Reply to Anonymous

If you are who I think you are (K.F. or J.H. but probably K.F.) I am so excited! My email is still the same before the @ and tampabay . rr . com behind it. If you don't remember the before the @ part it is sewsquilts.
I will check with Ray and make sure we aren't travelling.
Thanks!

BTW

This is what your computer looks like when you are not careful about shutting the trunk, pardon me I mean the Over Full trunk, and your computer bag is on top. Sometimes I wonder how I made it to 46! DUH!

I am getting it packed up to go back to the Dell Hospital to get all fixed up. I hope it comes back fast.

Later

Diane

old things

I love to browse through old things. I like to look in boxes that were packed away years ago just to see what was put in them. An old bookmark, a picture of me in seventh grade, a doily I learned to embroidery on which sends me off into memories of Grandma and Papa. The smells of the kitchen of chicken and dumplin's and banana cake. The sounds of laughter and whistling that my Papa never tired of.

Yesterday I was sorting my magazines since they have been in a mess since moving. When I first started quilting I had three very young children so I didn't feel like we could afford to spend money on quilt magazines. For the first several years I only bought magazines from the second hand store for 25 cents. So as I was sorting them yesterday I got caught up in some of the very first ones I bought. I was in hawg heaven! I read articles written by Harriet Hargrave about fabric and thread, articles by Sharyn Craig and Linda Halpin about piecing and design. I had such fun, so much that I ran to my sewing room and started making a block that I saw.

After I got in the big middle of it all, and had fabric all over the floor and magazines everywhere and the whole room in happy chaos I remembered how much I love the "designing" part of quilt making. I love picking the block/blocks. I love picking the fabric. I love deciding how I am going to make it, strip piece, templates (usually not), thangles (NO WAY) Triangulations (Yep!). I love ironing the fabric and getting it all perfect for cutting. I love cutting and making it all perfectly straight. Do you see a pattern of perfection here? I do have a problem with that and if it doesn't come out perfect I tend to get frustrated and sometimes toss it all. Then I start thinking of how glad I am God doesn't expect perfection because I don't want to be tossed aside. Then I usually drag it out of the trash and try to make it look better and use it anyway. I tell you my mind is always hopping from one thing to the next isn't it? :^)

I have always loved that part...so much that I have about 100 UFOs (Un Finished Objects), PIGS (Projects In Grocery Sacks), PHDs (Projects Half Done) and any other acronym you can come up with, and don't forget the forty some odd quilt tops in the top of the closet waiting to be quilted.

I really need to stop looking in old boxes and magazines. It keeps me in trouble! But it sure makes me smile.

Later

Diane

The check is in the mail

Linda Green if you are reading this I will put the check for the retreat in the mail just as soon as I find the letter you sent me!

I got the letter, then I set it down to start packing for our marathon drive to Arkansas. I remembered I didn't mail the check in the middle of the second night after we arrived. Then I worried I would forget about it and I would forget to mail the check and wouldn't get to have fun at the retreat. Now I am home and I need to look for the letter and mail it but I have a headache and it is almost midnight. I hope I remember to look for it tomorrow. I will try to write myself a note.

Karen Fellows, if you happen to read this...I want to retreat this summer...please. I don't remember when it is, or even if I am able to attend, but I would like to hear from you if there is an opening.

I miss my friends and I would LOVE to spend some time with them. Hopefully I will get to this summer, but if not I am determined to find the retreat letter and mail the check in the morning. Maybe I will even have some show and tell this time. Ok Ok, ladies in Mobile you can get off the floor and stop laughing at that last statement. I could finish something... I really could...but first I need to stay home huh? :^)

Later

Diane

home and alone

We are back home. and I feel so alone.
We drove 17 hours to Malvern Arkansas to celebrate my father in law's 80th birthday. There were my husband, me, two of my children. My SIL flew in from Houston on Thursday and my other SIL and her husband and baby daughter came in on Friday night. That is eight new people in a house hardly big enough for the two that live there everyday. I mean it is a small house.
I love my family. I mean I REALLY do. I have never really felt like an "in-law" with any of them. I mean when they start talking about growing up and the things they did I realize I wasn't around but other than that I am just one of the "kids".
I miss my sisters-in-law. They are the funniest most fun loving people you could ever spend a weekend with. We laughed so much we cried.
The guys were in our car and the girls were in Judy's. Judy is not like my husband her brother. She has no problem not knowing exactly where she is going. She will eventually get there...maybe. LOL
We went up the mountain, we saw the bath houses, we took a million pictures, partied with a loud biker gang. We actually we partied when the biker gang left the mountain and we got our hearing back. LOL

OH man! I just remembered I have to go return the rental car...
later
Diane

As if.....

As if dropping my computer wasn't enough, I completely ruined it this time. I am such an idiot! I really think I should hot glue it to the desk and quit carrying it around!
I was loading up the car to head to my FIL's for his 80th birthday. Apparently I didn't check the clearance of the trunk roof and my computer had a bow in it with the screen broke. I am just sick! I truly think I should not be trusted with anything important anymore.
Last weekend I went fishing with my husband and son and forgot to put on sunscreen. I am a LOBSTER! I am just now getting to where I can wear clothes without tears and now I do this.
You would think at 46 years of age I would have more sense than this! How did I raise children?

Anyway once again I am borrowing a computer to post so I will still be out of pocket. Maybe soon I can get back to normal and stay out of the sun and keep my computer in working order.
Hope springs eternal.

Later
Diane

Limping along

My computer is back to working, but of course now I have to load all of my stuff. I don't have my camera drivers, any of my pictures or even any way to tweak my photos.
It is aggravating to try and do anything because I will click a button to try and check something and it isn't there. UGH! I am a slow, very slow learner.
I hope to have my computer back to its proper state soon.

I have not even made it into my sewing room so I have nothing to share, but I have been reading another Davis Baldacci book. The book I am reading now is called "The Collectors" and it is really good.

I have been reading blogs yesterday and today and I have been inspired to go in my sewing room. So I am off to see what trouble I can get into.
Later
Diane

I love technology....

I have been away for a while on a business trip with Ray and then to a wedding. While we were away my computer got dropped. I am such a klutz!
Anyway my computer is no longer functioning so I am using my son's computer until mine gets rehabilitated.
I will be back as soon as I can.

By the way, I attended one of the most beautiful weddings ever. I have never attended or even heard of a wedding like this. I have tried and I can't find the words to describe it.
I was able to see people I have not seen in several years. (Hi Donnie! Hi Sheryl!)

I also saw my niece HGF. She is so CUTE!!!! I have pictures.

Later
Diane