When Trucks and Trees Collide

My DH is an early riser.  Each morning he quietly gets up at 4:00AM and get ready for work.  By 5:00 he is out the door and on his way to work.  From the time I lay my head down on the pillow the night before and sometime midday the next I never hear a word from him (I'm a heavy sleeper and he's a busy guy). 

At 5:15 AM this past Thursday he broke with our usual routine to call me.  Not used to getting calls in the early early hours of the morning, it tooks me what seemed like forever to find my phone.  DH says "Sorry to wake you up but I just got in an accident but I'm okay."  He goes on to tell me what happened.   It boiled down to this...he got into a fight with a tree and the tree won. 

This was the first morning after a gnarly arctic front had blown in the night before, bringing very little moisture with it.  The roads were dry for the most part but he went ahead and reduced his speed to work just to be safe..HA!  As he crested a hill the back end of the truck broke loose, sending him to the shoulder where he hill a small culvert.  From there it was the tree's turn.   It ran down the ENTIRE length of the truck on the passenger side.  Both airbags deployed.  The passenger window shattered.  And bolts on the front wheels snapped.  Here's a picture of the culprit.  That tree couldn't have been more than 6 to 8 inches in diameter. 

We are pretty sure the truck will be totalled.  Airbag replacement alone can cost a couple thousand to replace.  DH is sad.  He loves his truck and doesn't want to see it go.  But on the bright back when the  fuel prices skyrocketed, the price on used trucks dropped dramatically.  So there are some great deals to be made out there.

So our lesson for today is Texas and ice don't mix.

P.S.  I'm thinking about making up a t-shirt for DH that says "I fought the tree and the tree won"...hehehe. 

Taking a break...

...from quilting.  Changing gears I've gone back to doing some embroidery.  Back in October, I started working on "Snowmen A to Zzzz" by Crabapple Hill Studio.  I thought for sure I'd get it done by Christmas...pfft.  Life (and my ADD) got in the way.  So yesterday I was looking at it and decided it was time to get back to it.  Here's what I have so far.

Yesterday I finished up C and this morning I finished D.  Right now I am now working on G. 

On a cold day like today I like curling up in a quilt and doing some embroidery.  With the continued cold weather we're supposed to get I should be able to crank out a ton of these in the next several days.

Wordless Wednesday

I think this is it...?

After mulling over ideas (and working with what I had), here's what I've come up with.

If I look at these diamonds any longer I think I'll go cross-eyed.  For better or worse I think this is what I'm going to go with.

Another Day of Diamonds

Well...all the blocks are done.  Here's the layout as it is now.

I gotta be honest.  The layout has got me stumped. I just can't decide how to lay it out.  As you can see there are dark and light areas.  I'm not sure if I want to create some sort of secondary design or just leave it as it is.  I really want to get this top done so I need to make a decision and this is killing me.  I'm not usually on the fence about things like this.

Off to ponder for a while.

Diamonds

I made more progress on the diamond quilt today.  Looking at it, I've decided it needs a couple more rows to make it a bit longer.  I am hoping I can get this quilt top done in the next day or two.  I'm excited to see it finished!

I'm a Little ADD

A little?  More like A LOT!

There are so many things in life I want to do that I get distracted very easily...like a kid in a candy store.

Instead of working on my diamond quilt or the bajillion othere projects I need to be working on, I've been working on this little gem since Friday.  Kaaren at The Painted Quilt posted this cute embroidery freebie.  I fell in love with it the moment I saw it.  She did it in bluework and redwork.  Mine, I decided, needed to be in color.  This morning I added the squares.  Next up, quilting it.

P.S.  I got distracted last night and made eight jars of strawberry-lemon marmalade, three jars of apple butter, and one jar of pear butter.  Gahhhh!