I’ve been a busy bee!
I have been learning to use my new sewing machine. I bought it for the purpose of machine quilting small to medium sized quilts. It’s capable of free motion quilting, as well as straight line quilting using the dual feed feet. I have been trying to do both of these with my very old Singer sewing machine, and it’s astonishing how much easier it is to accomplish the quilting when you use a machine built for that purpose. I have now finished one quilt with loopy free motion quilting, and one that is “stitch-in-the-ditch” style. I completed sewing the binding of the larger one this afternoon, another first. I have always attached my binding to the front, pinned it to the back, and then hand-sewn it in place. This time, I sewed it to the back, and then pulled it to the front and machine stitched it down. YEA!!! I have learned SO MUCH since I bought this machine, and have been talking with the ladies of Scraps on a Mission. I feel like I’m growing by leaps and bounds!
I got up early and went out to breakfast. Dear Husband was off sailing, I had a list of chores to do, and got an early start. I planted two of the five mums I picked up earlier in the week, and set the pots on either side of the garage doors.
I fed the birds, and discovered that the rodent population had found the partially empty bag of nyjer seed that I bought for the finches. I forgot to put it in one of the sealed bins, and it didn’t take them any time at all to find it and decimate the seed. That will teach me to be sure everything is put away!
I moved my sewing machine back into the studio and reclaimed the dining room. I still have to press the tablecloth but at least one room is getting close to being back to it’s normal use. I folded the fabric I bought during August, and stacked it to be ironed later. I organized the equipment on the long table, put things away, and then cut strips of white for the next quilt I want to make. If you receive American Patchwork and Quilting, it’s the simple quilt of depression era reproduction fabric and white.
Then, the Nap Monster found me, and took me out for about an hour. Later, I sewed the first of the squares for the new quilt, and then checked the computer for information on roasting a boneless top loin pork roast.
Second Son was making salsa when it was time for me to work on dinner, so we shared the counter space. I steamed green beans, and broccoli and cauliflower, made up some broccoli slaw, and boiled egg noodles to go along with the pork roast. Mother used to make pork roast with browned potatoes, and I think I’ll try to recreate that meal later this fall.
The dishes are done, or at least most of them are done. I had to run the dishwasher twice, we had so many pots and pans! It’s nice having the counters cleared to start the week.
Tomorrow……grocery shopping, weeding, crocheting squares for Share a Square, and filing are the big boys on my to-do list, with twenty little things to fit in around them. I hope you all have a great week, and that those of you on the east coast are safe and dry.

We’ve been to the Farmer’s Market, and shopped for fruits and veggies for the week.
I have to take the tags for my Share a Square crocheted squares to the teacher’s store and get them laminated. While I’m there, I’ll visit the bank, which is in the same mall.
I need to pick up backing for a quilt for the church that Scraps on a Mission is making, and I want to see if I can find a few more fat quarters of Depression era reproduction fabrics for a quilt I’d like to make for myself. That project started out as a “use it up, wear it out” quilt, but I need to add to it a bit, so I don’t think everything will get used up. Oh darn…..I’ll have to make ONE MORE QUILT! *G*
If the storm coming through doesn’t last all day, I may try to quilt another lap quilt for Scraps on a Mission. It’s pin basted and ready to go. If the storm continues, I’ll just pin another top. I don’t want my brand new sewing machine on if there is likely to be a power surge that could kill it.
Other than getting a start on some zucchini bread, the rest of the day will be spent lolling around eating bon bons!
It looks like 9:00 at night outside my window, so I think I’ll close down until the storm passes by. I hope you’re having a great weekend!

I discovered that my husband has a fan club!
This morning before we went to the Farmer’s Market, we stopped at Panera for “breakfast.” It seems that Dear Husband has been stopping at this Panera for more than a year, ordering a pecan braid and a cup of coffee to start his day. He never varies, except in that he isn’t there on Saturdays once sailing season has ended.
So, we are invited to step up to the clerk, and she’s chatting away with him, reminding him that he needs to use up his reward drinks within the next two days, and then she asks if I’m his wife!
It turns out the entire staff adores him, and even the bakers like him. This is the place where the baker personalized a pecan braid, writing Dear Husband’s name in frosting.
I felt as though I was sitting with royalty for breakfast!
It’s amazing how little things make our days so much fun.

Earlier this summer a member of our family who lives in Colorado was passing through the Chicago area and was able to visit with us over dinner. We posed for several pictures after dinner, and I thought I’d post the one where my step-daughter was facing the camera! *G*

The tallest girl and the little one to the left are our granddaughters, and the other little girl is our great niece.

I’ve been crocheting 6″ squares for kids who are cancer patients. When I finish posting here, I plan to do one more. I thought I’d post a picture of the stack I’m getting ready to send to Shelly Tucker. If you’d like more information on this project, go to www.thiseclecticlife.com and look for the FAQ page for Share a Square.

Yup, I’ve been away since July 24th! This must be the longest hiatus since I began blogging. I’ve been incredibly busy, and also, at times, a sloth.
We finished cleaning out the documents and had the shredder visit.
I led exercise twice in July, and will lead again in September.
We made a trip to visit with Frankie’s family, to see My-Niece-The-Artist off to Denmark.
Scraps on a Mission has met, and we’ve made more quilt tops. (I’ll take a picture of the one I finished on Sunday, and post it.)
Share a Square is up and running again, and I’m trying to get some 6″ squares crocheted for them, and looking for volunteers.
The gardens have exploded with the recent rain. and so have the weeds. I finally started my Fall weeding today, and expect to weed daily until we finally get a killing frost.
Sis….I wanted you to know that we’re having Mom’s barbecue for dinner! *G*
So, filing, quilting, crocheting, cleaning the basement, weeding, exercise…these are the things of my life. Read on for more.
I hope you are all having a great summer!

If you’ve read here over the past three years, you know that I crochet squares for the Share a Square project. Shelly Tucker of This Eclectic Live has organized people who crochet to make afghans for children who are attending cancer care camp.
I hope that if you know anyone who crochets you will encourage them to go to the FAQ page on Shelley’s blog to read up on what she needs. Shelly has a nice group of people stitching away for her, but she can use more help. Every afghan has 80 six-inch crocheted blocks, and each block is from a different person. Our goal is to make 150 afghans to give to kids at camp during the summer of 2011. Shelly is already accepting squares for the first 50 afghans.
If you look to the right, you can see a link with a crocheted block. Your work doesn’t have to be this complex. I’m learning a few more intermediate block designs, but I also send simple (old-fashioned) granny squares. The blocks must be crocheted out of worsted weight yarn (acrylic, no wool), and you need to be sure to weave the tails of the yarn through the stitches on the back. End your stitching at a corner, and leave an 18″ tail to be used assembling the squares.
Help……we need your help! Join us at Facebook if you like.

We had the pleasure of a long weekend with my youngest sister and her family before my youngest niece flew off to Copenhagen for a semester of study. Frankie tried to stuff us with the most amazing food, beautifully prepared. We actually skipped lunch on Monday because we were so full from the exceptional brunch she had put together.
I was thinking about a snooze that afternoon when My-Niece-The-Artist brought out the sewing machine and started sewing squares together. “Niece….what are you working on?” “A quilt.” (Have you ever heard of Eleanor Burn’s series “Quilt in a Day”? Or, Mary Ellen Hopkins who makes a quilt within 24 hours so that she can put that date on the quilt? It can be done, but I was surprised she was doing it less than 24 hours before her plane took off.) I offered to pin the rows together. Dear Husband and My-Sister-The-Nurse helped to move the fabric through the sewing machine. We had the top completed shortly after dinner. The Artist and Frankie flew into town to get the batting, and the two of them, and My-Niece-The-Photographer layered and pinned that quilt and Frankie bound it. The Artist packed it in her luggage, and will tie it into a comforter when she is in Denmark. The coolest thing about this quilt, other than the fact that it went together in a heartbeat is that The Artist will be wrapped up in a quilt that everyone had a hand in helping to make. Lots of love in that quilt! I’ll have to ask her to send me a picture so that I can post it here.
While we were visiting, there was a plumbing problem in the newer part of the house. As they were trying to get laundry done so My-Niece-the-Artist could pack clean clothes for her trip, they were trying to deal with a leak in the pipes that had water flowing from the utility room to the garage. The problem spread, and they finally called for a plumber. The bathroom, master bedroom, utility room, the stairs to the lower level and part of the garage all need repairs now. My sis and her husband are fortunate that they are empty nesters right now, so that they can move to the older part of the house while the repairs are made. Tree roots. Who would have thought they could cause so much damage!?
Tuesday morning, a week ago, we all gathered for breakfast because The Artist was flying to Denmark, The Photographer and her SO were going back to school, and My-Sister-The-Nurse, Dear Husband and I were driving home. It was a noisy gathering, and we had a great breakfast. Here’s a picture of most of the happy diners:

Here’s My-Sister-The-Nurse with The Artist. Don’t you LOVE the legs???

It was tough to say goodbye, but we all know what amazing memories she will have of this trip, so we sent her off with love and the caveat that she enjoy every moment of her semester.

Will I get to post tonight…….??
YEA!!! It looks like I can! If you’ve worried that I had fallen off the edge of the Earth sometime during the past few weeks, worry not. Movable Type, at least my little portion of it, has been very quirky lately, and there are times when it will let me type a title, and then it locks me out of the body of the “Create Entry” form. I haven’t figured out what’s going on. It’s possible that I am here today thanks to T’s efforts. She hosts my blog, and may have figured out what’s going on. To be on the safe side, I’ll thank both the gods and T for their help!
Let’s see… In the past couple of weeks…
The youth group brought my Mother’s things upstairs, and two days later they brought up the boxes of business data from 1986 through 2002.
My siblings came to have a family meeting, and looked through Mother’s things. We shared what was of value or sentiment. My youngest sister helped me put the books out on my sewing table, three lines of books six feet long. The kids brought more books, and we lined them up on the floor the width of the room. My oldest sister came on Wednesday, and we chose books to save, and boxed or bagged the rest for the library and Goodwill. We had TWO CAR LOADS of books to donate! Mother was a prodigious reader!
I asked the Salvation Army to collect about a third of the things, and the rest Dear Husband and Second Son have helped to take down to the garbage.
I’ve spent the better part of the week and all of yesterday afternoon and evening going through the boxes of papers. I went through our personal papers and my Mother’s papers, while DH worked on the business. I finished what was left of the business papers this weekend. I pulled most of the paper clips, even after I discovered that they could be shredded. We’ll never have to buy paper clips, dividers, or binders again! I think I have 40 or 41 boxes for the shredder, lined up along the back of the fireplace.
This past week, like most of you, we’ve had heat in the high nineties. It seemed rather warm as i worked on the boxes, and finally I checked the vents. No cool air on the north side of the house. It turns out the motor had crashed, and then something blew in the unit, putting holes in the copper tubing. Since the unit is 22 years old, we decided to put the money into a new air conditioner. The earliest they can get here will be Tuesday, the day Scraps on a Mission meets here. With the air conditioning from the south side of the house and all the fans running, it should be cool enough for the ladies to work on quilts.
I have a lap quilt pinned and ready to quilt. I was so busy this weekend I didn’t get to it. It will be the first time I have quilted using my new sewing machine, so I’m looking forward to having the chance to work on it Tuesday.
Dear Husband went to Lake Michigan this weekend to sail. We had major storms last night. He decided that it would be wiser to come home, rather than to try to sail with all that lightening, but he had to wait for a lull in the storm to row himself to shore. So, he was home by 1:00 or so, and I had some help with the boxes.
And that’s about it for now. We’re all well, and busy and hope that you are, too!

Although I’m sure my husband wishes we’d finished, too!
My youngest sis, Frankie, came to visit yesterday evening. We went to dinner and discussed our plan of attack for Sunday. This morning we got up and emptied the books from my mother’s bookshelves. They are all sitting on the table I use in my studio, organized into subjects with three lines of books running from end to end. Frankie also set out pictures in all forms, and photo albums.
We went through a number of cabinets holding china, crystal, and pottery, culling out things from my grandparents, and things that my mother had painted when she lived in the Ozarks. I found my aunt’s bone handle sterling silver knives and added them to the growing collection of serving pieces and kitchen items.
Frankie watered outside, while I watered inside. I went out to sweep the walk. As we worked, the first of the kids arrived to help move Mother’s belongings from the basement to the first floor.
Ultimately we had one very tall (and handsome) newly-graduated-from-high-school boy, two VERY STRONG (and pretty) high school girls, and two young adults come to work for us. The five of them managed to bring everything I had tagged and more upstairs in less than an hour and a half. Everything was (and is) horribly dusty. I made them all promise that they would never admit that have seen my basement.
My aunt’s paintings and mirror, a picture of our very homely Uncle Charlie, linens, clothing, more books, tax info going back 30 years, decorations, old fashioned cameras, slide viewers, bears, candles and candle holders, everything that my mother has collected, and that we have been storing from previous generations was brought upstairs.
My siblings flew through about half of this stuff before we ran out of time for the night. This really isn’t my brother’s thing, but he picked up my two older sisters and brought them up here, so he couldn’t slip away. He’d get ensconced in the living room with Dear Husband and I’d call him back for a job. He’s going to go through a collection of pictures and see what of them can be translated into more modern video forms. We also found his baby book, his senior high school play book, and the yearbook from his stay at Great Lakes when he joined the Navy. There were memories to share with him.
My-Sister-The-Nurse is going to return on Wednesday to help me go through the books. Those that are left will go to the library that afternoon. My second sister will return to box up what’s left of the clothing, and take that off my hands. Tomorrow morning, if we can fly through things, we will look through twelve plastic storage boxes of quilt and craft things for Frankie’s girls.
There’s a HUGE amount left. Part of it will go into the garbage pickup. Part of it will go to a charity willing to come to the house to collect it, and part of it will be shredded by a commercial shredder. I won’t be able to complete all that this week, but I can minimize it throughout the week.
And then, the youth group will return to bring up the boxes from the business so that we can have the shredder clear them out for us. My house is going to be in an uproar for a couple of weeks, at the very least, but my goal is to have all the table space back by the time Scraps on a Mission meets at the end of the month. I’m sure it can be done.
Wish me luck! *G*