loving the mail......

My sister, Jane, made me a geocaching card. I love love love it. She hasn't mailed it yet....but she wanted to me to see it RIGHT AWAY when she finished it. The anticipation is exciting. I can't wait for it to get here. 

Of course, I am no better......

I made her a homemade envelope....and I haven't mailed it yet. I couldn't stand it though, I was so excited.... I sent her a picture so she knows what to be on the look out for.

This is before it was glued into a real envelope and goodies tossed in.

Anticipation! What is inside???

Then there is the mail that has arrived for real....

I won block lotto again. I am almost embarrassed by this. I love the heart block that we made in February, I am so happy and excited to be getting these in the mail. A lot have already arrived......

so much fun in the mail.

disappearing 4-patch.....

This month, at good ol' block lotto we are making disappearing 4-patches. They are easy, fun and fast. I didn't take any pictures of the cutting, so I can't show you how this block works. But I can send you here to see how it goes together.

Then...

I had a dentist appointment last week, so I stopped in the quilt shop. I left with 2 charm packs of Java.

After making the D4P's in red, I wanted to make more......

The red lotto blocks are cut 1 inch from the center seams. For mine I cut 1 1/4 inch from the seam. I started matching up the java fabric with fabric I had on hand and got this far. (that's why I bought two packs, so I would have pairs)

This morning I cut up the four patches I had made earlier and sewed them back together. I'm liking it so far.

I ended up getting some more width of the lights in java. I am pretty sure this isn't enough for all the charms I have yet. This will get used up and then I'll see where I am. Can't say how many blocks I will end up with......

I may reject some of the fabrics. This one says "icky" to me....then again, it is a scrappy sort of quilt and it might get lost in the quilt. We'll see.

Other things....after making Valentines and having fun with it....I made some gift tags. I sent these in a surprise package to Karen ......she is always making baby quilts as gifts, so I thought she might like them.

 She is also making a pink and purple scrap quilt. She isn't a purple person, but I had a gone through my purple period and have a bunch with no real destination. These purples lost chunks of themselves today, I can help her out and give her some.
When I finished, the pile didn't look very big. She'll have a start anyway. There is always more here to use. Purple is hard to photograph.

Two more quick tags. Neither Zoe(y) has a baby quilt yet......

............but they do have gift tags ready to go. 

Fuze played last night....

....and I took a bunch of pictures.

not as easy as we thought.....

To log a webcam cache you need help. Someone, somewhere, has to be on a computer to capture your picture for logging the find. We called Gwen first. For what ever reason she couldn't see the webcam on her computer. She tried several things and nothing was working.....we  hung up and I called Karen.

She was not at home! She was in out getting Charlie (her dog) groomed.

oh noooo.....

We called our nephew Kyle. He couldn't see us either.

The whole time our parking meter is ticking down.

tick tick tick 

and the parking ticket police are out and about

(they were sitting there watching us put our money in the meter when we got there)

We put in another quarter for another 30 minutes and called Gwen back.

She was on a different computer and she could see us now!!!

YIPPIE! she captured a photo of us and we started to walk away.

"OH OH!"

The picture disappeared....she thought she had it saved, but it was no where to be found.

"You will have to go back so I can do it again." 

By this time tractor joe had lost all patience for this nonsense. He already had 50 cents invested in this cache and he didn't want a ticket if the meter ran out. So he went to watch the meter.

There I was, all alone, holding up my sign and talking to Gwen...

I kept telling her I was ready for my close up....

"but aren't you both going to be in it?"

Ummm....I don't think so.

She was able to get two pictures! 

I was back to the car with 3 minutes to spare on the parking meter.

this is the link to geocaching.com...ISU webcam page  This is now one of my favorite caches of all time. A  little challenge is always good.

Ames, Iowa

We were in Ames yesterday. It was IHSSA Festival at ISU...Crispy and his friend Jacob were invited to perform in the Group Improvisation.
Since I can't go anywhere without looking for geocaches we did that too.
We did nine of them. Mostly urban micros, one was in the library. That was cool. It is right under the geocaching books. There was also a web cam...I called Gwen to capture a picture of us sitting there at the fountain. Then there was the virtual one....we needed to count how many balls were on the dragon.
We were trapped in the elevator for a while. We were with the other improvisation group from our high school. At least they were done performing. The guys called out the doors for help! We also pushed the "help" button to tell them we were stuck. We don't know how or why, but all of the sudden it started up and we were free!
We had a great time yesterday!!!

I thought we were done with this.....

My cousin Gwen and family were here for the weekend. Her youngest, James brought along his derby car. His parents had this crazy idea that we would want to help James work on his car.....if it wasn't a burden.

We went online to look for ideas & found one. He and tractor joe went to cut it out.
I kept saying I can't believe we are doing this again.... I thought we were done with pinewood cars.

James kept saying, "I am sorry for being a burden."  It didn't help that tractor joe kept saying, "this is such a burden."  James picked out his paint and went to work on the car, he thought a police car would be fun and cool to make.

I dug out scrapbooking letter stickers & he put them on when the paint was dry.

The wheels will be put on right before the derby...they will apply some glossy fixative when they get home to Yuma with it. This really was fun to work on even though we thought we were done with cub scout derby cars.It was our best effort yet, for looks anyway. 

We have never built a fast one. We did get the Hard Luck trophy one year! (last place) So we even tried to make slow cars on purpose, Crispy decided that a trophy is a trophy...... but we discovered that is also a very hard thing to do. 

I forgot about the 3-year old preschool class. They too would be exchanging valentines today. I had nothing for them. I was only thinking about the 4-year old class the day I bought valentines.

I had to give them some homemade ones..... Last night we had garlic bread with supper....

(1) I used that box and made tags with it. I got 8 total, but only needed 6.

(2) I painted them with white, then a shimmery pink paint.

(3) I punched a bunch of hearts out of paper and attached them with mod podge.

(4) Stamped a swirly design on the front.

(5) Added their names with foam sticker letters that I have had for a long time, but never use.

(6) Taped a Tootsie-pop to the back of it.

a little of this & that.....

My niece, Katy, gave me some markers for Christmas. Chalk writers. I haven't really used them yet....until now. These envelopes contain the January blocks for BLOCK LOTTO ...they are now on their way to the winners. I love the way the ink dried and became bolder, even the white really stands out. So neat. I want to decorate an envelope for Katy. I need to figure out what to mail her, besides an empty envelope.

I have sewn some more letters....

I still need geocachers, use, dollar & satellites

The February blocks are STRING HEARTS at the block lotto. I have finished two. So I get to be in this months drawing also. They would make a cute quilt to use as a wedding gift. I plan on making more of them before the end of the month.
That is all for now from the frozen, cold, snowy land called Iowa.
I hope someone, somewhere, is sewing more than I am.