Past, Present and Future

Past - Here's a quilt top 5 years in the making (60" x 60"). I finally finished it at Cindy's Up-North Quilt Retreat. Baptist Fans keep calling out to me for the quilting. I don't think I want to hand quilt it though. Not sure how I would go about it on the machine.

Present - Claire is very adamant about not decorating or listening to Holiday music or any other acknowledgment of Christmas before the day after Thanksgiving. This past weekend she admitted that it was just too beautiful to waste the good weather. She decorated the front of the house with lights and bows and garland. The lollipops are a new addition this year.

Future - not very far away now-unless you're 6 years old - then it's forever! This is the "real" Santa at Van Atta's Holiday Open House.  Cubby is hoping for a very Batman Christmas.

It's a car of course!

"Gamma, Gamma, what's that?" "It's a flannel board Cubby."  I guess even with digital computer programs and Pinterest, etc., sometimes the old fashioned toys are still the best. Cubby stayed occupied for a long time (in 6 year old terms) manipulating shapes on the flannel board. He didn't have enough circles for wheels. He picked the fabric, a few snips and done!  It's a car of course!

Claire is busy in the kitchen making chocolate kiss peanut butter cookies. One of her co-workers has found a new job and they are having a good-bye celebration. Claire's gotten quite the reputation as the Betty Crocker of the group and these cookies were a special request

We had a sign-up event last week for students to choose their dorms for next year and I was unable to attend the last block exchange.  After conferring with JanG., we figured out the proportions for the leaf blocks to go with my pansies. Here are a couple in progress.  The flower blocks are scattered (as they would be in nature) and not aligned in rows.  My next challenge is to figure out how to get the blocks together with the least amount of set-in seams.

Now We are Six

Saturday morning, it was off to the Fiddle Scouts, a newly created music program by The Ten Pound Fiddle.  Kids get hands on opportunities to learn about instruments and music. This month's program was on drums. What 6 year old doesn't like drums? Cubby did ask to leave after about the first 10 minutes of warm up songs but when they split the group into ages 6 and over and he got to go with the big kids, it was so long Gamma Gamma. 

 

Next month's program is about Ukuleles and one of Cubby's favorite people is going to be the "Scout Master". 

Yep, he had a birthday this month. Still haven't quite gotten rid of the training wheels. I'm sure next spring we'll just have to go for it!  Still time to enjoy a few more beautiful Michigan fall days.

You Lookin' at Me?

Cindy had a visitor this evening.  She gave us a call and Cubby and I drove over to check out this praying mantis that had landed in her potato vine.  Quite the handsome devil, don't you think?

Someone at work told me about an app for my phone - Runkeeper. I love it! Every five minutes it tells me how long I've been walking, how far I've gone, what's my average minutes per mile and launches my iTunes so I can listen and walk at the same time. I actually walked a 5k on Sunday just walking around the neighborhood. Now how do I get it to do dishes?

Give it Another Go

I haven't done much quilting lately. My quilt room is probably the hottest room in my house. I have central air conditioning but it never seems to really cool off the upstairs. Someday I'll need to invest in better insulation.

I'm also busy taking care of a very busy 5 (he'll tell you 5 and a HALF) year old. The other day I tried to sneak upstairs. Just for yuks I counted... I made it to 19 before both Cubby AND Chloe were at the quilt room door.

 Here is what happens when you try to sew "just one more seam" when it's late at night and you're really too tired.

Next night. OK, that's the way it's supposed to go.

Finally. Here is Terry's finished block. At this rate it would take me HOW LONG? to make enough blocks for a quilt?

Today's rain (finally!) has reminded us that cooler, quilting weather is on the way.

It's been a warm summer (ok 'hot' but you'll never find me complaining about the heat because I really hate being cold) but I'm not ready to give up on summer quite yet.

"Gamma, Gamma. Can I play with your phone?"

One More Skill

For those of you who don't know, I broke down and purchased a "Smart Phone" about a month ago to go on the trip to North Carolina.  My old phone (for the last 10 years!), which I dearly loved, which fit beautifully into my pocket, which was just a phone and uncomplicated, would no longer hold a charge.  I asked about a new battery and was told they were no longer carried in the store but that I could contact the manufacturer. The manufacturer's rep almost laughed at me and just said, "sorry".

Since I was going on a trip and might want access to email or Mapquest or Google and since I have a iMac at home, I purchased an iPhone. Seamless integration, Cloud and all that - what???

Anyway, this weekend Cindy and I went to the Ann Arbor Quilt Show. Here is the first picture taken with my iPhone (which has more megapixels than my Nikon camera). I wasn't sure how uploading would work. My faith was that I only had to connect the cord to my iMac and Apple would do all the rest. Yay! It worked! 

Next on the list is cropping and resizing...

The photo on the left behind the plastic sleeve is the original photo. The resulting quilt is on the right.

Rock climbing Cubby out on a perfect Sunday morning bike ride.  Love it!

This Little Piggie.......

A Pigtail, A Pig's Tail?
This cute little piggie pirate was on the back of the T-Shirt of the guy in front of me at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games in North Carolina.  The pirate himself was not all that cute but he had a great braid.

This version of Blogger is going to take some getting used to...