Thursday, February 28, 2008

Pictures of the Stolen Stuff





My purse and bookbag and all my stuff except the cash and jewelry were found two blocks from where it was taken (400-600 block of Elm Street). If you see these items please contact me. It is a shot in the dark, but it is a shot!




Jewelry Stolen from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin on Saturday Feb. 23, 2008.
Two tone gold and silver Seiko watch, Italian Charm Bracelet and gold Mother Child Diamond Necklace


Not pictured, but also stolen is a child size small silver pendant that has floral etchings as well as Nancy and Greg October 1976. The mother child gold diamond necklace had come apart near the clasp and needs repairing. 2 quilt charms
I love you sign language hand
Interpreting sign language hands
Rainbow
I love my kids
I love Kathy
Saguaro cactus
Get r done
Class of 2006
Beagle
I love reading
G (Green Bay Packer symbol)
Pink “Angel”
August raised birthstone
Shooting stars
I love reading
Tucan bird
Spring
1 more unknown








Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Good News and Progress on the house...

The good news is that I got a call today that someone had found some of my stuff. First thing they found was the driver's license so they called and had me come over to see what else might be there. A really nice couple (the O'Donnel's) led me straight back into the ally behind their house and a little farther down (not far at all from where it was stolen aobut two blocks exactly) where we found buried in the snowbank my school bag and purse and contents of both all over the place. The papers are pretty much trash, but it appears everything is recovered EXCEPT my watch, Italian charm bracelet, silver pendant and diamond mother child necklace and 10 bucks. Everything else (now all cancelled of course) was there. Sigh. So I am happy about that but still upset about the jewelery.
We also had carpet put in the kid's rooms today and then discovered a strange yellow stain on Mac's carpet which we can't get off. So they will be coming to relay the carpet again tomorrow. So we have Hannah's room all set and furniture all over in the living room waiting til after tomorrow. I have to wonder about my luck. Wish I had time to sew and cheer myself but at this point I can't get myself there!
In case you (like me) need to see before and after pictures side by side I am going to post them here.

Hannah's room, new carpet and all!

Downstairs Bathroom


Kitchen


Our Room



Upstairs Bathroom

Monday, February 25, 2008

Some Cutting Done and Update on the House

Well I finally made time to cut out the one and a half inch strips for my "summer" Seasons Bargello quilt (wallhanging size) for my Quilt University class. I need to get it done before Friday night or Saturday because our teacher will be posting the "autumn" pattern then. I need to get cracking on which fabrics to use for that one. I have one strip in this one (third from the right) that is a different color but same fabric pattern that is in my "spring" version. Bought four colors to try to work them in since we can put this all in one lap quilt when we are done. I haven't decided on that or wallhangings yet. Originally I thought a seasonal wall hanging to change in my eventual quilting studio would be nice, but now I am thinking a lap quilt would be good too. Anyway I am not entirely enthused with this group of fabrics but I am working with what I have here and so we will see how it turns out. Summer has lots of sun and green so they do make me think of summer anyway!



We spray painted our front door today. Ok Kathy did it while I was working (grin). It was ORANGE--like 70's orange inside and out and now it is a fabulous almond color. I really think it is a huge improvement. Should have done this awhile back. It might need another coat yet, we will decide in the sunlight tomorrow. Yay to that!
Here is the new loveseat/chair/bed we got. We have it covered by two quilts and two blankets right now as we are training the dogs to stay off it. We bought some bitter bitter spray and sprayed an old blanket on top of it for two days and they didn't care for it and stayed away. We didn't care for it either. We added a rug to the living room and they are happy to have that to lay on but old habits die hard. Mostly it is going better than we expected. I know it is hard to retrain dogs, but they have destroyed three couches in about as many years with constant jumping on it. Where it was before they liked to climb on the back to see out the window. That rips the cushion off the couch...sigh. I like to have them lay on it with me, but don't like the wear and tear on the back so we are going to try to keep them off the couch. They can still go on the beds though!
Kathy got the white toilet seat on and the fish one off so the downstairs bathroom is all done too! Left on the list of things to fix is laundry doors (half done) take down hardware in Hannah's room, new carpet in kids' rooms (on Wed.), toilet seat upstairs, and we decided to paint the upstairs bedroom. We will also touch up some paint outside and we have bags of leaves to get rid of as soon as Spring hits since we didn't ditch them all in time last Fall!

Off to Margarita Monday at the Mexican Restaurant downtown. I think I am driver tonight though so no margarita for me!













Sunday, February 24, 2008

My purse was stolen in Chippewa Falls, Wisc last night...

I am screaming it from the rafters in case someone somewhere knows anything and can help.Last night my car was on Elm street in Chippewa for less than an hour (from 10 to 11 PM--right after the game at CHI-HI let out according to the police officer) and someone stole my Vera Bradley purse and bookbag for work out of it. We thought we had locked the car, but apparently not. The theives only got ten bucks in cash, but all my credit cards, checkbook, keys, watch, italian charms bracelet, personal pictures including a stack of my daughter's senior pictures and my freaking wedding diamond (now in a pendant with a mother child and a broken clasp) were taken. Please keep your ears out and in you go to Chi-HI repost this so that everyone can keep their eyes and ears pealed for the theif or theives as I am sure they will boast about their deed. If you know anything about this theft please send a message to me or call the Chippewa Police at 723-4424.Thank you for your help!
I will post pictures if I can find them...

Friday, February 22, 2008

How the House is Coming Along!


Today my cousin came to help clean, the carpet guy came and cleaned the upstairs carpet and my new loveseat (chair with bed in it!) was delievered! Kathy did tons of running and little stuff and painted the rest of Mac's room too. I just got done taking pictures of the progress...it is getting there. Next Wed. we are getting new carpet installed in the kids' rooms so I will post pictures of their rooms after that. Bathrooms need the new toilet seat installed later tonight, but they are ready! Still some work in the kitchen and touch up painting in Mac's room and we decided to do the stairway wall too. Oh and need to spray paint the inside and outside of the front door if the temp goes up this weekend.




Jade loves the water fountain I set up!






You can still see boxes and a little more clutter than the end result, but it is much improved from the first pictures we took! It is getting there!

Monday, February 18, 2008

Another Finished Quilt! NYE Mystery Quilt













I got my mom and dad's NYE Mystery quilt back from Jen Bauer (my awesome longarmer) and spent the last two evenings hand binding it. She did a great job with quilting hearts on the hearts! This was a mystery so the colors are not what I would have picked had I known the design, but I like how it looks anyway. The back has a dark purple on it with little leaves (like the green on the front) as well as more of the border fabric in the middle of the purples. I am very pleased with it and need to send it off to Arizona for my mom and stepdad's 30th Wedding Anniversary! Hard to believe they have been together that many years...seems like just yesterday I was walking down the aisle as junior bridesmaid! The back has my usual I love you hand label too.


Finally took a picture of our storage in the driveway. Because of the snow and ice we couldn't get it any farther back to the side of the garage and parking is now a bit of a pain with my daughter's car, but the convenience of having the storage right in the driveway is nice. It isn't quite half full yet either. Next to it is my fairly new Element..I love it though not the payments!






Saturday, February 16, 2008

Name Signature

I created my own time signature isn't it great? SMILE!


Not much Quilting Going On!

Not much quilting going on since I have been working and we have been trying to get our house ready to put on the market. We are making lots of progress with that though in the interim the house looks worse than it did before. We got a huge storage roll off in our driveway and have been filling it diligently. We pack until we run out of boxes and then we go get more boxes and pack some more! Yesterday we went and bought a new chair half sleeper in intermission mocha. It will be delivered before the first. I really like it though it is a little smaller than a loveseat I can see possibilities for it after we move and the color was great. Randy came today and took a load of stuff we no longer want or need (picnic table, chairs, bookshelf, etc.) though he needs to get a friend with a truck to come help with some of it.


Since I haven't been quilting and had to pack up some of my sewing fabric and such I decided to take pictures of all of my projects that I need to do so here they are!

This first picture is Rachel's fabric for her "Outside the Box" quilt. The backing is on the bottom and I picked colors for the top from that. Hannah likes the fabric so much she wasn't sure if she should offer up her quilt and get the new one. Ha ha. This should be my next big project, but we will see! I really want it done in time to send to Rachel in Norway for next Christmas though so I have plenty of time.





This fabric is for a "Jewel of the Prairie" quilt I want to do. It is all batik and cost me a small fortune. I am almost afraid to cut into the fabric so that is why this hasn't been started. Well that and also because I think a design wall would really help me with this and I don't have one til we move. I am not sure who this is for so I packed it up for now.




I bought this as a kit which the store owner had adapted to the circus fabric (instead of the tortoise and the hare it was intended for). I really liked the quilt, but the one in the picture is cuter. I am not sure why I haven't cut this one and gotten started, but it will get done eventually.



I had to have this fabric and pattern when I saw it not too long ago. I planned to make a car quilt with it (the shop had a quilt hung up and I tried to copy the fabric they used--I know I am hardly original!) After I read the pattern I realized that there are lots of diamonds (duh) and I have to make a template, etc. So it is all waiting for me and I brought my Arizona Dreams quilt to the car for now. SMILE!











I have most of this one cut out but need to buy some black wool before I can do anything toward finishing it. My sister picked out this pattern when I dragged her into the quilt store with me. Hopefully she will like it when it is done.




The directions are up on Quilt University for our second Seasons Bargello lesson. This one is for summer and I have to choose nine fabrics to use. I have been playing with the fabric but haven't decided yet which to use. My online group NewQuiltingClub has posted another link for our next block called Starry Eyed Block and I need to pick fabrics and learn to paper piece in order to do it. Little worried about how it will come out, but I guess if it is bad I will have learned something from it!

So now the update on Valentine's Day! My sweetheart gave me a pair of gold and diamond earrings which I absolutely love and haven't taken off since, a dozen roses, two cards and she cooked dinner too!

Not our best picture, but you see the smiles! Happy Post Valentine's Day Folks!

Happy National Quilting Day!

I participated in the National Quilting Day sewalong on the Modern Quilt Studio page.  We sewed Friends all Around.  Here is my first block....