The middle of August....

 Still working on outside stuff and sewing.

These fabrics were in a tub together. Never had a plan. Yesterday Karen told me about a pattern from cluck cluck sew. Fat quarter shuffle. I cut all the strips I would need and started sewing blocks.

Hmmmm. Not very impressed. 

I did all of the blocks of this type and started to like it better. 

Today I will sew the other set of blocks and see what I get. 

The hydrant before the new pavers.

The hydrant with the new frame put around it. We were able to just pick it up and move it to where we wanted it. 

The pavers in place. I put locking sand between them the next day. Went with rocks around all the pipe things sticking up. No need to go shopping, all this stuff was piled up in different places here.

The pickets are up. They haven’t seen the light of day in years and years. First in Aunt Meta’s garage and then in a shed here. My mom remembers them from when she was a little girl in the 1940’s. She wasn’t sure when they came out. 

Maddie and Kyle were married on Saturday. We were the only aunt and uncle going to the reception. So before the aunts headed back to Minnesota we stood around and had a visit with them. 

The newlyweds leaving the church. 

We put up a bunch of corn. Mostly freezing it. I’m told that there is a shortage of lids! You can’t find them anywhere around here. I’ve got a small supply of wide mouth, so that’s what I used. We had one last night. Tastes like a can of corn from the grocery store. Nothing spectacular, just the satisfaction of knowing we had put it up ourselves. 

Okay. Back to sewing. 

the pedal tractor

This pedal tractor is about 30 years old. We aren’t sure when we bought it, we only know the boys were little at the time. The steering wheel wasn’t working. The back tires were cracked and the chain was a frozen mess. With grandsons around now, it seemed like a good time to fix it up. 

A fresh coat of paint! It’s was already looking better...

New...

back wheels 

hubcaps 

bolt to hold seat on

chain and guard 

pin to hold on the steering wheel

decals 

The decals are my favorite part. Luke came over to try it. His legs are still too short. He sat on, we pushed it around some too. In the end he climbed on to the plastic airplane and pushed himself around on that. Zander is at his dad’s this week. So, this weekend he will get to try it out. 

Baby quilt blocks from the temperature quilt leftovers. Next time I blog, I hope it’s about Long Time Gone as a top. I’m sewing the sections together now. 

I just might have a plan....

These are all the flying geese blocks from the leftover triangles.

I gave it a try...sewing with Luke here. He couldn’t quite reach the chain if I kept pulling it towards me. He went back and forth between watching me and sitting down to watch Disney junior. I would just see the top of his head. He’s fast though. Once he stood up and I had let my guard down. He grabbed the chain and pulled. Yikes! Gentle! Gentle! I was able to pry it out of his fingers, and finish sewing them.

This morning I woke up thinking about this baby quilt. It took a bit of looking to find the letters I made last year at the quilt show. I had different ideas for them, none of them happening. Maybe they could be on the border of the mini house quilt. 

I don’t know. Maybe they are too chunky. I’m going to think on it. 

summer catch up.....

My temperature quilt from 2016 and finished this year for the quilt show. I was picked for the featured quilter! Wow! What to bring? Mike Ellingsen makes a smile box slide show of all the quilts in the special exhibits. There are always a ton more quilts to see at the show!
I'll share the links.

smilebox of Wonderful watermelon fabric challenge

smilebox of my quilts

smilebox of Block Exchange and Navajo Code Talkers

During the show, I sat and made letters. I just about finished the whole alphabet. W is missing yet. I'm thinking an alphabet baby quilt right now.

I met my first blogging friend, in person, at the show! Carol came down from the cities to see the show.

Do we look nervous! We were! While we have communicated for years....we always had the computers between us!

Here is the link to her post about it.... giraffedreams.blogspotl

A HUGE part of the summer was taken up with babysitting Luke and once in awhile Zander came too. 

Luke

Zander

School starts this week. Back to work. What a drag.

july and august....

I was on a blog this morning, and in the sidebar for blogs, I scrolled down and saw mine. 3 months since I published. Wow, it was time. The trip to Oregon was fantastic. We used planes, trains and a bus to get all over. 

Lots of sights to see.

The Outdoor Quilt Show in Sisters Oregon was pretty amazing.

I collected Row By Row kits from the 5 quilt shops were visited while we were in Oregon. When I was at The Quilted Forest, I found out they didn't have a winner yet. I went home and started sewing all my rows. I didn't stop until I had a finished, bound and labeled quilt. 

And, I won the prize!

Here's is what I came home with. The bag was loaded with fun stuff!!

I quilted each row and them sewed them all together.

Last years rows is finally quilted too. It has no binding yet.

Typical for me to put that off.

My niece from Virginia was here for a full week. It is her parents that were waiting and waiting for Captain A-moo-ica. She was not allowed to leave here unless it was in her suitcase.

She was here during the quilt show up in Blue Earth....

Madi helped hang the quilts at the show. She didn't know it but I also had made her a quilt. When all the quilts are hung, we then go and hang all the information papers. She read,

Owner: Madison

And off she went to find her quilt.

She was so excited that this quilt was hers.

Other quilts of mine from the show....

The one on the right is mine, Karen's is on the left. These are part of the block exchange. All twelve of the quilts made will be in The Minnesota Quilt Show in Duluth next summer. 

All the same blocks, but so many ways to put them together.

Madi made a mini quilt while she was here too.

Her nourishment while she sewed this.....

She did all the sewing herself. So now she wants to make a king size quilt. 

We shall see.

We took her to the Iowa State Fair.

I had never been to this fair and tractor joe had only been there once. I think it was Madi's first fair too. 

I continued working on the temperature quilt. Its been a few months, might be about time to pull it out and add some more rows.

Okay. That kind of catches me up through the summer...

I'm still trying to figure out what happened to October, it went so fast.

Happy Halloween!

june...

I was able to finish my midwest row by row from last year, and took it to the quilter. 

Carol is still here to help me. 

The May meeting for Gypsy Wife. We are doing two blocks, then the filler blocks, then two blocks and more filler blocks each month. This was the pin wheels month. I love all the different fabrics that are being used. The quilts will all be the same and but the variety will be fun when they are hung together at next years quilt show.

Carol continues to be in the way. I was looking at the ipad and she had to sit on me. Totally blocking my view.

One day I was in the recliner. Ozzy (the dog) was looking up over my head at something. 

Good grief, Carol had jumped up to sit on the cupboard behind me.

My out west row by row got this far. I need to finish three more vertical rows to get this into a top.

Going camping slowed me down.

It was a good four days weather wise. The forecast had 0% chance of rain. But out of the blue a nasty storm hit Friday night. The wind howled and it rained and rained.

We brought our stuff over there in a trailer. We sat in that and played Yahtzee. We were able to stay dry. The tents all held stayed standing and reasonably dry too.  

We did our painting at the studio too. None of us was happy with our birds. They look more like silhouette people sitting on a branch.

Carol was happy to have us home. She wanted to cuddle near me while I sipped my coffee in bed that morning. 

The kitchen was getting worked on. The walls were all fixed up, ready for me to prime and paint.

Carol continued to always be around. Her favorite place was the tray on this ladder. She wasn't bothered by me moving it around to paint.

They left my kitchen sink until the last minute. It was held up with 2x4's. 

I met my cousin Max at the Quilted Forest in Forest City. We promptly bought the kits for this years row by row. I couldn't stand it and started to sew it together.

The cupboards arrived and Carol made herself at home.

I went to toss a towel in the washing machine and there sat Carol.

Carol can found just about anywhere taking a nap. No counter tops or sink yet. They came to measure and thought they would be back on Tuesday to install.

My mom is taking me on a quilting tour. We go will leave Wednesday for Oregon. I'll be in Sisters for the outdoor quilt show next Saturday. We will visit 5 quilt shops, all have row by row patterns. I will be collecting kits at each shop.

Yesterday was clean out the garage and house of old cupboards. The majority of them ended up in my shed. They are mostly empty. 

At least for now. 

I am really trying to fight my hoarder ways. But these just enable me to tuck things away for safe keeping, one just never knows when you will need something!