Sorry I am So Quiet. I will be back before too long....

Happy 49th Birthday To My Dear Hubby Mark!! Watch out Salley O'Malley! He is gonna have you next year. Don't think he likes to Kick! Stretch! and Kick! though.

Wow! Where Have I Been? To be honest I am overwhelmed with a lot of things. Last Sunday I had to take hubby to the ER with hiccups. He had them for almost a week and was so weakened by them that he started having breathing troubles. Too add to this poor sleep and almost not eating anything. In addition he had aggravated his knee the week before and it was just becoming worse and worse. They got rid of the hiccups in the ER only to have them come back a few minutes after we left there. The "fix" was Haldol in the ER and Thorazine at home. These are both "psych" drugs. They knocked him for a loop and made him extremely low functioning. He was so bad that I asked permission to either work from home or take leave of absence last week. Boss allowed me to work. It is really hard to be a caretaker. I admire all those that do this full time. To add to all this my son, who is a type 1 diabetic, had a touch of the flu. When it rains it pours.

On the work front it is mid year and that means appraisal writing time. I tried to do that from home last week buit with conference calls and caring for others it just was not possible to complete. Plus I had an overdue proposal to complete. I stayed up until after 11:00 p.m. and got that one done last night. I will have to concentrate and get these appraisals done this week since I have to get them all administered this week.

Then on the crafty front, I have many things I owe. Let me just call them overdue. I spent all weekend working to get a round robin done and to get the prep work done on a second round robin. Here are the fruits of my labor. Scroll through the pictures to see more detail. The picture in this post is the completed RR. Lot's of hand work on this one. The second one is paper piecing. I haven't done this before but have found lot's of great tutorials. Now to get the RR off in the mail.

On a fun note. I joined up for a White Elephant exchange on the Stashbuster yahoo group. I had a moment of regret at first since I felt it was a waste of money from the perspective of the shipping and return of contents in the box. I got the box over the weekend and boy was I pleasantly surprised. There was lots of nice things in there. I chose 6 items that I really liked. Now I have to find at least 6 things to place in the box and send it on to the next person. Assume that a pattern costs $9. I got more than my money's worth. Fun, fun, fun! PLUS! I tracked down Sharon-UK in Oregon and we had a nice chat! She is such a sweetie! Love that gal!

Serendipity

ser·en·dip·i·ty Spelled Pronunciation[ser-uhn-dip-i-tee]

• –noun
  an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

Four or five years ago I "worked" with a gal at quiltchat.com. We were both OP's in the room. Her nickname was nimblethimble. I loved this gal. We exchanged gifts, did swaps together and chatted our heads off! What a great gal. Then one day she disappeared. I tried her e-mail address and it was no longer active. Just lost touch.

The other day I was surfing the QuiltStudio webring and came upon a gals post about her friend suddenly dying. I posted my condolences. Not long after this I had a comment on my blog from someone who's blog name I didn't recognize. By now you have probably guessed it was from my long lost friend. I am floating on air! She has come to chat with me a few times and we are catching up on lost time. She has an awesome blog and I am in awe of her talents!

Faith, I am glad we happened across one another again! I am so happy to have you back in my life!

PAY IT FORWARD. OK I signed up to do this on Sarah's blog and Kim's blog. Let's see how it goes. The first three people that leave a comment and pledge to pay it forward to three (make that six) others on their blog will receive a handmade gift from me within one year of this posting.

Please help out and give your favorite colors and an email address.

Happy 48th Wedding Anniversary Mom and Dad! I am the luckiest gal in the world to have you as my parents! I love you!

Reflecting on May and June.... It doesn't seem that I have accomplished a lot these two months. I can't really recall what I spent my time doing but it wasn't major quilting accomplishments.

• Round Robin center completed and mailed off
• Three tote bags
• Row on my first round robin that I received almost completed. Have to sew on a few buttons and do a bit of embroidery on it.
• Quilted the peach and blue Ninepatch.
• Quilted the baby Irish Chain
• Pulled up all the durn carpet! Now I remember!

All in all not too bad.