Monday, October 31, 2011

A whirlwind of activity!

That's what it has seemed like around here. LOL Week before last I sewed five more tote bags for the veterans. I worked in the yard--dug grass burrs, mowed and weed eated. Cleaned house. All in preparation of company coming. Larry's parents came and most of our kids and all their children. We had Mason and Paisley Friday and Saturday nights. Mac and Aimee spent Saturday night with us. Amanda and John brought pumpkins for them to carve and they had a good time doing that.
Okay, can you see Paisley marking on herself with her marker? Caught her in the act.




Paisley is scooping out the "guts" of her pumpkin. She really got into this activity!

On a sadder note--one of the ladies in our quilt guild suddenly died and her funeral was Friday afternoon. Then Larry's employer passed away Wed. and his funeral was Saturday. I was so busy getting things ready that I didn't think my menu through enough. Forgot to buy bread. I made biscuits. I forgot to buy cream of chicken soup. We managed without it.  No one (hopefully)knew the difference. : )  All in all it was a great weekend.

We have had some FOG several mornings. We're talking thick! It didn't burn off until almost 11am. 

How 'bout those Texas Rangers? Are you watching the World Series? I haven't got a clue most of time what most of any of it means. LOL Not a good baseball follower. Update: It was intense watching some of the games especially the 7th one! Of course, I wish they had won the Series but since they didn't maybe next year.

I've washed laundry and hung out on the clothesline AFTER the fog lifted. I got things put away and picked up after the weekend. I will put the clean sheets on the guest bed. Larry has been home since last Thursday. Since his employer had passed away and the shop is relatively close to their house they thought they would allow the family some private time without all the noise and also allow more parking for extra family and friends coming. SO you gals know what it's like to try and clean or do ANYTHING around a man. Extra patience is required. LOL And the questions--what are you doing now? What are doing that for? Why don't you do it this way?

I told you I would keep you posted about Larry's hip replacement surgery. He's had the x-rays done for the first diagnostic visit. We have an appointment with the DARS rep this Friday morning to discuss the plan of action. Woohoo! Update: We attended our appointment. Doc wants more x-rays -- of his knees now. Hopefully things will start progressing.

This post started out week before last. It got pushed to the back burner. LOL  Hence the updates.

So, I will add recent activities and not put off posting for another week. LOL  Would you believe I have  done very little sewing? I patched some of Larry's bib overalls and sewed one more tote and turned it in. Our total totes 194 and possibly some others will be turned in. What have I been doing? Working outside! The weather is gorgeous. I have declared war on the sunflowers again. Seems like this battle is never ending. I tried pulling them up before the rains and it was impossible (they just broke off or worse didn't budge) not to mention too hot to be outside much less pulling weeds. So with the wonderful rains we've had the conditions are perfect. I got a lot done over the weekend and hope to get more done today.

Since Larry took off for his appointment Friday we used the day to get other errands done. We both needed new tennis shoes and Beall's had a good sale. A trip to Tractor Supply, of course, for stuff for the pigs. A trip to the feed store and then it was time for lunch. We tried a new place in Bridgeport called Rock City Burgers. We got the jalapeno bun. Very tasty.


Blessings,

Sunday, October 16, 2011

We were busy little bees!

That we were! Yesterday was a work day at guild. We needed to finish up our charitable projects. The last two years we have provided the local DAV auxillary with 200 tote bags for veterans. They fill them with whatever they fill them with and gift them to veterans in the hospital. Most of the totes had been made-- just needed a few more. Isn't it always just a few more? Like a bad dream. Just a few more. Chasing you through the night hours -- just a few more. I think several of us had dreams like that last week. LOL  I brought a few more home to do-- oh, dear.  I hope to get them out in the next few days so I can move on to MY projects. Yeah.

We also worked on Christmas stockings for C.A.S.A.  We estimated 100 needed. We got the bulk of them done yesterday. Woohoo! Lots of talking, eating, laughing, and humming of sewing machines.

It was a very good productive day. Guess what happens next month on meeting day. BUS TRIP! Oh, yeah! I will report every detail. And hopefully have pictures. Because as you see I didn't take my camera yesterday. I had too much stuff to pack and carry. Yeah, that's my story and I staying with it.

Blessings,

Monday, October 10, 2011

Rain!

And lots of it! It started raining late Saturday afternoon and didn't stop until Sunday morning. So wonderful. When Larry (DH) went out Sunday morning to check the rain gauge it was over-flowing! It holds 5 to 6 inches. Praise the Lord.
 Remember this quilt?

Our darling granddaughter Aimee came and spent Friday and Saturday nights with us. Her mom and dad were celebrating their wedding anniversary. Congrats, kids. We had such fun. She wanted to sew. =D A girl after mine own heart. I prepared the backing for her quilt Friday afternoon before she arrived. BUT before the sewing could begin--there was the usual everyday stuff that had to be taken care of like feeding animals, preparing our evening meal, cleaning up afterwards, etc. Then I asked what they wanted for breakfast - sausage and pancakes- okay. Went out to the freezer. Uhoh! Things in freezer thawing. Not good. Relayed bad news to Larry aka DH. We begin process of transferring items from non-working freezer to other freezer and freezer section of refrigerator. I wound up with a large bowl of meat that had thawed too much to refreeze so I made room in the refrigerator. After getting all that moved around it was 8pm and I really didn't want to start sewing that late ALTHOUGH Aimee really wanted to. I convinced her we would sew the next day.

Saturday morning--I had bananas that needing baking into banana bread after cooking breakfast. Got that done. I had promised Larry and Aimee chocolate chips cookies. Got those started with Aimee's help. We had a late lunch of leftover chicken and spaghetti. I asked her to go with Papaw to the feed store. She did. While they were gone I prepared one of the round steaks that had thawed for smothered steak. Got that in the crock pot for our evening meal. Now all set for sewing!

I had some pieces of batting that needed whip stitched together to use for small quilts. So Aimee and I got one whip stitched for her quilt. Then we layered the backing, batting and top and safety pinned in a few places. I found some yellow embroidery floss that would work. She had wanted me to machine quilt her quilt but I thought it might be fun for us to tie it. Saturday afternoon we tied. And we tied. And we tied. We took a break. She went with Papaw to feed the animals and I got our meal together. Just as they got outside it thundered and the bottom fell out. They got soaking wet and enjoyed every minute of it!

To make a long story short--the tying was finished Saturday night. I had planned on turning the backing forward for binding. I miscalculated. Oh no! I didn't allow enough for the top and bottom. So Sunday I had to make binding. Aimee did help sew the strips together. We had to stop and help Larry in between. We had so much rain the weaned pigs were standing in water. He made a pen for them in a dry area. Aimee and I helped transfer them. Funny little squealing pigs! Then it was lunch time. Pork chops (that had thawed) with rice.

Then we pressed the binding--pressing the seams open and then pressing in half. But the sewing had to wait. Sigh. Larry aka DH had sold a pig and had an appointment to get it to the butcher. He loaded her while we were pressing. We rode with him to Weatherford. I wanted to go just in case he needed any help. Last Wednesday we had another hog to deliver to a butcher in Muenster. Had a blow-out on the trailer just a little over half way there. No spare. Limped on in and made to the butcher before they closed. Whew! The butcher knew of a mom and pop tire shop just a few blocks over. He made the call. Praise the Lord, they fixed us right up with a used tire and we were on our way. So I had wanted to go along JUST in case he had a repeat of Wednesday evening. The other tires on the trailer--yeah--need replacing. One of these days.

Back to the quilt--I decided it would be best for me to machine sew the binding on.  I got that done when we returned from Weatherford. Just in time before we needed to meet Aimee's folks in Jacksboro. Whew!

Today, I turned the binding and finished it by machine. Not the best job I have done. : (  But it will have to do. It is in the washer now and then I will toss in the dryer.

Now to finish the C.A.S.A. quilt I machine quilted last week. It needs trimming, binding, washing and drying. Then to make a backing for another C.A.S.A. quilt and pin it on the frame and quilt. But that quilt will wait for tomorrow.

I hope and pray that you've had rain if you needed it and of course as always--

Blessings,