A Tisket A Tasket

I've bought another basket! Whether I go southwest, to Elkin, or north, to Mt.Airy, I ALWAYS stop at the Goodwill Stores. Guess I am adicted. (sigh) This week, while in Mt.Airy, I found this handmade "quilting" basket. I gave one dollar for it! It is about 13inches square, and a 12 & 1/2 inch block just fits in it. What a find!! The blocks in the basket are the Jacob's Ladder blocks I am working on. I had enough fabric for 16 blocks, but will add tan and brown borders to make it larger. I have yet to discover what the two dowel rods in the handle are for???

Earl Grey had a birthday very recently. He turned two years old. The terrible two's. He has always been active (make that destructive), and I was hoping he'd calm down with age, but not yet anyway. Guess that's what makes Earl Grey...Earl Grey!

Days and nights are cooler now, and I have not had to run the air conditioning all month. Have not turned on the heat yet either. Should save a little on the power bill, anyway. The leaves are just beginning to change colors. This time of year always makes me sad though, as it was 51 years ago in October that I left my beloved Michigan.

That awful black shetland!

I hate the stuff, uh..the awful black shetland...but Earl loves it!! I took a photo of the wool on my son's drawing table and turned around on the computer to download the photo. My son said "look at Earl". There he was, wallering in the wool. Donald took the photo of Earl. I posted a photo a year ago of him in the green box with the carded fleece. Must be the smell. I ended up with 14 skeins. Have not weighed it yet but each skein is usually around 2 oz. I'll figure out what to do with it later (but I won't be giving it to Earl!). He had a lot more fun with the stuff than I did. Did I mention that the last 4 or 5 carded bats had rose bush thorns in it!!! That's a first for me. I've had to deal with sandspurs (I lived in South Florida for many years and am familiar with those!), but rose bush thorns (BIG ones) are a first for me!

This photo is better!

My helpful son has enlarged the photo for me. I am very grateful that he will help me out when there is something I just don't understand about the computer. He said he used something called "paint"...it's Greek to me.

All dressed up

My daughter has sent a photo of one of her students at the college. Her name is Victoria, and she is studying Japanese language on Fridays on her lunch-time. This week, my daughter brought along some clothing of her's from when she lived in Japan and dressed up her student, Victoria. I thought she looked cute, and asked my daughter to send me a copy of the photo she took. Sorry it so small, but I cannot figure out how to make it larger since I copied it from an email. Victoria gave her permission for me to post her picture.

I have never heard back from the Hatteras Cat people. Either they are shut down because of the Hurricane Irene, or they are no longer in business. I will remove the picture on the sidebar soon.

Today is World Wide Spinning in Public Day. Since we already went to Leslie's in Meadows of Dan last month...no spinning in public was planned today. However, I did FINISH spinning that awful black shetland wool last week. I will take a photo soon...hopefully! No decisions made on how to actually use the awful stuff. It was a whole fleece, so there is enough to maybe make a sweater?? Ugh!

MUCH cooler weather here. In the 50's yesterday and today. People were wearing coats at the grocery store this morning!! I love it! Enjoy your weekend...

Touching her toes

This has been an "interesting" week. Previously it was an earthquake and a hurricane, this week it was another hurricane and tornadoes!! One hurricane went to the right of us, this last one went to the left of us. We spent Monday and Tuesday under tornado warnings...and there was damage in the area to prove it. The only damage to our property was to my nerves, thank God!! I've gotten next to nothing done and am glad it is Friday. The above photo is of the Chan. She wasn't worried...not at all (Earl was!).

An earthquake and a hurricane!

As many of you know, last week we had an earthquake in eastern USA. Our nearest town is on a fault line. At 1:50pm it began shaking here. I was in my bathroom and the shower doors begin vibrating. We had a minor earthquake a few years ago, right after my daughter returned from Japan and she told me what that one was! We had no damage, although it was the talk of the campus for a day or so. Yesterday, Hurricane Irene came up the coast. We live in the northwest corner of NC, (it is considered mountains here!) so the hurricane really had little effect here. Not a drop of rain, but the sky was very cloudy and we had 30 mile an hour wind gusts. I liked the wind. It was a cooler day here. But...I got to thinking about the famous feral cats on Ocracoke Island and Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. It concerns me that these famous feral cats were in harms way. I have not yet heard how they fared, but I have added a button on the side-bar to direct you to their website if you can help. I'm thinking I might purchase some of their "homemade" cat-treats.

Hope you are safe where you live, and have a blessed Sunday.

Folk Festival in Virginia

Last Saturday, my daughter and I went to the Folk Festival/Peach Festival in Meadows of Dan, Virginia. Kathleen worked on a tri-shawl and I am still spinning that awful black Shetland wool (but am determined to finish it!). My friend Leslie, who invited us to come and spin with her, was working with some off-white Suffolk-mix wool on her Great Wheel. I have never spun on a Great Wheel (requires too much standing!), so I spent a lot of time watching the process. The weather was lovely...the sun was shining and it was not too hot to be outside. My good friend from Mount Airy, who I haven't seen in awhile stopped by, and I am so glad to see her looking so well!! We don't realize how much we miss someone until we haven't seen them in awhile. Life is funny like that. The top photo is of my daughter, and the bottom photo is my dear friend Leslie. Some people take such great and lovely photos (I do not, so I'm not posting the photo of myself and Leslie, 'nuff said.) My thanks to Leslie, for hosting the event, and to my daughter, for driving us up the mountain!

I won something!

I like to enter the give aways on the blogs I frequent. I have never won anything though...until now. I especially liked a charm package (5 inch squares) listed on the Kansas Troubles Quilters blog and left a comment. I was so surprised when her dear Grandaughter picked me! She said I must be a nice lady because I had Hello Kitty next to my name. I liked that. Well, at first I didn't know what to make from the 5 inch squares, (and she'd also sent some 2 1/2 inch squares, too)...then it came to me like "duh" just put them together as is. I love the Fall colors and am using a "tea-dyed" solid color muslin backing. It looks so "rustic". I love it already. Thanks again, Lynne! Click on the photo (twice) to make bigger to see the fabrics!!

I have been keeping busy this summer, but try to put off as much as I can until cooler weather. I have never seen such a stretch of 90+ degree weather before!! I'm a cooler weather person, and hate this hot-stuff. The health insurance company, in order to get us older folks active, is paying for our membership at ProHealth, and my daughter and I drive the 30 minutes once a week to "walk-in-the-water". I love it!! I can swim, and do quite a bit, but it is also enjoyable to just walk back & forth, too. (Just have to get out of the way before those "agressive" aerobic people come & take over!). Am still making crochet Prayer Shawls this summer. When most of the group takes off to enjoy their summer...I get going. My daughter has also made several, too.

That's about it...hoping it cools off soon, hope you are enjoying your summer, whereever you are. God Bless!