Your Brain is 73% Female, 27% Male

Your brain leans female You think with your heart, not your head Sweet and considerate, you are a giver But you're tough enough not to let anyone take advantage of you!

What Gender Is Your Brain?

I always tell myself, ” You always have time for the things you put first…” I’ve been working lots of hours, but I’ve been coming home, playing with Ransom, knocking out chores, catching up on school with Chelsey---and sewing, almost an hour a day. I always think if I put things in the right order, I have time for everything. Confession: It’s a constant battle –I always want to put the quilting first, but nothing else will ever get done. I get lost in the sewing room.

I completed the rest of my postcards. My Mom and Mother-in- law each got their card in the mail and they were just like brand new. So girls--- it works!!!! I misplaced my Thanksgiving clothes for the bunnies so I made a new black dress for the season coming up. Easy stuff, no facings and a very forgiving pattern.


Quilting, remember the Buggy Barn pattern? Well, I’ve got the pattern drawn out, the fabric lined up and started cutting out the pieces. I cleaned a workspace before I began because I think the success of this pattern depends on being organized.

I excited about the challenge. I’m even saving up to have the quilt quilted by a long arm quilter.

You’ll probably be seeing the step-by-step process of the quilt, but I just love having someone to share it with…

Gratitudes:
1. Cheesy potatoes for supper
2. A’s from Eric and Chelsey---A good start to a new year
3. My Parent’s 56th wedding anniversary – I can’t imagine them apart.
4. My Dad’s 76th birthday- He says he gets younger every day!!!

Ok—You give a quilt, big or small away. What’s next??? Don’t you ever wonder what happens next? What did they do with it? How did it look in their home? I got these pictures emailed to me earlier this week. My Mother-in-law wanted to show me how her quilted table runners looked in her home.
Living 1200 miles from her we don’t get to visit in person very often. But you can tell from my daily entries we stay in touch real well.


The High today was 50 degrees, it’s just a front; I don’t think the warm weather is over yet. Ransom is sad, the weather is too rainy to go outside for running.

I’ve got to work a couple of hours tomorrow, but hopefully I can quilt some.

Pro-football season starts….confession…I’m an addict.

Go Pack—(Quit laughing, It could happen!!!!)

Have a great weekend…

I did pull the fabrics for my next project together. It’s not much, but at least it’s something. They are spring like colors, but I feel by the time I get it complete, I’ll be sick of the dark colors of winter. Our winters are pretty long. There’s a healthy price for a beautiful fall.

I worked late yesterday, but went home and got the chores done. I cooked spaghetti and sauce for supper. I realized that I need to adjust to cooking for just three people. I made enough pasta to feed a third world country—or a family with an 18 year-old boy…same thing. I guess about the time I get it figured out, he’ll be back home…

About the time we went to bed, Don got called back into work. I started to get up and do something, but realized in order for people to survive tomorrow, I had better get some rest.

I did, however, study the periodic table of elements for Chemistry with Chelsey and learned more than I wanted to about a Spanish 3 class novel the class is reading together. It was good spending time with Chelsey working on this… and I’ve got to say I was totally impressed when the phone rang and she said she couldn’t talk she was doing homework---No, the lightning didn’t flash, and there was no earthquake--- but maybe she’s getting the idea…too early to tell, but we’ll keep you posted.

I better get to work—

Gratitudes:
1. Coffee in the morning
2. Paper clips that are different colors – don’t you love school supplies!
3. Thread in all colors

This is a picture from Sunday. Autumn is here.

A glimpse of what is ahead.
O.K., you’re walking up the sidewalk, to the front door.
Up the steps—to my home.
After opening the door, this is the view. The Bunnies are set for the season. There is usually something sitting at the top of the stairs, for the next person going down to bring.
The green chair is a junk store find. I’ll never forget.
Don & I both took a day off of work—in the fall. We went junk store hopping on the way to Green Bay. We bargained for me and we got two old chairs. I painted this one green and the other one Don just stripped. It’s the one the bunnies sit on. There is a quilt on the rocking chair, a quilt on the wall, and my money says there is a quilt in a basket by the couch that I’m working on.

I’ve decided to begin the Buggy Barn Hearts quilt. I’m tracing the pattern tonight and pulling the fabric. I think keeping it neat is the key to this quilt. It’s going to be done in yellow and gold.

I forgot to show the stamped card.
A girlfriend told me there is better stamping ink I’ll have to try. But I mailed 3 cards today.

Instead of Gratitudes, today I think I’ve got a few concerns—
1. Tensions are high at work…lots of changes
2. Chelsey has got to get into study mode to get a grip on school
3. Don worked 19 hours yesterday. Exhaustion is definitely setting in.

I guess basically, I’ve got to step up to the plate plus find lots of understanding on all counts. But really, isn’t that what mothers and wives do?

Until tomorrow…..

Today was the first day of Chelsey’s Junior year in high school.
She’s pretty much self-sufficient, but I was home for the picture taking. I can’t wait to hear how the day went. She’s doing an internship at the daily newspaper in town. She’ll even have a column. We’ll keep you posted.

Eric made it back home. I’m a lot more relaxed now, and I know he’ll be fine. He had a test today and called giving me sass about how easy it was---Chemistry. I don’t think so. I said we’d talk when the grades come out.

I pretty much stayed on top of the housework all weekend, so after 9:00am Labor Day when Eric left, I headed for the sewing room . I have this scrap basket.
From this basket I found the pieces to make several postcards. You can’t even tell I touched the basket. .
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I swear scraps multiply in it. I’m not taking credit for any ideas. Fiona, and Prairie Quilter gave me ideas and all kinds of help. They still have threads on them but I couldn’t wait to post them.
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I ran out of the Timtex that goes in the middle, but I have these completed and the fabric ordered..
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I can’t believe how much fun I had. We still ran Ransom every day, biked some and I got 3 miles indoors on the elliptical machine. I know I can’t eat ridiculously, but for me with a family and working it’s really hard dieting—so I have to rely on exercise to keep the weight down.

I’m trying to decide what the next project will be—AFTER I clean up the mess from this one.

Gratitudes:
1. Beautiful weather for the past 5 days
2. Vacuum Cleaners
3. Bubble Bath
4. A new watch band.

Ransom and I went walking a couple of times today.
This is my favorite time of the year. The apples are an inspiration and they are ripening in the U.P. These grow wild on the roadside.
Johnny Appleseed must have made a detour through this part of the world. Last weekend I completed a small table runner.
Nothing fancy but I needed an afternoon with a small victory. It was a fifty cent pattern I got in Green Bay. I played with different fabric and came back to the plaid. It is machine appliquéd and quilted. Here it is on the table.

If I get the pumpkins out-- by Thanksgiving, I’m sick of them.
So September I decorate with apples.
Remember-- I have that thing for cloth napkins. And I love my wooden letters---Faith.
Faith is believing, counting on something without proof.

We’re enjoying Eric.
He’s been in and out all weekend.
He’s been eating my cooking (the way to my heart). I went shopping—purchasing all those things he refused to let me get two weeks earlier. Did I do it for him? ---well, maybe, but mostly I think I did it for me. It’s that mother thing inside me not wanting to quit mothering. But the fact remains, he’s pretty well grown up. Loves College, Loves his new friends. I’m glad.

I’m calling it a night. More to talk about tomorrow. I’ve got a glass of wine waiting on me.


Gratitudes:
1. Eric’s safe travel.
2. Cool Nights
3. Two extra days off

September 1, 2006. I’m hoping work is awfully quiet and I can slip out early. I’ve got a four-day weekend. There’s Labor Day and I took the day after. It’s Chelsey’s first day of her junior year of high school. As silly as it sounds, I’m going to be there to take her picture. I've done it every year before. Surely, I’ll can get some quilting time in the next four days.

Last night, I gave Eric’s room a good scrubbing. I got a new comforter for the bed. The kids are responsible for take care of their own rooms, but every once in a while they need ‘Mom’s touch’. Chelsey walks by—‘Wow – looks nice…he’s gonna hate it.” Thanks Chelsey. I laughed, we’ll see.

It’s about time to drag out the fall quilts. This one is hanging in my breakfast room. Yeah – I’m a plaid person; you can see the wallpaper.
The pattern was out of an old American Patchwork and quilting. I bought the background, but every thing else was scraps. I like the hair and straw toes – they are frayed homespun. It’s a little varied from the pattern. When piecing the quilt together, I couldn’t get the knees to line up. I must have ‘re-sewed’ five or six times. I don’t know if the pattern dimensions were wrong or what. Honestly, it was probably my cutting and seam allowances. After the fabric started “disintegrating” from ripping seams, I got an idea--- enter stage left the leaf and patches on the knees. Now, no one but us knows the problem.

I made it through August without any fabric purchases. I’m not bragging. It was pretty much a lack of options. No fabric stores close.
When we did go shopping it was for Eric setting up college or Chelsey with school clothes. I guess I could have purchased on line, but there is just something about ‘feeling’ the fabric first.

It’s a holiday weekend, hope everyone remembers a couple of things:
1. Slow down, when you’re in a hurry, exhale when you’re angry, rest if you’re tired. Accidents happen all the time, and emotions running high are a major cause.

2. Observe Labor Day. We all Labor hard throughout our day, whether an income is involved or not. If you work at home, my money says you work really hard at picking up the slack where someone else can work outside the home.

3. I thoroughly enjoy having you to talk to. I count on you girls being on the other end of the keyboard.

Take care,

Covered Porches and Wooden Screen Doors

It's the last day of August. It was 40 degrees this morning heading for a high of 73 degrees. No complaints. This is my kind of weather. You are going to have to bear with some garden pictures.
Don always laughs when I grow my gourds—‘You can’t eat ‘em….We’d starve if we were pioneers having to surviving on your “crops”!!!’ I laugh.
But he’s right. Clay soil, Short growing season, way too much shade….but I can grow gourds like crazy.
I decorate the house for fall with them, share with my Sunday school kids; I even send some home to my Mom (even though she could buy them there with the postage it costs!!!) At least she can say they are Michigan gourds.
I guess God knew what he was doing when I was born in 1963 vs 1763, right?!?!?

Eric will be home late Friday night for three days and that will be it until Thanksgiving. I’m trying to psyche myself up.

The High School Girls basketball team lost their first game-brutally- Tuesday night. But Chelsey ‘s not playing, so it’s no travesty. Don laughed-- Chelsey came home from Cheerleading practice with ‘Go Football team!!’ written on here windshield, happy as a lark and having fun. No tears, no one blaming each other for a game loss. The world – at our house – is a better place. Definitely a good move on her part not to join. It’s not the winning or losing, it’s the backbiting and lack of sportsmanship that was the turn off.

I’m working in my Sunday school class after work today. One more afternoon and I’ll have it ready for the next quarter. Then other than letters and studying my weekly lesson, I’ll be a back to being a ‘Full-time’ Part-time Quilter. I can’t wait…..


Gratitudes:
1. A warm coffee mug to hug driving to work.
2. The headlights I need now on the way.
3. Email and new friends

I’ve finished a table runner this weekend. I just have to get pictures taken. So I have gotten some sewing completed. I’ve really been working on getting my Sunday school class set up for the next quarter.

This is a quilt block made by my grandmother.
I have no idea the name of the block, It took me a second to even see a pattern in the blocks. I tried to take pictures of the hand-piecing on the backside, but I not real good with a camera. I have about 20 blocks that were in her sewing box given to me 18 years ago. I thought about completing the quilt but decided to treasure the blocks instead, maybe framing a couple of them one day.


You can see a book on a stand in the picture. My Mom and I collect Gooseberry Patch Cookbooks. They have great stories as well as recipes. The artwork in the books are pretty enough for display. I have a wooden recipe holder and I change it monthly with the seasonal cookbooks.

School starts the day after Labor Day for Chelsey. I’m ready to get back to a routine.

My Mother-in-law’s birthday is Monday, so I have to get her a present and get it mailed today. I made her the table runner, but I gave it to her early, but well, she doesn’t have people looking out for her that much, so I think more presents are in order.

Gratitudes:
1. Crayons for my Sunday School Kids
2. An Evening walk with Don when I know he was too tired to go.
3. Broccoli out of the garden

It’s Tuesday –I’m glad. Monday wasn’t a great day at work or at home. I got Don’s work schedule confused and had dinner ready an hour and a half before he got home, not to mention the frantic pace I was working at to get everything done that he doesn’t like doing Before he got home. Oh well. When he was 45 minutes late, I got worried that something had happened to him. Moral of the story: better communication.

I haven’t showed you this quilt. It’s called ‘A Cabin in the Woods’.
I don’t know who it’s by, but it was on the cover of a magazine at my mother in laws about 12 years ago, and she let me have the magazine and I ordered the pattern. I used muslin that was dyed in tea and strong coffee. The rest of the fabric pieces were scraps. I know that because I had never been to a quilt shop.

I’ve always had a thing for house blocks. Don and I used to talk about having a “cabin” somewhere for weekends. We talked about saving and getting this “place” pictured in the quilt. But money was tight enough with one place and we realized we lived in the woods anyway; there was just no lake. We added our Covered Porch and made our home our Cabin in the woods…..

Until tomorrow---

Gratitudes:
1. Eric likes his classes
2. Apple Trees
3. Acorns falling
4. Getting the right attitude about a lot of things.

I’m back on-line!!!! I haven’t quilted in over a week, but I feel like I have because I’ve been reading your stories. Everyone has been so busy.

I got Eric to school. I think he’s doing great. It’s been an adjustment at home. Chelsey says she thought when Eric went off to school, he’d be gone. But the way her Dad worries about him it’s like he’s still here… I just laugh.

Work has been incredibly busy--Computer crash issues, and catching up on work you missed. I took a day off to get Chelsey set up with school clothes and a Homecoming dance dress.

It’s my last Sunday with my SS kids. They will promote to a new class and I’ll get a new crop. Every year, I think ..”I’ll never get a group of kids this great..” But I always do. Change is never easy for me, even good ones.

I’m getting the chores done so I can play in my sewing room (Doesn’t look like I’m doing much of that right now!).

On a quilty subject, Bonnie showed some toys and I wanted to share mine. This is a bear I made from one of my Grandmothers old quilts.
It was moth eaten beyond belief. I really had to piece together to get enough blocks to complete the Bear. I even made my Mom the brother bear to it so she would also have it to remember my Grandmother’s quilts. I should have taken a picture of the two together.

I made my son one when he was little out of a pair of Don’s old jeans. It stayed in his room until he went off to school.
I even put the Levis tag on the back. I don’t know if he thinks it’s “dorky” or not, but I think about how great it would be to have a Teddy Bear from my Grandpa, or even Great-Grandpa. Tradition has to start somewhere. And call me cynical, but I just don’t think the tradition and memories are going to come from the passing down of video games…. One day he’ll understand.

The last is a muslin floppy eared bunny I made.
Still sits in my kid’s child size rocking chair in the den. No eyes or mouth embroidered, but I’m confident he’s the wisest of rabbits. Think about it, he knows the things to overlook and the things better left unsaid…



Gratitudes:
1. Don pushing me to work out for my health.
2. Phone calls from Eric
3. Rainy Saturday to catch up inside
4. My digital camera

Saturday – yes, I’m glad it’s Saturday. I’m taking a few days away from the laptop to get my son to college. Are we ready??? He’s ready—and I think I am too. We’ve had our moments though out the past week. The house is disarray. We were going to church before traveling, but Don changed his mind and wants to leave sooner.

I’ll be back typing (and hopefully quilting) away by the end of next week.

Take care-
Remember it’s not what you don’t have…
It’s what you do have that counts.
Whether it's Quilt fabric,
thread,
or loved ones.