Yethi Says it is Hot, Quilts and Bug Bites

Fire Ants....




One
week ago
tomorrow, I was out watering a flower bed.  Anyone living in the south is familiar with Fire Ants.  Some living out of the south have probably heard of them.  Fire Ants build mounds, and it is unbelievable how many ants there can be in a mound.  I have found that if I take a broomstick and punch several holes in them, the ants come swarming out.  Then I take cheap iodized salt (sometimes at 25 cents a box) and I sprinkle it on top of the mound.  This usually works the first time, but if not the second time, you never see those ants again.  Now back to my story, I was watering.  When I finished I was curling up the hose to put it away, I looked down and I had ants to my knees.  Thankfully, I had on jeans, socks and shoes.  I started patting at them and then decided to wash them off.  I was lucky, I only had 5 bites.  I think I am allergic to them.   In the picture that is one bite.  They burn, they hurt and they itch.  I woke up two nights in a row scratching.  They are not fun.  Today, that bite is about the size of a quarter.  Thankfully all of them quit itching about 3 days ago.

The problem with the mounds is when you mow your yard, you mow over the top and then when you are walking in the grass you can't see them.  That is why I didn't know that the ants were there.  I try to keep the ants out of my back yard because of my dogs.  It is a fenced area, so that is the area that I am most concerned about.  Fire Ants can kill a cow, can you imagine a poor dog. 

Yethi says it is hot.............


First the Back

I bought this fan a while back.  I keep it in my office.  Central air (I have two) just cannot keep the house cool.  Between the heat and the humidity, it is an impossible  feat.  Yethi discovered this fan.  Notice on the back picture her hair is split. 

And Now the Front










Quilting....
This is the center of a scrappy quilt that I have been working on.  It is not quite put together.  I hope to have the borders on by the next time I blog. 

Hope all is well with you.

The Queen and Etc...........

Yethi - The Queen

Yethi........
This is Yethi.  She think she's a queen.  I went in to make my bed and here she is snoring away.  The picture of comfort.  She had a hair cut last week.  I had the groomer cut her short.  Her hair is a lot to take care of.  She is really a beautiful dog with or without hair. 

Quilting......
I have not worked on my nine-patch this week.  I am binding two quilts.  Both must be done.  One is for my brother.  It is his birthday present.  It is late.  The other quilt is being entered in a show in March.  I am quickly running out of time.  In a few days I will be back at it.  I am anxious to finish the nine-patch quilts, I think they will jazz up my bedroom for spring. 

Log Cabin

I was pawing through a magazine the other day.  I found an ad for this quilt.  It is a Judy Niemeyer design.  I love log cabin quilts and I thought - this is up my alley,  points and logs.  Somehow I must restrain myself from starting this quilt.  I already have a Judy Niemeyer on the design wall.  It is nearly finished, and will be soon.  So many quilts to make, not enough time.

Sulphur.........
Have you ever fought city hall?  I am finding that it is much like doing genealogy.  It is sort of a mystery.  It is hard to understand why they do the things they do.  I believe that probably the biggest reason they do stupid things is for votes.  Another good reason is they are just plain stupid. 

Why would any city in their right minds (speaking of the powers to be) give a drainage ditch to the land owners along the drainage ditch.  They gave it to them for their own use.  Now what would their use be?  For what purpose would they need a drainage ditch?  This ditch is used to take out the rain water from the area.  Those of you who are familiar with Louisiana know that when it rains, it pours, and it just doesn't pour a little bit.  Now, unfortuately, that ditch runs in the back of some property owners who do not take care of their own property so why would they take care of a drainage ditch.  When the drainage ditch has trash, dirt that moves in from other areas because of rain water, weeds grow, there is not room for rain water.   The neighborhood is dependant on that ditch taking the rain water out of the area and keeping their homes from flooding.  Now the neighborhood is dependant on people who will not take care of their own let alone a drainage ditch.   This ditch must be maintained.  I just cannot believe that these people are so stupid.   If you live in Sulphur, you best watch what city hall is doing. 

I hope you all have a good day. 

Visitors, Dogs and Quilting...............

Bob and Julie

I had company this week from Cedar Rapids, IA.  They are snowbirds and were on their way to their home in Texas.  It is always so nice to see old friends.  I have known Bob for nearly all my life (not quite).  He was a roommate of my husband, Jim.  He married Julie many years ago.  Julie and I have things in common, like quilting.  They were in a hurry to get to their home, it was damaged in a storm and they needed to get it taken care of.  Our visit was short, but enjoyable and I may see them again come spring, when they head back north. 

Mariner's Compass

I am working on a Mariner's Compass.  There is four of us meeting roughly every 7-10  days.  We found a quilt designed by Brenda Henning.  It is a lovely quilt and will keep us busy for awhile.  Here is a picture of one of the compasses.  It is not put together, it is still in pieces but it gives you the idea. This pattern is really neat because it has several large pattens for the big compasses.  You pick the ones you wish to use.   The quilt has 5 large compasses and 4 smaller ones.  This is suppose to be my project for when we meet.  I am behind and I will probably always be behind.  I would like to make the parts when we meet and put them together with my Pfaff at home.  I don't drag my Pfaff around unless it is absolutely necessary. 

The fabric to the side, is fabric that I have auditioned for the next compass.  The fabric around the compass is the fabric that I am going to use as background around the compasses.

Jack and Yethi

Winter is coming, I decided that my big dog needed a doggy bed.  She likes sleeping on the tiles, but in the winter they get cold.  She also has a very thick rug (like a wool) she sleeps on.  Yethi is now over 8 years old.  I have noticed lately that sometimes she walks like she is stiff.  I bought her a Simmons Orthopedic bed.  I found a place in my bedroom for it and Jack (the other dog) took it over.  He growled at her if she came close.   I have twin beds in my bedroom (pushed together), Jack has occupied one until now.  I guess I will have to make a trip to Petco and buy another bed. 

Hope all is well with you..................

Surgery is done and I am ready to quilt.................

copyright Sharie Paulson

It will be 3 weeks tomorrow since I had back surgery.  I am ready to get on with life.  I have been quilting a bit.  It helps to make the time go by.  I have to wear a brace, cannot bend, twist, stoop and etc.  I have 3 weeks of this to go.  In the meantime, I can run a sewing machine.  I am not suppose to sit for more than 20 minutes at a time.  I have a kitchen timer that I set and when it goes off I get up and walk around a bit.  Since I cannot stretch, I cannot put blocks together from off of my design board, so I am in the process of making blocks.  That I can do.  I created another pattern and have thus been working on that.  The colors in this picture have much to be desired, but you get the idea. 




I am still working on another log cabin and have nearly all of the blocks made for this quilt.  I would like to get the rows together but I would really have to stretch to get to the blocks and that is a no-no. 



copyright Sharie Paulson

Smokey is my sewing buddy.  Most of the time when I am sewing, Smokey is near by.  So is Jack, the dog.  



We survived tropical storm Lee.  We did have a lot of rain and it did blow a bit.  The rain was not a problem in Lake Charles as far as I know.  We have had drought conditions, so a lot of the rain soaked in.  I am sure that there were probably areas and streets that accumulated water.  It is blowing today, but the sun is shining brightly.  And the temps are wonderful.  It is 84 degrees at the moment (2:45 p.m.).  You could not ask for much better.  The next few nights it is going to be cool (temps in the 50's).  Fall is coming and I can't wait.  One thing nice about cooler days and much cooler nights is that the gulf will cool off.  If the gulf cools off, if we do get a hurricane in the gulf, chances are it won't be as severe when it lands.  Lets hope so anyway. 

I hope to post more often now.  Do come back soon...............Hope all is well on your end.........

I HAVE NOT DROPPED OFF THE EDGE OF THE EARTH...............

I am still around.  I have surgery in two weeks.  My son is coming from California for a week.  Life has been a drag.  Nothing exciting...............so thus no blog.  It is still boring but thought I would post a couple of pictures. 

This is my new clock.  I made it.  I embroidered the roosters and it has acrylic for the top and back.  It is a little quilt.  When you make these things, I was thinking of the quilt.  So thus thought these color combinations would be great.  I did not think of the hands of the clock being black.  So thus the second hand and the minute hand ends do not always show up.  Next time, I will think about it. 

This is Jack the dog.  If you follow my blog you know I have a cat named JAC.  Jack the dog was my son's.  He moved to California.  He had another dog, Fred, and two parrots, Roscoe and Hubert.  His girl friend has a dog.  They are living in a condo and could only have 2 dogs.  So thus he needed to find a home for Jack.  I was fearful that he would not find a good home, so now I have Jack the dog and JAC the cat.  It is interesting around here.                                 

The quilt blocks are a project that I started a while back.  It has 205 blocks in it.  I hope to get the blocks finished before I have surgery.  It probably won't happen.

The weather is hot.........Not as hot as in most parts of the country.  At present it is 90 degrees (cool for Louisiana at noon).  It is the humidity, so it probably feels like a 100 degrees.  I am looking forward to fall although I hate to wish my life away. 

Hope all is well on your end...........