Happy New Year

And so goes another year.  I have looked back in my record keeping for my sewing projects and I see that I have accomplished something this year.  It's a good thing I keep track of what I make each time or else I'd think I didn't do a thing all year!  Come the new year, I hope to make a large dent in the "to do" list of quilting projects; I'll let you know Dec. 2012 if a dent was made.  So...Happy New Year!

And life goes on

On December 5, 2011 my mother, Betty Ann died.  She had been battling to breathe for awhile now, hooked to an oxygen tube trailing around behind her.  It was difficult to listen to her attempt to breathe and walk across a room.  She was a smoker, had been from her teen years, you see the cigarette industry made it so "cool" and "glamorous" to smoke in her early years.  I for one am glad there aren't cigarette comercials on tv, on billboards, or in magazines any longer.  I have a grandson, Steve, a niece, Emily, and some family members who still smoke and I dearly wish they would stop.  There were days when my mom drove me crazy when I was a teenager and too when I was an adult, but I loved my mom and I will miss her.  I found this Winnie the Pooh saying a few days ago on Pinterest and it made me think of my mom.  Maybe you can attribute this to someone in your life too.  "If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart, I'll stay there for forever." Winnie the Pooh 

A Sew Day

Today Mardi and I were test students for Lorene for a class she'll be teaching soon. We sewed at my house and that's my "Over The River"quilt behind Mardi, I finished it this summer; don't you just love it??  I do! We didn't finish our project but we did learn how to begin and how to finish. Check out a little of our fun time.

Isn't Mardi's pretty.

I did work on my little quilt after the girls left and heres the result.  No borders yet.

With borders.  Cute!



Now I just need to make my quilt sandwich and do a little quilting and I'll be ready for Valentine's Day.  Christmas you say, oh I think I'll be ready.  :)

What did I do today?

Isn't it frustrating when a person thinks they are all organized and ready to do something and then it doesn't work!  That was the beginning to my day.  I thought I was taking a EQ-7 class only to discover I had not reactivated my lap top.  I guess that means I should be creating more via EQ-7 than I have been.  A kind student in our class shared her lap top w/ me and I took lots of notes.  Now, does anyone think I'll know what my notes mean in about two weeks?!

My other activity today was to help a friend paint her new patio home.  There were four of us painting and still only managed to get one room painted.  Of course we didn't get the trim done but that's for tomorrow.  Now I have paint drips on the top of my left foot and am hoping it comes off!  lol

I've been busy!

The UPS guy brought me a beautiful box of goodies, can you guess what was in the box?

                                                                  Beautiful apples!

What does a girl do with beautiful apples you ask...cut them up and put them in a pot!

Then when the apples are cooked, put them in pint jars, give the pretty apples a water bath for 30 minutes and then........

BEAUTIFUL, YUMMY APPLESAUCE!

Home again

The month of October flew by.  We did our annual houseboat week at Lake Powell the end of September.  This year we decided to stay an extra two days and it sure made for a more relaxing week.  We had one adventure this year, our houseboat got stuck on the beach and we had to be towed off!  We've been boating at Lake Powell for 15 years and this is the first time we were beached, pretty good for us land lubbers!  Once we returned home, I packed my suitcase and flew to the mid-west.  Fall is my favorite time of year and this year was so pretty.  Some of the leaves had fallen but some of the leaves were just turning.  I made a drive to Ohio to visit my daughter and her family,  had fun w/ the boys.  Took my grandfather to Gays Mills, WI for apples and we had a beautiful day for a drive up the river road along the grand Mississippi.  Stopped for a visit w/ my parents and ended the trip in Cedar Rapids w/ my sister, Lynn.  Got to see lots of friends this visit and had a great time.  Alas, it was time to come home and sleep in my own bed.  Home again, home again...jiggidy jig!

Where have I been???

As is the usual for me, I've been sooo busy.  I've been sewing, trying to catch up on some of my many projects.  I also was on vacation for 9 days at Lake Powell.  I have too many pictures and not enough time to post some of them as I'm off to the mid-west for two weeks in the morning.  I have to get my fix of some Fall weather since temps in the upper 80's and low 90's is NOT my idea of Fall.  So, I've packed my suitcase w/ some jeans and sweaters and I'm hoping for some Fall color and some Fall temperatures..wish me luck!

Another Arts 'n Craft Day

Another very crafty, talented friend of mine had a class in her home today and we created with Tina's help a photo album

This is the prototype; very pretty.

This is me working on trying to make mine as glamorous as Tina's

Tina had a beautiful table decorated with a beach/Hawaii theme. We had fun lunches in boxes, drinks in mason jars, and strawberry shortcake in small fruit jars.  I didn't get my album done but I will finish it and post photos when it's as pretty as Tina's.  Thanks Tina for a fun day!

Cooling off in Flagstaff

I enjoyed two days in Flagstaff thanks to my friend Linda and her husband, Mike. They have a beautiful home and treated me very well. We had yummy food, a little wine, and some laughs. Linda had a little sewing lesson on Wed. and then on Thursday morning, another friend of Linda's, Leanna, joined us and we made jewelry. I had purchased beads in Venice and had never done anything with them. Linda guided me and I actually made a bracelet.

First the planning

Here's the finished project!

Thanks Linda for a relaxing two days, I hated to drive back down the mountain into the heat of Phoenix.

Birthday lunch

I took a quick trip to Payson today to have lunch with Pat and Creig Solomon to celebrate Pat's birthday. We had lunch at Macky's, famous for their hamburgers and a yummy dessert named "Southwest Cheesecake." Let me tell you it's very yummy. If you go to Payson and have lunch be sure to go to Macky's, have a burger and then have this....

It's cheese cake filling wrapped with a flour tortilla and then deep fried, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, and served with ice cream, strawberrys and whipped cream!!  As Rachel Ray says...

YUMMO!!

A sewing day

Monica and I sewed today at my house, we worked on a cover for our 3-ring binders.  

Here's Monica working on hers. 

Here's mine in progress

Here's Monica's almost done!

My friend Deb stopped by and had lunch with us.

The girls agreed to have PB&J, can you see us grown-ups having a kid sandwich!  We had vegies too that Monica brought and of course what's lunch without brownies!  Thanks for a fun day gals!  I'm almost finished with my binder cover, just need to put the binding on!  Yeah!

It's done!

I started this blog telling of my woe in cleaning the pool tiles.  Well, if I had just called my cousin in Yuma I would have had those pesky tiles cleaned long ago!  I called him in consult for our 'green' salt water pool and he gave me some pointers and then he asked, "did I have that calcium buldup" and I said YES!  Well, I again followed his advice and now the tiles are clean!  I had planned on cleaning tiles the rest of the summer and now I can sit back, read a book and enjoy my sparkling clean pool!!  Aaaaaahhh, summer by the pool in AZ.  Never mind that the pool is 96 degrees! lol 

It's quiet in my house.

What a fun and crazy time it's been at my house for the past ten days!  My daughter, Amy, her husband, Michael and their two handsome boys, Noah (8) and Josiah (18 mons) have been visiting.  They live in Ohio and so were in need of some thawing out; according to my daughter she officially thawed out last Saturday. By then she was melting!  It was so fun to have them here, we had lots of coming and going all week long. Amy and Michael celebrated their 11th Anniversary while here in AZ, we had the boys so they could celebrate. We counted up the times Noah swam and he was in the pool every day but two!  Josiah had had enough of the sun by the middle of the week, he actually cried when he was in the sun; I cry too on occasion when it's this HOT!  Josiah also learned the first week they were here that the seat belt is hot after the car sits in the AZ sun, he never forgot this the rest of his visit!  Sadly, all good things must come to an end so on Monday I took them to the airport and now they are all sleeping quite comfortably in their own beds....aaaahhh.

Spring cleaning in July

Since our daughter, Amy and her family are here in AZ I decided that the house needed cleaning and I did just that.  I scrubbed bathrooms, floors(on my hands & knees) and cleaned out the refrigerator of it's science projects.  Come on we all have them, don't deny it!  Anyway, wouldn't you know it, I forgot to dust under the tv and my grandson, Josiah found that darn dust!  Oh well, so much for spring cleaning in July.

Amy and Michael are celebrating their 11the wedding anniversary and so we have their boys with us.  Josiah and grandpa are catching a few z's, Josiah in the pak'n play and grandpa in his recliner.  :)  Noah is playing with his new Lego's we bought at Target.  Yes, we made a trip to Target all ready!  That's what grandmas are for!

How difficult should it be?!

As my title states...how difficult should it be...to change the kitchen faucet?  A person would think, take off the old faucet put on the new faucet.  Nope, doesn't work that way.  It now takes two trips to the Home Depot and a couple of bandaids, one cut in particular could maybe use a stitch or two.  But I put a bandaid on the tbumb and called it good.  I'm not a surgical nurse any more!  :)  The new faucet looks nice in spite of the fact that it's mostly plastic!!!  I'm not kidding.  The only metal part is the post that holds the retracting faucet head.  I was pretty ticked when I discovered the plastic, a new faucet isn't cheap.  Bruce says, didn't you touch it when you checked it out.  I told him I couldn't reach it, it was on display above my head.  So...if you need a new kitchen faucet be sure there isn't any laundry that needs to be done cause the water will be off for awhile!  Enjoy you're day.

Lunch with a good friend

So, I haven't seen my friend Pat Solomon in probably a year or more, yeah we used to see each other weekely but she moved to Payson.  I drove to Payson to have lunch and catch up.  We had yummy food at Macky's Grill in Payson and good conversation.  Pat is one of those people who like to have the server bring her dessert with her lunch.  She had a very tasty looking slice of berry pie.  I'm going to have to learn to take more pics and how to load them to this blog.  I had a large slice of apple pie and had the server bring it with my lunch too.  I have to say, I did not eat my pie until I finished my 1/2 sandwich and cup of soup.  :)  I left Pat and drove to Pine to pick up an ironstone water pitcher (which is part of a bowl and pitcher set) that had a fractured handle (when I say fractured, I mean fractured!) and this darling lady named Shirley repaired it for me.  Now mind you, she has had the pitcher since January!  If I had not seen the fractured pieces I would not have been able to tell you where the pitcher had been broken the repair was that good!  Thank you Shirley, you are a sweet gal.  She also informed me that the pitcher is from England and was made in 1853!!  If anyone ever needs porclean repaired go see Shirley in Pine, AZ at the ice cream shop.  So, I'm home and thought I would catch a dust storm but it's very peaceful here in the Valley of the Sun tonight.  Oh...we did get rain sometime in the night.  No pool tiles cleaned in the last 5 days...sigh.

Now the cleanup begins

I now have more problems than calcium deposits on my pool tiles, I now have mud in the bottom!  We had one of the largets dust storms( I refuse to call it a Haboob, I don't live in India) I have seen in the 31 years I've lived in AZ!  My SUV is too large for the garage and I went out this morning to get into my vehicle and it looked like a giant ant hill!! lol  My SUV is a sand color and it was covered in dust about a 1/4" deep.  The news guys say it was the largest dust storm in AZ in a 100 years!!  That's a long time!  Anyway, I'm going to wait one more night before I head out to brush down the pool...we're supposed to have another dust storm this evening. sigh

What else have I been doing.

We have a pool in our backyard and as everyone who lives in AZ knows, who has a pool, it's a lot of work.  Last year as the water warmed I jumped in to begin the cleaning of the tiles.  I even tried to convince two of my grandsons it was FUN to scrub tiles.  I agreed to pay them 5 cents a tile; I know there are child labor laws on the books.  Well, Aidan earned ten cents and he earned not another nickel!  I couldn't convince him it was FUN any more!  (At this point I must confess I left home for 7 weeks and didn't clean a single tile!)  This is the routine..a person goes to the pool store, buys the pumice stones (you have to buy at least two), return home, jump back in the pool and begin the scrubbing process.  Well....let me tell you right now, this is hard work and no FUN; can you imagine working up a sweat in the pool??!!  I'm sure there's a more expensive way to clean the tiles but that's not going to happen.  Of course, the pumice stones don't last for too many tiles and so it's back to the pool store for two more!  So...the chore continues this summer.  I figure if I do three tiles a day, now mind you I've already missed several days of not cleaning tiles, I could be finsihed by the end of summer.  Of course, by that time it'll be time to start over!  Aaahhh...the joys of pool ownership!  Have a great day and be sure to wear sunscreen!

Busy having fun

I have just spent the past 4 days with 8 other women, one of whom was my Aunt Bonnie, at quilt camp in Showlow, AZ.  I completed two quilt tops, one queen size and one twin.  Now I have to get some backing fabric and get them quilted.  We all know I quilt by check.  :)  I also finished the top for the challenge fabric we received in January at our Thimbleberries meeting.  It's supposed to be completed by July 9 at our meeting; there's no sense in rushing into anything, right!  I just have to make my quilt sandwich and do some stitching in the ditch and I'll be right on time.  Quilt camp  food was outstanding because as we all know...it's all about the food, sewing and food and sewing and oh...laughing too!  Have a great day and if you live in AZ stay cool!!

I lost a couple of days

Where to begin!  What a whirlwind weekend we had in Omaha.  Bruce finally gave in and flew to Omaha w/ me on a different airline!  But we surprised his mom big time!  We all walked for the Pancreatic Cancer fund raiser, it was only 2 miles but I would think if I was 4 years old two miles is a loooong way.  Ms Charlee (my great-neice) walked most of the way until she asked her daddy, Matt for a ride.  I will learn to insert pics I promise cause it was a beautiful day and there were 400 people walking or running.  Omaha did itself proud on Sat. for the PanCan organization.  We ran all weekend and I figure I can keep up w/ the best of the folks having a good time but by Monday evening after I had arrived home I was down for the count.  I had the chills, fever, aches, and basically felt like crap until today.  I'm glad to be feeling better and catching up on lost days for sewing!  Here's to staying healthy!!

The House is painted!

The house looks so clean since the painters left. :)  Just wait until the first dust storm and things will be back to normal...dusty!  I took the hubby to the airport this morning so he could fly to San Diego for a meeting for the day.  I should have gone along and hung out at the beach all day...I wasn't thinking.  So instead of sitting at the beach I was washing windows.  Something's wrong about this day!!!  I decided since the screens were off it was a good time to wash the windows...boy was it a good time as I couldn't remember the last time I washed windows.   Should I be admitting that??  I got several windows done until I got hot and sweaty, the rest will wait until tomorrow.

How long does it take to paint a house?

The painters came yesterday morning before 0600, that's 6 a.m. and began power washing the house!  We knew they were coming but did they have to come that early??  I guess in this AZ heat it's better to get started early.  Two of my grandsons were having an over night and Aidan who is 11 said as the guys wrapped plastic sheeting around the windows and doors..."we're getting fumagated!"  Out of the mouths of babes.  It is pretty funny to see windows and doors taped shut from the inside, makes it diffuicult to see out.  I'm going to learn to input pictures one of these days and then you'll really see what I've been up to.  :)  Happy day everyone!

It's official...we mourn the closing of a local quilt shop

Nothing is sadder in my opinion than the closing of a quilt shop...we all will share a moment of silence. (sigh)  I went with a friend to The Quilted Apple on Friday morning to pay my respects and to buy a ruler if there were any left.  Well....there were no rulers but there was still plenty of fabric, I came away with some of it, but rest assured I did leave some for my fellow quilters. :)  The "Apple" has been in the valley since before I moved here in the late 70's and was a great quilt shop, she will be missed by all her loyal patrons.

I've been traveling

There's something great about spending time with family.  My Aunt Bonnie, my mom's youngest sibbling, lives in Yuma, AZ and I usually travel to see her two or three times during the year.  We both love to quilt and we always have a fun time together.  I drove to Yuma on Monday and returned home on Thursday.  The two of us needed new glasses so we braved the border and crossed into Mexico.  I now have new lenses in my glasses and a new pair of sunglasses with my prescription lenses.  I knew I needed new lenses as my eyes have changed...now it's getting used to the new strength!  I did get some sewing done while in Yuma.  I've had this on going English Paper Piecing project for the past three years and I worked on sewing the little pieces together...it's beginning to look like a quilt.  :)  Will tackle the EQ7 program this weekend, it's time to expand what little knowledge I have! :)

What have I been doing?

No computer training for the last two days and that's a problem since I'm worried I won't remember what I did.  I have been working on other projects and having lunch with the girls and finally, I completed and have the label on my latest triump!  I finished the quilt titled "Over the River and Through the Woods" by Crab Apple Hill Designs, this was a three year journey and I'm thrilled it's completed!  I like to do stitchery to take a break from quilting and that's why it took sooo long.  :)  I have a few projects around my sewing room, the garage, the guestroom, you know, all the places we put projects when we think I'll get back to that one when I finish this new one!  So...I better get back to the sewing machine and work on one of those projects I've been meaning to finish.  Have a fun weekend.

Take'n a break from the computer

I decided to not become frustrated today...I took a computer break from my EQ7 program.  I had a Jo Morton Little Women meeting and then came home and finished a project.  I have been working on eight door hangings for the school rooms at our church, I must say they turned out so cute!  Each class room has a name and they needed new signs as the orginal ones were getting old and droopy.  So...that project is done and now on to something new like a cute little quilt from my Jo Morton fabric.  :)  Happy evening and happy quilting.

Can success be accomplished twice!

After a few trys this morning, I by some miracle of chance, printed the foundation pattern for the basket and the cutting directions for the Friendship Star!  I'm not sure I realize what I did but who cares!!  I did it! LOL  There is just one little problem, the foundation pattern printed on two pieces of paper and now I have to try and figure out, can the second page have the whole pattern pieces rather than half on one page and half on the second page; such a dilemma.  But then that's for another day, can't overwhelm the brain cells all at once because we all know what happens when things get over loaded....they shut down and freeze.  Have a fun day inspite of little glitches with paper foundation printing!  :)

A successful try!

Well, after a couple cups of coffee, some breakfast and reading the User Manual (imagine that), I attempted to create a wall hanging.  Imagine my surprise when it actually worked and I created a 27.46x27.46 wall hanging.  :)  The pretty little thing has May baskets and Friendship Stars sitting on point.  I was able to rotate the baskets and set them upright!  The project even has a border with corner squares.  Next dilema, how do I print the squares to paper foundation the baskets and how do I figure out what size to cut the Friendship Stars?  Guess that's for another day of reading and playing with the program....sigh.  Why wasn't I born knowing this information??

Can an older woman learn to use her computer programs

I've been using the computer for several years and think I can handle e-mail and surfing the internet.  But, I think I've met my match as of yesterday.  I took an EQ7 class, (for those non quilters out there, it's a computer program to help a quilter design her own quilt pattern) did all the things the instructor told me to do and I was successful at it.  I return home and tried to do all the fun things on my PC that I did on my lap top and guess what!  NOTHING WORKED!  Since I just had a birthday and we'll let be that I'm closer to 60 than I am to 50, I'm wondering does that mean my brain can't absorb anything more??  We shall see as each day I'm going to give it the old college try and see if I can come up with my own quilt design sooner rather than later.  As we know life is fleeting and I really want to say I've made that quilt from design to finish!  Wish me luck.