Third day no heat. The furnace needed two parts that the repairman had to order. It's an old furnace and Leon has been talking about replacement. He was thinking of in the floor hot water heat. It sounds lovely, but it's not happening yet. Despite the cold I did manage to do a little sewing.

The pattern is really old, probably mid seventies. I got it used. I am hoping they will fit Emily.

My sweet little old doll which I have had since I was a little girl. She was old when I got her and is not in the best of shape now, I still love her though and have fun putting her in new clothes when I run across a pattern that will fit her. I guess there has to be some compensation for all of my kids having grown up and all the grand children but one in school.

Our youngest son John is moving to Delaware. We never some him much when he lived only 3 hours away by car, only about every other year. I wonder if we will ever see him again. I wonder if he will have children that I will never see. We used to be close but he has been drawing away ever since he left school. He says he will be down this weekend to say good bye, I'll just have to make the most of that. Oh well.

I have two rows of the Turtle quilt quilted, which makes that about one fifth. Not real fast, however, better than if I was still ill and not working on it, so I musn't complain.

And now it's time to get busy on my afternoon's hand work. I sure miss the hot cup of coffee I used to have while I was doing that, that's another "oh well".

Every body is back to school today, happily. I am on the mend, David is feeling better. Ambrosina has taken the opportunity to spend most of the morning in bed so she can get over hers, something as all mothers know doesn't happen very often. A good day for it too, the furnace has started acting up and we are wrapped up in coats and waiting for the repairman.

I spent most of the morning quilting on this, the second of the Turtles quilts, it is destined for our youngest grandson Wyatt. I am trying to make the quilting look like currents of water. David says he thinks that it looks like water but he is always eager to please.

I got my usual help, I think she was cold too, she was very Happy to be there!

The morning was not without it's difficulties though, in my eagerness to start quilting again I neglected to trim off the bulk of the sheet I am using on the back and I got it turned under and quilted for quite a way. I had to break my rule of never ripping out. That will teach me!

The last of this particular package of Barbie clothes are done. (I don't know how many more bags I have cut out, since I am taking them one bag at a time) the next package I've started on is baby doll clothes. I sure hope I get down to one of the quilts pretty soon.

Leon brought David home a computer from work. It is Windows 10 but they are replacing the computers there so we got it for $20.00 used. The only problem is it is a desktop so we have been rearranging our bed room to get it in. Looks like spring cleaning came early. Where does all this stuff come from? So, it's back to work for me.

Illness has going through our house like a tornado through a trailer park. I was able to sit up and sew for a while this morning, the first in about five days. The two little boys were home from school yesterday, but only Sammy this morning. I saw a sight I thought I would never see:

Gramps playing video games with Sammy. Gramps yet. Gramps has always been so anti video games he swore he would never consider playing one and for a long time would never allow one in our house. It just goes to show that he is like melted butter in his Grandson's hands.

I did try to sit at the sewing machine and I worked a little on my bags of UFOs.

Barbie doll clothes don't take very long to sew but even then I could only do about one garment a day before having to go back to bed. The hand sewing is yet to be done on some of them.

Not really exciting but at least it's something.

So I would sit up and sew a few hexagons and then have to lay back down, I think mine was exacerbated by going cold turkey off coffee. I had such severe headaches that I had to take Excedrin, something I am not supposed to do and then I realized that Excedrin has caffeine so I might just as well have a cup of coffee. That may sound like rationalization but a cup of coffee made all the difference to my headache. I didn't have any problem stopping drinking, but the headaches were terrible, I was a lot more addicted than I thought. I still plan on going off it altogether only maybe a little slower.

I was able to quilt for about an hour and half today, thank heaven, I am on the mend!

Ambrosina took me to my favorite thrift shop this morning, and then on to Joann's. I got some nice stuff both places. Fat quarters were 99 cents so I got quite a few. I am working on getting together a large variety of yellows and blues for a quilt I have in mind. I don't have enough yet. Since Hancock closed we only have Joann's and Walmart for fabric. There are a couple of quilting shops but they are expensive. I prefer to go in the afternoon after I have done my sewing but Ambrosina is a busy lady and we can when she has time. I want my car back!

My 2nd day without coffee hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be, I miss it, maybe it will get harder later on. I find that I am sleepier than usual, I don't know if it's no coffee or the cold makes me want to get under the covers.

Anyway I hope tomorrow will be a better sewing day than today!

We basted quilts today. I say we because I was teaching David how it is done.

He's slow, but it is his first time. He doesn't like using the little pins I have, I told him that we have to use them until they aren't usable any more, I prefer the curved kind myself. I notice that he threw a few of them away that he said aren't usable anymore. Probably ones that I ran over with my rolling sewing chair.

We did five. The Drunkard's Path variation that he's pinning there. I made this at least 25 years ago, probably longer. It's lost in the mists of time.

 The second Turtles.

 Another hexagon quilt and the last one I have pieced at this time although I am working on another.

 "Joy" pattern by Jaqueline de Jonge.

And the Victorian girls quilt, which is a new/old quilt. I don't know how old the kit was, very old, I had it a long time, I just didn't get around to making up the quilt until this fall. The applique and embroidery is by hand. I put it together by machine.

This means I am getting back into a routine again.

In other news, I decided to go off coffee to see if it wouldn't clear up some health problems I am having. I don't think it is going to be easy. I had a cup of herbal tea this morning instead. Yuck! I don't know how long it will take to give it a fair trial. If it helps I will be off coffee permanently. How depressing is that? I love my coffee! It seems getting old is giving up one thing after another. No wonder the elderly have trouble coping. I suppose there are worse things I could have to go without, I just can't think of one right this minute.

Well here is the next installment of doll clothes. Never mind the mess behind her, I am sorting out my fabric shelf and things sort of got piled. That's the problem with it being so cold down here, I hate coming out from under the covers to put things away. We are promised a heating system when they finish out the other part of the basement.

David got a new (to him) computer, it is a desktop so I have to rearrange the basement for him to set it up. I'll get rid of some more junk and put stuff away.

Tomorrow I baste; it will be a long day, but worth it. Today I had my monthly BPD class, big chunk out of the day, also worth it.

Dinner is ready, time to go eat, I'm hungry.

It's been quite a while since I had anything to talk about. The kids were off school, lots of fun. They guys were all home from work, they worked on the house, no vacation for them!

Lots of holes in the living room ceiling, I keep forgetting to take pictures of the new lights and fans. They look wonderful and Ambrosina is getting ready to paint that room.

While the living room was torn up the boys were very creative at finding places to sit and do their things.

Meanwhile Sammy had to help.

Sammy and Gramps replaced old outlet boxes. And before anybody starts worrying about little boys and electricity, all care was taken. The power was turned off, the wires were tested, all safety precautions were taken, we can't risk Gramps either! There was total supervison, after all David used to do it for a living. Sammy learned a lot, he can now explain to me how they are supposed to be .hooked up. The power was not turned back on until everything was double checked. He wanted to help, as long as he could do some of the work. Watching bores him. It took about three times as long as it usually takes, but they both enjoyed themselves tremendously.

This is my most recent finish.

Not real impressive, I know, but fun! I'm sort of marking time until I can get batting to start quilting these:

There are five of them ready to be basted for quilting which I hope to do Thursday morning. We don't have a car right now so I have to depend on Ambrosina to take me everywhere, she is a busy lady and can't always find the time, so I have to wait until it is convenient for her. We went to one Walmart this morning but they didn't have what I need so I have to wait until Wednesday for her to run me over to one of the other ones.

And about the car. I think it's the water pump, Leon thinks it's the water pump. David isn't sure and it's way too cold for him to be outside working on it. Ambrosina and Leon want us to sell it and rely on them for transportation, I don't want to lose what little independence we have left. The point is moot, it can't be worked on right now so we wait. Sigh.

Only just over 3 months until Spring, I can live with that. It's pretty warm today, another winter storm is supposed to come through starting Wednesday. It's winter, we get winter storms, at least we haven't been hammered with snow. About 4 inches is all we have had so far, not enough for the farmers.

I hear that the boys are home, time to go ups and see how their day went.