mail art.....

School started, and I haven't sewn in days.

Plus we were gone all weekend.

But....

I was reading about this prison library project at Giraffe Dreams.

I took two magazine pages and made envelopes out of them.

I added just a few other things that were already cut out.

I put a postcard in each one of them. 

(like the purple bird card)

I know they made it, they are posted! ( here at Postmarked 2012 )

It is fun looking at all the different things that have arrived there. 

next day....

Okay, it is a top ready to quilt. Now I need to go find some batting and backing.

Then later on today, I may be out painting. That is my plan anyway.

Tractor joe surprised me last weekend by painting the grain building. He has even ordered some white metal roofing material. It will match the Men's Crisis Center on the right. No more gigantic holes in the roof where they used to dump the grain in. I have been painting white on the fence and  trim work. This is the building I hang quilts on to take their picture. It will be a nice storage building again. I am so excited about this.

gathering and making blocks.....

I have this school house block. It was for block lotto, but wasn't right.

So it was free for something else.

I made this several years ago, but no place to use it. I dug it out of the drawer.

Then I started sewing.

I made "iheart"

and,

a 4 hearts.

They will all go together for a small wall hanging. My plan it to hang it on the bulletin board near the front door at the school. 

The office ladies asked if I had any ideas for it. Something to welcome back everyone. 

So if this is going to be done by next week, I best keep sewing. 

another doll and the dry weather......

My nephew said, you should make a Mrs. Red Dirt, with brown hair. I was thinking he wanted it for his Grandma. 

No.

He just thought I should make one.

So, I get to keep her. That is okay. I really love her. She has underwear.

Watching this youtube video gave me the idea to use a t-shirt and make a shirt and shorts. I didn't cut off the hem of the blue t-shirt, that became the hem of the shorts.

I didn't have any elastic, so I used ribbon for tightening the waist.

The shirt is pretty basic too. I kinda, sorta measured to make it the right size. It is rectangles sewn together. I rolled her sleeves for a more finished look. I could have used the hem of the blue t-shirt too, but I didn't think of that until the shorts.

Here is the link to the doll's body

I love her striped legs. 

It has been SO DRY here that our local creek has dried up. 

We took a walk down it with our friend the "junk king"

We ended up at a place full of old old cars.

We were looking for old signs that might have been tossed in here and any other treasure we might come across. Never did find any signs, but it was pretty cool looking around.

We went down to Farmer T's corn field that surround us. We are very lucky in our area. While most rain went around us or never hit the ground all summer, there was enough that the crops have not dried out. This corn smaller than normal. So there will be something to harvest around here.

One more picture. Because the rivers are getting so low, the fish are pooling in the deeper areas. This huge catfish was caught. He says he had three meals from it.

auction things...

There were 2 auctions in town this weekend. We went to both of them. At the Saturday one, we bought this wood wheel barrow...it was still in the box, it had never been opened.

Tractor joe has been buying old metal coolers. He thinks they are better than the plastic ones.

But to get the cooler on Saturday, they bundled it with an old high chair.

It is just like the one my Mom used, when my sisters and I were little babies, a long time ago.

We really didn't want it but we took it home.

Then we started calling it the Hope Chair.

As in....we hope to have grandchildren some day.

Maybe our children need a visual hint.

Something to remind them that it is their duty to have children.

Tractor joe stuck the latest doll, Mrs. Red Dirt in the chair. Will this get their attention?

She is out in the garage, maybe I could set her in the kitchen. 

They might be less likely to walk on by and not notice her.

I can even put a few cheerios on the tray and pretend.

On Sunday, at the other auction we bought this wagon/trailer.

Tractor joe was excited by the wagon/trailer. I was excited by the wood.

He saw fire wood.

What! Surely there are things to be made with all this wood!

And so, it became my job to start sorting it.

I worked on it for awhile last night until it got dark.

Went out this morning and took a so-far picture. 

There are two things I want to do today. Clean out the rest of the wood,

and finish sewing cushion covers for the patio chairs.

Better go get busy.

no more jurassic park area rug...

I can finally bring this temporary area rug to the quilter. 

I'll get a better picture when it comes back.