more old stuff...

I am in the middle of another project.....

I know my cousin will remember these blocks......
The snowman, tree and deer are supposed to be on the edge of a place mats.
Mine never made it that far.
While Gwen made several sets for relatives and friends,
as in.....
she actually finished them!

mine sat in a box for many years....

waiting....

waiting for me to find wonky letters.
and cut up 2 1/2 in squares that were left over.

I love it so far!!!

old old thing......

This quilt has to be over 10 years old....I don't remember working on it in this house and we have lived here that long.

I'm not even that crazy about it....but I always thought I had worked on it when my cousin was visiting, so it was sorta special that way....could be wrong....she can correct me.

Anyway, I had tried machine quilting it many moons ago....and it
looked HORRIBLE...really,it did, I was disgusted by it
...but I would hang it up anyway.

I always thought that someday I would take out the machine quilting and redo it better.
Today was that someday!!
....I didn't remove the binding, just the quilting.
Then I went over it with the wavy stitch, it went pretty well,
and I like it a whole lot better now. It is hanging outside the backdoor in the breezeway.
(it's on the dog kennel for it's picture)

I asked the Big Guy, when he arrived home from work, what he thought of the quilt on the back door and he said...
"what quilt?"
oh well, I see it going in and out.

Cornelius is home for awhile. He took down my old dinosaur of a computer...we bought in 2001!!!!

....and put up his!!!!

I was so excited.

"WOW, it's like a new computer!!", I exclaimed

as I sat down at it...

Mr. Calm Cool and Collected (Crispy) says...."thats cuz it is"

Thanksgiving is coming...

Karen called me on her way home from work. We were discussing plans and food for Thanksgiving. She will be going away for the day. I'll be staying home and cooking for me and the boys. Tractor joe will be in Wisconsin deer hunting.

I told her I had the turkey thawing....I'll use my roaster for that Thursday morning.

I have bought a pie, I only need to throw it in the oven, along with my "brown and serve" rolls...

I bought mashed potatoes in a bag, they are so good and easy....squeeze them out of the bag and microwave them.

Easy Peazy stuff.

Then she asked what kind of gravy I bought...packets or jars....

Neither....."I would use the pan drippings from the turkey to make the gravy".

With ahhh and wonder in her voice she says,

"wow, you're ambitious!!!! You can do that? How is it done??"

I thought this an odd comment and question........coming from someone who....

*has run a tea house and cooked all the food served there...

*runs a catering business with her husband and helps with the cooking...

*has gone to the Pillsbury Bake-Off to be a contestant....

*and watches the Food Network a bunch.

I explained how I made it, she thought it seemed simple enough and she was going to try it sometime.

So even though my meal is almost all heat and serve stuff, I get to think of myself as ambitious....'cause I'll be making the gravy from scratch!!!

3rd times a charm....

Crispy is 16 and old enough to get a drivers license.

This is easier said than done.....

It only took three different cities on three different days to get it done.

Attempt one found us in Mason City. Crispy had a eye doctor appointment, so he wanted to test for his license.

....unfortunately he ran over the curb right out of the gate (among other things) and didn't get a license.
I was able to console myself by continuing to shop in the fabric store....as luck would have it, they are right next to each other.

Attempt two found us in Algona.
...we arrived in the afternoon....and there were two others in line for testing.

.....unfortunately they wouldn't have time for his drive test. He was crushed.
I said let's go to the fabric store as long as were here....it seemed like the right thing to do.

Attempt three found us in Forest City. We even had an appointment...it would happen....no matter what!

Crispy came walking in behind the tester and gave me the thumbs up....I wish I a picture of how happy he was at that moment.....he had passed the test....he would get his license!!!!

...unfortunately the state computers had gone down and it might be a bit before they were back up and running.
Was there something we could go do and then come back???

...hey, let's walk down to the quilt shop!!!! Crispy was in such a good mood that he didn't even protest.

45 minutes later we were back......the computers were up and Crispy was getting his license.

Now he can drop me off at school....and he continues on to the high school.

He kept saying God didn't want him to have a license.....maybe.....or maybe God just thought it would be nice for me to go to 3 different fabric stores in about a weeks time!!!

harvest continues....

If tractor joe isn't out working his trucking job....he is out at the farm helping his brother......
the weather in NOVEMBER has been SO MUCH better than October's...
this was taken while working on the last of the beans. They are hauling in the corn now and much closer to having that all in before the snow really starts to fly.

oh oh......

We planted this tree last summer.
It is my bro-in-law's...it came from the funeral of his father.
He has a postage stamp sized yard, while ours is more postcard sized.....
since he hunts here in the fall, it was decided to plant it here.

WELL.....
a nasty buck has come along and made mince meat out of the little tree.....
This has really upset tractor joe........
he got real mad...
he plans on getting this buck when deer season opens and turning him into.....

CANNED MEAT !!!!

I better start locating jars and the pressure cooker.....

Christmas nap quilt...

the center is finished...

I cut my "I believe" panel apart.....

I cut a ton of 2 1/2 inch squares.....

and then I sewed it all back together.

Now I just need the borders put on and get it quilted.

The perfect couch quilt...
to take naps under during the holidays.

two things

One of the gals in Karen's office is having a baby in early December........
She made her this baby quilt...

a rag quilt to be exact.....at least that is what Karen kept calling it...

"I'm working on my rag quilt"
"I have started clipping all the edges on my rag quilt now"
"I am still clipping edges on the rag quilt"
"I am almost done clipping everything on my rag quilt"

It took about 3 nights of watching TV to get the clipping done.

She washed it and then stuck it in the dryer....(giving it that nice unraveled look at all the seams)


It is so cute.....it measures about 40 x48 inches....

I took a scrap of muslin and traced an angel and the word believe

(from my "believe" book)

then I colored it and
then I stitched. It is not sealed with anything. It is more like an experiment.....
It took all day yesterday to finish it....working on and off....not every minute,
I was in and out and even fell asleep watching Fons and Porter.

Poor little thing will have to sit and wait for awhile while I decide what to do with it......

Saturday morning.....

It is another beautiful day in the neighborhood......

The sun is out and it is warm for a change!!
Tractor joe has left for "the farm" to help his brother with harvest. Everything is so behind.
Beans are usually done by now.....
not this year.....
October was so rainy and cold.......not much was happening in the fields.
The unofficial day to be done with everything is....
"Mom's birthday"
that is tomorrow.
They aren't even close.
I finished a small quilt....right down to having the binding sewn on completely.....
I am giving it to tractor joe's mom for her birthday.......

I started my Merry Christmas quilt (from the I Believe book, purchased at the quilt show)

I traced all the letters.....

and then.....
and then.....

I ran out of the iron-on-fusible stuff.

There is supposed to be holly leaves and branch between the C and the M.

Thats okay....I have plenty of other things to work on.....

Gail Pan's Christmas Words

It is done...

(except for sewing the binding on the back,

.....a minor detail....

the pins do a nice job of holding it in place)

Before my Mom left on Sunday.....I laid this out and

it was decided that the gold border didn't look right....

We picked out a green that looked just right.

....and a darker green for the binding.

I am happy with it...

quilt show things

We did buy some things on Saturday.

We all added to our collections....

Mom bought a t-shirt, she does that a lot.

..... and a water pen thing for me....

I won't get it until Christmas though....(it is for blending my water color pencils on fabric)

Karen bought mostly fabric....

fat quarters, charm packs, panels and these adorable little vintage pictures that you make into a small wall quilt....

We both bought the "I believe in Santa" panel.

I bought mainly patterns for stitching and applique...

the "I Believe in Santa" book.....http://www.arttoheart.com/What_s_New.html

and this.....

from here>>>http://bloominminds.com/home.asp

There is plenty to keep us busy for a while. : )

geocaching after the show

One of the caches in Des Moines is located right outside the doors of the
Events Center.
There are a ton of these trees planted there.

It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

My Mom and Karen were still inside looking at quilt stuff.
I was missing out on that..........I was all alone....
I gave up after about 15 or 20 minutes of searching.




We had time to go find a different cache, after the show....

I knew where this one was, but I didn't have a pen or pencil to sign the log last time I was here....
Karen is holding a dime next to it to show you how stinkin' tiny it is. This is her first real cache to find. Lucky girl.

There was another one close by.....Karen humored me and drove us to the next one....
She kept looking around to see if anyone was watching us.....
while I.....
stuck my hand under this girls skirt to find the cache!!!!!!


Karen took the picture.
I asked her if I looked tired...."yes", she tells me.....
"but I want to look nice for the blog"
SNAP
oh well, I get what I get.....