Saturday, September 27, 2008

Quilting today

This morning I had time to do some more quilting on my Road to Indy quilt. One of these days it might actually get done.

I even took some time to play around with fabric and work on an idea for a miniature quilt with (maybe, just maybe) some embroidery and buttons added. It is so much fun to play with fabric and dream of what I might do one of these days.But before I knew it the time came to get busy with other things. I made a cucumber salad to take to the Fall Festival at our church tomorrow.And finally I needed to get out my good shoes, take a shower, and get dressed for a wedding I am attending this afternoon and evening.
There will be champagne and dancing tonight.............

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Blogging truant

Yes, I have shown this block before. But since I have done absolutely nothing quilting-wise in ages and haven't even blogged in ages, I decided it was time to show something.......anything.... Life is still full of nursing home/hospital visits, church activities, social events and other necessary happenings in my life. There is little "free" time. And when there is free time, I find that I am too tired to focus, content to bury myself in a book, or busy reading other blogs.

See some of my favorite blogs in my sidebar? They post more often, get more done, and keep us entertained with their excellent writing. That is my ultimate goal. I was going to start today, but a trip to the nursing home to accompany my sister to a doctor's appointment turned into a seven hour event. I'm not complaining. I love my sister and would do anything for her, but this is just an example of where my time goes. Quilting gets put off for another day.

Eventually I will finish the other blocks that go with the one pictured above. It is just very slow going around here.


Tuesday, September 16, 2008

September

Here it is September 16th and it seems to me that the month has been flying by. With my sister being so sick in a nursing home and now my BIL in the hospital (coming home today), and a million-and-one- other things happening in my family and church life, there has been little time for quilting and other crafts.

Even without quilting things to show, I still want to post to my blog. Here are a few Fall related pictures. The first one is of my calendar snowman for September, holding his pencil, slate, and apple. What would Fall be without apples? I like mine cut up and added to my salads, or dipped in peanut butter, or baked with brown sugar.
This beautiful counted cross-stitch picture "Take Time to Quilt" was made for me by my friend Brenda. It is made in Fall colors and hangs where I can see it all the time.

When I start to complain that I "have no time" I remember that we all have the same time. It is a matter of taking the time to quilt, even when the schedule is busy. Hard to do though, isn't it? It seems I only take the time when my day is clear and I can focus.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Good News, Bad News

Good News - I had time this morning to make 40 exchange blocks which my Bee group is exchanging each month for a year. I had 40 blocks made already, so now I have 80 total. We need 400 some to make a quilt. I think these little blocks will make wonderful scrappy quilts.
Bad news is that it is raining and has been raining steadily and although I have no leaks in my basement, the water is filling up in my window wells and coming through the edges of the windows. I have been mopping up, but it is hard to keep up with the steady flow of water. Fortunately the water is only in the part of my basement where there is no carpeting or quilting stuff or furniture. It is in a room where the laundry shute ends and where I store cardboard boxes. The boxes are wet and will have to be thrown out (not a big deal) and I just have to keep mopping so that the water does not seep into other areas of the basement. No fun. But I know that there are many, many people suffering floods and other devastation because of the weather. My little water problem is just an annoyance.

Today I am grateful that my Texas family is safe in Missouri.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

No quilting, no knitting, no stitching......

Dear Blogging Friends -

Life seems to have gotten in the way of my quilting, knitting and stitching. I have no progress to report. See my sad face. My sister has been moved from hospital to nursing home to hospital to rehab center and I have spent a good deal of time visiting her. My niece from Wisconsin came to visit her mother in the hospital and she stayed with me. Next weekend my nephew flies in from Texas for a visit and will be staying with me. With that and church activities and book club reading and still trying to get my office cleaned up, my time seems to disappear.

Yesterday I wanted to get a healthy walk into my day. I decided to walk to the library to pick up a reserved item. It was cool and I really enjoyed my morning walk there. However, when I started to leave I noticed that it had begun to rain. Oh well, I could just wait it out in the library and do a little reading. After hours of reading and looking through magazines, it had not stop raining and I was getting hungry. By 2:00pm I gave up and walked briskly home in the pouring rain. Just as I finished my late lunch, the phone rang and it was my BIL telling me my sister was getting moved from the hospital to the rehab facility. I decided I wanted to be there to wish her a smooth journey and to make sure she understood where she was going and why. She was to be moved at 6:00pm. I got there around 5:00pm. She was finally moved at 7:30pm. I was happy to be with her, but it was just another typical day in which I had no time for holding a needle in my hand.

Maybe next week I will finally find some time for my projects.

In the meantime I am very grateful for:
1. Nurses
2. Cute ambulance drivers
3. My new office space at church (volunteer job)
4. Homemade bread (thanks Betty)
5. Reading the blogs of other quilters (which is another reason I don't get things done!)

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Day at home

A whole day at home gave me time to make a little progress on my La-D-Da stitching and knit more rows on my shawl. I finished the last five blocks of Judy's Labor Day weekend quilt and sewed the blocks together. The border will come later after I finish up a few other projects. All the fabric for this quilt came from my stash.
Today I finished reading a book - The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted, by Elizabeth Berg. It is a book of short stories for and about women, some very humorous and some achingly true to life. I'm happy to recommend it as very good reading.