I'm here...

...for a little while, anyway.

My DD, my grandcat Delilah, and I all got back a week ago, Tuesday. Delilah did SO well! She mostly slept in her little crate but liked to get out every now and then and take a stretchy snooze on top of my suitcase. And used the nice covered cat box in the far back of the car (and which I made her mommy clean out immediately after!) Man, this is a huge country...which is what I say every time I drive across. Anyway, we had an easy drive except for some fairly scary weather a few miles outside of Odessa, Texas one night on the way here. We were safe in the hotel room by the time the storm hit, but it was a doozy!

Not a lot of quilty news from me this summer. I did make a top for a baby quilt/comforter for my SIL's soon to be delivered little baby girl. It needs to be tied and bound but I sewed it all together in NY. I'll post pics when I get it done, which better be this week, I think! It's, well, let's call it cheerful=-) A bit brighter than I usually do my baby quilts...but I really like it. It was made with a collection I bought from Keepsake, I forget the designers, but it's someone we all know and I'll think of them at some point...la la la...=-) I also knit a hemp shopping bag and just have the handles left on that to do (wow, did that take a long time,) and crocheted a sweet pillow cover for my bed in NY.

Oh, and I covered a lampshade for one of pair of vintage 40s lamps for my dresser there.

...let's see...I think that's about it...OHHHHH! except for this!!! I almost forgot a very important purchase!!!It's a vintage Singer 99K, made in England, in great shape and it runs well and was fairly cheap! Finally a good portable machine in my house there!! I sent for the booklet so now I know how to thread it and everything else about it. It has a drop-in bobbin, which is cool. It's very much like the Featherweight (one of which lives here) except it has one more threading loop to go through and it's just slightly larger...and MUCH heavier. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this one! =-) So, no excuses for not sewing when I'm in NY now, I guess! =-) The rest of the time I spent hanging out with dear friends and rellies, working in my flower beds, watching wildlife,

reading, taking drives, exercising by using the nice, new walking trail we have by the river, ...oh, and spending money on installing a complete new septic system (tank and dry well..That's a guy's head you can see in that gaping hole in the picture below...yikes...what a lot of digging went on...)

...arrrrrrgh...but it was bound to happen and I think 60 years is more than anyone should expect from a system...heh...it just wasn't what I'd planned to spend several thousand $ on this summer =-( Plus, I have to have my bathroom redone this Fall because that was part of the problem...but once that's done, I won't have to worry about it anymore, right?!?!? Anyway, all in all, it really was a wonderful visit, as it always is, and I miss my house and everyone terribly. Luckily, though, I'll be headed back for three more weeks mid-Sept. I usually go later in the year for the Fall but had to do it early this year because after I get back here we leave for our cruise a week later for 16 days or so. More on that as it gets closer...

So, I have caught up with a few of you through email and have been reading my bloglines since I got back. You have all been very busy! I love what I'm seeing on the blogs...everyone is so creative! I'm interested to see who will be reponding to the ArtImage Challenge Debra was talking about earlier in the Spring and will be tossing out there for us soon to ponder...It is definitely something that I am interested in. I love art as a prompt for creating more art...so we'll see, huh??

Hope you all have had a great summer!