Friday, May 29, 2009

Dear God, I commend to You

the soul of Your child Phillip.



About 15 years ago, my sister, aunt, her two children Pam and Phil and I went to Italy. Within two weeks of returning home, my cousin Phil was diagnosed with congestive heart failure after suffering a severe heart attack. After a long battle, Phil died in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Several months ago, he had surgery and they implanted a pace maker. He had recently moved into an assisted living facility. He was in the hospital again last week, but went home on Monday. His mom took him grocery shopping before taking him home and getting him settled. He was so happy to be out of the hospital and insisted on going to the grocery for fresh fruit. On Tuesday morning, Phil did not call down for his breakfast, so the staff went to check on him. He had died sometime after midnight.

He was only 10 years older than I. He was not one of the "popular" boys during high school. Come to find out, my two friends while growing up have fond memories of Phil babysitting them while their parents went out. He was a frequent babysitter at my house also.

He was a kind soul. He never married or had children, but will be missed by friends and family.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Anyone know anything about computers??

I personally don't even know enough to "be dangerous!" The computer is about 4 - 5 years old. So it's running slowly (and being on dial-up, that says alot!). I have backed up stuff onto an external hard drive. Defragmented and cleaned up what I could. Deleted stuff off here since I have it on the external. Still slow. Any advice? Help? Suggestions (other than get dsl)?

Any info, links, or sympathy gladly accepted!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Sock Summit Anyone? which changed into an R rated rant about my ex

For one (too) brief, (brightly) shining moment, I thought I'd be going. I had classes picked out. And since I have dial-up at home, I knew where I was going to be come Tues. The local Panera Bread offers free wifi and I was gonna be there.

Not so much now. I am only (slightly) comforted by the knowledge that I am not the only knitter who wants to attend, but can't.

And frankly, it all comes down to one thing. Since I know my sons aren't interested in reading this blog, I can be honest here. It's because of the dickhead I divorced. If he was a dickhead when we met, he hid it well. It came out years later. Over five years ago, I asked for a divorce. I'm not actually sure if it's final yet. We had a court trial - when was the last time you heard of a divorce going to court!!! Part of the court order is a monthly payment of over $500. For the last year and a half (since the trial) he (of course) has not paid this. He did send a payment....I got $300 this month. I keep hearing rumours of being paid all monies owed me. I spoke with my attorney last week. It was suggested that due to the rumours, he be given one more week. WTF.

And for all the feminists out there....I didn't ask for alimony. Actually, all I asked for was 50% of the value of the (paid for in full) house. After all the bullshit he put me through just getting to court, I was willing to take whatever the judge was willing to give me. Alimony was part of that. He would have been SO much better off just giving me half of the house. Further proof of being a total dickhead.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Too tired, but almost home!

We are almost home! Too tired to continue, but we are sleeping in PA tonight. I finished the tank I started - the edging is done and the ends are even woven in. Just need to block and it is wearable! I tried it on in the car and I think it fits. Odd trying something on while sitting in a car. But I think it fits! Pictures coming soon.

I took a few pictures of amazing quilts while working at the Machine Quilters Showcase in Overland Park, KS. But I forgot to take pictures of the maker's info, so I won't be posting any of those pics.

So tired tonight that I had a hard time tearing the paper wrapper on my straw! Didn't sleep well last night. I was still awake at 1 and both of us were awake at 4 am. Off to (hopefully) get a decent night's sleep.

Friday, May 15, 2009

This is where I work

Well, this is the clean place where I work! You really don't want to see the basement workshop - it is not nearly as clean and neat.



There is only one product in our booth that we don't make. And I don't even think you can see it in this picture!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

This is NOT my work

Last weekend, we were working at the Home Machine Quilting Show in Salt Lake City. This is a few of the pictures I took of quilts at the show. I did not make any of these quilts, but was stunned by all of them.

I must have taken 20 shots of this quilt.





The maker's information she provided:



This quilt is made from an antique table cloth! Definately gave me ideas for some table cloths I have in the closet:





And in a wonderful justaposition of fabric, pattern and timetables, here is a closeup of a grandmother's flower garden quilt done in civil war reproduction fabrics. And for the non-quilters, according to quilt historians, the pattern was not around during the civil war. This quilt is wonderfully made and a real beauty.





On my computer, when I click on a picture, a larger view opens. I hope it does for you too!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

It's a rescue!

I was at the HMQS show in Salt Lake city last weekend. The best part of working at all these shows is the wonderful people I meet at every single show. This one of course was no different.

The vendor across the aisle (our "nametags" didn't actually have a name, but I think I can find out what it is) has this "thing" for cross stitch she finds in thrift stores. It absolutely drives her crazy. She buys them all and then puts them in a big basket in her booth to be adopted. This is my rescue haul:



I actually have plans for all of them! These two little pieces will be added to a crazy quilt piece I'm planning:



This one is my absolute favorite. I'm hoping to find an antique oval frame this will fit.



And in the spirit of the rescue basket, this piece will be included in the next charity quilt I make:



I can't actually believe I was this fortunate. Just think .... all these finished pieces and it didn't take me months to do the work!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day


To everyone that gives love, care and attention to a child. Happy Mother's Day!

My Mother's day was fine. Didn't really get to spend the day as I'd hoped, but it wasn't anything horrid or tragic. Got text/phone calls from almost all of my guys. My youngest son Pete called this morning. He was on the way to his new girlfriend's parents house to meet them. And my "adopted" son sent me a quick text message. Bob and I have been "adopted" by a young man that we know.

But my idea was to spend the day in Salt Lake City just relaxing and finding something "touristy" to do. I even found two yarn shops that were open on Sun afternoon. Wrote out the directions and thought I was good to go. But by 10:30 we had eaten breakfast and checked out of the hotel. Bob was ready to move on. And the yarn shops didn't open until noon and nothing else to do for the next hour and a half. So we spent the day driving - currently in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Bet there isn't a yarn shop around here that would possibly be open before we leave in the morning!

The right tools

As we all know, using the right tools for the job make all the difference in the world. As part of my swap package to Reese, I made a small knitting project bag. And the darn drawstring gave me the hardest time. Well, I finally pulled out the right tool and in minutes the job was done!



The bag came out just the size I was hoping for and I plan on making plenty more of these. I did take a picture of the bag filled with the swap presents, but it came out horribly out of focus. So I leave you with just a teaser:

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Ravelry tin swap

There is a group on ravelry that started because of altoids tins! There is actually an amazing amount of knitting (or any other) stuff that can fit into a tin of that size. So a spin-off group started to swap altoids tins and a few goodies to fit into the tin.

I recently participated in the second of these swaps. And in the questionnaire, I said I'd let my swap partner choose which size tin to send along to me.

Well, she went wild! I was amazingly spoiled and already have plans for the yarn she included. The tins she sent looked like:



And this is all the stuff she managed to put into the tins:



I plan on using the yarn for my next HP inspired afghan squares, the stitch markers are already in use. And see those scissors peeking out? Last summer all of my quilting stuff was stolen from my car. Including those same scissors - and they were a favorite. I am so very happy to have new ones! Thank you Reese!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Road trip knitting

While this is a picture of partial sock #1, both socks were finished while we travelled cross country. And I even started a top! FO pics to follow shortly....



I bought this yarn in a ravelry destash. The intention was to use the yarn for my sock yarn blanket. But then the bright cheery colors really grew on me and became socks. But I do have enough yarn leftover for more than one square for the blanket.

And Wyoming Sky!



Please note the date because I really did take this picture today. Although I'm now in Salt Lake City and there is even more snow in the surrounding mountains! I think SLC is one of the prettiest places to go. I just really wish I was I had a day off here during the week. Because even though there are a bunch of yarn shops, I don't think any of them are open after 8 pm or on Sundays. Blech.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

It was awful!

The loading dock anyway. We had done the same show in NH the previous year, but I didn't have a clue what the loading area was like. The same weekend I was in NH, Bob was in Chicago. So I had a rental truck. It was supposed to be a 12' truck, but I ended up getting the 14'. Which partially meant that I was too tall to fit into the parking garage. On the plus side, I didn't have to pay for daily parking. On the seriously minus side, this is a picture of the loading dock:



I almost cried. See those steps? The only way I had to get my product into the show. Fortunately, there was a teenaged boy there working for tips. He was willing to hoist everything from the back of the truck up onto the loading dock. From there, I had a cart to move everything. It took us 30-45 minutes and was the best $20 I had spent in quite awhile.

And because I knew that Bob would never believe me, parking pictures:



Notice the gas cap in the above picture? Notice no gas cap in this picture? Proof I took pictures of both sides of the truck!