No Sew Week :(

 I have not sewed in what seems like forever.  I am working today and am really hoping to pull fabric for the mystery and sew something tonight!  I did get to Wisconsin for a quick trip to see my Papa.  My mom and I stayed at my aunt Nancy's and I stayed the weekend with my best friend Monica which was great since she was unable to come visit me this past Spring like usual.  The only exercise I got was when Monica and I went for a brisk walk on the Chippewa River State Trail.  It was nice to walk in the woods and see all the water!

 My daughter Hannah was able to come to town on Sunday night and spend the evening with me then got up early to drive to work (she is a CPA and travels for work and she happened to be working about halfway between her home and Eau Claire)  We met up at Jill's (another long time friend of mine) and she did our hair.

 I love her!  We have been friends since I was 15 and she is one of the sweetest people I know!

 Here we are mom, Papa, Nancy, and me. He was doing much better than he was a month ago.  He is on hospice now but still sharp as a tack.  So glad I got to see him--it had been over two years.

 So happy to get out an hike...even if alone this past week.  I really hit it hard and did the Ridgeline backwards from usual to see if it was harder or easier that way. I think easier, but not sure!

Playing with Mosaic Maker :)

I was playing with the bighugelabs mosaic maker tonight and made this little mosaic showing some of the things that the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild has inspired me to make!  I have learned paper piecing, embroidery, some free motion quilting and how to make a needlebook!  I didn't make the cup cozy this past month but I am a bit inspired to try out applique again Cristy's way!
In a few weeks we leave for Wisconsin!  I am busy planning out all my projects and books for my Nook for the car.  I plan to hand sew these little hexi flowers onto their squares while driving so I can finally get this little doll quilt done.

I also plan to keep adding to my hand sewn hexies.  I actually brought this with me to Wisconsin two years ago (when my kids jumped out of a plane to celebrate Mac's high school graduation) and I have been working on it on and off when I am not knitting or now embroidering.  I guess I will just keep plugging away on it.  

I am also bringing some knitting...dishcloths because they are so easy.  I still am working on my craftsy socks, haven't touched that project in weeks!  I need to have Becky over soon and get back to it!

Grandma Nan's Viewing, Funeral and Pack Up

Hard to believe that all that was on my mind last Sunday when I got the call was the good deal I got on this jar at Goodwill (five bucks) and filling it with yarn to display and be functional. I was planning to blog about it but then I got the call from my uncle about my Grandma Nan's sudden death.
Here is her obituary, skip over this if you like, but I wanted to include it here.

Nancy A. Neff

DIED: August 15, 2010
LOCATION: Chippewa Falls, WI
Nancy A. (Pope) Neff, 79, of Chippewa Falls, died unexpectedly Sunday, August 15, 2010; she passed away peacefully in her sleep.

Nancy was born in Milwaukee, Wis. on June 5, 1931 but soon after, with her family, moved to Phillips, Wis. where she grew up. After attending college in Superior, Nancy moved to Eau Claire working at National Presto Industries where she met and married widower Leonard H. Neff in 1957. Leonard had three sons, Lewis Hamilton, Leonard Allen and James Jeffrey whom Nancy adopted. In 1959 Leonard and Nancy had a son, Richard Franklin.

Nancy was preceded in death by her parents, Bernice and William (Bill) Pope; her husband, Leonard; beloved sister and brother-in-law, Patrice and Richard Roehrick of Winneconne, Wis.; sons, Lewis and Leonard and daughter-in-law, Norma. She is survived by sons James and Richard; beloved daughter-in-laws Mary, Lisa and Marjorie; grandchildren Florence, Kailen, Jamie, Brittani (Lewis); Angela and Tina (Leonard); Carla, Patricia, Brian and Sidney (James); Belinda (Richard) as well as many great grandchildren. She knit for each of them and taught all the girls who were willing the art of knitting, doll-making, quilting, baking, ceramics and crafts. To each Nancy was a generous and loving daughter, wife, mother, sister, in-law, grand and great grandmother and friend.

An active member of Notre Dame Parish, Nancy was a member of various groups and organizations such as Catholic Women’s Club, St. Joseph’s Hospital Partners (Auxiliary), Elk Ladies and Old Goats and too many card groups to list but you all know who you are!

Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, August 18, 2010 at Notre Dame Church, Chippewa Falls. Rev. Brian J. Jazdzewski will be celebrant of the funeral Mass. Burial of cremains will be in Hope Cemetery, Chippewa Falls.

Friends may call from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, August 17, and until 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Horan Funeral Home, Chippewa Falls. The Ladies of Notre Dame will recite the rosary at 4 p.m. and there will be a Christian Vigil Service at 7 p.m. both Tuesday at the funeral home.

Memorial funds will be distributed to groups such as St. Joseph’s Hospital Partners and Notre Dame Parish.

Family and friends may express online condolences at www.horanfuneralhome.com

The best part of the whole quick trip to Wisconsin was meeting this little one...Bella (my cousin Tricia's baby) and seeing my daughter Hannah. My son Mackenzie was at a family reunion for his Dad's side (that Hannah didn't go to) so I didn't even get to see him.

Here are some pictures of us before the prayer service at the funeral home.

Here is a picture of Grandma Nan for viewing at the funeral home. Normally I don't take photos or post them of these things, but from a respectful distance (Grandma looked great) I wanted to show that unbeknownst to me they had put the quilt I made for Grandma on her casket with her flowers. She would have loved this...I let the youngest grandchild, Lindy, keep the quilt. She spent tons of time with Grandma and might be the one affected most by this. Grandma was almost a daily part of her life. You can also see that she was part owner of the Packers! You can't see it, but they put her card playing money in with her! She has been creamated and was buried next to Grandpa Len in the Chippewa Cemetary yesterday.

My cousin Carla and I (with some help from my sister Tina and Carla's daughter Maggie Lou) made up this first poster with pictures of Grandma Nan and those she loved through the years.
This one my two aunts made up, I think.

After the funeral all of the immediate family went back to Grandma's apartment and packed up most of it. There is only one uncle, aunt and cousin that live in Chippewa now and my my uncle had a heart attack a few months ago so we wanted to help with the moving out. I got some of Grandma's things that I will share when I get a chance to take more pictures. This bald Santa was one that I helped her make....several years ago we made a bunch of them and this one never got hair or a beard...that is okay though because the one I have has a broken head...so I will be stealing his hair and beard and making it all good.

I also took two little leaves off of her African Violet plant and am hoping I can root them out and make a plant that reminds me of Grandma. If they die I will just buy a plant myself! They are tiny leaves in a shot glass cup but they look bigger here!

And yes they survived three days in my purse so I am hopeful they will survive!
I also got this Shut the Box game which I think is very cool and I wish I had known about it when my kids were younger and two decks of Packer cards (and a Packer magnet) in a case. Coleman got a nice set of Dominos with Mexican Train Game. I have never played that game and Coleman just taught me how to play Dominos...we had a cheap kiddy set and now we have a nice tile set and will think of Grandma Nan every time we play!

So that is the story of one quilt....next post I will tell you the story of the other quilt!
We will miss you Grandma Nan!

Home Again and Biscotti

First off can I just say that in both Wiconsin and Arizona it is hot enough to melt an ice cream truck this time of year. I am glad to be home again after five days in Wisconsin for my Grandma Nan's viewing and funeral and the packing of her apartment. I haven't uploaded my camera photos (just a few from my phone that went on facebook) so I will wait to talk about that when I have some pictures. One hint, there are two quilts involved in my trip and both made me smile :) despite losing my Grandma Nan.

This is my cousin Tricia teaching me how to make biscotti. I have always wanted to learn and got a recipe from an online friend a long time ago but had never made it. A few weeks ago Ros brought some to our sewing day at June's and she shared her recipe with me too. I have been planning on making it, but last night my cousin had us overnight (she lives near the airport in the Cities and drove us there in the morning) and she had to make biscotti for her fabulous husband. (Seriously she met him on E Harmony and they married and have a three month old and are so very happy--she deserves a great guy). So she taught me, and I now have three recipes and a zillion variations to try out.

Do you have a favorite recipe for biscotti or a variation you especially like? I would love to hear about it!

I am happy to be home, am behind on everything and go back to work full time on Monday. Summer has slipped through my fingers entirely too fast.

Arriving Home to Fabric :)

Here is a picture of Kathy and I after Jill did my hair...

This one is all three of my kids, my daughter's boyfriend, my Dad's long time partner Margie and my grandma Nan along with me and Kathy. The waitress at Sweetwater's was nice enough to take hour picture. The funny thing is we wound up seated in the back room which is where we were when I graduated from UWEC and my Dad took us all out to eat there...so really odd to get together with Margie and Grandma and not have Dad there. We did talk about him and Margie passed on my Dad's ring to CJ which means alot to him.

Here is Hannah, Coleman and Mackenzie (2o, 23, and 17) when we went out to lunch. It was FABULOUS to have all three of them in one place and be able to take pictures and enjoy the three of them. I am so fortunate to have these amazing kids!

Now the part of the post you may be more interested in! I arrived home to lots and lots of fabric that I ordered before I left on vacation....here is what it looked like all piled up. My new Schnibbles pattern is here and I think I will make it out the Christmas fabric pictured...some of that may be for Christmas gifts for a sewing friend or two if I don't use it all up first!

And the best part of all was two packages from the NewQuiltingClub Anniversary Party..I won these in some of the contests we were having for our 5 year anniversary. It is a great online group with fun and kind people. So I got all this fabric and you see here plus more...I had wanted some of Mark Lipinski's Califon line (I have fat quarters of the first line that I can't bring myself to cut into yet) and now I have charms in it! I also love the asian looking fabric and have a few more here that I can put them with. There was a fun card and a pattern and...well I am one lucky gal!

I have lots to organize in my quilting studio and get some cutting done!

Quilt Blocks on a Barn--My First Sighting!

I finished another tribble today. And this second picture is how gorgeous the ride was in Colorado. We were stuck in traffic and took a few moving pictures.

On the way to Wisconsin we thought we saw our first quilt block on a barn. We passed it really fast and didn't get a picture or think to write down where we saw it. I even tried googling it thinking it was on I-80 in Nebraska but nothing came up. I was bummed but determined to find it on the way back. I spent ALL morning staring out the window checking every building that remotely might have had a quilt block on for about four hours. Finally after crossing into Colorado we decided we must have missed it somehow and I was a bit let down...after all I put down my knitting for four hours to spot the darn thing!

Then I took a turn driving and after getting some gas we hit the road (I-76) this time and a few miles in Kathy hollered..."there it is" and I almost ran off the road in excitement and was hollering "get a picture, get a picture!" Kathy suggested we turn around and go back for a better shot...and after the four hour search I figured that with an 1800 mile trip what is the difference if we do another couple of miles going in circles. We turned around and found the frontage road...we found the barn and discovered another block was on the back of the barn! Kathy actually got out of the car and climbed a weedy hill to take a picture with the camera and my phone (so I could post it to facebook) and I was thinking...shoot wish I had the camera to take a picture of her taking that picture for me!

The first picture is the side on the highway (wild goose chase) and the second(windwill) is from the back near HWY 144. I looked these blocks up on my blackberry later on and I believe these are Ted and Nancy Curtis' blocks in Log Lane in Morgan County, Colorado.

We didn't realize it at the time but according to http://mcbarnquilts.blogspot.com/ there are quite a few of these beauties all in Morgan County...now that I have seen the map I can tell you the next time we are travelling this way I am planning time to tour. I have been looking at Eleanor Burns' new book about barn quilts and now I am for sure getting it..and I am going to make at least one little barn quilt block. This really made our day and lightened our mood as we drove back towards home. We spent about 13 hours in the car today and we needed it! Thank Morgan County!

Still Roadtripping...

Here is a stack of dishcloths and tribbles that I have made in the car. I am on another tribble at the moment, but am all excited that I managed to get internet service in our hotel room...we stayed at this hotel on the way out and couldn't get internet unless standing OUTSIDE our door (it is borrowed, not the hotel's!) but this time we are several rooms down and when we were going to put a movie in the laptop we realized the internet worked! This is great for me because it has been so nutso that I haven't read any of my email, or most of my blogs and I am enjoying some down time doing just that while Twister plays on the hotel TV.
Kathy threw up about twenty minutes before this hotel so we stopped earlier than we had planned, which is fine. We built in extra time for things that came up, and pardon the pun..things came up! Coleman is happily playing some game on the PSP...
I can hardly wait to get home to the fabric that has arrived while I was gone. Randy has been telling me about the mail almost daily and I know I had two orders out and I won three prizes...so there is all kinds of fun squishies waiting for me at home!
I think tomorrow I will do some hand sewing on the hexagons I prepared for the trip..haven't touched them and am not sure I can knit all day...oh, I have had four migraines in the last five days...I wake up with them early in the morning...triptan knocks them out but I rebound to another headache in about 24 hours. I have been dealing with migraines since I was 12, but for the past 8 years or so they have been RIDICULOUS. I keep waiting for them to stop and wonder how some people get none, ever. I don't do sick. Migraines--consider yourselves notified!
Hopefully tomorrow's hotel will have internet and I will update again...
Andee (in Nebraska)

Roadtripping

Leaving Wisconsin today...road tripping back to Arizona. Have some pics but not uploaded yet! I am behind on my blog reading..but will get to them! Have done no sewing, but plenty of knitting.

What I accomplished on the ride to Wisconsin!

At a DQ we bought a celebratory 4th of July duck to be our car mascott. Itsn't she cute?

I did the binding and label on Tara's quilt in the car and took quick pics of it at a rest stop. All these pics are mobile uploads to facebook that I borrowed for the post, so not the best quality, but I like to post with pictures! We delievered Tara and Tommy's quilt yesterday and they both really liked it!

After getting the binding done I worked on knitting dishcloths and tribbles. Here they are!

I have another colorful tribble done and half a dishcloth but haven't taken pictures yet. Our ride to Wisconsin went really well...lots of jamming and crafting and I even drove about six hours. LOL, I am mostly a passenger. I didn't read at all which is what I normally do...it was nice to gab or sing and knit or sew. We arrived in the Twin Cities on Saturday and had lunch at our favorite Indian food place and then hit JoAnn's. They had a good sale on so I bought some aqua blues that appealed to me and then this fall leaf fabric...thought it would make a great back for a fall Schnibbles. Oh and now my town has a JoAnn's..I used to have to go to the Cities for it!

We then drove past our old house and took pictures and noticed all of the changes that had taken place in the two years we have been gone. Lots at the house and in the area too. It was a nice trip down memory lane. Everyone was busy or out of town for the 4th of July so we just had a relaxing first half day in town by ourselves. We are staying at my grandfather's house and even he was up at the lake (Long Lake, his cottage is there) so we watched Dog the Bounty Hunter and had Jimmy John's for dinner!

Yesterday we met up my with daughter and went and saw my oldest son. I haven't seen him in over a year and he will be moving to Arizona with us (thus the reason for the trip) and it was so very nice to see him. Tomorrow I will have all three of my kids together and get some pictures...I can't wait because that has been about four years...to be with all of them at once!

I woke up with a migraine this morning and took a triptan...it is much better, but not gone. We are going to meet up with my best Deaf friend Rachel and her family in a short bit and then hopefully to find some of my other friends too!