Happy Birthday Adam!

Enjoy your day!

Pretty dishes

Aren't these pretty? I hate to put food on them!

Ice is gone - here comes the water.

This is the creek in the summertime . . .

This is the creek today - way over the banks . . .

And this isn't a creek . . . just the field down the road from our house . . .
Fortunately there are no crops in the fields to be ruined. And there doesn't seem to be rain in the forecast for the next few days.

O Holy Night

Firewood carrier

We got tired of lugging piles of firewood into the house (like we do it all the time - we've had maybe 5 fires) by just grabbing it. Very awkward (that word looks awkward) and you get dirty. So I made a carrier...

Ice Storm

We didn't get much snow this time and only a couple inches were on the ground from Tuesday's snow. But we got lots of freezing rain. The trees were covered and all the branches weighted down. When I went out to inspect the damage (carefully - making sure I didn't go under any trees!), every few minutes you could hear limbs snap and then the crackling of the ice as the limb fell through the tree to the ground. Plunk. What a sight.

Worse than it looks... really heavy limb with lots of parts, resting on the roof and on the inner pen for the dogs. The dogs are stuck in the inner pen for a few days because another large limb fell on the outer fence taking down a couple sections.

Not as bad as it looks. The trees limbs just kept sinking lower from the weight of the ice and are resting on the truck but it doesn't seem to be damaged. Once it all melts (May?) the truck should be free. We may need a new parking space.

Quilted!

John & Sarah's 5 year anniversary quilt is finally quilted. (I know, they've been married for 7 1/2 years.) All that's left to do is the binding. I like the way it turned out but it's HEAVY. I don't get it... the batting is so light, the fabric doesn't weigh much, thread - how much could that weigh? Put it all together and I'm afraid it's gonna crush their toes! Must be all the love that's been added to it for the last three years.

Quilt is finished!

I headed to the quilt shop first thing this morning. I told them what I thought about the whole 24/7 hours and the delivery thing. Judging from their reaction they must have thought I was kidding.

Here's the quilt....

And the names: Morse Code . . . The Long and The Short of It . . .

. . . and Floating Bars of Stars.

Why, oh, Why?!

Why can't Quilt Shops be open 24/7? I only need 1/2 yard of fabric to finish my quilt. I fell asleep figuring the last steps, which way to press, etc. I woke up thinking about it. I was moving along, happily sewing... "oh, I like the way it's turning out - almost done" ... went to cut the last border... WHAT?!?!? I'm out of fabric?!?!?! NOOOOOO!!! Ok, not a big problem in the grand scheme of things, I know. And it's not like there aren't other projects to work on. But I wanted to see this top finished (insert spoiled brat's stomping foot here). I even named it. Three times. I can't decide which name I like best.

So it would be nice if they were open at 6:30 in the morning. And it's pretty cold & icy out - it'd be nice if they delivered too.

Quilting with Karen

We did a "show and tell" before we hit the sewing machines. We had finished projects (ta-dah), works in progress (gonna be so pretty...what do you think I should do about this?), projects yet to be started, and fabric (just cuz). The most exciting item was this quilt Karen brought. It's over 90 years old!!! It was Grandma Lu's baby quilt.

So many stitches, all by hand. It's neat to look at now; I bet it was gorgeous when it was new. A little frayed, a little faded, a little worn, because it's 90 years old!!! If you look very closely (not in the picture - in person) in one of the corners the year 1918 is stiched in.

To the Royal Twisters

Lys, Val, and the rest of the Royal Twisters, have fun at your big meet tomorrow! I just know you'll Shine! :)

And the wait begins...

Looks like we'll be pulling out the cradle and the swing and the bouncy chair next summer!!! Oh, I have a another quilt to make!!! Nine months is SUCH a long time!!!

Old pictures

I really like this picture of Scott's parents. Doesn't it look like it's from an old movie?

And Scott and his brothers (Scott is the cute one)

And Scott and two of his brothers.... look, they have Grampa pants on!

This one must have been taken when the older kids had married and left home... there's only 7 kids in the picture.
Thanks, Joeanne, for all the wonderful photos!

Downsized Quilt

When I started this quilt it was to be a King size for our bedroom. Then when the kids said they'd all be here and spending the night(s), the plan was to put a twin size bed in the family room as we are a bedroom short. I needed a spread for it and had enough blocks for that size, so I put it together and added borders. I didn't get it quilted yet and I'm not sure how I want to quilt it .... I'm thinking stars and squigley, loopy lines.

Thanksgiving weekend

All the kids came down for the weekend and we celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday. It was wonderful to have everyone together. We had fun, lots of laughs, too much food, and lots of desserts. Adam's cheesecake was delicious as was the pumpkin cheesecake his friend Eliana made and sent down for us. The "adults" played video games and looked pretty funny doing it if you didn't know what they were doing.

Sunday morning Coop & Zak enjoyed some time with Adam. They seemed pretty happy up there for quite a long while.

Then Caycee wanted to join the fun...

Monkey girl livened things up.

It was a great weekend and wonderful to have a holiday with everyone together without work or anything else keeping one or more of them away.