Gettin' Ready for the Fair!

So I haven't been doing much sewing the last few days.  I did finish cutting up all the scraps that were culled from my folded fabric and did some cutting for another project.  A couple of months ago Emily Hardwig from Red Button Quilt Company did a trunk show for our guild and we had the opportunity to shop.  I picked up a cute little kit to make a snowman wall hanging.  At our workshop on Saturday, someone asked if anyone had started any of the things we had purchased from the trunk show and no one indicated they had, so I decided it was time to get started.  I hadn't realized just how small it was going to be.............1 inch pieces!  I still have to draw some lines before I can start carefully sewing them together.  

DD has been working on 4-H projects for her last county fair.  Normally, she works throughout the year and has several things ready by this time.  However, with senior year and now a summer job, there just hasn't been the same dedication to the 4-H projects.  So she's cramming stuff in as fast as possible.  I helped her list and tag the things that are done, and was pleased to find that she only has about 5 left to finish before July 12th.  She is trying to create a BB-8 Cake for cake decorating (for those who are not familiar with Star Wars, BB-8 is the new droid from the recent movie).

Fabric Folding 101

I know it's been awhile since I blogged, but I have been busy (washing a few windows) cleaning up my fabric stash.  

The power of washing windows...........

Things had been getting really dry here.  Even my garden weeds were looking droopy.  I had started taking curtains down yesterday to wash and planned to wash windows today.  However, Mother Nature had another idea.  We got 2" of rain last night and this morning.  There were even puddles!  My DH has always requested that I not begin the process of washing windows until he gets the crops planted each spring.  Somehow, a nice clean window just brings on the rain.............and today, just the plan of cleaning the windows made it rain.  So now, the Hubs has told me to pace myself since he'll want it to rain again in a few days.  If I had actually gotten all the windows washed in one day and washed the car, he would need to get out the ark!

Rainy day activity............adding the last border to my Curved Log Cabin quilt!

Quilt Work Day Fun!

Went to my guild's quilt work day on Saturday and had a great time (minus the intrusion of the snake, but that's another story).  I will admit to being exhausted when I got home, but attribute that to the very early morning...........I had gotten up quite early with my DD to get her to the school to meet up with the group traveling to Louisville, KY for National SkillsUSA.  She will be there all week.

I worked on sewing my Curved Log Cabin blocks together and got the first border on as well.  Here is the photo when they were laid out on the floor before being sewn together.

Peas and ........Rabbits!

Rabbits have been our focus recently.  I helped DD clip toenails on 5 of her rabbits Thursday evening.  Her Californian bunnies are really cute, but haven't enjoyed the heat.  It's fun to watch them snuggle up to a frozen milk jug of water to stay cool.  We are also taking care of the neighbors rabbits for a few days..........I counted tonight and there are 110+ whatever babies are in the nesting boxes.  My favorites are a pen of 8 babies with their mother and they are so excited when you feed them, they sit on top of the food and you have to keep moving them aside to put the feed in.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Can't believe how hot it is this afternoon.  I managed to stay inside as much as possible, only ventured out to check on DD's rabbits.  I did make a trip to Walmart for groceries and decided that peach salsa sounded good, so picked up stuff for that.  DH helped do the chopping and dicing (he thinks is an Iron Chef).  

Gettin' It Done!

Yeah!  I finally got the braided borders on my Bricks in the Barnyard quilt!  This quilt was started at my guild's Bonnie Hunter Workshop last September.  Bonnie is a quilter from North Carolina who designs scrap quilts, writes books, and travels doing trunk shows and workshops as well as using social media on a daily basis.  I don't know how she finds the time to get it all done.  Anyway, my guild had booked her for a 2-day event (over a year ahead of time) last September.  She did a trunk show, then a 4-hour workshop on Bricks in the Barnyard, and an 8-hour workshop the next day on Smith Mountain Morning.  I will admit that Smith Mountain Morning was a much harder quilt with lots of pieces, and a larger quilt, and somehow, mine is already finished - completely quilted and everything!  It has been for a few months now.  I had finished the center of Bricks in the Barnyard awhile ago, but got bogged down in the braided borders.  I really wanted the borders on there, so kept plugging away at them and finally yesterday decided they were long enough and started trimming them and sewing them on.  

Gardening...........

Gardening has taken up some time during the last week.  I seeded my mother-in-laws cherries for her, and then picked and seeded my own.  I made DH a pie, and have enough for him to have 1 pie a month for the next year in the freezer (that's how he marks time, by the number of pies!).  I also made a batch of cherry preserves.......

I had just enough jar flats and 1 box of sure-jell left from last summer.  My DH planted peas in the garden for me this spring.  We normally have only a half dozen or so pea plants come up in each row, so he decided to just plant 6 rows this year and use all the seed.  I don't know what happened (some shift in the tides or the Earth is slightly off its axis), but we have 6 beautiful rows of peas.  I have picked peas twice, shared some with my in-laws, put a few in the freezer, and had creamed peas and new potatoes for lunch today.  Delicious!  

When I visited my parents last week, I helped my dad set out some Hostas by the new house.  They are working on landscaping, and have a long ways to go.  The new deck and sidewalks look great.

My mom and I also took a little car trip to Allendale, Missouri to visit a quilt shop there.  It was quite the scenic (and hilly) drive as not many people live there, lots of prairie!  We did see these buffalo very close to the road.

Allendale is not a large metropolis by any means, but the quilt shop was very cute.  Yes, I'd say there are more bolts of fabric than people in the town.  

Did a little fishing while we were visiting my parents.  Here are DD and Grandma with part of the catch.  I fried a pan full of fish, bass, bluegill, and crappie, and took to a dinner at church yesterday.  It was all gone.

I should note that I'm really not much of a gardener.  My mother is appalled by my garden, and I'm sure my grandparents are turning over in their graves at the way I garden.  I just like to think of myself as an equal opportunity gardener..........the weeds get the same opportunities to grow in my garden as the vegetables do.  At least I garden.  I had the opportunity to show my piano students this morning what peas in a pod look like!  The garden looks a little better now since DH took pitty on me and tilled in between some of the rows this evening.  He's waiting to pull all the pea vines next week.  I don't mind shelling peas, but picking them is not my favorite.  

Christi

Summer Heat!

I think we scored some record temperatures yesterday!  At least for this early in the summer.  I'd be happy if yesterday was the hottest day of the summer.  DD was playing violin for our neighbor's wedding, so our day was taken up with a hair appointment, wedding, and reception.  

Here is my daughter with the bride at the rehearsal "I Do BBQ" Friday evening.

The bride made quilted table runners for each of her attendants.  I had shopped with her at Missouri Star in Hamilton to select fabrics.

The wedding Hair!

Before we left for the wedding yesterday afternoon, we dug out the kiddie pool and filled it, and Magic stepped right in!  

It was a beautiful wedding, if a little warm.  The reception was wonderful.  A beautiful antique wedding ring quilt made be the bride's grandmother was used as the backdrop for the wedding cake (made by The Cake Lady in Sedalia..........delicious cake!)

And the groom's cake............

We, being good neighbors, came home in between events, changed clothes, and went to the neighbors to feed and water their rabbits (approximately 100).  Rabbits really prefer temperatures to be around 60 degrees, so we had to take a couple of the really stressed ones in the house.  We went back later in the evening to put them back in their cages in the barn.

Retreat!!!

My guild held their annual retreat last Friday and Saturday at Sew Sweet Quilt Shop and Retreat Center in Brunswick.  I love going there for retreat.  The retreat center is so nice.  We had a big room with plenty of outlets, ironing and cutting stations, and design walls to use.  There is also a wonderful kitchen, and the shop is right next door in case you "need" something.  The rooms are wonderful, nice cushy beds with quilts on them of course.  I worked on several projects.  The braids for the braided borders of my Bricks in the Barnyard quilt grew (I think 2 are long enough), I got several 4-patch blocks made for the guild exchange next month, and worked on some Civil War 9-patches for future exchanges.  I also finished my bug jar quilt.

Here are the blocks on the design wall.  I found some yellow dimple fabric to set them together with.  I don't have a picture of the completed top and my mom has the top now.  When I visited her this week, she loved it and asked to hand quilt it.  Since I never turn down hand quilting and I had a scrappy backing ready for it, I left it with her.  

I also worked on sewing together the blocks of the lattice quilt which is my UFO project.  I didn't find the right red for my inner border in the shop, so brought it home without borders.  I did some searching through my stash and found the trimmings from the backing of another quilt.  Even though I wasn't crazy about the print, the red was a good match.  As I was sewing the strips on, I realized I liked the wrong side of the strips better, so I ripped out what I had sewn and resewed using the wrong side of the fabric.  I then added the wide borders.  It's all ready to go to the quilter, I just need to trim the batting and backing.

We also got to see our guild's opportunity quilt finished.  Everyone made blocks, and it was really scrappy.  I love it.  Pam (pictured) did the quilting and it is fabulous.  I think we're calling it "Wholly Scrap".  Even the back is pieced with 10-inch squares.

Retreat was definitely a success!  We've already put dates for 2 retreats on the calendar for next year!

I can't believe it has taken me this long to get back to my blog.  I think part of the issue is that I plan to blog in the evening at the end of the day to share what I did that day, but by the evening, I'm too tired to put it into words.  I truly am a morning person.  

A lot has happened since my last post.  I have spent some time working with 4-H young ladies on baskets for their visual arts projects to show at the fair in July.  Danielle and Ashlyn have completed baskets that are even stained and ready to go.  Hannah P and Hannah A have their baskets going well and will probably finish in one more session, and my DD has one basket finished (not stained), and another ready to rim.  I'll take some pics the next time they are here.  And Nichole, a past 4-H'er has visited to get an antler basket started.  She made 2 last year and donated one to a silent auction to benefit Western Heritage Shooting Sports, and is doing another to donate this year.  She was here with her mom for a couple of hours one evening getting her basket started (Mom was busy cutting leather, pillow ticking, and burlap into strips for her to weave into her basket).  When we had it sufficiently going to where she could take it home to work on, we started talking about sewing.  I showed her my projects and my sewing machines.  

This is Lucy (named for DH's grandmother Lucille who owned the machine).  She is a Singer 15-91 and sews beautifully.  

This is Bitsy.  She's my Singer Featherweight and goes to all the retreats and classes with me.  She sews a great stitch and is much quieter than Lucy.  Nichole was fascinated with Bitsy (loved the spool pin doily), and might have to find one of these to take to college.

This is my "modern" machine, a Viking 230.  It seems so funny to call it modern when it's older than my DD.  It doesn't have a name, and I should probably work on that.  We've spent lots of hours together sewing.  

I also have a serger (notice it sitting on the floor in the picture above).  We have never been the best of friends.  Lucy is my favorite machine to sew on, even if she is a little loud.  I almost had another machine.  My aunt decided to give me my grandmother's sewing machine.  It wasn't a singer, and didn't work.  DH and I looked her over carefully, and decided that she wasn't worth the investment it would take to get her running (weren't sure if that was even possible).  We did salvage the cabinet (Lucy sits in it).  If I had been able to save her, she would have been called Ethel (after my grandmother), and I would have had Lucy and Ethel hanging out in my sewing room!  Can you imagine the fun!  We didn't just throw Ethel out though, she was repurposed into a gift for my mom to use in her living room of her new house.

If I do get another new "old" machine, I think I would really like a hand crank machine.  I've tried one and got along well with it.  However, family members readily ask me, "How many sewing machines can you sew on at one time?"

I have yet to come up with a really good answer for that one!