a top and an apology

Let's start with the apology.

Blogger decided I did not want to get an email about any comments.  I thought it odd I hadn't seen any on my last two posts.

Oh.

You all did comment.

But now I can't reply to them.

At all.

Ack.

So, I'm sorry for not responding to any of you.  I'm not always good about replying to comments (sometimes they just don't seem to need a reply, sometimes I'm just busy and forget), but sheesh.

I went in and gave them my email address AGAIN (because apparently it's not there any more), so here's to hoping I can get future comments and not ignore you all.

Thank you to all of you for your kind words, support and help with fist-shaking at my troubles of late.  It's nice to know friends out in cyberspace are cheering me on.  I appreciate all the positive vibes.  Perhaps they are helping to make things better?

Because it's been a week (please all of you knock on wood for me!) since I've had any additional troubles with the stolen check business.  I mean, I'm still waiting for all the paperwork to work through the channels it has been sent, but at least I'm not getting additional problems.  (Knock on wood again, okay?!)

I haven't been sewing much lately.  Life just seems to be happening at a racing pace and I'm hanging on for dear life, trying to get the important things done before the sun sets 15 minutes after it has risen.  (Or so it seems.)

Oh dear, no photos yet.  Hang on.

The sewing I have been doing is mostly to close the cat toys after stuffing them with catnip and donated stuffing.  (My friends are awesome, even if they are just trying to offload "junk" from their craft stash!)

No photos of that, but I did finally get the stupid brown quilt together!

I decided the other day to just sew this together.  Get it done.  Out of the way.  Off the list.

I then spent 15 minutes trying to find the sashing.  I was SURE I'd cut it. I found the remaining background - enough for binding, though not yet cut - and couldn't figure out WHERE I would have put the sashing.  I mean, all the block parts were in a single box.  Why wouldn't the sashing be there, too?

And where are the cornerstones?  Was I planning to decide on those later?  Hmmm...that seems more plausible than not cutting any sashing.

But I probably would have cut the binding at the same time, so maybe I'd had yet another yardage miscalculation?

Finally I gave up and went back to the pattern to see how this goes together to recut the sashing.

Guess what?

Yeah, you see it.

No sashing.

Well.  Some days I'm blonder than others.

Shortly thereafter, sewing commenced.  A break to make a meal for the hubby, but this didn't take long.  20 blocks go together pretty fast when they're just 20 blocks.

But this quilt is a monster.

(Speaking of monsters...)

It is 80x100"!

I had planned to donate this for charity, but am worried this will be too big?

But it is a top.  I can set it aside for now and debate how to deal with the size later, right?  And I like it better now that it's a top and I can see it from a distance.  But I'm nowhere near in love with it or feeling the need to keep it.

Now I can start the baby quilt.

Not that this was stalling me.  It was actually the fabric I chose for the background of the quilt that was keeping me on pause.  I just wasn't feeling it.  I wasn't even sure when I bought it that it was right.

Today I bought something else.  Something better!  I took a photo, but it's a white-on-white (I know, I know, it's a BABY quilt, but trust me) so the photo looks like white.  So I guess I'll have to promise you photos when I start sewing?

I plan to use the Preppy the Whale pattern and I think the whales will be greens and blues.  (It's a boy.)  From my stash.

And yesterday I found out my niece is pregnant again.  She is due in February, so the search begins for her now.  (Remember she got this quilt for her first.)  You know I'll keep you posted.

Oh boy, more words need more photos...

Last weekend the hubby went up north for a cousins overnight at a cabin that one cousin's family own. And said cousin told him we needed to do our pig roast again.  We'd done them yearly for a while, but a number of things just made it too much work.  So we discontinued.  Well.

Sunday the hubby asked.

Monday we ordered a pig, rented a roaster, rented a port-a-potty (we have just one bathroom and that was one of the troubles in the past), made a flyer and invited everyone we know.  Well.  Almost everyone we know.  If you live 100+ miles away, you probably didn't get invited.  (But if you know us in person and are reading this and want to make the drive, you know how to get a hold of me to get an official invite!)

So that will happen in about a month.

The big things are taken care of for that already, so now we just have to get the yard cleaned up better and work out smaller details.

This week we also have a funeral.  The hubby's aunt (mom to the cousin who owns the cabin) passed away a week ago.  It was sudden but not unexpected.  Can THAT be my last bad thing?

But I'll be baking for the meal after the funeral this week.  No biggie.  I can make a Texas sheet cake and that sucker feeds half an army, it's so big!  (But also delicious.  And easy.  The hubby says I don't do "hard" when cooking or baking, but to him anything he doesn't have to do is easy...)

I think that's all my news.

The hubby is off work this week, so he is over there on the couch, probably rolling his eyes at my continued typing, so I guess I'd better go check on him.  See if he is hungry or whatever.

Happy quilting!

Katie

PS All the kitty photos are recycled, but they're some of the good ones!  (And the kitties continue to do funny, cute, wonderful things.  I just don't capture them with a camera lately.)