Just as a heads up – I recently moved my stash from one room to another. I had to ‘thin the herd’ to make my fabric fit in its new home.I have as many shelves as I did before but they are about 1.5 feet shorter.

AND – we signed a lease last night on a duplex for Mom and Christy! Oh happy day! It’s 1000 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2 full baths, big kitchen, and it has washer and dryer hookups. There are only 2 small steps from the parking area to the front door. It’s pretty new, only one person has lived in this unit and she took good care of it. It’s 2 blocks from Chris and Lorna and about 2 miles from us. There is a fenced yard and their (remaining) little dog can come with them. It feels right.

Mom and Christy were both really excited and happy to be moving to a smaller place – until they both realized that that means about half of their stuff is not making the move. They are both taking a deep breath and deciding what is most important to them. It is my hope that once they are in with their most cherished posessions it’ll be OK.

Mom’s dog, Wilson, is not making the trip to Texas. Wilson is a 10-year-old chihuahua. For years we all knew that at least one of the dogs was peeing in the house. When mom and Christy were both in the hospital we boarded Christy’s yorkshire terrier, Taz, and Steve’s sister took in Wilson. She figured out that Wilson was the guilty pee-er. Mom acquired Wilson when he was 2 and my guess is that why his original owner let him go.

Mom said, more than once, that she really couldn’t take care of him any more. It broke her heart, but she’s just beyond dog care. Christy can’t either – Taz is almost more than she can deal with. We have cats and neither Steve nor I felt right about bringing a nightmare into our cats’ lives.

At one point I thought I was going to have to send Wilson to heaven. I can hear every dog lover among you groaning but seriously, no one I knew could take on a dog that was going to have to be in diapers. I sure couldn’t let him loose to fend for himself – that’s just wrong. After some searching and long conversations I am happy to report that Barbara at Because of You Chihuahua Rescue was able to find a foster home for Wilson. Someone who knew up front about his bad habits and was happy to have him anyway. I am so thankful that I’m going to be able to tell my Mom honestly that Wilson is just fine.

You know, the world is full of amazingly giving individuals!

We almost bought this house for my mom and sister this morning. We had gone so far as to write an earnest money check and take a stack of papers to the lender. But then I woke up in a cold sweat thinking about who was going to water all that grass? And, really, did Steve and I have time (and money) to fix everything in this house that needs fixing. And not just fixing later, fixing right away?

Steve woke up about then (before the sun was up) and we decided that we just didn't need to do this right now. This house is just too big for mom and Christy. After talking to each of them we all decided that this was not the right house. I'm so glad we talked it out before we signed a contract!

So the new plan is to look for something small for them to rent in Sherman until mom's house in OKC sells. Mom's house won't even be on the market (probably) until we get them moved. It is still true that everything is trying to happen all at once but I am breathing easier knowing that we are not taking on the responsibility for buying a house while still owning another. I do hope we can find the right rental property soon and get them moved!

The Cotton Patch Quilt Guild in Bakersfield, CA, used blocks from My Whimsical Quilt Garden in their new raffle quilt. Lynn Douglass contacted us beforehand to ask for permission to use the blocks which we were happy to give. She sent this photo of the finished quilt and I thought you all might enjoy seeing it too!

Click here to go to Lynn's blog with more details on the quilt. Look especially at the fun quilting designs in the block backgrounds – nicely done!

I read a very informative article written by Jim Salinas in American Quilt Retailer that detailed just why the prices of our beloved cotton yardage is going up. You probably have never read AQR unless you own a quilt shop but let me tell you, it's a very fine publication. At any rate they have released this aritcle for us to share with quilters who buy cotton from quilt shops. Click here and on the next link to read lots more.

Download UnderstandingCottonPrices_Customers

In other news, my family saga continues. I went to OKC on Monday to visit mom and sister. Christy and I met with a realtor and I am encouraged. As she went through the house we could tell that she thinks this is a house that is going to sell. Mom lives in a neighborhood where the houses sell. Hers is on the small side for the neighborhood, it hasn't been upgraded yet which is good. The buyer will want to remodel anyway and this way they won't pay for work they don't want. Her back yard is huge (great for adding on to the house) and there isn'a crack in any wall. That's really good for a house on a slab in OKC. And the house is in great shape!

We did have an event when I was in OKC. At 3:48 Tuesday morning the phone woke me up. It was the nursing home saying that mom had cut her hand and was going to have to go to the ER for stitches. I met her there and it was busy. We waited about 4 hours for a room.

Mom has not slept well at night for a long time. She's been getting up and walking the halls which is fine except that she decided to work a puzzle in a physical therapy room. She couldn't pull a chair over so she sat on a rolling stool. Oh my. She managed to slip off the stool and as she was grabbing for something to hold onto she managed to cut herself. Luckily she missed the tendons and didn't mess up her back. She said it took her a while to manage to get back up and toddle down the hall. If she hadn't been bleeding I think she'd have gone back to her room without a word.

I figured this might be a set back that would keep her in the the nursing home longer but it's not. She made a mistake which can happen. They think she'll be able to go home in a couple of weeks. I agree, I think she'll be good at home with some help as well. I know she'll be happier. So the house hunt in Sherman is ON.

Mom and Christy have to move before the house can go on the market (we can't really show the house around them). I met with a realtor here in Sherman late yesterday and I think by the end of the weekend we'll have chosen a house and be moving forward.

It is stunning just how fast things can happen. One month ago mom was anticipating having a better back and being home and things being normal a week after surgery. Really, you just never know what lies ahead.

Linda and I are woking on a new book and there's not a lot I can show because I wouldn't want to ruin the surprises! But I thought I could share this little bit of piecing:

It feels like spring! This block is set with courthouse steps. The black and white dot behind those leaves (upper left) is something I bought recently. The dark fabric at the bottom and right edges has been in my stash for a while. The big dots on white and the daisies on the blue are from our Daisies & Dots collection and the white dot with the 'eyelash' is in a new collection that will be out in a few months.

I'm loving the way the blues in Daisies & Dots work together and with fabric from my stash. For those of you who have bought some of this fabric, I hope you are finding the same thing. So now I've got to get back to work!

FYI – the streets here are almost clear. Amazing what some sunshine can do!

You know, Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, host of the SuperBowl? The man with more money than… well certainly more money than you or I? THAT Jerry Jones? The weather here in north Texas has been extreme for us. Sure, we get ice and snow but usually things warm up and it's gone in 1-2 days. Not this time! Jerry is probably praying and cussing at the same time over this weather!

We had to turn off the pool pump a couple of days ago because of the power outages so the pool has about 1/2" of ice on it, maybe more. We had 3-6" of snow overnight. This morning it was hard to find the edge of the pool and it made me nervous to walk around it – so I mostly didn't walk around it!

Our street has had very little traffic but all the reports say that if you drive you are certifiably crazy. Snow on top of ice is just too much for us here. We don't have enough equipmet to deal with it. Schools and businesses have mostly been closed since Tuesday – although Austin College did open for classes today. And it's Super Bowl week in Dallas – where traffic is not moving well at all and it is colder than it's been in a very long time. Those of you keeping up with the Super Bowl news are surely seeing reports of this storm.

These native yaupons are really pretty this time of year. It's the only reason I don't dig them up because they spread and are hard to keep contained the rest of the year. But the birds at our feeders are happy! I took the photo below out of our kitchen window – amazing how clear it is with the window and screen between me and the bird.

The rosy finch (I think that's what it is) and the yellow-throated bird below it are both outside the kitchen window. My husband, the biologist, who tells me what these birds are is probably shaking his head as he reads this. Steve, you know me, I have too many other things in my head to remember bird names. Except cardinals, vultures, and red-tailed hawks – those I reliably remember.

And I do have lots of cardinals, male and female both, at the back feeder.

I'm not really complaining about being snow-bound. I've been able to get a lot done and I only had to get out twice yesterday. I do hope the roads are clear on Monday morning, though, because I get a crown on my tooth at 8:00 and then braces on my front teeth at 9:00. Then it's off to Oklahoma City to see mom and Christy for a couple of days.