The Search

We have always had a cat. I love cats. After our last cat was put down I said I can't do this again. Now, I want a cat again. I am starting a search.

Until the  "purr"fect one finds me, I will enjoy Crookshank and Wiggles our grand kitties.

This past week has been busy running around getting errands done and shopping for things we need. This weekend our roof is being done on our second garage. One of the guys that works for our contractor needed a weekend project. He arrived on Friday afternoon about 2. By 8:00 that night he had one side done.

We started the coach this week, It has been sitting in it's spot for a year and 2 months. It started right up. We took it out for drive. Mel is doing the un-winterizing on it now. We hope in the next week or two to head up to visit friends in northern Minnesota. We have trips in the planning stage. An RV friend we haven't met yet and only know through FB is wanting a get together. She lives in Michigan. We will plan out a trip to meet up sometime this summer.

Have a fun and safe holiday weekend.
Till next time....Piece!

May is almost gone!

Time flies! Only 10 days left in May.
Mother's Day was great. We had a beautiful sunny spring day. DIL Rose and granddaughter Rachel came by. We had a nice visit and they brought me some wonderful gifts.

This plant hanger and a hanging plant. I love it. It even has a shelf to add another pot or whatever you want to put down there. Cool!

A cute bird feeder. I will hang it outside but not fill the feeder. We have so many squirrels the birds don't have a chance to get something to eat. I do feed the hummingbirds.

Now I can make 2 different pies in one. Mel loves apple pie and I love razzelberry. Now we can both be happy. How cool is that!

Later son John  and Sara came over. They brought flowers.

Pretty! I also got a really nice gift card from them from the Fat Quarter shop. I will post pictures when my goodies arrive.
John also came on Monday and brought us dinner. Sara had to work late. That was also really nice.
Mel took me out for dinner on Mother's Day. Then we had a quite evening.

Monday was crazy. We had guys here installing our new air conditioner. We are getting a new furnace and a/c. The past 3 years we have had to have the a/c re-charged. Time for a new one. The furnace is 18 years old so we may as well do that also. The furnace wasn't due in till Thursday but they had the a/c on hand so they came and installed that. Good thing. We had temps in the 80's  and very humid weather Monday through Wednesday. We used that a/c and it was fabulous. Thursday morning we woke to 38 degrees and turned on the furnace to heat up the house before the guys came back to install the new furnace. They arrived about 9. We had 3 guys here working all day. We actually had a lot of fun. I had made a rhubarb cake in the morning. I gave them each some in the afternoon. It is a recipe from my grandma. I have never seen anyone else make this and it is always a hit. The guys loved it. Once the furnace was installed Eric came to check everything out and do readings to make sure it was putting out accurately. The guys told him about the cake so I gave him some also. ( I got a call the next day asking for the recipe. All 4 guys wanted it.) Randy came back the next day with a case of filters. This new furnace takes a 20x20x4 inch filter. According to the manufacturer of our Ruud furnace we only need to change the filter every 9-12 months unless we have pets. Then it should be changed every 6-9. We don;t have pets so with the case of filters they brought the new one in the furnace we have a 7 year supply!

I am working a new system of cutting and piecing for quilting. I love the system and made a small project to try my hand at it.

It finishes at 25x25. The coolest thing about this is the points come out perfect every time.

I love this system and will be testing out another project with it. Flying geese come out perfect. I love this.

Saturday was a big day for our grandson Alexander. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin and has a degree as an engineer in paper science. He did 2 internships in Rhinelaner, WI and last fall was offered a full time job after graduation. He will move into his apartment soon and join the working world on June 1.

He is in the middle of the picture looking at us.

We are very proud of him.
Granddaughter, Rachel will graduate from UW Milwaukee in December with a degree in Journalism. She got her Associate degree in one year from the UW Marathon campus in 2015 and then went on to Milwaukee.She will complete her college education in less than 3 years!!

I am loving my Juki machine. I finally got my hand speed and machine speed together and can stitch 10-12 stitches per inch!  Perfect! I still have quilting rulers from when I had my longarm machine. I have also played with them on the Juki also. This is going to be an awesome machine to work on and do quilting.



****I will never apologize to you, for YOU being untruthful.  My attitude is a result of your actions. If you don't like me, blame yourself!



Piece!

A Crazy Busy Week

In our younger years we had a group of friends that hung out with every chance we could. Then life hits. Marriage, children and before you know it you just don;t get together much anymore and we each develop new friendships. Last we got together with Danny and Dawn was about 5-6 years ago. We got caught up in each others lives.  They were spending summers at Wisconsin Dells in their permanent trailer at a camp ground and traveling in their coach to Gulf Shores every winter. This past winter they came back to Wisconsin in December for a family situation. Dawn contacted me through Facebook in April. She said they were in Rib Mountain and we should get together. She called and when I asked where she was she said, " we rented a duplex over here on Big Pine in January". That is about a half a block away from me. We knew exactly where they were. We picked them up and off to lunch we went to catch up. We spent almost 6 hours doing just that. The following Friday they were driving back to Gulf Shores to pick up their coach and bring it back. Dawn brought her plants over for me take care of while they were gone. They came back for about a week. We got together again and now they off to South Dakota to visit friends till the 19th. We keep in touch most days. What a wonderful surprise to get reunited again. Mel and Danny go back a long way.

Last Thursday morning I got up really early, picked up "Chicklet" (Linda) and we were off to Beaver Dam to the Nancy's Notions warehouse sale. We had a blast. We each  found what we were looking for.

My "loot". The floor lamp was a door buster. ( will work well in our coach)  A circle cutter, pattern, 2 books, a travel bag for a travel iron that I also bought, coasters with quilts printed on them, steam a seam and 32 fat quarters. All for just over 100.00!!! Oh! and a bottle of Retayne. I need that if I am working with Red, dark blue or black fabric. I also saw a neighbor of mine there along with a friend from Madison.  After, we headed over to Applebees for lunch. It was a great day. Lots of laughs.

Friday, Sarah Bohman came over. We went through some fabric she was looking for. She stole my latest quilt top and said" I want to quilt this one!". She is awesome and a real hoot to be around. We both have dreams of going to Italy and we are actually getting a game plan together.

Saturday was quiet. I cleaned house, did laundry. Hung all the light stuff outside. My last 2 loads were jeans and towels. I went down to get the jeans out of the dryer and they were cold and wet. Arg! The thermal fuse blew! Happened about 10 years ago also. I hung the jeans on my drying rack. Called my neighbor and took the towels to her house to dry in her dryer.

Sunday was also quiet. I did some sewing and played with quilting on my new Juki machine.

Monday was my usual errand day. Got going early and was done by noon. My friend Melissa from the southern part of the state set up a group chat for planning an RV quilting retreat. We have about 9 people already signed up. Melissa did this last year and had 20 people. She said it got out of hand with that many. This year the most will be 15. We will have potlucks for lunch and dinners. Dinners will include our husbands. Melissa has 2 campgrounds that she is checking into that will work for our retreat. Looking at north of the Madison area. Makes for a central place for all to meet.

Tuesday was getting the rest of my errands done.You see, Tuesday is senior day at our grocery store. Gotta get that discount.  We also picked up the new thermal fuse and got the dryer put back together.

Wednesday I sewed all day. ALL DAY! It was wonderful. I have been working on some new things besides quilts. I am making these wallets. They are fabulous for credit cards, quilt shop punch cards and stashing money for those quilt shops.

It is amazing how much stuff they hold.

When we met with Dawn she was showing me a "ditty" bag she uses while she does her knitting. She also spins. She does the most beautiful knitting and you should see the beautiful yarns she spins. Anyway, she uses the ditty bag to put in a small project along with her needles and yarn. Wherever she is she can just pull out her project and work on it while leaving the yarn in the bag so it doesn't get dirty. Here is what those look like. I made 2.

The bag stays on her wrist while she knits.

Today, Lois are I are heading off to Paquette's for our annual plant shopping.

In between all of this, my daughter in law , Sara has come over to help go through everything in the house for downsizing. We have gotten a lot taken care of. We pack up things to go to Goodwill and things she and John want. I think she has taken more home than I take to Goodwill. I am not doing garage sales anymore so it goes to Goodwill. It is just to difficult for me to set them up with my health situation.  The house is sold  as soon as we are ready to surrender it to an easier life in an apartment or condo. Nice knowing we do not have to worry about that.

 Have a wonderful day. Till next time.... Piece!

BTW: soon I will be going through my quilting stuff and downsizing that also. Fabric, rulers, books etc.. I am trying to decide what to do with the items I no longer need. If you know of anyone wanting any quilting items they can contact me through this blog.

What happen! And quilting!

After a friend read my post she suggested I explain what happen to  Mel. About 5 years ago he had what we call a "mini" stroke. We were eating out when he tried to tell me something and his speech was  slurred to the point I could not understand him. Then after testing was done he also had a blocked carotid artery on his left  side. Surgery was scheduled. When we hear "mini" stroke we usually do not think much about it but, it is as dangerous as a full blown stroke.  It causes damage and changes to the brain. I noticed changes in him after the surgery. He had some personality changes and anxiety about things that never would have bothered him before. It got worse through the past couple years along with depression. We saw a neurologist that our doctor recommended. He said the brain goes through changes after a stroke. Most changes he sees are people either get overly joyous, tearful or depression and anxiety. Mel got the latter. Now that we found a drug that appears to be working for him, things are improving.  He is actually wanting to go places and see people.

I am still working on my quilting. I enjoy being able to sew and make quilts to share with my family and friends. I have been working on my Farmers Wife quilt. Slowly! Actually we have a group of 4 that are doing it. We divided the blocks up and we each make 4 of the blocks in the grouping we are in. One of the ladies found paper piecing patterns for them. She gave us all copies. I like to paper piece but I found these horrible to do. So I am doing it by using the templates. I also working on other quilts while doing this. Another friend, Kay and I are also doing a Judy Niemeyer wall hanging. She has a unique way of paper piecing and I know why it is suggested you take one of her courses to under her technique. Between the 2 of us we will figuring this out. LOL 
Here are a few pictures of some quilts I have made since my posts a few years ago.

 A table topper I made from fabrics I fell in love with. I just decided to make 9 patches and go from there.

 Using the Strip Smart ruler. A fun project.

My Daughter-in-law found this pattern. She picked out the fabrics. That's my handsome son John and his wife,  Sara, peaking around the other side.

More to come next time. Till then... Piece and Hugs