Siggy Quilt

Last night I finished hand stitching the binding on my quilt made from the siggy blocks in Cootie bug's swap. We each received 60 blocks (two were our own due to some drop outs). I added four more blocks, one in each corner, with quilt and friendship related quotes to give me a total of 64 blocks. And here is my finished quilt.

Thanks for hosting this swap, Connie. It was a lot of fun.

Big day on tap for tomorrow. Billie Lauder will be doing a workshop for our guild during the day and a trunk show in the evening. Tom and I took her out to eat last night after she arrived in Pittsburg and it was great getting to visit with her and learn about her background. I think we're going to have so much fun tomorrow. I'll tell you all about it!

Jumping From The Sky

Today the news is full of the story of former President George H.W. Bush doing another sky dive with the Golden Knights to celebrate his 85th birthday. It's amazing that he is in such great shape that he can do this. He definitely shows a zest for life!
Watching the footage and listening to people talk about it today while I've been quilting reminded me of someone else who experienced the thrill and honor of jumping with the Golden Knights.
In 2003, a few months after his 40th birthday, Mike realized a dream and did a tandem jump with the Army's elite parachute team. He happened to be in North Carolina attending a conference or meeting (don't remember now) and was asked the question "anything else we can do for you, Sgt Major?" His reply was , "yes, I'd love to jump with the Golden Knights". And so he did.

Mike said "NO, those aren't overly fat checks; that is called the effects of falling toward Earth at Terminal Velocity from 13,500 feet".


Mike's description of this pic: "Mike thanking Billy for an AWESOME ride. I can not wait to do this again. As one of the videographers so eloquently stated, 'Skydiving is the most fun you can have with your clothes on!' Billy and I opened our parachute at 5,000 feet above the ground and then steered into the landing".

Accompanying this picture when he sent it to me:

"Mom, this is the sign on the back of my harness and all parachutes. I know you can't read it. It basically states "DANGER, parachute systems sometimes fail to operate....." The yellow handle sticking out the top is a knife that my tandem partner could have used to cut me loose if things went bad.....is that trust or what ?"

I don't know where he gets the nerve to do stuff like this. I get nauseous standing on a chair.

Tulips & Ravens

Two more siggy blocks in the mail this week.

Tonny from The Netherlands sent this very pretty block with tulips. Such beautiful needlework!


Yesterday this block arrived from Lotte in Denmark. She said that ravens are her favorite bird, "partly because of their beauty and partly because of their role in the Nordic Mythology. There, the two ravens Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory) were sent out at dawn to gather information and return in the evening. Then they would perch of Odin's shoulders and whisper the news from all over the world."



Isn't that interesting? Thank you Tonny and Lotte for lovely blocks.

Summer in SE Kansas

Another wild afternoon in S.E. Kansas. Tornado sirens started going off late afternoon. Tom was just getting home from VBS and drove me across the street to the neighbors who have a basement (we don't). It rained buckets and we had marble sized hail for a short time. Luckily there doesn't seem to have been any damage reported.

After about an hour we came home and Tom took these pics while it was still raining (the spots on the lens). The drainage ditch that runs through our lots was overflowing again. Here it is backing up at the brick bridge.

The water really gets to churning when the rain comes this fast.

Another hour passed and a second system roared through with tornado sirens blaring again. If you've never heard them, Judy L posted a video on her blog last night. She lives about 40 miles from here across the border in MO. They had a rough and tumble night as well. This time I was too tired to even think of traipsing back to the neighbors, so I just sat in my recliner and decided if it was my time to blow away, so be it. Once again luck was on our side and no damage seems to have been done by the storms.

Tom had another fun day at VBS, though the afternoon swimming plans were ruined. Here's one of the four groups in their music session.

Cindy's Baskets

Not a lot of quilting or sewing going on here lately it seems. But I did get this cute little wall hanging quilted yesterday.

Now if only it was mine! It was made by my friend, Cindy. She always does a spectacular job of piecing. It was fun quilting it for her and I hope she likes what I did.

This quilt was on the cover of Fons and Porter's magazine in 2007 and she bought the kit from them.