The temp here in Minneapolis is 4 degrees and we are leaving in 2 hours for our road trip. Our 1st stop is Wichita KS and the temp there right now is 21 degrees. Tomorrow morning morning we will be off to Santa Fe NM and the temp there right now is 25 degrees. Tuesday Morning we will be on our way to Phoenix and the temp there right now is 46 degrees. We are hoping for some warm weather. We are so excited. I will be taking pictures of our trip.

Finished 2 quilts yesterday so I can bring them with to sew the binding on. I actually find I enjoy hand sewing it passes the time and what is nice to step away from the sewing machine and just sew. The other plus to hand sewing is I can still work on my quilts being so far from my sewing machine.

Till Later

I have the sampler all pieced together I just need to get the store to buy the batting. I am going to just do some real simple machine quilting on it, I don't want to make it any more busy than it is. I will probably just stitch in the ditch. I also need to get the one I worked on at Pat's on the frame and get that one quilted.

The other night I met Pat, my sister in law, half way. We met at this wonderful quilt shop and then dinner. For the first time in my life I walked out of a store that had fabric in it with empty hands. I was so shocked. I guess for the first time I thought about all the fabric I already have and nothing really jumped out at me. The fat quarters were $2.99 each and I find this so not a good deal. I have bought fat quarters at quilt shows just because they are always such a great deal at those shows.

The reason I want to get the 2 quilts done is Mike and I have decided that we are doing a road trip. On Feb. 16th we are leaving Minneapolis and driving to a friends in Santa Fe New Mexico. We will stay with him for one night and then we will go onto Phoenix. My best friend moved there 1-1/2 years ago and even thou it has gotten easier to not have her right here I still miss her so much. We were going to drive our car which is a 2004 Honda Civic my boss thought it would be better for us to rent a car so he did that for us. I had gotten laid off on December 15th and he thought I should have gotten paid for Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Years day. I work for a family owned company and he is my boss and then above him is the hateful Mom. So he paid for our car rental. This will be so nice to not have to worry about the car breaking down, not like we thought it would but you never know. We will start heading back home on Feb. 23rd. So I am going to will be having plenty of time to hand sew the binding so I want to get these 2 quilts done.

Till later

This is a new Thimbleberries BOM quilt. I want to do this quilt. Each BOM pattern (alone) is $5 a little more than what I want to spend and then to purchase the fabric. I am going to have to check it out at one of the stores maybe it won't be as expensive. I really think this is going to be my next project.

So here is the wall hanging I have been rambling about. Laid it out so I would have an idea which one to go where. I need to add the sashing and the cornerstones and then the border. Unfortunately there is one block I would like to replace and that would be the 4th row down and the middle one. It is not as light in person and is it is the picture so I hope it works. Looks pink in the picture but it is maroon mixed with white. This was a lot of work, more than I thought it would be but it was fun.

It is a good day. Mike is at work all day, Raychel is with Jessica for the weekend. I just did 20 minutes on the treadmill, I know that's not that long but I had to start somewhere. I will do 20 everyday for the next week and then I will bump it to 30 minutes. If I do this everyday i should start seeing some results.

Today I am going to put all my blocks together for my sampler and then I am going to start back on my sister in laws quilt. Her birthday is in May and I don't want to rush at the end.

Till Later
Cathy

I absolutely love being laid off. My laundry is done my kitchen is staying clean and I can sit in my sewing room for hours. I have 2 blocks left to do on my sampler wall hanging but realized on one of the blocks I have lost 3 - 3-1/2" squares. I had read a couple of weeks ago that this woman after cutting out all her pieces for a quilt she puts everything in Ziploc baggies and I thought "what a great idea". I wish I had followed her great idea. I now have to go to the store and buy and 1/8th of a yd of this missing fabric. Ughhhhhhh. I guess if that is the worse thing that happens to me today I am doing just fine.

Jess and the kids came over yesterday for dinner and to watch American Idol. Mike hates American Idol so he watched tv in our bedroom. Taylor who is 10 yrs old made a comment about the wall hanging I made hanging in my living room. I guess people are not use to seeing something like that hanging up. I looked at it more like a piece of art. They say out of the mouths of a babe, wonder if that is what adults think also. Wonder what she is going to say when I hang my sampler wall hanging in my entry way. I have a very long thin wall that is over the stairs going downstairs and thought it would look great. I guess I am going to have to be careful that I don't hang to many. I don't think i will make anymore thou because there is nothing like a quilt to cover up with.

So today I start walking the treadmill. This is something I have to do to lose weight and to improve my health. I have learned that I am not going to lose weight with diet alone. People say how they lost a ton of weight going through a stressful situation, well it that was me I would be a stick. I keep thinking with everything Raychel has gone through to be thin I should not even care, but I do. I am not comfortable being heavy and have to do something about this. I am going to have to step away from my sewing table for 30 minutes every day and just walk. Need to figure out a way to bring my sewing to the treadmill.

Till later

This quilt was one of my first quilts I pieced back about 4 years ago. I finally put it on the quilt frame and just did a meander on it. I am not so much into the dark colors anymore but it will still look nice in my living room, this one is mine. The binding needs to be hand sewn down so that will take me sometime.

I have to say I am thoroughly enjoying my unemployment but I have to remember this will end come April 1st. I can't be getting to use to this. At some point I have to work on my list of things I pledged to get done.

Raychel dropped down to 79 pounds and her spirit fell right with it. Please keep her in your thoughts.

Raychel is coming back today. We took her home on Monday and she realized yesterday that she should probably not be alone. Raychel is really becoming the artist, she has been practicing with pencil drawing flowers and then using colored pencils to shadow them in. Well she does not want to get bored with it so we are trying to think of some crafts she can do. She does not sew and is not interested in it. Being so malnourished and have more frequent seizures lately her thought process has a hard time processing things so it needs to be something easy.

Any suggestions?

So I was not as productive as I wanted to be this past weekend but that's ok I love just being with my husband and kids and we were together for the whole weekend.

Not much for sewing but I did squeeze in some here and there. I did start machine quilting the very first quilt had done over 4 years ago. I was so excited to get it pieced and then was so excited to move onto the next one. All the others (except the wall hanging) have been gifts so I needed to get them quilted right away. This one is for me so I now am excited to finish. I also got another block done and decided to post pictures of the ones finished. I know the pictures are small but the blocks right now are 12-1/2" so they will be nice size. It will be more fun to post the entire sampler quilt put together.

Mike's home. When he saw the cardiologist on Wednesday she told him to stop wearing the nitroglycerin patch and so yesterday he had an episode that lasted about 50 minutes. They are thinking because he was not wearing his patch anymore the heart must have had a contraction and then when he took the nitroglycerin it calmed down. He will now be wearing the patch from this point on.

I brought Raychel home with me this afternoon, she lost 2 more pounds which puts her at 86. We are hoping the tube feedings kick in soon.

Was able to get another block done and I will post tomorrow pictures of the ones that are done. This last one was not any easy one to do it had a lot of very small squares.