This is the chimney to the house that we lived in when I was born....I am one of 8 children. I am one of the two that was born in the hospital. The rest my mom had at home. We did not have electricity till I was 2 or 3, according the my brothers and sisters.

This is not from home, just a picture I took somewhere here in Indiana on some of my rambling around. I think getting out and just driving and literally not knowing where I am exactly is one of my favorite things to do. I always head out with a full tank of gas because sometimes houses are few and far between, besides being miles from any gas station. I am pretty sure this is from the northern part of Vermillion County, but I could not go to it. Just sort of remember being north when I came across it.
This is Old Bob's collar--he was our old work horse. He wasn't a draft horse...just normal size. They got him long before I was born when he was 5 years old and he lived till the ripe old age of 32/33...I think I was 16 at the time he got down and could not get back up. We had to have the vet come put him down, it was cold weather and he was out in the pasture. Could not get up to come to the barn. I think if I remember right that my brother took bales of hay and built a wall to block the wind. And one of the coon hounds guarded him and growled when the vet came to put him down the next morn.

I don't think I have a picture of him any where...he was white. And just part of the family. They built the new house about a mile away from the old place...at first if he was lose, he would go back up there. Then after he became used to his new home, my dad and another man had him up at the old place doing something. When lunch time came they must have unhooked him...or maybe my dad just rode him up there. Anyway, they dropped his reins just to let him graze. He took off and went to his new home.

He was retired most all that I remember. And in later life we would let him out of the pasture to some of the grass that was not under fence but was still ours...he would never have dreamed of leaving home. Nor did he wander into the road. We did have a close call with a train though. And it put a stop to his being outside the fence.

See, the train normally only went up the holler and down late in the evening...and for some unknown reason it came along about 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. Totally earlier than it ever came...and he was grazing right near the track, and the train blew its horn...if it had not blown its horn he would have been fine. But getting right on him and blowing the horn scared him and he took off running....luckily he ran away from the track eventually.

As to the piece of chain with the collar, I have no idea what it is for. Maybe someone out there can tell me.

Another tale about him, one time we sold a calf. It was out in the pasture and my dad just told the guy to go ahead and get it if we weren't there. Ended up he came while we were gone, and went out to get the calf, and Bob chased him out of the pasture...would not let him near the calf. If he would have stood his ground, Bob probably wouldn't have done anything but he would bluff a person if he could. And he could, so the guy had to come back when we were home.

A picture show of a different kind...the first two shows the crumb blocks I have been slowly working on...I think I have around 60 or 70 made. That would not go far if I sewed them directly together, which is what most people do. And I do like that look. But I am tired of making them, and plan to alternate the blocks with a 6 1/2 inch square.

The pictures below those two give an example of the oak leaf and reel blocks that I have made...I have 12 of them and they need to be squared. Forgive the strings....I used the light fusible-window method to attach them, then did the blanket stitch around all edges by hand. See, I used to get a lot done.

Anyway, I am thinking about how I want to set them together, and I may not get it done for a while. But I would love to get a top made from them and machine quilt the quilt. I have something I am sort of anxious to try. Maybe I shouldn't admit it cause I may fail miserably, but you don't know till you try. And my mom said the only people that don't make mistakes are the ones that don't do anything.

Spring is definitely in the air as this bud on my lilac shows. We had a few little showers this evening and had thunder! I love thunder storms...love to have one to go to sleep by. I forgot to mention that we had robins back last week--and I bet they were earlier out in the country than here in town. I always seen them at the orchard a week or so before I seen them here.

I have done little to talk about today: ran by the vets to pick up Heartgard for our dog, ran by Walmart, and by the grocery store. I sewed a little while after I got home on the crumb blocks...I really get in the mood to work on them when I start. Also will make a confession here...

When I quilted those baby quilts I had trouble with the thread breaking. I rethreaded it more than once...and I looked at the book. I almost think there is a little fairy that lives down there..I was changing threads yesterday or the day before and threading it as I had threaded it for the quilting. I do not know how many times I have had the thought that the way I had threaded it did not follow the path of most machines I have used. And I have glanced at the book numerous times. And I mean NUMEROUS times...I looked at the way I threaded it and I thought that just is not right...and looked at the book one more time even though I thought it was useless. This time I clearly saw that it should be threaded the way I thought it should be threaded! They say confessions are good for the soul, but this one is sort of embarrassing.

Anyway, now I am anxious to try quilting something else....I would like to get enough crumb blocks made to assemble into a small quilt and try quilting again. I cannot believe now that it quilted as well as it did with it being threaded wrong...it only seemed to break when I was going over a place where 4 points met.