24 days

Twenty-four days from now I will be in surgery getting the left knee cleaned up. Hopefully that will get rid of all the pain and agony I am going through, and get me back into the swing of things again. I know that the right knee is feeling 99% better after the surgery in November, except for an occasional twinge in the daytime and problems getting comfy in bed. Now if the left knee surgery is as successful as the right knee’s surgery was, I know I will be just fine and dandy.

The timing on that was critical, and I was really concerned about it. Last time they scheduled surgery it was a six week wait… six weeks from now is Relay. And most of this Doctor’s surgeries are on Friday, which would mean I would have missed Relay…. But instead I will be post-op and while not 100% I will be well enough to attend Relay and do my job there.

What a huge relief, both to my knees and Relay, and to my mental state also… I don’t think I could have handled waiting much longer AND missing Relay.

I missed Monday!

Thanks Alice for your donation and good luck on winning the box!

Wow, I guess I was busy yesterday, so busy I forgot to blog. What did I do all day long? When I sit here now and think back about it, nothing at all, but I really accomplished a lot yesterday. I was on the phone a lot, taking care of business. One phone call was well over an hour long and well worth the time I spent talking to the person on the other end. Totally business call, and worth every minute. There were also several Relay For Life phone calls, working on another fundraiser.

And I will admit, I sat here and watched the rain often yesterday. Interesting rain, it poured from the left and it poured from the right, back and forth. Oh, it was also very windy yesterday which explains the blowing rain. But it was so fascinating to watch. Today is another dark and dreary day but so far at least there isn’t any rain to entertain me.

For those who have asked

Several faithful readers and dear friends have asked recently how John’s Aunt is doing. I’d like to say fine but it wouldn’t be true. She is slipping fast and things are happening which we hope will help, but realize she is beyond the help we wish was available.

Since we went to court the end of February John and his Uncle have been caring for her pretty much on their own. That is mostly due to the fact that John’s mother is holding a horrible grudge and that Aunt is not happy with her, which adds up to a miserable relationship. John’s mother tends to complicate matters all around.

John and Uncle took Aunt to visit a home which is very nice and she actually fell in love with it. She decided on her own to move there and signed a contract and paid a deposit. Then John’s mother told Aunt she was also moving there and now Aunt does not want to go there. John’s mother could never financially afford to live there, not unless she wins a lottery or something, so that will never happen. Telling Aunt that was simply cruel and heartless and completely uncalled for.

There were many complications, banks, pensions, insurance, social security and even her vehicle.. each one more complicated than one would expect.

And very day Aunt loses more of herself. The other night she went into the kitchen to dish up ice cream for the three of them, John, Uncle and herself. A few minutes later she came out of the kitchen with a package of ham, cheese and tuna fish. She no longer knows her own birthday.

Thanks for asking,

What happened to Spring?

I went out on the deck early yesterday morning to take the photo of the forsythia and it was lovely out. Today there is no sun at all, so dark I have lights on inside, and it is pouring rain and it’s only 43 degrees out there… I am done with this cold damp stuff, bring on the warmer weather please.

Yes I went outside today and more than just on the deck too, I ventured out into the world. We went to visit someplace, stopped in to see a friend at the tax office (She’s my friend because we’re getting a refund!) and ran a few errands. I mostly sat in the car, but it was nice to get out.

We actually ran into someone I knew while we were shopping for a slip cover for a love seat. I hadn’t seen her in years and it was fun to see someone I knew. I miss seeing friends in person. All my internet friends are nice, and I enjoy your company tremendously, but there is just something special about having a real conversation and even more, getting a real hug.

Had to share

This is the same backyard, honest, notice the bird house…
The photo on the left was taken at 10:04 AM on February 7th. I was so concerned that my forsythia bushes had been crushed by the snow.
The photo on the right was taken this morning, March 25 at 10:28 AM. No sign of crushing!

More Miracle Memories

You never know what might trigger a memory and reading a new blog on a new ring yesterday has certainly triggered some of mine. Not all good ones, but in the end we did have a happy ending.

John and I met when we were 16. He claimed it was love at first site, it took me a little longer. After all, he got out of his car with six girls, how was I to know most of them were his sisters, LOL! Anyway, we fell in love, got married and when time came to start a family, nothing happened.

Five years into it testing started and we started adoption processes. Five years after that I was told I could never get pregnant. Few months later John was accepted into officer’s school and we prepared to move. On the day of the move we got a phone call from the adoption agency that we were being moved to the active waiting list. However when I told them we were moving, we were no longer eligible to adopt through that agency.

Fast forward through officer’s school and several schooling moves and we are settling down in a new assignment at last. As an officer in the military we had an assigned doctor and on my initial visit he tells me his specialty before entering the service was infertility and he would like to do another workup on me once we are settled in. Summer passes and as Thanksgiving approaches I suddenly realize that I might be pregnant and indeed I was. In August the following year we had a healthy baby boy. (I never had that workup and was told don’t try for any more children)

#2 miracle I wrote about http://delawarequilts.blogspot.com/2010/02/memories.html

Thanks for the memories Heather and Colleen. And thank you God for precious miracles, now young men of the world.

Thanks everyone

I have to say thanks to my readers for your donations to both the Featherweight Raffle and the Box of Fabrics raffle too. Sorry to say I don’t have photos of either yet, knees just won’t let me get to them. However in thinking more about the fabrics, since I am dreaming of sewing, I remembered I still had a collection of batik marbles which I will add to that box. I knew that I’d included those in the last box give-away I did, so went blog hopping through my own blog and found a photo… these will be included in the large priority box full of fabrics someone will win April 20th.

How big?

I’ve been having a running email conversation with another quilter for the last two days. She started off by asking me how many blocks she would need for a queen size quilt. I replied that I needed to know what size blocks and we’ve been going on ever since. I decided that maybe I should share some of our conversation here, because it might be helpful to others too.
Before you know how many blocks you need you need to know what what size bed you will be putting the quilt on, and how much of it you want covered by this quilt. Do you want to tuck it under the pillows? Do you want it hanging on the floor? Do you just want it to cover the top of your bed?

How big will be blocks be finished, in the quilt? Are you planning on adding any borders, and if yes, how many? Do you want to have sashing between the blocks, and if yes, how wide? Would you like to make a block border, or block sashing? How did you visualize this quilt after you are all done with it?

Standard mattress sizes are - crib 27 X 52, youth 33 X 66, twin 39 X 74, full 54 X 74, queen 60 X 80 and king 78 X 80. This is what size the top of the mattress measures, period!

A comforter usually covers the top, sides and foot of the mattress. You use it with a dust ruffle to pretty up your bed. Sizes for those are - twin 66 X 86, full 76 X 86, queen 86 X 88 and king 102 X 88.

Bedspreads usually fall almost to or all the way to the floor and allow for a pillow tuck. Measurements for those are - twin 80 X 108, full 96 X 108, queen 102 X 118 and king 120 X 118. However, how many pillow that allows for, or what thickness, I can't say. To be safe, you probably should get out the old tape measure and see what measurements you come up with yourself.

Another thing you really need to remember, your quilt top will shrink when it is quilted! Don’t lay the top on your bed and stop sewing because it fits, ask me how I know. I learned that lesson the hard way. If the top just fits perfectly, the quilt will be slightly smaller.

Reply to email

"Are your donations for real?
Not to be skeptical but are you for real?"

Yes, I am for real and my donations are for real also. If you are uncomfortable donating using PayPal, you can donate directly to the American Cancer Society on my Relay For Life web page at http://main.acsevents.org/goto/MargeGordon Put in the note that you are making a Box of Fabrics donation and you will be entered in the drawing also.

I don’t chastise this person for asking, I might ask myself if someone asked me to donate to a charity using PayPal. But I can assure you that ALL of the money you donate will go to Relay For Life, I will even pay the PayPal fees myself.

Why do I Relay?
I am Relaying for

Joan in Delaware, my special friend
Becky in Texas
Bob in Pennsylvania
Bourbon in New York
Carol in Pennsylvania
Carolyn in Ohio
Cheri in Delaware
Darlene in Delaware
Deke in Delaware
Doug in Arizona
Ginny in Virginia
Jim in Kentucky
Joanne in Ontario
Joe in Delaware
Jon in Tennessee
Juanita in New Jersey
Kim in Delaware
Kim in New Jersey
Marge in Arkansas
Marianne in Virginia
Mary K in Indiana
Pat in Delaware
Rich in NH (22 years!)
Shoshana in Oregon
so science will keep coming up with ways to help them fight stronger

And if you doubt I have fabric to give away… see anything you like?

Still no Fabric Giveaway photo

I really am sorry, my knees just won’t let me go upstairs. However I KNOW there is a lot of fabric up there and I’ve been thinking about what I have to give. One thing I will graciously share are yards of miscellaneous white-on-whites. I buy w-o-ws by the bolt, and I’m pretty sure there are a few bolts up there that have never even been opened and I won’t admit how many there are up there that have been opened… so I will cut a yard or more from five or six different bolts, maybe even more. I probably could fill the box with JUST w-o-ws but I want to give the lucky winner some variety.

I’m not just thinking of my fabrics for the give away, but also for my quilting desire. I miss sewing, a lot! I have so many new patterns I’d like to make samples for. My testers do a great job at testing the pattern, but I design these for myself too, and the testers don’t always choose the same colors I would, and I’d love to see my own version of my own pattern too.

A few of those new patterns I can visualize finished in my fabric choices… Super Duper Easy in Aunt Graces, white muslin and a solid for the points… the November mystery in tan batiks with a dark batik for the main color… SOS in five shades of green just as my diagrams show and the AG mystery in oddly enough Aunt Graces, although that AG does not stand for Aunt Grace as you might think. I want to sew my NEW patterns and I will not feel guilty about all the UFOs I have, I want to make more UFOs, and someday I will work on some finishes.

Nine days to see the Doctor and he’d better be ready to fix these knees or else!

http://delawarequilts.blogspot.com/2010/03/national-quilting-day-raffle.html

Happy Spring And Happy 40th Birthday Tara!

I can easily believe it is spring today, the windows are open, the birds are singing, the flowers blooming and it is truly a beautiful spring day here. However I know that’s not true all over, several of my web friends are looking at a snowy day in CO, OK and AR. Hang on ladies, spring is coming, I promise!

I can not believe that Tara is hitting the big 40 this year. Seems like just yesterday she joined the family and surprised us climbing down the outside of the stair railings, LOL! Look at her now, a Mom to two active boys… where has time gone? Whatever you are doing today Tara, I hope your guys are spoiling you rotten, you deserve it!

New dryer was delivered a little bit ago. Funny thing, when they were testing it the smoke detector went off. We all assumed it was the new heat smell, but checked everything just incase. Ran it again for a minute and as soon as he turned it off, by opening the door, smoke detector went off again. Then it dawned on the installer that it was letting heat out, and of course the smoke/heat detector is right over the washer and dryer. All is well and it is now happily drying a load of clothes.

No photo

There will not be a photo of the large priority box of fabrics today, I had other business to take care of. My dryer died the other day, which is why I didn’t get any laundry done. So today I ventured out of the house, second time this month I went out. Good news, it was a beautiful day, I didn’t even need a sweater, first time since we went to Florida that I’ve been able to do that. Bad news, it was Saturday and everyone else was out too. Lowes was packed! However we were lucky and found what we needed right away and we were on the way home in just minutes. And more good news, it will be delivered tomorrow, so John can deal with that!
So maybe I’ll get that photo tomorrow.

National Quilting Day

So what does one do on National Quilting Day? I know many groups are holding quilt-ins, quilt-athons and there are local guilds having parties and events all across the US. Here at home I will be working on a new pattern, about all the quilting I am getting done these days.

I recently asked the Mysteries For Relay ladies what they would like to do to change things up a little bit, and am taking one of the suggestions into consideration for future mysteries. It was a good one and I’m surprised I hadn’t thought of it myself.

Thanks to the ladies who have donated so far towards the box of fabrics. I will try to get upstairs sometime this weekend and pack the box so you can see what you are getting. That of course will depend on how my knees are doing. I promise I will post a photo as soon as I get one, and long before the April 20 raffle end... and I promise some very nice fabrics!


If you missed it.. check yesterday's post. For each $1 donation you make you get one chance to win. For each $5 donation you make you get SIX chances to win. Donate $10 and you will get fifteen chances. You can make a donation by clicking the donate button on my Relay web page.

National Quilting Day “Raffle”

Most of you know I don’t do anything without involving Relay For Life. So for my National Quilting Day Raffle I’m going to ask for donations towards my fundraising efforts.

What will you win? How about a LARGE priority box full of fabrics!

I will let http://www.random.org/ choose the winner. For each $1 donation you make you get one chance to win. For each $5 donation you make you get SIX chances to win. Donate $10 and you will get fifteen chances. You can make a donation by clicking the donate button on my Relay web page.
This “raffle” will go on for one month starting today, as soon as this is posted. On April 20 at noon I will have random.org pick the winner and announce it on here.

(And no, I have not forgotten about the Featherweight raffle, if you made a donation towards that is is recorded and I will post details soon I promise… I am still not getting around well and have not gotten into the garage to pick which one I will send to the lucky winner)

One of those days

I’m not even going to tell you what kind of day I had yesterday, just let the subject do the talking. I will tell you I got nowhere on hummingbird wings or any other quilt pattern. I got nowhere on our taxes. I got nowhere on the laundry. And we’ve gotten nowhere on too many other issues too.

BUT today is another day, last day of winter and spring is most definitely in the air. My mini daffs are blooming all over the yard. I can see specks of yellow in the back yard gardens, bright shining spots of color. And look at how the front path is blooming.

Tomorrow is spring.

Tomorrow is National Quilting Day too… I should come up with something to give away, or “raffle” off for donations… I have lots of fabric I’m not using up at any speed. Maybe another large priority box of goodies… hmm… check back later

Back to designing

I’ve given up hummer watching for now, now I am hummer listening. Zipper and Velcro have left the nest finally and are still being trained on the ways of the world by their mother BB. I have the web site up and open, so I can hear the most delightful background noises there, a wind chime and a fountain accompanied by bird songs of all sorts. So relaxing. (However you better believe I click back to the site whenever I hear hummer wings or chirps!)

As for the other nest, too much drama there. Yes, that’s life, but I have enough drama in my own life I don’t need any more.

So back to pattern designing. I saw something while hummer watching that sparked interest in a long ago design I had, so I’ve opened that file up again and maybe this time will finish the pattern. I’m going to call it hummingbird wings…

Mystery 13 for real

I had more bloggers email me about my fuzzy photo from the other day than members of the Mysteries For Relay group.... I guess they were too busy sewing to do any blogging.

One of my blog readers emailed a second time to tell me that she would like to see a better picture, so here is one. This is one of the tester’s quilts, I think she did a terrific job on it.

Darn bird friends, LOL

After spending a good deal of the weekend, as admitted below, watching baby hummers, another bird friend sends me another link… These are still eggs, and it’s not looking good according to my friend. She says the first egg started to hatch over a day ago, and no movement since. I hope she’s wrong and I get to see these hatch and fly away. If you don’t see me, I’ll be hummer watching!

"Where are you?"

Funny, this “friend” of mine emails me now if I don’t post after two days. It’s nice she’s keeping up on me, but sure makes me think I am being watched. Good thing she is on the other side of the world or I might worry about a stalker, LOL. (But she's a nice stalker if she is!)

I thought I posted on Sunday, sorry, I have no idea what happened. It wasn’t an eventful day, not many are lately. But I can confess, I did spend a LOT of time watching birdies. Not just any birds, but a few special hummingbirds in California. A friend send me a link and that was the rest of my weekend, honest!















Look at those faces, how can you resist not watching them prepare to fly out of the nest. So I worked on patterns on half screen and on the other half I watched Zipper and Velcro prepare for the adventure of their little lifetimes.

Yesterday there were internet issues, it was being worked on, today things are going smoothly and I do think a little faster so I guess what ever the work they did was successful. I had net off and on, and when I was on I checked emails and checked hummers too. I was fortunate to be on when they finally flew the nest last night for good. One month give or take a few days and I will have my own hummers back, I can't wait!

Spring ahead

Believe it or not daylight saving time is back, well it will be sometime in the middle of the night. I don’t know about you, but I try to change my clocks before I go to bed, which is around 10ish most nights. Then when I get up in the morning I know for sure what time it is, and there’s no guessing. However if you wanted to read previous posts about time changes you would know that it’s confusing no matter if I do it ahead of time or not, LOL

So Spring ahead before you go to bed or when you get up, which ever fits you the best…

Spring ahead also means it's time to put new batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarm batteries. And if you don’t have them why the hell heck not? Come on quilters, our stashes are great fuel for fires, we need smoke alarms more than the average person does!

And if we’re springing ahead today, spring can’t be too far away now… look at how far my garden had come since the last of the snow disappeared on the 10th.

Blog RING

OK bloggers out there, let’s understand a little better the purpose of a ring… a ring is a circle, never ending, that goes round and round. If you join a ring of some kind in blogger world, then that should be a never ending ring of blogs that goes round and round until you end up back where you started.

In times past I could actually blog hop from one blog to another until I would end up back where I started. Today I went visiting my blog neighbors… two blogs down the street ended… that blogger didn’t have a blog ring previous/next gadget on her blog… so I went previous, previous, previous until I was in new territory again and another dead end.

WHAT IS ALT-WEBRING?alt-webring is a free service that enables you to create and manage webrings. Webrings link together sites that contain related content in a virtual 'ring', each site in the ring has a set of ring navigation controls that enable you to travel from one site to another around the ring. These controls are recognized by having links such as Next, Previous, Random, List, etc.

If you are on a RING, please add the web ring link thingy to your site! Please

Tomorrow’s mystery

I thought you might like to see tomorrow’s Mysteries For Relay mystery quilt,
but for some silly reason I can’t get the camera to focus and the rain isn’t helping matters either…

If you’d like to join us, a $5 donation will get you this pattern, and a $30 donation will get you a year’s worth.

Happy Birthday Michael

Twenty-five... Where has the time gone? We missed your first three weeks, but then there you were, a little bundle of joy and energy.

And a few days after the new car..... on top of a mountain Kelly said yes.
I love you and I am proud to call you my son.
Happy birthday