Monday, March 17, 2008

Sunday, March 16th

Phew! We did it! Drew and I finished the first of the 3 bedroom floors and it only took us 7 hours! Well, we did pull up the carpet and repair the floor last weekend, so that this weekend we were able to install the wood flooring and put in the baseboards which I'd already done last weekend.
Anyways, today, we finished the hallway, the linen closet, and put in the baseboards this afternoon. So, now we have the other spare bedroom and our master bedroom, which we hope to start next weekend. Tomorrow night Drew is going to help me put my ironing table (his mother's old dresser) on rolling castors, so I can get to my design wall and finish up our kingsize bed quilt. I need to get it to the longarm machine quilter NLT next month so that she'll have time to finish it in time for the quilt show in July.
I also need to finish a few other quilts, too, for the show and for presents. One of them is a quilt for graduation for Keedan and another one for Arron. Keedan's is a triptech one I'm doing a jazz drummer, and Arron's will be one that is of a motorcycle, since he wants to go to school to learn to repair big motorcycles.
Well, tonite's blog is short as I'm tired, and I would love to figure out how to upload pictures. That may be something to learn for another day/night. So, til later...

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 News

Well, here I am again letting ya'll know the news of the day. Today started out quite funny actually. We've been taking care of Gary's dog, Blackjack, for him until he can get it to his new owner (waiting for the fence to be built), and he's apparently an indoor dog. Nothing wrong with that, except he sleeps on the floor in our bedroom and he's no trouble . . . when Drew's there.
Drew leaves for work and Blackjack thinks he belongs on the bed with me, and even though it's a kingsize bed, he wants to either lay up by MY pillow, or lays over my legs. Well, this morning, Drew was going to close the door and pretend he left and wait to hear if Blackjack moved. Well, he did get up and walk over to my side of the bed and Drew came back in and told him to get back on his blanket. Humpt! He again closed the door, and pretended he went out the front door and quietly walked back to see if Blackjack had moved. He hadn't. So, he went ahead and went to work. Well, Blackjack waited about 25 minutes to make sure Drew wasn't coming back, and then jumped up on the bed. By that time, I had both Blackjack and Molly on my legs and could hardly move.
Gary had told us to use a rolled up newspaper and slap him with it, as he didn't like the sound of it, and it wouldn't hurt him. Well, Blackjack apparently isn't bothered with that danged newspaper, and it didn't work. I finally had to pull my legs out from under the two dogs and just go ahead and pull them off the bed and get dressed. I wasn't going to get anymore sleep, but this can't keep up, as I don't go to bed until around 3-4 in the morning and getting up at 8-9 just isn't cutting it. I usually get up around 9:30, but not now. It's usually right after Drew leaves which is around 8:30, and I'm getting tired. so, since today was such a nice day, the dogs have been left outside for most of it.
In the meantime, I'm working on my Shoebox quilt and it's all done except the final border to sew on, but I took a break to work on a small quilt for a silent auction in Chicago. I'm donating it to my granddaughter, Madysen's school for a fund raiser. I hope they get a bit of money for it, as I'm sure someone should like it. It's a couple of birds dancing cheek to cheek. I'll try and post a picture when it's done, and also the shoebox one.
Maybe this weekend, I'll get a picture posted of Drew and I laying the floors thruout our house. We have the living room, dining room and most of the hallway done. We are now in the first of 3 bedrooms, and the carpet's been pulled up and staples removed, and it's just waiting for the flooring. I have to admit, for beginner's, Drew and I are doing a bang-up job. Twice Gary came over to help (mostly to move some of the bigger furniture), and one of our grandsons, Kellen came over to help. That was when I was in Chicago.
Hummmm...well, enough for now...and I'll try to post pics soon.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Wendy's Busy Quilting Day

Whew! Today has been busy for me, as after doing errands downtown, I came home and have been quilting all afternoon. I'm playing catchup from when I was gone during most of the month of February when I was in Chicago at my son's Peter's house.
Anyways, today I pieced together most of the blocks for my Shoebox Quilt, and only have the final border to put on, after which I can add some insect appliques to it of a butterfly, dragonfly, snail, bee and a ladybug. This particular quilt will go to one of my littlest granddaughters, Camila.
This Shoebox Quilt was a project that my guilddid for the last year starting January 2007 and ending January 2008. We all had a box (shoebox, whatever), that we each had our own theme and it was passed down to 12 people to work on one block each month. I think I had one of the easiest blocks, as it was a flower that you layered and cut out the underneath, and just sewed about 1/4 inch from the edge with black thread. Then layer the next smaller flower on top, cut out the underneath and finally layer a small circle for the center. When I got these all back, I cut them apart into 4 equal sections and resewed them together. I added leaves, sashing and now I need to do a real thin black sashing around the whole quilt top with a final flower border. I will then applique the small insects to the top, and give it to a woman I know that does pantagraph quilting.
So, phew! Today has been tiring for me. In the meantime, Drew and I are dog-sitting his son, Gary's dog, Blackjack until they can find a new home for him. He's a sweet black lab, about 8 years old, but he's way too big for us anymore. We also can't travel with such a large dog, not the way we travel with our small beagle, Molly. We used to have a white german shephard ourselves named Gunnar, but he finally died last year the week after Thanksgiving. It was sad, but he had a good long life, and he was feeling his age. To Drew and I, we just don't feel another large dog can replace him, so Molly is it for us for now.
Well, Blackjack has been an interesting dog for the last couple days. He's very well behaved, but as soon as Drew leaves for work, he jumps into bed with me, and thinks he should be able to sleep on the bed like Molly does. It probably wouldn't be so bad, if he would just keep to the foot of the bed, but he wants to sleep up by the pillows. Go figure, I can't handle that! Talked to Gary tonite when he brought over some dogfood, and he said that Blackjack has never done that before. Humpt! Go figure that he'd start now.
So, enough blogging for tonite, my first time. I'll try to come back tomorrow and maybe update some photos to this site of my quilts and the various things I'm doing, and that Drew and I are doing together. Especially our progress on our floors. . . .