New floors for the bathrooms

I had to be up at 6:30AM this morning (very early for me) because I had someone coming to install new flooring in my bathrooms at the condo. Right now all three bathrooms have old carpet on the floors - yuck!

Usually I like ceramic tile in bathrooms and kitchens but decided to go with a vinyl flooring that could go over the existing vinyl that is under the carpet. I didn't want to get into a major deal - just get something simple and clean on the floors. Next week all the old carpet will be replaced.

Here are before pictures of the 2 upstairs bathroom floors - the downstairs has the ugly pink carpet too.

Progress

No progress with my quilting but today I got my DSL set up at the condo. I had dial-up but it was so incredibly slow compared to the DSL at home that I decided to splurge and have DSL at both places.

I also set up my printer so now I can upload pictures from my digital camera when I'm here at the condo instead of having to wait until I get home.

I guess both the above show I don't have much patience or maybe just that I'm spoiled.

To test the printer I took and uploaded a picture of the wallhanging my sister Debbie made for me. It's not hung yet but it will be as soon as I buy the rod and get Keith to hang it for me.

Rainy Day

Thanks to a lazy rainy day I finished one of the afghans I brought to the condo to work on. It's a diagonally knit baby afghan from a cotton variegated yarn. Next up is to work on the crocheted shell baby afghan.

I'm still not set up to post pictures from the condo but I'm one step closer. I bought a new printer for the house and brought the old one from home (this one has a card reader built in). I just need to set it up but I'm waiting until I get the DSL hooked up so it won't take so long to download the driver from the HP site.

A busy week ahead

I can't believe it's already Saturday. I had planned to load and start quilting my Mom's 4 patch this week but now it's too late - It will have to wait another week or so. I have a busy week planned and not much time for quilting.

We're at Big Canoe for the weekend and I'll have to stay thru Tuesday when we're having the new flooring put in the bathrooms. Monday I'll have to drive back to Marietta for my mammogram and straight back here - so no time for quilting thru Tuesday.

Wednesday, my guild is having a cut-in for our Ronald McDonald quilts and then I hope to meet a friend for lunch and help her pick out fabric to coordinate with blocks her grandmother made.

Thursday, I have to clean the house, load some practice muslin on the longarm, and shop for some snacks and drinks for Friday.

Friday, I'm having my Bee group over and am going to demonstrate quilting on the longarm and let them all try it.

Then we'll be back at Big Canoe for the weekend.

For now, I've brought a couple afghans I'm working on to keep my hands busy. I'm going to seriously have to think about getting a machine up here to do some piecing but I hate the thought of having to set up a second quilting area. I'd have to store everything in the guest room and set up on the dining room table when I want to sew. I guess I'll stick to handwork and afghans.

Blue Strings top completed

I finally finished the borders on this top tonight. The borders aren't wavy although they do look like they are in the picture - it's just the way the top is hanging from the hooks for the photo. I'm done with blue thank goodness!

While I like this top, I learned that I prefer string quilts in multiple colors and don't think I'll be making another monochromatic one.

Home again

A quiet section of the river beyond the busy Riverwalk area
San Antonio Central Library
Southwest School of Arts and Crafts
Riverwalk during a quiet time of day.

I enjoyed the San Antonio trip but am glad to be home.

Highlights were visiting the Southwest School of Arts and Crafts along Riverwalk, the Riverwalk itself, the library, the Alamo of course, and finding a quiet stretch of the river away from the riverwalk area to walk along.

What I'm reading

It's been a while since I posted the books I've been reading but since I'm still out of town and haven't been working on a quilt I'll post my vacation reading. And yes, I've read all these books since Friday!

A Lady Raised High: A Novel of Anne Boleyn Laurien Gardner
Very good - I enjoy historical fiction.

Alone Lisa Gardner
I enjoyed this mystery and see that she's written a bunch of other ones. I may have read some but I'm going to check them out and will order the ones I haven't read. I'm always looking for new (to me) authors and love it when I find a bunch of books I haven't read yet.

Sullivan's Justice Nancy Taylor Rosenberg
Another mystery, my favorite genre, this one was good - not great but I enjoyed it.

Kill Me Stephen White
One of my favorite authors. Again, this book was good but not great. If you've never read him start with one of his other books.

San Antonio

We've been here a day and a half and I've explored the Riverwalk area, had a massage, read a book and relaxed by the pool. I still want to walk along the mission trail, visit the Alamo and the San Antonio Central Library (I have a thing for visiting libraries in the cities I travel to).

On a quilting note I did get started on the borders for the string quilt before I left home. I got the first inner border on, a pieced border partially sewn on, and have that to finish along with another final border once I get home.

A rainy day, a hike, and a honeysuckle scented trail

No quilting today at least not so far although at 1:24am I am considering working on the string quilt borders.

I almost didn't go for my hike today - it was rainy and cool and I thought the weather was too bad for a long hike. Luckily Keith and I were emailing back and forth about other things and he said I should go anyway. I spent 3 hours hiking along honeysuckle scented trails and came home feeling wonderful.

Another trip coming up on Friday. Keith has a meeting in San Antonio and I'm tagging along. Several years ago he worked for a company based in San Antonio but the kids weren't old enough to be left so I never got to go with him. I haven't been to Texas - unless you count flying through Dallas airport so I'm looking forward to the trip.

Strings

Can anyone explain how I can have finished 4 lap sized quilts without having that pile of strips and strings on the floor decrease at all??

Actually the 4th one is not yet finished - I put the blocks together today and just have to add borders. I am thinking of a striped pieced border sandwiched between a narrow and wider blue border.

So far I'm liking the Hourglass Strings better but its not unusual for me to not be crazy about a quilt at this point in the process. I've learned to wait until the top is finished and if I'm still not crazy about it - give the quilting a chance. It's amazing how much I like so-so quilts after they are quilted.

Photo's from Friday

Since I couldn't post these on Friday while I was up at the condo I'll share them now. I've posted the view before but it seems *new* with everything greening up for spring.

Chesty enjoyed the view with me.

Tagged again

I'm not very good at these but I'll give it a shot.

All That History
20 years ago (1986):Working as an RN, divorcing my first husband, single mom to Chris - 3 and Adam - 1.
10 years ago (1996): Remarried to Keith 7 years by this time, living in Tampa, still working as an RN, raising Chris and Adam.
5 years ago (2001): Working some, taking some classes, trying to decide what I wanted to be when I grow up. Quilting for about 6 months and loving it. Living in South Florida with Keith, Chris and Adam.
1 year ago (2005): Spending our 3rd year in the Atlanta area, brought Keith's dad to live with us and cared for him until he died in May. Chris graduated from college, Adam still in Culinary school, still spending my spare time quilting, traveling with Keith when I can.
1 month ago (2006):Signed up for the Breast Cancer 3 day and started training walks, weekends at the condo in the Georgia mountains, a trip to Boston, celebrated Adam's 21st birthday by visiting him.
Today: Breakfast with Keith, a trip to Home Depot to order carpet and flooring for the condo, my Weight Watchers meeting - 22 lbs lost since mid January.
Tomorrow: Put together my Blue string blocks, take a hike.
Tagging: I'll tag Norma, one of the newer members to Stash Quilts so we can all learn a little about her!

This day just kept getting better

My husband came home with flowers and a card for our anniversary AND reservations for a trip to Ireland in October. We've been trying to plan a trip there for 10 years and something always comes up - last year we had tickets booked but his Dad came to live with us and was too ill for me to leave him so we canceled.

I'm so excited but October is going to be exhausting - first we'll have the 10 day trip to Ireland, then the Breast Cancer 3 day, then my son's wedding. It's a good thing we're the parents of the groom and have no responsibilities except the rehearsal dinner since we'll be tied up the 3 weekends before the wedding!

Sometimes good things just happen

I was *stuck* at the condo today waiting for a guy to come measure for carpet when I read a message on the Stashbuster list about someone getting an early start on the stay at home weekend retreat.

Since I'd tossed my hexagon flowers in a tote to bring with me this weekend I decided I would *retreat* while I was waiting. I put some music on and spent the afternoon out on the deck sewing hexagons. It was a beautiful day and one I would probably have spent inside sewing at the machine had I been at home.

Then just as I was thinking what a wonderful day I'd had, my husband called from the airport saying his flight was already in and that he'd be at the condo in time to go out to dinner tonight. Since today is our 17th anniversary and I thought he wouldn't be home until late this evening this was just icing on the cake!

I wish I could upload the pictures I took today of the lake and trees from the deck but that will have to wait until I get home Monday.

Progress

Another quilt top finished.

21 pounds lost since mid January

34 miles hiked last week

$1,695.00 raised so far for Breast Cancer research.

******
Thanks to those who have already made donations to help me reach my goal. To make a donation in memory of someone lost to breast cancer or in honor of someone fighting the disease please click the link below.

Breast Cancer 3 Day

I made my deadline

I did finish both the quilts on Thursday that I wanted to get done before the weekend. The first was this log cabin quilt my Aunt made and the second one was a donation quilt I was asked to quilt for my guild.

Tomorrow I can get back to work on my string quilts.

Family Quilt Challenge/Exchange

Debbie's quilt
Ann's quilt (she's on the left)

Maureen's quilt

Mom's quilt (this is the one I got in the exchange)
Janet is Debbie's daughter-in-law and didn't finish her quilt in time for the exchange but it was her first quilt so maybe it was best she got to keep it.

Evelyn asked if I had pictures of the other quilts that were exchanged when I did the Toile quilt. I don't have those but my Autumn Geese was done for a family challenge two and a half years ago and I do have pictures of those quilts. The rules were simple - the quilt had to be a scrap quilt and have a minimum of 25 fabrics.

After everyone showed their quilt we pulled numbers out of a bowl to see which one we would win. It was random EXCEPT if we'd already previously won a quilt from someone we drew another name.

My Toile quilt was for the exchange after this one and my sister who hates scrap quilts made the rule that it had to have only 3 fabrics and applique - I think she was trying to get back at me!

We were supposed to exchange quilts again last June but life got in the way. I did get mine from Debbie but haven't yet made the wallhanging I'm supposed to make for Maureen. I guess I should move that up my list.

Thursday already?

I can't believe how fast this week is flying by. I've got my Aunt's quilt on the longarm and plan to finish it up today and then have a small lap quilt I agreed to quilt for the guild to get loaded.

The plan was to have both tops quilted before Friday so I could get back to my blue string quilts when we get home from the mountains on Sunday - not sure if I'll make that deadline. However, Keith is out of town tonight so I might just get finished if I get back to work. I decided I'm going to make a smaller quilt with the hourglass string blocks so I have enough of them - it will make a cute baby quilt - but I still have to piece more of the string blocks for the 2nd quilt.

I'm spending quilting time hiking both to boost my weight loss and to train for the Breast Cancer 3 Day walk. Yesterday I did a 10.3 mile hike which took 3 hrs and 15 minutes to hike and by the time I added travel time it was about 4 hours. Today I only did 6 miles but that was another 3 hours by the time I stopped by the post office to mail the taxes off.

I'm off to shower and then quilt the rest of the evening (and into the night if needed!).

Autumn Quilts

Autumn Leaves

Autumn Geese

I was living in Florida when I started quilting and missed the colors of fall so each year I make an Autumn quilt.

I'm looking at patterns for this year's quilt but haven't yet picked one. I have the fabrics - fat quarters brought over a year ago that are just waiting for inspiration.

I thought I'd share 3 of my previous quilts.

Autumn Cabin was last year's finish although the top had been made the year (2004) before that.

Autumn Leaves was designed in EQ5.

Autumn Geese was inspired by a picture in the first Nickel Quilts book. I don't own the book but had seen the combination of flying geese and four patch blocks and thought it would suit my fabrics. This quilt was given to my sister in one of our family quilt exchanges.

I'm getting a little tired of blue!

With all the leftover strips from the blue braid quilts I decided I needed to work on a string quilt. Pulled a bunch of blue strings out and tossed them with the strips and started making these string blocks.

I went looking for some ideas on layout and saw a pattern in the book Liberated Strings for the hourglass blocks and just had to try that with a few of my string blocks. So now I really like how the hourglass blocks look but I also like the string blocks I started with.

I decided that I'll make both quilts. I have plenty of strips and strings for two and so I've been working on both sets of blocks for the last couple days. The pictures were taken at different times so the colors look off but they ARE the same set of blocks.


I'm about halfway done with both sets but am off to Virginia for a few days for a visit with my Mom so they'll be waiting for me when I get back.

I won't have computer access while I'm gone because my Mom's computer got fried when she had a power surge last week but will check in on Sunday night when I get home. Hope you all get lots of quilting done this weekend.

Request for donations

I hope no one is offended by this post but I'd blogged recently about registering for the Beast Cancer 3 day to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research.

In that post I did not say why this was an important event for me. I lost my Aunt last spring to breast cancer and 2 of my sisters have struggled with this disease. I'm ready to help fund research to eliminate breast cancer before any more of my family is affected.

I'll be walking in memory of my Aunt Lillian and would appreciate the support of anyone who has had to face this struggle in their own family.

Since training for the 3 day - 60 mile walk is going to be such a big part of my life over the next few months I will be blogging about my progress and posting the link for donations. This link is also posted in my sidebar.

To make a contribution please follow this link:
Atlanta 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk - Mary Johnson

For questions or comments feel free to email me directly.

I'm well ahead of the suggested training schedule for the 3 day event so I'm feeling good about my miles logged.

Miles walked last week = 33
Miles walked this week = 34

The vote is in

Well the overwhelming majority said they'd just finish off the blue braid with a dark binding so I'm going to go with that. The size is fine for 2 of the organizations I donate to so I don't need another border to make it bigger. I'll call the top finished and put it on the shelf to age a bit.

I pulled some blue strings from my bins, added them to the leftover strips from the braid quilts, and started some string blocks. I'll make 48 and sash them and have another donation quilt. I've already made 24 of the blocks so when I get back home I'll finish them up.

We're back at Big Canoe for the weekend and spring is starting to come to the North Georgia Mountains. We enjoyed our deck this afternoon before going out to dinner and are now ready to relax for the evening. Tomorrow we'll take a long *training* hike.

Another border?

Almost done - I think it could use another border of the dark blue to reframe the quilt. Yes? No? If yes, what size? The braids and pieced border finish at 4 inches and the dark blue border is 3 inches.

Chesty's up on the chair studying the quilt but didn't express his opinion one way or the other.

See all the blue strips still on the floor? A blue string quilt?

Braids

I got disgusted with the braids and decided I was done. Instead of one larger quilt I cut the braids I'd made in half and am making 2 smaller donation quilts. I will never use the foundation by the yard muslin for making braids again.

I need to THINK when I pull out a UFO and not just do what was planned. Some of these have been sitting around a while and there may be changes I need to make or a better way to do something - like the braid!

I put a top and bottom border on the smallest quilt pictured above and am in the process of adding a piano key border. Neither of them will get quilted right away - I'll let them *age* a little on the shelf.

Challenge Quilts

In rebuilding my computer files I came across this picture of a quilt I made for a family challenge. We're not very consistent but periodically I do a quilt challenge with my Mom and 3 sisters.

This time around my sister Debbie got to pick the rules which were 1) only 3 fabrics allowed 2) it had to be at least 75x75 and 3) there had to be applique. I usually make scrap quilts so this was a difficult challenge for me. I'd rather work with 2 fabrics or MANY!

The pattern is based on a quilt in the book Bed and Breakfast quilts and I hated the quilt in the book but felt like the pattern would showcase the toile and that it would go together quickly. The idea for applique border came from a magazine.

In the end I really liked the result and rather than exchanging finished quilts as we usually did, I suggested we each keep our own so I could use it for one of my guest beds.

No quilting this weekend

I spent the weekend up in the mountains and didn't get any piecing or quilting done. It was cold so the evenings were spent curled up in front of the fire and watching movies or playing scrabble and the days were spent hiking. I did work a little on a knitted baby blanket that I keep up at the condo to work on but I've still got about half of it to go.

Since signing up for the 3 day Breast Cancer Walk that will be held in Atlanta in October I decided I'd start keeping track of my mileage. I'm already ahead of their suggested training schedule and it shouldn't be too difficult for me until about 10 - 11 weeks before the event. As an added bonus, the walking and hiking should help with my weight loss goals.

More good news/bad news
The good news is that I finally found my backup DVD's so I can recover files lost when my hard drive crashed. The bad news is that the last time I backed my files was August so I still lost 6 months worth of files. At least I don't have to reload all my albums on iTunes! Once I reload my files I'll back them up on the new external hard drive. Too bad I hadn't bought that before this last crash.

Organizing and Cleaning my Studio

Once again the mess in my sewing studio has gotten out of control. I cleaned it up completely last October before having a Bee group from my guild meet at my house and since then it's been piling back up. Now it's to the point I can't even stand to be in the room.

I hate spending quilting time cleaning especially when I've been out of town. When I come home I want to get right back to work and not *waste* time straightening and cleaning.

Disscusion on the Stashbuster list about how others approach their quilting spaces and some direct feedback to me from a posting I made has been really helpful.

I've decided that prior to doing any quilting I'll clean up one area in the room. Yesterday I cleared out the floor by my desk. I couldn't even move my chair back without bumping into stacks of books or one of two filing boxes I had sitting in this area. Now I can move my chair or walk through this area without bumping into things.

I won't get any sewing done today because we're heading off to the mountains in a hour but I did clean off my cutting table. I'm going to keep at it and by the time I have my Bee group here again in May I won't have to worry about the mess.

Atlanta 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk

I spent the day running around starting with my Weight Watchers meeting - I just finished week 9 and have lost 15.4 lbs - yeah! It's slow but steady. To celebrate I went for a hike up Kennesaw Mountain - just 2 and 1/2 miles but the climb is strenuous.

This evening I went to an information meeting for the Atlanta 3 day Breast Cancer Walk. For years I've thought this would be a neat thing to do but at first we didn't live in a city hosting one and I really hadn't seen information about one since we moved to the Atlanta area. After reading on the website that it is 60 miles in 3 days I was hesitant but decided to go to the information meeting anyway.

After the presentation I decided to go ahead and sign up. I do a lot of walking and hiking now so it's not like I'll be starting from scratch but I'll have to crank up the miles to train for the event that is October 20-22. I was also nervous because this is the weekend before my son's wedding but it's not like that is a reason I can't do it. There's nothing scheduled for that weekend anyway.

To top off my day - I was in downtown Atlanta at night (coming home from the meeting) and got a flat tire. I never go into town at night so I was pretty upset about being in a strange area with a flat. I called AAA and my husband but it was going to be 40 minutes before Keith could get there and an hour and a half before AAA was going to arrive. Anyway, a man using the pay phone at the gas station I'd pulled into offered to change the tire - I was nervous about accepting but he got the tire changed for me and I was able to call Keith and tell him I'd meet him back near the house for dinner. The drive on I75 at night, in a hard rain, with a fake (spare) tire was pretty scary but I got home safe.

Just goes to show there are Good Samaritans out there - sometimes where you don't expect to find them.

UFO #8 Finished

I finished up the binding on the Crayon quilt tonight and embroidered my initials and the year on the back. Not my favorite but it's done. You can see a close-up picture of the quilting in the picture I posted the other day.

I had planned to work some on the braid quilt today but Keith and I went for a 10 mile hike instead. It was a cool drizzly day but it was nice to be outside.

Adam's Birthday

We just got home from seeing Adam for his birthday. We had dinner at the Ritz Carlton where he's working now and got to meet his girlfriend too. She was able to join us for dinner and we had a wonderful time.

Here's a picture of Adam with his quilt. He'd asked me for a quilt from all his old jeans a while ago - maybe as long as a couple years ago. A few months ago he asked when I was going to get around to making it - Since I'd had most of the squares cut I figured I could finish a UFO and give it to him for his birthday.

The appliques are all from the jeans - even the nasty looking snake in the middle of the quilt.

The quilt that DIDN'T get the crayon border

This is the quilt that I intended to use the Crayon border for - I liked how this circle print looked a lot better. My sister quilted this one and it will be donated to the local Ronald McDonald house through my guild.

Chesty

Chesty had his final post-op checkup Tuesday and can return to all his regular activities. To celebrate he went to the Beauty Parlor yesterday - isn't he cute?

Bad luck/good luck

The bad luck is that I had a power outage that killed my computer so I went out yesterday and bought a new CPU and have been setting it up with all my programs. More bad news - I've lost a significant number of files because although I do back them up periodically its been a few months AND right now I can't even find the last backup copy. So having learned my lesson (again) I bought a external hard drive to do routine backups of my computer data.

The good news is that I was quilting at the time of the power outage and my longarm is fine - no damage there. This picture is the quilt I was finishing up at the time. Not my favorite but I had this crayon print that was supposed to have been a border on another quilt but I decided it was too busy. I had hoped that the flying geese would calm this down some.

Bottom line is that it's kind of cute and it's bright so I'm sure some kid will love it. It is donation quilt but I'm not sure where it will go. I still have to bind it but with trying to get my computer up and running again I haven't worked on it today.

My current project

Since I've been home I started working on another UFO. My Mom cut a bunch of strips for me at least 2 years ago for this braid quilt. I no longer intend to do the original quilt I'd planned (that one had applique) but I want to get this one off my list of projects so I'm making the braids and will decide on the finished quilt by the time I'm done.

I'm working on a vertical strippie pattern in EQ5 but I'm just not sure how wide my alternate strips will be and whether I am going to use a light blue or a red fabric as an accent between the braids and strips.

I've got two of these braids completed and I think I'll need 5 for the finished quilt. They're being pieced on the foundation by the yard muslin and I'm hating it. Next time I'm piecing braids without a foundation.

Hopefully, I'll load a top on the longarm today so I'll be working on two UFO's this week.

What I'm reading

WHAT REMAINS
by Carole Radziwill

Sad but I didn't think it was a great book like the review I'd read said.








TURNING ANGEL
by Greg Iles

Good murder mystery - much better than the last one of his I'd read.








A WEDDING IN DECEMBER
by Anita Shreve

Good - I like reading about the relationships in her books.

Some pictures from Boston

My son chastised me for not updating my blog in a couple days so I pulled out the camera to post some pictures from my Boston trip.

My two favorite things about this trip were #1 staying across the harbor from Boston - we had this wonderful view from our hotel window (I've included a picture of the view both during the day and at night) and took a water taxi back and forth into the city and #2 walking the Freedom Trail.

T-shirt quilts

There's been some discussion on T-shirt quilts on the Stashbusters list so I thought I'd post the one I made (my Mom helped with the piecing) for my son Chris for his graduation from college.

I know a lot of people hate these quilts and think they're ugly but I think they can be special for the recipient. Chris was thrilled with his and although it isn't anything fancy it was the quilt HE wanted for graduation.

Walking the Freedom Trail

Most of my day today was spent along the Freedom Trail in Boston. I did NOT go in each site along the trail, my main goal was to walk the Trail and back to the water taxi location to return to my hotel. I did however go into the Paul Revere house and I admit into a Borders I came across while walking. I'm sure that won't surprise those who have been reading my blog and know that reading is a favorite activity for me. I'm feeling a little guilty for making time for the book store while passing up going into some of the sites that make up the Trail but I'd do it again so I guess I'm not too guilty.

After taking a water taxi to Long Wharf I took my first ride on the T. I wanted to visit Trinity Church and go by the Hard Rock Cafe (to pick up a T-shirt for Adam - he collects them) before starting my walk. After picking up the T-shirt, I walked to Boston Commons and began walking.

Tomorrow we head for home.

Traveling

Pam asked do I keep a suitcase packed near the door - the answer is no but I frequently don't get completely unpacked before having to pack for another trip. One of the advantages to having a husband who travels and kids who are grown is the ability to tag along on his trips when I want to. Keith will work while we're here but I'll spend my days exploring the city. I don't mind being on my own while he's working - in fact I really enjoy it.

I brought my small digital camera but can't transfer the photo's to the computer so here is one I took with the phone. The skyline appears more distant in the picture than it actually is. I'm looking forward to taking a water taxi across the harbor tomorrow and spending my day wandering around.

Boston

We're off to Boston in the morning. I'm taking along my knitting and the blocks for my Cathedral Windows but finishing the baby afghan I'm working on will be my priority while I'm gone.

I hope it's not too cold - we've had wonderful weather the last week and I'm already in Spring mode.

Baby Stripes

I've mentioned before that I like to cut out more than one scrap quilt at a time. This top was a quick one to piece from strips cut when I was cutting for the Baby Cabin. I started piecing some blocks on Thursday and Saturday nights and finished the top up today.

Initially I thought I'd do a string quilt but decided that with all the strips the same width that a Roman Stripe would be a better choice. I cut my muslin squares oversized and foundation pieced the strips to half the block and trimmed to size.

The quilt is 38x45.

It's Friday

Thanks for all the comments on the house and yard. I'm beginning to appreciate living in this area more. I'd always viewed our move here as temporary expecting to stay 3-5 years but it's starting to grow on me especially now that we have our mountain getaway nearby. We drove up this afternoon for a quick overnight visit. I can't wait to see the mountains in bloom this spring.

I finished the binding on Adam's jeans quilt on the drive up so I just have to label it and it will be ready to present to him on the 18th. I won't post a final picture now but will wait and take one of Adam with the quilt and post that.

I wrote Wednesday about working in the yard for my Weight Watchers activity points and did the same on Thursday and today. We are having BEAUTIFUL weather and even though yard work is not my favorite I'm enjoying being outside.

Amy has been posting some pictures of quilts from the Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival so I thought I would post the quilt I liked the most from the show. I didn't take my camera but my sister Debbie took a bunch of pictures of the quilts and emailed this one to me.

Where I live

I decided to do some yard work today instead of walking to *earn* my weight watchers activity points. Normally slave boy (Adam) would be doing this but since he moved out in November it's left to me to rake all the pine staw out of the mondo grass.

While I was taking a picture of the work I was doing I decided to take some pictures of my daffodils in bloom (near the rocks). From there I figured I'd take some pictures of the house to share with everyone in blogland.

We live in an older neighborhood outside of Atlanta and have a beautiful corner lot. Our living room is on the second floor so between that and living up on the hill we look out over the tree tops NOT the other houses in the neighborhood.

As you can see I have plenty of raking left to do.