Thursday June 5th

[grammiequilts]

Good morning, I was up at 530. Ken was up getting ready for work so I just got up. I have some laundry to do and then I am meeting a couple of friends for breakfast, after a chat with them I will stop at the grocery store for a few things, Home to finish laundry and more hand binding,
I know I can get sound advice here,,,,We are invited to my great nieces graduation party at my nieces home. Her husband has a son from a previous marriage that we have never met...He is graduating also, so it is a joint graduation party. how do I handle the gifts? We have been pretty close to Evelyn but dont know this boy at all never met him...we didnt even know her husband had a child that age....What to do?
Ok Im off to get some laundry done before I leave...Have a wonderful day. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[FlorenceM]

Morning Judi and all to follow,
I've been doing yard work in between storms. Some weed patches are almost to my waist because of the rain. Babysitting and teaching young mom to cook is taking a lot of my time too. Haven't done any sewing in awhile & my machine is crying from loneliness.
We are refy-ing house to get some equity our for new roof. We thought metal roof, which came with house, was life time maintenance free. Boy are we wrong. There is yearly maintenance that needs to be done that even the previous owners never did! So we are going with conventional shingles. And the cost is crazy!
Time to run.
Flo

[velvet]

Good rainy and needed day here in Myrtle beach. Should hang around here for the next 2 days. YAHOO!!
We need the rain.

JANA--Please be patient with your hubby over the cell phone issue. It is not worth it for him or you. If you have teenagers around let them help him. They grew up in this world of high-tech so its all normal for them. This is pretty new to the "older" folks. The words and symbols are a foreign language to them. I know all about this because --I AM ONE OF THEM--

I have been trying to work down my stash but I still have a lot of fabric. I found quite a few of patriotic panels and would share if you pm your addresses


I have had a bad case of the blues for the last year with Joes cancer. Hope as time goes by my fears will slow down.
Diane

[purrfect-lady]

Good morning,

The coffee is brewing and the boys are waiting for their breakfast. I make them wait until at least 0500 because as soon as Dog-boy eats he runs downstairs and wakes up his father to take him outside. And thus it goes every morning of our lives. And did you realize that yesterday was National Hug Your Cat Day?? We certainly celebrated here. It's like Foxtrot could read the calendar and made sure he got all the hugs and loving due a good cat.

TINA - hi!! Good to see you again! So nice of you to help out Holly and the boys. The kitty is beautiful but hard to spot!

LYN - That must have been scary, watching outside weather and hearing the sirens. I think if I heard tornado sirens I wouldn't stay in a meeting but would be looking for the nearest basement! Will you be heading for Canada this weekend?

JANA - I've often thought of sending you a box of Calgon! So you are washing furniture because you are frustrated?? I call that rage cleaning. It's when I do my best work! Did Karlie ever get a new kitty?

MARY Q - It wasn't Saturday yesterday! What's with all the mid-week chores keeping you from enjoying your coffee on the patio! Purrfect mornings don't happen every day. Grab them when they do! I think if I were running a storm shelter I'd allow pets. Because first, I would never leave mine alone in a possible tornado, and second, I know many others, like your BFF, wouldn't either and therefore would stay home. So, didn't you have news of a third baby in the family that you were going to make a quilt for, (before this latest baby announcement, I mean.) Am I dreaming? Did that happen? And did you make a quilt? And my dishwasher dries the dishes. There are settings to choose about drying. Yours doesn't?

VAL, by my count, that's 6 different quilts you are working on. And did you get your DH's blue quilt finished? I don't know how you do it! Glad the blocks got there. I figured you didn't need an extra block but thought you could do something with it. I'm happy you are finally getting to plan your trip! We are, too.

JUDI - You do have a conundrum with the graduation party. If the party is also for the boy, you really can't ignore him. I would say a card and some $$ would be the way to go. We got an invitation to to my late husband's half-sister's grandson's grad party. We've never met this boy and haven't seen his parents since their wedding day. No Christmas cards - (no wedding thank you!) - no contact of any kind. I ignored it but did save it to give Lara when she gets here because the dad of the graduate is her cousin on her dad's side. Maybe she wants the contact. And yay! Two quilts done and ready to bind! Did you get some quality time with your machine? When I bought my machine, a big selling point was to oil it you just had to put 1 or 2 drops into tiny red hole in the throat plate. Easy peasy! But after a few years they said don't do that after all. People were putting too much oil in and it was getting on their fabric. (never happened to me). So, once, after service, I saw there was a new throat plate with no more little red hole. The hole is still there but it's not red any more. I still put a single drop in when I oil the machine, but I do the rest of the oiling as shown on the screen, too.

CHRISS - I didn't know your kids moved! I hope it's not too much further for you to go. And I hope they bought a house with an extra room for Gramma if she chooses to spend the night. And HAPPY ELLIOTT DAY!! We want pictures tomorrow! When we go to see Amara next we'll also have to find their new place. It's only a few blocks from their present house, but they have to be out of house #1 by June 15 but can't move into house #2 until July 1. So they are busy packing and having garage sales, will put their stuff into storage, and spend those two weeks traveling to PA to see Antonio's family.

LORI - A few years ago we went to an elder law attorney and set up a revocable trust. It's supposed to make everything easier for family. But don't put your car in it. The trust protects your assets. But if your car is included, and you get in an accident and get sued, they can sue for everything in the trust.

DIANE - always good to hear from you. I hear ya on trying to work down your stash. I am, too. I just weeded out 2-1/2 large totes, plus some patterns. Gave it all to my SIL. I hope all of Joe's ca troubles are OVER.

FLO - I also thought metal roofs were lifetime. Never heard about necessary maintainence. Good to know. Hope you get some sewing time soon.

We got some good news yesterday. We finally got Bill's biopsy results back and they say only 1% chance of malignancy. But dr will advise another ultra sound in 6 months which he can get in Texas. So now, we can start making travel plans. We want to do cross country trip to east coast, then south, then to Texas for the holidays, home the end of January.

I heard from IRISHyesterday! She has been busy taking care of a mama cat and 6 babies! If anyone is in need of some kittens, she's your gal! Plus, Irish has also been busy with a - how shall we term him? - gentleman friend? Boy toy? Anyway, she sounds very happy, but hasn't had much time to sew.

And I texted BECCA - she is doing OK, slowly recovering, wishes it was faster recuperation, of course. She likes to keep busy. Appreciates any and all prayers.

Well, I got rejected by the dentist again yesterday for high BP. But I still got my hug from him. My third appt of the day was at my doctor's where I was put on BP meds. I need to pick up that Rx today. And I have another appointment June 25 for a recheck and July 2 I go back to the dentist for that crown. Hopefully. In sewing news, I have my red/white Ohio Star more than halfway assembled. Not sure if I'll have time to work on it today. JUDI, you asked me a few days ago if this was a Christmas quilt. Well, I just noticed I got the pattern from 2024 Christmas issue of APQ magazine. It's all red/green/white so maybe yes, this could be a Christmas quilt, though I didn't use Christmas fabrics. Just a variety of reds/whites, and green cornerstones and middle border. Hope to have a photo to share soon.

This morning I need to go to the store to get sugar and pectin to make 2 batches of strawberry jam. Then massage appt - then home to make the jam. (my favorite is raspberry but that's next month with blackberry in August). Then we lost our heads for a bit and invited two couples (Tex & Annette and Doyle & Susie) for a hearty happy hour 3:30 to 5:30 on the deck. So I have some trays of food to prepare this afternoon - cheese/crackers/meats, olives, nuts, grapes, pineapple, carrots, peppers, chips, dips, chocolates, lemon cookies, etc. D&S always stay two hours and go home as we do when we go to their house. But Tex & Anette often stay until bedtime! Bill stressed with them to come "visit for a couple hours" so we'll see. This is why we don't invite them too often. Tex is a talker and when one of us falls asleep he never misses a syllable, but just shifts his gaze to the other one! We still love them, but just don't invite them so often.

So if you're looking for me today, I'll be in the kitchen!

Happy Thursday!
mary z
>^+^<

[fabricgirl]

Good morning,

I have been very busy cleaning Bill did the dusting and he's now vacuuming the floors while he's doing that I'm folding a load of wash and after that I will wash the floors and once again it will be clean in here since I've been playing in my room instead of doing it.
Yesterday I took out a pattern that I got from sew kind of wonderful I was intrigued with it .
It's called attic windows and there looked like stained glass windows but I don't have the right kind of fabric to make it stained glass just want to ask your opinion would you do this in batiks to get a stained glass affect?

Well it's time for me to get back to work.
Have a great day.
Prayers to all.
Lois

[WeSignificant]

Good morning, starting for the 2nd time, first one went POOF!

Maryz I get bored easily so having a few going at the same time is okay. The blue quilt is the Blueberries and cream. I have half the blocks done. I am a little side tracked as one of the ladies I sew with (84 yrs young) got frustrated with her Kira so I am finishing the top for her. I will give it to another girl who has a group that makes quilts for breast cancer patients. They have quilters who will quilt it for free. So glad to hear Bills biopsy came back good. Are we still going to be on the road at the same time?

Tina when I am gone on vaca will you come clean my house too? That was so nice of you to do that. Isn't tomorrow the big party. Have a great time.

Lyn aren't there place you are supposed to go when you hear those sirens?

Judi I am with Maryz, I don't think you can ignore it. I too would get a card and some $. I really can't manage well when a kid feels left out.

Chriss the kids moved? Did I know that? Was this sudden? I think they should have moved the other direction, closer to you. But that's just my opinion.

Diane I have been trying to work down the stash a bit too but seems when I use some I buy some more. I need to figure this out.

Flo never really thought of the life of a metal roof.

Well I need to get some chores done, DH cousin comes tomorrow and I need to get a bit more cleaning done.

Have a great day

For those of you who don't know, a trust is a good thing to have but there are still steps you have to follow to disperse the assets. I found it a bit overwhelming with the paperwork but still must be done. I also discovered that annuity companies will not help you with the paperwork. There must be some benefit to them keeping the funds.

[auntjana]

Good morning!

Bright and sunny in the mornings, then cloudy with rain in the afternoon. Not much rain, more like just enough to dirty your car!

I have just on cushion left to clean. It's a big sofa! Went and stocked in a few groceries, needed milk. Seems like any time we go out, some criminals decide nearby to misbehave. Yesterday, it was a shooting, near to us, while we were at Costco and the shooter took off and hid at a house in Herriman. The other day, if was a full on police chase that happened on the road we were driving on. And that turned 8nto a SWAT standoff. I'll find out the rest of the story later today. And stay home! LOL

Finishing the binding on Andrew's quilt. He will need to find room in his luggage for it. Glad it has a thin Batt. So far, he's really enjoying the mission work. I know there will be good days as well as bad days.

Ethan and my other littles are done today with school. So as the favorite cartoon show around here says, it's 104 days of summer vacation. Phineas and Ferb is the favorite cartoon. And so starts summer here!

No Karlie hasn't found a new kitty yet. Daniel was waiting until trips settled down. Kari wants a Maine coon cat, so that's a possibility. The new kitty will need a personality to pass the Daniel requirement. Daniel is the cat whisperer, all the cats seem to like him best. Drives Kari nuts!

Time to scoot

Hugs and thanks,
Jana

[auntjana]

Humm - just read a article where Michael's announced that the stores are increasing the amount of fabrics they'll carry, as well as other supplies. Michael's also purchased rights to JoAnn's private label of things. We'll see if Michael's ups the quality of the fabric as time goes by, we can hope.

Also made a new version of orange chicken. Super easy. It uses ground chicken, you cook up and then add orange sauce, serve in a lettuce wrap or over rice. I did ours over a quick fried rice. It turned out really well. Making your own scratch orange sauce, allows you to control the spicy heat of the sauce. I cheated and used Pandas orange sauce in the bottle. A bit spicer than our liking, but OK. I also could control how much I cooked, as not to have a bunch of leftovers.

[fabricgirl]

Jana thanks I was not aware that Michael sold fabric.

Lois

[zfatcat]

Jana, I saw a sign outside out Michaels that said they sell fabric, but I didn't see any in the store. Maybe it's coming soon. They might be taking over Joann's fabric since they had their own line. Oh happy day for the kiddos.

Valerie, that's nice of you to help the lady with her Kira quilt. Trusts also keep you from having to pay probate.

Lois, I think batiks would be perfect for that kind of quilt.

Maryz, my parents trust is irrevocable. Once my mom passed my dad could no longer change it. The trust I have is revocable. And yes, anything attached can be used against it. I'm going to get my 2 boxes of wool out of the cupboard and purge some of it. It's been sitting up there untouched for over a year. I'll keep a little for a project or two. I went a little crazy when the Primitive Gatherings store came to SoCal. Good thing it's an hour and 15 minute drive to get there. I do like there cotton there as well.
Thanks for the update on Irish and Becca. How fun it must be to have baby kittens.

Chriss, I bet you are having a blast with Elliott. He's almost 9 months now? I bet his little personality is coming out. Glad the kids found a place. Is there a room for Grandma to stay over?

Diane, I keep saying I need to use my stash, but I seem to always need a little something that I don't have.
Hope your blues are getting better.

Flo, I did not know that about metal roofs either. I'll have to tell my son in TX. He had one put on last year.

Judi, I would say if you don't know the young man just get him a card.

I made cookies this morning, and the last sheet is in the oven. I need go to Trader Joes and do some shopping. Then my day is free. I walked both boys since Bill is off playing golf again today. I might go to the farmers market this afternoon. Dinner will be chicken and fried rice.

Have a lovely day.