Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Quilters Retreat 2009

The sub-title of this post is "35 Women Armed with Pins, Needles, Scissors, Rotary Cutters and Other Sharp Objects." In other words, don't mess with a quilter on a mission to finish a project in less than 48 hours on a quilt retreat, which my guild held at the Sisters of Mercy Conference Center in St. Louis County Friday through Sunday. The photo above shows a fairly calm room at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning. That's my station in the foreground; simple Sears machine, chairs stacked double to get the right height, and a stack of blue and white Bear's Paw blocks to sew into rows.

Our guild does an optional block exchange each month, and these blocks were made about 5 years ago. Each member had the same white on white background and picked her own shades of blue. I won 25 of them, including the one I made, in the drawing. It has taken me that long to figure out how to set them. The block I made is in the very center of the setting, by the way. The rows are sewn diagonally and I had to lay everything out on the floor for every row. By about 10 p.m. on Saturday, I had them all assembled and sewn according to plan. I didn't sew all day. There are frequent breaks for snacks, plus I took one to do my physical therapy home exercises, and another hour to walk on the grounds. (I'll have a post about that up on Thursday's Child soon, but not today.) I didn't even miss my nap, I had such a good time.


On Sunday after breakfast I cut and stitched the borders to the quilt. Finally, just before lunch, it could hang on the stage. Many of the women recognized the blocks they had made by the fabrics. The quilt measures 90 by 90 inches. It is going to be a bear to quilt...: )

Here my quilt hangs with two others that represent the projects other members made during the weekend. A sort of rotating show took place on the stage. The tables are deserted because everyone else is in line for lunch. I'm the last one out of the auditorium, taking my pictures.

The Sunday morning work room view is a lot like Saturday. We enjoyed great natural light and a roomy set up that made it easy to walk around, visit and see what everyone else was working on. I'm told some night owls sewed until 3 a.m. on Sunday morning...wearing their pajamas. I went to bed before midnight which I guess is a new trend for me. Night owl no longer.

Finished tops adorned the stage. This top by Barb B. is a bright version of the Magic Trip Around the World that Lee Etta taught during the retreat. It started out to be pink with orange accents but Barb thinks it turned into orange with pink accents. It's sunshine on a cloudy day, to be sure.




Another treatment of the same pattern is this calmer top by Carol P. She plans for it to be a sofa throw to coordinate with new upholstery in her living room.


I am not sure who made the top on the left. The one on the right is Jitter Buzz, a pattern created by Jane C., who taught it during the retreat. We had the option of taking either of the classes or doing our own thing. I decided to work on unfinished projects this year and I'm thrilled to have completed the piecing of the Bear's Paw top.

Norm said he got along OK without me to watch him at home. I did leave him with lots of left over pot roast as well as the raw ingredients to make macaroni and cheese. He vacuumed the whole house while I was gone! It was good to get home on Sunday afternoon and sleep soundly in my own bed again, though. I can't wait until next year's retreat--I have several more unfinished block sets.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Visitor # 2700

This morning visitor # 2700 checked in and left a lovely comment. Kay in Garden City, it's amazing to me that you can even read that early in the morning! Hope you had a good day.

Plans are heating up for the Linville Sibs reunion in June. Looks like we will be heading to Irving, TX to hang out with Carol and Walt. Norm and I made our hotel reservation yesterday so we are all set. Except for actually getting there, of course!

Today my other laptop arrived in tip top shape so I'll try to post from the quilt retreat this weekend while Norm monitors the e-mail and news on this one at home.

Meanwhile our prayers go out to Elaine as she begins chemo in Tulsa tomorrow. Her husband Joe is one of the Williams family cousins and we have always admired Elaine's grit and creativity: what else can you say about someone who raised triplets and their older brother? Go for it, Elaine. You've got a whole clan on your team.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

I Guess the Ground Hog Was Right

We can't seem to shake winter in these parts. After a warmup to 54 this morning, we are now headed for 20 degrees tonight. Friday will warm up to 40, then 30 on Saturday for the famous St. Louis Mardi Gras. I'll be snug at the Sisters of Mercy Retreat Center, the site of this year's quilt guild retreat. I hope to post photos and information about projects from there.

Since last week Norm has started some antibiotics for a bronchial infection and I have had a physical therapy evaluation with some helpful exercises for my sore shoulder. I'm hoping we'll stop sounding like the daily halt and lame report soon.

Today I had a nice chat on the phone with a technician at TechRestore, a place in California that does speedy overnight repairs on Macs as well as PCs and it turns out that Chuck, the tech, is the same guy who worked on my G3 powerbook 4 years ago when I dropped it and it quit working. He remembered it and said it's in great shape and that he still has one in operation as well. It was the same problem this time--loose motherboard connections. The labor cost was $95 and the overnight shipping to and from $49. I also had him upgrade the memory (2 chips at $19 apiece) so I can install OSX 10.4 on my trusty little 10-year old machine. Trusty except when I drop it. For a Powerbook, it was ahead of its time. It came equipped with a DVD drive, a ZIP drive, firewire, USB and other bells and whistles and I even installed its Airport card myself. Can't wait to take it out on the road (to the aforementioned quilt retreat) after FedX delivers it here tomorrow. If you don't have access to local Mac repair and need fast, friendly, economical no-nonsense service, I recommend them: TechRestore. You can ship your Mac from any FedX Kinkos store or, for more $$, order door-to-door pickup and delivery. I packed it in its original carton, took it to a store 3 miles from me on Friday and they got it Tuesday (Monday they were closed for the holiday.) They checked it out and called me today with the repair estimate. I'll have it tomorrow. We have an Apple Store here in town but if your machine is out of warranty, they don't even want to talk to you; they want to sell you a new one. And I didn't get any price break for this unsolicited testimonial!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Yes we are still here

Sorry, no good photos today. We have had up and down wild and wet weather but nothing severe. Norm is trying to catch a cold. I've been trying to talk him out of it, with Vitamin C, chicken soup, frequent solicitations, etc. I have been worrying about my sore shoulder for more than a month, so I finally saw the orthopedist yesterday, got an Xray, have an MRI scheduled for next week and also will start some physical therapy. Guess what? Tonight it feels better than it has in 6 weeks. Go figure. Speaking of figuring, TurboTax and I filed our 2008 federal and state taxes electronically tonight. The whole thing took a little over 2-1/2 hours. Of course, the refund is already spoken for, 8 times over, but it's still nice. I've had Oklahomans on my mind today after the tornadoes of yesterday. I hope my Sperry relatives were out of harm's way from wind and hail. And thanks to Tricia in Dallas for commenting on my blog post about my father. I love how the Internet re-connects people who haven't seen each other since childhood but have a common bond in something, in this case the church we attended. SW Florida, glad you stopped by! More news in a few days when there is something to report, and a decent illustration. (Isn't that the requirement for TV news--it has to be visual? Eeek. I've caught the disease!)

Saturday, February 07, 2009

95 years Ago

My dad, James Burch, was born on February 7, 1914 on a mule ranch near Lockwood, Missouri. He was the 4th of 5 children. Today would have been his 95th birthday. He died at age 75 in the fall of 1989. It's still hard for me to believe it has been 20 years since I've heard his voice, but I've often felt his guidance, especially when I'm driving in bad weather. This picture was taken probably on my birthday in 1952. I was looking for photos of Daddy from his childhood but didn't have time to scan them into the computer before the day was over. I have good memories of him teaching me how to change a tire, ride a bike, hammer a nail, mow the lawn, and many more skills that a daughter should know. I also remember him baking cookies, grilling burgers on the outdoor brick barbeque he built himself, driving me and my fellow Girl Scouts to camp, and hemming my skirts for me when I was taking clothing classes in junior high. He was drafted into the army for service in World War II on the morning I was born, and after I heard the story, I was even more grateful that my Daddy was spared and allowed to guide me as I was growing up. If he were here now, I'm sure we'd be disagreeing about politics but I would relish hearing once again his stories of survival during the Great Depression. He devoted his life to seeing that my mother and I had a home and food and a chance at happiness. He asked little for himself except a little space in the garage to build his priceless model trains. Miss you Daddy, just as much as ever.

More Charity Quilts

A week ago today, the last day of January, six members of Flower Valley Quilt guild met in the Upper Room at Zion Lutheran Church (where we hold meetings and workshops) to make progress on some of the charity quilts we hope to donate to the homeless family I mentioned in an earlier post.

Carol (above) brought her machine and stitched fabric "sand- wiches" of top, backing and batting to be turned. Doris (right) turned the first sandwich and pinned it to ready it for tying. Doris first brought the plight of the homeless family to our membership and some of these tops are ones that she pieced. Others were made last year by other guild members.

Kathy preferred to tie a top standing up, while Teresa and Judy (below) tackled one sitting down. Tying is harder than it looks, and a little tedious.

Good progress was made on the project but we have more to do. I had to leave at noon to attend a funeral, and I still have a top here at home that I need to sandwich, stitch and turn. Then I need to find some folks to help me tie it. When it's done, I'll post a picture or two.

Monday, February 02, 2009

Our Favorite Winter Retreat

Last week we spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at Pere Marquette State Park lodge, about 40 miles from home on the Illinois River, north of its confluence with the Mississippi. It's become a tradition to go up there in January to enjoy the winter landscape, see eagles, relax by the fire and cure cabin fever.
This year there was about 4 to 6 inches of snow on the ground, and the river was partially frozen. This sunset above greeted us the first night. Also, the sliver of a new moon and Venus glowed in the branches of a sweet gum tree. (Venus is a barely visible dot just below the top edge of the photo. Try clicking to enlarge the image.)

The massive stone and timber lodge was built by the Civilian Conserva- tion Corps in 1933. The fireplace alone weighs 17 tons. The entire lodge was refurbished in the 1980s, and a new wing of motel-style rooms was added. This year, for the first time, we got to stay in the "old" original wing, reached by climbing the stairs at the right of the fireplace. The "life-size" (for a child at least) chess set is a signature of the lodge.

One feature of the renovation was a set of 4 tapestries that depict the plant and wildlife of the area, and the meeting of the rivers. They hang from the rafters of the lodge and are Very Heavy.








Because it was cold and we also lacked good snow boots, we spent a lot of time watching the river from the great hall. Here Norm is spying on a couple of eagles that perched on the far side of the river for most of the afternoon.

Norm also spied some unexpected river traffic. The Thomas E. Erickson pushes a tow of 12 or so barges downstream. The barges ride high, as if empty. Maybe they took salt to Chicago?

As I mentioned, we got to stay in the original part of the lodge, over the dining room wing, this time. Our room was delightful, with two walls of windows and no one next door to us. It was quiet and felt like a great place to read, knit, quilt or watch wildlife.

This is what our wing looks like from the outside. Our room is under the dormer on the section that comes out at a right angle from the dining wing. I think we were above part of the kitchen, or an old apartment for the head cook, maybe.

One view from our east window was the tip of the massive chimney of the fireplace in the great room. The sun's rays just caught it at sunset when the clouds thinned out.

Our north window looked out on the cabins and tree studded hills. A huge sycamore hosted cardinals, sparrows, juncos and some surprisingly musical starlings during our stay.











Our retreat of course finally had to end, and we drove home Friday noon noting how ice-packed the Mississippi is, all the way from Grafton to Alton. We saw eagles perched on the bluffs and floating on the ice floes. We walked through a flock of chattering juncos, chickadees, and titmice feeding in a ravine. We watched a great blue heron fish from a floating ice floe. Gulls, ducks, geese entertained us. We saw rabbit and deer and possum tracks.
It was a quiet, restful retreat that let us experience sights and sounds we don't have every day. Same time next year?