It’s Friday the 13th For Sure

As I type DH has been sitting in IHop in Birmingham, AL for the past two hours. He got up at 4 am to drive the 3 hours to Birmingham to pick up DS#3 and his wife. But let me go back a few days and tell you the whole story.

Last week DS#3 called to say they were thinking of coming for a short visit this weekend, if we were going to be around. We assured him we were and would be very happy to have them come. He said they would be flying in and I assured him we would pick them up. Then this past Tuesday he called to say that their flight would be arriving at 8 am on Friday morning and that they would be flying out again at 8 am on Sunday. Now remember that we live 3 hours away from Birmingham. But I assured him that would be no problem and we began to make plans. I really wanted to go pick him up but I lead a Weight Watchers group on Fridays at 1 pm and was afraid that we might not be able to make it back in time. So DH was elected to go by himself, GPS in hand since he has never been to the B’ham airport.

Fast forward to 8:30 this morning. I get a call saying that DS#3 (slowly sinking to #4 of 3 sons) and his wife missed their flight by 5 min. He says that they tried to get another that was leaving at 11:30 but can’t get on. They are now trying for one a little later that would get them in at 3:30 but don’t know yet. And, our very bright son (did I mention that he has a PhD and his wife is in graduate school) said that maybe his father would like to just go home and come back later? 3 hours home and 3 hours back, not to mention the gas, I don’t think so.

Anyhoo, that’s why DH is sitting in IHop in Birmingham. He plan to visit Barnie’s Coffees to pick up some of our favorite coffee flavors (the one in Pensacola where we spent many happy hours and monies closed 3 years ago: sob) and then will go to Barnes & Noble to wait out either the verdict or the company. At least it won’t be a wasted trip. He loves coffee and bookstores and me, not in that order.

Edit: It is now 7pm and DH and the kids are 30 miles from home. Even after everyone's eventful day they want to take us out to dinner so I will get to hear all that has happened to everyone, but me.

To be quilt related, look at the fabric I bought last week.

I don’t have any plans for it yet: I really liked it and it was 50% off, who could resist?

And I am sewing. I have started some Christmas stuff so I can’t so much but I can show this.

This is mindless sewing if I ever saw it. But when done it is very nice looking.

Well, we still have several hours left of this Friday the 13^th so I better brace myself. ;-)

OPAM finish/Design Wall

This is my design wall for this week, my outdoor mannequin and the purse I finished Saturday.

This purse was created using the fabrics from City of Roses so I call it City of Roses 2.

I should explain that not only is the fabric covered with roses but I was born in the city of roses, Portland, Oregon, and have a very soft spot for it.

Anyway, again there was no pattern so I am not sure how I wound up with this but it is a little bigger than the purse I made earlier, more square.

Even the handle was made using some canvas strapping that I found somewhere and covered with the yellow rose fabric.

I probably won’t start carrying it until June but, if I can find the right outfit, will carry it to the end of the year dinner at guild.

This weekend I have been on the road for three straight days. Thursday DD and I went shoe shopping in Pensacola, FL (180 miles round trip) and bought her some Sketchers to wear to work: nursing in a nursing home. I got mine a couple of weeks ago and really have enjoyed walking in them. While we were in town I just happened to stop in at Joann’s and bought one piece of fabric (R). It is a printed canvas that I am going to use to recover some outdoor pillows that have seen better days.

Friday DH and I drove down to Mobile, AL (240 miles round trip) to see if we could purchase something. He had called and found they had the item in stock but when we got there they were sold out. Not only that but we found that the Mobile Barnes & Noble is closing, not relocating but closing. We don’t frequent there often, note the miles, but when we are there it is one of our “must” stops. So sad!

Saturday DH and I returned to Pensacola. I picked up a pair of Sketchers sandals and he got a new computer. Not being the brightest computer bulb in the pack, he is now having to learn Windows 7: really funny. Oh, and I stopped at a favorite fabric shop and got this beautiful black and white piece (and little shades of green) (M). I have no idea what I will do with it but it was so very different from everything else I have.

And to finish off the weekend, on Sunday we drove to Crestview, FL (110 miles round trip) to have dinner, and visit another fabric shop that is celebrating her 39^th business anniversary. My fabric purchase was this hydrangea print (L) that will be used as the backing for this as yet unnamed quilt.

Despite all that driving, I did get one more string block done and even have done most of the appliqué of the stems for the appliquéd borders I am making. Tomorrow I should have the stems done and will start appliquéing the flowers. And, oh, by the way, I don’t plan to go anywhere for quite a while!!

One last thing. Please pray for the Gulf coast. The oil slick is going to cause another devastation to the area, this one covering four states. It seems our area has more than it’s share of this sort of thing.

Super Bowl Weekend

I got a call from DS#3 Saturday morning. He lives in MD (metro DC) and was buried in snow.

He offered for me to come up to visit (not likely) and sent a picture of his car.

He did say that the dog, granddog Ponce, was loving it, but they were not as happy since the power went off during the night. When we got off the phone I went online to see the radar and it looked like not only were they in for a lot more storm but that the storm was not moving very fast, if at all.

This morning, however, he wrote on Facebook that the temp in the house was down to 45F and without power they were going to miss the Super Bowl so they were off to the in-laws. See, I didn’t raise a complete dummy!

Design Wall:

While we were not enjoying snow here in the South I was sewing on my DNP blocks for my comfort quilt. These were my trial blocks. Notice anything wrong?

Well, it seems that 5.5” squares can’t be cut in half at 3”. Did I ever mention that I never took geometry? Anyway, I cut both of the trial blocks the same way so I seem to be a slow learner.

But I did learn and am cutting the real blocks right. I have 6 of the 12 blocks cut so I should have this top done sometime this week.

Check out Judy’s blog for other design wall projects.

Sunday I was going to work on two BOMs but instead I decided to visit a quilt shop that was having a Super Bowl sale. I walked through the store twice, going in the opposite direction each time, and look what I found on my second trip through.

Aren’t these luscious? I could almost see a quilt just looking at the yardage. And I do see polka dots in my future: no gift quilt here!