Monday morning

Ahh, it's that time again. Time to be bored out of my mind at work. Oh yay. So here I am writing again.

This is a photo of my friend Arline and I -- I'm on the right for those of you who don't know me. Arline is 72 -- I should look so good! She's got all kinds of men chasing her. We went to see Frankie Avalon at this cool place where she hopes to live with this guy she met on a dating website -- it is positively gorgeous. Hopefully she'll get to retire and have a really wonderful life. She's a lovely lady and deserves it.

I did some FMQ on my Burger King Mystery Quilt yesterday -- I had been hand quilting it and I knew I'd never finish it. I did a horrible job -- nobody gets to see the back side of that quilt any time soon! But I'm going ahead with binding it (almost done, just one more side) so it'll be done done. Perhaps when I get in the mood again I'll take out the FMQ that's bad and either redo it or finish it by hand.

Tonight I want to start on my Pineapple quilt. I've cut a lot of strips, and a bunch of squares, but I need to assemble a block or two to see how it looks in reality, and then go from there. I had planned to work on it more yesterday, but got sidetracked with the BKMQ.

Talya has had a rough night -- back to the doctor for her again today -- she choked on vomit 3 times during the night and couldn't breathe. Luckily, Meghan heard her and jumped and got her all 3 times -- says she's never been more scared. Had to scoop it out of her throat to get her breathing. The pediatrician is going to be really angry with the hospital for not running the tests that she ordered on Friday anyway, and now this. Poor baby. And poor Meghan trying to keep up with everything. Luckily they did get the car fixed yesterday, and they are still trying to decide whether to buy a used car (which hasn't been going very well on finding one) or fixing up her car -- which is just a Daewoo and may not be worth putting the money into. Their decision, but yet more crap, ya know? It's exhausting to me -- and I'm not living it! I do remember those days, though, when it seemed it was one thing right after another. I'm grateful it's not like that for me any more, except through her.

Ricky's been in trouble at school but the meeting with the principal went well (she just sent me an email). On the way to school, a little boy fell off his bike with a grand mal seizure. People were trying to hold him down. Meghan has to deal with seizures all the time and, apparently, that's not the right thing to do, so she stopped, jumped out of the car (bad knee and all), left Ricky with Talya and got the kid comfortable until the EMTs got there. By that time the seizure was over. That's some kid I raised -- I wouldn't have known what to do! But living with it, she does. As she wrote in her e-mail, what ELSE can happen today?

Oh, and I have a date Wednesday night.

Frankie Avalon, etc.

Arline and I went to see Frankie Avalon tonight. Arline has met a guy on line, who appears to be quite wealthy, and she has fallen for him. There is a new development out in Wimauma called Lake Valencia, and they put on a huge cocktail party tonight, with wonderful food, and a show by Franie Valley. Arline is interested in perhaps buying a home there with this fellow. Frankie Avalon had his son with him playing drums, and the son of one of the Everly Brothers on guitar. Oh, it was corny and Frankie Avalon never really could sing, but it was fun, and he wasn't bad. I've certainly seen old acts that are still performing that didn't do nearly as good a show. Anyway, I had a great time. It prompted me to do some "housekeeping" on myself -- nails, toes, eyebrows waxed. I feel better about me today1

So Arline convinced me to join (OK, she didn't twist my arm or anything) this dating website. Not that anything's happening -- oh, I've gotten some interest, but nothing past that. I suspect that I won't -- seems you have to kind of put out the right "I'm available and interested and you are fascinating to me" vibe even on the Internet, and since I don't feel that way . . . it's sort of fun though. I suppose my "I never want to have to deal with a man again" stance has been softened a little bit. Don't get worried though, only just a little bit! And also don't worry -- I have even created a separate email account -- I'll be super extremely careful!

So next week is quilt class with Barb teaching. Somehow, the owner of the quilt retreat where we're going in July ran across my blog -- I asked her how and she said she was cleaning up old emails, etc, from when I inquired about their retreat and telling her about the one Diane and I went to (which was basically trying to sell us machines, and was expensive and we came home with nothing -- well, not quite true, I won a Baby Lock machine -- but otherwise, not). Their retreats are so much better, everyone says. I am so thrilled that Barb invited me to be her roommate, because I'd really wanted to go, but didn't want to go alone and not know anyone. Anyway, the owner got my application yesterday, saw that I am rooming with Barb, and then cleaning up her email box ran across that old email of mine and clicked on the link I used to have to this blog. In case you want to go to her retreat, which goes on all the time, here's the link to the website: www.besewcreative.com-- and you know I'll report on how good it was when I get back!

Anyway, a good day all in all. Baby was back at the hospital last night, but back home today. Her body just doesn't seem to be fighting any more, but Meghan assures me it's not life threatening -- scary though. Here's a new photo of her, and one of the sunbonnet I made for her (OK, I had to put it on SOMETHING!). I'll get that off in the mail this week, along with the soda tabs. Oh, you know to save soda tabs for her, don't you? Yeah, Ronald McDonald House collects them and gets $$ for them from the State of California. I know it's not much, but it makes me feel like I'm helping, even a little bit.

Have a great day and yes, it's the middle of the night. I just woke up on the couch and my sleep meds will take a few minutes to kick in, so . . . have a good one!

Billye

March 18 am

Here's a photo (al beit a lousy one!) of my Double Delight with borders. Now off to the long armer to be completed. This quilt pushed me past my ability level -- by a long shot! I'm starting to think I might actually be able to do this quilting thing -- fairly well. No major mistakes in this one -- that I can see yet anyway. I think I would've toned down some of the pinks a bit but then again, I kind of like them. This quilt is for my granddaughter, Natalya (who is OK right now by the way, thanks everyone -- her kidneys are working again -- hopefully they'll come up with a more long term answer here soon). I'll keep it though, until she's old enough to appreciate it. That could be a REALLY long time, since unless she's very different from her mother, she probably won't like anything home made. Although I did get a photo of Natalya from Meghan the other day -- and it happened to have a pillow I made for Meghan in it. So maybe she does use some of the stuff -- I hope so.

I had planned to work on the sunbonnet for Natalya last night (which I have basted), but I was really tired for some reason and did nearly nothing. So I want to do that, and then get started cutting for the Pineapple quilt I want to make for my niece, Mischa. That'll be a combination Christmas/Birthday present (probably for several years!). I'll try the quilt as you go method on it -- with the Double Delight I decided that I'd put so much of myself into it, I really want it professionally quilted.

I do have some great news. A fairly new friend of mine, Barb, who is also doing the long arm work on the OBW, the 5 yard quilt and soon on the DD, has asked me to be her roommate at a quilt retreat in July. I'm very excited to go -- we will be there 5 days, 2 days of classes -- and all the quilting we can possibly bear! What fun!! I'm also honored that she invited me to be her roommate. I had wanted to go, but didn't have anyone to go with, so had basically crossed it off my things of wanting to do. Now I get to go! Yay! But that means I have to stay out of the fabric stores and work on what I have planned. As a matter of fact, Barb is giving a class that Diane and I are taking on March 28th for a Disappearing 9 Patch (D9P) -- the fabric has been purchased and is in the car waiting for class -- I'll do QAYG on it as well. That quilt will be one for Natalya for now.

I promised myself I'd get my scraps under control before I started a new project, but . . . well, it'll have to be done in CONJUNCTION with a new project. I did pull a lot of scraps for the new Pineapple quilt, and will likely be pulling more. I have to decide on a color palette yet, but I know I'm going with greens -- maybe a little brown and some gold -- and of course the lights. The lights will probably be tone on tone white -- left overs from the backing on the Double Delight. TMI, huh? Yeah, I'm boring myself. So I'll sign off now. I hope every one is well and having a good day, despite the disturbing news going on in the world.

Hugs.

Double Delight

Still in construction phase -- I will do this one Quilt as You Go -- I think I'll just do stitch in the ditch since it's already so busy (and I don't want to ruin it with my not so great free motion quilting!). I'd use the regular quilt abbreviations, but on the off chance somebody in my family or someone not a quilter reads this, I thought I'd spell them out (not that they'll know what they mean anyway!). This quilt has been a true challenge -- even in construction. Seems like no matter how hard I've tried, I get something wrong with each seam -- last night was a disaster and I ended up frogging (ripping out - rip it, rip it) a lot. Some more minor frogging tonight, but the first two sections are stitched together. I think it's rather pretty, and since it's way beyond my skill level, I'm rather proud of it.

So, another friend of mine lost her job at our firm last Friday. That's so sad, and this time she was fired. I don't know what for -- she's been there almost two years, and the official word is that it "just wasn't a good fit." I hope she can either get unemployment or find another job quickly. She's a lovely girl, and I made her a purse for Christmas (albeit a bit late). It's just so sad.

The baby (Natalya) is still sick -- in and out of the hospital, back and forth to the doctors. Ricky had a scare with MRSA a few weeks ago too, and he was in the hospital for 3 days. My daughter is somehow holding up keeping the family together, the finances together, the baby as well as possible, getting her husband to work (since he can't drive due to epilepsy), Ricky to school, herself with a biopsy (no cancer or tumor thank God), and going days without sleep. I don't know how she's doing it, but I'm incredibly proud of her. If anyone had asked me a few years ago, I would've assured them it wasn't possible -- not my daughter. But boy has she grown into a young woman to be proud of (and reckoned with)!

Not much else to add -- will go to my first Guild meeting next Monday night with a new friend, Barb, who does most of her quilting by hand. Amazing quilts. She taught me how to do cathedral windows, so I've been doing those by hand while watching TV -- when I'm not working on the DD!