Margaret was sick so I had to play on my own today. As I was preparing my music Kathy walked up to me with 2 plates of ……BROWNIES!!! Wrapped of course so I reached over and set them on the pew next to the piano where I sit after the music is done.

Music is done, we’re all standing saying the Lord’s Prayer and this is the time I can easily sneak away from the piano and get around to my seat where I stand until we’re finished. Amen. Without thinking I sit right down on the brownies!!!! You can’t make this stuff up! Just to be clear – I just ate one and it was delicious!!!!

Remember the pattern I offered called A Walk Around the Block? The one I posted was red, white and blue. Michele recently finished a fall version so we hung all three on the fence – here are the results!

Can you believe these are all made from the same pattern? A Walk Around the Block pattern can be ordered for $5 and a SASE, cash or check made out to Mary Etherington, 2345 Palm Ave, Garner, IA 50438

Reader photos

So today was my day to move some furniture around to make room for my plants and a humidifier. Connie’s old red chair – that every dog that has ever visited and loved – just had to go out. Here it is below and next to the ramp, under the overhang and completely out of the wind – for Keeper! I’ll keep a small tarp in the entry for rain.

The gray green chair and ottoman that I really like but find very uncomfortable moved to the living room. The dogs will probably like it ok.

And the gold recliner went to the quilt shop for my winter working hours and tv viewing. Ha!

Yes, I moved and transported every chair by myself. I even earned a new battle scar.

Another warm day tomorrow and I hope to almost finish moving the plants – I’m going to leave several out front to enjoy until they freeze right there. I hope I don’t cave and move them in. 😫

Oh, one last thing. Once again, you can’t make this shit up. I’ve been trying to figure out what was wrong with the longarm for several days now. I tried everything I could think of from cleaning to different bobbin, new needle, speed, stitch length and of course top and bobbin tension. I have Jenny’s baby quilt loaded and half done – so I can’t show you yet. Then I tried to unscrew the plate and couldn’t get the screws out so I had to swallow my pride and call Tony. He was here in 10 minutes!!!!! Oh, you’re never gonna believe this – I shouldn’t even admit it, I’m so embarrassed. I had the needle in backwards!!!! Now, how many times have I changed the needle in this machine over the years? How could I have done this or not even tried it the other way??? It never occurred to me. Can I blame old age? What other reason????

Like I said, you can’t make this shit up!!!!

Mary in CA asked me to post this question:

What’s your least favorite part of making a quilt?

I’ll go first – BINDING!!!!

No surprise there, huh?

Be still my heart!! Katie in AZ sent this to me for my wall of samplers – I love it! I will frame it and hang it with the others. Thank you so much for thinking of me!

And Bonnie in IL sent these! She knows I have only pink and red.

And another friend wants me to think about Christmas!

How fun!!

Golden State just beat the Aces! Yay!! So the finals will start next Saturday and I’ve got to get baseball scheduled in, too.

I went to visitation for Marsha tonight – everybody knew how much she loved flowers – sooooo many! If you didn’t know why we were gathered there, it was really fun to see so many people I’d never see otherwise. And I wore my Fever shirt for Marsha – she loved the Fever and the Packers.

Just think – Marsha’s the lucky one. We’re still here.

Here’s what Connie bought the other day:

And here’s what she just finished – it’s really wonderful!

Her own design using elements from this pattern:

And sawtooth stars. And like she asked me – how many sawtooth stars have we made in the past 50 years???? I’d hate to guess – hundreds and hundreds.

I had a really busy afternoon – I broke down and joined Junkin Gal again – starting with just a tall shelf unit that she can find room for and she was excited to have fabric for sale again. I marked fabric all afternoon and will take it in tomorrow or next week. She’s open selected hours Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I have too much stuff – a lot of which is fabric so you know where to find it marked so cheap you won’t want to pass it up.

It’s not easy to display nicely – plastic bags in a basket but that’s the nature of this beast. If it weren’t packaged it would be in a rolled up mess. However if you’re a quilter you know how to look at fabric.

I came across this little quilt that I’m not quite ready to be rid of yet – I love the circular quilting.

Look at Rocky’s bad legs – I googled and discovered this is case of mites. The treatment is washing legs in epsom salt solution and then covering each leg with mineral oil or Vaseline to smother the mites.

So that’s what I did this afternoon – I used this net

to catch Rocky and then wrapped him in a towel so he couldn’t flop his wings. I carried him to the laundry tub in the house where I had the sink ready. He calmed down and I washed his legs and then poured mineral oil over them. I carried him back to the barn where he started pecking at his legs – what’s with that? I’m just keeping my fingers crossed this works.

Do I have any chicken keepers here that can advise me on treatment for mites?

Here’s Mortie tonight!

Reader photos

Time to sew! I’ve got about 2 hours.