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.....