Updates...........including quilting!

Yes, what would a Friday be without a football photo!  This is from last Friday night's win, when Jackson got back to the locker room after his trip to the ER.  He's the one in the stocking cap behind the banner with the sling.  To give you the update, he is having surgery today on his left collarbone.  I think he thinks he will be at the game tonight, but we'll see how that goes.  

And the older nephew is at UNI working on track and field (and some occasional studying!).  He is hoping to be a decathlete, so is learning to pole vault.  

 Sorry for the poor picture quality, but it is a screen shot from a video on his phone.  I think he's loving this new challenge.  

And speaking of challenges, we decided to pull up the carpet in the old part of my sewing room.  The plan was to clean up the hardwood underneath.  However, we didn't realize how damaged it was from the renovations a few years ago.  There were areas of paint, deep gouges, and the old floor wasn't totally flat!  Of course, this was done over a month ago, and then the hubs went to the field.

So this is what my sewing room looked like for awhile.  It didn't help that Sarah was moving and piling boxes and tubs in there as well that were going to St. Louis.

After Sarah went to St. Louis, I was able to get all this fabric stored in a dresser in her room.

We finally gave up on bringing the old floor back, and then the search began to find some flooring that would look good with what was already there.  Lowes and Menards had very little that we liked and none of it was in stock, so would have to be ordered and if we didn't like it, there was a 25% restocking fee.  

I finally went to Sutherlands and came home with 3 samples - large pieces!  We both immediately knew the one we liked and it was IN STOCK!

Isn't it pretty!

It is all done now except for some trim pieces we need to order.  My plan for today is to clean and start putting stuff back where I want it.  I don't think Cici is thrilled with this change.  She's a carpet cat.  And Willow can go sliding across it pretty easily.  But I love it.  No more hauling the vacuum up the stairs!

So, that is my excuse for not much sewing happening.  I did show a couple of completed quilts at our last guild meeting.

Above is my Dashing Through the Snow which was a quilt along last December through Temecula Quilt Company.  I made my churn dashes a little bigger, set them on point, and added the candy cane border to make it a nice sized throw.  

And below is my entry in our guild challenge project this year.

We were to create a quilted item to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of women getting the right to vote.  My entry was called Sarah's Choice.  All of the blocks are from the Vintage Farm Girl books and Vintage Christmas.  The colors of the suffragist movement were purple and gold and the flower was the sunflower.  The block on the truck door is called Sarah's Choice.  My daughter, Sarah, has the right to vote and to be anything she wants to be.  Her dad said she could have been a farmer, raised corn, and driven it to town in her own truck.  She instead chose to be an aerospace engineer.........go figure!  However, she has always talked about building (designing) her own house to live out in Wyoming, where there aren't many people, with one of every different animal..........pig, cow, horse, duck, etc.  We'll see if that ever happens.  Anyway, this was my entry.  I didn't win, but I really like my quilt.

And, I showed this set of placemats..........finally finished!  So, there are only 2 things left on my UFO list from last year.  I plan to get at least one more finished this year.  I think that's pretty good.  Of course, we won't talk about all the things that were started this year.  After all, I was going to need something to put on next year's UFO list, right?

Last Saturday, I attended Scrap Attack at Sew Sweet in Brunswick.  There were 9 of us there and we got to use the retreat room so were socially distanced.  It was sew much fun to be in a group of people sewing and chatting all day.  And, I wasn't looking at my own dismantled sewing room!  I worked on blocks for Star Junction, a quilt-along I'm doing with the Sew Sweet group that needs to be done sometime in November.  I have a ways to go, and am not enjoying the star blocks.  But, it WILL GET DONE!

One of the ladies showed this Bonnie Hunter quilt, which I loved.  I have the book this is in and am tempted.............!

I also did the cutting and sewing for the first 2 clues of the Morewood Mystery quilt I'm doing.  It had been going on for 2 months, and all I had done was select fabric.

And here are my completed components.  I'm looking forward to the next clue which comes out next week.

Sew, TWO blog posts in one week!  What is the world coming to!  Could it be the blue moon, the upcoming time change, Halloween?

Yes, a pumpkin was carved!  I was asked to carve one for the museum (actually 3, but only 1 got done).  This is the Nicholas-Beazley logo.

We will be spending Halloween in St. Louis.  We're planning to go see Sarah tomorrow and come back on Sunday.  She is taking us to the Science Center for Halloween.  Fun!

So Happy Halloween everyone!

Christi

Football is over..... at least for one player!

 Remember this guy?  I know, you probably don't recognize him all dressed up for game day.  I'm a sucker for a good lookin' kid in a nice shirt and tie.............probably why I've purchased so many (including this one) for him.  So if he doesn't look familiar, maybe this will help........

Yup, it's #15, Jackson Morton.  His team won their second playoff game Friday evening, but unfortunately, Jackson is done for the season having broken his collar bone during the 4th play of the game.  Give the kid credit, no one realized he was hurt and he stayed in for a few more plays before heading to the sidelines.  My sister got that text no one wants to get, "Jackson broke his collarbone", and headed down from the stands to get him and take him to the emergency room.  He walked in still in uniform, even the helmet.  My sister had to cut his jersey off, and somehow got his pads off without cutting them.  The good news came when the doctor, after looking at the x-rays, asked him how much more he thought he was going to grow............which clued my sister in to the fact that Jackson's growth plates are still open and he could grow 3-4 inches more!  

You may recall this photo which was taken for evidence that one of the grandkids had finally outgrown Grandpa Barber (note the stretching Grandpa is doing in this photo and Jackson is barely standing up straight).  So, while it was not a happy end to his football season, the "opportunity for growth" was good news.  He doesn't know it yet, but he did make all-district first team utility player, so he should be proud of his season.  He just needs to heal quickly now to get ready for basketball season.

Speaking of growing.........remember Willow watching her first football game and cheering for Jackson with me?

Well here she is playing with me while we listened to the football game Friday evening....

I can hardly remember that little puppy!  She is so smart.  She still loves playing with the kittens, and will follow me anywhere.  

We walked to the field one afternoon and took a combine ride.

She didn't appreciate the loud noises, but once she was in the combine, she liked the ride.  Of course, all that work made her very tired when she got home.........

You know the puppy is tired when she sleeps with the cat without chewing on it!

 

Growing is exhausting!

I received an early birthday present from my mom.  (My birthday is not until Dec. 18th, so you haven't missed it!)

My mom thought these puppies looked like Willow.  I'm afraid that by Christmas, she isn't going to look like a puppy anymore!  I treated myself to some fabric to go with the panel to make a nice Christmas wall hanging.  I have just the place for it since I gave away the one I had hanging there last Christmas!

I can't wait to get started on this!  Of course the snow we are getting today isn't helping any.  

Hopefully I will get another post done this week............THAT is the plan, but we'll see how it goes!

Christi

World's Longest Spring Break Ends!

 

I spent 5 days in St. Louis with Sarah as she is finally starting her new job.  Yes, it was the longest spring break ever............she came home for spring break in March and never went back to college due to Covid.  It's hard to believe that she was interviewing for this job a year ago.  We had made a couple of trips prior to this one to take care of the major furniture and things, so this time it was just her and I with 2 cars loaded down............and Dory, her cat.  Dory is settling in slowly.  I think she cried most of the way there.........she had enjoyed the long spring break with no travel.  She slowly explored the 4th floor apartment.  Her favorite spot is either on Sarah's bed, or in one of the low window sills gazing down on the street below.

We spent a lot of time with my nephew, Jacob, who is attending Concordia Seminary there.  We also made it into Trader Joe's!

We only purchased a couple of things.  Sarah tried some fresh pasta and I bought some brown Basmati rice to bring home.  This was only one of the 6 times I was in a grocery store while in St. Louis.  Sarah and I shopped at Walmart and Menards............yes, Menards.  It's a huge 2-story store with EVERYTHING!  This is where we did the majority of her shopping for groceries.  Then I was with Jacob and we stopped at a Schnucks to get some food for one of his friends who was in quarantine.  Then, Jacob wanted to cook supper in Sarah's apartment, so he and I went to the Schnucks close to Sarah's apartment to get what he wanted, and then Sarah thought chicken parmesan sounded good on Sunday and would make good leftovers, so she and I went to Schnucks AGAIN!

Sarah had gotten reservations for the zoo for Saturday morning for the 3 of us.  

The penguins were out and waving to us!

And my favorite was the polar bear.  He was enjoying playing with his snow.

Jacob and Sarah............ Sarah was leading us through the things she was most interested in, so of course, we saw lots of cats............Big ones!

Obviously, it was getting close to lunch time as this guy was licking his lips!  So we left, lest we become his dinner and headed to a pizza place Jacob said was good.  

Delicious!

Then, I finally convinced them to take me to a fabric store..........Jackman's Fabrics.  I told them it would have a large variety of fabrics.  Sarah was groaning inside, I'm sure, but since Jacob was driving, she had to go along.  Jacob had been talking to me about the robes and stuff he would need when he finishes his seminary and how expense they are, and maybe we (me) could make them.  He had taken me to the Catholic Supply Store to see some and they were very pricey.  Even the fabric and patterns were pricey.  I introduced him to pinterest and we had looked there and he explained the types of things he liked.  I learned new words like chasuble and I taught Jacob terminology like pieced vs. applique and paper or foundation piecing.  

Well, Jackman's was the Jackpot!  Sarah found backing fabric that she liked (finally!) for her BB-8 quilt, which we will go back for later as I didn't know how much we needed, and Jacob found liturgical fabric that he liked that was more reasonably priced.  He even got them to give him swatches that they attached to little cards for him.  

They had all sorts of machines, everything from embroidery to long arms.  We were looking at the long arms and a lady came over and turned one on for us to try.  Jacob was impressed with my long arm skill.  

And of course, there were amazing displays of quilts and fabrics!

I would have bought the pattern for the bat quilt, but they were out.  And Sarah hates spiders, so she put the kabash on my purchasing this pattern.  So, I left without any purchases.  But, we will return!

It was definitely nice to return home on Monday.  I think my pets missed me.  Cici showed her displeasure at my absence by terrorizing the rosemary plant on the counter.

She knew she was in trouble, so wasn't available for photos as she was skulking under my bed.

Willow looks so much older...... and the cats seemed to be glad I was back.

It's good to be home.  The hubster was probably too busy in the field to miss me, but I think he's glad I'm back too.

So, it's empty nest time again here!

Christi