Bonnie Hunter

I love Bonnie's blog.



I just read her blog about stash and how much to buy. It brought back memories of when I first started quilting and fabric shopping. A fabricholic I became, everything that caught my eye I had to have. Seems silly to have a room full of fabric you know you will never use in your lifetime and when you are no longer here somebody will have to decide where it goes and how to deal with it.



Over 5 years ago I went on a fabric diet, not buying anything that happened to catch my eye cause it was interesting, a color I happened to like or just had to have for one reason or another. The only thing I've purchased is batting and an occassioal something for a special quilt. There's been no "gosh this sure is neat fabric or wow, I know at some point I can do something with this". I want to empty my cupboards, my totes of all the fabric I have. I don't want my kids to have to decide what to do with Mom's quilting stuff. vbg



I've invited my youngest sister to come shop my stash for whatever she wants. I want to get rid of it, I'm tired of seeing it in my sewing room. It takes up way too much room, leaving me with just enough space to stand and turn around. I no longer love it, and dont' want it.



It's amazing the amount of money we spend buying fabric and gadgets to make our sewing easier and then it just sits there to get dusty until we pass if off to somebody else who can then do the same thing we have.



I admit to being a quilting junkie. I love fabric and quilts but there comes a time for when just how many quilts does a person need. The ones I make now, I give away as the pleasure comes from making them not storing them on a shelf for someday.



I've 24 blocks done for the bargain quilt. They are going together pretty quickly. My only planning on this qlt is to have at least a yellow or red in each block. I think this will be a really outragous scrap Trip around the World. I wanted to participate in the mystery quilt Bonnie is posting but just don't have the time as this TATW has a deadline.

Gratitudes.

For family who always there when needed
Thanksgiving with my sister's family

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

TO ALL

MY FRIENDS IN BLOGLAND.

Leftovers

as in all the left over pieces from all the quilts and such I have done. I have all these pieces and didn't have a clue what to do with them. While over on Quiltville.com looking for one of Bonnies free patterns/tutorial I saw the perfect pattern for them. A super scrappy Trip Around the World. I had all these 2.5" squares cut so sorted them into stacks of sixes and then just grabbed a light, a dark, a medium and put them together. When all my squares are used I'm going to do Bonnie's strip method. It seems much easier and quicker and quick is what I need.

John came home last weekend and bargained with me for a raise in our weekly allowance (yes we have allowances). He bargained for a quilt for another of the bartender friends down in Portland saying I had so many laying around surely I could donate one to this young lady who has recently gone into remission. I'm not sure what kind of CA she had but remission it is. Lest you think otherwise, these young ladies are all of the age where he considers them his children/grandchildren as he's never had either of his own, just mine. I don't mind, they all look after him like a favorite father/grandfather.

To make a long story shorter, I don't have any quilts I'm ready to part with, what I have left are for ME. Call me selfish, maybe I am but.....these are my favorites....I don't want to share them with anybody. So I promised I would have a quilt ready hopefully by the next time he comes home for a weekend and if not the following one. It will be a dash to the finish line.

I recently started the process of having dental implants. Not to be too gross, I had a loose tooth that really needed to come out. I was hanging onto it. Vanity you know, hated the thought of maybe having to have another partial so called the Orthodonist, made an appt to have the tooth taken out and a bone graft done. While sitting here at the puter, the darned tooth just fell out. Wednesday I went for the bone graft. OUCHIE. While the pain is mostly gone now, I look like I'm storing nuts for the winter or have a pretty good sized plug of tobbacy in my jaw which is turning all shades of purple/yellow. Major swelling/bruising. It's a shame we can't grow more teeth as we need them.

My brother called yesterday to see if I was home. I'd been talking to him about replacing the wood in the front porch and he came out and did it yesterday. He's been off work a lot this past year and any little bit helps out. Ocean Kayak recently closed here in our town putting his wife out of a very good paying job and onto Unemployment. The porch re-do is very professional, a jack of all trades he is. Why hire somebody for a job when you can pay your siblings to do the same job just as well and at a rate that is acceptable to you and them.

Saturday is another planned sister day of sorts. We are almost done with putting our next years raffle quilt together. There's 2 blocks that still need to be re-done. A little setback and then we can lay it out, play with the blocks till we have a combo we all like to stitch together. This has not been fun, to many different 1/4"s and rip, rip, rip and re-do. Any suggestions on how to get 7 different people, machines and 1/4" feet to be a accurate would certainly be appreciated. Had thought of getting everybody "The Angler" with hopes that would work but......when you have an "it's close enough", a speed demon who needs to "do more blocks than everybody else" you tend to have problems.

Gratitudes

A brother who does carpenter work and anything else you need.

A sister who gets up on the roof to clean gutters and stacks wood for me.

A DH who takes very good care of me

A roof over my head and enough to eat.

Good Health when so many don't have that good health.

I wish I had interesting things to write about but I just don't. There's not much that happens up here in the woods. The deer come by for their apples each and every day. My furballs need attention as well each and every day. I think I live a very boring life, a real hermit stay at home who hardly ever gets out much. I no longer belong to any quilting guild or have friends other than my sisters to quilt with. My big excitement for the week is a trip to the grocery store and a stop for a cuppa or two with one of my sisters.

Less you think I am whining I'm not. I like my solitude to enjoy the deer in the yard, the birds who visit the feeders and the squirell who raids them to the point of climbing right inside. Even the deer raid the bird feeders this time of year. Up on their hind legs those long toungues just slurping up the seed.

My days are spent just puttering around, lots of puter games and keeping up with all my online friends. Some days I spend curled up in my lazy boy with a good book to keep me company other days I go on a cleaning frenzy, shoveling out shelves and closets that have become catch alls for what ever seems in my hand at the moment. The other day I got ambitious and like a whirlwind went through the house with a frenzy making everything clean and shiney. Even got into the laundry room to de-clutter the shelves. In 15 min a bag was ready for Goodwill and my shelves all neatly arranged. Found things I didn't remember having like a super table cloth my Mom embroidered and crocheted an edging on. Makes a person wonder why they let things slide for so long when it takes such a short few minutes to straighten it all up.

Last week I took down my yellow ribbon while my sister's neighbor put a flag on her mailbox. I was celebrating my Nephew coming home from Afaganistan while she was mourning the loss of her grandson. He is the first soldier our county and little town has lost to this awful war. The whole town turned out to honor him as he was brought home. It has hit quite close to home as it could have been my nephew instead of her grandson. We are a family of many who have been in or retired from the military. We give thanks to all those who are now serving their country.

Do you ever get really bored and don't know what to do with yourself so you sit in front of the computor and play silly games. I seem to be in that "boordom" mode for the last month or so. Can't get too interested in anything so find myself on facebook tending my crops, milking my cows and collecting eggs on farmville. Now just how silly is that for a grown woman of 70 years?

I've found some games that are challenging and tend to spend waaaaay too much time playing them when I should be being creative in my sewing room.

My little fawns are growing up into young ladies and gents. They come each and every day for apples that I cut up for them. They're spoiled and I love doing it. My yard is their favorite laying down place during mid day. I can look out my window and see several of them laying down chewing away on their cuds.

My sister came out a couple days ago to use my quilting machine. She came all afraid that she would ruin it and it would be difficult to use. I loaded up the practice piece I use, on went the machine and I turned her loose. After a hesitant pass or two she got right into it. Of course as it happens I got a bobbin in backwards and we crawled around the floor under the machine picking out one big birds nest. The top she did was for her granddtr's birthday on Saturday. It's on to pantograms next for her. She did a supurb job and even wrote her gdtrs name in one of the borders with the year.

I've been spending my evenings in front of the TV handquilting my 12 Days of Christmas wall hanging. I'm down to the last four blocks before I do the small connecting squares and finish with the embelishments. It's so much easier to do them after the quilting. The beads don't tend to pop off. I will be happy to have this one done and out of the way as I'm really getting tired of it. It's a beautiful pattern but 7 months on the same project is way toooooooo long.

We've been working on our raffle quilt for next year and only a few more star blocks to finish before we can lay the blocks out and decide on how it's to be.

It's to be a tripple Irish Chain with star blocks in the centers of the chain. One of these years I'm going to win the raffle quilt and I would like to win this one. vbg

John (DH) called this evening. His ship may be leaving in a day or two to go down off the coast of CA where the helo and plane collided. He says while he doesn't like to get underway this is different. He feels the families should be able to have their loved ones back and not left out in the ocean. They are going on a recovery mission. Please say a prayer for all the families of those that have lost their lives.

When we think of our gratutdes and what we are thankful do we ever think of our Coast Guard. Mountain Rescue, our Military members at the end of the day? These people risk their lives daily to help each and every one of us in one way or another. Each of us has military members in our family be they current or from years past that we should thank and say a prayer for. Today I took down my yellow ribbon from my garage in support of my nephew who has returned from Afiganistan.

I leave you tonight with my silly kitty Roscoe who might have well has said "don't bother me I'm busy eating my salad".