Baby Showers

Last week we had a baby shower for Angie and Cora Rae. She was a very good baby throughout and didn't even mind being held by a dozen women. Here's some pics of the day.

We had some serious food.


And of course, Cake-delicious cake. Isn't that cute? Wanda (our supervisor) decorated by hand. A woman of many talents, we decided.


Patty did the decorations. She is a party planner extrodinaire. I asked her why she doesn't do this professionally and she says because she would want to be organizing the partygoers even after the party started. In otherwords, she thinks she would be a buzzkill. But I think she would be great.

There were lots of presents too.

And many guests

Oh, and one other thing.

Cora and Angie came too! (That's Angie above with the interpreters Hannah and Yasmine who are mad because they don't think they look good. Or perhaps Angie looks so good she is making everyone think they look bad!)

Cora Rae, thinking about life and a clean diaper.

Angie and Cora.

It's still a Mystery

Guess what I forgot last weekend at Superbowl Sunday Mystery Quilt IV? Yep, my camera. Gosh was I ever mad about that. It was the funnest thing though, and the quilt was so surprising.

I'll show you.

First we cut out strips like this

Then we sewed them together thusly

After that I pressed them open so it looked like this

I took a strip of the background fabric (the lighter brown print in this picture) and attached these strips to either side of the background strip. The strips had to be facing opposite ways-and that block looked like this-

So, can you guess what the blocks make? I couldn't either-it's amazing. When you put 4 together they look like this:

And that is another Mystery Quilt, Superbowl Style.

Blogosaurus

I am updating the blog today with just a few items.

First of all-pregnant woman #2 has given birth yesterday at 10 AM. Chase Harvey was 3 weeks early and a little baby at 6#7oz. What is the meaning of that? Birth went well after a little blood pressure problem. I don't have pictures yet. I do have this prepregnancy picture from when we went and saw pregnant woman #1's baby.

So congratulations to our little Ali-pants, and perhaps the office can calm down a tish.

Last week was sit and sew at Pine Needles. And I did not bring my camera. So next month look for Sit and Sew pictures. I am glad it is Sit and Sew because standing or lying and Sewing probably would not work out well. Sit and Sew is the gathering for the Thimbleberries Club, by the way.

Wednesday was embroidery club and we made cards which are really cool. I made 2 baby cards for the pregnant woman

Tomorrow is Superbowl Sunday Mystery Quilt IV. This, next to Retreat, is just about my favorite Pine Needles Event. It is also the first time I was ever at Pine Needles. So, many functions and 2 sewing machines later I am still at it.

Last week my sister Martha and I received our RSC yarn. And since the law of spoilers forbids I post a picture or even describe it I will just say "Oh la la". I had to order a needle set from Knit Picks (I cannot knit on anything but Harmony now). They have been shipped and next week I will swatch (yes, I am going to swatch-as much as I don't want to). I have to finish my GAAranA block this weekend. Constant cabling is driving me nuts. Plus I have 3 cable mistakes in the block now-which is not getting ripped back no matter what.

So I am off to finish my sit and sew block-I bought 2 new rulers for triangles and half squares, and two new rulers for measuring. You know, you think one ruler is just like the next-and you would be wrong. I love my new rulers. That Kaye England is so clever.

Enjoy the superbowl and root for the Cardinals. I don't much like the Steelers, ever since they stole the superbowl from Seattle. But I won't get into that, suffice to say I am still bitter.

Next week-lots of pictures!

Holy Cal Worthington and his dog Spot

First and formost of all-

A big shout out to Graaampaa who is officially older as of today. Happy Birthday Graampa. Card and gift in the mail-

Now for the rest of the story:

So today I was listening to NPR which is brought to me by MPR. Suddenly they were doing a spoiler about the upcoming story on Cal Worthington. Since I am from Washington and not Minnesota, I had to ask Dave-"Did you have Cal Worthington here?" to which he answered "Never heard of him" and continued on his morning prep schedule.

I was so curious I had to turn the radio up and listen. Cal is still selling cars in California, although he is in his late 80's now. I had completely forgotten the "Go see Cal, go see Cal, go see Cal" song. Oh back in the day....

Please listen to the story-you can find it here. Really, listen to it and it will bring back memories of time gone by. Are there still commercials out there like this?

It's All Relative

People, my relatives are out of control this weekend.

My nephew, whom I see around on Facebook has this radio gig going on. I believe his slot is oh dark thirty. They probably don't trust the freshman (who know everything) to be on during prime time. This is the information in his own words:


"FRIDAY MORNINGS 4:30-6:30AM!!That's Central Time (+6:00 GMT) y'all. So 2:30-4:30 for the west coast and 5:30-7:30 for the east. You can listen in at KRLX.org. Just click on the "Listen Now" link. You can also submit requests on the website or call us in the studio at 507-222-4127. We'd really enjoy that. We'll play your requests.Keeping it real in the realest sense of the word possible,

Alex

PS TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS"

He says he will play all of your requests. Oh so sorely tempted to call. As soon as I come up with the weirdest most obscure thing possible I'll be dialing.

So after recovering from this, my sister (other sister-the wine sister) sent me this link about my brother-in-law who edited a 700 page book about the Western Papagueria titled Fragile Patterns. (He is seen above with my sister in the only picture I could find at five thirty AM) I was actually impressed by his speaking and thought he would probably be pretty interesting to listen to. Do remember that he has spoken to me several times in the past 30 years or so but usually in one or two syllable words so I will understand. I mean-check out the e-mail sig:

Jeffrey H. Altschul, Ph.D, RPA
Chairman, Statistical Research, Inc. (http:// sricrm.com)
Chairman, Nexus Heritage (http://nexus-heritage.com/)
President, SRI Foundation (http://srifoundation.org/)

These people send me e-mails with this kind of signature. Like we aren't related or what? Anyway, it gives me boundless joy to razz them about it.

I have to also say, Jay is probably right about my intellect as Dave and I spent several minutes doing wordplay on Papagueria. (We work in the medical field and we just can't help it)

But really, to edit a 700 page book is remarkable. That one could actually wade through 700 pages of the Western Papagueria is stellar to say the least.

So, Happy Accomplishments to all! I start an MPH program next month. Lets see if I can stick with it.

If not, I can always tune into Carlton College Radio whilst thumbing through Fragile Patterns.....

Fruit of the Vine....

So this is what my sister sent me a couple of weeks ago-


Dudes, it is totally personalized wine.

I suppose it is a fine Cabernet-reportedly quite healthful (if you don't drink all three bottles at one time).
As you can see it is the 25th Anniversary of their company Statistical Research, which seems to me not to do any statistical research at all.
But I am only an ignorant layman.
Although my brother in law admitted to never using ANOVA, nonparametric or otherwise. So go figure where the statistics come in. I will admit to seeing some research going on around there.
And curiously, my sister does not even drink. I am starting to wonder about this Alice in Wonderland sort of gift.
I refuse to overthink this.

Oh well, it is good for some conversation and a refreshing buzz!

Congratulations on 25 years of success.

Scrap Therapy

Yesterday afternoon I went to scrap therapy at Pine Needles in Cresco. I had already been to software sampler in Racine. I just thought I'd do all the Pine Needles all the time. So I did.

Scrap Therapy is about cutting your scraps, boxing them, and having them ready to make stuff. You cut 5 inch, 3 1/2 inch, and 2 inch squares. From my watercolor days I had a bazillion 2 inch squares already. I have totes of fabric from the mid 90's on that need to be used (so I can buy more fabric). This is stash busting at its best. So yesterday was the cutting class.

These are the boxes with some scraps that Marsha, our teacher (and owner of the store with her daughter Suzie -also talented quilters and all around nice girls) had cut up.

These are the 5 inch squares

These are 3 1/2 inch and two inch. We got a box with the class but I am afraid I am going to need a couple of more boxes. I also bought a bag pattern I can use with the scraps.

Here are the girls, busily ironing and cutting upstairs in class. The nice thing about scrap therapy is if it is getting too late to sew or knit with a clear head, you can cut scraps.

Here is Marsha on the ironing portion of our therapy
And here are Marsha and Suzie working hard to make Pine Needles run smoothly!

Although I am still wondering how I got to be #5 on the Mystery Quilt list when they know I am always #1.

Oh well. It was fun and I had a little shopping spree to boot. Mystery Quilt-here I come!