Enjoyable day

Today I was with my friend JoAnn. While at her house an electrician was also there finishing up some things that needed to be done on her new home. He and his helper were working in the craft room that we were in as well as other places in the house. She was not happy with the light on the ceiling fan and just explained to him what she wanted. They went to get some supplies and picked out a new light for the craft room. When they came back they showed us what they bought and we both said at the same time......that is perfect!



I was working on a quilt binding and JoAnn worked on a quilt she is making for her Granddaughter out of the GD childhood clothing. We kind of bounced some ideas off of each other about the quilt she was making and a quilt block I need to applique for a mutual friend. I confirmed that she could do what she wanted to do with her quilt and she helped me solidify my idea for the quilt block I need to make. She even had a pictures to help me with my idea. Now I just need to draw it and pick out the fabric to get it made.

Our kitten, Gordo, is growing my leaps and bounds. He is able to leap to places that gets him into trouble being there and he bounds under feet so he sometimes goes sailing across the floor. He is learning our rules, but sometimes I think he is very hard headed and must learn the hard way. So far Gordo has been a very good kitten. Thank goodness he doesn't whine like his namesake. He is still in the chewing stage, and I will be glad when that ends. All in all he has adjusted well.

Bill caught a good mess of fish. We ate them night before last. Unfortunately it took a few days to have enough to bring home. He again went fishing today, but didn't have enough to bring home. We still have plenty, but like to share with others. It has been tough fishing this year due to the cooler wetter then normal weather. I am not complaining, because I would rather have cool weather then the heat and humidity of the summer in this part of KY.

I will post a picture soon of a quilt that is almost finished.

First Day Home

Today is our first day home from a quick trip to the Talladega NASCAR race that were held over the weekend. We were with many relatives during the trip and we had lots of fun. I did not go to the two races. I stayed with Bill's Nephew Bryon, his wife Leann and Great Nephew Bradley. We chatted and watched TV including the races. Bill stayed home from the race on Saturday so Bradley could attend. Bradley was happy, because his favorite driver Tony Stewart won.

Bill's son, JR and grandson Devin and another nephew Eric and his girlfriend Melisa were in Alabama for the races also. It is fun for all of us to get together once or twice a year. Sunday I was fortunate to see Bill's great niece Cassie and her two little ones. The came back for a few minutes on Monday prior to us leaving so everyone could see Cassie, Cheyenne and Calley.

Today JR and Devin left here for their home in WI and Bill and I went to town so we could have a little "Our" time together. While we were in town we found a new kitten. He has not received a name yet, but I think by the picture you can see that Bill and him are going to be best buddies. I told Bill he can not name the new kitten Buddy, because we had a cat in the past named Buddy.

I think we will need to put a bell on the kitten. Bill woke up enough to put the kitten in the kitty bed. I saw it sleeping there, but now it is gone. It may be under the quilt again with Bill, but I don't know. Hopefully Bill will realize the kitten is there, if it is there, when I wake him up for dinner. I will post later.

Peggy........worried about the safety of the new kitten!

Parting of Ways

Things change in life daily, but sometimes changes are dramatic. For instance births, deaths, marriages, new jobs or having to leave a job. No matter what the dramatic change is in one's life each of us need to look at the good that comes from that change. The good in my most recent change in life allows me time to help my family with the out door work.



Most recently I parted from a job that I truly enjoyed. I was a two way parting. By that I mean I needed to not do part of the job so the gal I was working for decided she no longer needed my help on the other part of the job. So I call this a mutual departure. I am not mad or even sad about no longer having this job. What does sadden me is I am not sure the person I worked for understands that the stress she was dealing with (not directly related to the job we were doing) at the time of the departure was the cause of the departure. Sometimes we need to delay projects, ideas or plans to be able to do one job well before starting another job.



I work under the rule that when one door closes another one opens. Sometimes people need to look a bit to find that open door but doors are open for each and every one of us. For me a door opened last night. It is not a big, long term project, but I have a small job. I also have a pattern and quilt to make for Quilting Treasures in the next week or so and a baby quilt to finish. My step son and grandson will be visiting next week and we are all going on a trip to Talladega to go to the NASCAR races.



The weather has changed so the past couple of days we have been working outside planting the garden. I think we will finish with the most of the seed planting tomorrow and will wait a week or two until we plant the tomatoes and peppers. The local co-ops have not received their bare root cabbage plants, so we may not plant them this year. We have a few cabbage plants, but not as many as my Dad thinks we need.

Today is Bill's Birthday. We went out to eat lunch and since Bill usually doesn't eat desert Pam, the waitress, put his birthday candle on his hamburger. I thought it was so funny to see the candle right there in the hamburger meat.

Tonight I need to open my EQ6 Quilt Design Program and check the design I have drawn for the Quilting Treasures project. It includes a setting sun, but that is all I am going to tell you until I can post a link to the fabric and pattern.

So don't forget to value all your experiences and always look for the good in situation instead of dwelling on the bad.

Where or where have I been??????

I have not posted since my birthday, but with very good reason for my lack of publishing. Shortly after my birthday Bill and I left for a vacation in Wisconsin. We had many people ask us WHY are you going north in March. The main reason was our 10 year old grandson was to be on vacation from school also. The other reason was we had not been back to my husband's home state since last summer. So for more then a week we were not near a computer.

We stayed at a Condo in Wisconsin Dells. This way we didn't bother anyone else and could have our grandson visit with us. We went out to eat a few times, but we had also brought food with us so we didn't have to leave the Condo if we didn't want to leave. Some people like going out to eat on vacations, but I don't mind cooking. We also did some pre-preparations so most of the time the cooking was easy. On Friday of our visit two of Bill's sisters, a brother-in=law neice and son were visiting for most of the day. We had a great time visiting, eating and playing cards. This was also Bill's son's birthday, but we didn't celebrate it until the next day.

The Saturday party included Bill's son, his wife and son, a nephew and his girlfriend, Bill and myself. Again this included a meal, card playing and lots of chatter. We had a great time and actually celebrated Bill's son and nephew's 34 th birthdays.

Upon arriving home early early in the morning Monday we checked the computer for messages and to actually find out the time. (The electric had been out while we were gone). I managed to get the computer to boot up once, then it froze up and would reboot. Monday a neighbor told us that most likely the power source in our tower was shot. I called around trying to find the part, but everyone wanted to fix the computer, not just sell the part. I finally found one that was larger then we needed, but available to buy. This is how computer dependant our society is today. Every store or computer place I called said to me after I told them I could not boot up my computer and the part I was looking for......."You could go ON-LINE to buy the part" My response to them was "If I could get ON-LINE I would not be calling you looking for the part." Then I immediately hung up. Monday evening we had bad electrical storms, so I didn't want to work on the computer. After the storms calmed down I shakenly installed the new power source. Working on our computer is something I do, but am always worried about it working correctly after I am done. With lots of prayer I finished the installation and plugged everything back in and turned on the computer. I was so thankful to see the screen light up and the disk turning, lights flashing etc. Our computer works again!!!!!!!

The rest of the week was spent at Patti's getting things ready to take her store to the Quilt Festival (I think that is the name) in Chicago. The show is actually in Rosemont west of the city, but close enough to be considered Chicago to those who don't know. Patti and I are leaving Monday. We plan to stay south of the city Monday night and go to the show location Tuesday mid morning. Then the work begins. We have a trailer full of store stuff that will need to be unloaded, unpacked and the booth looking attractive by Wednesday evening. I hope to see many people I know, as I used to live just across the Indiana border from Chicago. I know I might not recognize former friends and relatives, but maybe I will.

Must get going. Dinner is calling.

Happy Birthday to.......ME!

Today I am blessed to be one year older. I like to spend my birthday with my dh Bill. To reflect a bit on this our first year together was in 2003. It was a mild spring day on March 18, 2003 and we decided to spend the day fishing at the pier in our neighborhood. We did well catching fish, enjoying each other's company and making the day special. Many people would have been upset with the day, because we sat through a misty rain most of the day. The way we looked at it was we were together, no one was bothering us and we were enjoying the day fishing. We have repeated several birthdays fishing, but none was as special as that first birthday we were together.

We do try to spend my birthday together. The place may vary, but one constant is we talk about our life together.

Bill supports me with my love of quilting. He encourages me to do what I enjoy doing and to be with people who also enjoy quilting. If it wasn't for Bill I would not be working for Batiks by Design or going to National Quilt Shows or designing again. He also makes sure that I don't overextend myself. I have the tendancy to work too hard to please others and forget to take care of my own needs. I love Bill for taking care of me (and my parents when I am gone).

Today was a totally different birthday for us. I woke very early 4:19am. We had an appointment for 9:15am 65 miles away from home. I was also concerned about today's weather, because we were to get thunderstorms and lots of rain. For the most part the bad storms and heavy rains did not happen where we were, but it was very windy. Our appointment went well, but we won't really know the results of it for a while.

On our way home we stopped at our favorite local restaurant to have some lunch. A man from our neighborhood was also there and sat to talk with us for a while. We are neighbors, but don't see each other often. To make this long story short we spent several hours talking. We got home just in time to make some baked potatoes and grill some steaks to enjoy a family dinner together with my parents.

After dinner we drove down to the lake. We could not have fished from the pier today even if we had the time. The lake is up over the pier and the waves on the lake were white capping. With all the rain north of us I think they will need to hold the water in our lake to allow the flooding above the dam to go down. This makes us happy, because fishing is usually better during a flood and for the summer after a flood.

Tomorrow it is back to work. I think we will be assembling some kits and cutting fat quarter for the April shows. Stop by the International Quilt Fesival at the Batiks by Design booth # 1241 & 1243 to meet both Patti and myself. The fesival is April 11-13. We will also be set up at the Kentucky Oaks Mall during the AQS show in Paducah, KY, but I will only be there thru Thursday April 24.

See all of you soon.

Peggy

March Snow

Spring was in the air. Trees were turning red with buds and the daffodils along the road were blooming. We saw our first robins since late fall and the blackbirds were entertaining us on the way to town with their flying group acrobats. I would wake up early to daylight and it was lasting until after dinner. All the usual signs of spring.

Since moving to western Kentucky back in 1984 I have witnessed another usual sign of spring many times over. That sign is a heavy March snow. Usually it is wet and sticks to the trees and true to form we were blessed with a nice March snow Friday. Here is a picture of what our snowball bush looked like Saturday morning. I should have waited until the sun was shining to take the picture, but I was afraid a wind might blow the snow away. It was very pretty, but the snow is now off all the trees. Some still remains on surfaces that are protected from the sun.

Bill and I cleaned the snow off the front deck yesterday after breakfast. Unfortunately the snow shovel handle broke, but we did get most of the snow off the upstairs deck. Our dog Tipper
had laid on the snow right at the front door. Her body heat melted the snow enough to create ice.

My DH and I told my dad it was there and that he should not go out via their front door, but to come downstairs and use our front door.

Needless to say he did not listen and when he went out he fell as he was trying to close the sliding glass door. I was in the shower at the time and Bill thought I fell. So he checked on me first, I was not the one to fall. When he went upstairs he discovered Dad laying outside at the icy spot on the deck. Fortunately he only hurt his right elbow. Both Bill and him said he has grooves in his elbow to match the grooves of the door frame. I thought Dad would be sore today, but he is fine.

We thought Tipper would be a small dog, because her mother is short. Here she is as a puppy.



She laid under the saw horses as Dad and Bill were building her dog house. She quickly outgrew the dog house, but the cats could hide from her in there. She was soon too tall to even crawl through the door to get to the cats.

Bill is now home from fishing with a broken line. Does that mean he had a BIG OLD FISH on the line???????

Need to go get some work done.

Peggy

My Patterns

I know some of you have been waiting for my patterns to be available. Part of the reason for the delay is I had some of my pieces waiting to see if they would be published first in a magazine. The Dashing Nines has been turned down at this time, so I will now publish it myself. Well actually it wasn't turned down. It was more I wanted the magazine to choose between the two designs Batiks by Design(BBD) and I had submitted so I could publish the other design. Another of my designs, that I have not shown to you is still being considered. I need to get them some additional information. I can tell you this much, if it is published in "the magazine" it won't happen before the Nov/Dec issue. I will keep you informed.

My patterns will be released soon and you may get them from Batiks by Design using the link to the left under My Patterns or directly from me. The first two patterns will be available early next week. I need to do a bit more work to have them just right. Well just right in my eyes.

I worked this morning for Patti at BBD. I finished cutting and packaging a couple of orders then started serging the edges of fabric we are going to wash to put into kits. Patti is going to offer a couple of patterns with prewashed fabrics to see if her customers like them that way. It does take more energy and time on our part, but if they sell we may make more.

After leaving work Bill and I went out to lunch. We try to do that on Thursdays, because it gives us good husband and wife time. Sometimes we will also do some shopping, but today we went to the cemetary. I received a survey from the one of the local cemetarys. I filled it out only because we would get a two night stay in one of several hotels around the country. I know it is a come on, but I can listen to someone for an hour or so to save some money when traveling. I knew we would have to talk to the sales person, but I was honest on the survey indicating that we already had cemetary plots. They didn't ask me where they are located. Actually I have two cemetary plots. One in Ohio, which also has a casket and vault already bought, and a pair that my husband and I have in Wisconsin. We will be using the ones in Wisconsin. Anyway to make the long story short we now have two nights in a hotel to use before September 2009. The sales person was nice and did answer some questions I had about disposing of the plot I own but won't be using.

Tonight I started collecting materials needed for a machine quilting class I am taking Saturday. I know how to machine quilt, but it is nice to practice, learn another person's methods and be with others also in the class.

Tomorrow night Bill and I are having dinner with his sister and brother-in-law. They are passing through our area on their way home to WI from AL. They spent most of the winter in AL. Several couples from WI rent cabins in a state park and enjoy all the activities offered in the area. They picked a great winter to be away from WI, as WI had record snows, winds and temperatures this winter. I'm looking forward to seeing them again.

Well I need to work again tomorrow, so I best get to bed.

Peggy