Claudia

I'm really behind on my blogging! On August 16th, I became the proud gramma of Claudia Brooke Southworth. She weighed in at 6lbs 5oz, 19 1/2 inches long. She had really dark hair, and I love being gramma!

New Baby Quilt

 

This is the first of a set of 2 baby quilts I'm trying to put together for a set of twins about to be born at church.

Shipshewana Quilt Show

 

I entered my "Two Trips to Hawaii" quilt in the Shipshewana Quilt Festival. This was a "Juried" show, which means that you had to submit photos of your quilt, and a jury decides if it it good enough to hang in the show. I don't know how many they had to pick from, but I do know they turned some down. I love my quilt and miss having it hang on my bedroom wall.

I will be glad to have it home again!

A sad month in 2009

In the last few weeks, I've lost an uncle and an aunt.

My Uncle Ledford was in his late 80's. In 1941 he was in the Navy, his ship happened to be "dry docked" at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for repairs when the Japanese began bombing. I've always thought that he was a very courageous man for pulling fellow soldiers out of the firey waters of the harbor. Though I didn't know him well, he lived in Washington State after the war, I think of him often and know that he is greatly missed by his family.

My Aunt Retha just turned 80 last year. She seemed in good health until one day she had a pain in her side and was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The doctors and specialists did all they could do with treatments but, just a few months following the diagnosis, she passed away.

It's been a sad several weeks for my mom. She is the youngest of 11 children, and with these losses there are only 4 surviving.

If that wasn't enough to think about, this last week we had two members of our church pass also. One, a man in his late 40's, early 50's (?) fell from a 6' ladder and hit his head. He had such severe brain damage that he could not survive. He left a widow and children still at home. The other was a younger man that had only attened a few months, and though I didn't have the opportunity to get to know him, it still affects us all.

It makes you wonder why life gets cut so short for some folks, and others get a life full of adventure, excitement, love, loss, blessings, stress, and fun. We probably won't ever know the answer to that question, though I know many people ask and ponder it daily. I do know that through faith in God we can all make it through this life, and that HE will carry us when we think we can not walk another step. All we have to do is ask.

Tomato

 

This morning while eating my breakfast bagel on the deck I began to wonder how long it took tomatoes to ripen. You see, I bought a tomato plant at the greenhouse this spring that already had green tomatoes growing on it, and being a somewhat impatient person, I thought it had been long enough.


So, I wandered over to the plant and took a peek. Suprisingly, I saw a hint of red peaking out from under the beautiful green leaves. I got down a little closer and there it was, our first ripe tomato. What a great way to start the day!

Name that plant #2

 

Here's another. Looks like a smal orange bush, with lily like flowers. I'm totally lost on this one. Never seen anything like it.

Name that plant

 

This is a plant that just bloomed in my yard. I have no idea what it is. Any gardeners out there reading this, please let me know!

May - Block #5 - Iowa

 
Lewis and Clark traveled the Missouri River bordering Nebraska and Iowa, the party came upon their first Indians in August. On August 2nd, a party of Otos and a few Missouries arrived at the camp, accompanied by a French trader and translator. Gifts of tobacco, pork, flour and meal were exchanged for watermellons. The Indians were farming as well as a hunting people, with semi permanent towns. The captians, Lewis and Clark, invited them to a council at their campsite, which they called Council Bluff, which is across and down river from the present day Council Bluff, Iowa.

This is the 5th block in the block of the Month series of the "Journey of Discovery" quilt. It was much easier than it might look.

Lizzie's Hutch

 

This week in LaGrange, the Northern Indiana Woodworker's Association held a convention across the street from where I work. It was in an abandoned RV factory. The group is primarily made up of Amish craftsmen. Now, while I will readily admit that not all Amish are the best furniture builders, these are the "best of the best". I saw some of the most fabulous furniture on display that I have ever seen.

I've been searching for the perfect hutch to put in my kitchen, and I found it. I pretty much figured that it would be way out of my price range, and normally it would have been, but the salesman (could have been the shop owner for all I know) was quite generous that day, as he gave me a great deal.

I love the "antique look" of the cabinet! Now, I just need to add some decorations! Yay! More shopping!

Mrs. Robin

 

Several weeks ago, I noticed that something kept dragging little scraps of dead grass and weeds up to our porch. I didn't think much about it, but, just kept sweeping them off. Then I noticed that a robin was building a nest on the porch light beside the patio door.

She's been sitting in her little nest quite alot lately. I wanted to take a photo, but, didn't really want to disturb her, so I went upstairs and quietly opened the bedroom window. When I was sure she wouldn't fly away, I snapped a couple photos. I cropped them to make it look closer. She's a lovely bird.

The First 4 months

 

Here are the first 4 blocks of the "Journey" series together.

Block #4 - Nebraska

On July 21st, sixty eight days from the start, the expedition reached the mouth of the Platte River in what is now known as Nebraska. In those days, to go past the mouth of the Platte was the Missouri river man's equivalent of crossing the equator. Lewis described the Platte running a mile wide and an inch deep, just bursting with animal and plant life. It was here that the men first discovered the badger.

 

This is by far the hardest block I've done so far. It is not perfect! But, I decided to leave it as it is because I think it's a lesson to be learned. Life isn't perfect, things don't always go our way, even though we like to think we have "it all together", most of the time we just don't. Thankfully, we are not in charge.. God is still on His thrown, and we can trust him.

Block of the Month - Kansas

Kansas is the third block in the "Voyage of Discovery" Block of the month series.

The Kansas plains were a welcome land to the voyagers. "Deer to be seen in every direction and their tracks are plenty as hogs about a farm" Clark wrote on June 30th. Now headed north, the expedition was entering a near-paradise. Clark noted "rasberries purple, ripe and abundant." On July 4th, the men ushered in the day with a firing of the cannon. This was the first ever Fourth of July celebration west of the Mississippi River.

Attic Windows

 


I started this quilt a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't quite settle on fabrics, they didn't seem to give me the 3-d effect I was hoping for. I really wanted to use the giraffe squares for the "window" part.

I really like how it all turned out! L

Attic Windows

 

This is my latest project, a baby quilt, possibly for the new grandbaby. Though, I have several friends having babies, so, it could go to one of them too.

I asked a friend, Joanne, to help me enlarge the pattern, she did it on her EQ6 (*I think).

I'm thinking of putting black trim around the blocks to give it a framed look. Any comments?

Voyage of Discovery

 

This is Block 2 of the "Voyage of Discovery" (Lewis and Clark) quilt. It symbolizes the State of Missouri.

On June 26th, the expedition completed its westward trek of 400 river miles across the present state of Missouri and arrived at the mouth of the Kansas River. The first trek of the journey was plagued with health problems such as boils and dysentery. The captains diagnosed the problems from the river water they were drinking and advised the men to dip their cups below the surface when they went for a drink. The surface water was full of scum, mud, and debris; if the men dipped deep, they would get cleaner water. Their diet was also part of the problem as it consisted of mostly meat and cornmeal. Then there were the ticks, gnats, and mosquitoes to deal with. They came in droves so thick that the men could not keep them out of their eyes, noses, ears and throats. To escape, men stood in the smoke of the fire and coated their exposed limbs, necks, and faces with voyager's grease.
*******

Sounds like loads of fun doesn't it?!?!! I'm glad I'm only making a quilt!

Desi

 
I thought maybe I should put up a photo of the better looking end of the cat now!

Desi's story

 

For awhile now I've been meaning to tell you about our other cat, Desi. We got Desi the same time as Louie, though they are not from the same litter. Desi is probably about a month older. He's full of zest, always curious, and loves high places.

The love of high places got him in trouble last week.

For the first time in months, when I came home for lunch, I drove our car in the garage and left the garage door up. He jumped on the CRV and then on top of the garage door. I didn't know he was there, and of course, when I left to go back to work after my lunch, put the door down. Not quite 2 hours later, Mike came home and discovered that Desi was trapped in the door, and not able to move his hind quarters. Needless to say, Mike and Desi were both distraught! He rushed him to the vet to decide what to do. Desi had xrays, and the vet reported that there were no broken bones and maybe we should leave him overnight to see if there was any change before we made any decisions. Our vet knows how much we love our pets! The next morning, Desi was moving his tail and feet slightly, so we decided to leave him there and do 5 days of cortisone shots. (2 per day). Saturday we brought him home.

He can't really jump on things, and isn't supposed to do stairs for awhile, but, the vet is hopeful for a full recovery. If you look at this photo of the 2 kitties, you will see that while Louie stands on his feet, Desi's stands more on his lower legs. That's how he walks now. It's a little awkward for him, but he can get around pretty good. The vet tells us that the feet are the last thing to recover after spinal nerve damage and to give it time.

Please join us and pray for our Desi!

Centerpiece

 
My sister in law put together this lovely centerpiece for me. I have it on my formal dining room table. She's one talented lady! Thanks Judy!

My Random Things

This is a clarification note. On my list of random things, I noted that "people who are annoyed by other people's bad grammar, annoy me." This is not to say that I'm never annoyed by bad grammar. You see, there has to be a balance. If you are speaking publicly, or are a journalist, and your grammar is bad while doing your job, I would be annoyed. And I suppose if you are always "grammar checking" yourself, then you probably are annoyed by these issues.

However, if you are not in these jobs, and are not an English teacher, you should just cut the rest of us a break! :)


I'm off my tangent now. It really doesn't bother me all that much anyway. I just wanted to clear that one up.

25 Random Things

On Facebook there is a thread going from person to person listing 25 random things about yourself. I've been thinking about these things, and even posted my own list. Then had to add to it, so, I thought I'd post one here. I don't know how many people really read this blog, but, if you do, here's a little about me that you may or may not know.

1. I met my hubby (Mike) on a blind date in August of 1977. We got married in 1979, and 30 years we are still together and still happy.

2. I have 2 kids, 2 son in laws.

3. I have my first grandchild on the way, due in August!

4. I love to sew. I make quilts and purses.

5. Being annoyed by bad grammar annoys me. Who doesn't slip up once in awhile? If I have to worry about my grammar around my friends.. are you really my friend?

6. I lost a sister to cervical cancer in 1983, I still miss her daily

7. I have an awesome brother and sister. They have added another sister and brother to the family.. (their spouses of course)

8. My sister and I share the same birthday, but we are not twins.

9. I've been to Hawaii 4 times, and hope that I get to go again.

10. I have 3 stepsisters that I never see. Debbie, Lynda, and Cathy, where are you? I miss you too.

11. Both my girls graduated from college and are working in their field of interest.

12. I have 3 cats. At least one of them sleep with me every night. I think they take turns.

13. I attend Grace Christian Fellowship in Sturgis Michigan.

14. I am terribly addicted to Facebook. It has made me a nosy person! LOL

15. I drive a 2006 Honda CRV.

16. I work for the Town of LaGrange, and have for the last 15 years.

17. I graduated from Prairie Heights High School in 1978

18. My most embarrassing moment was in HS, I was water skiing, and when I fell in the water my bathing suit top broke. Thankfully the other girl in the boat was wearing a t-shirt over her suit.

19. I broke my arm jumping over a pummel (?) horse in PE class. OUCH! And another embarrassing moment.

20. The greatest accomplishment so far has been raising the most amazing kids.

21. I regret not going to college.

22. If asked what my biggest dissappointment in life would be, I would have to tell you that I really don't have one. With the exception of #21 of course.

23. I once was so addicted to playing nintendo, I would fight with the kids that it was my turn. (I guess I have an addictive personality)

24. I love to learn new things.

25. My parents were divorced when I was 7, almost 8. That was very unusual in the 60's.

Baby Quilt

I'm currently on a quest to make the "perfect" baby quilt for our first grandbaby due in August. So I started out with this fabric.


I picked a log cabin style quilt, with the Winnie the Pooh characters as the center blocks. So, featured will be Piglet, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger,and Eyeore. I've got the top pretty much finished.

Unexpected Blessing!

We had an Arctic week here! I live in Northern Indiana, and one night this week it dropped to -22*, not including any wind chill factors. Now, that's COLD folks!

I hate everything about being cold. Having to wear extra clothing, boots, mittens, the works. But, I have to tell you about a blessing anyway.

While it was -22* this week, we left our water running so it wouldn't freeze in the lines. But, one of us forgot to turn the hot water on too.. big mistake. We got up and of course, the hot water wouldn't run.

So, I called my local plumber, and he came out and worked on it. Poor guy was so popular that day, his cell phone kept ringing with people around town with the very same problem. He had to come and go, as we weren't quite sure where the frozen spot was. He put a small space heater near the water heater, thinking it was where it came into the house from the garage. But, it wasn't and he had to come back and do some more searching. Several hours later, he found it and got it running. During all of this he drained the hot water heater, cut some of the wall board out from behind my washer and dryer, and put in some new lines. It was frozen right by where the dryer vents outside. We were pretty pleased to have it working again.

Then I decided to get in a HOT bath, and I found my blessing!

When we moved into this house we noticed that the hot water took forever to get upstairs to the bathroom, and we didn't have much pressure on the hot side either. It was on our list of things to fix when spring arrived. But, when I turned on the hot for my bath, the water pressure was about doubled... and it got hot right away!

SO, the frozen water fixed our pressure problems! And now we can cross that off our list! I'm so thankful that I could find something positive about the whole experience.

Voyage of Discovery

At my local quilt shop, Homespun Treasures, we are doing a Block of the Month. It will be a quilt called "Voyage of Discovery", following the journey of Lewis and Clark.

The first block is the Illinois block.

 

Happy New Year!

 

Ok, so I'm a little late with the greeting.. but, wanted to share this cool photo. It was taken in the Dominican Republic on New Years Eve. Mike went there on a mission trip, but also got to see some sights. You can see some other photos of the trip if you visit my flickr photo page.

While he was there, they did several different ministry works. They held a kids day at the mission compound, helped a blind group, handed out food, toys, and clothing. They also helped at a men's maximum security prison with a "family day". At the prison once a year, they let the families come in and visit with the inmates. They have a christmas party and other activities.

Hawaii quilt block

Every state has a quilt block named after it. I didn't know that before I started looking at quilt patterns. You can find them at Quilter's Cache It's interesting to see what each one looks like.

I've been looking for something to use my Hawaiian fat quarters, I thought the Hawaii block would work well, what I didn't know was, that I would struggle to get it done correctly. I made 3 different sizes in the same fabrics before I was satisfied.

This block will go to Carol on the Yahoo! Group "Quilting in Indiana". The group has a "lottery" every month and she was the winner for January. The winner gets to pick the block you make, and she chose "your favorite state block." I picked Hawaii because it's my favorite vacation spot. This photo is of the block I'm sending her.

The Chair

So, I'm home alone for a week, and I decided I needed a project. While at JoAnn Fabric, I found a piece of upholstery fabric in the scrap bin for a $1.50, about the right size to redo a chair that Erin left here. It's a great chair, just needing a new look. So, I bought it, and some black to do the bottom, as I knew I wouldn't have enough to quite finish the whole thing. When I got home, I started tearing the old fabric off and kind of figured I'd probably picked a challenge that I wasn't quite up to! This is what the chair originally looked like:

And here is the chair with her new look! Not bad for my first time!!



Hope you like your chair Erin!

My REAL Christmas present

I got the best gift this year! Karissa and Josiah came home for Christmas, handed us each a gift and said we had to open them at the same time. I had a feeling I knew what was about to happen and excitement filled me! I ripped off the paper, and saw the gift, a photo frame that says, "What happens at Grandma's stays at Grandma's" Mike got one too, that says "Grandpa and me" In the frame was a paper that said "Baby Southworth coming in August 2009" being mischevious at Grandma Laurie's" Mike likes the little ones to call him "Uncle Buck" so his said "Baby Southworth coming in August 2009, hanging out with Grandpa Buck"

We LOVED it! We are going to be grandparents for the very first time! We are totally ready too!

Just call me Grammy!

Happy 2009!

It's been a busy few weeks so I haven't really had much time for posting to my blog.
After I finished "Mrs Frosty" I had to give up the sewing for awhile, it's the Christmas Holiday after all, and there are many things that needed to be done.

We've had some really cold weather here in NE Indiana. About 2 weeks ago, it dropped down in the subzero temps, when the wind was factored in of course. About that time, the furnace in our house decided it was tired and didn't need to work very hard. I took issue with that additude and called the furnace repair man. Naturally, it had a factory defect, and of course, we needed a new furnace. Just what you want for Christmas right?!!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! They worked for about 5 hours and finally got it running so we wouldn't freeze until they could get the new equipment installed. It's done now, and supposed to be more energy efficient. I hope so, after the power/gas bill we got in the mail today, I could use some good news!

During that, Mike was getting ready to go on a Mission trip to the Dominican Republic. We packed him up and he left on the 30th of December. He landed in Santa Domingo later that day, but at the wrong airport for the mission! YIKES! After much prayer and pulling strings, the mission person there, Tim, got him a ride to Santiago. It was a stressful trip for Mike, and since he isn't home yet, I haven't heard all the details. I'm glad he made it safe though! Since then, they've had a good time.

Since Mike is gone, I've decided to get a few projects done around the house. Like organizing his office, cleaning up the garage, and a feeble attempt at re-upholstering a chair. I'm taking photos, and I'll post them later!

The best news of the holiday deserves it's own post... so, I'm signing off for now! L