Where is my pin cushion?!

Somewhere in this mess, I suppose. I was so careful and organized as I was moving everything out of the gameroom in preparation to have the carpet removed. Then things got out of hand. Where was there going to be room for everything? This is just one corner of the fabric room...can't get far enough in to take a pic of the other side. The pin cushion was found but not until some stuff was moved. There is stuff in the furnace room and a storage room. Looking back at the word "gameroom" I'm thinking that we don't do any gaming here. Maybe after the new carpet gets down we should call this our studio/office. Think that has a nice sound to it!!!

The bare floor. Gregg and Mary Jane were here this morning and got all the carpet pulled up for us. I'll bet they are really tired tonight. They got it all cut into pieces that are easy to handle so we can put a few pieces into the garbage each week. Don't think the garbage company would like to have a full can of carpet . Thanks Gregg and MJ.
Em, Sergio, Marcos and their friends from Mexico after our dinner
out by the lake Monday.


Here we are....the "old folks"!


Linnea loved the homemade ice cream at Marcia's on Father's Day

I went for a walk around the yard with my camera this afternoon.

Everything is looking much better than 2 weeks ago after the storm.

This is the third year for these geraniums. They spend the winter under a

flouresent light.

A storm, no power and NO internet!

What a storm we had the 19th!!! We got 10 inches of rain in 20 hours and the power was off for 36 hours. We only had a small amount of water in our basement. Many people were not as fortunate. In our township many trees were uprooted, trees fell on houses and cars and there was water across the street at the end of our block for 5 days. In town some streets gave way and sewers backed up into the basements of houses and condos. Businesses were flooded and schools had water in lower levels...many millions of dollars of damage. It was sad to see all the carpet and wet stuff out by the street for the trash pick-up. Our daughter lost all their basement carpeting. They rented a dumpster. I'll bet that every dumpster rental place in West Mi had their equipment out someplace.

When the power came back the HD TV and Internet didn't work. They and the phone are all bundled. After hours on the phone one gal told Jerry the TV problem was probably the converter box and to go to the office and have it exchanged. That worked. The problem with the Internet was probably the power cord so we went to Radio Shack to buy one. Didn't work. OK, go to the local Charter and get a new motem. Did that. Didn't work. We were on the schedule for a serviceman July 10th but last night we got a call saying there was a cancellation for this morning and a repairman would be here around 10. He came and got it fixed. The new motem would have worked if the the NEW cord that came in the box would have worked!!! Should I tell you where it was manufactured?!

We're having a fun week. Monday Emily, Sergio and little Marcos were here with their friends (2couples) from Mexico. They all had been to a wedding over the weekend in WI. The gals are just getting interested in quilting so Emily brought them here to see my quilts and then we went shopping at the fabric store. They said they can't buy many tools or fabric in Morelia. Evidently twice a year quilting teachers come to town and bring supplies with them. How fortunate we are to have such access to all our needs...and wants! We all went out for dinner together after the shopping trip. Such nice young couples.

Yesterday friends from southern MI were here for lunch and a visit. Hadn't seen them in over a year so we had a lot to talk about.

Tonight I've been quilting a baby quilt for the shower next week. Gotta get that finished.

I haven't been very good about taking pictures lately. Maybe I'll have some for the next post.

Oh, my, this is so much fun being back online. I've started visiting some of the blogs I visit and it's like hearing from old friends. Good to be back.

Lot's of This'n That

It has been 2 weeks since my last post. Haven't been on vacation, haven't been sick....just haven't posted!! Don't even have photos of all the quilts I've made. Well, if I had made any you can be sure there would be a picture!! This fabric was bought to use in a baby quilt for a friends 1st grandchild. The shower will be here next month without the Mom-to-be. Michael and Rachel live in PA. Michael has just graduated from the Seminary and has an Interim position and Rachel has a job also. So, the gifts will be brought to the shower unwrapped, wrapped here and new G'ma and G'pa will deliver them. We don't know Rachel real well but we've followed Michael's journey since he was born.


Have you ever said,"I'll never have another Garage Sale"? I did, about 15 years ago. Week before last my neighbor said there was going to be a neighborhood sale and did I want to be included and I jumped at the chance. Why? Well, it's this way. We had a big roll-away in our basement taking up way too much space. (needed space for fabric!) Many months ago the young fellows hauled it up to the garage so it would be handy when a truck came to pick it up. Hmm, nobody wanted it. I called all those places that pick up clothes, furniture etc and so this big thing has been sitting in the garage ever since. That's why I got into the garage sale mode and that's when the work begins...carrying everything out of the basement. Had help with the heavy stuff. So, how did it go? A HUGE success. I could have done cartwheels when a family pushed the bed down the driveway to their truck. They were happy to get it free. A number of other big things left by way of "Free". Oh happy day. Am I a happy camper. So how much money did we make? $24.50!! Since there were so many sales in town the 6th the neighbors wanted to try again yesterday. Everything was free here. Jerry asked what I'd say if someone wanted to give me money.....the next person asked 3 times if she couldn't give me money!! One man took most of Jerry's slacks, pants, shorts and Land's End knit tops to bring to Mexico, 3 bags of clothes were going to a store for a Mission in Africa and a crib to a local church that has a project helping young mother's and babies. Isn't that great? A funny story...we had a yellow plastic potty chair that a 7 yr old boy asked a couple times if it was free. I assured him it was and he whispered something to his dad who then shook his head yes. I'm thinking, what in the world? He goes skipping down the driveway to a car. A few minutes later his mom comes from across the street...with a child about 2 years old. Guess big brother thought it was high time she was trained!!


These flowers on on their last leg. The cool weather kept them blooming for a long time. The rhododendron, iris, dame's rocket and lilac. The lilac is late blooming, a very pale lavender and with a sweet cinnamony fragrance. The whole yard smelled wonderful for over 2 weeks.

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Last week we ordered carpet tile for the basement. I think that tomorrow we'll get a shipping date. Then the work begins to move everything out of this 13x36 room and take up the carpet that is here.

Friday we made a little trip out of town to a friends farm. We had been invited to come to pick strawberries. They were already picked...8 heaping quarts. Of course we had strawberry shortcake as soon as we got home. I made some jam and put the rest in the freezer. We also got 6 dozen brown eggs. I think they are XX large.

Jerry suddenly had some eye troubles last week. He started seeing double. The ophthalmologist figured it out right away..diplopia. He now has a frosted lens for his left eye and doesn't have the double vision. The DR says it usually takes about a month to clear up.

We had to make another trip to the feed store Friday. The 80 lbs of bird seed we bought in May is gone. How can such little creatures eat so much? The squirrels can't get up to the feeder either.

I don't know if anyone is still with me..sorry for rambling on for so long.

A package arrived today!!

The siggy's arrived today. I was so surprised....Connie just mailed them Saturday. What fun it was to open the package and see siggy's from around the world. I'm so anxious to sew them together but can't right now. There are too many project with "top priority" staring me in the face!! There were 60 who joined the swap. I just laid the squares out as they came off the pile. I'm thinking I'll do something for the center 4 blocks, maybe more siggy's or something different. Any good ideas????






Linnea was over yesterday with her Mom. They had been out to the Lake MI beach to play in the sand. I thought Brrrrrrrr! The lake temperature is still in the 50's but I guess the sun was warm.








Linnea likes to get up on the piano bench to play the piano. She is so good and plays "gently"!. We hadn't seen her in a while and wow, has her vocabulary grown. She is 19 months old. She was wondering where her G'pa was....she's G'pa's little girl. It is strange to think of our son being a G'pa to 2 little ones.








Yesterday after our church service everyone when to the construction site of our new building. There was a dedication of the corner stone. Then everyone had a chance to write Bible verses or whatever we wanted on the walls between the studs. "No writing on the dry wall though"! The children wrote on the concrete floor. I wonder how many years it will be before dry wall is taken off and our writings will be discovered. It was an emotional time for Jerry and I since the church organizational meetings were held in our basement 14 years ago and we had the church office here. Our small group started out with no idea how long it would take to get to wherever we were going....but with a lot of prayer and God's guidance we're about 3 1/2 months from having a permanent home. We started out having services at a local public school and then most of the years we've been at a Catholic school. Their chapel has been just like a church....next best thing to our own space. We have been blessed to be able to worship there.

What a mess!

The oak trees are really dropping all their stuff (catkins). I'd been keeping up on sweeping the sidewalk and driveway until Saturday and Sunday....too busy quilting. Such a mess today. The roof is loaded too. If we get a good wind maybe some will blow off. If it rains all that stuff will lodge in the gutters. Guess I opt for wind!










Bought a flat of wave petunias,a flat of impatiens, and another of mixed flowers this morning. Impatiens and dusty miller are planted along the sidewalk to the front door. I took the Pansies out of the deck planters and moved them to a bed in the back yard and in a few pots. The petunias went into the deck planters. The pansies were planted the first of April....so nice to have color when it is still so cold or even with snow on the ground. Planted some gerbera too. Love their bright colors. Now I'll wait a few days to rest my back and then go back to the nursery.

Here are a few flowering plants in the yard today. The jack-in-the-pulpit photo tipped over! The azalea burst open yesterday and wild flowers are blooming...solomom's seal, wild geranium, chives and I missed the may apple...the little flowers hide under the huge leaves.









Tomorrow is the last church quilting day until September. I usually keep it going all summer but the other day decided I just can't do that this year. It is a real relief to have made that decision. Everyone understands, no one wants all this stuff at their house!!! We don't have our own church building so here we are. One of these days I'll show photos of our church home that is being built and should be ready by fall. We're very excited about that. It is fun driving by to see the progress.

Camp UFO!!

My DIL Mary Jane and I had our own Camp UFO this weekend...no fancy resort, cruise ship or famous teacher...just my basement!! MJ got here about 5 Friday evening and left at 9 this morning. We had so much fun and got so much sewing done. We stayed up late both nights. My photos got all mixed up so I'll just go with the disorder they are in.










Got quite a few more 9 patch squares finished..these plus some duplicates. We went for a short walk Sat. morning. For our afternoon break we went to a fabric store instead of another walk. I bought some really cute fabric for a baby quilt....photos later. MJ bought fabric for an Irish Chain she was working on which she finished about 11 last night. We each finished small wall hangings that I ordered from Connecting Threads, pattern and fabric in the kit. They were a fun quick project. Of course that means we created more UFOs until they get quilted!!












This is our makeshift, spur of the moment sign, and our camp shirts. We decided to fuse some fabric of our projects on the shirt and add more each time we do a camp. We were going to take a photo this morning wearing the shirts but as you see we just laid them across our front. We'll wait for more stuff on the shirt before we take a real photo....anyway it was early and we hadn't had much coffee yet.










I cut most of the pieces for this quilt last night and sewed it this afternoon. It was like putting a puzzle together. Have the sides to sew yet. This was a kit that I bought at the Quilt Show in AZ. Haven't bought kits before...they sure cut out a lot of time looking for and deciding on fabric.










Finished Linda's apron last week and got it in the mail. Last night we did a video cam so she modeled it for us.








No quilting tomorrow. Must go and buy some bedding plants and plant the flowers that I started from seed. Maybe I'll find some sales. That would be nice!

Heinz ketchup and strawberries, anyone?

Strawberries dipped in Heinz ketchup? Hmmm. Not for me but Anja loves it! She was here Sat. night while her parents and brother went to a movie. She is one wild and crazy 3 year old. As soon as I told her she could have a hot dag for supper she headed for the refrigerator to get the ketchup. She wanted it put beside both the dog and the strawberries. I said, "Oh no,it doesn't go on the strawberries". Dumb me! Didn't know she was serious. After she ate all the other food she started dipping the strawberries. Personally I'd prefer a cream cheese dip! Then she needed G'pa's strawberries and more ketchup. Tam says she will eat anything and everything with ketchup. She could do a good commercial for Heinz.

I Think Anja has heard too many warnings from the CDC about the swine flu and washing hands. We could have sung the Happy Birthday song 5 times as she soaped up her hands and half way up her arms. Maybe she will be a surgeon some day!

The birds are eating us out of out of house and home!! I can hardly keep up with putting out the seed, oranges and grape jelly. At one time Saturday I looked out and saw a red bellied woodpecker, 3 rose breasted grosbeaks, 2 baltimore orioles, a hummingbird and 4 cardinals either eating or waiting their turn. On the ground were 4 doves and a few starlings. A little later a red headed woodpecker flew in and then a hairy woodpecker. Also later saw the purple finches, sparrows, tufted titmouse, and 2 gold finches. Jerry is making a trip to the feed store tomorrow. I can't get close with the camera to get any good pictures. I'm going to have to ask Bill to come over some day to take some photos with his high power camera.








Finished Linda's apron. There was enough fabric for another apron...that one is about half finished.










Five friends and I gave a brunch bridal shower for another friend's soon to be DIL. Seem like all the showers I've been to recently have been for brunch. They work out really well. We had a good time, the food was great and the bride got so many useful and some fun gifts!

Soren came over yesterday afternoon to mow our lawn. After he finished he washes out under the mower. I knew he was almost finished and time was getting close to when we were supposed to leave for his folks house. Bill was fixing a Mother's Day dinner for us. He had been on a 200 mile bike trip the week before. Back to my story....there was a funny knock on the back hall door and there stood Soren with mud up to his elbows. "G'ma, the hose is stuck in a hole", he said. Guess he left the hose on by a hole near a tree while he moved the mower. The running water made the hole bigger. Our yard is undermined with tunnels made by little 4 legged creatures. I think he put the hose down the hole....and suddenly he couldn't get it out. We both tried to pull it out with the water on and then off. No luck. Then our neighbor was finishing his lawn so called to him to rescue us. It took great effort on his part to pull out the 2 to 3 feet of hose and nozzle. So....don't try to flush out a little critter by putting the hose in too deep!!! Then last night Bill said he had done that when he was a kid. There was a hole behind some bushes next to the house. He was fortunate and didn't put the hose down too far but it had him really scared for awhile.

I was just thinking...wonder how many stories are out there that the kids haven't told us yet. Many I'm sure!!