BG's here!!!!! We start new quilts....

It’s Saturday, April 20 and XENA is 5 years old today!!! I have done 328 quilts on XENA in those years, and for someone who is just fitting it in between piecing my own tops and doing other things….I think that’s a respectable number. I am so very lucky and so very grateful to be able to own a longarm….something I never imagined for most of my 30 years of quilting...and I am so very glad my honey talked me into getting one!

The other great news for today is that BG is ahead of schedule….and so I will be picking her up THIS AFTERNOON!!!! So, all of my chores have to be speeded up!

First up…..a FIVE DAY blog entry :~(. The week just got away from me….and writing the blog is not the compulsion it once was…..I’ll try to do better….but would guess I’ll definitely be sporatic while BG is here.

Next up was making the bed with fresh sheets (the whole basement was cleaned on Monday….so I don’t have to do that…thank goodness!) and then trying desperately to get the first bed quilt blocks sewn together. I almost made it before it was time to go and get her:

-sweetie Steven & BG

We packed up the car and headed out, talking and talking and talking the whole way home. Michael helped to get everything downstairs and we continued to talk, but also laid out the fabrics we will be sewing on this week….BG is purple and mine are the teal:

We have been planning this quilt for about a year....well, not this specific quilt...it was another quilt.....and over the course of the year we changed our minds 5 times....as a matter of fact I bought my fabric when we were on a previous pattern...but luckily, I have enough for this one.

At 5 PM I showered and changed and Michael and I headed out to pick up Diane & Mark and all of us drove over to Shelly & Chris’s house:

They were having an early Kentucky Derby Party, as Diane and Mark will be in Scotland for the actual race:

Chris prepared the traditional mint juleps:

-muddling the mint

-the drinkers hamming it up

-Diane, Mark, Michael

Chris prepared a FABULOUS meal:

and then we played an awesome game of horse racing:

It is unbelieveable how much we laughed and how loud we got cheering on our horses. I was one of the big losers…but it didn’t even matter with the good time we had. We were home just after 10:30 PM and read until mid-night before bed.

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BG and I were up at 6:15 AM on Sunday (4/21) to head to SWEET DOUGH in Fort Mill. I wasn’t sure how many people were going to be there on a Sunday….and they close once they sell out…and we wanted a good selection, so we headed out and just sat in the parking lot talking until they opened at 7 AM. We got enough donuts to last us for a couple of days (or maybe a week :~) and were home and set up and sewing just after 8 AM:

BG was smart and starched her first 2 fabrics Saturday night so that she could hopefully stay 1 step ahead of me so we both wouldn’t be competing for the cutting table or the iron at the same time. We spent all day cutting and then working on a set of strata:

-good thing I don't have a quilt loaded up....right?

and of course….talking the entire time!

My honey ran out and got us sandwiches at ARBY’s for dinner so that we could keep on sewing….he’s a keeper :~)!!! We kept sewing until after 8 PM and BG put up this:

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BG had us up and at our machines just before 8 AM on Monday (4/22), and she put me up on the design wall:

We took a break at 10:30 for breakfast and it was perfect timing for a visitor:

Pat came by to see BG and have half a cinnamon roll!! We sat and talked for about an hour and heard and saw lots and lots of pictures from Pat’s African trip (FABULOUS!!!) before she left and we headed back to our machines. By lunchtime….I had added to it:

We sewed the rest of the day and I left at 6 PM for knitting. We both sewed a bit more when I got home and by the time we went to bed, we had this:

PSA (public Service Announcement) - from the Lancaster County Sheriff: It has been brought to my attention about a new Scam. If you find a Thumb Drive (even in an unopened pack or a phone charger cord. Thow them away without using them. I have been advised that this is the newest way hackers are accessing your computer or phone information. So if you find one of these items throw them away DO NOT USE. Thank you and be safe.

*** For those of you that don't want Alexa or Siri listening in on your conversations, they are making a male version...it doesn't listen to anything. ***