a winter's day

in a deep and dark november ... yes, i do know that technically it isn't winter till the solstice ... try telling that to my freezing fingers and cold nose ...... today was our fifth Saturday Sampler 3 meeting at The Quilter's Studio ... i forgot to put some kleenex in my pocket so Auntia went in without me while i headed back to the car ... when i arrived on the scene there was only one chair left and it wasn't next to my baby girl ... Auntia gave me an i'm so very, very sorry look ... we don't know the names of most of the people who frequent the shop, so we've made up names for some of them ... the quilter next to the empty chair is the one we call More Than a Gardener ... More Than a Gardener said your daughter told me that she was saving this seat for you ... no-she-didn't-we-always-sit-next-to-each-other-she-wouldn't-do-that-to-me ... oh yes she did ... mutter mutter mutter ... so i sat down next to More Than a Gardener ... in the front row ... far far away from my baby girl ... i kept looking back at her and giving her my pathetic how could you do this to me? look ... we need to get there earlier next time ... anywho - Sheri gave us our new fat quarters and the instructions for this month's block ... we wandered around the shop after the meeting and Auntia found the dark blue sky fabric (thank you for the suggestion, Jennifer!) from the Lone Wolves line ... i think i am going to use it for the outer border of The Other One's quilt ... now i won't have to order it and wait and wait and wait ... and now i don't have an excuse to not work on the inner border, either ... mutter mutter mutter ... anywho, this is where we found Mingo when we walked out the back door...looks like Mingo has been a bad little flamingo

yep - there he is, sitting on the naughty spot

there is a temporary ban (due to the H1N1 virus) on children under the age of 14 visiting the assisted living center where Little Nonnie resides ... none of her great-grandchildren have been able to visit her for several months ... my sister offered to help Little Nonnie escape for a few hours today so we could celebrate her 85th plus two weeks and 3 days birthday ... i baked a cake...yo - Traveling Man - german chocolate cake - your favorite! don't worry - i ate a piece or two for you!
...and brought a crockpot filled with meatballs and italian sausage and sauce for sandwiches ... and grilled peppers and onions and lottsa mozzarella ... man oh man were they good... NoJo and Gumdrop and Itty Bitty colored and stickered while Little Nonnie whacked away at the cake...mwaaahhhhahhhahhha! whack whack whack!!!
...Mrs. Moth and LuLu were the only ones brave enough to sit near the knife-wielder...rubber ducky, you're the one
...did you notice the sign behind LuLu?ha ha ha! does my sister have some cool stuff or what?
Mr. Husker doesn't like eye-talian food or a house filled with women and he stayed outside and did whatever it is he does when he's out there - so NoJo was outnumbered by women nine to one - i heard some noise in the breezeway and when i looked around the corner, i saw Mr. Husker backed up to the wood stove, trying to warm up his bum ... he said it's kinda cold out there ... ya think?!? it didn't get above freezing all day!!! if you look up understatement in the dictionary, you'll find his picture
and now it is snowing like crazy ... we're supposed to see 8-12 inches by this time tomorrow ... brrrr!!!

this is Earth Science's birthday ... thirty-three years ago i found myself lying in a little room in St. Joseph's Hospital totally in love with and hopelessly enamored of my beautiful little baby boy ... and i hope that today he has had the happiest birthday ever!!!

AA - the first step

our applique instructor is the same lady who made the sewing machine go bonkers when she was putting the castles in spain block together at the BOM meeting ... Sheri is a real sweetheart and very, very patient with my cranky hands and Auntia's frosty fingers ... i believe her exact words were you have the coldest hands i have ever touched when she reached over to show Auntia how to use her needle to position a leaf ... we are the only two students in the class (which either means everybody else already knows how to hand applique or they all heard that we were gonna be there and didn't show up) and the one teacher/two students ratio was super ... we learned needle turn applique last night and next week will learn a different technique ... Sheri told us that the folk heart threads book is the one she likes to teach beginners because it's folk art and so it's not supposed to be perfect ... it's supposed to be folksy...

...this is my block - i still have to make three little circles for the center of the flower ... i have to keep telling myself that it is a flower and not an alien waving his little E.T. arms at me...
...and this is Auntia's finished block ... i'm loving the plaid leaves ...... our homework is cutting out the pieces for flowers with squared corners for next week's blocks ... the whole process was much less stressful than i thought it would be ... we learned a lot ... and it was kinda nice to not have to worry about meeting points and matching seams and not stretching biases...
...Auntia took this picture on the way home ... we were going 65mph down 287 and watching a glorious sunset most of the way ... the delicious aroma of Schlotsky's sandwiches was wafting through the car ...... our home is in a valley (a very, very windy valley) and the houses around us block any view of the Rockies ... unless i stand on a step stool and lean into the sewing room window till my head smacks the glass - then i can see about a quarter inch of one of the 14ers ... the setting sun is out of range unless we walk down to the corner and over two or three blocks ...... Schlotsky's serious sandwiches ... a sunset ... and good company ... what could be better?
...unfortunately, Mingo has fallen off the wagon again ... this is what he was doing while the rest of us were attending AA

...and when we arrived at home there was a message from my sister ... Little Nonnie has bronchitis (antibiotics) and a pinched nerve (neck exercises that she will not do unless she is forced by a physical therapist) and an ulcerated sore in her mouth (special $37 mouthwash four times a day) and PMR (with its accompanying threat of the nightmare of Prednisone rearing its ugly head) ... sigh.

anywho ... the sunset was beautiful, the sandwiches were yummy ... and hand applique is kinda fun

clubbing

do you remember this guy? his name is Mingo and the last time i saw him he was stretched out in the middle of The Quilters Studio - not taking a nap ... well, this is the sad state that i found him in when we went to the BOM club on saturday ... it seems he's been hitting the bars ... just look at that sad, pathetic face ... alone in the corner ... forsaken ... the word on the street is he's lost his standing with chicks to this guy...

a biker musician dude who travels with his own bali pops band and fat quarters groupies ... wearing his plaid shorts, birkenstocks, and cool shades - he wins them over with his rockin' rendition of you are my sunshine ... dancing and flapping his wings in some kind of weird pink mating ritual ...... it just isn't fair ... it's enough to drive a bird to drink

girls just wanna have fun

we left this morning at 0823 with coffee in our travel mugs and hot out of the oven cinnamon rolls ... Auntia was dressed in her robin hood leggings and furry brown boots, but she wouldn't let me take a picture of her ...... anywho, we arrived at the TQS BOM Saturday Sampler meeting about two minutes before 0900 and - gasp - our seats were taken! so we sat on the other side of the room and saw everything from a very different perspective - which was kinda refreshing. this month's block is "free trade" and the alternate is "hourglass" ...... then it was time to shop!
i was pretty good this time and bought just four fat quarters (the brown and black batiks are for Mr. Huskers' 60th birthday quilt - shh - it isn't till next year and i'm not even sure what it's gonna be, but it will have black angus cows) and two patterns by Penny Sturges for mini totes:
i didn't realize that the tote patterns were by the same designer till i took them out of the bag for their picture ... and, yes, i know that it is not environmentally correct to ask for a bag (especially when i have shopping bags in the car that Auntia made for me) ... but i can't help myself. when i go to The Quilter's Studio, i want to take my goodies home in one of their bright green bags ... i love those bright green bags!

look who was supposed to be taking a nap in the middle of the studio:
his name is Mingo ... and i don't think he's gonna close those peepers till people stop taking his picture ......
there are pink flamingos in evidence throughout the shop, and all of them are named after movie stars from the 30s and 40s ... except for Mingo, who already had a name when he arrived. i think we could have milled around the shop all morning, but we needed to pick up the stocking threads and charms from the Stitchers Garden. so, we put our quilting goodies in the car and then crossed Main Street to buy:do you see the thistle bookmark kit? that is not for the stocking ... it is for Auntia and, even though she knows how to cross stitch and could make it herself, she expects me to make it for her ... i think it was a mistake to tell her that Little Nonnie wouldn't sew (or crochet or embroider or stitch) for me after i learned the basics ... she would tell me, "You know how, you can do it yourself." ...... i used to hate hearing those words ... nope, i never should have told Auntia ... she guilted me into buying the kit and asked if i could at least have it finished before An Echo in the Bone is published ... i dinna ken if that will happen, but i will do my best to have it done by Robert Burns next birthday ... "Who?" she asked.

then we went to see Little Nonnie ... she wouldn't let me take her picture, either. she told me that her hair is too frizzy and i can take all the pictures that i want at the baby shower next saturday because she is gonna have her hair done on friday. well, all righty, then. after a (looong enough) visit, we headed for Schlotskys, ordered our serious sandwiches, and came home to eat and watch some episodes from the first season of Highlander ... and take a nap.