big yellow taxi

when i first moved to this house it didn't have a microwave ... not a big deal ... i didn't use the microwave for cooking ... i just used it to heat up stuff like coffee and frozen dinners and leftovers ... i could live without a microwave ... piece of cake ...... i lasted six days ... i found myself wandering around the kitchen with a cold cup of coffee in my hand and trying to remember what i used to do with cold coffee back when rocks were soft and mist was in the air ... the next day i went to the scratch and dent section of Sears and bought myself a dented microwave whose door didn't hang quite right and had it installed ... it's still working knock on wood ... fast forward ... last week the computer started making a terrible racket ... we took it apart, vacuumed out the insides, and put it back together ... it was still making scary noises that were now accompanied by a cloud of dust floating in the air ... so we unplugged everything from the tower and lived without a computer ... not a big deal ... i don't use the computer for business ... i just use it to blog and read email and surf the Net ... piece of cake ...... i lasted six hours ... i found myself unable to look up on the Internet why the service engine light might suddenly light up on Auntia's car ... and unable to pay bills ... or look at my woe-begotten checking account ... i wandered around trying to remember what i used to do when lights lit up on the car and bills needed to be paid back when rocks were soft and mist was in the air...

don't it always seem to go
that you don't know what you got till it's gone
sing it, Joni!

so we bought a new tower and a printer cuz it was in the toilet, too and Auntia hooked it all up ... and we're back on line ... i'm not sure that i like Windows 7 cuz it wasn't my idea and i can't believe how much basic software costs just so we can write a word document and the scanner scares the beejeebies outta me ... but i know that with trained monkey instructions and a pat on the head and two bananas a day i will learn how to function again ... i've already figured out surfing fabric shops which are off limits on accounta we have to pare down to the bare essentials till we've paid for this thing and i think that i can load a picture ... let's see ...growl ... stomp
yep - there it is ... i dunno why it's so small ... huh ... guess i'll hafta try again...
growl ... stomp
anywho ... i finished piecing the spirit guides and i really, really like them ... i bought the book and pattern years and years ago when they were first printed ... i read the directions and bought the fabric and reread the directions and put it all away ... then i made the quilt flimsy and brought out the book and the pattern and the fabric again ... i read and reread and subtracted and multiplied and added and reread some more - and put it all away ... when i was cleaning the magick shoppe i found all of the stuff again ... i read the directions and figured out the formula for half-sizing, made my calculations and started cutting ... and this time it made sense ... woo hoo!!! these are gonna be pillow shams for European-sized pillows to go with the quilt ... and now i'm gonna see if i still remember how to post a post...

what's all that racket?!?

i've been working on spirit guides this week...moo with attitude

and used the friday night sew-in to work on the buffalo ... he's in cahoots with this guy...where's a seal when you need one?
i half-sized them from these books...from Steamboat Springs, Colorado
which wasn't as difficult as it would have been a year ago ... i did hafta use my math skills, though, which are a wee bit dusty...
i worked on the SS3 BOMs last weekend and came up with this flimsy...more animals ... what's up with that?
and now i hafta turn over the computer to Auntia so she can post her FNSI stuff ... our poor little computer is making the most gawd awful sound kinda like playing cards that have been clothespinned to bicycle spokes and we are limiting our time using it so it doesn't burn up ... the sound is really annoying and i don't like it not one little bit

anudder one

kinda like the other ones ... the SS3 BOM for may was actually kinda fun to make...here's looking at you, kid!

i'm finally starting to feel comfortable with the templates ... one more block to go which will mean getting up early on saturday morning whether i want to or not ... and these blocks are not gonna sit around for months waiting for me to do something with them - they are gonna grow up and be a quilt by september ... famous last words ... mutter mutter mutter

poke a dot

this one is for Carpe Quiltem...who's red and white and loved all over?!?
Annemiek recently won a giveaway ... she says she's never won anything in her life except an incomplete jigsaw puzzle when she was 11 - which wasn't all that long ago ... i'm just sayin' ... and LuLu told me that she (LuLu) wanted to tell her (Annemiek) that we've known all along that she (Annemiek) is a winner!!!

and then there were three

3 flimsies - check
3 backings - check
3 batts - check
3 rolls of binding - check
3 spools of thread - check

ready ... set ... quilt
that's how i roll my bindings - are any of you old enough to remember teletype machines?
Auntia and i joined our first Saturday Sampler in august of 2008 ... i gave my 24 (original colorway) blocks to Auntia and she has completed a flimsy with them - but that is her story to tell and made the same blocks times two in Lakehouse pinks and oranges ... anywho ... my original intention was to make a pink and orange sampler quilt for each of my two granddaughters ... and then i found out that i would have another granddaughter (born april 16, 2009) ... i went a little crazy making blocks for my girls ... and by the time we finished up that Saturday Sampler i had seventy-two pink and orange blocks ... thirty-six of them have become...for LuLufor Gumdropfor Peanut Butter Cup
...the flimsies are 56"x70" ... that should be just about the right size for my babies to wrap around themselves when they are watching a movie or reading a book or having a tea party with their babies ... maybe the flimsies will be quilted and bound by christmas

now ... about those thirty-six remaining blocks ... hmmmm

butt kicker

the PPSS BOM blocks are ready for the meeting next saturday morning...rambler and bear paw
the one on the left (rambler - curse the scurvy dog!!!) kicked my butt for four (yes - count 'em - one two three four) hours yesterday ... the kit had a strip of fabric that was just big enough for those little polka-dotted triangles and not even a skosh of an inch for leeway ... i growled a lotta discouraging words that are seldom heard home on the range ...... okay ... okay ... okay ... maybe not so seldom ... Auntia's blocks have been ready since forever ago cuz she's such a showoff

thursday night mow-in

it took two trips sideways and up and down around the lawn on thursday evening to mow it down to an acceptable level ... when Michael Myson told me that he was using a pair of scissors to trim the grass along the edges of his yard i gave all of those errant weed whackers to him with the hope that he will be able to get one of them to work ... yesterday i bought a pair of lawn clippers so i could trim the edges ... i just came in from trimming the front with those clippers ... they are going back to the store - there's a big difference between clipping and chewing
anywho ... the plan was to get the grass cut on thursday so that friday would be free for the Friday Night Sew-In ... i even remembered to bake a pot pie and some cookies earlier in the day so we wouldn't have to stop to fix dinner ... no excuses for not settling in for an evening's enjoyment of stitching ... except that i didn't really want to stitch ... i didn't want to eat pot pie ... i didn't even want to eat cookies ... all i wanted to do was go to bed ... anywho ... i had sewn pink sashings around some of the Pink and Orange BOM blocks that have been glaring at me for the past three months the other day...that one is for LuLu ... it's a lotta pink and orange, innit?
and decided to work on the purple sashings last night ... i thought that maybe for Peanut Butter Cup's purple quilt the alternate blocks would look better with different background colors...Peanut Butter Cup likes purple
bleck ... i left them on the design floor to see if the morning light made them look any better ... and went on to the PPSS BOM blocks for this month ... Auntia finished one of her blocks and has a good start on the other one cuz she is disciplined and doesn't meander from one thing to another to another like her mother but this is as far as i made it...hey!!! don't just leave us here!!!
before i gave up and went to bed like i wanted to in the first place ... and now it is saturday morning ... i still don't like the alternate blocks in Peanut Butter Cup's quilt - i think i'm gonna go with just purple backgrounds ... the paper-pieced bear paw is waiting for me, too ... maybe there will be a saturday night sew-in...
maybe not