Saturday, February 16, 2008

An unsettling week

This post may ramble -- it's been that kind of week. I'm sure you've all heard about the shootings at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Il this week. Dekalb is about 40 minutes from here. I went to NIU, my niece graduated from NIU, our son, Kevin graduated from NIU, Steve graduated from and got his Masters' at NIU, and his wife, Kim got both her Masters' from NIU. It's really not a large school, but a good place to get a good education. We are all stunned and in disbelief -- it is really close to home this time.
My heart goes out to all the parents of college age students -- you send your child to college in good faith and in hopes he'll come home with a degree that will give him a leg up in the world. And in one heartbeat, some suicidal maniac makes a name for himself by killing innocent children. I can only imagine the terror.

I drove Steve to Madison yesterday -- it was Lyle's turn, but he got sick and Steve's trying to avoid picking up another cold! Roads were fine, but now the weatherman is calling for another 6 inches of snow for our area, preceded by a 1/4" of freezing rain. It is supposed to begin tonight. We were supposed to go to Steph's tomorrow for AJ's fourth birthday. We rescheduled for next Sunday. Steve & Kim left this afternoon for Madison -- this time they are going to avoid the ice and snow completely and spend Saturday and Sunday nights there and hopefully by Monday morning the roads will have been cleared enough to come home. Kim has Monday off for Presidents Day, so she was planning on driving Monday anyway. Steph said they are expecting another 12 - 13" of snow tomorrow.

I fixed "Roast Sticky Chicken" from Judy's cooking blog yesterday. Well, actually, I fixed it the night before and left Bill strict instructions on putting it in the oven before I got home from Madison! He did a fine job and the chicken was wonderful -- Great recipe, Judy, thanks!

Steph and Aaron are having a birthday party for AJ today for all his classmates at his preschool and his cousin and neighbors. It is a pirate themed party and he was totally excited this week about it. He loves pirate stuff! One of his favorite dvd's is Scooby Doo and the "Ghost Pirates" (I have no idea what the real name of the dvd is -- that's what we call it! They will be taking lots of pictures, so I can't wait to see them. Steph has done a lot of planning and preparing for it and I know AJ is going to love it! I should have driven up there today, but not sure I could deal with a dozen 3 and 4 year olds! vbg

I've taken Carolina Crossroads off the longarm and stitched the binding on and have the label pinned on, but haven't started hand stitching the binding down yet. It's on my list! Instead, I finally cut and stitched the borders on my basketweave quilt. I've made the binding and have that all pressed and ready to go and then started looking for backing fabrics. I found one piece of yardage that is big enough, but doesn't really coordinate at all with the front and I think I'd rather save it for something else down the road. So, I spent another hour or two cutting fabrics to piece a backing for this quilt. I think I have them all cut and just need to piece it together tomorrow. While cutting these pieces, I cut the remainder of the fabric pieces into 5", 3-1/2", 2-1/2" or 2" strips and cut a few tumbler pieces. I decided I needed to use up the fabric I pulled instead of putting them back in the cabinet. Plus, now that I've been cutting and cleaning my scrap bins, it's nice to be able to add to them neatly (as opposed to throwing them into a jumbled mess as I did previously!).
















While I was working on the basketweave quilt today I was listing in my head all the other projects I have going at once, yet again! So, tomorrow I will go back to working an hour a day on a couple of things like cleaning out the desk -- which is half done; cleaning out the files on my computer -- this one sounds like the hard drive is dying, so I've moved everything over to the laptop, but didn't take the time to clean out the files, so I want to devote an hour a day to that until it is finished; I'll spend an hour working on the binding on Carolina Crossroads; and an hour or so piecing the backing for the basketweave. I don't like to leave things like piecing the backing half done, so I'll put it last in the que and probably work as long as it takes to get it finished. It will be the next quilt to be loaded on the longarm too.

Things I love: 10. Talking to AJ on the phone while he thanked us for the Valentine card we sent. Isn't it amazing how much babies have learned by the time they turn 4 years old? Wow!

Gratitudes:
Talking to our former neighbors on the phone yesterday. They just heard about Steve and called from the Carolinas. They just returned from Atlanta where he underwent 7 weeks of radiation for prostate cancer.
Steve & Kim driving up a day ahead in order to avoid the weather -- we won't have to worry about them on the roads.
Leftover chili for dinner tonight!

7 comments :

Anonymous said...

This basket weave quilt has been in my mind for quite some time. I will be making one just like this. Yours is beautiful!

Rebecca

Anonymous said...

I am still keeping Steve and your family in my prayers. I also am a NIU alumni.. of a certain age... we must have been there at the same time. Douglas hall? We were in DeKalb on Valentines day...... I just cannot fathom the loss and terror and hopelessness everyone has to be feeling. DeKalb is just down rt. 38 a few miles from me.

Mary Oleqwilterataol.com

Your blog is the fist one I turn too. Love to see that you have posted.

Pam said...

How the heck did that little AJ get to be 4 already! Happy Bday to you little man...Arghhh Matey, have a good time at your party!

Pam@
www.pamgwillim.com

Carol E. said...

My son is a junior in college, and I just shudder to think of this kind of incident taking place. I am so sorry it happened at your college which your family holds dear. Prayers for all.

Evelyn aka Starfishy said...

Unsettling news is even more so when it is that close to home. I am sure that those students/families have been on your mind alot this week.

Happy birthday to AJ! They grow up so very fast, true!

Great job with your basketweave - I like my backings to match too so I understand you digging deeper for a different backing!

And - good that you could step in and drive Steve when driving needed to be done - he is wise to try to stear clear of germs.

Cheers!

Evelyn

Mary Johnson said...

Both the basketweave and QFAH quilts are lovely.

The shooting is another tragedy - my niece is a student at VA Tech so I know how you must be feeling.

I hope Steve is doing well, you all are still in my thoughts and prayers.

Granny said...

You're welcome!