Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Waiting for Hurricane Isaac.............

I have a quilt sandwiched, and I am going to start working on that quilt.  Isaac is about to arrive.  The best thing to do, is grab a Dr. Pepper and retire to the sewing room. 

One of the girls from the Stitch and Cackle Quilt Circle brought me this little cartoon.  How many of us does this fit????   In case you can't read it - it says -  Hello, my name is Alice and I haven't bought fabric for six days.........

The wind is picking up.  According to the forecast we will not get high winds.  If Isaac continues on its current path we should not have big problems, although they are forecasting a lot of rain.  The hourly forecast for tomorrow in the afternoon is 5 hours of 100% rain.  It is typical for it to pour here.  There is a big difference in a nice little rain for a long period of time and a pouring down rain for a long period of time.  I am only concerned because I have a house in Sulphur, LA where they do not take care of the culverts.  They have a bad habit of allowing them to fill up with debris.  When that happens there is not room for water.  So thus the streets fill up, the yards fill up and if you are lucky your house doesn't fill up.  I have that house on the market to sell.  I have put many dollars into it.  I just don't need those kind of headaches. 

My next concern is the power going out.  It is hot here, and it is also very humid.  I do not do well in the heat.  I keep telling myself I don't belong here, but then if I go back up north, I have severe winter to contend with.  Cool, I can handle, cold I can handle, severe cold I have done it and don't want to do it again.  So, I can only hope that the power stays on and the AC works.

My prayer is that all of the people that are in the path of Isaac come out well on the other end.  These storms can be so devastating.  Hopefully all will be well. 

Monday, August 20, 2012

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That..........

My sister, she lives in Iowa.  She calls me every now and then and will ask me to look up something for her on the computer.  She has one but she is new to the internet, so I am glad to help her out.  She loves to go to estate sales and antique stores.  A few years ago, she lived less than 1 block off the Cedar River.  That was the year they had the 500 year flood.  She lost nearly everything in her house.  So she enjoys shopping for the little things that make a house a home.  A few weeks ago she called me and told me that she had bought some little houses and asked me to look them up.  I did and gave her the information.  I am also a lover of old things.  I thought, these are so cute, I wonder if I can find some.  So I started searching.  In England, I found these and of course I had to buy them. 

KLM Houses
The little houses are actually booze bottles.  Look at the bottom, it says distillers.  One of them is full, one is partially full and one is empty.  The seals have not been broken.  I assume with age the liquor disappears. 

KLM gives them out in the first-class section of a flight. 





KLM Bottle Backs
















KLM Bottle Bottoms







Batik
Look at this wonderful piece of Batik.  I have been looking for a Batik (nothing in my stash) to go with my Hallelujah blocks.  I have tried everything under the sun.  I could not find something to go with all four colors that I was using in the block.  I found that 3 colors would work great but 4 would not.  I was out the other day at QB and found this piece of Batik.  All four colors work well.  I bought lots, like the rest of the bolt.  This is for a background fabric and I did not want to run out.  If there is fabric left over and I think there will be, it will go on the back of the quilt. 

And the last thing for today is a picture of the Crepe Myrtle bush in my yard.  The neighborhood has dozens of them.  Mine always blooms late.  It is blooming better this year than ever.  I decided to get a picture, it looked like rain and I was afraid I would loose all the blooms.  I would really like to plant several of these in the yard, I just need someone with a strong back and willing nature. 

Hope all is well with you. 
Crepe Myrtle Bush

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Tossed Salad and etc...............

Tossed Salad
Where does the time go.  I have been busy but what have I been doing?  I don't really think it has been much.  I did go to a class a week ago.  Dot Collins came over from the Beaumont, TX area and taught a class on her pattern "Tossed Salad."   This is a really a neat quilt.  Depending on what you use for fabric, color, focus fabric, panels (cut-up), you could make a dozen and they would all look different.  There is 15 different squares in this quilt.  I made some of them once, twice, three and four times.  I used filler pieces to make the blocks match up where I had made my focus fabric 8" and 4" instead of the standard 6".   Here is a picture without the border.  Tomorrow I will make that.  So do come back to see what it will look like when finished.

The weather is still typical south Louisiana.  It is hot and humid.  But then we are suppose to be hot and humid.  When it comes down to it I think we have been cooler then many parts of the country. 

School started this week.  Where I live, it is a small town.  The main road has an elementary and a high school and a Catholic school on it.  About one block off there is a middle school.  This is all in a very short distance.  The traffic is horrendous.  If you can go with the traffic, it moves very slow.  If you have to turn left, forget it.  It is not going to happen.  I have complained over and over again that we need a light.  Of course nobody listens.  So I hate to see school start.  You do learn to time your trips.  Now you would think living in this little little town, you would not have a problem, not true. 

I have rattled on, so thus I will quit.  Hopefully all is well on your end.