I made the whole meal

I was really disappointed in my meal. The ham was dry, the cheesecake I didn't like and the pecan pie was overdone. All my fault.

We started out with the whole family but the two oldest grandkids and then 4 of them didn't come. To much food and it frustrated me. So leftovers need to be managed today. I think Ham and bean soup for one and the turkey will be frozen with gravy on it for turkey potpies and casseroles.

Last night the adult kids went to shop a little and the baby became very upset and cried most of the time they were gone. She cried hard enough to have tears.

I hope everyone had a better day then me. I'm still Thankful we were together. Chris

Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving

Still cooking and cleaning. I had my Granddaughters yesterday for awhile so all things got put on hold.

The turkey goes on this afternoon and I need to make a couple pies before they get here today. We are eating late because of my son working. Some of my guests maybe won't be here. Working obligations so we will have way more than we need.

I guess that is why they make freezers to have leftovers stored for future use.

Light dusting of snow right now so hopefully it won't make travel bad. I know other places have weather issues and I hope all are safe.

I'm thankful for my online friends and of course my family. Fir the most part all of us are healthy and we live comfortably. Remembers those today that are less fortunate and away from their families during this time of the year. Happy Thanksgiving. Chris

prep day

Well the big day is tomorrow. We don't eat until 6:30 pm. so I have a little lead time to get things done. Pies will be today though.

I am making a New York Cheesecake. It takes over 2 hours to bake in the oven. Pumpkin and Pecan pies will be made also. Turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, cornbread, raw veggies and dip and green bean casserole plus Grandma's favorite for the kids a jello salad. The other thing I really like is cranberry relish. Hopefully it is enough.

Thee is an elderly neighbor that is all alone so I will take her a plate full of food. She lost her husband a year ago and family isn't close. I told her I was going to do it and she said no, but if she has a decent meal for a couple days out of it it is worth it to me to share.

The maddening thing that I have to do today is go to Walmart. Yes...... Several years ago I lent my turkey roaster to my son for a seminar. Well I never got it back which I told him was ok. So with my family getting larger and bigger age wise I need more than what my little oven can handle as far as cooking space. So I'm going to look for a turkey roaster. I have thought about it for over a week and determined it is the only way to cook everything and have it hot.

I hope everyone has a great holiday and you enjoy your family and friends. Fellowship is important and being thankful for all we have. Happy Thanksgiving. Chris  

Not yet..............

Still cleaning and a grocery store run today to get the last minute things for Thursday. No sewing has happened. I have been lurking between cleaning sessions and looking at others work. OMG...... why am I not devoted more to my craft.

Well I am, but life gets in the way. Granddaughters and my husband and my Mother all take up my time. Maybe in another life I will be more accomplished and devoted to my sewing and quilting.  Wishful thinking.

Tomorrow pies need making and cut up the vegetables for the stuffing and the fresh veggie tray. Also the last minute cleaning.

Found out last night an elderly neighbor is having no contact with Family over Thanksgiving so I will take her a plate for her to eat something homemade.


Have another neighbor I need to call today after an upsetting diagnosis she received yesterday. This time of year isn't a good time to hear you are ill.

Decided I have a lot to be thankful for. Health, family and a roof over my head to start with are on top of my list. Hopefully you all are going to have a great Thanksgiving.

Going to get my list for the store honed down to make sure I have everything. Have a good day. Chris

Look what is going on here.

It rained first then sleet now snow. This is after about 2 1/2 hours of snow. It is blowing like crazy also.  So it is wet and heavy. Still cleaning inside and trying to get ready for Thanksgiving. Chris

Lots of work, but no sewing at all.

I got up yesterday and decided the cleaning had to get done. Brushed the dust off the ceiling and the ceiling fan and all light fixtures got washed. Then onto the walls. They need painting, but I thought at least get the dust off of them.

Then the furniture and all the pictures got wiped down and down to the floor. Mind you I have things on shelves and on the Mantle and also had to clean the fireplace stone.

Well I cheated and I did throw the drapes into the dryer with a dryer sheet to get the dust out. I should have washed them and ironed them, but they have been up for 11 years and afraid they will fall apart. On my list to replace.

Still had to cook supper last night and I made a cake and frosted it yesterday also. Needless to say I hit the bed last night and I was hurting and tired. Moving furniture at my age isn't fun.

But it is a lot cleaner and if it only would stay this way. Well you know as well as I do it will be a day or so and we will see the dust again. Chris

Big sister little sister

Got the baby hat made also. That was this morning. Fun to do. Chris

One more knitting project

I made this for Autumn. She likes the female mouse chacters. She has a pink coat and new pink and black boots for Christmas.

I saw this image on Pinterest, but there wasn't a pattern so I made up my own. I now need to make one for the baby. I will have to cut it down, but I think they are cute. Had fun making it this afternoon. Chris 

I got this one done. I found a wood looking button for it this morning. I think it looks great. Some more yarn used up and not stored.

It has been spoken for already. So as soon as she comes and we can sew the button in place the better. Chris

Look who came to visit.

She is awake a lot more and growing like a weed.

Liked the bouncy chair with the toys I have. She was hitting the toys and content for along time.

Almost 7 weeks old. She sleeps 7-10 hours at night. Really good baby. Chris

No sewing I have been knitting up a storm.

When I cleaned up the sewing room I found the yarn I had been looking for. Well why keep storing it so I'm knitting it up. This is the third scarf in the last two weeks. It is really heavy so making it to button so not so much bulk when knotted. 

This is what has been going on at my house. We had a broke car. The intake manifold was cracked. They wanted $1200 to replace it. So over two days after we got the right part Jeff got it fixed. We saved almost $900 by him fixing it. He gets scared trying because he forgets so easy. He has dementia so I took a ton of pictures for him to reference to put it back. Well he didn't have to look at them. He took his time and many breaks, but the challenge  makes his mind work. I now have a working car and it heats the way it is suppose to and also we saved lots of bucks. Not saying he will always be able to do this,but at least this time he could. 

Have one more project to knit and then the sewing will continue. Stay warm. Chris

Still not sure of browser

I had used Internet Explorer for years. Issues happened awhile back when it updated. Tried to reinstall and not much better. So experimenting with a different browser. The jury is out. No sewing has happened. I'm burned out. Starting knitting since it got cold. should have been doing this all Summer to be ready, but I'm working on it now. Got a chevron scarf and a baby stocking cap made. Baby Kate's hats don't fit anymore. She is growing like a weed. Not sure this one will fit her either. I keep forgetting to measure her head when she is here. So much is going on and trying to keep up with Autumn and Kate is mind boggling some days.  

Found this yarn in my cleaning out the sewing room. I'm storing it so why not knit it up into something usable. I will get back to the sewing, but I just found out yesterday that I'm having Thanksgiving dinner. Wasn't planning on having a crowd. So cleaning and getting the house in order. 

We have the master bedroom all cleaned and part of the kitchen done. So today we will do some more cleaning and pitching out the mess that accumulates. I have one counter that gets dumped on. 

Windchill was below zero this morning.  This is really cold for this area. My car is still broke. Parts are to come in tomorrow. I do have to take my Mother to a Dr's appointment today, but not until this afternoon. Hope to stay warm and you have a great day. Chris

frustrated

My computer and me and my blog are at war. I finally got on to post this. I think I'm going to let this lapse for awhile. I fought with the computer for hours and it took forever. I could have been sewing instead. Not giving it up totally, but let me get through this. I'm going to look for a different browser than what I have. Also going to clean it all up. Lots of pictures to remove and store. Have a Good one. We are getting snow. Chris

Multi-tasking til I made myself dizzy

I usually haven two things going at once, but they are manageable. Like laundry and sewing. Well I made myself dizzy this morning. I had to stop. 

You ask what. Well I had this great idea to knit and use the exercise bike at the same time. I literally was dizzy trying the ride and knit and look what I was doing. Not a good idea to get that dizzy. I was almost sick to my stomach. 

Knitting for the first time in about a year and I had a lot of trouble with the instructions and carrying it out in my stitches. I think I ripped out the cast on and first rows almost 5 times. The number of stitches in the directions wasn't right to get the pattern right. Figured that out and then I would slip a stitch and then forget it the next time. After ripping out many times I think i have the pattern down now. I want this to be a long scarf so we will see how far I get. When I cleaned the sewing room out I found the yarn I had been looking for over a year. So this is a great way to have extra gifts made in advance, but don't do it on a exercise bike. Chris

Up and at it

Woke up to snow falling. I think the weather report is saying maybe an inch. Second cup of coffee and the laundry is going.This was yesterday when I was stitching the binding down on the pot grabbers. My Mother saw them and was so impressed she may make some too. 

The fabric I used for the binding was some sheeting my sister bought long time ago. I thought it would hold up well for binding because it is so tightly woven. Then the issue is stitching it because the machine can skip stitched because of the tight weave. So I zig-zagged it. Seems to have held fine.

Two are completed for the gifts I need. Extra potholders can be made also to match and then it is a set. Nice bridal shower gift. 

Then I needed to change the needle because of the sheeting. It was pinging pretty bad by the time I was done. I had used a jean needle and it still was dull. So I took the machine apart to clean and oil. OH MY GOODNESS!

Can you see the lint? Not sure what all I sewed to create this, but it was dirty. I got it all cleaned out oiled and new needle. Now it is ready to rock and roll again. +I guess cotton fabric, thread and batting all create lint. I do remember the lint from the double knits also. I think it is just part of sewing. Maintenance is necessary.

Yesterday in my travels I bought a Christmas gift. I found something I knew wouldn't be there in a couple weeks so got something for Autumn. She goes in every room in this house when she is here so I had to find a hiding place for it. I maybe will have to start taking things to my Mother's to hide. She has a walk up attic that I can use. 

Well stay warm. Only to get to 28 degrees today. 60 degrees two days ago. Chris

Scrap and salvage yard kind of sewing

I got to of the long potholders or pot grabbers as we called them quilted yesterday. I used a double layer of 100% cotton batting in between the layers so no burning will happen.

The holder parts on each end are quilted with one layer because you have the hot part on the longer part for protection. These are made to not burn you arms when pulling a hot pot out of the oven. I bound the edge after quilting and stay stitched them to the trimmed edge on both ends of the pot grabber. 

The back side of the pot grabber is the same as the top. Accept it doesn't have the pockets for your hands. The curved edge is so you don't have extra bulk when grabbing the hot pot.

Today is the bias binding. Because it is curved the bias is the best way to go. I chose this large print because I don't use it in other quilting strips or squares. In cutting it on the bias you loose all the 80's flowers. Great way to use up some of the large flowery prints we have lurking in our stash. I will stitch it all down by machine so it stays secure. These pot grabbers get used and washed a lot. When these are finished I will have made three of them this last week. Need to make some more to have on hand for gifts in the future. Would be great hostess gifts or bridal shower gifts with a set of towels to go with it. Have a great day Chris 

Now what do I do

Up at 3:30 am . Couldn't lay there anymore. I think I have this love hate relationship with my bed.

This last month I have had thought and searches going on in my head for Christmas gift ideas. Well today I plan on tackling a couple to get this process in motion. Part of the time my days are interrupted and I just give up and try and not get frustrated. Today I made up my mind if I sew 15 minutes it is better than no sewing at all. Those 15 minutes ad up to a finished project sooner than later.

I have my meal planned so no excuse there. I have laundry done and also got the house picked up from a little princess being here. She is pretty good about picking up. I find toys that slip behind furniture or under things days later.

It is raining this morning. Colder weather is on it's way and we are going to have to rethink our travels over the next few months. No extra trips to the store and planning for Winter is in place.

As I progress with these gifts I will take pictures. I have a couple things I need to make purchases for. Zippers are going to be the next thing on my list. I have some, but they are odd colors. I have used most of the zippers I accumulated over the half century I have sewn. That sounds really old to me, but reality.

WQell charging along on my mission you have a great day. Chris  

Excitement in the neighborhood

The neighbor had a tree growing and pushing against their house. Plus it had an electrical wire growing through the crook of the tree and brushing up against the bark in the wind. It was way above the house and dropping large branches onto the house to the point the insurance company was not going to insure them anymore. So the park owner had to cut the tree down. Had to wait until the leaves were off of it and today was the day. 

They had to get a crane in here to get the tree limbs over the electrical wire plus the sheer weight of them was to much to handle without the crane. They logged some of the pieces out of this tree because it is Maple. As you can see they laid them on the road and put them in the back of a dump truck to haul off. 

This is the only entrance in and out of the park. So they had to redirect the traffic in front of our house and through the grass to the frontage road. The top of the tree is all down and the crane is gone for now. The road is still closed because they have to finish the tree off at the base. The people who lived on either side had to be gone in case of an accident. Nothing has happened and the electricity was not lost. They were very professional. They have left for lunch I presume, but more needs doing so this next year more of the overgrown trees will be handled. 

Trees are pretty, but they can be dangerous also. Chris 

Perfectionist I'm not

 Today after having my Granddaughter for two days I looked at my house and just shutter. The wild tornado was here for a little over 30 hour. How can a toddler do this much?

She was fun, but it will take this old lady two days to undo the carnage.

Perfectionist I'm not, well there is no way I can claim that at all. I tried to do some sewing the other day and i had to rip out. Also my mind works on overtime and I end up with a migraine from burn out. LOL

I have tried to come up with some quick gift items for the kids and their parents for Christmas. I have some girl things, but the guys are more difficult. Think I found a couple things that they would use. I found some reusable hand warmers you can make. They are made small, but like the rice bag microwave heating bags. Small flannel and add rice to them. Then warm them up in the microwave. Good when you are home, but not so good when away from a microwave.

Guys are harder to buy or make gifts for. They want They want macho gifts to show you they are not weak.

Well the last of the nice days for the year is today. Low 60's are going to happen then the cold comes and stays for the rest of the Winter. Not wanting that, but if I stay in maybe I can get somethings done before the rest of the year is gone. Chris

Look who came for a sleep over

Mom and Dad had so much going on today she came last night and had a sleep over. She likes playing with the old keyboard so she had to have a desk and chair.

One thing ended up being two phones. Drink and then five minutes later she was in another chair with two dolls, drink, cellphone and a quilt. That took 5 minutes and she was asleep.  She slept 11.5 hours last night. Must be growing.

So as you can tell no sewing is going on at all. She will wake up and lunch will have to be made and then maybe warm enough to go out and get fresh air today. Chris 

One Done

Magic, no I worked at it. The blocks were made just sewed them together then quilted them. I had lots of cutoff quilt batting so I made the cuts to make the body and the pocket pieces. 

Sandwiched them together and made the cross hatch quilting happen. I used some blocks that were pieced with the sashing in black for the pockets. Quilted then and stitched the pockets in place.  Next I cut some large print black background fabric in bias strips. Stitched them together and machine bound the long potholder. 

Colorful and all leftover scraps so a basic freebie. Step outside the box and be inventive. Chris

Some progress

This is a casserole potholder my Grandma made 32 years ago. I think it is the last one left. She bought pre-quilted fabric and used flannel and batting to give them the insulation they needed. This one has a burn mark on it so it needs replacing. Also everyone that uses it wants one. I wasn't going to show it, but I thought why not. 

My plan is use the 9-patches which are the right width and use up some of the batting scraps I have that are cotton. She use to use polyester.  Where the red binding is straight across the potholder that is a pocket for your hands. You ran less of a chance of burning your arms with a hto casserole or pan by using this type of potholder. 

We use to do craft shows and she would make 3 dozen sets with two matching potholders and some people would buy 6 sets at a time. They were great gifts for teachers and also family members. Just another way to use scraps.

I figure I have some darker larger printed fabric I can cut for the bias binding. She use to buy double wide double folded bias tape. That was the expensive part of making these. I guess I should buy a bias tape making tool. I will for now use pins pinned to the ironing board and try that first.

After the first of the year I want to have enough inventory to get involved in a crafter's mall. It is only a few miles away my son and I think they would help out with transporting items. Need to get more information to see what the rules are.

Today is pretty much mine oh I take that back it isn't the girls are coming. Mostly to visit for a bit. My son has a seminar tomorrow not sure if we are involved in that or not. May have to watch the girls for a couple hours.

Been off my game for a couple days not felt real good. Seem to be better this morning. Hopefully the day goes well for all of you. Chris

OMGosh

I worked for 3 hours to get blogger to work for me. Not that I have that much to report, but that was frustrating.

Hopefully no one else has trouble. I finally had to download Chrome again. It kept freezing up. Chris

Almost a hundred

No pictures today. I got up and started sewing and pressing. I ran out of thread on the spool finally. I got up and came out to relax from sitting at the machine for a couple hours.

I plan on using the hundred blocks for two projects. One is a quilt, but the other is for the kitchen. I need to keep some of it under raps because some will be Christmas gifts for Family members.

The Christmas gifts are small projects and not anything that takes months like a quilt to complete. Sometimes Kitchen quilts are important also.

Raining here and gray. Suppose to start getting colder. So I'm going to turn on the lights, find another spool of thread and get the 100 blocks complete. Then some pressing and cutting has to go on.

Still pondering the machine quilting of my Mother's quilts as to what we want to do. She has trouble making a decision and going forward with it, but that is her normal format for years. Chris

On a mission

Got up and wound bobbins. Well just a few. I needed some simple sewing to happen. Guess what more 9-patches. I had several like 20 of them left over from the last top I thought why not. 

I am slowly working on getting to the bottom of this cone of thread. I think there was 5000 yards on it. It has been used for piecing. I like this weight for bobbin thread and it is a neutral color.  I think I have one more un-open cone of this color.

My Mom is a buyer. She buys something doesn't like it and hands it to me. She used this 3 times and decided she didn't like it. My iron wasn't heating properly so she gave me this the other day. It shuts down after awhile, but it turns back on easily. So jury is out on it's performance as of yet. 

Had a tub of 2.5 inch squares and I added a few more cuts to it to have a better mixture. I had the twenty blocks left over and yesterday made another 30. Will work towards 50 more over the next few days. 

This is the 30 from yesterday. Have to designs in my head as to how I can use them up. This was a lot of gifted fabric scraps and also thrift store finds. 

Yesterday we went to  small quilt shop the next town over. Found out it has a shop owner that I went to high school with. She had a lot of Windham and RJR fabrics. We asked if she knew of a longarm quilter in the area and she had a list. We called on one and asked a lot of questions. Very helpful. So my Mom has 17 tops completed and she needs to decide what she wants to do.

So over the next couple months we need to get prep work done for her to get some of these complete. She needs backs bought and assembled and also battings purchased. So we have a source for the battings she like and we will be ordering those, but the backs we will have to travel to find.

She is 86 years old and would like to see some of them get done in her life time.
Today is visiting time for Autumn and she will be here for the afternoon. Gives Mommy a break and us some time also. Hope you have a productive day. Chris

Ever have one of those days

Got up normal time for me. Had my coffee and computer time. Got going and did laundry cleaned up dishes and ran dishwasher. Then I decided to get the vac going and clean the living room floor.

Now here is the downfall of the rest of the day. My husband said he needed gas for the lawnmower and I thought I had better get it so he can be busy. I went out to get the gas can and it still had gas in it. I filled his lawnmower and came back in. Of course no thank you just it won't be enough.

Well 5 hours later I'm still fuming. He does this to me all the time. I don't know if it is to get to me or just he doesn't remember. So needless to say nothing more got done.

I plan on trying to turn my frown upside down here in a little bit and get something done. The weather is changing to rain tonight and I'm thinking I'm getting a migraine by the way I feel. Maybe I can do some piecing and just try and get over the day. Chris

Lots to see

Baby this morning. She is happy finally. Mom had to give up breast feeding and now she is happy. If her little cheeks would clear up we would be doing fine. We think it is the fabric softener. so she is slowly getting things washed and using vinegar for the fabric softener. 

This is sew into a top. Today I am going to get the back pieced and then get it sandwiched, 

This is a plant we bought at the lumberyard. Ithad no tag on it and it was outside this last Summer in a flower box. We brought it in and now it is blooming again. 

My sister thought it was a member of the Clive plant family. It gets a pod and flowers bloom from this pod. Fun to watch growing. Chris

November 1st 2014

This is my front tree this morning. Still hanging in there with the leaves. The back tree is almost empty with all the wind we had. They are Maples called Autumn Glory. I think they are a grafted tree.

 Down to the last little bit of seaming and this will be complete. An outside strip of the sashing and one long seam to sew sections together then I can pin baste it and start stitching on it.

Really vivid with the black and red sashing accents. The darker squares even look brighter with the dark borders around the blocks. Need to run the vac. Threads leaves and dust are everywhere today. Have a Good One. Chris