Busy, Busy, and Meet the Kittens!

 First, let me just say Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law, Chad Morton.  We were in Jefferson, IA last weekend to see my sister and family, but before I get ahead of myself, let's go back even farther (see, this is what happens when you get too busy to blog).  It's gonna be a long one, so strap in.

Sweet Corn!  We picked and shucked and picked and shucked, and my cousin Brenda and hubster Jeff came from Omaha to help out.  And you can see the Willow and Friday helped as well.

We put in 70 pints while they were here.  They took part of it and some corn still in the husks with them.  They brought me this cool planter they had made.  One side has the Bentley Farms logo on it and the back side has Chiefs on it.  I need to get a better picture because it has really pretty flowers in it now.

After they left, we picked more corn and headed north.  

Packing was tricky because we had 2 coolers of corn, 2 bags of corn, 2 tubs and 2 boxes of fabric that my aunt sent for my mom, 3 quilts I had quilted for my mom, and then clothes and stuff.

Our first stop was Bethany where we unloaded the fabric and 2 bags of corn.  I helped my mom sort fabric and David tried (unsuccessfully) to help my dad get his mower going.  That evening was the first night of my 40 year high school reunion.  There were 65 in my class and this is the crowd from Friday evening.  It was sobering to realize that a little over 10% have already died.

The next morning we headed on to Jefferson to see Deb's family.  Tucker is the cutest!

We got to see Jackson and Carmyn's house (Uncle David had to help with some electrical work and I got to help hang curtains).  That evening we all went to the casino for dinner and a show.  Around the table - Debbie, Chad, Carter and girlfriend Morgan, Carmyn, Jackson, and David and I.

We also got to visit Chad's shop where I found many wonderful items that somehow made their way home with me.

I brought back 2 flags, one for Sarah, and this one found a place in my garden.  One our drive back, we got a text that peaches were ready to pick, so that was Wednesday's project.  Of course, I had already done another 30 pints of corn and picked my blackberries.  David decided we needed a juicer, and that was ordered and arrived in time to try making peach juice and then peach syrup.  

I have been peeling a dish pan a day as they ripen and still have about half of these left.  More syrup will be happening.

Then it was blackberries Friday morning.  A friend called and invited me to pick.  So now we have 18 quart bags in the freezer and some blackberry syrup.

Yes, the freezer is getting full.  My mom and Dad came down Saturday to see Sarah since she was home for the weekend to see the kittens.  I managed to send the remaining sweet corn, 7 bags of frozen corn, 2 bags of blackberries, 2 pints of peach syrup, 1 pint of blackberry syrup, and a box of peaches home with them.

And now for the really important photos you've been waiting for..............

This is Harry Potter.  David keeps saying it has to be a girl since it has 3 colors, but we've both checked and double checked and Harry is a boy.  Note the white streak of lightning on his forehead.  

And this is Sirius Black.  He has the longest hair of the bunch.  There is just a little patch of white under his neck.

And the girls.............This is Minnie.  She is Mabel's Mini Me and is the smallest of the lot.  She has pretty long soft hair like Mabel.

This is Maxie.  If she had been a boy, she would have been Harry Potter (better lightning scar).

And this is Ziggy.  She might be Sarah's favorite.  Sarah played with them non-stop this weekend and even had them sleeping in her room.  

And this is what they looked like after Sarah left this afternoon.  I had forgotten how noisy one little (27-year-old) girl with five kittens could be.

Not a lot has been happening in the sewing room with all the harvesting going on.  (Oh, I forgot to mention that we've picked peas twice and I put some in the freezer prior to starting this blog.)

I did get some of the block lotto blocks made for the August meeting.  The pattern is garlic knots.

Here are my 6, all scrappy!  We are heading into a week of extreme high temps, so I imagine Willow and all the kittens will be in the house quite a lot.  David and I are heading to Marshall Dry Goods in Batesville, Arkansas on Tuesday and will be back on Wednesday.  I'm in needing batting.  I'm working at the Community Center tomorrow filling in for someone on vacation.  So am not looking at too much sewing this week either. Oh well.  Maybe it's a winter sport.

Christi

Waste Not, Want Not

 My cousin gave me this wonderful old quilt and asked if I could make some Mondo bags with it.  It was so soft and worn and just really cute.  She gave me an old curtain to use as the lining.  I decided to quilt the lining to give the bags more stability since the quilt itself was very thing in some places where the batting had basically disappeared.  I later realized that this meant there were chunks of batting in other places.  

I love repurposing old things.  Most of the curtain fabric is gone.  There is still a good portion of the quilt left.  I even used the quilt borders for the handles, which while cute, were problematic as far as the uneven distribution of batting mentioned earlier.  

I think the remainder of the quilt will make some nice bags and zipper pouches, but no more mondo bags.  

I also did this sling bag that my sister said she likes.  This was way more trouble than it was worth I think.  I tried a second one with clear vinyl that she could take to the US track and field championships, but midway through decided that wasn't happening.

The Dan's Journey wall hanging is complete.  The little stars were from scraps of another project and measure 3" finished.

And the reindeer pillow is finished.  It turned out very cute, and I wouldn't want to make anything very large with that brown fur fabric.  It shed a lot when you cut it and was very stretchy.

TTFN,

Christi

4th of July Happenings!

 Well, it all started out with this...........

Our sweet corn was ready (after battling the coons and a possum) so I fixed a nice shrimp boil for lunch on July 2nd.  We did get some human hair from the hairdressers in town, and that seems to have deterred the wildlife corn patch parties somewhat.

That evening, we realized the refrigerator wasn't working and probably hadn't been working correctly for some time.  We had thrown out so much stuff that soured or molded way too quickly and I poured some milk into the mac and cheese I was making and it was chunky and still had 5 days to go before expiration.  So, we dumped most everything and cleaned out the freezer (which was still working), and early on the morning of the 3rd, I headed to the appliance store for a new frig.  When I was told they might not be able to deliver it that day, I kindly informed them that I would be purchasing a new frig somewhere and getting it delivered that day.  This beauty was installed by 10:30 that morning!  She was a pricey thing and has more stuff than we needed, but I was taking what was available that fit my spot.  No we didn't hook up the wifi for it.  

I didn't realize until they plugged it in that it had wonderful honeycomb lighting on the back panel.  This I LIKE!

It also has a door that opens for just the shelves so you can just pull out your milk or whatever without having to open the whole frig.  Didn't need this, but I have it.

And Mabel's kittens celebrated their one week birthday on the 4th!  They all have names now.  We have Harry Potter, Sirius Black, Minnie, Maxie, and Ziggy.

David's twin sister came up from Texas for 8 days.  So we spent the evening of the 4th over there.

One of his great nephews got to come over and see the kittens.

They are supposed to be living outside in the shed.  I did bring them in during the hottest afternoons, but Mabel has been bringing them up to the patio where Friday gets a hold of them.  Sunday morning I caught him trying to plant Minnie in the flower bed.  Then David caught him with Maxie.  So, we brought them in before we left for church.  When we got home, the box was empty!

We found them all tucked (piled on top of each other) in my deer antler basket.  So, now all the baskets are put away for awhile.  

This morning, I found Mabel in a tussle with Friday and then noticed Willow guarding a kitten.  It was very wet and muddy as was Mabel, so she was obviously trying to keep the kitten from Friday.  I brought it in and went to get the remaining ones.  I thought it was a black one, but both of those were in the box, so discovered it was Harry Potter who now looked black because of all the mud.  So, Harry Potter has had his first bath.  These kittens are using up their nine lives at a rapid rate.  We'll see if we can keep Friday in check.

Christi

Quilts and Kittens

Mabel and her kittens have been successfully moved outside to the shed.  It was a little bit of a shock to Mabel who had been totally inside for over a month, but we definitely don't need 8 cats in the house.  Mabel was always supposed to be an outside cat who got to come in and hang out some.  She didn't think too much of the situation at first, but has adapted once she realized that she could come in and visit a couple of times during the day.  She always helps herself to food and water (not that she doesn't have those right beside her box in the shed), and manages to use the inside litter boxes (there is one in the shed as well).  But this way, Willow can "check" on her from time to time.  I like to go out and sit beside her and watch the kittens too.  This one fell asleep in my hand!

 And now we're moving on to quilts, but another animal is involved.

I made the smaller version of the Love Stinks (Art East pattern) quilt.  It's a baby quilt.  So cute!  I stitched it up in an afternoon.  It's waiting to be quilted.  I need to cut some backing and batting, but the binding is made.

I cleaned my sewing room and was putting completed patterns back in binders which led to some reorganization of binders which led to looking at all my patterns, which led to cutting this small Kim Diehl pattern from my reproduction scraps.  It will need to get sewn together soon as I don't have very good luck leaving quilts laid out on the floor.

And both basketball quilts (Slam Dunk pattern by Cluck, Cluck, Sew) are finished!!!!  The fronts are just slightly different.

They have flannel backs.  I purchased these at JoAnns right when they started their sale.  There wasn't enough of either bolt to do both quilts, so the backs are different.  I can't quite decide which one I like best.

Well, Willow, Princess Leia, Cici, and Esme have all been brushed and Cici and Esme got baths.  Mabel tried for a bath, but was denied.  Laundry is going.  Gulf shrimp are thawing for a shrimp boil at lunch.  We are having our first sweet corn in the boil!  We're trying to beat the coons to it, but it's just not quite ready yet.  That doesn't seem to be stopping the coons though.  David has some pork on the smoker to make some pulled pork for next week.  Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Christi