Sick Hubby!

Nothing from me tonight really. My husband came home sick from work today, and since the computer is in the bedroom, I think I'll be uncharacteristically kind and leave him be. I forcefed him a little scrambled egg and a couple bites of an English muffin when he got up to sit in his recliner and look at a different ceiling, but he was making noises about coming back to bed, so I'll shut this puppy down and head into the Sweat Shop for a little quilt work.

The weekend is here! Yippeee! I just wish hubby felt the joy! Quilt on, blog buddies! Hopefully I'll have a chance to chat with you a little more tomorrow.

Our Blogging Community

For several years, I've been a member of an online quilting group, and I love those gals! We limit our group to 50 members, and there are maybe about 15 of us who are pretty active. I've come to care as much about them, their lives, and their families as I do the friends I see "in person." Many of us have even met face-to-face. I know my life has been enriched by the experience of joining a group of like-minded women where we can share our quilting ideas and projects and the non-quilting aspects of our lives as well.

More recently, I started my blog, and my world of friends has grown even more! I love to read your comments and will respond to your e-mails if I have anything to add and if your comments come through with an e-mail address to respond to. I love to visit your blogs. I keep your blogs in my "favorites" and visit whenever I can. I've never counted how many blogs I read, but I have a list in my favorites on my home computer and another list in my favorites on my office computer. Yes, some are duplicates but some are not; it just depends on where I was when I first found your blog. And my list continues to grow!

A few days ago, Bren awarded me the "Nice Matters Award." Well, I don't NEED an award, but it sure gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling to know that Bren thinks enough of me and my blog to name me as one of the people who enrich her life in some way. I'm sure many of you know Bren already, but if you don't, pop over there to visit. She's one of the kindest people I know and she has a huge heart. Thank you, Bren!

Now I'm supposed to pass the award on, but I just can't. I wouldn't know who to include and who not to include. There are some of you I visit every day; there are some I visit once or twice a week--not because I don't look forward to reading your blog, but because I know by now how often each of you is likely to post. Some of you I "talk" to and leave comments for; some of you have so many comments already that I know I'm not likely to have anything new to add, but I enjoy what you write anyway, even if I don't say so very often. Or maybe I'm just feeling quiet and have nothing to say. I still enjoy stopping by to visit you and see what you've been doing. Then there are the "friends" who leave me comments but don't have their own blogs--I appreciate all of you too and enjoy your comments!

And, so far, I haven't met any bloggers who aren't nice--you ALL are! My life is enriched by knowing all of you. So, as far as I'm concerned, you ALL deserve the Nice Matters Award! Thank you for taking time out of your day to read the stuff that I write--I love having all of you visit me!

Getting Older

What do you call a person who injures themselves? I was thinking masochist, but that’s not really right because I don’t hurt myself for pleasure, nor am I a willing participant.

I think it all started about eight years ago–something like that anyway. I was getting dressed for work, putting on my pantyhose, when I threw my lower back out. It took a couple doctor visits, some good, strong prescription medications, a lot of ice, and about two weeks of pain before I recovered. To this day, I have an unreasonable fear of pantyhose.

Getting older means we’re not quite as pliant and limber as we once were. I remember a woman I work with talking about taking up Yoga a few years ago, when she was my age. Now I understand.

The other day I pulled a muscle in my mid back when I sneezed. Who knew sneezing could be dangerous? As I felt the sneeze coming on, I turned away from whatever I was doing, and in the act of turning, I felt a tremendous pain in my back. It was so painful in fact that the sneeze never happened–I guess the sneeze was just scared out of me. And here it is, nearly three days later and my back still hurts if I move a certain way.

I was telling the same woman who took up Yoga that maybe if I was in better shape, I wouldn’t be so prone to stupid injuries. She and another woman–who is also older than I am and in fairly good physical shape–just chuckled at my naivety and shook their heads. No, they said, it doesn’t really matter how fit you are, age trumps everything. Darn! Now I’m afraid to exercise.

Once it cools down here a little in another month or so, I think I’ll get back into walking. I’ll probably do some major injury to various body parts, but I think I’ll feel good doing it, so maybe that WILL make me a masochist. In the meantime, my son–a 26-year-old hard body stud muffin–thinks it’s pretty funny that his mom threw out her back putting on her pantyhose. Now he has the saga of the sneeze to add to his "goofy mom stories." At least someone gets some pleasure out of my injuries, even if it’s not me!

A Little Something Else

Okay, I think I have my mojo back. Tonight I'm going to make a block for my Thimbleberries Block of the Month. Even if I can't get the "monster" done for tomorrow night's club meeting, I'll have my block done for this month as well as a purse/tote for show and tell. I've been working on the purse the last day or two and finally finished it. This is the first time I've made a purse, although I did make one other simple tote a few years ago.

My online Thimbleberries group is having an anniversary swap--we've been "in business" for five years this month and we're celebrating! So this is the tote I made for my secret someone--I don't know much about her tastes, so I hope she likes it (well, of course I DO know she likes Thimbleberries!):

I don't think she reads my blog, so I think I'm safe in posting these photos. The requirement is that we make something using all Thimbleberries fabric; I used some plaids and some fabric from the Autumn Faire line from a couple years ago--it looks a bit like applique but isn't. There's a pin-tucked pocket on the front, and both side panels are pockets also. This is mostly a pattern by Renee Plains called Patches and Pockets with a few modifications made by me that I thought might make it a little easier.

A Little Something

I don't have a whole lot to say today, but I'm feeling a little better mentally and physically. Must have been that box of Godiva chocolates I ate. (Okay, I'm just kidding!) Thanks for all your encouraging comments!

I've switched out my machines and my Bernina is back on the table. For the last month, while quilting the monster, I've been looking at a vintage lace tablerunner that was falling apart. The lace had holes and was unraveling. I knew I wanted to cut out a "good" section and use it to make a pillow, so that's exactly what I did last night. It felt good to get one thing done! (Once again, I admit I'm not the greatest photographer--the chair is actually a lighter wine red.)

BLAH!

I'm sorry I'm not going to be very amusing or entertaining, but at least I'm also not going to tempt you into buying fabric you don't need today!

I'm feeling BLAH! And I really, really hate feeling that way on a weekend, because it's such a WASTE! I've had some female issues (not to be too indelicate) plaguing me this weekend, contributing to my general blahness, and I can't even eat a bunch of chocolate to console myself because of this dumb diet. Carrots just don't do it for me.

Remember I said I was determined to finish quilting the monster this weekend? Well, I've had nothing but trouble with my sewing machine, and I think I'm going to need to take it into the shop. It's been sounding a little funny lately and I ran into trouble a week or two ago. A good cleaning, oiling, and needle change seemed to solve the problem well enough, but then it started acting up again this weekend. Cleaning, oiling, and needle change did nothing to help. And what's really annoying is that I just have the outside setting triangles on less than two of the borders left to quilt. Grrrr! Tonight I'll set up my Bernina and maybe see if I can do any quilting on it, but I bought the Juki because I was having problems with tension on free motion quilting with the Bernina--which is what I need to do, so I'm not hopeful. In any event, I'm behind schedule now, so even if the Bernina does work out, I won't have the quilt done in time for my Thimbleberries Club meeting on Wednesday. I know it's only a self-imposed deadline, but still . . . .

Then I was going to clean house today and actually DID clean part of it before I pooped out and decided to take a break. That break's now lasted the rest of the day.

And you know what else? I just realized I never took a bath today. How can a person forget something like that? Well, the plan was to clean house and then clean myself, and you know how far I got on that plan! I guess I should at least go take a nice, relaxing bath.

I have a gazillion sewing projects I've been looking forward to working on once I finished quilting the monster, so you'd think that with a little reprieve due to machine failure I'd be making the most of it and pulling out fabrics and patterns willy nilly, but the blahs kind of make it a lot less interesting and make me a lot less motivated. BLAH! Double BLAH!

I thought about not posting to my blog today, but since I post pretty much every day, I didn't want to worry anyone if there wasn't anything new here. Hopefully the blahs will subside and I'll have something entertaining for you to read soon. I know this will pass. And if it doesn't, I'm eating the chocolate anyway and to heck with the diet! In the meantime, I'll go back to contemplating my navel . . . .

Halloween's Just Around the Corner!

Halloween's one of my favorite holidays. The outside temps are finally starting to cool down--here in Northern California, it still feels like summer all through September and into October--but Halloween seems to mark the start of the winter holiday season.

Last year, Bonnie Sullivan of Maywood Studios came out with a line of fabric that I just fell in love with. I made the tabletopper/wallhanging above using that line. I love the vintage Halloween look of those silly cat heads! This was a quick project to make. I simply made shoo fly blocks and fussy cut the cat heads for the setting squares. I think I used two fat quarters for the setting squares and a couple fat quarters for the sho fly blocks, then I added the borders.

This year, Bonnie's back with a continuation of the same line, and I couldn't be more pleased! I've picked up a few fat quarters of both the old and the new line (above) as well as a length of the striped border print and some of the larger squares featuring the same vintage black cat images (below). Paired with some of my leftover fabric from last year, I have more than enough to make another cute project or two.

Last year, my friend Kairle also made a project from the fabric line, and she found several patterns by All Though The Night using this year's fabrics. Here are two I just might make:

You can see a couple more patterns at Colonial Crafts, or you can search at Quiltshops.com, enter "Maywood Halloween," and click on thumbnails to see the fabrics and patterns. Better yet, enter "Maywood Halloween Sale" for a few good bargains!

I can hardly wait to play with this fabric again! Have you made anything using this line? I'd love to see!

Author's Note: Not that I want to twist your arm, but I purchased those fat quarters shown above along with a panel of the large squares as a bundle on sale here. If you're interested in making something from this line, this should be enough fabric for a small project. The same shop has yardage from the line on sale. They also have quilt kits using the All Through the Night patterns.

A Full Mailbox!

It's always exciting to go to the mailbox and find packages and other good stuff waiting for you, isn't it?! Today I was blessed with a mailbox full of good stuff and no BILLS! Outstanding!

Darlene, one of my blog-buddies (and I'm sure well known to all of you!), had a pincushion giveaway to celebrate her 200th post and her birthday. I was one of the lucky recipients and look what arrived in the mail today!

Extremely cute and the fabric is just perfect for my tastes--she had made several using different fabrics and somehow KNEW this was the one for me. Isn't she the best?! Thank you again, Darlene!

Then remember this pattern I posted the other day? I mentioned wanting to make it in Kansas Troubles fabrics because I had a bit of a stash and thought it would be perfect. Well, here's my stash (the fabric in the top cubicle):

Yes, it is a nice stash, thank you very much! But do you notice that there's not that many lights? Well, maybe it's not as apparent in the photo because I can see it came out a little lighter than it is in person. Anyway, I was thinking maybe I should see about adding a few lights to the quilt I make, and I found that Quilt Patch Lane had a tan FQ bundle on sale. My photo came out darker than real life (I'm light/dark challenged, aren't I?!), but here's my pretty little bundle that arrived in the mail today--don't they do a cute job of packaging?

Along with that little bundle of joy came another--from the Chocolat line by Moda. I have some charm packs from the line and a couple large pieces for borders, but since this was on SALE and I thought a few pieces a little larger than the charms would be nice, I went ahead and ordered it as well. The cool thing was that Quilt Patch Lane has bundles that are small-ish (10 FQs, I think), bundled by colorway--so I didn't have to invest a ton of money on a ginormous bundle. Less guilt that way, you know?! LOL!

Finally, I want to tell you that I have very definite plans to finish quilting "the monster" this weekend. I'd really like to take it to my next Thimbleberries show and tell (next Wednesday). I think if I can finish the quilting by Sunday, I can get the binding done by Wednesday. Thank you all for your compliments on it so far--I know it seems surprising that I could quilt a more-than-King-sized quilt on a domestic machine, but the Juki has a longer, larger throat space, and I've really stuck to free motion quilting so I don't have to turn and push and pull the bulk of the quilt through as I would if I were using a walking foot. I'm really happy with the way it's come out so far (even if I'm totally burned out on quilting it!), but the real test will come later when I see how it hangs--that will determine whether I'll ever put it in a quilt show or just keep it on my bed. Either way, though, I'm pleased and have enjoyed sharing my progress with you! Thank you for your comments--I love to hear from you!

My Husband and the Diet

For several reason, it's been decided around here that my husband and I should both start eating healthier and lose some weight. For me, I've always been overweight. I've been on diets, lost weight, and eventually it creeps back on. Part of it, I know, is that I'm not physically active enough. I don't much like to sweat, for one thing. For another, I'd rather sit in front of my sewing machine and quilt. For a third, I get paid pretty good money to sit in front of a computer all day. As I get older, though, I realize that eating healthier and taking off some of the weight will make me feel a lot better--body parts just don't seem to work like they used to, and I seem to be developing aches and pains in places I never even thought twice about before.

What really pushed me into a diet, though, is that in doing a little basic medical research in connection with a lawsuit I've been working on, I came across some information that in the last few years, they've found that a fair percentage of women with the same hormonal-based "syndrome" I have become insulin resistant, and that leads to Type 2 diabetes. So, yeah, I don't really want that to happen to me.

For my husband, he has his own health issues that would be greatly improved if he lost some weight. More recently, though, he had a blood test that showed he was a bit low on his "good" cholesterol levels and, although his overall cholesterol levels are okay, some other test results led his doctor to recommend he cut back on fat.

So, with both of us looking at some good reasons to take off the pounds, on Monday night I went through some of my diet cookbooks and came up with some recipes for the next week or two. I made up a grocery list. Tuesday night I hit the grocery stores (Trader Joe's AND Safeway) and cleaned out some of the less healthy things around the house. We would start actually DIETING on Wednesday!

So Wednesday came, and I had a quilt club meeting after work and my husband had an appointment for a mechanic friend of ours to do some work on his van. As I left for work that morning, I told my husband he was on his own for dinner and would need to find some reasonably healthy food around the house or get something while he was out but nothing like a burger or other high fat foods. Fine. We were all set.

On my way to my quilt club meeting, I stopped at McDonalds--the only convenient stop between work and the quilt shop--for a grilled chicken sandwich, hold the mayo please! (Do you know they're now using honey wheat rolls for those? All the better!) Oh, yeah, and a plain iced tea. So, for 360 calories and 4.5 grams of fat, I was reasonably happy.

Later that night, my husband got home about 20 minutes after I did, carrying with him the "diet" food he had picked up on the way home. What do you suppose he chose? I looked in the bag, and lo and behold, there was a large paper tray filled to the top with French fries. On top of that were three fairly large breaded and fried fish filets. His justification? Well, isn't fish HEALTHY? And, of course, he was quick to tell me the restaurant uses unsaturated fat to fry the fish in!

This morning, I was up early, packing my husband's breakfast and lunch, something I NEVER, EVER do. I'm not a morning person. In fact, I can't even remember what I packed for him, but I do know it was a lot better than anything he would have packed for himself. I think this diet thing is going to be harder than I thought! Either that, or I'm going to have to find myself a good life insurance agent and take out a LARGE policy on my husband. OMG, the man is obviously diet challenged!

Well, now I'm off to pack his breakfast and lunch for tomorrow. I'm hoping after a few weeks of seeing the kinds of things that make up a good breakfast and lunch, he'll get the hang of it.

Author's Note: No, that's not him up there in the photo at the top. I just didn't really want to post a photo of a half naked fat woman, which seemed the most popular image search result!

Philosophy Lesson

Someone sent this to me at work and I thought it was good enough to share:

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. Again they agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full."

"The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car."

"The sand is everything else--the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you."

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first--the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled and said, "I'm glad you asked. The coffee just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."