Just had to say..........

H A P P Y

H A L L O W E E N !!!

Here in Minnesota it is cold and windy so that means leaves scattering and windy noises for a spooky night! I loved Halloween as a kid. Still enjoy it and hope that little kids will ring my bell as I have candy ready for them!

There's another test scheduled for my mom on Monday afternoon. She's actually feeling pretty well and staying with my sister who lives in Iowa City. After Monday's test, we will know what treatment option there will be and then "move forward". Remember those words from my post of a few days ago? I no longer try to "catch up"........I just keep "moving forward"...... and it works!!

Thanks for your kind words and prayers. They are greatly appreciated.

Enjoy this day and the evening, then savor that extra hour when it comes round. ;-)

Sandi

A little update.....

I'm still here just preoccupied with family things. My mind is on other things but I'll get back to blogging soon.
Sandi

Thinking of my mom......

She's going to the doctor today, seeing a cardiologist as she's got a problem with high blood pressure. All we've been talking about lately is getting her up her for a visit so I am hoping and praying that the doctor can get her on some medication to get her blood pressure down and that there is nothing more serious going on. Any prayers will be greatly appreciated. Her name is Mary. I'll post later when I hear more. I was on the phone with her doctor several times last Thursday and Friday and she was so helpful. When I'm here and my mom is in Iowa, it's difficult. I know there are many of you that find yourself in this same place. I'm just hoping that all will go well for her today.
Sandi

*An update on my mom......she's feeling good and the doctor's have ordered a couple more tests. I will probably be going to Iowa in the next few days so may not post regularly. What I just realized, though, is that this is my 400th post! Wow! I should do something to celebrate but I wasn't paying attention and it just slipped by me. I'll come up with something and have a giveaway or something fun when I return. I appreciate all your prayers and kind thoughts!!
Sandi

Stuck on Pincushions :-)

Last night, I taught a pincushion class at Firefly Quilt Shop in Mankato, MN. It was a small class but we had a lot of fun. Owner, Janice, (in the center in photo below) has just begun to carry wool in her quilt shop and this was an opportunity to give it a try. That's Deb, on the left and Karen on the right. I made a couple samples and the pincushion pictured above is one of them. For the class project, though, we all made my little Turkish Rose Pincushion. It's the same pincushion that I taught just a couple of week's ago for the St. Peter Quilt Guild. This night, though, the class time was longer so both Janice and Deb finished their pincushions and Karen planned to stuff her pincushion when she got home. I love teaching how to work with wool and woolfelt and look forward to some more "wooly fun" at Firefly in the future. :-)

In my quest to "catch up/keep moving forward", I'll share these pictures from our "Tuesday Crazies Day-Out" from last week. We usually meet at each other's homes to stitch but we decided to do a little road trip to Mankato and check out the fabric sources. We started at Firefly and enjoyed shopping, snacking and even a door prize.

We are from left to right.....me, Sue, Arlis, Adella - smiling because she was the doorprize winner - Kate (in the sunglasses due to some eye surgery), Laurie, and Carol. We all bought something - fabrics, patterns, etc. Here's my "collection"................

I bought that Schnibbles pattern because it's called "Reveille". I laughed when I saw the name of the pattern because if I were in the Army I would never be able to wake up for "Reveille". I like the night and morning is not my time of day. The quilt is cheery, though, so maybe if I make it and hang it in my bedroom it will make me want to get up earlier. Ha ha .......not!

The JOY ornament came from our stop at HobbyLobby. I bought it to remind me of the JOY that my "Tuesday Crazies" friends add to my life. We ate lunch at LeAnn Chin's and had a good laugh as we went around the table and read our fortune's. Actually, we laughed a lot the whole day through. I think we laughed the most when we were all trying to check out with the cashier at Hancock Fabrics. Thankfully the lady who was in line in the midst of us, didn't mind our "happy chaos". There really is Joy in friendship and if you need some Joy in your life, grab a friend and go shopping or out to lunch or something really fun! Just enJOY!!

Night all!

Sandi

Pincushion Fun!

Before I tell you about the "pincushion fun" I had.........let me say this..........I often feel, and especially lately, I feel like I am always trying to catch up. Janice, owner of Firefly Quilt shop where I'll be teaching tomorrow night, offered this advice......."you never get caught up!" And you know, she was right and the way she said it made me think that instead of trying to get "caught up", I am just going to keep moving forward and leave it at that!! Soooooooo, moving forward, I'll get to the "pincushion fun"! I went to St. Peter - not the Pearly Gates St. Peter - but to St. Peter for the quilt guild meeting two weeks ago today (catching up - moving forward, remember). I did a program for the group last May and they invited me back to do a pincushion workshop. I was originally going to package 30+ kits for the group and then I decided to do what I did at the Extension meeting last March..........set out the supplies and let everyone choose their own colors.

I set it up like a "buffet pincushion bar". :-) I passed out the pattern sheets for the pincushion and also gave everyone a copy of my needlecase pattern as there was enough woolfelt in the roll to do both items. Then, everyone came up to the table and chose a tied bundle as their pincushion base, then a square for the flower, a green piece for the leaves and a little square for the flower center. Each person also took a washer and a piece of batting to cover it that was used as a base in the pincushion. All this would make the pincushion that you see in the lower right corner of the photo.

After everyone cut out their pattern pieces, it was back to the table for the next step ........ choosing the Perle cotton to stitch the pieces to the pincushion and to use for the buttonhole stitch that would go around the pincushion.

Here's the whole group busy at work on their pincushions. Everyone seemed to enjoy the project and while no one finished their pincushion before time to close the meeting, most had completed the flower/leaf stitching and would be able to finish up quickly when they got home. In the program I did last spring, there was a bit more time and almost everyone finished. It was good to repeat this and see just how much time is needed for future workshops. All in all, it was a great deal of "pincushion fun"!!

And tomorrow night, I'll have more "pincushion fun" when I teach a similar project at Firefly Quilt Shop in Mankato, MN. More on that tomorrow.

So, what did I to tonight? Well, I presented my "Legacy of Stitches" quilt program to my old quilt group in Prior Lake where we used to live. It was so much fun to see my quilty friends! I had the best time sharing my quilts and stories. Many of my friends had seen several of the quilts that I brought but there were also many new members in the group who hadn't. I really did have such a good time, that I smiled all the way home and barely remembered the drive. Uh, oh, that's not really good! I was being careful, though, and I didn't speed. It's just that I was thinking about what a fun evening it was so my mind was elsewhere. However, I was being very watchful for deer as they are definitely "out and about" at all hours of the day lately. Deer hunting season is not far away here in Minnesota. That's good for the hunters but I hope they don't hurt any of the deer that pass through our backyard. I kinda like watching them meander out of the woods and across to our neighbor's bluff.

Well, that's enough for tonight. Have a good day!

Sandi

How does time go by so quickly?

I can't believe that it's been two weeks since I went to visit my friend, Sue, in Iowa. I posted about the program I did for her quilt guild and then I had other stuff to share and never quite got to it. Life is really, really busy right now and those computer problems totally threw me for a loop. No one ever really gets caught up but I am woefully behind these days so I keep trying!! I do hope that I didn't pass that computer virus issue on to any one else!
So, here I am tonight and it's a bit quiet right now, a good time to get back to blogging. I had a great day today. First of all, the sun was shining today and it was much warmer. That snow last weekend was too early! The day started with a birthday party........the Henderson Library was 60 years old! I stopped in to sign the birthday card and have some birthday cake and coffee. Then, I was off to the Historical Society in Shakopee. My friend, Sue, had come up for a program at our exhibit of crazy quilts so it was nice to see her again. Afterword, we went for a quick burger at McDonald's (yes, McDonald's) and had a nice visit before she had to head back home. Then I ran a couple of errands and I was home again.


Enough chatter, though, as I suspect you are looking for some photos or something quilty and pretty to look at. Well, there aren't many quilts to show but I there are pictures of the two shops that I visited on my way home from Sue's (two weeks ago.....better late than never).
My first stop was only a few miles from Sue's house.........a little shop called Saintly Stitches in Mason City. There are actually two Saintly Stitches shops as there is also one in St. Ansgar, Iowa. I was a bit early but was happy to wait til the shop opened. And as I waited, I noticed some ladies quilting in a room next door to the quilt shop. I recognised them from the Lake Area Quilt Guild meeting of the night before and waved to them. They motioned for me to come on in and so I did. I got to see some really lovely quilts and thought I would share this spectacular one with all of you. I only wish my brain could remember this quilter's name! (Sue or Vivien, please help me out here.) She said she just used different flower patterns then bordered them with the square-in-a-square blocks. I thought it was just gorgeous.
Yay! Sue helped me our and this is Kris Brockmeyer in the photo with her lovely quilt. I had asked her if it was okay to share this on my blog and she said "sure". If I had been thinking, I would have written her name down then, too!


When the shop opened, I, of course, ......shopped. What did I buy? ..........

Well, they had the cutest wintery snowman fabrics so I had to get a little bit of everything. And then I found a patriotic print for my "Grace and A Prayer" quilt and decided that was enough for my first stop. It was a lovely little shop and I would go back again, only next time I will also take in the shop in St. Ansgar as they carry different fabrics from the shop in Mason City.

It was a really rainy drive back to Minnesota but I didn't mind too much for neither rain nor snow will keep me from my quilting destination. I take that back. This is Minnesota and, of course, snow often keeps us from getting to our quilting destinations but we just reschedule whenever possible!! My destination this day was.........Calico Hutch in the little town of Hayward, MN. It's located just east of 35W and/or I90 near Albert Lea, MN. I had never been to the shop but Carol, the owner, has purchased patterns from me. It was nice to meet her in person!

The shop looked inviting and from the front, it looks like it might be small. However, that's not the case..............

When you open the front door, you walk into a room that is loaded with colorful fabrics. I glanced to the right, though, as I entered and I saw wool, lots of wool and I headed right into that room! Just look at all those samples and patterns..........

and look at all the colors of wool that line the walls!!!

I pulled myself away from the warmth of the wooly room and crossed through the front room and into a large room at the center of the shop. There was so much fabric!

This young woman was buying fabric for a quilt and is proof positive that the art of quilting is enjoyed by younger women, too. I know that the demographics say that the average quilter is about 59 but that's only the average. My quilting friends range in age from 7 to 95. So much for the average......

Anyway, I wandered around the center room and then noticed the door into what looked like a large classroom. Three ladies were working on projects but didn't seem to mind that I wandered around the room. It was filled with more fabrics and oodles of sample quilts hung on the walls. This was a great shop with friendly, helpful staff and one I'll return to again! If you'd like to take a peek at the shop's website just click here .

And did I buy anything here? Well, of course............

I picked up some pretty wools and some fun fabrics that will end up in holiday projects. Then I spotted the little paper pieced patterns from LittleBits and decided I would give one a try.......but not until this winter. There'll be plenty of snowy days when I can do this one.

That's all for tonight. It will be a few days before I can catch up on e-mails and my Yahoo group. Maybe I'll finally get caught up when we get that hour back in a couple of weeks. LOL!

Time to turn out the lights. I was in bed by 10:00 p.m. last night and tonight I'm going to be in bed by 11:00 p.m. So, so tired. I need a couple more night's of good sleep and then I'll be fine.

Have a good Sunday!

Sandi

Computer problems are fixed.....

Due to the technical skills of my husband, my computer problems have been resolved (at least we think so!). What a nuisance it was!!! And it all came at a time when he was busy, I was busy, etc. etc. You know how it goes!! We've been so busy and I am so tired that I don't have the energy to post to my blog. Perhaps tomorrow will be better. Feeling like I could curl up and go to sleep right now and it's not even 10:00 p.m.!!! Oh, boy, that is not usual for me! A little extra sleep will give me the energy to get back into the blogging swing of things, though, so I'll see you tomorrow evening. :-)
Sandi