Ready and waiting on me....

I still have not started my quilting, though I do have my machine ready....I think I am just going to have to start and see what develops. I wish for once I could decide how I want to quilt something before I start.
Before I start free motion quilting, I always do a test on a small quilt sandwich....luckily I still had this from before. I have to make sure that the tension is right and which size needle I want to use. So far, it really doesn't take much to get the Juki ready to quilt. I got it ready Thursday night....I had plans to just get up and start Friday. Instead I had a phone call from a friend that I had not talked to in several months. We talked at least two hours.
Did I say the snow started yesterday morn--but it was so wet and I suppose warm, that it didn't start sticking till later in the day. Roger was working in his shop, and I was looking at quilting on the computer....I finally made up my mind that maybe I just needed to get out. This is what our little town looked like as we left....
and this is what it was like out. This road...I bet I have driven up and down it about a million times....maybe not quite that many. But it is the road I took to work. I will be posting another picture from it on Time Stand Still....one that I like even better.
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Lorelei was here Thursday. She is walking more and more...and just busy. Usually she will sit and play with her toys, but Thursday she was just from here to there. Every day it crosses my mind that I cannot believe she will be a year old Tuesday! Sarah is having her party next weekend. We are both wondering how she will react to so many people in her house....and we are both hoping she doesn't turn all shy.

Sarah said every time Lorelei hears her dad come in, she does her yell of "DA-da!!" She also said one of Jeremy's friends stopped by and Lorelei had him totally entertained. I guess she was laughing so hard at Diesel their cat...and you know how contagious her laughter is.

Strip pit report

I have not been to the strip pits near as much as last year...BL (before Lorelei), but we are still either through there or by there enough to get an idea of the geese situation. These were taken a few days back, but I passed through there today and there are not even as many as there were then.
Look at the the two top pictures, then click here to see what this strip pit featured last year. I don't know what happened this year, but I have never seen so few geese out in that area. The area I am talking about includes these strip pits and just a few miles over in the Illinois farmland. In previous years, the sky would be just filled with the geese. Even though I seen it every year, I was always amazed. This year, I have wondered over and over what happened.

I see the Northern Harriers every time I am out there, and I did see some owls at the beginning of winter but have not seen them lately. Again, I have not been out there as much so probably not been there at the right time.
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If nothing happens Sarah and Lorelei are coming tomorrow...I will probably have new Lorelei tales to tell, so bare with me.

I have did nothing more with my quilt. My hips didn't hurt today, but my knees feel stiff. And I have other aches and pains that I have never had before, but I know what I did to cause them. The only thing, I don't think I could have did anything different. Anyway, with Sarah coming tomorrow, I probably won't do any quilting.

Hopefully I will get started sometime this week. I did check and I have thread that I can use. I did get the lent cleaned out of my machine, which is not a big job. I keep it pretty clean all the time. I am looking forward to doing the quilting...somehow or other, I just want to do my quilts from start to finish. If I had a close friend that helped me or a daughter or if my mom were alive, that would be okay.

I don't really get all that many finished, and almost anything I have ever made has been given away once it is finished. You could almost say I am one of those people that are all talk....

Lorelei definitely thinks kitty cats are funny!

I just have to post this new little video of Lorelei...Sarah sent it to me this morn; I have watched it several times and it always makes me laugh. she is such a hoot. From this and the video I posted the other day, I can definitely say she thinks cats are funny.... hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

We went down to see her and Sarah yesterday, and we all went out for breakfast. Lorelei entertained everyone around her and enjoyed it all. She first started playing peek-a-boo with the couple behind us...they had 11 grandchildren of their own. When they left, Lorelei watched them as far as she could see them.

Isn't it amazing how babies just form a bridge to make friendships on...

Anyway, the hostess came by to see her two or three times. I forget how many grandchildren she had but they were all boys. And there were a couple men seated across from us and she was having a good time with them.

I Did It! I actually got the quilt ready to take to the sewing machine to quilt. I may be too stiff to even move tomorrow after all the crawling around on the floor that I did. I took ibuprofen trying to ward it off and will take another dose before I go to bed.
In the photo above, you can get an idea of how many pins I used...I didn't place them as close as i normally do so am hoping I don't regret it. And I used a kind of cotton batting I have never used before and though I think it would be a dream to hand quilt through, I was not real happy with it in other ways. The edges kind of wanted to ruffle...and I could not actually stretch it across the floor...I just had to smooth it the best I could. But I will withhold final judgement till I am done quilting it and have washed and dried it.
Just thought I would show a bigger area of it here. I have not decided how I am going to quilt it yet. When I made this top, started with no plans. I started making the little 4-patches. From there it grew. I decided to use the 4-patches as the corners of 9-patches...and then went from there. Not even deciding how big I wanted to make the quilt till I started sewing it together.

Well, I had a few blocks left over when the top above was as big as I wanted it...so I put those leftover blocks together and made the little quilt seen here. If you go and look at it, be sure and click on the photos to enlarge them and get the full effect. I don't remember the exact finished size...I think it was about 60 inches long...maybe a little longer. I sent it as a surprise to a friend in Pennsylvania.