It's a Boy!

While I was in the hospital, my son called to tell us he'd adopted a 5 year old Pekingese named Max. He brought Max to visit on Sunday, so I got to meet my new grandpuppy. :o) He's a sweet dog and spent most of the afternoon snuggled up next to me on the sofa...when he wasn't following Andrew around. He's become very attached to Andrew and Andrew just loves him.

On Sunday, my parents stopped by for a visit too. My mom brought me some quilts that she had found at my grandmother's several years ago when she passed away. My mom had given me a quilt back then, which I took apart and found another quilt underneath. I had seen the crazy quilt before, but the other top was a surprise. It's in perfect condition and she believes it was made by my great grandmother. I'm hoping to hand quilt it. I'll post better pictures when I can lift things again...the crazy quilt is very heavy!


I'm feeling a little better every day. I'm still sore and very tired, although I'm sure that's caused by the pain killers I'm still taking. I probably wouldn't be quite as sore if I hadn't taken a tumble out of bed the night before last. Coordination is NOT one of my strong points!

I've managed to read about 7 books, 3 magazines and knit half of a dishcloth since I've come home. I just don't have much energy yet. I'm getting totally spoiled...my husband is a much better wife than I ever was...the house is clean, laundry is done and meals are on the table every night. I'm truly blessed!

I'm home!

Just wanted to send a quick post to let you know that I'm home from the hospital and all is well. The surgery went well, although I apparently didn't want to wake up from the anesthesia...I must have been having some good dreams! Now I'm to spend the next two weeks being waited on hand and foot. That will take some getting used to, but I think I'm up for the challenge.

Thank you for all of your good wishes...I'll check back in soon!

Hugs,
Carolyn

Thanks, Finn!

I've been seeing this around blogland lately and I was delighted when I saw Finn had given me this award! So, thank you Finn, I'm honored!

As for nominating 5 others, I know there are so many of you who have already received this and I can't keep track. So, I'm going to nominate The Gypsy Quilter, whether she has received it or not and stop there.

Pictures later...I finished the donation quilt for church last night!

Continued...

The promised closeup..this quilt was fun to do!
And to keep things interesting, I quilted this customer quilt too. This is from the same customer who made the purple and orange log cabin from awhile ago...she has such a flair for color!
And here is the back.

Next on the agenda is the log cabin quilt that I'm making for my church service auction...and then I think I'll take some time for myself! Of course, I won't have a choice...my surgery is on Wednesday. I've got stacks of books from the library to read. I've gotten a number of Debbie Macomber books. Until her knitting books I'd never read her. She has a gentle way of writing that just sweeps you through her stories so you can't put them down. I borrowed her Cedar Cove series from the library and I'm looking forward to them.

It's a gorgeous day here in NJ...the heat has broken and it's about 75 degrees...just beautiful! I hope you enjoy your day...wherever you are!

Saturday Afternoon

Despite my good intentions, I never made it to the post office this week, so the little roll bags will be heading out on Monday...I promise! So, here are a few things that I've been keeping busy with.

This prayer shawl is one that I made last month, just never posted a picture. It's crocheted in Homespun yarn, the color is Quartz and I loved the striping it gave to parts of the shawl. This will go to our Caps and Laps program.
I quilted this lovely Pansy Park quilt for a customer. She does beautiful work!
And a shot of the back...I love my Circle Lord feathered wreath template!












I also quilted this beautiful customer quilt...closeups in the next post!

Paying it Forward

A number of years ago, a friend of mine made this little roll bag for me. I've used it almost every time I sit down to do hand work, ever since. I keep some thread, needles, pins, applique pins, scissors and a thimble in my bag so it's ready at a moment's notice, whenever I want to do some applique, bind a quilt, hem a pair of pants, sew on a button...whatever!

Since I love mine so much, I decided that they would make great gifts for those who responded to my Pay It Forward post. I hope they like them! They will be in the mail sometime this week...

Home Again

I'll bet you didn't even know I was gone! :o) My youngest turned 13 last Saturday and I promised to take her on a trip to where ever she wanted, as long as I could get there in 2 hours. She chose Baltimore. We drove down yesterday morning and arrived around noon. We did a whirlwind tour of the Inner Harbor...first going to the Aquarium, then shopping in all the malls. It was great fun!


Since we were only staying one night, I wore one outfit and packed another. Big mistake! As we were walking from the hotel to the Aquarium, the skies opened up and it poured. We were soaked all the way through. After the Aquarium, we went back to the hotel and changed into dry clothes. Since 13 year olds LIKE to shop, I was able to find some new tops to wear home that even she approved of!
This morning, even though we had planned to stay later, we were on the road home by 11 am. We had done a little more shopping (sensing a theme here?), then decided that neither of us felt well enough to hang around in the heat. We made it home in about 2 hours...well, not quite home. We stopped at the mall for a quick bite to eat and to get Grace's ears double pierced. Not quite sure how I got talked into that one, but I did. They look great.

For those who asked, I did get the new floor in my sewing room down, as well as a new ceiling fan. I'm working on getting the last two customer quilts that are in house finished before my surgery on the 22nd, so haven't had much time for other things. I've started a log cabin quilt, that I have to have finished by September 20, for a "service/goods auction" that our church is having. I'm also making this cute little cableknit scarf for myself for the winter. It's a very pretty shade of golden tan that just doesn't show up well in the picture. I'll have lots of time to work on this after my surgery!

Canoe Carnival 2007

Medford Lakes Canoe Carnival is over for another year, and this year was quite a challenge. Our theme this year was "Geesed Lightening" and we used a remixed version of the song from Grease...we cleaned up the lyrics. Have you ever listened to that song? I never had and the lyrics were, well, explicit!

We were ahead of schedule on Thursday...had the car on the float and were ready to add the rest of the elements and...one of our canoes sunk! Apparently someone came along and vandalized the canoe wrapping (we wrap them in plastic so they won't fill with water and sink) on several floats and ours was one. With the help of members from another float group, (thanks Scrub Pines!) it only took us a few hours to raise the float, pump out the canoe and reseal it so that it would be "lake-worthy" again. Crisis averted!



We finished up the float in time for the start of festivities on Saturday night. When we plugged everything in we discovered that we needed to draw more power than our generator could handle, so we had to turn off some of our lights. It made the float a little dark, but the judges didn't seem to mind...we won our division and came in 3rd overall!

It's hard to believe it's over for another year...but now it's time to get back to quilting!

Still here...

And working on the float every day. Here's a sneak peek...more pictures after Saturday!