John Deere quilt at SCQ, Barrie Ann & Loree

Michael packed the car for me for quilting Thursday morning (9/29) before leaving for golf.  I headed to quilting….where they worked me like a DOG  :~).  A group of us decided to use this charity day to make a quilt for the man who donated a mid-arm machine to our group.  Apparently he is a NUT for John Deere stuff, so that is the theme we went with.  I had a great group of gals who all pitched in:

front: Loree, Mary, June, Robin and in back: Jerri & Jeri

and by the time we left, this is what we had (thank you to Janice G for the pattern): 

I think it needs a border, so will go through my stash to look for a darker green, plus I may fussy cut some tractors and applique them on.  Barrie Ann stopped by to pick up a few donations from me for the memorial blood drive for her brother:

but not before Loree did her Vanna White impression with the scarf: 

I was absolutely beat when I got home and sat and read my book for an hour before Michael got home from golf….totally disgusted by his score.  We talked for about an hour, then he hopped in the shower just as Al and Lynn arrived (our financial planners from Connecticut).  We went over all of our accounts before heading out to The Fish Market in Baxter Village for a stupendous meal.  For appetizers, Michael had scallops, Lynn & I split a crab/spinach dip and Al had calamari.  Dinner was 2 orders of scallops with bacon/carb risotto, seafood pasta and trout.  All of our meals were incredible and we finished them off with key lime pie, crème brulee and flourless chocolate cake!  We rolled out to our cars, had hugs all around, then we headed for home while Al & Lynn headed for their hotel in Columbia.  They have been on the road for THREE weeks and I’m sure will be so happy to head for home on Saturday.  Michael and I lay like lumps on the couch and watched TV until we waddled off to bed  :~).

gas housers, beau coup Elsie & Cookie, Favorite Things Party

Michael and I ran over to a friend’s house Wednesday morning (9/28) to cut a bunch of her sage.  She said to come whether she was home or not….so that was our early morning activity.  After that, Michael made “gas housers” for his breakfast (he usually does that instead of an omelet whenever he has fresh bread)

and I just had some toast.  After that he left for golf and I settled into my day.  For all of you that constantly ask "don't you ever just do nothing?", Wednesday was it!!!  Even though I had a long list of things I should have been doing…. I just blew it off and I read and read and read and read….all morning and most of the afternoon.  It was heavenly!  I did make a run of hand/face/body cream since I needed that in the evening…otherwise I reveled in the joy of reading, new books from quilting friends  :~).  I had cute furry company snuggling next to me all day: 

Around 5:30 I got cleaned up and headed off to Peggy’s house for a favorite things party.  I met Peggy several months ago at a casual ladies get together, where she talked about this kind of party.  She said she would definitely invite me when she had one, and it was Wednesday night.  There were 18 women there and other than my hostess (that I had only met that once), I only knew one other person slightly.  That was a bit intimidating, but the ladies were all so nice I felt like I fit right in.  Several of them knew ME from my previous demos at Cooking Fingers.  Peggy must have been cooking for a WEEK, because the food was wonderful (I never did get a picture of the dessert table):

Anyway, we all brought several of our favorite things, then basically traded. 

It was lots of fun and I came home with lots of new things to try.  At some point during the evening we had a “how many women can we fit in this chair’ contest…

that was a riot!  I was beat when I got home, and just talked to Michael for a bit before we both headed to bed.

bread, flowers, Cookie, Sandy D's quilt loaded

I haven’t looked at any of my cooking blogs in FOREVER…so that’s what I spent Tuesday morning (9/27) doing…and it was wonderful!  I only got through about a third of them...but that was enough for now.  I did tear myself away a little before lunchtime to get bread baked; I made the dough first thing in the morning (we gave the extra 1/2 loaf away to the guy who made our bread slicer):

   

Thank goodness for my honey or we probably wouldn't even HAVE this bread.  He came downstairs at one point and said "you set a timer for the bread...right?"  I said "oh darn...I set one in the kitchen, but meant to set one down here and I forgot"....Michael said he heard it going off upstairs so we ran up.  Luckily it was only a little overdone  :~).  My honey took the dog for a walk and did a variety of chores around the house and outside (hence the new flowers):

before settling in to watch some golf.  Joanne picked me up at 1 PM for Stitch and Chat and we had a good time there.  When I got home, I started loading up Sandy’s quilt.  Michael ran downstairs at one point to grab the camera to get a cute picture of our favorite cover gal....just hanging out:

look at those paws up on the arm of the chair :~)

Jan called in the late afternoon saying that she had been out all day and just wanted to quietly relax in the evening….so I got to stay home….YAYAYAYAY!!!  Michael left at 6 PM to pick up Larry to see THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and I finished getting Sandy’s quilt loaded up: 

She wanted a Baptist Fan design on her quilt and I didn't have one, so I headed to the internet and found what she wanted (as well as a few others besides  :~).  I bought those designs and got them loaded into my program and then set up the program for her quilt so that I could start quilting early on Wednesday.  My honey was home by 10:30 and we talked for just a bit before bed.

squirrel!, rose, petunias, Rainbow Rectangles - black top done!, martini night

When Michael was done with breakfast on Monday (9/26) he called me to come and look at our deck.  In 10 years we have NEVER seen a squirrel on our deck before! 

Actually, I don’t see nearly as many squirrels down here as I did in Connecticut.  He was really cute, until he started nibbling on my sage  :~(

and we enjoyed watching him for a bit.  I also noticed my honey had picked a long stemmed rose and put it by my reading chair:

After that Michael left to pick up his golfing guys, and I headed to the studio.  I got all of the Rainbow Rectangle rows up on the design wall…and checked them 6 ways to Sunday to make sure they were right before I started sewing them together.  I went upstairs to make my tea a short while later…and couldn’t help thinking how pretty the petunias still looked on our deck. 

They seem to die out, and the foliage looks rather scruffy…then the flowers come back with a vengeance:  After that it was back to sewing.   I got pretty far before I had to leave for my Cooking Fingers meeting….and when I came home I realized that I had put panels upside down on the design wall….I think they’re right now:

I sewed from 2 – 4 PM, and by 4 I had this: 

YAYAYAYAY!!  And if you see any mistakes do me a favor: DON”T TELL ME!!!  But please DO tell me which you like better: 

I thought I was sure which one I liked....but seeing them side by side, I'll have to think about it.  Michael came home with an 85 in golf and he seemed pretty happy.  We worked together for a bit to talk about how to use the fabric I have been given to make a JOHN DEERE quilt.  I was checking my emails before heading upstairs and I thought you might like to see someone else's organizing efforts.  My friend Loree decided to wrap all of her fabric on cardboards...she said it looks so nice and she can see all of her fabric now.  PLUS, it created so much space that she can buy even MORE fabric :~):

By then it was time for Michael to have dinner and for me to get cleaned up to head off to martini night.  It was at Joyce’s house and we sat out on her deck for a bit: 

front:Jane, Pat, Patty, Barb  back: Alice, Bonnie, Joyce

before coming inside for yummy food: 

We were all supposed to bring trivia questions, and that’s what we did for the rest of the evening…it was fun even though I am terrible at trivia :~(.  I got home around 10:30 and read my book for just a bit before heading for bed.