Activities

Here is the newest picture of Dad. We went to the neurologist on Thursday, except for a little weakness on the right side, he is doing great. We are so grateful. We are keeping him busy this week.

My Sister, Linda, is here visiting from Maine. She arrived on Tuesday.There was weather, so her plane was later.She came through Philadelphia. Now that she is here Maine and the East coast is getting snow. Will it ever end!!!!! We stopped at Fermi Lab in Batavia to show her the buffalo herd. They were all in the barn yard. We kept trying to take the greatest picture. Oh well, at least you can tell it is a Buffalo!!!

Linda is staying at Dad's place. I took her to Little Traveler in Geneva on Friday. We had a girls lunch out and a bit of shopping. She loved Little Traveler. It is a big old house that has been divided up into rooms, each with a different product for sale. Linda had fun checking out and buying some new jewelry. They were decorating for Spring. Seems everyone is ready for the snow to be gone. They always have cute different clothes, jewels, purses, decorating ideas, linens and paper products. It is a fun place to go shopping.

Friday night Andy invited Linda and I to try our hand at line dancing at Saddleup. We did the dance lesson.We had a lot of fun trying. Again, it does not seem to be my strong suit, but I sure like to try. Andy's girlfriend, Alicia, was with Andy. Linda is the one in the vest, I am the one in yellow. The place is really popular. Who knew there was a name for each line dance. It would take a month of Sundays to learn them all.

The clubs have started at Prairie Stitches. Have to get some pictures of my current projects. Now that Dad is home in his apartment, I can start sewing a bit more. So much fabric, so little time!!! There is just too many cute things to work on.

Still have 2 block to go on this months Farmer's Wife. Tomorrow I hope to get them done. Have the binding almost done on the basket quilt. Not much time left before the Pride of the Prairie quilt show.

Until next time, Happy Quilting.

Earthquake in Illinois

Good Morning, Wow what a night! I felt my first earthquake!!!! At about 4:00am this morning a 4.3 magnitude quake hit 5.5 miles east of Sycamore, Illinos. It was 3.1 miles underground. The news said the epicenter was just south of Gilberts.


I happened to be awake, thinking about the quilt I had ruined yesturday, when it felt like something hit the side of the house, and all the windows rattled. Now the first thought was earthquake, but no, couldn't be, it had been snowing all yesturday and the wind had been blowing all night. Then I thought no, it was just my husband repositioning himself in bed. I knew for sure it was real when my 23 year old son, who returned home last year, ran into our room asking if we had felt the earthquake. I sat up and started to laugh. He had already gotten word from friends in Montgomery and Lisle asking if he had felt the quake.
WGN News said the quake was felt from Wisconsin to Tennessee. Quakes have happened in Illinois before, but I can't say I have ever felt one.


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Now about the quilt I ruined yesturday. I had taken it on the retreat over the weekend. Because I have the cold, thought I would wash it. I had left it in the washtub in the laundry room. I had not realized until the next day(yesturday) that I must have left the faucet open a tiny bit, and it had dripped on the quilt. The quilt was red, white and blue. Some of the reds had run. (The quilt had never been washed) I washed it twice, used biz, and some of the red came out. Then I found Carbona, color run remover. "Does not contain bleach", "Removes unwanted dye stains." Well, not to use on a quilt. It took color out of a lot of things. The quilt has a sort of tan and a gray tone to it now. A lot lot of navy blue looks weird.

Prairie Stitches Quilt Retreat

This is the project I started on Thursday at 9:30 am, after arrival at the Dickson Valley retreat center. It is a mystery quilt, "Carolina Christmas" by Bonnie Hunter. I had printed out the whole mystery so I could cut the fabric before I went. I did not want to haul 2 stacks of Christmas fabric, and what if I did not have enough. As it turned out, I did not have enough neutral Christmas fabrics, and had to pull from the general neutral stash. I still have 5 block to finish to add on. I worked until Sunday morning on these blocks.

We had a grand time. I unfortunately, came down with a cold, but kept on sewing. We had a lot of fun discussing, the weird noises we make at night when we should all be sleeping!!!

Everyone got lots done. It has been fun to see the progress everyone made. There were 18 of us this time. Weather was cold, food was good, friendships firmed up even more. I have to work on more of the pictures I took.