Clothes Shopping - well, sort of

This morning I dug out several pairs of pants that did not fit me, to try them on and see if I have lost enough weight to wear them. Well, obviously I did and now I have a lot more pants to choose from. :)
We have taken up our daily walk again and my muscles are protesting a bit (I did not know previously that walking exercises your core muscles), and I also tried a different exercise for the core yesterday and I can feel that too. But other than that I feel good and I have a lot more energy than I did last week. The weather is gorgeous too. We never really experienced a very nice fall season in Vienna, it was very hot and then it got cold and rainy and that was it. Here it is wonderful, sunny, not too warm, not too cool, perfect Fall weather. We have some plans for the coming weekend and I am very much looking forward to it. :)

QtP - Psalm 37

I finally got the journal page for last week's study done. I was struggling a bit with that one because I wanted to keep it simple. Key passages for my interpretation: "Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.""But the wicked will perish: The Lord's enemies will be like the beauty of the fields, they will vanish - vanish like smoke."

After some mishaps (like cutting into the background fabric) I think I am happy with it.

Halloween Swap

Well, here are the blocks I got from the swap, now what to do with them? I am thinking either wall hanging or table topper. I have kept one of my own blocks and I will probably use the big pumpkin in the center, the three small blocks together with my spider web block as cornerstones and use either a bat or a candy corn fabric for borders, or maybe both. Right now I have other projects I need to work on but maybe I'll finish it before Halloween.
Thanks to all the swappers, it was fun.

Week in review

I had a pretty bad week last week. Sometimes I am just way too emotional and get myself into situations that take ages for me to recover from.
Last Sunday night we found a kitten in our apartment complex. Well, we had kittens roaming around here before but they were always with their mother. This one must have somehow become separated from her and he was constantly heading straight for the middle of the road. Since some people mistake our access road (speed limit 12 mph) for a race track, seeing him smashed in the morning seemed inevitable and that was just an unbearable thought for me. I had seen two people pick him up and put him into a safer place and every time I looked out the window, there he was again, in the middle of the road. So we went out and got him. I did not want to bring him into the apartment, after all that Miss Kitty has been through with the move, she has the right to live here knowing that no other cat will ever threaten her territory. Now what to do? It was a very small kitten, about 4 weeks old, dark grey with a white bib and huge blue eyes, totally trusting. We put him into Kitty's carrier to keep him from running into the street again and he made himself happily at home.
In the meantime I tried to call some place where they could tell me what to do with him. The emergency vet is not set up to receive animals, all they could tell me was that the shelter might have a drop off box. Even if they would I don't think I could have just dropped that tiny little kitten into a dark hole in the middle of the night. Besides the county shelter is not a no-kill shelter. I grew desperate as it was getting later and later. Finally I called my friend Angie and she said she has a co-worker who takes in foster animals, she would come by and pick him up. And so she did, half an hour later they drove up, just as a thunderstorm broke lose. We put the little critter into a box and she took him with her.
The next day I asked her about him and she told me that he is fine, he spent the night in their bed, his name is Stormy and she is keeping him. She had just lost a cat 3 weeks ago which she found last Summer at the recycling center.
And although the whole sad story had a happy ending it threw me completely out of the loop. I felt awful all week long, totally off center. It causes me a lot of stress whenever there is an animal in distress but especially when it is a cat or kitten. I have been crazy about cats ever since I was a kid.
On Wednesday we went to apply for my social security number, it will take about two weeks to get here.
By Friday I was feeling a bit better and we got our usual grocery shopping done. We did not go out for dinner this week, we got BBQ takeout instead.
Saturday morning we went to the Farmer's Market, which I always enjoy and then we headed to Thomasville for a big street fair, called Everybody's Day. That was a bit too much for me, I am no longer used to having so many people in one place. ;) I also called my mother and found out that my brother is in the hospital but they are not yet sure what is wrong with him, he probably needs some serious lifestyle changes (weight loss, quit smoking).
Sunday morning we went for a long walk in the park, we walked and walked, it felt so good, the weather was perfect, a sunny Fall morning, not too warm, not too cool. We walked 4 miles instead of our usual 3 and it felt great. After our walk we stopped at our storage facility to get some stuff out of our boxes. Then we had a very late lunch and watched the race.
I did manage to get my daily bible studies done though, the new study of the Psalms does me good and I learn a lot from it. I did not make either quilt block for last week but I hope to catch up with that this week. I am still on track with the weight loss program but have not been very good at exercising, we'll go back to walking in the evenings this week.
The stressful week ended way better than it had begun.
Today I am feeling pretty good and I have a lot more energy than I had last week and I also have a rather long to-do list, so I better get started on that. ;)

WOBQ

This is my block for Sarah. What did I learn from her story for myself? Learn to trust God to fulfill his promises in His timing, not yours. Don't try to run ahead of Him, be patient. That is not always easy but it has been proven right to me over the past year, we needed a lot of patience but in the end all worked out well for us.

Miss Kitty

Sweet and not quite so sweet (but hungry).

Oops!

After all the waiting for it I almost forgot to mention that my Green Card arrived on Monday and this time everything on it is correct. :) It states that I have been a resident since Sept. 2005 and it is valid until Sept. 2016, I guess to make up for letting me hang in limbo for so long.
As soon as Del can get time off from work we will apply for my social security number, and while I wait for that I better begin studying for the written test for the learner's permit. And then I can - finally, at my ripe old age - learn how to drive a car.

Quilting the Psalms

This is my interpretation of Psalm 19. I based it on verse 1 "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." and verse 4-5 "In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. "
The photos represent the beauty in God's creation, I admit, I added my favorite critters to represent the animals. ;)
I am very pleased with the results and even my sewing machine behaved herself and did not mess up once (there always seems to be a problem with the satin stitch, but not this time). :)
A productive morning. I am getting a lot out of this study, learning a lot about God and His word and also about myself. I am looking forward to it every morning.

Quilting the Psalms

I have joined a new bible study group led by Carol Honderich. We are studying 30 Psalms over a period of 30 weeks and Carol supplies us with patterns for quilt blocks to interpret the psalms we study. When I started to iron the fabrics for the first block I felt strongly that I should not start another quilt. Instead I am trying to do something completely new to me. I will make a fabric journal. The pages are regular letter size and I will print the words of the Psalm on the back of each page. I do not know yet how I will put it all together but I think 30 weeks is long enough to come up with an idea. I am going to post the pages here as I finish them.
This is the page for Week 1 - Psalm 1. The image of the tree, deeply rooted beside the river and sustained by it, like the believer who is deeply rooted in the law of the Lord, who provides for all his needs, was the one that spoke the strongest to me during the study of Psalm 1.

It fits!

Last Friday I started working on a quilted cover for my bible. Today I finished it and it actually fits. While I was working on it I was not quite sure that the size was right. The cross pattern was provided by one of the members of the WOBQ-Group - thank you Karen! - the pattern for the cover is in the last issue of "Quilts with Style". I chose the colors because they are two of my favorite ones, I always liked purple and yellow together. ;)

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of my living in NC.

RCTQ-BOM

Now that I have my new toy I don't have to wait until the film in the camera is full to show my new block. :) Here it is, the block for September.

This and that

Well, I finally broke down and bought a digital camera. I was getting tired of messed up photos, now at least I can mess them up myself. :)
I am currently learning how to use it and have already taken pictures of various craft projects so I can share them with my online buddies. So far I am very happy with how they turned out.
Friday night, after I bought the camera we went out for dinner and then did our grocery shopping. The Food Lion store we usually go to is getting worse every week. It seems to be very badly managed. Saturday morning we went to the Farmer's Market and now I am the proud owner of 10 beautiful little turnips. I have never cooked turnip before but got some advice on how to from my friend Faith. We'll have some of them for lunch today. After the market we ended up going to Harris Teeter to get all the stuff the other store did not have. I also went to PetSmart for some goodies for Miss Kitty and the had an adoption fair for cats going on, kittens actually. They were all so sweet, I really wish I could have gotten some of them, but Miss Kitty would never forgive us. I hope they all found good homes. Cats don't seem to be as highly valued here as dogs.
After lunch we wanted to go to a festival in one of the parks but we were unable to find a parking spot and so we ended up exploring some new areas and do some shopping. I bought a pair of Halloween socks to go with my Halloween shirt. ;)

WOBQ + stuff

I joined a new group that starts over with the Women of the Bible study and quilt because I got so far behind with the one I was in before. This time I promised myself to not let anything get in the way and to not get behind. Yesterday I finished my block for Eve. The green is for the garden, the two purples are for Adam and Eve (mainly because I like green and purple together) and the strip in the middle represents the serpent and the fruit. My scanner fought me tooth and nail and did not want to scan the green (as usual) but after some convincing it finally did, although the fabrics are not quite as green in reality. :)

I have finally re-organized my day and get a lot more done and don't waste as much time. I usually start my studies no later than 9 am which gives me time in the morning to make breakfast, fix lunch for Del and see him off. Then I read my emails and get stuff done around the house. Shortly before 9 I fix myself a big cup of tea and then sit down at my worktable in the bedroom with all my books and materials. I have not set a time in which to complete the day's study, when I am finished, I am finished. The rest of the day I spend sewing, reading and getting chores done as needed. I plan to pull out my Spanish books and try to brush up my school knowledge. I used to be really good at it but since I did not use it after school was over I lost a lot of it. It might come in handy when the time comes to look for a job. My green card is supposed to come in within the next week, I believe it when I see it. :)
It has been raining all week and we did not get to go the athletic complex for our walk. I hope it will eventually stop today and we can go, I really miss it.

Boo! - The End.

I finished the blocks for the Halloween swap today. I decided to make all 6 using the same pattern and keep #7 for myself. I will be getting 6 blocks back and if I make two more I will have a nice square wall hanging. They were fun to make, I can't wait to see the ones I will get back.

RCTQ-BOM

This is the block for August, I did not like the paper piecing pattern so I chose the regular pieced block and paper pieced it anyway. :)

This and that

We went to the athletic complex every evening last week and walked. We did anywhere between 4 and 7 laps and it felt really good. Only Friday night was a bit warm and humid and we gave up after 4 laps which equals 1 1/4 miles. We went to the store afterwards to do our grocery shopping.
Before we went to the farm on Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market as we do every weekend. The veggies are changing, lots of pumpkins and squash are available now and apples and sweet potatoes. I bought very nice cabbage and peppers and tomatoes and lots of different squash and apples and peaches and sweet potatoes. I love going to the market. Yesterday I made a dish from one of my grandmother's recipe, typical Austrian with veggies from Virginia. :)
I called my friend Anni in Vienna last week and we had a nice long chat. She asked if we think about ever coming back. What a strange idea, it has never occured to me to even think about that. I am right where I want to be and I would not ever be happy again in Vienna. The only thing I miss is meeting up with Anni after work for a nice long chat at our favorite coffee house, other than that I have everything I want and need right here.

Farm Fest

On Saturday we went to the 4th Annual Farm Fest at the Rising Meadow Farm in Liberty. It was very nice, relaxed and laid back, like everything around here. There were lots of vendors from other farms with beautiful yarn and wool and wood craft items and pottery. They offered hands on demonstrations of various crafts and especially the children had fun at the pottery wheel. I tried to show some ladies how differently we knit in Europe and had a hard time explaining it, when you have done something for a very long time you just can't explain it, so I just showed them. :) I also got to feed an Alpaca .
Unfortunately I decided to try a different place to have my photos developed and they messed up big time, they lost 6 of the pictures and then claimed it was my camera's fault, right, it can do a lot of things but I have never seen it cut off the film strip and throw part of it away. The rest of the photos does not look good either. I was rather upset and I am getting wary of trusting my photos to anyone anymore. I am thinking about getting a digital camera and photo printer.

In Remembrance of September 11, 2001

Long Weekend

Labor Day weekend is our first "official" holiday weekend, because Del has the day off. All the other holidays so far we were off anyway. :)
Woohoo! I dropped another 4 pounds, I must have done something right the past two weeks. :)
Yesterday we went to the Farmer's Market like every Saturday but this time we were there late because Del went to the church's men's breakfast first. There were lots of people but less vendors than in the last weeks. I bought my veggies from my favorite farmer (he has a cute son, but his produce is really good too) and then we went and checked out the other side of the market where mostly plants and flowers are sold. There was a guy who sells homemade soaps. They are a bit expensive but smell heavenly, Del bought me one that is called "Hippie Heaven" its scent reminds me of my youth. :))
We got lots of rain from storm Ernesto in the past few days but yesterday it was warm and sunny again.
My creative energy is still lacking but I hope it will come back next week, I have to finish a few things, like the blocks for the Halloween swap.
Still no news on my green card.