Baltimore on the Prairie

I am getting ready for the conference "Baltimore on the Prairie." I am excited and a little chagrined that I have not addressed this year's program sooner. As I wind down in this part of my life working less away from home, I have come to treasure the time I spend at Eugene T Mahoney state park with a group of mostly women who love applique as much as I do. I wish you all could be there next week. Beautiful setting with a view of the Platte river. More than that, there will be quilts, lots of quilts. The photo above represents my workshops. On the left, my four day workshop, An Eagle in my Garden. The wreath in the center is embroidery and silk ribbon. The wreath on the right is cut work applique and is a one day workshop. Only three techniques, needle turn, perfect (?) circles and embroidered stems.



Okay, of course I know this is a kitchen counter. I also remember that I have a 500 square foot studio upstairs. The thing is that I need to be near my husband. He has given up taking chances for the most part but things still happen. However things still happen. Day before yesterday I walked into the kitchen knowing he was asleep in the living room in his wheel chair with the remote still in his hand ( sometimes he changes the channel in his sleep. Have you got one of those?) I swear i was gone for about a minute, When I came back, he was on the floor! Sigh... Seems he leaned a little to far and slid to the floor. So now we agree, no sleeping in that chair.
he has dodged five such falls since he came home. Did not get hurt. Long story short, I don't leave him alone much. Getting back to business, what you see is the beginning process I employ when making kits for my classes.

I always try to include items that are usually not available in the local fabric or quilt store. For instance in the above picture you see a small scrap of a favorite fabric with two chenille needles. Where I live, I was unable to buy those needles so got on the internet and ordered them from Clover. When people travel a long distance it is nice to find what you need at the conference.
Now last but not least is this to die for silk ribbon. This is another item no longer available in Springfield MO. Again the internet is my friend. These beauties will find their way into the kits I am composing even if I am getting a late start.


I do wish you were coming. be sure to look up the BOTP web sight for next years offerings. That's what I said, you can see what is happening next September!! Do not miss out. You will be sorry you missed the quilts, the friends, the view. I hope some of you will be there this year. Find me and tell me you heard from me on blogger. I always travel with chocolate!

Still recovering

Willie Nelson he is not but since this country singer is one of Dale's favorites I have decided to use his image as an icon for this weeks experiences. As many of you know, Dale has been through a lot this last year and a lot of ups and downs. As I write this I recall many proud moments, not the least of which is the progress he has made in speech therapy. While his short term memory often remains illusive, the long term is often right o the money. Recently, I cleaned out the little pond we have in the back garden as it had stopped running and we both enjoy the sound of the water running through the old water pump and splashing below. After cleaning it still would not work so off I went to the hardware store to get a new one. Installed, it did nothing. However, Dale sent me to the big workbench in the garage to reset the outlet and shazam, the pump is working again. Because he has lost a lot I love it that he can feel like he is contributing in a real way.

He has gone from a feeding tube to a peg in his abdomen, from there to eating almost anything. I gave him an Ipad to use for memory issues. I am not sure he will admit it but he does really like using it to access the news, check his calendar for appointments everyday. In addition, it seems he enjoys a game of Angry Birds and a little solitaire a slot machine now and then.

Over the months since he finally came home we have had a pretty quiet household. Well, I should qualify that by saying he was quiet and I found myself turning into a little bit of a chatterbox perhaps trying to fill the void of silence. of course there was the television. tell me why do men have to watch five minutes of a program and move on to something else and later perhaps back to the first program, move on to... well you know what I mean.

In any case Dale's voice has been there but really soft these last months. A couple of days ago he had a surgical procedure that involved an injection into his vocal cords to hep them close when speaking and really important when swallowing. So the house remains especially quiet for this next week as he is not supposed to speak at all! Then two weeks of speaking softly. This is a temporary fix but hopefully with continuing speech therapy the cords will regain some of their strength and he will have that voice back again.

I know I have not posted for awhile, but I am busier than I ever expected to be. I am still working on Aunty Green and hope to share a little more progress in the next week or so. Then heading for Baltimore on the Prairie. Take care.

So how are you doing this summer?

Kind of cute don't you think? Well, for me not so much. While things were better than usual ( I have a service ) the Japanese beetles visited my yard yet again. Six weeks of picking these things off my roses and and killing them on an individual basis has not put me in a good place. You can probably imagine my state of mind when I began seeing little piles of soil and then trails of soil on the grass. I looked on the Internet and found some really strange and fun ideas for getting rid of these creatures. The strangest solution involves sitting very close to a mound or tunnel, put your ear to the ground and when you hear activity use a spade to pound very hard on the ground. Kills em every time, not!! Used cat litter has a lot of fans. How about moth balls? You can walk around with a pitch fork and stab through the tunnels until you get lucky and stab the creature. You can also buy a package of poison worms and hope you place them in a really good place.

My yard has become a sort of mine field. Don't want the children playing back there because sometimes these soil piles are hidden by the grass. Almost turned an ankle last week myself. So, I hope you can imagine that when I saw a sign last week in my neighborhood ( Got Moles? ) that I instantly wrote down the phone number. I'm getting old. I wouldn't have remembered. Mr Rosiere came right away, set several traps and promised to come back. I ran my errands and could not resist going into the back yard to have a look. I stood there for just a few minutes when the trap nearest me snapped shut and then directly to my right another also snapped shut! Now is there a mole in either of the traps? I am not going to look. I was told that I probably only have one or two moles and wouldn't that be cool to be done with these guys? I should be so lucky! Hope to get back to posting about quilts soon,