Last day of the month

February is a short month, but I think it got shorter this year… it went by so fast. That despite the snow, not being able to get out because of the snow, my knee issues and waiting for the court conclusion. BUT today is the last day so it is almost done and over with… thank goodness.

But that also means it’s time for me to update my web site again, and since I was snowed in so much I am ready and raring to go. I decided to share the Dublin Steps block as the March BOM, and am offering the full quilt pattern to go with it. The ladies on the Mysteries For Relay enjoyed it, and have given me permission to show their quilts to show off what a terrific pattern it is.

Thanks

I got an email from a total stranger today saying that she was missing my posts. You have no idea how nice that was to read. I’m amazed that someone I don’t even know noticed I wasn’t posting. I just didn’t have anything to write, and felt that nothing was better than what I was thinking about.

Some of you know that we’ve been dealing with some family matters for the last year. John and I, mostly John recently, have been taking care of his Aunt who has dementia. We have been taking care of her since January last year, with a brief interruption when John’s mother decided to take over and threw everything into turmoil.

It all came to boil yesterday in the court, John and his uncle were granted guardianship and now can legally take care of Sheryl’s needs without interference. Our goal through all of this was to make sure that Sheryl, a very independent woman for all of her life, would get the care she needed and deserved.

Yesterday was the first time I’ve seen her since June 3rd. She looked lost and confused but tried to put on a happy face. She remembered me…. that I was Marge, John’s wife, and that we’d spent some time together. She told me she missed our shopping trips… however I hate shopping and I only went on one shopping trip with her… our way of getting her out of the house and moved from New York to Delaware… but most importantly, she remembered me.

How old are your tires?

No I don’t mean when did you BUY them, but when were they made. Do you know how to tell? And do you know why that is important?

Watch this video, it COULD save your life.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897

Tire age is printed on your tires. As you will see in this video, the last three numbers on the DOT stamp shows the month and year the tires were made. 2201 means your tires were made the 22nd week of 2001, making them ten years old, beyond their life, even if you just put them on your car. 459 means the tire was made in the 45th week of 1999.

This tire was made in the 31st week of 2001

Next time you buy tires, ASK TO SEE THE TIRES and check the dates, and insist that they are NEW tires, not tires which have sat on the shelf for ten years drying up. I could save your life.

(Thanks Candy for sharing this important life saving information with me!)

OK, I need to slow down

I was skimming my Hotmail emails this morning looking for ones which needed immediate replies. I do this every morning, since I get so many in that account. Some mornings there are 100 in there, and maybe one needs a reply. Most mornings most of them are ads and/or trash, but that’s what happens when you have a published email. It’s ok in that account and I’ve learned to handle it.

My morning routine is skimming all those emails, reading ones that seem quilt related and then going back later and deleting the rest only after making sure they are trash.

Well this morning this one caught my attention….
Still smocking? Learn the immediate & long-term benefits to quilting‏


So I clicked on it… first line was


Learn How to Quit!
Whoa, wait a minute..slow down… read it again…


Yes, I need to slow down...

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I wish I could remember how I answered this question as a child. I wish I could remember have some kind of an ambition, anything. But I don’t remember at all, and there isn’t anyone alive any more who could tell me if I did have an ambition.

The first time I remember someone asking me that I was entering high school. I was sitting in the principal’s office of the school I would be attending in just a few weeks. Ironically my brand new step-mother at that time had graduated from that same high school, and I am pretty sure I resented that, although I can’t tell you why.

I was baffled by the question, and most of the rest of the conversation that went with it. We were picking my classes, although it was mostly them, I was lost. I had to have math, English, science, history, and gym, and then two electives. So what did I want to be? I had no idea, and I’m sure I expressed that to them.

Well “they” decided I should go to college. Wait… I’m just in high school what does college have to do with this? So that meant I wanted college prep classes, whatever that meant. I would take English, Earth Science, American History, something called algebra and gym, now what else did I want. My step-mother decided I should take Spanish, as long as it was with a certain teacher who she had when she went there. Hold on, wasn’t I already taking that algebra thing, it had to be a foreign language, I’d never heard of it.

But anyway, what does this have to do with quilting… I got an email from a “woman” today who wanted to make one of my patterns and she was sending me the money by check because she couldn’t use PayPal but I could email her the pattern. I replied, saying that was fine, but if she would like she could make the check payable to ACS and make it a straight donation, and use it for a tax break. Her reply is below…

“I am only 12 years old so I don’t do taxes yet, but my mom says we can do that and will put check in mail today. I want to be a pattern maker just like you when I grow up.”

I sent her the pattern, and told her to keep the money to buy fabric with. And I thanked her for one of the greatest compliments I have ever been given.

Blog backgrounds

I was blog surfing the other day, I do that when I’m bored, and noticed something.. Before I say anything else, if this offends you I am sorry. But a fact is a fact…

A LOT of people have these customized blog backgrounds that are cute, some even beautiful. Unless you want to read the words… The one I was looking at that disturbed me the most was a pretty fabric kind of background (it was a quilter’s after all) with an inset of another fabric which just happened to be striped. The font was so tiny on the striped fabric you could not read it.
OK, so Windows has this new gadget down in the lower right hand corner making it quick and easy to enlarge fonts which I used. Now those tiny words are gigantic and running into the pretty floral fabric background that just happened to be dark so that the words just disappeared on them.

OK so you have a lovely blog with lovely background and I’m sure your words were just as lovely, but no one can read them. So why are you wasting your time putting them on line every day?

I immediately went back to my own blog and blew up my words. (Gosh that sounds funny, LOL) My words are large and I could probably read them from the other side of the room. And the scroll left and right bar popped up down the bottom so anyone who wanted to read my blog gigantic could scroll to the right to see the side column if they wanted. I’ll stick with my plain old boring background, thank you very much.

Just something to think about when you are thinking about fancying up your blog background.

You Tube Sewing machine links

A friend sent me these links and I just had to share them with everyone else… I thought they were very interesting. I really loved the human machine in Part 1.
Secret Life Of Machines The Sewing Machine Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jbk1uU_Jkk

Part two, I absolutely LOVED the Singer commercial in this part. But that’s probably because I worked for Singer for years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNRuUr4hlo&feature=related

And part three http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ezPehhkxTU&feature=related

I really enjoyed the “cartoons” in all three of these clips. I hope you enjoy them too.


PS, Thanks Ginny!

Friday

An admitted follower sent me an email telling me I “copped out” on my white give away. I’m sorry you feel that way, but I truly do want to get rid of all this white. I’m jealous when other people say they see their grass or even their dirt. As I sit here in my recliner looking out the front windows I see no grass, no dirt and there are still mounds of snow where there used to be trees standing.

Another person reminded me that I had not given details on the Featherweight give away. That’s because I can’t get to the garage to inspect the Featherweights and decide which one I am giving away. I promise I will be giving one away, and as soon as the snow melts I will post ALL of the details, including photos. Anyone who donates will be entered into the drawing (except for Mystery payments donations) All you have to do is donate using the DONATE button on my Delaware Quilts Relay page. PayPal nicely keeps track of all my donations, and I will be using the True Random Number Generator to draw the winner. I haven’t decided any more details yet, but promise as soon as I can I will post here and on my web page all about it.

As I’m sitting here writing there is a good breeze blowing outside, and I see activity under the trees. The birds are looking for food, so there has to be ground under those trees. I got out my better camera to take some photos, but through the screens they are blurry. However, while I was trying, a branch on one of the holly trees freed itself from the snow mound and reached higher and higher, in slow motion, towards the sun. There is hope for the trees, and me too… spring has to come eventually.

We Are The World

Today is Random Act of Kindness Day

A random act of kindness is a selfless act performed by a person or persons wishing to either assist or cheer up an individual or in some cases an animal. There will generally be no reason other than to make people smile, or be happier. Either spontaneous or planned in advance, random acts of kindness are encouraged by various communities. An oft-cited example of a random act of kindness is, when paying the toll at a toll booth on a highway, to pay the toll for the vehicle behind you as well.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_act_of_kindness


I’m doing my own thing with this, helping where I think it is needed. May I suggest you do the same. Somewhere somehow show the world that you care.
You will be surprised how good it will make YOU feel!

GIVE AWAY!!

I know you all need white in your stashes; we use white all the time. So I’m giving away a ton of white to any person who comments. However, you have to come and get it, it’s not shippable. It might melt. I think I have enough for everyone who reads this, and probably will offer it again, since it’s snowing again today… so come on, comment, and then come get all this white, please!

Well he did it…

I’ve had a secret for over a month that has almost made me burst with joy. Honestly I’ve been about to explode with excitement. But I couldn’t say anything until now. Last night my baby, almost 25, formally proposed to his sweetheart, a girl we’ve grown to love more and more over the last few years.

Mike and Kelly met on Valentine’s Day in college, and I’ve suspected since we met her that she was the one. They went snowboarding for their “anniversary” and while on top of the mountain Mike proposed and Kelly said yes. She said the ring, which Mike designed himself, is beautiful and fits perfectly.
I’m crying… with joy of course.

Stash Report?

But first, since it is Valentine’s Day, have a happy, and let me point you to my Scrappy Hearts Pattern. FREE, always there, and a great stash user.

As I was catching up on the quilting blogs of the world I saw a lot of the same thing, Stash Reports... So let me give my own stash report... I have a HUGE stash. There, I’m done.

Oh... you want an up to date report? How much have I bought and how much I have used. I ain’t going there. Really, not even going to try to keep track of how many inches I use in a project. It’s not worth it. As long as I have as much as I have I can successfully make almost any quilt I want and not have to go shopping. I think that’s a good thing.

So, you still want my stash report, here it goes. I have a LOT of fabric, shelves loaded and bolts full. I have not bought any fabric this year (good thing). And I have not used any fabric this year (not good).

I went out….

Can’t call me a recluse any more, I left the house, went out in public, and had a good time too. John and I had our Valentines dinner a day early, hoping to avoid the crowds.

We didn’t go the route we would have normally, since the roads are so bad. We went the long way around, and I was shocked at the road conditions. We went the better way, and that was AWFUL. There are places where the snow has drifted across the road and it is barely one lane wide. In several places we had to wait for oncoming traffic before we could go forward. And that was on a major road, an emergency route even, and it was in that condition.

Side streets are awful. Our road is considered a side street, and it is in much better shape than a lot we passed. The main road, Route One, is one lane short in some places because of the snow piles, and some right and left hand turning lanes are buried under mounds of snow. John has a higher F150 than normal, and there were places where we could not see over the center mounds of snow.

The entrance to Outback was one lane, and we were lucky coming and going that no one was coming in the other direction. Our meal was delicious, and there was no wait and quick service, so we were glad we went a day early.

Now the rest of the story… I don’t want to have to go anywhere in John’s truck again, although I know I will have to. He had to help me get in, since I can’t bend my leg and it was impossible for me to do it on my own. Getting out was easy, no bending necessary. Sitting at the table hurt like HE-double-hockey-sticks and since I couldn’t bend my knee much, it got knocked and kicked several times. Getting back up was an embarrassment, John had to almost pull me up, and then I had to get back in the truck again, and he had to help me get up the three steps to the house.

Nope, I’m staying home until I go to the Doctors office and then he’d better be ready to do something or I just might have to sit there until he does…

Aunt Peggy’s Quilt

Several people have asked me to explain about Aunt Peggy’s quilt, which I apparently mentioned somewhere. It’s an interesting story so I will happily share some of it…

It all started with this email:
Dear Delaware Quilts. We were wondering of you could help us find the right pattern to make a quilt for our Mom/Aunt. She sewed and has a lot of scraps we could use, but we don’t want the whole thing to be scrappy.

We are willing to make a donation to your Relay drive if you can help us.
Thank you,
Aunt Peggy’s girls

I emailed back for more information, anything (almost) for a donation. I got an immediate reply, could I send her my phone number so we could talk which would be easier, or could I call her. So I did.

Aunt Peggy it turns out is one very special lady, having raised seven of her own children along with four of her sister’s and her brother’s son. (I hope I got those right, LOL) They are all grown up now, and Aunt Peggy has decided to give up her home of over 50 years to move into a condo where there wasn’t any yard work to be done and where she could call the handyman to fix what needed to be fixed. She found a nice condo and is in the process of moving right now. That means getting rid of 50 plus years of accumulation of stuff. One thing they found that Aunt Peggy didn’t want any more was boxes of fabric scraps. She said when they were all little she made clothes for them, and that’s what was left over. She thought maybe she would learn to quilt, but never got around to it.

So they decided she needed a quilt, and in discussing what to make she said to them she did not want one of those old looking quilts made from all those ugly outdated fabrics but she hated throwing them away so maybe someone could find a good use for them. Later when Aunt Peggy wasn’t around one of the daughters said those fabrics had to be in the quilt, for the memories, and maybe they could find a pattern that would hide them. Which is how they ended up on Delaware Quilts.

OK, I was up for the challenge, and started looking while we were still on the phone… there had to be a block in Block Base that could be partially scrappy and not look scrappy. I went from category to category and found a few I thought might work. I sent a few diagrams along with the names of the different blocks to them and they chose this one. They had several reasons for picking it, but I can’t tell you, yet, or it won’t be a mystery.

I just sent Aunt Peggy’s girls the block pattern so they can get started. Hopefully by time I present the mystery they will have their quilt finished and I can show it as a sample. Hopefully!

Recluse?

I just got a phone call from SOB Nancy, and the first thing she said was “Are you still alive?” I guess that clues you in on how long it’s been since we talked, and I will tell you it’s been even longer since we’ve seen each other, over a year now. (SOB is/was my quilting bee, which has sort of dissolved with issues in life interfering with our getting together.) But it made me realize something which is hard to admit, I have become a recluse.

It all started last January when we started taking care of John’s Aunt. I gave up quilt bookings and just about everything else except Relay to take care of her between January and June after we moved her down there. Then issues with her and other family members cut us off from her for a while and me still, I have not seen her since June 3rd. (Court date to hopefully settle that issue is the end of this month, hopefully)

While in NY I started noticing my knees giving me issues, pain. I had a lot of trouble getting up and down stairs (and she was on the third floor up there) and eventually it hurt just to stand for a long time. That continued until I couldn’t take it any more and went to see the doctor about it. A few months of treatments, then surgery and then my birthday trip to Florida and home again. I was pain free for about 5 weeks, when it started up again.

Now it’s February and I realize I’ve been out of the house four times this year. First was a Doctor’s appointment in early January, followed by a Relay For Life meeting, then lunch with some friends. The February RFL meetings were cancelled due to the bad weather so I had no place to go until we lost power for those 61 hours this week. When I couldn’t stand myself anymore John drove me to Mike’s for a shower, being my first and only outing so far in February.

I’ve heard lots of stories of people getting cabin fever, and just sort of ignored them. I think that was my subconscious protecting me. I don’t have cabin fever, not at all, I like being here at home. But I do like sewing, which again has become almost impossible, it hurts after five minutes at the machine. I do like cooking, but that means I have to stand up, and that hurts. My house is a mess, you have to stand and walk to clean. I like taking long hot showers, but lately my showers are getting shorter and shorter since it hurts to stand, and it also hurts to get in and out of the bathtub… and to get up and down from a chair, in and out of bed.

Yes, it’s time to go back to the Doctor’s again, but right now they are so messed up schedule wise I can’t get in. My next “regular” appointment is the end of March and when I tried to get in before that, they laughed…

So I’ve become a recluse….. I don’t feel like one, communicating with the outside world with my telephone and the internet. No, I’m not a recluse, that doesn’t fit… I’m just stuck at home happily working on what I can work on without using my knees and someone who is very thankful she has a husband who loves taking care of everyone… including me.

We owe him big time

Our neighbor is an angel. There are no other words for it, just a plain old sweetie of an angel. This morning I was sitting here and I heard a noise outside, well an unusual noise. Looked out and there is a back hoe thingy in our driveway, picking up the snow and moving it from the driveway to a pile in his front yard. When that pile got higher than it could reach, he started another one. He saved John HOURS of shoveling, and wouldn’t take any money.

John went out about a few minutes ago to check on Aunt, and neighbor is back in the driveway, cleaning it up some more. The man is surely an angel, he thinks no one is home, and since I can’t get out to thank him, he will keep on thinking that.

I won’t let him go un-thanked, that’s for sure. Next time I get out I am getting a nice big gift card which he can use for gas or what ever else he wants to use it for, and mailing it to him. He will just have to guess which one of the neighbors sent it to him…

Thursday

I am thankful to be awaking to a bright (blinding bright) beautiful day in a warm house with internet and TV. And John is home, thank goodness, working from home the rest of the week.



Here is the deck, I wonder how long it will take us to see the floor of it again?



And below is the back door to the garage. Thank goodness we don't use that door.

Again...

I think this is my deck, the floor was last seen sometime last week.

This photo was taken at 10:30 this morning.

I think this is day five round three or something like that. Honestly, I’ve lost track, I’m not real sure what day it is. Ok…. Computer says it is Wednesday…

It started precipitating last night about five. I was watching the local weather about 7 when the cable went out. Along with cable is of course internet. Precipitation varied from rain to sleet to snow, and round and round again. I have no idea what happened after I went to bed last night, but it didn’t look like much of anything when I got up this morning.

Cable/internet was still out. I also could not get a cell phone or air card signal, so we were literally cut off from the world. HOWEVER… I am not complaining, we still had power and that, after the weekend, was delightful.

John went to work, but came home when the precipitation turned white again. I was glad he was home, so I didn’t have to worry about him on the road. Quick phone calls to rest of the family found everyone at home safe, and with power too.

I’ve kept busy working on Aunt Peggy’s quilt pattern, which will sooner or later be a mystery for the Mysteries For Relay group. The diagrams are almost finished, and just a few more instructions to be written and I can email it off to testers, in this case Aunt Peggy’s family.

Every hour or so I would turn on the TV hoping to hear some voices, and about 3:30 there it was. I went back and turned on the modem and network, and by time I sat back here on the recliner I was on line again.

FYI, as of now, we here in lower slower Delaware where it hardly ever snows have had more snow this winter than Buffalo New York…. YIKES!

And this is my deck at 2:30 this afternoon. Actually, it looks better than it did Sunday, when we coudn't even see the bottom of the fence.

I'm back!

It’s now almost 9 AM on Monday. We have no idea who won the Super Bowl, I hope the Saints got the victory they deserve. I have no idea if anyone participated in the Super Stash Bowl, other than the few who emailed me ahead of time they were planning on it.

I haven’t been able to check email since early Sunday morning. I posted on the blog, that made it according to a friend who called me yesterday. I also sent a few emails, but have no idea if they went out or not. Shortly after I hit send the signal disappeared.

I don’t have a cell phone either, also no signal. I’m wondering if the one tower we have nearest to us which occasionally gets me on line and on the cell phone is down. Everything seems to be down.

John dug out enough yesterday, took him all day, to get out of the driveway. He has 4WD, good thing, he needed it. Our road looks like it hasn’t been plowed at all, just one tiny lane down the middle of the road. He said there was one empty car stuck on the side of the road down a little bit. The next road, which is considered a main road, wasn’t much better. Where it had been cleared two cars could go, otherwise it was one car wide. Closer to the next main road is wide open fields, which caused drifting, and there the road was barely one car wide.

He went out for gas for the generator, we were almost out. The only thing we have running on it is the refrigerator and one small electric heater. Thank goodness for the gas fireplace on the back porch, it’s keeping the house at a comfortable 62 degrees. That’s a whole ten degrees below our normal house temperature and all of a sudden that feels good.

Last night we slept in bed again, with two quilts, but it still wasn’t warm enough for me, I kept waking up. Well, it could have been John’s snoring that woke me up since he was out of it. All that shoveling wore him out. When I came out of the bedroom it was like walking into an oven… since when is 59 an oven? I went back in the bedroom and picked up my travel alarm which has a thermometer on it, it was 50 in the bedroom.

After I piddled I laid down on the couch and went back to sleep until John woke me up at 8. I’d set the travel alarm to wake us up so he could check the generator… it was almost empty when he got out there. We poured ourselves coffee which he made yesterday morning and poured into a carafe to stay warm, it still was nice and hot and tasted quite yummy.

Oh, remember how I got so prepared on Friday for the storm, running the dishwasher and doing laundry? Dishwasher is full of dirty dishes, no water to even rinse them off so one use and in the dishwasher they go. Laundry basket is full of dirty clothes, John changes after he goes out and works up a sweat shoveling, and I’m changing just to feel a little cleaner. Neither of us have had a shower since Friday morning… ugh.

10:25 and two, not one but TWO plows just went down our road. That means that the power company can’t be too far behind. And it means our road is finally passable to anyone who doesn’t have 4WD. Well maybe. I’m pretty sure I know why they finally showed up here, everywhere else in the state must be plowed by now, LOL.

So how have I been passing my time… lots of ways, but I’ll admit, playing games mostly. I downloaded a new game, well new to me, on Thursday, and have been playing that most of the time. Hours seem to fly be as I go from level to level. And yet time is still standing still. I’ve also been working on a few mysteries, and have read some, finished a book I started before my surgery in November.

It’s not any colder, or warmer either, in here than is has been, yet today I am shivering almost uncontrollably. No amount of covers can make me stop. My knees, and almost every other joint in my body, are screaming with pain. Pity there isn’t any of that hot coffee left, I’d pour it on my head.

2:30 John just took his Dad and Arden to Mike’s for a hot shower. I’ll go later. I’m hoping that while they are gone the power comes back on.

3:30 No such luck… power still off so I’m off for a shower

4:30 Guess what, that heavenly sound you hear is my heat pump working, we have electricity again! I’m going to fix myself a cup of tea then sit down and catch up on email. ONLY 176 messages in one account, and 137 in another, and I haven’t even checked the Relay accounts yet. One at a time…

Such an adventure, not at all how I’d planned the weekend, but such is life. In our case it was a blizzard. In Haiti an earthquake. I am not complaining because really, I had nothing to complain about.

Nothing super about this Sunday

Well it is 16 degrees outside, and about 55 inside. I am glad I'm inside, just wish it was a bit warmer. It stopped snowing shortly after dark last night, and with in minutes we could see stars, amazing. This morning it is bright and sunny and BRIGHT, the snow is blinding. I see 30 foot trees laying on the ground, 8 foot hollies that are flattened and forsythia that used to stand taller than my husband looking like a bump in the snow. I took lots of photos from the open back door, and then tried to open another door, frozen shut. Front door has snow pretty much half way up, just slightly below the door handle, and all of the back porch sliders are frozen closed.

I slept in my bed last night in a totally unheated room, the farthest room from the fireplace and heater, which we turned off anyway when we went to bed. I didn’t move all night, I think I was frozen. Can one be frozen when under three quilts and wearing two layers of clothing including a stocking cap and hooded sweatshirt? Guess not, but my bones sure feel like they were frozen.

However, I am not complaining, not one little bit. We don’t have electricity and live in a totally electric house, but are still a lot better off than some people. We have our small gas fireplace and our small generator. We aren’t frozen, just chilly.

And I think too about the people in Haiti, we have food, most of them do not. We have shelter, most of them don’t. When my quilt laden bed shakes I know it is John turning over and not an earthquake. I’m not going to complain at all. I will just pile on another blanket and sit here and watch the snow sparkle.

And I’m going to say a prayer for all of those electrical workers who have been out there in this freezing cold trying to repair the power. But let me ask, how can you repair 16 broken poles (and that’s just my neighborhood) when the ground is not only frozen solid, but hidden under 36 inches of snow, more where it is drifted. God bless them for the hard work they have ahead of them. God bless the aid workers in Haiti too.
(Photos later if I can get back on line again.)

Snow Pics

First photo was at 5:09 last night and the second was taken at 4:10 tonight

Super Uh Oh

It started snowing heavily around 3:30 yesterday, and is still snowing. We have at least 15 inches so far, since I can’t see the bottom of the fence in the backyard any more. But the worse part of this is that we’ve lost power. I was laying in bed listening to the wind howl when it occurred to me that was all I was hearing, no heat pump running and no refrigerator from the kitchen. That was about 6:20.

I decided to give the air card a try and success, I am on line. However, I am not saying on line long, to save power on the lap top for later.

BUT I wanted to post the first part of the Super Stash Bowl, Kick Off. There are links at the bottom of each page to the next one. Hopefully you will find something on one of those pages to use up your DHSs.

So here you go, Kick Off!

Have fun, and don’t forget to tell me all about it when I get back on line again. And I would sure LOVE to see some of your quilt photos.

Another reason why I Relay

I just got this email...

I am a cancer patient (uterine)
last year had six months of chemo
(you should see my neat hairdo i got from that one!)
and 45 radiation treatments that ended at New Year's Eve
so
I am not sure of my outcome just yet
but
I am quilting like crazy...hubby took over laundry and vac
giving me more stitching time...bless his heart

thank you so much for thinking about us
cancer research is sooooo needed

i am dragging out my scrap bins and planning on joining in the fun
don't even have a question.....all makes perfect sense to me
chemo brain maybe???? roflol

Thanks for the email. Happy Birthday to you, since each day is another one for you. Happy sewing, and keep on keeping on.

Here it comes

I just saw the first snowflake of the blizzard of 2010, with many more to follow. I’m ready, as ready as one can be. We have food in the house which we can eat if power goes out. I’ve done laundry and dishes so we have clean clothes and an empty dishwasher to put dirty dishes in. Since we live in the country and are on well water, and lose both water and sewer when power goes out, we have water stored for flushing and drinking. I have lots of books to read to keep my mind occupied. We certainly have enough quilts to keep us warm too, so that won’t be a problem. We have a generator, so our food will be ok, and we will have some lights. Maybe someday we will have a whole house generator, maybe. Not this storm though.

The worse thing about this is the timing... it might interfere with the Super Stash Bowl. I’ve taken care of that as far as the Yahoo Groups, and given someone the link to the first page, so those ladies (and men) will get to sew if they aren’t affected by the storm. Sadly, it’s those of you who plan to follow here on the blog who might miss out, since I will not have any way of posting that first page link.

However I will do my best. I have an air card and I have a battery on my lap top, so it might not be an issue at all. And who knows, we might not even lose power. We’ve had power through blizzards before and hurricanes too. Normally we lose power on bright sunny days when we can’t blame Mother Nature at all.

For those who want to follow our winter adventure, watch the Weather Channel. When you hear them talking about the Delaware coast, or Kent and Sussex Counties, that’s us. Right now we are the purple zone on the weather maps, meaning we could get up to or over two feet.

I’m ready, I hope!

PS, I got an email from a follower who wanted me to show a better map of where I am... here are two which should help. You can click on them to make them bigger.

Yikes!

Just a warning...
Blizzard Warning for Delaware Beaches, DE
from 4 PM EST, Fri., Feb. 5, 2010 until 7 PM EST, Sat., Feb. 6, 2010

SNOWFALL TOTALS OF 12 TO 18 INCHES ARE EXPECTED NEAR THE DELAWARE AND CENTRAL NEW JERSEY COAST WITH UP TO 24 INCHES POSSIBLE OVER SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY AND THE CENTRAL DELMARVA.

So if this happens and if we lose power, the Super Stash Bowl will be delayed. I will post it as soon as possible, I promise!

in central Delmarva

Two more questions

Well one question and one smart aleck remark LOL

"How can we know how large our project will be if you don’t tell us what sizes to cut things?"

OK, I know this is confusing, but you have to put up with it. It would be physically impossible for me to visit everyone before Kick Off to see how many scraps you have and how big you are cutting your squares and how well you are sewing, pressing and what size your DHSs end up. I just can’t do it, bad knees, bad weather, high gas prices, etc. And besides, you all live all over the place and I need to be home by Saturday to post the Kick Off directions!

Nor can I tell you what size finished project you will end up without knowing how large your squares are and how many you have. NOW… please, don’t email me that information either, because I will not calculate for each and every one of you what size your project will finish. You just have to have a little bit of faith that I know what I’m talking about and you will understand once the rest of the directions are posted.

I already said that if you cut your scraps and stash six inches and if you have 128 scrappy light six inch squares and 128 scrappy dark six inch squares, you could end up with an approximately 80 inch square quilt.

That’s all I can tell you for now.

"Just how much fun are we allowed to have? Be precise!
Your resident smart aleck"

Well, everyone else can have all the fun they want with this project. But, since you are such a smart aleck, you can’t have any fun until the second quarter
of the game.

Snicker… teach you to be funny with me… (giggling madly)

I’m going to do it...

I’ve been thinking about this for months, possibly longer. I’ve contemplated the pros and cons. I’ve thought about the possible side effects should this create a shortage in my inventory. I’ve even tried to decide which one I can live without. And I’m also trying to raise money, and I have more Featherweights than I really need, so why not do it.

So I am going to do it. Starting right now, I’m going to raffle off one of my Featherweights. Here’s how it will work. You make a donation by clicking the donate button on my Relay web page.

For a $1 dollar donation, you get one chance to win.
Donate $5 and you will get six chances.
Donate $10 and you will get fifteen chances.

I will post more information on the Featherweight this weekend, when I can get to them. I have seven to chose from, all in tip top shape and ready to be used. I just want to check them and see which one needs a new home the most. I think I know which one I will let go, pretty sure, but I want to check it out first.

Super Stash Bowl logo button

A few people have asked me for the Super Stash Bowl logo for their blogs. I've tried to add it to the files in the Yahoo sites, but Yahoo isn't cooperating, so I'll try here.

The problem is, when I post it, it shows the logo, not the text to create the logo.

No matter what I do, no matter how I put it, it corrects me and shows JUST the logo, not the text to make the logo.

Or it tells me that it can't accept my HTML because it isn't correct and won't let me post at all.

I know I've done this before, and I know other people do it, so why can't I do it today, LOL!


PS if you know HOW I should or can do this properly, please tell me! In the meantime, I'll keep working on it.

You have NO idea, yet!

No new Super Stash Bowl questions yesterday but one comment came in this morning that I have to share.

“Ok, now that I have cheated and seen the finished quilt"

When I read this I got a good case of the giggles… no one knows what the finished quilt is yet, not even me. I’m not sure what this quilter thinks she saw, but I sure hope she isn’t sewing her DHSs together yet. With most of my recent mysteries, as the ladies on the Mysteries For Relay group will tell you, there are choices when it comes to finishing, design decisions to be made. And this is one of those cases.

So Dorothy .. I suggest you just wait until Saturday before you put anything together. You have some decisions to make before you start putting a quilt together. I will be giving you choices!

And that’s all I’m going to say about that for now!

Memories

I got an email from a gal named Heather today and her letter, blog and all reminded me of something in my past….

A long time ago a happy couple with a two year old son sat watching the ten o’clock news on a Wednesday night in San Antonio Texas. Of course they watched the ten o’clock news every night, but that night ended up changing their lives.

Every Wednesday night that TV station had “Wednesday’s Child” showing some child or children that needed homes. Well that particular Wednesday night they showed a darling baby girl. They watched silently then turned off the TV and went to bed. After a good night kiss and laying there quietly for a minute or two, the husband says to the wife, “Why don’t you call about that baby”

Well I jumped up out of bed and flew to the phone, and called. Of course someone was there answering the phone and questions even though it was almost 11. The lady on the other end of the line asked me two questions and said that we were not eligible for that baby girl. However at that time they were in desperate need of adoptive parents and if we were willing, they would love to talk to us. Just like that we were on our way to getting another child.

The darling little girl we saw had parents who were not of the same race and their parents could not accept the fact they had crossed that line, so were they were giving their baby up for adoption. They wanted her to be placed in a bi-racial home which was why we did not qualify. However since we were willing to adopt her, the agency knew they could help us and we could help them place another child in a home.

We went into the agency the next day, and began the process that would make our family complete and get Jonathon a brother or sister. We qualified, that was determined instantly, but there was a lot to go through, and normally it took years, but they needed us and if we were willing, they would push things through faster so they could get a child into a home who needed one.

As we went through this process the social workers would talk to us about different cases… a brother and sister who needed a home, an unwed mother with medical issues who was looking for a home for her baby, twins almost three, etc etc. We were never “offered” any of these children, but were asked to think about them and let the agency know our willingness. We had a few stipulations, the main one being that Jonathon would be the big brother, meaning the child we adopted had to be under 2 1/2.

Every week different cases would be brought up, the brother and sister who needed a home, the unwed mother with medical issues who was looking for a home for her baby, a little boy, a little girl, etc. But with this agency, the birth parent (s) picked the home their child was to go to, we were just talking over our willingness to have that child or children.

We went to Doctors appointments (physicals and mentals too) and counseling sessions and paper work galore. We had to call each and every family member to discuss our possibly adopting a biracial child, and since we were thousands of miles from home and both had large families, that was one HUGE phone bill… no make that three HUGE phone bills, February’s, March’s and April’s.

Final step was the home visit. We were told that the state of Texas only required running water and electricity to place a child in a home, so that was all the social worker was looking for. Of course we spit shined that house for three days before she arrived and there wasn’t a speck of dust or dirt anywhere to be found. She never even looked at our bathroom, LOL. We sat and chatted, she went over the cases that we were considering, and she left. As she left she asked us if we were ready for this, and we assured her we were.

John went back to work, and a few hours later the phone rang. It was the social worker calling to tell us we had been approved. She asked me again if we were ready for this… and then she said, “if you would like, you can come pick up your new son tomorrow morning.”

It was a Wednesday and exactly two months and nine days after we had made that Wednesday’s Child phone call. The next day three week old Michael joined our family.


(Thanks for the memories Heather, and best of luck to your growing family!)

This photo is the first ever of my three guys together, Jonathon is being introduced to his little brother.