Quilt Parade!

A few weeks ago, I was filling out forms to enter some quilts in the state fair.  I was trying to remember what quilts I had and was digging through the piles, nooks, corners, closets, and couldn't find one of my quilts.  I didn't remember giving it away to anyone, but just couldn't find it anywhere.  So I told the Hubs that we needed to get all of the quilts out and take them outside and take photos of them and then keep track of where they were stored.  Well, that's what we did Sunday afternoon.  I had no idea what a big job this would be.  I even had my mother-in-law come over and sit and watch so that she could tell me about the quilts from hubby's side of the family.  I started in the upstairs and worked my way to the basement gathering the quilts.  We took 63 photos - quilts, wall hangings, table runners, everything (except that missing quilt!).  

What a pile to have to sort through and put away (in an organized manner this time so that I might know where everything is!).  

Cici was in her element............surrounded by quilts.  She didn't like it that we took them outside though.

Gettin' Stuff Done!

It was a busy week!  David's sister was here from Texas, my parents visited and stayed 2 nights, and we had all the usual stuff to do.  My mom, dad, and I spent Wednesday on the road.  We stopped at Joyce's fabric shop in Pilot Grove.  Mom had been wanting to go there ever since I told her about my first trip.  She loved the place!

This is my Stash Enhancement eXperience from the visit!  All that fabric for less than $25.  The gold fabric next to the gray has a flaw in it, so I got the piece for $1.50/yard.  I'll just be careful to cut around the flaw when I'm piecing!  The second piece from the left is my favorite.  Now I'm trying to think up some project to use it in.

The Mighty Hunters!

So the interesting thing at our house this week is that the hubs is on a mole hunt!  Literally!  He and his trusty border collie, Kenze, have killed 3 moles in the yard and are on the hunt for the fourth one.  This is done by filling their burrow through the yard with water from the garden hose and waiting for the mole to pop up to keep from drowning.  Then, the border collie goes into action!  Apparently it's quite exciting and rewarding to catch a mole that has been burrowing all through the yard.  When we returned from church yesterday morning, DH headed to the yard.  I stepped out to see what was going on and he pointed to a new mole run that had happened while we were in church.  Unfortunately, this last mole is proving to be the intelligent one of the group and he managed to elude the mighty hunters.  Then when we were cooking lunch, DH looked out the kitchen window, dropped what he was doing, left the kitchen and returned with the shot gun.  Apparently we had a ground hog in the front yard and one of the cats was ready to do battle.  Not to worry, the Magnificent 7 were all in the front flower bed (apparently as the cheering section), and Owen, the one adult male cat was heading into battle.  Now, Owen is definitely not what I consider a ferocious hunter.  He's not overly large, has been "fixed", is very tame, purrs when you look at him and spends a good portion of every day lazing on the deck.  I don't really consider the hubs to be much of a ferocious hunter either.  (Early on in the marriage, he did go deer hunting with my family, but after about one hunting trip, has been satisfied just hanging out in the house.)  But here is the hubs, standing in the open front door of our living room with his shotgun aimed outside (notice the "inside" thing again) and poor Owen is advancing on the ground hog with the 2 female adult cats flanking him.  DH takes aim and his first shot goes just above ground hog's head.  The cats scatter, the ground hog heads to the corn field, and the Magnificent 7 cheer from the flower bed!  He takes another shot as the ground hog disappears into the corn but misses again.  Maybe this was God's way of reminding him that Sunday is the day of rest - no hunting - the mole and the ground hog got away!  Of course, then he starts searching the living room carpet for the empty shell casings........does this make us rednecks?!

Cici remained calm through it all. 

Fair Time!

It's County Fair Week and for the first time in 12 years, I have NOTHING to do!  It's actually a little depressing.  We used to spend the first half of the summer gearing up for this week and then spent the entire week making trips back and forth to the fairgrounds for all the different activities DD participated in.  It was also usually the week that I needed to spend taking care of gardening things...........pickles, berries, peaches, sweet corn...........all needing to be done the same week as the fair!

I did help one of my piano students prepare for her demonstration which she did yesterday.  It was on quilting!  She did very well and placed second!

Our first couple of years at the fair were spent when DD was a clover kid.  She got to take 4 things she had made in to talk to the judge about.  Then that first year of membership we jumped in with both feet!  She took many, many projects to show and ended up winning the watch for high point exhibitor.  

She also started participating in the fashion revue, dog show, and did her first demonstration.

I still remember it.  She made peanut butter treats AFTER she cried because she didn't want to get up in front of all those people!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!  I know this is a day late again, but the hubs was using the computer all evening last night for farm stuff, so I was put on hold.  He spent the day weighing 1200 pigs, so there was a good deal of data to work with last night.

We spent the weekend in Bethany with my family and another family who had lived in Bethany when we were growing up.  They had 4 kids and we all went to the same church and just spent a lot of time together until they moved away.  We hadn't seen them in over 20 years, so it was fun to get together, meet the kids of the kids, and reminisce.  

We were actually gone for 3 days and 2 nights!  I wasn't sure that DD would make it since she had to leave her favorite kitten at home!