sewing.....

I started sewing small cherrywood scraps. This measures about 5 1/2 by 10. I think I will make it  a mug-rug. I don't do angles very easily. Things work better in my brain if they are squared up and perpendicular. 

I should have put the next thing up sooner.

Here at vesuviusmama.blogspot

Erin is making donation quilts for people who have been devastated by Hurricane Sandy.

She has a nice tutorial for making these blocks. I wasn't that crazy about the colors here...or maybe it is just the lack of contrast in the two of them.

Oh well, they are on their way to her!

 I am hoping that with all the other blocks she receives, they will fit right in. The quilts will be wonderful and full of scrappiness.

Depending on the weather, I am headed to Duluth this weekend. Some reports have freezing rain on Friday and snow on Saturday. Some reports say only cloudy skies.

halloween things.....

I made some postcards. I had enough pumpkins cut for 6 of them.

When I was addressing them I found one wasn't even glued yet.

Then I ran out of stamps. So only 4 went out. I am not even sure they made it before Halloween.

On the bright side, I have 2 cards for next year.

My brother-in-law. He makes the BEST costumes. He has done so many super hero costumes over the years. He is so talented!

My niece, Madison is crazy over legos. So he made her a Lego costume. They both got first place for costumes at work and school. He looks so real!

I would feel so safe walking down the street with him. 

Unless we ran into a bug or spider. He doesn't like bugs. He would be off running until the bug was gone.

I carved one pumpkin, just in case some trick-or-treaters came by. We are too far off the beaten path. Besides, I had given kids candy at school, and that left some for me!

local quilt show.....

On Friday evening, I helped set up for the quilt show. It took a couple hours.

Then Saturday afternoon, we took it all down.

They say there were 97 quilts.

None of mine were there.

I just took pictures of quilts I liked.

It sounds like it will happen again next year.

It goes along with the Fall Festival that the Community Club puts on.

Karen and I have a new goal.

We want to do Bonnie Hunter's Mystery

I think it starts right around the US Thanksgiving

...and have them hanging up next year.

It seems like such an easy thing right now, after all, next years show

is a WHOLE year away.

No sweat.

Bonnie's fabric choices are here.

the charmander cake.....

Charmander is a baby fire lizard. He belongs with all the other Pokemon characters.

His tail has flames. I printed out a coloring page, then made it a little bigger.

I cut him out and drew around him to get him on the cake

I piled a bunch of candles at the end of his tail.

Then lit all the candles.

I thought the flames were plenty big 

the frosting was melting

and we needed to blow them out!

But, Crsipy says

"No wait, take my picture!"

Oh yah, birthday boy with his cake!

He was able to get them out and we all had a piece of cake!

nothing finished yet.....

We lost electricity this morning. It gave me a chance to take pictures of what isn't getting done around here. I ran out of pure white thread. Haven't gone shopping to buy more yet.

I was just inches from the edge of the Zig-zag doll quilt.

With the lights out, I could have worked on some hand stitching.

But no, I didn't, this little mini quilt is still sitting there. 

I went out to pull dead flowers and put things inside the shed for the winter. 

*************************************

So, the other night, I was texting with Crispy.

He will be here for his birthday in a few weeks and he sent me a picture....

He wants his birthday cake decorated like this one.

I answered...oh, you want a peekachoo cake! 

and started thinking about cake decorating.

lost in my own little world

then...

I hear the chiming sound from my phone...

another text from Crispy!

Hmmmm..... 

Why, I think he was yelling at me.

This is what Pikachu looks like...

And this is what Charmander looks like....

You can see why I might be confused with the two of them.

Now I need to find all my cake decorating stuff, so I can make my

(soon to be 19 year old)

a fire breathing Charmander cake.

block lotto sewing.....

split stars!! at block lotto this month. I have my 9 made! 

These blocks will make an awesome quilt, 

so,

of course,

I hope I win.

Because of the way I made these....

I have a pile of bonus HST's that will be cute little pinwheels when I get to them,

but no picture right now.

And some pumpkins.....

made by kids at the school. They make me smile.

good grief, it is October.....

On Saturday, Karen and I went to the Quilt Show in Des Moines. By the end of the day we were tired, cranky, and walking around with sore feet and knees. Neither of us bought much.

Karen was the crankiest. She kept fighting with her GPS. If it were me....I would have thrown it to the back of the van. We were only going to Ames and we know how to do that from Des Moines.

We stopped to have supper with Crispy in Ames. I haven't seen him since August! 

We went to the first restaurant, Hickory Park.

There would be a wait of at least a half hour.

Oh my, did we really need to wait....should we go somewhere else?

Crispy said he was for leaving.

That left Karen mumbling and grumbling

 as we walked back to the car, 

on our sore feet and aching knees.....

 "it doesn't matter where we go. we will have to wait a half hour!"

Luckily, we were seated right away at Old Chicago.

Then we dropped Crispy off at his dorm. He was ready to go do what ever college boys do on a Saturday night. 

We teased a lot of the machine dealers, 

stopping at every one of them to check them out.

We heard all about the "show deals that will never be seen again."

I did warn the one gal..."now don't get all excited, we really are just looking."

I bought this sweet little kit. I am normally NOT a button person. I don't like touching those white buttons that are on so many clothes. But these buttons were cute!

There is some hand stitching involved, but I think I can do it!

Oh oh, Karen read this. I forgot to add...

 that in spite of how tired we were....

we were also very very happy campers. Karen is the best driver in the world. We are looking forward to next year!