Time For Some Fun!!

For the past 5 weeks or so every time I'd see one of these signs it would just crack me up and I kept wishing I could get a photo - well yesterday on the way to guild meeting I saw a sign and a "safe place" to pull over to take my photo. What's so funny about this you say? Well, for one, this is Texas - SOUTH Texas, where today's "cool front" brought a big chill of 67 degrees. Yes, this is the MIDDLE of OCTOBER. Okay, so that's the obvious crack up, admittedly corny, but what has had me rolling for the past few weeks every time I passed one of these signs has been in reference to Ike -- and all the hollering for ICE, where can we get ice? -- so when I'd see these signs I'd think "new POD" (point of distribution) and could just imagine everyone scampering to the nearest bridge for the much needed cool refreshment that a bag of ice promised. In reality not funny, but I can't help myself, I just have to laugh when I think of FEMA setting up a POD on the bridge and instructing everyone to "watch for ice"!

Well, the FUN part of this post is coming, so don't think it's all about Ike again...I saw this sign ON THE WAY TO GUILD so that's where the ramble will start...I mentioned yesterday that we voted on the rodeo quilt, but that's not all that went on yesterday...we had a schoolhouse and went around to several stations for demonstrations -- here's two of the fun ideas that were shared with the group. How to make praire braids and cute little santas.


We have a really nice group of ladies, and it was fun to be out among quilting friends. Our big excitement coming up is a bus trip to the Houston International Quilt Festival in a few weeks. We all need festival!

Have I mentioned I love show and tell? Well, here's some fun stuff....I've finished a couple of quilts this week - one is a raffle quilt for a guild in North Houston - Kingwood Area Quilt Guild. I know they were probably relieved when I called them a month or so ago to tell them that their quilt top was safe (and dry) after our battle with Ike -- being a northern guild I can only imagine a few of them say "why oh why did we take our quilt to some longarm quilter near Galveston Bay!!" A group of the ladies came to pick it up today, once they do the binding I know they are eager for it to make the rounds and start selling tickets. Before long I'm sure they will post information on their website if you are interested in tickets. Here's a few photos - the applique was fabulous! And I loved working on the bright colors. I think they have a good opportunity for a successful fund raiser don't you?

The photos are a tad clearer on my webshots - perhaps I'll get around to updating the current quarter's album this next week or so...well, probably "or so" as I'm now in the mad dash of quilting for festival - quilts that will hang in the vendor booth of Quilts By The Bay. Here's the first of three that have to be finished by next Thursday (I go to Market on Friday). All are "full service" binding, which means I will machine attach the binding to one side and hand sew down the other side...hum..I really ought to be doing binding tonight instead of blogging (sigh)...well, it IS rather late....so I think I can take the rest of the night off (grin). Anyway, here's some photos of this pretty little 51 x 51, I had the pleasure of "doing whatever I wanted to do" on this one, so I played around with feathers. I love doing feathers in a border! I hope it's successful in helping her to sell the kits at her booth.

.



This really was a fun day today. I got up early and headed to the local YMCA to try out a water areobics class....perscribed by my chiropractor and massage therapist --- seems I'm good at getting myself injured...who would have thought quilting was such a dangerous profession! I could ramble all night about some of my injuries -- Dec 2004 cutting off the tip of my left index finger with a rotary cutter, resulting in a 4 hour emergency room procedure to try to stop the bleeding -- March 2007 loosing range of motion in my right shoulder causing excrusiating pain and being unable to quilt for several weeks (not to mention several visits to Doc) -- well, seems I've now blown out my hip. When I commented to Doc how it reminded me of my shoulder going out he simply said "hip, shoulder, same thing just two feet apart" (smile!) What has added insult to injury was that the final straw of it going out on me was the day after I 'worked the truck' to assist in food distribution the first Tuesday after Ike -- it was so painful I felt like I was in a body cast because I couldn't move my leg or hip. Well, I'll spare you all the whine, surfice it to say I've been seeing Doc and Maria about every other week and believe I'm going to live. (grin). And today I was most encouraged!!

I checked out the YMCA, didn't even know we had one anywhere close, thought they were all "up into Houston" - wonderful surprise! This is a new one, only a year old and less than 10 miles from home (can you tell I don't get out much!). Indeed they offered the water aerobics workout three times a week, so I decided that today was the day to take the plunge - pun intended! You may or may not know, I'm not really a water person. Love being around it, but I'm not a swimmer...the last time I was in the water was my birthday this summer when we rafted on the Salmon River in Idaho (before that was several summers ago when we stayed with some church friends at a rental beach house) -- indeed, my "swimmies" (shoes) still had river rock sand in them when I put them on this morning! But I was determined to give this a try - anything to try to build up strenght in my lower back, legs and hips prior to the potential of blowing them out to the extent that I couldn't enjoy Market or Festival...so I packed my towel and away I went to the YMCA....(anyone singing about now...Y....M....C...A...)

What a pleasant surprise to find a friendly face in the crowd -- Raynita is a lady I used to go to church with about 5 years ago. I've seen her a few times when we've gone back for weddings or funnerals, but unfortunately we haven't really kept up. She was sooooo good to me, showed me where things were, stayed pretty near me in the pool and explained some of the exercise we were doing and how to do them. I was pretty uncoordinated and she was kind enough to say "since everything we do is basicly under water, no one knows if you are messing up or doing it wrong!" What an encourager!! I was so thrilled that the movements were basically painless, they say that water exercises are easier on your joints and offer a good strength training and workout. I do believe they were right, I found that I could quilt longer today without the pain setting in. And I'm not limping around like an old mule tonight -- seems the pain would somehow always "freeze up" in the evenings. So I'm encouraged! There's hope! Always hope. Anyway, more than I'm sure you wanted to know about my worn out bod -- but going to the Y sure added to my fun. I'm eager for the next opportunity...oh, did I mention it was 67 degrees this morning? considering that last week was almost 80 you'll have to understand the next comment...did I mention that it's an outdoor pool?!?!? Only in Texas! Only would someone goofy like me sign up for water areobics in the middle of October in an OUTDOOR POOL! Makes for a good ramble don't ya think?

Hum, guess I'd best be signing off, have a Square in a Square class to teach in less than 10 hours - somewhere in between here and there I need my beauty rest. Until the next time...think of your crazy Texas quilting buddy when you see "Watch for Ice on the Bridge" and have a chuckle!