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.