Sunday news

Well the fun is officially over ... on Friday I had a dermatologist appointment to remove the other basal cell they found a month and a half ago ... he told me the cut was about an inch long:

I do believe he needs to get his ruler out and remeasure!  Yikes!  I can only hope that it looks as good as the last time I had this done.  That scar you can't even see any more it's on the same side towards the middle of my nose.  You can't see it at all!  The problem is that no bandaid will cover so ...

I look a bit beat up!  That's okay ... it's only for a week ... I'm getting used to this.  Besides, the other day in Starbuck's I met a friend, and whenever I think of him, he makes me smile ...

Meet Hank, a miniature dachsund puppy who almost came home with me!  I got to hold him while his mom was in line ordering a coffee.  He was so tiny and very, very sweet!  How can you not be happy looking at Hank?

The last quilt I did before I left on vacation was a Christmas quilt.  It was a little busy, but I have a holly pantograph that I thought would work really well with it ... it's a little abstract, and I wasn't sure whether the customer would like it, but she loved it!

Glide thread in top and bobbin.

I got all turned around towards the end of the quilt and somehow got off of the line I was stitching on.  I had to rip out about 20 minutes worth of work which amounted to about 3 hours of ripping.  I just HATE that!  Someone should hire themselves out to rip out people's quilting ... they could make a lot of money.  I would hire them.

Teaching a class tomorrow ... going to go and finish watching game 4 of the World Series.  My son's sweetie's family are Tiger fans ... go Tigers!

Catching up ... yay!

It didn't take me very long to get behind ... something happened last week, and the two quilts I was supposed to do did not get done!  So this week I jammed and got four quilts done ... hurray!  Feels really good to get them all done and check them off my quilt calendar ... now I'm back on track ... yay!!

One of the quilts I did earlier in the week was a queen size churn dash quilt.  I've watched my friend work on this for a while, and when she gave it to me to quilt I was really excited.  She wanted a really tight stipple on the quilt, and I was a littile concerned about that since the quilt was so big.  Usually I would do a medium size stipple ... she was right on!  I love the tight stipple and it looks great (if I do say so myself!).

I used an Omni thread in the top and bobbin ... the color is Goose ... I love the name!

Didn't she do a good job?  It's so striking in just the couple of colors.  It was really fun to quilt!

She's lucky because I almost kept it for my bed!  I liked it so much ... heh, heh. 

I wanted to show the back of the quilt so you can see how she pieced it ... she just used what she had.  A lot of people really want the back of their quilts to look nice, and to them that means a beautiful piece of fabric.  I happen to love the look of a pieced back ... the scrappier the better ... I've seen some backs that are geometrically beautiful, but I never can put that much planning into my backs.  I do prefer to use whatever I have and in addition to it looking really cool, I feel virtuous in using up all my leftovers!

I loved this center strip ... I'm not sure what it started out as, but I thought it looked really neat!

While I was out on the back patio this evening enjoying the end of the day and the quilt I just finished, I went inside to get something, and then when I came back outside, this hawk was sitting on the fence about 20 yards away from me ...

It's hard to see him as I didn't want to get any closer and scare him away.  He must have sat there looking around for about 15 minutes.

I was wondering if he was looking at Sophie and wondering if he had any chance of scooping her up!  See him way over there on the right?  I don't even think Sophie paid any attention to him or knew he was there.  More likely he was looking for the baby bunnies that have been out and about in the neighbor's yard the last week or so ... they are so cute!  I hope they watch out for the hawks!

Deliveries

My mailman is the absolute coolest!  His name is Eddie, and he has had our route for about  12 years.  Because we have two dogs, and I'm sure most mailmen do not trust the "oh, they're really very friendly," thing that most people say while their dogs are acting like they want to rip the mailman apart, Eddie does not come down our driveway to deliver a package unless he is in his postman-mobile and the doors are closed.  He only opens his door long enough to lay the packages outside our gate -- we have a super long driveway, and a big electronic gate that holds the dogs inside, where they exuberantly protect their territory and people. 


Eddie doesn't want to throw my packages over the gate because he's afraid the dogs will eat them (and I think he's afraid they might be able to jump over the gate and eat him in the process!), so he does the most wonderful thing for me ... he texts me to let me know that he left a package.  How cool is that?  He's noticed in the last year or so that I get deliveries from quilting suppliers, so yesterday I ran into him and he was asking me about quilting and did I make them, and sell them, etc.

Usually I don't get packages very often ... I had been waiting for the part(s) to fix my longarm machine for a few days, so I was excited when I saw Eddie's truck at the gate ... there wasn't just one package ... there were four!  Wow, how exciting ... like Christmas.

The parts finally came for my machine (yay!!!!!), a thread order that I had just ordered -- they deliver so quickly, a box of bathing suits from Land's End (that time of year again), and a small package of Hobbs Tuscany batting that I ordered to try.  I usually use Hobbs 80/20, but I thought I would try their 100% cotton and see what the difference is.

I hope you all remember your mailmen and get good service ... we always remember Eddie at Christmas with some goodies to let him know how much he's appreciated!

Beautiful weekend

**I wrote this post yesterday, and then couldn't find my camera with the pictures on it!  Ha, ha ...

This weekend was like summer ... it was beautiful!  Saturday was La Mesa clean up day which means you can bring all your junk that can't go out in the trash.  We didn't have too much of that -- just some old blacktop and cement from a major driveway project from last year.  We have been slowly getting rid of it.  The exciting part of the clean up day is the free mulch!  I wanted to just load it up in my son's truck bed, but hubby insisted we just put it in some big trashcans.  We got two loads -- not a ton, but at least it will make a nice addition to some areas in the yard that really need attention.

Oh no, I was NOT digging in the dirt!

There are two members of this household, furry members, that were also excited to see the mulch.  As soon as we brought it home and dumped it in a pile, Sophie was right over there finding some big pieces to gnaw on ... that dog is such a brat! 

Notice all the little paw prints

Hmm ... big paw prints too

You can't see the layer of mulch on the bottom of her chin!

Charlie is black so it doesn't show ... but you can see the dirt on the hardwood floor where he lays!

It is amazing what you can get done in a day when you get up early and get moving!  Usually on the weekends, I'm up early, but I sit and have my coffee and read.  By the time I get a shower and get working, it's usually noon.  Well Sunday I had coffee with my friends at 9, then went to Target and did some shopping.  By the time I got home, I had a late breakfast, then got to my longarm and did about half of the quilt I'm working on, put chili in the crockpot for dinner.  It was just one of those wonderful days when I actually feel like I got a lot done!  Here's a sneak peek at the quilt that's on my frame ... I'll show you more tomorrow.

Wednesday in pictures

Finally got my rear in gear and made it to the gym today.  I have a workout friend that I used to meet once a week at the gym ... we worked out years ago together with the same trainer, and we inspired and urged each other on.  We've continued through the years, but I hadn't seen him in about a year ... he had some injuries and had to have surgery and then rehabilitation.  It was great to catch up and for me to get those endorphins going!

I got into my sewing room today and worked on my quilt a bit more ... I love the putting together and creating a quilt process, and I really haven't designed one in a while, and I forgot what a joy it can be to just lose yourself in the process.  Still trying to see what direction this one will go in ... my friends can usually tell when I've been sewing ...

My pants are always covered in thread, and I'm usually wearing a dark color!  Ha, ha

Spring is here, and my house has made the transition ...

This is one of the first quilts I made - a Donna Yackey original

Another early one -- a Donna Yackey original

A little collection I'm not sure what to do with!

P.S.  Can you tell I like bunnies?  =:)