Janice & Dennis, kitty videos

TODAY”S THE DAY!!!!  JANICE & DENNIS ARE COMING TODAY!!!!!

Michael was up before 6 AM on Wednesday (7/18) and was out of the house before 7 AM for the red/white/blue golf tournament here at SCCL.  I was up before 7 AM with lots to do.  I put fresh sheets on the guest room bed and fresh towels in the bathroom, after giving it a quick clean.  I also had flowers for the guest room that Michael picked:  

As well as 2 new beautiful roses for our breakfast table:

After that I settled down to working on the Quilt of Valor, while watching SHETLAND.  Do you know about SHETLAND?  It’s another British/PBS show which I had never seen.  I tried to record the current season (which I believe is season 4), but only got the last 1 or 2.  I didn’t know whether or not I needed to watch the previous seasons to understand what was going on, so I went looking for it and I found it on NETFLIX and am working my way through it.  It is a GREAT show (of the murder mystery type like MID-SOMER MURDERS, but I like it MUCH better), but it really makes me want to go and visit Scotland  :~).  And it makes me very jealous of my friend Inez, who has a son-in-law from Scotland…so she gets to hear that totally sexy accent way more than you or me  :~).  

Michael got home from his tournament after 1 PM….he thought he and Phil did ok, but he didn’t find out until the awards ceremony at dinnertime (they didn’t win anything).  He had a quick shower and headed out for a haircut while I continued sewing/quilting.  By the time Janice & Dennis arrived around 6 PM:  

the Quilt of Valor was done: 

and I had made more progress on sewing the Hunter’s Star quilt into rows:  

The rest of the evening was spent having dinner and talking, talking, talking!!  Janice & Dennis were in Ocean Isle to finalize decisions on the house they are building.  They had so many design choices that it really is like a custom home….I can’t wait to see it in person (sometime next year).  We all finally went to bed around 10:30.

You know, on the way home from the movies the other night, Michael and I had a very interesting conversation kind of about politics in America today.  I’m not sure I can put it into words, but I want to try.  I think it all comes down to how you want your country to be seen, and how you as an American want to be known.  A friend started to rant to me weeks ago about how well Trump is doing because the trade agreements we had previously signed were not ‘fair’ to America.  Apparently he felt they gave much more to other countries than to us.  I guess I see being an American as having been given much right from the get go, and having been able to gain much due to our governing and that yes…we do not need to be the richest and keep the riches of them all, but can share our good fortune and continue to be somewhat altruistic   (unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others (opposed to egoistic – like most of our politicians)).  This is how I would like to see my country behave and how I would like to feel as an American.  (If you ever get a chance to see GUNS, GERMS and STEEL, please watch it.  The book is way too boring and dry, but the movie explained many, many things I have wondered about over the years, about why and how blessed the physical state of the United States has been).  It seemed to me that my friend was 100% behind America getting everything it could.  And there seems to be a lot of feeling that it is OK that hate/dislike is the name of the game for people who are ‘not us’, and that they are wrong in what they do and don’t deserve the same rights and courtesies that are afforded people that ‘are us’ (however you personally define ‘us’).  I know I strongly disagree with that; once you start curtailing one group’s rights, it’s a very slippery slope to all sorts of people being disenfranchised.  That’s a very basic philosophical difference that I don’t think can ever be resolved. 

You know, I have had many, many people sound totally incredulous on such a simple subject as the quilts I give away.  They look at them and say ‘You’re just GIVING them away???  Do you know the kind of people they are going to???  Do you really think they will take care of them???  You don’t want to try to sell them???’  I don’t need to sell them, and I think they go to such worthy causes (and people) that it gives me a lot of pleasure to be able to bring joy and color into someone’s life, who may not have much.  I know my mother felt the same way, and tried to instill that in me.  Between that conversation with Michael, and a conversation about race with the nurse who took my blood on Tuesday, about people who still don’t believe or understand ‘white privilege’, 

(the link is just one example: https://centerforhealthprogress.org/blog/publications/health-white-privilege/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1ZD9wIyr3AIVhzaBCh3QqwraEAAYASAAEgKq1_D_BwE ), 

I have lost some hope.  People think we’ve come a long way, and maybe we have, but what they don’t understand is that we still have a long way to go.  Try opening your mind and reading SMALL GREAT THINGS by Jodi Picoult.   Or NECESSARY LIES by Diane Chamberlain.  Both books are fiction, but based on fact.  The fact that some people feel they have the right to act a certain way or make decisions for entire groups of people not like them.   At this time I do not think my views and life philosophy are in line with the current politicians in power (who seem to be all about more-more-more for me and those that are like me), and that saddens me a great deal.  It feels like altruism is not a thing to be valued any more. 

And I do have more doses of cute today, three kitty videos.  First up, they race around the basement every morning while I am getting my blog out:

So, when Paula was here previously, she asked if the kitties could still fit in the circle cut out of one of their scratching posts.  I didn’t think they still could, so I opened the back of it and they were interested…they each tried to climb in a various times….see one of them in the videos:

QoV quilting started, Paula w/ eggplant parm, AJ

Tuesday (7/17) went by in a flash!  Michael left for breakfast with the guys in the morning, while I headed to the dentist for a routine cleaning.  We both gave blood after that, and got home after 2 PM.  I had a bit of time to wind bobbins and set up the program for the QoV on my frame and get a row or 2 done before we left for the movies:  

I am LOVING this new star pattern...with the stars that have rounded tips rather than sharp points.  I don't know why it speaks to me so strongly, but it does!

We went to see INCREDIBLES 2, and it was really excellent and lots of fun, but I could have done without the 2 – 3 year old in the row behind us who talked through most of the movie  :~(.  We were home around 7:30 PM, just in time to SKYPE with BG for about an hour.  That was wonderful, we showed each other all of our current projects  :~).  

When I went upstairs to watch TV with my honey, we had an unexpected visit….my dear, sweet, generous friend Paula brought down a large plate of eggplant parmesan for my honey, that she made:    

as well as a quart of gazpacho for me!  She had asked me if we liked eggplant parm and I said Michael loved it (but never got any from me!), but I wasn’t crazy about it, so she told me she was making it and would bring some down.  After that Michael and I watched just a bit of TV before bed.

Another dose of cute AND a quilt sighting!!!  AJ at the beach:

See that red/white/blue quilt she's sitting on?  That is one of the baby quilts I made for her (out of the leftovers from her mom and dad's wedding quilt)...glad to finally see it getting some action  :~)

breakfast at Sally's, MESIG show & tell

Thanks to everyone who played…..you were all right, the new color was pink....in beautiful fairy frost fabric from Mary Jo's.  She used to carry this in so many colors and it was a beautiful addition to almost any quilt...~sigh~.  For those who don't know...once her son took over, many of our old favorites (that we bought over and over again in different colors) disappeared, and fairy frost was one of them:  

I gave Michael several fabrics to choose from to make the 48 new HST's, and he originally didn’t want the pink.  Usually I defer to his artistic eye, but sometimes a quilter’s eye is different, and I overrode his choice.  Once the squares were done and the blocks were up on the wall, he agreed that the pink I picked was the right color  :~).

*******************

Michael was up at 6 AM on Monday (7/16) for a very early tee time, while I followed more slowly at 7  :~).  First up was getting the oven up to 425 degrees to start my quiches.  Our oven takes FOREVER to heat up…that took almost 30 minutes.  I popped the quiches in and got my blog out before taking a shower and getting ready to go.  As usual it was a wonderful breakfast at Sally’s:  

Ann Mary & Gale

Ginny & Sally

but I didn’t get home until 12:45!!!  I had time to take the dog out to pee….to make a pit stop myself  :~), and head back out for Machine Embroidery.  OMG!!!  Several new members (including a long armmer....YAY!!!  Can't wait to get to talk to him!!!)  and lots and lots of beautiful things:  

Pat's new garden flag

on a t-shirt

another t-shirt

stitched AND painted

our challenge for month was to do Xmas and use metallic thread

Including the most beautiful and important of all:   

YES!!!!  Pat finished my second bag (a re-do of my airplane bag made many, many years ago).  I have a beautiful coordinating set of bags for our trip next week!!!!!!  

I got home after 3 PM and spent time on the computer as well as talking with my honey before Paula & Doug picked us up at 6:45 for dinner.  We headed to Hickory Tavern for B1G1 burgers.  We dropped the guys off at home and then Paula and I got in the golf cart and went touring the highways and byways of SCCL  :~).  It was a lovely long ride, a lovely talk, and Paula truly DOES know everyone in SCCL!!!!!  Surprisingly enough, when I got home around 8:30 I still had some energy and made a start on sewing some of my Hunter’s Star blocks together:  

I finally headed upstairs at 10 PM and Michael and I watched just a bit of TV before bed.

QoV loaded up, Hunter's Star layout complete, Cookie, bread, quiche

Michael took Cookie for a walk first thing Sunday morning (7/15) while I got my blog out and then started to stitch out a thank you gift.  A friend is hand embroidering something for me and I wanted to make her something as a thank you….I’ll post pictures later on this week.  I had a bit of trouble with my thread on this project and ended up breaking 2 needles while it was stitching out.  So, long story short….this thread is going with me to Machine Embroidery on Monday to be given away….I know someone else can use it….the spool is way too big for my machine to handle.  After that I got a Quilt of Valor from a customer loaded up on Miss Scarlett:

Michael came down in the afternoon to finish laying out the Hunter’s Star quilt with the new quarter blocks….so of course Cookie came along and settled in to sleep next to dad.  She looked so cute with her head up on a pillow that I had to snap a pic or 2:

Here’s how the Hunter's Star used to look:  

And after making an additional 48 HST's, here's how it looks now:

Can you spot the new color?  Let me know in the comments if you see it and I’ll post the picture in tomorrow’s blog.  

We were totally out of sandwich bread, so I got that put together in the afternoon and Michael baked it.  

We had mac ‘n’ cheese (from a box!!!!  That I found when cleaning out my pantry!!!  I have no idea why I bought it!!) and chicken for dinner, after which I put together 2 quiches (to bake in the morning) for tomorrow’s breakfast with the ladies:

first I added Swiss cheese & ham

then added minced onion and asparagus

Here's your dose of cute....I got 2 videos of the Ethel in the morning: