sooooo soft! (Maywood is always so nice and soft. I love it.) I started this with almost no plan in mind, but I like how the simple idea turned out so nice. The backing fabric is super soft, too, so this is just a cuddly and soooofffft quilt. I'm picturing it on some elder's lap while she/he rocks in a chair telling stories to the children -- but who knows where it will end up.



The next one, for Wrap a Smile, also couldn't have happened without BrendaLou. It's just a bunch of orphan pieces and blocks. The borders, however, are from BL. The blue one she donated free, and the red one I bought at her moonlight madness sale at the retreat. Then... the binding fabrics I also got free at her retreat. They are Blank fabrics. This is the first time I have pieced bindings to change color exactly at the corners. I wasn't sure how to get it perfect, but I guessed, and it turned out OK!

While I was working on this second quilt, I looked out our dining room window and there waddling by was a huge wild turkey! I couldn't grab my camera in time to catch a photo. He was big! And quite a pretty bird, though very funny looking while walking. So I had a bird-viewing day as well as a fun quilty day.

It's a gorgeous afternoon, so I think I'll go out and catch a few more rays before the sun sets. It's finally warm and springy here! Yippeeeeee!

Win Ann Zemke's Book!

[photo by Kim]

Thanks to Finn at Riding the Orphan Train blog, lots of people are learning about the orphan trains and especially about one particular woman, Marjorie. Her granddaughter, Ann Zemke, wrote a book about her grandmother based on diaries she found after her grandmother's death, They Named Me Marjorie.

So many people would love to read this book that I am encouraging you to buy a copy. If this one (my copy) travels the world, as it appears the world wants it to, it'll be in shreds by the end of its travels. For all the money we are spending on postage, we could buy a few copies of the book. In fact, I have decided just this minute to hold a contest. Reply to this blog post, and I will put your name in a drawing and will buy a copy of They Named Me Marjorie to GIVE to the name I draw. I'm willing to send internationally as well.

I believe in supporting the efforts of authors and artists. Sharing is nice, but buying from the author is nice, too. I'll collect names that reply to this post and will post the name of the winner on Thursday, May 1st - May Day! Good luck, everyone!

Before you comment, I would like you to read what Ann Zemke had to say at Kim's blog:

>>Thank you to everyone who has read my book "They Named Me Marjorie." Grandma would be delighted to know that so many people are interested in reading her story, too.
A very kind reader with good intentions put a review of my book on amazon.com. Because I don't sell my book through amazon, it appears that my book is "unavailable" which isn't true. My book is available through my website at www.crocuslanequilts.com.
After reading my book, one reader commented that my grandma had a choice - - she could have been a bitter person or a better person. She chose to be better and the world is better because of her. It's the essence of her story. Although difficult at times, I try to live in her image. She is a terrific role model for us all.
Best wishes to you all as you continue on the orphan train quilt journey. You are sharing an important part of American history through this project. I'm delighted and proud of you all.
Kind regards, Ann Zemke<<

A Joke? You Decide

Q: How do you know that this man is gay?

A: He is coming out of the closet.

Good News/Bad News

The good news is I finished these little quilt tiles for Caron at And Still Counting. Her project is worth reading about. Check it out at her blog. With these tiles I honor and remember ALL those who are dying in Iraq: USA Americans, insurgents, Iraqis who are trying to maintain/protect/recover their own country, and far too many innocent civilians. The bad news is all the terrible things we humans do to each other.

On another front, the good news is that my upcoming weekend was booked solid, and now it has freed up. I was going to attend an all-weekend workshop at church. I'm willing to do it, and it will be interesting, when it gets re-scheduled. But I was sad about giving up my whole weekend (which is supposed to be sunny and beautiful). Lucky for me, the workshop was cancelled, so I can now reclaim my weekend time. However, it came at a price (the bad news part) -- our pastor was going to lead the workshop but can't because she has been ill following surgery. The doctors just put her on two-week bed rest. I'm sad that she is having such a rough recovery and sad that her bad news has become my good news. I'll pray for Penny and a quick recovery to strength and health. Any readers who are inclined to pray may join me in praying for Penny, if you wish.

Meanwhile I intend to enjoy a beautiful weekend coming up and will be able to fit in some sewing time which makes me happy!

Cards!

Oz Country Quilting Mum (Tracey) sent me these great cards, pictures, and little gift cards. Aren't they great? My favorite is the quilts hanging behind the little chooks (top left). Such a cool photo, but they all have great character. I shall use them carefully and for just the right occasion.

Last night we took a birthday cake to our son's house. It's his GF's birthday tomorrow. We had a nice chat and enjoyed a yummy cake. She is wonderful, and they are very fond of each other. It warms a mommy's heart.

It was a beautiful spring day today, finally! It got up to about 65 F. Wheee! This is late for us to not have reached 70 yet. It'll come soon, and then I'll start feeling too hot. Meanwhile I'm loving these mild temps; 65 to 70 is just perfect in my book.

She's Got the Blues

I finished some blue quilt tops. Funny, I didn't even realize that I was working with so many blues until I saw them piled up together. This was the first real sewing I've done all week. I was so tired after the retreat and a busy week of meetings. Last night I was just thrilled that it was Friday, and that was enough to give me energy for sewing. So I finished up some UFO tops.

Actually the only thing I did to this one was take the picture. These are lotto blocks I won several years ago. I don't know why it took me so long to put them together! This will go to Wrap Them in Love.



This is lotto blocks that B.L. gave me at the retreat. She'd had them sitting around for quite some time, too, apparently. I got right to it and made this top. This is headed to Wrap a Smile.



And another for Wrap a Smile! All I did to this one was put on the border. Why do I have this disease: finish a top except for the border, and let it sit for months? It's because I don't like doing borders. They're my least favorite part of making a quilt.



Janet is so nice that she agreed to quilt these for me, plus a few other tops. Yippee! When I have a small pile of tops to be quilted, I begin to feel overwhelmed. I sure appreciate others who help finish them off for me.

This week I donated lots of stuff to our church rummage sale, and today hubby is taking computer carcasses and old, dead TVs to a free recycle drop-off. Oh, it feels so great to get all that junk out of our house!

More!

Here are more pictures from the retreat I attended in California. Isn't it fun to see more beautiful quilts?? This is Ann's quilt that she made for her husband.



Bev made this mystery quilt which was called Periwinkle Blue.



Suzanne made this mystery quilt at the same retreat last fall. The red and white one behind her is the mystery we made this time. Mine isn't done yet, but it shouldn't take too long to get it all put together, if I can only find the time.



Sally and I were very surprised to discover that we had been named Honored Guests of the Day at our hotel. How did they know that we were the queens and should be so honored?? Amazing.

My Retreat to California

I just came back from a quilting retreat in Eureka, California! I had a great time! Nine people from Sunshine Quilt Guild attended (we are an on-line Yahoo group). It was fun to meet them all. Plus there were several attendees from the local and nearby areas. We worked on a mystery quilt, ate lots of good food, enjoyed laughs and gorgeous scenery. Three of us even got to enjoy a wonderful lunch at my cousin's house. Later she came to the retreat and sold some of her hand-made beaded jewelry.

Northern California beaches are beautiful.



And then there is the gorgeous redwood forest.



My cousin lives among the redwoods. Wow!



It was fun meeting other Sunnies. This is Bev H et moi.



This is my first step in the mystery quilt.



I'm still catching up from lack of sleep and jet lag, so I can't take time to write more tonight. This is just a few pictures; I will add more in the next couple of days.

Unbelievable Coincidences

Back in February I posted pictures of two quilts I was handing off for personal delivery in Panama. I was born in Panama and thought it would be great to give quilts to some current Panama babies. When my sister and mom planned a trip there recently, I had the golden opportunity to send along quilts. My sister added one to the pile; they had three quilts and had the mission of finding a good place to donate them somewhere in Panama.

As part of the trip, they spent time looking for the houses we had lived in. Some no longer exist, but they did find this one. It was the last house we lived in there; we moved away in 1955!



Now here is one of the coinkydinks: after the Panama Canal Zone was given back to Panama, much of the former Canal Zone housing has been abandoned. (There are several reasons for that which I don't have time to explain.) In fact, the block we lived on appears to be nearly completely abandoned, except for our house! Currently a doctor lives there, and he has done a lot of remodeling and very nice upkeep. The house looks great! How easily it could have been that our house was abandoned and crumbling! But no, it's the one house that has been preserved. Here are three abandoned buildings right next to the house that was ours.



Anyway, the doctor who now owns our former house noticed my family members taking photographs, and invited them in for a tour! Can you imagine the fun my mom had, seeing her house 53 years later?? At the end of their visit, Mom asked him for a business card. Lo and behold, (another fun coinkydink coming) she discovered that he is an obstetrician! Voila! A perfect person to take charge of our three quilts.





He was delighted to take them and promised to deliver them to families who really have a need. There will be no shortage of appropriate recipients, I'm sure. I wasn't lucky enough to see exactly where and to whom my quilts were delivered, but getting these pictures of the "delivery man" was almost as good. Doesn't he seem pleased at the prospect of delivering these? In a couple of these photos he is reading the labels on the quilt backs and is looking at the Minnesota-themed fabric I used on the back of one of them.







All the planets were aligned, (or something!) to have all these happy events come together in one day! It surely gives me something to smile about!

For Peggy

This is a UFO that is at least 3 years old. I finally finished it! I had planned to give it to a child through Wrap Them in Love, but when I got it done, it spoke a different message to me. This quilt seems like a good size and good level of cuddliness to send to my cousin, Peggy, who recently discovered that she has cancer. It was completely unexpected and was discovered during routine surgery for something else. I think a quilt is in order in this case, don't you?

Be strong, Peggy, and when you're not, the quilt is a soft place to have a good cry.

Back to Tiny Quilts

... aka postcards.

I haven't made quilty postcards in a while. A friend on an online quilt group just had open heart surgery, so a bunch of us decided to send her some quilted postcards instead of plain old get well cards. This is the one I made.



It's to represent her being healthy again and splashing in the spring rain puddles.

May we all enjoy some nice, splashy moments this spring, in rain, preferably not in snow.

Last Minute Bag Lady

Here are 4 tote bags I made. I procrastinated until the very last minute. I really wanted to make quilted bags, but I put it off and put it off, then I ran out of time. So I just made simple tote bags with no lining.

Tomorrow I am doing a short volunteer stint at a transitional housing facility - helping the residents celebrate some birthdays and eat cake (sounds tough, doesn't it?) These bags and a few sundry items inside will be gifts for the 4 people who had birthdays in March. I've known about this project for a couple of months, but did I plan ahead and allow enough time to make the prettier, quilted bags? Of course, not.

My friend, Karen, says she needs some quilty motivation, so this is what I suggest: go to the Wrap Them in Love website, and look at the Galleries (scroll down to the bottom of the home page). The more recent galleries are more inspiring, I think. These are quilts people have donated for kids in orphanages worldwide. They are amazing, I think! It always inspires me to see these gallery pages. Oh, if you get super inspired, maybe you can whip up a quilt to donate to this wonderful place:

www.wraptheminlove.org

Challenge - guess how many of the 2007 quilts were made by me.
Even harder challenge - which ones are they?

(This is an informal challenge; your prize, should you win, is the satisfaction of knowing you are a good guesser.)

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a happy Easter. We had a quiet, very good day. After church we had dinner with our daughter, who provided the lucsious chocolate cake you see here. Then while she and hubby took naps, I did more sewing.

Then later we had a brief visit with our son and his GF who just returned from their spring break trip. They were bummed to leave warm temperatures and come back to snow, but c'est la vie. Better studying weather, I guess!

I managed to mostly finish the top I made for Tonya's summer class. It's not even spring here yet (fresh snow on the ground, temps in the 30's F); I surprised myself by finishing this project very quickly. It turned out bigger than I intended, but I'm happy that I'll have my own personalized lap quilt. I plan to add borders before I quilt it. I hope to get this one done soon so I can use it right away.

The sign language represents my career (interpreter), and I included a lot of other life symbols and names. This is not at all how I had envisioned this project, but I'm happy with the result.

Back in the Ring

I guess it was easier than I realized to get the Mavericks ring code back, but I didn't know how... if anyone ever loses their ring code, this is how to get it back:

"you have the ability to do all this through
alt.webring yourself. Click on ANYONE's panel for
LIST...and log in with your user name and password"

I would have done this if I had known how, and my time away from the ring would have been brief. Anyway, I'm just happy to be back in the ring. Hopefully I'll have no more blog explosions.



Not long ago I was at the Mall of America. I enjoyed watching the kids play, while the moms stood around waiting patiently. Now that my kids are adults I like to watch scenes like this, thinking nostalgically about my kids when they were young. I didn't know how quickly the time would fly and how precious my time with them was. I'd have been a better mom back then if I had known how the days would fly away. I'm blessed with two wonderful adult children; mostly I love having adult children, but sometimes I miss those days of being Mommy and kissing the boo-boos.

Sewing While Waiting

Still waiting for my Mavericks ring code to be re-established; I'm still a Dead End if you're trying to travel the ring. I hope to have that fixed soon. Meanwhile I have been doing a fair amount of sewing. On National Quilting Day (last Saturday) a couple of my Yahoo groups had a virtual retreat. I managed to get two tops put together.

This one I had started a couple weeks before and then stalled. Once I got back to it, it completed itself quickly (to the flimsy stage only).



This one is orphan blocks. I wasn't as thrilled with how this one ended up, but I guess it's OK. At least it's one-of-a-kind, and the kid in the next bed (at the orphanage, hospital, or wherever it ends up) won't have the exact same quilt! Interestingly, after I made this one, I just started randomly sewing together other orphan blocks and leftover pieces of things. I didn't plan a thing, just started sewing and putting in little spacers when they didn't fit properly, or whacking them off if they were too big. That one is still incomplete, but I am liking it better than the one I tried to plan! I'll get back to Total Random Quilt one of these days and then you can see what you think of it.



I'm working on Tonya's Summer 08 class... A Study in Repetition. This is what I have so far. I have a couple other ideas to include, too. I'm trying not to rush this one, because that's when I put in something I don't really like. Since I'm working with such an important word I need to be extra careful this time. (tee hee)



This morning it snowed. We're still a ways off from true Spring.

Mavericks Ring: Please Note --

I lost a lot of links and my Mavs ring last weekend. You won't be able to access the ring here at my blog until I get the code and re-install it. Sorry to be a Dead End in your ring travels. I hope to be back in the ring SOON! (I'm relieved I didn't lose my entire blog, which I thought had happened at first.)

My Quilts Came Home!

Our show came to an end, and I finally got to bring home my quilts. I had really missed them! I spent a lot of time taking off tags and temporary hanging sleeves so I could get them right back to where they belong. It felt so good! We're sleeping under our topsy turvy quilt again. Hooray!



This fox wanted to see the show but came a little late. Oh, too bad. Try again next year, foxie.




Only one of my two dollies was in the show, so they had a lot of catching up to do when they were reunited. They're happier now, too. (Yes, I am in my 50's. Quit laughing!)

OK, I knew I wouldn't get my new couch. Hubby just can't shop on an impulsive basis like I can. The sale came and went, and we're still in the discussion stage. Oh, well. I know we'll get one eventually.

Time for a new week, just a little thrown off by the time change, and looking ahead to a week with something to do every night! Arrrgggh! I am getting too old for a schedule like that.



Oh, by the way, I added bells to the bottom of this quilt. They symbolize doorbells for all the houses. I found a home for the quilt, too. It's in the landing area in our basement, right next to the little old school chair that is kid-sized. Seems perfect there. Can you spot the spider web in this picture? If so, please ignore it, like I am doing.... until I catch spidey creeping toward my quilt, then it's Lights Out.

Pin Cushion & Sofa

Blueberry Lane is giving away a free book. If you post a picture of the pin cushion you use most frequently, you'll get your name in the drawing. Here's mine. I can hardly live without it. I use all its features, and I take it with me to retreats and sew-ins. I got this when I was a new quilter (1999) and had used up my first frequent-buyer card at a quilt shop. This is what I treated myself to with my "free" money.


I like to have a pin cushion at my cutting board, too, but they tend to wander off. I just got this one recently. I hope it stays put, at least for a while.



On another topic, I'm lobbying my hubby to go with me on Saturday to buy a new sofa. We have only had a loveseat in our living room since moving in here a zillion years ago, and it's time for a full length sofa. The one I have spotted is on sale through Saturday. My hubby is not against re-doing some furniture. He just is NOT an impulse shopper like I am, so he needs a few days to digest the idea and decide it's OK. The big question: will he come to the correct decision before the sale comes to an end??? You can see how badly we need a longer sofa. Here's our poor daughter taking a nap on the shorty one we currently have. Tune in later to see how this plays out.

Reading and Sewing and Sewing and Reading

I'm not totally out of my sewing slump, but it's easy enough to sew pre-made crumb blocks to plain squares. I managed to make two tops using this mindless approach while listening to a book on tape: In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith. It's number six in his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

A friend of mine has listened to several of this series on CDs. She raved about the great reader whose accent and pronunciation of the names and places just made it seem like the reader is sitting in Botswana listening to this story. So I thought I had to try it out since I had no idea how some of the names are properly pronounced. I lucked out when stopping at the library. They had two of the CD packs available: one for book 6 which is exactly what I needed. I do love hearing this book being read to me. Gives me another sense of the stories that I miss when reading it to myself.

I think I'll go back to just plain old reading when it's time for No. 7 in the series, but I'm glad I've listened to one for the unique audio experience. Of course, I am finding it very entertaining to listen while sewing... but it has to be mindless sewing to make this work. I'll see how my coming-out-of-slump process goes.





Oh, and to help the slump-ending process along (or hinder it???) I joined Tonya's Summer 2008 class. I'm glad she called it Summer rather than Spring. That gives me plenty of time to try to come up with an idea and to work it out. Right now I am free of ideas. (It sounds better worded this way, don't you think? Lots better than saying I'm stuck and empty-brained!)

I managed to make two blocks for the Lotto group I'm in. Had hoped I could churn out more than two, but it wasn't to be.



Hugs to my pal, Karen, whose mother died this week.

What's a Sewing Machine?

I haven't done any sewing for several days. I'm almost forgetting how! Today I finally went back to my machine to make some blocks, and I actually had to stop and think for a minute how I do my HSTs. I mean, those should almost be automatic, like I could do them in my sleep!

It came back to me in a hurry, and I managed to make two blocks. Then I got tired of sewing again, and went back to reading. I'm on a reading blitz these days. I am feeling a little burned out on sewing after getting ready for the show, and I burned through my inspiration that came from the show. Now reading is my focus until I get bitten by the sewing bug again.

In the last week I've read the following books:
Good Grief by Lolly Winton
From Baghdad, With Love by Jay Kopelman and M. Roth
The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs is in progress (funny book!)





I went to visit my mom over the weekend. Her 87th birthday is this week! I had a nice visit with her. I'm so happy she is still pretty healthy and spry. I hope I age that well. (All that smoke is from only 12 candles!)



Remember back when we were challenged to post pictures of our laundry rooms without cleaning them up first? Here's how mine looked a few days ago. The dryer quit working, and my hubby pulled it all apart to see what was wrong. He replaced the motor, and now it works better than ever. It's so quiet that we can hardly tell it's running, whereas we used to be able to hear it easily from one floor above.



Heather tagged me with a new kind of tag that I haven't seen before:

You're supposed to reach for the nearest book,
turn to page 123,
and type sentences 5, 6, and 7 into your blog.

My nearest book is __Neither Wolf Nor Dog__ by Kent Nerburn (a book I highly recommend, by the way). It's on the shelf right above my computer. Here are sentences 5-7 on page 123:
I marveled at the sense of well-being that this vast landscape induced in me. There were no jagged edges, no fragments of meaning. All was massive, singular, and soft under the prayerful canopy of the sky.

So let's see... for this one I want to tag some people who I know love to read. So I will tag Mary and Sharon.

Let's see what books they have close at hand, especially Mary who has several in her Kindle. How will she choose??