After a long vacation to the Northwest, we are now back home!  Sorry if you’ve been checking back to this site and wondering where I am.  We were away from computers (and cell phone coverage as well) in most of the places we’ve visited.  It was a little strange at first to be so “out of touch”.  No newspapers and very little TV news. 

We had a wonderful trip through North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Wyoming.  And of course Minnesota!  It’s good to be home.  I need to unpack and start some laundry, so I will post more later.  Also, I’ll post maybe one photo a day of the sights we’ve seen.

Sue

I am typing my fastest so I can get to a window and watch the show.  (I have GOT to start planning my time better.)  We live within a very few miles of a large lake, a large casino, and a large amusement park, and so we have a pretty good view of multiple fireworks displays every year.

Wednesday our DayStitchers group continued our box exchange.  We each have a “box” with fabrics we’ve chosen and specific theme or instructions for our box.  We take home some else’s box for the month, and return it on the 1st Wednesday of the following month.  I’ve added the new June photos of the DayStitchers’ boxes.  It is so much fun to bring back someone else’s project and surprise her with what you made.  And it’s even more fun to see what someone else made for you.

My mom’s 80th birthday is Sunday, and we’re planning a birthday party for her in the party room of her apartment building.  Nothing elaborate, but still a million details.  Tomorrow I’ll make sure all the details get pulled together and make sure I haven’t missed anything, as I’ve been picking up what I think I need here and there.  As I said, I’ve GOT to start managing my time better. 

Then we’ll be heading west to Seattle for a grand-nephew’s wedding.  Woo-hoo!!!  Family weddings are always the BEST!!!  We’re looking forward to seeing all our Washington family, as well as family from North Dakota, Minnesota, Denver and Texas.  In addition, we’re going to make it somewhat of a road trip, so we will be able to also do some family visiting on the way back home.  Yes, we had the wisdom and foresight to plan on driving THIS year. 

It will be a fun trip though.  I have been cutting and preparing Baggies of fabric for my in-car project.  I’m going to start a Grandmother’s Flower Garden.  Should be done just in time for my first grandchild’s graduation from college.  We don’t have any grandchildren as of yet, so I figure the timing will come out just right…

(A note to those looking for Judy Laquidara’s last Quilt for an Hour quilt, her link is “Judy L — Patchwork Times”, to the right.  You can see my rendition of her quilt by clicking on my Quilt for an Hour blog entries (lower right).  Judy does remove her directions shortly after the QFAH is completed, so watch for her next challenge!  Glad to have you visit.  Stop by any time!)

Retirement is wonderful — it totally changes your view of Mondays.  This week is a pretty open slate for me, which is a treat.  I have two customer quilts I want to get done this week (maybe three, if I’m ambitious).  The only things on the calendar are fun things.  Tonight is our once-a-month guild meeting.  It’s our summer party (with a cowgirl theme), so we’ll be having a potluck dinner.  Fortunately I have a pair of boots to wear, and of course jeans, and — yee-haw! 

It’s been nine years since my dad passed away, and I still think of him every day.  So Father’s Day was a little nostalgic.  It still feels like he’s here, and I could call him up and…then I remember I can’t.  I don’t think that will ever change.  So I’m drinking an extra cup of coffee to you, Dad.  (He was Norwegian, and LOVED his coffee!  Me too.)  And a tip of the mug to any of you who are missing your dad, especially this time of year.

We are being re-roofed today.  Our entire townhouse development had hail damage to our roofs last fall, so a huge roofing crew is here.  They do the tear-off and re-roofing in one day. four twin-homes at a time!  We woke up before 7:00 to the pitter-patter of workmen’s little feet.  It’s very noisy, and this is before there’s any nailing going on.  A good day to sew!

And speaking of sewing, I’m working on the first quilt I’ve taken in from a gentleman.  He does wonderful work.  He’s in our guild, so I’ve seen a number of his quilts, and they are distinctive from what we women tend to do.  His patterns and colors are more bold, and he will do colors I wouldn’t think to do (he did one memorable quilt totally in shades of green), but his quilts ALWAYS draw oohs and aahs.  This one is very scrappy black, white, and some red.  I’ll post a picture if/when I get his permission tonight.  So I’m heading downstairs, I’ll put on my wireless headphones (a MUST if you’re a longarmer), and get to work.  I won’t hear the roofers at all!  Enjoy this fabulous day.  Even if you’re at work.

–Sue

Three years ago Mother’s Day, my husband said that he would like to buy me flowers for the occasion.  I love flowers, enjoy seeing them in a vase, but it seemed like such a guilty pleasure, considering the cost, for the week of enjoyment.  So, being a practical girl, I said I would rather have a plant.  Even if I killed the darn thing, it would cost half as much and last four times as long.  Off we went to Bachman’s and picked out a gorgeous hibiscus plant with orange flowers the color and intensity of orange Kool-Aid. 

Since my husband, Jim, takes care of the (very few) plants in our house, the hibiscus has done quite well.  Every now and then, it surprises us with one, two, or three monstrous blooms.  They each only last about a day, but what a sight.  We had one bloom yesterday, and two more today.  Seven inches across, and they are just beautiful.  Here’s a close-up shot of just the center.  It makes me feel like it’s Mother’s Day all over again.

Here in Minnesota we had a gorgeous Sunday today, both in the weather department and being a great day to get some things DONE.  Somehow, it’s much easier to start jobs than it is to finish them. 

A while back, eldest son Dave in Virginia mentioned that he thought I should be blogging about baking oatmeal-raisin cookies for him rather than all this blogging about quilting.  In spite of it being a shameless attempt to get something homemade sent his way (he mentioned having to cry his cookie-less self to sleep at night, pretending he had a mother who baked for him…), I did bake some oatmeal-raisin cookies today.  They will go in the mail tomorrow.  Well, what’s left of them.  Dave, you should know it’s dangerous to request Dad’s favorite cookie!  Two dozen, all boxed up:

In addition, I got some laundry done, read the paper, did most of the crossword puzzle (either it was hard or I was dumber than usual), got the binding for a quilt ready, and got a package ready to send to sister-in-law Marilyn as she recovers from shoulder surgery (ow).  And having a yummy roast-chicken dinner with mashed potatoes and tomato/Vidalia onion/fresh mozzarella salad was just right.  What a good day! 

P.S.:  Tony & Rob, this is a test to see if you read my blog — a new requirement to get cookies sent to you! 

> Our DIL Lynn is from China, and all her family is still in China.  It appears the earthquake is several hundred miles from her home area, so that is a good thing for some of us, not good for others.  It’s hard to comprehend these natural disasters that take so many thousands of lives.  Please remember them in your prayers.

> We have a new kitchen TV.  Since we do so much of our TV-watching in the kitchen, we upgraded to a flat wide-screen LCD TV set.  The change is pretty dramatic because our old TV was so bad.  The most fun I’ve had is changing the screen view to “Wide” during The Price is Right and adding 30 or 40 pounds to each of TPIR models (no noticeable change to Drew).  Just a little revenge, since DH failed to comment on my haircut last week, but today noted that “Gabrielle always parts her hair in the middle”.  Take that, Gabrielle! 

> Week’s Plan:  I need to baste a customer quilt for hand-quilting, Wednesday is our DayStitchers handwork group (my highlight of EVERY week), I need to finish up a friend’s wedding quilt (the Irish Chain pictured somewhere below), fit in some laundry somewhere, and shop for a wedding present for a 5/30/08 wedding.  Sounds like a pretty fun week!  I’ll try not to mess it up.

Sue