Sunday morning

Here I am, back in Pierce, staying with the kids for the weekend. Just having a peaceful hour or so while the two younger ones are in Sunday school. The Oldest is awake, I can hear her music, but she's having her own peaceful time before the others come back.

Daughter sent pictures and called to let us know all about the blue skies, sunshine, sandy beaches, palm trees, sight-seeing, etc. in Mexico, but she forgot to get out warmer clothes for the Youngest. A bit challenging to find clothes for Sunday school this morning.....he wound up going in shorts, the long pants we could find were high waters or way to big around the waist. Hopefully God won't care that he went with cold, bare legs.

So, what do the kids do while Grandma is here? Let's see.

Obviously, they like computers. The Oldest usually watches TV, uses the computer and texts simultaneously.

Here's Max. Do you think we should get him a computer too???

I hate shopping

Seriously.  But, I got to Pierce last night and saw that my daughter had gotten the big ad for Herbergers' Good Will / Fall sale......complete with coupons. They had ankle boots on sale so I snitched one of her coupons and headed to Norfolk this morning once the kids were off to school...and after I made a trip to the HS to take Oldest her forgotten laptop.

Walked in the door near the women's size area and right away found three tops, all marked down. Tried them on, they fit, so headed for the shoe area. They had the boots I liked in my size, they fit (remember, ON SALE) so I paid for my stuff. Used my snitched coupon, signed up for a Herbergers card to get another 20%, got an instant percentage off because it was the first day of the sale. Good deal. Found out the 20% card discount was good for the whole day.

Sometimes it pays to know the right people & be from the right place.  This is their Good Will sale so for every item you bring in for Good Will you get a 20% off coupon. In chatting with the sales clerk I found out she is the granddaughter of some people I know from Orchard, maybe her grandfather is even related to DH. I told her I hadn't found out about the sale until I got to Pierce so hadn't been able to bring in my Good Will stuff. She was feeling kindly towards me by then and gave me some coupons anyway. I promptly headed back into the store and found two pairs of slacks & three more tops plus a necklace, an iridescent purple purse and a housewarming gift I needed. Used my Good Will coupons, card discount and instant discount. If I have to shop this is the way to do it.  Herbergers' is kind of expensive normally but I love this annual sale and it's a great place to shop......so much variety it boggles the mind.

Here's my haul.....minus the necklace and housewarming gift I see.

Now off to the library to look up some genealogy stuff.

A little bit done..........

Some Heart Blocks made.

My quilt group uses these for donation quilts. Also have a container of fabrics in pairs for 4-patches and more strips to cut into segments.  This is the sum total of my quilting activity this past week. I won't be doing much during the coming week either since I'll be staying with the grand-kids a couple days at the beginning of the week and then again over the weekend.

DH is busy picking apples and more apples. This year we're asking a few dollars per bucket instead of just giving them all away. Spray & Tangletrap are expensive plus it's a lot of work. Our freezer is filled with as many apples as needed and I still have canned pie filling from last year. I'll dry some of the Golden Delicious when they're ready, but there's no need to go overboard.

As you can see, I've been playing with my blog background again.  These new templates that Blogger is offering are really cool.

Not really among the missing..............

.............it just seems that way because I post so seldom. Life can be pretty mundane a lot of the time and I don't think you want to hear about it every time I do laundry, wash the dishes, clean the bathroom or vacum up the cat hair, do you?  Didn't think so.  I just haven't been very motivated this summer to do a lot else. I've sewed a little but not enough to always have something to show in a post. I've read a few books, some page turners, others I struggled through. I've worked very little on genealogy and I know my profile says I like to do digital scrapbooking but the most I've done there is collect freebies off the Internet. There you have it. Booooring!!

But now......halleluja.......I've finished something I can show, even though they're not mine.  I finally got these two old tops quilted and bound.

They turned out pretty well, maybe not exactly square, but then they weren't made that way to start with. The second one is my favorite and has several fabrics in it that I would dearly love to have a yard or two of (I think I mentioned that in an earlier post) and they both have wonderful navy blues with tiny white figures. And they were truly made with the maker's scraps. The pieces in the blocks of the first one aren't very big but some of them were cut from pieces that had been pieced two or three times to make them big enough.  How many of us would bother doing that now? Definitely a case of "use it up."

I have a few old tops of my own and working on these has me ready to dig them out and finish them up. I think that would make their makers happy.

Quick post........no pictures

Now that the weather is cooler & less humid I finally feel like doing something. This morning I took one quilted quilt off the machine and put another one on and quilted quite a bit of it. They are both customer quilts and are old tops she bought at an auction.  I'd love to have a yard or two of some of the wonderful old fabrics in them.  I'll post pictures when they're both finished. I have to check to see if the customer wants me to bind them as well. If so I'll post the pics after that's done too.

So...................

.....if you've read Jennifer's blog you know she came to Quilt Club last night intent on unloading some of her UFOs.  Here's what I came home with:

We made these blocks at the Nebraska Heartstrings sew-in in Fremont in March. I need to make 8-9 more blocks and then this stack can be assembled into a QAYG quilt for donation.  Jennifer was happy to let me steal some strips from the ever growing scrap basket to use in the extra blocks.  It scares me to think what she might bring to the next meeting. I vow, whatever it is, it isn't coming home with me!!!

Here's a photo of the QAYG quilt I made from scratch [with five blocks made by quilt-friend Sandy] and finished a couple weeks ago:

If I'd been using my head I'd have thought to finish it before my niece's wedding so I could have dropped it off while I was in Fremont.  But................that's the way my summer has gone.............just haven't been on the ball like I should be. Just ask my fellow Quilt Club members.  I totally spaced it off last night. And since I'm the one with the key to the library they all had to stand around waiting while the hostess called me and I madly scrambled about to change clothes and get there.  Fun times!!!

Getting ready

Two of the grandkids will be coming to stay for a couple of days late Thurs. afternoon so I need to get ready. A trip to the grocery store will be in order since they expect things that I don't ordinarily have on hand, like Oreos, toaster waffles and chips. If that kind of stuff is around I eat it and I definitely don't need it!!! You know, the "see food" diet.

Another "must" is getting their beds ready. I have a set of bunkbeds in my sewing room that they sleep in when they come to stay. Of course, they don't come to stay all that often so I tend to pile stuff on the beds, especially the top one. It just makes such a good spot to get things out of my way...........until I have to move it all.

Sunday I had DH help me put the smaller AC in the window of that room. They always complain its too hot. That's probably because you need long underwear & a winter coat at their house in the summer, especially in the basement where two of the kids have their rooms. With the AC in their room here they may wake up with icicles hanging off their noses in the mornings.  Call me strange but I don't like it quite that cold in the house.

Hot, humid wedding

Saturday was my niece's wedding in Fremont at Hormel Park. HOT and HUMID, but a beautiful wedding nonetheless. She did all the decorations and flowers herself.  That art degree is paying off already. The reception & dance was in the nice, air-conditioned Love Larson Opera House. Towards the end of the dance though, the AC was having a little trouble keeping up. The newlyweds & their friends danced up a storm.....literally. We came home in a fantastic lightning display. I had my camera along and snapped a few pictures:

The young man two spaces to the right of the groom and the two young men at the right end of the row are my nephews.

The happy couple.

I think she took her colors from her favorite pair of cowboy boots.

Father/daughter dance.  I have this pic to prove my brother danced. Twice actually. He danced with his wife for the wedding party dance. But that was IT.

Today's topic is..........................

...............................ZUCCHINI!!!

Some of them got a little bit big. My overachieving DH planted four hills, against my advice I might add. We've been trying to eat them as veggies but just haven't found any way of cooking them that we like. So today is Zucchini Bread day. And I think maybe a chocolate cake with zucchini in it from a recipe I found somewhere. I think the rest will get grated and frozen so later I can put them in EVERYTHING....soups, meatloaf, lasagne, spaghetti sauce, chili...................ice cream topping!!!!!  And then I'll  personally go hoe the plants out. Can't trust that job to DH.

For a quilty tidbit.....I HAVE gotten QAYG blocks put together in rows. Next step....pairs!!!  Exciting stuff.

June just slipped away

Here we are in July already. I looked back at a few previous posts and see that I'm not much further along with projects than I was half-way through June...........the lost month.  I DID go ahead and get a new camera to replace the one that quit working..........didn't think anyone would want to look at fuzzy pink pictures. :-)  I got another Canon, a PowerShot A1100 IS. I was looking at a bulkier Nikon but decided I'd use it more if it was small enough to carry around in my purse or inconspicuously in my hand. Like I said, I really didn't accomplish much in June but here's some pictures I took playing around with the new camera.

The front of my house all decked out for summer. This is the sum total of my flower gardening. I wish those orange lilies bloomed all summer.

Here are a couple quilts all ready for the Premier. They're both old tops that a lady bought at an auction. I'd like to keep them both! In the background is the pile of QAYG blocks I've showed before, still just setting there waiting to be joined into a quilt. I've heard patience is a virtue.

And a picture of my beautiful black kitty. Do you see the questioning look on her face?  She couldn't figure out why I kept snapping pictures of her. Thought I was nuts, probably. She's having a rough time of it this week. We're babysitting our son & DIL's three dogs this week while they're on vacation. She was hiding and I finally found her under the bunkbeds this morning after I pulled out everything stored under there. The other cat was outside last evening & the dogs chased him so we won't see him for about two weeks. He likes to be sure the coast is VERY clear before he comes back home after a visit from the dogs. We'll just have to keep food & water out for him & hope he comes to get some. The thing is, if the cats just wouldn't run the dogs would leave them alone. There's just no fun in a cat who won't run and be chased. Try explaining that to the cats though!!!  :-)

Hope everyone has a happy & safe July 4th.

Here's another start..........

when will we see a finish?? This fine mess on my sewing table is the beginnings of some plaid/homespun string blocks for Heartstrings:

Let's hope I get further on them than I did on the blue/yellow project. That pile of fabrics is still sitting on top of my fabric cabinets. They will get put back into their designated piles and forgotten about again.

I was actually surprised to be able to get a decent picture of said mess above.  My camera has been acting up lately. So many times the pictures turn out to be pink-tinted and blurry.  It started doing it occasionally back in late February. Something to do with the CCD sensor and humidity changes??  I did some research online & it turns out that Canon did a recall on several camera models, including mine, a couple years ago for defective sensors. It sounds like one can send the camera in to have the sensor replaced and Canon pays all the shipping & everything. I'll be looking into that further. I wonder how long the process takes? Weeks? Months??  Longer!!??? Would maybe still need a replacement camera while this one gets fixed. I really like my little Canon PowerShot A95 & don't want to just toss it.

We did get to see some sunshine today though there are still plenty of clouds floating about.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was more rain tonight. We've had over 6" of rain over the past week and places west of us had more.  Yesterday Hwy 275 was closed from O'Neill to Tilden because of flooding. Some of Hwy 20 was closed out by the weigh scale. More roads south and east of here were closed as well as some to the north. It's time for clear skies and sunshine for a while. Things need to dry out a little bit before we all start to mold.

Peaceful Sunday

It's been such a nice Sunday. Started out nice and sunny, not too hot, birds singing their little hearts out. By now it's clouded over, but still nice. I did get my laundry in off the line just in case Mother Nature decides to give us a little shower of rain.

Last weekend, Memorial Day weekend, everyone else's plans took precedence over mine, so I made up my mind I would sew this weekend and I did:

 I finally got the rows of blocks for my Bricks and Stepping Stones sewed into a top. I plan to put a narrow white border around it and then a wider print border of black and bright colors. It's coming out to be kind of an odd size, not square but hardly enough difference in dimensions to be called rectangular. I don't care, it is what it is. You will not believe how hard it was to get that photo. My camera has been misbehaving. Sometimes it wants to turn out photos that are all pink and blurry. Something with the auto-focus I think. I messed with it a bit on different settings & finally got it to take a decent photo. Do you suppose there's a new camera in my not too distant future??

Thanks to funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Orchard Library Foundation and donations we have some lovely new public use computers at the library:

 Patrons are loving those 22" screens, but they sure make mine at the desk seem puny.

Hope you're all enjoying your Sunday as much as I am.

Stalled out

The month of May is almost finished and so is the special project for Heartstrings.....blue and yellow string blocks. This is as far as mine got:

I guess I can still do some but it will have to be at least 24 blocks......enough for a child's quilt. Maybe I'll have to gear up for the next special project for June/July.......10 1/2" homespun plaid blocks. Lord knows I have plenty of plaids too.

I do have a pile of QAYG blocks finished:

I had a nice big piece of pretty yellow print that a friend had gifted me to use for the backs. I'll put it together and send it off to Jay for his nursing home project. There's also a QOV top still waiting to be quilted & bound. I know I should make better use of my time and get more done, but I don't, so there you have it.

Here's a neat blog I stumbled across on another quilter's blog: Transworld Expedition. Another great travel blog. You can kill plenty of time there.

Long week

I saw on Jennifer's blog that she had a long week.......so did I. So, let's take this in order, shall we?

Monday - work, go to Neligh for election stuff, get groceries, get home to make food for Quilt Club on Tues. night.

Tuesday - up way too early to be at the polling place before seven, spend all day working the election, take ballots to Neligh afterward( the deer were out in force), hosted Quilt Cub in absentia (went to unlock the door & turn on the lights, locked the door behind me on the way out...oops) brain was fried by then.

Wednesday - County Library meeting here at the library first thing in the morning, what I did in the afternoon apparently isn't worthy of remembering because I can't.

Thursday - work, mostly setting up the new computers, home, getting a damaged one packed up to send back, fix supper, go back to work for evening hours.

Friday - Spent most of the day taking down the old computers and putting the new ones in their place. Thank heavens they connected to the Internet and recognized the printer with no fuss.

Saturday - Work. Spent the evening watching two episodes of Bones, two of CSI and one of NCIS on the Internet. If I lived by myself I'd probably dump Dish and just watch the few shows I like on-line. DH, however, is not a "computer guy" so we keep paying through the nose.

Today, Sunday - Lazy day. Slept late. Did laundry. Made lunch. Playing on computer. Not really feeling well.....either a cold or sinus infection, I haven't decided yet, but my sinuses have been misbehaving the past couple of days & now I just feel kind of yucky and out of it.

That was the week that was. Sorry, no photos. You have to remember your camera to get those and I didn't. Wonder what else I forgot. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

The motion has been made and I second...

.....what Dakota City Quilter said about the weather. Cold, windy, wet and dreary here to. I think it's high time for a little of that global warming the politicians keep yammering about.

Not much sewing going on here either. None, in fact. I've been busy entering genealogy into my database. When you have three lines that share many of the same ancestors by the time you get to the 1600s & 1700s it takes total concentration to keep everything straight.

The library's new computers came in on Wednesday so the rest of that day was spent unpacking & hooking them up to make sure they work. One box had a hole punched in it and the computer had a good-sized dent in the bottom edge....the edge away from the motherboard so it still works.........but for how long after a blow like that? I contacted Dell & we may get a replacement. A hassle but I'd rather take care of it now than have it fail after the warranty is run out & then have to buy a replacement.

Today was election training.........2 1/2 hrs. worth!!! Good grief!!! We only get $5 and mileage for it. Then I had to ferry DH to Brunswick to pick up his '55 that got a new clutch.

That's about it for this week. Oh, right!! we have to go to a graduation party tonight and I have a bridal shower to go to on Sunday. Can you see why I don't get to sew?? And I miss it!!

Shopping.....good or bad?????

I'm not much of a shopper. Just don't enjoy it like some people do. But when I need to go shopping, I POWER shop. Cruise through the stores, find what I want and get the heck out of there. One thing about shopping in O'Neill, there aren't that many stores to cruise through so it goes pretty fast. Left home about 9:30 and was back by 1:00.

I had a gift certificate to the Quilter's Candy Shoppe from Christmas that's been burning a hole in my pocket so that was a priority stop and I enhanced my already extensive stash quite nicely:




That fabric on the top of the pile in the upper left is a Bonnie cheddar on steriods, maybe almost a little too bright, but I just had to have it. Under it are a couple yards each of black and white tone-on-tones to make 4-patches for Bricks & Stepping Stones quilts, and a kind of muted orange plaid that I just had to have. Maybe I'll use it in a Fall or Halloween quilt. The rest are mostly half-yard pieces/FQs of lights to replenish my supply and some yellows w/blue that will be good in Heartstrings blocks.

And I didn't just buy fabric. LOL I also got some Roundup to battle the weeds, several new spring tops for work and a pair of walking shoes. Women's shoe's are always a little skimpy through the toe area so I got a pair of men's. Actually they were the only pair I saw that I liked and they fit really well. Bought some men's socks too. Go ahead and laugh, but I like to be comfortable and I'm old enough to not care about what's "supposed to be."

And here's the latest photo of my pretty kitty. It's very hard to get any kind of picture of her, she's so solidly black. Her eyes are glowing nicely here.



For some reason she loves hanging out in her carrier. You'd think she would hate it since it's what she gets put in to go to the vet. Cats are strange sometimes. But then, aren't we all?? LOL

Electrical problem solved

Remember when I posted about some strange electrical problems we had the day of the "BIG WIND"? It cropped up again a few days later about 2hrs. after the electric co. workers were here to check things out, so they had to come back. It turned out that a wire had burned off out at the pole near the back corner of our yard. They thought a squirrel had chewed off the insulation and with the wind blowing the wires around...poof!! I just hope we don't have appliances go out because they were getting low voltage.

Just life....

There hasn't been a whole lot to write about. I admire the bloggers who always seem to find something in their day that's worthy of a post.

Last weekend we were dog sitting for our DS & DDIL while they went on a quick trip to Colorado with her parents to visit her brother. That's kind of the way it goes....they go to Yellowstone, we dog-sit; they go to Colo., we dog-sit; our daughter's family goes on a trip, we dog-sit; DD & her DH go on a trip, we baby-sit AND dog-sit. They OWE us!! LOLOL Now I just have to think of something in the way of getting paid back.



Sunday we celebrated our grandson Tyler's 7th birthday, and his Daddy's too. Doesn't seem like that little guy should be 7 already. They grow up so fast.



And I'm in love!! With my new HP 21 1/2" widescreen, flat panel monitor with built in speakers. It looks good and the speakers are actually pretty good too.



What's not to love?

Another one quilted

Here's a picture of the quilt I finished quilting yesterday. I used Mountain Mist poly and the "Halcyon" panto. Pretty, cuddly and light-weight. I know some quilters will only use cotton batting, but I like poly because of the light weight. A cotton batting in a large quilt can be quite heavy.



Last night was our Quilt Club meeting. We worked on small quilts for a group that provides quilts to at-risk newborns. Sadly, those who don't survive are often buried in their quilt.

Other activities recently have included cleaning viruses and other assorted crap off computers. This latest crop of "rogue" viruses that pretend to be anti-virus programs are a real problem. Real anti-virus programs like McAfee and Norton don't seem to detect them so specialized tools are needed. I find too that they often include other nasties like rootkits, worms, hijackers and obfuscators, all to hide themselves from the real security programs. Not to mention the trojans that let other stuff download onto your computer. Just let me say that if you suddenly get a popup on your screen saying you are infected and it's not from your security program, you ARE infected & need to take your computer to someone experienced at removing these things. Most of the time it is NOT necessary to wipe out everything on your computer & reinstall Windows, so be sure the person you take it too is willing to try everything else before taking that drastic step. Losing all your pictures, music, etc. is NOT a good feeling. It's a good time to be faithfully backing up anything that means anything to you.

And, I must mention the crazy wind we had yesterday. It blew so hard one could hardly stand up in it. I think our newspaper got sucked out of the box the minute it was delivered, it's probably in South Dakota by now. The digital clock on my kitchen range was wonky and around 11 last night a couple of electrical circuits in the house went out. I checked the breakers, none seemed to be tripped, but I reset them all anyway and things came back on. Weird. Especially since the one circuit had nothing on it but two lamps. It's the one the air conditioner gets plugged into & is a dedicated circuit. This morning everything is back to normal. I talked to a guy from the power co. and he said the lines may have gotten to bouncing on the insulators in the high winds and caused some fluctuation in power levels. Like I said, weird. Since there was recently a house fire in town caused by the electric wires coming into the house, and one near miss, it all made me a little nervous.

Well.......now it's later!

I hope everyone had a nice Easter. We had Easter dinner at our daughter's sister-in-law's home. The two of them trade off having Easter dinner. It was really nice, but just not the same as when DD's mother-in-law was still living & it was always at her house. Now when it's at the SIL's all her DH's family is there too.....lots of people we only see every other year and never really get to know. Didn't get to see our son & DIL at all....Guess they went to her side of the family.

Remember the other day when I said I'd been pushing buttons and would report on that later? Yep, it's later and here's a photo of the damages....96 1/2 yds. worth of damages to be exact. Somehow it doesn't LOOK like that much.



I'm really glad I'm not reporting on Judy L.'s stashbusting report. It would look really bad.

Red...White...Blue

Yesterday afternoon I pulled fabric & cut strips. Today, for a few hours, I sewed, pressed, trimmed....and here we are. A batch of signature blocks for a project in Lincoln. Julia, these will be on their way to you after Easter.



There's a chance I may have gotten a little carried away with the rotary cutter. Looks like there are plenty of strips here for another quilt. LOL



The thought has occurred to me that I'm procrastinating on getting going on the painting project in my kitchen. Actually I'm pretty sure I am...have been for two years now. LOL It's not the painting I'm dragging my feet on, it's all the SCRUBBING that has to be done before repainting in a kitchen and the wallpaper removal.

And in the mean time, there's somebody that lives here that thinks I should always drop everything and COOK for him just because the clock says lunchtime or suppertime. What's wrong with sandwiches or burgers & fries or a pizza? They work for me. (And I'm seriously thinking about smashing every clock in the house!!!)

Yesterday's quilting project

This was yesterday's quilting effort:



A cute little Dick and Jane quilt, about 51 in. square, made by a friend.

I quilted it with the "Bubbles" pantograph....a happy pattern for a happy little quilt.

Day not going quite as planned

Actually, things not going as planned started last night. I decided it was time to ditch the Eudora e-mail client since it's been discontinued and hasn't been updated in at least four years. So I did a Google search for new clients and started trying them out. One of them decided to re-send all the old e-mails that were still in my "sent" file. So, if anyone's had a strange message from me, it's not because of a virus and you're not crazy, it's just an e-mail program gone berserk. I finally settled on Thunderbird, it's improved some since the last time I tried it and I'm determined to get used to it. I tried IncrediMail. I guess it's cute but all that cuteness got annoying real fast.....like in half an hour. There was one called Nirvana and I thought it would be really cool to have an e-mail program called Nirvana, but it's not available for download yet. Bummer.

This morning I got a bunch of red, blue, white/cream fabrics out to start working on some patriotic string signature blocks when I realized my cat was having a problem that turned out to be bladder infection so I had to take her to the vet...the closest is about 25 mi. away. She had to get into a pet carrier, ride in a car to a strange place.......and strangers touched her. My God, you should have heard the protests. After listening to the protests all the way there I expected her to try to take someone's arm off trying to get her out of the carrier, but no, once she's there she's perfectly composed, doesn't try to escape or anything. Never protested being squeezed and prodded by the vet. Didn't even seem to notice the shot. Always amazes me.

Now back to the blocks and then it'll be time to make supper.

Progress

The next step of the QOV quilt done. Now it's on to pressing and slicing/dicing.



Finished 22 out of 24 last night & whipped out the last two this morning. For some reason when I was cutting fabric I was thinking 30 blocks instead of 24 so I have pieces for another 17 blocks cut. The start of another quilt???

I find if I keep posting here it keeps me motivated to get the next step done. Prepare to be bored.

Now I have to go quilt a customer quilt. I've been pushing buttons this morning and need to earn some money to pay for it all. Be prepared to see a mountain of fabric soon.(And I had just emptied out ONE space on my shelves.)Maybe I should be making the effort to find a few more customers. LOLOL

Busy Sunday

It was clear out and the sun was shining this morning, so I knew it would be a good day. Certainly a major improvement over the clouds and cold northwest wind of yesterday.

I delivered the two QAYG quilts to the benefit for the family who had the house fire two weeks ago and ate a late breakfast there. Then home to do a few chores(there's always the dishwasher to unload & load again, and there's always cat hair to vacuum up) and fix my DH some fish for lunch. He could have gone with me to the benefit but he'd rather tinker with his lawn mowers.

After lunch I decided I had some sort of bug on my laptop so started running tools to clean that off. Every one of those fake anti-virus bugs is different, this one changed the DNS server setting. While that was happening I worked on cutting out my next quilt:



I'll let you guess what this will be. I've already found the next quilt I want to try after this one....a strip quilt variation that looks like fun. I also have the main fabrics piled up for Bonnie Hunter's Orange Crush......so many projects, so little time.

Oh, yeah. I also got a quilt loaded on the Premier. It's been awhile. I had to partially re-thread the machine and had to get out the manual. LOLOL

2nd QAYG finished

Friday I finished the 2nd QAYG quilt from blocks we brought home from the sew-in last week.




The sashing looks kind of pink in the photo, but it's kind of a cream/tan tone-on-tone. Last night I printed out some Heartstrings labels and tonight I stuck them on with Heat 'n Bond. Cheating I know, but Ole Arthur is making my fingers hurt to much for hand sewing. It'll have to do.

Tomorrow I'll take them to the fundraiser for the family whose home burned and that project will be done.

What next? Maybe put together the Bricks & Stepping Stones I started will over a year ago? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Heartstrings QAYG finished

Jennie and I each brought a set of QAYG blocks home from the sew-in last Saturday to finish for the family who lost their home to fire. I buckled down and got this one finished today.



This is the first one of these QAYG quilts I have put together and it took some concentration. Sewing with wrong sides together goes contrary to everything I've been taught in 40 some years of sewing.

Going somewhere and sewing with friends is lots of fun but it's so much easier to work at home with the sewing machine setting down in its cabinet so there's a flat surface to the left. Everything "pulls" when the machine sets up on a table.

Weenie Roast Anyone???

Today's main event in my neighborhood was the Fire Dept. burning down an old house just across the backyards from mine.



A dear, older friend lived there for years. It had sat empty for a few years after she had to go to a nursing home and with just a dirt cellar under it the floors had rotted and the last renters trashed it. I suppose it's best that it's gone but it will take a while to get used to the empty spot across the yards.

Great Quilting Day

National Quilting Day started out dark and early at 5am to leave for Fremont by 6am for the Heartstrings Nebraska sew-in at Keene Memorial Library. For the first day of Spring it felt pretty un-Spring-like with the cold wind. Still, we had a good turn-out with quilters from SD, MN, KS/MO and even Hawaii as well as Nebraskans.

We had a fun and productive day working on QAYG blocks and setting tops together, Jay served an excellent lunch, and a few of us made a trip to the quilt shop. We drooled over the quilting machines on display, admired all the wonderful fabrics and demonstrated considerable restraint in purchasing. :-)

Being a librarian, I had to take a little self-guided tour of the library and visited with one of the staff a little bit. I intended to get back up to the genealogy section to look through a couple of the Germans to America books, but that didn't happen. Maybe next time.

Here are a few pictures of our hard-working group. Mary has some on her blog so I'll try not to post repeats. Others will probably show up on other blogs as well.









Darn, I see I didn't get a picture of our host, but I know he's in a couple of the pictures on Mary's blog.

I enjoyed meeting a great bunch of quilters and working on a worthwhile project. I don't get up at 5am for just anything!!!!

Sewed...........sad ocassion

The good news............I sewed Saturday after work. The bad news..............it was blocks for a quilt for a family who had a house fire that afternoon. They are all safe......they were at the State basketball tournament in Lincoln. My brother-in-law the Fire Chief thinks the house is most likely beyond repair. Later in the evening they were moving some things out, but who knows what was salvageable.... the fire probably smoldered for quit a while and the house was completely filled with oily black smoke by the time the firemen got in and I could see flames in the dining room through the bay window about that time. Sad, sad day.

Winter Wonderland.......again

This is what my world looked like when I came home from work around 3pm:

And here's some snow with action:

It's still snowing, but much lighter now. It was really pretty for awhile. Don't you find it amazing that I can still fine snow pretty after all we've had this winter?

Pink!!!!!!

I have no idea why this picture turned out so pink. Must have had something to do with the lighting and the pale pink cutting mat interacting with the flash. Yeah, that must be it. At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

That little computer on the right is what I spent most of my day working on today. Isn't it cute? It wouldn't boot up any more so it's mama brought it to me. The whole operation would have gone pretty well if the driver disk would have worked in my external DVD drive. You know how you used to get that driver disk with all computers and never used it because everything was included on the Windows disk? Well, on these little guys you need it. Otherwise no sound, no wi-fi, no ethernet, no graphics adjustments...in other words, lots of things don't work without those drivers. Sooooooo....after a certain amount of stubborn-ness and frustration I used my laptop to search the Internet for the drivers, downloaded them, burned them to a disk that would work in the DVD drive and got them installed. Whew. Then added anti-virus, anti-spyware, Adobe Reader, Flash, Shockwave and Windows updates. Finally done!!

These little things are cute but not all that practical for everyday use. They don't have CD-ROM or DVD drives and this one only has a 8GB hard-drive. Typing on it is tricky....everything is kind of scrunched together, the shift keys are small and some keys are in different places.  My old laptop looks huge and cumbersome beside the little cutie but I think I'll stick with it. Much more practical for the things I do.

I got to play with a little netbook and tomorrow it can go back to it's mama....we'll both be happy.

Not much sewing going on here

     As you can see, my cutting table is now my computer desk.

 

     Just move the tubs of fabric, take the table down off its bed risers and abracadabra, my cutting table is a computer desk. Course that means I'm not doing any cutting and sewing, but it's time to do some genealogy work. 

     First off I had to re-enter some stuff  I inexplicably lost last fall. Then work on entering some material received from a kind gentleman in the Netherlands on my DH's elusive Veenker family. He sent me so much, and so detailed. I decided that after a certain point I would only enter the direct line ancestors in my database and then keep his file for reference.  I don't know of a single soul in the family who would be interested in all those collateral lines. 

      Then there was more information from a website that includes the descendents of DH's great-grandfather's sister. I've contacted the site owner, asking her to share some of the information about still living people that aren't included in the online version. I hope she responds favorably because I am willing to share what I have if she can use any of it.  

     Through the contacts I've made in the last few months there's finally been some progress. Once all this information is in my database I want to start trying to figure out how "our" Veenkers might be connected to the ones in Iowa. I feel sure they are, somehow. I also want to scan a lot of pictures and find Census images and copies of original records to include in the database. There's always plenty to do.

What a day!

The sun is shining AND it's snowing at the same time. Only in Nebraska!!  :-D

More Snow

Yesterday was such a beautiful, sunny day. And relatively warm too. I actually walked from the library to the post office wearing a light fleece jacket and it was just right.  Felt like Spring might be just around the corner. However, later in the afternoon the clouds came back and by 4:00 it started snowing again and was still snowing when I went to bed around 11:30. This morning it's snowing again.

 

At least the wind isn't howling, but this is Nebraska so it can start up any time.  Ole Man Winter just can't loosen his grip on us.

I wish I had taken my camera to Tues. night's Quilt club meeting.  We were quilting machines!!!  The project was working on a quilt for our friend who banged her head in a fall on the ice & has spent much of the past month in the hospital. By a little before 10:00pm we had the blocks all made, most of the sashing made and rows sewn together. Jennie took it home to finish up and quilt. She thought she might be able to get it to Linda P. yet this week. 

Ahhhhh, just now the sun is peeking through a little bit. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the snow is finished for this round.

Still listening to the wind howl

I'm still sitting here listening to the wind howl........at times almost a bad as last night and the night before...and all day yesterday and today. Enough already!!!  Many highways & roads in the area are closed to normal traffic...one way for emergency traffic only. At this rate they will all be drifted shut again by morning. One closing notice said the road would be closed until further notice. June, maybe??

Since all the schools in the surrounding area were closed today and the wind chill at 8:30 this morning was around 18-20 below zero I called a snow day for the library too and stayed warm inside out of the vicious wind. I didn't see any sense in struggling through the blowing snow & bone-chilling cold to get to the library to babysit a bunch of bored kids playing games on the computers.  It's not like they'd actually check out books to read or anything constructive like that. Let their parents enjoy their company.

Sunday while I listened to the wind I did the machine applique on a couple blocks for a friend in Quilt Club who wants them for a quilt for a grandson getting married soon. I think at tomorrow night's meeting we will be doing something for her. Not to long after our last meeting she fell on the ice and hit her head. She's been in the hospital & rehab ever since.

 

This afternoon I got myself moving to iron the pillowcases I made and washed for the Million Pillowcase challenge so they are all ready to be donated now. It was a great way to use up a bit more than 20 yds. of stash.

Some of the wind gusts make the whole house shudder.  Makes me feel cold. It must be time to go crawl under the quilts & flannel sheets and try to sleep, but the wind noise makes it hard.

From your roving weather reporter

Though it seems I don't rove to far from the recliner when the weather is like this. COLD and WINDY with light snow. Please refer to earlier photos on the blog. I look at pictures of the snow-buried east coast and am thankful we haven't gotten that much all at one time.

Tonight is our Quilt Club meeting at the library. I sure hope the weather doesn't mess it up. I need the inspiration of seeing and hearing about what everyone else is working on. We've had so much gray, gloomy weather that I just don't have much ambition for doing any more than what's absolutely necessary each day. Must be the "winter blues." Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

What I've Been Craving

I haven't made Cranberry Nut Bread for a couple years now.  I used to make up a big batch every year for the FCE Club bake sale, which we haven't had for the last couple years.  I've been craving it so today was the day:

A quadruple batch fresh from the oven. As soon as it was cool enough I cut off a good sized chunk, spread it with butter and enjoyed. Yummm!!  Love that crunchy crust.

Usually I grind the fresh cranberries but experimented with using them whole today. Still good, but I prefer them ground up. The cranberry goodness is more spread out through the loaf that way and you don't bite into a large tart berry.

I made roast beef for supper yesterday and today I used the leftovers to make Beef Vegetable Soup for supper. I sometimes make it with browned hamburger but think the flavor is so much better from leftover roast. My lunch for work tomorrow will be the soup and a couple of slices of Cranberry Nut Bread.

Yesterday and through most of today we had bright, sunny weather. Wow, BRIGHT!!  We're just not used to that any more. By about 3pm today  the heavy clouds reappeared. Now it's very damp out and we may be in for some more snow. I hope it doesn't get too carried away.

Small Things

Just getting a few small things done. I've always been afraid that someday Bonnie Hunter's great web site would suddenly disappear from the Internet. She has so many great quilt patterns on her site, many of which I'd like to make someday. So gradually I printed off my favorites & have them in a big ring binder.(I have lots of favorites. LOL) Leafing through it looking for a specific pattern can be a pain so Sunday I started putting index tabs on the first page of each pattern. Still have to make the little labels that go in the tabs, but it's a start.

And here is a pile of pillowcases all washed & ready to iron before donating. With postage costing so much I think I'll sort out some for Alycia's QOV project and take the rest to the Quilter's Candy Shoppe in O'Neill. They are participating in the Million Pillowcase challenge as a drop-off point.

Lately I've been spending way to much time on the computer & it has affected my sewing time & book reading time as well. I got sucked into a great travel blog.  It's written by a retired gentleman who realized he couldn't afford to live in his home state of Calif. on his Social Security alone, so he used his modest savings to buy and equip a small, used RV and set off to become a "Vagabond-Supreme."  He spends at least six months a year traveling around in Mexico because it it less expensive to live there, finding places to camp for free. His motto is "never pay rent." His blog has lots of pictures and descriptions of the places he visits. It will make you see Mexico in a whole new light. Very interesting. The blog is The Adventures of Tioga and George, starting in 2003 & continuing to the present. He's fixed it up so it's very easy to navigate and has a little calendar that breaks it up into quarterly segments so you can easily start & stop anywhere. Just don't blame me if you get hooked too. LOL