Saturday, April 15, 2006

I'm thinking I need to change the name of my blog from "nancyquilts" to "nancyworksandsleeps" cause that's about all I'm doing lately. :-( I am going on quit retreat next week so maybe that will give me a kickstart back into quilting. Or maybe I'll just talk and play games and not sew anything at all. LOL!

I'm so excited. I've never been on retreat before. This retreat is with a small online group. We've been together since the summer of 2000. Longer if you take into account we split from another group that had been together for several years. I've only ever met 2 of the other members but I love these ladies like they were members of my family so I'm really excited about finally meeting more of them in person.

Like I said, no sewing going on here but I have been shopping. Not doing too good on the stashbusting lately. LOL! But these weren't frivalous purchases. We'll be playing FQ bingo at retreat using background fabrics so I had to purchase those. Now to me "background" doesn't necesarily mean white or beige solid/tot. In fact it RARELY means white or beige solid/tot. LOL! So these are the fabrics I'll be playing bingo with. Not a one that I would not use as a background. In fact I bought yard pieces and cut them in half. A 1/2 yd for my stash and a 1/2 yd to "buy" 2 bingo cards with per game.

This next group are my gifties to everyone. I wanted something that would challenge us to use fabrics we normally might not and green/yellow - while a very pretty combo - isn't one I've ever used before. The orange piece was thrown in because so many of the ladies when asked their least favorite color say orange. I LOVE orange. It's so bright and vibrant. But the fabric isn't quite as orange as the photo shows. It's acutally a varigated panel that shades from yellow to orange. So someone who really, really, REALLY hates orange can just use the yellow parts. But I hope they'll give the orange a try cause it really is a nice "punch" color with the green and yellows. When picking the fabrics for this group I was inspired by the black-eyed susan's I've been seeing on the roadsides lately. Just beautiful with the bright yellow flowers and the bright green grass. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these. I'm kinda thinking of a really scrappy green/yellow kinda wonky block quilt so I need to see what I have on hand that will blend with these. I think this will be my retreat project. That and maybe the Ohio Star and Bears Paw kits I made up a few months ago for my brothers' quilts.

I wanted to thank all of you for the very supportive comments and emails I received after our robbery. Luckily all that was taken as an old laptop computer, a small bb pistol, and a pocket knife. There evidently was a rash of robberies in the area within a few days. We have a suspicion who it is but since this is a public forum I'm not going to air those suspicions. We now have bars across the front door that was kicked in for the thief to gain entry. And a new burgler alarm and a few other security precautions that I'm not going to detail here either. Let it suffice to say that we are MUCH better protected than we were before.

This is what really pisses me off more than anything else! See the big chunk of fur ripped out of Sam's back? Agatha also has a patch out by the base of her tail and George has a chunk out from the back of his neck! As ticked off as I am about this I'm so thankful that there is just fur gone since we read in the paper that a house in another subdivision near us was robbed the day before we were and their cat was killed! I know we're supposed to leave judment to God but I sure hope whoever did this was left with deep, festering gouges! (And knowing my Agatha that's a REAL good possibility!)

11 comments:

ForestJane said...

I'm glad you're back online, and ohhh, it gets me too that not only did they have to invade your space but also mistreat your animals!

I'd be looking at the hands and arms and faces of everyone I met, looking for scratches. :)

Vicky said...

It's nice to have you back, Nancy. I hope your kitties are okay.

The fabrics are luscious! Yes, those are my kind of background fabrics!

Have fun at retreat! You deserve a little fun!!

Melzie said...

aww your poor furbabies! thats horrible :*(

Love the fabrics, enjoy the retreat! xoxo melzie

Susan H. said...

Welcome back, baby girl. Been missing you, and kinda worried. Haven't called because I knew how busy you would be with the computer conversion. Have a great time on retreat. I'll be thinking about you. I'm insanely jealous that we both can't be there.

Laurie said...

Nancy,
Good to see you back! Enjoy your retreat! They are SOOOOOOOO much fun!!! Great fabrics too!
Laurie

Leah Spencer said...

Poor cats! I sure hope they catch the guy(s) soon. Sounds like they're trying to get quick cash fast with how many robberies they've been doing. Maybe you should keep an eye on local pawn shops for the stolen stuff?

Hope you get some quilting time in at the retreat! :)

Cher said...

boy do you deserve that retreat-good that you shopped and are prepared to make the most of the fun time I know you are going to have...there is nothing that is not great about going on retreat with friends! I do hope the robbers got the worse end of what they did to your poor kitties. I just can not fathom people who hurt animals ...well, or anyone else either for that matter.

Granny said...

Are you saying the burglar hurt your cats?? I hope he left with more damage that the cats have.

As far as the quilting . . sometimes we just need a little time off to rejuvenate ourselves. I'm sure you'll hit the deck running soon and have lots of quilty projects to share with us.

Have fun at your retreat!

Judy

quiltpixie said...

So how exactly does one play FQ Bingo?

Linda C said...

after all you have been through lately with work and the home problems, you deserve the retreat and some "me" time, Nancy. Hope you have a great time!

The Calico Cat said...

A. I have that green in the middle on the right. I pick up all of the fabrics that I find like that especially in neutrals because in quilts that look like cat fur! (TRUST ME ON THAT ONE!)

B. I hated hearing about how your cats were treated...

C. I think that people will be jusged by how they treated those (cats, dogs, etc.) that could not care for thmeselves. Might not help much now...