Steve

                                   Steven Michael Talbott, 1/18/1969 - 5/19/2011

Our beautiful, amazing son lost his fight with brain cancer yesterday morning.  We were all there with him.  He was the most amazing man and accomplished so much in his short life.  He was an inspiration to all and he fought long and hard against all odds.  We will all miss his humor and his strength.  I will miss his phone calls and his love.
But now, he is at peace with Bill -- probably enjoying a round of golf and a rum and coke.

My Favorite Quilt Shop

My favorite quilt shop finally made the Quilt Sampler -- Page 44!  Yellow Creek Quilt Designs in Pearl City, IL. 
I stopped by last Thursday and picked up my signed copy, and also......bought an old, huge table that will be going into my new sewing room in the basement in a couple of weeks.  It was used in one of the printing companies in Mt. Morris, IL, which is another small town in my area.  it's primitive -- which I love.  Also, the reason I love Yellow Creek (formerly Sew Many Antiques) -- they carry primitive items along with the "country" fabrics I like and the Civil War Repros, which I've really been getting into lately.

Since the auction, I've been busy getting the house in order and working on the yard -- I've been mowing until my high-school helper finishes the year out.  Yesterday I  cleaned up the raised beds Bill made for our garden, so I can actually plant some veggies this year -- who knows if I'll be around to enjoy the harvest, but just in case.....
I also cut asparagus for the first time this season.  I had fresh asparagus and a salad for dinner last night -- superb! 
I'd really like to get my flower beds in shape this year -- nothing got done last summer at all, so I'm a year behind on the weeding.  If the house does sell this summer, I plan on taking a few plants with me when I move.  I have a clump of Virginia Bluebells from the family homestead and a couple of peony plants that were at my mother-in-law's house.  Also, a fern-leaf peony that I bought about 18 years ago and transplanted to this house and a few of my beautiful daylilies.

All in all, I'm splitting my time between getting the house whipped into shape and getting the yard/gardens whipped into shape!  And hopefully in the process I'll be able to get my shape whipped into shape!

Blessings:
Steve called me yesterday to wish me a happy Mother's Day -- it was a nice surprise because either the cancer or the radiation treatment has taken his memory, so he can't hold on to a thought very long.
Steph and family took me out to dinner on Saturday night for the occasion. 

I survived the auction!

Yesterday was the big day.  All week they were calling for rain, thunderstorms, wind, you name it.  It started out cloudy and we did have a lot of wind, but the rain held off til many hours after the fact -- and it was only a little rain, no thunderstorms.
It was a long day though.  My daughter and two of her sons came down Friday night and spent the night.  Mikey is cutting teeth, so he managed to keep Steph up during the night and I didn't sleep well either.  I was up at 5:30 and after my shower, I got to keep Mikey company while Steph took her shower.  Is this not the most angelic face you've ever seen -- what me cutting teeth?!  He'll be 11 months on the 5th.

The auction guys started arriving at 7 am and set everything up.  They spent four hours here on Wednesday sorting and organizing the shop/shed and hauling furniture out of the house.  On Saturday they still had to haul some heavy furniture from the basement, but it took no time at all.  People started arriving at 8:30 or so for the 10 am start.  There were a lot of people here.  And that was really great, because the sale went very, very well.  Over the next two weeks some of the buyers will be scheduling time with me to pick up the items they bought -- namely firewood, a radial arm saw and a pool table.

Now it's time for me to start cleaning up, rearranging and getting the house ready to sell.  I did a little bit this morning.
Remember this was a before auction picture of part of the basement:

This is the after picture of the same part:

And here is Phase 1:

The Brother machine on the left and both heavy parts of the table were on the second floor.  The Bernina and tables were on the main floor.  Did I mention that I started a diet and exercise program today?  I actually did get on the treadmill this morning, but I think I got more exercise doing the stairs and heavy lifting!  Whew!
This is about all I can do for now because the pool table needs to be taken apart and brought through this area to the door and I do not want to have to move everything out of the way after I finally get it all set up.  But the goal is to consolidate all my different rooms for sewing/quilting into this one big room -- the longarm is already in the other half of this room.

Gratitudes:
The weather held for the auction and we had a great turnout.
Hack's Auction from Pecatonica, IL were wonderful.