You got to enlarge this picture--you may have even seen it before. But remember when my two babies were this small? Every time I run across this picture I almost laugh out loud. They were just totally passed out...have that goofy look with their eyes half open but they are really out of it. They had been playing hard!

Otherwise, I didn't start quilting till tonight...I am just doing a loop-d-loop design with 5-point stars thrown in. I should have spent more time warming up, cause some of the quilting is kind of herky-jerky. But it will hold the layers together and be fine for a baby to roll around on. It is a bit more than a baby quilt...should call it a kid quilt.

My thread started shredding before I got done--I seem to have problems with Coats and Clark thread when free motion quilting...but it was all that was available at Joann's the other day. I am going to change my needle to a top-stitch needle tomorrow and see if that helps. It also might be that I was getting tired.

Maybe I will have something finished tomorrow.

this is my new iron--I really, really like it. I hope it lasts a long time and works just the way it does now. Loads of steam, gets really hot, and gets that way quickly. I made the backings for the baby quilts tonight and even got one of them pin-basted and ready to quilt. I am so excited...since I got my Juki I don't mind machine quilting at all.

I could not take a picture without the Princess being involved; I can't do anything without she is there checking it out, no matter what 'it' is. But I still love her...and below is my boy. Isn't he adorable. The bottom picture is very typical of him and his brother. I have had cats all my life almost and I have never seen two that just lay stretched totally out so much of the time. A big part of the time, they both will have their front feet stretched out in front and their back feet/legs stretched straight out behind with their belly to the floor.

Yes, I am ready for warmer weather, with green growing things. I am ready to be outside without a coat on. I am even ready and willing to mow the yard again! I am so ready for tomatoes out of my own garden. (Yes that is tomato blooms in the second picture) And I am ready to hang out clothes again--at least when I want to. I could now but they would be coming in frozen stiff as a board. And I do remember when my mom had no other choice. I can remember her bringing in jeans that would stand on their own. But I don't remember what she did with them when she brought them in like that.

Speaking of jeans, I also remember having to iron them...I remember when almost everything was ironed. Speaking of ironing leads to todays challenges...I had laundry going and was going to make the backings for the baby quilts. I had to iron the last two borders on the last baby quilt. I ironed the first and sewed the second border on and was trying to iron it...I discover that my iron has quit. I switched plugs just to make sure...no luck.

I came upstairs and checked on the QYW forum to see what others had recommended in the past...while doing that I happened to think about consumer reports. Their tests were from a year or two past, but the highest recommended was one of the Black and Decker models...
so with it in mind plus the other two best buys recommended, I headed to our local Walmart. The shelves there were almost bare!

I decided to come home and call a few stores to see what I could find...it did take me at least an hour to check with 6 places. Everyone seemed to be working short-handed. So it took longer....but finally found one at Sears. The one with the highest rating...so I called my husband to stop on his way home from work and pick it up for me. I just did not feel like getting back out in the cold. It did make me appreciate the fact that I didn't have to, that I don't have to hang clothes outside in weather like this, that I have a warm and safe house to sleep in....yet I can't help but be ready for spring to arrive.