adles and Gentlegerms! I have finished - I mean COMPLETED my 10th quilt - which I call, "Chop Suey". When I say finished - I really mean finished. I have pieced, quilted, bound and washed this quilt and am satisfied with the outcome. It is a gift for my neighbor who is taking care of our home while we're away. They are from Hong Kong and they pronounce their last name the same way. I regret one thing - I used two different "whites" in this quilt - but it's not immediately noticeable. It is 100% cotton and it's the first time ...

will be starting to blog at my Madagascar blog for the next year - I will post on this blog only things pertaining to the quilting/sewing I do while I'm there. Here's the link.

s you can see, I have found a widget that displays the weather in Tamatave, Madagascar - which is where we'll be. I thought it was pretty cool.

I'm leaving on Sunday from Buffalo, NY to go to Pensacola, Florida to visit my family. Rocky is coming with me. Rob has to work.

I am going to spend three days with my Dad and his wife and then a night with my mother and a night with my sister. Then I'll be flying home on the 9th.

Short visit - but the heat - I hate it! I'm only ...

h boy, am I tired! Rocky had four baseball games this passed weekend. Two on Saturday and two on Sunday. It was the "All Star" games. There were three teams vying for First Place. Roc and Rob's team came in second place - and it was very exciting! Be we're all tired now; it's Monday morn and Rob has gone into work to start his week. I, the "Queen", am sitting up in bed on my MacBook writing out thoughts. I have a few million things on my mind; a few things on my plate to do today ...

ou might think I would create a blog specifically for our time in Madagascar. And you'd be correct. But I've decided not to use it. I like this blog and I'm going to keep this one. I'm going to post from Madagascar to this one. I'll (hopefully) still be quilting while in Madagascar anyhow - and if not, I'll probably be collecting cool material. They have textiles there.

For those of you who aren't clued in, we are moving to Madagascar for 9 months - starting August 4th of this year! That's not very ...

e are home from a very brief family vacation. I can't believe it's been 11 days since I last posted on this blog! Jimminie Crickets! That's because I've been sucked into the vortex of the black hole known as Facebook. What sucks a person in, I think, is that one gets more comments on FB than one does having a blog. But most of the content is inane. So... time to update the ol' blog. And, believe me, it's about as old as my blogs get! Pretty soon, I bet I'll have set my ...

y ninth quilt is finished. It's for my brother, Peter. I call it, "For the Love of Pete". I have yet to tack down the binding - but it's finished otherwise. Here are the pictures.

ell. Looks like we're probably going to be heading out to Madagascar in mid-July! We're working out the details - - - There are a number of pros and cons - one lady there said she hates living there - but then, she's probably bored.... we're going to get a car and driver as one of the "percs" of being there - the driver will drive Rob to work each day, come back and take Roc and myself wherever we wish. We'll have a maid and a gardener - and possibly a pool. We'll also have two security guards. One for ...

suspect I will be writing tomorrow that we're headed for Madagascar soon. It looks that probable! I'm getting older and I've moved more than 30 times in my life - lived in 3 different countries and about 13 different US states and 2 Canadian Provinces. Madagascar will be my fourth country. Such a world traveler, eh?! Well - I don't mind it - except that I'm getting tired of moving. However, it's not a major move. I mean, we'll be coming back to this house and our things will all be here waiting for us. We ...

adagascar is still a possibility it seems... Those of you who feel out of the loop here - there's a chance that my husband will be taking a 6 month job in Madagascar - 6-9 months, actually. And we'd be going with him. We haven't gotten the "go" yet - but it's looking a bit more likely lateyly. And, as far as we can see - if it's a "go", we'd be leaving in July. I would have to get us all doctor appointments to get shots; we'd have to get visas and passports. We'd have ...

an't believe how sore I am today! Well, yeah, I can. We hardly had any snow this winter, so the shoveling chores were at a minimum. Consequently, I was quite sedentary all winter long. That's the reason I'm sore today. I've begun doing outside Spring/Summer chores. And I'm loving it! Even though I'm sore. It feels good to be active and it feels good to be outside and it feels good getting stuff done.
Since this weekend I have bought and planted lots of flowers and two boxwood bushes for the lawn. I ...

ome day today! I decided to not quilt today - taking the day off - and so I figured I could relax a bit and not rush to get school done (so that I could get to my quilting). So, we started school around 11:30 this morning. First I read to Rocky - from "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". Then we did three pages of English and then four pages of math. He also practiced his piano.

I did two loads of laundry (still have to fold it and put it away). I cleaned out the bird cage and vacuumed ...

nd so. Here I am. Starting my ninth quilt...it'll be for my brother, Peter, so I am going to call it, "For the Love of Pete!". Now - whether he GETS this particular quilt or not remains to be seen. I may love it too much to give away - at which point I will replace my current favorite for it - my current fav is "Pilgrim's Progress" which is the multi colored star one with the black background. I haven't given that one away. I've given almost all the rest away.... the plan is to give them ...

uilting is what I was born to do. I am convinced this is my second vocation. Okay, maybe third. Maybe even forth - but it's up there!!!

I finished my 8th quilt yesterday and took pictures of it laying on the grass in our backyard. I hope you click on the pictures to see it close up!

It's called "Golden Sunrise" (I think I had called it Golden Sunset - but I meant 'sunrise"...)

You can see a nice slideshow of all 8 of my quilts if you click on this link.

lena, at My Domestic Church was so kind as to present me with my first award (for this blog)! It is the Sunshine Award! I am supposed to think of some bloggers who have brought sunshine into my life in some way and do the same... which I will be happy to do, but they aren't all bloggers...the ones to whom I wish to present a "Sunshine Award".

Firstly, it was my intent to post something this morning before I'd received notice of my award. But it fits in nicely with the theme: my husband. I was ...

other's Day! Whoo whoo! I am the LUCKIEST and the HAPPIEST mother in the world. I thank you for your emails and comments and FB comments wishing me a happy mother's day! I hope all you Moms out there have had a Blessed and Holy day. It ain't over yet!

I'm having a rum and coke and have "paused" my quilting for perhaps the evening. I even took a few pictures of it - I've ironed it and layered it and am in the process of pinning it right now to get it ready for quilting ...

love my life! So. Going to Madagascar or not, I'll be happy. I know Rob will be disappointed, but he'll be okay - because we really are blessed to be where we are. Going to Madagascar would be a cool experience though - but if for some reason things turn out that we can't go, it would be God's Will. Because we decided it is.

It's 8:10pm and I'm sitting here in the living room, on my big recliner - the one I ALWAYS sit in - and Rocky is playing with some toys on the stairs ...

adagascar. Geesh! How could this NOT be on my mind? I have so many thoughts going through my head ... be prepared to read a long post ... I gotta get thoughts down.

Let me get some minor thoughts down first (get them off my mind): I went to the doctor yesterday for several reasons. One: to get refills on my Rx's - Two: to complain of the tightness in my chest and how in the morning I feel like I have a drug hangover and it's very difficult getting out of bed these days. Three: there's a raised, red ...

unday is a great day. I love Sundays. I guess the only thing wrong with Sundays is that they end and Monday comes. Then Rob has to go back to work - as do I. I think too often we all get hung up with doing things on Sundays because "when else can we do it?" type of thinking. Like shopping and working hard around the house. But I think that if people used their brain a little, they'd think of ways to keep Sunday sacred - to keep Sunday for relaxing and family and enjoyment. Hey, I mean, I've ...

totally plan on quilting today. I didn't get much finished yesterday - what a day!

Roc and I hadn't even finished school when it was time to go to the Homeschool Swim at 12:30 - so we planned to finish it when we got home. After the swim (which was one hour) my friend reminded me that we'd planned to go to Micky D's afterwards - I'd forgotten that was the case... and the kids were excited to all go and play in the playroom there and have something to eat. I was hungry too - but I ...

uch as I enjoyed the blogging social circle (?) I'm going to be blogging less from now on. I don't get the traffic I once did - which is probably a good thing - otherwise I'd feel like I was leaving someone high and dry.
Now, I can at least "leave" no one in particular high and dry.

I'll use this blog only to post pictures of my quilts - so there will be long lapses in posts while I sew.

xhausted! I am so totally exhausted. I've hardly had much time to quilt, really. Not lately. But today I sat down and did some more work on the quilt for my sister. I've just finished spraying the "Dresden Plates" to their background (gluing) and when it's dry I can go ahead and sew them on. Then I have to connect them all. I'm still cogitating what kind of a border to put on the quilt. When we went to Peterborough last Saturday I bought some neat black material - that's probably going to be the border ...