Kindle, Oh Kindle!!!

I just returned from the gym, and look what is rubber banded to my mailbox!! MY KINDLE from Amazon!!

I've heard so many neat things about this gadget...talked to one of the gals in Oregon who ordered one, and sat next to a guy in the San Francisco airport on my way home from Oregon, and he was kind enough to give me the whole INFOMERCIAL on how much he loves this thing. It was too cute. I've never seen a guy so obsessed with any object!

Come to think of it, yes I have, but that's a story for another day..*LOL*

Anyway...with the traveling I do, books are big and heavy and this seems like just the ticket. And I'm a gadget girl myself, geeky one that I am, so this tickles me.

I can hardly wait to get it out of the box!

The first book I'm putting on it? The Fountainhead By Ayn Rand...a must have read.

Mail Squishies!!

Ooooh! Lookie Lookie!!

Carol from Dallas sent me a squishy with 12 different plaids! They are GORGEOUS!! Just what I needed to cheer me up and give me a fabric fondling moment away from the computer and pattern writing...AHHHHHH!

Thanks Carol, you made my day!

Too funny not to share!!

Every day I get silly emails. Some are worth saving in a file I have nicknamed "ridiculous"

Now, it isn't that the people are ridiculous, but sometimes the requests are! I get requests from people saying they want to take a certain quilt I've designed and make it queen size, but not do it scrappy, and this that and the other and would I please rewrite the pattern for them so the block turns out at THIS size not THAT size, and can I tell them exactly how much yardage they need, because they don't want ANY left overs. These make me smile! But No....I don't offer this service, sorry :c)

Then ones like this come in just this morning, and I am rolling on the floor laughing! I need to get to the gym, I've got an appt with my trainer in 1/2 hour, but I have to have to have to share this...

She writes:

I started a disaster of a quilt when my daughter graduated from high school in 2005. Thought I knew what I was doing. Have t-shirt logos (swimming from High school) sewn on yellow and black squares that are way too big. Outlined logos with seam binding - oh my goodness. Bought ribbon to cover up the crooked seams (haven't done that yet) and yellow jacket buttons to attach wherever. I need help. Do you do disaster recovery work? I need to get this done, but it has been sitting under my sewing machine for 4 years. Please let me hear from you. Thanks so much.

OH! MY! GOODNESS! Is this a project any of you would like to take on? Oh, come on, you know you want to! :c)

I nicely emailed her back, and told her no, that I wasn't quilting for others any more because of my travel schedule. It is so NICE to have a legitimate reason to turn someone down...

I'll be smiling to myself all day over this one!

Lazy Blogger :c)

Or is that Running Crazy Blogger? You know last Wednesday was a wash, because it was the morning I returned from a red eye flight. That left Thursday and Friday to get myself in order before the weekend.

The weekend was filled with a BBQ for a co-worker of DH's that is being transferred to TX, quilting the mystery quilt for Quiltmaker so it can be sent off today.....

Sunday I spent BINDING and LABELING the quilt so it can be sent off today....

And because it's the mystery, I can't show you ANY pictures! Quiltmaker had sent me the fabric for the borders, backing and binding, and I took the whole shebang with me to Oregon to assemble there, and then quilt it over the weekend.

We also snuck out to a matinee yesterday afternoon to see the new Harry Potter movie. It still ends so open ended that you KNOW there has to be more to the story and just leaves you hanging! Still, it was fun to see how the kids have grown up, and I've enjoyed seeing these movies over the years.

Because I can't show you WHAT I was working on...I've uploaded a slideshow to webshots....



Sisters, Oregon, 2009

*NOTE* The slide show only holds about 1/2 the pics I uploaded to the album. To view them ALL...click the this LINK! You don't want to miss out on all the gorgeous antiques from the show.

The first couple of pics are of our "collaborative" booty from shopping! My friend Randy had a discount for her birthday....1/2 her age in percentage...I won't tell you how much we saved, but it was quite a bit..so she bought EVERYTHING for us, and we divvied up the bill when we got back. Randy, you just get better as you get older and get us a bigger percentage with each year that passes! *LOL*

Oh, my big purchases? A grill pan for my BBQ, a car phone charger for my iphone, and there was something else...oh yes....Lindt DARK CHOCOLATE WITH CHILI..OMGoodness...I know it sounds weird, but it is unbelieveably good in a very grown up chocolate kind of way ;c) Try it. If you don't like it, you can send the rest to ME! (It's got a slow burn..yummy...)

I'll warn you, when I take pics at shows..it's usually PARTS of quilts. Sometimes not even the whole quilt. Just a block, a border, a quilting design. Sometimes it's just a color theme I like...so if it looks like a 9 year old was taking these pics...that's why :c)

Near where my friend lives in Sun River, there is The High Desert Museum. In conjunction with the Quilt Show, they had a display of 1800's quilts that were just PHENOMENAL. I think I enjoyed seeing these quilts up close more than anything else I saw at the show itself. That said, I enjoyed the antique quilt booth at the show more than I enjoyed seeing any of the quilts hanging....

But it was fun to see that someone had entered an "Old Tobacco Road" and there was a "Carolina Crossroads" as well. FUN!

I'm just back from the gym.....need a shower, and then need to get down to some pattern writing for the book that is due to my publisher end of Sept. Time to get this baby on track!

Oh, and I DID bring home a really neat quilt with me. No photos of it yet because the battery on my camera died. I'll see what I can get today for a blog post tomorrow. I think you are going to like it...I know I do!! I have two words to intrigue you...DOUBLE PURPLE. Stay tuned!

Sisters Sisters!

Here is a pic of the 5 of us with the gorgeous mountain view in the background!

Yesterday I was a zombie. I napped in the afternoon, but it threw my sleeping schedule way off (not to mention I'm still time zone challenged!) and I was up at 4:45 this am which would have been close to 2am Oregon time. Go figure!

Today...house cleaning. Grocery shopping. Errand Running...maybe some quilt sewing??

I've got one of my favorite groups from the 90s motivating me in the background...I've got The Cranberries playing up loud. Fun!

And life swings back into "normal" mode!

The Long Road Home..

I know I've gone too long without posting when I get emails saying that the plane in my last post looks like it's been in the air way too long and would I please resurface!

I'm sitting at the airport in San Francisco, waiting for a red eye (yawn!) to take me home via Chicago. It's going to be a zombie of a Wednesday, I can tell you that much!

My time in Oregon was wonderful. There were 5 of us gals just working away on our projects. I'd say non-stop, but we did stop to enjoy the beautiful weather and take advantage of the biking and walking trails around Sun River. I really do believe it has to be my favorite place on earth.

I've got pics on my camera, in my checked luggage, but I do have some on my phone I'm going to try to upload here.


Something looks fishy, you say?? Well, I would have to agree with you! We did the most fun thing, each night someone was in charge of fixing dinner for everyone, and boy did we eat well! What you see here is my attempt at grilled salmon with lemon over grilled veggies. It really did turn out well and there was no salmon left by the time we were done. As each night came around the meals just got better and better!



We rode bikes and walked daily. We stopped here by the river and I had to snap some shots..it was just beautiful! I love this footbridge that curves up and over the river to get to the other side.

The mountains are majestic as well. I couldn't get good photos....it looks like they are so far in the distance but they are not. There is just something so beautiful about mountains with snow on them, even in the heat of July.



Here are a few shots of our working area!! The living room is perfect for laying out projects..you can see plenty of them draped over chairs and other furniture. We had 5 machines set up on 2 tables! And the "cat walk" above was the perfect spot for going up above to look at how a quilt layout looked from down below. Here you see 3 gals looking down to take pics of me, while I looked up to catch them with my camera as well!

I'll write more about the show when I get home. We just had a wonderful wonderful time and it will be hard to wait until next year to see everyone again.

Leaving on a Jet Plane..

I'm packing and planning and getting ready for my trip to Oregon! I leave Friday!

SO if you don't hear from me for a while, never fear....I'm getting the rest and relaxation I need :c)

Simple Solution CAT

Per special request, this is what I'm using. It comes in a gallon for about $17.00 and it also came with a full spray bottle attached to it as a bonus at Petsmart!

Its a beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

She survived! And she just MIGHT thrive!

I saw no hair nor sound of her after putting her out yesterday. My poor mother's heart was in a panic. What if I didn't do the right thing? What if she just runs off for good? Would she survive the night?

The other voice in my head said "SO BE IT!!"

So this morning, when I let the other cats out...and saw Chloe meowering on the back deck to be LET IN...I knew she survived the night, and all would be well. She even let me PET HER??! Maybe this is tough love for kitties!

We have a 2 tiered deck..the upper level goes across the main floor of the house, one story above the daylight walk out basement. It's shady and tree covered. There are two stairways going down...one to the basement level, and the other steps 1/2 a level lower down to the hottub gazeobo, where the stairs take a turn and continue to go all the way down to the ground level.

She so far has found one stair tread between the two levels that she likes. I tucked a serving of kitty krunchies under the tread with her and she ate. My only worry is that Sadie eats EVERYTHING, and she would eat Chloe's food too, so I have to feed her when the dogs are IN.

I put water out there....

I've watched her exploring, and sniffing, and rubbing her face against everything. So...so far she hasn't decided to run away permanently ;c) At one point I looked out the kitchen window and she was laying on her side sunning herself...and it hit me. What if this is the first time ever that she has experienced the joy of sun on her coat? the first time seeing birds in flight, watching squirrels go from limb to limb? It's a whole new world out there for her and she just really MIGHT prefer it.

At any case..this is the way it will be. I'll have to brush her LOTS MORE (if she will let me close enough) Because that long fur is going to attract every weed and burr out there, but it's a small price to pay.

The other two kitties are in/out kitties and they are happy with the arrangement too. No racoons or coyotes or anything find their way onto our upper deck, so if she decides to make THAT her safety zone, she will be well and good. I'll just need to come up with some sort of sleeping quarters for her, and HOPE that she will adopt herself into it. The gazebo should keep her safe from rain...

Today I bought some of that "enzyme" activated kitty pee cleaner from Petsmart. I am AMAZED at how quickly it took care of the ammonia smell that was left after I repeatedly cleaned that area of the carpet yesterday. I'm sold on this stuff. I even washed down the brick hearth with it, incase the bricks had soaked up any nastiness.


On the other side of my day yesterday...I finished the binding on the Fungly Fifties "Hands All Around" quilt!

I've got it here on my guestroom bed..and I LOVE this quilt. It was definitely a scrap bag project...fabrics are WEIRD. Look at this one with the stripes and SPRINGS?Low contrast between some of the fabrics she used in the blocks. Her colors were limited to clothing scraps, and she used what she had. Good mix of "His" and "Hers" fabrics, which I love to see in true scrap quilts.

Though the fabrics might have been the bare bottom of the scrap bag, the workmanship in piecing them is NOT. This is a difficult pattern to piece with curved seams and inset y seams amongst the star points. The blocks were hand pieced, and then they were set together by machine.

The solid red used here and there REALLY pop to me...and I'm glad I added the inner red and outer turquoise/black check border to frame it all. It made the quilt JUST THE RIGHT SIZE! I'm still pinching myself that I found this top for something like $28.00!

I'm half done with my antibiotics now, and every day is better and better...I'm really glad, I've got just a few days to get everything together before I head to Oregon on FRIDAY!! YAY!

Chloe Moved OUT!!

Chloe is NOW an outdoor cat!!!! I kept smelling something down here in my studio...she's been peeing on the carpet in front of the fireplace..NO MORE!!!!!

She poops on my chairs...I have taken care of her for about a year now, and no amount of incentive or cat training (HA!!! That is a contrast in terms if ever there was one!) will work.

She is NOT a lovey cat. You can't pick her up, you can't pet her. It's no wonder she was a rescue, I am such a sucker!

I am cleaning carpet ;c(

I don't want to take her to the pound...WHO is going to want a cat that can't be potty trained? I feel like she has a better shot at life this way..being my porch kitty. I'll feed her in the mornings. I'll try to pet her and love her out there. Lots of people have outdoor kitties. Come winter...maybe she can sleep in the garage, but I am SO done.

It's one thing to have a son you can't train, but a cat is a cat is a cat!

Please. No one comment about how cruel this is to a cat. I've been through the wringer. No animal rights activists.....if you comment, I just might send her to you to poop on YOUR chairs!!

PS...don't try to look for a graphic under "BAD KITTY" *LOL* You will be surprised what kind of adult sites pop up!!!

Bonnie

Meet My Mom...

My mom had an article printed about her in her local Idaho paper! I thought it was such a cute article and I am so proud of her, I wanted to share it with you ;c)

She is a master gardener and has a yearly plant and starter sale at her home in Garden Valley, ID. She is known all over, and it tickles me.

Way to go mom!!

Feedjit Update...

When in the midst of crappy tech support, there comes along some outstanding, helpful, amazing, go the extra mile, beyond the call of duty people.

Remember my post about Feedjit? And removing it? Turns out that Mark, Feedjit Founder & CEO SAW my post and emailed me about it. Not only that, he upgraded me to the pro version for free...so I reinstalled it.

I awoke this morning to an email that said he had been trying to isolate the problem on my blog (mind you this email came in at 1am my time!)and it is the "friends" widgit...which makes it conflict between blogger and IE8. IE7 users don't have the problem. (And you've heard me before...FIREFOX users NEVER have a problem!)

He says:

Sami Shalabi, one of the friendconnect team members confirms that they did do something that caused an operation aborted error.

My suggestion is that you take a methodical developer approach to fixing this:

1. First try loading your website in IE8 to verify that you can see the error.
2. Then Remove Google FriendConnect.
3. Then clear your IE8 cache (Go to Tools > Internet Options > Delete) while you're on a different website.
4. Then Hit your site again and verify that removing FriendConnect fixed the error.

At this point hopefully you've verified that it's FriendConnect. If not you may want to try removing any other widgets on your blog. Remove Feedjit last because I'm pretty darn sure it's not us.

5. Now if you'd like to keep Friendconnect I'd recommend trying to reinstall it.
6. Then clear your IE8 cache again and try visiting your site. Hopefully that fixes it.
7. If it doesn't then the only thing left is to remove Friendconnect and leave if off. :(

To find out more about this error, go to this page on Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927917

So at this point, I feel it is up to Blogger to fix the conflict, or deal with IE or whatever. I don't want to remove the friend connect. I may move it farther down my page. And as I said....no error with Fire Fox!!

I don't HAVE IE8...so I don't get the problem. I don't use IE..so there is no IE cache to clean. But if this info helps anyone..thank you Mark!!

urgh

I'm having some website issues again. I signed up for a secure certificate, but it is messing up EVERYTHING....some are able to get to the website if they type https://quiltville.com instead of http://quiltville.com I want to get it OFF the front page so it doesn't mess with anyone's book marks, but bear with me. I'm wishing I never signed up for this at ALL!

PS..you will also notice along with this problem that my backgrounds, any icons, the banner from my header, the pictures at the bottom in the sidebar of family and friends are ALL missing because of the SSL..it gave everything a new address. I've been on the phone to CANCEL IT and get everything back the way it used to be.

As they say, if it ain't broken don't fix it.. Ggggggggrrrrrr

PSS it seems to be fixed as of 7pm. I've been napping since my last posting.....I hope the gremlins got RID of their (*&#$(*& ssl. Stupid thing.

Words to Live By.....

Good For What Ails Me...

I was at the doc for nearly 2 hours. Good thing I had a quilt with me, I finished the binding while sitting there, and nearly finished sewing down the hanging sleeve! Never leave home without a project to keep hands busy.

Always have mp3 or iphone in your purse. This way you can drown out the sounds of the screaming baby in the next room when they put you in solitary confinement in the exam room for 45 minutes. Me and John Mayer. It's a good combination ;c)

The official diagonosis is....:::::::drumroll:::::::::: BRONCHITIS

Which doesn't say much. As a massage therapist and class valedictorian at my graduation, I learned early on that anything with 'itis' at the end just means what ever it is is INFLAMED. No kidding. I could have told them that? I have inflamed bronchial passages and tissue. What caused it, who knows? (My guess is airplanes with canned air, airports, and hotels) but coughing aggravates it and the condition worsens, and now it's an infection which requires antibiotics.

I got to Sam's Club to go to the pharmacy there. As I am walking across the huge warehouse, the lights in the pharmacy go OUT and I see on the sign they are closed for lunch at 1:30. Pffffft.

I'm not waiting for them to have lunch, and then wait longer to get this prescript filled, so I went to Target. And while it was at Target being filled, I went to the Chinese buffet in the same plaza because believe it or not, a bowl of hot n sour soup sounded good for what ails me. (it was!)

Back to Target where I am informed that I didn't fill out all the info on the paperwork, I gave them the wrong insurance card, blah blah blah. The clerk was pretty rude. I said.."I'm sorry. I'll try to do better. If I weren't feeling so deathly ill :::coughing productively in her direction::::: I wouldn't have missed those spaces."

Turns out..the insurance card was NOT wrong..the pharmacy info is on the BACK of the card. Pfffft.

Another gentleman stepped in to help me. (I did not cough on him. :c) ) and I am now back home..one bottle of cough syrup + phlegm fighter, and 10 days worth of antibiotics.

I think I feel a nap coming on. (but I feel pretty good about finishing that binding!!)

Thank You....

Thanks for all the posts. I have many to reply to. I'm sure many of us have this "When did I sign up for THIS??" moment during our child rearing. I don't think anything can take you down and make you more humble than watching your child make all those wrong choices.

It's just consumed me to the point where I can't quilt....I know I SHOULD be piecing because that is when my mind is free to work out life's little problems....I have until July 2nd to get a lot of stuff done. I need to kit up a couple of tops and take them to Oregon with me so I can turn them out while sewing with friends the week of the Sister's Show.

I am so excited....4 friends from Wisconsin are joining us. They've never been to Sisters...

We all met at a retreat I taught at in Madison last November, and we had SUCH a great time, my friend Randy invited them all to come sew with us! and YAY they are ALL coming. It's going to be a fun reunion.

So I am setting my sights on that. As for the kid....I'll be here when he has questions. But I refuse to take any verbal abuse or disrespect. I'm done tiptoing and pussy-footing around in an effort not to do anything that will tick him off...This second half of my life is supposed to be the BEST half. I wouldn't let a stranger on the street talk to me the way he has.

I know I can not change his behavior. But I don't have to allow him to dish it out to me either. No more excuses.

I love funny cat pics....they make me smile! This one did this morning because it reminded me of where I wanted to put my head yesterday. But today is a new day!!!


So..here is what I've been working on during my flights and layovers :c)I honestly thought I'd get farther on it this last trip than I did....but I just didn't. It was so nice outside that I spent my time walking the Des Plaines River Trails and getting eaten alive by gigantic mosquitoes! But it really was nice to enjoy the greenbelt area. It was fabulous! If you ever get to Libertyville, IL, check it out!

I marked the angles on the border with a hera marker, starting in the center of each border, and used an equilateral triangle as my guide. Then I am quilting on that crease, and echoing on the inside of each triangle.

I know this is one of those borders where a judge would say "the border is quilted much more than the center" and knock me down for it. I don't care. I love the texture this echo quilting is giving it. Besides. It's MY quilt, right? I just know I'm loving the texture more and more with every stitch I take into it.

Again, thanks to ALL for listening and commiserating with me. I've been told I was brave for posting about my troubles. I guess it is like showing your imperfections to the world, but you know what? When no one else was here to listen to me in person, YOU did. And I know I'm not alone. That is an amazing feeling. When I feel like I can't go on with just my own strength alone, you lifted me with your stories, your words, your encouragement and it means A LOT to me.

Today IS a new day, I better get on with it!