So I'm fine, how are you???

I must say, time is going very fast this winter-spring.  I keep thinking of things I should blog about, but never manage to sit down to blog.  My bad!

Mod Squad was great fun in March.  Our 'assignment' was to combine doodles into a new design.  Very far out of most of our boxes!!  I started with a spiral and then it just took over!  Luckily, the member teaching us this month works with children and normally hands out a bright orange sheet for them to sign.  The sheet says, "The teacher gives you permission to ignore any instructions as long as you make something!"  Saved by the bell!

My life is spinning out of control ... the spiral was mixing it all up.

Let me walk you thru my problems ... errr ... symbols:  The spiral is black netting.  Might be the only time you see me work with it!!

• Green house - our condo is up for sale, we're not buying it.  Our lease doesn't end until October, and if the new owners want it for a rental, they will want to extend our lease so they have a better chance of getting it designated a rental.  (There is only a small percentage of condos allowed to be rentals out here!)  That would be good for us - but meanwhile ... arrrgh!
• A package of needles to remind me I have Needle Book issues hanging over me ... that's all I can say right now!
• Spools fabric - my sewing room tends to look like a tornado has hit!!
• Peas fabric - a new way of cooking/eating - I don't really like to cook!
• Whale fabric - where the heck are they this year??? Not in our cove.
• Pink fabric - I was in charge of cancer quilt, all pink - What was I thinking?
• Light blue fabric with 3 dogs - that I'm allergic to at my DD's.
• Five kids - the Grandkids.  Doing well, but always on our minds!
• Car - my car was hit in the parking lot.  Kind-of killed the CHI when I got done with Tai-Chi!
• Clock - Out of control! AND what happened to 8 hours of sleep a night??
• Patriotic fabric - don't have enough quilts for the QOV nominees ... 2 months to presentation!  YIKES!!!

I'm happy to say, I'm in a much better place today!  Some of those things are done - pink quilt; (tempted to put scraps in the burn barrel!) there are enough quilts for the QOV nominees; sewing room is neat and tidy, because some of the stash now lives in garage!

Here are the other projects at Mod Squad

I've touched everything in my sewing room!!  And I'm happy to say that quite a bit of it is going to the Country Store at our quilt show in May!  I'm carefully ignoring the boxes tucked between my table and the bookcase.  Pay no attention to them - they are out of here in May!!  There is only one box on the floor - QOV strips.  I can live with that!

This month our book club is reading "Yellow Raft In Blue Water" by Michael Dorris.  It's very good.  Need to finish it this weekend.

Before DH's appointment we stayed with A&J and the kids.  What a busy household.  Miss E (turns 1 in June) is army crawling and smiling at everyone!

At his yearly exam with the cardiologist, the dr had a very serious look on his face while looking at DH's records ... almost gave ME a heart attack!  But at the end of the appointment, he said see you next year!  DH did have to go in for a cholesterol test locally.  Should have results in a week.  Fingers crossed that all small issues will solve themselves!

We went up to Portland after dr appointment in the valley - Miss P had her annual Music Project show.  Last year, I loved to say that it was the first time I'd ever heard Pink Floyd on the Ukulele!!  Didn't get that this year, but Miss P's group wrote their own song!  Pretty darn good for 11 year olds!  As we were leaving L&Js house, my hip twanged! (Yes, that is a medical term!) So I'm officially old enough to hurt myself just standing there!  Pretty scary - but sitting on a cold pack all the way home did help.  I haven't had too much trouble with it since. I feel I dodged a bullet there! I don't have time for 6 weeks recovery!!

Did you know I'm the Honored Guild Member at our Memorial Day Weekend  show??  That was part of the ModSquad spiral too!  I have my own display area, which I have to man during show hours, and I've told you I've had a few panic attacks about it!

I also have our QOV presentation that Sunday.  It's a tear-jerker and hard to speak in front of that many people.  But I survived last year ... so this year will be good too.

My small group - Woolies - met at my house and we looked at every quilt in the house and decided what can be in the show, what can be in the booth.  Our condo is just large enough to get them all out!!!  I also decided they will all keep an eye on me.  Am I drinking water?  Have I gone to the restroom lately?  Has anyone moved into my booth and won't leave???? Do I need chocolate?

That same day Woolies met here was also March Madness Quilt til you Wilt! And yes, we start wilting about 8:35!!   I love these - they don't make you do the project!!  I had a lot of people to talk to and hand things off to; and some figuring/consulting about a new project that I was ready to cut for.  It was wonderful!! Just being in a room filled with quilters working ... magic!

Then at the guild meeting - it finally registered with members that we don't have enough quilts!  So we had an impromptu sweatshop and finished 4 tops and two people brought in their quilts to finish! We now have more than enough and I am breathing easier. Yay!

Until next time!!

The sun is shining ... today!

The rain is slowly tapering off and (I hope) we are headed to spring.  Life is speeding up, gearing up for the end of school year and all that comes with it! We went on our first beach walk yesterday since DH's heart problem in December.  It was great being back on the beach!!

My DH is much better and back on the golf course.  He can even hit his woods and irons now.  Last weekend he golfed with his buddies and he was teased that he should be using the 'old man' tees since he was out-driven by them (very rare!)  But he's planning his revenge soon! 

When a family member expresses an interest in quilting - do you feel you have to 'hide the good stuff?'  Tee-hee!  A Lincoln Quilter's daughter was in mom's sewing room, came out and asked if she could use the plaids. Mom didn't get up and go see what she was asking about, and said yes.  It ended up her daughter cut the backs off all the plaid shirts in the ironing pile!!! Be careful!!!

Let's talk Retreats!   Always a favorite of mine from the beginning.  Oh, I like bus trips ... but shopping is too easy!  What I really enjoy is hours and hours of no responsibilities pulling at me.  Just me and my sewing machine, quilting friends around and no housework nagging me! Heaven on earth!

I run "Finishing School - a 5 day March retreat out here for 9 of us.  5 years ago I did research on where we could hold a retreat - the guild decided not to hold one, but 8 of us still were interested.  There's a pretty rustic 'retreat center' over the Bandon quilt shop and oh-boy, do we have fun.  A lot of shopping in our slippers!!  It's always been scheduled and filled for the next year before we leave each year. Here's the "Graduate Students" of Finishing School!

  

As you can see, the 3/4 inch finished log cabin blocks are still being worked on!!

It was my reward for finishing the Cancer donation quilt and some other 'at the last minute deadline work' during Finishing School!  But of course, this isn't finished yet - I need hundreds of blocks!!!!

The Brookings guild has a 4 day retreat in February up in Gold Beach at a Best Western.  We get hotel rooms(!) and take over the conference center.  We take turns making lunch and dinner using crock pots, etc.  

DH makes fun of us - we leave a town with two quilt shops to go to a town where there is none!  But he doesn't get it!!  It's just far enough away that we're 'out of touch' but some can come up for a day easily.  We had 35 this year.  Not bad for a guild of 60!!

We discovered the joys of command hooks!  The 'official project' was Blooming 9patch.  (I didn't do it of course!!! Some things don't change.) So the guild bought large packages of Command Hooks.  We fastened them to the walls (over vinyl wallpaper, doors, painted walls ...) and had design walls hung all over the room.  Worked out great - took them all down at the end and have the hooks to use again.  All you have to do is buy extra tape pads to hang them.  And then hang them right so you can pull them off!!!  Might be a good addition to to all retreats large and small!

My third retreat of the year is in April back in Bandon - both sides of a duplex right on the ocean.  Newport's "Bayshore Babes," a small group that I belonged to when I lived there. Two full kitchens, it sleeps 22. Alcoves for handwork; long dining tables for machine set up.  I've convinced them Brookings is a southern suburb of Newport (a mere 5 hours away!)  I get put on the waiting list so current members that meet weekly can get in.  But I usually make it - IF I promise to bring my lasagna!!!  That's coming up in April.

Meanwhile, I'm stressing out this spring. Our condo needs to have windows replaced by Summer.  I can't even get to the window in the sewing space!  And I really don't want to explain that room to a non-quilter.  I'll be on a Hoarders episode in a flash!! So, in an effort to get at the base of the problem, it's worse than ever!!!

AND I'm "honored guild member" at our Memorial Day Weekend show.  It used to be "featured quilter" but last year the hard-working guild member didn't really have any finished quilts!  She also didn't stay in her booth.  So - I figure that the pressure is lower than it was before!

What does it involve???  I have to be there all day for 2 days; have a "booth" display of me!  But still run the QOV presentation on Sunday - which is why I got the nomination.  A quilting friend I walk with wore me down to accept the nomination.  I was secretly hoping the other gal would win - I've never been an officer here and she had.  I had a small panic attack when they announced it.  And a bigger one at 2 am that night!!

I'd appreciate tips from those of you who have had this honor and lived through it to tell the tale!!  I already told the Finishing School crew they are my committee.  They have to check on me, make sure I'm drinking water, taking bathroom/stretch breaks and that no one has moved in to 'keep me company'??  Woolies is meeting here this month and I plan on them helping me decide what going into my space!  That will be fun - a one woman show at home - so to speak! 

Meanwhile, QOV is doing great here.  Last year we had our first presentation at the quilt show.  We presented quilts to 17 veterans.  This year I already have 24 nominees - and 20 quilts promised.  Since I only have 18 members ... hard to push for more quilts.  I've reached out to State QOV to get 4 more finished quilts.  But I'll be glad when that's not on my mind 24-7!  I want it settled ASAP - I've lived thru the nightmare that can happen for delivery to  our little 'end of the world' location!

Meanwhile, the progression of tops coming into my sewing space; being paired, mailed out to quilters, coming back and going back to their makers ... well, let's just say I haven't lost track of anything quite yet ... but I've come close!!  I now put a placard with the quilters name on the quilt top before measuring and taking a picture of the top.  And in a small condo - the only space to do that is on our king size bed.  I also have to clear the nightstand (a pile of books and a box of Puffs does nothing for the ambiance!) cover the bed with a flat sheet so I'm not left with animal hair and threads in my bed!!  Stand on a kitchen chair to take the picture ... it's a hobby all on its own!!!

A Nebraska friend said she'd like to come out in May for the show, but I told her she'd be in charge of bringing me water and rubbing my feet!  She then said she was expecting company that weekend!! I was kidding, but I hope I don't have company because I'm not good after 'I'm "on" all day!?'  

Do you know what I mean?  Being social all day - well, it takes a toll.  The evening usually involves a Mikes Hard Lemonade, no tv, OR an old favorite Rom-Com; laying on the couch, reading a book, covered by a quilt, bonbons optional!!  I can't see anyone agreeing to that!

Well, that's what has been keeping me from blogging!!  I'll end with just one of our winter sunsets!  Yep, that's what keeps us here!!!

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