Yesterday's mystery

Here’s my sample from yesterday’s mystery project on Mysteries For Relay.  No it’s not completely finished, but it’s on the way to be quilted soon, and then the binding, and then who know! 

I called this one Puss Plus because it used the Puss in the Corner block and a variation.  The inspiration from this quilt came from a friend…

 
Kathy called me and asked me to help her with a quilt.  Her granddaughter had shown her a quilt in a catalog and said she wanted one for her bed “just like that”.   Well the quilt in the catalog was a table runner, so Kathy needed help making it bed size.  It was fairly simple for me to figure out, pinwheels in a square in a puss in the corner block, not too complicated.  A little more complicated was how many squares, etc, but we worked it out. Kathy promised me she would show me the quilt before she went up to Connecticut for Christmas….

Well I never heard from her, so I figured like me she got busy and forgot, you know how those holidays are.  Shortly after New Year’s Kathy called and said she wanted to show me the quilt, could she come over. 

She had the finished quilt with her, and I asked her if she’d given it to her unfinished, you know how we do that.. give someone a quilt then take it back to finish the binding….

Kathy got all teary eyed and said that her Granddaughter was one of the children killed in Newtown. 

Good-bye Google Reader

Do you know what happens when you don’t check in on your blog reader for a long long time?  I do… when you go there you have a total of 3191 blog posts to read, LOL!  Actually I have read blogs, but not on Google Reader.  But someone else’s post today reminded me today was the last day for that reader, so I checked it just for the fun of it.

While I was checking blogs I decided to check when some people had updated.  There were a few bloggers on there who are pretty bad at posting, some more than a year… so I’ve deleted them.  (Even checking posts from over a year ago makes me wonder why I was following them anyway.) 

And then are those blogs that people start just for a certain project, and then leave the blog there forever… deleted. 

And sadly, bloggers who are no longer with us.  It only makes me sad to go back and read their words, so I deleted those blogs.  I have the happy memories, those are good enough for me. 

Now I know I have not been very good about posting myself lately, but I will try to do better now that I am feeling somewhat up to par again.  I don’t want anyone deleting me because I haven’t posted!

 

 

Web page updates

The free project pattern for July is Speedy Strips…  I know some of you have made one or more Speedy Strips quilts.  If you haven’t, the pattern is now on line forever for free. 

http://delawarequilts.com/Projects/Yearly/SpeedyStrips2013.pdf

Speedy Strips was created in 2002 so that’s the history page I’m sharing this month. 

http://delawarequilts.com/MyQuilts/History/06.html

There are no real updates in the retreats; I still have openings in November.  If you are a retreater, bills are due in full at the end of July and in August, check your retreat page at the bottom for your retreat date. 

http://delawarequilts.com/Retreat/

Today, June 29th is a mystery day, the newest mystery is being posted today.  You can still join in if you want, a $5 donation will get you the mystery or full pattern.  Or for $30 you can get a whole year’s worth.  We have not decided a date for the next Mysteries For Relay yet, but it will be a little different… we have a guest designer for the next mystery! 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MysteriesForRelay/

Update

Health update first, I’m alive still.  I went to see the rheumatologist this week and she confirmed what I’ve feared for a while now… I am never going to recover from polymyalgia rheumatica.  She said I was “chronic PMR”.  Our goal now is to get me to a dose of prednisone that will keep the pain and misery away and allow me to function as a human being again. 

Quilting update, I am quilting.  Once my prednisone was upped so I could function I finished a top I started on May 4th.  It’s not a big quilt, but I just wasn’t up to sewing at all for all that time.  I finished putting the top together yesterday, now I need to decide on borders… do I want a masculine quilt or a girly quilt?   

Mysteries For Relay update, we’re having a new mystery tomorrow, if you’re interested it will cost you a donation, $5 for one mystery and $30 for a year’s worth.  You may donate at http://main.acsevents.org/goto/MargeGordon   or at http://delawarequilts.com/Relay/index.html  The link to join the group is on the right. 

And now I need to go work on the borders of that quilt… IF I can decide which borders to use.  Decisions decisions.... 

43 years

When I met him it wasn’t exactly love at first sight.  It was more like disappointment.  I’d been waiting for the guy who plays the banjo for two days, and when he finally showed up it was in a station wagon (woodie even) full of girls.  Much later I learned the harem were his sisters and their friends, but even after we took a ride down the road in that woodie, I wasn’t in love, I was barely in like.  But love grew and through trials and tribulations, happiness and sadness, richer and poorer we’ve stuck it out…. 43 years today. 

And I love him more every day.

National Peanut Butter Cookie Day

Kathy called me this morning and asked why I hadn’t posted, after she asked me how I was feeling.  She said just because I wasn’t 100% gave me no excuse what so ever not to be posting on my blog…. So she thinks.  I really hate to whine, so I just haven’t been posting.  But since Kathy and others want to hear from me, let me share a memory with you all. 

Did you know today was National Peanut Butter Cookie Day?  Just that statement took me back to my childhood to a tiny two room schoolhouse in southern NJ.  Two teachers for five grades, kindergarten through fourth, and oh so many memories.  One special memory was the school cook.  Mrs. Ware was the grandmother of one of the students, although she probably had more grandchildren in the system and most had gone through that school.  She was the best school cook ever and I know she would have won awards for her cooking.  (IMHO that is.) 

And one of her specialties was… yep, peanut butter cookies.  They were huge, probably as big as my hand now, so gigantic to us little kids and they were oh so very yummy.  Crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.  It was an rare honor to get more than one cookie, and I know that more than one time I received that honor.  There were days that I needed a little something, and magically a cookie would appear to take away the drama of the day. 

I doubt I ever realized then how special that honor was, or how magically those cookies made me feel better.  And I doubt I never thanked her for being such a great cook and special friend, so I’ll send up my thanks now.  I hope all the angels are eating Mrs. Ware’s Peanut Butter Cookies today.

Here’s a recipe although I know it’s nowhere near as good as Mrs. Ware’s. 

Rainy Monday

We were up early to get John to the hospital for his procedure.  The ride home was horrible, so much rain I could hardly see out the window.  Then I had to go back and get him, and navigate around ponds in the road.  What a trip!

He’s fine, sleeping the anesthesia off.  I’m sure he’ll be starving when he wakes up, wonder what he’ll want to eat.  I’m a little hungry myself, sympathy hunger I guess, LOL!

Doing better

Finally, for the first time since the end of April, I’m starting to feel almost myself again, almost.  I’m still very tired all the time, but the pain is pretty much tolerable now.  Not enough I can sew yet, but boy do I have a sewing itch. 

John on the other hand is not in a good mood at all… he’s prepping for that yucky procedure we all hate but have to do about every four or five years.  He’s not tolerating it well at all and I really feel bad for him.  I’m very thankful he’s scheduled for 8AM so his mystery will be over quickly tomorrow…. I hope…. history shows he doesn’t tolerate anesthetics well. 

As I said, I have a sewing itch, but there are two projects in the sewing room keeping me from starting anything new.  I will be back to it soon, perhaps even tomorrow, fingers crossed!