Test from phone

Took a picture of the snow from last Thursday night.

all block lotto stuff.....

I sewed these blocks up today. They are the split stars I won last year at Block Lotto. It will go to our friend Dave. He was here looking at it so far. He was so excited about it. He wants it set with blue and yellow. Solids. No prints.

And...

He plans on shopping for this fabric himself.

 If he gets to Mason City.

These are my low volume hearts. I have the makings for more, but haven't sewn on them. So five so far. I think they are light enough.

Then.....

This is another quilt thanks to block lotto. The block is hot cross plaids. It came back from the quilters and the binding is on already. It was too windy today to try and get a picture of all of it. That will be a goal for the week, take a picture.

I had to think. I know I have worked on other things, and then I remembered...

the backing for Easy Street. One big nine patch. Backing and top are in the car already.

I can give it to my quilters sister at school. Very handy system.

BLOCKLOTTO link

the mittens....

Happy Groundhog's Day.

I know this is late, but they are still cute. The ears and teeth are almonds. The cheeks are butterscotch chips with the tip cut off. Black gel frosting that comes in a small tube at the grocery store is used for the nose and eyes, plus it was the glue to hold the teeth and cheeks. I saw these in Family Fun Magazine, they aren't quite the same, but close enough.

I went up to my cousin's last Saturday. I had one red sweater and she a tons of them.

It was time to make some mittens. She had made several practice pairs.

She also made mistakes, like ending up with 2 right hand mittens or 2 left hand mittens.

So when we got there, she was an expert and we didn't have too many problems.

I did sew one cuff on wrong. I can't believe how HAPPY this made Max. 

She felt like she was the only one who could make dumb mistakes and here was proof she wasn't alone. She was so excited by my mistake, she took it APART for me!

I happily re-sewed it...and the rest all came out correct!

Here is the information we used to make Sweaters into mittens!

By chance we set up the machines perfectly. She is left handed, I am right handed.

We could easily share the scissors between us. This is a messy messy thing to do.

There were small chunks of lint everywhere. I still need to clean out the machine I brought up there. 

We ended up with 5 pairs for the afternoon. I took home the red pairs. My mom and 2 of my sisters were also there. So each sister took home a pair. My cousin thought the dark blue pair was the BEST she had ever done, so they are hers.

My mom who sat and knitted most of the afternoon, didn't want a pair.

She said, "if I want some mittens, I will knit them."

okay.

Max also wants to learn how to make letters. That will be another joined effort of sewing one day.

Block Lotto is low volume hearts this month. So far all I have done is take a picture of fabric to see if any thing pops out as too dark. I think I am good to go.

Here is a ink to the Low volume hearts.

100 days crowns

Yesterday was 100 days of school. One of the activities was to make crowns...The base is called a sentence strip. They are sturdy and just the right size to go around the head.
10 card stock strips were stapled to them. If we did it over, there would have been more spacing between them. A hole was punched into the top of each one.
While they are still flat, the kids went to different stations and added 10 things,
cereal
marshmallows
stickers
punches
paint dots
and books cut from scholastic book orders
The sentence strip was wrapped on each head and stapled so it fit them.
 Then the strips were gathered at the top, and a brad inserted into the holes holding all the strips together....creating the crown.
Everyone was so so happy with the way they turned out.

ice and easy street.....

It rained yesterday. This isn't a bad thing unless it is freezing rain.

The roads were made into skating rinks.

Things were very quiet. No one was going anywhere.

I sewed. Finished all the full blocks for Easy Street.

Then started on the triangle blocks. They are probably half done. 

We had a late-start this morning, so I sewed some more.

Then the call I wasn't expecting came in....

NO SCHOOL.

Cancelled.

Wow more sewing today! 

I want to get this top done so bad and work on something else.

The windmill this morning. 

Tractor joe was on the road. His dad called worried about him.

Was he stuck somewhere?

Not to worry. 

Tractor joe was in North Platte, Nebraska yesterday. It was 65 degrees and sunny. He was joking about working on his tan, it was THAT nice.

still here.....

We had to go to Fort Dodge yesterday. While there, we hit a bunch of the local thrift shops.

Our last warm day before this newest COLD snap hit.

I have sewn some. But it has been so long now, I don't remember how many blocks are done. They are piled on the ironing board. Maybe today I will get back at these.

I also am wasting time with games. 

Draw Something.

My brother in law sent this one. He can draw very very well. I earn coins for guessing correctly. Then I can get more bombs or more colors.

After I guess, I pick a word and send it back. Then he guesses.

Back and forth. A real time killer and battery draining game.

Addicting would describe it.

We  helped middle son move to a new home. I love his kitchen.

It is better than mine....

more counter space

a dishwasher

and a floor with no holes in the linoleum.

anyway....

His great grandfather built the house in 1955 when he retired from farming. It was then sold to another retiring couple back in the 80's.

They lived there until recently. Not much wear and tear on it. 

He loves it and is very happy with it. Tractor joe likes the fact it was his grandpa's and spent a long time going down memory lane with his brothers when they were there checking it out.

and then more wasted time....

More pictures and more guessing and more drawing.

There is some quote...time spent doing what you love is not wasted...or something like that.

Christmas vacation sewing....

Some of my blocks from the Easy Street Mystery by Bonnie Hunter

I was playing with them wondering how they would be laid out.

January blocks at BLOCK LOTTO were sewn up way back on Christmas Eve.

My strip pile was growing. So I did about 20 more of these blocks. The plan right now is to group them in fours with sashing, then sew those blocks together with sashing.

It is an ongoing project that could take a long time to complete.

Yesterday the mystery was revealed. I laid out by pieces to see what it would look like.

I am not even sure if these are laid right. But it gives a good idea.

I need to go back and check.

I used what I had. 

I did go get more black and whites.

There are things I would have done differently,

like...... using darker blues.

It is what it is.

My last day of not going to work....I plan on sewing these. But first I need to go check and make sure I am doing them correctly.

These blocks are way more complicated to sew together than I thought. The seam ripper was out yesterday. I love these blocks, just not sure on my colors.