Really Random Thursday

I have been so busy trying to clean house for when TGS and OSLW come for a 10-day visit next week, that everything else is falling into ruin. Now the kitchen isn't staying clean because I'm too busy trying to shovel out the guest room! My laundry isn't getting done because I'm trying to get my vegetable and flower gardens weeded...You see how it goes?

I feel like my life is dedicated to randomness lately. I have to really fight my tendency to "squirrel" (see explanation in  this post!). Start to clean guest room. Oh, here's a dish I need to put in the kitchen. Trot down the hall. Oh look! I didn't put away the cereal from this morning. Clean, clean, clean. Oh yes, I was cleaning the guest room. Start to amble down the hall. Oh dear, I left my sweater hanging on the railing of the living room, I should put it away. Stroll to MBR. Oh darn! I forgot I was going to put in some laundry. Drag laundry to garage. I can't believe I forgot to clean the cat litter. Carrying bag of "cat poopies" at arms length to garbage can. Look at all those palm fronds that have fallen with all the wind lately. I'll put them in the yard waste can. Oh shoot! I'm supposed to be cleaning the guest room.

Does this even sound slightly familiar?

But I digress...

My random presentation for this week are some awfully adorable girls. These are my two granddaughter, Curly and Sweety. I was having a Skype chat with them and captured these pictures.

Curly showing me her Easter loot. That's Nancy Drew in the background.

Sweetie and Curly on the egg hunt

Curly looking at picture of herself on Skype.

I tawt I taw a wabbit

Look at my egg!

Showing Nonny the candy in their mouths.

*Sigh* I sure wish they lived closer. Thank heavens, stars and moon that we have Skype!

I'm linking up with Really Random Thursday at Live A Colorful Life. Click on the badge in the right column and see what other random people are doing randomly.

Whoop! Whoop! Friday

Hurrah for Friday! Hurrah for only 40 teaching days left in the school year!

I've been gone from BlogLand for a couple of weeks. It's the Spring Cleaning of the Mind. Yes, I have been occupied in the .... P word.... It's true, my friends, I have been Prioritizing things in my life. Has anyone noticed that everyone has too little time? I heard of a famous astrophysicist who has spent the last 40 years of his life trying to adjust the space-time consortium so that there will be eight days a week, resulting in a three day weekend. Not only that, but he is within a few years of getting a 28 hour day. I know it's true because I read it on the internet! That makes it true, doesn't it?


I've only been blogging for a few months but I love it. I have loved writing since I was in second grade where my career ambitions were to be a mail carrier and an author. What started out as writing about quilting amazingly turned into an unexpected joy. With Spring Cleaning of the Mind I knew I needed to keep writing both my blogs. I still haven't figured all the nuts and bolts, time being the biggie, but I don't want my love of writing to die out.

That alone could be the whoop, whoop, but it isn't. Or there's another.

Okay doke. The main event.

Every March in schools around here, the children celebrate Read Across America. Dr. Seuss' birthday is the annual event day. Kids bring Dr. Seuss books, teachers read them, kids write about their favorite Seuss books. One of my favorite activities is the guided drawing that second graders do. The teacher shows the kids how to draw the Cat in the Hat on the board, and the kids draw. The results are delightful. I've taken pictures over the years and they are a hoot!

I've keep the pictures in their own folder with the ambition of making a quilt with blocks of 2nd grader's drawings of the Cat in the Hat.

Feast your eyes on just a few examples!

While pondering the design of the quilt, I've been trying to figure out what to use as a background. I'm planning on doing a quilt painting or old-fashioned machine embroidery to make each cat. I learned how to do it in 1979, before computerized anything!

To do that, you drop the feed dogs  and set the zigzag for whatever size you need. With the fabric in a hoop, you guide the hoop under the needle and make the picture. It's like a variation of machine quilting.

A month ago, my sisty ugler came down for a visit. She brought me her quilting stash. (Read post here) A few days later, as I gleefully went through the bins I came upon this:

 A tote bag from Read Across America. And what color is the background?? Turquoise! Perfection! Now I know what the background of the blocks will be. I'm especially pleased because turquoise is my new favorite color.

This will be fun! when I get around to it.

I'm hooking up with Sarah over at Confessions of a Quilt Addict. You can click on the badge in the right column to get there. Drop in and see what others are whooping about.

What I'm Reading

This has been a fun week. I finished reading Boundaries, which is a mystery and started on a fantasy series by Garth Nix. As I've stated before, I read a lot of Young Adult Fiction (teenagers). The first Garth Nix series I read was Keys to the Kingdom. That was totally awesome.


I mostly read mysteries, but I got right into Keys to the Kingdom. Around the fourth book I asked my husband what genre K to the K was. He likes fantasy and I never really enjoyed that type of book. I described the plot and he said, "It's fantasy."

I about fell over. "Isn't fantasy dwarves, elves, wizards and fairies?" I asked. Obviously I was wrong. So now I know I like fantasy!

After I finished the 7 books in K to the K, I started on the Fablehaven series by  Brandon Mull. My sil, SWH, recommended the series to me.

I immediately started on those books. Thank goodness it was summer, because I was addicted to the series. My husband started reading Keys to the Kingdom and then moved on to Fablehaven. He caught up to me pretty soon. We would go to bed at night and I would start reading my book. Hubby would then sit there staring at me with puppy eyes and asking, "When are you going to be finished?" He's lucky I'm a fast reader!

Once school started, I slowed down. Hubby still wanted more books to read. I found other series that Garth Nix and Brandon Mull have written and he has read them all.

And they're all waiting for me!

The Fall, Book 1

I started on The Seventh Tower series by Garth Nix. This is a simpler novel than the Keys to the Kingdom, but every bit as enjoyable. I'm ready to start the fourth book tonight.


Last night I sat down with #3 Aenir. I started at nine and figured on going to bed at ten thirty. At midnight, I put down the book. Finished. I read it all in one sitting! I love when I can do that, but it usually takes a day!

Book #4

So on to the next book: Above the Veil #4.



At the bottom of my blog, is a Goodreads widget. One is for the books I've read in 2013, and the other is the books for 2012. The 2012 books look a little skimpy because I forgot to keep track. I've set my goal this year to read 75 books. So far I've read 11 (in a third of the year) but I started slowly. That's what I'm saying now. Who knows? I might have to read 12 hours a day in December!

Design Wall Monday

I have a different sort of design wall this week. I've gotten very little quilting the past two weeks. And yes, I am doing fine...not perishing from lack of quilting.

Along with quilting blogs, I also follow a blog called A Simpler Life, Creating a Simpler, Saner Life. I've signed up for a Decluttering Class there with Beth, the blogger and person behind the simpler life. She sends out weekly Simplicity Tips and has a Declutter Calendar for each month of the year. The class starts tomorrow. I really need this class, I mean, like, really need this class. I know all of you out there are so organized and together, but there are people like me...less talented at keeping it together.

In a couple of paragraphs you will see the depth of my need to declutter. However, Beth gave a challenge to the class to take on a small task to finish before the Declutter Class began. I chose to weed and plant my lettuce.

This picture is now lost because somebody deleted it from the hard drive

TaDa!

No peeking below!  Just look at this garden box in wonder and awe!

This is my design board for the week!

Yes, I got 6 lettuce seedlings in, plus another row of lettuce seeds planted. And a row of green onions planted.The weed cloth is covering the seeds from the birds, they always forget to look there.

And what's ahead of me...this year we have had a bounty of weeds. And I don't weed until right before Spring starts. So Exhibit 1 and 2 are below. Or as I like to call them:

Yucky One and Yucky Two

These pictures are now lost because somebody deleted them from the hard drive

And here is one of two planters with strawberries coming back very nicely.

Now just follow me...keep walking, we're walking, walking...

You see, my son TGS and his OSLW are coming to visit at the end of this month. Hurrah!  I can't wait for them to get here and I'm glad it's a few weeks away. I bet a few of you know of this conundrum.

Most of the house is fine. After all, my sisty ugler was here a few weeks ago and we got the house purtified. The other things that didn't get done, we closed the doors on. I'm one of "those" people who put dirty dishes in their oven when guests come over. Ask my kids. They'll tell you the story of the time I put a plastic colander in the oven. A few days later, I turned on the oven...sniff...sniff...what's that horrible smell??? Baked colander!

I also will gather things up quickly into a laundry basket and put them out in the garage. Or in the tub with the shower curtain pulled.

Stop snickering! You know you do it too!

There's some little straightening, dusting, floor mopping, vacuuming to do. And then there's THIS!

Guest bedroom, right side

Guest bedroom, left side

 And THIS!

Back porch, left side

Back porch, middle

Back porch, right side

I'm glad none of you know where I live...not that you'd want to come after seeing this!

The sad fact is TGS & OSLW read this blog. No secrets now, blabber mouth. I just want them to appreciate how gorgeous the house is when they come. Or pat me sympathetically while they say, "The pictures didn't do it justice."

I've linked up with Judy over at Patchwork Times. Click on badge in right column to see quilts on real design walls!

Design Wall Monday

Spring Break has ended. Boo hoo. I've used up a box of tissue already today.

The week I had off was fun. I must admit that I didn't get as much quilting done as I like. I had cut out pieces for three blue-and-white blocks for my blue and white quilt. See post here.

Here's a question for the universe...why is it I always underestimate the amount of time it takes to make a block? I've been at this quilting thing for about twelve years and you'd think I'd have learned by now. For example, I'll go to quilt with a friend and bring my main "thing" to work on. But since it's not much to work on a bring a second, and maybe, third project. While that has baled me out in times where I forgot the power cord to my machine or don't have the correct foot, where it usually leaves me is confused. That is a different state from bewildered, which is my normal state of mind.

There I am, scratching my head, saying, "Well, yeah, it always takes more time than you think it will." But still I don't learn.

Back to the first day of Spring Break. Three blocks ready to go, pieces already cut. Okay, I say to myself, before I get going on the REAL project, I'll sew this together. It's been forever since I've added to this quilt.

First block takes a day-and-a-half. Remember, it's Spring Break and my days are full days.

Second block, with puttering around in between, gets finished on Friday.

Around Wednesday I decided (because I was forced to) that it's okay I'm only making an eensy bit of progress. I'll just finish up block 2, make block 3. After that I'll make the Nook cover I've wanted to do. And there are a couple of blocks I've wanted to make from my block swap days. It'll just be a fun and random quilt week.

Now that I've got my head aligned with the universe, I continue on, humming as I go.

Saturday I spend 5 hours working on the gardens. Thought I'd be done by noon and start quilting. Start quilting at 4 p.m. Basketball game at 6. Two hours to quilt. I chuck the whole idea of the 3rd blue and white block and move onto Nook cover. I have it about 2/3 of the way done.

Do you see how I do it, even with all the smoke and mirrors? I made a plan at the beginning of the week, which I didn't realize was too ambitious. Mid-week I amend my plan to be more in line with what is actually happening. But I set another booby trap. It's way too ambitious again.

My head hurts. When will I ever learn? Do any of you have this problem? Have any of you ever gotten to the other side? Tell me the secret, please.

Here's the paltry amount I got done, but enjoyed my week anyway.

Blindman's Fancy. From Quilter's Cache

This block was a bear to make. It wasn't all those HSTs. It was the center portion and getting the side setting to make an even square. And the measurements were funny. The innermost square was 3-11/16". And some 3/8" and 5/8"s. Thank goodness she gave a template for the inner square! I think next time I would paper piece this one. It was such a pretty block that I had to do it. And that's the nice thing about the sampler type quilt. You only have to make one block. I wouldn't ever want to do this block for an entire quilt! Unless I wanted it to be the only quilt I ever made from here on out!

 I love the plaid for the Nook cover. I love plaid. I adore plaid. I buy plaid. I think plaid. I dream plaid. Plaid, plaid, plaid.

I was looking for just the right plaid for the cover. I knew this was the one the second I saw it. Just the color and it looked worn already. It also reminded me of the plaid lunchboxes we had as children.

Happy memories.

If you're looking for a tutorial for a Nook cover, I got the idea from Michelle at Michelle's Romantic Tangle. Here's where you can get the tute. You can adjust sizes for any book reader and it's very simple to do.

I'm hooking up with Judy at Patchwork Times. Mosey on over and take a look at others design walls. The link to Judy is on the right sidebar.

Best wishes for Monday and new start on the week!

Stash Report Week 12

Yikes! Judy at Patchworks Times reported that next week will mark a quarter of the first year and how is our stash going? Well, mmmmm, what an interesting question. Did you know that a duck's quack doesn't echo,* and no one knows why. I don't know where somebody found a duck in an echo chamber, but people do strange things...

Now, where was I? Oh yes, Judy. I have to tell you, Judy is a great person. Her blog is full of neat quilty stuff but also things about her "homestead." Her friendly chicken, Miss Hattie, who follows her and her husband around. The planting of many, many, many fruit trees. You can reach her by clicking on the Patchwork Times badge on the right. In fact, that's where you'll find the stash report.

Oops...that was what this post was about. Yes, I haven't done well. I'm in the negative. Okay, I just thought that as soon as I get started on the BIG project, the numbers would start climbing. It's all Judy's fault, I could have easily reported my stash report, but she had to mention the first quarter of the year.

The only fractions I am good at are thirds. You see I have to send out trimester progress reports. If you're a math whiz, you'll know that trimester indicates 3 time periods. At the beginning of March, I sent out the second trimester progress reports. I know that I am 2/3rds of the way through the school year. Are you impressed with my mathematical prowess?

Lets' see...now where was I?  Oh yes, fractions. Did you know that 23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts? It makes me wonder. The copy machine at the schools I work at are always getting broken. Makes you think, doesn't it? Of course, the number 23% is a representation of a fraction that is 2/3. That is also the same fraction that marks how far I am in the school year.

All right. I just stop putsying around.

Here's My Report

Stash Count Week 13

Used This Week:  1 yd, and that ladies and gents, is a move in the right direction
Used 2013: 15.5

Added This Week: 0 yards!
Added 2013: 31.5

Net 2013: -16 yards

Just to take the sting out of it--here's another incredible and amazing fact: In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand.*

Hook up with Judy at Patchwork Times to see others Stash Reports. Click on button in right sidebar.

Say Good Night Gracie! (look it up if you are younger than me!)

*source: 193 Funny and Interesting Facts

Another Thursday Thing: Sew Thinky

I've been wanting to join in on the Sew Thinky at Mommy's Naptime. This is Week 8 and the question this week is "Who do you like to sew for the most?"

My first thought was ME. The next was my family. But truly, the real answer is I love to quilt for my grandchildren and my husband.

I made a scrappy quilt from Bonnie Hunter's site at Quiltville. It's called Bricks and Stepping Stones. After the blocks were done, I did the layout on the floor and it looked so terrific. The "bricks" had come from my Aunt Marie's stash. I got very revved up!

Then something horribly, black magically went wrong. *gulp* You might want to remove the children from the room! I sewed all the blocks together just like in the picture on the left below. But when I put the finished top on the design board it wasn't the same! It looked awful. It wasn't cohesive. What had I done? What went so terribly wrong???

I see, I just clicked on the file right before this one! This is the Bricks and Stepping Stones laid out on the floor.

Then my hubby/hero walked in the room. He said, "That looks very nice. I really like that quilt." I managed to snarl out of the side of my mouth, "Then you can have it!" I'm nothing if not gracious.

He loved the quilt. He wanted my quilt. He said it was his favorite kind of quilt. It reminded him of his Great-Aunt Kitty's quilts (whom he adores).

So now you can see why I love to make quilts for my hubby.

Then there's the time I made Sweetie a quilt for her newly painted in a new house bedroom. I had made the curtains and later I made the quilt. I had to wait about a year before I gave it to her. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but she was in love with High School Musical and wanted a bedspread of that. A year later she got the quilt. Nancy Drew called me up and said that Sweetie wanted to tell me something. Sweetie shouted, "I LOVE THE QUILT. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. I LOVE IT." It melted my heart.

Sweetie on her first day of school that year.

And that is why I like making quilts for my grandchildren.

Really Random Thursday 3/21/13

This time I found something in the realm of randomness and I hope it will entertain you!
For more randomness, hook up with Live A Colorful Life. The badge is on the right bar.

My hubby wubby and I celebrated Thanksgiving with another family. While I puttering around their kitchen I got caught up on the front of their fridge. They had pictures, of course, but they also had cartoons and other funny stuff. I liked one so much that I asked for a copy. Here's what I found that tickled my funny bone.

   How To Write Good

      by Frank L. Visco

1.    Avoid alliteration. Always.

2.   Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

3.   Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)

4.   Employ the vernacular.

5.   Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

6.   Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

7.   It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

8.   Contractions aren't necessary.

9.   Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

10.One should never generalize.

11.  Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."

12. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.

13. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.

14. Profanity sucks. (sorry, phrase is for example only)

15. Be more or less specific.

16. Understatement is always best.

17. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

18. One-word sentences? Eliminate.

19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

20.       The passive voice is to be avoided.

21. Go around the at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

22.       Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

23.       Who needs rhetorical questions?

What Are You Reading

I'm thinking that I may have gotten my days mixed up, which is truer than I want to admit, and I thought today was Reading Day at Judy's website. Notwithstanding, I am addicted to reading and will go ahead and let you know about my reading this week.


 Iron Bay is the first in a series of novels about Cocoran O'Connor, "Cork" who lives in a small town in Minnesota. He used to be sheriff, but through tragedy lost the job. He is part Irish and part "Anishinaabe Indian". (quotes are there because that is how it is referred to in the book.) The books are mysteries, which is one of the main genres that I read.

I first read a Cork O'Connor a couple of years back. I read the fourth book, Thunder Bay. I liked it enough that I put it on my request look on Paperbackswap.com   It took a little while, but I got it two weeks ago. Within the week, the second book in the series was available for me. I read Iron Lake this past week. I started the second book, Boundary Waters last night.


I'm liking the series. It's definitely up there with Dick Francis and Sue Grafton (my favorite mystery authors) but I like Cork as the main character. There is a lot of description of the landscape of lakes, wildlife and Anishinaabe culture. It's fun to learn about all of this.

I recommend this book to mystery lovers as an engaging read with native american history and good plot lines.

If Judy shows up with What Are You Reading later in the week, I'll link you up with her site.

Happy, Relaxing and Enjoyable Reading Everyone!

Bookends of the Week: Design Wall Monday and Whoop Friday

It's a great Monday, the first of my Spring Break. It's a real burden this vacation time...all I have to spend my time on is quilting. Poor me!

This past week I've mostly been hand quilting a string quilt I made. It was the first string quilt I've made. I did it as a L/E and it took 2 years to make the top. It has some beautiful plain fabric squares among the string blocks. I wanted to do hand quilting there.. I took it first to a LAQ to quilt all the string blocks and borders, leaving me the plain squares. I figured it would take me about two years to get it hand quilted...sure, yup, I was certain another two years would do it.

Someone want to help me get this egg off my face?

By the way, did I mention to you that it's a king-size quilt?

Uh-huh, I thought that would garner sympathy.

It's been more like four years. That's what? Double the time I estimated? The first excuse reason I found was I can't quilt it in the summers. Too hot with that humongous quilt on my lap. Even more sympathy!

I'm closing on the finish line--yippee! I only have 10 more setting triangles to finish, then it's on to binding. I'm doing about 3 setting triangles every 3 days.

One of the precious parts for me is that the plain fabric is from my Aunt Marie's stash. It's a lovely shade of lavender. It was a very difficult time finding border fabric. If you put blue next to it, the plain fabric looks purple. Then if you put purple next to it, the fabric looks blue. Silly me, I actually like that kind of fabric. Looking at the picture you can see I finally found green worked great.

Close up of handquilting in square

Close up of hand quilting on setting triangle

The other thing I'm working on for a quick change is three blue-and-white blocks for my everlasting blue-and-white quilt. I first started it when I was in charge of BOM for our guild. Every block I chose I would make a sample for the guild and then a copy in blue and white. The blocks are 12 inch. did that for a year and since then I've been on my own. I've made 29 blocks and have 7 left to do. After these three, I'll only have four. It's big. It's beautiful. I've really enjoyed working on it. I'm really trying to stop using really as an adjective! It's difficult!

Here's the block I worked on today, after 3 hours trying to make a collage for my Family Blog. It's our Anniversary and I am trying to make a collage of my hubby and I. It's not done yet. Really. The program kept crashing. I found out that saving the collage didn't save the layout, it just saved the collage as a picture. Each time it crashed I would also have to go back and upload my pictures again. It's really been a devil in the making. Really.

This explains how in one day I didn't even finish one block. Here's the one laid out and ready to sew together. It is called Bridal's path.

Bridal Path

Progress in 2012

You can check out other cool quilter's share their design wall over at Patchwork Times. I'm also hooking up with Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Friday.  Click on badge in right column.  Really