Where did I say I was?

By looking at the outside temp on the car it would seem like we were in Death Valley, instead of downtown Denver! Wow!

Guess where I am...

Having a great time shopping in one of my favorite shops!

Slow but sure..

These blocks keep whispering/nagging at me. Every time I come in the room I see them. I have finally gotten to the place I can come in and make one or two in a few minutes now that the fiddly work is done.

Not enough spoons in the day

Ray and I went to Mobile three days last week. I had a very nice visit with some of my quilting friends. I got to visit a new quilt shop in Gautier, MS.The shop is Block Therapy. I was so happy to be there and chatting with the owner that I forgot to take pictures. The website is www.blocktherapyquiltshop.com  .
Such nice ladies working there, and very nice selections of fabrics. While we were there I found out she is expanding (already!) to add on the space next door. This will make it so nice and big.
We also drove over to Janet's Quilting Bee in Ocean Springs, MS. It was so nice to see Janet again! She is so nice and willing to stop what she is doing to explain how she cut and made a block. That is just what she did for me. I looked at a sample she had for a class and I thought I recognized something familiar, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. She explained what she did and a light bulb came on. It is a block I had been playing around with but got sidetracked and never finished the thought. Great minds and all that! It is a form of disappearing nine patch. I will show it here if I ever get finished with housework and get back in my sewing room.
Ray and I worked in the yard this weekend and I have been zapped of energy since. The kitchen and laundry room are over flowing again and I must mop the floors. I hope to get at least one of these done today, but we will see.

Recently I have had more visits to the doctor and more blood work and more results. To add to the grocery list of things that ail me, he added Lupus.
I want to say right now, I am tired of this. I am tired of appointments, blood work, tests, medicine, aches, pains, fatigue, brain fog, etc. I am tired of being tired!
As long as I can remember I have hurt in some way. Mostly from my hips down, and the shoulders up, ALL of the time. The pain is more under control, thank you Jesus! The tiredness is what is making me crazy at this moment. I can't seem to do anything without it affecting what I might want to do later.
Today while blog surfing I clicked on some new to me blogs about quilting and some how ended up on this site. The lady was talking about how she explained her illness. It is so hard to explain when you don't have any outward appearance of anything. Well unless it is a bad day and I have to hold onto furniture or my husband to walk.
If you are interested in getting a perspective on Lupus, Fibromyalgia or Rheumatoid Arthritis check out this link.
http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/xmedia-press/new-video-christine-miserandino-reads-the-spoon-theory/

Later,
Diane

Sweet Treats may help

Yesterday was one of those days. Everyone has them from time to time. It seemed like every time I got started and focused the phone would ring. I would deal with whatever was given to me during the phone call and try to get back and focused on sewing and someone would come to the door. All day long!
Three phone calls from my sisters about my dad in the nursing home. Three telemarketers (two from the same company!) One Pharmacy call. One Doctor. I called my friend to ask questions about Daddy. Ray called FIVE times. Needless to say I got way less accomplished than I had hoped.

I wanted to get the monkey basted...nope!
I was trying to test a quilt pattern for a designer...at 2am I was still working through it.
During some of the calls I was mindlessly sewing strips for a design Judy Laquidara called Sweet Treat. She is doing a sew-a-long if you are interested.It's pretty simple, but with all the distractions I think I may have done something wrong. I will have to recheck.

Even if I did I like the way it looks so far. Plus I like the name, Sweet Treat. I have to go pick Ray up from the airport in a little bit. I can see a trip to Yogurtology before we return home!

Local Quilt Shop

I had to make a run to the quilt shop closest to me. I am so fortunate to have two quilt shops within about 15 minutes of my home.  I remember the days of 2 hour drives when I lived in Texas, so two within such a short drive, I am one happy girl.
Anyway back to the trip. I needed a new 6 1/2" ruler. Mine had a chip out of the corner and I couldn't trim my HSTs. This ruler was old enough that you couldn't just flip it and use another corner, as there were no markings. No biggie. I wanted to look at the Creative Grid rulers anyway. I have old Omnigrid rulers, the ones with the yellow markings and then some slightly newer Omni-grip. I like the Old Omnigrid, but they are so slick and I can't find anything that I like to make them not slide across the fabric just as I am in the middle of the cut. Grrr. The new Omni-grip are losing their neon green/grip stuff so they are starting to slide, plus most of them have chips since I am notorious for dropping things.

I found a ruler and it looked good so I grabbed it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw this book.

I love all things Kim Diehl. I love her color choices. I love her designs. This book even has a patchwork pillow for cat lovers! This book went home with me!

Love, love, love this!

I can see this one in my living room!

Pardon the crappy picture. I'm still not too friendly with my phone camera.

Then I saw this...


Inside:

When they said small pieces I think they meant tiny, but knew they would scare off too many potential buyers.  One inch strips makes for tiny 4-patches!

As far as the monkey quilt goes, I have decided it is finished. No second bright blue border. I will bind it in the blue since I think it needs another splash of it. Now I have the backing to cut and piece together and baste on. I hope I can start quilting today. Ray just called and he may be delayed another day so I might actually get to it since I get another day of no cooking and cleaning. But really, whether he comes home or not I must do laundry and dishes. it is beginning to look like the dwarf's cottage  in the woods. Too bad there isn't a singing girl and helpful critters to do the work!

Later,
Diane

It's a top!

I would have been finished with the top a lot sooner if I had not jinxed myself by saying yesterday I had not had to rip very much! I spent a lot of time last night ripping and re ripping. I knew I had to put some coping sections in the border, but I read the graph paper wrong and put them in the wrong places. I was just putting on the last two borders and realized when I was 4 inches short something was very wrong.

I am debating putting another small strip of the bright blue on the outside. I don't want it to look framed, but I think that blue makes it sparkle. What do you think?

I may just bind it in that color if it looks too much like a picture frame with another border.

It sure feels good immersing myself in my sewing again.

Later,
Diane