Graduation Day 2020 - Finally!

Sarah finally got to graduate from college!  We traveled to Rolla - I don't miss that winding curving drive - on Friday evening, July 30th and spent the night so that we could arrive at the campus by 8 am for the 9 am ceremony on Saturday.

She was limited to 4 guests, so my cousins Pam and Susie drove down to witness the event with us.

Masks were required, but at least we finally got to do it.

And you can see by the empty seats just how few grads came back to walk across the stage.

I tried to get her to High Five St. Patrick, but she was getting tired of all the hoopla.

I was lucky to get the photos I did with some actual smiles.

 It was a quick 24 hours as we were hurrying to get back home since David had new little pigs to take care of.  

And sometime during late July and early August, I finished this quilt top...........

This is Edyta Sitar's mystery quilt, from Laundry Basket Quilts.  I had the center done, but those stars around the border seemed to take forever.  

And, of course, here is your photo of Cici........guarding the sewing room from the top step.

I love driving up our long driveway now.  The corn is so tall on both sides........it's like my very own Spirit Tunnel!  Of course, it's turned a lot browner now than when these photos were taken.  The hubs says it will still probably be the first of October before combining starts, if Willow doesn't have it all taken care of that is!  She and I have been walking the drive more frequently as the temps have cooled down.  

I'm sure she's spending some time napping today as she must be exhausted from all the barking last night.  A small possum had gotten caught in the coon trap, and Willow had to do her part by barking at it.  

I survived the grocery shopping yesterday.  You know your list is too long if you have to take a bathroom break about halfway through the grocery aisles.  Amazingly enough I was able to get all but one thing on my list........and of course, I but multiples of the things on my list because you never know what might be missing the next time.  

Sarah made it back to St. Louis safely, but still no internet.  She has had an interesting morning.  She had to pick her cousin Jacob up early as his car had died in the seminary library parking lot.  So, she got to work in the library for awhile, then had to report to the lobby of her office to pick up a rapid covid test, shirt, hat, and mask for the golf clinic she is volunteering at on Thursday.  She then headed to the public library to work and try to take her covid test.  Apparently it's quite the deal..........you have to get online, and then there is a wait, you can't even open the test until your turn comes up.  She hasn't been successful yet, but has to get it done and uploaded by tonight.  

I'm expecting a call this evening, probably a video call, so that I can tell her how to alter her mask to make it fit, and then, the shirt - they gave her a medium.  I'm sure it will swallow her.  She has a sewing machine there, but I can't imagine trying to give her enough instruction to sew the sides up a little to make it smaller.  It could be an interesting phone call!

Doing some house cleaning tonight as piano starts tomorrow.  I have 11 lessons tomorrow.  Surely I will remember how to play the piano after that many lessons!

Christi

New Leaf for Labor Day

 Yes folks, we're trying again to keep the blog going.  I write a lot of posts - in my head - throughout the day, but somehow they never make it to the computer.  So, this morning, Labor Day, I'm making it a priority.  Well, sort of ............. I have already put a batch of banana bread in the oven - it's almost done and smelling sooooooooooo good, put potatoes in the oven to make twice baked potatoes for lunch, put the sun tea pitcher out - I'm sure it will be extra good tea because it was out to catch the sunrise, and I have walked Willow and played with her and fed and watered all the pets.  (Ooops, Cici is watching over my shoulder and is very upset by that last statement since her dishes haven't been checked yet this morning!  I should amend that to say OUTSIDE pets.)  And, I have a load of laundry to transfer to the dryer.  So, what has happened in the last month or so?

Some quilts have been quilted.............

I love how this flag quilt turned out.  This was a quilt-along that I wasn't going to participate in.  Then I saw my friend Mary making hers and it looked so fun and it was a quick sew.  It's quilted and completely finished now.  I used red and blue homespuns (I have been trying to use up that tub of homespuns.) with some muslin scraps for the flags and then purchased the border/sashing fabric.  This was the quilt I had on the longarm when a little storm blew up and my power went out..........almost at the end of a row, with only a couple of rows left to quilt.  So, I LEARNED how to restart, reposition, and get it going again, and I have to say that I'm not sure I can even find the spot where it happened, so GOOD JOB!  I'm planning to put this one in the quilt show in October.

This quilt is also complete now.  It had been hanging in the TBQ closet for at least a year.  I was auditioning thread colors for the quilting here.  I went with the military gold and it turned out nicely.  It will soon be gifted to someone special.

The braided table runner is also finished and is now on the coffee table.  This was fun to make, but I'm not sure I'd want to do a whole braided quilt.  I may put this one in our quilt show in October.

This pillow was also completed and has already been gifted to a cousin.  She already has another pillow this size that I did for Valentine's Day, so she can now just change this out for Chrismas............am I way ahead of the game or what?  Let's please not mention all the holidays that came between Valentine's and Christmas that didn't get pillows made for them.

And Cici has been the ever watchful helper in the sewing room.  Lucey the Longarm makes quite a lot of noise, so Cici usually retreats to the cat tower in Sarah's room where it's a little quieter.

And of course Willow keeps us busy.  She celebrated her birthday at the end of July (there are photos somewhere, but they haven't been downloaded to the computer yet).  

She appreciated the air conditioning this summer.

And, she has discovered corn (like that's a BIG discovery considering it's on all 4 sides of the house).  She rolled in the husks from the sweet corn which precipitated the need for a bath.

Now that the sweet corn is gone, she is harvesting field corn.  I really don't know why we have the big green machine when we have Willow!  She brings in a stalk every night and proceeds to dismantle it on the deck.  We just returned from being at my parents overnight to find the deck looking like a harvested corn field.  Could have used the shovel instead of a broom to get it cleaned.  

That's all for now.  I do have a boatload of photos to get downloaded, so hopefully more posts will come soon.

My day will be spent getting Sarah ready to go back to St. Louis.  She arrived home earlier than expected last week due to the loss of internet at her apartment from a lightning strike last Monday.  It's still not fixed, but they are hoping soon.  She has to be back in St. Lou for some things tomorrow, so may be spending another day in the library at the seminary (courtesy of cousin Jacob) to use their internet to work.

I'm also headed to the grocery store this morning.  I absolutely HATE grocery shopping, so have made an absolutely HUGE list that will hopefully keep us for awhile.  Of course, I'm going to Walmart, so I expect to find empty shelves and some things totally unavailable which is why it is my custom now to purchase multiples of the things on my list that I do find.  Ah well, it's all an adventure!

Christi

Something New

 Well, I'm finally getting around to writing a blog post to see if the new set up works.  Of course, I don't really know how I will know if it's working or not.............??

So, to catch you up........Willow is still a joy to have around...........especially when she's sleeping!

Right Cici?  

Willow's favorite thing to do is go for a car ride.  The UPS truck driver has learned not to give her a treat until he's ready to leave and then he tosses the treat out into the yard to get Willow out of his truck.  

Work has been very busy this summer.  We've had lots more people in for museum tours.  We also got new computers, so that took a lot of time to get set up.  The picture of Cici above is my new screen saver at work!  No matter how difficult things get, if your cat is looking at you upside down, it makes life better.

David and I did get away for a weekend (after the vacation cancellation).  We traveled to Hannibal.  The hotel was awful - both rooms they put us in - at least the second one had some air conditioning.  The best food we had the whole weekend was the free ice cream cone in the Dutch Country Store.  But the sights were fun.

We climbed ALL the steps to the top of the Mark Twain lighthouse (then realizing we could have driven to the top!)

The view of the Mississippi was beautiful!

You can read all about the light house here...........including the number of steps we climbed!

Ever since our trip to Maine several years ago, I have had a thing for lighthouses.  We also saw the new bridge.  You can read about it here...........

And this is the statue of Huck and Tom at the bottom of the lighthouse hill.

We also enjoyed the view from Lover's Leap............

We took an evening riverboat dinner cruise.  It was fun.  The music was good, the food was OK, but some of the people were obnoxious.

Our shadows walked down the ramp in front of us!

There were a few neat little shops in the historic district.  Otherwise, Hannibal is not a very pretty town, lots of old abandoned buildings.  It does have THREE quilt shops though.  I liked this quilt that was hanging in the Hickory Stick Quilt Shop.

And this one in the window of Bits & Pieces.  The third shop was called Batting by the Roll and it was open only on Thursdays or by appointment, so we didn't get in to see that one.

I have more to show and tell, but I'll post this for now to see if it's working..........if I can figure out how to tell.

Christi

Trying Something New

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Christi

Oops! I did it again!

 You know that big rain I mentioned in the last post, well we think what precipitated it was the washing of all the windows on the house!  I had started by washing 2-3 windows and that had only brought thunder and lightning, so the hubs was bored and he washed all the windows on the main floor, including the ones I had previously washed (due to having a large puppy named Willow, you couldn't really tell that I had washed them)............. the power of washing windows!

On Monday this week, I washed the car.  On Tuesday, I washed a few windows that needed it again (need I say, Willow!), and on Wednesday, I washed Willow!  And then it rained Wednesday evening.  And I hadn't realized that the hubs had his planter prepped and reloaded to replant some beans that had been washed out by the previous flood!  So now, we're in the waiting game again to hopefully have it dry enough to replant beans.  And, the weekend trip (replacing our vacation) to St. Louis is off.  What can I say?  How about this...........I solemnly promise to never clean or wash anything AGAIN!

We did have beautiful weather for the 4th.  We cooked out, and enjoyed the outdoors.  Of course, by the time the actual 4th rolled around, my allergies were in high gear.  OUTSIDE is just not my best side!  

We also attended a production of Greater Tuna at the Maples Theatre in Macon with my parents on Saturday afternoon with lunch out and a stop at Ben Franklin to look at fabric.

Some sewing has happened in little bits and spirts...........

My snowflake quilt is completely finished.  I love this snowflake meander quilting pattern and the light silvery gray thread makes it show up.

And in keeping a little more with the season, I have the flag blocks for my flag quilt finished.  I used red and blue homespuns and muslin.  I still need to find something to set them together with.  My trip to Sew Sweet a couple of weeks ago was cancelled due to the flooding, or this might have been a completed flimsy by the 4th.

The braided table runner got trimmed and a border added.  It's ready for quilting and will just have a scrap of muslin on the back.

This was the first table runner from the one pound scrap bag.  I used some of the scraps on the back as well.  This is also the July tablerunner of the month at Sew Sweet.

And another started project got all of the blocks completed.

These spools are 12" finished blocks that were started as part of a block exchange with my guild.  We were supposed to bring a certain color of spool to each meeting and exchange.  Well, I got the first month's finished and forgot to bring it to the meeting.  Then, I missed the next meeting, then I brought the wrong color (and hid it so no one would know), so finally decided that I was not meant to participate in the exchanging of blocks.  I pulled the box of parts (basically everything was cut except the colors) out and finished them in no time this week.  I have an idea of how to set them together using some more of my scraps.

So, there is quite a pile of completed blocks in the sewing room, which means there will soon be more things hanging in the TBQ closet, which seems to only be growing, so I probably need to spend some time with Lucey the Longarm..........

Good thing we're not taking a vacation!  And for those of you saying that just like in Field of Dreams, "If you book it, he will come.", that truly is a Field of Dreams.  

Well, it's Thursday again, so I have promised Willow another trip.  I think we'll head to Orschlens.  I need to look at a couple of things and we need more dog shampoo, bacon bones, and possibly a new toy.  Three different toys seem to have exploded their stuffing all over the floor in the past couple of weeks.  Perhaps we'll look for something with a little more durability.  

Oh, and you don't have to worry about the applesauce, it's all done and in the freezer.....about 35 pints.  I even managed to arrange the freezer with last year's applesauce in the front and the new stuff in the back.  Yeah, we pretty much doubled the amount of applesauce in the freezer.  Guess "things" will be flowing smoothly for awhile.

Christi

Best Laid Plans

 You know that saying, "The Best Laid Plans" from the Robert Burns poem, "To a Mouse"?  Well, we have been experiencing that here in spades (note the "in spades" expression from the card game bridge!).  We went to bed on a Thursday evening, knowing it was supposed to rain a little and woke up to this.........

The road to the East of our house..........

The road to the West of our house............

That's what 10+ inches of rain in less than 12 hours will do!  So, we didn't go anywhere last Friday.  In the late afternoon, the water went down to the East, which was good so that the feed truck could get here.  It took a few days for the road to the West to reappear!

And in keeping with our theme of "The Best Laid Plans", we have now cancelled our summer vacation.  The plan had been to pick up Sarah and head south to New Orleans in a week, stopping to see stuff along the way.  The week had been selected because we would be without pigs.  However, apparently the sows have been producing like rabbits and they are weaning an average of 13 pigs per litter, so pigs are arriving early.  There was just no way to fit in a vacation between groups this time.  We are settling for a weekend of fun in St. Louis.  And, now we don't have to rush to get the applesauce done, or worry about the sweet corn being ready without us, and I can still judge at the county fair, and go to the cattle show to watch some of my favorite ladies show their cattle (ok, we're trying for the lemonade here).  The only one who was thrilled with the cancellation was Willow.  She wasn't sure she could make it 5 days without us being here.  Also, David and Sarah are glad I was adamant about not booking our hotels and tickets without the ability to cancel, so we are getting our money back.

We have had so much rain the last week, that it has been hard to spend time with Willow since she isn't at all afraid of water and mud, but doesn't understand why she can't come inside.  So, yesterday I took her on a little road trip.

I just had a couple of errands that didn't entail a lot of time in a store, so we spent the trip together.  We're practicing so that she can go with us on vacation in the future!

We followed the hubster out the driveway.  He was transporting a couple of pigs to another barn to be loaded on a truck next week.  Notice the corn on the left.........it's not quite as "high as an elephant's eye" (Rogers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma), but I think it grew a foot overnight......sort of like my teenage nephews do from time to time.

In the sewing room yesterday, I worked on a braided table runner pattern that I had picked up at the KC quilt show I attended in June.  I used the fabrics that I bought in my bag of scraps that were sold by the pound!  

I got the 2 strips done and then had to "braid" them together.  I was sewing the flying geese star points of another quilt as leader/enders.

Partial seams were involve, but it worked!

It still needs trimming and a border.  I used the scraps left from the pound bag of scraps and have already made another table runner and it is quilted and on a table.  That's a pound of fabric that went quickly!  Photo to come.  

And where was my assistant?  I think the lack of sunshine this past week has gotten to her.  She spends lots of time napping in the window seat hoping the sun will hit her.

Have a fun fourth weekend!

Christi