It’s the day before Friday---Hallelujah. I had a meeting at church Tuesday night; a school meeting tonight and Chelsey has an away ball game on Friday. So…I stayed home from church last night just to do some catching up. I made a Wal-mart run, cooked supper, started some laundry…. And I just needed to be in my sewing room.

Chelsey got this magazine in on Monday—I haven’t even let her look at it….
At work, I had this page opened all day to glance at while I was ”on hold” on the phone or waiting for the computer to process a transaction. Yeah, the guys at work were relentless and made fun of me throughout the day.
There was a card out of paper scraps, but they gave kudos to quilters.

Anyway, I went home and made a couple of fabric postcards. I always say, “ I need to send her a note..” but if I don’t have the cards ready the moment passes. I still have to appliqué the stem, but I think they’re fun. The fabric makes them look like real leaves with different shades of color. In less than two hours I made two… and the therapy was great. I just used pieces from my scrap basket and tea-dyed muslin on the back. I usually buttonhole stitch around the edges, but with my machine STILL in the shop, this old machine had a turkey tracks stitch and I tried it. These will be off to Wisconsin and Louisiana by the weekend.
Here’s one last photo of the leaves.
Ransom and I took this one evening.

Gratitudes:
Purple hull peas for supper (My Dad grew them in La.)
Warm Fall days
A friend’s new Grandbaby

Monday morning—Do good weekends make it easier or tougher to go to work on Monday morning????? The weekend was outstanding. Bad storms on Friday night gave way to a gorgeous weekend. Chelsey had another Homecoming Dance and Don & I worked around the house. The leaves are turning more and more every day. The photo was taken last Thursday.
I bet the color has doubled now.

I’ve got my next Primitive Garden block pattern traced. The pattern pieces are cut out and so is the fabric.
There’s a lot of work before you ever pick up a needle. This block has close to 100 pieces. I stressed a little—wanting to get “to the good part”, but I exhaled and told myself—it’s all fun.. relax and enjoy it…There’s definitely some kind of therapy in cutting fabric. I’ve got a church meeting this week but I’m hoping to start on it soon. I stitched a long over due gift and got it in the mail.

I don’t know who loves the weather more.. Ransom or me…and I’ve been pulling out the pumpkin quilts. I haven’t picked the gourds out of the garden yet. I hoping to let them grow as long as I can.

I had four kids in Sunday school this week, so they got lots of TLC…

Gratitudes---
Emails from friends
Don and I having fun watching football
Grocery shopping when the store is just about empty of customers(there has to be a perk somewhere)

My attitude wasn’t real great this morning---but I got a real attitude adjustment at about ten after six….I hit a deer in my jeep. I pulled over and after I recovered from the coffee bath that I had all over my clothes I Called Don and checked out the jeep. It was still too dark to tell much but the jeep seemed ok aside from the fur that stuck here and there on the bumper. I had the guys at work check it out and I have a cracked bumper, but it could have been so much worse. The deer just came out of nowhere.

Quilting----Don has a late meeting so here’s the block I’ll be working on before and after church tonight.
It’s my favorite block of the Primitive Garden quilt. I just love the blues and purples together.

I’m still catching up on everyone’s quilting in the past two weeks. Maybe it’s the changing seasons, maybe it’s the good weather, or maybe it’s just that there’s so much inspiration out there….. the quilted pieces I’ve seen lately are just beautiful. I always try to imagine what women from the past would say if they saw our quilts….

Gratitudes:
1. My deer accident wasn’t more serious
2. Good days at work this week
3. Beautiful Fall weather

My folks left for Louisiana yesterday. We had a good visit. It’s kind of hard when you only see your folks once or twice a year. You can see changes in them more. Lots of cooking together, card playing, and watching football. Mom and I went shopping one day. The day they left I got my plane ticket to visit them in December. It was OK for them to go home, I just wish they could come back for Sunday dinner next week. That’s the problem with living so far away.

The day I left for Wichita Don cut out this newspaper clipping.
We’re making serious effort to organize and “de-junk” our basement. He saw these wardrobes on sale. It was like he was reading my mind. He told me to go get one and we’d paint it somehow and use it for storage. I’d always wanted one. For that price I got two—and one will hold my sewing stuff. Isn’t it just the best?!?!? The wood is knotty pine; Don was a little disappointed but I think the knots add character…

When I got home I was going through the mail and got the Main Street Cotton Shop Catalog from Hutchinson, Minnesota.
If you are unfamiliar with the shop, let me introduce you----It’s the shop below Lynette Jensen’s Thimbleberries Studio. She really captures fall and the Northwoods well in her quilting.

It’s got to be a good week—The Packers won.

We went to a service last night for a friend’s 90-year-old Mother who passed away over the weekend. It was really nice. Sometimes those things are hard to go to, but when I realized how much it meant to the Mildred’s daughter that we came, I was so glad We did. When people live such long, full lives those services aren’t sad, people often smiled and laughed with all the good memories of this lady.

We’ve got our first freeze warning of the Fall season tonight. I’m going to cover my tomato plants. While I cannot avoid the inevitable, I’m hoping to put off the eminent cold weather for a while longer. Temps are supposed to rise a little after tonight.
The Garden Angel has been replaced with the ‘Knobby -kneed’ Scarecrow.
We’re enjoying my folks and plan on attending the High school Football game tonight. Eric’s called several times; wish he could be here.
The buggy is sliding into Fall in the front yard with the sign I made for it.
There are still lots of green, but the leaves are really beginning to turn.
Here is the quilt block I completed.
It’s the bird house square. I realized as I snapped the photo that I still have to add the legs of the crow. I always add them separately and it’s pretty tedious to keep them as a connected piece. The gourds are from my garden last year. Here are the long neck gourds growing this year.

Off to make a pot of coffee for my folks, and shuffle the cards for the card game.
Gratitudes:
1. Phone calls keeping Eric in touch.
2. Chelsey surviving a hand-spring gymnastic fall.
3. Ransom’s thumping tail on the hardwood floor when we walk the room.

I’m home… I’ve got a week’s worth of posts in my head. I want to spill them out in one long post, but I decided to write you a little each day for the next few days.
What did I do on my trip? I completed a 400 page novel; I completed another block on my Primitive Garden quilt. I went to 2—yes -2 quilt shops… oh yeah… and I worked too.
The day I left it was an incredibly dreary, rainy day. I was about 50 miles out of town and saw a billboard for a quilt shop I’d always wanted to see. I glanced at my watch and decided there’s no time like the present and whipped the jeep around. A charming couple of ladies greeted me at the door and from the dreary outside all they needed was a fireplace and I would have called it home.
They made me feel like I’d been shopping there all my life. It was great therapy. After my visit and small purchases I felt like I could make the trip.
OK- dorky moment. I sat by two different women on each of my flights and made them ‘ooh and ahh’ over the feel, the color and the whole idea that one day (even if it was 10 years from now) these would be a quilt.
I made friends with several people once I got to Wichita. We were sitting and chatting about what workshops we were going to and I knew Stephanie had a rental car. I got my nerve up and said, “ Hey—if you aren’t going to the workshop…Wanna make a road trip???” She looked at me out of the corner of one eye, “Soooo, where are we going??” I laughed, “Exhale; there’s a quilt shop ten minutes away---- let’s go.” The shop was like going to my Grandmother’s literally. It specialized in old kitchen utensils and 1930’s fabrics. I chose the bobbin for a memory and a couple of yards of fabric. They bragged on my choices and I felt like my Grandmother who passed away 19 years ago was right there in the room. She would have loved that place.
We’ll chat more later--- I have quilt photos to share. My Mom and Dad are expected here any minute. For the next 4 days I will have family close.
Gratitudes:
1. Safe Travel
2. Home – there’s nothing like it
3. Friends that appreciate quilts even if they don’t sew

I’d like to tell you this was the making of a great project I’m working on. I could talk about how this was the remnants of a first place quilt project a county fair, because they are popping up all over the place this time of year. But I can’t—the truth is – it’s 3 fat quarters that I’ve packed in my lunch box as therapy today. I spend a lot of time alone in a parts room, so they will be something to dream about as I work. I can’t help but smile every time I look at them.

There hasn’t been any quilting going on—sometimes life is like that. My Sunday school room, however, looks dazzling. Eric is content back at college. He’s a sophomore now, so all the first year “jitters” are behind us.

Here are two photos of Chelsey—both firsts—her first day of her senior year in High School and her first day at the community college. She’s doing a dual-enrollment thing for college credit and taking a business law course.
Were there tears as my “baby” had her last first day at home? No---I think there was an “exhale” and a feeling of success.

As quilters I think you will appreciate this:
I found out last Thursday I will be flying to Wichita Kansas for a week leaving this Friday. I was to the point of tears. It was a conference that I thought might ”just go away” if I didn’t talk about it. But it didn’t. What were my first thoughts? Was it the opportunity to meet people in my same profession? Was it learning how to handle warranty issues for Stall Warning units on 441 planes? Was I contemplating getting the new literature on a service bulletin for a fuel control unit that we have two of the shelf of???? Not a chance—The VERY FIRST thing I thought of, well- three things—were:
1. I wonder if there’s a quilt shop there?
2. How am I going to get to that quilt shop without a rental car?
3. I’ve got to get another piece of my Primitive garden quilt cut out and pressed to pack along before Thursday….

I sat back for a split second and thought I was horrible, but then I laughed and said – No, I’m not. I think I have a real good handle on separating work from home. I realize work is important but there is life after work. And I know that I’ll always have quilting—it’s not going anywhere, and I won’t always have teenagers at home so I need to value that and I won’t always have to work, but the job does support, my kids, my quilting, and my Sunday school class.

I have a shelf of aircraft parts calling my name… I better get to work…

Take Care….