Twenty Five days and Counting

December 1st can you believe how fast November went.

Time to Link up with Carrie at A Passion for Applique' for the Nothing but UFO in 2013

1.  Magic Carpet Ride-  Yep she is done.  All the binding and with the cuddle fleece on the back it is the best to cuddle up on the couch with DH and watch TV.

2.  Star Crossed Table Runner-  I actually finished this one the last day of November.  All quilted and bound.

3.  Ginger Rose still sitting in a heap near my sewing machine that I quilt on.

4.  Lazy Sunday Mystery-  I actually got part 3 completed.  I think the majority of part 4 is sashing and cornerstones.  Shouldn't take long.

5.  Country Charmer-  November Lesley at The Cuddle Quilter put on the Country Charmer QAL parade.  There are some truly lovely quilts that have been linked up to the post.  I have 8 blocks completed and many pieces cut out.  Only 12 more blocks to go and then I will have to make a sashing decision.

6.  Jewel Box I have not touched that one but I have lots of fabrics laid out for it.

7.  Quilty Barn Along.  All of my barns are completed now just the white sashing, then another set of sashing.

8.  Farmer's Wife.  Yep I have stuck with the 8 blocks per month and got them completed.

9.  Donation Quilt no I did not work on it at all.
10.  My mother's Birthday gifts.

A strawberry pincushion and a spool pin doily for the featherweight that DH and I gave her earlier this year.
11.  Family room curtains--nope not even a glimmer
12.  I did not work on any other UFO in the stable.

Overall not a bad month for keeping up on my goals and a couple of finished.  How did you do on your goals?

Surviving Thanksgiving

Did you survive Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and small business Saturday? 

I survived Thankgiving and went to the SIL even though DH was working.  I drove the ancient Aunt and Uncle so they could enjoy dinner with the family too.

Friday we went to a viewing of one of DH friends.  Ruth was an elderly lady, and DH is good friends with all of the family including her sister and brother-in-law.  There was a slide show of pictures going above the casket.  While I was not fortunate enough to have ever met her she looked so vibrant, full of life and happiness.  I am told she was truly a sweet and kind woman.  She will be sorely missed by all, but her family was joyous during this sad occasion that she was in a better place where there was only joy, happiness, and no more sorrow, suffering or pain. 

I refuse to shop on Thanksgiving.  I feel that people should have the opportunity to spend the day with their family without the threat of being fired if they do not want to work. 

Black Friday, again I refuse to shop because watching the way people act takes the joy out of the season, and negates what we are preparing to celebrate. 

Today DH worked, and I started to do some deep cleaning of the house.  I also managed to get my table runner completed.  OK I still need to stitch down the corners but it is all quilted and bound.

I did some stitch in the ditch.  I also did some pebbling.

And some FMQ.  Ok my flower is not centered but I think it came out kind of nice.

I love it when I finish something and I am getting so I am much more confident so maybe it is time to start working on Ginger Rose.  After I finish my Christmas Exchange table topper that is. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Do you Pinterest?  I do, and you can lose hours just cleaning out your inbox.  Recently I decided that I would create a rule in my inbox so that Pinterest e-mails go directly into a folder.  That way when I have a moment or two I will go and check out who has pinned something, new followers etc. Yep that poor little inbox as of today had over 400 e-mails.

I cooked 3 pies in the toaster oven.  Two pumpkin, and one apple pie.  The apple pie got a bit singed in a couple of spots but the pumpkin pies turned out gorgeous.

 Today I am Thankful for those that took the chance to practice their freedom.  While I am Native American I am still thankful for those that had the faith to travel far away from civilization, their friends, family and home to begin anew for their beliefs.

It is snowing so DH is out salting, shoveling and sweeping down at Ancient Uncles.  With all the elderly family Thanksgiving may be cancelled, they don't drive in the snow.  How fortunate that I took a turkey out, and it is all defrosted!

Have a Blessed Thanksgiving with the loved ones.

What's Your Turkey Name

Not too sure how many of you Facebook but every now and then someone will post something silly.  This one I loved the other day.

I would be Hot Bunns Cornucopia, my husband would be Yammy Tryptophanny, and the youngest daughter would be Yam Bam Pumpkin Pie, but we decided our favorite was Finn who would be Gizzard Wishbone Jones.  I know silly but it tickled our funny bones, or since it is almost Thanksgiving it tickled our Wishbone.

The ongoing saga of the broken oven.....

DH and I are going to be remodeling the kitchen in the next couple of years, and I wanted a gas cooktop with 5 burners since we can a lot, and a wall oven since I am getting older. Also I would love to have a griddle that I could cook pancakes or grill steaks on during the long winter here in Michigan.  I could not see spending thousands of dollars for a range, but also could not see spending almost $300 to fix a stove which was only about $500 new.

Since I go to a lot of estate sales, and auctions  DH suggested that maybe I could find a stove there.  I only found one oven in the hundreds of sales I reviewed, it was down by Dayton, Ohio, it was an auction which was not over until the first week of December and it was already at $200!   I also was looking on Craigslist and was not having a whole lot of luck.  Finally I saw one stove on Craigslist for $150 it was just like ours.  The ad said 2 of the burners are not working.  Um no not for that stove, and 2 burners not working come on!  I returned to the main listings, and a brand new listing popped up. Gas stove and it was nearby.  DH called, we grabbed the appliance dolly, jumped into the truck and headed over.  An older gentleman who had recently lost his spouse after a long illness was selling the stove.  While not new, it was very clean, and we spent?  $50 --The Almighty knows our needs and provides!  I still will be cooking pies in the toaster oven, and the turkey in a turkey roaster.  Today I am thankful for what the almighty provides if you just trust.

 I did my run to the LQS and got my fabric to finish up Swoon Block 2 or the infamous "back up block".  Turned out gorgeous!  Even my points are good.  Now to get it all quilted up, it will be a beautiful table topper.  For those of you not familiar with this pattern each block is almost 25 inches!

I have some cooking to do so better get a going.  

You is Kind

I am not too sure how many of you have read the book "The Help" or seen the movie.  I saw it and was astonished, but then as I thought about it there are many people in the world who are unkind.  Mean may be another word for it.  In the movie Abilene teaches one of the children, "You is smart, you is kind, you is special."  Imagine a world where more people were kind.  I was always taught to be kind to others or "The Golden Rule" as some of you know it.  As I get older I realize that I was fortunate to be taught love, kindness, and compassion because I see it in way too few people anymore.  I am thankful my family taught me kindness.

My quilty friend Missy over at Missy's Homemaking Adventures had an unspoken prayer request a few days ago.  A few days later she asked for assistance in making a rail fence quilt for a friend, basically asking her quilty friends to make a block or two, or however many.  I stewed on it for a day because I know how my time is allotted currently and thought I can probably whip together one or two.  I actually made 4, and they are winging their way to Missy as I write this post.

I can't wait to see what she comes up with. 

I am not too sure about you but my favorite quilts to make are simple, and the ones that I have donated.

Do something kind today.

Darn the Luck

Who would have thought that my post on grace and acceptance would come in so handy? A few posts ago I was complaining I was having problems with my oven and making banana bread.  I thought maybe it was that it was very cold, the wind was blowing against that side of the house, and so the oven was having a hard time maintaining its temperature.  (Yes that corner of the kitchen does get very cold if the wind hits it just right.)  A week later I made a roast.  Turned the oven up just a bit and it ended up wonderful. Yesterday morning I wanted to make muffins so I turned the oven on, set it, and waited.  Hmmm didn't seem very warm.  So I through the oven thermometer in it (HaHa DH always makes fun of me for not throwing stuff away, not long ago he was making fun of me for having this old cruddy looking oven thermometer!)  At 450 degrees my oven was registering 225.  Not good. 

DH decided he was going to fix it.  I pulled up articles online for stove repair, even for our model!  Which makes me wonder if this is common for these?  Of course DH has all the necessary electronic gear to test, and of course it is not a cheap or inexpensive part once all the testing was done, the part is almost $300.  So the question do we just replace the part?  Considering that the part is 1/5th the cost of a new range is it even worth it?  But then all the ranges I liked are out of stock and it will take 2-3 weeks some up to 8 weeks to order?  What the heck?  Lucky for me we have a turkey fryer, a huge roaster, and a toaster oven. 

I finished swoon block one.  I have one spot that I am not happy about but I am not taking it apart one more time. 

Remember I said I was making 2.  Well I started 2 and almost had it finished when I discovered that I was missing 2 3 1/2 by 6 1/2 blocks.  I can't find them anywhere, and I don't have enough of the very light blue to make it so guess what?  Back to the LQS tomorrow.  Also I horde my batiks and I am not using a batik for the backing....so shoot me so I will stop at Joann's and pick up some fabric for the back.  I think it will make a nice table topper which was my intention.  Dh thinks it would make a nice center medallion and to build a quilt around it. 

I usually only use my newer fancy machine for FMQ but it has a stitch that I absolutely love.  It is a darning stitch.  Dh's work pants needed to be mended and so I use that stitch to fix the hole.

It makes no sense to buy patches because wherever the patches are, it seems to tear there.  So instead of using patches, I will zig zag the  hole closed, maybe a couple of times, and then use the darning stitch.  Works great.

Today I am thankful for my sense of humor.  DH says I am the only girl he knows who would laugh about the fact that the oven broke just a few days before a major holiday. 

Grace to Accept

Being reasonable is not always my strong point, but there are days that I am more reasonable than others.  The Youngest daughter's vehicle has been broke down for a couple of weeks.  DH has offered to pick it up and bring it home to work on it, he is a mechanic after all, and it is easier to work in the garage/barn with all his tools.  But the daughters SO  (significant other) insists that he can fix it.  SO diagnosis was it needed a new alternator.  DH offered to pick one up for them since he gets a discount.  DH started asking what was going on exactly and determined that actually it is a starter problem.  Then the argument began.  The SO says that the youngest daughter needs to trust his opinion, the daughter just wants a vehicle that runs so she is not "stuck" at home with 4 children under the age of 7.  I am thankful for age, and I hope some wisdom which comes with that age.  Wisdom is knowing that I do not know everything  and having the grace to accept expertise and help when it is offered.

I am still feeling a little on the downside after my procedure.  Ran to the LQS and got my fabric for my Christmas Exchange, and ran to the post office to mail the strips for the one strip swap which was finished.

I cleaned up my wallpaper mess in the bedroom upstairs which will eventually hold my quilt frame.

I used my additional fabric acquisition to cut my remaining pieces and started sewing.

The problem with sewing on different sewing machines is that each one has a different quarter inch mark.  I thought I had measured before I started to sew on my Christmas project since I had pulled out Jane the Singer 500A.

I got all the HST sewn and measured they just did not look right.

Yep I am 1/8th of an inch off on both and that is a bit too much.  Sew guess who is unsewing tonight?