The Crud....snort

Wish I had something better to show you. Even the quality of the photo is not very good. I came down with The Crud two days ago. My days have been filled with that hazy thing that happens when yo have to take codeine cough medicine. I keep walking past the crosses and just don't have the energy to think that much about them. Today I finally picked them up and put them aside for the day. Better luck tomorrow. I'm coughing so hard that my sides hurt and the sneezing and wheezing is getting even to me...yuck. Hot soup helps and hot tea. We got more snow today and now the temps are dropping to the single digits with a wild wind off the water. This winter really sucks. O.K. I have now evolved into a whining, weather detail giving, non-creative person. Going back to bed until I can, once again, be a productive human being.....wish me luck.

By the way, yesterday I got a letter from social security asking me to fill out a form for the one time death benefit for Roger which amounts to around $250. and I swear, my hand to God, it's 6...six pages long and wants to know everything about me back to who I dated in High School. Seriously, they want to know who I was married to before Roger and why we divorced. That was before 1980. I'm tempted to just file it in the round basket and forget it. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not so loaded that I can throw away money but seriously, you have to see some of these questions. How on earth is it that we hear so much about people scamming the government when they want my life story for $250. Unbelievable except when one remembers that they are dealing with the government. Then it all makes sense. They are buried under a mountain of paperwork and they hope you are too.

Stay warm people!

Thanks to Libby for the quiltshops.com idea and for the suggestions for fabric from Terri. I found some Whimsy. Bloggy friends are such a gift.

Poking my head up

Sorry for being gone so long. This new life takes getting used to. I think I've finally got most of the paperwork out of the way...whew.. you could paper a room with all that stuff. Not fun.

Last week I got out the sewing machine and started in on a couple of things I had in mind for a while. As I've mentioned before, I'm crazy about any of the American Jane fabric but the Breath of Avignon is a particular favorite. Anyway, I fell in love with my friend Victoria's red cross quilt when she showed it before Christmas. Every time I get a chance, I go back and look at it again. Maybe it's the crosses and my feelings of faith are more on the surface right now, but I am really drawn to the images and her use of color is fantastic. When I see this quilt it just POW...smacks you in the face with it's stark beauty. She did a fantastic job of quilting it herself as well. The woman is so talented it makes my hair hurt. Go to her blog to see a new tutorial for innovative flying geese.....go on.....hurry up. You won't be sorry.

Soooooooo, my thought was to dig into my beloved Breath of Avignon jelly roll and turn out a whole lot of crosses. I'm not positive but I think I will keep this to a large wall hanging size. Victoria makes king sized quilts but she lives in a loft in NY city with room for that kind of work. While my house is big, it doesn't have that kind of floor space to accommodate a king size piece. Old house-small rooms. Someday I hope to take down several walls but that's another story for another day.

The other thing I'm working on is a baby quilt for a friend who is a first-time Mom. Lord knows when I'll get that done though since I can't find any more of that "Whimsy" fabric line by Joanna Figueroa. If anyone knows where I can find it let me know. I tried Fat Quarter Club and Hancock's and Jelly Rolls 2 go. Found more Breath of Avignon but none of the other line.

My son and DIL have been coming over often to have meals with me and it's very welcome. My DIL, Dani, has pretty much decided to return to school for her masters to become a CPA. She has put out so many applications it's ridiculous and they might as well bite the bullet and get her a degree she can work with. It's so difficult right now. The cost of living for a young couple is crazy around here. I will try to help them in any way I can. The thought of them moving away is to awful to contemplate. Besides, I need my grand-pup nearby. Life without Lucy would be very gray indeed. There has been some talk of adding an apartment onto this house to make a place for them. We all love the idea. It will just take time to work out details...Oh, and did I mention $$. Roger and I did that to live here and there's plenty of room for another addition.

I'll try to update more often. Some days, I find it very hard to be cheery and, in fact, to keep getting up at all. Time, and a little warm weather will do wonders. This awful winter has got us all down. We have been so spoiled by the past few years of little snow and ice. Where's some of that global warming I hear so much about?

Back soon.