Vacation is Back

Ok, in an earlier blog I indicated that my vacation was over. Well it’s not!!! DH goes back to South Africa next week. There was a snafu with his Visa… not the credit card… So now that we know he doesn’t have to have surgery for his shoulder, (which wasn’t a torn rotator cuff, but a fracture… ) He can go back to work in a slightly limited capacity, rather than not at all while he recovered from surgery. His apartment has been held, just in case he was allowed to come back. It’s not really a vacation with him gone; because I have to do everything… even the chores that I could sometimes pawn off on him, but just like the lawn mowing, I get to hire someone to shovel the snow for me!!!

Oh and I forgot to mention on the last blog…. Just before leaving to go to Arizona, I got a new iPhone!!! The new 3Gs. I have had the original iPhone for 2 years. DH ordered it the week before we moved from Nebraska to Chicagoland. It arrived at our new address the day after we closed on the house. The new phone does everything better than the old phone, except…. Making calls. It takes forever to connect the call. I can almost text faster!

I have finally received my (Tw)inchies in the mail.

I am still looking for the best way to display them. I had planned to do something like I did with my postcards, (from hooks on a chain, clothesline style), but there just aren’t enough (Twinchies) for that. I started to put them in a frame, but the frame I have is too small, so back to the drawing board. I did pin them to my design wall and took a picture of them. Click on the photo to make it larger to see each one at a much better resolution!

I have the ‘Fall Wreath’ project stitched down and the leaves have the veins stitched in with various threads. I have the first border on and I have picked the fabric for the last border, but I only have ½ yard of it, so I have to wait for more to finish it. I have called the store where I bought it, and they are holding the last of the bolt for me. The shop is in Beloit WI, (about 90 miles away). I have pinned it up to see if it needed another border of if the size was good. I'm thinking good to go- anyone else have an opinion?

I haven’t been in my studio much this week… although I do have an idea for the next After Supper Journal Page theme, which is Halloween. My ‘replicated’ Chicken Quilt is still in the piecing stage. I have a couple of Postcards to make… and I have two Workshops slated for the first week of November. A two day Workshop with Joen Wolfram - through a local Chicagoland quilt shop: Quiltfabric.com and a class sponsored by a quilt guild, Riverwalk Quilters of Naperville on Altered Photo Artistry with B Wheeler and L Marquette . I think getting ready for a Workshop is more tiring than the actual workshop!!

Well that’s all for now- More Later!

Back from Arizona...

Well, the last BIG deal of our year has occurred. It seemed like such a long time coming... and then bang, the moment is here. Jay told us the date and we of course put it on the calendar and had all kinds of careful plans…. Arrange for the time off, book the hotel, the car, the airfare, get the cards, the gifts. Make arrangements for the dog (kennel), pack the suit cases. Our plans were to go out a couple of days early… no real reason why, just that we could.

So we’ve made the plans and figure, that we know what time to leave the house for the airport, set the alarm and hit the hay. Wednesday morning, O’Dark Stupid, the alarm goes off… 3:30 a, into the shower before coffee while DH has coffee, switch places… and I finish the packing of the last minute items. We are ready early… so we decide to head to the airport. We get there, parking lot shuttle driver drops us at Air Tran, for US Airways… go inside, no US Airways… Wrong airport!!! We are at Midway and need to get to O’Hare. We discussed which airline and airport before purchasing the tickets -several times, and promptly forgot. We fortunately have some extra time. Get back to the car and head to O’Hare. We have less than hour and a half to get on the plane. To save nail biting and shorten the story, we made it with a few minutes to spare-parking, check in, baggage and TSA! The flight to Phoenix was uneventful. The rental car was also simple. It was an HHR… 4 cylinder and a bit slow on the get go… but otherwise fit our needs.

"The Dads" are pictured here.

On the way from Phoenix to Tucson, we call the hotel to see if we can check in early, it's only 10 a. DH does the calling, room is not ready, but the name of the hotel just isn’t what I thought I booked at. Then we are just 2 far south, and as it turns out, not where we needed to be. Hotel desk clerk, gladly canceled the reservation and called the hotel I needed, and booked our room for us, (part of the same chain). Back the car… Our room was ready, so we checked in.

"The Groom and 3 of the Groomsmen"

We had hoped for a nap… since we’ve already been up since the wee hours… but we have to go see the new house the kids just bought. So back into the car, and an hour south… Cute little house. It will serve them well for a few years. It’s new with 4 bedrooms, so room to grow a little. We stay for a bit, and back to the hotel for the badly needed nap. We are hosting the happy couple and her parents for a late dinner.

"The Bride, Groom and Brides Parents"

Dinner was fun. Linda and Curtis, the bride’s parents, are very nice, warm, wonderfully caring and giving people. Really glad we could all get together and share for an evening. The dinner went off without a problem, well for us. We keep some of the dining room staff a little late.
Thursday, we slept in… partly because we were on Central time and Arizona is on Pacific time!!! Yea! We got an extra 2 hours. We made our way to the venue, which just happens to be Linda and Curtis’s home. Final preparations are underway. We pitch in and do whatever we can. Rehearsal is at 4:30 and then a barbeque for everyone.

We leave a little early, and head to the hotel for our preparations with word that we will be back at the parents home, between 11 and noon on Friday. The kids have asked if I would play photographer for all the little things. Their “Pro Tog” is only going to do formals and the ceremony.

"THE BRIDE & GROOM"

Overall it was a great family event. It was a close warm friendly celebration. I have posted a couple of photos here. Not much of a chance the kids will see them… they are in Ireland.

ps: These photographs were all taken before the vows, so they still aren't really married in the pictures.

** And VACATION is back on!!! DH got the word, on Friday morning that he will be going back to South Africa. Not sure when -yet… but it could be in 2 weeks or a bit more?

Vacation is OVER!!

My vacation is over!!! My DH is home. For how long we don’t know. It may be for a month or longer. So now I will have to devote a significant amount of time each day to more regular cooking and cleaning. Not that I live like a pig, but with just one person, it’s amazing how long it takes to fill up a dishwasher. And to add to the vacation end… He will be having surgery for a torn Rotator Cuff. We don’t yet know when… he sees the surgeon on Friday and we leave next Wednesday for Arizona…. Son’s wedding is a week from Friday. It will be an interesting 3 weeks or so, here.


I added a button to the blog, see it there just to the left. The Blogger’s Quilt Festival, for those of us unable or unwilling to go to Houston. It is a virtual quilt show, without judges or judgment, and open to all participants. If you would like to see the spring version Park City Girl Spring 2009, and if you are interested in information about the Fall 2009 Show go here Park City Girl Blog

I don’t know if I will have a quilt and story to post, because I haven’t done too much of the actual combining 3 layers part of quilting!!! I have made several quilts worth of blocks, but I haven’t combined them into a quilt as yet.



I finished my Halloween/Fall swap blocks and got them into the mail on Saturday. The Halloween blocks were either the spider (Black Widow) or the Bats. The spider has a silver web line and a red sparkly hour glass. The bats have red bead eyes, orange beaded feet and black shiny thread wings. I made the hat for the instigator of the swap, but she had to drop out and she likes witches!

























All the Fall blocks were the same, but different and I used hand dyed fabrics and 'sparkly' threads to add the sparkle to them...



I also finished and mailed the Twinchies, but I can’t share the Twinchies yet, because several of the swappers haven’t finished/sent them yet. I am running out of patience… I REALLY want to see them, and share pictures of the ones I made.








I was also recently invited to join another small (online) group; the goal is make a Journal Quilt in under 2 hours. So far there have only been 2 themes. The first was a “Moment in Time”, on either the Monday before or after…. On both Mondays I was cleaning house… and that is bad enough… to immortalize that in a Journal Quilt… well. I just couldn’t do it!!! I did do the second theme and it was posted on Oct. 1 – “The Wind”.







I have another project on the design wall. I used

the fall blocks as the jumping off point for this. I need to get a larger piece of hand dyed fabric or several pieces of varying colors to piece for the back ground, (currently on paper). It will be machine appliquéd, and then embellished. In the meantime, I have started on the ‘replicated’ Chicken top. I have a design planned, something I rarely do… but I wanted to combine some traditional piecing with the batik chickens. I have the most of the traditional blocks made… Now to figure out the setting… there will be lots of math and seam ripping!


More Later!