Here's the turkeys again. The one on the right is a little blurry but you can still see them. There must have been the whole flock, looks like about 40. Most of the time it's only about half of them. The other picture is of two that were off by themselves. They seemed to be the ring leaders because every now and then they would run over to the others and chase them around. It's fun to watch them when they are around.

Here's a picture of the cemetary in the daylight. It's a sight even in the day time.

We live across the street from a cemetary that at Christmas sets up lighted luminaries all over the grounds. This year the weather was good and it didn't rain. This is a picture from our front porch. It's really a sight when you look up the hill.

Freezing Weather

This last week had been pretty cold. Down in the low teens at night and only up to the mid 30's during the day. I know for some that's still pretty warm but for us to have so many ice cold days in a row is rare. Ben is a runner and takes our Tootsie with him all the time. This past Tuesday (the 8th) at 18 degrees was no exception. He later showed us the pictures he took of her when they got back. Also know they are only out for about 20 to 30 mintues during the week.

Also note that Tootsie is an all Black Lab. The difference is that she has ice all over her from their run. Ben said she still wanted to go more.. She has a big heart when it comes to running. She wants to be out front and running full on..

Almost finished

This is the, almost finished design. Only half of it is sewn together but I like the looks a lot better.
Since this was taken, I've added two more rows to the top and bottom, small border and soon a larger border. I'm trying to decide if I want to add a fleece backing or the tradiditional batting and back. Guess it will decide on what I find at the store in the way of fleece.

More Lucy Quilt

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. With the holidays things have been sort of put on hold. I have been working on the top off and on and this is how I thought I wanted my quilt to look. I thought it would show off all the fabrics but then it sort of looked blah. So after working with it on the wall I came up with a Trip Around the World.

Lucy project continues

Well, it's been a long long week. I was out sick Monday and Tuesday due to a ear infection. Then Thursday my office shifted several of the offices around which sort of messed up the whole day. I did manage to get my check run done in the morning and signed and completed by the time I went home. We had shifted my office the opposite side but I decided I was a right handed person so Ben, Ethan, Cassie and I swiched it back after work Friday. Then I went in on Saturday to sort of straighten up and do a little catch up work. In the evenings I worked on sewing the corners on my project. When I first started the project the idea was to have 9 inch blocks, then because I messed up, they ended up 6 inch blocks. It also went from two lap quilts to 1. Which also means that all the corner squares I cut ended up only enough for one pile of squares. So tonight I cut out more strips and then into squares. I usually use a marker and do a line from corner to corner. I also sometimes just fold into a triangle and press... so that's how I decided to do it this time. I got all the way up to the pressing and had to quilt for the night and watch the Yankees game.

Monday night I'll do the pressing and then maybe start the stitching again. I want to have the blocks to the point I can put the blocks on the wall and see how the layout will look.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween.

New quilting project

Bought a few pieces of the Lucy fabric this past summer for my birthday. After finishing my Halloween wall hanging needed to get something else going so decided to get working on it. First i had to decided on which fabrics went with it to make up the additional blocks.

I decided to make a Snowball 9 Patch. Figured it would show off most of the fabric pretty good. Then the hard part comes and that's cutting out all the stripes and then all the squares.

Sewing all the stripes together for the 9 patch is pretty easy work but then you need to cut them all out..one at a time. Then the next step is to pin the sections together. It's much easier keeping them together while sewing if you pin. It takes a bit of time but being acurrate is worth it.

My two piles of nine patch blocks. Squaring them up is the next step. I think that's the part I like least. It just takes so much time. I just want to get busy putting the rows together.

Now before I can put the rows together the next step is to either use a marker and draw a line from corner to corner or to press them point to point. Then I need to sew them on each corner of the squares to make them into the Snowballs. This part will take a bit and I'll probably work on it most of the week... a few blocks at a time.

If I'm home I usually work a couple hours on my projects but the last couple weeks we seem to be running all over. This week I've been working on my husbands costume for the race yesterday. I'll post pictures later of the Hell Hounds.

WILD TURKEY'S

We live within the city limits of Eugene but are closer to one of the Buttes in town so we have a lot of trees and places for the wildlife to live. We used to have deer wander through our yard and have seen them in late or early mornings grazing in other yards. We have Racoons that we see now and then and even have a white one we catch glimpsys of too. What we see more often is the Turkeys. When we moved onto the hill a few years ago we spotted the wild turkeys once in a while in the early morning. Now with living across from a cemetary we see them all the time. Usually the flock but once in a while we see what we think is a male and two females. They seem to come down the hill and wander around our area more often than the large flock. We have counted up to 35 at a time spread out over the cemetary. They were just wandering around a couple weeks ago, taking their time so I took a couple pictures. The firehydrant is at the north corner of our property and is just around the corner. For some reason they fasinate me the way they just take their time, even in crossing the street. With the speed the cars come down the hill, I'm surprised we haven't seen any get hit. More Turkey pictures to come..

So much for sunshine

We had a semi nice morning but wouldn't you know it, as soon as we took off to go grocery shopping it started to rain. On our way back was an accident at the freeway on ramp and this firetruck (the big one) was there. As we were sitting at the light he decided he wasn't needed so headed back to the station. By the time we took off he was right in front of us so I decided to take a picture. You don't get to follow fire trucks very often. What I should have done was keep my cell phone out a few minutes longer because a couple blocks up he turned into their drive and I could have gotten a side shot. Love fire trucks.

Beautiful Friday Sunrise

My daughter took this picture which shows a great day ahead with a beautiful sunrise. We have been having some pretty nasty cloudy gray skys which we love but it seems everyone else hates.

turned out that Friday was a quiet day for me at work. My roommate is on vacation until next Monday (the 26th) which is great for me. Our office is also doing some shifting to make room for a couple more people. What's great is that my roommate, who does payroll is going to be moivng next door with her own room. I'm going to get a new accounting person. She'll help the Fiscal Director (my boss) with reports and stuff he doesn't have time for. We may be a non profit but we are growing and changing all the time because of the requirements of the state & county. I do the payable and some AR so us sharing an office will be okay. Hopefully she will be a quiet person. With all the shifting, I'm still staying put and still covering for the front desk and still have the hot room. Back to work...

Happy October

Well it's the middle of October and Fall is here. It was 30 something when I picked up the paper...didn't have my glasses on so couldn't read the outside thermometer. This past weekend was great. Just cool enough to need my cardigan. Put up a couple of my Halloween wall hangings and Ethan's Pumpkin he made at the ceramic place last year.

This was made in about a week from tracing the pattern onto fusible, pressing it to fabric, to the end. It is now hanging behind me at my desk at work. Everyone knows I quilt and I enjoy the comments about my work...even if it's not my best...they don't know that... :)

Picture of the kids

That's Cassie on the left and Ethan on the right... I think. Sometimes it's hard to tell them apart. Cassie is always coming up with interesting shots. She has a real eye for what would make a good shot. Can't convince her to take some classes. She says she just wants to do it for fun... I guess as long as she is having a good time, that's all that counts.

the Flash

Here's Ben running this Sunday giving Cassie the "thumbs up" as he passes by. He said he felt pretty good after the run. He had abdominal surgery the 3rd of Sept. and has 5 little incisions in his mid section. He'd been having problems for years swallowing and terrible heartburn. He'd even given up his goal of running the Boston Marathon when he turned 50 next year because he couldn't do much more than a half without it zapping all his strength. He finally saw the right doctor who, after checking him out and running a bunch of tests said the best thing to do would be surgery. His espohagus was just to tiny nothing could get through. He has now gone from a week of nothing but soft foods to flaky and more. This is something he has been suffering with for years but the last half a dozen years have been terrible for him. It is so nice to sit down to dinner and have him be done at the same time as the rest of us and not have him up walking around to get is dinner to go down. It's all looking good from her on out..

Just getting started

I've always wanted to do a blog but never thought I had much to say so I decided to try it combining my love of quilting, my dogs and whatever tickles my fancy at the time. Be prepared to be amazed, amused and astonished. Thought those 3 words went well together.

I'm not sure how to post pictures but will try to eventually figure it out.

I've recently turned 55 and was amazed that when you say something silly, someone might listen. Example...My husband, son & I went to see Gamer a couple weeks ago. When I asked for tickets for 2 adults and 1 student my mind went completely blank and I couldn't remember what we were seeing. I said something silly about it being a senior moment, remembered the name. He ended up giving me a ticket for one adult, one student and one senior.

Again, last weekend my daughter and I went to see the Time Travelers Wife, excellent by the way. My daughter is always yelling at me for being so talkative with checkers in the store but sometimes I can't help it. When we were buying the tickets, again I made some comment about senior because of some sign they had in the window. He laughed and said no way... bothe Cassie and I said "Way". I saved 2.50 on my ticket...it was a night show. We don't go to movies that often because they are so expensive, even the matinees are not cheap anymore so I decided since I can why not. I'm not ready to be a senior citizen yet but if it will save me a couple bucks, what the heck.

This has been a quiet weekend. Saturday Ethan and I went to see Surrogates..big fan of Bruce Willis. It was a great movie. We both loved it. When we got home Cassie pulled in the drive right behind us. She comes up to do her laundry and Saturday afternoon and we have a family dinner. We played Trivial Prusuite, Disney kids version and trust me there are a lot of tough questions last weekend and had a blast so we decided to play again. This is not a quick game but we were having so much fun we didn't really notice.

As you can see by the picture (haven't figured out how to insert elsewhere yet) Chase decided she wanted to play too. Of course she thought there was food too. The first time she got up to the table she was a year or so old and I was baking cookies... She won't take anything unless you sit it in front of her or offer it to her. Now Tootsie would be up on the table in a heart beat if you let her sit in the chair but she is a larger lab and leggy so don't think we will have to worry about that.

Today was great for me. Ben is a runner. He and the kids were out of her at 7am to drive an hour away to a run. Afterwards they will go to a Harvest Fair. Then this evening they are all going to see Lewis Black. I could go to but having the day to myself & the girls is more appealing. I did do laundry and finished a Halloween wall hanging. I'll have to post a picture later.

Well I suppose this should be enough for my first post. Since I've started I'm going to try and post a little every day, even if it's something silly or stupid about work...that should fill a very large page... Have a great week :)