Weekend Is Here!

Don't really have any big plans for the weekend.  Ev has to work tomorrow, so I'm hoping to get some things done around the house, including some sewing on Gemma.  She has been sorely neglected lately.

I renewed my driver's license today.  Had to take the eye test, but that was no problem.  In fact, I took the test without my glasses and passed, so that made me happy, even though I usually wear them when I drive.

Weather turned cooler these past couple days.  I love it!

Charm Pack Weakness

Hancock's of Paducah knows my weekness!  They had a little charm pack of Moda Grunge fabrics on special for real cheap and no shipping charges.  How could I refuse?  Sigh.

Why I Did Not Make My Bed This Morning

Addy looked so cozy, all curled up on top of the quilt and pillows, I just didn't have the heart to move her and make my bed!  Plenty of time to do that when I get home, anyway.

Addy has really adjusted well to being along all day.  Ev and I were worried that when he went to day shift she would have some issues, but we were pleasantly surprised.  What a good dog.

Changes

I might have mentioned it already, but my darling husband, who was on second shift for 13 plus years, is now on day shift.  This is wonderful and I love it!  He is home when I get home from work (he starts earlier than I do and is closer).  I hated going home to an empty house every single night.

Of course, this change also means he is home during the time when I used to sew a lot.  These first couple of weeks we have just been settling into a routine.  I haven't done much sewing, however that is going to change as the weather cools and we are inside more.

Last night was 'pizza night' at Tilley's, so we went up and had dinner there.  The special is two 12" pizzas, any toppings, for $12.99.  Pretty good deal.  The pizza is good, too.  Not spectacular, but good enough that we will go back.

He is supposed to work this Saturday, so that will give me quite a bit of time to get some sewing done.  Hoping to get downstairs and work on Gemma.  I miss her.... lol

At Least Someone Is Sewing....

Sandy came over to my office today to show me her latest quilt.  It's three different pieces of flannel.  The only piecing on it is some fussy cutting for borders.  She said it went together really easy and she was done in a day!

I can't even begin to describe how warm and soft this is!  She is giving it to her grandson and has already washed it, so it's all crinkly and wonderful.  He is going to love it.  She even quilted his name in it!

Taking Notes

I am a little bit behind on keeping up my quilting and sewing journal.  I have scraps of paper with my notes on them, ready to be transfered to the journal.  Every month I like to change colors of the ink.  Just something whimsical.

And no, I haven't gotten around to making a cover for this journal yet...  Meant to do that at the beginning of the year.  You see how well that happened, right?  sigh.

Unusual Uses

Can you guess what this is?  I was having trouble keeping the heavy nylon thread from unwinding from the bobbins.  I haven't tried this out on a bobbin with thread but I think it will work.  This is a piece of soft foam from a hair curler!

The dollar store had a bag of those old fashioned hair rollers for a dollar (of course!) so I picked a package up.  There are more than I will ever need in that bag...

And another convenient point, if this actually works, I can store the bobbins on the roller rods!  hahaha

My Great Grandmother used to roll my hair up in those pink rollers every night when I was a little girl.  This was before curling irons were being used by everyone and anyone.

Bags Again

The pieces are cut for one more set of bags for the corn toss game.  This morning before work I went upstairs and wound a couple of bobbins with the right color thread for them.

Green and gold are the colors that were ordered.

The thread I am using is a heavy weight nylon thread and when I wind a bobbin, the thread wants to unwind right away.  I brought a spare bobbin with me to work and I'm going to try to get over to Rural King during my lunch hour.  I'm thinking if I can get some kind of flexible plastic tubing, I can cut it into small rings and that will keep the thread from unwinding.  Just a little experiment.  Hopefully it will work.

I have the pieces sitting on the table the old Kenmore is in.  I have kept the Kenmore set up to do the bags.  It has a size 18 needle in it right now.  The good thing is, I need to hem a couple pair of Ev's jeans, and that size 18 needle is perfect for that job too!

Numbers Game

My Christmas quilt was a bit stalled, so over the weekend I went upstairs and assessed what needed to be done to get the right number of squares.  Here are pics of what I accomplished.

The easy part was counting the completed blocks.  The green churn dash adn the red churn dash are stacked up on the ironing board.

This part got a little tricky.  I needed a few more green and red, and a lot more gold.  The green and red are waiting for the background fabric for the half square triangles.  The gold needs both the rectangles and triangle blocks made.  I had a good amount of the background fabric left, however when we were in Arthur, Mary found another bolt of it on the clearance rack.  I couldn't pass it up.  So I know that I have plenty of it to work with.  It may end up being the backing of the quilt also.

And finally here is the stack of completed gold blocks and stacks of pieces ready to be sewn into blocks.  My little cheat sheet is in the corner there.  It has the trip around the world lay out of the top on it.

You see just a corner of my sewing table that I created for my 301 (Clarice).  Every time I look at it, it makes me smile.  Mostly, because it actually works for me!  It was so scary to cut that hole in a perfectly good table, but once I got over that fear, it was full steam ahead.  So glad I did it.  Most of the construction I did all by myself, too!

Crazy Carrot

Not sure, but this carrot may be looking for the mother ship...  haha.  I made a big pot of ham and bean soup yesterday and when I got the bag of carrots out, this dude was in it.

The ham hock I used in the soup came from the meat market in Arthur.  I had thrown it in the freezer with some of the other meat I bought there.  This is the last of the meat from there.  It is really good.  We sampled the soup last night, but tonight it's going to be our dinner, along with corn bread.  Mmmm mmmm.  Good old country cooking.

Ecclectic Taste

While in Arthur a few weeks ago I picked up several yards of each of these fabrics.  They look like they were from the same collection.  And, in my opinion, they are UGLY!  hahaha

I bought them to make night pants.  The more gaudy and loud I can make my night pants, the better.  I kind of have a contest going with myself to make the most outrageous pair.

These fabrics have been washed and are ready to go.

African Violet Project

This one lonely leaf is a cutting from an African Violet plant my mom has.  I took four leaves from it last time I was up there and kept them in water until they had several roots.

I put one leaf in each pot.

The single pot went to work with me and the other three pots are sitting on my window sill at home.  Hopefully the dog does not knock them down!

Those three painted pots are going to be Christmas gifts, if the plants take off.  Well, two of them will be, I'm keeping one for myself at home.  I don't remember where, but I picked those pots up at a garage sale of the thrift store for pretty cheap.  I figure I will give one to Johanna and one to Olivia at Christmas.

My great grandmother used to raise African Violets.  She had quite a few of them and they always did very well.

Two Dollar Save

Mary sent me a picture of this quilt top today.  She bought it at a garage sale for two dollars!
  Glad someone rescued it and will show it some love.  A lot of work went into making it.

Wedding Card

My brother is getting married tomorrow.  I saw this Leaning Tree card at the farm store, of all places.  It reads:  Advice from a mountain.  Reach for new heights.  Rise above it all.  There is beauty as far as the eye can see.  Be uplifting.  Build on a solid foundation.  Get to the point.  Enjoy the view!

Certainly words to live by!

Happy Day

We were happy in this pic!  Just had a good day that day.  Nothing special, just enjoyed time together.

Last night we went out to dinner with Del and Sara.  Ended up going to Fazzi's so of course we all had gyro's!  It was kind of funny because I had onions on mine and Ev didn't, while Del had onions on his and Sara didn't!

When we got home I had work to do.  Mel's Tavern had ordered two sets of bags for the corn toss game and I had to finish them up so I could deliver them today.  They were filled and ready to be sewn.  This time it took a little longer, since I was changing thread all the time for different colors, but all in all it went well.  They are done and ready to be delivered.

I also finished a set of camo bags that are paired with green for a coworker.  I'm all caught up on the bag making for now.  Going to keep the flyers up, hoping orders dribble in here and there throughout the winter.

Bandana-Rama, Or, Like I Need Another Project!

When my friend Mary asked me to be on the look out for bandanas because she is going to make a quilt from them, like a good enabler, I went to the local farm store and sent her this picture:

They had a pretty cool collection of bandanas for sale.  So cool, in fact, now I'm thinking of making a bandana quilt.  Like I need another project.  hahaha

Bag Sales Winding Down

When Mary and I were in Arthur a couple weeks ago I got a call from one of the taverns in my hometown inquiring about the corn toss bags.  She wanted to know the price of a set and how long it takes to make them.  Tuesday she called me back and ordered two set of bags to be delivered Friday.  They are having a tournament Saturday, apparently.

Here they are, ready to be turned right side out, filled, and sewn shut.  If you notice, I used coordinating colors of thread this time.  It was a bit of a pain, changing thread colors all the time, but I think it is worth it.  I just hope they stay together!  They should.  The thread is a heavy weight nylon thread and is very hard to break.  They should hold up for a while.  Probably won't be seeing too many more orders for bags until the Spring, now.  The season is about over.

It felt good to be back in the sewing room.  Ev and I had gone to Tilley's for pizza for dinner.  On Wednesday night they have a special on pizza, so we wanted to get there for that.  Had a good time, just eating dinner and relaxing.  He is on day shift now and I am really really enjoying it.  I think he is too.

Engagements, Weddings, and Deer Scrapes

While taking pictures last week I noticed this very large scrape on this tree.  Hard to tell by the pic, but I would guess it was about 3 feet tall and a foot wide.  Must have been a big buck to make that!  I sent this pic to my son in law who hunts.  He got a kick out of it.

Yes, I have a son in law...  Johanna and Ben got married last week at the courthouse!  They have been together for quite a few years and felt they needed to have that piece of paper right now for several reasons.  They are going to have a celebration in the spring.

And I'm not sure if I mentioned it before or not, but Nick and Olivia are engaged too.  They are planning a big wedding next August.

It's going to be a busy year...  :)

Good Times

My goofy son and I were taking pictures in the forest.  Everett and Olivia stayed in the car most of the time, but Nick and I got out and took pictures.  The road was extremely narrow and the drop off pretty steep on either side.

The views were amazing.  It was so quiet and peaceful.

Deep In The Woods

This was the cabin we stayed in.  It was deep in the Shawnee National Forest.  Nothing but woods all around it.  Very peaceful.

I had considered bringing my sewing machine, but ended up leaving it at home.  Turned out, I wouldn't have had time to use it anyway.  When we were not running around, and just relaxing at the cabin, we usually played dice.  We also played the game "Cranium".  The cabin had an assortment of games and this one was pretty fun.

Yesterday I thought I might take a look at the thrift store and see if I could find Cranium.  I got lucky!

Would you believe they had one, with all the pieces, for just 99 cents?  I was happy about that.  There was one other thing I wanted at the thrift store, and they had it too.  I wanted a couple extra pie plates, because when I make pies I sometimes give them away and the plates take a while to come home.  I found one glass pie plate and one tin.  Score!

Did Someone Say Pie?

I know I haven't posted anything really sewing or quilting related lately, and I appologize for that, but I haven't been doing much right now.  Will be getting back into it soon, I'm sure!  In the meantime, I baked a couple of peach pies Sunday.

I cheated on the crust.  Pillsbury or whoever else, has a pretty good ready made pie crust, so I just bought that and used it.  Doctored it up a bit with butter, sugar, and cinnamon.  The peaches were fresh from the orchard down in Southern Illinois.

They turned out pretty good!

I'm Back!

We were on vacation for a week, just relaxing and having a good time, and away from computers most of the time!  We went to the southern part of the state to a rental cabin.  It was deep in the Shawnee National Forest.  This was one of the cabins we had visited before and really enjoyed.

One night we went to Giant City State Park Lodge for dinner.  It was a bit of a drive from the cabin but the meal was well worth it.  The decor was pretty cool too.  This guy watched us eat.

Cubbies Again!

Ev and I went to the Cubs game last night!  Had a great time and saw the Cubs win.

On The Frame

Started quilting on the nursing home tops today.

New To Me Book

I just received this book in the mail and am very pleased with it.  Looking forward to making a quilt with a free pieced barn or two on it.  I like the concept of how she puts things together and think I will be using it to put together other things, such as houses and trees, etc.

Colorful Additions

Lest you think (I always wanted to use that phrase...lol) I have forgotten about quilting, relax.  I bought some fabrics over the weekend to add to the Christmas Churn Dash Quilt.  Two golds and a blue (yes, that is blue, even though the pic makes it look grey).  I'm going to add them into the mix and make those extra blocks so I will have a huge quilt.  The ONLY downside of having a king sized bed is that I have to make huge sized quilts if I want them to fit on the bed!

On The Bike

Ev and I spent a good part of yesterday riding the motorcycle down the river road.  It was a hot day, but when we were moving, it wasn't too bad.  That was the longest ride I have ever taken on the bike.  Believe me, my backside let me know it!

We had a really good time.  Stopped at the Hawg Pit in Grafton.  I had a Hawg Dog.

It was really good!  I could only eat about a third of it.  Foot long hot dog grilled and split, pulled pork, and slaw.... mmmm.  Oh and don't forget the home made chips!

A Good Find

Stopped in at the Goodwill store today because I heard there was a sewing machine there that I might be interested in.  Well, the machine was a bust, nothing I wanted, however I did find this:

I have been wanting a little luggage trolly for a while now.  They are so handy when going to retreats or Paducah.

This one was in sad shape.  Lots of surface rust on the chrome.

I spent some time with a steel wool pad working on it and have gotten it to this point:

Most of the rust is gone, except in the corners and curves where it was difficult to reach.  I am pleased with the way it looks and if that's all I can do with it, cosmetically, I am okay with that.  It will serve it's purpose.

It did come with a long bungee cord, but it was pretty stretched out, so I think I will replace it.

A Dash Of This And That

Went upstairs and did a bit of sewing on the gold churn dash blocks.

Silly But True

Mary sent me this and I thought I would share it!