Way Too Many Projects

Well, finished most of my swaps. Mailed off the Ohio stars civil war fabric, the batik stars, the nine patch blocks for December, January and February and I have the Maker's Choice blocks all ready for mailing. I will NOT be doing so many swaps at one time again. One or two is quite enough. So, I will be staying with my Maker's Choice groups and whatever else we decide to do after and I will be staying with the Quiltville Swap group as Quiltville was the first group that I joined. These groups seem to be the most flexible and agreeable and forgiving with all the foibles that we quilter's have. I cannot show photos of my SSCS swap as I just finished putting it all together in a box to be mailed off. I will post photos after Christmas. Above are two quilts that I just picked up from the quilter on Saturday. The alphabet quilt is for my grandchild, I am working on another quilt for her. Can you see the quilted dog? That's what I picked to have quilted on the quilt. It's just too cute! The Carolina Crossroads is for my Mom's friend. Finally finished. Hopefully I will get to the other Bonnie quilts that I am in the process of finishing. See you all soon and have a very happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Proud To Be An American

I live in the greatest country in the world. I'm so proud of us. Let's hope that intelligence will rule the day. Stem cell research, Roe v Wade staying put, a more balanced Supreme Court, and maybe, hopefully, a more united nation.

Well, the PO has lost another swap of mine. I'm going to have to spend the extra money and send everything from now on Priority. Seems that only the Priority gets to where its supposed to.

I'll get to some new photo's tomorrow, as I'm going to bed now.

Keep the piece. Renée

My, How Time Does Fly

I know, I know. I haven't been here in a while. When it comes to the end of September, I just go into a funk. My husband passed away the day after my 40th birthday, sixteen years ago. Ten years later, on the eve of my 50th birthday, his brother passed away. Almost ten years to the day. Some years I just don't get out of bed. And this year, more drama. It seems that my daughter's in laws are planning a baby shower for her. Very nice. The problem is it is already the middle of October. When are they planning to have this party? And when are they going to tell me? I took it upon myself to e mail Ally's sister in law and was informed that they were planning for Thanksgiving weekend. When were they going to let me know? I have to make airline reservations. Don't they know how expensive it is to fly during the holiday? Well, turns out that I can't afford to go up for the shower and for when she gives birth. I had to prioritize. Going up for when she has the baby is more important to me than being there for a party. I know she is upset, but there is nothing I can do about it. She'll get over it. The party is six weeks away and they haven't even sent out invitations. I hope Ally isn't too upset when she looks out over the party goers and doesn't see any of her family there. Half our family lives down here in Florida and the other half lives in NY (Brooklyn). The problem is the holiday weekend. We here in Florida can't afford to pay close to $1,000 for a round trip ticket to go to NY for a party over the Thanksgiving weekend and the NY family have family of their own coming in and they can't attend. It just comes down to the fact that since I live here in Florida and they are all up in NY, they don't even think about asking me, and I feel they don't even think about me. I'm hurt, but I won't bother Ally with this now. I'll wait until she has the baby and then I will unload on her. Because she is not innocent in all of this either. Sorry, don't mean to vent, but this is the only place that I can. On to some quilty things.

I am turning into a swapping queen. I've joined a Round Robin group; a batik strip swap; a star block swap; a Maker's Choice swap; a monthly swap of either fat quarters or blocks, and of course, the Christmas Swap. I've finished piecing the Christmas swap and I actually have it sandwiched, awaiting to be quilted. I can do the quilting, I just can't do the binding. I'm going to have to go up to my LQS and have her show me how to do the mitered corners. I've received my first round of the Round Robin and I've pieced on the border to that one and it's waiting to be mailed for the next round. The block above is my test block for the Galaxy of Stars quilt block swap. I'm doing 5 friendship stars with a square in a square center and an eight pointed star with a different color in the center than the star tips. I'll post a photo of that when I do it later.

I'm getting off now as the thunder is really getting bad. I'll be back later on. Renée

IKE

We subscribe to DirecTV. Right now we have a live feed from Channel 11 in Houston, Texas. They have been broadcasting 24/7, no commercials, since the start of Hurricane Ike. My heart goes out to all citizens of the Houston area. This storm has been horrible. As someone on the low end of the economic scale, I can't for the life of me understand why someone would want to build a multimillion dollar house right on the beach, when they know that it can be gone in a flash by a storm. The devastation on Galveston Island is horrific. And if these people have insurance, the price that everyone else is going to pay for them to rebuild is going to be astronomical. I really wish that all governments, local, county, state and federal, would not allow anyone to build on the beach. When you have to build your house on stilts, that should be an eye opener right there. I live in South Florida. We have hurricanes here too. We might have some very large condos built on the beach, but as far as I know, we do not have any houses built on stilts on the beach. I know there is a place called Stiltsville out near Miami, but those house are built not on the beach, but in the ocean. And when the last one is demolished by any kind of storm, they are not allowed to rebuild. State Farm wanted to have an increase in premiums here in Florida of almost 50%. Thank goodness the Florida legislature turned them down. And when they tell you that you better evacuate or you're gonna die, got the heck out of there. There are thousands of people who didn't listen and now they are being rescued and then shipped out of the area. This is so devastating, whole communities have been wiped off the map. The area looks like a pile of rubble. I don't know if it is even worth it to rebuild these places. The whole infrastructure of the communities have been compromised. Water is everywhere, houses have been blown or swept onto the roads. There is no phone service, no electricity, no sewage, no nothing. Complete and utter devastation. If anyone remembers what South Dade looked like after Andrew, this is worse. Much worse. This is going to be a really interesting development. Let's see how long it takes for this to be rebuilt. To me, this is worse than Katrina. Katrina left the buildings standing. This storm took the buildings and everything else with it. Even the streets. This is horrible, just horrible. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone impacted by this storm. Renée

IT''S A ......

GIRL!!!!!

Update and updates

Okay, I know it's been a while, but I've been busy doing the Old Tobacco Road mystery on Quiltville. This one has been really trying my patience. For whatever reason, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to put the darn thing together. So, I'm going to put it away for a while and work on some other things. My nephew and his wife, my niece, are celebrating their tenth anniversary with a party this Saturday, so I'm going to start making a quilt for them. I know it won't be finished by the time of the party, but they will get it eventually. LOL!!

My doctor's appointment was okay. She prescribed my high blood pressure medication and then told me to go for some blood and urine tests. Those came back as I expected, except for the urine test. Seems I might have an infection, so I've been drinking cranberry juice. My cholesterol is high, both of them. I have another appointment on the 16th and we'll take it from there. I'm sure I'll get a prescription for a high cholesterol medication. I have to get a mammogram, but without insurance, I'm looking for one of those free mammograms. We were going to go two Mondays ago, but we had Fay come for a visit and had to postpone.

Ally goes for the sex sonogram on Wednesday. Then we will know if we are having a Dylan or an Ursula. I can't wait to see the sonogram. Boy, I wish I were there.

Thank goodness we didn't get Ike, the hurricane. We got some wind and some rain from Hanna, but we have been dodging bullets all hurricane season. Just as long as they stay away from here.

That's it for now. Going to bed. Keep the piece. Renée

Thinks I did this summer

This is a frog quilt that I made for my niece Joslyn. It is not quilted yet, as I have five tops at the LA already. I'll get to this one when those come home.
Le Ann Weaver of Persimmon Quilts collects autograph blocks to make QOV's (Quilts of Valor) for our wounded veterans. This time she put out a call for string autograph blocks. These are not them. My blocks are in an envelope ready to be mailed. This is what Renée does when she finds a new technique. She makes a whole bunch. Le Ann asked for one block and I sent 20 and then made this. Great way to use up strips of fabric.
This is a Seseme Street quilt that I've decided to give to Ally's friend Stephanie for her son Max. It also is not quilted yet. I've been looking through all my UFO's and this was one of them. So I've done three UFO's this summer, yippee.
This is my pink and white version of Bonnie Hunter's Smokey Mountain Stars. I'm still putting this one together. I have a few more rows to do and then I will attach the rows. This one if for ME. Finally.
These are the fabrics that I have taken out to make Bonnie's next mystery quilt. Those fabrics are actually green not blue. These are all fat quarters that I've rescued from my POD. I can't wait to get the other four boxes that are in there.

I'm also still making my Blue Ridge Beauty as a leader/ender. It is almost ready to be put into rows, but I have some more blocks to make.

Okay, Fay is wreaking havoc here and before I get zapped I'm going to get off. Take care and keep the piece. Renée