The 'flu is finally letting go...

I've been down and out with the 'flu. Not a lot of fun. Of course, it would coincide with the extra days I had to work! Oh well, I lived through it and, for that, I am most grateful. My knees are still a little wobbly and my nose is peeling- a real good look for me, but otherwise I feel pretty great.

My nephew, Jonathan, was here for a visit and I didn't even get a picture of him! Bummer. There's a picture on my mom's site, if your interested. He is close to the same age as my oldest, and they get on very well. Actually, he got on great with all of my kids- my daughters' idolized him the entire time he was here! He was a great sport and ate everything I sat in front of him and I'm pretty sure that 99% of it was completely unfamiliar. The guy with the maniacal look in his eyes is my brother, David. He's Jonathan's dad. (Doesn't he remind you of that Fiennes brother in Luther? You haven't seen that movie? Well, maybe you should.) At anyrate, David is explaining to the children how redeye occurs. "Coooool," they say when they find out it has something to do with your blood veins. He is very good at explaining things. He was picking up his son after he had stayed with us a week. Ever wonder how to move a plane? In the back of a Penske moving van, apparently. Even the kids recognized the parts.

I have been playing around with Kansas Troubles blocks. I saw this idea in a book called, amazingly, Kansas Troubles. (I had some leftover yellows from my GFG.) When I realized that it included "prairie flowers," I thought I had to try it. It is a table runner- just in case it isn't recognizable. The flowers are appliqued on and I decided that I would try it their way. Maybe they've made improvements in heat-n-bond since I last tried it, 15 years ago.... nope, it's still not a great way to applique. Maybe it's me. I just have a real hard time ironing the flowers on and then stitching them down with the sewing machine. Does anyone else think this looks really bad? It's probably me. (I once had to try on 46 bras before I finally quit railing against bra designers everywhere and settled onto the thought, it's me. An epiphany moment. The amazing thing isn't that I tried on that many bras, but that I took 46 bras off those ridiculous little hangers and replaced all 46 bras to those same ridiculous hangers. Sheesh!) My point is, I just have a hard time doing some things that everyone else seems to handle just fine. It takes me a lot of time and effort to applique with the sewing machine and the results... well, pathetic. And I am left feeling really defeated. Where, if I had just done it my way- by hand, yes, it would have taken a lot of time and effort, but the end result would have looked decent. Oh well, I have a vague impression of someone who likes yellow... she won't mind if the applique looks lame. I'll try to quilt something pretty on it to make up for the applique efforts gone awry.