Cooking - Sewing - Missing Wall Quilt

Everyone finished the turkey dinner leftovers? We've about consumed ours - there are a few sweet potatoes left and that's about it! Oh - there is pumpkin pie left, too, which is unusual! We had an enjoyable day - Nate, J.D., Mark, Chet and I. Tracy and Anna Grace called in the morning and we had a lovely chat. Anna has a real 'southern twang' in her speech! They were cooking and preparing to go have Thanksgiving dinner with friends of theirs. I gathered from Amanda's facebook page that they spent the long weekend at their home up north. J.D. will go back to Bloomington sometime this afternoon and he is taking a big container of hot dish with him. (Photo below!) He has been here since Saturday afternoon, did some homework and spent the night and is still asleep. I imagine he'll have hot dish for his breakfast, too! Last evening we made Hamburger Helper for him - a real treat for him. He has a girl friend who is insisting he learn to cook - good for her!

I am sad to say that the sweet little wall quilt pictured is missing. I know when I last had it but no memory of what I did with it - imagine it's in a 'safe place.' Perhaps it will turn up after the holidays!

This small quilt is ready to be quilted. It's the Broken Dishes pattern - love it as it's a good chance to use up small pieces of fabric that I can't bear to toss out. The half square triangles were leftovers salvaged from a larger quilt - so there wasn't really much to do except press and square them up to 2" and then stitch into blocks. I had intentions of hand quilting it, did two rows and decided there were too many seams to battle with. This morning the hand stitching came out and it's ready to be finished on my machine. The design is from the Pioneer Children and Their Quilts book by Kathleen Tracy.

There is another picture I intended to post this morning but it's in the spare bedroom and J.D. is sleeping in there - I remember from child rearing days to

never wake a sleeping child. Hopefully I'll remember to take a picture before it goes up to the boutique at the beauty salon.

Time to go curl my hair - have a good week, everyone. Be safe and thanks for stopping to visit.

Happy Thanksgiving Wishes

Imagine everyone has big plans for Thursday. We will have Mark, Nate, J.D. and a "lady friend" joining us. Deanie has to work but we will fix up a plate for her. Nate is deep frying the turkey and I'll fix the remaining traditional dishes and that includes my Mom's dressing with apples, raisins, onions, etc. The guys aren't too keen on it - but that's TUFF!
This morning I had brunch with a friend and a trip to the grocery store - oh, I do hate that shopping. Just picked up necessities and will do the big shopping on Wednesday.
I tried again to upload a couple of pictures but no such luck. So perhaps I'll sneak in later and give it a try.
Friday Chet and I ran up to Rushville and picked up a quilt from my longarmer gal. It is the Stained Glass quilt, she did a super job on it and the binding is stitched to the front, waiting for someone to hand stitch it to the back side! Last evening I spent some time finishing up C'mas pieces to take up to my little boutique at the beauty salon. Also finished a purse but haven't taken a picture of it yet.
Will check in with the "out-of-state" children on Thanksgiving Day. And hopefully pictures I take will be good enough to post next week.
The neighborhood is slowly beginning to look like the Holiday Season is on it's way. We don't do a lot of decorating here - just on the fireplace mantle.
Till next week - take care.

Redwork Embroidery in Aqua

Blogger finally allowed me to upload pictures - so here's the latest finish - a snowman angel (snowgirl angel). . . oh well, it just doesn't matter, does it?
The close up is a bit off color - I guess my shadow had something to do with that.
Enjoy!

This and That

Hi Folks,
Last week was boring but this week has kept me on the run. Everyday but Friday had me going somewhere. All the places I went were enjoyable but oh, this little old lady tires too easily! Monday my quilt guild met and we had such nice "drag & brag" (aka: show & tell). Tuesday I visited my hair dresser and Wednesday attended a 'ladies luncheon' with a friend at her church. Thursday this friend and I drove to Richmond, IN - about an hour and a half from here - to have our sewing machines cleaned and adjusted. This was a long past due chore that we kept putting off!
We've been enjoying nice weather; the corn has been picked and it's looking kind of bare in fields and woods now. Chet's been scooting around the yard chopping the fallen leaves!
Checked in with the children and all's going well for them. All of them are working and some of them are putting in long hours due to cut backs in the factories.
I did finish a couple of sewing projects this week. The 2nd donation quilt I was doing for the Downy Quilts for Kids is now ready to be mailed (along with the 1st one). Hopefully I'll make it up to the post office tomorrow. Just had to do another redwork embroidery but used a variegated aqua/blues thread. I did try to upload the picture of it but blogger isn't cooperating with me this afternoon.
I'll try again later this evening.
Hope you all are well - thanks for stopping by and catching up with us. Bye for this week.

Ho Hum Week

Hi Folks
It's been a boring week, nothing exciting going on here. Typical fall weather and leaves flying all over the place - but Chet gets on the riding mower and chops them up. He even goes across the street and does two yards there! The corn is still standing in the field and the guys from the electric company haven't come back to take the old pole out, imagine they'll be back after the corn is picked.
I went to my eye doctor and got a good report and new glasses are on order. They should be in by mid week. Tomorrow our local quilt guild meets - we have such a good time - a lot of "drag and brag" every month. I've been invited to attend a luncheon on Wednesday and on Thursday a friend and I are taking our sewing machines in for service. My cleaning/service is long overdue.

I finally did something with the snowman/winter embroideries I made a while ago. Three small wall quilts resulted. They're cute, even if I say so myself! There's just a minimum of quilting (by machine) along the borders and sashing strips.



I think this blue one is special with the snowflake borders and the Ho Ho Ho! It doesn't look straight, but it is!



This one took more planning because of the different size blocks but I whipped out my graph paper pad and arranged it that way. I am happy to report the red/cream check fabric is now down to just a few small strips and squares! (I am still in stash busting mode!)



Thanks for stopping by - have a good week!

Happy Birthday Sister Ellen

Greetings Family and Friends

Home is the place to be this morning - it was only 33 when I got up. Yes, I remembered the time change and reset all the blocks in the house. I must replace my alarm clock - it is too difficult to reset!

I did replace my keyboard and mouse but haven't installed them yet. I have a bad habit of eating at the computer and have been debating changing my habit!I don't do well when change of habit is required!

Today is a special day for my sister Ellen - it's her birthday. Ellen is the oldest in our family of 7 kids, and she often tended us when we were toddlers! Thanks for putting up with all of us! Ellen is an avid seamstress but these days she's making donation quilts, working with a group of Senior Citizens in Bloomington, MN. Hope your day is special!

We had about 50 Trick or Treaters last night. We'd have had more but I forgot to turn the front porch light on so ran an hour late. We do have leftovers and someone in this house is delighted!

Chatted with Tracy one night this week - all's well there. We are waiting for a photo of Anna Grace in her Trick or Treat outfit! The 'boys' are busy and okay, I guess! Chet's perking here, too. . . need to pick up gas for the riding mower so he can do his thing outside! All the leaves aren't down yet and he's been mulching a couple of times now.

From the sewing room - - - I completely finished the Downy Quilts for Kids kit they sent. Then I decided to make another and send it, too. I have finished piecing the top and need to find batting and backing for it now. I've gone through my stash but not enough of anything there so I guess I have to go shopping! This second quilt is called Disappearing Nine Patch - have photos to show how it's done. There are better tutorials online, just "google" if you are interested. This first picture shows a completed 9 patch block. (I started with 6" squares and made 5 blocks.)

This photo shows the block cut horizontally and vertically in the center of the block.



A possible layout.




Another possible layout - there are many - you will have fun rearranging the smaller blocks to find your favorite design.



This is what I ended up with. My next one will in the first layout shown. And I do have fabric to make another - fabric has construction vehicles on it.



Have a good week!