Cookie & Elsie a trois, fleece blanket

Michael left before 8 AM on Saturday (7/30) for golfing here at SCCL and I spent a bit of time in the kitchen in the morning.  Loree had dropped off a “mess a maters”, so I got those all chopped up and into the crockpot for sauce.  I forgot to take pictures....I'll do a tutorial if I do this again :~(.  After that I headed downstairs and fired up Miss Scarlett and started to quilt.  I had some issues while quilting…totally operator error (for those of you who don’t understand what that means…it means I goofed up:~)…and that meant quite a bit of ripping and re-stitching.  The ripping was the hardest part only because I tend to lock my knees when I’m standing for a long period of time, and that makes them really stiff.  When I went upstairs in the afternoon….low and behold there was snuggling going on: 

do you HAVE to join me?

Mom - can't you do something?  I was here first!

But when I came back up shortly afterwards, it was over: 

sometimes Cookie just isn't into sharing

Pat came over at 4 PM for a Cougartini and we spent a couple of hours solving the problems of the world :~).  Michael and I had leftover pizza for dinner, then he made popcorn and we settled into watch CHICAGO…what fabulous music and dance numbers.  I managed to finish tying off another fleece blanket while we were watching:

quilts to be bound, lunch, new customer quilt, Linda's quilt loaded

Although I had a couple of appointments on Friday (7/29), I tried to get a bunch of little things done in between them.  I got both patriotic quilts off of Miss Scarlett, and got the ends woven in and the edges trimmed on one of the quilts before leaving to pick up Jan and head up to the Lodge for the Performing Arts Comedy Café.  These performance cafes are not something I usually go to, but Ann Mary was pulling a bunch of ladies together and…heaven forbid…I should pass up a social opportunity :~).  Anyway, I was home around 12:30 and got the other quilt trimmed and ends woven in and then both quilts joined the pile of quilts that need to be labeled and bound (seems like I hardly get rid of that pile and it appears again :~): 

that's the disk with my embroidered label info on top

I love how when Michael is home and I am busy working, my lunch sometimes magically appears :~): 

a yummy grilled ham & cheese sandwich

After that Matt arrived to load in my embroidery software, and when we were done, I met with a new customer to take in her quilt: 

I finally headed back downstairs and got Linda’s quilt all loaded, my bobbins wound and the program set so that I could hit the ground running on Saturday to get it quilted: 

I headed back upstairs at 8 PM to relax and watch TV with my honey.

quilting on patriotic pinwheel done, new patriotic top done

Thursday morning (7/28) was rather busy….Matt showed up at 7:30 to install a refurbished hard drive for me.  As Paula said, between my new tablet expense and a new-to-me computer…my technology budget is shot!  Michael packed the car for my quilting before he left for golfing, and I headed out.  We had a wonderful time at Osceola, and I only have one more set of pinwheels to make before I can start sewing my quilt top together.  I cut the leftover caramel/chocolate tarts from my birthday party into quarters and took all of them as well as the leftover chocolate dipped strawberries to quilting where they seemed to be a big hit.  When I came home, my number 1 priority was finding my disks to re-load my embroidery software on my new computer.  Without that I really can't embroider anything, as I always alter or combine my embroidery designs in some way.  I really didn't think I still had them, but I went through all of my files and WHOO HOO!!!  I have the disks, and I immediately called Matt and left a message to schedule a time to load it.  (Not only did I find the current embroidery software disks, I found the disks for my PREVIOUS program!  That's the problem with file drawers....we're constantly putting stuff INTO them....but who ever goes in to clear stuff OUT of them??? Obviously not me  :~)  Finally at 3:30 I got to get back to Miss Scarlett and my patriotic pinwheels.  By the time I went upstairs at 8 PM (after a Harris Teeter pizza for dinner which I thought was very good, but Michael thought was soggy…he likes my crispier crusts better.  Of course, part of why it was very good for me was that I didn’t have to cook it…right???)  I had finished quilting the patriotic pinwheel:  

and added the final 2 red borders to the newest patriotic:  

 

 I was beat after that and just collapsed on the sofa with my honey for the rest of the night.

2 patriotic quilts in the works

I had a few phone calls to make Wednesday morning (7/27) and then it took me over 2 hours to transfer my purchased designs back into my software….just in time for a phone call from Linda M saying she was on her way with her quilt :~)!   We filled out an order form, then Linda left around NOON and I finally got some breakfast.  After that I got to talk to Mary Jo (another of the calls I didn’t get to return yesterday) and that was great.  By the time we finished, and Michael came back upstairs and we talked for a bit, I made it back to my studio, actually ready to maybe get some sewing/quilting done around 3 PM.  I finally got a few rows quilted on the patriotic pinwheel that’s been sitting on Miss Scarlett for about a week…since my tablet first went KA-FLOOEY!!   

I also got the rest of the inserts finished on another patriotic quilt: 

 I think it is still too short (and too square...I cut the original fabric wrong :~( and am probably going to put extra red strips on the top and bottom (I’m all out of the blue).  We had hot dogs and corn for a late supper, then I talked with Janice for over an hour (neither one of us could get SKYPE to work :~(.  After that I watched TV with my honey and ripped basting stitches out of some embroidery I’ve been doing.

2 new notecards from Michael, some birthday cards

I picked up Pat and headed out early Tuesday morning (7/26) to hit the MICROSOFT store at South Park.  I was hoping to get all of the information from my old, broken tablet transferred over to my new tablet.  For a variety of reasons they couldn’t do this  :~(.  The only good thing to come out of it was that Pat and I had hours and hours to talk….on the way there…waiting for an appointment, on the way home…and at lunch.  I finally got home close to 3 PM and I just wanted to snuggle with my honey who was watching TV.  However, I had several calls to return so I started to do that.  My first call was to one of the people running for the HOA Board of SCCL….and we talked for over an hour!!!  After that I hustled downstairs to call my long arm software company in Utah.  I wanted to get my software re-loaded, as a customer had called me about doing a quilt.  That took a bit of time, and we also discussed why I ended up buying a new tablet (basically the part that holds my tablet on the machine vibrated enough to take a chunk out of the side of my tablet).  Thanks to Michael, my tablet holder is now padded 6 ways to Sunday, so I hope I will be all right.  By time we were done, Larry picked up Michael to go to the movies, and Pat came over to help me hand out flyers in my neighborhood for one of the HOA candidates (Jim Mayer.  I also offered to do Jim Odendahl, but he already had someone to do it).  Pat and I sat and talked for a bit after that, and she finally left to go home and walk her dogs around 9 PM.  Michael came home shortly afterwards and we both sat in the living room, reading our books until bed.

I don’t have any new pictures of my own stuff, but still have some neat things to show you.  Michael has been drawing again, and finished 2 more note cards:

I can't believe what he can draw with just a black pen!

And I got some great birthday cards at my party, a few of which I’d like to share (you may have to click on the pictures to make them bigger so that you can read).  Pat (of course) embroidered a card for me:

 And Loree and Reg gave me a card that really made me laugh:

so true!

But the best was from my friend Jan….OMgosh….so very out of character from what you think of her…but so funny:

Hope you enjoy!!!

new patriotic started, martini night

Michael left just at 8 AM for golfing on Monday (7/25), while I headed to the kitchen to do a bit more cleaning from the party.  He left the car home for me so that I could run errands.  Jan suggested I take my broken tablet to the local UBREAKIT store, and I thought that was a great idea.  Unfortunately, to fix it cost exactly what it costs to buy a new one….so a new one it is :~(.  I did a couple of other errands on the way home, and was finally ready to get back to sewing/embroidering by 1 PM.  I am working on a new patriotic quilt and got my blue fabric all set in 

 before getting cleaned up and leaving for martini night at Donnis’s.  She made flirtinis and watermelon martinis and they were both excellent, as was the food:   

unfortunately I took this pic just before she put out the Philly cheesesteak sliders

We played Pictionary afterwards…it was a lovely evening and I was home just before 10 to read for an hour before bed.