Sunday Sharing

I had to take a picture of my birthday cards before I put them in the trash. This way I can save the memory but don't have to keep the actual cards. Lord knows my house is already more than full.


I mentioned in a previous post that my Pfaff is all snug in her cabinet again and here she is. I had to piece some bindings just to be able to sew on her. The first thing I did when I put her back in the cabinet was to attach the Bendable Bright Light. It's one of the best inventions for the money. Neither one of my machines has the best of lights and now I can SEE when I sew. Hallelujah.


And this is what I'm doing today. It's got a t-shirt square in the middle that has the heavy rubbery picture on it so I'm going to do this one free hand in the double loop design that Mary showed on her blog this morning. I just hope I can make it look even half as good as hers. Then I'll do something in the center square to fill in places where the rubbery stuff isn't.


And that's my Sunday. I took the easy way out & got pizza from downtown for lunch. I'm so glad I finally got the hubby trained to eat it. Took some steaks out of the freezer to grill for supper. Have you ever tried the KC Masterpiece Steakhouse Marinade? Really makes a steak even more yummy than usual.

Another one of yesterday's finds

When I was in Menard's yesterday I picked up some new cushions for the Adirondack chairs setting on the little patio in front of my house. The cat obviously approves. I found some at Pamida last week and they wanted $30 ea. A little pricey. I found some online I liked but they were $60 ea. Ouch. Wal-Mart had some but the backs were too low. These were just $12.44 ea. and I like them the best. They're reversible so we should be able to get at least a season or two out of them. Some to think of it, they were my bargain of the day!

The toes are ready...............

............for summer!!!


I practically live in flip-flops in the summer so it's fun to paint the toenails. Nail polish on my fingers gets so battered that it's a waste of time.

Today's task was to go to Norfolk & pick up my sewing machine from the sewing machine hospital. It's all happy & snug in it's cabinet again. Things that haven't worked in ages are working again. It's amazing what a good cleaning & lubrication can do.

Since there wasn't so much "have to" shopping to do I could do a little looking just for fun. Came home with a pair of orange flip-flops...........to join the sparkly hot pink, sparkly lime green, sparkly black, beige & turquoise and black with blue trim ones. Also a few pairs of shorts & a couple new tops. Kind of an enjoyable day considering I was shopping.

Also bought candy for the guessing jar for the library's Summer Reading Program and a few prizes for the end of the program. When I got home I went down to the library to get book bags ready and COUNT CANDY. The program kicks off tomorrow, so it will probably be a busy day. Thank God I got all the computer stuff working right. I had a light bulb moment while I was talking to the Village Clerk & went back to my side of the building to try a couple things. It didn't all work but removing a "www" from one line of the configuration screen worked wonders. Why does it ask for it if it's unnecessary?? Just to aggravate poor unsuspecting librarians like me, I bet. (Me paranoid?? No.........)

Lovely long weekend

I hope everyone is enjoying the last of the long weekend. Since I didn't have to go to work today, and the sun was shining when I got up, I got a couple loads of wash hung out. After a week of clouds, wind & occasional rain there was plenty to do. I did have to work Saturday & since I was trying to solve some computer problems with the online catalog (unsuccessfully, I might add) I worked late. Yesterday we spent the afternoon with some of my husband's cousins out at the farm where their grandparents used to live. A great grandson owns it now. They have a few electrical hookups for campers out there & some of their family is out there quite often. Every Memorial weekend there is an open invitation for all the relatives to stop in & visit a while.

This little guy has been my buddy since last Wednesday. He's our grand-dog, Max. He's my daughter's dog & they brought him to stay with us while they are in Georgia for a graduation & some vacation days. They'll be back to get him on Wednesday.


They also brought these flowers for my birthday.



And last, but not least, our cat has found a good use for the gas grill I put at the bottom of the front steps. From this vantage point he can survey his kingdom even better than he could just sitting on the steps. Don't you think he looks pretty content and satisfied with himself?

Haven't done much quilty the past few days. Yesterday I did take my camera along out to the farm because I wanted to show hubby's quilting cousin pictures of the last few quilts I worked on. Wouldn't you know it, even though I charged up a set of batteries before I left home they were dead when I went to show her the pictures. Guess I need a couple new sets of rechargeables. Of course if I bothered to print things out things like that wouldn't happen. How on earth did we live with film rolls that had to be finished & then be sent in to be developed?

Get 'er done Sunday

This morning the sun was shining brightly early on so I was up by 7 ready to get started on the planned yard work around the front of the house. By the time I had breakfast ate and coffee drank it was still chilly, had clouded over & the wind came up. Decided to wait on the outside work & started some stuff inside. Got the blue/brown/cream squares cut for my table cover, cut bindings for three quilts and cut the sashing for the cat quilt.


Later in the morning after the sun came back out and it warmed up a little I got started on the outside. Got the row of bricks put back along the side of the patio where they had been removed when the front steps were replaced, pulled the weeds from between the bricks and spayed Roundup. Got flowers planted in the long planter and the pots in the wrought iron holder. Got the cement pavers laid where the grill is supposed to set. I wanted to get the grass pulled out of the flower bed along the sidewalk to the garage, get it dug up and the petunias planted but the little bit of water I put on it last night didn't soften the dirt up enough to do a good job pulling the grass. I soaked it good with the hose and maybe later tonight or tomorrow afternoon I can get that done.

Here's the quality control officer inspecting the stitches on the just finished quilt. She's very serious about her work.

Saturday night genealogy fun................a day late

The Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Question over on Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings blog was: What event or person inspired you to start your genealogy research? Back in Feb. or March of 2002(or was it 2003?) we had a snowstorm bad enough that I decided the library could be closed for the day so I was home playing on the computer. I Googled myself, found nothing exciting, then Googled my maiden name. I found my Dad, who had passed away in 1977. What the heck was he doing on the Internet?? His name was in my G-Grandmother's obituary because he had been a pallbearer at her funeral. What the heck was her obituary doing on the Internet?? Clicked on "home" at the site it was on and discovered that it was John Kostick's Fehmarn-Genealogy site. My Mom had told me that several of my ancestors were from Fehmarn, Germany so I emailed him with the information I had & asked if he had any more. I honestly never thought I would even get a reply, but the next morning there was an email from John with an attachment that printed out to 174 pages of information about my ancesters on the Reiss, Vadersen and Suckstorf branches of my family dating back to the mid 1300s. That was the start and I naturally just had to keep looking for more.

Such a nice surprise

Last evening my friend Flicsha stopped by and gave me this.I'd mentioned in a previous post that I wanted nice weather for my birthday. Not being able to control the weather, she brought me this pretty little candle surrounded by seashells instead. The candle is vanilla scented, one of my favorite candle scents, and it goes perfectly with the rest of my beach themed decorator items in the living room. Thanks so much, Flicsha. You made my day!

Hot off the press.........errrr, Premier

Here's my Double Delight, all quilted and trimmed. Now if I could just wave my magic wand and have the binding all finished.................Borders and bindings are always what keep me from saying a quilt is DONE.


And here's closeups of the quilting design and the back of the quilt. I really like how the "Halcyon" pantograph quilts up.









This pattern has a very nice flow to it that makes it easy to do. I did find though that I had to be very careful of the spacing of the rows so they didn't look too much like "rows." The interlocking is very subtle and there are places I could have had them a little closer together for a better effect though I don't suppose anyone but another machine quilter would even notice.

On the machine....................

In spite of the dark, gloomy day today I did accomplish a little.Got the backing made and the Double Delight loaded on the machine today. Made a few passes of the "Halcyon" pantograph and it's looking good. I really think this will be my favorite quilt yet.

I went out and cut the asparagus that should have been cut on Saturday, but in honor of the dreary and cool day I made chili for supper. And apple crisp for dessert....well, for my husband anyway. I try not to eat too many sweets.

These should have been in the previous post

The story was in the last post....now the pictures.

Here's the couch with the new pillows and throw, complete with the cat in love with the pillows. That picture is my "vacation in a frame" and started the whole beachy theme. I painted the walls a sand color about two years ago, and painted all the trim white. The room really needs new carpeting...that blue is looking pretty bad. Maybe this summer.This is the candle arrangement I put together out of bits and pieces from three different stores. It's amazing what you can find at Menards sometimes. The candles smelled really strong at first but now they're starting to smell really good.

When I was in Alco in O'Neill on Saturday I bought a bunch of FQs & a 1-yd. piece in the blues/tans/browns that will go with the rest of it to make a table cloth for a round lamp table I have. Years ago I bought a square Battenburg lace tablecloth & it will go over the pieced tablecloth, topped by a round piece of glass to protect it all. It's all coming together. Just need to get all those snowmen put away...they really don't go with the beach theme at all. :-)

I am soooo tired of........

Wind and chilly weather and clouds, but no rain. I SO want some nice spring weather before it turns hot, humid and unbearable. Today it's so chilly and windy out that I may make chili for supper.................how's that for almost the middle of May? What do I want for my birthday? Sunshine, 75 degrees, very gentle breeze!!!!!!!There, got that out of my system.

Last night we had our Quilt Club meeting. I was so sleepy after work that I took a short nap & was still a little cranky & dopey when I went, but perked up just fine once I was there. We always have fun when we're together, no matter what we're doing. Last night we sewed more string blocks for charity. Lots of bright colors...lime, lavender, pink, blue, yellow...they'll make a really cheerful quilt for someone. Picture here. Plus, for refreshments, we had the BEST chicken salad!! The strawberry shortcake with homemade cakes and real whipped cream was excellent too, but the chicken salad........OHHHH MY!! Guess you can tell I liked, no, loved it, right?

Stupid me, I forgot to take my really bright quilt top for show 'n tell. Maybe next time. And, maybe by then I'll have it quilted too............maybe.

When I went to Norfolk on Friday I bought some new decor items to perk up my living room for the summer. I have kind of a beachy look going and picked up a couple sofa pillows and a throw in ice blue/brown. Also did a candle arrangement...square white dinner plate from Target, brown/blue/cream pillar candles found in Menards of all places and seashells & a starfish from Hobby Lobby. Turned out cute, but the one candle sure has a strong scent. My cat has fallen in love with the pillows & her new favorite napping spot is the couch, snuggled up against one of the pillows. She loves plastic & the inner pillow sounds like there is a layer of plastic under the covering. Can you say "covered in cat hair?"

And that's been my exciting life of late.

Finished top

The piles of squares from this previous post are now this finished top, complete with cat. She's the quality control specialist around here.
It's the brightest quilt I've ever made, but it should match my oldest grand-daughters room perfectly, with its hot pink and lime green paint job. It's taken me a little longer to put together than I planned, but my deadline changed so I lost momentum a little. I thought it would be for her 8th grade graduation / confirmation and would be needed this Sat. Then I found out that Pierce doesn't make a big deal out of finishing 8th grade and her confirmation is postponed until Sept. That leaves me plenty of time so maybe this top will get put aside for a while and I'll get a few others quilted. I'd kind of like to have a few in the Tilden Public Library's quilt show this year. At least I want to if gas stays half way reasonably priced this summer so I don't go broke going back and forth.

Saturday at home

Do you know how long it's been since I had a Saturday at home???? I work at the library EVERY Saturday & can rarely get anyone else to work for me. People want their weekends, you know? Actually I was supposed to be at a Heartstrings sew-in in Fremont with a couple of friends today but plans got changed at the last minute. Life, you know?

Sooooooooooooooo I guess I'll work on my grand-daughter's quilt today. Should be able to get the borders put on. I don't even have a teaser photo of it, but I'll post one when the top is finished. Gotta tell you though, it's brighter than any quilt I've ever made before. I could have had a good bit of it done if I hadn't gotten sucked into a movie on the Lifetime Movie Channel. Now I found "The Last of the Dogmen" on AMC. Love that movie & they don't show it too often. See how productive my Saturday at home is so far? :-)