I loved all your messages to Dr. Ellis – I wonder, however, if he knows how to find the comments and I don’t think his receptionists would look too kindly on me trying to reach him to explain.
Have you heard of a Wolf Moon? I posted this picture on Instagram and several people mentioned it.
You know I’m working on all those blue 9 patch blocks, right? I needed 56. I ended up with 73!!!
Hazel spied this launcher toy in the laundry room – I had it covered with a towel but she saw it and now she’s been playing til she’s just gassed! Then I have to put it away til she catches her breath – ha!
A reader asked about the red and white snowball quilt. Here are the measurements you need:
The square is cut 5” x 5”. Use desks and lights
The connector squares are cut 1-1/2” x 1-1/2”.
A reader asked me to answer a few questions regarding how I work. It will be pretty boring but I’ll write it up in a separate post one of these next days.
I received a little music “box” for Christmas – the musician is a pianist by the name of Jason Coleman. In fact he’s Floyd Kramer’s grandson. If you like great piano solos, go to his website and sign up for Song of the Day and you’ll get a piano solo in your email every day. It’s so fun! (I considered posting them here and letting you think I played them – hahaha!!!)
Pretty cold today – I didn’t even let the chickens out.
Reader photos:
As if Caitlin doesn’t have enough to deal with, now she’s been stalked.
Tonight I watched a good Netflix movie called A Fall From Grace. I was riveted for two hours.
Thanks so much for the information on Jason Coleman! I will definitely check out his website! I have always loved piano. On a side note, I went to school with one of Floyd Cramer’s daughters! That was a long time ago!! So glad Hazel is having fun with her toy!!
Just checked out Jason Coleman’s song of the day, Morning Has Broken. Lovely! Then had to listen to his version of Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring of fire’–fantastic. I signed up for daily emails. 🙂
When I saw the news about Caitlin’s stalker, I was so disappointed that this was happening, but I am glad they caught the guy. Like Sue in Marion said, the newspaper is so expensive these days, and we stopped subscribing a few years ago, even the online version got ridiculously expensive (in my opinion). Caitlin news is on all the local TV news channels, and I think of you, Mary, and wonder how much the Iowa news channels are reporting about Caitlin these days.
Sara -we hear very little about Caitlin which disappoints me but the season starts again in May – she’s supposed to be on a break right now anyway. What’s to talk about? I’d listen to anything of course but that’s hardly fair to have no down time away from the public.
I had to comment on Hazel’s ball launcher. There’s a video somewhere that shows two westies playing with one. They figure it out and then one bring a stuffed squirrel to the machine thinking that the machine will throw that too! So funny!
🙂 🙂 That would be hilarious, especially when it doesn’t work!
I like your snowball quilt , I’ve been wanting to make one for a while, maybe this year? I was going to ask you what the name of the toy was but luckily read the comments and it was there. Thank you. My Eddy loves to retrieve his ball for over an hour each night, we get sick of this game. Having that could be a really nice for us.
Oh! That red and white snowball quilt! Now I’ve got another to put on my to do list!
Erin – snowball blocks would make great leader/ender blocks! Do you k ow what that means?
It’s forecasted to be -13 Saturday night!! That’s cold.
Love the blog today. I went to Target and got an over the door shoe holder. It holds 26 large yardage rolls of backing fabric. I measured them, marked them and stuck the backs in the cubby holes. Wonderful.
Sad news…the jail has cut the quilting program!!! I’m devastated.
No reason given. The girls told me they were raided Christmas night at midnight. They took their machines, cutters, scissors, pins. They left the fabric, books, thread. The girls explained they were making blankets for Black Dog Animal rescue and pillowcases for Hospice patients. Giving back to their community. The deputies didn’t care. I can’t get any information from anybody about what happened or why the program has been canceled. I bought all of their supplies, so budget wasn’t the reason. I’ve been depressed and sulking about it way too long. Sitting around doing nothing hasn’t changed anything!!! I must get busy. I was allowed to go in and say goodbye to the girls currently there, and collect the project they had were working on. It was hard on all of us.
Jo, I can understand your disappointment in the quilting program being eliminated. Both for you and your girls. You have every reason to be depressed after everything you put into the program. Just know that, somewhere down the line, your kindness and compassion for your quilting girls will be carried on in their lives as they too pay it forward. Now, start that next quilt for yourself and enjoy.
Jo – NO! why in the world would that quilting program get cancelled? Do the deputies control that? Board of supervisors? I can’t believe it. It gave them something meaningful to do for cryin out loud. Oh, how I wish we could all come to your aid in some way. Did they give you any reason for discontinuing?
I’m so sorry to hear that! My daughter was a volunteer nurse in a women’s prison for a while, and she was not allowed to even carry an ink pen or a badge with a pin on the back or even her car keys inside. When someone goes wrong in a prison, everyone else pays the price. It sounds like the officers confiscated everything sharp or metal, which would be the first thing taken away 🙁
Maybe we can all think about this and come up with some other sort of charity project that doesn’t require any sharp tools.
Oh Jo! How awful! An explanation is owed to you, whether you get it or not. If the supplies were yours, how can they take them? I’m sorry this has happened!
What a great blog about nothing, so many wonderful pictures. I have never heard of a wolf moon, again I have learned something new to look up. Our daughter plays piano, and I can’t tell you how much we enjoy it at holidays and family gatherings. My mom played piano, and organ and she passed lots of sheet music onto her so its always something new for her to play. I can’t believe how costly sheet music has become. I will look him up and play on my Sirus when I quilt this afternoon. The dog toy is perfect for a good friend who has 3 small dogs, I shall give it to her when I next visit. Tonight, I’m going to a Pierogi cooking class with our daughter at the Farm Exploration center. Should be a fun time. Our son moves into his new home this weekend, across the street from us so we shall be busy giving him a helping hand. Stay warm everyone.
Kim – his new home? Across the street from you? Oh, you must be so relieved and thankful that a family member is close by. I know I would be. I have so much music accumulated over my 66 years of playing the piano that I don’t need to look for anything new. People have given me so much music I don’t know what to do with it all. Sending a box to a friend as soon as I go through it all.
Yes, he is across the street from us. We bought in May 2024 and our daughter bought across the street from us, closed Dec 20th and her brother bought the house next to her and across the street from us. We have 2 kids, and both are across the street. There will be 16 new homes in this new development. I can’t believe they both want to be our neighbors! we feel so blessed. Both of our kids are late 40’s and single, no kids. They both work from home and travel for their jobs. We can help them and they can help us. Win win for all.
Kim – I m jealous of your “help” being so close by.
I’m envious also. I’m fortunate to have a daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter living with us, so I shouldn’t complain. But my two sons live in Dallas, and I so badly want them to move closer. We don’t get to see them very often, and I miss them so much! My eldest son is a juvenile/young adult librarian. It would be hard for him to find a similar job down here, that gave him the freedom to develop his own program.
Paula – I didn’t know that a juvenile/young adult librarian was a separate job description- interesting.
I can’t imagine a more perfect toy for a dog like Hazel. I’ve always wanted a dog with a strong retrieval gene. Be careful what you with for! I’ve seen her in action and know how hard it gets to satisfy a driven dog like she is. Now she can retrieve all day without you having to throw things. A slobbery ball? There’s always something to mess up perfect!
We saw Jason Coleman at a community concert in Algona. He was wonderful and his YouTube channel is great. Hazel is one smart dog to entertain herself with the ball machine! Clipping away at some cleaning and reorganizing in the sewing room space, hoping to get going on some projects now that it’s COLD outside. But, if it gets into the mid to upper 20’s, without wind, love to do some outdoors adventuring!
Linda K – Algona??? OMG, I wish I had known! The west wind today made chores very hard – I dropped a strap outside and my eyes were watering so much I had to go into the barn and return to find it. Feels much colder than 2 below. So relieved when I get to the barn and the heater is running as it should be. I got 21 eggs again this morning!
I love reading your blog. So many interesting things to look at and read about. I love the green quilt. Green is my favorite color and it is just so pretty! I have never heard of a wolf moon. I’m going to have to read about it. Patty
Mary did you see his tribute to Elvis. I was such an Elvis fan!!!
It was wonderful.
Brenda – I will look for it. Where have I been? I’ve never heard of this guy before I got his little music box for Christmas – duh! I look forward to his song of the day every morning.
Thanks for the measurements of the snowball, I was hoping to be able to use some of the charm packs I have! I, too, love the green quilt on the wall, stunning! All of the special places people love in their homes, the blue and white vignette is so pretty. Someone has quite a collection of tomatoes! I hope to find one eventually. I must have had one of my mom’s at one time but it’s been lost over the years. I may make one along with the emery strawberry, but I’d love to have a vintage one. The crocheted afghan looks very warm, nice and cozy, I’m sure. And I’d love to know the dimensions of the mini quilts that Sara in Indiana sent, they’re so cute! Hazel is possessed! I know you absolutely love her, Mary, but I think a terrier is too intense for me! I miss my little Coton de Tulear, such a funny little dog but a great companion. Loved to play but wasn’t enough to drive you nuts! Well, I took down my tree today. It was such a cute tree this year, I’m going to miss it! Jan in MA
Jan – and Hazel does drive me nuts when she gets into that frantic play mode! It’s always about 5:30 when I want to watch the news. I hate to scold her because this is her nature but it really ticks me off when she won’t go to the barn with me but then expects me to play later. Grrrr……
Jan, the Lone Star mini quilt is 9″ square, the Flower Garden is 7″x9″, the 9-patch is 5.5″ square, and the tiny Amish quilt is 2.75″ square. Except for the Amish quilt, they were all part of a pattern that included 12 mini quilts–one for each month of the year. I wish I could find or remember the name of the pattern, but all I can remember is that it was from a company in Texas. Any other ‘detective’ readers remember that pattern?
The Amish quilt is a miniature version of a ‘Weekend Quilt’ that was in a magazine way back when (1970s?). I want to say it was American Patchwork and Quilting (Better Homes and Gardens). The quilt in the magazine was a bed size quilt and called for a mattress pad as the batting and backing all in one!
Note to Mary, et. al.: Even though I check the box that says ‘Notify me of new posts by email’, I do not get notified, so I try to check back to see if there have been replies to my comments, but do wish the notification feature worked for me (it used to). I wonder if anyone else is in the same situation.
Sara, I used to get the comments as well as I had checked the box to be notified, but it has not worked for quite some time now. Did you get the block of the month from The Quilt Guild of East Texas? I will get busy and try making snowball blocks it looks so nice as a throw.
Cindy, thanks for your comment, but, no I did not get them from the Quilt Guild of East Texas (although maybe the pattern designers did do something like that, I don’t know). I remember it was a pattern in a 9″x12″ plastic bag, and it included 12 mini quilts (not 12 blocks). I wonder what the pattern designers are doing now, and would love to contact them. P.S. I had to re-check the comment section, as I didn’t get notified of your comment, and now I know that you probably won’t be notified of my comment, either. Technology, sigh.
I love all the pictures today. The green wall quilt by buttonsbug is a work of art!! Beautiful. Your picture of the moon is fantastic. I always want to go out and stare at the moon on my walks with the dog. But I missed it this time as its too cold to walk. Buster has to be satisfied with his romps in the yard.
Just finished a great book. Bury For Dead, a Chief Inspector Gamache novel by Louise Penny. Written in 2010. My favorite of hers. It takes place in February,, and I love to read about snow and cold in the midst of winter! A Good one if you like history. I read it late into the night. Is this how you want us to contribute to the book club, or would you’d rather get an email?
Waiting for my car to be repaied. The rental is sitting in my garage. I’m afraid to drive it. It’s an SUV and I drive a 2007 Toyota Corolla. Ha! Hope they call me today.
I hate autocorrect. The book title is
Bury Your Dead
I’m typing on my Kindle and have to be so careful. Sorry I missed it in my proofreading.
Carolyn – this is exactly how I want you to list your great books! Everyone can see it without going to email and that saves me so much time. I hope Buster can go back to walks soon!
Brrr. It is cold! They were predicting 41* for tomorrow. Well, they lowered the temp. Plus I see a high for 3* on Sunday!
Cleaning lady is coming this afternoon! 🥰
loved all the pictures! The tree looks spooky in the moonlight! You can almost hear an owl hooting!
That stalker is a creeper! Weird people!
Stay warm!
Joy – my day was ruined yesterday when my cleaning lady cancelled 15 minutes before she was to be here. And I had been awake since 4 and fighting sleep at 8:45 because I knew she was coming and I didn’t want to be asleep when she arrived. Ruined my day
Mary, it would ruin mine too! So sorry, I hope she rescheduled!
I saw the stalking story last night on the news. The guy is in custody, he has a restraining order against him, but they can’t keep him in jail because he hasn’t done anything but threaten. But he drove to Indy from Texas. He was on their radar as I’m sure his internet stalking was under surveillance. Terrifying. They can’t even legally send him back to Texas.
I won’t be able to send you clippings anymore as we’re dropping our subscription to the Indy Star—we live out of town so the paper is delivered by mail and it’s gone up to over $100/month! DH will probably get an online subscription. I really hate to see newspapers go completely online, but that’s where we’re headed.
On the weather front, we’re in the deep freeze like everybody else in the Midwest but Friday it’s supposed to get to nearly 40 degrees before it gets even colder next week! Good grief. More sewing time, I guess!
Sue – I so understand about a newspaper – who can afford it and there’s hardly anything in it! I’ll really miss getting those articles – I’ve kept them all. And the stalker – sounds like a creep! My dogs need a warm day.
Wonderful post on a variety of topics. That Santa is too darn cute! What is the name of the toy launcher? The collections and quilts – just a great way to start the day. Thank you, Mary and contributing readers.
Jan
Jan in AZ – the launcher is called iFetch and can be found on Amazon or Chewy
Thanks!
Oh yes,, cold again this morning but it’s going to warm up today for a couple days in SW Iowa.
I am testing out am email to with photo to you today Mary. See if it works.
I am going to the Jason Coleman website. Would love a piano song every morning with coffee and reading your blog.
Got my package from USPS so now I can start the mystery. 2 clues already out. My package of a kit for this mystery has been sitting at the PO since Dec. 30. It was with the hold mail. Ha
Fran – you’d better get started on the mystery. Connie is doing it and I know each clue is a lot of sewing. Let me know how you like Jason.
Great pictures today. I always look forward to your blog everyday. There is always something to look at.
Your snowball quilt is wonderful, I admire it every time it is in a photo.
It’s cold here in ND too. Great quilting weather.
Hazel just cracks me up with her antics. What a cutie. Love all the quilts and the colors in the snowball quilt. Poor Caitlin. Being famous and beautiful has many drawbacks. I assume she has full time bodyguards 24/7. I know they follow her closely at games. I just hope nothing happens to her. There are a lot of crazy people in this world. Very depressing.
Gloria – I, too, hope nothing happens – I do see her bodyguards around her – wouldn’t that be an uncomfortable feeling?
Love all the photos, but especially the snowball quilt! I have a kit I started many years ago..now I have the motivation to get going on it again. Thanks Mary for posting the pics on your blog..very much appreciated!
It is cold here in Ohio..it has been awhile since we have had a real winter. Hard to get used to again, but it is good too..the cold will hopefully kill some of the bugs later on. Stay warm everyone!
Love your wolf moon photo. Someone here in Phoenix caught a shot of it with Mars just below. For those that don’t know the origin of the name, wolves don’t hibernate and do a lot of howling at the January full moon.
Silly Hazel. That sounds like a great toy for a dog as active as she is.
Great photos once again!
Love the post today – as always. I would love to watch Hazel in person! All the quilts are great. It is still very cold here in Georgia. It has been a long time since we have been this cold for this long a period. I will definitely sign up for the email piano music. Thanks for all the things you keep us informed about!
Brenda – let me know how you like or don’t like the piano music. I wonder what he’ll play today.