Snow Time in Chicago!

Well - as most of the world knows - we got hit with a big storm this week. Today is my first day back at work and the drive was incredible - almost double the time as usual as there was a lot of trucks on the road still removing snow from where it had been plowed on Wednesday and Thursday. On Route 53 right at the busiest interchange near Woodfield Mall there were two lanes completely filled with snow. I understand it's hard to have anywhere to push it when your on a highway overpass, but couldn't the trucks come and do their clean up and haul away at night instead of during rush hour?

I tried to drive to work yesterday and it took about 40 minutes to go 2 miles - and that was with limited time stuck in a snow pile as I tried to turn a corner. Thank you to all the people in 6 lanes of traffic who realized I had a problem that could only be resolved by backing across all of their lanes and turning back to go home. Also thanks to the man who was in the intersection facing out next to me when I got stuck for clearing out fast before my car could skid and potentially hit him. He left with a smile of understanding instead of fist shaking/cursing which is what a lot of people do in bad traffic!

I guess that's one of the joys of living in a small town. You have to be nice - because you are bound to run in to that person again somewhere!

So while I was at home what did I do... well I did work on line - the company closed our offices on Wednesday but all of us who could do so worked from home. I phoned in to conference calls and checked emails - reviewed documents - whatever I could do. As a global company we had to think about all our co-workers around the world who were still up and running and potentially needed us.

I also got in plenty of couch time in the evenings - not having to drive 2 hours each day allowed me to make dinner for the family and get in some extra sewing and crocheting time. I started the binding on the CWR quilt last night and after three hours am halfway done! It is teh largest quilt I have ever made because of the extra length to do the pillow wrap. I am excited to send it to my brother eventually! Will include pictures here in my next posting.

I am also finally assembling the blocks for my new BR quilt. I finished all the blocks on the weekend (64 blocks) and am now joining the rows. It's a challenge and I do have to pay attention - I guess this is where a design wall would really help - Then I could just arrange them on the wall and then pull them down in order to stitch together. Maybe a birthday idea? Hmmmm I'll have to think on it....

I have a lot of art that is sentimental to me. Prints collected in travels many decades ago that have been framed and hung in different homes. Right now my walls are mostly bare. After repainting the LR Dining room Entry last year we have not hung anything, and my new walls in the Sewing room had just one batik print and a bulletin board hanging until this weekend when I finally chansed down the special big hooks I bought and figured out how to hang my thread racks. I love where they are - out of the way of fabric hitting them as I sew and yet within easy reach when I stand up. I am loving the new desk also - as sona s it warms up we will get rid of the one mattres on the daybed and move the daybed to the garage and get more organized. But for now I can work in what mess is left......

only 11 more weeks until I leave for the Quilt Retreat!!

A new year has begun

It was great to be away from work for more than 2 weeks - I realized that's the longest break Ive had in almost 6 years! and that was only while I was between jobs! I am back to work already, but thankfully this is a short week since we had Monday off. I can feel the difference in my stress levels, it's like the looming deadline of year end is gone and we have an almost clean slate for the new year.

Work is quiet - you can get things done which is welcome and tomorrow is our Thursday Stitch n B--ch lunch hour and even though a few people will be out - I have already been advised by one new avid crocheter that she will be there tomorrow. I have been ordered to bring in what I did over Christmas break to show.

So what did I do... well I worked almost 11 skeins into a new afghan and am about halfway through a baby blanket. Last night I worked on some crochet flowers but now have switched to yo yo flowers which I think are a lot more fun! I made up a half dozen in assorted fabrics tonight and tomorrow we will be looking at them and I have to decide to go ahead or change it up again!! These are really cute with a vintage button stitched in the center . I think I am committed so this weekend I will have to dive into the garage to get to the big antique button box I inherited about 20 years ago. That is a treasure trove!

I am also busy thinking ahead to the quilt retreat I am going to in April. After driving down for Christmas I didn't think I would want to do it again but it is easier to take my sewing machine etc by driving and if it works out I will be picking up a friend in Ky on the way down and bring her back so I will company for much of the way! We might also room together too which should be fun. Other than DH I can't remember the last time I shared a room with a friend! Taking my car will also allow me to get over to see the family or do other shopping there is some great shopping in Charlotte and I did not have nearly enough time in December!

well That's about it - I just wanted to drop in before the new year got too far underway. I;

'll post some projects soon. I promise...

Merry Christmas to All !!

It's Christmas Eve and I am tucked warmly into my sister in law's home ... my eldest niece has just left for church services with her boyfriend and his family, my DH and his mom have just left to go pick up the younger niece from a friend's house. Adding the teens back in to the house this evening will bring more holiday excitement aka noise into the house - which is so wonderful! Christmas is more funs with kids and of course my house is usually just boys so this year with my niece's will be special!

We have shopped and shopped and not because it is the season for spending but because we have searched out what we hope will make our loved ones most happy. I can't wait to see people's faces tomorrow morning. Tonight we will have an incredible dinner prepared by my SIL and then open just one gift before bed. Tomorrow will be presents and more food and family and fun.

#1 niece and I did a run to Hobby Lobby and picked up fabric and tools for her sewing machine that I sent down last year when they moved. The old Kenmore is probably from the 60's - but solid metal - no computers on board and is one of those machines that will never die! So later we will have the walk through of care and maintenance and sewing lessons. We picked out some really cool fabric and I think she wants to make a tote for me, but I got more of it and am going to make a quilt for her. She will be surprised.

#2 niece is interested 'maybe' in crocheting, so I have picked up a learning kit with hooks and some great purple yarn for her to try and see if she likes it. If not that's okay, she likes crafting so sooner or later something will 'stick'.

It's been a great trip -although I dread the long drive home. I drove right by MaryJo's fabrics in Gastonia and will probably go right by it on the way out also - only because I know in April I will be back with a gaggle of girls from the retreat and we will be going to MaryJo's at that time.

Well - signing of now - going to call my baby who is home alone this holiday - well he's with Merlin but mostly alone - and make sure he got his pizzas from Lou Malnati's and is safely home for the night. This is the first Christmas apart for us and although my brain tells me it's a natural part of letting them grow up and be independent.... my heart still misses him.

Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, give thanks and love - Toby

Another quilt done and gone...

This is the twin sized quilt I made and sent to a friend in NC that was celebrating her big 5-0 birthday with a quilt donation. She challenged her BB friends to donate a quilt hoping to get 50 (the same as her age to be) which would then be donated to an orphanage in North Carolina.

This is actually made from a charm pack (5" squares - one from each print of a collection) and a lovely background fabric in a soft white with blue swirls. Much better in person than as seen here. Anyway - I bought the charm pack and the background on our trip to Texas almost 2 years ago. The pattern was something I just made up as I went along and resulted in staggered framed boxes of the focal fabrics set vertically with sashing. More of the strips are in the border surrounding the center. I really enjoyed making it and hope some young person will love it also!

I have been home just a week from a busines strip to Calgary AB where I did some Christmas shopping, and some crafting on some small needlework I brought from home. It was very cold and the ground was snowladen, so we stayed in a lot! This trip we decided to stay in a downtown B&B (at a fraction of the cost of a hotel) and it was really nice. We met several people at breakfast and then saw them each day of the stay and it was like visting with friends for that hour every morning! I think we'll look at doing this again when it makes sense.

I am just one week from going on vacation for the year end and cannot wait. It's been a very busy fall and there's still so much to get done... I am looking forward to the long quiet drive...okay maybe not so quiet I am going to have Mark make us a USB stick of sing a long christmas carols... and I am excited to see the girls (my nieces) and shop with them and cook with them and just enjoy being with the family. I will miss my own family but maybe next year we can be with them somewhere.

That's it for today - I'll try to get back soon with more quilt pictures!!

The wall to be

Well - darn if Blogger doesn't want to upload another picture - let me try another post!!!


This is the wall I started building this past weekend - you can see from halfway back the driveway (yes my front yard is about 100 feet deep (and the back is twice as long!!)

You can see here how it curves from the driveway in then out around the giant old blue spruce then in then out to go around a new to be planted Norway Spruce and then it will sweep back up to the house. I still need to get the back border of the wall in, and the top layer of brick on the right - and then I am also replacing the gray block that is in the raised bed on the other side of the sidewalk. This new block matches our paver sidewalk and will bring more color to the front of the house. It will be planted with evergreens, and red barberry rockets and crimson barberry shrubs (to be moved in the spring) and hostas and purple and red and yellow perennials. Also little butterfly corner....

This weekend Stephen and Tony amended my garden area to plant my 2 blue berries and two blackberries - hoping for some fruit next summer. That's in the back yard!! Our neighbor had to have his big shady honey locust taken down last week -so now I will get more sun in my back yard. Love the sun but I will miss his beautiful tree.

Finally getting my groove back.....

It's been a while since I blogged - but life has just been whizzing right on bye!! Let's back up - trip to DC in August for work - then home for two weeks and back on the road for some R&R in Seattle with Fred and Family - made some new friends, met lots of new people at a great party in the city and celebrated labor day (or the lack thereof) with some new and old friends. Then up to Vancouver for two days of work, then home again and back to work! whew - I need vacation from my vacation! Stephen stayed home and cared for Merlin all was well. He is busy with school and just enjoying it so much more this year!

I signed up for the COF quilt retreat next April in Charlotte NC so I am already working on a round robin challenge (which I cannot share with you until it's over!) and I had a queen quilt - Daisies for Kristen - which I just popped in the mail today to Kristen in TN. Kristen is Mormon and has been on her mission rip the past two years - she comes home this week and her mom is my BFF from UT Brenda. SO when Brenda started re-doing Kristen's room for her arrival I was solicited and quickly jumped on board to make Kristen's new room daisy-licious! Shown above - the colors are much brighter than it shows - weird light early in the morning!

I have been really fighting the asthma this year - all year and realized two weeks ago that I needed more help. So back to my favorite pulmonologist I went and after a week on Prednisone and two other steroids I can breathe again - and I can be active again - and I felt like superwoman last weekend - so of course I got in over my head and ordered two skids of landscape block to be delivered so I could re-scape the front of the house! Well - now the block is here and my dosage is lower and not quite as SuperMom but I went at it for 6 hours on Saturday - digging, trenching, graveling, leveling and laid in a whole skid and boy am I sore!! I am not even half way done but all of the bottom layer is in and so fdar I am very happy with what I think it will look like. Making a lot of work for myself for the spring - but what the heck it was time for a big change and Mark still won't let me demolish the front porch....hmmmmmmm

Getting back into it!

So - when last I wrote I was trying to get back to sewing... well I still have trouble tearing myself away from the big screen TV each night - having shows on the DVR makes it so easy to watch back to back episodes of may favorites and before I know it the night is gone!

Anyway - I have started on my nine patches - and the first batch of 17 sewn late one night had some serious measurement problems and ripping out nine-patches is a horrible waste of time for 1/8 inch overall shortage - so I have just cut new strips and am paying more attention to those seam allowances and making sure they are truly 'scant'. I got a set of 17 more cut last night and pressed and if I do a little every night I will make the deadline - no problem. I may slow down a bit when I get to the ones cut from FQs but once I do the math and have a cutting plan I think it'll be okay. The shorties - I can use in some other project of my own or maybe in a pieced backing.

Did I tell you I signed up to go to a quilt retreat? Well I did!!!! I am so excited. Next year, spring, Charlotte NC, 100 quilters that I have been sharing with on the HGTV BBS for more years than I can recall. I am also in a Round Robin with a group of them which is kind of a cool thing - here's how that works.

We are each in a group of 5-6 quilters that signed up, we each make a center block of our choice, pieced, applique, crazy, whatever. We send to the next person and they add a border on all sides that must be pieced, appliqued, or whatever and they send it on. We have a long time between mailings which is an advantage for me. At the end - when we finish the last round we send it to one person who is going to take them all to the retreat and there will be a show and tell and delivery at the retreat. So we live in anticipation of what the finished piece will be. The center block can be no more than 9.5 inches and each border no more than 5.5 inches - so it will finish wall hanging size but one could always add extra borders and make it a throw or larger. I think it will be great fun. Once I get my center block done. I am torn on what to do - I started a Cross Sticth that I was going to put borders on - but now I am afraid I may not finish it on time. Forgot that I had not done cross sticth in 20 years and this one has like 5 shades of gold in it! I do have a back-up block in case I don't get it done!


We also have small groups for the retreat overall and mine is a combo of old and new friends so I am really looking forward to growing relationships over the next 9 months and then meeting in Charlotte.

This past week Mark and I got our reservations made for Labor day also! We will be in Seattle from Friday night until Wed and then up to Vancouver for me to work for 2 days and Mark to sightsee. Should be fun - can't wait to see the family. Stephen is starting school again on Monday, so he will be home with Merlin, enjoying the single life again! We always come home from being away and they are like best buds, which is nice to see. The rest of the time Mark and I dote on the dog so much I think he neglects Stephen. Are we giving that dumb dog too much credit? He is awfully dumb - though we love him to pieces!!

Here's my baby - when he was a baby......now he's 6 and has gray coming in around the muzzle...
He went to the vet last week for his annual visist and he is down 3 pounds. Not a lot to you and me, but it's 10% of his body weight, so we need to get a couple back on him. He should be around 34 pounds. Small enough to snuggle and big enough to be a 'real dog'. I think the weight loss is from restricting his human food.... we also put him back on Omega-3's for a shiny coat and allergy protection.



That's all for now - Toby