Borrowed Quiz

Dear Friend,

I was checking out a blog I follow last night and she had this great quiz. I want to share it with you. These are all true or false answers and it won't take long. Are you ready? Here it is....

1. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

2. Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button.

3. A pack-a-day smoker will lose approximately 2 teeth every 10 years.

4. People do not get sick from cold weather; it's from being indoors a lot more.

5. When you sneeze, all bodily functions stop, even your heart!

6. Only 7 percent of the population are lefties.

7. Forty people are sent to the hospital for dog bites every minute.

8. Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until they are 2-6 years old.

9. The average person over 50 will have spent 5 years waiting in lines.

10. The toothbrush was invented in 1498.

11. The average housefly lives for one month.

12. 40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.

13 . A coat hanger is 44 inches long when straightened.

14. The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute.

15. Your feet are bigger in the afternoon than any other time of day.

16. Most of us have eaten a spider in our sleep.

17. The REAL reason ostriches stick their head in the sand is to search for water.

18. The only two animals that can see behind themselves without turning their heads are the rabbit and the parrot.

19. John Travolta turned down the starring roles in 'An Officer and a Gentleman' and 'Tootsie.'

20. Michael Jackson owns the rights to the South Carolina State Anthem.

21. In most television commercials advertising milk, a mixture of white paint and a little thinner is used in place of the milk.

22. Prince Charles and Prince William NEVER travel on the same airplane, just in case there is a crash.

23. The first Harley Davidson motorcycle built in 1903 used a tomato can for a carburetor. 24. Most hospitals make money by selling the umbilical cords cut from women who give birth. They are used in vein transplant surgery.

25. Humphrey Bogart was related to Princess Diana. They were 7th cousins.

26. If coloring weren't added to Coca-Cola, it would be green.

Now, for the answers.........................Now I know you didn't cheat.

Right?

Ready??

Now??

Ok, Ok....They are all TRUE ... Now go back and think about #16!!!EWWWWW!!!!!

Thanks Nancy for letting me use this.

Hope you enjoyed it. I even learned a few things.
Love, Jan

Beautiful Ways to Start the Day

Dear Friend, When we moved out here a couple of months ago, we had these pretty little verbenias growing along the front sidewalk. They are pretty and easy to maintain (translation: no maintenance required.) And then about 2 weeks ago, we started noticing a visitor in this bed. We've watched it grow, put on buds and then we had this wonderful surprise!

A beautiful red tulip plant has opened up. It is absolutely gorgeous!

These colorful little plants are like a sweet goodbye when I leave the house and a wonderful welcome home when I return. It is a really good thing that they were already here and I am not responsible for them because I have the blackest thumb in the family. I can't grow silk plants!

Anyway, I wish I could bottle the wonderful smell that greets me every morning when I step outside. There is a sweet desert smell of damp mesquite, combined with the blooming flowers that is such a delight.

Last week I stopped and took these pictures of the sunrise over the eastern mountains. The sky looks like it is on fire. I should have pulled off the road last night and taken pictures of a glorious sunset

I was glad stopped. I need to do it more often! Oh and just down the road from this, I had to stop and wait for about 12 peahens to make up their little peaminds which side of the road they wanted to be on. What a great morning!

Love, Jan

Quilts, Quilts and More Quilts

Dear Friend,

On Friday afternoon I ran away from work! I really did. I finished the one task that has to be be done every day, shut down my computer and ran as fast as I could to the Mesa Convention Center.

You see, it was my only chance this weekend to catch the Arizona Quilters Guild 2009 Quilt Show. I am so glad I went. This was a better venue than they have used in the past and the quilts were awesome, inspiring, and breathtaking. I want to share some of them with you but you will have to excuse some of the poor photography.

I was drawn to these quilts for a variety of reasons. Some for the use of color and some for the technique. Some of them are traditional designs and entail a lot of work like this applique Whig Rose that was hand-quilted.

I loved this one, done in scrappy, colorful squares for the background and the applique motifs on the point where they have used a "drunkards path" in white.

These are both great traditional quilt patterns (bear paw and log cabin) that will always be top on my list.

And as you can tell, I am in a black, white with any other color mode right now. I loved this black and white with the appliqued flowers in bright colors.

How did she/he do this one?

This was a gorgeous pieced quilt. The photo doesn't do it justice.

Where do these men and women get their ideas? When do they have the time it takes to create these works of art? I know I will just have to keep going to quilt shows so that I can find the ideas and inspiration to make my own quilts.

I also know that my quilts will never be "quilt show" works and I am just fine with that, but I do hope those that receive my quilts will know how much I loved making each one and treasure it.

I have more pictures but you are probably putting your pointer fingers together in an "X" and saying "ENOUGH, already!" I had to share some of these with you, though. They were some of the best at the show.

More later. Love, Jan

PS-I'm sorry, I couldn't help it but here are a couple more that I wanted to share with you.

I have a friend at work that loves anything purple and butterflies. I saw this and thought of her. The butterflies were appliqued.








This bargello looked like stairways to eternity. I was amazed at the design and the placement of the color to creat this beautiful quilt.


This was an amazingly simple strippy quilt but the machine quilting was inspired. I wish the photo could show you more of it.

.

Dear Friend,

I just read this found this link to a beautiful and sad piece of poetry about the Austrailian fires earlier this month. It brought back a lot of memories our our Rodeo-Chedeski fires. It was such a terrible waste and loss to the people of Australia. Click here to read "Black is All I See".

I hope we can keep the these devastating fires off of our forests. Even with all the moisture we have had over the past couple of years, I still worry about the threat of fire. I know it is heavy on my dad's mind too. He wants to put a metal roof on the house in Vernon this summer. With all the growth they are seeing, all the people moving up there, and the high use of the forest, it would only take one careless mistake to lose it all.

Sorry for seeming so morbid, but reading this poem and seeing the photos, it really got to me.
I think it's time to turn the computer off for the day. I promise to write something more tomorrow. Maybe I'll tell you about the little trip Shirley and I took today.
Love, Jan

Busy, Busy Busy

Dear Friend,


Well I have been busy the last couple of days. I machine stiched the binding on the brown and red quilt and now have another hand project setting at my TV chair (did I tell you that I hate this part of quilting). It puts me to sleep faster than Tylonel PM!) but I did find a marvelous website with a tutorial for put binding on the was the slickest technique since sliced bread. I knew how to do the corners but it's the beginning-end joining that made me crazy. If you want to try it go here and there is even a PDF to print with wonderful pictures to illustrate.



Last night I went to ZT for a Quilt History Group. We discuss a specific time period, the events and influences they had on quilting and the women of that era. Right now we are discussing the early 20th century,the 20's and 30's. I have grown really like the fabric of this time period and now have a chance to look at the lives of the women. One of the books I am reading is called Waiting on the Bounty, The Dust Bowl Diary of Mary Knackstedt Dyck.




(This is a 30's top I am going to machine quilt today and tomorrow. Wish me luck.)

When we first moved to Wellton, we went through some bad dust storms and I remember how bad they were. But to have them blow away your life and your living, day after day, year after year, it is makes the little bit of craft/art/necessity that these quilts were, more special. For most women in the early days, quilting with a circle of friends was the only social life and the only artform that most of them had. If you think a faded and worn feedsack quilt is ugly and useless, stop and think about the woman who lovingly stitched it together to make something useful, yet pretty for her home and then got to spend a few hours with her neighbors and friends quilting it.


Mat just sent me a couple more photos. This is a red-tailed hawk. He has watched it catch 6 rabbits while he is working out in this area.



And here is a picture of the Upper Ranch. I think this taken from on top of a mountain. Makes me wish summer was here.


I will write more later, Shirley is trying to find her way out here and I need to close now to get ready for a visit with her. I think we'll go to lunch at Cravings and maybe do a little exploring around here.
Love to all, Jan

Tell Them I'm Out of the Office

Dear Friend,

I love the desert in the early spring. Especially if we have had a good wet winter. Shawn took this photo last week and hope you can see how green the mountain is. I also thought it was a great scene photo with the 3 elements of the story- a beginning, a middle and an end.

It is day 2 of several days off and I am feeling so relaxed. No traffic, no auditors, no telephones, no schedules. What more could I ask for? I have been fairly busy though, I pieced together all the blocks for my black-red & white quilt top and found I was 2 rows short, so it's back to the ZT to find some more pieces to add. It's a good thing this is a very scrappy quilt and I do have a bit of the the fabric already in it but I still need to add some. Oh, and I was trying to do 2 things at once (so much for multi-tasking) and broke my Rowenta iron. So I will have to replace that because I cannot sew without one.

I am glad he is wearing those heavy work gloves.
More photo's from Mat. This time he appears to have befriended a ---you're correct. It is a bat. I don't know if I have never seen one this close or have never seen a yellow one. Creepy!




Wyatt's class went up to the Don's Camp at the base of the Superstitions last week and these are some of the pictures from his adventure. I would love to go but they only present this program for the schools-during the week.
An attempt at roping. That will come in handy someday!



Panning for Gold-in the Superstitions, of course.
Panning for gold as a woman????


Despite my best efforts to try to avoid the stores while I am on this short vacation, I now need to get ready to go into town. Sometimes I feel like I am back in Wellton and contemplating a trip to Yuma, that's how far it is to the quilt store. I know that is also the distance from Vernon to Show Low-but the only reason to go to Show Low is groceries, there is so little else.



This is a picture of Ian's newest bed cover. Straight from Ikea-he loved it!

Things to do, places to go. I'm off to buy a new iron and look for some special fabrics to finish.
More later, love, Jan

Multiple Celebrations- Happy Birthday Hunter

Dear Friend,

We are celebrating a couple of great things around here today! The first one and of course most important is the 17th birthday of this great young man. My oldest grandson carries both maiden names of his grandmothers (poor kid) but they do make a great name for this good looking guy. Hunter has so much knowledge tucked under that curly mop of red he absolutely astounds me. He is the family book of knowledge, spell checker, and go to for computer "what did I do wrong". Hunter has a great sense of humor and being the big brother to the other two, a ton of patience. Also, if I pay him enough, he does a great job of vacuuming my car.

Happy Birthday Hunter, you're a wonderful grandson-I love you!

It's also President's Day. When I was in school we celebrated George Birthington's and A. Lincoln's washdays seperately, and now look at us-the Fed & the Post Office are closed, so we get the day off! That makes me a happy camper.

Well, now that we have made it a day of recognition for all the presidents I can add another couple of my favorites. I am truly grateful that these men are a part of our nation's history. Their wisdom and sense of duty truely defined our government and our freedom. So, George, John, Thomas and Abraham, thank you so much for all you gave us.

All that being said, I want to share a first-hand account of a small encounter that really is bothering me-maybe because I have been hearing echos of this from other sources but this happened to a friend of someone very close to me. You decide...

Recently, a group meeting here (non-sectarian, non-political) was doing a little exercise of getting to know each other-the question was posed, "name a wish you have that will not be fulfilled" or something along those lines. The "friend" stated her wish was that John McCain had won the election. Several days later, the "friend" received a mailed letter-several pages long, accusing her of being rascist, non-christian and intolerant. The author of the letter included several bibical scriptures. I will not go into some details of the letter-sender but you are probably correct about the genetic connection involved here.

I know that everyone has the the constitutional right to free speech, my question is this (and an age-old one at that!) are we looking at the next 4 to 8 years of never being able to express our political views for fear of being accused of something that has nothing to do with the above mentioned labels?

Leaving you this epistle to quander the significance of with love,

Jan