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.

Making Progress At The Shack

I am finally getting down to the Sewing Shack (I changed the name because this seemed more appropriate) and getting a few things accomplished.  The first thing I had to do was put things in order.  I had just been putting everything inside and there was no way I could work.  I couldn’t even get to my cutting mat.

I set up my embroidery machine.  It had been set to quilt because I had taken it to class.  Brian had asked for a couple of bait towels.  Tracy said the color this year is red.  So, I made him four of them using the color red (either the towel or the thread).  I will be mailing them to him. 

Next on the agenda was working on the blocks for the quilt I was making for the class.  Because of some problems I ended up blocking them to 11 ½ inch squares.  They look nice.  I am not very happy with the material I had to use, but I will finish the quilt, which will be small, to learn the process of quilting as you go.  

I have downloaded several patterns for quilts that I like.  I also ordered what I needed to make them.  However, the next project is my living room curtains and pillows.

I brought my box of scraps to the house.  This way I can go through them in the evening.  I need to sort out what to keep and what to get rid of.  I will be sorting them according to size and color.  I bought some photo boxes to keep them in.  I think I am going to buy another shelf stand to store the boxes because the plastic drawers I bought are not holding up well.

Last night was the last Bible class about the Gospel of John.  Starting next week we will start studying the Passion.  Since last night was Fat Tuesday we had goodies after class. 

Wednesday was Ash Wednesday.  I did not make it to church because I had a bad spell with my vertigo.  I do not drive when this happens.  I spent the day doing nothing but sitting still and not moving my head any more than necessary.  By the next morning it had passed.

Spent the morning working on paperwork.  My printer was acting up so I changed the ink, cleaned the printheads, and did some other maintenance.  It now seems to be working just fine.

Went down to the Sewing Shack and finished Brian’s bait towels.  Had to cut the hole in the corner so he could attach it to a belt loop.  They are now ready to mail.  I also decided to cut the material for my curtains.  I should have washed it first!  By the time I finished my hands were dark blue.  I have never had this happen with material before.  Some things you just have to learn the hard way.  Brought the material up to the house, washed it twice, used those color catchers both times.  First time they were dark blue, and the second time they were light blue.  The material has now been dried and the strings cut off.  They are now ready to be hemmed.

While going through my scrap bin I found some green material that I like better for the quilt-as-you-go block.  I have set that aside to cut into the strips that I need.  I will add the other green material to my scrap bin.  I am still working on sorting that material. 

Friday was a crazy sort of day.  I had planned to go down to the Shack but I kept getting side-tracked.  I did get quite a few things accomplished at the house.  Went over to Kevin and Renea’s and let the dogs out a couple of times.  Kevin was at work and Renea had some errands to run.  It was fun to spend some time with Shelby and Copper.  I had not seen them for a while. And, they always make me feel welcome and happy to see me.

Rain, Rain and More Rain

This summer we will be praying for rain.  

It’s been a lousy few days.  I came up with some kind of bug and have spent them either in the bathroom or in bed.  Needless to say I haven’t gotten much accomplished.  However, before I got sick I did get my bathroom and bedroom cleaned.  So I am now caught up with that.  I really need to get down to the Sewing Shack (I changed the name).

I cancelled my dermatologist appointment for yesterday morning.  I just wasn’t feeling up to going.  I did go to bible class last night.  We only have one more night (next Tuesday) for the Gospel of John.  The next class is going to be five weeks of the Passion.  I am learning so much.  I am looking forward to the next class.

It has been gloomy and raining the past few days and, according to the weather folks, it will continue to be this way through tomorrow.  We have had about three inches of rain the past two days.  It’s been a strange winter for us.  We have had only a couple of “cold” days.  That means it was down in the 30’s.  I think we also had one or two days in the 20’s.  It has been warm and rainy.  Of course, come this summer and we will be praying for rain.  Such is life in Alabama.

It is now Thursday and it is still gloomy and raining.  We are under a flood watch/warning.  I haven’t checked the rain gauge this morning because I don’t want to go out in the rain. 

Brian and Tracy got in about 4:00 this morning.  They are catching a few hours sleep, and then they will be going camping with Kevin, Renea and the dogs.  They plan to do some fishing.  The next three days are supposed to be nice.  Not sure how the fishing will be with the water so high.  As long as they have fun.  I am sure there will be plenty of eating and drinking.

Brian and Tracy spent the morning visiting with me while Kevin and Renea got ready to leave.  They all pulled out about 1:00 this afternoon.  Brian was pulling the boat.  Kevin was pulling the camper.  Brian and Tracy will be staying in a cabin.  Don’t think they will be going out in the boat.  They sent me a picture showing that the lake was above flood stage and it was still raining.  I know they will have a good time anyway.  However, Saturday’s supper will probable be fish from SAM’s instead of fresh caught.

I spent the afternoon ready and this evening watching television.  I also got a little more paperwork finished.  I hope to finish that tomorrow.  I would also like to go to Office Depot, but not sure how the roads will be.  It is supposed to go into the 20’s tonight.  That is Brian and Kevin’s fault.  Every time they get together to go fishing was have tornadoes, floods, snow or extremely cold.

Yep, it went down into the 20’s!

Went to Office Depot and Hobby Lobby.  Got everything I needed plus a little extra.  I will not be going to Tigertown for a while.  They were working on the new round-about, and what a mess.  They had flagmen directing traffic.  One entrance at a time.  Didn’t think I would ever get through.  We had to drive over the brickwork they put down.  Anyway, it was a disaster.

Other than that it was a normal weekend.  Everyone had a good time camping.  Brian and Tracy headed for home very early Sunday morning.  Sorry to say their truck broke down on the way home.  Happened at 75 and 40 in Knoxville.  ☹.  Had it repaired and made it home safely.  Kevin and Renea came home Sunday afternoon.  I should mention that due to the weather and high water fishing was not so great.  They brought the boat home Saturday morning so Kevin would not have to make two trips.