Signs of Mary

Hi Mary,
This really started out as a question. Am I supposed to be saving this plate of seeds I found on top of the refrigerator? And also what seeds are they? Some

kind of pepper?

But it reminded me of all the little signs of four months of Mary.

Unfortunately the cleaners had destroyed the pile of leaves in the upstairs bathroom, but I was able to find a few more places you had left your spoor.

Love,

Nancy

Music for Peace

http://

Ben King's lyrics:
When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we'll see
No I won't be afraid, no I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh now now stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me

If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
And the mountains should crumble to the sea
I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me, stand by me-e, yeah

Whenever you're in trouble won't you stand by me,
oh now now stand by me
Oh stand by me, stand by me, stand by me
Darlin', darlin', stand by me-e, stand by me
Oh stand by me, stand by me, stand by me

Catch and Release

Dear Mary and the obviously too fatty kitty,
Alice has started a new mouse control program which she calls 'catch and release'. She has released a mouse at her release site four times in the last three days. Yes, I did mean to say four times because last night she released two mice, one at four a.m. and one at seven a.m.
This is a picture of Alice at her catch and release site. Yes it is my bed. She is such a loving cat. Always giving me treats. However two treats in one night are too many treats.
Alice can not understand what happens to all the treats she brings me. According to her they should stay on the bed and play with her. Usually they immediately leap off the bed. Treat number two did this by running between Jim and me, up the bed and off the top or pillow end. Needless to say Alice followed and head butted the wall between us. For some reason this woke both Jim and myself.
(It was 4 a.m. again. Alice seems to like that time. She must be wide awake then. Jim and I are not.)
Treat number two then disappeared. Alice seemed sure he (or she) was still in the release area. Jim and I searched through all the bedclothes. No treat. Alice was insistent but we were a little sleepy and decided that there was no treat left on the bed and straightened up the bed and went back to sleep. Alice kept patrolling the release area. After a while I began to believe in her. I got up once more and pulled off the blankets. (Jim objected) I decided to search the bottom of the bed where the sheet was tucked under the mattress. Alice really liked this idea. I went along the bottom patting and smoothing until I came to the corner. The sheet was not tucked in past the corner and as I patted up to it something small and grey lept for freedom. Alice was in hot pursuit. Under the bed, thumpty thumpety thump thump thump. Over to the bookcase and under the chair. More thumping. It is quite invigorating for those of us who are sleep deprived.
I do not have a picture of any treats. Somehow I am not alert enough to grab my camera. This picture is post treat. Treat number four has been removed and Alice persists in looking for it in its last seen area. Four treats in 16 days in Minneapolis.
What next? I am sure I don't know but I will keep you informed.
Love,
Nancy

Missing Mary

This is Mary, Me and E. They make me feel tall!

Mary went home on Thursday. Rather she started home. Today is Saturday so she and the Fatty Kitty should be home today.

I wish we could have had more time together. I shouldn't be selfish as I have had more time with her and Jeni this year than for many years past. I guess we can thank Mom for giving us this time together. Probably not in her plans to do it this way, but it worked.

The last thing she did before putting Fatty Kitty in the car was to put the bike up on the car. Jim helped her. She is a little short for it but she has a step stool. It was cold and rainy so I stayed safely warm inside and took pictures. We have to put up something to entertain Skeeter!

Note the hula hoops in the back window of the car. She didn't even leave us one of them. Mom asked especially. I am not sure if she was planning on Hula-hooping herself or was just wondering if they were still littering the house.

Oh, Yeah, Mom and I did our arm and hand exercises yesterday. We only did 10 reps as it was her first time back with the stretchy thingy. But she did them all and said only a couple of them made her feel sore.

You know how she is.

I take it as a good sign for her arm anyway.

Love,

Nancy

First Featherweight Quilt Top

I finished my quilt top made with Black and White fabrics. I used Cream and Black fabrics too. I wasn't fussy. I put in assorted aqua fabrics for some color and to match the many yards of flannel backing that I have. I knew the name as soon as I saw it laid out on the table at the quilt retreat.
A North Dakota Quilter Dreams of the Caribbean. Yup.
The first top completely made with my Featheweight machine. It is 84 x 108 at the moment but it will be a little smaller once Lois at Faye's Henhouse gets done quilting it with large meandering all-over Feathers.
That will be sometime in January.
I am having a wool batt put in and, with the flannel backing, that will make this a wonderful warm winter quilt. Good for dreaming of sandy beaches and tropical waters.
Love,
Nancy

OBAMA

Hi Mary,
I got up late this morning after staying up till one a.m. last night watching the t.v. I am enjoying reading the blogs and came across this post by Christy Hardin Smith of Firedoglake.

http://firedoglake.com/2008/11/05/renewing-our-nations-promise-a-change-is-gonna-come/

It is how I feel. Hopeful and Ready to help any way I can to make this nation all it can be.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/04/amazing-voting-images-pho_n_141136.html
This is from the Huffington Post. Photo's of people voting all over the US. And the most touching were the older african/americans who made sure they voted. Getting out of their hospital beds, struggling over dirt in their walkers and making sure they got their vote in.

This is the highest percentage of voters since 1908. One hundred years. Fantastic.

I thought I would feel really excited and happy but instead I feel a little apprehensive. There is such a lot to do and the economy is so bad that you wonder what can possibly help. But if he closes Gitmo like he promised to do as soon as he was in power he will have a wonderful start right there.

I guess all I can do right now is wait and watch.
Love,
Nancy

Quilting

Hi there Mary,

There have been a couple of quilting milestones lately.

First, my friends and I made a quilt for out favorite waiter and college student Clayton. Clayton is our waiter most Tuesday nights. He is very rude to us when he serves us food and calls us OLD and generally gets in trouble at Paula's Diner every Tuesday night. He will be graduating from Mayville State this coming spring and so we felt it only right that we concoct a quilt for him.

So we interrogated some of his friends and acquaintances and found out alot about him. We then gathered fabric that reflected the stories we had heard and made it all into a quilt. We had money fabric for tips, and coffee fabric for the coffee addict in our group. We had deer fabric and cell phone fabric and baseball fabric for his Dad and food fabric since he is our waiter. We had almost as much fun finding fabric as quilting it. Below Deb is explaining to Clayton why we have deer in the quilt.

We hung it up in the local quilt show a couple weeks ago and someone, it is a small town, told Clayton that we had 'named a quilt after him'. He claims he was in the bar at the time and he told the person 'You are drunk'.

Anyway we made the presentation on Tuesday the 28th of October and he was quite surprised. We all got hugs.

The second quilting related thing is I used my (new to me) Singer Featherweight for the first time at a quilt retreat put on by Faye's Henhouse this last weekend. It was wonderful and I am so proud to have that nice machine for my very own. I will take it to the Park River quilt retreat next weekend too. Hopefully I will finish the black and white quilt top then.

Love,

Nancy