A little whining and the Manteca Quilt Show

Well, Boo Hoo...I still haven't been able to replace my stolen computer.  Am at my daughter's house using one of theirs.

This year I was able to purchase health insurance! So I dutifully made an appointment in January for a physical.  It is now March (as we all know) and I am finally finished with all the specialists my new physician sent me to.  I also have the mother of all cold-sore throat- fluish sicks I have had in years.  Going on week three!  I blame it on going to doctor's offices and hospitals multiple times.  I am never sick and I hate this! 

Oh well, no one likes a whiner so I'll stop.

We've started planting our garden.  This morning, before coming to my grandson's I put in two different kinds of lettuce in our former herb garden.  We were going to put it in a garden box but we haven't managed to get that built yet.  So the lettuce is in the herb garden (which is cool and shady) and the onion sets are going in the ground.  We haven't decided where the blueberry bush, the blackberry vine or the tomato plant are going yet.  Maybe the Big Guy will have them planted when I get home.

I read something in the Chronicle this morning about blackberries.  The author said he thought there was one mother of all blackberry vines circled underground around the whole earth and they just pop up where ever you don't want them! But the plant was on sale and the berries are so good!  We will do our best to contain the plant.  Our plan is to have a trellis for it and keep it trimmed!

We also planted (last month) an apricot tree and a cherry tree.  They are about three feet tall and each had eight or ten blossoms and now have eight or ten leaves.  Very cute!  Maybe we will be eating eight or ten apricots and cherries later in the year!

The Big Guy's doctor sent him (at his request) to physical therapy.  It has helped him quite a bit.  He can now ride his bike.  He and Roxy dog go out every other day or so.  Roxy dog runs and BG rides.  They both love it and they both need it!  Roxy has lost  her little waist and is getting neck wrinkles so the exercise is good for her.

I went to the Manteca Quilt Guild show on Sunday.  It is a small show - only one hall of quilts - but it was very nice.  The featured artist, Jan Ayers, is a guild member.  She is very prolific.  There were four rows of her work.  I neglected to see the dates of the work so don't know what the time span was.  Her color choices for the quilts were lovely.

For the first time ever I did the show Make-n-Take.  So now I have a cute new pincushion!

I also went to two demonstrations.  The first was by Judy Mullins.  She showed the audience how to make a strip pieced quilt in a day with 800" of 2 1/2" x 40" strips.  She suggested a jelly roll or leftover fabric.

The second demo was on dolls and a really easy vest.  The dolls were really cute but I don't stuff doll arms!  The vest was just an oval with two circles.  The one shown was two pieces of jersey but I think fleece would be nice if the edge had some decorative feature.

The guild always has a jumble sale, too.  This year I bought some buttons and got ideas for Christmas presents.  Looked at all the books but nothing caught my fancy.

Found a piece of fabric for a quilt I have planned.  It has a hawk on it. The quilt is for my friends granddaughter, Kestrel.  And I think I will do the strip piecing bit I learned at the show.  I am in the middle of machine quilting the one for Kestrel's baby brother, Colby.  Almost done with it - just the bottom border to go.  Then the binding - which is already cut.

Well, maybe next time I am able to blog it will be on my own computer!