Yesterday, I made the trek to Elmhurst to my dermatologist. This doctor is so special that Elegante Mother and I followed her when she moved her practice. It’s a pleasure to see her, and in return, she takes care of my skin woes.
We visited for my annual body check in February just before I left for Florida. She said there was a precancerous spot on my nose that needed to be treated (one I hadn’t even realized was there), but she’d do it when we got back. So, I dutifully made and kept the appointment. When she was done yesterday, I had FOUR treated spots: two on my face and one at each wrist. Unfortunately, they may not be totally healed by the time I give my quilt presentation, but I’m sure the ladies will cope with it.
Dear Husband was referred to a dermatologist for the same kind of treatment on his nose last week. He’d had a spot for about a year, that was so understated that I didn’t even think about it. Our poor little noses are not quite twins.
Dermatology is big business with all the missing ozone. I think that more people will be adding a dermatologist to the list of their health providers, just to keep track of all the types of skin cancers that are developing. I wear long sleeves and long pants when I garden, and floppy hats. I try to remember to wear sun-screen, and I try to work early in the day when the sun’s rays are not directly overhead. What gets past me, Doc will zap. OUCH!!
Sleep!
(croaking…) I need MORE SLEEP!
I sent out a call to Number-Three-Son on Monday. We have a new all-in-one machine in the office and Dear Husband was having some difficulties getting it hooked up correctly. The missing connection was the one to the computer, so I wasn’t able to print anything from the living room computer, and, the fax portion of the machine wasn’t cooperating.
NTS said that he could come on Tuesday but he couldn’t make it until 6:30 or so. Both he and his wife came. I fixed dinner, and then he had a go at our problems. He reorganized the connections, installed a wireless mouse for me in the office, and then upgraded and did some troubleshooting. I think he was pleasantly surprised to find that there was virtually nothing to do on the personal computer. I’d run the Spybot program, AdAware and Norton, and defragged, recently.
All this took about three and a half hours. By 11:00 I was overtaken by jaw-popping yawns, and an intense longing for my bed. We’d sent Dear Husband off to bed around 10:00 because he has such an early morning call during the week. I didn’t complain, because NTS’s help with the computers is so necessary. We’re lucky to have a kid willing to keep us up and running.
Number-Two-Son came home and chatted with the others for a bit. I had to work hard not to edge them toward the door, thinking longingly of my bed….but I managed to hold back. 
Really! I was GLAD to have them there! I swear!
I have been short on sleep for the past few months, and I am one of those people who needs at least eight hours a night, if not a little bit more. I get up early and get my day started, but if I haven’t had enough sleep, especially if I’ve been short on sleep for several days in a row, I get to the middle of the day and crash.
I came into the office and worked for a few minutes around 11:30 this morning, and thought I’d tilt back and rest my eyes….just for a moment! Every now and then, I could hear myself snore. (Pretty picture, hmmmmmmm??? At least I wasn’t drooling.) It was enough to disturb the sleep I was getting, but not quite enough to wake me for the afternoon. When I finally bolted upright in my chair, my hands were frozen. I must have been sitting just right to cut down on the circulation to my arms.
I’m improving on getting up earlier in the morning. 5:15 doesn’t seem quite so wretched to me now, but I need to work on getting to bed earlier. I want my eight hours a day of snooze time back! I want to snuggle under the quilts, and gather my strength to meet the day, so that I’m ready to meet the needs of gardening season. Now I know why my parents felt it was inappropriate for phone calls to come in after nine at night, unless there was an emergency. THEY NEEDED THEIR SLEEP! And so do I.
Please!
I’m longing for crocus blooms, balmy breezes, sunshine on my skin and the chance to burn my winter coat.
I want to see leaves starting to bud out, and the magnolia blooms start to swell.
I want to play in my gardens, and be able to hop in the car to run an errand without having to put on 15 pounds of specialized clothing!
I want to be able to ride my bike down the drive without bogging down in the mud.
I want to be able to serve salad as the main course for dinner.
I want to taste a tomato that doesn’t taste like cardboard.
My apologies for whining publicly. Usually I can deal with the wait, but this year it just seems a bit more difficult. I’ll keep my head down, and work at my sewing machine for the next week or so, and maybe there will be a change when I get back to the window.
Addicted
I’m addicted to quilting. Not as addicted as most of the ladies in my bee, but addicted nevertheless. You’ve seen pictures of the blocks using Halloween fabrics and shades of orange fabric, in an earlier entry. I decided that I need to get that top put together to take to the Trunk Show I’ll be doing for my sister’s quilting group.
There’s a lot to be said about taking an unquilted top to show. Quilters ALWAYS want to see the back of your work, to see if they measure up to you, or if maybe, just maybe, the back of their work looks even better than yours! *G* It’s the nature of the beast. I’ll be charitable, and tell you that some women look to learn how to do things better. I’m sufficiently confident about my work that it doesn’t bother me that there are women who are better piecers and quilters than I am. If it helps a beginner quilter to know that she measures up to me, I’m glad to give her the boost.
There are things to be learned from the back of a quilt top. You can see if the quilter has given thought to pressing the pieces for flat assembly. You can see if the top was paper pieced, or you can look for markings that would indicate the pieces were cut from templates. You can see if the quilter has cleaned up the back, snipping threads leftover from sewing. And, of course, you can see if the top was pieced by hand or by machine. No doubt my more learned friends can glean even more information than that.
Most of the quilts I make use old-fashioned patterns with today’s amazing variety of fabrics. I tend to like a scrap quilt look, so it’s very rare when I use just five or six fabrics in a quilt. One of the last quilts I’ll show is dark blue and gold, but I think there may be 24 different blue fabrics and 24 different gold fabrics in the top. I need to count them before I pack the quilt for the talk. I saw a blue and gold quilt in a magazine, and thought I had to have one like it. When I was done, I really wished I had a kid at a college that used blue and gold for their colors so I could send it away! It could have been worse. I could have made a blue and orange quilt, and everybody would comment on how great a Bears fan I am! *G*
Today I sewed together the 20 blocks that make up the center of the Halloween quilt. I used a one-inch green and black sashing to connect the blocks. The next step is to surround this rectangle with the same sashing. I may get that finished tonight. The next border is made up of two-inch strips of all the fabrics in the blocks, set at a 45 degree angle, and the last border will be black fabric with stars or pumpkins….whichever I can find at the shop this time of the year.
It’s shaping up. Soon I’ll have another picture to share. *S*
Quilt Tips
I’ve been invited by my second sister to speak to the quilt group that meets at her church. She would like me to do a Show and Tell and Tips presentation on March 10th. I spent some time thinking about the quilts and wallhangings and unfinished work here, and think I could easily take 25 pieces to show. The hard part is limiting it to 25. A few years ago I decided to keep some of my work rather than giving it all away, and I didn’t realize how many quilted items I’d amassed.
The first Friday of every month a quilting bee meets here at Chez Buffy. I was thinking about the “Tips” part of the presentation. I’m able to give tips to beginners and intermediate quilters, but I realized that I had the opportunity to ask my bee what tips they thought were most important for beginners.
Seven women join Elegante Mother and me to make up this bee, and I am the least prolific quilter among them. One of the ladies is a certified quilt appraiser. Another is a member of the local professional art quilter’s association, and another is the most amazing applique artist I know. Another brings her eight year old daughter who is a budding quilter.
We settled in last night with cups of hot tea to tide us against that cold wind, and had our show and tell. Then I asked each of them for the tip they felt was most important. It didn’t work that way. There was silence for a moment as they thought, and then one started and the tips came fast and furious. I was hard-pressed to keep up with them as I took notes. These are the tips they gave me:
1. Use good fabric.
2. Take classes and ASK QUESTIONS!
3. Do what you like. Of course, we mean choose colors and techniques that you enjoy.
4. It’s okay not to finish something.
5. There are some things NOTHING will help.
6. It’s okay to have more than one project at a time but try to keep the number under three
digits. (*G*)
7. Don’t be too “matchy-matchy” when choosing fabric.
8. Colors cycle through the market. If you see a color you need or like, BUY IT! That bolt
won’t be there in 90 days, and that color probably won’t be available next year.
9. Change the needle in your sewing machine with every new project.
10. Look for long-staple 100% cotton thread. If thread feels dusty or “linty” don’t buy it.
11. Learn how to clean your machine, and keep it clean, especially the bobbin casing.
12. Read the machine manual and keep it near the machine!
13. Know your sewing machine’s quarter of an inch measurement. Keep in mind that the
size of the needle, the weight of the thread, and the kind of fabric will all have an affect on
sewing a perfect quarter of an inch.
14. When taking a class, make sure it suits your skill level. If the class level is not posted,
ASK what it is.
15. Keep your rotary cutter closed when not in use.
To those fifteen, I’d add:
1. Don’t change sewing machines in the middle of a project.
2. Periodically refold the fabric in your stash so that the folds don’t weaken the fabric.
3. Store your stash away from light to avoid fading.
4. When displaying quilts in your home, place them where they will not receive direct
sunlight. Even bright indirect light can fade fabrics.
5. Look into acid-free archival storage boxes, especially for older quilts.
6. When making an all-cotton quilt, avoid cotton-covered polyester thread. Buy the best
100% long-staple cotton thread you can afford.
7. One of the bee members and I are fond of saying that we have never walked away from a
class without learning something new. Don’t be afraid to take a class in a new technique.
Even if you decide that technique is not for you, you will have learned something that will
improve your piecing or quilting, so it’s worthwhile.
8. Keep a quilt journal, listing the projects you’ve made, dating the work, showing who owns the pieces and a picture of the finished work.
9. Create labels for your work, with your name, the date completed, and your town. Also list if anyone else worked on the quilt with you, and who the owner is, if it is a gift. At the very least, write the information on the back of the quilt.
Quilting can be a solitary activity, but it’s at it’s best when it’s shared!
Garbage Cans in the Wind
This morning, I headed off to exercise on my own. Elegante Mother is a little under the weather, and wanted to stay home out of the rather inclement weather. I didn’t blame her. We had winds so high I was do-si-doing with garbage cans as I drove down the street. I think some of the residents are going to have to travel to the next county to find their garbage cans!
It was windy all day, with periods of higher gusts. It began to “rain” snow in early afternoon. When the wind died for a bit, the snow looked more like fog. There wasn’t much accumulated snow, probably less than an inch. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any melt-off today We have ponds of melt water in the swales along the road that are freezing, but they didn’t get any larger.
Our driveway is a MESS! We have an old gravel drive that needs to be reconditioned, that is 220 feet just to the edge of the house. There’s probably another 100 feet from that point north. Dear Husband had that accident almost two months ago, and the front of his truck was damaged. It wasn’t damaged enough to keep him from driving, but he couldn’t use the snow plow, so ice and snow have built up on the driveway. THIS WEEK they called to say the parts are in, and they’ve had the truck hostage all week. It’s a very strange way to do business: making the owner of a brand new truck wait two months for parts and repairs!
At any rate, I think we are going to have to wait for all this ice to melt. I doubt the snowplow will be able to do anything with it. So, we very carefully drive the ruts down the drive, and wait until all the traffic has passed, both ways, before trying to get onto the road. I didn’t think I’d ever say it, but I’d be happy to see Spring!
Trip Highlights
Hi, all! We’re back. Actually, we returned Monday, and this is the first time I’ve been able to blog. I’ve worked through a mountain of laundry, and am back in the office. I’m back on schedule as Elegante Mother’s chauffeur, too.
We took off a week ago, on Thursday afternoon for Florida. We left O’Hare about the time a warm front was coming in. I was disgusted. At the very least, the weather could have stayed cold while we were away! *G*
We had a good flight, landed at Orlando International, picked up a rental car and made it to our motel in good time. Dear Husband’s daughter, son-in-law and our not-quite-three-year-old granddaughter all stayed at the same motel, and Friday morning we had breakfast and headed off to the Magic Kingdom. It’s always wonderful to see a child’s first visit with Mickey and the gang. As always, the people at Disney made our experience move smoothly. We arrived some time between 10 and 11:00 and stayed well into the evening. The fireworks went off at 7:00 and we were still going strong. Our granddaughter was frightened by the fireworks so her parents took her on “It’s A Small World.” DH and I, who have been on that ride, chose to watch the last of the fireworks! *G*
Saturday, the guys participated in the golf tournament named in memory of Dear Husband’s oldest son. DH doesn’t golf, but he was game to join the tour. He got off several good shots, I’m delighted to announce. One of the tournament organizers assumed that my step-daughter and I were there to drive the carts with water and beer. We were rather surprised that he was insistent that we take on the chore. I have never met a man as sexist as this one. We acquiesced, but my step-daughter was really offended.
Saturday was a little cool, and very windy. The serious golfers were not happy campers. It was too cold and too early for beer, so for the most part we handed over bottles of water. We were on the course for about five hours. Lunch and awards followed at the sports bar that hosted the tournament, followed by naps for our entire group. (All that fresh air….)
Dinner Saturday night was Greek food. It was excellent! I had pastitsio, and a Greek salad, and I may have had the best meal at the table. I was even complimented on my pronunciation of “pastitsio,” which took me by surprise.
Sunday, the kids went back to Disney, and DH and I drove east to the Atlantic. One of my all-time favorite Florida activities is walking at the edge of the Atlantic. We found a lovely public beach at Smyrna Beach and walked for an hour or so.
We were trying to find Turtle Mound, but our map wasn’t adequate. Ultimately, we began winding our way back to the motel on a little two lane highway through a marshy area. Like Elegante Mother, I really enjoy seeing the wildlife, and egrets are among my favorites. It was a nice trip. A storm was beginning to come in. The clouds were as fascinating to watch as the ocean had been. We made it back to our room and napped a bit more. By 7:30 I assumed that the kids had eaten at the Magic Kingdom, but DH said to wait, and he was right. At 8:00 they called and asked us to order pizza.
The baby was out for the night, but the four of us shared pizza and watched the first half of the Oscars. That was about all we had the patience for, given that we needed to be up at a reasonable time on Monday to make the plane.
Our flight home left 15 minutes late and got in 3 minutes early. If I have the time I’ll tell you more about that. We had a tiny bit of turbulence over Indiana, otherwise it was a smooth flight. Too bad we came back to four or more inches of snow!
It’s nice to be back. I wish we could have stayed longer, but I’m happy to be back. I hope you all had a good weekend!
Leafy things
Bogie! I saw a sign at a nursery in Florida, saying they were selling KNOCKOUT ROSES! I wouldn’t have known what they are if you hadn’t mentioned them.
I was in the grocery store/pharmacy today, picking up a few items to get us through the weekend, when I discovered a huge display of seeds! I’m SUCH a sucker. I bought two large packets of mixed seeds for plants that butterflies like. I hope to scatter sow the seeds in an area along the north end of the driveway. I’ll have to see if dear husband will till a strip for me over there so I can be sure the seeds are in contact with soil.
We had a rainy morning, with temperatures rising to the 50s. There’s lots of melting going on. I was taking down the Christmas swags and bows when I discovered that four pots of Iris are drowning. The pots are sitting on the soil in an arm of the garden that is next to the opening of the garage door. The ice that covered the top of the pots from Sunday’s storm is melting, but there’s nowhere for the meltwater to go, because the bottom of the pots are encased in ice. I dug one of the pots out, but I think we can safely say that these Iris are kaput. Still….I’ll leave them, just to make sure that I am right.
I have dozens of plant and seed catalogs flooding my home. I think it’s time to look for romaine and spinach seeds. I used to plant a wonderful French bean, but the bunnies and deer all feel that the bean starts are a delicacy. They leave me bare stalks. I’d have to wrap the garden with chicken wire for the first month or so….and they still might eat the beans!
I bought morning glory seeds! Remember last year, when I discovered that the reason I couldn’t grow morning glories was the bunnies? I have several rings of chicken wire already in place. I’m going to plant LOTS of morning glories and see if I can get them to climb like crazy. Now that I know what was eating them, I might be able to get some to grow.
Are any of you going to attend Flower and Garden shows? We have one coming up in Chicago on Navy Pier. It’s always so jammed with bodies that you can’t stand back and see the effects the designers had in mind, but you get to see some wonderful new plants. Maybe we’ll get there this year.
Lions and Tigers and BEARS!
Well, I lied. We’ve seen LOTS of wildlife in the past week, but no lions or tigers or bears.
We saw an amazing number of egrets as we traveled through central Florida, and there was one big old grey heron at the golf course in a dwindling water hole.
Sunday and Monday I was treated to pelicans, storks (we think), and a short sandpiper-like bird at the shore. The storks were white with black-tipped wing feathers…..very dramatic looking birds!
I was surprised to see an amazing number of hawks circling the urban areas. I would have expected to see them over the drier areas of the marshes, but we saw groups of three where there were large concentrations of homes and businesses.
We came home to cold weather following a snow storm that left at least four inches at our doorstep, maybe more. I took pity on the deer, raccoon and the possum and set out ears of corn. Of course, the squirrels and raccoons and bunnies claimed a portion of it. Everybody is hungry, with all the grass and plants covered up. I saw a bunny pruning my sage plant the other day.
I put up a bird feeder that is a cylinder of hardware cloth with four wood ribs, a wood platform and a wood lid. I think the raccoons have been getting a diet of wood at night. Today when I checked the feeder, I found that half of two of the wood ribs have been eaten away. I think Dear Husband can create replacements so I can rebuild the feeder, but it’s aggravating to have to do this kind of maintenance.
Edward Scissorhands missed me while we were away. My-Sister-The-Nurse tried to get him to sit on her lap, but he said it just wasn’t the same. Rather than getting the cold shoulder when I returned, I had a cat glued to my body, asking to be loved up. Ed is fifteen, and this past year has been hard on him. Our vet asked me to try to shift him to either Iams or Science Diet foods. Ed informed us in no uncertain terms what he thought of that. Rather than starve him, we’re going to let him have the food he wants. I think this is likely to be our last summer with Ed.
Soooooooo…that’s the fur and feather news for the day!
Getting Ready to Fly
Dear Husband and I will be flying to Florida tomorrow for a long weekend. DH is going to play in the Charity Golf Tournament named for his son. I will be swanning around in a golf cart, shouting encouragement.
Do you know how difficult it is to decide what you’ll need for Florida the last weekend of February, when you live in the Chicago Suburbs? I ordered a few things from catalogs, and picked up a few things on Tuesday. I was concerned that I didn’t have a windbreaker until I saw the weather report for the Orlando area. It’s going to be in the upper seventies, with a possibility of rain on Sunday. That’s one less thing to pack!
Dear Husband has learned that I can’t share a suitcase with him unless we’re only going to be gone for four hours. I generally need to have the entire house with me when I travel. Cop Car and I were talking about making a trip to England and Scotland last year. It’s probably just as well it didn’t pan out. She said she never packs more than she can carry. It occurred to me that she might not carry my suitcase for me…
My-Sister-The-Nurse is going to stay with Elegante Mother while we are away. She hopes that she will be able to watch Oprah, read, go out to dinner and sleep a lot. I’ve left her a two page letter if information (I wouldn’t think to “instruct” her), filling her in on the temperamental microwave, and the key situation. Thank goodness the phone was repaired today or that letter might have stretched to three pages.
I’ve had a list going for the past week of things I wanted to get done before we left. There’s office stuff, house stuff, tax stuff, quilting stuff, cleaning stuff, shopping stuff….you get the picture. Monday, Edward Scissorhands went for his annual physical. The doc was satisfied, and said he could eat what he wanted to eat. EM and I saw the dermatologist Tuesday morning. I have to go back in two weeks. There’s a precancerous spot on my nose that needs to be frozen. My dermatologist is the most wonderful woman. She understood that I didn’t want to have a clown nose for this weekend, so we put it off for a bit. Dear Husband had his quarterly toof cleaning on Tuesday night (Oh, joy!). Tuesday afternoon, I did a little shopping. I picked up T-shirts, linen over-shirts, and soft pants, casual stuff all.
I rose at five this morning, cleaned the kitchen, and started laundry. I think I folded thirteen loads of laundry and put away all but two of them, which belong to our son. I have sensitive skin, so I very rarely wear something until it’s been washed at least once. As things came out of the laundry, they were either put away, or folded to be packed. I have two over-shirts yet to iron, and three things to pick up at the dry cleaners tomorrow.
You know know you find things to do to avoid things you know you SHOULD be doing? I have this list of things I want to finish. I have very carefully buzzed my way through this list today, trying not to see: Replace the cat litter, Empty out the veggie bins, and pay the bills. My time is limited tomorrow before we leave, so I’ll have to give up and do a couple of these tonight.
I’m going to pamper myself and have a pedicure tomorrow morning in return for getting those chores done! *G*
I hope you all have a safe, warm weekend. I’ll stop by to see what you’ve all been doing when we get back on Monday.