Tuesday December 30th, 2025

[grammiequilts]

Good morning all this year is almost over. It has been a trying year for many, a good one for others, hoping it goes well for all of us.
I have laundry going and that will last most of the morning,,,My chore today is to do a budget for 2026...Ken is thinking about retiring from the trade and maybe just doing the rink a couple of days a week. H wants to know if we can do it and still maintain our life style. ( translate that to how much will I need to keep up my addiction to quilting and his addiction to things he buys on amazon. ) . It is something we have been doing every year, We have a deal...he works and I run the house. I say I am the queen bee and he is the worker bee, It will be time to get the tax papers from last year ready too. that is the worst job/
But the good news is I finished the center block of the Jane quilt it is all hand done and it came out pretty good...there are no quilt police here so I am good... I will try to start the cutting of the second month,,,Im excited
Tonight we are going out to dinner with friends it is Mexican food and a favorite place. My friend Gloria will be leaving next week for 3 months in Florida..so this is our fairwell dinner. I will miss her but we still chat now and then...
We dodged most of the storm but it is snowing right now...we had wind and white outs around but I didnt leave the house My sons said the roads were trecherous and there were pileups all over the freeways,,,typical michigan drivers,,,too fast on bad roads...
well hope you all have a great day,,,enjoy what brings you joy...XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[purrfect-lady]

Good morning,

Well, I've been working on my post for half hour and then, simply deleted it! Argghhh,.,.

LYN, did you get your headlight fixed? A good day will come when you can take Minnie to visit, And when it does I hope she curls up in daddy's arms. They both will love that.

CHRISS, what a dream you had! You would give a dream- decipherer a run for their money! No hill here, and no old vehicles either, unless you count our our 9 yr old trailer, 10 yr old car, 11 yr old pick-up, and 20 yr old tractor. But my brother's place is only 2 miles away and there's a hill there and at the top his "boneyard" filled with old trucks and heavy equipment. Maybe in your dream you took a wrong turn ? And as for sewing block, I've had it, too. The bug doesn't usually come back to bite you, you need to go bite it instead. Like the new old saying goes, Just Do It.

LORI - I will try to concentrate on using my butt and thigh muscles more on the track, but to be honest, at this stage, I'm just happy to be walking. The left leg is having to do the heavy lifting for now and apparently it doesn't like it. I haven't been able to walk much at all since last August.

VAL - I checked out the photo of your quilt. Which grandson is your quilt for? How many grands do you have? I have trouble keeping track.

JANA - I like your confidence in your team. Our victory will be all the sweeter.

MARY Q - got snow? What's the road like in front of your house today? Getting some thing organized - cakes and rolls and patterns - is a great start!

JUDI - how is your back today? congrats on finishing your first block - the big one! how much snow did you get? Or are you still getting it? Is Ken thinking about not doing that 4 month temp job 2 hours away?

FLO - that was quite a temp drop!! I hope your tractor is in a barn or garage for Joe to work on it.

TINA - how is your snow/storm situation? Our news is full of the Big Storm sweeping the entire middle of the country. Were you able to meet your sister for lunch?

Yesterday I walked just one lap - slowly. The shin splints ease up some during the day but hit with a vengence at night. I haven't found a pain med, sleeping pill, or topical cream that touches it. But some good news - I've been able to start walking a little in the house with just the cane - no walker. Maybe by this weekend I can kick the walker to the curb - though it does have a handy little basket that I can carry my stuff around in. I will miss that.

I got more work done on my CW. Only 9 more 'windows' to go and it will be done. Whew! I didn't go into the sewing room yesterday at all so no dinosaurs were "born". Our friend, Tex, brought a pizza over about 3:30, but Annette didn't come. She wasn't feeling well. We had a good visit and got caught up. They just got back from a cruise and he wanted to tell us about it.

Today - Walk, CW's, maybe dinosaurs, and we're going to early dinner at Il Lucano, Italian restaurant with Lee & Lara. After staying in our yard for 7 months, they will finally be leaving in two weeks on their big adventure. They plan to tour the U.S. for a year or more and then if they're ready, settle down somewhere. They don't know yet where that will be. We're going to miss them.

Wishing you all a great day.
Go Hawks!!
mary z
Foxy z

[FlorenceM]

Morning
Maryz, tractor was in barn, but still very cold in there.
Today is grocery shopping. Then play what's next...not sure what that will be. DDIL will probably head over.
Flo

[auntjana]

Good morning!

This is the happy day! No matter what! I have my final DDS appointment in less than 3 hours. I also have a long list of everything I've missed eating! I need to stop off at Costco for milk on the way home. That trip may be more dangerous than at Christmas time!

Worked on the receiving blankets and they are now a upstairs project. My silly old brain, forgot to tell me, to mirror image the stitch on the first one I did. Realized my mistake before the second one and went back and re-stitched my mistake. It's not something I had to rip out, as I trim that edge off as Icrochet. Just made the blanket a tinge smaller. Sarah has the embroidery pattern downloaded, so I can start those blocks, while we wait on the beehive pattern to arrive.

Daniel was over with Karlie. He cleaned and organized the garage. It needed it. He was also hunting through all the extra pieces of wood to use as kitchen cabinet shelves. You see, for some stupid design person, throughout the kitchen cabinet industry, here, thought that lower cabinets need only a half depth top shelf in each lower base unit. How dumb is that! My original kitchen here was that way and so is Daniel's. So he's adding a piece to make that half shelf, a whole shelf, at his house. Scrounging through the stash here. He found what he needed. So my garage is now clean too.

Better get in gear, busy morning and soon I can say, what to eat and punt that blasted plastic fork rule out the door and to the curb! I'm tired of cream of wheat, oatmeal, pancake, or scrambled eggs as my choices for breakfast, i want cold crunchy corn pops or Trix!

Go 9ers! Valerie rooting them on too!
Hugs,
Jana

[WeeOne]

And the hits just keep on coming. The passenger headlight is a wiring harness that can only be bought with the whole headlight assembly, $1,800, but the parts guy will give it to me at almost their cost, $1,200. plus labor for I don't know how many hours. Makes ya want to hug a car manufacturer, doesn't it.

Appliance repairman called, he's supposed to come fix the washing machine today. After a lengthy call where I told him all the things Amanda did and code messages.... he says, go buy a new washer. Said I was lucky to get 11 yrs out of it, usually they die at 6-7 yrs. We'll we've had this house over 4 yrs and haven't been here much to use machine, so guess that works out to just over 7 yrs of use. He suggested Whirlpool.

Oh, forgot to mention the scorpion I found next to Minnie's new toy, which was near my kitchen chair last night. I stomping on it, covered it with a paper towel and stomped a couple more times for good measure, then threw it outside. New pest company is going to be fired!!

Garry's the same.

I hope y'all have a better week than what I'm having.
Lyn

[maryq]

Good Morning Girls

Happy New Years Eve Eve! Another "freeze your tush" day in MN. It was sunny when I woke up but clouds have moved in and there is snow in the air again! Finally got plowed out late yesterday afternoon! Not that I'm going anywhere... I have a mini-disaster here--think a LQS that exploded!

Judi... You must have gotten the end of our storm. Not sure what our snow total was from yesterday, with the wind and drifts it was hard to tell. I had almost 2' on my front patio, but there were spots on the driveway where there was none. Good idea to start the new year out with a budget plan, even if it goes to hell by May, at least you had a plan!! My feeling is, at this point in our lives, we should do just want brings us the most joy---unless of course it ends up leaving us homeless!

Maryz....Any progress is good news! Hopefully by, oh I don't know, end of February you can be cane free too? OH gosh, that is going to be weird to have that empty spot in your yard where L & L are! Oh but what an adventure for them. What they are doing is what I had hoped to do when Dex and I retired. Spend winters on the road and summers parked near a lake in MN! Somedays now, I just want to get out of Minnesota!

Flo... Did you finish your dress? ONE of these days I'm going to try to make myself a light jacket... I've had the pattern forever and Katie has given me a beautiful piece of linen that I'd like to use. I don't see that happening in the foreseeable future tho, as well, you should see the mess I've created sorting jelly rolls and layer cakes.

Jane.... First thing I said when I read your note about kitchen cabinet--WHAT? only 1/2 a shelf! That's just silly!! Do they think that would prevent things getting pushed way to the back? Ok, I only have one lower cabinet like that, but that's where I stick stuff I rarely use--glass cake pans, stand mixer, even a set of stainless bowls that were my Mom's. But seriously a 1/2 shelf!! It's my theory, you can never have to many shelves!!

Chriss.... Don't you wonder where silly dreams come from!!? Every once in a while I will dream about being back at my job and I wake up screaming!! SO glad you found new washer/dryer--and Whirlpool!! I've always loved Whirlpool appliances and wonder why I didn't buy all Whirlpool when I bought all new when I moved. I've decided from now, I'm going to buy American built--or at least when you call for help, they speak English. When you "register" your machines, they will offer you a maintenance plan (not the one that Lowes offers) and it's only like $4.00 a month. I got it just in case, on my new dishwasher!

Lyn... Guess I didn't really clearly. I thought you had brought Minnies to visit. I think of you so often during the day, and hope that Garry is comfortable and happy to be so well taken care. Yup, things now a built to break!! I agree... Whirlpool!!! They say stuff comes in 3's---how many Jeep fixes have you needed? and top that off with washing machine? I think you've hit more than 3!

Lori.... Never knew that about wool!! Katie listed all the fabric she got, man there was some weird stuff in those boxes. Had a little of that "musty" smell but wasn't too bad! I made myself a wool dress once in about 1969 and wondered why I itched all day! There were some beautiful pieces in the pile, but not enough to do anything with. Oh seriously you have enough fabric!!?? I didn't know there was such a thing!

Valerie.... I tried to google that Pirouette pattern, but it came up with several different options. I actually think I do have some fabric with matching layer cake, charms and jelly rolls. I think it was called "Lady Slipper Lodge".

Ok guys, I have to admit something and if you repeat this...... I have TOO much fabric. And tho that's nothing something a quilter NEVER says. Valerie can attest to tote boxes in my garage. The kids were going to come help me rearrange yesterday, but I couldn't get the car out to make room to work--snow drift at garage door. So I spent the day sorting layers cakes (about 12 maybe) and Jelly rolls (about 25?) and matching each to a pattern. I went through several BLOCK magazines, online tutorials, patterns I have on hand and now have probably 15 "kits" ready to do. I have two projects I'm in the middle of, so as soon as I finish those, I'll grab a kit and sew!! A lot of the BLOCK patterns make bigger quilts, so I'll be "shrinking" a little to make quilts that I can do myself, probably no bigger than 50 x 60 or so--in that range. I've looking to make fast and easy quilts and donate to either local nursing homes or to the local cancer center for their chemo patients, and to the Bundles of Love for babies--with the right fabric--(the fabric they give me is so UGLY---- who wants a baby quilt made from Christmas fabric--ugh) All the use it 8" squares, so I can use up my left over 10" inchers!

So for now I have to go finish cleaning up that project. Not sure when/if the kids will be able to come over today or tomorrow. They don't go back to school until the 11th. Bren and Shawn are going up north Ice fishing this weekend.

Wishing you all a great day!

[auntjana]

OK - first off - quoting Mr G - there's no such thing as too much fabric! So glad he said that.

Second - Lyn - Daniel has 4 Jeeps, I think, maybe more, and currently, not a one is in running order! His newest one, the Gladiator, has a blown head gasket, possible blown engine, the after market insurance says it doesn't cover that , so Daniel has the skills to repair the Glad and it now sits in my driveway. Daniel already replaced his headlight system in the Glad too. Makes me wonder about QC control at Jeep manufacturer. I feel for you!

[Quilter7]

Good late morning,

It is raining lightly here. Two more storms are positioning themselves to arrive tomorrow and Friday, both are predicted to last two days, so that is four days of rain plus today. Who says it never rains in California?

Maryz - I am working on Sew Many Notions blocks that I bought as a kit from QIAD. It is kind of cute and gives me small projects to work on. I also just started a Blooming Flowers Bag kit from By Hands Just Crafts. I need to do some wool applique work on the front of the bag as well as on a pocket on back of bag. I need to bind, make a sleeve and label for a quilt for the Guild Show in February as well.

Glad you are finishing up your Cathedral Windows. You have worked quite steadily on it and are seeing it done fairly quickly. Congratulations! The dinosaur quilt should be quite cute. You have made such great progress physically on your back and hip. When do you start PT?

Judi - Congratulations on finishing your first applique block! You will be finished with the entire quilt by June at the rate you are progressing.

Maryq - Another idea for a fast quilt is a braid quilt. I have Eleanor Burns Signature pattern; however, a friend has made several from a book. She is using fat quarters, and she says there are no leftovers. I am ready to try a few myself.

Jana - Sounds like quality control is truly lacking on those jeeps!

Lyn - Glad you consulted an honest repairman about the washing machine. Chris just replaced hers too.

Chriss - I think you said you needed to get into a routine. It is something that is recommended for retirees. I have been trying. Last year I said I would work on one cupboard in the kitchen at a time each day and it worked. It limited the amount of time, and I didn't grow frustrated with it.

Valerie - You have really worked on getting projects completed. It is amazing!

I need to work in the kitchen for a while this morning. I intend to make a soup starter so I can make Navy Bean Soup for New Year's Day. We have leftover ham. Tonight, will be Rice Casserole with Chicken for dinner.

Carol

[Marilynsgrammy]

Good morningafternoon. I am starting this in the morning but we all know how that goes, by the time I am done it will be afternoon.

It's turning into a beautiful day today. I got a call at 7:30 and my new washer and dryer arrived by 8am. I put my old ones on the free site on FB and a young mom with little kids came and got them. Blessing for her and for me. Now I get to learn how to actually use the new set. I still need to learn how to work my car, I'm behind.

Jana, I think those squirrels stopped by here on their way to Sarah's. Happy new teeth day to you. Silly Jana, Trix are for kids. Hope that your garage stays clean and organized. Everytime I do some organizing in my garage my dad plays in it. it's a tail chaser for sure.

Valerie, I really like that pirouette pattern. I bet it could be done really scrappy and look good too. Sticking to sewing instead of video games is good advice.

Judi, do you really think Ken will retire? What ever happened with the test he had. Sorry can't remember if it was a prostate or mri or what. So glad you got that center block done and are happy with it. Enjoy dinner out.

Maryz, dang, 7 months really flew by. Don't go kicking that walker, it might lead to your falling and needing it again. Glad you got a lap and are getting around better. You can hang that basket on a chain and call it a necklace. I'll get back in that sewing room eventually

Lyn, it does seem like one thing on top of another at times. I've only done one load in my new W&D but it seems to work just fine. They are bigger than my old ones but I wanted bigger so I could wash more than one quilt at a time. Hope you find the perfect pair, I was looking online then finally just went into the store. Don't forget to have them add any plugs and hoses that aren't included. It will get better, keep looking up

Maryq, I have been thinking the same as you are thinking. too much fabric. I don't even have a clue what I have, it's overwhelming. Like you I need to kit it up and sew. And every time you say 10 inch squares or jelly rolls I want to ask you to post a picture. Your charities will be thrilled with your quilts in the coming year. Did you see the sew along I posted to the FB site? It's going to be cute.

Carol, last year I went through my whole house. I bought totes and put the kids' names on them. I put family things in their totes and stored them in the garage. Other stuff I donated to a thrift store that supports a Christian school in town. I could use one more go around the house. I have empty cupboards and drawers in the kitchen and bathrooms. I think I am going to try a daily routine, get up, read my devotions, exercise, sew, on and on and on. I'm hoping a daily routine will become a habit. But a habit that if skipped, isn't a big deal. Jerry used to make that ham and bean soup and he'd make fried potatoes and corn bread to go with it. My gosh it was good.

And just like that, with quite a few interruptions, it's afternoon. I have hamburger thawing for dinner tonight, maybe just a cheeseburger without bread but with all the trimmings.

You all have a super duper day.
Chriss

[Quilter7]

Chris’s - I have an acronym SEW — Spiritual, Exercise, Work—all together sew. I think it is my personal and private joke.