At last, at last

If Blogger ever becomes available I will do this post...it is not really important in the overall scheme of things. It is frustrating nevertheless. I have been getting the Blogger Unavailable message since last night. I didn't think I could even post comments but they will go through so I might get some visiting done today.

The photo that will be included with this was taken while coming home from a little fishing expedition. We decided to check out creeks...I was thinking with all the rain that they would all be to high to wade and fish, and in thinking that I wore one of my better pair of jeans. Anyway, yesterday, the photo above shows the kind of sky we had..which is the kind that makes my heart sing out with joy. But on with the rest of the day.

We went by Mansfield where Big Raccoon Creek is...it was up a tiny bit, but still plenty fishable. But there were a couple guys already there. So we headed on to the Big Walnut Creek. It was just right for fishing...I was so aggravated at myself for not being prepared to wade. I fished from the bank, and caught a couple...Roger caught 3 or 4. One of his small-mouthed bass was keeper size. Small-mouthed bass are so much fun to catch because they sometimes jump out of the water when fighting to get free. It is so much fun...kind of makes your heart pump a little faster...and hope that someone else is watching.

Right now I have a couple loads of clothes on the line, and thinking I should do at least one more and have it ready to go when some of these get dry enough. The humidity is down this morn, and there is a gentle breeze so it shouldn't take long for some to dry. I have to take advantage of today because rain is in our forecast for the rest of the week. And I have become addicted to hanging my clothes out--laundry is one chore I have always enjoyed. Even when I was still a teen I enjoyed hanging laundry on the line.
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I wrote the above this morn about 9:45 and have tried off and on all day long to post with no luck till now. I have my clothes in off the lines and almost all put away. I always remember Grammy telling about when she was young...Grammy being my husband's grandmother...anyway, she left home while still a teen. She had an apartment in the city, not sure what job she had. But from what she said, it was a busy, bustling place. She would hand wash some of her clothes and hang them on the line before she left for work. One time she came home from work, and they had been stolen.

Ever since she told me that story, any time I leave clothes hanging on the line and actually go shopping or something....when I come home I look to see if my clothes are still there. One time, when my oldest was just a toddler, I had hung towels on the line, put her in the stroller and we walked downtown.

When we returned home, I glanced up to see if my towels were still, there and glanced back down at my daughter...she had stood up and it startled me so that I stopped. The sudden stop caused her to fall our of the stroller, but she only received a bump.

Rain, rain, and more rain

This is what the skies were looking like Thursday afternoon on our way home from shopping...this is looking east. When I get done with this post, I am going to post a couple pictures on my other blog looking north...

I was going to say this is the first day without rain in ages, but actually we had sprinkles around 9:00 or 9:30. Our yard was about a foot high...notice I saw was. Roger and Sarah cut it today. Roger probably should not have been mowing, but he is a lot better. His neck just gets to feeling stiff at the end of the day.

Lorelei wanted to be right where she could see her mom part of the time...part of the time she would come in and play with me. And we watched Olivia a little bit. She is such a character...we had spaghetti for late lunch and she sure ate....but Roger had given her a taste of banana bread earlier. She was done eating, but he got that out and she says 'YEAH!' and had just a bite of it.
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I have been working on a couple little artsy quilts...just a few minutes here and there. I was at first totally disgusted with them, but like them better now. I have to find a piece of leftover batting to use for them, and decide on a fabric backing and get them finished.

I think about how different things are for me quilting compared to my mom and women of the earlier generations. I don't even know where to begin. I think about my mom...she bought very little fabric just for quilting...she did buy muslin for the backing...that is all I can remember her buying when I was younger. She used scraps leftover from making our dresses, and I think my sisters all sewed and sometimes gave her scraps they had.

About the time I started driving, one of the stores started carrying remnants from sewing factories. So, she started buying some of the remnants to use. I cannot remember the prices now...I cannot even remember the prices we paid for material for dresses..but I do know that the prices were cheaper than that. Those remnants were sold by pound. Even with buying the remnants, she still used a lot of scraps.

Then there is me. I have been buying fabric for years. Sometimes by the yard, sometimes just a half yard here or fat quarter there....all to build up my stash. I always said I was buying till when Roger retired, I would have lots to work with. I still buy fabric, but not near as much as I did...and it was all bought with the purpose of making quilts.

For the last quilt I made, I cannot remember the number of fabrics I used, but I did not buy anything new except for the backing. I used all fabrics that I already had. There are 168 squares in the top, and I only cut two squares of any one fabric, and I did not use all the doubles.

Another big difference is this: the memories or thoughts are not there with my quilts that come when looking at quilts my mom made. I look at quilts from her and I see pieces from a dress I had in fifth grade, or there...there is a fabric from that dress she had. Or look there!!! That is a piece from the first dress I made in Home Economics. Oh, and there is fabric from a skirt of one of my sisters. And over there is from a dress I had in 8th grade....and there is one from the dress my sister made me.

There are lots of other differences, but the fabric thing always really stands out for me. When I grew up, I don't even know if there was such a thing as a quilt shop. We bought most of our fabric from J.C. Penney's...they had patterns and fabric on the top floor...there just was not near the variety of fabrics to choose from...you just cannot imagine the variety available now.

However, the one thing that I think remains the same...quilts are made with love. When you receive a quilt, you are being wrapped in love. Even if it is made entirely with a sewing machine, there is still loads of work that goes into one. And that is not counting the money spent on fabric.

Who goes there??

I was trying to snap a quick photo of the cardinal day before yesterday, but a couple of these grackles seemed to think the feeder was for them alone. This one seemed to be warning evey thing else to stay away. Even the one on the ground. And soon as they notice me, they were both gone!

I managed to keep the cats inside today, did not let them out till after dark. (I am just saying the cardinals lasted another day.) That probably only happened cause we were gone a big part of the day. Roger had a couple things to do this morn...then we were going to Sarah's house. But I decided to sew just a line or two or three before we went.

I came up about two hours before we had to be there..grabbed my camera and out the door we went. Roger had left the Rav4 out by the sidewalk rather than put it in the garage since he knew we would be leaving shortly. He was a bit ahead of me...about the time I got in he made the announcement that the car wouldn't start. Neither of us know what to think...we have never had a minute's worth of problems from it.

He tries again and then gets out and looks under the hood...nothing obvious. I try...no luck. Of course the windows are down just a little bit and there is a chance of rain. I came in and snatched trash bags, we cut them open, open the doors, and sort of wrap the plastic trash bags over the open part of the window....that involved Roger coming in and getting duct tape, the handy man's secret weapon.

We get them taped in place, and get in the truck and head on to Sarah's...we have probably killed half and hour or 45 minutes by this time. We go our usual route, only at the last sets of railroad tracks cars are backed way back and everyone is turning around and heading a different route. So we do, too...we go to the next way we might be able to get through...no luck there...the train is all the way down there.

So we go an even longer route and on the third try we make it through...not sure how much time we spent doing that...but we still made it in time to spend a few minutes with Sarah before she left...and stayed for a bit after she got back. Came home, and decided it was just the battery with the Rav4...it is fixed and running fine.

I tried to catch up on some of the inside work tonight...haven't spend much time on here other than to text my daughter and to compose a couple emails. Now it is time to close and maybe watch a bit of TV or to read..not sure which.