Good morning to all!

I am back from my business trip and almost recovered - I'm really a lousy traveler when I fly. Took me until last night to catch up with all my email, and I've still not caught up reading everyone's blogs. Figured I'd better do a short post at least so everyone would know I'm still alive and kicking.

I enjoyed the walk down memory lane a few of you posted about. So here's mine:

In 1976 I was a stay at home mom with a daughter who turned two in June and a son born in May of that year. Two kids were 100 times more work than one! I was doing everything I could to stay home - we were so broke! I sewed all our clothes - even tailored a suit for my school teacher husband. I had a vegetable garden in our tiny backyard - filled every corner with garden! I canned about 1500 jars of fruit and vegetables, and froze what I didn't can. I taught piano in the afternoon to about 15 kids - most of whom didn't practice so they never progressed much - that provided money for milk and eggs in between the monthly paycheck. Sometimes I just played with my kids all day. Those were such happy times!

I need to get ready for work. I'll post about 1991 later today.

Up early and ready to go

Woke up at 4:30 - don't know if it was excitement about traveling or nervousness about flying - or maybe a bit of both. I'm basically ready to go - just need to pack the curling iron after it cools down and my toothbrush.

I have at least 10 prepped appliqué blocks - probably more - that I'm taking with me. I know I won't finish them all, but they aren't heavy and I don't want to take the chance of running out of things to do! Typical quilter - I know.

Have a great week everyone - I'll "see" you on Saturday.

Basically a non-quilty day

It's a good thing I took a personal day on Friday - I needed all of this three-day weekend to do everything that needed doing. Today I ran basting stitches around all my circles and pressed them with the mylar templates inside, and that was pretty much it quilt-wise. I did pack my appliqué for my trip - and then realized they'd probably call my Omnigrid tote a "personal item" and not let me take my backpack also. So tomorrow I have to find something to repack it all into that I can put in my backpack.

Speaking of backpacks - I tried to find one of ours and apparently we've stored both of them in our tent trailer - which is in storage at our son-in-law's parents house. That goodness for kids - I just called our daughter and they have one I can borrow. I need something big enough for my purse, my stitching and food. Guess they just don't serve meals on flights any more, but I know I'm going to get hungry before we get to Indianapolis at 10:30 p.m. That will be 7:30 according to my Pacific body time, which is still after dinner. We take off about 1:30 -right after lunch. Looks like we have a one hour layover in Chicago, so hopefully we can grab a little hot food there between gates.

Had an unexpected visit from our son this morning, which was a nice treat. He and his wife live in Newberg Oregon - a little over an hour away - so we don't get to see them more than once a month or so. He was over here for further testing with the Vancouver Police Department - he's hoping to have a second career as a police officer. He's been unemployed for almost a year in spite of his college degree - he's a software developer who took a severance package from his company when they decided to move everyone to Florida. As much as I hate him being unemployed and worry about them a lot, I wouldn't have handled them being in Florida at all well. He had no trouble getting his first two jobs - one right out of college and another when the first company went bankrupt - but now most of the software developer jobs seem to have moved to India. He's sure he could go to work for Microsoft, but they don't want to move to the greater Seattle area because they could never afford a house up there. I've been holding positive thoughts and doing a lot of praying for them, but so far nothing. He really wants a career change to something meaningful in the community, so I'm hoping the police officer thing will work out.

Packed up my small number of winter decorations and got out my small number of spring decorations. I thought I had lots more, but I guess I was thinking about all the Easter things. I have 10 or so beautiful china cups and saucers - many that I inherited from mine and my husband's family - plus a few teapots that I love. I've put them out in the dining room and living room - they look so very spring like! Hung a St. Paddy's day wreath by the front door and called it good. Did four loads of laundry, took care of all the clutter strewn about, and got my suitcase mostly packed.

I sure missed stitching today!

"Preparation Days"

Tuesday afternoon I'm flying to Indianapolis, Indiana for a conference for work. I absolutely hate to fly, so I'm hoping that stitching will keep me busy enough to make the time pass quickly. When I've tried stitching in the past I've just been too nervous - reading seems to work better. But I'm not in the middle of any engrossing books right now - just finished "Stash Envy" by Lisa Boyer - so I'm going to try stitching again. I'm behind on almost all my BOM's; this will give me some time to catch up. So yesterday I prepped 8 different applique blocks.

Here are the blocks I prepped for "Its A Wonderful Life" - Jan Patek's 2005-2006 Girl Gang quilt. It's a typical Jan Patek quilt - lots of different sized blocks and a lot of appliqué. I'm doing this one totally from stash. I'm sticking to her basic color scheme, but changing it a bit. Hers goes from light to dark from the top of the quilt to the bottom - the picture isn't the best - but mine is going to be more even in color value.

This is the second block of the Jan Patek and Cherie Ralston 2006 mystery quilt. I really like the reverse appliqué on the flower blossom. The other piece of fabric is there under the flower fabric - it will show when I do the appliqué.


Here are the blue berries and all the flower centers for the next block. I like to use the mylar circle method. I run a gathering stitch around the outside of each fabric circle. I pull the gathering thread tightly, encasing the mylar circle inside. This makes a very smooth circle. I spray them well with fabric sizing, then press until dry. Once they are cool I release the basting stitches and take out the mylar circle. Works like a charm - perfect berries and flower centers!

Here are the next two blocks for Heirloom stitches. The flower centers go on these two blocks. I've had the basket block pieced since last weekend, but am just now getting to the appliqué preparation.

Finally I thought I'd show you the eagle block. The banner is finished. I had to rip out about 6 applique stitches to change the placement - took about 10 seconds. Seems like it took forever to place the three parts just right - especially the part in the eagle's mouth, and get it stitched down "just so" with tiny stitches. I heaved a big sigh of relief when that was over. Doing the rest of the appliqué will seem like a "piece of cake" after than part!

Checking In

Thought I'd better check in to let everyone know I survived Friday. My back sure ached when I got home. This body is too old for 8.5 hours on my feet with just one short break for lunch. Don't' know why I thought it would be slow - it was Friday after all. I worked drive up, and the stream of cars hardly let up all day. I did balance however - whoopee! I'm sure glad I don't do that every day anymore - even though I really enjoyed the chance to talk to members again.

I wrote a post on Friday night but saved it as a draft because blogger was "eating" my pictures again. When I got up on Saturday I discovered it "ate" my post also, because my draft was no longer there. I meant to post again but got wrapped up with reading blogs until I decided I'd better get into the quilt room and get to work.

I went to the Super Bowl sale at my favorite shop yesterday morning and really didn't do badly. Most everything I bought was a "B" - background and borders. I couldn't pass up packs of Moda 6" squares and a few little rolls of fat quarters at half off, but otherwise was very good. It still came to about $130, but that's low for me when I shop there - especially since I've not been there since last August.

I did get the last of the blocks finished for my Jan Patek mystery quilt - now to set it all together. I must check the math on her sashing measurements first, because I've learned the hard way that math isn't her strong point. It helps when all the measurements add up correctly across all areas of the quilt! Hopefully I can get that set together this week - I'll post a picture when I'm done.

And now back to reality - it's really Monday morning and I MUST get ready for work.

Scary day today

Working from 9:00 to 6:00 today - very different from my usual 7:00-4:00. I manage staff development and training at a large local credit union, but today I'm going to be a teller. We have a branch closing so most of the staff has moved on to other positions inside and outside the organization. They are down to only one employee - the branch manager. People from other branches have been filing, but all branches are short today because of training my assistant is doing. So I'm going to be behind teller row helping members. I've not done that for over 8 years! A lot has changed, and I've kept up with most things since I'm responsible for seeing that all new staff are properly trained, but it's still going to be a huge challenge. I sure hope I balance at the end of the night - wish me luck!

I think I must be at least partly insane. Last night I committed to leading a round robin for my little guild. About 12 want to participate but only one has ever done this before. It's all new to the others. As leader I figure I should participate also. I hope I can find a suitable orphan to be the center of mine so I don't have to make something else!

Have a wonderful day everyone!