Pictures
Posting problems this morning. These are the pics for the following post.

Beautiful Holiday

We had such wonderful weather for the last three days. We have had a very cold spring so this was greatly appreciated. I spent many hours working in my yard. Unfortunately the baby birds in my propane tank cover did not make it. We had several days and nights of very cold weather. One of the eggs even got too cold. You can see why I will clean up and block the "door."

I have finished another applique block. I may add more red berries but will decide that later. It sure should have been ironed before it had it's picture taken. I'll put down a fluffy towel, lay the block with the right side down and iron with steam. The pic doesn't show the background color correctly. It is a medium pink and I found it harder to choose colors to stand out against it. Maybe you should just ignore all this until I do some ironing and take a better pic.

E-mail

I just discovered that the e-mail address on my profile has not been correct. I have corrected it today. If you have written to me since April, I did not get your message. So sorry. Hope I have not offended anyone who thought I was not replying. My profile also had my occupation listed as accountant. That is the biggest joke there ever was. Numbers are definitely not my thing.

My Yard
Two days ago I managed to spend an hour working in my yard. Take a deep breath. I'm not much for fragrances but have always loved lilly of the valley. Wish they lasted longer. There was my first poppy. I discovered a week ago that a robin had made a nest and laid five eggs in the top of my propane gas tank. I am rural enought that they have not brought in gas, water or sewer so I have a "pig," which is a tank to hold my propane gas, which is used by my furnace. The top has controls and a valve to put the gas in. It is has a hinged metal cover to keep the snow and rain off the controls. There is a small place to put your fingers in to lift it. Mother bird used it for a door. She has built a large nest with all sorts of things. I decided to go take a pic of the eggs and discovered two had just hatched. I quickly closed it back up and hope the babies didn't get cold. The pic doesn't show it but they were wiggling around. It has been very cold here this week so I hope Mom hurried back to keep them warm. I'm sure she did. When it gets a little warmer, I'll try to get another pic. After these babies fly away, I'll block the "door" so I can use the controls and have the tank filled up.

Glioma

Such sad news that Senator Ted Kennedy has this malignancy. It is the same one my friend Shirley has. Apparently the Senator's tumor is on the left side while Shirley's was on the right. It is so hard to believe how rapidly they develop. Shirley had an MRI, showing nothing, seven months before her tumor, that was larger than an egg and small than a lemon, was found. One day at a time.

My Mother Made These

My mother was very talented with her hands. These are a couple doilies she made after she retired. She taught school and was happy after she retired and could work with her needles. I've been cleaning my bedroom today so I washed the doilies and ironed them a little. I know they should be starched and ironed good but at least they are clean and back in place.

I was inspired to get my bedroom clean after buying a new vacuum sweeper. My old one is about 20 years old and is held together with duct tape. It is a Hoover upright with 18 amps. It could really pick up dirt but was now throwing half of it back into the air. I've been trying to bring myself to buy a new one for several years now. With my government incentive check in hand, I went shopping. Last Friday I went to Sears to look vacuums over and try them out. I knew I wanted one with a bag and thought about getting a tank type one. Then I found the last of the discontinued upright Hovers with self propulsion. My old one had this and I loved it. So I bought it. It also has a small beater attachment which is perfect for getting to the dog hair against the wall. I don't know how much my $200 will help the economy. It was two o'clock and my sale was the first one the clerk had made all day. And she was covering several departments. So many stores are now closed. The rest of my incentive check went into the bank for now. What are you doing with yours?

Another thing Mom was good at was tatting with a shuttle. In her retirement years, she made these cards. I loved the clowns she made. They have a soda (we call it pop here in Michigan) can for the body. It is filled with sand. The clowns can be moved to many different positions. They always brighten any room.

Berries Added

I've got aspargus! I don't plant a garden any more but the aspargus still comes up every year. We planted these plants about 40 years ago and even then we dug them up from an old abandoned house. I wonder how old they are. Yes, it tasted as good as it looks.

I added some red berries to my applique and even a yellow flower. Definitely spices it up. I also appliqued a bit on Birdy's tail. I'm slowly working on another block, maybe 1/3 done.

Gas has gone to over $4 a gallon here in my part of Michigan. I know you California gals have been there but.... Unemployment here is 15 percent. And remember that only counts the people registered for looking for employment. It doesn't include people who have given up, often due to mental or physical problems. I see so many senior citizens working at minumum wage jobs. These were the jobs youth used to have. Oh, me. I bought a pack of (10) single edge razor blades and they cost $6. Food prices are outragous but my favorite store did have a lot of things I like to eat (milk, cottage cheese, eggs, Cherios, tomatoes, lettuce) on sale last week. I stocked up on the cereal and donated some to a food drive. I have mixed feelings about some of the people asking for food. Is anyone in their home smoking? Do they buy soda, chips? Are they eating fast food or buying coffee by the cup? Where do they set the thermastat in their home? Do they have cable, Internet, cell phones? I know my local free food pantry is giving out recipes with the food. Maybe some people are learning how to cook from scratch. This is the first time for so many people that they have had to start living on a budget and "making do." Of course they should have been saving and not paying interest on credit cards and then things would be better for them now. We never bought anything (except a house and car) until we had the money saved to buy it. Now it is hard to get the price of anything. They just want to tell you how much the payments will be. We went as long as 26 weeks one year when my husband was laid off, many years ago now, but without debts, we were able to "make due." Sorry about the soap box. I'm stopping at the library today for free books and tapes.

My friend has completed half of her six weeks of radiation treatment. She is doing very well and her only side effect is hair loss. We are going to get her a wig tomorrow. She is also taking an oral chemotherappy drug. She takes one pill each day and each one costs $197. Yes, there is no period there. It is nearly two hundred dollars. Her little bottle had 21 capsules and I asked her if she ever carried over $4,000 in her purse before. Her insurance is covering nearly all of the cost.

I see that the spell check is not working again so good luck reading my post. Have a quilty day!

Playing

Last weekend I decided to do some cleaning up in my sewing room. I got the floor swept and found a box to hold the scraps from my big ironing board. Just had to sew. Result was this 12" block. I found a pizza box to store it in. Not much cleaning up got done but some good quilt therapy did.

Kipper also decided to play. He stole two pieces of fabric. I don't know why he likes to eat fabric so much. He isn't allowed in my sewing room but I had these by my computer area, where I do my hand sewing. It looks like he took a giant bite but actually the fabric was folded and he was chewing. Yes he has a bone, actually several, and yes he chews them. Sigh. The second piece of fabric was to be his second course and I rescued it. No pic.

Hope everyone is having a good quilting day.

Background
Here are pics of the background fabrics I bought for the Birds of a Feather applique. I took them without flash so have some shadows but maybe you can get the idea. I have used numbers 2 and 3 from the left so far. Number 2 is beige and the pattern shows up better than the pic.

What's In Your Name?
When I saw this on Norma's Random Stitches I thought no way for me. If she thought "N" was hard and Granny thought "L" was hard, well how about "K"? Last night I was too worn down to do anything. I thought about reading but wandered your blogs instead. Then I decided to see how many words I could think of that started with "K". Could I use them to do this challenge? Well, here goes.

Name: Katie
Four Letter Word: kind (Please be this to my word choices.)
Vehicle: kayak (Did you know that Alaska has more water vehicles than road ones.)
TV Show: Reges and Kelly Show.
City: Kansas City (Hi DGD #1)
Boy's Name: Keith (I think there are more proper names with "K" than regular ones.)
Girl's Name: Kari (Hi DGD#2)
Occupation: kennel keeper (There's a twofer. That makes up for the TV Show.)
Something I Wear: kimono (I've been reading about Taniwa's. So beautiful.)
Actually I wear kitty-print pajamas.)
Food: kale (I like the stuff, especially with other greens.)
Something In My Bathroom: kinfolk's kids (Well, sometimes they are there.)
Reason For Being Late: keys (Can't find them.)
Something I Shout: Kipper, come. (Good dog.)