Category: daily life

daily life · quilting

Crash & Burn

Wild Rose Quilter9 Comments

First, on this Memorial Day holiday, I want to take a moment to share my appreciation for all the men & women, past & present, that serve or have served our country to give the rest of us the freedoms that we have.  Many have paid the ultimate price.  And to their families, for the sacrifices that they have to make.  We would have none of this were it not for you.  Thank you.  You have my undying respect and appreciation.

I know I promised to be back on track with my Sunday reporting this weekend.  Honestly, I am out of spoons this weekend.  It’s been a stressful couple of weeks around here, and it finally caught up with me.  My body said STOP! So I am not getting anything done this weekend that I had hoped. 

I’ll be back on track soon.

daily life · longarm quilting · quilting

A Week of Ups & Downs

Wild Rose Quilter8 Comments

First the ups…I posted about my Mother’s Day gift certificate from my son.  My DH also gave me a card with a bit of cash tucked inside, and told me to have fun spending it.  Oh, and the card whistles when you open it.  My purchase arrived yesterday.  I am starting to mull over quilting ideas for my Storm at Sea top, and my selection of Rainbows thread is seriously lacking…almost nonexisant.  It now has a bit more variety. 🙂

Sunday evening, my youngest stepdaughter called to wish me happy Mother’s Day.  That was a very nice and most welcome surprise.

Monday, a card arrived from my oldest stepdaughter and her family.  This card sings Tina Turner’s “You’re Simply the Best”.  That brought a smile to my heart.  And today, DS surprised me with some flowers, which I would have thought had something to do with him getting in trouble over his grades this week, (one of the downs of the week)  except he had it planned before that happened, and my husband could vouch for that.

Another up, was that I finished the commissioned quilt I’ve been working on, and my customers were very happy.  No pics, it’s a graduation surprise for the recipient.

Another downer is that I have to make another trip for that criminal trial, and it’s next week.  It’s bad timing, as I already had a full load on my plate next week, but I’m also ready to get it over with.  So, added to the other stuff I had going on next week, means that I will be on the road, traveling somewhere, everyday next week, except for Tuesday.  I’m ready for it to be next Saturday already.  Then it will be in my rearview mirror. 

I saw my massage therapist today.  She usually doesn’t work on Saturday, but she had to rearrange her schedule this week.  She is wonderful, and I really feel better after a session. 

The NASCAR Allstar race is now on, and already two cautions.  Guess I’ll close this up and go watch!

daily life · quilting

Just Popping In For Minute

Wild Rose Quilter3 Comments

Not much time for a substantial blog today.  Thanks for all the good thoughts  about my trip.  I will say it wasn’t a pleasant trip, and it was a huge waste of time.  The hotel the DA’s office recommended was, let’s just say, a little “rough”.  Glad my husband went with me.  And glad there was a Family Dollar store still open so we could purchase a couple of clean blankets to sleep under.  The criminal defendant that I was testifying against, did not even show up.  Yea.  Very aggravating.  Probably means I’ll be making the trip all over again in the near future.  Damn.  If I do, I will not stay there again, but will stop in Lubbock, which is only a little over an hour from there, and just get up earlier so I can get to court on time. 

And have you all noticed the new little avatars that WordPress is using for those that don’t have their own avatars?  They look like quilt blocks! How cool is that?! 

I think today my family and I will go to Pampa and spend the day with my parents.  We will celebrate Mother’s Day a day early.  Have a great Saturday!

daily life · quilting

Search Engine Terms

Wild Rose Quilter10 Comments

Ok, I know that several of us like to see the search engine terms in our stats page, that have led people to our blogs.  Lots of quilt related searches, I get lots looking for the caterpillars that are on dill, since I post about them.  Often, there are some very amusing things in there.  Today, I have one that really gave me a chuckle…thought I’d share it:

“My dog died now I have chest pain”

Ok, so it’s funny and not funny at the same time.  I mean, I’m sorry their dog died and I hope the chest pain wasn’t serious.

I get a lot of hits from people looking for shoulder pain info, and that one I understand, since I gripe about my shoulder so often.  However, today I am NOT griping about it.  I actually have some good news on that subject.  If you’ve read my blog for long, you know I’ve been suffering with pain in my shoulder blade area, that has at times led to muscle spasms so bad that I could hardly move, even being painful to breathe.  I’ve been seeing my chiropractor for almost 2 yrs.  My doc had done an MRI on my shoulder, which didn’t show anything, nor do xrays.  I have all this popping going on in there, also, and it feels like things are “out of place”.  I could move my shoulder blade up and down, and it was like it was bouncing over another bone.  Well, I’ve been thinking that maybe it’s actually coming from my ribs, and not my shoulder.  After my adjustment two weeks ago, I had some improvement.  It felt pretty good for about a week.  So this week, I saw my massage therapist (who I’ve only been going to for about 2 months) right before I saw my chiro.  They are in the same office.  Actually, my massage therapist is married to my chiro’s brother, so they are in the same family, too.  But I digress.  Anyway, she really worked on the muscles around and under my shoulder blade, before I went to get adjusted.  My chiro did the usual adjusting, then sat me up and was feeling around my shoulder blade with his thumb and fingers, and he hit the spot that I felt had been giving me so much trouble lately.  He was really feeling around it and I said “that’s it…that’s where it seems to be coming from”, and he said “yes, THAT rib, right THERE”.  Then he tried an adjustment we hadn’t done before, where I had to put my hands behind my head with my fingers laced, lean back, and he somehow pulled me from behind.  And “POP!” Deep inside my chest.  He said, “I got it!”  I was like…hey….I think you did!  Anyway, I’m sore, but I have felt better for the last three days, than in FOREVER!  He said he hopes it lasts at least a week…lol.  (he says I’m “stucturally unstable”)  He also said he thinks the massage therapy is helping, as that was the farthest he’s ever been able to get his thumb up underneath that shoulder blade.  I told him I had started to think maybe it was a rib and not my shoulder, after all.  He said that the rib being out there aggravates the subscapularis muscle, which sucks the shoulder blade down and up against the rib cage, so everytime I move it, my arm or shoulder, it aggravates all that more, eventually getting the whole shoulder involved.  I’m going to start some light weight lifting, to try to strengthen the muscles more, so that maybe they will hold things in place better.  Will it last?  I don’t know yet.  But right now, my chiro and my massage therapist are two of my favorite people!

daily life · longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilting · quilts

Saturday Sunshine

Wild Rose Quilter5 Comments

The sun is shining this morning, the frogging is behind me and quilting has once again commenced.  And ya know, sometimes things do happen for a reason.  I decided not to use the variegated Lava on this quilt at all, and use black Signature cotton, and I’m liking it better anyway.  It is a better choice for this particular quilt. My husband is sweeping the floor right now.   One less thing yuck thing I have to do today.  I’m not the greatest housekeeper in the world to start with, and let my life get really busy, like it’s been lately, and the housework gets farther behind.  When I have to prioritize, it usually gets moved down farther on the list.  I can only do so much with the spare time I have…it used to really bother me.  I felt I was failing…not having everything in top shape all the time, but I’ve come to accept that I can’t do it ALL, ALL the time, so do the things that make me happiest or that matter the most, at that particular moment.  The rest will still be there when I can get to it.  And eventually, I’ll get to it. In the meantime, people will have to understand.

I went to the 20th birthday celebration of the local quilt guild last night.  It was a nice evening.  I need to join again.  I belonged for one year, almost 10 yrs ago, but life was busy then, too.  My son was much younger and involved in evening activities such as boy scouts, and Activity Center sports, that all conflicted with me making the meetings.  So, I’ll give it some thought…maybe I can fit that “spoon” back in now.  There was a delightful guest speaker, Jean Dean, from Midland, TX.  I enjoyed her.  One thing she did was give a book review on The Persian Pickle Club, by Sandra Dallas.  I want to read the book…I think I’d like it. 

Tomorrow I leave for Midland, TX, myself.  That’s where my son will be playing golf in the regional tournament.  So, I better finish up with my coffee and get back to busy!

daily life · family · longarm quilting · love of my life · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts

Ick! Wind! And other things…

Wild Rose Quilter4 Comments

Oh JOY! The wind is supposed to be really bad today, gusting up to 50 mph.   Y’all know I hate that, if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time.  It  is supposed to be that way tomorrow, too.  That prolly ‘splains why my head hurt all day yesterday and my sinuses feel swollen and stuffy today.  My head seems to be very sensitive to weather changes.

Onto other things…Happy birthday to my DH today! Love ya babe!

Remember the printed panel quilt I quilted with the Cutie Patootie panto? And when my customer came to pick it up she brought a top with her that is 60 yrs. old? I posted about it here, https://allenquilts.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/tuesday-tidbits-2/.  Well, she called last night, and she does want me to quilt it.  She said she decided not to remove the pencil marks, so I will try to quilt over them as best I can, and she said if they don’t come out, she will live with them.  I’m excited about working on it for her…it’s really pretty, and I hope I do it justice.  I didn’t get to finish the one I have on the machine yesterday, as my head was really throbbing by the time I got off work.  And tonight, there will be birthday festivities for DH.  I will be sad to take this one back to it’s owner.  I LOVE this quilt.  It is sooooo pretty.  It’s a  Fons and Porter Stars & Stripes Sampler.  My customer did a beautiful job on it, and I really love the fabrics she used.  In fact, I like hers so much, I ordered the booklet from Fons & Porter last night, so maybe, someday, when I have time (LOL), I can make my own.  Since I was ordering, I also ordered Marianne Fons’ Fine Feathers book, as I have read so many great reviews of it. 

Time to get up from here and get ready for work! Have a great day!

daily life · longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilting

Scrambled Saturday

Wild Rose Quilter10 Comments

This will be a “hodge-podge” post…lol.  It’s scrambled because I feel little lost in my own blog with the new wordpress changes.  I know it’s “all for the good” but obviously there are some kinks to work out, and things to get used to…like the fact that whenever any of the bloggers I have loaded in my WordPress Dashboard Blog Surfer insert galleries, then instead of their photos showing up, my entire gallery of photos shows up.  Right now, my 300+ photos are showing up twice on my “blog surfer” page, totally screwing up my WordPress blog reading.  And yes, I sent them a note…I’m sure I’m not the only one…so I have faith it will be fixed. 

Also, do you ever feel just weird after having some dreams?  I woke up this morning after having the most vivid dream, that I was dying.  I had some weird disorder where my body wasn’t processing Vitamin A correctly, and the doctors didn’t think I was going to survive a week.  My family was devastated…I was telling all my cyberfriends “goodbye”, via blogging.  And in my dream, I was thinking “maybe if they all prayed for me, I’d get a miracle cure”….and then my dog Libby woke me up.  So I didn’t get closure…no happy ending…no sad ending…just left hanging…and now I have this weird feeling hanging over me.  Does that ever happen to you?  I can remember the details of it so clearly…I was even telling my friend Jill that “oh crap…I need to take care of my funeral details…I want to be cremated instead of stuck in a deep dark hole, and I really don’t even want a “funeral”.  (all that is true)  And I wasn’t afraid about dying, I was just so incredibly sad to be saying goodbye to everyone.  I’ve always had vivid dreams, and actually it’s kind of fun to see what “adventure” I will be having, but sometimes they are disturbing.  But, if someone has to be dying, I much prefer to dream about my own death than that of a loved one.  I really hate those.  Ok, enough of that.

Gayle has had some really great posts on her blog recently.  I have wanted to write indepth responses to them on my blog, but honestly, I just haven’t had the energy the last couple of weeks to sit down and focus on it.  One was about why do you blog or read blogs.  I think for me, it’s about connecting with other like minded individuals.  People that really “get” my obsession and fervent love of quilting.  I get to “show and tell” with y’all, and you understand.  You want to see what I’ve done and you want to share your projects with me.  You are like my online “guild”.  I just really think it’s fun to participate with each other through the blogs.  It inspires me, makes me laugh, sometimes makes me cry, sometimes teaches me something, or makes me see something from a differing viewpoint.  I enjoy reading about other pieces of y’all lives, outside your quilting. 

Gayle has also got some great posts going on that are health related.  If you have chronic health issues, or live with or are acquainted with someone who does, read her post about the spoon theory.  I could write a lot here, but truthfully, I’m just not up to it.  But I really do “get” the spoon theory. 

Speaking of quilt guilds, I have kind of been entertaining the idea of joining the local guild again.  I joined for one year, back when I very first started quilting…but it was hard for me to make the meetings.  My son was around 6 or 7 and in various evening activities….boy scouts, youth center sports…which usually conflicted with my making the guild meetings.  So I gave it up.  Now, I have less conflicts with the meeting times, I have been hesitant to go, as I was afraid they might think I was only there to try to pick up quilting customers.  Not so, but I was afraid it might appear that way.  Well, I got an invitation in the mail to attend their 20th anniversary celebration meeting.  I think I will!  Being invited is a whole ‘nuther thing! I can go and not feel awkward about it!

Also, to show once again that I really am a simple woman, and sooooo easily amused (and to see if I can figure out how to post pics with all the changes around here), I share the butter tub story.  DH & I were preparing our dinner Monday evening, and I opened a new tub of Country Crock “churn style” margarine.  “Oh look!”, I exclaim.  “It’s so pretty!”  DH responds, somewhat facetiously, “You should take a picture of that.”  So here you are!

Pretty….

Ok, I think I have the pics loaded, but right now I do NOT like the changes.  I was able to load three pics at once, but when I hit “insert into post”, they weren’t here, and I couldn’t find them anywhere.  I had to go back and “reload” them individually, and just insert each individually, because I don’t know where to find them. (except on my blog surfer page…lol) Before they still showed…I could hit the “browse all” button, and it would show all the pics I just loaded.  Any tips to offer?  I’m not a software whiz of any kind…I just muddle through…the simpler the better for me…I think I better quit for now….

daily life · longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts · sewing · weight

An Older UFO

Wild Rose Quilter9 Comments

Here’s one I really should finish.  I love this little quilt.  It’s a New York Beauty pattern that was in a Fons & Porter issue.  I had so much fun piecing and quilting this one, that I really would like to find time to do another.  Especially since I have my A-1 Elite now.  I quilted this one back when I still had my Gammill Premier, with no stitch regulator.  I need to add a sleeve for hanging, and bind it.  BUT, I keep wavering back and forth on whether or not to add more bling bling to it.  What do you think?  I really didn’t want to overdo with the crystals, and some days I think it’s fine like it is, and then somedays, like today, I think that it looks unfinished.  Since I added crystals to each point in the center medallion, should I add them to each of the points of the rest of the fans?  I’d love to hear your opinions.

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My baby quilt customer came for her quilt Tuesday, and loved it.  She had also brought another baby quilt, that has a great story.  It was a blue, pink, & white flannel quilt.  I forgot to take a pic of it.  It was pieced by her 83 yr. old father.  The blue fabric had white hearts, so I quilted it with an all over heart pattern, and she loved it, too.  She left me a couple lap quilts made by her dad, and said she has more at home.  The little baby quilt had a few issues, but it quilted up just great.  I had to take one tuck in one border, to deal with a bit of extra fabric, but I just thought how wonderful that this baby will have a quilt pieced by it’s great grandFATHER.  It’s a privilege to get to quilt those! And it’s such a great feeling when your customer comes to get their quilts and they are so happy with them.  She’s a beginning quilter and she was thrilled with them.  Seeing the customer’s happy face is as much fun as getting paid for quilting  🙂  

I got off work a little early this afternoon, and am making some piecing progress on my 9P quilts.  I won’t get much done this Saturday, as I will be on the golf course following my son around at his tournament.  Yep, DH & I will be spending our 11th anniversary together in a golf cart.  Sure hope my son plays better this tournament than he has the last two.  That would be a great anniversary prezzie, to see him have a good day. 

One of my readers asked me to say something in my blog about how I photograph my quilts, to get the quilting to show so well.  Well, I’m certainly no photography expert, but here’s what I do…I plop them down where I have the best natural light coming in, at the time.  Such as the living room floor in front of our glass door & windows.  Or on my bed, with the light coming in from the side window.  I really need to get a photo stand so I can hang the larger ones.  Really, good sidelighting seems to show the quilting the best.  I don’t use the flash, except to get a good pic of the colors, sometimes.

Another reader asked me to share how I’m losing my weight.  I’m faithfully exercising no LESS than three times a week, trying hard to exercise four or five days.  I’m either walking on my Treadclimber at home, or in the mornings, I go in to work a bit early, and walk “laps” at the courthouse.  My office is on the third floor, so as I do the laps, I go down one stairwell, to the first floor, and up the stairwell at the opposite end of the courthouse, back up to the third floor.  I try to do at least 10 of those laps.  The stairs do wonders for your lower body  😉   Also, I’m paying more attention to what is going in my mouth, and why.  Am I really hungry? Also, how much I’m eating.  I pay more attention to fat grams, than anything else.  And that’s pretty much it.

I went for my massage therapy yesterday, and my chiropractic adjustment.  My massage therapist and chiropractor are in the same building, and family.  Between the two of them, my shoulder is feeling pretty darn good today.  The massage was especially wonderful. 

I’m going to get back to piecing, so I can have something else to post about!

daily life · machine quilting · NASCAR · quilting · weight

Monday Menagerie and a Meme

Wild Rose Quilter8 Comments

Since I didn’t get around to a Sunday report yesterday, I’ll throw some of that in here.  I don’t have much to report as far as accomplishments, mostly due to the trip.  I did finish quilting the vintage top, and I’ll try to get some pics of that up soon.  Other than that, nothing really noteworthy quilting wise.  I didn’t buy any fabric.  I did quilt a customer fleece blanket, and I have a baby quilt coming in this week to quilt.

My weigh-in report is not so good.  I knew it wouldn’t be this week, but I didn’t know that my mother was going to make us a batch of cookies to take on our trip.  How could I say no?  And OMG, they were good.  They were addicting good.  My friend and I that went together ate the whole bag in two days.  I know there were at least 2 dozen, maybe 3.  She made a bag for the boys, too.  Five boys on the golf team, and they didn’t even eat all of theirs.  I’m serious, we could not stop eating them…we started calling them “crack” cookies, ’cause that must be how a crack addict feels…lol.  Ok, so remember those 2 lbs I lost last week?  Guess what came back to me?  Yep…starting weight was 145…my weight yesterday was 147, for a total GAIN of 2 lbs.  Crap! Oh well, I’ll be back on track this week.  I’m disappointed, but not discouraged! Besides the cookies are all gone now 🙂

I totally enjoyed watching the Daytona 500 yesterday, even though I was having a somewhat bad day otherwise.  I was happy to see Ryan Newman win, too.  Really happy to see Kyle Busch NOT win 🙂   My apologies to you Busch brother fans.  I don’t really care for either of them. 

Why was I not having a good day?  I have had a relatively easy child to raise, thus far.  He’s a good kid, really good kid.  I’m not just prejudiced, he is a good kid.  And I’ve always been able to reason with him.  But we have begun to butt heads a bit, and it’s all over a girl.  Lord, give me the wisdom, strength, and heart to handle 16.   And give him the wisdom to understand.  And please don’t ever let him decide to move out and go live with his real dad and step-mom (which he says he will never do, but I still worry about it).

Now for a bit of fun.  I was tagged a few days ago by Southern Girl Musings, to do this little Meme.  Here are the rules.

Now, you chosen ones, this is what you have to do:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Okay, now for my 7 things:

1. I love going bass fishing with my husband.

2. I was named after my uncle Randy Matson, who was an Olympic Silver medalist in 1964, and the Gold medalist in the 1968 Olympics, for throwing the shot put. 

3.  I love NASCAR! Boogity, boogity, boogity…let’s go racin’ boys! 

4. I wear a gun to work, a .40 caliber Glock.

5. In the spring, if we have had a lot of rain, and our yard gets a lot of baby toads in it, I will go around the yard and collect them in a bucket, before my son mows, so they won’t get smashed.  Then I let them go again, after he is done…every week, til they are gone.

6. I’m not much of a traveler…I’m uncomfortable in unfamiliar situations.

7.  I’m not what I call a “foofy” girl…you know…a really girly girl…hair & makeup done perfectly “all” the time, manicures, etc. 

Hmmm…who to tag…how about Diane, Kay, Gayle, Jan, Freda, Carla, and Terri.  Ok, so play if you like, if not, that’s fine, too! No pressure.  If I didn’t tag you, and you want to play anyway, go right ahead!

daily life · family · quilting

I’m Off For a Couple Days

Wild Rose Quilter5 Comments

I’ll be leaving town today…won’t be back til Sat. night.  High school golf season is starting.  I will be following my son around a golf course Friday and Saturday, in Plainview, TX.  I will also probably be freezing half to death, as the weather is supposed to be pretty crappy.  I will be without any internet or email access, so I’ll be out of touch til I get back.  Talk to you then!