My Round Robin Block

Gerry of Sewing Southpaw took some new photos of my block. Thank you! Thank you! It's so exciting to see the progress as it makes it's way around!


This is the photo Gerry took of the whole block. It just keeps on getting prettier!


Rebecca stitched the delicate flowers and added the lace, very fitting for Gwenevier! Thank you, Rebecca! Then she sent the block on to Gerry.


Gerry embellished the lace that I stitched onto one of the pieces on a whim. It was an "oh well, why not" moment. Flowers and beads fit for a Queen! Gerry, you did a wonderful job! Thank you!

Chocolate wrapper wisdom for the day..."Get your feet massaged." Oh, doesn't that sound lovely!

Back in Business - Kyle Has Another Interview

Sorry to be gone for a bit, but life has just kept me so busy with other things (sigh).

Daughter Caitlin was home from university last week for Spring Break and we went to Michigan to visit my parents. Caitlin won't have the opportunity to see them again until she comes back from Greece in June. We had a nice visit.

Kyle called yesterday to tell us that he has another medical school interview at the University of St. Louis. He thinks that this interview will be one to decide if they will put him on the "waiting" list. He is really hoping that Rush University will offer him a place in their class. He'll be closer to home and I will get to see him when he feels the need of home cooking and other home-type things.

Kyle's Med School Interview

Well, Kyle stopped by before heading back to Urbana. He thinks that the interview at Rush University went well. Now, we wait. The Medical School admissions people said he would hear in about 4 weeks - either yes, no, or waiting list.

I need chocolate!

Chocolate wrapper wisdom of the day..."Love without rules."

Kyle has a Med School Interview - Yea!!!

Kyle just arrived to use us as a stop-over - free hotel service & free food & parental love. He is on his way to his interview for admission to medical school in Chicago. He will stay overnight with a student at Rush University tomorrow night and then do his interviews on Wednesday. I am excited and nervous for him. I sure hope that he is accepted!

Please say a prayer, cross you fingers and toes or whatever for him!

Adventures In Traveling

I had a great visit with my children this weekend and an interesting trip home with my husband (more on this later). This is a photo of Caitlin.

We arrived in Kirksville, Missouri (Truman State University) late Friday afternoon and had a short visit our with daughter Caitlin before she had to leave for the theater. Caitlin (assistant stage manager) wasn't going to be done until midnight because there was a photo shoot after the performance and our son Kyle wasn't going to arrive from Urbana, Illinois until very late (he left after work and dinner), so we were on our own for the evening. We checked in at the hotel and then had dinner and a nice quiet evening (read that - husband Tom surfed between basketball games and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on TV).

Saturday morning we woke up to rain - lots and lots of cold rain. The kids slept in because they were both up late. In pouring rain, we went over to pick up Kyle for lunch before Caitlin went to the theater to get ready for the performance and to pick up our tickets for the show. We had a nice visit with Kyle.

Then we went back out into the rain (I thought we were going to turn into ducks!) to see the play that Caitlin had been working on. It was The Taming of the Shrew, but set and costumed in the 1950's. It was fun and well enough done.

We had another chance to visit with Kyle while Caitlin helped tear down the set (it was the last performance). Then we went back out in the rain and picked up Caitlin and her boyfriend Gabe and went out for a wonderful dinner at an Italian restaurant. I had a wonderful Chicken Marsala, just perfect! Then it was goodbye time. Kyle was to stay the night with Caitlin and take her grocery shopping and we were leaving early to come home.

Sunday morning we woke up to find that the rain had changed to light snow. By the time we were ready to leave it had stopped. So we checked the local weather and found out about flash flood warnings across the north of Missouri. Of course, this was the route we had to take. The rivers were all way up but not yet flooding and we made it the the Mississippi River and across to Illinois fine. We got to Macomb and it was my turn to drive. Galesburg - must be lunch time. It was still my turn to drive as we headed north.

The snow started. My husband informs me that "there could be white-out conditions all the way home" across the whole state (we live near Chicago). I was ready to bang my head against the steering wheel. Yes, we were to try to make it home!

The winds start first as we head north and it's a struggle to drive as the wind hits us broadside and tries it's best to push us off the road. Finally, we are heading west with the wind coming from behind and we stop at Hillsdale. No power equals no gas AND no working toilets! (sigh) I was thankful that it was now Tom's turn to drive. The snow is coming down, blowing and not quite a white-out but bad enough. We manage to get gas at Rock Falls. So we set out again with a man behind the wheel who thinks it's just fine to drive at eighty miles an hour in the snowing, blowing, sometimes white-out! I began to wish I was driving! We did make it home in one piece, but Tom and his driving had added at least 50 gray hairs to my head and took about a year off my life.

I needed extra chocolate when I got home!

The chocolate wrapper wisdom of the day is "Spending time is a greater gift than spending money."

Off to Kirksville, Missouri

Tom and I are off to visit our daughter Caitlin in Kirksville, Missouri.

Caitlin is the assistant stage manager for the play The Taming of the Shrew that is running this week. Our son Kyle will also be joining us. He's coming from Urbana, Illinois. It will be a nice family get together.

Will blog if the opportunity presents itself. Have a good weekend, if I don't get back to this before Sunday evening.

Round Robin - Lori's Block - An Idea For Fix

Well, Allison suggested using a ribbon , but I just went through my stash and I didn't find anything that seemed to fit the block. However, I did a search of my lace and found a couple of motifs that might work. All of my lace yardage was either too large or too small to cover the gap at the top of the piece.

I pinned both up. What do you think? Being a newbie at CQ (I've only been doing this since September), I would value opinions and suggestions. So, ladies, leave me a comment!




I suppose that I could also go shopping and see what I can find. (As if I needed an excuse to hit the fabric stores!)

The chocolate wrapper shares it's wisdom..."There's a time for compromise...it's called later."

Round Robin - Lori's Block

Now that Faith's Peter Rabbit block is on it's way to Rebecca, it's time to work on Lori's Cinderella block. Here's the block with Faith's work on it. Don't you just love her grandfather clock!


As you can see, it has not survived the tender mercies of the Post Office very well. One of the seams has separated (blue piece upper left) and the iron-on Cinderella has not responded well to being folded (it has cracked). I can't do anything about Cinderella, but maybe I can do something about that seam. I'll think about it for a bit.

Round Robbin - Faith's Block - Time To Pass It On

Another seam on Faith's Peter Rabbit block is completed.


A chain stitch runs along the seam. Detached chain stitches and straight stitches decorate the seam. Those yellow straight stitches aren't showing up too well in the photo. All are done using Perle Cotton 12.


I found my spider charms! So now the spider web is truly complete!


This is Faith's block as I prepare to mail it on to Rebecca. One of my chores tomorrow is to go buy some envelopes.

The chocolate wrapper speaks to us today. "Don't think about it so much." Just start stitching and let inspiration move you along!

Take A Stitch Tuesday Challenge - more Week 7

Not much time for stitching today, but I did try a little more feather stitch.


I found this feather in the beloved Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches by Carole Samples (page 44). I used Perle Cotton 12. I really liked the way it turned out!

"Happiness is celebrating the little things." Chocolate wrapper wisdom