Squish Squash Sandwich

First, a public service announcement:
It's almost the end of the Men Quilt Too! competition on Pigtales and Quilts...Thanks to everyone who has voted. I'm biting my nails wondering if I'm in the top 4, the prize positions! I just hope I get a respectable number of votes and don't finish last ;) If you've voted you can rest assured, I won't be sending the hitmen round to help you remember to cast your last minute vote :)



Voting closes on the 22nd so if you haven't voted yet, just send your email saying "I'm voting for 14. Owls All Around!" to alliesgrandma@earthlink.net ... and a huge thank you to Thearica for putting on such a great show and exposing us male quilts to the world :)

OK, onwards and upwards... there's rainy clouds in the sky... well, rainy fabrics! The rainy day quilt is progressing well. I did several more squares whilst listening to Quilter in the Gap's latest podcast. If you haven't listened to the previous one which interviewed me, do go check it out, it's number 13, and the new number 14 is full of more Rhonda quirkiness and enjoyable ramblings about quilting and life.

It's sew night again tomorrow, so I'll be hopping on the bus and taking my bag of quilt tricks to do a couple of hours quilting after work. I'm going to concentrate on the charity squares since I haven't made a start on that multi-colorod assortment of fabrics yet! I'll post photos this weekend of the fabrics I'm working with.

In other news... I managed to thread my first needle tonight! Well not my first ever, but first since I became blind. I'm using the neat needles with tiny hooks at the top and which divert the thread into the eye of the needle. I'm very happy about this, it feels like a new kind of freedom!

On to the subject of today's post... bye bye Jeep. It became a squished sandwich between a car which stopped with warning and a big Chevvy truck which totally failed to do the same. So it's a write off :( I wasn't on board, and luckily Michelle and Tazzie dog are both ok... aching from the whiplash, but no serious injuries. Keep your fingers crossed that the insurance decide the value of the Jeep is a respectable amount else we will be struggling to afford anything that will work in the big snow we get up here... I suspect it will be a couple of thousand dollars short of what we really need... life sucks sometimes :(

And final news... I've got my appointment next week to have the catheter put in to my stomach ready for dialysis in the near future. I have the surgery on Thursday, full aneasthetic, but if all goes well I should be discharged by lunchtime... You all know me, I'm not very good with doctors, needles etc, so wish me luck because I'll need it! :)

So that's it, all my current news... now go vote if you still haven't done so! ;)

How Many Quilters Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?

Last night I got the mobility bus from work and headed off to quilt club. There were half a dozen of us blindees on the bus, everybody else heading home after another hard day in the sweatshop... I mean in the call center ;)

Most drivers are nice but don't provide more than the minimum help that you need to get on and off the bus... but last night the driver, when he heard I'd not been to this venue before, he got out, went in and checked it was where I needed to be... and then he came back and guided me in!

It was the first monthly meeting after the summer break, but even so I was surprised to see so many people. I'd guess at least 50 quilters. By coincidence I got the same driver home tonight, and in all seriousness he said there must have been 150 to 200 people there!

I'm intrigued to discover if that's a reflection of it being the first meeting after the break, or whether it'll be a similar turn out next month!

Everybody was very friendly. I stood up and introduced myself with the other new members. Several people said they are keen to see my first quilt, and I managed to pick up a 9 x 7 square block to do for a charity quilt!

I was very happy with the lighting... very bright, thanks to a project with the local power companies, where the church (that was the location) paid 33% and got a whole energy outfit of bulbs for the hall... but hmmm-crikey-that-many-thousand-dollars???!!! well, I suspect it's worth it, all those energy saving watts and it sure helped me see a little bit of what was going on! ... the quilt gang voted to contribute some money to the cost, which seemed fair since it really is a huge benefit...

so that's how many quilters it takes to change a lightbulb: 200. Fact.

Next Irondequoit Quilt Club meeting is actually a sew night, 6pm 'until whenever', on October 7th. I'll be there :)