January 31st

This was a quilt that was made possible with the help of lots of friends. When I was a member of a large guild in Bellingham, I offered this block up as a friendship block and got about 16 blocks back from that. Then my small group made 10 more and I made up the rest. The block is called Lady of the Lake, I think, but I of course called it Lady of the Garden. I carried the blocks around to several retreats but never really had the right fabric for stoppers and borders and then one day, I put them on the design wall "on point" and pulled out the bold colors you see. Then found the border fabric while shopping amongst my bins of larger floral prints. I love how these things come together. The back has a floral flannel which finished it very nicely.

So I made it through a whole month!! Woo Hoo! And fear not few dear followers, I have plenty more to show!! Thanks for helping me make a visual catalog of my works. And helping me to work this poor camera to death.....

January 30th

I created this piece for another class that I was teaching at the time. I call it Fractured, Blended, Mended Flowers. It was intended to be a machine quilting class, where people would be quilting on pot holder sized squares. But I thought, lets make it interesting. So we did satin stitch applique around the flowers and then stacked them, whacked them, reassembled them. I added the yellow centers so they would have a nice finish. And then it seemed like it needed something more so I added the button. And while pawing through my inventory, I found this cute fabric with the fairies on it and cut them out and appliqued them on as a final touch. I have since done this same method with hearts and stars. You'll be seeing them along the way, I'm sure. Each of the squares is actually zigzaged together to make the piece so I guess it was kind of a quilt as you as well. Nothing fancy, but colorful and fun. And we all know the FUN is the most important thing to have.
Today while working in my studio I watched National Velvet. Another one of those classic movies that I realized I had never actually seen. I thought it was great!! I loved the setting in England, the houses, clothes, even spotted a nice quilt on one of the beds. In fact the same quilt showed up later to keep The Pie warm through his night of illness. A 25 patch block set with a snowball alternating block, all scrappy of course. I love finding quilts in movies. One of my favorite things about watching Little House on the Prairie is spotting quilts. I thought, there ought to be a book called "The Quilts From Little House"....maybe their is? Hmmm....

January 29th

How fun that today I am featuring a smallish wall hanging (about 30" square) that has the same border as the one I showed yesterday.
This was a paper piecing sample I made for a class. I am really not a paper piecer at all, but I liked this method when I learned, about folding the paper instead of stitching through it and ripping it all off. So I taught it as a class and the students really enjoyed learning a different way.
I haven't done much paper piecing since, but if I want to, this is the way I'll go.

I spent some time again yesterday working on the mega strippy, scrappy extravaganza that has been on my small design wall for months! I think I will carve out about 6 hours tomorrow AND at least 4 on Sunday and pretend I am retreating and get the buggar done! Plus I made some decisions about a couple more orphan blocks and I'll proceed with those. My current redwork project is about half an hour from being finished so that will be done tonight while I watch Project Runway on my DVR. Feels good to be seeing progress.

January 28th

This lovely quilt is composed of only four blocks. It is about 54" square. The block is from The Block Book, and one I had been wanting to make for years. While at a retreat in the summer of 2008 I pulled out the floral thais the border and then center of those stars and then pulled the tone on tones from some boxes of fabric I brought along. I really love how it came out. My dear friend June just made this quilt with her flavor of fabrics. I will try to get a photo of it soon, so you can see it. This is another one of those projects that if I live long enough, I would really like to make it again. The custom quilting on this was done by my friend Sally. She does excellent work, I'm happy to provide her contact information for anyone interested!!

January 27th

It's almost February!! This sweet wall hanging came from another friend in my small quilting group. It was a gift to me a few years ago, and I love putting it out. She took a class with Eleanor Burns and created this while there.
Working in my sewing room today, I emptied another two large Costco bags of "stuff" I had "stuffed" into them when I did my room reshuffle. Found a few orphan blocks, and a couple of other projects in process tucked away in there. This time is was motivating, instead of guilt inducing, so that is a good thing, right???

Today when I walked across the street to get my mail, I spotted a bald eagle down the road! We have several spots within a few miles that I almost always see them this time of year, but this is the first time I have seen one so near my own front door. I grabbed my camera and wandered down to get a closer look
Can you see him up there?





When I was busy looking up, I guess I attracted a bit of a crowd..
They were all looking at me, maybe hoping I had a treat for them? And to make it even more of an Eagle spotting day, when I was driving home from picking Jillian up from school, I spotted an eagle nest that I had not spotted before! Why is that so thrilling to me?
How many of you live next to cows???? I do love living in a farming community. My small town has about 9000 people in it, was founded by Dutch immigrants. I'll have to take a couple of photos downtown and post them soon. I am one of only a few more "liberal" souls surrounded by a much more conservative lifestyle. Kind of like being someone who does NOT prewash, uses steam while pressing and favors brights over sedate fabrics.

January 26th

For quite some time I saved up a bin of purple and gold fat quarters. We have been long time University of Washington fans. Lynn is a graduate. We have had football season tickets for over 30 years. It has been more of a struggle since we moved north 10 years ago. Now when we go to a home game, it is a 100 mile drive to the park and ride and then 100 miles again after. It's not too bad in the early fall games, especially with a noonish start time, but more games are being played later in the day, as late as 7 pm. So that makes for a very long day. Anyway, this is my official Husky Quilt! I take it to the games, and always have someone I walk by or ride on the bus with give me a nice compliment.

Design Wall Monday - Week Four!

Good Monday Morning all! This is a top I have had up on my design wall this last week, waiting for a decision to be made. This is a block I "designed" (meaning I didn't use a pattern, just kind of happened organically) for a BOM class I was teaching at the LQS. I liked the block so much and had this fabric with the wonderful carnations so made a whole top out of it. They are 12" blocks. I had thought it was "done" but I'm not so sure. So I was thinking of a small stopper and then a bit more of the carnations. Problem is, I can't find any more of the the carnations in my inventory! I have a couple more places to look before I go online and see if I can find more. It was one of the flower of the month fabrics from a few years ago. So I am pretty confident I can find more of it. And so if I do a stopper, do I use the pink or maybe a narrow green? If you enlarge the photo you will see the green in the fabric. I'm giving it two more days and if I don't make a decision, it will go back into my UFO stack. Thoughts?
Also, I am really enjoying my quilt a day posting on my blog. I'd love to have you check it out, so far I have 24 different quilts posted and I am right on track!!!

January 25th

Another day, another quilt! This was an interesting class for me. I learned about iron on applique. What I learned is that it doesn't work well on unwashed fabric!! And I never prewash my fabric, except for unknown reds and flannel which I put on the back. So all those little cherries that were supposedly "fused" onto the quilt top all began falling off almost immediately!! So I stitched around each and every one of them. And the leaves. This one is about 9 years old and gets to come out each spring, which I'm kind of jumping the gun on, but then so is Mother Nature!!
Cindy left me a nice comment about being surprised about how many quilts I still have around. It made me realize that I have indeed made A LOT of quilts in the last 10 years!!!! My goodness! And I have at least a dozen quilt tops DONE waiting to be quilted as my checkbook allows. And another 12-15 works in progress.
Here on the back on my studio door are 6 tops waiting. And also hanging on my closet door are even more. So when is enough, enough?
And then considering the number of quilts that have gone to good homes via gifting or for charity auctions, it is a pretty high number. People ask me why not just give them away? I think for a couple of reasons.......who would want them?







I mean, my quilting friends all make lots of their own quilts. They really are nothing special I don't think to anyone other than me. I am a bit selfish and some I just can't part with. Every so often a quilt will sing out to me that they would be a great gift for someone, and sure enough, off I send them. But in the meantime, I guess I'll just keep creating and waiting to hear the song.......How many quilts have YOU made????

January 24th

I call this Through My Garden Window. This was an interesting and fun project. I saw a quilt at a Quilt show and noticed how the blocks were made and came home, pulled out a bunch of florals, cut squares and made the blocks in one night. Then thanks to my design wall, I finally got a layout that I liked. Came out pretty good. A few of my friends liked it enough to make one of their own. One woman, I helped her with her layout and instead of one floral border, we actually carried the floral of the blocks inside, to the outside. It was very cool.

Yesterday I had a lovely mani/pedi and wanted to show off my pretty toes! I always do a french tip finish on my toes, and just a plain clear polish on my hands. For many years I had acrylic nails, and liked many things about them! But it sure did a number on my natural nails, that I have been suffering with ever since. Working at the hospital means no more acrylic nails, but I really need to be more regular at getting them taken care of. It will be harder when I am doing more gardening, since I tend to just go for it and not put on a pair of gloves. Something about feeling the dirt, and the release of the roots of the weeds, that gives me pleasure.
I'm pretty proud of myself that I have stuck with my quilt photo a day intention. I'd love to know if you are following along. Leave me a comment and I'll send you a small gift!!!

January 23rd

I made this little wall hanging in a class about 8 years ago. It was called broken dishes. All those pesky little HST's. Now I know a much better way to make them, so I don't mind making those little guys anymore. This is one that often gets forgotten, and thankfully I came across it when I was doing my sewing room restructure, so I am going to go ahead and put it up now.

Lynn and I had a very nice time going down and watching Kyle coach his team to another victory. And it gives me another chance to visit with Carter!!! I got a few photos while I was there, though they aren't the best.

This one turned out pretty good. Amazing how much Carter is like his Daddy was at that age. I'll never forget when Kyle was about 2 weeks old. Lynn played recreation men's league basketball. He was getting ready to go to his first game after Kyle was born, and he was getting ready to go. I was getting a diaper bag ready, and Kyle ready for us to go along. Lynn asked me "What are you doing?" I said getting ready to go. He said quite surprised "You CAN'T take a baby to the gym!!" I just laughed at him and headed out to the car, diaper bag and car seat with Kyle in it. When we got there, Kyle was absolutely content. No worries with buzzers and whistles. I think that was when I knew he would be a "gym rat". He played competitively as soon as he was old enough, always playing with older kids. High school was interesting, again a story for another blog. Then he played in college with the team that won the championship and one of his co players now plays for the Boston Celtics. Kyle knew he wanted to coach and after coming in second place for a few jobs, and after working as an assistance for a few years, he got the job as the head coach at his Alma Mater, which is just great. He is hoping to eventually get to coach on the college level.

On my way driving south, I was so amazed at how clear and beautiful the mountain was!! This is Mount Baker in the Cascades. I can see it from my front yard when it is nice and clear. This was so pretty I had to pull over and take a photo. Again, wishing I had a really nice camera so I could print something like this and frame it.

I've had a lot of fun spotting the increasing numbers of eagles in the area lately too. OH! And when I took a back road to Jeff's I came across a field of swans! The really amazing thing to watch was the "couples" of swans coming in and landing in the field. It was always a pair. I really wished I had my camera with me. A good reminder to always carry it with me.

January 22nd

Almost left home for the day and forgot to do my photo!! It has been said that 21 days makes a habit, so this should be a habit by now, right?
This is a springy table runner I made a few springs ago. A popular Buggy Barn pattern, I have it in a couple of other themes, that I'm sure you'll see if you stick with me long enough. I figure if the weather is going to pretend spring is right around the corner, than I can too.

I'm heading south to see my grandson, well along with his parents! Kyle is in his first year as the head coach of the boys basketball team.
Happens to be at his alma mater, so that is pretty cool. They have a game tonight we are going to watch. And it was official this week, he has received his MASTERS DEGREE and is a full fledged teacher!! Couldn't be more proud of him.

January 21st

A fews ago on my first term as Guild President, it was the 10th anniversary of the Guild. So I offered up a challenge to make a quilt that had something to do with the number 10. We mailed invitations to the founding members who were not currently members and honored them. This quilt was my entry! I had this fossil fern collection and realized there were 10 of them in my stack! This is only 18 x 24 and fits in the little wooden doll cradle that Jillian has for her baby doll. Quite fun to create, and watch her now enjoy!!
My darned shoulder just seems to be getting worse! So today after seeing my MD, I had a series of X-rays and scheduled an appointment with a physical therapist. I have no idea what I might have done to hurt it, but hurting it is. Good thing is that it is my left arm, so my right is still free to work, cutting and hand stitching.
The weather is just a mystery around here. My husband even mowed the lawn today. In January!! I'm starting to think about what herbs I want to add to my garden, and need to pick up a pack of sweet pea seeds and get them started. This will be my first year to do them from seed, I hope it works out!!

January 20th

There is the big orange kitty, who just can't resist a quilt on the floor! This was a great project, again using a bunch of strips I had cut. It is an idea from Bonnie Hunters site, www.quiltville.com her pineapple blossom, I just didn't put in any sashing. This is another one that I can see myself making again in a different colorway, more springy, this reads very fall to me. Another one of my very faves.

January 19th

Today I am sharing a quilted table runner that was a gift to me a year ago Christmas. Again from my small quilting guild secret sister for that year. Linda loves to play with her embroidery machine and the Angels she made here are just so precious. I even got a close up for you.







Lucky for me I really enjoy the work of my fellow quilters who use their embroidery machines, but I don't want to buy one!! My embroidery will be strictly by hand.
I have a lovely Viking Lily machine. I bought it about 11 years ago, just before we moved up north here to Lynden. One of the annual retreats I attend, there is a woman who comes and for a small fee, will paint pretties on whatever we bring for her. So I have had a sweet pea theme going on my machine. I kind of think of them as tattoos!!! The closest I'll ever get to having one!














I'm amazed at people who have 2 -3 or more machines. I know several people like to have a lighter machine for retreats, but I like taking my one machine. I have seen the difference in block construction of doing one on a different machine. So I'll just stick with my Lily.

Here is my photo of the coming spring!!!
Ethan watched Max and Ruby today and they played hopscotch. He kept checking the weather and as soon as there was a sliver of sunshine he had the chalk in his hand and asked for help to draw the board so he could play. It took him several minutes to find just the right rock.
Too precious.

Today was Lynn's first day on his own at work, doing his blood sugar check and injecting his insulin. Numbers are still higher than we would like, but we are hoping for a turn around in the next few days. We meet with his doctor
again on Thursday and talk more about the plan for better
health.

January 18th

It's 10 minutes to midnight, I'm just in time for my quilt for today. This was another quilt that I taught as a mystery class a couple of years ago. It really is one of my very favorites. If you enlarge the photo you will see that yes, indeed it is scrappy!!!
What a beautiful day it was outside today. I actually even spent just over an hour working out in the flower beds. And as usual, I can never be in the garden alone!



I was pruning some suckers from this tree and looked up! Realized I had some company. Both cats followed me around the yard and Dutch, my big orange cat, always has to roll around in the freshly toiled dirt I created. Rocco would rather run up and down trees and dart out from behind bushes to startle me.
As I was carrying stuff to the compost pile, I spotted another great sign of spring.


Yeah, rhubarb!! This is part of two clumps that a very nice lady sent me through the mail a couple of years ago. We really enjoy picking and eating it as long into the summer as we can.
I made a leaf cutting of my cute little african violet plant and I'm anxious to see if it will take. I'm planning to buy another plant this month.

Design Wall Monday - Week Three

This is the third design wall in my studio. When I did my restructure of furniture my cutting table got placed in front of it. What I mostly use this for is for trinkets and treasures. I have photos of many of my quilts up on the wall, along with other "stuff". My rulers are in a basket, best way I have found to keep them accessible and organized.
I hope this still qualifies as a design wall Monday entry!! I surely do enjoy this challenge. Let me know if you stopped by.

January 17th

I finished up the binding last night on this little beauty. It was a fun quilt to do, from a slashed nine patch pattern. And I found that pretty border print in my inventory and it was just perfect to do the mitered borders with. Those who know me, know I am a purple girl.
This one is going to head out on Tuesday to a dear friend who has dealt with way more medical crisis than anyone person should have to. I know that she will love it, and feel my hugs when she uses it.
It was another day of diabetes education today. I did indeed buy "Diabetes for Dummies" so my husband could fill in some blanks. He is still scratching his head, and feeling pretty pathetic about this diagnosis. Tomorrow I will have him do his own finger stick and give himself the insulin so that when he goes to work on Tuesday he will have had some practical experience. I also worked on a menu and meal plan for the week. At Costco I got a lunch set so that we can pack his lunches for the days he doesn't have a lunch meeting. AND to talk about what things he should order for lunch when he is out. He has a small fridge in his office, so we will put some healthy snacks in there, easy to access.
AND I am starting my own new healthful regimen tomorrow, returning to the gym and working out again. I took care of my sister who had the gastric bypass 8 years ago, and when I returned home I got into a really good exercise and diet routine. Over a year I lost 75 pounds and kept it off for about 2 years. Then it slowly began creeping on again. So now I have another family member facing a medical crisis that most like could have been avoided with a healthier lifestyle. How many "signs" do I need?

January 16th

It's been a wild 24 hours around here. But in time, I have a photo of another quilt so my record is still intact. This was a fun "just do it" project. I had tons of strings hanging around, so I sewed them and then cut them into triangles and then played with a setting. Totally scrappy, even the binding. I did run sort of a "pattern" of the corner stones for a bit of balance. It isn't very big, about 42 x 50, so fine to throw over Ethan when he takes a siesta.



And here is what the rest of the last 24 hours entailed. My husband has had some troublesome symptoms for a couple of weeks, and finally I hauled his butt to the after hours clinic. Once he said he vision was blurry, that was it. And sure enough he is now a newly diagnosed diabetic patient. We had to go straight to insulin this morning, since he started having leg cramps and after an initial blood sugar last night of 853, I wasn't going to wait another 3 hours for our doctors office to open. Into the ER we went. A liter of fluid, and IV drip of insulin later.....we did get to his doctors office and started down the path of dealing with this disease. Two trips to the pharmacy, reading instructions and his blood sugar when last checked was 353, so we are heading the right direction. I think this will really be the push we both need to maintain a regular exercise program and really take a close look at our dietary choices. I am hopeful that in a few months he can be off the insulin. Another chapter begins.....

January 15th

What a fun project this was! It is called Trail Mix. I had spotted it in a magazine and marked it and then found it again while cruising through some old magazines. We actually made this quilt in my small group as a mystery. Worked perfectly. If I had told all those women that their finished quilt was going to have a million pieces no one would have attempted it. By doling it out in blocks over a few months, it was simple and everyone loved their finished results. It was amazing to look at our finished quilts together. They really reflected what each woman had in their own personal inventory of fabric - sometimes called "stash" - LOL! Somehow if I call it inventory it feels better to me, go figure.

I'm over halfway doing the hand part of attaching a binding on my January UFO challenge. I ought to be able to finish it up tonight while watching TV. Hopefully it will be done and can be my photo for tomorrow, then I'll pack it up and send it off to a Dear Friend who can use a hug.


Aren't those beautiful windchimes? However! It was quite windy last night. And sleeping with my window opened is usually nice hearing them tinkle away out there. This morning was different for some reason. I got out of bed 3 times thinking I was hearing someone ringing my doorbell!! What was that about? As I think about it, maybe because I am anticipating the arrival of my coffee order this morning from Fed Ex!
You can see that I really like "yard art". The wooden ladder hanging on the wall was one that Todd found buried in some blackberry bushes he was clearing out. The tree in front of the ladder is an espaliered apple tree which has 6 different apples that grow on it which is so cool. I do need to get out there and prune that one soon. I remember my Mom having a wonder apple like this at our childhood home.
Thanks for stopping by. I'd love to hear from you!

January 14th

Today my small local quilting group had our monthly meeting. We met at Shirlene's home and I got this photo of the small table topper I made for her last summer. It was a lovely piece that I incorporated some embroidery into. In fact it has inspired Shirlene to take up some embroidery too. I even worked on another redwork project while I was at the meeting, and that was fun. Two of the ladies there had their felted bags with them, and that makes me want to pull my wool out and do some more knitting and felting too.
There's always something....

January 13th

At one point I had two dozen different Noah's Ark prints. This was a quick quilt I made about 10 years ago. It is special too because this was the first quilt we wrapped Ethan in after he was born 5 years ago. For those who don't know the story, he was born right here at my house! My Darling Daughter In Law Krista had such a nice easy birth with Jillian 3 years prior to that down at Tacoma General she thought she was a good candidate for a home birth. She saw a lovely midwife in town named Winnie throughout her pregnancy. And on the morning of November 23rd, two weeks before her due date, Krista woke and realized she was having a few contractions. She got in the shower at 6:00 am and called Winnie to tell her she thought her labor had started. They chose to do the birth at my house as it is closer to the hospital if needed and closer to where Winnie lives. Krista got here at 6:30 and I could tell just looking at her that she was well into the labor. Sure enough when I did an internal exam (which I am qualified to do as a long time OB RN) she was already 8 centimeters!!! I called Winnie, who was indeed in route, and told her. Her comment was calm cool and collected "well, we all know that YOU know what to do".....YIKES!!! That was NOT the plan!! Winnie arrived about 20 minutes later and 10 minutes after that, Ethan joined our family. It was glorious! My husband was a little put off by the placenta in the tupperware bowl on the counter though - LOL!
Oh good, I found the photos. This is of Jeff and Ethan just about an hour after birth, and you can see Ethan is wrapped in that quilt. And the next photo you can see Ethan with Krista very soon after the birth.
I've been so blessed to be present at the birth of all 3 of my grandchildren so far. Our next one is due the end of July.
After much trial and error I figured out to get the copy of the ultrasound photo of the expected baby. This is a 10+ week fetus. Amazing......we are all fairly certain this will be a boy. That story will be for another time.
On a serious note, we are all hoping for rapid assistance and aid to the poor, poor people in Haiti.

January 12th

This is my last winter/holiday like quilt still hanging. It will stay up until the end of the month. I saw this pattern in a quilt shop in Medford Oregon when I had gone to visit my sister while she lived there and loved it! They were actually out of the pattern when I went in, but I took a chance on my way to the airport and stopped in and sure enough they had just come in!! I actually made the quilt right away and after showing it at the local quilt guild, the LQS ordered the pattern and it was very popular. It was cool to think I brought this special pattern to the area - LOL! This is the one that I reduced the size of the blocks and added some free form stars to make the Christmas gift for my small quilting group secret sister. Thanks to Ethan and Spongebob for appearing!!
Isn't this what we really love our quilts to be used for - building forts!!! Ethan and Jillian had this one put together yesterday afternoon. When my boys were little and would build these kinds of things it would drive their Dad crazy.......he just couldn't understand the coolness of creating such a great cubby to share secrets in.




What a treat!!! To see the little signs of spring in my garden. Hyacinths, one of my favorite. One of these days I'm going to get "into" forcing some bulbs for inside the house. My latest edition of Country Gardens has a very cool project planting a dwarf weeping pussy willow in a planter with some early bulbs and I might just attempt it!

January 11th

This is another of my very early quilts. It was from the book Shadow Quilts, and I loved the play of pinwheels on pinwheels. And using one of my still favorite color combinations of purple and green. I did a lot of machine quilting on this one, but it is not terribly big, about 40" x 40" so it was manageable. There are still more patterns in that book I would like to do.....someday....already I have more things in mind than anyone could possibly finish!



Ethan was laying on the ground playing his DS today and I spied the cat, Rocco, up on the arm of the couch, keeping tabs on him. He was watching the game play until my camera was ready and then did the typical "cat" thing and turned his head!







Happy to show my sewing room back up and functioning!!! This is looking into the room. The futon under the window is the new addition. So now I have to roll my koala cabinet out from the wall, turn it and open to sew. But then, isn't that supposed to be one of the perks of the cabinet?? So I'm happy to be back sewing. I have a few blocks that are owed to people from last year, and they will be the first things completed, then I have a binding to put on a lap quilt that I am gifting to a friend and I want to get it in the mail before the end of the week. I'll take more photos of my room including with the cabinet folded and moved and post them tomorrow.
Next week I will have my first give away for all who leave comments, so watch for that if you like those kinds of things!! Glad to hear from some of you that you are enjoying my quilt show!!!

Design Wall Monday - Week Two

I finally finished this cute redword embroidery project. Now I need to decide on a border. This was an adorable holiday alphabet that I bought years ago, started and put away with multiple other hand working projects. Like many quilters I came to this craft via counted cross stitch. Over time my eyes just don't want to work as well when working with those patterns, but I find myself being drawn to them again. This happens after each Christmas when I put away some beautiful pieces I had done over 10 years ago and hand for the holidays. My favorite was working on 28 count aida cloth, can you imagine????

The whole gang

This is our family shot taken at my brothers house on Saturday night where we celebrated my Mom's 83rd birthday. On the couch from the left is my older brother Steven, who came for the surprise visit from Atlanta, then me, then my sister Nancy. In the back is my Dad on the left, then Kevin, my Mom and my sister Carol.
We had such a good visit. It is so rare that we all get to be together. I had taken our old home movies into Costco and had them put onto DVD and we really enjoyed seeing them again. And then we all sat together and taped a conversation about events we all recalled as kids growing up.
I am going to work really hard to make better use of my video camera from now on. Those moments once gone, are gone. And to see me as a toddler (in some incredibly stylin clothes!!) was so great. I have taken all the slides in and having them transferred as well, and then I am going to make a movie for everyone with music and narration. Those of you who ever watched Mad About You? Sort of like a movie about the Buchmans! I really loved that show.