Friday Night Lights!

Yes, it's that time again!  Are you ready for some football????

We traveled to Perry, IA to see Jackson #15 (same number as Patrick Mahommes!) play the first game of his junior year.  It was an away game, and Perry wasn't limiting seating, so we masked up and went.  We took our own snacks and lots of hand sanitizer.  It turned out to be a beautiful evening for football especially when they won 49-0!  And Jackson scored a touchdown!  The Rams graduated several really good athletes, so it was a younger team out there, and even with all those points, no one scored more than one touchdown, so it shows they have a lot of options.  Don't I sound like I know what I'm talking about!

After the game photos...........

A rare photo with teeth!

We didn't stand too close......

It was a quick trip up and back.  Sarah stayed home to help with the church garage sale and take care of the dogs, cats, and pigs!  So, we got back to my parents' house at midnight after the game and were planning to sleep in, but got a call from her at 6:45 about a feeder being clogged in the hog barn.  The hubs told her just where to hit it to get the feed to loosen up and fall.  

It occurred to me that I haven't selected a "Friday Night Lights" sewing project yet this year.  Maybe I was afraid that football wouldn't actually happen.  That's one reason we went to his first game, just in case something happens and they don't get to finish the season.  Perry had their senior night just to make sure to get it in.  

I did spend some time in the sewing room on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  More photos on what's been going on there in the next post.  I did update my quilt guild bingo board though.

I made Bingo Boards for all the members of my quilt guild to work on.  Each one was different.  To be fair, Sarah made mine.  She made very sure not to include anything that she thought would have me starting new projects.  I haven't done too badly even though I only have 1 actual bingo so far.  I have all of September to work on it, so surely I can get a blackout!

The next blog post will show the sewing update, I hope!

Christi

 

Antique Mall Fun

 The first antique mall we went in was Artichoke Annie's.  Well, first we tried to find another antique mall, and ended up in a field.  But with a little help from google, we got back on a real road and found a different antique mall.

I did find some sewing machines.  I was nosing around this old one to see if it still had it's bobbin case when an older gentleman and his wife passed by me.  He said, "I'll bet you don't even know how to use one of those!"  At which point I felt obliged to tilt the machine up and examine it more closely pointing out things about it.  His wife politely nudged him on down the aisle.

There were so many quilts and unquilted tops.  This was the GREEN display!

Care for a photo anyone?

Some more interesting finds..........

And this guy was disturbing.  He doesn't appear to have hands, so I'm not quite sure how he got his mask on.

Sarah thinks she needs a small stand mixer for her kitchen.  Do you think this will work?  It's sure cute!

Another old treadle machine.........

I was thinking that I needed a small sewing machine to keep at her apartment.  This one is cute, but a little smaller than I was planning for.

There were loads of old quilt tops, quilts, and other assorted handwork items.  It made me realize that I don't want to accumulate quilts that will someday end up like these.  I'm going to start giving more away and hope they will be loved and used.

And a few more interesting finds.........

We then traveled down the road a little farther to the Veranda Antique Mall.  We didn't like this one as well as it was a bit more organized, cleaner, less dusty, and there wasn't as much opportunity for "discovery".

I did find this very amusing...........

And the tag on it read..............

Don't think we need to say any more about this one!

There were more quilts here...........displayed a little better.

And a plethora of newly made rib baskets.

One of my favorite things about both places was the locker system where I could lock my purse in and not have to carry it around.  The other really cool thing was that apparently it is common practice to take your dog antiquing!  This lovely lady was in both of the antique malls with us as were several other dogs.  One was even being pulled through in a wagon!

It was nice to wander through the booths, without all the crowds like in St. Louis.  

Christi

The View in St. Lou

Well, last weekend was definitely interesting.  Had we known that it was the weekend that all the St. Louis University, Washington University, and every other college around students were moving in, we would not have made the trip.  Ikea was sold out of almost everything, including all the furniture Sarah had selected for her apartment.  Her mattress was delivered on Saturday morning and now sits on the floor in her bedroom with her college graduation quilt on it.  Furniture will have to wait for another trip.  You couldn't buy paper towels anywhere, and there was a line to get in to Trader Joe's.  So, I guess you could say we decided to pray for guidance which lead us to this......... 

We got to walk around in the beautiful Cathedral Basilica and visit the museum in their basement.  There were no crowds here.  We spent a good portion of the weekend with Jacob, my nephew who is in St. Louis attending Concordia Seminary.  

Jacob kept pointing out all the religious symbology and I kept pointing out the great quilt patterns.

There are some great quilt borders on this ceiling!

After walking through the Cathedral, we picked up some Andy's Frozen Custard....DELICIOUS!

Then Jacob took us around the Concordia campus.  We couldn't go into any of the buildings, but we did peek in the windows of some.

It is a small, but beautiful campus.  He had finished and passed his Greek class on Thursday.  So, by tradition, everyone who passes Greek jumps in the fountain.  That event had occurred Friday morning before we arrived.  

Here is Jacob's fountain.   We went to church with him on Sunday morning and then packed up and headed out of St. Louis.  Sarah went straight back home, but David and I stopped at a couple of antique malls on the way home.  More on that in my next post!

Christi

Small Animal Fun

 

I had left some baskets and tubs on my deck for someone to stop by and pick up and Boots decided these were the purrfect place to relax.  He also enjoyed sitting up and gazing in the window to see what might be happening in the house!  The tubs have been picked up, so we moved a bench over since he seemed to enjoy that spot so much.  Now all 3 kittens sleep there at night so they are close and ready for loving when the door opens in the morning.

Here are the terrible trio.  They have really grown and I'm sure have a ways to go judging from the size of their paws.

David and I attended a free longarm quilting machine road show last week.  I enjoyed seeing their van in the parking lot and appreciated the sentiment on the back........

Three guys from Iowa did the presentation and demonstration.  They had 5 machines set up for us to try out.  I just liked the visual of 3 guys traveling the highway in this cute van!  I did learn a lot, and was so busy checking it all out that I didn't take any photos of the machines.

At home, the beets were pulled and made into beet pickles...........17 pints!  A couple more batches of sweet pickles have been made as well, and I have been making fresh tomato sauce and salsa.  

Sarah and I went to Bethany to visit my parents this past weekend.  My sister came down on Friday with my nephew's girlfriend.  Chad and Jackson came down on Saturday after football practice and brought their new boat.  Sarah enjoyed some time on the boat Saturday afternoon.  It was strange to have 6 people there and my dad be the only guy.  Dad took the 4 of us girls (yes, it's nice to consider myself one of the girls) to the Amish Small Animal Auction on Saturday morning.  We went in his old rusted out truck so that we could attempt to "blend in".  We didn't blend.........we were some of the only people wearing facemasks......... and shoes!  We tried to social distance as much as possible, so I tried to be closer to the animals than the people.  

I texted David that morning to let him know we were going to this and his response was, "Remember, it's like a national park.  You don't take anything out and leave only footprints."

There were sheep, goats, calves, pigs, pot belly pigs, and lots of birds and rabbits.

Sarah and I liked the ducks.

We didn't realize there would be so many quail, pigeons, and even turkeys!

And chickens and roosters, of course, and then more pigeons.

And so many people..........apparently this was the social event of the month.  The hillside was packed with trucks, trailers, wagons, and buggies.

Of course, they had lots more than just the animals to auction..........

I was able to pass this sewing machine by as well as all the other junk.  Everything from old doors, lumber, boats, to dining room chairs.

We followed David's directive to the letter which meant that we didn't leave with a pecan pie from the selection of baked goods.  When we told him about this, he said next time not to leave with anything that was alive.  Then I reminded him about the sewing machine!  He just can't win!

Having just had dental surgery on Thursday, I spent some time relaxing on the couch with some baby quilt binding and Tucker, my sister's golden doodle.  I did finish the baby quilts and my Dad held them up for photos.  The first is for Chandler, my third cousin who is due to have her baby in December.  She is doing her nursery color in the darker green.  This is the Moda Love Charm Quilt pattern.

This one is for Elliott and Andrea, David's nephew.  They are expecting in November.  I bought this panel on the sale table at The Stitch in Jefferson, IA and added the border.  They are doing lighter greens, and Elliott likes elephants.  This one we know is a boy.

I realized that I didn't have any photos of people from our trip north, so here are Carmyn and Jackson.  We really like Carmyn.  We told her we're not quite sure what she sees in Jackson though.  She had to get home Sunday because her family has a large hog farm and they were doing vaccinations on Monday.  She invited Jackson to help........nice date!

We are heading to St. Louis this weekend to start getting Sarah's apartment set up.  I'm sure there will be many adventures to share (if we don't murder each other) next week.

Christi