Hope Everyone is Well

Still spending most of my time at home.  I have finished the two lap quilts I have been making. I did the quilting myself with my regular sewing machine.  No one around here is doing long arm quilting right now so I had to improvise.  Didn’t turn out too bad.

This is mine:

This is Jana’s.  I actually took a picture of both sides of Jana's.  I forgot to take a picture of my reverse side.  It is also Christmas design.

I have started working on my Twelve Days of Christmas wall hanging. Here is a picture of what I have done so far.  I took it with my phone and I am not very good at taking pictures with my phone.  

I watch a lot of videos on You Tube and then I improvise as to what I want.  I don’t always follow the directions.

I have several other projects in the works, but I can’t tell you what they are. It’s a secret.  Christmas gifts.

I am almost finished weeding the azalea bushes.  I have one more area to tackle.  It is mostly those vines.  I keep putting it off, but I guess I better get it done. A couple of days ago Kevin and Renea went to Lowe’s.  While there they bought me some potting soil and flowers to plant in my containers.  Now I just have to get that done.   

Still ordering my groceries from Kroger and picking them up.  This works just fine.  Last week I had to get gas (I hate their new pumps).  Worked out well.  I wore my mask and gloves.  I noticed most of the women pumping gas did the same.  The men not so much.

I had my six month checkup with the cardiologist yesterday.  Nothing has changed.  Still have the same problems, but they have not gotten any worse.  Of course, you had to go through a check point when you enter the building.  They have one door to enter and one to exit.  When you enter the nurses there check your temperature, ask a lot of questions, then ask why you are there.  They then put a wrist band on you with the information as to who you are going to see.  Everyone had on a mask and practiced social distancing.  Worked out quite well.

I noticed while driving to and from his office that there was a lot more traffic, and a lot more businesses were open.  The restaurants were still drive thru only.

I stopped at the bank to make a deposit.  They had four lanes open, and all were busy.  You still could not go inside.  Next stop was Walgreen’s to pick up my medicine refills.  I was shocked that it only took me five minutes to go thru their drive thru.  I had planned on at least an hour.  I have never gotten thru there that fast.  Maybe because they were allowing customers inside.

Still attending Mass online.  Our church has not opened yet.  I even checked their sister church and they are not open either.  That church is St. Joseph and located in Ft. Mitchell.  There were several Masses listed on their website, but it didn’t say they were or were not open.  Not sure if any of the other Catholic churches are either.  I do know that several Baptist Churches and Landmark Church is open.  The all have to abide by certain regulations.  The Archbishop in Mobile has said the Catholic Churches can open, but must follow certain regulations.

Stay safe and healthy y’all.  I sure am trying to do so.  The only people I see on a semi-regular basis is Kevin and Renea.   No hugging though. 

Still Doing Self-Quarantine

I decided it’s about time I get back to my blog.  Enough of this self-quarantine.  Well, sort of.  I am still not comfortable going out and about.  When I do go anywhere I wear a mask.  The only places I go is to Kevin and Renea’s (no mask).  I do not go there if they are having anyone else visiting.  Also, they come to visit me.  They have been checking on me this whole time.  I also have been picking up my groceries from Kroger.  I order online and then they load my groceries into my car.  I always wear a mask.  One other thing I have done is pick up an order of Zaxby’s at the drive thru window.  Again, wearing a mask.  So far so good.

I did go to the doctor last week.  That was interesting.  I had to wait in the parking lot until the nurse came out to get me.  Everyone wore a mask, including me.  A nurse came out to the car and took my temperature (by ear).  All went well.  I am fine. 

I haven’t physically been to Mass since the middle of March.  The church I attend here in Alabama (St. Patrick’s) does not have Mass on the internet.  The first two weeks I attended Mass on the internet by going to St. Peter in Chains Cathedral in Cincinnati, OH.  Since then I have been attending Mass at St. Jude’s which is in Bridgetown (Cincinnati) OH.  I even attended all the Holy Week Services at St. Jude’s.  This is the sister church of St. Aloysius where my sister attends.   I really like Father Jim.  Not sure when they will start having Mass here in Alabama, or how it will be handled.  I may be attending Mass online for a while. 

We had several weekends of bad weather, i.e. tornadoes, hail, wind, rain, etc.  Had to spend some time at Kevin and Renea’s (both Penny and me).  Scary is too mild a word, but we came thru just fine.  Lost a lot of tree branches, but that was about it for us.

I have been doing a lot of quilting these past two months.  I have made several sets of placemats and two lap quilts.  I have been watching a lot of You Tube videos, and have many ideas for more projects. 

The weather has been nice lately so I have been getting outside.  Every couple of days I water the trees and bushes that Kevin planted.  These are trees and bushes we get from the Arbor Society.  I have also been watering the ones we transplanted when I had the new patio poured.  Most of them are doing fine.  Out of the three Franklin trees it looks like only one survived.  This is the last time we are going to try these.  I also lost one of my tulip trees.  I was surprised because the other two are fine.  Not sure what happened.

I also started weeding the azalea bushes.  I can’t believe they survived.  However, once I started pulling the grass and weeds from around them I could see them and they are starting to look good.  My biggest problem is there is some kind of vine with little thorns growing through them.  Hurts like heck to get them out.  But, I am succeeding.

That’s about it for now.  Hope everyone is healthy.  Stay safe.

Placemats

It’s a beautiful day today, but not a very good morning.  Have the vertigo happening.  Will need to rest for a while before I go to the Shack today.  I did get my chicken in the crockpot.  Hopefully, it will be finished before I head to the Shack.  I hate to leave the crockpot on when I am going because of Curious Penny.  I worry she will hurt herself.

The chicken sure tasted good.  Yes, it was finished before I went to the Shack and I had it for supper.  Yesterday was Friday and I had fish.

Spent the past couple of afternoons working on the placemats.  I now have finished mine and will be finishing Jana’s.  I just have to put the binding on hers.  I hate to do binding!

Jana’s placemats are finished.

My Placemat (I made four)

Jana's Placemat (I made four)

The tops of these placemats look crooked.  I assure you they are not.  I guess it is the way I stuck them on the wall hanging and direction in which I took the picture.  I definitely have to learn to do better.

These past couple of weeks have been busy but I sure would like to go shopping, if only to the grocery store.  As you can tell from my blogs, I have been doing a lot of quilting and have plans to do quite a bit more.  I am also watching a weekly video that is doing a “community quilt.”  It’s a lot of fun since it is one I haven’t done before, or seen.  I have downloaded instructions on several quilts that I would like to try.   I have plenty of fabric.  What I don’t have I can order online.  As for binding, I would really like to learn the secret of how to do it correctly.  I have watched several videos, but I am still struggling. 

I have been doing quite a bit of reading – getting caught up on my large collection of books.  I am also getting caught up with some television shows that I recorded.  I ride around the yard (both front and back) on my golf cart to check the trees and bushes we planted.  Sat on the patio a couple of evenings.  Gee, my life sounds exciting, but it’s better than the alternative.  I attend Mass “in Cincinnati” at either St. Peter in Chains Cathedral or St. Jude’s.  St. Patrick’s, where I attend Mass in Phenix City, announced on their bulletin that they would be live streaming Mass on Facebook.  However, I cannot find a link so I will continue to go to Mass in Cincinnati.

Renea picked up some groceries for me from Winn Dixie.  Monday night I went to Kevin and Renea’s for supper – Kevin fixed LaRosa pizza.  Yumm!  Tuesday night I went to Kevin and Renea’s for supper – Kevin fixed Tacos.  Yumm!  Tonight I will be staying home.  I really appreciate it when they fix me a meal.  I find it hard to cook for one. 

Monday I spent the afternoon at the She Shack.  I embroidered the first two days of Christmas.  I found a pattern for the twelve days of Christmas.  I will be making a wall hanging.  I like the way they are turning out.  I am embroidering each day on a ten inch square of white.  I will trim them, add sashing, batting and backing.  I have everything I need.  I am also making another set of placemats for me using The Courthouse Steps pattern.  After this I have two quilts I plan to make.  I have the patterns and everything except the backing.  I am trying to make good use of my time.  It seems we have another thirty days to stay home.  I do hope to get outside and weed my azalea bushes.

Yesterday we had some rain.  They were predicting that we would have severe storms and possible tornadoes.  Our area was lucky.  We had some rain.  However, south and east of us there were several tornadoes. 

Accomplishing A Lot

It is another gloomy day today.  Supposed to rain this afternoon, so I am doing laundry.  I would like to get some quilting done but don’t think I will.  Tried to order some cat food for Penny on Chewy.com but they are working on their website and I was on hold so long when I called them that I finally hung up.  Will try again later.  I did call Kevin and he is going to pick up my prescriptions from Walgreen’s on his way home from work today. 

Since I have my golf cart back I decided to check out the trees and bushes we planted and/or transplanted in the front yard.  I did this when I took a bag of trash to the trash cans and picked up my mail.  Most of them are starting to get leaves and buds.  There are a few that look doubtful, but it’s still early.

Another gloomy day with a few peeks of the sun.  Only 20% chance of rain today so I plan to head down to the Shack.  Didn’t get much done this morning even though I tried.  Spent time on the phone and computer.  Said my prayers, read my bible.  Had planned to do some cleaning, but if I want to get down to the Shack it looks like no cleaning will be done.  Oh well, there is always tomorrow.

Since I am not getting out and about I decided to order Penny’s food from Chewy.com as I mentioned above.  I finally got through on their website.  Of course, they were out of several of the items I wanted, and instead of two to three days delivery they are so busy it will take between seven and ten days.  Glad I have enough to last.

Kevin was able to pick up my prescriptions from Walgreen’s on his way home.  It took him forever. He was going to use the drive-thru but they were backed up all around the building.  He went inside and they had lines on the floor showing where to stand.  They were also backed up but he hung in there and got my meds.

For some reason my doctor did not approve one of them so he only got two instead of three.  Today my doctor’s office called and told me my prescription was ready to be picked up at their office.  This has never happened before.  I asked them why they didn’t send it to Walgreen’s when they contacted them (especially since I am not supposed to leave my house).  She didn’t know.  After a lot of back and forth she told me to have Kevin pick it up since he picked up my meds from Walgreen’s yesterday.  I told her no.  Kevin was not going to pick it up and neither was I.  This was stupid.  I told her to send it to Walgreen’s and she said she couldn’t do that, and besides I would have to go pick it up from there.  I said no I would not.  My son would get it on his way home from work.  Turns out Renea has an appointment with Dr. Reese tomorrow.  She is also my doctor, so they said they would give it to her.  I called Renea and she said she would pick it up for me, but they changed her appointment to doing through facetime.  But yet they wanted me to come pick up my prescription at the office.  I will never understand.  If Renea can’t get it I just won’t take it any more.

I plan to check with my health care provider and see if I can change my prescriptions to mail order.

This afternoon when I drove to the Shack I drove around the backyard and checked the trees to see how they were doing.  Most of them are showing signs of green.  There were two not looking good.  My snowball bush looks awesome.  It has a lot of buds getting ready to bloom.

I have one set of placemats ready to bind.  I have another set cut and ready to sew.  I am thinking about a third set.  After I finish these I will start work on my twelve days of Christmas wall hanging.  That will be a project because there is a lot of embroidery involved.

Continuing on….after getting a few things accomplished yesterday morning I headed to the Shack.  Now, all eight placemats are ready to bind.  I just need to cut and iron the binding and sew it to the placemats.  I need to fill a few bobbins with thread since I am using the last one now.  I also started getting the supplies ready for the twelve days of Christmas wall hanging.  I feel like I am making progress.

Stupid Virus

I am finally taking the time to update my blog.  It has been kind of depressing lately with all the news about the coronavirus.  I am doing my part by staying home.  Cancelled all my doctor appointments and rescheduled for May.  Cannot go to Mass so I am live streaming from St. Peter in Chains Cathedral in Cincinnati, OH. Finally received word today that St Patrick’s (where I go to Mass) is now closed.  They will be live streaming Mass.  They have also cancelled all meetings, etc. 

However, one bright note, I am getting a lot of quilting done.  I finished the quilt-as-you-go quilt that I started taking lessons to learn how to do. It turned out much better than I expected.  The best thing I can say is I learned a lot.  Now I am working on a set of placemats.  I saw a pattern and decided to try to make them.  It gives me a chance to try something new and, hopefully, learn a few more things. I found another pattern for placemats that I want to try after I finish this first set. Then it will be on to several quilts.  I am taking advantage of this quarantine.

I am also doing a lot of reading.  I am watching television, just not the news!  All I get are opinions and not much news.

We now have mosquitos.  Not your average mosquitos.  Alaska size mosquitos.  The kind that could carry off a grown person.  I guess it is because of all the rain and flooding.  They are awful.  I even have birds in my yard that eat them.  But they are still everywhere.  You have to be very careful opening and closing the door because they try to get inside.  I’m not sure even a bug zapper would kill them!  And, now, it is raining again today.

Yesterday I had supper with Kevin, Renea, Stephanie and Ray.  Kevin grilled steaks.  We had baked potatoes and mixed veggies with cheese.  Sure was a good supper.  Today I was supposed to go over and have chicken pot pie with Kevin and Renea.  However, Renea’s lupus flared up and supper has been cancelled. 

Yesterday morning Kevin took me to pick up my golf cart.  They had to replace all batteries.  I also had them redo the seat cover because it was in such bad shape.  Very glad to have it back.  I was driving my car to the She Shack which was a real pain.

Thursday Renea mowed the grass using Kevin’s tractor.  She cut both her front yard and my front yard.  Yesterday Kevin mowed both backyards with the tractor.  Everything looks a lot better.  Now I just need to get outside and weed my azalea bushes.  Kevin also needs to use the weed eater (in his spare time).  All the trees and bushes are starting to turn green.  Our vehicles are turning yellow from the pollen.  I am sneezing and Penny is scratching.

Rain, Printer and Sewing

I ended my last blog on a quick note.  Now to get caught up.

We have had so much rain this past week.  One day we had an inch and a half.  The next two days we had over six inches.  I know this because my rain gauge is a six inch gauge and it rain over the top.  My property has weird soil, and the rain soaks in right away.  Never get muddy.  However, this time I had a large puddle which I was calling lake Aker and it took several days to go away.  I also had an area around the edge of my “circle” which includes my driveway that had so much water I was calling it creek Aker.  In fact, it overflowed.  What a mess.  I stayed inside.

I have now received the rest of my information for my taxes.  I made copies and will be taking it to the post office on Monday to send it to my accountant in Cincinnati.  I don’t trust anyone here in Alabama because they messed my taxes up so bad the IRS wanted me to pay them $20,000.  After getting everything straightened out by the accountant in Cincinnati I received a refund!

My biggest problem now is while I was making copies my printer started acting up.  No matter what I do everything comes out rusty red.  I guess my next purchase will be a new printer!

The sun has been shinning the past couple of days and it should do so for two more.  Then they are predicting rain for the next week.  

I finally finished my living room curtains.  I am very happy with them.  They make the whole room look different and better.  Next on the agenda is two new covers for my pillows.  Plan to get them finished this week.  

I mentioned that my printer is going kaput.  Now I think my microwave is also going kaput.  I used it last night and it didn’t work exactly right.  So, I guess I will be buying a new microwave also. 

Kevin took my golf cart, which hasn’t been running, to the place where he bought it.  They said they would look at it this week and give me a call.  First guess is all new batteries.  The ones in there had a date of 2006.  They will probably be replacing the seat covers.  They are so bad.  I will wait and see how much all of this costs.  Kevin was told it would be cheaper to fix than buy new.  I sure do miss my golf cart.  I have been driving my car to the She Shack.  My right knee is getting so bad it is hard to walk any distance, especially over rough ground.

After several days of nice weather it has turned yucky again.  And…..it is supposed to stay yucky for quite a while.

Heard about my golf cart this morning.  They will be replacing the batteries and cables along with replacing the seat covers.  It came to about what I expected, so I gave them the go-ahead.  I look forward to getting it back.

I also downloaded several embroidery patterns to try on the pillow covers.  This will definitely be an experiment.  I just didn’t want to leave them plain.

I finished my pillow covers.  I am very happy with the way the embroidery looks.  One is a butterfly and the other is a hummingbird.

Now I am back to working on the quilt as you go project I started in class.  I have two columns finished.  Most of the backs look terrible.  I have changed the way I am doing them and they have improved somewhat.  Also, the front is looking a little better the more blocks I put together.  You will probably never see a picture of this quilt!  I am using this as a learning project, and trying different methods.

Time sure flies whether you are having fun or not 😊

Saturday I was back in the Sewing Shack.  I worked on my living room curtains.  I hemmed the sides of the panels.  I really like the print, but I am disappointed in the material.  It does not flow through the machine easily and keeps “gathering” which is a pain.  I am even using my walking foot which allows thicker pieces to go through.  Oh well, I will get them finished and hung. Just taking longer than expected.

After lunch I stayed at the house and continued working on my box of scraps.  Now I am sorting them according to size so I can decide what to keep and how to cut them in order to use them.

Saturday evening is also Mass at St. Patrick’s.  Then I stopped at Walgreen’s and picked up my prescriptions.  Next was Zaxby’s for supper.  I picked it up and took it home to eat.  Watched a little television and headed off to bed.

Sunday was laundry day, watching NASCAR, and working on box of scraps.  Yes, I am making progress.  Also went to Kevin and Renea’s for steak dinner.  It sure was good.

Monday I drove to Tigertown and got my hair cut.  The lady did a good job.  I also went to Kroger.  I rained off and on all day, so I got a little wet.  In the afternoon I went to the Sewing Shack and embroidered three bait towels for Kevin.  He will be delivering three fishing poles this weekend.  Renea is going to visit her Aunt Pat for the weekend.  That was all I did at the Shack because I got there late.  Watched a little television in the evening.  I had taped Worst Cooks.  There is now one more show.  I am cheering for Leo.  This show has been the funniest I have seen.  Alton Brown makes me laugh tears. 

Today, Tuesday, is the anniversary of the deadly tornado that hit Beauregard.  And, wouldn’t you know, we have rain, thunder, lightning and a tornado watch.  I can’t imagine how the survivors of that tornado much feel today.  I am even nervous.  Prayers for everyone.

We were very fortunate yesterday.  No tornadoes.  We did have an inch and a half of rain.  Luckily when I went to Bible study last night the rain had stopped.  Made it there and back safely.  We had a bigger crowd than usual. 

Today, however, we are having very heavy rain.  This morning it was not only heavy rain, but thunder and lightning.  Now it is just very heavy rain.  They are predicting three to five inches of rain over today and tomorrow.  We are already over a foot of rain above normal for this time of year.  I have a small lake in my front yard along with a creek which has started to overflow.  What a mess.  This whole area is under a flood watch – probably a warning by now.  At the rate the rain is coming down I will probably get my scraps finished.  I sure won’t be going down to the Sewing Shack today or tomorrow.

Just a quick note to say I finished sorting my scraps.  Next it will be organizing my fabric in the Sewing Shack.