Monday, September 27, 2010

Rainy Days and Mondays

No one wants to get up on a dreary, rainy Monday, even Miss Millie.
Last weekend I had a burst of energy and a little spare time, so I loaded a quilt onto the HQ16. That's as far as I've gotten, I haven't even put the batting on the frame yet.
The HandiQuilter 16 gets it's name from the 16 inch throat. It's not a commercial machine, more for hobbyists, which is me. I can't picture myself quilting for others for money- then it would be a job, and I already have a job.
The backing goes face down, with the bulk rolled back onto the front roller, if you do it correctly- I've been known to forget to roll it back onto the front rollers. The top goes face up, and the batting will go in between. The first thing to sew is to run a row of stitching across the top, to hold the layers together.
The backing has to be at least 4 inches bigger than the top- I have plenty of extra.
Last weekend Toast and Whiskey came for the day. I couldn't get a pic of Whiskey, he was always on my lap or underfoot. This weekend Ed, Heather and the kids came up to go to a wedding. Saturday was Ralph's last shift in the ER. Ralph and Eddie's birthdays were both last week, so we had a party!
I got a big cake from Sweet Eats, half white cake and half chocolate, to please everyone. They did a gorgeous job of decorating it.
Of course we all sang Happy Birthday. That's Julianna in the Spiderman mask. We had to make the 5 boys come in to do cake and gifts- they were having such a good time playing outside that they didn't want to come in.
Auntie Steph lit the candles for Spiderman Eddie.
The ER staff gave Ralph the "No Work Zone" sash to wear.
Eddie is so grown up at 7, even with a mouth full of candy! He's changed so much since his last birthday!
Julianna had her pretty dress on, and stayed close to Mommy. It was a nice party- it started at 4, and everyone was gone by 8.30- the kids had school today. Ed and Heather and the kids left around 9 to go back to Ed's parents house- they don't sleep here because of Ed's cat allergy.

They left after breakfast this morning, and didn't hit any traffic. Heather called a while ago, and said they were ten minutes from home. We probably won't see them again til Christmas, or whenever we decided Christmas is this year. I hate that we see them so infrequently, but we all have to work- except Ralph! Ralph is actually looking for a non-nurse job. He's ready to move on, after 29 years of nursing, most of it in the ER.

I just started the new Nevada Barr, "Burn" from the library. I'm only a chapter in, but it's already good.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

No comments: