No, I didn't die............

So you know you are really behind on the blog when you get a message from another country asking if you're ok or just really busy.  So, it's definitely past time to catch up.

First, let me show you which of the Stars and Stripes entries from the last post (over a month ago) was mine.............

 

Yes, I had to be someone who varied from the norm (Patriotic) and stretch the rules to do something different.  I titled it "What a Friend We have in Jesus" because I used a friendship star at the top and the stripes were in Joseph's robe.  I even did custom quilting on it.

Below is the entry that won.  This is a smaller version of the exploding heart pattern that everyone is making now.

The person who messaged me indicated that I must be really busy in my sewing room and that's why I haven't had time to blog.  Well, I have been busy but it wasn't necessarily with sewing.  I have quilted some things for my mom, and I got new windows installed which necessitated moving everything and covering everything up, and I have a new sewing machine and cabinet!  Yes, I actually have a machine with automatic thread cutting and needle up/down, and a bunch of other stuff that I haven't figured out yet.  

I did get these 2 tops finished at our October retreat.  The first is called Vintage Chic and the second is Flower Toss.  They're not quilted yet because I'm having trouble deciding on backings for them.  Both patterns were from the same book.  The top one used a jelly roll and the bottom used a layer cake.

David did get done with harvest in what seemed like record time without too many breakdowns.  It might have been the easiest harvest in our marriage.

It was a very dusty bean season.  Sarah and Aaron came to visit one weekend.  We did our mother/daughter matching shirts.

David and I and my sister Deb and Chad, and their oldest Carter (the track star) all met in Bethany on the 31st to cut wood for Mom and Dad.  It was a drizzly day, and you can't really tell it from the photo, but we did get his wood shed pretty full.  I think we did 5 trees and split it all too.

The sewing room window install only took a couple of days, but it was very distressing for the cats.  Harry Potter made his way to our bed to take shelter.............

Esme hid in the closet under the hanging clothes...........

And Mabel hid in the basement on top of a pile of basket reed.

We also spent some time making our basement rooms more usable and comfortable.  We got rid of the old mauve recliner I had purchased when I first moved to Marshall over 30 years ago and got this nice love seat.  

You can see it works well.  We've also added an electric fireplace, mounted the tv on the wall, and moved my sewing machine to a better location.  I also cleaned out some file drawers and all of the cabinets and shelves down there.  It was a good feeling to have it all organized.  There are even some empty drawers!

On a very sad note, we had to say goodbye to Friday yesterday.  We think he got hit by a car and his right front elbow was severely broken.  There were really no good options but to let him go.  He will be missed especially by Willow.  

Well, that will mostly catch us up since the last blog.  I do have about a million pictures of quilts from our quilt show in October that I plan to share sometime in the next couple of days.

Christi

Sneak Peak

 First off....................Yeah!  The Chief's won on Sunday and are still undefeated!!!!

Here's something I made for the tailgate party...........

And they were all gone as were the 2 plates of deviled eggs.

So we have a quilt guild meeting tonight and it's the reveal of our challenge projects.  This year's challenge (I'm on the committee) was called Stars and Stripes Forever in honor of the nation's birthday.  The rules were that you had to have at least one star and at least one stripe and it couldn't be over 42" square and you did not have to use patriotic fabrics of colors.  Would you like to see the entries?  I have pics of all of them.  Maybe you can guess which one is mine.  Here we go!

Well, what did you think of all that star and stripe creativity?  I can't tell you which one is mine yet.  I'll do another post later this week with the answers!

My sister called last night.  They had helped Carter's girlfriend, Morgan move from DesMoines to Cedar Falls over the weekend.  She is going to Florida later this week to start her last internship before graduating with her physical therapy degree in December.  I had asked Deb to check everything out and see what kind of quilt she might need for graduation.  She said she would like a throw size with purple.

Hallelujah!  I had just the thing already made and waiting.  This is Star Trails.  I loved making this quilt and have wanted to make another sometime, but didn't see the need since this one was still tucked away in the closet.  So I was thrilled to know it was just what Morgan would like.

Well, hopefully bean harvest will start today if he gets the combine running😦.  

Please don't tell anyone about the sneak peak of the challenge quilts.  I'll get back to you with the results.

Christi

Kansas State Fair

 Let's travel back in time a little more and I'll show my pics from the Kansas State Fair.  We attended with our friends, one of whom is a vet who grew up in Kansas and has attended every year, several times volunteering in the veterinary building.  She has lots of traditional things she liked to do, so it was fun to share it with her.

The guys spent some time going through the machinery, while we visited the domestic arts building.  There was some really neat cross stitch.  I took a picture of this Harry Potter themed one.

And then there was quite a lot of quilting that was well displayed.  Only one was hanging upside down.  (I've quit putting quilts in the Missouri State Fair simply because of the lack of care they show for displaying things.)

I thought the wall hanging below was quite clever.

And this t-shirt quilt caught me attention with the way they did the shirts in a swirl.

And it had more on the back.  I didn't care for the quilting though.

Below is the grand champion and the next photo is the back of it.  It was quite something.

We also went into the 4-H building.  Wow!  Was it ever impressive.  I took several photos to show Sarah, so these will feature more of the "sciency" stuff.

Case after case of Legos............

And this charcuterie board.............had fishing lures in it!  Sent that to my brother-in-law who makes these.

The sewing/quilting/knit/crochet was also impressive.  I took pics of this crocheted costume of Toothless from How to Train your Dragon.............

and from the back............

It was a huge building and was totally full.  There were at least 1000 photos, over 50 bug boxes and even more rock boxes and it was all very well displayed.  Again, it made Missouri look sad.

We got into Kansas politics as there was a debate going on that had drawn quite a cheering/booing crowd.  It will be interesting to see how the election comes out.  

We visited the vet building which I thought would just be a building where you could ask questions of the vets volunteering to staff it, but it was actually a birthing center.  They had all sorts of animals and I got to see new born calves, lambs, and more.  They had seating where you could just sit and watch.  I could have spent the day in there.

Meet Rosie who I visited in the cattle barn twice and each time she was more than happy to suck on my fingers.  

We were also going to ride the Old Mill ride, a long-standing tradition of my friends.  It is a permanent fixture on the fairground since the 1950's.  We were in line, and just as we got up to the entrance, they closed it down because it had stopped and needed repaired.  So we missed that tradition.

It was a fun weekend in Kansas.  We checked out interesting restaurants, played cards, and visited a castle.  There is more to Kansas than I had thought.

Since my last post, I have returned to the sewing room.  I cleared away the 4 bags of t-shirts I have been given to make a quilt.  I rough cut them to get rid of the excess, and now have a much smaller pile of usable parts stored in the closet until I'm ready for a game of Tetris to see how to fit them together.  I also made the backing for Mom's Christmas quilt and hung that fabric up.  Then I opened one of the project boxes I had last worked on at the retreat before Labor Day and sat down and actually sewed quilt blocks!  It was such an amazing feeling.  I sewed 40 sets of 4 half square triangles.  They still have to be trimmed, but I have decided the fabric is so pretty that I want to sew an extra seam before trimming them to save the bonus triangles.  Anyway, it was a really good feeling.

Busy day at church today.............my bell choir is performing for the first time this season, we are on the hospitality team for greeting and ushering, and it is the church tailgate party, so I have food ready to take.  It is kind of fun to get to wear jeans and my Chief's shirt to church.  And of course, we'll watch the game this afternoon.  Chief's vs. Raiders, 2 unbeaten teams!  

Well, it's time to grab some breakfast and hit the shower to get the day started.

Christi