This is one of the quilts that has been made from donated fabric by Scraps on a Mission.

I’m suffering from afternoon apathy. I have a long list of chores that need to be done, and none of them are particularly calling to me:
Dishes
Laundry
Ironing
Packing
Sorting through boxes of my Mother’s things,
Fixing dinner
And sewing.
Of them all, sewing appeals to me the most, but it’s not far from dinner. I could stay here and dither, but I think I’m going to follow Nike’s advice and JUST DO IT! Dishes first, I think, and then maybe the rest of it will all unravel.

I have a red amaryllis in bloom! I guess I forgot to tell it that it’s Spring.

I’m surrounded by green this weekend. We’ve celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with friends from church at the annual Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner, and today we’ve been out in the glorious weather that is such a surprise at this time of year, with grass and chives greening up, and an array of flowers and shrubs in bloom.
The “green” memory that has been floating through my head is one of my parents on a trip to Biloxi and the Gulf Coast that must have taken place during the 60s or 70s. They had decided to travel south along the Mississippi by car leaving about the second week of March. Dad wasn’t interested in spending his time in a motor home, so they drove and stopped at Holiday Inns along the way.
Dad was always big on breakfast, so they started each day early. As they got into southern Illinois grits began appearing on his plates. The next day he’d tell the waitress that she could leave the grits off the plate, but the cooks couldn’t imagine anyone going without grits, so Dad got them whether he wanted them or not.
By the time they arrived in Biloxi, St. Paddy’s Day was just around the corner. Dad went to breakfast hoping against hope that they would leave the grits off his plate. The waitress proudly set the plate before him, and lo and behold….there were GREEN GRITS!
I wish I could tell you what he did. He may have just resigned himself to the grits, or perhaps he sent the plate back. I can’t recall. Mom and Dad told us about the green grits when they got home, and it’s always been one of those family stories that has amused me.
I know….I’m easily amused. *G* But I’m with Dad…..no grits for me, green or otherwise!

I got up this morning at 5:00 to help Dear Husband get things out to the garbage cans. It’s garbage day and I wanted to be sure that all the small wastebaskets were emptied.
Actually, I had other reasons for the early start. DH had a shot of cortisone yesterday for a pinched nerve in his back/hip, and I wanted to know how he felt. We were both restless and having trouble settling when we went to bed, so I was worried that he hadn’t slept well.
He seems to be doing fine. He says there is less pain today. Now we just have to hope the effect is lasting.
I had planed to quilt a small quilt today. I want to begin cutting back the number of lap quilts that didn’t get finished last year for Scraps on a Mission. But, first, I quilted a pad for DH to use to buffer his knees. I quilted two of these rectangular pads, one with quilting lines an inch apart, and one with quilting two inches apart. DH is going to try them tonight to see if they give his knees the protection they need. If they are too stiff, I may try quilting one more rectangle with a polyester batting.
That didn’t take me very long. It was still dark outside when I finished the pads, so I started working on clearing off the table to make room to quilt. I got distracted when I came to a stack of 50 blocks with bright kid’s fabrics, and thought I would sit down and divide them into “kits” for future assembly.
Then I saw the striped fabric that I planned to use for the binding on the large version of the kid’s fabric project, and thought I might as well make the binding. I had enough binding for the quilt, and still had half the fabric. I wondered if I could get enough binding out of what was left for two of the smaller projects. I cut the entire piece into bias strips, so that I could get the affect I wanted from the stripes. By the time I finished with the second half of the fabric I had more than 382 inches of binding, more than enough to bind two of the smaller quilts!.
Then my eye fell on the fabric I planned to use for the borders. My rotary cutter made quick work of the red, orange and yellow fabric. Unfortunately, I had four quilts that needed borders, and only three colors. I had one strip left of each color, so I added a purple strip to what was left, and one of the quilts will have a different colored border on each side. Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without! It will be really cute when I get it finished, and I’ll share it with you. Binding, borders, and labels went into the bags for each of the four little quilts.
Next I made a list of the kits to be sewn, quilt tops that needed batting and backing, pinned quilt sandwiches that need to be quilted, and finished quilts for Scraps on a Mission. I was astonished to find that we have 22 projects underway! I was hoping to get 24 quilts finished this season. Perhaps we will surpass that!
There was one kit from last year that kept getting overlooked because it was one of a kind, and possibly beyond the abilities of the ladies who were sewing. It’s a very cute pinwheel pattern, that has three dimensional pinwheels. I decided to start making the blocks for this little quilt. I know…..I was going to QUILT!!! But, I was so pleased to be clicking along, clearing things up, I decided to go for it, and work on these blocks.
I’m going to go sit and watch NCIS with DH and pin the two halves of the blocks together, so that I’m ready to sew tomorrow.
It was a GREAT DAY!!!

I have a lovely sister who keeps track of me through my blog. Yesterday she called to talk to me because she said I hadn’t been blogging enough. Sorry guys…..and sis!
Some times you get to a point where you aren’t doing anything interesting or new in your life, and there’s nothing to write about.
Or….you have the everlasting, continual chores to do.
Or…you’re coping with health problems that are very common to those your age.
Or…you’re working.
Sound familiar??? Tax season is beginning, so I have information to gather. I still have to take down the Christmas decorations, and find the dead lights on at least one Christmas tree. I’m working on some quilt tops for Scraps on a Mission. I’ve done the usual cleaning and laundry that we all have to do.
We’re mostly, sorta…..kinda, healthy. DH is working on some knee and back pain, and so am I to a lesser degree. We’re yet livin’ and working, just like all of you.
Thanks, Frankie, for checking up on me. I hope you and all yours are doing well, too!

…the goose is getting fat. Please put a penny in the old man’s hat!
No, I’m not ready.
I have several baby quilts that need labels and two need bindings. I plan to be on the couch hand sewing for the next couple of days, to get most of my gifts finished in time for the family Christmas party.
I got my hair cut yesterday, and Dear Husband and I visited with our granddaughters and their mother in the afternoon and evening. This morning I made a breakfast casserole, lead exercise class, and then went to the class Christmas brunch.
I’m going to finish some things in the office, make a pot of Minestrone, and then blitz the labels and bindings! It’s cold out. Having a quilt on my lap for the next two days will be no hardship, believe me!
Then……beginning next week, I think I’ll make Christmas cookies and wrap gifts.
As Dear Husband say when I fret about getting things done, “In a hundred years, no one will remember it didn’t get finished!” I’m taking his advice to heart more and more.
Merry Christmas!

Well, you know that I have twenty others in the works, some of which will be finished in the next two days, but a quilter can never resist starting something new even when she is in the midst of other quilts.
One of the ladies at bee showed a lovely quilt she had made. I was looking at the block and realized it would be perfect for a child’s quilt, using the bright scraps we had been given for Scraps on a Mission. So, I interrupted finishing several baby quilts in order to make up some of the blocks. I wanted to be sure the pattern would work before I blabbed about it to one and all! *G*

These blocks will be sewn together with white sashing, but the flannel board behind the blocks gives you and idea of how it will look. I think I may make several more of these, one in teal, one in red, white and blue, and possibly one in red and black and white.
The idea for the block came from the blog “Film in the Fridge.”. Here’s a link to the tutorial the blogger created:

rectangle squared – a quilt block tutorial

The dimensions in the tutorial are for cut sizes. The block turns out to be seven inches square (6.5″ finished).
So there, Cop Car! I followed through. What do you think of this? Is it a good way to use up scraps??

I saw a heron this morning! YEA!!! Cop Car, don’t ask me which kind. All I can tell you is that it was one of the charcoal gray big birds that’s terribly thin and looks like a pterodactyl when it flies. I thought that our egret and heron season was over last week when we had quite a cold spell, but this morning as we returned from early errands, we saw one sitting at the west end of the retention pond near our house. He favors that area because his shadow doesn’t alert the fish that he’s hunting for them.
Soon, very soon, I’d guess, he’ll be on his way to the grassy areas in the delta of the Mississippi. Smart bird. He doesn’t have to deal with the snow!
The geese have begun assembling. They are ready to glean the harvested fields. It feels as though the harvest is late this year. I’ve only seen one bean field in the area that has been cleared. There are still corn fields with a touch of green to their leaves. Farmers will be out in the fields close to Thanksgiving, and so will the geese!