End of the Week

and end of the month. The days seem to go by so slowly, but also quickly, if that makes sense. While I am going through them the days seem to last forever. But, I can't believe it is the end of November already.

A bit of fog this morning for my area of the country.

That is the house a half mile down the road. We usually can see it well, not this morning. We were suppose to get freezing rain through the night, but it doesn't look too bad outside. My husband, my weather reporter, has left to do morning chores at his fathers. He is usually back before I leave for work to give me a report on the road conditions, but today he is weaning calves and will most likely not be back before I leave. Guess I will go a few minutes earlier than normal so I can go slow if needed.

Last night I started a new knitting project.

The pattern can be found at Little Cotton Rabbits. Scroll down to find the Mini Christmas Stockings.

There are some other really cute patterns for tiny things you might enjoy.

The yarn I am using is Bonbons from Lion and NAKO Rekor mini.

These are the yarns I also use to make mini hats, sweaters and mittens. I purchased them in packages of 10-12 mini skeins. I like the variety of colors included and some have a little sparkle.

Something needs to change...

...when you have more days that bring you close to tears than not. And, they are not happy tears. They are tears of frustration, stress, sadness. This kindergarten class is beyond challenging. I am not yet sure what that change will be, but I don't want to do this anymore. It doesn't help that it feels like there is not enough communication or support from my immediate supervisor. From what I am hearing throughout the building most of the other staff feel the same way. Usually by this time in the school year things are starting to settle down. This year that isn't happening.

A bright spot in my days is the geraniums that are still blooming.

I got a Paperwhite Narcissus a few weekends ago. It started to fall over so I had to tie it up to the mantle.

The bulb has sent up 3 stalks. So far two of them have blooms on them, with one opened and one not.

I saw this on Facebook this evening.
Good to know. I have some books loaded on my phone that I read during my lunch break. 

























I can't imagine what my days would be like without reading! I certainly do not feel like sewing.

Over the weekend I did a little crocheting. On of my quilt friends asked if I could make some spool pin doilies for her and her sister. I looked for crochet thread but could only find white. I had some finger weight yarn so I decided to try that.

She thought they turned out fine and suggested that the other ladies in our group with Featherweights might like one. Guess I need to make one in each color!

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Block Exchange

THANKSGIVING 
I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. I did. I spent the day with some family. We all met at a convenient restaurant. Our numbers have dwindled in the last several years as the cousins have grown and their children and grandchildren have grown. As they have spread out around the country they are traveling to them more and more. So it was my parents, me, my husband, our son and his GF, my SIL and niece, her sister and BIL, my cousin and her husband, and my dad's brother and his wife. My brother and his wife traveled to be with their children and grandchildren. We missed by other brother and my aunt, both who have passed. It was a bittersweet gathering, thankful for our blessings, but missing those no longer with us.

We all got to see the little house my son and GF are renting. It is a cute little house, 3 bedrooms, nice laundry room, new water heater and furnace, two car garage, nice yard, asphalt driveway. The entrance is not accessible for my wheelchair using son, but we measured and measured and have ordered a ramp system for him. One that is sturdy, but able to be moved and reconfigured, if necessary. We weren't able to deliver everything we had planned to him, but we did get the one bigger cabinet and a couple of boxes of some other things to him. We will take more when I am off school for Christmas break.

I am a little frustrated with them. They seem to go through money they don't have on things they don't need. They haven't figured out that the non-necessary items sometimes have to wait, but I guess that is a lesson they will learn in time. Also, their house-keeping skills are seriously lacking. I don't like to do housework myself, but I at least pick things up that have fallen on the floor and put things away. I understand that they are still in the process of moving and don't have everything unpacked yet, but in my mind socks, headbands, etc. on the floor need to be picked up. Besides being tripping hazards they need to keep things from the dog and to make it easier for my son to navigate around the house in his wheelchair, but I guess that isn't my concern either. 

BLACK FRIDAY
I don't usually shop on Black Friday, but the quilt store we love to visit was having a great sale that was just too good to pass up. It was a 2-van caravan including nine quilters this time. We all met at a local parking lot and headed on our way at 4:30 am. We arrived a few minutes before the opening time of 6:00 am and even before the owners. We all got a good laugh out of that and were told that our early arrival made it worth their while to open so early. More shoppers came in before we left so I am hoping it was a good sales day for them. We went to breakfast and visited 3 more shops before getting lunch and heading home.

Here are my finds:

Top left, fabric to make a microwave bowl buddy for our mail carrier (she's great!), a rayon batik for a summer top, some bee fabric for a quilt I have planned, 2 FQs and 2 fat eighths (just because stash enhancement), then a bundle of 13 FQs of reproduction prints in reds and dark pinks. Under those is a piece of batik that I liked because it is lighter in color and a lime green lace zipper.

This pile is a package of gridded fusible for a Mondo bag, a very light batik with a piece of gray under that (to be used for sashing/borders in a T-shirt quilt or background of another), and two pieces of reproduction fabric. I am hoping one of these will work for the sashing of my Civil War Sampler. I tried to resist the Mondo bag, but at our last retreat I saw two that one of the ladies made for herself and her sister that they both love and one of the other ladies was working on four, one for herself and 3 for Christmas gifts. I really liked all of them. I think this will make a great bag for retreat.

This picture shows a backing for the Red, White and Blue quilt top I put together at the last retreat. It is more red than it appears. The Christmas dogs will probably be made into something for my son, GF, or maybe a cushion cover for their dog.

And, lastly, I love the paisley print in this picture. I have looked at it the last several times I have been in the store. It was in the sale room, marked down even more than before. That's a sign, right?! I have no pattern in mind, but I thought I might as well get some fabrics to go with. They colors aren't true in this picture, they look much better together in real life.

It was a fun day, quite an adventure, but I am still recovering.

Today was our Block Exchange day. Even though we are all going to end up with the same blocks, the fabrics sure make them all look different.

I finished the block I was making on Wednesday.

This is the block I made.

These were made by Harriet (left), Jo (the owner of these blocks) and mine on the bottom. It's hard to tell in these pictures, but the fabric has a silver sparkle on it. Not my style, but it fits Jo's style perfectly. 

A Little Bit More

We are meeting family tomorrow for Thanksgiving. We happen to be going to the town where my son and his GF now live. They recently moved from their one bedroom duplex to a small 3 bedroom house. It isn't huge, but it is bigger than where they were. We are taking them some things from our house that we no longer want/use. They do want them, I checked, so it is a win/win for all of us.

This gun cabinet and this video cabinet with videos. Most of them are rodeo and westerns. He will also get the DVD/VCR player/recorder that we don't use. I am ready to box them up. 





And, that corner is now more empty. It is the corner to the left of the farm office table. This is where the longarm will go, in front of the big picture window. One more small step to making this happen.

Pretty

I took these pictures Tuesday morning before heading out to work.

There was a dusting of snow on the ground (I really dislike cold, windy, snowy, icy winter), but these cheerful geraniums are still blooming in my window.

I hope they continue to bloom all winter.

I Just Don't Get It...

...I don't understand why parents don't send their kids to school dressed appropriately for the weather. The temperatures have dipped into the thirties here ... during the day. In the teens in the morning when students are boarding buses. We have kindergarten students coming to school in sweatshirts, no hats, no gloves. We play outside for PE and recess if the 'feels like' temperature is above 20. They need warm coats that close, be it by zipper, snaps, buttons, velcro, and hats and gloves.

And, I don't understand why parents send their kids to school in clothing they cannot do themselves. Carhartt-type coats are great, but they are HARD to zip. Belts with buckles are hard for kids. Pants with buttons are sometimes hard for kids. People, make sure your child can manage their clothing before sending them to school wearing something they can't manage.

And, I don't know why an architect/building designer would design a building with bathrooms right off of eating areas and offices, especially without out proper ventilation. The staff bathrooms in my building open to the staff break room, where everyone eats their lunch, and the office, where parents check in and see the secretary. Yuk. None of the bathrooms in my building have ventilation. 3 classrooms have bathrooms in them. They were originally the classrooms for 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade students. At the other end of the building are boys and girls bathrooms with 2 stalls each, no ventilation.

They are right off of the cafeteria and main lobby of the building. Also the spot where I do reading during bathroom breaks. My reading times are not fun some days. Again, yuk. This picture was taken from the cafeteria doorway. The girls bathroom is just behind that spot. You can see one of the water fountains at the right edge of the picture. If you kept going you would be in the boys bathroom. Gross.

The Sisters, Oregon Project

That is what I called this project. It has been hidden away for years, occasionally making an appearance when I re-organized my sewing spaces. I pulled it out today and carefully looked at it.

This is the book with instructions for the rows we would be making. I purchased it and the author, Karin Hellaby, signed it. She has a website if you are interested in looking. It appears she is still quite busy teaching. 

I printed the class photo from the Quilter's Affair website.

Here is the current information in case you are interested in going in 2019.

I remember being excited about taking this class. As I looked through the class options I was drawn to this quilt. The colors, the piecing, the applique, the EPP. But I also was a little frustrated. The pattern called for an ombre fabric which I spent a lot of time searching for, finally settling for something that wasn't what I was seeing in my mind, but was good enough. 

It goes from yellow at one selvage edge to purple at the other. It is a McKenna Ryan print by Hoffman.

Here are the rest of the beautiful fabrics I had gathered.

I also remember Karin saying that American quilters differ from British quilters in that Americans are drawn to a quilt/pattern by the colors and fabrics and tend to make their quilts with those colors/fabrics. British quilters tend to choose the colors/fabrics different than the pattern shows. Interesting. Maybe that is why I felt frustrated. I wanted my quilt to look like the one in the class picture but was having trouble finding the fabrics.

This next picture shows what I accomplished during the 2 day class.

I pieced some of the Delectable Mountain units and sewed some of them together; not enough to border each side of the 'river' strip. I also pieced on of the 'river' strips. I had to piece two purple selvages together to get the yellow-to-purple-to-yellow effect. I also finished English paper piecing one flower unit.

I have decided to stop this project. I don't have enough done to inspire me to keep going. I feel the frustration from this project more than I feel the joy. So all the fabrics have been put into my stash to await another project. I haven't decided what to do with the units that are finished. For now, I have added them to my ever growing pile of I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-this stuff.

I will continue going through my projects and post about them as I do. Right now I a washing, and washing, and washing, shirts, pants, coats, hats and gloves for little people. We have a cabinet at school with extra clothes for those in need. The students are suppose to keep an change of clothes at school and be properly attired for the weather, but often they have outgrown the clothes they brought in at the beginning of the school year, or the clothes are out of season - shorts have not been exchanged for pants. And, often they don't have hats and gloves and it is getting too cold to be without those item. So I am going through the cabinet and culling some of the clothing items and washing all of it. We have a LOT of hats, coats and t-shirts. I will keep some of those and donate the rest to the local Food Pantry. I have been assured that those items will be given out and appreciated by the recipients. It is a good project for today since I am still recovering from this cold and am feeling tired and lazy today!

Making Decisions

When I moved my sewing corner I went through some of my projects and am starting to make some decisions. I have things that were started long ago and never finished. I have kits not even started.

I saw a garland on a Christmas tree several years ago. It was made from torn skinny strips of fabric wrapped around milk carton rings. I really liked it and even though we didn't put up a Christmas tree (sad childhood story from my husband) I thought I could use one to decorate somehow and use up some of the many scraps I have. I cut thin strips from paper towel tubes and began wrapping, hot gluing the ends to hold together. And, because life was busy I put it away and forgot about it.

I am thinking I will never do any more with this and might as well pass it on. I will take to my next quilt meeting to see if anyone is interested. If not, it will go in the garbage.

This next project is about 15 years old. My parents want to take my son and I on a RV trip to Oregon one year. Sisters. Oregon to be exact. They had been through there a few years before and came upon the annual Quilt show. My mom knew I would love it and encouraged me to sign up for a class during the week and they would find things to do with my then young son during the day. He got to fish and explore the area while I took a class.

This was the quilt we would be making. I loved it. I searched all over for ombre fabric, the fabric that is used for the mountain blocks and 'river' between the mountains. It was hard to find then and I settled for what I found.

I got a good start, came home and put it away ... because life was busy. Again. I need to get this one out of the box and really look at it to decide if I want to continue with it, finish it into something different than the original idea, or put the fabrics into my stash and scrap what it done.

I remember being excited about it when I was working on it. So, we will see what happens.
More later.

What I Have Been Up To

Today (Sunday) is a cool, windy, rainy day and I have a cold. I was really hoping it was just sinus issues due to the weather change, but, no, it is definitely a cold. I am feeling worse and the day goes on.

Edit: It took me so long to write the above statement that now it is Monday. It started out rough as far as the cold goes, but I feel better this evening.

We have had some days with extreme wind...

It's hard to see my little banner because the wind was blowing so hard.

My quilt group held their retreat the last weekend in October. The exchange also falls during that time. Lots of sewing happened. (I blocked out faces since I didn't know if these ladies would want to be on my blog!)

I worked on a couple of UFOs.

In A Pickle - I thought all the units were pieced. Turns out I am missing two sashing units. I wondered why I had so many extra pieces! Also, I need to add the black piping/flange to the side triangle units. I will be re-arranging some of the units to distribute colors and fabrics better.

This top is together now and ready for borders. I don't like to cut borders at retreat. There just doesn't seem to be enough room and I only take my smaller mat and 12 inch ruler.

I got my empty corner filled with my sewing set up. From this...

... to this. It's a little tight, but this set-up allows me to be in the same room with Husband, watching TV and talking together.

Now I have an empty corner where all this stuff used to be for Husband to fill with his Farm Office.

I don't expect anything to happen with this until probably January which is when the table will be cleaned off in readiness for tax preparation. I am not pushing for it to happen until he is ready.