The Week That Was

This week was spent with two things on the agenda - celebrating Lily's birthday and finishing that @#%* purple quilt.
Ric and Sam took us to Newport on the Levee to Mitchell's Fish Market for lunch Tuesday to celebrate her birthday. I was able to have my favorite dish - peel and eat shrimp with two of my favorite people.
I continued adding to the quilt to get it to the size I want. I am still 12 inches short on each side. Hopefully I will have it finished this week.

I did finish my Easter wallhanging and table runner but I will wait until Easter to show those.

Sunday we were off to Belterra Casino to again celebrate Lily's birthday.

We had some good conversation and good food. Lily was disappointed that they had taken her favorite machines away but she still gave them some of her money. A good time was had by all! Not too many people can manage to make their birthday celebration last an entire week but she did!

The weather has turned cold but sunshiney. Hope your life is going the way you want!

If something's unladylike or fattening, it's probably a lot of fun!

Spring is a tease

The last week has been a tease. It's like - okay the groundhog said you'd have six more weeks of winter, you've had your major ice/snow event for this winter, now let me show you what you have to look forward to. Temperatures in the 50s and 60s, lots of sunshine and after the rainstorm a beautiful rainbow outside my windows. I didn't go searching for the pot of gold but it sure was nice to think about what I would do if I found it.

Even without that pot of gold, I'm going to Florida!!! This afternoon we are going to AAA to plan the trip to Key West. I am so excited to visit Ray, walk in the garden of good and evil in Savannah, see Peggy after several years, watch the sun set in Key West.

I haven't posted for a couple of weeks because not much was happening. If I wasn't out eating at Marabelles with Ric and Sam, eating a Maggiola's with Bob and Joyce and Ron and Iva, eating salmon from Lake Michigan with Karen and Bonnie, eating at Appleby's with the in-laws or eating birthday cake with Jake and Emerson at Bounce U. , I was quilting that @#@% purple quilt. You can tell my social life revolves around eating. That's Southern Hospitality - eat and drink sweetened tea!!

Jake's fifth birthday party was at Bounce U in Lexington Saturday. I would have pictures but those thirteen pre-schoolers were bouncing and running so fast they were just blurs for the time we were there. Thank God, He gives children to the young because I was just exhausted watching them move so fast. Emerson was as brave as the five year olds going to the top of the slide and sliding by herself.

Today is my baby's 35th birthday. Can you believe that? It seems like yesterday sometimes that he was grinning at me to get his way!!! Course he still does!

This is the progress on the purple quilt. What do you think? This will be the center of a queen size quilt. I am doing a quilt as you go and it is going very well.

Gotta go! Lily and I can't go to Florence without going to Cracker Barrel for lunch and then to AAA.

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. H.L. Mencken

Country Music

I got a letter today from an old college roommate. She said - you are a strong, independent lady who has strength and resolve. HA! If she only knew!
Few of my friends have experienced widowhood yet although several of them have experienced divorce. I don't know how much that hurts but let me tell you something - to survive widowhood, you are either strong and independent or you lose it!! The experts tell you to expect a least one year of indecision. HA! Mine lasted 4-5 years. And you don't know you are crazy until you aren't crazy anymore. And if you need it, you get professional help.
What does that have to do with country music?
When I was growing up there was one radio station to listen to. And it played that horrible country music all day long. But between 4-6 pm you could get "contemporary" music until it was time to "come home, come home, it's suppertime". I loved what is now called Motown and Elvis, of course. I loved the rhythm, I loved the bass, I loved the words - you could understand them. Then along came the Beatles and I thought they sounded like they were standing up there shouting and screaming the words and sometimes I couldn't understand the words. So through college I shifted between country (but not bluegrass) and Motown.
When I met Ivan, he was pure country - that beer drinking kind of country - the sadder the better. So I learned to like Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Charlie Rich and all those of that generation. I could understand the words and I liked the rhythm. For 34 years, I listened to country daily. Until the day Ivan died. After that, I couldn't listen to country music at all no matter how I tried. So I switched the radio stations to what is now referred to as Golden Oldies.
Until this January - and for some unknown reason, after over 8 years, I can again listen to what is now referred to as Country Classics. I was searching radio stations, landed on a country station, liked it, and could listen without being flooded with sadness and misery. I could actually laugh as I remembered where Ivan and I heard that song, who we were with, what we were doing and whether he sang along or not!!
So for all those out there who haven't faced widowhood yet - one of these days you are going to think you are crazy and you are and that's okay. And as the saying goes, time heals all wounds. And you will be strong and independent as well - or you don't survive!

January Quilts

Thought I would show you what I've accomplished during the month of January.


I've shown you this fabric before but the pile keeps growing. I am trying a new technique where you quilt as you go. Quilt a section. Sew two sections together; put a fabric strip over the seam and when you get to the last section, your quilt will be finished. We'll see if it works. I hope it will so I can do queen and king quilts easier since I do not have a long-arm machine and do everything on my Singer.

This is a lap throw that Lily made me from fleece. Doesn't the green and burgundy look good together? And it is so warm and comfortable.

This is my Valentine's Day wall hanging from the book Holiday Collage Quilts by Joanne Goldstein. I got adventurous with the edges - won't do that again. I don't like the effect and it doesn't hang very well. But it is done!

Since I had given away all my lap quilts, I decided to use this material to try out making zig-zag blocks. It wasn't as hard as I thought. And I have a colorful lap quilt for these snowy days.

This is John's looooong quilt I made out of my batik material (the center column is not batik - just filler) and some other odd material. I used the Greek Key stitch to quilt the rows and I think the back may look better than the front. If they don't like the brightness of the front, they can always flip it over and use the solid side.

That's what I got accomplished during January on the quilting side of my life. Not much else happening since the weather is not pleasant enough to do much else.

February is dedicated to making the purple quilt, celebrating John, Jake and Lily's birthdays, celebrating Valentine's Day with the ones I love, seeing Lucilu's vet, seeing all my doctors - GP, Cardiologist, dentist, mammogram, and any other part of my body I think is older than my brain and is in danger of falling apart!!