A day with Hubby in the car

The past two days I had to take my hubby to doctor's appointments. 2 yesterday one right after the other and not in the same place. Today another one.

Not only is it a chore to get him dressed. He usually stays in pajamas at home but wouldn't dare go out without his dress pants on now. Then there is the wheelchair to lift out of the backseat and then put back later.

But-- the worst is having this guy after two years of me having to drive him around, telling me how to drive. " that car has his brake light on" There's a car behind you. UGH

It's been over two years now since he gave me the keys and said guess I better drive. He just didn't have the control of his legs and was driving so slow.

He taught me to drive when we first came back to Maryland from College and got our first car. I was 20 I guess. So certainly after 50 odd years of driving I guess I know how.

But for a man that always Had to be in control. He even drove when we visited our son in Colorado. Everyone knew that he would be the driver.

So what is one to do. I told him this morning after he told me there was a car behind me. Yah, Parked and I just brought him down the ramp in back of that car and knew it was there. Geeze.

So that's been my last two days.

Except I have cleaned off my shelves of Thimbleberry fabric and refolded it all like Bonnie did hers. Really easy once you get going and sure make the shelves look better. I'll get a picture to Kim tonight for tomorrow.

Just had to let off some steam. Do others have this problem?

Fire Pictures

Here are some pictures of Main street after the big fire on Friday.
This one shows the end of the hotel and the house next door that was damaged badly..
This was apartments upstairs and a bakery that was closed on the main floor. Used to have a TV repairman when we used to get them repaired. and they lived upstairs.



See how they have the wall up all around the damaged buildings. This was taken on Sat. 24 hours after the fire and they were cleaning up already.
This is the shell of the hotel. If you want to see what it looked like before go back to posts on 10/10/07. I talked about the hotel and how Nora Roberts was going to restore it. She said it was about 3/4 done and she had hoped to open this summer.

The scaffolding at the end of the building was all covered with blue tarp and the front of the building. To keep in the heat while the worked in the cold weather. I also think they might have been re pointing up the brick and the stones. They needed it badly. They had that street blocked off so they could clean up.
The walls are at least a foot thick and seems like the fire didn't hurt them at all. Just got rid of all the wood.

This the how the stores directly across the street looks. They are brick but had been covered with vinyl siding and the heat just curled it up. All the store windows on this side of the street had been busted in by the fire dept. As the heat was cracking them. The worst part the store on the corner had just gotten new windows after the fire there last year in a pizza parlor. I don't think they have rented that store yet. The next one is a beauty parlor and then the confectionery store. But the windows were all boarded up but the confectionery store was open.
The next building , not damaged is Nora Roberts book store and they had planned a book signing this Saturday and she went ahead with it so that brought lots more people into this little town.
This is a picture of the next building down from the hotel. The one on the right is a double home with the windows all boarded up. The next is our little library which I am in a couple times a week. It used to be the Boonsboro Bank. So is brick and probably would only had damage to the roof if the fire had come down the street farther which is what the city was afraid of . The house then next door is City Hall and it is connected in the back to the Library.

But soon hopefully next month they will be moving into the new library. I think they are finally putting the carpet in.

Now today's paper said that Nora Roberts had good news from the officials yesterday. They said the Walls were all sturdy enough to rebuild and she said that was exactly what she would do. So it will probably be another year till be get this lovely old restored hotel. built in 1797 they think
This was taken down the street a ways looking back you can see the damage to the house next door. It's brick but the roof is down. The little building next door is the Subway shop. It had smoke damage but the firewalls saved it .

Wonky "T"s

First off this morning, I have a picture of my ironing board. Seems Libby wants to see our setups.

So Libby, this is mine. You see my porch is long and narrow so when I was designing it I had to come up with a suitable arrangement for my work stations. I wanted this Big Board. It is made to fit on top of a regular ironing board to give a bigger space to press. I didn't have room for a regular ironing board and also needed more storage space. So saw these plastic drawer units in the office supply store and they were perfect. The board sits on them and I have my space to iron, when I get the rest of the junk off, and also drawers below for different colors of stash. Little drawers on the top for stuff.

Course as you can see it also has books sewing stuff as I sit next to it and watch my soap in the afternoon and do hand work. On the lower side is my Featherweight in the extension table and the other side I have a 6 ft. table for cutting. More drawers underneath. It works for me.

Now on to the latest project. Here is a picture of the Wonky T blocks sewn together on my board.

Am going to put a 4 inch muslin border and then am making a 3 inch wide braid for an outside border with another 4 inch muslin border. I think they will help tone down some of these wild colors and prints.

Turned Blocks

I've been working on a new project all week and thought I'd show you how these blocks are made. I didn't know until Kim told me and gave me the measurements.
These are 6 inch "T" blocks that I made with fabrics that the members of two of the guild groups I used to belong to and went to yearly retreats. This was done at the 1995 retreats. We each cut about a 10 in square of our favorite fabric and then on a piece of muslin we were to sign our name and anything else we wanted. Then we traded. I made these T squares out of mine. Had 57 which includes my own. Found them a week ago and decided it was time to do something with them. Thank goodness many had the date on them so I knew when.

I mentioned this to Kim and asked for suggestions and she said why not the Wonky blocks. She had made something last year with them. I had no idea how these were made so she told me to cut a 12 x 2 1/2 in rectangle. That's 5 1/2 in. longer than the block.
These really are from Sharon Craigs book called Twists and Turns..

See how I have the ruler on this rectangle? You slice it diagonally across this block. You need two of these for each block. Ending with 4 odd shaped pieces

Here's a few of the blocks
You then take one of the long triangles and using the straight edge sew it onto one side of the block. Leaving an inch or so open at the end for finishing.

See how I have it? Doesn't matter which side you start with.

Then taking another piece sew it starting on the opposite end and sew through the top of the last one.
And so all around. When you get them all sewed you go back and finish sewing the end of the first one. Magic

You end up with blocks looking like this. Tales sticking out all around. That's why you have to have that long a rectangle to begin with.

Then what we all LOVE to do we take the square and square each block up. Mine came out to 8 3/4

Here's the finished block.

I tried to match the outside with the colors of the T. So I have a very colorful quilt top.
Tomorrow I will show you the layout. and what else I am doing with this.

This is really sort of sentimental as I haven't been able to leave and go to retreat for the last 3 years since my hubby has gotten unable to take care of himself. Several of the women whose name I have on these are now deceased. We had some great times at those retreats on the banks of the West River which flows into the Potomac.

See you all tomorrow.

Boone Hotel Burning

Just got some horrible news. The Boone Hotel, that I had pictures of a couple months ago burned down this morning. Nora Roberts and husband had been restoring it and they had been working inside. Had a lot of it covered in blue tarp to be able to work while the weather was bad.

I'm sure they had been pointing up all the stone on the street side and the brick at the back.

There are two terrific pictures on the papers web site. I can't capture the link but can be found at http://www.heraldmail.com/

We live just two miles from the center of town and why I didn't hear the sirens is beyond me. They said 37 companies of fire trucks came. Our fire station was just behind the hotel a block.

This is really terrible for Boonsboro. At least it didn't take the whole block. Just a little further down is the library and City hall.

I shall try to get pictures when I can get out. Right now we have no school, about 2 inches of snow and waiting for ice for the day.

Not a good start to the weekend, So back to cutting 6 in. bricks to make a braid for my latest project which I will have here tomorrow, If Kim gets the pictures posted.

Have a good day all.

Musical Mountain

This is the quilt top that I have made for #3 granddaughter that will graduate high school in May. She's my son's daughter and lives in Colorado. Will be attending the Nothern Colorado University, I think it's called in Greeley. She wants to be a teacher.

When she was here this summer I was trying to figure out what kind of theme to make this quilt. Finally she was talking about the chorus and plays she was in. She loves singing so why not go for musical fabrics and this majestic mountain design since they live about 10,000 feet south of Denver. So I call it Musical Mountains.
She's in "Cats" this spring at school. Don't know what part she's playing.

Now what I want help with is the quilting. I have it pinned and have started quilting 1/4 inch down each side of the peaks. But that leaves a fairly large space in the middle to get some kind of quilting. I am a beginner when it comes to machine quilting. so have yet to master the art of free motion. I have tried to follow designs in some of the last quilts I've done .

So am open to suggestions for a beginner. Want to get this done so that when she comes back in June this year I can give it to her. Rather than mailing it. I want to see her face when she opens it.

I have tried to make quilts for the grandhildren to take to college with them. Sara has a large quilt for her bed at home so she needs a twin size for the dorm beds.

Thank You in advance.

Dresdon Plate

Thought I would show you another of my older quilts that I made in the early 90's.

My Hubby had brought home this box full of these patches cut with one put together, by hand of course.
The prints are mostly 30's and 40's and like we do now, someone had cut all these little petals out and probably after making one block decided it was to much work.

Was a wonderful take a long project for the car and spare time at shows.
Got them all put together and quilted in 1994-95. That's what the label says. That's one thing you really need to do is put labels on your quilts. Now after almost 20 years I cannot remember when I made a quilt or sometimes even IF I made it.
That's what happens when you reach 77.

This is on the twin size bed in the basement that is my guest room- quilting room and sacturary for the Grand kids when they come. TV and all. This bed is an old spool bed. Otherwise the springs were ropes threaded back and forth across the bottom. It is from my Father-in-laws home and is a match to the one I sleep on. There were known as Mr. and Mrs. beds.

Here's a closeup of one of the blocks. The center is a repro. as is the borders that I used with the muslin. Can you see the quilting? Lots of feathers.

Here's another one and you can see the fabric I used for the sashing and cornerstones. I like this affect of the full size quilt on the twin size bed. It covers what is underneath the bed. Boxes. storage.

Hope You enjoy seeing my old quilts.

Then, especially for Kairle, here's my red Christmas Cactus just starting to bloom for the second time. There aren't as many buds as was on the pink one but since the blossoms are really only good for about a day I wanted to get this taken before more came out. You can see several buds which now are getting ready to open.

See the little figurine along side of the flower pot? This was a gift at Christmas from my neigbor Pat, that I made the Snowman runner for. It is so cute. An angel sitting in a rocker, "ME?" with her quilt on her lap. I keep it there on the windowsill to look at while I wash dishes.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bargello, Revisited

Yes, While sitting talking to my daughter last night I finished the binding on this quilt. That's about the fastest I have ever made one. I really like it and have put it over the back of the couch. Taken off the flannel TB that I made a couple years ago.

You can't see it but the binding is the dark blue the same as the inner border.

Here's a closeup of the quilting. I did diagonally though every other strip both ways. Then a design around the border.

While we were talking my Daughter was finishing up putting this puzzle together.

She had started it at Christmas and then put it on my old cutting board I have in the basement and put it on the bed down there. So finally I have my basement back and she needed the bed to sleep in last night. She bought this at a yard sale for 25 cents and there are two pieces missing. But she's wanted to get it together so she could pass it on to and old lady that loves to put puzzles together.

Hope everyone has had a good weekend and if you are lucky enough to have Presidents Day off , happy quilting. Thanks for stopping in.

Antique Dogwood

Thought I would show you one of my antique quilts. I used to buy and sell them and this one I decided I wanted to keep.

From the fabrics I think it was from 1890-1900. Beautiful quilting. It is all hand appliqued and I do think the name of it is Dogwood.


Don't they look like a huge dogwood flower and the buds. Love the scalloped border.

I don't remember now where I bought it but probably around this area. I used to go to a lot of house auctions as well as some auction houses. We did antigue shows for close to 25 years and I always had quilts and other types of needlework. That's back when you could buy a box of old lines for a dollar but sure can't do that any more

Here's a closeup of the flower and the quilting. Lots of feathers and between the blocks are round feathers.
Here I think you can see some of the quilting pretty good. It is in perfect condition and hangs on the towel rack in the living room with a couple of my quilts.

Now our Ice is all gone and today turned out really nice. Got clear up to 45.

Then made better when my daughter came up this afternoon for a sleep over. She tries to get up every six weeks or so. The family, that will be home, will be up right before Easter so that is about another month. I think she enjoys the relaxing she can do here away from her duties as wife, mother, and now for awhile caregiver to her husband who had some knee surgery besides having Lyme desease which prevents him from working full time. He is a Lawyer. Then she is a teacher's Assistant in a Special School and will get her Master's degree come summer. On her last class.

We're proud of her.

Where Is Spring??

Tues, we had a nice day of snow showers. It would snow for a couple hours and I would go clean the drive.

Then it would start again. I cleaned the drive twice. Wasn't hard. Just have to push it to the edge. Only the length of a car. to the carport

By evening it was snow covered again, This being Primary day for Maryland, I didn't get down to vote. The snow plow never came though as there wasn't any school.

Well they were saying that it was going to warm up. Yah it was 20 degrees, and rain and Ice. UGH

Here's what it looked like in the morning. See how foggy it looks. That's the warmer air. Yah maybe got up to 25.

The worse part is my husband had an early appointment for some minor surgery at the Medical Center. Well, he hates that I have to drive and worse that he would have to ride with me in the snow or ice. Of course it was cancelled.

As well as school for the day

Here's the iclcles on the front of the carport. The trees look white because they are covered with ice.

Then I was going a little stir crazy although I got a lot of sewing done. Quilted the Bargello quilt. Am putting the binding on now.
Thursday, today I had my hair appointment and day in town. Wanted to go the the local Quilt Shop and see if they had a book Kim suggested. by Sharon Craig, Twists and Turns . They didn't and neither did Borders.

Then on the way home Hubby wanted me to stop and get some crab meat and I thought Carb Cakes would be good for a Valentine's Day dinner.

Coming through Boonsboro all of a sudden I noticed how the trees were sparkling. The closer to the mountain I got the more eveident.

As soon as I got home I grabbed my camera and tried to get some pictures of it. With the sun shinning on all that ice, they looked like diamonds of all different colors. This is off the end of the carport looking out back.

This one I took out the window. The smaller tree is my old dogwood tree which will be beautiful in the Spring.

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Cactus in Bloom!

Ah, yes, the cactus is in bloom again. I knew it had more buds but they weren't coming out so to the basement porch it went. Then when the buds started to come out I brought it back up to the kitchen. It sits on the open window that is above my sink and opens to my porch. The red one looks like it's getting ready to bloom again. So it will come up next. Isn't it fun to have these flowers that bloom a couple times a year.

But then I love my african violets that sit in my windows and bloom all the time

I also wanted to show you what I have done the last couple of days. I showed back in January the paper pieced center to what will be a Yours Truly Round Robin that we are doing in Carol Doaks group.

She gave us the instructions for the first round. We were to have 4 corner paper pieced blocks for the next round. Simple enough since she had given us the BOM also and in a 12 in. size and a 6 in. size. So I used that and added some strips inbetween and I have my completed round.

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Here's the catcus. You can see the bare trees out the window past my porch.

These blossoms only last about a day then die but there is usually some others to come out.

We had a strange day today. I was up before it was light and then DH looked out and said it was sure foggy. Well, it started to get light enough to see and nope it was snowing. The ground was white. Wasn't laying on the road and never did. It snowed for about 2 hours and then stopped and the next thing I knew the snow was all gone. That's the way our snow's have gone this year. Guess we're headed for a rough March.

I know many of you have had a lot of bad weather, if not snow then rain and those horrible tornados.

Well, Tomorrow is another day and hope you all have good ones.

Bargello

Ah, the Super Bowl Sunday quiltathon. I've seen many blogs of quilts being made. What a great idea Bonnie had. And her moving the next day.

Here's my completed strips. I did rearrange them from this picture.

Wanted to get the darks more even.That dark spot at the bottom is my stool. If it weren't for that I couldn't reach the top of the board. I'm too short. LOL
Then this is the dark narrow border I found in my stash of TB. It is Navy with stars but does what I wanted it to.

Did you notice the darker strip was on the opposite side. Just looked better.
Then In this picture that I sent Kim last night I just had the outside border stuck around the quilt

This morning I got the outside border sewn on. It is a Thimbleberries. One I had used on another quilt and had the length.

Then this afternoon I decided to get into my old stash of blues and pulled out a lot of odd pieces and started to stick them up on the quilt to make a scrappy pieced backing. Took me all afternoon. But it's done and I have a big enough piece of batting so hopefully tomorrow or this week I can get it pinned . This one I feel I can machine quilt. Lots of straight stitfching.

I really love the way it has turned out. Thanks Bonnie for mentioning this.

Log cabin

Remember the Kentucky Log Cabin quilt I made a few weeks ago? Well Judy Martin's web site said to send in pictures of completed projects so I did. Got a notice that it would be up in awhile.

Well yesterday the email came. My picture had been posted and right after came Judy's Newsletter. Wow, she sure writes long ones. Still haven't finished reading it.

I went into the site. Here's the link to Judy's pictures. There it is the first one (by Eileen). Wow what a picture . Looked at the rest and someone else had made a smaller one with very dark fabrics. I didn't like it near as much as mine.

Then I had a comment from one of my friends that blogs, a Hollow member, and she had seen it while going in to get Judy's free pattern . She says I'm famous. I hardly think so since I sent the picture to Judy myself. LOL

BRRRRRR!

Just wanted to show you what it looked like outside yesterday morning. This was the first picture I took.

Can you see the ice on the trees. The fog stayed around all day and got much worse. All the trees by the afternoon looked silver.

This is the Oak tree in the front which never seems to get rid of it's leaves. See the icicles.

By this morning all was gone and the sun came out and was really nice. Except!!

I went to Curves and had some other errands to run but before I got to the grocery store my DH called and said to come home. the electricity was off and He had to get up. He has an electric lift chair as his legs aren't strong enough to help him get up.

We have a generator which I run once a month, so when I need it will start. So I got it started and the few things that are hooked into the genrator working. Which happly is my TV and MSN.

I went on back to do my shopping etc. The electric company said it should be done by 12:30, It was 10 AM then. Well by 1 pm it still wasn't on and the generator was showing empty but still running. DH said I should turn it off and go get more gas and see if I could see where the electric company guys were working. We live in the mountains and our wires come across alot of woods and farms. Not a long line. About 10 homes. So not like the whole town was down. So out I went the other way to see if I could see them. Yep, There they were. One guy up in a bucket stringing wires. I saw another on the ground so asked what had happened and why so long. A tree had fallen over the lines and took them down. Probably was hard to get to and of course would have to have gotten the tree out of the way. So this was probably a result of yesterdays storm. Finally came on about 2 PM. Thank goodness.

Well with the horrible day yesterday I decided to go ahead and sew up the first set of strips for Bonnie's Super Bowl special. Reading her blog every day as she is having quite a time with moving etc. and still keeps making quilts. I had a lot of strips and plenty other fabric to cut and had the 4 sets cut and put in the order I wanted to sew them. So that's what I did yesterday.

Here they are laid out. Still folded up. I wanted to see how the colors worked out. I had used about half Thimbleberries and then dug out some blues from the other stuff to lighten it up.

So this is it all stretched out on the board. I have them sewn together now so am all ready for tomorrow and getting started on the next one. It will go down. She calls it Scrappy Bargello. Love it. More to come.