Another Year Has Passed

 

Last Friday was my birthday and I forgot it was.  I don't know if it was because I was so busy or if I just subconsciously blocked it because it was number 61.  Either way, it wasn't until all the Happy Birthday's started coming in that I remembered it was. 

 

I realized that I am just past half way through life and still feel like I'm forty even if my body is starting to send little reminders that I'm not.  If you're anywhere near my age you know what I'm talking about.  The muscles don't rebound like they did and very sternly remind you of it when you do something stupid like deciding to build an outdoor water feature that requires lifting a pallet of concrete blocks into place to form the retaining wall.   My joints now creak a little when I get up in the morning and insist that I let everything limber up a little before jumping into the day. But I think the worse thing is having to wear bifocals.  I can see distance fine but my arms stopped growing and I couldn't make out the fine print so welcome to bifocal world.

 

I am happy about what reaching this age does allow me to enjoy.  I can get the senior discount now and that comes in pretty handy.  I don't have to worry about keeping up with the latest trends or impressing people who could care less.  (Soooo glad I was to old for skinny jeans!) I can generally do what I want, when I want and not have to plan the day with military precision just to make sure every one and everything gets taken care of.  I am old enough to know better but sometimes don't care if I shouldn't be doing this or that and I can get away with a few things that I couldn't when I was younger.

 

All in all, I'm pretty darn happy with this time in my life.

 

Anyway, my brother came down on Saturday and asked if I wanted to ride along on a day trip to the Lake of the Ozarks. It's was to hot to do anything else outside, there is a quilt shop that I've never been to and it means free meals with no clean up so why not?

 

 

We drove around the lake

 

A paddle boat!

 

Went to Bagnell Dam

 

The spillway

One of the turbines, at least 12 ft tall

Some facts about it

 

We did go to the new to me quilt shop but since this is already picture heavy I'll post about it tomorrow.  I did want to share what my niece sent me for my birthday.  I've been wanting this pattern for two years and now I can get started on it just in time for Halloween.   Love my niece!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great week!

 

Rina

 

 

 

Look What I Won!

 

I was just lamenting how I didn't win a Gidget II sewing table from Arrow Sewing Cabinets last year and would you believe I won one in their latest giveaway.

Every time they hit another 500 likes on Facebook they give away a table and last week they gave away several of them. I won the Wednesday drawing!

 

 

I've been sewing on the dining room table for years and now it looks like I'm going to take over the spare bedroom and turn it into a sewing room.  It's about time and besides, if anyone needs to sleep over for the night they can have the sofa pull out.

 

Of course I had to open it up and try it out even if I couldn't move it right into the soon to be sewing room.

 

 

And Cricket had to try it out.  She approves.

 

 

The best thing about winning the table was that I got to pick my favorite LQS and Arrow Sewing Cabinets gave them one too.  Rocking Chair Quilts is in Butler, Missouri and Lisa is one of the most fantastic shop owners I have run across.  I called her to let her know that I had won a table and so had my favorite LQS.  I asked if she knew of any quilt shops that might like one and her reply was, "Let me see if I can think of one.  Oh yeah, I know of one, mine!"  Her table gets delivered this week as she was in Michigan for the AQS show this last week. 

 

I also received this in a FQ swap put on by April over at   http://koolbeenz-blog.blogspot.com/.  I love what my swap partner, Alison sent.   Thank You!  I may need to see if I can find some more of the Kate Spain  Terrain fabric as it's just so pretty.

 

 

 

I had a great week last week and it looks like this week will be the same as today started off with this going by my front door. 

 

Joy riding in a small town. 

 

 

Gotta Smile!

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic week!

 

Rina

 

 

 

 

 

Arrow Sewing Cabinets is not a sponsor and they did not compensate me in any way for the acknowledgement.

 

 

 

Sewing For Someone Else

I didn't feel like starting a new quilt so it was either finish some pj's for my niece

 

 

or make aprons for gifts,

 

 

or make pillowcases.

 

I decided to make some more pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer.  I first heard about this organization last year.  Arrow Sewing Cabinets had a contest to win a Gidget sewing table and all you had to do was make a pillowcase and send it to them.  They would draw a name and the winner would get a Gidget.  Easy peasy and I might win a sewing table so why not?  The problem is that I am now addicted to making them.  It's kind of like eating just one M&M or one strawberry or one potato chip.  It just can't be done!  Now I'm hungry.

 

I digress. 

 

For the first eighteen years of my life I spent weeks at a time in the hospital and know from experience how BORING and DULL and SCARY it can be.  Back in the dark ages the hospital rooms were a horrid green and you weren't allowed many items in your room for fear of germs.  It could be really depressing and not conducive to getting well. 

 

The idea of making pillowcases in bright, happy, fun colors that a child or teen could use while they are undergoing treatment and take home with them was just to much for me and the addiction began.

 

I whipped these out Sunday.

 

 

Now they get added to these.

And these

 

for a total of 78.

 

My goal was to make 365, one for each day of the year but unless I win the lottery that's not going to happen.   Even with a coupon to JoAnn's it's still expensive.

 

Sooooo, it's been taken down to 100.  Almost there!  Only 22 to go till there will be 100 smiles!

 

 

 

ENJOY YOUR DAY

 

 

RINA

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.arrowcabinets.com/

 

http://www.conkerrcancer.org/

It's been awhile since the first post but since I'm new to this I didn't really know what to post.

 

If you check my last post you can see what I got in the mail from Fat Quarter Shop.  I was going to put it on the back burner and finish  a Falling Charms quilt but I just happened to get up from the table for just a few seconds and this happened.

 

 

 

 

 

Meet Cricket

 

  Her mother was a semi feral cat that I had been trying to tame enough so I could get her spayed.  I didn't even know she was pregnant until I walked out on my deck on August 29, 2011 and found two just born kittens just laying there.  The mother did not want anything to do with them so I picked them both up, grabbed the blow dryer and started warming them up.  They were so cold I didn't think either of them were going to live.  Once they were warm, I called the vet and she walked me thru cutting the cord and keeping them warm.  I spent the next three weeks waking up every two hours to feed them.

 

 

Cricket

 

Cricket and Crystal

 

 

 

 

I am so happy that you saved my life, I think I'll just settle in here!

 

Crystal getting comfy on my crutches

 

Anyway, long story short, I succeeded in hand raising them and  when it came time to find them new homes I just couldn't part with Cricket because I couldn't resist her little alien eyes.  I found a great home for Crystal and finally tamed their mom enough that my sister adopted her after she was spayed.

 

 Cricket is a great quilt inspector except when she decides to inspect one before I'm done.  Since she was busy testing the one I was working on I decided to start on the BOM and as you can see didn't stop until I had all the blocks done.

 

 

 

I don't like the way the pattern calls for them to be set together so am ordering extra fabric for the borders and should be able to put it together next week.

 

I totally fell in love with this block and am also ordering fabric to make an entire quilt from this block.  Maybe a gift for my niece for Christmas.

 

Thanks for stopping by and I'll try and post more often than once a month.